Since today is our Merdeka Day, it's not difficult find a place to shoot fireworks. This is my first attempt... turned out only a mere 2%-3% are keepers. Not bad huh? ;p

Will post more photos later... stay tuned!!

Since the 49th Merdeka Day is around the corner, I would like to show my patriotism by displaying a Bunga Raya here (emm...I know flying a flag will also do, if you get what i mean...) and wish all of you out there Happy Merdeka Day!

This huge Bunga Raya photo is taken at one of the nurseries in Sg Buloh. See more flowers [here].

Canon will be launching the replacement for it's EOS 350D during the upcoming Photokina 2006, according to dpreview.com news. This new model has a 10 megapixel CMOS sensor. For the first time, Canon will featuring it's very own anti-dust system called EOS Integrated Cleaning System. A very welcomed feature since all DSLR are proned to sensor dust. As of now, Nikon is the only big player who has yet to implement such system, with Olympus and Sony already having one. From the look of it, I think I have invested in the correct make... kudos Canon! ;p

Here's some of the new features, taken from dpreview.com:

Ever heard of ESP, VSA, VSC, PSM, DSC? All these are acronyms for car stability control systems from different car manufactures. According to a survey in the UK, these electronic stability control systems could save up to 400 lives a year in their country. These systems are called active safety systems, like ABS, they prevent accidents from happening as oppose to passive systems like airbags, which protect the passenger after accident happened.

While safety equipments like airbags, ABS , ESP are not that expensive to manufacture as stated, why can't we Malaysian have them in all our new cars? Since our leaders always feel proud to have the world's tallest building, world's most scenic crooked bridge, world's longest bla bla bla..., may be they should do something like this, "World's first country to have all new cars fitted with airbag, ABS, ESP". Or may be some other more safety conscious countries already have done that, so we won't be doing it because it won't make us the world's first.

I don't know the figure, but I'm sure we spend a lot of money on insurance and health care due to car accidents. May be we should give tax rebate to car manufacturer who fit more safety equipments to new cars. In the long run, we may save more money and most importantly, save more lives. Feasible? Let's our leaders think about it.

Malaysian drivers at large, think that they have the reflexes of Michael Schumacher, they think that they can react faster than electronic sensors, they don't need ABS, ESP etc, they can avoid an accident when something unexpected happened. They also have so so many years of driving experience behind them, they can cope with any kind of unexpected driving condition. But they don¡¦t realize their years of driving experience is only driving from where they live to their workplace and back, without much drama. They don't need seat-belts and airbags either, if head-on collision happened, they think they can use their arms and legs to hold them against hitting the steering wheel or dashboard!

Time to wake up, Malaysian at large! If our leaders and car manufacturers couldn't give us a safe piece of driving machinery, we must demand for it! Where is our Airbags?

BMW will be launching the new Mini to replace the current one according to Autocar. This second-generation [not our Gen-2, please!] Mini do looked like a face-lift but it is not. It is a totally new model, said BMW.

The Cooper S sports a new all-aluminium 1.6-litre engine which has direct injection and a twin-scroll turbocharger. Maximum torque from as low as 1600rpm!! I love all these direct-injection turbocharged engines. First is the Golf's TFSI turbo, then BMW 335i's twin-turbo, and now the Mini's.

After reading Steve Sutcliffe's [Autocar] tip on how to do a handbrake turn, I thought I wanna give it a try using my car. In order to make a handbrake turn, you must first do a little 'test' to see if your car is up to the job or not.

Here's the 'test': Bring the car up to speed in a straight and deserted road, say about 50-70km/h, then yank on the handbrake. If the rear wheels locked up, your car is good for handbrake turn, if not, forget it, try another car...

Here's my 'test: I brought my car up to speed on a straight and deserted road. Then I yanked on the handbrake and here's what happened, the car just went straight and I don't feel my car slowing down at all... crab!!! The handbrake is designed not to lock up the rear wheel, as Sutcliffe said. Such a boring car...

So, handbrake turn is out of the question. I must find another way to have fun with my car... All-wheel-brake turn, perhaps... ;p

Came across this small yet interesting photo editor. You can download it from [here]. Try to do some 'magic' to this photo taken during the KLIMS. This kind of blur background effect normally can only be taken using 'very fast, large aperture' lens. But a little photo editing can have this effect, too... This is one of the favourite gals of my buddy... ;p

Look carefully, the face of the gal looks sharper after editing, and the skin is smoother too.

If you happened to watch cooking shows on television, I'm sure you've heard of Jamie Oliver. This young chap, or rather 'chef' to be exact, has a special way of cooking things... i.e. one-wok cook or 'yat wok suk' in Cantonese. ;p

Since this one-wok cooking method is not that challenging compared to conventional cooking method, paupau would sit in front of the tv to copy all one-wok recipes by Jamie Oliver. Paupau will then cook dinner using these one-wok recipes. I'll be the guinea pig to try out the cooking? err, not that I'm not happy to be one... hehehe...

Here's one of the success stories... The One-Wok Chicken with Bacon! (if you are wondering, they are also failed stories, too! ;p)

Welcome back!

The second method, this is more extreme. I do it occasionally, or rather very seldom-ly. The air-con, no I'm not asking you to switch it off. Who on mother earth would like to drive without air-con in this part of the world? This is the key point; switch off the air-con compressor when accelerate, switch on when slowing down. As you (should) know, when the compressor is on, it creates load at the engine, in-turn, the engine need more fuel to run. Some cars have a dedicated button to switch the compressor on/off. If your car doesn't, don't fret, normally when you turn the temperature setting to maximum/coldest, the compressor will be switched on, the opposite is normally true, too.

How to do it? Well, for example, if you are going down a slope and about to stop, turn the air-con to its coldest. Doing this, you use the car's momentum to turn the compressor, not the engine's power, i.e. you get free air-con. When you start to accelerate the car, turn the air-con to its 'least cold' setting, doing so, the compressor stops, letting the engine use its full power to move the car, hence, save fuel.

These are just some of the ideas to save fuel. May be they don't make sense for some people. Or if you have any other ideas, do share with us. I'll let you know more of my ideas on fuel saving in future, if any of you out there would like to know.

Drive safely and efficiently!

I have read a lot of articles about ways to save fuel. In general, the all talk about the same thing, namely:

1. drive at constant speed, avoid abrupt acceleration and braking

2. remove unwanted weight from the car

3. plan your trip (don't drive the extra miles)

4. avoid rush hours (i like this one, got excuse to go to work late, probably?)

5. a lot more...

But I'm not gonna talk about all these. I have myself 2 very effective methods to save fuel, and I have never read it anywhere, so I think I should share them here... try them at your own risk... ;p

The first method, that I have already built into my driving style long time ago is, DO NOT HIT THE BRAKE! Sounds crazy isn't it? hahaha... That's what I do all the time. Everyone (should) knows that the car uses fuel to accelerate, and uses fuel to maintain speed. So each time we touch the brake pedal, the fuel used to accelerate the car is wasted, changing into heat in the brakes.

How to do it? Anticipate the traffic ahead is the key. For example, when come upon a traffic light (red light, of course), lift off early and let the car roll to a stop, using as little brake as possible. Mind you, if you do this, you might frustrate a lot of driver behind you. Hell, they should thank you, because you are helping them to save fuel too. They are many more ways to save fuel using this method. Go figure! ;p

If you read this far, you are probably determined to save fuel. Kudos... Stay tuned for the second fuel saving method.

Nikon has launched a replacement model for its D70/D70s, the D80. Sporting a 10-megapixel CCD sensor and a more compact body. Read the preview at Digital Photography Review.

It was my birthday last week but I haven't been able to write about it. Thanks to a few close friends of mine, of course including paupau, I had a wonderful and memorable birthday.

To start the night, we went for dinner at Wong Poh aka Wong Loi Restaurant. Ordered the delicious but sinful "pork hand" as one of the guys called it. :-) Apart from that, we also ordered the "salted egg crab", "dan si ha gou (whipped egg shrimp paste? ;p)" and etc...

After the dinner, we went for a drink in a pub at The Curve. Not really happening here... it was only around 9pm+, still 'early' perhaps?? Then paupau and another lady said they wanna go shopping at the mall...typical ladies i thought... hahahaha... apparently they went to buy me a birthday cake!!! I really didn't expect it! hehe...

After that, we all went back to my place to have the customary 'blow-cake-then-eat-cake' event. Thank you guys for making this happened!! I really appreciate it... ;p

"My Mint-Choc Ice Cream Cake from Baskin Robbin"

"Delicious Pork Knuckle"

BMW has launched the new 3-series coupe. Read this in Autocar 08/2006 edition.

One of the models is the mighty 335i. It's a 3-litre Twin-Turbo Petrol, with 400Nm of torque from 1300-5000rpm. Look at the [torque-curve], simply amazing...

This number can even outgun the E46 M3... I'm wondering what to expect from the E92 M3!

You may also read the forum [here] for info.

BMW official website [here].

Got an email from a close friend regarding violence at UPM. I was quite shocked to see what actually is happening in our public universities. I'm sure this case in UPM is not an isolated one but only a tip of an iceberg. See the video here and judge for yourself. You may also visit the blogs here and here to find out more.

Added another blog here. You may also want to follow-up the news at merdekareview.com.

Shame...

Paupau ask me to take some photos of her new shoes. I'm more than happy to do so, since I have not touch my 'baby' for some time. ;p

Bear in mind these are not paupau's full collection of shoes, these are all new shoes, may be 10% of all her shoes 'collection'... hahaha...

Uploaded some photos [here], critiques are welcome... hahaha... enjoy!!