Thursday, October 31, 2013

Chalk-ing up

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You know what has gone obsolete these days? Apart from video player, walkman, tape recorder and the likes?

Chalk.

Yes that is correct. Lemme ask you when was the last time you even see it. If you are like me, the students in the 80's and before, you would have seen it everyday in class.

But today, finding chalk at the shops are like finding a needle in the shack. Colored ones especially. 

Even since I saw Man in love (korean show), I have been secretly wanting a cool blackboard too. Yes I know hubs wouldnt be exchanging notes or poems there ( one can always wish haha) , but its idea is cool nevertheless.

And having a whiteboard just isnt gonna cut it, cause there's something ol school about blackboard that isnt the same with other kinds.

So I found a nice blackboards in this cool shop selling french looking stuff in Paradigm Mall. That was easy. Finding a board wasnt difficult.

But trying to find chalk, is another matter. I had to go to quite a few shops before I found it. But only white ones.  Like these:


Cant seem to find colors anywhere, until, ikea. I was soooo happy. And you know where in Ikea? At the place where they sell the easels (kids section). So happens I was looking at it cos I was thinking of getting one for Lysya. Though it wasnt so obvious - there was nowhere in the packaging stating that they are chalks.


With those, I finally can have some colors and drawings

Still, I wasnt satisfied, because I thought the colors are a bit dull. Not like the ones I see in that bakery/cafe in Forum apartment where I frequented lunch

Theirs is like deep pink, so cheerful and bright. I was tempted to ask but of course I didnt.

Maybe I did somehow wish and God heard me, one day as I was queuing at Daiso IOI to pay i saw these. 


Again, I couldnt tell from the packaging what it was, though it does look like chalks. On the spur of moment, I just grabbed it since its already my turn to pay. I asked the counter boy and he said they are crayons. I was disappointed but I took it anyway and thought Lysya could use it regardless.

When I went home and opened it, I was sooo happy to discover that they are indeed chalks. And when I tried them, they are those same colorful bright ones. See the difference??


Finally I found what I wanted. After like gazillion months. 

When I went to Daiso today to get something today, i saw they have a different box there . I quickly scanned it and noticed that they have different colors like black. Again, not having time to deliberate I just added it to my pile. By the way it is placed near the cashier so thats why I had to think quickly.





Obviously I cant think well under pressure because, after a while ( after I bought it of course), only then I realised why on earth would i need a black chalk for a black board?? <sigh...> 

Facepalm!




Thursday, October 03, 2013

Loving the little bugger

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I was happy when I first managed to listen to my music (kept in my ipad) on the home audio system. It was so great because I have tons of songs and hubs's sound system is fantastic.

Soon after, I realised that it wasnt entirely ideal, because I also like to, in fact prefers to read my books from my ipad. And I cant do that, because I have to connect the ipad to the audio cable.

I started to look around if it was possible to use some sort of wireless thing ( thought of something like remote at first) to hook up and have the music played remotely.

After days of reading up about it, I came across two suggestions:

One - audioengine AW2. 

Two - AirPort.

Of the two, a lot of praises given to the audioengine AW2, for its simplicity and out-of-the-box setup. No configuration whatsoever, just hook it up and it will work. Because it comes in pair, one the receiver and the other the sender, and it creates its own wifi cloud without riding or hooking to the existing wifi network. I was sold on this one, and my only problem was that it is not readily available in MY. I found a  local authorised dealer but they are selling it based on the old price which is like RM360. I am not prepared to pay an overblown price since I know audioengine has knocked down the price to only USD49 nowadays.

I then started to look at the possibility of AirPort. A lot of the comments and reviews were not favorable. Mainly on the fact that it rides on existing wifi and some sites highlight incompatibility issues with Unifi. That, coupled with the fact that it requires certain setup - which reportedly not very straight forward held me back. Upon further reading, I came to realise that most of those issues are actually relating to using it as a router. Which is not what I intend to do. I then found out that I can actually use the AirPort as an extender or a client to an existing WLAN. Looks very promising, especially after I went for a hunting visit to the apple store in IOI mall and saw it retailing for RM249 for the 1st gen model. It is definitely closer to what I am willing to fork out. (Latest model 2nd gen retails at RM299).

After weighing all the pros and cons, in the end I decided to get the AirPort over the AW2. One main reason is that for the price, AirPort does have more functionality. If I cant use it as a medium to wirelessly play my music, I can still use it as something else. It is also an easier item to sell off should it not work for me at all. 

So tonight I coaxed hubs to go to IOI again so that I can buy the 'old' version of the AirPort. I was being very kiasu, as there were only one left and I dont want to have to pay the additional RM50 for the newer version. But as usual, when I got to the store i got sucked in to buy the newer version. But for good reasons, and when I got home I was glad I chose the newer model. The older model does not have an AC power cable, you need to plug in the AirPort to the plugpoint, which would have been difficult for the setup we have in the music room. Luckily I decided to be safe than sorry.

To top it off, contrary to what I was made to believe, the setup was actually very very easy and straightforward. It took less than 5 mins and it just worked like a charm.

So now uve guessed it, i am indeed writing this post while enjoying my music from hub's superb audio systems. 

Dont I just loved it when things work well :)