MICROTRENDS

Lately, I am blessed with time to read. As a student, my reading list goes like this:
1. Heat Exchangers: Design and Theory Sourcebook
2. Applied Thermal Design
3. Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals
4. Design of Machinery
5. Modeling of Combustion Systems
The list goes on….Many of you would find my reading list is boring, yes I understand the “geek-ness” of the list. So last few weeks, Ain and I went to Borders (by the way, do you know that there are no MPH here in Penang? I know they are selling books cheaper through their website, but what’s the thrill in there right! Makes me wanna open a decent Book Shop here you know, not the typical boring local-type book shop, but something with par with MPH or Borders…maybe one day I will..), and I get myself few “off the list” type of books. I already read one of them.
“MICROTRENDS: The small forces behind tomorrow’s big changes.” I must say this book gave me some insight about the importance of the small-small things around us. Written by Mark J. Penn, a guy used to work closely with US ex-Presidents. He is good with trend-spotting that could help politician plan their political issues. Microtrends are indeed important for politicians, designers, salesman or even educationist. This so-called microtrendist, are small group of people. But although there are only few of them, let say just about 1% from the community, if the trends somehow widen its scale globally, imagine 1% of world population. That is many. In this book, he wrote about 75 new microtrends that currently being spotted. I don’t remember all of them but some of them are:
1. Video-game player
Do you know what group of people is the most fast-growing video game player now?
Children?Teenage?Guess again…it’s the moms over 45!Think about all the new possibilities of video games out there. Spanking your children, throwing dishes to daddy are few of possible titles.
2. Love Cougar
Now days there are many young men who date women older(not 1 or 2 years old....waaay...much older) than them. So to all my single male friend, are you one of the statistics?If so, don't worry, it is the current trend.
3. Travelling Worker
Do you know that the average distance people travel to work is over 150km back and forth? Wow, where do you all live? For me, it’s like Parit Buntar-Sg Petani trip.
4. Left-hander
Do you know that left-handers numbers of people has doubled in the past 2 generations? Think about all left-hander friendly compatible items that we can create such as handphone, camera, computer keyboard etc?
Well, you read yourself to find the other 71 trends okay! This book is recommended to everyone who involved in business, politics or just like to spend time reading quality books.

(Rating : 7/10)

Stadium Story

I moved to our new home last month. The house is fine, Ain do not need to travel too far to work now. But today I do not want to talk about house. I want to talk about what is near the house. My new house is in Simpang Ampat, and it is not that far from Stadium Batu Kawan, Seberang Perai,Penang.

When I think about it, it seems to me that my home, no matter if it is the current or the previous one, will usually located near to a football stadium. The first one, is Darul Aman Stadium in Alor Setar,Kedah. I was 11 when my family moved to Alor Setar. We lived in a nice neighbourhood. Not far away there is one big stadium where football matches will be held on weekends. Aaa.... the first taste of live football match. I still remember the first football match that I saw live at the stadium. It was FA Cup match between Kedah and Sabah. Sabah won 1-0. I still remember few girls kept screaming crazily during the match. That was the day that I got to know that women too have passion for football.

Then, in 1995 when my family moved to Penang(the island), my house was near to Bandaraya Stadium. During school holiday when I was around,I used to cycled to the stadium when Penang play in the weekend. The stadium was small and old. But the football matches never been bothered by it.It was always a hot game in a cold night.

The next one, Shah Alam Stadium.It was just a walking distance from where I used to live.The first one was in the year 1997 when my family moved to Shah Alam.The second one was in the year 2005, when I worked in Shah Alam, lived there alone at first and then got married and continued to live there.It was a nice neighbourhood as well, we (Ain and me)always like Shah Alam and probably will come back and live there one day, Insya Allah.

Strange enough, even when I went to overseas in 2007, I lived near a to football stadium as well. St. James Park, the home of Newcastle United FC in UK was just 15 minutes walk from my place.I managed to go to Man United game once, it was a precious memory especially because my honey and my daughter were there too.

Well I think this is an interesting trivia about my life. How many of you lived near to 5 different football stadiums in your lifetime?And I went to football matches held at all of those 5 stadiums.

Actually I never planned it to happen this way, although I am a football fan, house near to a stadium is not an item for my "Things/Places That Need to be Available in/near the House" checklist.It just happened and I only realise this now!

Perodua ECO-challenge

My lab decided to participate in Perodua Eco-Challenge competition. It is a competition that require the participant to improve Perodua MyVi fuel consumption. We will race our improved version car in Sepang circuit in July this year, but the 1st one to arrive at the finishing line do not win the competition. The winner will be the car that run the longest on the given amount of fuel.Every participant need to gather a 20 people group. They will provide the group with one MyVi. So we can thrash things around, cut some parts etc., go creative on the engine,but the vehicle weight should not be less than 800kg. As usual, the vehicle decoration is 1/3 of the full marks(typical Malaysian automotive company that pay less attention to the vehicle actual performance...sigh!)

I think it is a good chance for us to involved with this kind of stuff, to level up our skill in automotive aspects.We only have like 3 months to complete the task for the competition.

We have few ideas already about the engine(How to reduce the weight), about the fuel injection system(instead of currently Port Fuel Injection type),how to reduce the rolling friction, how to increase aerodynamic aspects of the vehicles...etc.Let see if we are really up for it!

By the way, I think the title of the competition is miss-leading...it says ECO....but I do not see any environmental aspects being a key judgment point in the competition. They only care about the looks and the fuel economy(another typical thing in Malaysia automotive company).

WORK WORK WORK

Last month, my colleagues and I and the Prof as well went to Bangkok for BAQ 2008 conference.
(I totally forgot to upload some of the nice photos when we where there,maybe later)
This month is a crunch up time. Deadline for abstract submission for JSAE conference 2009 is not that far away. I already completed mine by the way but Prof is still not satisfied with my English(which is not a surprised to anyone who read my blog-well if there is any..hehe)
I also already started to write some chapter for my thesis. Just to have somewhere to start with.
Also my Ricardo's WAVE model of my engine is not working...such a headache...maybe need help from Prof to work it out.My engine's fuel injector seal still not arrived yet.Argh!!!Lazy supplier...
And next month, we will have Drive Smart Campaign in Queensbay Mall where we will open a booth to show our current research to audience.Our Biodiesel Jaguh and E-bike will make an appearance there.I need to make a prediction model of my engine's Pressure-Crank Angle relationship.So...work..work..work...

REVOLUSI

Now, many people globally are boycotting products that associated with israel. Many branded items such as hugo boss, ralph lauren, levis, or restaurant such as mcD and starbucks also come into that bracket. If you look in the Internet you will find many more brands that relates with israel. I myself was used to all of those brands. To name a few, my perfume was hugo boss, have few levis jeans, a levi’s leather jacket that worth RM1000, a lovely dkny dodger blue shirt and polo shoes. Even my boxers was a collection from tommy hilfiger. Looking back at it, it gave me a WOW! gesture. Practically, I had israel all over me. And all of it does not come cheap either. They are using my money to destroy Palestine. And then food…I was a mcD-monger. I loved starbucks coffee. Something, stuck me in the head. Why am I so attached to all of these israel associated products? Then I realized, yes, the quality. They produced kinda great stuff. This is because they are genius, creating good products and then commercialized it globally should be a piece of cake to them. Actually, this occasion(the thinking about all of this thing that related with israel) happened in last 2 year, somewhere around November 2007. I must confess that in the last 2 years, I have not managed to maximize my act on boycotting israel product. I shopped at mark and spencer, buy few other related products too. I am not happy about it. For the last few weeks I had been writing a lot about israel act of cruelty upon the Palestinian. But due to the unproper words used in the writings, I did not publish them in this blog. I might need to edit them here and there, but since I do not want to, all of them were kept in my laptop(ops…my honey laptop actually…her orange vaio….hmm…vaio’s is not israely ,but the processor,intel ,do associated with israel…need to do something about it)

Anyway, my point is I think now I am in the point where I feel I do not need all those quality israel products anymore. I probably could not avoid the products which I do not know its origin(if it has anything to do with israel), but I will try my best. Of course there will be something that could not be avoided, for example stop using technology that been created by the israel, but I will try my very best. So what if I do not eat mcD or drink starbucks anymore, hey I have Radix Coffee(mai sechawan!) In fact, my Honey does make decent homemade burger as well…so who need a certain red nose clown franchised burger anyway! Also, lately there are so many MLM products available. I know that their intention is easy money…but since their products are locals (most of them), why not? I rather make those MLMmonger rich than give my money to israel. There are many locals product out there besides those MLMs as well anyway. Yes, their quality is not top notch, their coffee do not have cream caramel, no frapuccino, and Honey’s burger still not juicy as Big Mac just yet( hehe……jangan mare) but I can live with it. People can change. Yes we have options. I want to change. I want to be a better person,at least better than I used to be.We do not need to live glamorously like actors in tvs to live our life(Which is short by the way), buying all those branded stuff, eat fancy cuisine at glamorous expensive restaurant or have fancy gadgets to play around when we are bored. I do not need all of those. Enough is enough! israel, I damned you. You have seen the last penny of mine.(I must stop here before this writing also end up in the laptop like the others I wrote)May Allah S.W.T blessed all the Palestinian and all people around the world as well.Amin

My Honey and My Fareehah

My Fareehah....my Honey....lovely daughter and wife

My future....my present and past...my long long lost life

I used to wonder what love is all about

Is it sweeter than sugar or sour like vineger

Or is it sweet sour like plums or tastless like old gum

Does it smells nice like a peach in the garden of eden

Or is it minty like peppermint or nice just like cammomile

Well love is everything...sweet...sour....minty and more

You will experience it all and long it will last

People say that love comes and love will also go

Once it passed you by... you just have to let it go

Well this love will stick around....round and round

Like a circle of the Sun..like a strong rock on a ground

Love for my Honey and Fareehah are strong indeed

It will always stay there even times when it bleed

You both are my love...my life and my soul

I will love you forever....and this promise I will hold

What Color?

Ain & I currently in the process to decide what color our new house in Simpang Ampat should be.

Since the original color theme of the house is basically pink(hehe...she think that I will have problems with this color,but you know what...I don't! Anything that looks good in the eye is fine by me) I suggested her that we stick to the same theme,but only adding color effects here and there, re-paint where necessary, and also by using a much higher quality paint so we do not need to do repaint job twice a year. So here in my room, since my lab friend still on his way to USM, I've done a little googling about paint. My brand of choice is Nippon Paint. See for your self here...(http://www.nipponpaint.com.my/main/index.php) You see, I consider myself as a non-artistic guy...I always sucks in arts...I do not recalled getting A's in Pendidikan Seni. The problems is when it comes to choosing color, I always can't decide which color should I choose. Okay, I can choose the theme..but when it comes to details....I failed. So I decides to let the pros do the thinking.

I googled some more and found this interesting website...(http://www.house-painting-info.com/painting_pros-choose_a_color_scheme.html). I plan to use this guys step-by-step guideline and it should....yes I think it will DEFINITELY should be more reliable than my way of choosing paint color. Our contractor is currently putting new tiles at newly cement parking area/backyards(yes....no more grass trimming...everything have been cemented/tiled), so this will give us some time to finalize the paint color. Hopefully everything will gonna be okay! Can't wait to move to our new house,hopefully sometimes around January 2008. To our friends, looking forward to invite you guys to our new house soon...Datang aa...jangan tak datang weh!!