25 November - World Meatless Day

Yesterday, 25 Nov, was World Meatless Day & also 初一 (first day of the lunar month). Anyone going vegetarian, at least for one day?

People go vegetarian for a variety of reasons, some do it for religious reasons, others due to health. Some people are full time vegetarians (like my dear wife), while some observe it only on certain days (most common being the 1st and 15th of the lunar calendar).

Personally, the hardest thing about adhering to a vegetarian diet is the availability of non-meat food. Especially here in Melaka, Malaysia, where we are famous for an assortment of local dishes. Until even those from Singapore know of them....

Just drop by any restaurant, cafe or diner, and you'll be hard pressed to find a main dish that is vegan-friendly. Frequently, the vegetarian dish has to be a specially-prepared one, off the menu, and that might not fall within the chef's repertoire. Once, I attended a wedding dinner at an apparently famous restaurant in Nilai (I won't say which one, to avoid any potential for a defamation lawsuit), which has the worst vegetarian specially prepared table I have ever sat at. Needless to say, after the dinner, I went home and filled my stomach with some bread sandwiches, as I did not really eat anything there.

There are a quite number of vegetarian restaurants these days, usually paired with the term "organic" as well (to denote vegetables grown with natural fertilizers and no pesticides). However, these can sometimes be more expensive, so it is not "economically viable" to patronize these establishments daily. Amusing trend here is the appearance of "simulated meat" where chicken and fish and even prawns are made up, usually with tofu. For those of you who can't fully let go of the meat yet, this helps with the transition.... :)

Well, these days, there seems to be a slow acceptance of vegan diet spreading, so you can start to find some suitable stuff on the menu. My lunch friend, Loh CK, observes a vegetarian diet on some days - and on those days, we don't go to a vegetarian restaurant, but just plain old economy rice (just choose the veggies and stay clear from the meat). 

So, thanks to my wife, and the fact that I am at home on leave, I managed to keep yesterday a 100% vegan compliant day. Well, you know how these things are, just 1 day in a lifetime won't change anything, but with the increased awareness, perhaps there will be more days like this in my future....

Anyone else thinking to go partial or full-time vegetarian?

There's a good article on The Star Online which you can read up in your spare time : http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2011/11/23/health/9927049&sec=health

Farewell to Kam CL

11th November 2011 is a good day for some. 11.11.11. For my old friend, Kam CL, that would be his last working day in our company.

Towards the end of the year, things are picking up the pace down in the office, so I only discovered on Thursday, 10 Nov, that the following day would be Kam's last day at work.

Kam was from Production, so our dealing in the past were always centered either on borrowing resources for our R&D activities or in phase-in to mass production. Finding the spare machine time and people to run our stuff, while still meeting the production weekly cut-off is a fine art in resources balancing indeed.

Kam leaves for a better offer, I hear. Which should be really good news for me, every time anyone leaves, a new doorway of opportunity awaits. Still somewhere in Melaka though, so I look forward to meeting up with him again (as well as his wife, Florence, also formerly from this company).

Well, as the end of the year approaches, invariably there will be more departures, so goes the annual migration trend! As for my old friend, best of luck in your new job, and may we meet again soon!

CEL (Check Engine Light) on my Honda CIvic FD2 [FIXED]

It was the end of another long day at work. It had been raining heavily almost every evening for the past couple of days now. Fortunately, the roads that I travelled were relatively free from puddles that made driving dangerous by causing hydroplaning (at high speeds) and masking potholes (like my recent disaster at Penang). Speaking of disasters, the latest one to knock at my door came about as I turned my ignition key that evening.

The check engine light came on, along with the VSA and one more indicator. I shut off the engine and restarted a few moments later. The other lights were gone but the check engine light remained. The K20Z2 under the hood purred softly and smoothly as normal, idling at the usual 600-700 RPM with no sign of engine trouble. The exhaust hummed normally as well, with no sign of smoke or sputtering. Driving off slowly, there was really no sign of abnormality, other than the glaring orange triangle of the CEL indicator in the dashboard display. To be safe, I made sure the revs did not rise above 3 kRPM, which was not that easy, given my FD2 could easily rev to redline, especially in the lower gears.

I made it home without any drama. The next morning, the CEL was still on, thus I decided to drop over to my Honda Service Center of choice, GS Tay Auto Muar, to check it out. Don't want to wait until the REAL cause of the CEL shows itself....

There was still no sign of any mechanical trouble as I took a slow drive to Muar, some 45 minutes away from home. Upon my arrival, the friendly staff greeted me as I calmly and clearly explained my predicament.

They started to check out my car, as I sat in the waiting lounge, typing the first part of this post (up to this point, actually).... :)

Fast forward a couple of hours. They finished checking my car. Unfortunately, they couldn't figure out what was the actual root cause. All they could do was reset the ECU (which turned off all the warning lights). Sigh. I guess I would have to wait and see if those warning lights come on again.

I didn't have to wait that long. The next morning, the family CEL and other warning lights lit up again. I shut off the engine and popped the hood. I scrutinized my engine bay, not really sure what to look out for, but the Engineer inside got the better of me....

Out of sheer luck, I noticed that the metal ring that sealed the air intake hose after the MAP (or was it MAF) sensor was loose. This was the hose where the other end was connected to the throttle body. I was skeptical that such a trivial "screw loose" case could be the actual cause for this. Anyway, no harm in fixing this, so I tightened the ring and started up my engine once again.

I was half-expecting to see the warning lights once again, but they never came on. I repeatedly switched off my engine and restarted several times - still no more abnormality. That was it - I solved the problem! [UPDATE 26 Nov 2011 - still no recurrence up to now, so I guess this was the actual root cause]

Somehow or rather, the poor seal caused by the loosened air hose must have let in additional air than the sensor could detect (since the loosened coupling was after the sensor). That must have confused the system, and thus generated the slew of warning lights. I have no idea how the VSA and "!" systems are affected, but for whatever reason, they are now gone as well.