Petrol price increasing, tricks to save petrol

The news of no rise in petrol price in Malaysia until September 2008 is comforting indeed, especially for those driving 2.0litres and above, but one must not wait until desperate time to try desperate measures. I have experiment with a few techniques of petrol saving and below are 8 general advise that actually works on me.

Before that there are some terms we must know...

Efficient speed: The most efficient and cost saving speed your car should be. Naturally its 2000 to 2500 rpm for each car, at the last gear (so its around 80km/h for my 1.6 Deto)

Synthetic oil - Usually oil in the region of 0W/40 to 5W/40
Semi-synthetic oil - Usually oil in the region of 5W/30 to 15W/30
Mineral oil - Usually oil in the region of 20W/50 and above


1) Always estimate the traffic in front, look 4 or 5 cars in front and simultaneously monitor their brake light, relative speed and intention. This will make you know whether you should accelerate 10%? 20% or 50% to prevent un-necessary braking and maintain in your efficient speed.

2) If possible, use semi synthetic or fully synthetic oil on your engine. Coz these oil is less viscous, therefore less restriction on your engine, so if your engine can rev easier, the work to make your car move also will be lesser. Of course there are problems if you use these type of engine oil, example if your engine is old, or all the while has been using mineral oil... for those who buy new car / engine should remember this.

3) Make sure the tyre is inflated at the optimum pressure. Different tyre use different pressure, my Advan Neova pump at 33 coz its hard wall soft compound, my sister's Falken Ziex pump at 31 coz its soft wall hard compound. The optimum pressure will ensure minimum rolling resistance and prevent tyre damage (like wear faster on one side...etc). Check your tyre once every 2 week.

4) Air cond is for sissy. Try not to use air cond if possible, coz it will pull the compressor whenever you initiate it, and that's around 1 horsepower itself! Only use air cond if there is alot of ppl in your car, if the mirror begin to fog, if its hot, if its raining, if you like some cold air... other than that, don't use. This is where sunroof comes in handy... Of course the best is to remove the air cond belt, but that's for the extremist...

5) Service your car all the time, and when I say service, it doesn't mean changing engine oil and oil filter... clean your throttle body once every 2 year, make sure O2 sensor good condition, change transmission oil every 4 years, crap like that

6) Always find the shortest route to your destination... This might sound simplistic and straight forward but actually it isin't... The terms shortest route is refering to the LEAST jam route also. So imagine the highway is 3 lane and the left most lane is the least jam, go there! Then further down the road if the right most lane is the least jam, go there! You might ended up look like a prick but ultimately you save petrol, and that's all that matters

7) Never drive with emotion. Means no racing, no dragging, no zip zapping in a busy street, always keep a cool mind and this will ultimately prevent regretful moment. One of the reason 2007 F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen was nick named ice cool driver because he showed no emotion, and that helped him in minimizing mistakes, same goes to 500cc motorsport champion Valentino Rossi. One must be cool when it comes to driving because alot of things can happen at one time, and you need as much brain processing power to analyze what's happening

8) Step the accelerator slowly & accordingly. Again sounds like a pointless and simple advise, but actually it isn't. Each car has an optimum accelerate curve, one needs to find and familiarize with the accelerating speed. Usually its 20% throttle. Notice that sometimes when you're in 5th gear and if you step 60% or 30% its the same? Your car is just accelerating at a relatively same speed? This is due to the characteristic output of the engine, for commercial car, the engine was not designed for power, therefore if someone step more on the accelerator, it doesn't mean the engine will be able to produce the same power expectedly. The additional acceleration will only mean more fuel will be burnt un-necessarily while output the same result.

That is about the few main thing about saving petrol that I employ. It might not sound great but its a layman's point of view in the complicated world of automobile.

Sky is clearing up...

April was a bad month for me, besides from the relationship breakdown for me, I am also faced with the possibility that my youngest sister might fail her exam (again) and force us to waste more un-necessary expenses while not doing anything productive. There is also the fact that everyday I come back to my home and see its deplorable state with insect carcass everywhere, my life can't get anymore depressing than this...

However the time of low and down is over, now the moment of rejuvenation has come. Hahaha. After being recharged with my great holiday trip down in KL, I have found the reason of my existence again (probably not that serious but more or less so). Each people can be satisfied mentally, materially, physically, whatever... and I have found my share already.

The month of May marks the 1st time in my life that I was able to save money, even with the expenditure of the trip (after working for 5 years, there is NO single cents of saving and this has been a very sad thing indeed), so this itself is an achievement, coupled with the fact that my sister had passed all her diploma paper and may currently work towards her advance diploma, things is starting to pick up improvement.

Total expenditure of the household was analyzed and started to pave forward for a sustainable lifestyle, can't believe it took me so long to get it done... Done as it may, but its not fixed, I think the next few years of my life will evolve around money and investment, better start read up those books I bought...

Last saturday me and my sister were able to clean up the house and re-arrange some of the furniture, now it looks perfectly clean... And did a small celebration for my youngest sister on her passing in exam! We did it on TAO Japanese buffet, although the bill is not cheap and not everyone really sapu the food, everyone is happy and that's all that matters. One may be poor financially but might not so in happiness. And this week I am happy. Hahahah.

So bring it on babeh, I know you tried to bring me down but I will not succumb so easily :P

The heck with the heat these days

Documentaries always say nature has its way of reset the world, back in the days of the dinosaur, where future human were probably ape or some smart 4 legged smeagol, earth experienced a big change where all mammals above 50 tons were wiped out and gave way to the start of Darwin's theory.

There were once the big changes on the earth geographical location, where USA was connected to Europe in terms of land soil, but these changes were millions of years apart, and to wait for the next ice age, maybe human no longer on earth (either migrated to Mars or invented warp travel or something)....

So to fix things out in this generation or near future, I thought of a great proposal just for mother earth herself.

Assuming the relative position of Earth in space is frictionless, people could just detonate a 5.97 x 10²⁴ Joule of bomb at a designated part of the world, we could move our lovely planet by 1 meter, and thus go further away from the sun. Reference here
That would basically mean 216331 Megaton of bomb is required based on the energy conversion HERE. And typically 10817 fat boy WWII nuclear bomb (the one struck Nagasaki) is required, so it is actually do-able. If all the countries in the world do a mass disarm of nuclear weapon and stockpile it in a shit place on earth, Bangladesh? Then it will probably do everyone a lot of favor by:

• Population control
• Nuclear disarmament
• Proper nuclear disposal (while we're at it, we can dump all those toxic and heavy metal for 1 time deal waste cleanup)
  
• Open up a zone for repopulation and growth (after some time the dust settle)
  
• Fix any global warming problem
• Fix any ice lake melting issue
  

Then we will solve any global warming or any undesired effects on earth, while continue our lifestyle using fossil fuel. I feel like filing "Object moving theory" in UN and hopefully can get my first nobel prize.


*Of course there might be a problem of over correction and our earth plummet into an Ice age, but we can always detonate a few thousands megaton again in distant future, and of course kill and condemn the calculation engineer who made the mistake.

Point of diminish in power plant reached?

Remember back in the 90s where the game SimCity was a hit? Nearly every friend I knew played or heard this game. From there the objective of the game is to flourish your kampung into a pekan, then into bandar and then city or metropolitan. Simple as that. However to achieve that, one need to roll out the proper street, designate the proper zone and the main thing is to build the right power plant for your people. That was how I perceive power plant technology in my early days of life, and had been following that concept ever since.

There was always

• coal, the dirtiest SOB piece of crap in the game where it automatically brings your pollution to level 3, followed by
  
• natural gas (environment ok but expensive),
  
• hydro (great if you have a Niagara fall near your city),
• solar (high maintenance),
  
• wind turbines (need alot and low output kW),
  
• Nuclear (risk radiation, high output kW),
  
• Microwave and
  
• Fusion power plant

Currently I would say we're around the Nuclear region as the developed country had them and there are no 'more advanced' power plant around that I knew of.

However, latest news from US shows they are back to explore clean coal, Europe is also into coal, and of course Russia also likes coal now as there is no demand on their nuclear waste (e.g. Plutonium). So technically we're going back to coal, and this made the PC game Simcity, the board game Power Grid, and even many sci-fi movie obsolete.

Well that's a start, as gas and oil is reaching a record high price (USD118 per barrel as of now), all fossil power plant project had been switched to the coal, rather than oil or gas. So basically environment will get screwed anyway. I don't know the footprint involved but I can bet for every 10 person who strictly adhere to greenpeace advise, just 1 person who is poor and drive a 1985 Toyota Crown diesel will just offset the pollution made. Imagine what 5 coal plant will do.

I am not a green person, just wondering why the fuss on the Earth day, global warming and greenpeace are all about. The effort is being screwed by politician and government in just a few implementation, and someone need to fix the concept of technology on power plant.

TiBuN - 1 Kitten - 0

My working place got a bitch cat, who pops out a couple of kitten few months back, now the kittens are quite grown up, but not as grown as you'd think coz I saw them sucking their mum's nipple still...
Anyway yesterday saw that there was this cat sleeping on top of my sunroof, my evil conscious manage to convince me to remove that blissful creature from my car and that's what I did, I shoo the cat out from the top of my car. It did take quite a few attempt as the creature was apparently not used to human threat.

So was back to the canteen in a jiffy and continued my terrific company dinner. 15 minutes later, I had packed my stuff and begin to drive my car out towards the guard house, halfway there, there was a sudden thud on my rear left tyre, and a glance at the side mirror saw a kitten zooming pass, a further check on the rear view mirror saw a cat dancing macarena and kapuera high in the air.

Feeling guilty for what I did, I was thinking of reducing its pain by reversing and settle the break dance once and for all, but I didn't... maybe I don't have the guts or the will to really do it. Any how after the security clearance check I continued driving with something else already on my head.

Fast forward to this morning, a colleague claimed she saw the incident and brand me cruel... and it hit me, why am I cruel? I did nothing wrong as I was driving under the speed limit and was very awake, apparently the cat came from my right and run under my car in between the front and rear wheel, there is no way I was able to see it coming as a courteous driver always put his eyes on the front, 2 of the cats made it through (racing across my car) while this poor kitten didn't. I guess this is nature's selection at work and the weak was removed from the world (apparently the cat failed to judge speed and distance, and are bad in sprinting)

Today when I go back, I saw the mum and her remaining kitten, sitting in the middle of the road there blissfully enjoying sunset. When I walk passed the bitch somemore meow at me friendlily, I don't think she even know I killed her children yesterday.

Nature had a funny way of controlling population, just create failure and they will fail itself eventually. Human on the other hand are more resistant to death, the incapable ones will have additional benefit, wider protection coverage and life made easier than normal...etc. So its basically human defy nature, and sooner or later they will pay. Lets just hope its not my generation who suffer the effect

Aftermath of GE 2008 - more suxor crap

Fast forward 2 weeks after the general election results were out, the political scene here looks as vain as before. As I have expected the ruling party will try to buy out the loose opposition across the country as it only requires a little effort to achieve a 2/3 majority, however it ended up with the opposing way with them having to watch their own rank, this is sort of like defensive play in football, you can hardly win if you're not attacking the opponent. Really no logic

And the statement given by the ruler to press lately also surprisingly astonishing, like for example recently a member of the ruling party ask us to practice tender system for any future project. WTF man, for nearly 50 years and this still hasn't been a SOP for government? Maybe everyone turn an eye all this while but I remember when our PM held position 4 years back, he was actively combating corruption... and this slips? Alot of people are too naive that this is happening, alot more people are useless as they let it happen. This really makes one ponder the competency of our governing people. In a typical company this would surely mean a total overhaul and a revamp of organization, I guess in politic this will not be the case... immunity sure rox sometimes

Then there's the message by our ruling party to remind the minister to stay away from corruption.... its like your teacher remind you not to cheat during exam, so obvious punya case.... and worse is there are people acknowledging and praising the reminder.
Surely a normal responds from any sane person would be "duh!".... So this is Malaysia for you

The opposition didn't fare much better either IMHO, they squabble over seats publicly, party directive not conveyed effectively and lack of a central figure to coordinate the loose coalition. At this point a chief coordinator would seem appropriate, but then again this is not a company and it doesn't work this way.

Looks like politic is a funny thing, the lies surrounding the event can be very unhealthy and with all my reference coming from government controlled media, one must really doubt the side its on. No matter, politic can only cause traffic jams anyway, now I'm more worry that the economy will go into a recession (if ever), then inflation will come and who is going to pay for my gas?

Feedback of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops [PSP]

Everyone that experienced playstation already know who is Snake, the iconic hero behind the console game Metal Gear Solid...

MGS:PO take place after MGS:Snake Eater, where Snake had beaten "The Boss" in a beautiful meadow field, and the plot takes further into the conspiracy and treachery of the government in changing the world power with the philosopher story still actively in play

All the Metal Gear series are famed for the animated cutscene which could stretch as long as 20 minutes in certain episode, Portable Ops also have its moment even though the cutscene are told in a comic book like sequence.


Not only are the approach to the cut scene is different, there is also a new game feature which allows Snake to 'recruit' enemy into his team by 'persuasion'... the added team mates will in return contribute by developing new weapon, medical items, perform reconnaissance and assist Snake in mission. This added up to a lot more micro-managing into the game which let players do a lot more strategy.

The weapon will still be based on post world war 2 era, with the standard M16, AK47, Dragunov sniper rifle being the arsenal of Snake and his allies and the game location is in Cuba. Though the map are all mostly the same with buildings and some wilderness. Typical tropical country mode.

Nearly every Metal Gear game had a chick involve, this game its Elisa, the sweet looking psychic girl who have dual personality ESP, too bad she has to.... Well anyway, she's underage .....

So back to the main plot, Portable Ops pave way and extend the story after Substance and Snake Eater, and provide the prologue for the up and coming PS3 hits, MGS: Sons of patriot. This is also one of the game that could put emotional players in tear as the plot reveal slowly and the amount of death in the game seem justified with the cause it tries to achieve. I think I am beginning to fall in love with MGS...

Good: Great storyline, able to put player involve in the game for many hours, good sound effect, staying true to the name, good enough cutscene and control is still good even ported the traditional control from Playstation 2

Bad: If only the cutscene is longer, I don't feel enough :)

Tagged by Sue

Instructions:Remove 1 question from below, and add in your personal question, make it a total of 20 questions, then tag 8 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged.

1. At what age do you wish to marry?
In my early 30s, assuming at current growth rate

2. If you were to be stranded on a desert island, who are the 3 blog buddies you would take with you? Why?
I don't have much blog buddies, but from those blogs that I read..
a) Alvin Ong- Need a reality check & resourceful guy to make me survive the ordeal
b) Jeff Ooi - Need a guy who could shoot me into politic should we be rescued
c) Dawn Yang - Just came across her blog and would fill up my free time in the island, hehe

3. Where is the place that you want to go the most?
Holland (I want to smoke pot freely)

4.If you can have 1 dream to come true, what would it be?
Alien came to visit Earth

5. Do you believe you can survive without money?
Yup, if I am stucked in an island for example

6. What are you afraid to lose the most?
My sanity

7. If you win $1 million, what would you do?
Invest $500,000 into medium risk investment, $150,000 for car, and $300,000 for a new house. The remaining $50k for family

8. If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?
Of course

9. List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you.
a) Genuine
b) Smart
c) Friendly

10. What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?
- Must be able to communicate without implementing filters
- Good IQ
- Able to enter kitchen and come out to the living room (入得厨房,出得厅堂)
- Fresh grad with zero to minimal experience is preferred

11. Which type of person do you hate the most?
Lier type

12. If you are given the chance to go back to the past and make a difference, will you?
Of course! So many things I did in the past that could better

13. What is the thing that will make you think someone is bad?
Double face, for there are hidden agenda and makes people doubt, doubt is bad

14. What do you think is the most important thing in your life?
Family, else why would I part so much of my income to them

15. Are you a shopaholic or not?
Yes. I can really buy and I'm amaze of myself sometimes

16. If you have a chance, which part of your character you would like to change?
My experimenting method, it has killed alot of 'subject' :)

17. Who is the person that you can share all your problems with?
Nearly everyone, I think I'm kinda open (my boss and my friends for example)

18. What's the thing that you're most proud of?
No big deal out of me so far, so I think its the fact that I'm alive for the past 26 years

19. Rainy day or sunny day?
I like the smell of rain

20. Biggest spending per receipt in your life (loan not included)
My HD-EG engine conversion - RM3400 inclusive of workmanship

I am going to tag :
Alvino

No other blogger buddy to mention...