New shoes for my car ~

Just a sudden cut in line on the mods I've done to my car ~ This wasn't planned, but thankfully it turned out pretty well :p

Anyways, a week or so back, I was heading to Sunway Pyramid to meet up with a friend when it happened.... I experienced what most people would go through at one point of their driving life (especially in KL because of our "oh so good" road conditions.. ); I had a flat.... ARGGHHH!!!

Lucky for me, it was just metres away from a petrol station, just opposite Taman Bukit Jalil. I thought shouldn't do any harm driving a view metres to the petrol station ~ at least safer than stopping on the roadside of the very busy Puchong bypass.... =.=

Checked my tyre, found it wasn't really because of a nail (although there was one in it), rather, the sidewall erupted.. Which, unfortunately, is irrepairable... So , I changed to the spare tyre drove my car to my friend's place, then we went out for drinks (tea, not alcohol...).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nxt day, I took my car to a tyre shop in USJ, called QuickSave.

The tyre shop

The staff were rather friendly and approachable ~ told them I had a flat, they went on to check my retarded tyre. They found the sidewall crack, and told me no repair could be done... so, since my tyres were already getting bald, I decided to get a full set of new ones. I initially selected the "Falken Ziex XE-912s", as my friend gave quite good comments on it. I wanted to go for the "Goodyear Eagle F1" tyres, because I heard rather good comments on it (thus, a bit pricey...). It's good especially on wet road surfaces, which is important, especially driving in heavy rains. But, unfortunately, it didn't come in the form of 14 inches, which my rims were sized at...

My car on the "operation table"

So, I opted for the Falken's. Then, while removing the tyres, they found the rim was damaged... they said they could repair, so fine... then while removing the others, they also found it damaged!! 3 out of 4 of the rims were damaged!! NOOOO !!!! So, they gave me a choice, to either repair all 3 rims, or change to a new set.. seeing the price of the repair was already quite hefty, they convinced me to get a new set. I wouldn't actually say the set I opted for were new... they were actually taken from another car, i.e. stock rims from another car; it was from a Suzuki Swift. I do not know which batch of the Swift it came from, but nevertheless, I was quite reluctant initially, because I had the initial plan of changing the rims by end of this year... unfortunately, this had to happen now... sigh.....

Out with the old, in with the new

But thanks to some convincing, I finally decided to go for it.. (budget didn't allow for brand new ones....) And thus, got my car a new set of rims, and a new set of tyres.

My car with the new shoes

Since I was getting a new set of tyres and rims, thought of getting a set of new lug nuts, and a safety nut as well, to keep my tyres from ever being stolen. So, all in all, it cost a bomb... but I'm very satisfied with the new tyres and size :p

Ohhh, and the new rims are actually bigger than my previous; it's now running on 15inches, hehehe :D So I could opt for the Goodyear tyres, yay !! =D

Alignment being done

After driving it for a couple of days, I found that the larger rims do actually affect the performance of the car... it became rather sluggish... Don't know whether it's because of the weight of the rims, or because of the larger sized rims and tyres, or effectively... both =.=" But with the sacrifice of performance, I'm happy with the comfort level with the new tyres! My car's now drives really smooth~ me likey!! But I have to put up with terrible lack of power once again when it comes to ascending hilly roads.... sigh......

My car and the new shoes, the final product

Lastly, I would like to complain on something though. When I drove out of the shop, they actually over-inflated my new tyres... it was suppose to be at 30psi, when they filled it up to 40psi!! They blamed the measuring gauge, but as a tyre shop, specifically experts on tyres, I don't see how they could make a mistake like this! Anyways, had to drive all the way back to the shop at the end of the day to find that out... sigh.... I hope my car's suspensions were not damaged thanks to that mistake of theirs...

Hopefully, my tyres would last for a long time ~ since I'm not really a hard-driven driver anyways :p But so far, I have to say, it really brings more confidence, since the threads are new, and when driving along during a rainy day once so far, it felt like no difference between wet and dry condition, which was really cool ! :p

So that's how my car got a new set of shoes =D Hopefully, the next thing would be a new breathing apparatus for my car ~ heh heh heh ~

P/S: A good friend has suggested me to actually change the Suzuki emblem to something more appropriate for a Wira. I think it would be a good idea as well, but, due to some personal feelings, I decided to stick with the Suzuki emblem ~ Anyways, it's "super" to see it there, ehehehehe :p (get it? "S" super ? haha, lame joke...)

My Car: The introduction

I'll be writing up on my car from now on, based on what I do to it, lol.

This first post will be a general overview of my car ~



The current car I'm driving now, is a humble Proton Wira year 2000 model, 1.3 litres, sedan version. It's deemed by many as a highly under-powered car... But for me, well, it's my first car, so it's a great car, no matter how I or others look at it =D

From the time of purchase, it's been really reliable; being maintain consistently by sending it for regular maintenance, changing parts that wears out over time (i.e. air-cond stuff, belts, etc.). Other than the occasional air-conditioning problems now and then, it's been a very reliable car to me =)

I've done some upgrades and mods to the car over the years, which I'll list out in coming posts. Suffice to say, it's still a humble car, albeit a little noisier than before, hehe.

I'm hoping it'll serve me well for the coming years, so I plan to "invest" in it, making sure it does not maintain it's performance as how it was purchased.. rather, perform BETTER than that over the coming years :p

My plans for the car is not over the top though, I'll stick with normal mods a slightly-more-than-average driver would usually do upon his/her car ~

So, stay tuned for it :p

FYI: it will not be placed with a forced-induction system, for those who think I'm "that crazy", haha. Neither would the "heart" be transplanted, rest assured =D

The future, with the ever-increasing fuel prices ~

I came across this video recently. A good suggestion to how the World might be one day thanks to the continuously increasing prices of petrol :p





I found it very creative =D

Car fetish ~

I'm suddenly getting the craze about cars ~ :p I've actually been interested in cars ever since I was in college, but not until recently only did I start earning my own income and actually able to afford those mods.

So occasionally I'll be blogging about what I've done to my car. :p At least something to keep this blog alive ehhh ? :p

On a side note, ever since the petrol price has increased, I've not actually filled petrol for my car yet... but imagine, about what.. 5-6 years ago, it took Rm50 to supply my car (Wira if I may add..) with a full tank of petrol. Today, it takes double that amount!! I used to admire cars which could fill over RM100 worth of petrol during those days (that time, I used to equate powerful cars with big petrol tanks, hahaha), now, it's a nightmare!!

but don't get me wrong... I actually support the move to reduce to subsidy ~ somehow I feel it's a good move to make us more ... independent, if you will. If you think about it the way the Government wants you to, it's true, they can't shield us forever when it comes to fuel subsidy. So sooner or later, we'll still have to face it.

The thing which I don't agree, is with our current salary range... the petrol may still be the cheapest in the region, but our salary is also one of the lowest as well. With the sudden rise of petrol price, it comes to no surprise that everything else will follow suit.. Some even declaring a hyper-inflation. I don't know how bad it's going to be, but one thing's for sure, there's no cheap way out of this....

Hopefully things won't get too out of hand (by saying this, I'm pretty sure things will get ugly, but hopefully it won't be too much..)...

The revival ~

I've decided to revive this undoubtedly dead blog, since there are actually friends who still visits it ~

But since I'm working, the updates won't be frequent (as if it were frequent in the first place :p), probably once a week.

For a start of a new post this year, let me provide updates to those who are curious as to what is happening to me.

As of beginning of 2008, I managed to get a job in the field I pursued in college. I joined as a trainee, and still am a trainee. It's actually the main reason I'm inactive nowadays.

People say life at work is very different compared to college times. Well, maybe I'm still in training, but I find it not much of a difference... the one thing in common I still see though, is that life still revolves around datelines... which increases anyone's pressure in any field of work I guess.

I was told horror stories about office politics while I was still in college, so I kinda feel thankful and lucky I'm not facing that.... yet. In fact, I feel blessed having such wonderful colleagues for my training!

Yea, sure office rules are pretty strict, but thanks to my new found friends, life there's been pretty nice, albeit the long working hours as opposed to some of my college mate's job.

Other than working, less time for other stuff, I guess everything else is pretty much the same.. Just hope everything will turn out better in the future ~

I'll keep the updates till here for now, so until I post something again, peace out!

I'm a rebel in nature....

The moment I say I want to do something, something will kick in that makes me avoid doing it... I wonder if everyone's like that or is it just me..

In my previous post I said wanted to create a new kind of blog post in conjunction of my new handphone, instead, I didn't blog for weeks.... damn my weak spirit....

note to self: next time I won't say anything about what I WILL do, and instead explain when I've DONE it.....

A crossing of paths, A game remembered in time... Chrono Cross

I was looking for some games to play since my exams are over, when I suddenly recalled this game...

It's from the creators of Final Fantasy, Squaresoft(now Square Enix). I remembered it as a game of serene beauty.. a good storyline, enjoyable gameplay, and with tonnes of characters to utilize. It was, at that time, deemed a game with one of the best opening sequence, because it was so moving, and brings out the anticipation to those who watched it.

Anyways, better than words, watch it ~ I personally love the opening sequence XD Beautiful song...

Out with the old and in with the....

Continuing from previous post... These are a couple of pictures of my old phone ~ My first and previous phone was the Nokia 8250.


Known by several names, i.e. the butterfly button phone and the blue phone, to name a few ~ It was the first time I owned a handphone, and, at that time of purchase, the price for a prepaid number was still expensive... But being new and all, I treasured it like my own precious baby~



After serving me for a quarter of my exisiting life, I had to unfortunately lay it to rest... it was giving some call problems months ago, but it finally reached it's limit... so I had to find a replacement... So after some reading and reviewing, I finally settled for...

*
d
r
u
m

r
o
l
l
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
*

the Nokia N73 Music Edition !!

The N73 was actually a phone which I've wanted ever since it came out, but thanks to the long life of my 8250, I just waited it out, until now :p


When I first used it, I found it rather slow... I mean comparing a phone 6 years ago, with a phone which is deemed as a "computer",the comparison is rather inaccurate.. so.. I guess it's something I'll have to get used to.. Apparently it's a problem with all Symbian series phones, or maybe the S60 series to be more specific.

First impression.... cool!! I like the black and silver colour combination (Nokia's Nseries special edition signature), in terms of the physical build, it's rather solid, a little long in length for my taste, but I guess it's okay ~ the keypad is rather small though.... the keys are cramped up in such a small space, those with big fingers will have toruble... but all in all, it's a nice build :p

The reason I liked the N73 initially was because of the built-in camera; It boasts a 3.2MP Carl Zeiss camera, at that time, only the N90/N93 had ~ so it was very attractive to me :p


I'm still in the midst of exploring the software portion of the phone, so I won't write anything much about it... just that it's a world of difference compared to my old phone (DUHH !!), so I'm not used to the idea of multi-tasking on a phone yet... but I'll get the hang of it, hehe.

So for now, I'll continue exploring my new found phone, and hopefully, it will keep me company for many years to come, muahahaha !!

P/S : I'll be creating a new kind of post under my blog, this is in conjuction with my new phone's cam :p I'll occasionally take some pics with the phone cam, and I'll put it up in my blog. So, hope it'll be interesting, as well as improve my photography skills, which I currently have none...