“We’re all UNIX guys. The rest of the world are just commoners. We always do things in a different way”

Gotta love my boss :D

Last Thursday Bloo was admitted to the hospital and an urgent open-heart surgery is done to it. The entire process took about roughly 10 man hours to complete.

This morning he is discharged, and eager than ever to run!

Some of the changes (that I can recall):

1. Head Cover Gasket changed (leaking - causing the engine oil to disappear over time)
2. Valve Cover Gasket changed (leaking - causing the engine oil to disappear over time)
3. Valve Seals changed (leaking - causing the engine oil to disappear over time)
4. Con-rod Bearings changed
5. Radiator flushed - get rid of those sludge build ups
6. Upper, Lower and 4x Bypass water hose changed (they starting to crack)
7. Piston Rings changed (they are leaking)
8. Complete set of timing belts, aircond belts and power steering belts changed
9. New clutch plate (old one worn out, making an annoying ‘eeek och eeek och‘ sound during gear change)
10. New sets of front wheel bearing (making ‘eek eek eek eek‘ sounds during certain speed)
11. Valve skimmed (get rid of those pesky carbon build ups
12. Clutch/gearbox seal replaced (leaking - causing gearbox fluid to slowly sip out, and making the gearbox overheat)
13. All fluid/lubricants flushed and refilled (coolant, engine oil, power steering fluid, brake fluid)

Bloo feels much much lighter to drive now, and I like how the new clutch is lighter than the old one (shorter by a bit too), making gearshift swift and on the dot. Engine revs better now, much much smoother than before (I love how it sounds now every time it is cranked up :D)

Cost to stake? RM 1275.00. It was originally RM 875.00, but I asked them to change the clutch as well and do some radiator servicing + coolant, so it adds up. Worth the extra, since Bloo’s old clutch is nearing its end, and changing the clutch on the later day would incur more labor charges, as they have to again dismantle the gearbox portion - might as well do it one shot right? :D

There’s still some things to iron out - as the mechanic told me, he can’t test almost everything on the workshop, so I would need to drive it for around 1000km and send it back for further tune/servicing (which is free) - the engine is meant to be treated as a virgin engine (like a new car).

Overall, I’m happy, at least I can have peace of mind for the next few years (hopefully) - although Bloo’s new coat of paint would have to wait, since I’ve already used the allocation to pay for the overhaul.

Hang in there Bloo!

Don’t worry, no real living thing is involved in this incident. Bloo is a name me and BeBe use to refer to our Blue-colored Proton Wira 1.3 (M).

The thing about Bloo is, it’s been sick for quite a while already, and thanks to it’s poor owners, fixing him is always put at the last priority. Bloo is having its gaskets worn out, and timing belts being loose.

On my way to work today, the car’s engine suddenly fainted. Luckily the road is practically traffic-free (you gotta love Cyberjaya for this), so I can pull to the side and pop up the hood to check what’s going on. There’s no sign of oil spills or anything wrong with the radiator. The car is not overheating even. There’s plenty of fuel in the tank left.

I did something I shouldn’t do (I should’ve called the insurance tow truck actually) - cranked the car. The engine starts, with abnormal sounds and some metal scraping sound. My guess at the moment is the timing belt slipped a little bit, causing the timing to go haywire. The car can be driven, with severe power loss. I slowly drove Bloo to the workshop in Equine park, which is recommended by one of the mates I know in the car world.

Upon inspection - my guess is right, the timing belts are gone. He even scolded me for driving the car after what happened.

Mech: “Lu gila ka! Ini sudah kong tepi jalan lagi you mau drive! Panggil itu truck insurans mah! Free saja boleh tarik mari sini!”

Me: “Ahaha~ Mana tahu ini teruk tokey…”

Mech: “Kalau tak teruk dia tarak mati tepi yalan itu macam mah! Lagi ada ini munyik! Nanti ini engine blow lu baru tau!”

Since it’s been in this condition, I decided to ask the guy to do complete overhaul on Bloo - it’s time to give him a new heart, well technically new that is.

So Bloo is now warded until Monday, I’ll come and take a look at him again tomorrow. Looking forward!

Everyone procrastinate, right?

Ever since I moved to this new house, I have this habit of collecting dirty mugs, glasses and cups. Until we ran out of clean ones!

Typically, here’s how it looked like after three days of procrastinating (to clean the used cups, glasses and mugs):

Now I need to clean them up or no more coffee/coke/apple juice for myself (unless I want to use the bowl!)

Birthday Surprise

Today’s my turn to become a quarter-century old, and it have a very good start!

I got one big question, open for all.

What if your subordinate, who refuses to do any job (within their scope) with the reason “I don’t know” and having no initiative to try to find out anything about it, but have the cheek (and very high initiative) to ask you to do follow-up on their case of not getting paid enough, and have the cheek to ask you to promote them to a department that is even higher than your own manager’s position?

What would you do to this guy? As far as employment rights is concerned, of course his case (if there’s any) should be followed up. But would it be worth it? I am in no position of paying him or decided how much he would get paid. Should I even bother?

Or,

Should I throw him out of the window instead?

Anyone?

Whoah, this is quite unexpected, but this blog was mentioned in The Star In Tech on 29th May 2007!

Pardon my excitement, but I’ve never been mentioned in newspapers, even if it is a small mention :D

I’m sorry guys, this is yet-another-whine thread. If you don’t like these kind of post, back off now. This post don’t really have a direct relation on my previous post “Why Do People Make Their Lives Hard?. But I do feel that it is somewhat around the same action people always do.

We often hear employees complain about their company not being on-time, not being competent, not paying enough, etc. I mean, these kind of thing happens all the time. Let’s look at one recent incident that almost cause me to be a murderer.

You see, recently, my team involves in a company transition (we are transferred from company X to company E). Company E promised to give a better or equal, pro-rated benefits as given by company X. This is written in their offer letter, thus a black and white is there. (more…)