Hangman & Sight Words

Date:  Sep 27, 2014

Hangman

Name of game:        Hangman

Number of Players:  2

Duration:                   2-10 minutes per game

Learning:                   Sight Words (3 alphabets)

Kay Kay just learned how to play hangman.

Let’s play a few games with him.

The Props

A white board.

A market pen.

A plastic box to write your answer.  i.e.  The word to guess is “ANT” (marked red on the box)

A market pen eraser.

Additional Props

For children who are < 7 years old.  You can allow them to go refer the Sight Words cards.

The Game

1.  Choose the 3-letters sight word.  Write the answer on the plastic box.

2.  Let the kid guess a letter.  If the guess is correct, right it down.  If the guess is wrong, draw hangman.

3.  You can draw the hangman just like that.

4.  He is just a kid.  Make sure let them use the sight words card.

5.  Can play for hours.

6.  Kay loves it.  I never play with Jay before.  HaHaHa  It is a nice game.  And kids can learn at the same time.

LWPS Parent's Golf Game

Date:  Sep 27, 2014

Because of our children, we are close.

This is our first golf game.

Practising Putting.

Tee-off..

Seow Peng’s tee off.

It’s nice feeling.  Going to do this all the time.  Hahahaha.

A Garden To Grow Vegetables

Date:  Sep 27, 2014

My wife joined as one of the committee member at the Condo I stay.

(Sometimes, you got to let your wife do things that she likes.  Yes, that means, she might spent less time with kids, and you get more time play with kids, but it is totally with it.  Trust me!  Hahahaha)

So, one of her responsibility is to revamp the pond, and the garden.  So she is in charge of trees, plants affairs in our Condo.

Of course, one of the benefit is she can ask and recommend anything.

Such as having a small space here to plant vegetables so that the kids can learn how the plants are grown.

Here, Jay Jay is watering his Jagung (Corn).

This is the corn that Jay Jay & Mommy planted.

It has grown from small to big.

They also have lady fingers.

And we have been starting to harvest and eating the vegetables from this garden.

The corn has almost grown up and soon to be harvest.

Yeah!  All ORGANIC.  We fertilised it with all the wasted vegetables, fruit skins and so on.

Kids also learn and mix with the insects that comes with it.

Every day, they will spent some time here to look after their garden.

Of course, it is for public.  Anyone can come and take the vegetables grown here.

It is fun.

And I think it is good for kids too.

Bowling Night

Date:  Sep 27, 2014

Father & Son Game

This week, after some guidance from Jimmy (Jay’s bowling coach), we changed Kay Kay’s way of holding the bowling ball and trying to get him to get use to throwing the ball from right to left.  And really, it changes the game.  The ball sometimes hook to the left.  So, he now stick his middle finger and fourth finger into the two holes, but not the thumb, and use two hands to throw the ball.  

Kay is about 15KG, the ball is 6KG, so, for him, bowling ball is very heavy.  But somehow, he loves it.

The whole night, he bring the ball to the line, and then, put in his two fingers, and then, throw the ball sideway.  

For very young kid (i.e. 5 years old), this is what we should do to train him.  Thanks the coach for the tip.

Kay spares, I spare.  Hahahaha.  

Father and son playing bowling can be that fun too.

And he spares it again!

Well done Mr. Kay!  haHaHaha...

Next, Jay Jay will play against his brother.

And he will be playing without bumpers.

Aiya… it does not hook.

The two brothers fought hard.  Kay plays with bumpers so got huge advantages.  But he is only 5.

Jay plays without bumper, and he is still learning to control the ball.  After his lesson, he must be very tired on his arms liao.  hahaha

But later, he did manage to hook a few 9 pins.  And stay in the game neck to neck with Kay Kay.

The final result of the game is 72 (Jay) Vs. 71 (Kay).

The two brothers hug and smile.

An Hour Earlier

This is Jay’s new bowling ball.  Blue!

It will be best to make your own ball as most of the bowling ball at the bowling court there, mostly does not fit your unique fingers.

Coach Jimmy is fitting his 3 fingers into the ball.

He will be trained with his bowling ball from now on.

Today he will do a one step forward bowl.

I tried to learn.  But I failed to hook my ball today.  How is it so easy when Jay did it?  

Thoughts

1.  When kids has some interest in something, give him a chance.

2.  Do not try to be a coach yourself.  You may teach wrong thing to the kids.  It will be difficult for the kid to unlearn it.

3.  Let the expert do the job.  It is their job to teach the kid.

4.  No matter how tire you are, or how busy you are, participate in it, play with your kids.  Don’t just sent them there and sit aside check your email on your smart phones.  (I see a lot of dads and moms doing so).  Sit behind him, watch the whole process, you might learn a thing of few from the lesson too.

5.  Have fun!  Most importantly is to have fun!

PPTV Version 9.9.9

Date:  Sep 25, 2014

Today PPTV App on all Android TV Box goes nuts again!

What Happen?

The Chinese government does not like the TV content providers to allow their iPhone / iPad (or Android equivalent) app to be run on a TV set top box or inside the TV (such as Xiaomi TV).

So, the government warn and ask PPTV to push an update 3.5.1 to force every one to update.  And the update is smart enough to detect that you are running it on a Xiaomi box and stop all functions but delivering the following message.

How To Solve This?

You will need to 

1.  Delete the version of PPTV you have on your Xiaomi TV (or equivalent)

2.  Download the version 9.99 from below link.

3.  Copy it onto a USB drive.

4.  Plug the USB drive into Xiaomi box or Xiaomi TV.

5.  高清播放器 (Xiaomi stock media player) will auto detect the USB.

6.  Go in and find the file pptvTVnoupdate_9.99.apk and install it.

      PPTV Version 9.9.9:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2LIa_dWu8sbVFxNDRjZk9Oa0E/edit?usp=sharing (Click to Download)

7.  That’s it.

So, this version is 9.9.9.  And it should run as per normal.

How To Identify?

If you forgot to delete the previous version, you will have multiple icons on your dashboard.

The version that has the word “PAD” or the word “TV” will not work for now.

It is easy to identify.

When you run version 9.9.9 it should looks the same as your previous version.

All the latest US shows shows should be there. 

All the TVB show (Cantonese or Chinese version) are there.  Episode 12 for 大药房

使徒行者 is Episode 22.

The Chinese government will try their best to block all these.  But I am very sure PPTV and others will find ways to defy this.

Xiaomi MiBox UI Works on ViewQwest Again!

Date:  Sep 24, 2014

A week ago, I reported that Xiaomi MiBox UI / iCNTV does not work with ViewQwest Network anymore.  When you boot up the box, it immediately goes into this screen.  of course, there are ways to get around this, but not using the stock iCNTV UI.  But we somewhat felt incomplete.  hahahaha

Yesterday, ViewQwest Network team contacted me and asked me to try and test as they seems to have solve the problem.

So, it seem to me that it is a Cat & Mouse Chasing game.

The Chinese trying to block and close down these Geo-unlock IP address.  

And the local ISP trying very hard to undo that.

But I got to give a big clap hands to Viewqwest for solving that.

Root cause is some home IP has been blocked by the Chinese iCNTV.  

So, I turned on my Xiaomi Box just now.  And YES.  It passed the verifications.  And the UI came out.

Select a TV Series.

CDN19 pop out without any problem.

Getting the content from CDN19.  No problem.

And movies play after that.

Let’s record a video to show this.  :)  Now we can enjoy Xiaomi again.

And it works on Xiaomi TV too!  Yes… Xiaomi TV.  That’s the one sitting in my office.  Hahahahaha

Xiaomi TV 小米电视

Date： Sep 23, 2014

UNBOXING

It has arrived.

No joke.  The TV itself and the sound bar weight 23KG.  Not to mentioned the subwoofer which is another 11KG.  So, the total of two box is 34KG.

The dimension of the box.

OK.  Xiaomi TV is NOT so green on energy savings.  It is rated #3 on the green energy labelling.

Very simple and clear instructions.

The panel.  Very thin bezel.  But the finishing … err.. not as good as it looks.  

It takes few people efforts to assemble the legs.

Woohoo… its 220V power plug.

Immediately once you turn on, it will ask you to pair the bluetooth remote control.

Take note, the remote control has to be pointing very near to the bottom right of the corner there (very near) so that it can pair successfully.

Follow by Wifi Setting.

Network setup done!

Next is to pair the sound system.

The sound bar looks like this.

The wireless subwoofer.

And welcome to Xiaomi TV user interface.

The applications is at the back.

INSTALLING SHAFA GUAN JIA

Let’s look at the stock iCNTV program.

ISP:                    VIEWQWEST

Network Type:   WiFi

Product:             FreedomVPN

Let’s go in iCNTV and choose a show.

It goes into CDN19.

And it stream without problem.

But the quality of the movie looks like SD version.

Please take note, you need to be on ViewQwest ISP network in order to watch this.

Note:  We don’t have SingTel, Starhub, My Republic and M1 network to test.  We know iCNTV does not work on most of all of them.  We are guessing, because the Xiaomi MiBox 3 does not work on these network.  So, we assume it cannot work.  You have to subscribe to ViewQwest & Freedom VPN in order to get it work.

The picture quality of the TV is nice.  And the sound quality boleh tahan.

Let’s pop in a USB disk to install the Shafa App Store.

OK.  NO NEED TO JAIL BREAK IT!

It works to install external APK files.

Let’s install a couple programs.

The TV looks good.

Looks thin and sharp.

Let’s try out PPTV on Xiaomi TV app on ViewQwest Network.

Everything is very smooth.  No lag.  No buffer.  And can see the real real China version.  

Note:  If you are on SingTel, Starhub, M1, and My Republic, you will likely get “INTERNATIONAL VERSION” which does not have a lot of shows.

Let’s run some other show.

The real real China version will give you all the new show.  Gothem is just came out from the US a few hours ago.

Below the TV, there is a touch sensor.

It is very cool, you can select the TV control from here by touching that panel.

The rectangle TV box on the left screen is to show the TV source.

Usually if you plug in the Cable TV, it will show there.  Selecting it, will enlarge the TV programs.

Install Pudding TV to watch China Voice.

China Voice.

I also installed the Cloud TV.

Use this to watch Discovery, National Geographic, HBO and so on.

 

SUMMARY

1.  Xiaomi TV cost about RMB 3999 in China.

2.  It is about 34KG all together to ship it over.  It is heavy, no joke.

3.  The shipping cost can range from S$300 to S$600 for the shipping.

4.  If really want to buy, please go Taobao.  Or contact my buying agent, Amy Li.  cinagoods@hotmail.com 

5.  It is just like the Xiaomi MiBox 3.  

6.  The interface is a bit different.  But it works the same.

7.  You do not need to jailbreak it.

8.  You can install any APK / Applications by using USB.

9.  I am using ViewQwest, and it works superbly on the ViewQwest network with Freedom VPN.

10.  I am really not sure about other ISP.  But judging from the Xiaomi Mibox 3 performance, I am almost sure that the TV will behalf the same way.

11.  Use Guang Mang Ti Yu for EPL.

12.  Use PPTV to watch all fantastic show.

My recommendation, if you can find cheap ways to bring back, buy! 

[Updates Sep 26, 2014]

13.  It does not come with wall mount kit.  And I do not see any possibility of wall mount brackets behind the Xiaomi TV.  The plastic is a big soft behind, so, my guess is there is no wall mount for Xiaomi TV.  So, for those who is looking for wall mount, I don’t think you can.

14.  Xiaomi suppose to be Apple of China.  They copy every thing from Apple.  But since Apple does not have TV, so, they can only come up with their own interpretation of the TV.

HaHahaha.  Look at the metal, it is 4 pieces of metal joined together.  The edge can be a bit sharp too.  Now, look at Samsung TV.  It is one whole piece of metal.  But for the price of RMB 3999, and you get Soundbar, Wireless subwoofer, and a sleek TV.  It is damn good liao!  So, please do not expect it has Samsung or LG quality, as those are selling 3 or 5 times more expensive prices.

So, please lower down your expectation.

15.  You can also download the remote control App to control the TV.

The App.

16.  For this TV, we are very lucky that a friend of ours have arrange a container to ship his goods, and my friend actually asked if he can "lompang" the TV into his container.  So, the cost is minimal.  If you know any one is moving back from China using container, you can ask favour too.  Otherwise, 34KG will be very heavy lor.