Oh Joy...

As if it wasnt enough to block of friendster, the IT dudes at the office have decided to give blogspot the wall treatment as well....

So yea...i guess its no more blogging during lunch time for me anymore..... Therefore, this would be the one of very few monthly posts that i will probably have to resort to from now on...

What better way to start an entry than to talk about ur car ! right? okay...so maybe not for everybody but well, im proud to say that i have finally fit in my 14" steel pancake rims in the rear.....and added about 1cm spacers on both sides.... SO now charlotte has a slightly wider wheelbase when u add it to the added width of the tyres..... from the original 175 to 185.....

the result? Slightly better road holding, more stable entering turns, and the tail does not slide out as easily as it used to..... much much better now....

okay okay...on to the more important things....

My baby..... she was supposed to go for an interview with air asia a couple of days back.... but she didnt, and her reasons really brought a tear to my eye and melted a big part of my heart..... i couldnt help but be touched, and realize that she loves me much more than she says she does..... and im glad, because i love her more than she knows as well :)

There's no other feeling...better than the feeling of being loved..... love you baby....

Works been getting real hectic, internet filters and firewalls aside...... Been getting quite a bit of tasks to complete and deadlines seem to be increasing... gotta wait for approval for things and that doesnt help much...its like, you want to finish a certain responsibility but cant, coz someone hasnt read it yet and hasnt approved it.... yea, you get the picture....

My confirmation will be next month......and its hard to believe ive been working for 6 months now.....

Whats even harder to believe but at the same time is nice to believe is the fact that christmas is a mere 3 to 4 weeks away.... and a week after that is the dawn of 2007.... Whoa..... Im gonna be shedding skin before i know it.....

Time is just flying by at a ridiculous pace.....

Couple of other stuff to update...

1. Ive finished need for speed carbon

2. Charlotte's fuel consumption has much improved after the clutch replacement.... 100km for about RM15..... as compared to RM20 previously......

3. I sprained my ankle on sunday....couldnt even depress a clutch on monday......got back to work on tuesday....should be fine by wednesday.....

4. Man United are still on top of the table....

5. My speeding summons finally came..... gonna be RM150 bucks poorer in december.....

Anyway.... Its about midnight now....and my eyes are beginning to play hide and seek with me..... my ankles slightly aching from that sprain i sustained on sunday night futsal... and mosquitos are having a nice feast under the computer table, my legs being the main course....

Guess its a sign for me to get some shut eye....

Seems like 5 minutes ago i was lazying in bed with my baby..... sigh.... further proof of how fast time is flying....

Dougie signing out....

Just another mamak stall session.... but with a touchscreen camera

Im gonna be doing this for real one day... Kevin...watch out....hehehehe....



And because it isnt enough to punch u normally, i'll hold a dildo and set my arm on fire!
Like so...

There were a couple of pics where i was wolverine and kev (getting punched) was spidey.... But here's introducing the 3 new superheroes

My baby jane by day, Catwoman by night!

Storm Char!!!

Chris Gambit....

All images were created using the Sony Cybershot touchscreen thingamajiggie...

Dougie signing out

Car News

Impreza RB320

Subaru is commemorating the anniversary of rally ace Richard Burns' death in the most apt fashion with a special edition Impreza, the RB320. As the name suggests, the RB320 comes with the Impreza WRX STi's performance pack to boost power to 316bhp and slash 0-100kmh to just 4.8 seconds. That makes it the quickest and most powerful Impreza ever, and a virtually guaranteed way to add some serious points to your licence. Unique 18" alloy wheels feature alongside Prodrive-developed suspension, lowered by 10mm at the rear and 30mm at the front. Other RB320-only parts include a revised rear anti-roll bar, chrome mesh front grille, front lip spoiler, quickshift gearchange, sill plates and gear knob.

Well, the impreza just got better. With its trademark boxer engine that produces the tremendous exhaust note with low rev rumbles and high rev roars, it remains among one of my favourite Japanese Supercars of today.

Brabus CLS V12 S

Tuning firm Brabus and the German local police have got together for a big group hug to inspire Germany's car tuning fans to be safe. Naturally, when you're trying to get across the 'Tune It Safe' message, the first thing you do is livery up a Brabus CLS V12 S Rocket in the colours of the local fuzz. With 730bhp from the twin-turbo 6.3-litre V12 motor, the CLS Rocket will hit 360kmh and 0-100kmh in four seconds, so no autobahn-abusing scumbags are going to get away from this jam sandwich. Getting to drive this as your company motor almost makes a career in the German police force sound attractive.

M3's, M5's are not gonna get very far from this beast

EVO IX

It's been a year since Mitsubishi first tickled our fancy with the concept X and hinted that it would form the basis of the next Lancer saloon. Also knows as the Evo. Well, finally, the tickling stops and the driving starts. The new Lancer looks very similar to the Concept-X, if we're to believe this drawing from Mitsubishi's own design board, which the firm says is bang on for accuracy. The car will be hitting the roads in the early part of 2007, and engines will include a 1.5-litre petrol with 108bhp and a 2.0-litre turbodiesel. Why anyone will be interested in these God only knows, because there's also a 2.0-litre turbocharged Evo with four-wheel drive and even more clever electronics to make it handle, go and thrill harder than its predecessors.


Well, I've experienced 1st hand what a stock Evo 7 can do thanks to Mr. Mark Yeo, and not to forget the capabilities of the Evo IX FQ-360, i cant wait to see what the latest edition to this long line of legends will be capable of.




Dougie signing out.

Car things

I think i've made it very clear of how much i love my car....eventhough its 15 years old and has a faded red paint job which looks pink now..... Heck, it even has a name.... It's been 3 months or so since i got the new engine in, and she's running well now but is still missing a couple of essentials, needs some repairs here and there, and could use some cosmetic upgrades.....

Repairs..... well, ive got this weird "kraaaaaaaahhh" sound when i reverse up a slight slope or reverse with a full turn.... apart from that, my turning radius is still unbalanced favouring the left more than the right....... well.... these are probably the only 2 repairs left before i can classify charlotte as fully functioning..... Oh yea, how can i forget the air conditioning, and a few rubber seals.... the windshield is leaking a bit now....

Essentials.... I'll need to get charlottes exhaust setup as soon as i can... for a couple of reasons....

1. To hide from the LAW..... exhaust noise does attract a bit of attention... but charlotte is rather quiet considering the sound made by bigger cc cars which have no exhaust pipe... meaning that the sound is coming straight out of the exhaust manifold.....

2. Im losing some backpressure = losing some low range torque..... so yea, performance wise, i need it...

3. Fuel consumption. Fyi, a well tuned exhaust setup does make a big difference in fuel consumption figures....

Other items on my list include...

A boost meter..... The example here is one from Defi.... OF course i'd love to be able to get this model but unfortunately, it costs too much.... Probably gonna budget around 250 bucks for a boost meter...nothing too fancy.

Im also gonna need a nice set of rims.... Although im making do with my steel rims at the moment...i wouldnt mind something nicer.... I personally like the Lenso Maglites i think their called.... they've got 4 spokes only, are really lightweight and have a nice gunmetal finish as an option.
I found a pic of this rim on the web.... Its called the Rota Slipstream which i find really nice as well.... sort of looks like a certain rim by Spoon Sports.....price im not sure, worse still is the fact that Rota rims are hard to come by in malaysia.....

This is another design i like.... But this one is from Lenso.... Momo makes a rim like this but more

realistically, ive seen a couple from BRM and JRD and also some other taiwan brands which would probably serve the same cosmetic purpose but lack the same quality and lightweight..... Sigh... Would love it if it came in a nice matte black finish....

Anyone willing to spare me some cash? hahaha.... While you're thinking, do think about giving my car a paint job as well.... White would be nice.... with Dodge Viper style Body stripes in black.... Thats after i get a decent body kit..... ahh.....

Anyway.... I'll just hope and pray until i get them..... heck, initially, i thought i'd never get the engine conversion but i did.... so i guess nothing is impossible.....

But sometime in the future...i think i'd settle for a nice Convertible Roadster.... Turbocharged Toyota MR-S or a Turbocharged Mazda Mx-5 perhaps?

Dougie signing out...

Of gigs and clutchplates

Its been a good weekend, simply put. Im also very fortunate that its the same case with every other weekend...most of them at least..... just the odd not-so-nice weekend here and there but i never fail to enjoy time away from work.... :)

Aaanyway..

I managed to get my clutch replaced....FINALLY..... after about 2 months of having to drive around constantly adjusting the throttle when the clutch slips, i finally managed to get the whole clutch system replaced.... Initially i'd only intended to get the clutch plate, but after examining the cover itself, the disc part itself had heat marks and was wearing out..... SO i got the clutch plate, clutch cover, and replaced the bearing.....all for less than RM250 ... add another about RM150 to that and it sums up the total i paid for the whole replacement.....

The results? ....... priceless......
The new clutch has tremendously improved charlottes corner tackling abilities as well.... There was a lot of what seemed to be oversteer previously, which was in fact caused by the loss of traction between clutch and flywheel, and then a sudden gain of traction during corners...so there was a lot of sudden turn ins during long corners..... I also managed to balance out the braking... gave the discs a little cleaning at the workshop..... so now theres no more left swerves when i brake hard...... saved myself about 30 bucks to pay for servicing the brake pistons....
Now i cant seem to drive slow anymore.... good stuff......

The weekend was made a bit mroe interesting... Kevin had a casting session to go for of which my baby and i accompanied him. The sessions was at good ol Vic's company.... The next thing i know, my baby and i are taking pictures and having to act out short scenes for this ad. Hahahaha... well, she's been wanting to experience casting before and also she wanted to put her profile in a casting agency...so i guess it was good for her :) ..... and if for some reason we get chosen to do the ad then hell, its an income....hahahah.....

I did mention previously about an up and coming gig which was supposed to be on sunday....well, i have to say we played a good half an hour set although there werent many people who turned up and it was a rather dull atmosphere coz the event had been going on for the past 2 days already. Worse still was the hot and humid weather throughout the day which my baby had to endure whiles we were there.... sorry bb....
Highlight of the afternoon? My sister' first solo performance with me and falique backing her vocals up... She sang my immortal and im proud to say that i think she did a great job.....

I got home, feeling really tired and managed to get some exercise that night.. which im having regrets of doing...coz i feel really exhausted now, im aching all over and i wanna sleep.....

Oh yea, my grandmum's back from her operation and its good to have her home again..... she cant move much but she looks fine.... its a relief to know that shes in the comfort of her own home rather than in a hospital bed...... btw, the Assunta hospital is really high tech, theyve got flat screen TV's in the rooms, state of the art foot massagers, autopay carpark machines ala shopping mall carparks ....crazy.... but apparently the TV channels are crap.... haha...

Oh yes...and how can i forget the official meetup of my car club.... Team sublime... There was a reasonable turnout and was a good overall session...went from Projet Hulu Klang to Mcdonalds in Ampang..... got a short scare when a JPJ officers Waja drove by the petrol station....apart from that, it was great to see the guys again...

Considering the amount of things that happened throughout the weekend, i jsut noticed that i'd spent WAAAY more than i budgeted on transport expenditure a.k.a Petrol a.k.a fuel..... in 2 days i travelled about 400 km.... which set me back about RM70 something.... sigh..... gotta watch the spending from now on..... hopefully i can get my exhaust setup done to give me some better fuel consumption rates.

Its 11:30 now at work...and im feeling hungry.... it was more on the contrary this morning as i had a killer stomache ache whiles driving to work which was probably caused by the zinger burger i had for dinner last night....did i mention i love cheesy wedges with extra cheese?...thank god i had the clutch done so i managed to get to work quite fast before the "gates of hell" decided to open and give way.... hahahaha....

Guess im gonna wrap this up now.... got quite a bit of work to finish up....

Dougie signing out....

Choices

I find myself in a familiar spot.... the exact same spot i was in about a month back .... Im here again and now i really got to make a choice between getting my clutch plate done or my air cond done...

Here's the deal....

Air cond: Got it fixed a month ago but the whole modified setup isnt too good.... piping work isnt neat.... Mr.Tan has offered to redo everything as he is quite experienced in air cond setups and he has access to some good recond compressors.... All for about RM500

Clutch: Its slipping as bad as ever now and my mum has actually given me some money to fix it up. If i dont replace it, the friction between clutch and flywheel can generate enough heat to screw up the oil seals.... All for est. RM400

The problems : Without my air cond, it gets real hot in the afternoon...and when it rains, the cabin gets a bit humid and the windows fog up, restricting my view of the road..... basically, its the comfort factor.... Without the new clutch, i risk having the car breakdown in the middle of nowhere if the clutch plate decides to give way or the seals decide to screw up.....

At the moment.... my fickle mind is leaning 70% towards the clutch plate....

Decisions decisions.....

breaking the norm...

I find myself here in the office...it seems an eternity since i last took some time to blog. 2 weeks to be almost exact.

I mentioned previously in my blog that the computers in the office had been firewalled and prohibited from entering certain websites. Friendster being one of them. As if that wasnt bad enough, the internet connection in my house decided to screw up for a good 2 weeks. Thus, i've been deprived of blogging or even viewing friendster.

My baby gave me the idea of just starting one in blogspot and Voila! So i have done as you can see.... Right now im not too familiar with the interface here but by the looks of things, its not rocket science..... and i have to say it does seem easier than the one in friendster.
I've seen a couple of nice background templates etc on other blogspot accounts and i must say i think i'd give that a shot one day..... one day...... I just got to hope and pray that the IT peeps at my office dont decide to give blogspot the wall treatment as well.... sigh....

Aaaannyway...

2 weeks....wow....the days have really whizzed by..... so much has happened in that time and as much as i would have loved to, i wasnt able to put the weeks events down in words.... I dont think i'd even want to start on whats been happening as i think it would take up all my working hours!..... yes....im pretty sure it would....

Fast forward then to today..... i've got a couple of highlights coming up this weekend.... My band was invited to play for a event held by the 4x4 organization of malaysia at the Shah Alam stadium..... That would officially be the biggest venue that the band and i have played in.... Bearing in mind that Shannon has his exams, travels a lot and is not free most of the time, we sort of got our ex-2nd guitarist back to play for us..... Jo....

Jo played with us in 2004 when we qualified for the finals of the Taylors battle of the bands.... he was an alright guitarist then, but i must say he's improved tremendously.... he learns fast as well which is of course a good thing..... We had a short jam session last night but without our bassist and well, it sounded good to me.....

We'll be playing the gig on Sunday and we've got about 30 minutes for our set ...so about 7 or 8 songs should be sufficient to fill that time up... fingers crossed....

Chasing cars by Snow Patrol makes me emo......

Quite a lot of other stuff has happened.... my cousin chris is down for good, couldnt take the heat in the land down under...... Wynton is back as well, but will be leaving soon although his procrastination of his departure date continues till today...hahahaha..... but its good to hear he's planning to start a diploma course in music here in KL sometime next year...... Kyle's dad got him a Volvo 740 which i personally think, suits him rather adequately........ My baby and i? well, nothing interesting but everythings been great recently.... only thing that was out of the ordinary was when we won some stuff from the Mix fm Escape cruiser things 2 nights ago when they dropped by in OUG..... most of which were of not much use to us but they were worth quite a bit.... I got 4 Mall Grandstand tickets to watch the A1 Grand Prix in Sepang which unfortunately, i dont intend to make use of. Im that big of an A1 Grand Prix fan... but All the best to Alex Yoong who is in fact doing not too bad a job representing malaysia....

As with my previous blog, ill go on about charlotte.... The car which i really Love and Hate at the same time.....

I was scheduled to get my clutch replaced by the end of this month....as everything else was going as planned..... but NO.... true to the Nature of the Gods of Automobile Modifying, something HAS to go wrong.... and this time its my air conditioning system again.... The compressor decided to leak and well, the whole setup of the compressor isnt that good.... I got Mr.Tan to check it out and well, he mentioned that he'll be able to do it right and make it work.....

bye bye clutch plate....

SO yea...the money i set aside for the clutch plate is going to the air conditioning.....
I had to put my 7 second dashes to the century mark on hold even longer now...maybe next month....if finances permit...id be able to get it done......
But then again, christmas is coming! enough said...
Fortunately though, my mum has offered to send me some US benjamins to help me out with the clutch....
Thanks mum!

Speaking of which....things with the family have been going through some rough patches for the past week.... but things are better now..... only thing bothering me is my grandma who is undergoing an operation to deal with a tumor issue that she's having...... It really takes its toll on the emotions when all i can do is wait, hope and pray that she'll pull through without any complications.

Well...apart from that...life's been pretty much same old same old.... It really feels like such a relief that i've finally been able to blog.... ive come to realize that what i enjoy most about blogging is not really Who reads what i write, but more so because i can in one way or another, express myself in words...... It's like, letting it all out..... Like a nice fart that you've been holding in, and you finally get to release the stale gas into the atmosphere..... (okok..im getting a bit too detailed)

Oh yea....The car club....we've hit 53 members in less than a month! not a bad achievement.... and we're planning our first meetup this friday..... as much as i'd like to expect 50 people to turn up, it really seems impossible..... we'd be lucky to have even have 20 people show up.....

click here ...http://teamsublime.forumer.com.. in case you were wondering wht the site was....

SO i think this wraps up my return in this very unfamiliar blog space.....now i got to decide whether to continue from here or continue in friendster once the internet at home is up and running.....

By the way, for all racing fans and more specifically fans of Need For Speed..... Get urself a copy of Need For Speed Carbon..... Its worth a play.... and it really brings the customization options to a whole new level..... You can adjust almost every part of a body kit.....from bumpers to spoilers to diffusers to Rims...YES RIMS...... Deep Dish rims with 5 spokes and Super wide Tyres GALORE!!!! If only it was available to me in real life......

I cant say much for the gameplay, but the in game music really does make the racing action really "chi kek" ahahaha..... edge of ur seat kind of stuff.....

APart from that, i really have to conclude that Need For Speed Underground 2 is still better as an overall package......

And also, i finally found myself the REAL English version of Pro Evolution Soccer 6...... with english commentary.....

So i guess that wraps up my return to blogging..... till next post....

Dougie signing out....