Personal

13 March 20063 September 2011

Aah… I’m not happy today

I had a fairly ok weekend which started out with some meetings with people connected to my-kart. The first meeting didn’t go well as there was a mis-match in expectations from both sides.

The second meeting on Saturday was alright, but I went to the wrong place. Eventually I got there, but late! I hate being late. Anyway, the second meeting was in relation to my-kart’s Racing For Children initiative. We are getting one step closer to getting the project off the ground. So that’s good.

Anyway, then Ju and I went looking at some houses in Bukit Jelutong. Nice. But expensive. Hmmm…. must work on the money generator machine.

So it was back home to watch the first F1 race of 2006. Let’s see how BMW and Jacques Villeneueve fares this year. Not so good it seems. Qualifying was average mid grid kind of show, so not a complete disaster… but rather the middle of the road performance that you rather not have. The race was not so good either… with Hiedfeld slipping down the order after a first lap spin. And then Jacques’ BMW blew up spectacularly. Haven’t seen those in a long time. What will happen in the next race?

As for the A1GP – Alex Yoong qualified in a best ever 4th place at Laguna Seca. But sadly, the conditions for the sprint race was torrid with heavy rain causing Alex to spin down the order. The feature race was slightly better as Alex managed to claw back to 10th. This drops Malaysia back down to 10th in the championship standings. Aargh.

Not a great weekend from a racing standpoint. Let’s hope the Malaysian GP weekend next week is better. For now, go and read some info on classical music.

26 February 200625 January 2016

Master Yoda, I am.

I took the above quick survey and discovered that I am that old short green fellow. Urgh.

Here is what it says about me (Yoda):

A venerated sage with vast power and knowledge, you gently guide forces around you while serving as a champion of the light.

Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not – for my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, and binds us. Luminescent beings are we, not this crude matter! You must feel the Force around you, everywhere.

Try it out and tell us here who you turn out to be.

1 February 200624 April 2017

Busy, but so many things to do for my-kart

It’s the usual year end thing. You see, I’m an accountant – of sorts. Our company year end is December. So January is usually a hectic time for us as we close our books and the auditors come in. But typing this down is already boring, so I’ll quit.

I guess karting is more interesting.

Anyway, a few weeks back a few of us my-kart guys paid a visit to Rosedi Kart at Subang Jaya. Subang Jaya navigation is not for the meek, I must say. With all the massive road works and the terminal & inherent traffic problems, you really need to know exactly how you are going to get to your destination. Otherwise you’d be stuck in a chronic traffic jam.

The visit to Rosedi Kart was good, but I’ve written more of it on my-kart.org. It is interesting that there are many people around who believe and want to push grassroots racing & karting. Fellow my-karter Yusnee and I also paid a visit to Brian Palmer at Shah Alam to chat with him about the state of the industry.

In conclusion, there seems to be a lot of work to be done to get the industry into first gear. Unfortunately for years the motorsport industry has been starting and stalling, starting and stalling. A sad state for us fans and enthusiasts. The oil, air and fuel filters are all clogged up.

my-KART is fired up to be a part of the solution… but how? Are you keen to be a part of this wave of change?

21 January 200625 January 2016

Getting zonked out every 24 hours

Been very busy with lots of things.

My schedule just fills up as quickly as toilet cistern. Whenever it is empty something just fills it out without asking. One of the madness that is currently consuming my wife and I in our toilet cistern life is our addition to the TV series “24”.

We’ve been watching the seasons 1 to 4 on DVD. Can’t really bother with the free-to-air Astro broadcasting because –

i keep forgetting the schedules
i cannot commit my time to the scheduled airing times
one week is too long to wait for the next episode
if I miss one episode, I’d be frustrated
censorship

The thing about 24 is the pacing is incredibly taut. Excellent stuff. Each episode ends with a cliff hanger, and the speed the story moves is frantic. Imagine getting home from work at 9 or 10pm and catching 2 or 3 episodes a night. I wake up in the morning like a zombie.

It doesn’t help that work is sometimes equally mad… like meetings that start at 0830hrs and end at 2130hrs!

16 January 200624 April 2017

Tested my Rotax 125

Yesterday, Munib and I went to the USJ Elite kart circuit for a few rounds on our Rotax Max.

I can concluded 3 things:

I don’t know much about karting technicals
the track is very bumpy and physical (ouch!)
need to improve my fitness *sigh*

The chassis is an Arrow 2004 ax5-125 chassis. Not sure whether that is correct. The handling was alright, although the bumpy USJ circuit did not help the relatively stiff chassis. A few times the bumps caused my foot to either fly off the pedals or on to it! Imagine going round one of the fast (& bumpy) corners and having the left foot accidently hit the brakes… that was a bugger moment for me.

Luckily for me, the kart was set with a bit of toe-out (1mm), thus making the kart less likely to spin under braking. Still, I felt that it made cornering a bit less compliant. Perhaps a bit more neutral toe setting. May want to experiment with a bit of toe-in as well.