The return to Ulu Yam

Once again, the 8GCC organized another trip to Ulu Yam. In spite of what we read in the papers, our local expert Hock "Ulu Yam" Ming had scouted the route and found it clear of debris, rocks, chicken feathers, etc....

As for me, since no one else was coming from Melaka, so there was no need for an early morning convoy like before. Instead, I went down the night before to Damansara, so that I didn't have to find my way to Batu Caves in the wee hours of the Sunday Morning. Incidentally, the (im)famous Batu Caves Shell station was not on my GPS (must be an older revision map), so I reckoned I'd still have to do some searching that morning....



Anyway, I arrived at ~6.45am, where the current 8GCC president Kor was already waiting with a couple of other guys. Slowly, one by one, the rest of the team trickled in. Eventually, we made our move at ~7.30am or so. We had a number of FD's, a Type R, a BMW 323 and 2 Subarus (don't know exactly which model, I'm not a Subaru connoisseur). This was a leisurely drive, so basically hardly any overtaking took place.

I was more interested in testing out the set of newly installed Eibach Prokit Springs, which replaced my stock ones. When paired with my existing Koni FSD shocks, they allowed for a much firmer ride with practically no compromise on comfort. Unfortunately the result is a drop in ride height by roughly 1 inch in the rear and 1.5 inches in the front (my car now has a slightly front slating poise). This meant that on "regular" Malaysian roads, there was too much travel required of the suspension system, resulting in bumps with each pothole and speedbump. Ironically, this meant that I could go faster around bends, but slower in most straight-line situations....

I also had in my tank of fuel a healthy dose of Dixel RCL fuel additive, that made the occasional high revs both easy to achieve and smooth. Never hurts to protect the engine as much as you can.

As we made our run up the UY trail, at the first bend I was a little cautious, as during my previous run here I encountered quite a lot of "drifting". This time around, I encountered much less body rolling than before, and the tires did not lose their grip so easily.

With Bro Solid88 in front of me to keep the pace, I followed the line up the roads of the Ulu Yam trail and observed the noticeable difference in handling. Now, we were by no means traveling at breakneck speeds, and I'm sure that if we were, I would ultimately be left in the dust (the Bro in front of me was a skilled driver with better equipment and 2 HPC's under his belt, after all).

I took the opportunity to test out my Pivot 3 Drive, which was mostly in EC5 and forgotten about. Halfway through, I switched to S mode and engaged paddle shifting (our older FD2's are not capable of engaging gears in D mode). Switching over to SP5 from EC5, I noted that it was much easier to redline the engine compared to when I was in EC5. I switched back and forth a couple of times just to ascertain that it wasn't just psychological. Conclusion - if you want to drive as fast as possible, use paddle shift and SP mode (haven't tried SP7 though). Or, you can get yourself a Sprintbooster, but that's a permanent ON setting that you can't turn off on the fly.

Brakes were more than adequate, with no signs of fading or that awful burning smell as when I was on Honda stock pads. Of course, there was plenty of brake dust coming from my Project Mu Bestops. When these pads wear out, I'll evaluate on some EBC's next....





Halfway up, as we stopped at the cable car station, a fog was starting to brew. Now, it's been a long time since I actually saw fog at Genting (last time being when I went on a school trip during secondary school). The road ahead was severely fogged up - all the way to the mamak corner.






Well, after breakfast, we decided to head back down to one of the lakes / waterfalls before heading home. Unfortunately, the traffic was quite heavy by that time, so halfway down, Kor and I (who were at the back), got caught up behind a slow bas (not a slow bas**** - really just a slow bas). Due to communication challenges (never bring walkie-talkie), we lost the rest of the convoy, and thus went back on our way home.


It was a good event, smooth in execution, and I'm happy to have been able to join. I'd very much like to come again one of these days and stop by for photos (already test car, now time to test camera).

Looking forward to seeing more friends again the next time `round!

Fuel is now cheaper (again)

Hmm, I've still got more than 1/3 of a tankful of Vpower from my last refueling run, and yet, yesterday, the Government announced yet another drop in petrol prices!

So, with the global price of oil dropping below USD50 per barrel, it's only a matter of time before the next fuel price revision. Here in Malaysia, the price of fuel is still regulated by the Government, who was supposed to finalize any time now whether or not to float the oil prices, just like every body else is doing.

So today, at the pumps, the prices are:

• RON 97 - RM 1.80 per liter
• RON 92 - RM 1.70 per liter
• Diesel - RM 1.70 per liter
• Vpower - RM 2.18 per liter (information from the guys at 8GCC)

On a separate note, local fishermen are still on strike as their extra subsidized diesel is still RM 1.30 per liter (just reduced from RM 1.43). They were expecting to pay only RM 1.00....
That price also applies to holders of Fleet Cards and Diesel Discount Cards (for certain commercial clients with more than 3 vehicles and for those who are eligible under the Government's subsidized diesel control scheme respectively). Obviously, to apply you'll need an Official Approval Letter’ from Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (MDTCA). For Fleet cards, only certain industries apply, for example, you will be entitled for one if you are with the Pan Malaysian Bus Operators Association or Pan Malaysian Lorry Owners Association.

A Summary of Current Nikon Speedlight Options

Today, a friend of mine asked me, what would be a better choice, a 2nd hand SB-800 Nikon Speedlight (Nikon-speak for Flash) or a brand new SB-600. Well, given the two, I told him to get the SB-600, as he'd probably never use the extra features that were exclusive to the SB-800.

While on the subject, I did some research and put together a comparison of the 4 contemporary Nikon Speedlight Options (I-TTL compatible):

Model	SB-900	SB-400	SB-600	SB-800
Construction	Automatic Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) and series circuitry	Automatic Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) and series circuitry	Automatic Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) and series circuitry	Automatic Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) and series circuitry
Guide Number	34/111.5 (ISO 100, m/ft), 48/157.5 (ISO 200, m/ft)	30/98.4 (ISO 200, m/ft), 21/69 (ISO 100, m/ft)	Approx. 30/98 (at 35mm setting) at ISO 100	38 (with zoom head set at 35mm)
Flash Coverage	* 17 to 200mm (FX-format, Automatic mode) * 12 to 200mm (DX-format, Automatic mode) * 12 to 17mm (FX-format, Automatic mode with built-in wide-angle panel deployed) * 8 to 11mm (DX-format, Automatic mode with built-in wide-angle panel deployed)	Light distribution covers an 18mm lens when mounted on a Nikon DX format camera and a 27mm lens when mounted on an F6	* Automatic 24 to 85mm zoom * 14mm with built-in wide flash adapter	* 24mm to 105mm in 5mm zoom steps * 17mm, 14mm with built-in wide-flash adapter * 14mm with soft dome
Film Speed Range in TTL auto flash mode	100 to 6400 ISO	0.6m to 20m (2 to 66 ft.) (Varies depending on the ISO sensitivity, zoom-head position, and lens aperture in use)	ISO 25 to 1,000	ISO 25 to 1600
Recycling Time	* 4.0 sec. with Alkaline-manganese (1.5V) * 4.5 sec. with Lithium (1.5V) * 3.0 sec. with OxyrideTM (1.5V) * 2.3 sec. with Ni-MH (2600 mAh)	Approx. 2.5 seconds	* Approx. 3.5 sec. with AA Alkaline manganese batteries * 4 sec. with AA lithium batteries	Approx. 2.9 seconds with supplied SD-800 Quick Recycling Battery Pack (Manual at full)
Number of Flashes	* 110 with Alkaline-manganese (1.5V) * 230 with Lithium (1.5V) * 190 with Ni-MH (2600 mAh) Note: When firing Speedlight at full output once every 30 seconds (120 seconds with lithium).	Approx. 210/2.5-30 sec.	Approx. 200 (Alkaline) 400 (Lithium)	Approx. 130 (Manual at full)
Weight (without battery, memory card or body cap)	Approx. 14.6 oz. (415g)	Approx. 127g (4.5 oz.)	Approx. 300g	Approx. 350g
Other Features	* The SB-900 indicates unit is fully recycled: Rear ready-light lights up and the front light blinks. * Insufficient light for correct exposure (in i-TTL, Auto Aperture flash, Non-TTL Auto flash, or Distance-priority manual flash operations): both rear and front (in remote setting) ready-lights blink. * Ready Light	Ready light	Modeling flash, LCD panel illumination, Color filter set	* Ready-light, open-flash button, sync/multiple flash terminal, modeling flash, LCD panel illumination * Automatically fires LED beam toward subject when performing autofocus with Nikon AF SLRs in low-light conditions: cancelable
Dimensions	Approx. 3.0 × 5.7 × 4.7 in. (78.0 × 146.0 × 118.5 mm)	Approx. 66 x 56.5 x 80mm (2.6 x 2.2 x 3.1 in.)	Approx. 68.0 x 123.5 x 90mm (2.7 x 4.8 x 3.5 in.)	Approx. 70.5 x 129.5 x 93.0mm
Power Requirements	* 4.0 sec. with Alkaline-manganese (1.5V) * 4.5 sec. with Lithium (1.5V) * 3.0 sec. with OxyrideTM (1.5V) * 2.3 sec. with Ni-MH (2600 mAh) * Optional :SD-9 High-Performance Battery Pack, SD-8A High-Performance Battery Pack, SK-6 Power Bracket Unit	Two AA-size 1.5V batteries	Four AA-size batteries	Four 1.5V LR6 (AA-size alkaline), 1.2V KR-AA (AA-size NiCd), 1.5V R6/AA-size Nickel, 1.2V (R6/AA-size Ni-MH) or 1.5V FR6/AA-size lithium batteries; DC Unit SD-7, High-Performance Battery Pack SD-8A, Power Bracket Unit SK-6A/6
Supplied Accessories (may differ by country or area)	AS-21 Speedlight Stand, SW-13H Diffusion Dome, SJ-900 Color Filter Set, SZ-2 Color Filter Holder, SS-900 Soft Case	SS-400 Soft Case	Speedlight Stand AS-19, Soft Case SS-600	Quick Recycling Battery Pack SD-800, Speedlight Stand AS-19, Speedlight Color Filter Set SJ-800, Diffusion Dome SW-10H, Soft Case SS-800
Current Price	RM 1688	RM 588	RM 988	RM 1698

Now, TTL stands for "Through-The-Lens", which is basically the principle which SLR's (Single-Lens-Reflex) work. The photographer literally looks through the lens of the camera via mirror / prism mechanism, therefore seeing exactly what the film / digital imaging chip sees through the lens. This is different from a rangefinder, where the eyepiece is a separate optical path from the lens. For rangefinders, you don't really see exactly what the camera sees, and there will be some differences in terms of angle and coverage (especially up close).

Back to I-TTL or Intelligent TTL. Before I-TTL there was D-TTL, beffore that there was 3D-TTL. This is merely the progression of the exposure control technology (even I-TTL has improved to I-TTL 2, so I wouldn't get too hung up on the terminology). What matters is that your camera is compatible with your flash, so if you have the latest Nikon DSLR, it's going to work fine with any of the above 4 speedlights.

Now, the SB-800 is no longer available, having just been replaced by the SB-900, which retails for slightly cheaper than its predecessor's starting price. That leaves just the SB-900, SB-600 and SB-400 in the equation. The SB-400 is a really simple flash which operates on only 2 AA batteries, but lacks the full bounce capabilities and IR AF assist features of its brethren. That last bit means that it only tilts UP, not to the side, so for horizontal shots you bounce off the ceiling, for potraits you bounce off the wall. No IR AF assist means you will have to depend on the camera's AF assist lamp in low light instead. Therefore, it's fine for beginners, but you may find yourself wanting when you progress. Good thing is that it's tiny and portable, consumes less power and recharges faster between shots.

A step up from that would be the SB-600, which has full tilting bounce capabilities and AF assist, and also wireless slave capabilities as well. Meaning, you can set this up off camera and trigger it remotely for some clever lighting effects (note you need to know what you are doing and you need a camera / flash which functions as a master, which the SB-800 and SB-900 does). Now, the SB-900 improves on the SB-800 in zooming farther and correctly compensating for the 1.5X crop factor of DX frame DSLR's, as well as optimizing itself for the full-frame FX models.

So, in the end, my advice to my friend was, as a hobbyist, get the SB-600 (which is nearly half the price of the SB-900 on the street) and start taking creative flash photos!

Note : the table doesn't seem to appear entirely on Blogspot. See the full table over at : http://mcwk.multiply.com/journal/item/120/A_Summary_of_Current_Nikon_Speedlight_Options

Melaka Line Dance Competition 2008

Last weekend, I attended the Melaka Line Dance Competition at the Pay Fong School in Kubu, on 6 December 2008. This was the first ever competition of it's kind, thus I was curious to find out what exactly it would be like.

Tickets were RM40 a piece, I got one for myself and one for my wife. Arrived half an hour early - a good thing too as it was pouring that time, sure to be a massive traffic jam if we were to arrive "on time".


To inaugurate the event was the ever present Datuk Wira Gan Boon Leong, a prominent local politician who was frequently invited to partake in opening ceremonies all around Melaka. Seen him around quite often. Even shook hands with him once (he has an iron, vice-like grip - ex-bodybuilder....).

Anyway, there were several teams from around Malaysia (mostly from Melaka and one from Negeri Sembilan, if I remember correctly). Each team was given the opportunity to present their dance routine under the scrutiny of a panel of judges that lined the perimeter of the dance floor (which was on ordinary days the badminton courts - we are in a school hall, after all).

First thing to note - almost all teams were using the similar dance songs, like "Mony, Mony" and "Part-time lover". So, we had around 4 or 5 groups using the same song, frequently, back to back. On one hand, this got quite repetitive. On the other hand, the judges were able to judge based on the same song, so this made their job "easier" (?).


Photography in the dark hall was a challenge in both equipment and skill. A minimum of ISO800 was needed, even with F2.8 lenses. I neglected to bring along my F1.8 and F1.4 lens, to keep my bag light. Due to the absence of my 18-200mm, which was still under repair, I brought along a few other alternative lenses:

• Nikon 70-300mm F4-5.6 AF-S VR - Not really for indoor use, but I didn't have much choice. Had to crank up to ISO800/1600 to use - even then, most shots were blurred beyond salvation.
• Sigma 150mm F2.8 - My sigma macro lens, being a macro lens, focuses really slowly. Once locked on, the shutter speed was much better. However, at 150mm, it was a little too long from where I was sitting to get a wider picture.
• Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 - the workhorse lens for low light. Didn't have enough zoom at the tele end for tight shots, but then again, where else to get a more affordable F2.8 zoom?
  

Photos can be viewed at : http://mcwk.multiply.com/photos/album/72/Melaka_Line_Dance_Competition_2008

After all the teams had presented their dance numbers, we made an early exit to avoid the rush of the crowd at the end of the event. Overall, it was a good experience, but the only letdowns were that the table was too small to seat 10 people comfortably, and also the servings were too small (then again, what would you expect for just RM40, when the rate these days was RM60-70?).

Charmaine and the porcelain bowl

This is Charmaine, eating porridge. Why is she sitting here? Our earlier attempt to feed her on the couch ended up with one incident of splashing porridge all over the place as she slapped her hand right in the middle of the bowl I was holding when I was not looking (active hands). After clearing up the mess, continued feeding her. Was successful for some time, until, somewhere in through the middle of the bowl, she slapped her hand down once again, knocking the bowl from my grasp. Ultimately, it landed faced down on the cushion, hence the migration to the low baby bench you see here.


This is a porcelain bowl. Made of a ceramic material, it's popular as kitchen ware in many homes. It's tough, resistant to high temperatures, non-porous and has a glazed appearance. Unfortunately, it's quite brittle and not designed to withstand drops....


This is a porcelain bowl after being dropped from the height of 3 feet off the edge of a kitchen counter. With someone's record for the day, I don't think you need to think much to figure out what happened....

Sigh, have to consider switching to impact-resistant Melamine-ware....

And the price of Vpower today is.....

As per the last revision in fuel prices, RON97 is now at RM1.90 per liter (refer to here for details). As usual, no one ever publishes the price for Vpower, so today, I went to investigate and found out that a liter of Vpower costs RM2.35.

It's reported in the front page of the Star Newspaper today that the Government is now making RM 16KK per day, instead of shelling out for subsidies as it was doing so just a few months ago.
See : http://www.thestar.com.my/services/printerfriendly.asp?file=/2008/12/6/nation/2736651.asp&sec=nation

In any case, the Government will announce next week whether they will implement a floor price for petrol and diesel, as these days the price of crude oil is really, really cheap!

Facebook up again

Hmm, that was fast. Just last night it was down - but this morning up and running once again. Sure wish that they'd inform beforehand. That should be the case for any scheduled maintenance.

Posting short messages like this is almost like a twitter, which is another social networking site, albeit that posts are all text with maximum length of 140 characters or less. So short - call it micro-blogging to coin a term....

Facebook down for maintenance

Hmm, Facebook is temporarily offline for maintenance, so it says on the login screen. First time for me. Wonder how long it'll last. I've only had experience with Multiply being down once before in the past....

Another HPC event at the Sepang F1 Circuit

This was the 2nd time I'm going to the Sepang F1 Circuit to support my friend, Benny, who was taking part yet again in the High Performance Challenge (HPC). Our Melaka Civic friends gathered in front of the MPMBB / Melaka Mall and set off for Sepang at around 8.15am (15 minutes later than planned). Still we made good time with light traffic in the early hours of the morning, and managed to arrive at our destination by 9.00am, without going too much above the legal speed limit of 110kph.

Now, the registration fees were around RM265 - but there was a 15% discount for early, online registrants. All you need is a good full-face helmet, shoes (no slippers or barefoot) that preferably had thin soles so that you could "feel" the pedals better, and a roadworthy car!

It was one of those days, like the previous session last November, with many drivers trying out their modified (and some stock) rides on the full track of the Sepang F1 circuit. There were the high end makes, including a Porsche and a Ferrari, as well as some modest rides like Myvi's and Proton Wiras.

As the drivers coaxed every last drop of performance and skill out of themselves and their rides, those of us on the sidelines were busy bringing out the best in our photographic gear. I had brought along my 70-300 Nikon (The latest one with VR and SWM), which proved more than adequate for zooming in on to the action, even from high up in the media room on the first floor that overlooked the pit area, opposite the grandstand. As it was a really hot day, I did not venture right to the top where I would be able to get a much wider view of the entire track, so I did not need to use my lens to the limit (most of the time, up to 135mm was enough).

Breaking shortly for a late breakfast, we sat down at the stall behind the pit area for some fried rice and drink. Hmm, the rice was "half-cooked" but expensive (rice + 1 glass of hot MILO = RM6.00). Luckily, my wife packed me some curry puffs, so my stomach didn't suffer that much.

After the morning session, it took us around 15 minutes to finally decide on the venue for lunch, which was at the nearest McDonald's. We split off into two groups after that, me following the group of sedated drivers, while the other group, well, I never saw them again for the rest of the journey back to Melaka....

All in all, I still enjoy myself at the HPC session as before, though this time 100% of the action was on the track. I'll definitely come again, planning for the next session already in progress, sometime in Q1 next year....

For photos, please check out my gallery over here.

Petrol prices at an all time low!

It happens again. Just when you thought petrol prices are as low as they'd ever get - the Government announces yet another drop! Now:

• RON97 = RM 1.90 per liter
• RON92 = RM 1.80 per liter
• Diesel = RM 1.80 per liter
• Vpower = ??? (never announced anywhere, only one way to find out....)

Hurray? Petrol is now basically cheaper than mineral water. And just before the school holidays, too. I only hope that this will result in lower electricity tariffs and hence reduction in the prices of food and other essentials.

Source : NST, The Star, Paultan.org

Current price of Shell Vpower

Two days ago, out of curiosity, dropped by the nearest Shell petrol station to refuel with Vpower. Now Vpower is not available at all Shell stations, so I went to the one at Air Keroh (opposite the Mamee factory). Found out that a liter of Vpower now costs RM2.45. Hmm, compared to RM2.00 per liter of RON97 and RM1.90 per liter of RON92. Now, some time ago, RON97 cost RM1.92 while Vpower cost RM2.15 per liter. This means that there is now a much larger price difference between RON97 and Vpower, which makes it much less enticing than before....

Now, if you read the hype for Vpower, it's supposed to be slightly higher RON (in Malaysia, apparently it's at RON98, but normal cars like mine can do fine on RON97 or even RON92). The RON number really has no impact on fuel economy, so there is no advantage of using Vpower in that sense if all you are looking for is better fuel economy.

Now, Vpower also advertises to contain special additives / friction reduction, etc.. but then again, so does everyone else. So, which one you choose is really up to your personal opinion. Just like a fish burger at McDonald's, KFC and the Ramli Burger stall - everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

With rumours of another reduction in petrol prices just around the corner, it's anyone's guess what the new fuel pricing will be.

Using a Dell Latitude D410

Standard issue Dell Latitude D410 - taken with my G900

Well, my standard issue laptop is with my IT guys (some technical complication / BSODs (blue screen of death) involving Vista which could only be solved by a complete reformat). So, temporarily using my other standard issue laptop, a Dell Latitude D410.

This particular system has a Pentium M 1.73 GHz Processor, which is fast enough to get the job done, provided you're not multitasking. With 1 GB of memory onboard, luckily using Windows XP instead of Vista, otherwise I would imaging productivity would go down hill pretty fast.

Now, the D410, being an ultra-portable, lacks a built-in floppy drive (not that I miss that) and also does not have any optical drive (that means, no CD / DVD). However, it's fairly light and easily carried around to meetings. Just the smallish keyboard takes a little getting used to.

The other thing that I wish for is one additional USB port. The Dell D410 has only 3 - 2 at the rear and 1 on the left side. Now, since my other laptop has the tendency to screw itself up over time, I have all my working files and portable apps on my external hard drive so that I don't have to back up anything. This takes up 2 USB slots - 1 for data and the other for supplementary power. That leaves only 1 free USB for the mouse. So, in order to further connect my USB thumbdrive / phone / camera / card reader etc., I need to disconnect the mouse and temporarily use the touchpad. Ordinarily I like using the touchpad, but the keyboard is already cramped, so it's not so easy on the D410.

A row of dead pixels, with the standard mouse pointer for reference

Last parting comment - dead pixels. Now, I though I'd never see any of these in this day and age. However, there is a whole row of them on the screen, somewhere to the left, halfway between the top and the bottom. I have a zoom out here (hmm, my G900 does macro now?). Relative to the mouse pointer....

Well, overall, a decent system, that I can live with (since it's standard issue) but I wouldn't want to invest in if I had to pay for it myself....

Total disregard for cleanliness!

On the way home from breakfast this morning, while waiting at the traffic lights somewhere near Kolej Bandar Utama (KBU), I noticed something rather disturbing about the side of the road:

Not so clear in the picture? Here's another shot taken looking out my window to the right:

See the ugly truth now? Sadly, this is probably a common sight all over the country. It seems that people are irresponsibly throwing empty drink cartons, bottles, wrappers out their window with little regard for the environment. Puzzling that there is no clean-up crew going around clearing up this mess (or maybe there is, but the frequency of clean-up is too low).

Laws for littering in Malaysia appear to be virtually non-existent, or maybe they exist, but it's the enforcement that needs to kick into action. I know that in Singapore, it's a well known fact that littering can and is punishable by law, with a hefty fine slapped on to those who defiantly drop even a sweep wrapper onto the ground. Sadly, not here....

Obviously, the ones throwing the stuff out of the cars are adults (physically, though their mentality does not justify that title). Seeing grown-ups throw stuff out the window, who is to be blamed when children start to emulate them and eventually grow up into irresponsible litterbugs themselves?

Civic Malaysia Club Melaka TT - Nov 2008

Phew! Just about managed to make it to the Civic Malaysia Club Melaka TT, after my Inter-shift Badminton Tournament. I didn't manage to meet up for the convoy assembly at the Melaka Mall (formerly known as Kotamas).

They headed off for Bali Cafe, which was behind in front of the Holiday Inn Hotel that overlooked the Straits of Melaka (besides the Melaka Jetty), for some photoshooting session.

Here we are, in front of the Holiday Inn hotel, Melaka....

It was there that I got slightly lost, and eventually managed to find the location.

Here I am with Sister Kenjiez, commenting on a dent made by a falling palm oil fruit (don't ask....) - photo credit : hanne

Civic Malaysia Club Melaka group photo

After some snaps of the scenery and a group photo, we headed off for some ikan bakar dinner at Crystal Bay. Food was quite affordable here, but the service was a little slow. Once our bellies were filled, we proceeded to the Asian Havana Cafe for 2nd round of drinks and also to celebrate Sister Kenjiez's birthday.

Happy birthday, Kenjiez - photo credit : Nick

Well, it was a good get-together that night, with a healthy turn-out of Civic owners. We parted company late in to the night, with plans for our next convoy in the works.... (stay tuned for another Civic event at the end of the month).

Inter-shift Badminton Tournament 2008

A group of loyal supporters / players / fans sitting on the sidelines.

We recently had our inter-shift badminton tournament at the newly upgraded Batu Berendam Sports Complex (formerly known as the Batu Berendam Badminton Hall). The recent upgrade sees the addition of more badminton courts, as well as some futsal pitches as well. Looks like an alternative venue for future futsal tournaments, besides Sports Planet at Cheng.

Low-light photography challenges....

My role on the organizing team and as the designated (only) photographer meant that I had to be present for the entire event. Thankfully, taking photos meant that I was spared the task of being the umpire (something that I was not keen to do, since the scoring system of badminton has been revamped so much, to the point that I no longer am sure exactly how to count points anymore!).

The typical badminton hall is dimly lit with florescent lights. Bright enough to see the shuttlecock, but not too bright as to blind the players. For photography, it was really a challenge. Mounting my Sigma 30mm F1.4 and Tamron 17-50mm F2.8, I managed to take some shots only with the ISO cranked up to 3200 and 6400. Anything less reduced the action to an indiscernible blur (no flash allowed, remember). Catch the photos over here.

Anyway, the tournament started ~9.00am, with players and fans as well as committee members taking turns as umpires and linesmen. The turnout was good, however, some over-ambitious players signed on for more than one category (singles, doubles and mixed doubles), which resulted in some delays in waiting for them to finish their ongoing matches. Not to mention allowing for some time to "recharge" between bouts.

We had lunch at the nearby roadside stall, opposite the Family store, then it was back to the hall for more badminton action. I did try to stroke awhile - though my foot injury still was not fully healed - resulting in my inability to return those out-of-reach shots....

Darkness engulfed the hall as we experienced an unexpected power outage.

There was a brief (1 hour) interrupting in play as a results of an unexpected power outage that literally left us standing in the dark. Fortunately, our preserverance paid off and when the power came back on, the tournament resumed.

All in all, we finished at roughly 5pm - enough time for me to proceed with my CMC TT!

Not all SCANPST's are made equal

This morning, ran into a little trouble with my mail archive PST when opening up my e-mail at the office. Now, due to company policy, we have really very little space on the Outlook Exchange Server for storing mail. Anyone in the industry can tell you, you'll need to hang on to every e-mail you get and send out for as long as you can - you'll never know when you need to prove that someone told you to do something three years ago, that resulted in the big mess you have today....

I keep my mail archives in PST's by month, keeping the size to a manageable 60 ~ 100 megs per PST. The down side is that I'll have to remember roughly which month to start searching if I ever need to find anything, since Outlook can't search across many PST's at once.

Now, I used to keep all my PST's and working documents on my company-issue laptop. But lately, I don't know if it's the latest OS from Microsoft or the hardware or a combination of both, I've been getting BSOD's quite regularly, and already had my hard drive reformatted more than once. So, I now keep all my files on a permanent state of backup on an external USB portable hard drive. I won't say what brand of laptop I'm using, but here's a hint - it rhymes with "HELL"....

Anyway, upon opening up my mail on my desktop workstation (which was running on XP and Outlook 2000), I found that my November 2008 mail PST was somehow corrupted, according to the error message, and refused to open. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting my USB hard disk, and even tried rebooting, but to no avail. It may not sound like much, but the loss of 1/2 months' worth of office mail for the month of November would be enough to send me to an early retirement.

I followed the onscreen suggestion to try running the SCANPST utility to try fixing my PST file. After following the instructions, and waiting briefly for an 8 step pass, the SCANPST was done. Unfortunately, opening up Outlook and connecting to the repaired file yielded me an empty PST!

Not giving up, and thankful that I opted to back up my PST file before the repairs we made, I next fired up my laptop and ran the Office 2003 version of SCANPST on my backed up PST file. The steps were practically the same, and after another eight passes, I tried to connect to my PST once again. This time, I breathed a sigh of relief as I miraculously recovered all my November e-mails! My PST file worked back on my Desktop (Office 2000) too.

Well, I'm not really sure why my PST got corrupted in the first place, but I hope it doesn't happen again. Also, goes to show that not all SCANPST versions are equal, and the one that comes with the higher version of Outlook seems to work better!

An hour spent with a 111 year old....

Some weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a short seminar where a 111 year old Singaporean Social Worker by the name of Teresa Hsu was invited to speak, followed by some Q & A session. Now, firstly, that wasn't a typo. Teresa really was 111 years old, and secondly, it was actually quite a lively session (as she still had plenty of wits about). Accompanying her was Brother Sharana Rao, which was relatively young at only 7x years of age...

Her life story and more information can be found at her Heart to Heart website.

This was at the Hehaha Lifestyle Center in Bukit Jalil, which sells health products as well as organizes health talks and workshops from time to time.

Electricity and water supply connected at last!

After applying for the utilities for my new house last Wednesday, found that on Friday, the guys from TNB came over and hooked up a brand new 3 phase meter to my house. Now this is an updated model with digital display - a far cry from the old rolling-counter style meters of yesteryear. Not bad - just one day between application and connection.

For water, there was a slight delay. They committed a maximum time of 3 working days. In actual fact, the water meter only got connected today (overshot by 1 day). I just managed to confirm that the meter was in place before it started raining heavily.

Well, with the utilities in place, renovation's schedule to start at the end of the week. Of course, I will be popping by from time to time to check on the progress....

Little Charmaine's first two teeth

Just two days ago, we discovered that Charmaine's first two bottom front teeth were emerging from the gums. Could have come out earlier, though, as it was really hard to see (since her tongue was always blocking the view). So now, it's actually quite painful when she grabs my finger and starts chewing....

Now this is, apparently, right on schedule. Studies show that the teeth start to emerge in a pre-defined sequence, as shown below:-

Teeth	Average "eruption" time (in months after birth)
1) Lower central incisor	8 months
2) Upper central incisor	10 months
3) Upper lateral incisor	11 months
4) Lower lateral incisor	13 months
5) Lower first molar	16 months
6) Upper first molar	16 months
7) Upper canine	19 months
8) Lower canine	20 months
9) Lower second molar	27 months
10) Upper second molar	29 months

Well, besides that, she's also starting to say a few nonsensical syllables like "ta, ta, ta" and "pa, pa, pa".

RON92 for RM2.00

Yep. Inevitably, the price of fuel is going down yet again.

Article at The Star : http://www.thestar.com.my/services/printerfriendly.asp?file=/2008/11/17/nation/20081117183055.asp&sec=nation

Just gone halfway through my last refueling, now already fuel's cheaper by RM0.15 per liter.

RON92 and Diesel are also down by RM0.15.

Wonder how much Vpower is now...?

Applying for installation of utilities for a new house

Took leave today to apply for power and water supply for my new house. Renovations about to begin, so the utilities had to be in place in order to facilitate the contractor.

I took the first half of the morning hunting all over my house for the necessary documentation. Filing is not one of my strong points....

Eventually, I made it to the TNB office at Bandar Kaba (just beside the old police headquarters). For those of you with no prior experience, here's what you need (2 sets - 1 for electricity, 1 for water):

• Photocopy of your Mykad - front and back. Write your new house address somewhere on the empty space available, to save time
• RM10 "setem hasil" which you can get from the post office
  
• Photocopy of your Certificate of Fitness (CF)
• Photocopy of your Sales and Purchase Agreement (S&P)

Since it was a working day, there was practically no queue. I took a number and it was already my turn, even before I had a chance to sit down. Applying for a 3 phase power supply, the deposit was RM560. According to the nice lady behind the counter, their guys should be coming around to fix the meter sometime within the next two working days.

Next, I headed off towards Jalan Hang Tuah, where the Syarikat Air Melaka Berhad was located. Parked my car and walked into the office. Just as before, practically no queue. So, after submitting my documents, filling their form on the counter, and paying a deposit of RM110, I was back out on my way home.

I scratched the time on my 1 hour parking coupon - 10:10AM. I got home at 11:00PM. Unbelievably fast.

I also went over to my new house to collect the keys from the site supervisor. Found that the outside wall was cracked in one location, and strangely, the two shower heads in the upstairs bathrooms were only 4 feet off the ground (good for little people and kids, but no-no for regular people).

I'll be filling these into my complaint form and sending it back to the developer for rectification soon.

Well, with all these done, I just have to ensure that the water and electricity supplies are installed within the next couple of days, and follow up on the progress of the renovations from time to time. With any luck, my new house should be ready before CNY!

(Un)lazy Sunday

Yesterday, when most people were resting or sleeping at home, reluctantly I was in the office tying up loose ends for the month end.

Stopped by my usual Caltex petrol station to refuel. The attendant immediately came out and told me that RON97 was out of stock temporarily - only left RON92 and Diesel. Evidence of the recent petrol price drop, apparently, since most dealers did not want to purchase fuel at the older high price. As everyone waited until AFTER the price drop to purchase petrol, thus the sudden "shortage" in supply. Two of the pumps were also closed. That didn't really bother me, as the K20Z2 at the heart of my FD2 is designed for RON91 minimum (I've actually been using RON92 from time to time, but only from Caltex as it has the cleaning additives even in the RON92 formulation).

While it was in the office, it started raining heavily for a short while. Enough to dislodge an old branch from one of the palm trees that flanked the parking lot - just missed my car by 1 space (luckily I chose the correct spot!)!

As you can see, the parking lot is nearly empty....

Pesky branch that fell during the heavy rain - just behind my car!

Slightly off topic - Multiply was down briefly yesterday, apparently for some minor upgrades. It was fast, though, as now they're back up again. I really hope that they can give some notification in advance in cases of planned outages....

Multiply temporary outage....

Fuel prices down again.

With dipping oil prices now in the region of USD60~70 per barrel, our petrol prices have gone down by yet another 15 sen for RON97, to RM2.15 per liter. This isn't actually at the same level it use to be (RM1,92), but since the price peaked at RM2.70 in the middle of the year, today's price can be considered "relatvely low".

Now, when petrol prices went up, soon to follow were prices of food and groceries - excuse given is that, well, the cost of logistics has gone up. Also, the tariff for electricity rose too, by roughly 25%. When petrol price hikes were announced in the past, in the beginning this sparked off some mass refueling at petrol stations. Long queues of cars were seen lined up at all petrol stations, and even some heated arguments and queue-jumping (motorcyclists being the major offenders). Now that the price drops are announced, there is an opposite effect of people refraining from refueling, until the price drop comes in to effect. Now the petrol dealers, who had to purchase their petrol at the old higher price, start to complaint, and thus appeal to the government to stagger the drop in petrol price, instead of letting it drop all the way down overnight. Never mind that only a few months ago, they could sell off their existing stock of petrol bought at a lower price for a much higher one after the petrol prices went up. Some dealers apparently closed their pumps and declared "out of stock", in order to capitalize on this. Evidently, people only remember bad experiences and forget the good ones (who was complaining when the prices went up?).

Well, now that petrol prices have gone down, we have yet to see any real evidence in reduction of food and groceries whose prices were increase as their prices were allegedly linked to the petrol increase in the first place. And now, these same people can offer and explanation as to why food prices WILL NOT go down with cheaper petrol prices (these people think of everything).

Quote from the Star (http://thestar.com.my/services/printerfriendly.asp?file=/2008/10/29/nation/2387778.asp&sec=nation) :

Wednesday October 29, 2008

Restaurateurs explain why food won’t get cheaper

PETALING JAYA: Food at restaurants and hawker stalls will not be cheaper despite the price cut of consumer goods by hypermarkets.

“It does not make sense for us to reduce the price of food at restaurants unless the petrol price is reverted to RM1.92,” said Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Associa­tion president Jamarulkhan Kadir.

“All this while, we have been absorbing higher costs as we haven’t been increasing our food prices even after the price hikes. So I don’t see why we should lower our prices now,” he told The Star yesterday.

Malaysian Indian Restaurant Owners Association president Datuk Ramalingam Pillai also felt that the petrol price reduction did not justify restaurants charging their customers less.

“The question of us cutting our prices does not arise as we have always maintained our prices,” he said, adding that it was only fair that restaurants made up for their reduced profits now.

Taiping Hawkers Association chair­man Tan Thian Kooi said it was un­­likely that hawkers would lower their prices because suppliers were reluctant to reduce the price of ingre­dients.

“It is difficult for hawker food prices to change according to petrol prices as they are also dependent on the cost of supplies,” he said.

Tan added that the high electricity tariff would deter factories producing the ingredients to lower prices.

Well, the downside of this petrol price reduction?

• People are returning to their old (bad) driving habits, driving fast and furiously with no regard to economical driving methods. In the past few days, I have been tailgated by nearly every form of road vehicle on four wheels (and also those with more than four will too). Banished from mention are the talks on fuel economy, MPG, hypermilling, hybrids and (dread) NGV that were the spotlight of talk and banter just a few months ago.

• Our country actually exports oil (Petronas), so our budget for next year, based on projected income forecast from oil sales (at the former high price), seems to be unworkable now. So, we have plans, but no money. Hope the government gets this one sorted out soon, otherwise everyone will rush to do their projects in Jan 2009!

• Public transportation use is declining as more people take to the roads in their own vehicles once again. This is evident in the increase in traffic density and jams when driving through the city.
  

Well, I hope that drivers come to realize that petrol is a non-renewable source of energy, that will continue to dwindle as time goes by. We should conserve our resources and take only what we need, less we leave nothing behind for our children to inherit!

3-in-1 : Cross posting to Blogspot and Facebook

Currently, I blog on Multiply. It seems kinda slow these days, but I stick to it as it allows for hosting of photos as well as cross-posting to Blogspot. Now, while using Facebook, I stumbled upon a feature that allows for Auto importing from Blogspot each time I make a blog entry. Or so it says. So, in theory, I can configure so that a post in Multiply gets cross-posted to Blogspot, which in turn get's imported to Facebook. Therefore, making it a 3-in-1 post.

Will try this out to see whether it works as well in real life as it does in theory....

Rediscovering the internet

Yesterday, my company generously bestowed upon its office hour employees and extra day of shutdown for the Deepavali celebrations (no thanks to the current global economic slowdown). Thus, with much time to spare, I fired up my trusty Firefox browser and set about revisiting some of my old internet haunts that I haven't managed to upkeep for some time.

Some of you may notice a sudden increase in activity for my Multiply (and hence it's mirror at Blogspot) site, which is basically me posting to cover some backlog after the recent months. After finally getting myself a new router to replace the one that was offered as sacrifice to a thunderstorm, I'm able to start posting again. Of course, I can access the internet from office, but that would be highly unprofessional of me to do so!

Anyway, I've also managed to post some on Photomalaysia. Most useful is now Facebook. It's amazing how this aspect of social networking actually works. I basically had only 2 friends on up until recently. Then, I just requested to add CMC as a friend, and suddenly there were a whole lot of familiar friends on Facebook to add as friends. In the span of a day, my friend count jumped from 2 to 12!

The best thing is that while I was logged on to Facebook today, I saw that one of my old friends, Muneela, was online. Thus, I managed to engage in an online chat via Facebook. It was good to contact my former colleague again after she left the company for roughly 2 years now. She's currently in Dubai with her husband (in a land where everything is expensive, but petrol is cheap).

Well, back to reality. Time to spend online isn't going to be in abundance all of the time - nonetheless I'll try to make an effort to keep posting here once in a while. I still have some backlogged posts to clear....

Civic Malaysia Club

The 8th Generation Civic is a hot car indeed - just a couple of years since its' launch and already there are 2 car enthusiasts' clubs around; 8GCC and the newly formed Civic Malaysia Club (CMC). The latter was actually founded by a group of former 8GCC committee members, who felt the need for change was in order. One of the key differences is that 8GCC was a free forum and thus prone to outages and other ill-effects from time to time, while CMC, being hosted on a private server, has much better support (and of course, the higher maintenance cost is reflected in the membership fees).

There is no rule or law forbidding anyone from joining both clubs simultaneously - in fact, most of us (myself included) hold dual-memberships in both clubs. Since we are all friends, it doesn't really matter under which banner our convoy rides. Only thinig is that there tends to be some repeated post topics in the new forum.

Well, in Melaka, we have some 15 or so members (though our dear Kenjiez has technically migrated to KL already) at present. And still growing strong. Look forward to new adventures and convoys in the months to come!

(Another) failed attempt at climbing Mt Kinabalu

This year is my second attempt at scaling the famous Mount Kinabalu, that is located in East Malaysia in the state of Sabah. Some years ago, I made it right up to the halfway point, Laban Rata, but did not proceed onwards to the summit.

Flying over on the budget airlines, Air Asia, we were not allowed to board the plane due to arriving slightly late (25 minutes) before the actual flight departure. Thus, we had to book a place on the next flight. Not a good start.

Upon reaching Kota Kinabalu, found that it was raining. Quite heavily, actually, as some parts of the road on the way to the Kinabalu National Park were flooded.

Now, there are 2 ways to go up the mountain. One is via Timpohon gate, which was a wider trail, with more trees and going up alll the way. The other one was through the Mersilau gate, which was longer, but more scenic, with ups and downs. Needless to say, we chose to ascend via the Mersilau trail.

Unfortunately for me, the rain on the previous night had left the ground damp and slippery, thus, some 3 kilometers into the trail, I slipped and fractured my left ankle. This, I attribute to the fact that I was wearing tennis shoes (which have no grip on wet ground). Unable to walk, I waited for the emergency response team made up of 11 people to carry me out on stretcher, taking turns - 4 at a time. Well, my friends did proceed onwards and managed to reach the summit (and in doing so we discovered that there is no DIGI line at Laban Rate (016). However, Maxis line still OK (012).)

Now, at the hospital, X-ray revealed just a hairline crack. However, that was enough to ground me for months. The doctor was rather excited and kept asking me if he could inject me with some painkillers (I declined - my ankle hurt, but not as bad as that!). Medication for the pain was also somewhat of an overkill. I was given two types of pills - one to kill the pain, the other to prevent gastritis as a result of taking the first pill. I'm not too fond of medication, so I chose to endure the slight pain instead.

In the airport, the Air Asia people had wheelchairs, but you had to pay to use them. That's the part that made me not so happy - it's not that people choose to use wheelchairs, you know. Hopefully, they will become more aware of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)!

Well, that left me in a cast for a little over a month, and even now, 3 months later, I'm still not fully recovered (can walk, cannot run). I had to attend my company's Appreciation Night in a wheelchair. But me being myself, failure is just another obstacle on the road to success, so already I'm planning my next expedition to conquer the mountain in April 2009. This time, I'll be better prepared (need hiking boots!).

Product development getting smaller and smaller....

In the last couple of months, the exodus of staff leaving the company is still in effect. This time round, many of those leaving are from none other that my own department.

First up was our End-Of-Line expert, Zool, who has left for a better offer.

Roughly a month later, much to everyone's disbelief, our dear boss, Suhairin, also left the company to follow her husband (now somewhere in Selangor). So now, (un)fortunately for me, I have to take over the behemoth task of running the department in her place, and keep my own projects running as well....

Other than that, our SAP Key User, Low CN, also moved to KL to seek fame and fortune (and hopefully a husband).

The situation was quite similar on the other side of the world. My long time counterpart, Pham Hien, and just recently, Min Chen, also has tendered their resignations. For the time being, hiring's frozen, so no chance to call in reinforcements. Well, now that the outflow has stopped (temporarily), life is now twice as challenging, as everyone is relatively new and inexperienced. Sigh, time to shift up another gear....