Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Project NGVCefiro

I guess most people who are like me, at this age and situation, would  eventually look for an upgrade.

"So what are you talking about?", you say? Early 30s, with a young child, still driving a Proton, that is.

So my requirement was:

  1. 2nd hand Japanese car,
  2. < 8 years old,
  3. Around 40K,
  4. NGV-able.

Anyway, the list came down to either Toyota Camry 2.0 or Nissan Cefiro V6 2.0. I found several Cefiro @ 2000 for about RM45,000. A bit over budget, but nvm, should worth the money, and a same year Sentra would more or less fetch that price anyway. The reason I dare to look at such a big CC car is because with NGV, I get 1) road tax break of 25%, 2)over 70% saving on petrol.

So, Cefiro + NGV is my dream combination. So the research went on. Saw some ads, got a couple of good candidate to test drive. Then came the NGV research, which I stumbled upon http://www.ngvcommunity.com/ which I got fantastic help from the true owners there. And it would have been doable, if not for the following:

  1. A proper NGV conversion kit would cost me RM8K,
  2. The car maintenance (tires, shocks, normal wear and tear stuffs) are at least 4 times higher than a Proton.

All in all, I would end up spending with RM60K-ish.... :(

So project shelved. Probably going to spend some cash to straighten out Jo's Wira first. And buy something else to cheer myself up in the meanwhile...

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Explosm

Sick stuff...I like.

Cyanide and Happiness, a daily webcomic
Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Monday, February 18, 2008

True Stock Investment

Good story I came across digg.com today.

http://www.sanfran.com/content_areas/home/view_printable.php?story_id=1507

I guess most of us IT folks would relate better.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Medan Findings (Part Uno)

During my 4 days at Medan, I saw some interesting things to share:

Here is the fast food stuff that I got from Sun Plaza, the only decent, but huge shopping mall there:

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Some local pizza shop, J.Co. donut and Texas Fried Chicken.

There is a local custom to have this billboard made out of flowers to announcement weddings. It's usually left on the floor near where the wedding reception is taking place. It's done on the day itself!

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Saw this interesting sign in the toilet, you can probably guess what it means...

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This is the only road side food that I had a chance to eat, a local variation of Mee Goreng. The plain fried rice was way better IMHO.

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One of the major culture shock that I had there is how the local drives. Apparently swerving left and right, cutting lane, constant honking is the norm. No wonder the IT manager who drove me out for lunch was pretty quiet while he was driving me out for lunch, despite my effort to chat him up. Obviously he was busy concentrating on the road! He was honking his way thru as well, but he was doing it with emotional detachment! Unlike Malaysian, getting honked by someone on the road will raise our temper by several degree,  but at Medan, it seems so normal, almost as it it was common courtesy to do so....

And also a (lop sided) video of the crazy crazy traffic situation there: