proton exora

The latest Proton car has been launched today. It’s Proton’s first MPV, the Exora and it looks quite good too don’t you think. It’s much much better than that horrible Juara.

The name Exora is derived from Ixora, a flower commonly seen in most bushes or shrubbery around Malaysia. It’s called bunga jarum-jarum if I’m not mistaken.

The Exora is built on a newly developed platform, and it’s the second platform (ever) developed by Proton, so it is something to be proud of, I guess, for a Malaysian.

The new MPV is powered by a 1.6-litre CamPro CPS engine with 125bhp and torque of 150Nm, with prices below RM80k. Apa lagi, kalau ada duit tu, pegi la beli! Heh.

And woohoo! Man Utd just won 1-0 against Porto FC in the Champions League second leg quarter-final. Yeayeah, we’re through to the semi-final against Arsenal. Yeah I know, very off-topic but who cares.

f1 red flag at sepang

What an exciting Formula 1 race in Sepang today. Too bad the rain forced the race to stop before all 56 laps were completed. The race started at 5pm Malaysian time, which is 3 hours later than usual. I assume some ‘clever’ guy at the top wants the Malaysian Grand Prix to start later so that the people in Europe don’t need to wake up that much earlier than usual. Heh.

The inconsistent weather forecasts made the race much more exciting. The teams were contemplating when they would need to change tyres to suit the weather and what type of tyres they need to change to. And when the weather did change, they were a lot of teams going into the pit-stop to change tyres, so the standings keep changing and changing. Hmm I noticed that I've written 'changing' and 'tyres' quite a lot in this paragraph. Won't get much marks then if this were to be an essay to be submitted. Who cares anyway. They were a lot of overtakings as well of course, besides the tyre changing.

But at the end of the day, the rain poured too heavily so they had to show the red flag, which means that the race had to be suspended and the cars had to line up behind the red flag line and wait until it’s safe to race again. It was actually dangerous for the cars to race in that condition. They were a lot of cars spinning at the corners already (which I secretly think is indeed a little bit fun to watch but is actually dangerous for the safety of the drivers, so let's just pretend I didn't think that ok).

Since it was getting too dark, and the 2-hour racing period was nearly over, the race wasn’t resumed and they used the standings at Lap 31 to determine the official race standings. However, the drivers (and constructors) only get half points because they didn’t complete more than 3 quarters of the race. Well, half points are better than no points at all.

And the winner of the Malaysian GP was Jenson Button from the Brawn team, his second win of the season. Looks like the Brawn team are doing very well. The Ferrari and McLaren teams seem to be struggling to adapt to the new rules. McLaren only has 1 point and Ferrari don’t have any points yet! Looking forward to the rest of the season. It’s gonna be very exciting, close, and fun to watch!

new logo, new pm, new/old tax haven (?)

The foundation for the open source mobile software platform now has a new logo:

It’s supposed to be a software company/foundation, but the logo doesn’t represent that at all. It looks like some toys company or something. Well maybe mobile phones are toys to some people, *shrug*. Anyway, it doesn’t look professional to me. Good thing I’m not working there (anymore?). Go to their website to find out more, or just go straight to the foundation’s blog for informal-ish kind of updates. There should be an explanation somewhere in there explaining the beautifully-challenged logo.

*******

So we now have a new prime minister in Malaysia, and it seems that lots of people hate him. I guess I should also say a lot of people like him as well. I should, but maybe I don't want to, but I just did, but hmm... too many but's already. Maybe he’s not the best choice, but maybe he’ll be better than that previous one. Ish... too many maybe's la pulak. Oh well. I just hope that they concentrate on reviving the economy instead of playing stupid, childish politics. Good luck on your new job because you’ll sure be needing it, my dear sir!

*******

I read in the news today that Malaysia is one of four countries blacklisted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for not agreeing with tax standards. One in four. Wow. And it’s not everyday that Malaysia goes in the news here. My beloved country is apparently a tax haven. Hmm better stash away money there ASAP. Oh yeah, now I remember, I don’t have that much money to stash anyway, *blaargghhh*.

*******

earth hour

Yes, it's as simple as what the poster says. It doesn't matter which country you're in, it's the planet you're in which matters. On Saturday 28th March, switch off your lights for 1 hour from 8.30 to 9.30 (local time) to vote for Earth. Leaving your lights switched on means a vote for global warming.

Yeh, maybe it won't make a major difference, but every little helps!

Visit earthhour.org for more info.

Come people, let's switch our lights off!

fauwaz

It has been 3 years now. Had it not happened, you would be studying for your SPM now, or maybe still relaxing. I'm sure you would have performed well anyway. And you would have already aced your PMR too.

Sorry I wasn't there for you. It really pained me not to be able to visit you when you were ill. I couldn't afford to then.

Anyway, here's to you, Fauwaz. Rest in peace, little bro, rest in peace...

happy maulidurrasul!

The great prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was born today, the 12th of Rabiul Awal in the Year of the Elephant (direct translation of Tahun Gajah?). In Malaysia, there'll be marches and talks to celebrate, but not (much) here in the UK.

The good news is there's gonna be a Maulid Nabi ceremony/celebration at MSD on Thursday. Details below:

             Date: 12 March 2009
             Time: 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm
             Place: Malaysia Hall

Please do come, and bring your friends along. And of course there'll be food insyaAllah. Yeh that's what I'm talkin' about. =)

Allahumma salli 'ala saiyidina Muhammad.
Wa 'ala ali saiyidina Muhammad.

recycle

We produce a lot of waste and some of them can be recycled or reused, but not many people bother to do it or even think about it. There are also those who want to recycle, but don't know or aren't sure what they can do or where to throw recyclable waste.

Firstly, just separate the stuff you want to recycle in a different bag. It depends on your local authority if you need to separate the materials or not. For me here, it's easy. I just have to put all recyclable waste in one bag because there is a recycling bin outside my flat which is for everything, so I don't need to sort them out myself.

However, there are certain things that you must remember (and do) before you recycle:

1. Empty and rinse off cans, bottles, and plastic containers.
Food waste and liquid remaining in the containers will contaminate the recyclables. If there is contamination, the whole batch of recyclables will not be recycled. Not only will your recycling effort be wasted, others whose waste are in the same batch as yours will be too. Now you don't need to wash them with dishwashing liquid, you just need to rinse them with tap water.

2. Don't recycle paper with grease or food waste on them.
This is also contaminated waste. Unfortunately, there is nothing to be done except to throw them away. *Sob*.

3. Crush cans and squeeze bottles to expel as much air as possible.

4. Remove caps and lids from plastic containers.
Also remove paper clips, staples and plastic envelope windows from paper.

More recycling etiquette can be found here.

Bear in mind that these are the general 'rules' applicable in the UK. It may be slightly different elsewhere. More information can be found in the Recycle Now website, or you could just google it. Don't forget to recycle, folks!

the rescue

We had located where the bad guys took my brother. My two friends created a diversion while I went to save him. He looked tired so I carried him away. Even though I had the ability to run at superspeed, I didn't want to show it to the bad guys so that they won't bother my family anymore. I just ran, not too fast so that they don't know my ability, but not too slow either.

The diversion only distracted them for a while. They saw us running away and immediately chased us. We ran into the woods. I went a different path from those two friends of mine in the hope that I can bring my brother to safety. When we got out of the woods, I thought we had lost them, so I went home. My family was very happy to see us and very glad that my brother was rescued.

Suddenly there were noises outside. Damn it, those bad guys followed us! I was very very angry. I told them to get the hell out of our lives. They wouldn't listen. I could've just used my superstrength to beat them all up, but that would just blow my cover. Instead, I just pushed them back into their car and shouted at them.

Since they wouldn't listen, I had to use my powers. I pushed their car away, pretending that I was exerting all my strength to do so. Another friend came by and he lit a fire and threw it onto the car. I used my heat vision to make the fire spread faster.

The bad guys were now very scared. They promised to never bother my family again and drove their burning car away, out of sight. I thanked my friend and went home to see my brother.

*****************

What drove me mad was that the brother that they kidnapped was the one who died nearly three years ago. Rest in peace, bro! Anyway, it was really cool to have superspeed and superstrength, plus the heat vision. Hmm.. I should've tried flying too. Oh well.

i couldn't believe it actually snowed heavily in central london!

Yes, that's right. It snowed! In central London! This was the most snow I've seen since I've been living in London. It wasn't sleet or the overnight-only snow, but actual long-lasting snow! I'm not sure if that's the correct term to use but I don't care, because it was a lot of snow bebeh. Actually, it was the heaviest snowfall in UK for nearly two decades. Usually when the weather forecast says it's going snow, it actually doesn't, so I didn't have my hopes up when it was forecasted to snow on Sunday night (1st Feb).

wah, all white (i'm not just talking about the roads and cars)

Lo and behold, it actually did snow that night. Quite a lot too, for central London. It was a good thing we went to Satay House for dinner. After eating, it was still snowing outside and since the road outside wasn't busy, we were able to have a good snowfight on the roads, getting our white ammo from the parked cars.

Okay, I thought, let's enjoy the snow now because there won't be any tomorrow. And I'm very glad that I was wrong.

view from my window on monday morning

The next morning, everything was white! Woohoo! I checked the TFL website and found that all the buses were cancelled and most of the tubes were suspended or experiencing delays. I couldn't get to work and couldn't do any work from home. There was nothing else that I could do, but to go to Hyde Park (*smirk*).

the snowman family (cue the adams family tune)

The snow was a few inches deep. I had never seen this much snow in London before and was very glad that I stayed here. The Queens House ladies had already built a snowman with kids when I arrived. I just helped them to build a mini-wall around the snowfamily. Oh and I also helped them 'whiten' their clothes (*another smirk*). By noon, the other final-year students (plus one sesat penultimate-year student of course) had joined us there.

man down, may he rest in peace

The snowfights were fun, but unfortunately one had fallen, all covered in snow. I never thought I could really be in a picture like that. Hehe. How I wish heavy snow would fall again, but that's unlikely, so now I'll revert to that pessimistic view of the weather forecast again. What's that you say, it's predicted to snow next weekend? Lies, all lies!

hypocrisy

When PKR wanted to form the government via 'ship-jumping', it's okay for them, but BN said it was wrong to do so.

However, when BN is the one who formed the new state executive council for Perak, it's suddenly the other way round. BN is oh-so-happy with the situation and PKR is saying it's an abuse of the people's votes.

Such hypocrisy from both sides. Why aren't you guys concentrating on the economy and the people's welfare?! There's a credit crunch for goodness sake!

Note that when I say BN and PKR, I am referring to the politicians and supporters in general. Though I don't usually like generalising, I just cannot help it this time!