A local Volvo club put on a breakfast cruise to Seramban.  Nice group of folks, some neat cars, and good food.  Naturally I took my car also.

The pics below are:

Me/car waitinng at departurre point.   Convoy!  Roadside chat.   French lights.  Group shots.

During the work week I dont often have the time to go far for lunch and like the idea of a cheap lunch once in a while.  Claypot Chicken Rice - with pork!

On patrol with Iran's fashion police

View larger image


It all starts with one simple sentence, spoken almost in a whisper, but which has a thunderous effect.

A female police officer deployed in Tehran's latest moral crackdown tells a woman that her manto (overcoat) is too short and infringes Iranian Islamic dress rules.

"Azizam (my dear), good afternoon, if possible could we have a friendly chat, please allow us to have a small chat," the officer, a graduate of Tehran's police academy, tells the young woman.

"My dear there is a problem with your manto. Please do not wear this kind of manto. Please wear a longer manto from now on."

Some are just let go there, but others are escorted to waiting minibuses with dark black tinted window panes and labelled "Guidance Patrol."

A girl in a short white manto whose long hair was tumbling out the front of her headscarf is taken by the police to one of the minibuses on Vanak Square in central Tehran -- an unexpected and unhappy end to her shopping trip.

Another arrested woman is already inside the bus. She begins to cry. "I promise, I promise!"

And the minibus doors slam shut.

Read more via "source" link below... this sort of thing has made the news a few times now.  I predict it will not last!

Source: Breitbart.com - Iran's fashion police

Exploiting the iPhone

• Full disclosure at BlackHat: Dr. Charlie Miller will be presenting the details of the exploit at BlackHat in Las Vegas on August 2 at 4:45.
• Preliminary technical paper: A preliminary version of the paper describing the attack is available. The full version with details of the vulnerability and exploit will be available in the evening on August 2nd.
• New York Times article A story in the New York Times about this work is available here.

More @ Source:  securityevaluators.com

If you are gonna have the sign at least dont make it PINK! 

I posted on several message boards my "sketches" for painting flames on the beetle.  I have copied below several ideas posted in those forums but getting ideas down visually is a challenge.  It should be clear I am photoshop challenged.

Anyway, if curious you can read what I posted in these links:

GWTRA.ORG - My old site given to Brian T.  Buick based but still "home"

VWClubMalaysia - you have to sign in to view (sorry)

All Makes Classics - AMC is a Malaysian based club.  My primary "group" here

Too scared to post to TheSamba.com!  Of course if I did, its likely the forum to give the most feedback!

Source: bugselecta (click it!)

To the left you can see my "garage" and "toolbox".  I cant say enough how I would love to have my tools here.  As crappy as they were/are much of the basic stuff would work fine.  Tools here are either crap or really expensive.  Double ditto on a toolbox.

On the plus side, my "garage" has good natural lighting, is NEVER cold, and has a fan mounted to the ceiling.   Only half the car is sheltered though if it rains.  Bleh.  Another plus is that I have a workspace with plants!  Dont count the dead flowers!

Anywho I had several things to get done. 

- Adj belt - never did that before on a vw.  Its easy.
- Fix tail-lights as some didnt work or were dim.
- Mount 3rd brake light
- Fix decklid alignment (not done)
- Fix wing window tension (not done)
- Adj throttle return so idle is not erratic/inconsistent (in testing)

The lights took the most time.  The schematics are of SOME help but still had to deal with improper hack wiring.  Not sure who or why but they left one wire unused.  Dont recall now, but I think it was a ground for the license light.

 Hey! lookie what I found!  Some nasty corrosion and DRY sockets.  I tried to get bulbs at the Carrefour, but thanks to the typical lack of knowledge by staff (not just a Carrefour prob) I was told they dont carry "car bulbs".  They do.  Anyway, within the building is an "accessories shop" that sells, what else, Type R stuff!  They had bulbs so I paid the ransom and started to leave but wanted to know if they had dielectric grease.  Again, the typical response when you dont know: "no".  I'll bet they do but call it by another name.

To the left you can see all the corroded bits.  Most of the clips fit poorly and the ground lead @ body connection was wrapped around a stud!  Used steel wool for cleanup.

I corrected most of this but didnt have the grease, connectors, elec tape, or much to work with.  10x better - for now but the main light (middle) is dimmer than other side.

If you look close, you can see the unused wire.  I couldnt find any combo that would apply power to this wire but someone must have taped it for a reason.

Another problem I found was a broken socket.  It's no wonder that the turn signal worked just some of the time... Naturally, I packed zip-ties so I used that for the "repair".  Body/Paint time would be a good choice for when to fix this correctly.  Im thinking of using late model beetle lights in the rear.

Ok, not really... I would never buy this and keep a straight face.  Note the packaging, its the best part!

--  "Being detected car temperature & humility accurately"

--  "To view the temperature & humility easily"

My "HUMILITY" is not in the Red yet!  bwahahahahahaa

TEXAS MONTHLY TALKS - TED NUGENT

 

Go Ted!

Source: YouTube - TEXAS MONTHLY TALKS - TED NUGENT

Well, That Didn't Work Out So Great

Iowahawk Guest Commentary
By Kahlid Ahmed, MD
Board Certified Gastroenterologist and former Jihad Associate, al Qaeda UK

Ever have "one of those days?" Sure, all of us go through the occasional rough patch, but I swear there are times when I think Allah must really have it in for me. I mean, I know the "Big Guy" is supposed to have a sense of humor, but do I always have to be the punchline?

Take for example this last week. A few mates and I had been planning a big martyrdom weekend for quite a while; it's something we first began discussing a few years ago in medical school back in Amman. We were sitting around the dorm eating pizza, cramming for a big anatomy final, when Ali said "you know, after graduation, we should get together for something really big." We talked about a fishing trip to Canada or something, but most of the guys thought that sounded pretty boring. Abdul suggested a golf weekend in Cancun, but the all-inclusives there can get pretty pricey in-season. Hassan (who's really into motorcycles) suggested renting Harleys and going to Sturgis for the Biker Rally, but we heard that crowd can get pretty rowdy.

Anyhoo, Achmed finally says, "how about packing cars with explosives and killing hundreds of random infidels in a coordinated series of gigantic fireballs?" And we're like, fuckin' A! Not only would it be an awesome bonding experience (with plenty of Paradise poontang, LOL), we would be doing a valuable community service. Okay, so we high-fived and made a solemn promise that we'd target two years after graduation for the big weekend prank blowout.

I know how it usually goes with these kinds of fraternity things; what with starting up a medical practice, honor killing obligations, and starting a family, it's easy to lose touch with the old school buddies. But this thing -- our thing -- was serious, you know? Thanks to email we were able to keep in touch and keep the plan going. As luck would have it, we all won Achmedinijad scholarships to do our residencies in England for the National Health Service. We got our families together most every weekend for backyard cookouts and self-flagellation and TV football matches. Afterwards me and the other guys would slip out to the garage for cigars, and to pack shrapnel.

So okay, the big weekend arrives, and the guys come over to my place bright and early, everybody's jazzed about rolling up some kufr carnage. All the propane tanks and propellant and nail cannisters are ready to go. I look at Ali and say, "okay mate, back up your car to the garage and I'll start loading it up." He gets this dumbstruck look on his face and says, "my car? I thought Hassan was going to do the martyrdom." And then Hassan does a massive spit-take with his tea, and he's like, "whoa dude, I rigged the cell phones, I didn't agree to blow up. I thought Mohammed was going to do the blowing up." Then Mohammed's like, "don't look at me, pal, I thought I was just providing the spiritual guidance. Plus my car's in the shop for transmission work." From there it just descended into this big shouting match. Holy frickin' prophet, two years of planning this prank and now everybody wants to pussy out on the actual martyrdom.

Long story short, we decided to draw straws. And guess who wins? Yep, yours truly, good old sucker Khalid, the same guy with a pile of charge card receipts for petrol and propane and hardware. The same guy who ended up having to host two thirds of the martyrdom planning parties at HIS house, because his good old college "pals" always have some convenient excuse about "kitchen remodeling" or "MI6 surveillance," and never lift a finger to help clean up the empty bottles or paper plates or the C5 mess. Well, you know what they say: no good deed goes unpunished. Then the other short straw get pulled by Bilal, and I'm like, oh, great. Now I'll be banging some celestial virgin with that wanker looking over my shoulder.

So, I'm like, "okay, whose donating the cars?" And these dicks just look around at each other, and ANOTHER big argument breaks out, because "I still have 28 payments left," or "it's due for a tyre rotation," or some other lame excuse. So we draw straws again to pick the explosion cars, and guess who wins? Yup, my Benz, the same fucking car I just paid £129.95 to have detailed. So I go to the house and tell my wife Jumanah about the whole deal, and here it comes -- The Look. complete with the whole exasperated eye roll and head shake. I swear, if her dad wasn't my uncle, I'd be tempted to smack that irritating sneer right off her face. So she's like, "fine, go have your fun with your lazy jihad buddies and your 72 virgins. Just leave me the keys to the Jeep so I can get groceries."

After that, I guess I was pretty much ready to get it over with. I called up the office and had them cancel the rest of my patient appointments for the day and drove the Benz to London, which incidentally cost me another £40 for gas and tolls. When I got to Picadilly and parked in front of the nightclub and called Achmed on my cell to let 'er rip. Nothing. I sat there waiting 3 minutes waiting for the cell phone detonator to go off, nothing. I saw a cop walking toward the Benz, so I hopped out and started booking it and almost got run over by a double decker. I got on the Tube, thinking I was safe, but then all the stupid racist kufrs started giving me the stinkeye because apparently they're freaked by panting Arabs smelling of gasoline. I got out in Ealing and went to the mosque where the other guys were supposed to be, and they're all standing around like a bunch of sheepish idiots. So I'm like, "WTF? What happened with the detonation?"

Get this: Mohammed, whose only job it was to call in a simple fucking detonation code, switched his cell carrier to get the new iPhone and forgot to transfer his goddamn detonation contact list. So I'm like, "how about Bilal? Did he explode? Please tell me exploded." The dopey expressions around the room told me otherwise. Faaaack. Now there's NO dead infidels, NO horny virgins, and I'm out one leased Mercedes with a £12,000 balloon payment.

So I go, "here's the deal guys. I just put my ass on the martrydom line, and it was Allah's will that it didn't happen. So why don't we just call it good, and try again in another two years." Crissakes, you would have thought I just took a dump in their falafel. They started talking about "Ummah Pride," and "giving it all for ol' Central Jordan U.."

So I said fine, let's draw straws again. Because, hey, what are the odds of me pulling martyrdom duty twice in a row?  Guess I should have been a stat major, because there I was holding the short stick again. When Bilal pulled the other short stick, I just went ahead and volunteered my Jeep because I figured the way this day was going it was gonna get blown up one way or the other.

When Bilal and I got back to my house Jumanah had just gotten back from Tesco and was unloading groceries. "I thought you were supposed to be in Paradise by now," she said, in that stupid irritating voice.  "Change of plans," I said. "We need to head up to Glasgow to blow up the airport."

Here it came again. The Look.

"Um, and we need to use the Jeep." 

The Look X 2.

"And our faces are all over the TV, so we need you to drive us."

I won't even bother trying to describe her face at that point. We loaded up the rest of the explosive cannisters in the back of the Jeep and headed north on the M1 in the middle of the out-of-town holiday rush traffic. Jumanah pretty much seethed the entire way, complaining about the traffic and the gasoline fumes. Needless to say when we finally got to Glasgow and dropped her off at a roadside cafe, I was pretty much geared up for the sweet release of death.

Okay, so Bilal and I get psyched up, check all the equipment to make sure it's ready for a big boom, point the Jeep at the terminal, and mash the throttle. I'm shouting "Allahu Akbar," and Bilal's shouting "Allahu Akbar" and "Go Martyrs" just like the old pep squad days at CJU. And I'm thinking, "oil up them virgins Allah, 'cause Dr. K's luck is about to change." BAAAAM! Right into the glass.

I was probably out for a two, three seconds. Bilal and I peeled our broken noses out of the airbags, which meant we were still alive, which meant the goddamn cannisters didn't explode, again. Maybe we went through into the terminal and killed some infidels, I thought, then I saw we hadn't made it in more than a couple inches into the terminal. I mean, WTF? The Jeep salesman kept going on about how the Jeep was this awesome unstoppable American SUV that crusader cowboys use to bulldoze their way through mountain forests, with an easy payment plan, and the damn thing can't make it through a bloody plate glass window. I restart the engine and now the piece of shit just sits there spinning the tyres. "All wheel traction," my arse.

Okay, plan B. Bilal and I start pushing backup detonation buttons and cell codes. A couple of pops, but they were all duds. Then I see the cops coming at me.

As Allah is my witness, I really can't explain what happened next; maybe it was stress, or confusion, or frustration. Whatever the reason, I decided it was a reasonable idea at that point to pour a can of petrol over my head and hit the Bic.

Here's a handy health tip from Doctor K: if you ever get a wild urge to start yourself on fire, sit down and relax until it goes away. Because (A) it's not a particularly useful method for killing infidels, and (B) it. hurts. like. a. motherfucker. So much that I almost enjoyed the distraction those high-pressure water canons and getting my lights punched out by that crazy mumble-mouthed Scottish baggage handler.

By the way, did I mention I also started the Jeep on fire? Only 37 more payments of £438 to go.

After that, I really didn't mind getting bludgeoned by those angry bagpipers. The sound was horrible, but at least they got the rest of the flames out. I was almost relieved when the cops were cuffing me face down on the pavement, because by that point I was pretty much reconsidering this whole college martyrdom pledge prank thIng and I figured the worst was over.

No such luck. Here's another handy health tip from Doctor K: if your skin is half melted and bubbly hot, avoid laying down on any surfaces that aren't Teflon coated. And please note: the Glasgow sidewalks aren't.

After a half hour with a spatula and ten cans of Pam, the cops finally got 95% or so of me peeled off the sidewalk. I looked down at my legs and realized that I'll be saving a lot of money on clothes from now on, because I'm sporting a permanent pair of melted-on black polyester trousers.

And then the kicker: I looked down at my package and noticed "Little Khalid" was AWOL. As they were loading me into the the police wagon I glanced back over my shoulder and saw what was was left of him charbroiling on the sidewalk. Then one of the bomb sniffing dogs gobbled him down like a snausage. A fat lot of good those 72 virgin are going to me now.

Final box score:  I'm out one Mercedes, one Jeep, £2000 in miscellaneous bomb materials, three layers of skin, and one very low-mileage penis. Infidels killed: nil. So the next time you want to bitch to me about how bad your day is going, don't expect a lot of sympathy.

Well, gotta go. The interrogators are coming, and afterwards I've got an appointment to have my arse skin grafted on to my face. But I will leave you with one more handy tip from Doctor K: no matter how many virgins they promise, don't ever join a fraternity.

Source: iowahawk: Well, That Didn't Work Out So Great

Well, went for a few days to Langkawi for a bachelor party.  Had a great time and some good food.  Most of us are now SICK thanks to some viral flu type thing going around.  bleh.

Anyway, if you are in Langkawi you could do well by eating at the "Cactus Restaurant & Cafe" the barkeep order taker guy was entertaining and the young lady that put up with us was plenty cute enough.   Where?  Across from Holiday Villa - Pantai Tengah.  Dont forget to look for some of our handywork on the ceiling...

Poor groom.... had to wear some goofy outfit and went as "Bambi"... with half a beard.  Heh.

The trip home was COLD.  Took 8 hours with 6 stops!  Did I mention it was cold?  Got to where passengers were blocking vents.  Leon picked up a roll of tape at one of the stops and so we taped our vents... leaving others to their "paper tricks".

Well, I will miss the 4th this year but cant ever forget the date.

Independence should never be taken for granted.  Hooray for USA or any of those that enjoy their hard won freedoms.

Now for something fun:

After the car event earlier in the day I went home to finish setup for our HW party.  Thankfully nobody wants me cooking so I did the small-small stuff.

During the party I didn't take any people shots really because I was too busy and I did not want to bug folks with a camera.  Maybe this is just an excuse to show house pics?  heh.

Due to the weather it is common to rent a large tent - so we did!  Of course it will NOT rain if you do.  Had a good time and the food was tasty.  Ask me about Asha's Catering sometime <wink>

20 some friends and family came by.  Finished up around midnight.  Long day! Sunburn! Ow!

 


Yesterday, Saturday here, I went to Cyberjaya with
  the AMC guys to provide and setup a car display.  Part
  of the "job" was to bring some VIP's in for their grand
  entrance.

  The whole idea, as I understand it is to promote
  Cyberjaya as a place to live and/or work.   
  "Cyberjaya Rocks!" (aka: Cyberjaya Fiesta) was held
  on the FiestaGrounds @ Neocyber with free admission
  for a carnival of sorts.

  I tried, but not seriously, to bribe someone into pushing
  the stilted clown guy but nobdy took me up on it!  Good.

  I drove the VW out and it did well but its a chore to keep
  the car cool in the weather here.  Im experimenting with
  the tennis ball trick to prop the decklid open but that only
  works if you are MOVING.  You might guess that traffic
  prevents that sometimes.  Top speed of the day: 86 but
  that was in the morning!  Afternoon was me staying in
  1st gear a lot of the time.

  The car event portion of my day started for me at around
  7:15am when I left the house and ended around 1:30pm
  but the event continued for a good while after.

 

Backing up a little in the day, part of the task for the cars present was to convoy from the VIP pickup point.  Only a handful of cars were used for VIP's, the rest were just for show.  Sometimes car owners are unable to be present and loan or rent their vehicles for events and such.  This Porche 356 was one of those...
SO I DROVE IT AROUND.

Some little mini-superbikes were on display.  Both still and moving.  Those kids could ride!  Rudy on the other hand... not so much.  But he is still good entertainment anyway.  See a trend?

Just a few more shots here from the day.  Did not take too many - Sorry!