This blog is dead. Good Bye

Got this

Got this when I was in the States. It's a nifty tool. I wonder how I live without it in the first place. With the US map, come all details on shopping malls, petrol station and my personal favorite, all the Starbuck surrounding the area. I am in heaven.

On Saturday, I managed to get Malaysia map from this shop in Sunway Pyramid. I paid some money for it of course. Bugger! It’s my friend's Map! I knew it was him cause his name pop up on the screen when we fire up the software.

Got to apologies to him la for buying pirated Map.

Letting Go

Some things are easy to let go but some are very hard. I would imagine drug users who are so dependent on narcotics that they just can't leave without it. It would be the same as smokers too. Eventualy, you will hear few smokers managed to get away from their habit but most don't.

 This led me to think of the actual reasons why people can't let go. Was it the actual drug we miss or the habit of taking it or the placebo effect? Who knows? One thing for sure, the attraction must be very strong.  

You must be wondering why I am ranting about drugs and cigarettes. Let me assure you that I am not a user unless you consider a couple of Panadol I took when I have fever.

No. The reason is, I find it hard to let go few things in my life. As much as I want to keep them till death do me part, I can't. I just love them to death. (No pun intended).

Change is Coming

2008 is going to leave us soon. Obama is going to be the President. Economy is not going to improve anytime soon. It is about time we reflect on what has happened and how we are going to move forward. For me personally, I have experienced the good and the bad God has lay down on me. Overall, I think I am ahead.

2008 is the year my career went ballistic. Sometimes I have to slap myself to check if I was dreaming. Luckily, I was not. The job comes with many challenges and pains. Which job does not right? I decided early on to take the bull by it's horn. I am still challenged by the bull but I learn to have fun with it, make sacrifices and equip myself comprehensively.

2008 is also the year I rekindle some friendships. I realized that we do need close friends just to keep us grounded. Friends that will tell us straight what we did might be wrong or right. In building and sustaining a friendship, both parties have to decide if the friendship is worth the time and effort to continue. It will not work if one put more effort than the other. For all friends that have been tolerating me, I thank you. I promised to put more effort.

Looking forward to 2009, here I am at Starbucks reflecting on what has happened and what I will do in 2009. It's all captured in my trusty scrap book. (There is no substitute for paper to put your thoughts down). My Hazelnut latte goes down well on this cool and rainy day.

In summary, for 2009, I am going to make more money, make more love, have more fun and make time for what's important to me (and people who are important to me as well), learn from my failures in 2008 and move on. God Speed!

Dyno Chart

New Mapping (Above)

Old Mapping (Above)

Original (showroom - Red line)

No wonder the car feels strong even at 180kph. According to the new mapping, I will have power until 6000rpm!!!!!! syiok la. And the power delivery is smoother than before too. That's a bonus.

So, when I bought Scooby, she has 179 wheel horse power (whp). Then, some minor mod cause her to have 228whp. Now she has 259whp. That's a 45% increase in horse power!!! I am power mad....muhahahahah...

Test Drive

I am pretty happy with Scooby. Last night I test drove to KLIA and back. we call it "shakedown" to ensure all pipes are connected properly and there is no other mechanical issues.

In summary, the 'pull' last longer now compared to before. At 180kph, there is still more power from the engine. At some point I stopped at 200kph as it was raining heavily ...LOL 0-100 has improved (using my butt dyno lar). After Pantai toll (LDP), Scooby reached 180 effortlessly...sweet ride.

All is not well. There additional 10% fuel penalty due to the increase in power. Lucky petrol is at RM1.90/liter...hehe

No More Mods

The title sounds familiar. No more modification for Scooby. Today, I got my car back and drove it to KLCC for lunch with a friend. For the first time my car sounded like Ah Beng's cause I had installed a blow off valve. So now, every time I release the throttle, there is the "wohosssssssss" sound. :( This sound attract attention lar. It's has more linear torque and acceleration compared to before.

I had a chat with my mechanic today and he said nothing much can be done to the car now. If I want to mod it further, must change the engine internals like con rod, valve spings ..etc. The power gain will not be as much anymore.

So for now, I will declare that project Scooby has ended. There is nothing much I can do with her anymore to increase the power (changing internals are for serious racers only)

BTW, based on calculation, Scooby now has 300-310bhp at crank which translate to 260 wheel horse power. Not bad at all for a car that started it's life with me at 180 wheel horse power.

The big day

Today I spent lot's of money on Scooby. She is gonna get a new turbo, bigger injectors and a blow off valve. Everything in, it will cost a small arm AND a leg.

Ken, my tuner will try to get as much power from the enhancement as possible. Can't wait to get the car back today/tomorrow. I told him to go easy on the mapping as I am looking for reliability instead of more power. Don't want engine to explode lar during Sepang session. He he he..

I see this project as a secret one. Much like Batman and his identity. I have been at IT ever since I got the car in 2004. However, as much as I tried to keep it hush hush, a friend send me sms "bro, hansem turbo kau". BUSTED! Shit, now some people will know I have this enhancements in place. Grrrrr.... No surprise element already!

If I were to compare Scooby transformation with a gf. I started with an attractive women. With all the enhancement, she has turned to a perfect Lady on the outside and a Monster in bed! ROLF

15 seconds fame

I am back and felt very lazy to update my blogs....dunno why. Anyway, today I discovered that my big boss mentioned me.....yes..me in one of his interviews...kembang a bit... I captured the specific excerpt below. You can read the whole article here.

"
The Quarterly: Beyond the financials, what changes have you noticed at
Malaysia Airlines since your program began?

Idris Jala: Number one, this organization is now very good at rigorous analysis. When I joined, that was sadly missing. People did cursory analysis, and I mean cursory. Today, people really get into the analysis and bring back fact-based work.

Second, a cultural change has taken place. This is no longer a culture where if you don’t agree with someone, you keep quiet about it. We now have a culture where people will speak up and disagree.

Also, people are more prepared to step up. Recently, one of my general managers who is in charge of strategic procurement held a session with the top management team to generate cost-cutting ideas for next year. I didn’t even know about it. He asked me at the last minute to speak briefly at the meeting. He gave me five minutes. "

Read the last para if you missed it. Sorry, this blog is not meant to be for gloating. I am just glad he is not pissed I did what I did. LOL.

Panda

What's this people facination with Panda! They use Panda brand on all things chinese.

For example, Panda Express is a chinese takeout shop. They are everywhere. Cost you like USD6 for rice and 2 entree.

Another example, when you reach a hotel, they will provide a leaflet on food delivery. There will be pizza and then there will be Chinese take out. Guess what? Most likely, the shop logo will have a Panda. Really!!!!

I guess they cannot use Dragon cause it is better as a tatoo. They can't use chopsticks either cause Japanese use them as well. LOL

Gps review

No, not really a review but after 1 day with the GPS unit I have found some minor issues.

Issue #1 : the unit is not for driving above speed limit. If you are too fast, you will miss your turn cause the unit is slower in detecting your location.

Issue #2 : it did not come with a carrying bag. I had to buy another accessory. Cost me USD19.

Overall, I like this unit. It gets me to my destination with little drama.

My new toys

Men and their toys. Today, I bought myself a GPS unit and a Oakley sunglasses. Why I did it? Because it's cheap/reasonable.
The Garmin GPS unit comes with US map built in. Hehe, no Malaysia map for now. When I am back, I have to search for local maps. It cost me USD189.99 . Not bad considering it cost at least RM1K back home.
This is the best part, I bought the Oakley sunglasses for ......... Wait for it .......USD50.00. Back home it is at least RM800!!! That's not it, it came with a bluetooth handsfree attachment. So very cool!!
I am happy :)

Sometimes a man needs time to pause and reflect his direction in life. Einstein said 'the only thing constant in this universe is change' and I fully agree. It is very tiring when you work all day trying to achieve something in your life. Yes, it's nice to have big cars and houses but that's only part of it.
The other part of it is 'soft' side of things. Things that I am not able to put into words (cause I am a man and we have small vocab to explain such things....well, maybe that's just me)
The point is - A man needs both.

Cars in US are plain ugly. They are big, uneconomical, and not easy on the eyes. No wonder the auto companies like GM and Ford are requesting for assistance from Gomen.

In the past, maybe it is acceptable to focus on US market only cause it's huge. Now, with recession and everything, people are not buying new cars as much. This is a disaster for these company.

Having said that, the road ethics here are fantastic. They give way to pedestrian, stop at read lights and drive safely (generally). It is easy to drive here

I went to Best Buy (an electronic store as big as Giant) the other day. My intension was to check out some cool electronic toys and cools toys I found.
I saw GPS units from Garmin and Tom Tom. They are so cheap. If in KL the GPS cost about 1K, here it cost RM700. I was tempted but I did not buy cause I am saving for a new Turbo. Hehe.
Anyway, I miss my KL

From San Diego #1

Everything in US is big. The pick-up trucks are big, their people are big, they talk with loud voices and they have big roads.

Today I saw something I have not seen before. I saw an escalator for shopping trolley only. It is laid out side by side with normal escalator for humans. It's a great invention. Beats waiting for elevators eh?