Jorge Lopez Mercado

Arranging an Outing?

As a follow-up to my earlier outburst about the lack of planning when organising outings, I decided to write a short article listing some pointers to note.

The article can be found here.

Nonetheless, a few events following my outburst has affected me even more negatively.

I have decided that I would prefer having less friends who understand me rather than more friends, but ones that do not understand me. It's not that I have many friends now; probably in the region of 30 max and less than 10 that I still hangout with on an occasional basis.

I was reading the 1988 street directory a few minutes back and it brought back many happy memories. Back in 1988, I had 2 close friends, one of whom I lost contact with until Facebook reunited us. Even with 2 friends, I had a good time.... maybe even more than now.

Is two my new target; should I even attempt trimming my current 10-30 friends down to 2? I'm thinking that might be the case. Maybe even 1 would suffice.

I don't care so much anymore. I'm happy being alone. In fact, I even prefer doing things alone. I don't get distracted and function much better. That's just me being me and I like that.

I've been giving in to the preference of others without getting anything in return. I don't know why people can't plan outings in greater detail once in a while just to keep me happy. The closest thing to detailed planning I have encountered are the local bus tours. Even then, they sometimes don't even follow the plan. I can't recall any other gathering I've been in that has any planning at all.

I'm not asking much. Just properly plan an outing say once in every 5 - 10 outings and I think I'll be sufficiently happy. But no, I must have went out at least 20 - 30 times this year and only the lone bus tour in Feb had any form of planning.

Anyway, I have decided to participate in the Adidas Sundown Marathon (42.195 km) as well as the 50km Northface run and Singapore Marathon 2010. That being the case means I am now unavailable for any outings until approximately December 2010. So don't bother inviting me to any outings.

Bus tours, overseas bus gunzelling trips and training runs are, however, exempted from this rule.

25km Route

After a few pissed moments, I have finally embarked on my planned 25km route.

But since I started late (at noon), I made it into a speed walking session due to the heat. If I were to run the route, I would probably collapse half way.

With an effective 1 week left to the marathon - I rest and ramp down my training during the last week - I hope to run the above route (with minor variations like extension to Fort Road and ending at Maccas ECP) at least twice more.

Looks like I don't even need people to set up refreshment stands for me during my training runs.

I'm still targeting a 5 - 5.5 hour finishing time for the marathon and looks it won't be too difficult to achieve it. Let's hope my feet do not give any problems. Time to load up on diclofenac tablets.

End of Brawn

Looks like this is now the end of Brawn GP, having been bought over by Mercedes-Benz a few days back and rechristened as Mercedes GP.

It also means that their striking and luminous white and lime-green/yellow livery will be replaced by a silver-based livery - think McLaren-Mercedes without the red.

2009 has proved to be a very exciting year for me as this is the first season that I followed more-or-less from the start to the end.

BrawnGP also proved to be an amazing team, with 100% championship wins as well as being the second ever team to obtain a 1-2 finish in their debut race, after Mercedes GP in 1954. I guess this is a suitable take-over.

But still, I'm looking forward to 2010 especially if the rumours of Jenson Button moving onto McLaren-Mercedes and Mercedes GP attempting to form an all-German driving team hold true.

Outings

I don't know if I will lose more friends, but I have had enough of lack of planning.

Do not plan any more outings with me except for the already planned Penang Trip and Christmas Carol movie until Singapore Marathon is over.

I get fucking stressed when I don't get to run my planned training runs. LIKE FUCKING TODAY. I was so fucking excited to run a new route I had planned, but all hopes was dashed when it started fucking raining at 11.30 pm and we have yet to even attempt to make a fucking move.

Common sense tells you that if I wake up at 7 - 8 am each day means I fucking sleep at 11 pm - midnight the previous day. That means I have to fucking start my fucking run around 2 hours prior which means around 9 - 10 pm.

I thought people would have common sense to make a move by 9.30 - 10 pm, but apparently not.

For many, many times I have endured outings that have not been accurately planned before hand.

Now, I put a stop to all outings until at least Singapore Marathon is over. Any outings after that has to have an accurate plan presented to me beforehand.

I cannot handle this anymore, so don't try to irritate me further. I have had fucking enough.

Only consolation is that I have a wedding to attend at Eunos CC tomorrow and that is close enough to my planned starting point of my newly planned running route - about 2km downstream out of a total of 13km.

Elzetta ZFL-M60 First Impressions

My Elzetta ZFL-M60 with a High/Low tailcap arrived after an excruciating long wait of approximately 9 days. This is my third real LED torch light after the Regalight EDC and Fenix L2D.

The ZFL-M60 is powered by the wonderful Malkoff Devices M60 drop-in. The M60 has an operating voltage of 3.8V - 9V and outputs 235 lumens using a Cree XR-E and TIR optics.

The ZFL-M60 is a very, very hefty torch and feels very good in my hand. The torch sample I have seems to have a very slightly off-centred beam that probably won't show when I'm outdoors. The head seems to be screwed on very tightly and I have problems unscrewing it. I hope it has not been Loctited, since reviews of the original release (twisty with momentary button) show it being disassembled. I'll have to ask Elzetta about this.

The Malkoff M60 itself is a single-stage drop-in and the two levels (235 and 15 lumens) are controlled by the tailcap. Tighten for high and loosen for low. It is a forward clicky and thus allows the torch momentarily switched on. There are no silly strobes or SOS modes.

Once I have had a chance to play around with it further when my RCR123As and charger arrive, I will post a proper review.

There has not been any clarity in my life since..... probably 2001.

It was not like this before that. Sure, I had the grandiose of dreams in high school like owning the most successful IT company in the world with companies such as IBM, HP, 3Com and Microsoft as subsidiaries as well as being the next Bill Gates. But that is no longer the case now.

Now, I'm simply happy with taking a small step at a time and hoping for an acceptable tomorrow.

Or am I actually not?

I don't really know. My heart says one thing and my brain another. One minute I am happy with something I have thought about and the other, I decide that I am not actually happy with it. I guess I am just being overwhelmed by all the possibilities in life. Probably it is because that I tend to plan and evaluate possible outcomes. Just leaving things as is and deciding on paths as they come seems pretty alien to me.

Maybe I will spend some time reorganising my thoughts before I write something stupid and subsequently regret. Oh damn... there I go again. Looks like planning, organisation and evaluation will always be part of me.

O.405Ns and Their Engines

For a long time, due to the flat and slightly sloping floor, I had thought that the O.405N/N2/GN/GN2 had a vertically mounted engine like the Citaros and the Volvo B7L. Apparently I have been wrong.

The Ns (with the exception of the NH, which I will cover later) still had a longitudinally mounted engine, but was placed closer to the side. This allowed for a level floor all the way to the mid-doors and a gently sloping floor to the rear. Additionally, LHD vehicles could mount a 3rd door behind the rear-axle, but not on RHD vehicles as illustrated by the O.405Ns with Newcastle Buses (fleet numbers 3405 and 3406).

As for the O.405NH which are found mostly in Australia, they are basically a chimera - they have the rear of an O.405 MkII and front of the O.405N. This results in steps in the rear half of the bus.

The Citaros have the engine vertically mounted to allow for an even flatter floor all the way to the rear of the bus, but unlike those from Volvo, the radiator remains mounted on the other side of the bus and thus does not have the water closet appearance of the B7L. But this means the last door will not be able to be placed as far rear as the B7L.

As always, I'm amazed at German engineering.

Oh Noes!

It looks like Kobayashi will be working at his father's sushi restaurant as Toyota has just announced its withdrawal from Formula 1.

mobiTweet

Starhub has just launched their mobiTweet VAS which allows the use of Twitter through SMS. And for one of those rare moments, it is available for use with Green Prepaid plans.

I've yet to actually tweet using SMS, but I have been receiving my selected tweets just fine. I'm happy with that.