GWR zigsaw puzzle

A 500 piece jigsaw puzzle that comes with Guinness World Record 2022 book:

Illustrated by Rod Hunt.

This is shown without the border pieces. There are some 15+ pieces missing in all. That's what happen when you leave it around a 3 year old.

I like this style of busy artwork. There are so many things going on. It is so dense.

I still put it together from time to time — I'm getting better and better at it. Soon, I should be able to put it together without referring to the finished picture. It will be Achievement +1.:lol:

Earthquake risk check

A 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit close to Mandalay, the second largest city in Myanmar. The epicentre was shallow at 10 km deep.

Tremors were felt in Bangkok, slightly more than 1,000 km away. One 33-floor office building under construction collapsed — the only one to do so — so it drew a lot of attention. The tremors were around 5.0 in magnitude.

The question on everyone's mind is, of course, is Singapore safe?

Singapore is not on any active fault line. The likelihood of an earthquake is near zero.

However, the nearest earthquake zone is in Sumatra, only 400 km away.

Will buildings collapse like the Bangkok one?

It is unlikely. That was the only building to collapse. It used beamless design which is not earthquake resistant. It was also being built by a China developer, and of course everyone is asking if it used 'tofu' materials.

Shoe boxes

My shoe area has never been so neat and tidy.

I was comparing between several brands, but still bought the 'wrong' one in the end. This one is not fully clear on all sides — it has two lines on the other side. But it works.

There are two main designs. One where the door opens along the long side, the other where it opens along the short side. The latter is more space saving, but the former looks nicer — the shoes are on display.

Missus and 2nd Ji's shoes can be put in perpendicularly, so 2 pair of shoes per box for them.

Online measurement is 36.5 x 27 x 20 cm (H). I measured it at 36 x 27 x 20 cm (H). Internal space is about 0.5 cm smaller.

Downside: the shoes-to-space ratio is low. The main reason is the height of 20 cm. 16 cm is sufficient for most shoes.

Online, I see people stack the shoe boxes very high. 4 to 5 is the limit for me. I don't like to put worn shoes so high up.

They also advertised the strength of the box by sitting on it. I tried, nope, it did not work. The top would flex and pop the door open. Originally I thought could use it as a bench to wear socks, for example.

It should be possible to sit at the edge of two boxes, spreading the weight across them. It is not advisable to do so, though.

2-in-1 display/storage boxes

I was looking for ways to organize my stuff neatly and I saw these stackable acrylic display/storage boxes.

I'm interested cos they are both display and storage. I like open shelves, but they are just too dusty.

These come in a variety of sizes and can be used to store books, display items, bags and even shoes.

But they are not optimal in either function. For display, the front side is not 100% unblocked — there are better display boxes. For storage, they are kind of small and will fill up quickly. They are also pretty expensive, especially ones that come with lighting (*). Different sizes also cannot be mixed-and-matched seamlessly.

(*) Lighting option is offered by some sellers and can be purchased separately.

Lighting makes sense if used for displaying things. For books, not so much.

From another seller:

Based on pictures, I believe they are the same boxes. This is about as cheap as I can find.

Medium, Big and Large have the same length and height, it may be possible to mix-n-match them.

I measured my books. Bigger books require 30 cm (H) x 25 cm (W) — this fits all but the biggest books. Smaller books require 25 cm (H) x 20 cm (W).

For shoes, I am currently using small IKEA shoe boxes that measure 34 cm (L) x 22 cm (W) x 16 cm (H). The width makes it a tight fit, otherwise it works well.

I found two suitable sizes for shoes: 34 x 26 x 19 (H) and 36.5 x 27 x 20 (H). I prefer the first, but I found it only after I bought the second.

Almost impulse buys

Cozy House (#31139), 2023, 808 pcs, US$60

I saw this when I was window shopping in Toys R Us and wow, did it look good!

But it also looked kind of familiar. Searched my Amazon history. Nothing. Searched Lazada. Oh, I bought it in Oct 2023.

I also took some time to see if there were any Creator sets I missed in 2024 — I didn't browse Lego for an entire year! Nope, nothing I wanted.

Galactic Spaceship (#60446), 2025, 717 pcs, US$80

I was attracted to this space ship. It was modular and could detach to form a smaller space ship and land modules. I guess I have a thing for modular things.

TLG has really refined their connecting technique and it is now usual to build separate sections, then join them together, whether they are vehicles or buildings.

I almost bought this, but changed my mind after a day of rationalizing.

ROKR Parallel World Marble Run The Last City (MR01S)

Marble run is a dime a dozen. What makes this interesting is that it is modular. You can connect multiple of it, as well as the other in the series, MR02S (The Future City), either horizontally or vertically. There are likely be more in the future.

I'm sure you can guess why I'm attracted to it. Say it with me: modular. :lol:

It is pretty expensive at S$90. But a search on TaoBao shows the Chinese edition costs 225 yuan (S$41.46) at the cheapest. Wow, almost instant buy!

But I decided to watch YouTube reviews first and lost half my enthusiasm. It was noisy. Then I asked myself, what do I look for in a marble run? This is 2D. Would I prefer a 3D one?

I ended up buying one thing.

Race Plane (#31160), 2025, 178 pcs, US$15

I like small Creator 3-in-1 sets, the reason being they are buildable without instructions — though may not be 100% exact. This is how Lego should be played.

This makes a decent present for 2nd Ji at S$22. I found it for S$19.28 on Lazada, so I bought from there instead.

A day when things just go wrong

Incident 1

I paid $2.40 for a plain and egg prata. I didn't realize it until the next day, where I paid for the same thing again, and the stall operator told me it was $3.20. I had a brain fart and thought prices had increased. But he said it was the correct price all along. I paid him the difference for yesterday's meal as well.

Incident 2

I was driving and I signalled to change lane from 2 to 3 (slowest lane) cos I wanted to make a left turn in front. There was a car slightly ahead in lane 3, so I slowed down and signalled. The moment I did so, the car behind sped up to close the gap. However, he was way far behind and there was a lot of space for me to cut in. He was not happy and gave a long horn. The car in front braked slightly cos he was confused. If I did not brake slightly, I could have hit him.

The car behind continued to horn, sped up and overtook me on the right. I thought he would cut back in front, but it turned out he was going straight.

At first I thought it was a PHV car, but it was not.

Incident 3

My go-to TaoBao seller still had not list MS-05 (Onslaught). Finally, someone commented on TFW that it was out in China. I finally ask them. Their answer: they may not list it after all.

Argh, I scrambled to find other sellers. Some already listed it at full price of 880 yuan (S$162.27). They were in Shanghai and Beijing. I found one seller with preorder listing and he was based in Guangzhou. I had the idea preorder is cheaper than in-stock listing and Guangzhou is nearer to the warehouse.

So I ordered from him. His preorder price was 50 yuan, but it included 30 yuan shipping? Hmm, maybe the deposit was 80 yuan?

After I ordered, I realized his full price was already out and it was 888 yuan. Argh! Nevermind, it was only 8 yuan more.

The figure arrived the next day and I was asked to pay 838 yuan. Shouldn't it be 808 yuan? (808 + 80 = 888 yuan)

Nope, need to pay for shipping. :-O The seller told me it was written very clearly in the product listing.

Everyone else is selling at 880 yuan including shipping and this seller is selling at 888 yuan + shipping? Only careless people will buy from him. :blush:

So I ended up paying 38 yuan (S$7) more. I can only say I tripped over myself for being too clever. :-(

Incident 4

I was at a shared desk with two power points. One was already in use. I used the other one.

After a while, someone came and said he needed to use the plug. His bag was already on the table, so he could argue he was there first.

Anyway, I was using a travel adapter with USB ports, so he could just plug his power cable into my adapter. No problem.

When it was time for me to leave, I switched off the plug, removed my adapter and put his adapter into the power point.

And I was promptly scolded by him. He asked why I didn't give him any notice? He needed to power off his notebook first, else it would spoil.

At first I thought he was not running on battery, so he lost power. But his notebook was still on.

Must power off notebook to disconnect from power point? That's news to me.

Anyway, I apologized profusely to him and told him I didn't know how computers work, so I made this mistake.

Adjustable bookstand

Choice of medium (34 x 24 cm, 1.35 kg) and big (39 x 28 cm, 1.5 kg), normal or thick (加厚).

Price in yuan:

The seller does not know the difference between normal and thick. He said better material? (Looks like he is a dropshipper.)

I believe the normal one is suitable for books only. The thick one can even hold a notebook computer.

I bought two medium "thick". The package was heavy, 3.6 kg, so I shipped it by sea. It took "forever" to arrive — I checked again and it was 12 days, which was within delivery estimate (7 to 12 days).

I was surprised by the size and, for a moment, I thought I ordered big size.

The acrylic glass is 5 mm thick. The joints are ultra tight, making height and angle adjustments super difficult. I guess that is what "thickened" means. It swivels easily though.

The comedian who has no cards

So this Z guy went to Washington and quarrelled with Trump on live camera. He seems to think that USA has an obligation to help Ukraine.

In the past, USA did help without asking for anything in return. Now Trump wants a rare-mineral deal.

Why? It's simple. Everyone has their cut in the massive aid, or the aid went to their arms supply backers. Very little direct aid went to Ukraine. Z has complained about this in the past — apparently he could not benefit too much from it.

Trump is different. He does not benefit from it, so he can openly ask for something "for America". Why should USA be involved if there is no benefit?

Wouldn't the arms suppliers complain if they lose their business? Well, there is Gaza conflict and that is an even bigger gravy train. One conflict is enough. Sorry, Ukraine.

First of all, why is USA involved and not Europe?

Europe is a true two-headed snake. They claim to support Ukraine, but not militarily. Then, they buy oil from Russia. Winter survival is more important than Ukraine, I guess. Now, they talk about financing Ukraine with frozen Russia assets. How about using their own money?

In all these, do you know who does not want the war to end? Yes, it is Mr Z.

As the person who send his countrymen to die in a proxy war, and incur massive foreign goodwill debt (translation: expensive post-war reconstruction projects), his good days will come to an end once the war ends.