Passion

I did some research last night, for the upcoming assignment that I was given by my (hopefully) future employers to come up with 3 different car-related articles. 1 story on a brand new car, 1 on a modified car and 1 on a car accessory. Sounds simple? not really, in fact it's pretty daunting.

I went off to grab myself the latest editions of a couple of car mags. Did some serious analyzing of their content and editorial style. And did some notes on some guidelines which I have to work around when writing for a car mag. Here are some of my results. The articles aren't ready yet, but this will be the foundation. Will be viewing a friend's modified Fit tomorrow, here's hoping it worth while. =)

Analysis of a typical HOTstuff article

First page

- Big picture of the selected vehicle (as fierce as possible)
- Car model and make are identified on the top
- Headlines playing with certain words
- Sub-headlines brief intro to the car and its appearance
- *Smaller pics of vehicle from various angles

Second Page

- 5 small pics dominate the page featuring, sound system, engine, driver/dashboard, gauges, audio and steering wheel

1st paragraph begins with an intro to the stock model, appearance wise, history and drive-ability. Nice starter posed with a question or fact normally associated with the car.

(Note: 2nd, 3rd and 4th Paragraphs share same information)

2nd paragraph: Intro to the driver, and why the design or inspiration behind it. List exterior modifications.

3rd paragraph: more in-depth look at the cars most prominent features exterior wise. Together with a brief on the interior styling.

4th paragraph: interior modifications done on the dashboard, gauges and audio equipment are highlighted.

5th paragraph: engine specs and what’s so special about the engine. Car performance on the roads together with final verdict on the car.



Analysis of a typical Motoring article

- pages are lay out sparsely, lots of white, pics are the only things in colour.
- Headline is a word play on car’s name
- Sub-headlines intro to the car depending on positive or negative feedback
- First two pages portray the car in its entirety, big unobstructed pics from the front side and side (usually in motion)
- Some key points are highlighted in bigger fonts and bold.
- 3rd page has key pics from the cars interior: dashboard cum steering wheel, transmission, close up of dials, buttons, anything that catches the eye, back seats included. Complete with captions.
- Final page, back view of car, shot of the engine, boot and wheels with info box.

[Intro header]
1st Paragraph: brief intro of the car market in the selected segment. Humorous approach to the references used in what the car maker has lined up for the driver.

2nd Paragraph: Cars biggest feature. Any relation to other cars. Overall style and shape of car with a brief ref to engine cc. Styling cues of more detailed objects – like door handles, C/A pillars.

[Special feature of car header]
3rd paragraph: Another humorous approach with reference to everyday activities to highlight the special feature.

4th and 5th Paragraph: interior styling, cabin space, consoles, colour scheme, gauges, dials, parking brake.

6th Paragraph: Seats, sculptured? Adjustable? Storage spaces.

7th Paragraph: Rear passengers, enough room? Accessible? Wheelbase longer? More space? Boot space.

8th Paragraph: Rear sits styling same as 6th paragraph. Comfort levels.

[Engine Header]
9th paragraph: ignition type, engine type, (VVT?) Amount of torque, best range around how many RPMs?

10th paragraph: Transmission ideal for city or highway situations?

11th paragraph: downshifting throttle, feeling? Rough or gentle? Acceleration and engine gives out what sort of notes.

[Handling Header]
12th paragraph: road manners? Bodyroll? Ride quality, smoother?

13th paragraph: Traction control, tire grip, start situations. Cornering, what not to do with the car.

14th paragraph: Braking, ABS Disc brakes on wheels, priorities of the driver? Family? Spirited?

[Safety Header]
15th paragraph: safety features, Euro NCAP Star Safety Rating? Other special safety systems? Collesion detection, crumple zones, airbags, impact sensors.

Final Paragraph: Final verdict on the car, rating? Likes dislikes?


**Extra info box containing fast facts on the car**

General
- Type: engine location/ FR/RR/ Sedan etc etc.
- Price

Engine
- Model name : i-dsl, VVTi, Vtec
- CC
- Valves?
- Fuel system
- Max power Xbhp @ X rpms
- Max torque X Nm @ X rpms

Measurements
- Length
- Width
- Height
- Wheelbase
- Trackfront/rear
- Kerb Weight

Transmission
- Auto ? Selespeed ? Triptronic etc

Suspension
- Front : double wishbone
- Rear : Trapeziodal-link
- Tyres size : x/x R x
- Wheels: 17inch alloy

Brake
- Drum or Disk

Steering
- Type: Power rack and pinion
- Turns lock to lock
- Turning circle (m)

Performance
- 0 to 100km/h (sec)
- Max Speed

Fuel consumption
- Liters per 100km or km per 1litre

RIP

My office PC died on me once again yesterday. May you rest easy my XP-enabled friend. Though I only knew you for 2 months, those were the best of times. We laughed, played, read and watch borderline porn together. I will miss those times.

Though you had barely enough memory to run anything I will always adore that loveable hum you churned out as you slogged your way in processing information with that pathetic excuse of a P3 processor.

I spent a better half of yesterday sleeping, yup, my bosses were paying me to snore. Heck they even asked me to go to work late today while at the same time popping by SIM LIM to grab them 2 CD-R drives at $48 a pop.

So there I was wandering the corridors of SLS, with a majority of the shops still closed, my friend recommended Media Mart on the top floor, supposedly having garnered a good rep for itself due to service excellence.

I hate shopping especially if its for someone else. My boss wanted me to bargain with the store – my god how cheap can u get. It’s only $48 for one, what else you want? FOC? Anyway, when I got back to the office, surprise, surprise, my PC is alive again! But OS has been reverted back to ME *Major Suckage!

I guess this is better than nothing, although I miss the cool blue that adorned the message boxes of programs I opened.

There’s a hokkien saying, No fish, prawns would do just fine. I prefer abalone.

Muackz

Msg to Ah Girl...

Varied

kiss kiss~!!!

Well it’s been one heck of a roller-coaster ride this week for me, thank goodness for Friday. Probably because of the recent expositions in my pathetic 23 years of existence on earth, I had blogger’s block. Resulted in sub-par posts, because I really had nothing much to say.

Everything is still hanging in midair. Studies, career and relationships were all in free fall mode. I took a breather, stepped back for a second and dealt with one problem at a time. Hopefully it pays off. I caught a movie last week at least on DVD that is.

Movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring the almighty Jim Carrey (serious actor who is totally into Buddhism) yes you read the brackets correctly! The very same guy who talked thru his butt is now strictly vegetarian and looking more like an Satan worshipping opium junkie than religious devotee.

Anyway the movie is simple enough, man meets girl, they become an item, girl gets pissed off with him, erases him from memory, he finds out, does the same, and in the process falls in love all over again. Ah! But there’s a catch! All the falling in love again bit is relived through his memories while it’s been systematically erased. That titanic gal plays his main squeeze that gets caught up in his psychotic mind games.

This could have been a 2 hour long running commercial for Revlon hair color seeing how Jimmy’s ger (ok I forgot her name, just remembered how her chest looked like when she flashed them for ‘decaprio) scalp underwent so many changes in color I wasn’t sure was it her hair I was looking at still or was she totally bald underneath. Think I deviated enough, 4 outta 5! Great plot, kept me thinking and guessing!

Anniversary: Celebrated it yesterday, 13 October, 3 days late, but at least we still got together, that’s what matters most! I swore there was a Jack’s Place restaurant at Kovan, and when I got there, nothing at all! WTF!!! Took the dumb subway to Sengkang and had dinner there instead. Beef was abit on the tasteless side for me, I recommend Parkway’s branch.

After dinner we walked around for awhile, I got her 9 bright red roses, and she bought 3 very pretty ear rings for herself. Not a very eventful anniversary, but nevertheless it was memorable. Darling, I promise you our first year anniversary will be way much better, because we be at Redang!

Kelvin my army camp-mate whose in the rice business just purchased a Subaru Impreza WRX. Nooo~!!! The horror!!! Well at least one brother finally got his dream car, I’m still working for my first! WRX at 99K, $950 a month…it’s a steal, but I don’t earn that sort of moolah yet. Mark my words, one day, I’m going to tear through the streets of Orchard with my EVO!

Television: Singapore Idol is beginning to suck each episode, namely because of 2 buffons who just refuse to bow out with grace, instead make it up with uninspiring renditions of songs that would make the William Hung seem like American Idol winner. Jerry “Constipated” Ong you’re the biggest lout to grace our black boxes, with a voice that would wake the dead, and your reliance on your church freaks to back up your hollow vocals, I can sum you up in one word – CHEAP. Chris, your not even fit to be a singer, you sang at Zoe Tay’s wedding you claim? When was that? When she and the rest of her guest had left the building? Tone deaf, short breath and dumb-assed face combine to give Singapore’s biggest waste of air-time.

Lastly, would like to wish my baby, Erin, a Happy Belated 11th Month Anniversary, I love you darling! Thanks for spending the past few days with me, I really appreciate it a lot. Your just too sweet! Muacks!

Civic

I’m on the verge of yet another turning point in my life, I was approached recently by a local car magazine to work for them as a writer, actually everything was purely by chance, the editors saw this blog, liked it and contacted me.

And all these while I thought my wish for ever working in a car mag would never materialize.

The proposed job (cross your fingers!) would require me to own a car, and that really got me thinking. I’ve put my studies on hold, to chase my dream! To own a car (preferably a civic) before my 24th birthday and to finally write about something which I love.

Fantastic I thought! It’s better than killing 5 birds with one boulder. I can’t believe how fortunate I am. Of course with almost no savings at all, buying a brand new car is out of the question. So I delved into the world of used cars. A few models did catch my eye, and bearing in mind that I can’t buy sports cars and anything above 1600cc all thanks to insurance and road tax, I singled the make and model I wanted.

Enter the 92-95 Honda Civic, the base design of the civic didn’t change for those few years, why? Because it’s become a classic in its own right. The car is so popular amongst modification junkies you can rarely find one that is still stock nowadays. I want the 3 door EG6 personally hehehe…

The civic gained further exposure thanks to the movie “The Fast & The Furious” whereby the performance of the VTEC engine left many worldwide in utter shock, there was a reported frenzied scramble for that model of civic after the show, I was no exception.

Ok enough about that, I would probably have written an entire report on the civic if I don’t practice controlled writing. Nevertheless, I was out hunting online today, saw lots of sweet civics, sedans and hatches, within price range too (30K) lets hope my salary would be enough. I wannna live the ah beng dream…=P

Its so bleeding close I can smell the carbon monoxide…I’m getting high…

Rage

Feeling restless today, lots of things bouncing around in the recesses of my mind, don’t know why I can’t stop pondering about it either.

Yesterday was supposed to by my 11th month anniversary with my girlfriend. Alas it wasn’t meant to be, the sheering heat coupled with a scorching weather didn’t help matters. We did meet up and traveled to Tampines to settle my Redang trip bill as well as allowing me to grab a quick bite.

But somehow, the atmosphere just wasn’t there, everything seemed so contrived and rushed. She had to return home to attend her mom’s birthday celebration, whilst for me I returned home and sulked through the entire evening. A welcome relief was that she said she would call me after the dinner.

So I waited, and waited….and waited somemore. 10 plus, I received an SMS from her saying that she’s talking with her mom and will call me back tomorrow. (Anger level up 1 out of 10) I mean why wait till tomorrow?

Why couldn’t she call me a wee bit later? Then she sent another SMS now saying that she would call me later, but in a manner that I didn’t like, it just felt so patronizing. Anyway I let that pass, hoping that she would call me sometime soon, I stayed up the whole night.

Fast forward, it’s 5am, not a single call from her nor SMS, (Anger level up 5 notches) surely she couldn’t have spoken to her mother for a record 7 hours?!? I was furious and mad. When she didn’t answer my calls, I got even more pissed!

It’s our anniversary! Never mind I didn’t spend it with you but the LEAST and I really mean the LEAST you can do is make it a little special for me just before I go to slumber-land. Having a nice conversation with me would have been nice…but did I get any in return? Nothing, not a word, not anything!

I sent her 2 SMSes stating how pissed I was for not even getting a chance to talk to her, waiting 7 hours for a phone call that would never come (I think I’ve been very generous with the phrase patience), not answering my calls or SMSes.

And when she did finally call back (2 hours later) I was so freaking pissed (Anger 10 outta 10) I didn’t know what else to say. She just kept apologizing. But is it of any use? I already feel stupid for waiting, I felt cheated – where’s the call that you told me earlier? The call came 9 hours late…

There was no SMS in between to let me know or whatsoever that she had finished her conversation with her mom, how am I supposed to know when are you finished with talking? Even if it ended at 3am a simple SMS will not wake me up, I didn’t like her explanation.

She said that she wanted to only call me after 7.30 to wake me up, then what? Where’s my nice conversation? I stayed up all night for this? I did spare a thought for you, but did you spare a thought for me? I wanted to hear your voice so badly last night, I couldn’t sleep because I wanted to be awake when you called, but did you?

You thought that I was asleep, but did you check first? No SMS nothing!!! I am so pissed! You spoke to your mom for as long as you wanted but you couldn’t even send me a short SMS note to tell me that you’re done?!

I took a bath before going to work, I came out slightly refreshed, and I replied to your SMS, saying that I would forgive you and that I’m no longer angry, but she didn’t reply…I called again later when I was back in office, no answer either. What gives?

So I guess now it’s her turn to ignore me? The anger that died down is rising yet again! Whatever! If you want to continue ignoring me, go ahead. I wasn’t in the wrong in the first place and I don’t see the reason for you to ignore me.

Residents

Using this pic alone, I can stop you from ever striking Toto or 4D, don't believe? Just click on the pic >:P


Can anyone explain the primary purpose of movies? Movies are firstly shown to entertain, showcase the talents of an ensemble cast from artistes right down to the lowly grip boy.

A few variations of movies do exists that cater to different tastes, there’s the summer blockbuster that blows the box-office to smithereens, the art house film that attracts the culture vultures and then there’s the piece of crap movie that no one understands and wonders why it was ever made. (sometimes this become big-time hits and attain cult status – which amounts to the most groundbreaking film award)

Now this aside, let’s examine Resident Evil: Apocalypse (RE), a movie I would classify it as a summer blockbuster but with an X factor, an X factor so freaking big, I think the movie has set a certain standard for B-grade zombie flicks.

What I cannot tolerate are buffoons in the media gunning down RE without further knowledge of the game that it was based on (which I’m a big-fan of) nor the fact that this isn’t your average typical zombie fest. Bad acting to inane plots were cited by the media as the cause it, a load of zombie crap I say!

Let’s face it, RE entertained like nobody’s business, from start to end, it was non-stop action, violence, gunfights, deaths, explosions wrapped up in so many shots of lithe female bodies, I was getting a nose bleed.

The cast really shined. Milla Jovovich who played the heroine from the first RE is back with a vengeance, she’s supported by Raccon City’s toughest female cop, the unyielding Jill Valentine and a motley crew of reporters, kiddies and mercenaries.

I could almost swore this became a chick flick mid-way through the opening, the 2 female leads display such utter dominance over their counterparts they make the guys in the show look like pansies. Both Alice and Jill unload so much lead in the show, the two could have started WW3 on their own. They fly, kick, punch, snap zombie heads like twigs, I was basically left in awe.

Everything was just packaged so slickly, it ran like a well oiled machine; its objective to achieve an admirable sequel can be summed up in one word, PERFECTION. What made the first movie such a success is here with a more coherent plot and a whole lot more thrills.

Yes, it’s really that good! Don’t listen to those lame critics, if you want to be entertained, watch this! I was on the edge of my seat for the most part, which says a lot about this movie. I loved the first RE and I love this one even more.

Changes

Wow! I finally realized the sheer importance that a career has in a person’s life. The grip it has on people is so steadfast not even family members can come close in importance when placed side by side.

What’s the conclusion you ask? 3 days ago I sent a message to a certain cousin of mine with regards to a electronic device which she claimed she could help me buy a few months ago, of course the price was only ¼ of the original, hence I thought why not?

Now this cousin of mine and me go way back, we are as close as buds, well I used to think so… Something changed when people start climbing the corporate ladder. Last time while we were all students on a level playing field, all was fine and dandy. We view our materialistic status as equal. But not anymore.

After being employed by a Japanese electronics giant, people tend to perceive they are of another class different from yours. Whilst you belong to a small company, people are now scaling new heights, gaining new ground, making it big time!

A pathetic request from YOUR OWN cousin is way below your league and doesn’t register on your radar as something significant enough for you to reply to or, better yet waste your time on. What ever happened to basic courtesy???

Are you so “muthafucking” big that you can’t even reply back? At least have the decency. I know your freaking big now; being successful is an understatement to you. You jet set around the globe closing deals for your Japanese superiors. So what? Big deal? Your a business woman now, career is your middle name? Anything that isn’t company related is shown the door?

Is that how you handle it? What doesn’t pay your salary is best ignored? You’re a self-centered bitch you know that? I do not know what sort of brainwashing they put you through there or in there facility some evangelist would call a church. Did your religion teach you this?

To ignore relatives? To let them speak to the wall? You couldn’t even call back after office hours? I was enquiring about something mind you! You know if you had a shred of humanity left inside that vessel of yours you call a soul at least apologize or something.

I’m way disappointed. And to think that your religion teaches one to be a good all round person in the first place. With your actions I think not! This isn’t a one off thing though, there are many instances that have gone to past which I will not bring up but instead let it pass, why? Because I know I’m better than you, character wise that is.

You exhibit a weakness inherent in the majority of your type. Your as bland as a white wall. As inflexible as one too. You think that your above all else, cause your closer to your god while the rest of us are going to burn in hell. I don’t buy that shit!

The only thing that is going to happen when you finally kiss the dust is you decompose and turn into fertilizer. And if you insist? I think with your current attitude and actions the only way your going is down.

Before you lay claim to being holy go do some self-reflecting because I think your one sorry excuse of a X-tian and I'm deeply ashamed to be related to you.

(PS: I hope you burn in hell!)