Tag Archives: cars
General

Two Movies, Life, and Reality

By on Wednesday, July 23, 2008

As the supposed best man, I had to give a speech at Jem and Grace’s wedding. I was clueless at what to do and I asked Alex, who had been best man before, for help. He said that Dom, another friend, told him to watch Four Weddings And A Funeral and do what Hugh Grant did. It’s supposed to be like the ultimate best man speech or something like that. I was skeptical about the whole idea. Mainly because I couldn’t imagine pulling off a Hugh Grant :P This blog entry proved my skepticism and I ended up piecing together some sort of speech and delivered it my way.

Which brings me to another movie: A Bronx Tale and the infamous car door test. In the movie, a gangster was giving advice to a younger gangster about a girl. It’s supposed to go like this: Your car is locked. You unlock the passenger side door with your key and open the door for her. You then walk around to the other side. If she reaches across and unlocks the door for you, she’s cool. If not… well, she’s not cool :P

I know of two friends who were in a relationship and I’ve never observed the girl unlocking the door for the guy. So what then? The question is, is this still applicable in this modern age of remote keyless entry systems? Would such a thought even occur to a girl used, conditioned even, to automagically unlocking car doors? I don’t know the answer. But my friends? They eventually got married and are happily together. So much for that test.

But I think some of us do get caught up with patterning our behavior and actions from movies. We sometimes forget the fact that it is all scripted.

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General

Car Air Con Blues

By on Monday, July 21, 2008

Last Saturday, I was just at NLEX on the way to Zambales when I noticed the air con working intermittently. From my limited previous experience, it can be two things: air con system problem or engine cooling system problem. I checked the temperature gauge and I saw to my alarm that it’s above normal. So at a Shell station, I topped up the reservoir with water. It was fine for a while but eventually the air conditioning was still intermittent and the temperature above normal.

When I reached San Fernando, I decided to get the air conditioning checked at a roadside air con shop. They didn’t find anything wrong with it but found out that the radiator has dried up. Apparently, the water from the reservoir was not going into the system because of the high pressure. They released the pressure, cooled down the system by splashing water, and put water into the radiator and reservoir. Voila! Everything works. Or so I thought. At the Subic Tollway, the air conditioning died again.

The next day, I had it checked at another roadside air con shop and they couldn’t find anything wrong. So I instructed them to direct link the compressor clutch to the battery so that the compressor will be engaged all the time. It is a major gas waste and causes more wear and tear on the compressor but at that time, it sure seemed like a good idea. It sure beats driving in the heat.

Everything was well all the way until SCTEx on the way back to Manila. While running at higher RPMs, the compressor overheated. Normally, the compressor automatically disengages at high RPMs. But I had it direct linked and engaged all the time! I had to pull over to the shoulder and splashed water on the compressor. I also disconnected the direct link between the compressor clutch and the battery. I drove without air con the rest of the way.

Today, I had it checked at the friendly neighborhood air con shop and they found out it was just the air con fuse. Sheesh.

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General

Volvo S60

By on Friday, July 4, 2008

Yesterday, I was tailing my classmate’s Volvo S60 on the way to his residence where we are celebrating our French instructor’s birthday. Looking at the rear end, the side I will see most, I couldn’t help but admire the way Volvo was able to make the boring sedan look so sleek and sporty. Much more so than BMW or Mercedes. Now I want a Volvo. Darn.

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General

2008 June 7 to 8 Crystal Beach Resort, San Narciso, Zambales

By on Monday, June 9, 2008

Finally, the long-awaited return to Crystal Beach for more surfing.

We took the newly opened Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX). I’ll have to say that it beats NLEX hands down. It has NLEX’s nice asphalt surface PLUS Star Tollway’s low traffic. It seemed to be a very good place to open up your throttle and see what your driving machine is capable of. And open the throttle I did. Hell, everyone did. Khae, who was driving a gen 8 H car, was going at 160kph and I was doing the same (to keep up, y’know). Most everyone else were just a little bit slower and two bikers even went by at around 180kph. I noticed that the car was still moving along smoothly, no shakiness as when I tried 160kph at Star Tollway. Nice surface indeed.

At the resort, we had ready our board shorts, rash guards, and sunblock. There was only one problem: the surf was FLAT! For the two days! With surfing out of the question, it became just your regular beach outing of swimming, chilling, and kayaking.

It was my first time kayaking but I think I was able to get the hang of it. Michelle and I paddled beyond the far end of Crystal Beach to check out a big cluster of pine. We beached the kayaks then ran across the very hot sand to the pines. We stayed for a bit under the shade of the pines to rest. We then walked and ran back to the kayaks and paddled back to Crystal Beach. It was a total of only about a kilometer but our arms and backs were aching already! Seems to be good upper body work out.

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General

E10 Demand

By on Friday, April 25, 2008

This afternoon, I dropped by three Shell gas stations looking for E10. They all had none. On the third one, I gave up and decided to just top up with regular unleaded. As I was filling up, I chatted with the pump operator and he mentioned that a lot of people are loading up with E10, including even tricycles. Guess the price of gasoline is now at the point where people will actually look for, even demand, alternative fuels. It looks like we can expect an increase in the number of fuel-sipping diesel and hybrid cars. Currently there’s only the Ford Focus and the Hyundai Getz diesels out there. We can also expect more biodiesel and ethanol mixed with our diesel and gasoline, respectively. I sure hope alternative fuels continue gaining momentum so that we can finally bid greedy OPEC goodbye.

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