Common yet uncommon..

Plane liveries don’t really catch our eye. Its not something that makes us awe, maybe because of its plain and simple appearance. Its also cheaper to keep things simple and amount of colours to a minimum. After all, a plane does require a few hundred litres of paint to be painted fully although the paint coating is less than 3 millimeters thick.

But there are some planes out there that makes you say wow because of their paintwork. These liveries range from cartoon characters being painted to the plane to special themes or events. here are some famous ones that are bound to make you admire they’re paintwork…

Japan Airlines’ (JAL) Disney's livery… to promote Disneyland in Tokyo, Japan.

Another Disney themed JAL plane. Both are 747-400s.

An Alaskan airline 737-800 with yet another Disney livery.

Another Alaskan airline 737-800, but this time, themed with the “make a wish” theme which includes the famous blue genie from the cartoon Aladdin.

Western Pacific’s Boeing 737-400 with the Simpson's livery.

A McDonnell Douglas MD-83 with the official FIFA 2010 livery.

A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER with the Freedom Of Space livery. Short name, Heliconia. Regarded as one of the most beautiful plane out there.

A Malaysian Airline Boeing 747-400 with the hibiscus livery.

A continental Boeing 777-200ER with the Peter Max livery. This livery is meant to commemorate Peter Max for his iconic style during the 60s.

An Etihad Airways Airbus A340-600 with the 2009 F1 Abu Dhabi theme.

An Air Asia Airbus A340-300 with its Oakland Raiders theme.

So there you have it. Beautiful aren’t they?

How to avoid ghosts in hotel rooms

Ever had those pesky calls at night when your sleeping in a hotel?... You wake up and answer only to hear no one on the line or maybe a mysterious eerie voice asking you to get your ass out? If your one of them, read this to avoid those friendly people of the dead from disturbing you in any hotel ever again! This was from an email, caught my attention so i decided to share it..

For single hotels, there is at least one permanent room which should be left vacant at all times. No matter how full the hotel is, they are not to sell that room(s) to any guest. It is said that the special room is 'reserved' for those 'special visitors'. So, if you plan to stay in some hotel, always book in advance. Try to avoid walk-ins. If the receptionist tells you there's no more room available, do not insist to get one anymore or try to bribe them to give you a room. If you do that, most of the time the room you have will be that 'special room'.

Sometimes those 'special visitors' might go to other rooms also, so here's some tips on how to protect yourself.
Before entering your room, always knock on the door first, even if you know the room is vacant. After you enter the room, if you feel very cold suddenly and have'chicken spore', leave the room quietly immediately and go to the reception to request to change room. Most of the time, the receptionist will understand what's happening.

After you enter the room, immediately switch on all of the lights, and open the curtain to let the sunlight in.Before you go to bed,arrange your shoes so that one of them is upside down.. Some say this represents yin and yang to protect you while you're asleep. Always leave at least a lamp on while you're sleeping, preferably the toilet lamp..
If you' re staying alone and they have give you a twin bed, do not sleep with the other bed vacant, try to put your things, like luggage, on the other bed before you sleep.. or you might find one white sexy beeyatch to get laid with...but not in a nice way.

Here's another tip. When you enter your hotel room,look for the Bible. Most hotels place the Bible inside a drawer, however, if upon entering, you see the Bible on the table, DON'T STAY IN THAT ROOM. It means 'special visitors' are there.If you see the Bible opened up on the table, LEAVE THAT ROOM IMMEDIATELY and request for a change of room! It means the 'special visitor' is really creating trouble in that room!

Now for those of you who prefer cinemas instead of hotels, here are some advise for you movie junkies as well...

Do not attend the first screening of any movies in the cinema. By the first screening, I mean the first time the movie is shown in that particular cinema. What's the reason? The first screening is meant for the 'special visitors'. However, if you insist on going, then sit somewhere in the middle. The first and last rows are reserved for 'them'. Be warned....

Well my dear readers, so now you know how to defend yourselves in hotels and cinemas, that is, if you think you have not wasted 5 precious minuted of your life reading this =).

Back To The Future

It doesn't really end up as a priority in anyone’s life, but yet, we often sit down, gaze upon the heavens above and ask ourselves, is time travel really possible? Can i make a time machine and go back to see my great grandfather or go forward to see my great grandson?Well, the answer is..YES. But for now, you can only travel to the future. Dont be jumping with joy just yet, you aint going nowhere anytime soon.

Before 1905 there wasn't much to say about time. In the 17th century Newton defined time as something that continues, no matter what, without any link with reality and according to its own nature. Everybody believed that time had its influence on the environment, but if you believed that the environment had its influence on time, you really had to be mad! That changed in 1905 with Einstein's special relativity theory, in which he showed that time can be influenced. But this doesn't mean time can be changed in such a way that you can travel to the future or the past.

Einstein, based on a few experiments, showed us that time can actually slow down or speed up based on 2 factors, gravity and speed of light. The more closer you place a clock to the earth’s center, the faster time runs. This has been demonstrated by noting that atomic clocks at differing altitudes (and thus different gravitational potential) will eventually show different times. The effects detected in such experiments are extremely small, with differences being measured in nanoseconds.

Another theory states that, time slows down as an object accelerates. Time will stand completely still if an object were to travel at the speed of light. Take for example, an express bus moving along the freeway at 100 km/h. If you were to stand stationary, you will see the bus move across you at 100 km/h. However, if you were travelling at 100km/h beside the bus, the bus would appear stationary. Thus is you were to move at 101km/h, you will slowly but surely overtake time (the bus) itself.

Time is space is called spacetime. This spacetime is usually distorted by matter. It curves around matter thus taking a longer route.

In the picture above, time is represent by the grid and the matter is represented by earth. As matter distorts time from its path, it curves, thus slowing down the speed by increasing its travelling distance from one point to another. To put things in perspective, here’s another example. If you are travelling a total distance of 200km on A STRAIGHT ROAD, you are guaranteed to reach faster than taking a windy road towards your destination. This is because the straight road has less distance compared to the windy road even though both the roads have a same displacement of 200 km.

Here’s a 2d picture of how time bends with the presence of matter nearby in space. Now, if we were travelling using the displacement of time, and not the distance, we would have overtaken time and thus, travelled to the future. Another good example of distance vs. displament can be shown by an ordinary 15 cm plastic ruler. Take the ruler, and bend to a “n”. Notice that to travel using the distance, it would be a full 15cm. But if you take the displacement route to get from one point to the other , the distance is only about 7-8cm. This is the theory Einstein had put forward and it has been proven over and over again by both mathematicians and physicist.

In fact, Cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev holds the world record for TIME TRAVEL. He traveled 0.02 seconds into the futureThere's no time-traveling phone booths. What Avdeyev did to travel in time is to orbit the Earth 11,968 times over the course of 748 days in the Mir space station. By the time his stint in space was over, he had experienced 0.2 seconds less than the rest of the world did.This made him 0.2 seconds younger than he would have been if he had never gone into space. To put it in another way, he traveled 0.02 seconds into the future.

There you go, not the ideal thing but hey, its travelling through time man!

Hot, hotter, hottest..

 

How many times have u gone… “Oh @*%$..i ate a chili!!'” Its weird that many of us know that its hot without knowing the reason for it to be so… Well, chilies have a little secret weapon in them called capsaisin. It is an irritant for mammals including humans and it produces a burning sensation when in contact with tissue. Now i’m assuming your next question would be… why do chilies vary in hotness?… Well its simple really… the answer is simply because, chilies have a variety of species just like any other plants.

How are the hottest chilis determined? Believe it or not, the most common test involves human taste-testers. In the “Scoville Organoleptic Test”, chili extract is diluted in sugar water until the heat of its spice is no longer detectable to a panel of tasters. The resulting heat rating, measured in Scoville heat units, is a measure of how much the chili had to be diluted. “The hottest chiles, such as habaneros, have a rating of 300,000 or more, indicating that their extract has to be diluted 300,000-fold before the capsaicin present is undetectable.”

For normal human beings like me and you (i hope)… the normal bird-eye chili or “cili padi” is enough to send you spinning through space and back, the ranking of the bird eye chili in the Scoville scale is just a mere 50,000–100,000. It sounds alot but in fact its nothing compared to its other species. The most plain chili would be the bell pepper or known to most of us as… capsicum.

Now for those slighty weird ones out there, there is something that may satisfy your hunger for stomach ulcers and gastritis. Bhut Jolokia or Ghost Chili is commonly regarded as the world’s hottest chili pepper. Measuring at not 100 or 200 thousand units… but an ass-whooping 855,000–1,075,000 units. Now thats one way of commiting suicide. Also, in some places, bhut jolokia is also known as naga jolokia. Its origin is from northeast india.

So the next time you curse over those dreaded chilies that make it in your mouth… spare a thought on how it works and be thankful all you normal people that the pepper in your mouth is no ghost chili =)

 

BELL PEPPERS For weenies only
	BIRD EYE PEPPERS / CILI PADI Enough to send most of us   flying  without wings
Bhut jolokia/ Naga jolokia… Not something you should try before signing up for life insurance

Summary of 2009

And so passes by the year 2009. Much has come and gone and more importantly, much has been learnt. Overall 2009 was quite a rough year for me and am really hoping 2010 will bring better (amen). The starting of 2009 was a smooth ride as i managed to fly to india and visit exotic places such as the golden temple, amritsar and also the taj mahal, agra.

However it wasnt all that smooth when i came back as friendship was put to the test and seriously, take my word for it, friendship ends for a better reason always. Never mind that. There were good times such as me receiving the letter from air asia saying that i have been selected for their cadet pilot test.

However luck wasnt really on my side at that interview, and worst still i have been stuck in form 6 eversince. Oh well. Life’s been pretty bumpy in 2009, filled with lots of joy and sadness. Well no one can expect to have joy alone right?

So here’s a toast to 2010, may it bring all the luck i need and may god bless!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Fleet expansion

As you all are aware of, i’m a self proclaimed plane enthusiast. And one of my hobbies, besides fishing, includes collecting plane models, be it military, civilian, vintage, model kits or even helicopters. However for now i’ve just started collecting modern airlines or civilian aircrafts.

For now my fleet consists of 4 aircraft, 2 from kl and 2 from dubai. Anyhow, my plan is to expand the fleet to at least 10 aircraft by February. So for now i have a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 737-800, a Virgin Atlantic 747-400, American airlines 777-200 and a Lufthansa a380-800.

The scale varies for all 4 models because i cant seem to get 2 planes of the same scale… Malaysians dont really seem to take interest in these kinda hobbies i suppose. Which makes me the odd one out…lol.

These planes are not only just scale models, but they are the exact replicas of the real thing. As usual, alot of attention is given to the details from the engine fans, flaps, spoilers to even the special livery for that particular plane.

Well nothing much here for me to blog about….so here are some pics as usual…

~Falcon~

The 737-800 in KLM Livery.

Britain's Virgin Atlantic 747-400

As usual, detail is the key to making the plane look perfect

American Airlines 777-200. This one is the GE-90 engine version.

Lufthansa Airbus a380-800. The biggest of its kind YET.

And of course its the details that makes all the difference

The whole collection

The McDaddy of speakers

Nothing satisfies me most than having a good sound system. Be it car, home theatre. computer etc. As long as i can hear good balance between bass and treble, i’m a happy man.

Even my my mom’s car speaker tore…i really couldnt stand it and i went and bought a new pair for rm 30 just after 3 days of driving. Music’s always my passion and i like it perfect =). My previous subwoofer which wasnt really a branded one, was giving me a satisfactory performance.

Old is gold i suppose..haha. My previous woofer had one spec that most modern day middle class woofers dont. The ability to manipulate the balance between bass and treble. For me this feature is ESSENTIAL. Anyway within the past 6 months my reliable woofer was showing its colors already. Cant blame it, its 7 years old ya.

The left speaker was the culprit actually.. real pms case la… sometimes will work, sometimes wont work. So damn annoying. Anyway..i was fed up and i couldn’t stand the sound. However my budget didnt allow me to purchase a new one right away at that time..was a bit in a financial crisis as i had newly bought my phone.

Initially my budget was around RM +/-120. And the only brand i wanted was edifier…nothing else. Wanted sonic gear but than the sound quality sucks for me (sorry yong seng :P). Creative was also another option but somehow its hard to find it here in ipoh. Initially my eyes were set on the edifier m1335. A simple mid range woofer for the moderate user.

There were really good comments about it and also it had a rating or 9.5/10 for its class. However the inability to control the mix of treble and bass would take its toll. Than while i was browsing around, i bumped into the edifier m1550 5.1 system. With 5 speakers, its sure to pack a punch i thought. But the reviews told me otherwise. The set was well known to give out too much bass and again, one could not control the mix of bass and treble.

Again i was forced to rethink my choices. Still aiming for edifier, I came across the edifier C2 in lowyat.net. I was impressed as not only did it look awesome, it also had treble and bass control =D. So i aimed for this one right away…the thing was…it was already an obsolete model and now the C series was fully monopolized by the edifier C3 which is around Rm400. However upon further research, I stumbled upon the improved version of the C2, it was the edifier HCS2330. This model was produced for 2 reasons, 1 was because the C3 was crazy expensive and 2nd was because edifier wanted to expand its C series. The price of the edifier HCS2330 was around RM 290.

So i started saving since september and finally managed to save enough to get me this set. Went to my regular shop in yik foong complex. Asked for the price and to my amazement, they dealer went “ its rm 275 friend”… ha… 15 bux cheaper…but it gets better…after a hot bargain, managed to grab it for rm 260 =D….now if that’s not a good deal than i dunno wat is.

And so i’m listening to some awesome quality music while writing this post. All thanks to a bit of hard work of saving some money…talk about saving for a rainy day eh?…lol…anyway here are some pics of my edifier =D…its getting late…time for the bed to take me in =D..night guys.

finally got it… was dying to open and test power…lol

Edifier…might not have the looks of sonic gear…but certainly the best in sound quality…and a no.1 choice for me =D

The improved version of the C2…and way cheaper compared to the C3

Speakers or satellites along with their wiring and a cute remote.

The big deal, the woofer and the amplifier sitting peacefully below…waiting =D

The whole set =D

In comparison with my old woofer…the long bass throwing speaker of my edifier is bigger than the entire woofer of my old system.

The edifier satellites with the surf sound ones..

BEFORE

AFTER

The remote control is not only cute, its an edifier trademark…only edifier woofers come with remote controls be it wired or wireless

The most outstanding feature of the C series. Its external amplifier that allows one to control the mix between the treble and bass…a must have if u ask me =D