The Search For A Personal Blender

May. 1st, 2013 02:06 pm
februaryfour: (Default)
The Search For A Personal Blender
Doug and I have recently taken to drinking milkshakes. I like them because they're healthier than a lot of alternatives, and Doug likes them because they're tasty and healthier than a lot of alternatives. I got really tired of cleaning up the heavy glass blender jar multiple times a day, though, and I wanted to take my shakes to school, but didn't have any suitable to-go cups. After [personal profile] reppu bought a personal blender, I decided to do the same, so I went to Target and bought the Oster Personal Blender (which comes with a blue blender cup) and two extra blender cups (both pink).

Monday morning: I buy the blender and cups at Target and take them home happily.

Monday evening:
  1. I attempt to make a milkshake using a pink extra blender cup. The milk leaks all over the countertop. I am very unhappy.
  2. I fill the blue blender cup with water, screw the blender blades on, and turn it upside down over the sink. Water comes out.
  3. I'm in a hurry to go to school, so I don't stop to troubleshoot. I make the milkshake using the old-fashioned big heavy blender, grumbling all the while.
  4. I wash up the big heavy blender jar grudgingly, and take the pink blender cup to school anyway because it's the only one that fits in my backpack.


Tuesday morning:
  1. I bring the blender back to Target and exchange it.
  2. I insist on testing the new one by filling the blue blender cup that comes with the blender with water, screwing the blades on, and turning it upside down. PASS! ♥
  3. I happily take the replacement blender home.


Tuesday evening: I make Doug a milkshake in the blue blender cup. Everything goes smoothly.

Wednesday afternoon:
  1. I attempt to make a milkshake in the pink blender cup. Chocolate milk spreads all over the counter. At a slower rate than before, but still unacceptable.
  2. I try the blue blender cup, and it works fine.
  3. I fill the second pink cup with water, screw the blades on, and turn it upside down over the sink. Water leaks straight through.


I've identified the problem. The blade attachment has a loose component that seems to be the piece that triggers the blender blades when you put it on the blender base. The problem is, because it's loose, there are huge gaps where liquid can leak through; you can see the gaps when you hold the blade attachment up to a light and shake it lightly. The Oster product designer who thought it was a good idea to put a loose component on something that essentially functions as the bottom of a blender needs to be fired.

Due to this loose component, the way you screw on the blender is important, but so is the threading of the blender cup. For some reason, even though the pink cups and blue cups look identical to me (except for the color, of course), the blue cup holds the blade attachment tightly enough to close off the holes (the way the designer intended), and the pink cups don't, no matter how many times I try it.

Frankly, if there were alternatives to this on the market (as in, good-looking to-go cups that work with a blender) I would have returned this entire system and sworn Oster blenders off forever. However, there aren't enough alternatives (after this debacle I'm not buying personal blenders on Amazon) so I'm stuck with this. It works great and exactly the way I want it to when the loose component locks correctly... the problem is, that loose component doesn't always lock correctly. >_<

Tomorrow (Thursday morning):
  1. Back to Target with the two pink blender cups. Also going to bring the blade attachment for step #2 below.
  2. Target's employees are going to hate me, but I'm going to insist on testing every blender cup in the store with the blender blades, because I'm a demanding consumer who wants things to work perfectly.
  3. I'm going to buy the first three extra cups that actually pass the water test.
  4. Target can take the issue up with Oster.


 
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[Public] Ai Can Finally Vote (in Malaysia)

Jan. 21st, 2013 03:48 pm
februaryfour: (Default)
Malaysians overseas who aren't diplomats can finally vote! (Official page in Malay here; Malay FAQ in PDF format here.) Where was this in 2000 when I first left Malaysia? >_< Or in 2006 when I moved to Japan? Dude, I turn 30 (THIRTY!) in TWO WEEKS! O_o

It's kind of weird, since it seems like a stopgap measure hurriedly put through. For example, registration closes at midnight on the day Parliament dissolves, and if you haven't registed by then, you still have to go back to Malaysia to vote (status quo). Er, Parliament dissolves on a whim unless it's a scheduled election, and then you don't dissolve Parliament... right? So effectively, this is "vote by mail unless we only want Malaysians in Malaysia to vote"? Oh, whatever. I'll just have to make sure I always have a Form 1B on file. I can do that.

Except... f*cking 30-day requirement. I need to have been in Malaysia for a minimum of 30 days in the last 5 years (officially beginning April 28, 2008), or I won't be eligible to vote by post. This arbitrary requirement would have been much easier to fill had it been around in 2002 (when I was in college), 2006 (working in Japan), 2010 (still less than 5 years after moving to Japan). It's now 2013 and I haven't called anywhere in Malaysia "home" for over 6 years in a row (7 years come July.) Before that, I'd never been away from Malaysia that long. Never mind that, you know, this is the whole point of postal voting: people not being able to be there in person.

Le sigh. The 30-day requirement must be self-reported, but checked against Immigration's official records. I have to go through three passports (since 2008) to figure out when I've been in Malaysia, and how long. Since those passports are electronic and I always use the autogate, there are no stamps, so I can't even figure this out by looking for entry/exit stamps. Finding records is going to be a BITCH. Immigration is going to verify it anyway--why can't they just figure it out themselves and notify us if we are able/unable to vote? My passport is linked to my identity card, so it's not like they can't cross-reference it to prove that I was in or out of the country. Also, if the tax authority insists I was in the country and wants me to pay tax even when I wasn't in the country, then why can't the tax authority just vouch for me? RAWR.

[ETA: It's official: I don't qualify for absentee voting. Even though my passports are full of stamps, I only spent 23 days in Malaysia in the last 5 years. Three trips in five years, but only 23 days. Dammit.]

(Clearly, they want my tax revenue but not my vote, which will go to the opposition, as BN does such a shitty job of it. Except, you know, my district--Seputeh, in case any Malaysians are wondering--is a 70+% supermajority in the opposition's favor. My rep Teresa Kok does a damn fine job; too bad there are so few like her. Damn gerrymandering.)

Oh, and get this: vote-by-post ballots must be collected from the embassy in person. And according to a schedule, at that: "you will be notified via the SPR website on the date and time to go to the embassy to collect your ballot. You are responsible for your own transportation/travel costs. Please bring your original identity card or passport (no copies.)" FUCK THAT. The Malaysian embassy is in DC! The nearest consulate is in Los Angeles! I'm not flying to Los Angeles JUST TO PICK UP A BALLOT.

How to vote? "You are encouraged to vote at the consulate when you pick up the ballot, as they can only distribute/collect ballots within a 24-hour period." Jesus. So basically, embassies and consulates are now remote polling booths. This would have been FAR EASIER in Japan when I lived in the same state as the Malaysian consulate. Hell, even when I was in college, DC was a theoretically possible road trip away, and there were enough of us in the surrounding area that we could have chartered a bus or even had an embassy official arrange something.

Denver? Not an embassy-registered college student? Pffft. Good luck getting help.

I missed the last three elections because I couldn't vote by post. Now that I CAN, I may miss it because I'll be ineligible, or because the travel requirements are still too onerous.

Bah. At least it's now 2013 and FINALLY I CAN THEORETICALLY VOTE. It's not, "Pffft whatever", it's "Pffft you didn't meet our guidelines." There is a difference, small though it may be. Still. Clearly, that country doesn't want me.
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