RainforestGeek's Jots

I had a look at iHospital app again today, gave it a moment of thought and I’m still proud of they way it’s designed and implemented. No other apps that provides information of similar nature gives as detailed and comprehensive information, not to mention the ability to customize the contents according to the database administrator’s input.

So, over coffee, I decided to upgrade the existing version and including few new features that I think would be really cool and will be liked by users. This time around I’m going to really push this app in the marketing campaign, hope I’ll get a worldwide user base and perhaps starts valuing the app’s worth to.. say, a billion ringgit? :-)

Watch this space… not so soon, but just watch for the next update on iHospital.

I’ve been communicating with Jana lately, she’s from Sky Paragliders in Chech Republic, the company that makes the world famous Cima K2 glider. They’re also one of the leading manufacturers of gliders for skydiving, paragliding, kiting etcetera. My initial plan was to get Ozone since James is the official distributor here but it’d be boring if everybody is using the same wings, couldn’t learn much from the same wing design.

The K2 glider I ordered is custom built for tropical weather, using high resistance material and I asked them to seam the trimmers so it’d still conform to its AFNOR certification but later in the years I could remove the seams and starts using the trimmers to do faster flights. That’d save me from buying two separate wings in the future, one wing for both functions. I also asked them to have two hang points, the higher hang point is for PPG and lower for PG. Again, it’ll save me from buying another glider for PG, just switch hang points and I could do both.

From the sizing calculations, I’d only need the Small size and I chose a red wing with bright yellow “S” logo in the middle. Can’t wait for my own wing to arrive and starts using it. I will also be the first Cima K2 owner in Malaysia, the manufacturer themselves were quite excited over this and because I’m the first owner here, I got quite a good discount from them (which of course I can’t disclose the price). Maybe I should start opening a glider shop in KL and become their authorized reseller for Southeast Asian region :-)

The delivery should be sometime early June, still a long time to wait but I won’t rush them to assemble the glider.

Ideally, there should be wind for an easy take-off but that wasn’t the case last Saturday when I was using the under-powered Colibri engine. Luckily the wing was an L sized, I had to run for about 30m before lifting my legs up (yes, am not supposed to do that but was so eager to lift-off and the excitement got the better of me).

Here’s the video, hope my future take-offs won’t be as difficult as this one.

Yesterday I was at Pulau Indah again, having a chat with James over the business plan and listening to his offer on having me on board of his company; Air Venture Sdn Bhd, currently the official and authorized Nirvana paramotor supplier and service agent in Malaysia. It’s also the most recognized company for paramotoring activity in Malaysia.

I’ve done this sort of venture back in 2004, with Alu-alu Divers. It was an experience, it was educational, it was fun but it’s not something that I would repeat, considering how I’ve “aged” :-) …been there., done that. Paramotor is a new sport that I just got myself into. It’s equally fun, it’s equally challenging and it’s something that I foresee myself doing for a very long time just like scuba diving. But to be doing it as a business? I’m not quite sure just yet.

It’s an interesting proposition and I feel honored when James made the offer a few days ago, but I would have to weight the options carefully as currently I already have two main projects for the Government that I need to pay close attention to before venturing into another business that will require a lot of my time and focus.

If I were to go around flying on my own, the time required is different than managing a company that primarily sell and service the equipments on daily basis. I remember mooting the idea of working together with James to organize an international level paramotoring event and setting up an official showroom somewhere in KL, but I was thinking of having a showroom and starts working on getting the contracts to supply and maintain the Nirvana motors to Government agencies such as the Police, Military and Bomba. In large numbers, I figured that it would be worth the effort and perhaps quite fun to do too.

Anyway, just a thought over the weekend and I’ll give it a few more days to discuss with James over coffee somewhere in Bangsar, maybe next week.

Will see how it goes.

I just woke up now and guess what’s the first thing I saw on my lappie’s screen?

Facebook just acquired Instagram for USD1billion and that leaves Kevin Systrom with USD400million worth of value, not sure in terms of equity or cash. I wonder what would be Facebook’s next buyout, Instapost? It’s one cool concept and adds the retro feel into the digital social networking.

Anyway, this is some news. Lately I’ve been busy day and night working on creating a new service that I’m hoping will become as successful as Instagram. So this sort of news is like giving me a jab of motivation boost in the arm.

I’m all alive again now, going to get my apps ready as soon as I could and get it off the ground by May. Aaaarrgghhh…!!! wish me luck.

Yesterday I managed to get a few shots that I like, chasing a herd of cows around the field. The rest of the day was just kiting on the ground and chatting with Julian, a retired photographer and videographer who frequently shoots for National Geographic and Discovery Channel. His latest work was the paramotor documentary that was recently aired on Astro’s Bio Channel.

We talked about his plan to fly around Africa, a plan that’s bit way too expensive for me to afford but his next trip is something that I think as well within the budget range – flying from Perth to Darwin via Ayers Rock. I don’t mind being the ground support crew if he needs one, it’d be cool to ride the GS bike in the Australian outback.

Today Julian wasn’t around but I had the chance to meet Shafri, another pilot but he flew Cessna instead of Paramotor. He just enrolled into the training session with James and we were talking about organizing flying event in Langkawi, at the resort which he owns.

The air today was a bit bumpy and I didn’t bring my camera flying today. I tried new altitude today, about 1500ft high but only flew for about 35 minutes after my fingers were getting numb from the engine vibration. The new propeller wasn’t so good, not properly balanced and during low RPM it vibrates the whole harness. Anyway, it was a good and enjoyable flight nonetheless.

Today there were film production crews setting up props and shooting commercial for Panasonic and after my flight I went to check out what they were up to. Had a chat with the cameraman and comparing my camera setup to his. See the difference on lens? That’s the kind of lens professional videographer uses for television commercial shots.

My Canon 7D’s 17-40mm lens looks tiny compared to his 290mm lens. But that lens can be attached to an ordinary DSLR, they actually uses DSLR in some of the shots. Cool stuffs.

On the way to lunch I dropped by WorldCare office today to collect my EA documents, need to declare last year’s income before IRB starts chasing me.

Had a quick chat with Chanduru,  updating me on the company’s progress. Not much has changed from the day I left. The office building’s area too was still the same, surrounded by many hot looking female HELP Institute students. Parking was still a nightmare but since I know the area so well, it was not a problem for me.

The rest of the day was spent checking on the progress of my car at the workshop, drooling over the BMW X5 and Porsche Cayenne at Rizal’s new showroom, getting stuck in traffic jam after fetching Dahlia and Aliff, and then had a huge spicy Barramundi head for dinner.

As I’m writing this, TLC is showing a program about cycling around Taiwan. I wonder how Mahizzan is doing in Taiwan now. He is there with about a dozen others cycling around the island. I was invited for the trip and contemplated of joining but due to my lack of cycling discipline and fitness level, I gave it a pass. Hope he’s okay and comes back in a good piece soon, still need to pick his brain for good advice on the aerial photography project I’m working on.

As we grow older, things gets clearer and we starts to understand why things happened the way they do and why some things worked and some others just don’t. It’s just the way life is. There’s a saying I heard somewhere – “As we youth we learn, as we aged we understand”. Interesting quote though.

Talking about aging, I can’t even remember when was the last time I did medical checkup. I hope the cholesterol level is still below the borderline and all other aspects of my health is still okay. I used to experience chest pain especially when I used to argue either over the phone or during meetings. Not anymore now, that’s a good sign I guess.

We change from time to time, from the way we look to the way we handle things, never stop growing up and learning.

Life, as is.

Exactly on this date, 18 years ago in 1994, I started my first working day at Edaran Komputer Sdn Bhd, a small IT company in Taman Maluri, Cheras. I’m still in contact with them until today, in fact, I still have a desk in their office now, though the building has moved to Desa Pandan and they are no longer that small company, now a publicly listed company with over 250 employees all over the country and has changed its name into Edaran Berhad.

On January 2000 I left Edaran and joined WorldCare and for the past 11 years I was specializing on healthcare solutions based on technology that focuses on connecting the doctors nationwide. I made quite a lot of changes there, changed lives and moved people. It was an experience and personally, I’ve achieved something. But now I’m no longer attached to them, tendered my resignation on January 9th 2012.

This year, I’m going to try moving on my own. A new venture in creating my own future, managing my own company and doing the things that I am passionate about.

Wish me luck :)