22 June 2008

Heh.. bukan la tarikh keramat ke apa ke.. Just thought of using it as a title to this blog. I went to RMC that day, for the annual OP-PP games. For those who have not known an Old Putera before, OP is what we former students of RMC are known as. While in RMC, it's Putera and once graduated, Old Putera. The OP-PP games are held annually and at the alma mater. On some occasions, we would have airshows and some other times, there'd be celebrities but normally, it'll just be merry OPs with their families, batchmates and some would be daring enough to bring their future housemates.

Don't get me wrong. It's alright to have girls over there, even if it's an all-boys 'school'. The College administration has never restricted access to the gentler species so long as they don't end up in the boys' dorms. It's just that OPs, being OPs are more keen on catching up with each other and reminisce the good times that they tend (more often than not) to not remember that they're with someone else. On that Sunday, I observed a group of young OPs having a good chat while a girl walks on her own, occasionally stealing a look at that group. When the YOPs relocated to a gazebo, the girl followed, only to stop short because there weren't enough seats. The last I saw, the girl was walking along the pavement bordering the slope that leads to the golf course. And a boy was walking briskly towards her.

A mother of 5 who married an OP remarked, "I dah give up dah dengan all these OP events. When these people meet, it's as if they're by themselves, kita wives ni kena make ourselves comfortable,"

Heh.. :)

Anyhow, going there, I took the opportunity to snap some pictures with my darling P750 (yes, it's a phone :D) and the Z610i. Somehow in the excitement of having lunch, I forgot to take pictures of the scenery. Kalau jadi bookie, siap boleh teropong tengok kuda mana yang menang minggu tu.

We left early that day. I sprained my back from basketball and my brother had something else to do. It'd normally be a dawn-to-dusk event but with other commitments and to aid my back, we left at 4. The OP won basketball and takraw and most probably some other games as well. You'd have to be one to know.

Pictures!

Okay.. Lets start with this one. In RMC, we do not have houses. We have companies. A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 75-200 soldiers. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure. Several companies are grouped to form a battalion or regiment, the latter of which is sometimes formed by several battalions. (source: Wikipedia)

I was from Echo Company. The company flag used to be just coloured cloth with the company letter at the top but they have now included the crest on the flag. There are eight companies in RMC, letters from A to H although I have a friend who insists that he's the supreme leader of I Company..

These guns were salvaged from a navy vessel and placed in front of Pintu Munip. On the other side of Pintu Munip is Pintu Osman (taken from General Tunku Osman)

The building was formerly occupied by army cadets and faces the parade square and administrative office. Since the cadets returned to PD, the building, parade square and administrative offices are now under the jurisdiction of RMC.






















This is the Dewan Tun Templar. Our RSM/DSM fondly calls it Dewan DTT, like double dewans. It was where I took my SPM exams and here's also where the co-op is. The actual name for the co-op escapes my memory for now. The co-op is better known as TKR or Tabung Kebajikan Rejimen. This co-op is run and managed by the non-commissioned officers' cooperative where proceeds go to their funds for future use. That black car, I lyyyyyke :D

The pyramid outside Dewan DTT. The camera missed the number "50" above the globe to signify 50 years of RMC.








































































This picture is taken with (not in frame) the Dewan Tun Templar on my right and the administrative building on my left. In this frame is the (formerly) computer lab and makmal kimia building (top of the hill, fore), science labs and form 4 & 5 classes (top of the hill, back) and the library and IT Lab (left of the roundabout).

This is also a new addition. The roundabout used to be barren with only grass. Unknown to many, at the base of this roundabout is a time capsule planted by Tun Ling Liong Sik in 2007. The capsule is due to be unearthed in 50 years time @ 2057.

- to be continued. Kerja banyak sangat kat opis.. haha..

"HOME OF FUTURE LEADERS"

Random - The Night That Never Would've Ended

The three

.. if not because the shop had to close..

It was a random meet that was originally planned to happen the week before but being Dawud and his commitments, it happened that night. It was a good thing too because with that, Ahmed was able to join us while on his Malaysian tour. Ahmed you see, is a Somali who was conceived, raised and is now living in the UAE. I met and knew Ahmed while we were both studying engineering at IIU and extended the friendship when I happened to see him at the City Center while I was having lunch with my father at China Times, Deira City Center.

If you happen to arrive in Dubai and had the time to visit the City Center, do visit China Times. Nice food, generous portion and lets just say I like to look at a certain server there.

Back to the story, after work that day, I returned to Plaza Berjaya to visit Ahmed and meet Akram at Times Square's Chicken Rice Shop. Duduk borak kat situ pastu lepas Akram sudah makan, went to Starbucks down there where we met Akram's friend whom Ahmed wanted to have business deals with.

Long story short, everything ended and we were just sitting at the tables when Dawud called asking of my whereabouts. That was at 10pm. Told him where I was and he asked us both to meet him at Rawsha. Orhan would be there too. Orhan is an Albanian living in Macedonia. Father of one boy. Dawud has three, two boys and a girl.

Like I've said before, I'm very much a sucker for Arabic food. It's just a wonder why I'm not as crazy over their girls, haha.. So had some small supper and talked. Most of what we talked about cannot be republished here for content censorship but suffice to say that we had so much to talk about that the waiter had to approach our table to tell us they're closing..

I was up late on all nights that Ahmed was here and I guess the late night-normal day combo gave my body lesser time to rest and recuperate. That's 5 days and 4 nights. I had diarrhoea from Sunday to Tuesday after he left.. Wonder if it's related.

So here are the shots taken that night, with everyone but me in the picture. Go ask Orhan why he has those poses. Pictures taken 14/06/08. It's the P750, pictures don't look too good with it. A real camera would've done justice.

Mana nak beli minyak?!

Selamat pagi/petang/malam.. :)

I have been buying Petronas since before the RM1 coin was banned. I think that's quite some time ago, at least over 5 years. Petronas and ONLY Petronas. I am blessed because the location where I stay has plenty of Petronas stations within a 5km radius. Along the Middle Ring Road II, there are at least 10, on the left and right side of the road, not to mention the ones on Jalan Ampang, AU5, Jalan Jelatek and in Keramat.

There were times when I traveled outside my area and in need of petrol, I just passed by Esso, Mobil, BP, Caltex just so that I can get to a Petronas station. To an extent, if I need to buy water or chocolates or a short stop to the Gents, it is that familiar green sign that I look for. Countless times was I asked by friends on why I do this. My answer is simple.

It is Malaysian.

It really is THAT simple. Why would you have to go to extremes to hate something Malaysian? Hey, you're in THIS country for goodness sakes. If you hate the country so much, GO AWAY! GO OUT! and GO CHANGE YOUR NATIONALITY. It is not the fault of Malaysia that the country has turned so bad these last few years, it's simply the fault of the elected and nominated members of parliament. If you're so angry about those people, why were you so stupid to vote for them in the first place?

If it's not the country that you're hating rather the ministers and master of puppets that irks you, do the right thing, make the change.

Bodoh.

Marahkan kelambu, Petronas diboikot.

Apa, ingat kalau beli minyak kat Shell, kita dapat benefit? Kalau beli kat BHP, kita dapat rebat? Kalau beli kat Caltex kita dapat apa-apa lebih? Apa? APA yang kita dapat kalau kita dok sokong stesen minyak orang lain?

I think it's very lame to even start to imagine what effect we could come to when boycotting that petroleum company. Hah, sungguh nak boikot? Cuba satu mingguPetronas tak hantar minyak kat mana-mana stesen minyak kat Malaysia, siapa yang sakit? SIAPA?? Hari tu masa harga minyak nak naik pun dah ramai mengamuk sebab stesen minyak tutup bila minyak habis, inikan pulak hari-hari biasa.

Cuba la jadi orang sikit, cuba la fikir. Semua syarikat minyak ni bayar cukai, semua syarikat minyak ni ada tanggungan. Semua syarikat minyak ni ada CSR programs and as such, all companies have social obligations to fulfill. But of all petroleum companies operating in Malaysia at the moment, do you think that SHELL or ESSO or MOBIL or BHP has a bigger obligation to fulfill or is it Petronas? IF for instance your boycott is successful and Petronas makes a loss (HUH??) and needs to trim down its expenses, do you think the company would reduce exploration or stop the CSR program?

KALAU CSR program diberhentikan, siapa pulak yang akan rugi? I don't think the Dutch or American or whatever other nations would lose anything rather, it's our people, the younger generation, those who are currently getting support and help from Petronas that would suffer more.

Yeah, you would argue about stopping F1 and whatever else. Sudahlah. Kalau nak argue sampai ke lubang cacing pun boleh. Nak cari salah itu, salah ini, lemah itu-ini, I'm not a pro. Plus I don't have much facts to talk about so save your breath and saliva and save your energy. My point is simple, I support Petronas simply because it's a Malaysian company.

Still, notwithstanding, I have also marked out a few Petronas stations in my area for disservice. Like I said earlier, my support was there when the RM1 coin was still in use. 3 or 4 days before the coin was recalled from being a legal tender, I took my collection of 69 pcs to refuel my then Tiara. I went from station to station (Jalan Ampang, Keramat, Wangsa Melawati on both sides, Gombak, KL-Karak, near Sri Inai and tried one Shell at the foot of Bukit Antarabangsa) and no one wanted to accept the coins. Then I went to Razura Enterprise, beneath the AKLEH and they took in RM35. After that, stopped at AU5, they took the remaining.

My brother always say that I'm a ".. sucker for good service," and I agree :D

Pictures part deux

I still cannot figure out how people can take such nice shots using their phone's cameras. I will always just manage to shake a bit when the shutter blinks and the colours would always run off a bit. It looks rather alright on the tiny screens but when exploded, the blur becomes obvious.

Anyways, decided to play cameraman again today and this time, it was done on purpose. The first is a close-up of the table and the second, the table in a bigger view. Well, just about 30cms away from where the first picture was taken. The colour turned out bad. Have to make lots of adjustments to get the best outcome.

Adian Fahim was taken with Z610i (2MP) and this one with a P750 (3MP). There's no prize to give away nor is there a spot-the-difference competition :D Enough with words, here are the pictures..





Oh, just for fun's sakes, spot 10 office equipment from the second picture. Remember, equipment, not furniture.. :)

Erm, am I wrong to say that elves see things in a 'bigger picture'? :D No, no.. compliment. It is! :)

Someone looks interested..

With nothing else to do but wait by the roadside in Kampung Baru, I snapped two slobbericious pictures of Adian Fahim (I don't know the spelling! AH!!)



It's difficult not to take a closer snap of him.. And when I did, he got even closer.. He found something interesting.. Hmm..


Aah so, this is that thing that captured his eye.. There's a chance he'll grow up to LOVE gadgets :D


The picture above was taken by accident. If it had been clearer, I would say it looked quite good. Gambar yang 'macam spontan' which is in actual fact, spontan pun.

The Video Clip

Malaysian Artistes for Unity

Hybrid Cars and Alternative Fuels

I have been fascinated with hybrid cars ever since I first read of it in Readers' Digest in the early 2000s. I find it a very practical vehicle for it is able to run 600km with a mere fuel consumption of 30L. That's 3x more than what I have to pay for fuel back then, when it costs RM1.something (I think it was RM1.52). Five or so years down the road, Malaysia has yet to make any breakthroughs in encouraging the use of hybrid vehicles. The one and only hybrid car I saw was a Honda City sometime this year. A sea blue-ish cute car with a 'hybrid' badge at the back.

From the looks of it, what the government is concerned about is to explode their income rather than to safeguard the wellbeing of the nation and its people. Sharir Samad could have also come up with the idea of reducing import taxes for hybrid cars or providing a 2-year road tax for all hybrid car users for free. Nevermind that that particular vehicle costs RM50,000 more than its sister with the more primitive engine. At an increase of RM0.78, that RM50,000 can be recuperated within.. 64K liters. But that's not all.

Since a hybrid engine consumes less petrol than ordinary cars, that would make the owners and drivers to be less worried about travelling. If Mr. Wang travels 25k kilometers in a year or 68.5km a day (many people travel more than that), at a petrol consumption rate of 1L for every 10km, he would've consumed 2500L for that particular year.

This site says that you can get a fuel efficiency of 4.66L per 100km, a savings of 5.34L. So now, to travel 25000km a year, Mr. Wang would only require 1165L of petrol. That's a savings of 1335L and when translated into RM, it becomes RM3604.50. Per year, for a fixed distance of 25000km.

Uih.. lama jugak nak tunggu 13 tahun baru dapat recover, if we consider comparison between fuels alone but don't forget, there's also the factor of car maintenance where a hybrid can last 3x longer without maintenance as compared to an ordinary car. A Civic Hybrid (mentioned in the previous link) needs to be maintained once every 15000km. Mr. Wang spends approximately RM250 per maintenance every 5000km and services his car promptly, in a year, he would've spent RM1250. A hybrid however, (now here's just a speculation, since Honda says that hybrids are maintained just like any other ordinary car), would cost RM500 to maintain, every 30000km, a savings of RM750.

Pile up this savings and that of the petrol, we get a savings of RM4354.50/year.
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This is what happens when you on plan in your head but not on paper..

Anyways, my point is simple. If the government thinks of taking care of its citizens, they would have lots of other perspectives to look at and make headways based on those perspectives. Malaysia could even one day manage distributorship of hybrid cars in SEA, if it is done right. What I can see for now is that the country's managers are trying to siphon some of their 'gifts' to us the citizens.

Kalau dalam BM, ni kira buruk siku la ni.. Tapi on a bigger scale.. Somewhat like peras ugut.

One thing's for sure, promoting hybrid cars will not have much impact on the lower income earners. It's too much to expect a hybrid Saga, I think, although a hybrid MyVi doesn't sound that bad. Or a hybrid Nautica.

BTW, my arguments above are purely personal in nature. From observations, calculations and experience. Don't see me in court! :D

I really really really wanna..

I so want to be positive about this new change. I really do. I want to believe that everything will be alright and that I'll manage it just as I have times before that I won't be affected much if I start living a plan and this is only a temporary pinch.

But who am I kidding? This is me, a pro-sulker and depress-o-matic and the 78sen fuel price hike is no good news, not for me nor for anyone in this country, less of course those idiots who will now have more money to swindle.

May you rot in hell and be restless in your grave. And may that be soon.

Ever since I heard the news, I cannot but be so frustrated that it had to happen this way. Although it's true that the international price of crude oil has risen to over 130USD per barrel, we are, for goodness sakes, a net exporter of petroleum. Which other net exporter of petroleum charges an arm, a leg and a nose hole for petrol? I just saw that Nigerians pay close to RM0.31/L and Qatar somewhere around RM0.68/L. OK la, lets look at the favourite spot, Dubai. UAE's petrol price is RM1.19, the 'highest' of all net exporters of oil.

But we Malaysians, we pay RM2.70. It's true that petrol is higher in Thailand and Singapore but how much oil do they have?

I've also come across at least 4 postings today from a webgroup making calculations on what it costs now to travel the same distance, even with that supposed RM625 rebate the government promised. The lowest I saw was 16% increase which prompted me to make my own calculations:

Say I fill a tank full (from just a bit above empty) at RM 65. That's the normal amount I had to pay with petrol price RM1.92. That gives me 33.8542L. My car has a 40L tank I think, and so I wud probably have another 7L as a safety buffer. With 33.8542L, I can drive to work for a week, with one night playing futsal in Segambut and without any other travels to any other place except home-work-home. In a month, I would need to refuel 4.3 times or equivalent to 145.5729L or RM279.5.

With the new price, my monthly expenditure comes to RM393.05, an increase of RM113.55. Tolak dengan (supposedly) rebate of RM625/12 = 52.08, ada la kenaikan RM64.17. Kalau ambik percentage, jadila 22.19%.

लम्बत लगी ला कोट अकू कविं कलौ गिनी.. समाना अकू नाक सुप्पोर्ट फमिली कलौ नाक सुप्पोर्ट दिरी सेंदिरी पुन तक मम्पू लगी? इन अ वे, इ वौल्ड रठेर रेमें सिंगल अस लॉन्ग अस इ दोन'टी कुस अन्योने एल्स टू सुफ्फेर अलोंग विथ मी. इफ शे'स नोट माय रेस्पोंसिबिलिटी, इ'म नोट अच्कोउन्ताब्ले टू हेर वेल्ल्बेंग. फोरगेट अबाउट हविंग निघत ऑउट्स, तकिंग लॉन्ग द्रिवेस और एवें फॉर अ माल इन अ फार आवे प्लेस.

I thought of driving to Melaka while on my way to work today. Why Melaka? Because it's far away enough but not too far. I can kind of make my way around that city but not around Teluk Intan or Ipoh. But yeah, harga minyak mahal sangat, takkan nak buat kerja tak masuk akal macam tu. So here I am, at the office, blogging my pain away..

Doesn't seem to work much.

On the brighter side, I've completed two tasks that were pending and that is reason enough to relax a bit.

Anyone have a run-to escape spot to share with me?