Concert anyone?!

I had an interesting conversation with Saiful - one of the best FIV driver we'd ever have (read my earlier entry laa if you dunno what FIV is!) - on our way back after the training session last weekend - about HEAVY METAL....reminded me of POWERSLAVE - Iron Maiden's album title song....for the first time on this blog, I am posting up a video from one of the best heavy metal group that has ever walked the earth...ladies and gentlemen here's : Iron Maiden's POWERSLAVE!

(Ohhh before you click on the piece...please be aware that this is not for those who could not appreciate music...it is NOT "just a noisy bunch of idiots on stage", the composition and music arrangement is a pure work of art, the lyrics is almost a complete history about the pharoahs of old Egypt and if you have ever learnt how to read notes and appreciate classical music - like ngoh hai - this is similar to any complex rendition from an orchestra, done by 5 "Einsteins" - the Maidens are highly educated blokes with masters & phd but decided to be musicians instead! ...and they never do drugs....only idiots who followed then do that s**T) Incase the tubing fails just go to www.youtube.com and search for Powerslave.....and consider getting a Macintosh too!!

Light at the end of the tunnel

My rendition of "Light at the end of the tunnel"

News....
Am going to move to another unit within the Zoo come April this year. The team consists of 2 cool dudes who were there together with me when we were selected to lead a special project for the organization 9 years back.....

Yesterday afternoon was the dreaded yearly session of "arguing out why should you be given reward for what you have done for the past 12 months". It went for about 1 hour with youknowwho (read my earlier entries lah!). Positives and negatives were there but i am not going to harp about it. Things are settled (at least that was the promise given) but I will still watch my back. In the end, I am not going to depend too much on this organization, they do not own me at all.....why should I be their slave?!!

Spiderman BOLEH?

Post Publish announcement: I dunno wtf happenned but the images was not shown on this site, reloaded everything again and if you guys still fail to see it, the just ignore it....begin to think blogspot is kinda effing nowadays.

Note: Click on the images to get the full size and try zooming in...images were shot on kit lense 18-70mm, trying to maintain the perspective of the actual height of the scene. (Yeah...a 300mm prime would be better...sponsor me somebody?!)

There was a big commotion yesterday afternoon, when I was trying to do some stuff for my new bosses (coming up next in this space: I AM MOVING WORKSTATION!!).....

Heard the sound of a heelo (helicopter la!) too close to the building...and yeah, it was much closer to the towers then it has ever done before all these years....so, I thought something must be happening nearby....
Hello Heelo!! (Learnt later that a STAR photog is in it)
...and then I saw the neighbours on the other tower was flooding the windows....DEFINITELY something is on! After a while, we (me & my buddies here) realized there's a person scaling up Tower 2 - bare handed....it's called free-climbing (gua dulu masa muda pun ada laa baca & layan pasal wall climbing gak!) and the person looked like the French Spidey who attempted the same feat years back (1997).

Alain Robert on the railings of 59th floor Tower 2
Petronas Twin Towers Malaysia

The securities & safety officers were already on the balcony of the 61st. floor of Tower 2, can see that they tried to communicate with Spidey. (This morning on the internet I saw some images of him talking on his handphone).

Spidey moving towards the bridge area
(the birdge is about 17 floors down!)

The officers (I believe) were trying to convince him to stop and surrender....

One pose for the camera please?!!
Look here laaah wei Spidey! Weiihh!!

Somehow...Spidey was carrying a Jalur Gemilang and he flashed it to the crowd (at the base of the tower and on Tower 1).....Hey!! He's got the Malaysia Boleh spirit!! (yeah right!).

Ok boys I am coming up now....got tea or coffee?
Kinda cold up here LAH!

Couple of minutes later....Spidey decided he has had enough adrenalin rush to last him another 10 years...he climbed up to the balcony (saw some of the officers were actually clapping their hands!)

Say...can we go to Petaling Street later?
I must get fake watches for my sponsors LAH

...and then all the havoc ends....Au revoir Spidey! Vous voir 2017...Oui?!!!
(See you in 2017...yes?!)

The Season has started!!

Mikey the teamleader, light moments before burning the rubbers

The weekend was "hot"....had to spend it on the Sepang track with the new boys, a cool motley crue if I may say so. They had a blast - a 5 laps on the race track, couple of rounds on the service tracks for familiarization and they are set for their first day of training as the medical fast car team drivers.

Some of the newbies...promising bunch of cool dudes!

This year, we have the opportunity to get more photographs - managed to get inTORQXICated Shutterbugs to do the part and if everything goes well, they may even get the pass during the F1 race weekend! (Insya-Allah).

It was an interesting race - Australian F1...and as expected by tifosis, Ferrari made it to the podium driven by a driver they used to hate and poke fun at - the ever so self-centered Kimi Raikkonen.....but the points go to McLaren (say what you want, Alonso still is Alonso and Hamilton is going to be a good sparring partner too) and real F1 followers would be more interested to see the development of Hamilton, Kovalainen, Rosberg and Kubica to name a few...and of course the underrated and totally unglamorous Spanish bull - Fernando Alonso. Little do people know - especially loud-mouthed-blind-eyes-shit-brained followers (or you can call them Malaysian "tifosi-wannabees") that this underrated chap started from scratch, and climbed all the way up clean unlike the overrated "so to say legend" Schumster.....wake up folks - the real fact is AYRTON SENNA IS THE ONLY F1 LEGEND, Schumster is a nothing compared the great Senna!! Nobody will be be able to be as great as Senna, not even if you mary Kimi & Schumacher...and get one of them, to impregnate the other and add a bit of Massa to their baby genes! (Ohhh please...don't bother retaliating against me, read more, research more and you will know what a legeng Senna is!)...oh and by the way- Schumi has retired and incase you have missed may of the races, he's no more "rainmaster" - since 2 seasons back...he's been drinking trackjuices from the Renaults and nobody even bother re-crowning the real rainmaster - Fernando Alonso....but RF1 fans have been calm as always..because they know the last laugh would always goes to the decent and composed team....eheheh!

Anyway, since I am not paid to comment on F1 team....I just wanna say, the PETRONAS MALAYSINA F1 GRAND PRIX in Sepang this April is going to be interesting (and it would help the sport if most of us try to understand the sport instead of wailing relentlessly for the scarlet red - simple because the driver is "cute"...it has been like that all these years!).

Hmmm what else can I include....ohh...the past weeks I have been busy with my photography team - which I fondly named inTORQXICated Shutterbugs.....at least for now! The first assignment was for a Paintball Tourny (closed tourny). The team had a great time.

The Grom & The Kroch

I still recall one of my entry about paintball (ohhh click here!!)....me not being able to play (at that point of time)....but I guess I am still my good old self - my limitations would only be the driving factor to push me through.....not just I have manage to play PaintBall, I have even managed to be a photographer of a paintball tournament - knowing the rules a bit and what is going to happen in the warzone, I have progressed far from that point in time when was "down" for not being able to play this game.

Well, in the end...I have done much more than this in my younger days (those who knows me knows what I have been through in life!)...so, I'd say here, there's nothing really great about PaintBall...unless you get paid for shooting (Heheheheh!!)

This is a great shot by The Grom

The rest of the rest of the time...I'd be busy trying to be a good daddy.....and I still think I am missing a lot....Aliya is growing really fast and I have to spend more time with her then ever!

MGP F1 2007- Time Trial for Fast Intervention Vehicle Pilots

The heat is on.....

Took Anual Leave to be in the Sepang Circuit on Monday..... and very frankly, I am not really that keen to drive the FIV this season but with due respect to Mike our team leader who came up and asked me to at least come for the time trial session, I just could not say no....after all, I could not just abandon the team, not when 70% of last season's pilots could not make it this time due to job requirements - naik pangkat some of them - BRAVO!

So, I found myself in the middle of a circuit, under a very hot sun on a Monday afternoon - just for a time trial and for introduction with the newbies...either you are in or out, it all depends on how you perform this afternoon. (...and I actualy hoped I will do bad or the newbies could do far better than me!!)

For that matter, we were given a GTi, a Putra and a Waja (the body only folks, the body only, am not alowed to reveal what's actually in those monsters!) to go around and Mikey led the newbies to an introduction lap of the circuit.....

Aisehmen! Mcm tak gerak siut! Power punya panning shot!

.....then the newbies are allowed to trash it out...

Bro Zul (Da Sifou) giving final briefing before rubbers are burned

The session lasted about two hours.....mostly used by the newbies to get familiar with the race curcuit & do their time tests.....then only the seasoned masters are allowed to drive....Proton pun Proton laaa....Wooohooooo!!

Shull & Saiful: gas ngantuk dah naik ni bila nak bagi turn kitorang lenjan ni...

What?!! Std spec? No Ohlins? I NO DRIVE!!!

Juan Pablo flew all the way from the USofA to test us

Saiful trying hard not to "drift" the GTi (Eheheh!)

YES! Finally! Somebody take pix pls!

Ok...we are done. Let's call it a day guys

I was not that keen to drive fast today but surprisingly, when I was in the cockpit I felt very "at home"...after years driving in that curcuit I guess it is already a home away from home for me! Despite of just a Satria GTi (not many seasoned FIV pilots have driven this one actually) it was quite an enjoyable ride.....managed to run it a quite decent speed and managed to negotiate rather nicely, the turns.....ohh....my ohh my...the turns, I never thought I would miss turns 1 to 15 so much!
About an hour after the session, got SMS from Mike....to cut things short, I am in and I get to train the newbies and if everything goes well, next season I can be released from this duty and finally get to watch the action from any of the hills or grandstand! Well, I guess I have enough of speed thrills already.....driving a very fast and expensive car requires heavy discipline (read: strictly not for stewpeed riceboys and streetracers, discipline tarak, otak tarak, lagak saja lebih!)
So, we'll see ho it will be for the next season but for this season, I am now looking forward for a great season this year...insya-Allah....(read: the army people better improve!!)

CupCakes Weekend!

My wifey's work of art......
never have I seen such gorgeous looking cup cakes
(and it tastes really delicious too) in my life....
try one and you'll not argue at all with my statement...

A close-up of a perfect work of artThese are just some of the "series" Mama has created...recent ones would be orange based cakes with topping options of M&M's, multi flavored jellybeans or marshmalllow based candies or.....ahhh just take a look at this next image and drool lah!

1.
We had a good weekend. As always.
Saturday was spent mostly in our little homey - Mama has got a delivery order to make. It seems that her cup cake business is gooing quite well.....if you are reading this you should buy her dozen set of cute & deliciously yummy work of art. You will not regret it! I am not bragging or what but the fact of the matter is, Mama will almost always receive IMMEDIATE SMS from the buyers - as soon as they open the packaging or had the first bite of those cup cakes they bought from Mama - telling how amazed they are with the design and taste of those cuties. That is how good those little cup cakes Mama made.

So, anybody want to order a dozen?

2.
The Sunday was particularly reserved for meeting with my cousins. We are going to have our first family gathering soon and it will not just end there.....we have a bigger plan which tagged to the main intent to take care of the welfare of the family members and to keep us united for as long as we can and especially to keep the new generations in the know of their roots. It is about time (long to for some!) for us to unite as a big family and support each other! It was really refreshing to meet the cousins of mine which I seldom have the opportunity to except for Raya and kenduri sessions, itu pun depending on who will be back in kampung.
Not all the cousins managed to come for this pro-temp meeting but we will progress from here, insya-Allah. Next meeting will be in Melaka (Whoohoo!!!)

The session in progress

Ooo my!! Here comes the little dinosour!


3.
The kids are kind of "manja" with me this weekend.....Aliya has this curent craze of "slamdunking" herself on me whenever she feels like it, and if she's with her milk bottle she'll find a space next to me to comfortably park herself.....sometimes she even offerd me her bottle!
Alisya and naufal will grab a pillow and we'd cuddled close together...add some rain and cooling breeze, it will be a perfect setting for a nap surrounded by little angels!

"I am so cute I cannot resist from kissng myself!"

Hmmm...maybe I'll ask Unlce PATA to teach them this game when they are a bit older

It was a weekend well spent.....to say the least...but it could be better if we can fly the kites!
Well...cannot win them all, all the time!

While waiting for the Weekend Bell

It was Friday afternoon, with a couple of hours to go, I was a bit bored at "the zoo" (ok...that's an undeerstatement!).......

So I picked up the DSLR and stuff and started looking for subjects....and here's the result of trying to kill that boring moments....






General and Technical Data

Model number: GAT-X105+AQM/E-X01
Code name: Aile Strike Gundam
Unit type: prototype all-purpose multi-mode mobile suit
Manufacturer: Morgenroete, Inc
Operator(s): Earth Alliance (Atlantic Federation); Three Ships Alliance
First deployment: 26 January C.E. 71
Accommodation: pilot only, in standard cockpit in torso
Dimensions: head height 17.72 meters
Weight: max gross weight 85.1 metric tons
Construction: unknown
Powerplant: ultracompact energy battery, power output rating unknown
Equipment and design features: sensors, range unknown; Phase Shift (PS) armor; hardpoints for mounting Striker packs
Fixed armaments: 2 x "Igelstellung" 75mm multi-barrel CIWS, fire-linked, mounted in head; 2 x "Armor Schneider" combat knives, stored in hip armor, hand-carried in use; 2 x beam saber, stored on Aile pack, hand-carried in use; shield, mounted on left arm
Optional hand armaments: 57 mm high-energy beam rifle, power rating unknown

Read more from the source: Aile Strike Gundam

Done using SB-600(CLS mode), D70s and kit lense.