When it comes to paint

Listen up, here's something I learn from painting one wall + having a professional take a look at my work

#1
Nylon brush is not as good as the brush with "hair". Don't remember the exact terms. And don't buy those cheap brushes. The "hair" comes out and messes up your paint work. You have to peel it off the wall. Yucks.

#2
Use a more expensive roller. I went to buy the cheapest I could find. Heck, the most expensive was about RM30-RM50! I got mine for RM4.50 from Ace Hardware. Then when I did the second coat, I found that there were bubbles when I rolled it. When I asked a guy at the hardware shop why, he immediately said I bought cheap roller. Now I'm using a RM12.50 one. He said that's good enough.

#3
Don't use satin glo or whatever glo on walls that are not perfectly finished! It doesn't hide defects very well, hence you'll end up painting more coats. The normal kind would suffice.

#4
When you paint a dark colour on a light wall, you'll need more than 2 coats!!

#5
Don't paint a section with brush and another section with rollers. You can see the difference is texture. Best to use mini rollers for the edges. I didn't know they sell mini rollers until I went to ACE Hardware.

#6
Don't let your rollers or paint brush dry before washing! It makes cleaning up so much harder. Leave it in water if you want to use it hours later. But don't leave it too long, it may rust! At least, mine did when I left it soaking for days. There was a time also when I forgot to wash my roller before leaving for a few hours.. the paint hardened and stuck to the rollers 'fur'. So hard to wash off. I was told that it can be done with a lot of scrubbing!

#7
Use the wider brown or glossy brown tape to tape the edges. I thought I would help save some tape by using half the width but turns out that the tape was thinner than the roller, hence some paint got on to the wall.

#8
Hire a professional if you don't want the hassle.

=)

I'm so tired!

The 6 step ladder that I have is not high enough! I have to stand precariously on the 5th step praying that I won't lose my balance to paint the edge of the wall!

I'm thinking that being shorter than average is defective genes especially when it comes to painting walls and ceilings and reaching the top of shelves and cupboards.

And the worse thing is that my paint is uneven. It looks uneven. I suppose I can pass it off for artistic value. According to http://www.naturalhandyman.com/qa/qapainttechnique.html, it's because my roller is too dry and I'm stretching my paint. I wonder if getting a better quality roller would help. I know a better quality brush would help. Mine has its hair falling as I paint.

My living area looks smaller now, thanks to patches of dark red on 1 wall. Sigh. I really hope that another coat will make it look more even. I ran out of paint, so I'll probably be doing it this Thursday.

I hope my husband appreciates me painting, either that or get me a higher ladder. I so want to buy one but I think I would have problems transporting it back in the Kelisa that I drive.

Rain on the 4th Floor

I've never find thunderstorms scary until I started living on the 4th floor. Facing a park and a lake doesn't help.

You can see the tree tops swaying harshly and the violent ripples across the lake.
You can see the flashes of light through the windows and sliding door.
( having no curtains allow you to see all these clearer)
The thunder sounds just right next to you.
What's scary is the lightning flashes. It's makes you wonder if it's going to strike you.
And the howl of the wind through the window gaps.

*shudders*

Right now the howl is getting louder, the flashes of light more rampant and the spatter of rain on the windows are increasing..

Sipadan Mabul Kapalai

Yeah, I went there for scuba diving.
It was great fun.
I got brown.
There were lots of turtles.
Huge
1 bigger than me
Though it looked dead
They look arrogant.
Yup. Black eyes, slanty lids
Like "who the heck are you?" attitude
Saw really cools things
Octopus
Cuttle fish ( big wan)
Tiny pygmy seahorse (technically saw it but really, it's too tiny to see it's features"
Schooling barracuda
Schooling Jacks
Heck, I saw nearly everything in "Finding Nemo" except for
Jellyfish
Hammerhead shark
The fish with a dangling bulb
and a few others
Oh, no pelican too. Was that a pelican in Finding Nemo??
Ooooo and I saw pipefish and mandarin fish.
What's that?
I've never seen them before.
Food was good as well.
Stayed in an oil rig
This isn't a poem

Where's the road ahead?

Oh, guess what? I made the decision to resign and I resigned. Now I'm back to square 1. It's deja vu. When will I ever get out of this "I don't know what I want as a career"?

It all started on the first day of my Form 4 year. Life before was mapped out for me. You turn 4, you go to kindergarten. You turn 7, you go to primary school. Try get all As for UPSR, then you move on to secondary school.

On a hindsight, I suppose not knowing which secondary school to go to was a sign of the "dunno" brewing ahead. When you are in Form 1, it's do your best for PMR until Form 3.

Then I hit a T-junction. Left - Right. Arts - Science. Qualifying for both doesn't help (of course!) That's when the "which one will you do better in?" came to place. So I picked Arts since my Maths sucks. I'm not sure if it was a good decision 'cos when I went to pre-u, I had problems understanding Add. Maths and it pulled my grades down.

Oh, then the next wall I ran into was which degree and university to go to. Actually, I had problems deciding on pre-u as well. I made the decision by - "I want to live away from home" and went to a college in Penang- stayed in a hostel, made great friends, had lots of fun and came back to KL to do my degree.

Well, I didn't put in much effort in deciding my degree though. In the end, my mum made the decision for me which I strongly objected because I didn't know what I wanted and I didn't bother to find out what I want.

Ok..I can see how this comes back to haunt me. I should have put in the effort to find out what I want

Oooo talk about experience making you wiser.

Which leads to my next dilemma-looking for a job.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I didn't quite enjoy my 1st job and my 2nd job and my 3rd job. In the first place, I didn't know what kind of job I would really like to have. Yes, I also didn't put in much effort to find out what I wanted and what kind of job I wanted.

Now, why aren't I contend being a clockwatcher who goes to work in the morning, looks at the clock, breaks for lunch, looks at the clock, go home, do whatever I want and goes back to work again? Who cares about not enjoying your work as long as you are paid on time?

Hmmm...I think I have some serious brain issues.

The morale of the story is - it's important to know what kind of career you want to have before you start work. In my opinion, this will help narrow down your job choices and when you're not happy with your work, you can move on and up the corporate ladder faster.

The conclusion of the matter is - I'll make more effort this time to find out what kind of career I want. I got a handful of ideas. Maybe I should write a book about this "internal career search" and put it under "self help" section.

The irony of it all is - we tell our children to study hard, to study smart so that they'll have a bright future. But what's the point of it all if you don't know what you want to do in life? What kind of future will you have if you don't know where you want to go?It's better to help them realize what kind of career they want to have and then ask them to study hard and smart towards the right goal! Eh, and it shouldn't be the parent's goal. That's cheating. Think about those who don't have children to "remove" the regrets they have in life.

Oh shucks, where do you think I can get the compass that Jack Sparrow owns?