Middle lane whta talkin abot...?

Now, what I am about to rant is what is happening out there and I hope this does not turn into another century of debates. The star of the topic is which lane to drive on when we are using our Malaysian highways, expressway, lebuh-raya etc..

A quick check in the internet will review many variants debates that mix and match logic, common-sense, and lawfully the right way to drive.

In ancient Ford-T time, there were only one carriage way. And it has to be shared with the blood veined horse and the petrol one. There wasn't any law enacted until some poor sods got hit or startled horse starts to galloping away without its handler.

When dual carriage way comes into existence, everyone was peaceful and happy. All bliss.

But then as more and more powerful metal horses gets to the road, situation becomes more congested. Horse and metal horse jostled for a piece of the road. And no one ever knew how one should react properly when they are sharing the ever congested roads with other users. So some geniuses gets together and come to an agreement that if one is not going any faster than the bloke behind, he should move to the left in the UK, or to the right as in the case of the US drivers. 

Blah blah blah...later, comes to Malaysia. When modernisation and tons of cars are put onto the road every month, dual carriageway seems to be extremely congested and vehicles are being driven on road shoulders. So clever government of the day comes out with a brilliant idea. Making it a three laned highway. Now, we have a shoulder lane aka emergency stop lane, a left lane, a middle lane, and a right lane.

Now, the dilemma is which lane is the appropriate lane to be on when under different circumstances. 

If one is driving slowly or probably trying to chat up his girl companion, he would probably be driving on the most left-est lane, happily tailing the rows of lorrys and commercial vehicles. And for the normal guys who just want to reach his destination smoothly, he would probably drive on the middle lane because he hated the clueless drivers who drove so ever slowly on the left-est lane, and despises the speed maniacs on the rightest lane. He like many others routine freak, will stick to the middle lane and declared it the cruise lane. Doing within the speed limit and gingerly following one another. For the speed maniac, any vehicles on the left is a total whuss. Its like Hamilton on his MP4-12C overtaking the Jeremy's Kia Cee'd...Loser.

Okay, now that everything is in its place where they should be, right? No.. No .. No.. The righteous folks out there would scorned and spit at this writer for suggesting that the middle lane is a cruise lane. They will pour petrol on this issue and lit it up just so to cleanse their mind from this utter non-sense of driving in the middle lane for as long as one like. They swore allegiance  to the law of "when not overtaking, stay left" .

But the routine obsessed folks would say otherwise. They would say logic and common-sense dictates what's right or wrong when using such lanes. 

Logic and commonsense is after all the fundamentals of a law being made. They argued that, rather than wheezing in and out of the slow lane and endangering their lives and that of other road users, by remaining on the middle lane at a constant speed will in fact be safer. It is also much safer than speeding on the rightest lane. Studies have shown that a constant driving situation will actually smoothen out traffic than juggling a stop and go driving condition on the slow lane. They also argue that by staying on the slow lane and tailing a train of slow truckers and drivers above 70 years of age could actually increases the chances of a rear collision of happening. Not exactly brilliant too to pull out of the slow lane only to be "lazer-ed' by high beamed lights from "cruising cars" and the loose of dignity of sort for having to be "shoved" back into the slow lane. That would really cheesed off the drivers.

Right, what should be the right and left and center of this issue? Negatively obedient to the law, or common sense prevails?

Before the Kukri and AK is drawn out, I do agree that when not over-taking slower vehicles, you should move aside and not to hog the road. Period. But when it comes to when one is on the middle lane of a 3 lane highway, does this applies? Yes and no. Again, common-sense prevails.

You move aside if there's lot of space upfront for one to happily cruise on by. You move aside briefly if you do not want to speed up to close the gap in front of the car. You move aside if the bloke behind is in an emergency.

Kesas toll nightmare

Being using it since it was built back in the early 2000.
The highway or rather expressway (at some section) were quite taunting to drive on. Its undulation condition can be quite unnerving to the unsuspecting speedsters which could bounce their car off the tarmac.

Besides the undulations condition of the road surfaces, debris such as chunks of tyre rubbers, stones, pebbles, rubbish etc. were considered quite normal in this part of the highway. If you are unlucky enough to have ran over one, be prepared for some heavy car repair work.

Resulting from such debris as well is pebbles thrown up by ill shielded backends of lorry and trucks. This flying pebbles sometimes the size of a 10sen will cracked if not shatter windscreen.
During my days with my Wira, I have had 3 windscreen changes in a span of 5 years resulting directly from pebbles thrown up along Kesas highway.
Not to mention also the dins and scratch on the bonnet of the car from these projectiles.

Now lately, there seems to be some sort of riot happening at Kesas.
1. Heavy vehicles are no longer following the rules to drive on the slow lane. I have noticed this lately with many truckers preferred to drive either on the middle lane or some on the fast lane. Hogging up the road.
Without being prejudiced, I checked if the left aka slow lane were clogged which explains why the truckers were on the middle lane. And to my disbelief, the slow lane were actually empty for at least quarter of a mile. With this distance of emptiness, the truckers have no reason whatsoever not to be using them but instead hogging now the middle lane.

2. Heavy vehicles have found themselves a new habit of using the light vehicle toll booths instead of the designated ones situated usually on the leftest side of the toll plaza.
Now, this have created a massive disorientation situation where heavy vehicles begin to jostle for position to use light vehicle lanes.
It is not much of an issue if the booths were also located on the far left of the plaza, but with some of these light vehicles only booth on the right side, these heavy lorrys just crossed over from the slow lane to the rightest part of the approaching toll plaza.
Can you now imagine the danger of these crossing over of long heavy vehicles to the right?
It would be a massive vehicle pile up if one such drivers were to span his lorry across the toll plaza and causing other vehicles to collide with it.

3. In relation to the above point, when exiting the toll, these heavy vehicles were more and often slower to accelerate to speed. Causing faster and nimbler vehicles needing to overtake them from the left. Now, by law it says overtaking on the left is illegal, and with such unlawfulness of the heavy vehicles, it has created a more dire situation of choas.

Kesas is a life line of industry. The lifeline for many importation of goods and exportations of local manufactured products. Needless to say, it is extremely important to the growth of the nation. With such importance put on, Kesas authority should be more perceptive  in ensuring the the safety of the users of this highway and to ensure all measures are taken to prevent accidents from happening.

Middle lane, slow lane, fast lane - wat's bugging?

I find this ancient topic both interesting and at the same time, non-sensical.

The highway code of "ikut kiri kalau tidak memotong" or literarily "keep left when not overtaking when the road is clear" was probably raised to provide a guideline to motorist on how to behave when they enter the expressway or dual carriageway. In this context, it is logical and good driving manners to stay in the left lane when you are not overtaking a slower car. It ensures that there is no hogging of the road.

However, when highways and expressway expands in the numbers of lanes, the stay left when not overtaking may not be applicable or practical at all.
Obviously if you are in the middle lane, and being the inner lane is empty and clear ahead, you are to drive on the inner lane and let faster vehicle passes you on the middle lane. However, if that was the case,  what would be the purpose of the right or outer lane built for?
To be used for cars overtaking cars that are itself overtaking slower cars in the inner lane?

There are many hypocrite out there who loudly shouted for folks to follow stay left when not overtaking even though in real life situation, staying left most of the time never existed.

I find folks wanting to appear lawful but in fact they themselves are patron of mild-unlawful act such as driving on the middle lane. How many would have sworn that they always stay on the left even though the middle and fast lane were empty?

Such law are there as a guideline for motorist. Practical and commonsense should prevail when driving on the road, expressway or highway.
Don't be a oxy-moron or negative obediently following the "holy lawful imbeciles!!"


Silly indeed...!

Watches

Its one of those things that men have nowadays...
Well, I got started on watches after stumbling upon a local website selling new and pre-owned ones. Before that, a watch for me is just a time piece to keep time, and occasionally as a dress accessories.
My watches were pretty ordinary with brands such as Tissot, and Swatch. Yup, that's pretty cool already to my standard as each of them cost around a grand plus.
Well, I would love to own a piece of Omega or perhaps an Oris Meistemaster but it is exorbitantly priced in the range of RM8k and RM5K respectively. For me, these pieces are the holy grail of watches. Until I visited the website.
It opens up entirely my perspective of watches. For once, I realised that I could now own an Omega or Oris with just a mere fraction of the original retailing price. Now, my range of wanted watches suddenly expanded. From Azimuth to Zenith, A to Z.
More so when I later stumbled on to Malaysia watch forum, and Singapore's watch exchange forum.
Although the opportunities are more pronounced now, I would need to be careful and be very selective of my choice of watch to get.


I now know such thing such as automatic and quartz. I know what is jewels in the watch. I now know what's a movement and who manufactures them. So now, I have learned to appreciate watches and the value of it.
Now my view of an Omega has change. It is no longer my no.1 desire to own wrist watch. And why is that? Simple. I go for originality. Now, don't get me wrong. The genuine Omega is genuine Omega, but its movement is not. Its mechanism are bought from world renowed movements makers from Swiss such as ETA, and Unitas.
These movement makers provides a wide range of mechanism to suits its customers. They could be upgraded and refined by the customers themselves to create some uniques in their own brands.
So, an Omega that cost probably RM7,000 may have the same movement as to an Edox that probably cost RM5,000 in retails.
So now, if I were to plonked in a couple of grands or more, I would read up the history of the watches, and identify its movement whether the pieces are made in-house or it is a mass produced movement that are refined by the brand owner.
Of course, in-house made movement watches would generally cost more, but then, the values' there.
The genuine  of it is there.

Now I owned some pretty nice and reputable watches..and I am finding more wrist time for them. As I typed away this post, I have with me each watch on both hands...hahaha automatics..you need to move them ..

So, if you can't afford to own one now, then save up for one.

Hari Malaysia Hari Merdeka

We celebrated our 54th. Independence yesterday, and in conjunction, the forming of Malaysia as well.

Many general public took this public holidays to stay home or go for a holiday. None so much a local would really usurp up the atmosphere of Independence day and the fanfare of it. For most of us, its just another day. The love for the country have dwindled. This is evidently shown in the numbers of flags being flown out there whether in buildings or on vehicles.

Most of the extraordinary big Jalur Gemilang out there are either GLCs or as one of the corporate policies. Nothing more.
Vehicle donning flags were glaringly missing from the streets as compared to before PRU12. Those days, the achievement of Tun in wrestling with IMF and the economic downturn, have turned everyone into extra ordinary patriotic and folks were going around petrol stations seeking for such mini flags to be donned on their cars. But that was then, and presently there is no such feel anymore.

It was some time ago where the folks generally believed that the best time to call for a general election is when you see flags everywhere, on cars and buildings. That will be a good sign that the citizen's sentiment towards the ruling government is good.
If you see otherwise, it is best to just delay as long as possible the general election while finding ways to restore the good feeling of the country's citizen.

Sometimes we asked ourselves, what are the issues out there that are making us flaming mad about the government? What have they done or not do that have affected our ways of life and that of our younger generations to come?
Simply what's the matter with the government that you are mad about?

Well for one, the living expenses nowadays have increased so much as compared with the pay that one get. The government's report of 2-3% inflation rate is stupendously unbelievable as a plate of char koay tiow now cost RM4.50 for a small plate, and RM5.00 for a big one.
In January 2011, it would have been RM3.50 and RM4.50 respectively. So the maths worked out to be 28% increase !
Electricity bills are slowly creeping up, and thank God for the subsidising of water bill, otherwise we would have to slave our entire live just to earn a living.

What's so great about Merdeka if we are still terbelenggung with low income and high living cost?

My merdeka wish would be to abolish income tax (at least by half), and free medical benefits. That would be the best Merdeka any Malaysians would have !!

Salam Merdeka..

Mat Sabu - Komunislah hero negara...

Mengenai perkara tersebut, ia amat mengejutkan apabila Mat Sabu menyatakan atau bersaran bahawa anggota-anggota polis yang terkorban di Bkt.Kepong bukanlah hero dan kumpulan komunislah sepatutnya hero negara.
Kita rasa tersinggung dengan kenyataan tersebut dan rasa pelik juga kenapa Mat Sabu sanggup mengeluarkan kenyataan tersebut. Apakah dia sudah ke tandusan idea untuk mendapatkan sokongan atau agenda untuk berdialog dengan penyokongnya?
Adakah dia sebenarnya “trojan horse” parti pemerintah yang diselitkan dalam PKR untuk membuat hal dan kecoh supaya penyokong tersebut akan memulaukan parti tersebut?

Pelbagai reaksi kesangsian dan kontrovesi terhadap Mat Sabu kini telah tercetus apatah lagi dengan tuduhan penyelewengan perbelanjawan perubatannya baru-baru ini. Ia sedikit sebanyak memang memberi persepsi buruk terhadap PKR dan PAS yang berlaung-laungkan ketelusan dan keadilan.
Akan tetapi pada pendapat saya, penyokong dua-dua parti tersebut tidak mudah berpindah kem, tetapi lebih bersikap ingin tahu daripada mahu mengambil tindakan memulaukan parti tersebut.
Mereka kini mesti berpendapat bahawa Mat Sabu ini sebenarnya agen parti pemerintah. Mahu tak mahu, saya rasa inilah sentimen golongan penyokong parti lawan ini buat masa kini.

Kenyataan yang dikeluarkan Karpal Singh memang dilihat sebagai “damage control” buat parti PKR. Memang diketahui suatu kenyataan akan dikeluarkan PKR untuk mengawal situasi daripada menjadi lebih teruk. Tetapi, seperti biasa adakah kenyataan tersebut sememangnya jujur? Adakah ianya suatu daripada pelbagai cara untuk memperbetulkan suatu perkara atau percakapan yang terlanjur batas kefahaman dan perjuangan parti tersebut?

Walau bagaimana pun, kenyataan Mat Sabu ini adalah sangat tidak bertanggung jawab dan tidak sepatutnya diungkapkan oleh seseorang pemimpin rakyat yang kononnya memperjuangkan hak-hak kebebasan dan kemerdekaan rakyat.
Tidak kira fahaman apajua pun, perjuangan oleh anggota keselamatan negara kita untuk mempertahankan kemerdekaan negara ini tidak dapat dipertikaikan.

Bernama TV crew killed

Its quite unfortunate that a Bernama TV crew was killed by a stray bullet while covering the Putra1 organized humanitarian aid in Somalia.

I think its pretty reckless of the team to have risked their lives in hot zone such as Somalia, and I think the organisers should be responsible for the death of the TV crew.

It was reckless because they did not take precautionary measures to safe-guard themselves in a still rife war zone areas. They travelled in unmarked cars and with little personal protections.

I hope with this incident, folks will be more aware of the danger that they are in, and not too be too naive to believe they are immortal and that no harm will come to them.

At the mean time, a prayer of Al-Fatihah to the late Noramfaizul Mohd.Nor.