Malaysia Kini made their web site free for one week to give the public a source of independent news so that they could make more informed choices at the election. Today is the last day it is free. Give it a read. If you like it, subscribe to it. Don't be left out of the loop like this poor guy.
My wife is already subscribed, so I can read over her shoulder.
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Before the elections on Saturday, many people were telling me that they thought Barisan Nasional wouldn't get a 2/3 majority of parliamentary seats like it had always done in the past. I was contrarian and thought that they surely would - partly because I didn't dare to hope otherwise, and partly because I was skeptical of the so-called new transparency implemented by the Electoral Commission.
My wife and I stayed up late reading about all the BN's shock defeats across the country on MalaysiaKini.com. I want to say it was a pleasant surprise to finally receive the news at 2.42 am that the BN had finally lost its 2/3 majority but the wait was actually really nerve-racking. Now my faith in the EC and in parliamentary democracy is somewhat restored.
We've had a day to let everything sink in. Everybody I see and meet are still talking about how shocked they are at the way the BN lost. The truth is they still won by a comfortable (simple) majority. Forget about the historical context for a moment and just see the present for what it is. Then you'll realise that the BN is still our ruling coalition - only, with an opposition presence, which is no big deal in a real democracy.
The fact that we have been trusting our ruling party with a big enough majority for them to change the constitution willy nilly for 51 years is actually then the extraodinary part.
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Our baby goes everywhere with his portable clip-on fan. I threw the box away long ago but I think it's called a Laser Fan. It runs on two AA-sized batteries and when it's on, some mesmerising LED lights come on and keeps your baby in a trance. Or at least, that's what it does to our baby. I was a bit concerned about it triggering epileptic seizures at first, but after awhile, it was just mildly annoying. After awhile, the lights stopped working on ours and some friends have asked how we managed to disable them. I wasn't sure, but for the past few months, we've been very happy with our lightless fan until it broke down recently. I took it apart and found a wire had detached from the motor. While I fixed that, I had a look at the lights and figured out how you could easily disable them.
All you'll need is a small Philips head screw driver.
The motor compartment is held together from the bottom by three small screws. Remove these.
You can see the motor here but the picture doesn't show the two screws in front of the motor, holding the fan blades/light circuit compartment together. Carefully take the motor out to gain access to these screws and remove them. Be very gentle with the wires as the solder joints are very fragile.
This is what it looks like inside. Two button batteries power the light circuits. One springy thing acts as a switch. When the fan turns, centrifugal forces push the spring outwards to make contact and close the circuit, turning on the lights. These batteries won't last forever, so if you don't want to take the fan apart, you could always wait for them to run out. But since we've already got the fan in pieces, let's move on to the next step.
Grab the whole circuit board and wiggle it loose. The whole thing should come out easily. You can cover the holes where the LEDs poked through with some masking tape if you don't want them to collect dust.
Put everything back together and you're done. Your AA batteries might even last a bit longer now that there is less mass for the motor to turn.
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There's no end to the amount of products out there that claim to help your baby eat, sleep, learn, breathe, walk, jump, crawl, exercise and defecate better. Lately, I've been taking pictures.
This thing is called an Exer-saucer. Talked my wife out of buying it. It's a pair of pants that keep the baby upright, kind of like a walker, but instead of walking, the baby just learns to spin around and play with the toys around him.
Talked her out of this one too. It's a diaper bag that doubles up as a seat cushion. It seemed only marginally useful, didn't seem to fasten securely to the chair we tested and cost more than a good high chair.
These aren't books, they are your "Infact Development System". How do you keep a straight face saying that to a customer?
The rest of the pictures are quite self-explanatory...
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One day late, but Happy New Year everyone!
Yesterday, we finally caught up with our laundry, finished up some chores and even made a few appointments to have people come over to fix up the things that needed fixing around the house.
When the baby went to bed, we decided we’d take time out to watch a movie on DVD. It’s like the first time we did something together that didn’t have anything to do with keeping the baby clean and healthy. I know what you’re thinking: two adults watching a movie at home, so what’s the fuss all about? But for us, it’s just something we’d been talking about for a long time. We always put it off at the last minute, either because we genuinely didn’t have the time or the energy or maybe we’d just been so busy in general that when we did have free time, we felt too guilty to admit it.
In any case, we were in a naughty mood. When we turned on the baby monitor, we felt like kids reading under the blanket with flashlights. We watched a wonderfully sappy chick flick that didn’t take itself too seriously called Music and Lyrics. It was great. I love chick flicks (they call them romantic comedies, so choose your terms carefully). You’re both guaranteed some laughs, you don’t have to be funny yourself, you know the movie will end in 90 minutes, and you know exactly how. Perfectly manageable, even for new parents.
Now I think we’re hooked. We’re going to do it again sometime. Definitely within the next twelve months.
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