[1013] Cross is Coming

Cross is coming. By this I mean cyclocross season is coming. As far as I know it starts around autumn or so and goes on until maybe February or March.

I got interested in cyclocross because the UCI youtube channel used to show live races. Then while I was researching on what bike to assemble I also saw a few videos comparing cyclocross (or CX) bikes versus gravel bikes. Plus I honestly think my bike frame is for cyclocross (because it's called the Tsunami Seaboard CX01 and they came out with a newer gravel frame named the Tsunami Gravel GR02).

What does this have to do with my blog post? Well I'm really really tempted to get a new wheelset for my bike. I've seen one already and it's both a 700c wheelset and it is tubeless ready. My current wheelset is 29 inches (so mountain bike basically) and it isn't tubeless ready.

Aside from getting a new wheelset I'm also seriously thinking about getting a new cassette for said new wheelset, something with less range than an 11-50, maybe 11-40 or 11-42. Then I'm also thinking of getting narrower tires. Either stick to Panaracer Gravel Kings that are either 32mm or 35mm or even go for some CX tires, not that I do CX. I'm also thinking about getting a bigger chainring. Specifically a 46T round narrow-wide chainring.

Doing these changes would make my bike a bit more of a road bike, and would probably be a bit more challenging for me to use for inclines but hey, I rarely ride outside the subdivision anyway. Also if you didn't notice by doing those changes I'll be building my bike closer to a CX build than an all-around gravel build, specially if I use tires that don't go past 33mm which is the UCI max width for CX bikes.

Out.

[1012] Rest in Peace, Chula

Our pet cat Chula passed away today. She was almost ten years old.

My daughter found her lying down full of slobber yesterday afternoon. We looked for any 24 hour vet in the area and I asked my mom's driver to bring her there. Traffic was bad and the driver had a motorcycle.

The vets tested her, my folks were ready to give the go signal to euthanize. The vets suggested giving her a fighting chance.

Earlier this morning my mom called and said Chula was getting worse. Unfortunately the driver and I would only be walking and taking whatever tricycles we could to get to the place. There is no motorcycle parking in the morning and we didn't know if they towed them if you left them along the sidewalks.

Two tricycle rides and a relatively long walk we were there. We were late. She passed away on her own and didn't need to be euthanized.

I cried as I gave her her last head scratches. I thanked her. I took one or three last pictures of Chula. So what if the staff saw and heard me.

Thanks for the memories, thanks for the love, sorry for the times I was mean to you. I hope you looked at me favorably. I will miss the times when I lie down during lunch and you sleep beside me.

Chula. August 23, 2023. If my brain forgets you, my heart will not.

Out.

Edit: I would like to thank everyone at the veterinary clinic. They were very professional, they were very accommodating when I arrived. They answered all my questions and were very respectful.

[1011] Adulting is Hard

Confessions of a guy entering his mid-40s.

Adulting is hard. Am I only figuring that out now, or am I just starting to realize that because I've decided to start taking on more and more responsibilities. If it's the latter why only now? These are things I will not be revealing in public anytime soon.

Anyway adulting. It seems like I can't have one problem free day. And not the minor problem but problems that need time and money to address. I guess that's a fact of life.

So now the question is, "How do I tackle these problems?" I'm still reacting too quick emotionally and getting pissed when things don't go my way, when I should have accepted decades ago that things almost never always go your way and that that is just normal. Don't get me wrong, I do love the feeling of satisfaction when we get a problem solved.

What's frustrating is the recurring problems. I know it's wrong for me to wonder why those problems happen to me and not to other people when they probably experience problems worse than mine. I guess that's just the "inggitero" (or envious? jealous? google translate says inggitero in English is indigestion but that's just wrong) in me.

So what am I saying? Well I guess that as life goes on I need to stay strong, fight the negative thoughts in my head, and just keep soldiering on.

Out.

[1010] Every Wagon Obsession

Thanks (either seriously or sarcastically) to youtube's algorithms I've been getting other Suzuki Every Wagon dealer channels on my recommended list. The first one I blogged about a few days ago was from Davao, this other one is from Cebu. And they've met each other when surplus tv went to Cebu with their Every Wagon, I think during their Philippine loop.

This new channel has a different method of converting their Every Wagons and since I have little to zero knowledge of proper conversions, I find both of their methods sound and reasonable.

Anyway I'm not as big a fan of the dealer from Cebu since most of the Every Wagon videos I watched featured stylized front bumpers already. I've always been a fan of "sleeper car" builds. I'd rather not call attention to my car, not that I actually own one.

Anyway I'm really really curious about owning an Every Wagon and youtube isn't helping me. As always my biggest concerns are reliability, spare parts, and I guess registration renewals of the Every Wagons. 

If I could afford owning and maintaining two cars then maybe having an Every Wagon as a secondary toy car would be feasible. Buy a locally sold reliable car as your main car and have the Every Wagon as the car you use on coding days and something I would drive primarily. But since I can't do that, then I'll just stick to daydreaming about Every Wagons.

Out.

[1009] The "Perfect" NBA Player

The No Dunks podcast had an episode a few days ago where they drafted and created their "perfect NBA player." They basically had five categories to draft players from different eras and once a player was drafted you couldn't draft them again for other categories. So here's what I remember about the categories.

• Body/Athleticism. Also covers athleticism and injury history. So if you pick Derrick Rose then the risks of the ACL injuries are there. Actually I can't remember if they discussed that their player will have the same injury history or not.
• Shooting. I guess this involves scoring and not just shooting form and percentages.
• Ballhandling and playmaking. One category for both.
• Defense. I guess this is also overall.
• Personality. Forgot what this means but I guess it involves on and off court stuff.

Of course I came up with my own "perfect" NBA player but I gave myself some restrictions. First, I had to use current NBA players. Second, they can't be all-stars but they can have All-NBA or All-NBA defensive team selections. And I think that was it. So here's my "perfect" NBA player, who could be the ultimate role player or a possible all-star.

• Body/Athleticism: Aaron Gordon. He's got good size and athleticism, and as far as I know he hasn't had any major injuries.
• Shooting: Desmond Bane. I checked his Basketball Reference page and he has good FG%, 3P%, and FT% his entire career. Another candidate I was thinking of was Duncan Robinson but the past few seasons he was in a slump, however he did break out of this in the most recent Miami playoff run.
• Ballhandling and playmaking: Tyus Jones. He also has great assist-to-turnover ratios his entire career and as his minutes went up, he maintained his consistency.
• Defense: Matisse Thybulle. I was also considering Jaden McDaniels here but I think my recency bias remains with Thybulle. He probably has better defensive instincts, though I also don't know if he gambles too much or not.
• Personality. This was the hardest, but I decided to pick Steven Adams. Other players I considered were PJ Tucker and Josh Hart.

I also decided to try to create my all-time perfect NBA player, so here it is. I won't be getting the players the No Dunks crew drafted.

• Body/Athleticism: Lamar Odom. Chris Webber is still my all-time favorite NBA player but he was injury prone. Lamar Odom is my second favorite all-time, and I can't remember if he had any major injuries like Webber. Both of them were around 6 feet 10 inches and 230 or so pounds. Both of them had good athleticism.
• Shooting: Ray Allen. I don't even have to explain this, one of the greatest shooters of all time, plus he was also one hell of a scorer.
• Ballhandling and playmaking: Ricky Rubio. I've never been one to pay attention to point guards but I've always been a big Ricky Rubio fan.
• Defense: Scottie Pippen. I have no idea why no one drafted him. One of the best on-ball defenders of all time.
• Personality: Bill Walton. I just checked a list of all-time Finals MVPs and he was one of them. I also remember he loves ball movement and the team game, and off the court he was, and still is, a character. I wanted to pick other personalities but I was thinking that personalities also contributed to dominance on the court.

And there you have it, my current and all-time perfect NBA player molds.

Out.

[1008] The Suzuki Every Wagon

The Suzuki Every Wagon isn't available in the Philippines, but I've seen a good number of them driving around, with more of them in the provinces. Basically Japanese surplus Every Wagons or cut up Every Wagons are brought in here, converted to left-hand drive, reassembled, and re-sold here.

There's a youtube channel I've been watching recently of someone who buy, rebuilds, and sells these cars. I've watched quite a good number of his videos and while I can technically afford one of them there are some reasons why I'm hesitant to get it.

I'm worried primarily about safety, reliability, and spare parts since they're rebuilt Japanese surplus rides.  How hard would it be to get a spare part if something breaks? How well was the car rebuilt? Was the left-hand drive conversion done in proper way? The conversion part was sort of answered in this video by the youtuber I mentioned above. I'm also worried about the car's registration here. Would I have issues when the car is up for registration every year? Was it even registered legally?

On the other hand, the Every Wagons are my ideal daily driver. They're small, they can fit my family since we're only three, it has generous storage space, it has an automatic transmission, and if you pick the right model it has all-wheel drive. I'm not sure how fuel efficient a 660cc engine with 63 horsepower is considering the mileages of some of the Every Wagons being sold are way over 100,000 kilometers.

The rear seats fold flat on the ground, I could probably jury rig a bike rack for the rear. If you pick the right options customizing the Every you can get split rear folding seats. I've seen models that have a cargo basket attached on the roof.

Some of the customized Every Wagons aren't my cup of tea. I feel like they've added so much extras that it would give the poor engine a hard time.

If I actually decided to get one I'd just get one of the better variants, the DA64W. This is the model that has the rear brake, signal, and reverse lights on the C-pillar instead of on the bumper. I'd want the automatic transmission, all-wheel drive model. Front fog lamps, automatic folding side mirrors, and split rear seats. I wouldn't want the automatic sliding doors, and I don't want the leather seat covers. I'd also probably ask for a roof rack and I guess a ladder mounted on the rear door.

Out.