Pitt Lake and Cultus Lake

 Cultus Lake, BC

Pitt Lake

Going for another run tomorrow and will have to go for a nice car wash after :)

Finally getting good fuel economy :)

8.84l/100km (26.61mpg)! Doing good, doing good! In fact, the mileage should be better as the tires I have on the car are roughly 3% taller than stock.

I did a fair amount of road tripping today; travelled from Vancouver all the way up to Squamish, then decided to do Paradise Valley Road. The road changes from paved to gravel, and I turned around. On the way back though, I found myself a bit confused with the road markings, and went up Squamish Valley Road. It was a brilliant drive along snow covered roadsides, and I shared the road with some locals on horses. Once again, I stopped when the paved road ended* and the gravel trail began.

I called it quits then as I was hungry, so high-tailed it back to a petrol station then went home. While I did flog the engine, it was just to get up to speed on the highway, or when overtaking. If not, I kept the rpms between 2k and 3k, and it felt really good on the road. The sea to sky has a a good balance of hillclimbs and downhill, and it was so much fun rev matching to engine brake downhill.

Miata, you are too much fun :)

* this actually marked the start of Squamish River Forest Service Road

New Winter Tires and an alignment!

This week I got a set of winter tires for the miata. After much research, I decided to go with Continental Wintercontact SIs for my shoes. Even though I had  a budget set aside for tires.. I've totally blown it as I forgot to include the price of the rims. On top of that, the tire shop charges a fee for installation and balancing, another set of lug nuts and hub centric rings. And there's also a tire disposal fee collected by the provincial government. Ah..... Still, I do want to run my car in winter, so there's that. 

The new tires are much quieter than the Pilot Sport AS3, but I kind of miss the road whine that the AS3s had - they gave me the impression of a supercharger lol. That whine is now gone, and its not missed - the ride is now a bit more refined. The rims, Core Racing 16x6.5 Impulses, were basically the cheapest rims that were of similar weight to the stock alloys. Thinking about it now, these rims are really quite heavy - the stock 17in alloys are about 17 pounds; these 16 inch rims come in at 18 pounds (supposedly - that's what Kal Tire told me, I could not find specs on the web). The WinterContact SI tires are definitely lighter than the AS3s - they're not runflats, and are 205/55R16 vs 225/45R17 for the AS3.

One other thing, the black rim/tire against the white/red car felt like black pools of dense gravity. I felt there needed to be some kind of colour to make the tire pop, so I got a red tire paint pen and picked out some of the text. To clean the tire, I scrubbed it with some steel wool and cleaned the surface with some waterless spray cleaner. After painting the letters, I let it set overnight, then covered it with 303 Aerospace Protectant. It's only day 2, so I'll see how long this lasts! 

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Earlier today though, I took it to Aria Auto Services to get some scheduled maintenance done. Did the suggestions in the owner's manual: Engine oil, oil filter, transmission fluid, differential fluid. The power steering fluid was grimy, and the brake fluid had 1% worth of water, so both were changed as well. For the brake fluid, I got some fancy ATE 200 brake fluid that has a higher boiling point as I intend to autocross my miata later this year. It's unlikely my brakes will overheat as a newbie, but I do want to take the best care of my car.

Most of the fluids were replaced with Motul oils, but the transmission fluid I requested for Ford Motorcraft XT-M5-QS. I'm very, very surprised by how good the shifter feels now, I thought it was already pretty solid, but the Ford fluid almost removed the shifter's snickety-snick feel, and shifting into 2nd is oh so smooth now.

After the fluids were done, the guys at the shop then did an alignment of the wheels to bring it back to stock. I can't say the alignment was uber awesome or anything - I drive pretty conservatively in the city and it is unlikely an alignment would be felt. Even so, I wanted to be sure the angles were all in the ballpark.

All in all, the changes to the fluid have miraculously improved my fuel mileage - I didn't see much of a change with the new tires, but the new fluids have bumped my winter fuel mileage to about 12l/100km. I'll be running up the Sea To Sky tomorrow, and I'll see what that brings, but when summer comes around, I think I'll be selling those AS3 tires for some Continental ExtremeContact Sport tires* :)

Zoom zoom!

* In the running: General Tires G-Max RS

One week with the MX5

So... I'm a proud owner of a new-to-me 2013 NC MX5 Miata :) 6 speed manual transmission with a retractable hard top, and it's the "GS" trim, which comes equipped with bilstein shocks and lsd. The previous owner also did some mods to it, like hid headlights (gonna remove 'em when one of them blows) and the rx8 wiper swap. It also came with Michelin Pilot Sport AS3 tires. These are much wider than stock 205 tires, and run flats at that. I'm haven't yet figured out how heavy these are compared to the stock tires. I'm reading really good reviews for them, but if they're killing my fuel economy they will have to go. Let's start with that.

Fuel Economy
Oh my god it's bad. I always though the stated average of 24mpg ~ 9.8l/100km was reasonable for a convertible, but I'm getting horrendous fuel economy, at 16.6l/100km (14.2mpg). Oh my god. I think it's a combination of winter, bigger heavier tires and my inexperience at driving a manual transmission, and the tendency to rev the engine out. Some forums have mentioned a stuck thermostat causing poor fuel economy, but I'll see how it goes when summer comes around. I also haven't checked the tire pressure, so I hope I figure this out soonish.

10th Feb 2019 - Drove it to Horseshoe Bay this morning, then looped around to the Spanish Banks. It started snowing then, and decided not to push on to a car meet. When I checked the fuel economy, it read 14.8l/100! Yes it's going down! Perhaps sitting for half a year at the dealership messed up the reading. I'm also rapidly improving my clutch control, and figuring out better shift points, so that might have helped.

13th Feb 2019 - Finally got around to filling the tank for the first time! Woot! Cost me 46.65 CAD for 30.9L of 91 octane (OUCH). That was with the gas gauge at about 1/4 tank left. The mpg improved a fair bit as well, it's now at 13.6l/100km, about 17.3mpg. Getting better! I have a gut feeling the horrible economy is caused by crappy fuel used by the dealership.

16th Feb 2019 - Now that I have winter tires, I took the car over Aria Auto Services to get my some scheduled maintenance done. While it's still "early" in terms of mileage, the car is over 6 years old now, and I don't trust the dealership or the previous owner to have maintained it properly. I got the engine oil, oil filter, differential fluid, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, and brake fluid (upgraded to ATE 200 :)) changed, and then got an alignment done. On the way back, the mpg readout quickly jumped to 12.xL/100km, and the best I got on the way back was 11.9l/100km (19.76mpg)!

Pretty sure that all the fluids haven't been maintained. I got Motul fluids but the transmission I requested for Ford XT-M5-QS. I'll detail these in another post.  This is in the cold of winter as well, and pretty much start-stop traffic, only a short stretch on the highway (2-3 minutes?). I'm pretty chuffed to see the improvement.

17th Feb 2019 - Doing 8.84l/100km or 26.61mpg :)

6 Speed Manual Transmission
It's great! Ok, so this is the 2nd manual car I've driven and it's definitely waaaay nicer than the Toyota Echo I learned on. In the week after I bought it, I've been practicing how to more gently take off from a stop, as well as figure out hill starts and parking in reverse... without a camera! All these, in the parking garage. I think the fruits of practice paid off, for today, I set off for my first journey, to buy a set of winter tires! Tires I wanted were out of stock, but I thought I handled the car well. I'm surprised at how many roads I've driven today had an uphill grade; when I used to drive an automatic I don't really care, the car just goes when the throttle goes down. Here, I have to pay so much attention to everything. Must say I've made a few mistakes like start in 2nd gear lol.

The convertible top
I'm 184cm, and the car feels just right for me with the top up. Not too closed in, and I still have headspace. The seating position is really low; my eye line is just under the door handle of some vehicles. In addition, the windshield frame just perfectly blocks my vision of the lights if I'm the first vehicle. It's a bit annoying as I have to crane my head under to make sure I can see the green light in time.

The blind spots with the top up are also pretty bad. With properly adjusted mirrors it's livable - unlike regular passenger cars where I can check the blindspots without my shoulder blades leaving the seat, I need to turn my upper body a bit more to properly check them.

Now, with the top down, the situation is greatly improved, but still not perfect. When I check to my left it's great as there's nothing in the way. No B pillar, nada :P Checking the right though, the passenger roll hoops do obscure my vision a bit. Pretty sure it would hide a Caterham there!

Backing up is also not ideal. Unlike a regular passenger car where you'd look downwards out your rear window, I'm sitting really low in  the Miata, and even with my height I'm really, at best, just looking over the boot. It gets really sketchy when I'm reversing up hill and I have to do a reverse hillstart lol!

Even though it's winter here in Vancouver, I've seen and read so many other Miata drivers who drive top down with the car, and it does it really well. With the top down, windows up and the heater on, it's surprisingly comfortable. The heater generates a surprising amount of heat, and the vents can be aimed at my hands where it seems to get cold first.

Apart from that, thanks to my height, my hair goes awry in the wind. But, I bought a golf visor and that worked out great. The visor keeps the sun out of the way, and I can still feel the breeze without looking like a Pantene commercial gone wrong.

One final thing, fuel economy isn't as good with the top down, so I read. So perhaps I should drive more top up if I want to improve my fuel economy lol.

Handling/Suspension
I wish I can tell you this car drives on a knife edge and takes corners exceeding 2Gs, but hey, I've only been driving on my own for barely 4 months, and it's mostly city driving. In addition, I don't really have any other cars to compare it against. What I can say is, on the highway I need to give a tiny bit more steering input than say, Mazda 3/Prius/Honda Fit. Just a bit. In terms of the steering feel, it's great. It's not like a prius or honda fit where it's pretty light, it's a good sort of heavy that's not tiring. It's in between say a Scion FR-S (feels really heavy, and I could feel it after I returned the car!) and Mazda 3 (It's been a while since I drove a 3, but I remember it having a good weight as well).

I guess I might as well slot in a mention to some upgraded components on the GS trim - namely the torsen lsd and bilstein shocks. I don't really care about the shocks, as I would probably upgrade them once I get to grips with the car. The lsd though, sounds great in theory - it splits torque, so both wheels get drive. Unless one of the wheels lift, then it acts as an open diff, or so I understand.

And so that we're on the same page, this car has a FR layout - front engine, rear wheel drive.

The ride is surprisingly comfortable. I thought the more sporty suspension would be harsh, but I found it otherwise. The damping appears to match the way I take bumps, and it goes over it without the car feeling underdamped. Under heavy braking there's a fair bit of dive, so I've learnt to modulate the brakes and keep a greater follow distance.

Sidetrack - tires
As mentioned above, the car came with 225/45R17 Michelin Pilot Sport AS3 tires. While I won't comment on the handling as I have nothing to compare against, I was very surprised that this tire did not come with a M+S or snowflake symbol as I've seen videos of people driving in snow, and the marketing for their newer AS3+ goes on about better snow performance.

The M+S or Snowflake is required between October and March in BC when travelling further into the province. I'll definitely be getting some winter shoes for my mx5 so I can head up the Sea To Sky Highway for some sightseeing :)

Update 12th Feb 2019
About -1 degrees C outside, wanted to do my first ever refueling run. And since I still have the Pilot Sport AS3, I thought it would be good to see how the tires performed in Vancouver's "snowmageddon".  Outside my apartment complex, is a somewhat steep upward slope. With momentum, I managed to get up the slope but... there is a stop sign... on an incline. And with that, I could not get any more forward traction XD Thankfully, the tires are good enough to hold the car on the slope with no problems, but trying my usual hill starts... nope. Can't do it. The tires would spin and my tail wobbled and started to drift into the curb. Uh oh. Thankfully there were no cars behind me, and I just reversed back into the parking garage. Bleh. Can't wait to get my winters.

Update 13th Feb 2019
We had a clear blue day in Vancouver, and most of the slush had cleared off. I took off the same uphill tonight with zero problems even thought it was cold and wet. Upon entering North Vancouver though, I had to drive through several uncleared lanes and parking lots. I had my reservations, but as I was on a one-way street I had no choice but to soldier on. The AS3s did perfectly fine going over the white snow, I even had to start on a gentle incline. While it felt a bit squirmy on the rear, it never felt like it was going to fishtail. I do these these tires are pretty solid for most conditions, except for the one important one in Vancouver: cold icy slush.

Quietness
The cabin is quite rumbly with the top up, I have no idea why. Probably, to keep the car light, there's not as much insulation. Could be my tires as well. I only really notice this when I'm driving on the highway - most of the time, I'm too focused on the road and shifting.

With the top down, it's louder - especially when driving besides trucks and semis, but the rumbly experience is gone. And what's better, I can hear the very distinct *snick* of the shifter. It is so very satisfying to hear to it shift, it's pretty much worth it to drive with the top down on a cold day.

Seats
The GS trim comes with cloth seats. Which is exactly what I want, as I don't want to deal with leather. Bleh. The leather seats in the GT trim does come with heated seats, something folks in colder weather conditions might like to have.

Out of the few brands of cars I've drive, I found I fit Mazda seats the best. The Mazda 3's seats are great, and the MX5's are great too, but while the former is very easy to get in, the MX5 I have to almost fall into the seat as it's that low.

There are only manual adjustments, which is great - weight savings!

Now, the passenger side looks to have similar seats, but there's significantly less legroom. I haven't gone on long trips, but the space on the driver side is good. The passenger side though... I feel a bit... tight. Can't stretch out the legs.

Storage
It's a tiny car. The glove box is reasonably sized, and there are 4 cup holders, one on each door, and two in the center armrest. There's also a storage bay between the seats, but it's pretty small, and awkwardly sized, no idea what I'm going to use it for at the moment.

The boot is tiny for sure. For me though, I'm using it to haul roadside supplies - a tire plug kit, a screwdriver, a portable jump start battery. The right corner of the boot also has the tire jack. I planning to go on long road trips with this car, so I think I might need to get a spare, some emergency triangles, a first aid kid, fire extinguisher etc etc.

Unlike the soft top mx5, there are no storage behind the seats - that's taken up by the hard top.

Size
It's a tiny car. Last I checked, the MX5's wheelbase is smaller than a Mazda 2, and that car's pretty compact. Every time I see my Miata parked in the stalls, I find it hilarious that there's so much space around it.

On the road, I can leave more space on the right when passing cyclists. I haven't yet encountered any issues, but it is a small car. Not as small as a Fortwo or kei car for sure, but it's more or less a step up from a motorcycle. Add to the fact that it's so low, bigger vehicles might not see it in their blindspot.

I'm always keeping an eye on large SUVs that don't always keep to their lanes in turns, and I try to use my speed (ha!) to get ahead of semis.

Technology
There's cruise control and an aux jack. I can play CDs if I didn't use one of those cd player handphone mounts. It doesn't even have those beeping backup sensors lol. This is why I'm attracted to the car, there are a few safety features, like side and front airbags, and the car is designed to more modern crash standards. Keeping it simple.

A backup camera would be nice, but I'm a bit too lazy to wire one up. And where would I put the display? I see some folks replace the stock headunit with a high-tech pioneer double din. But yeah. Laaaazy.

The speakers in the GS are nothing to write home about. There is a distinct lack of bass, but the mids and highs are alright. I like to play music while detailing my car, and the kicks just don't have the same impact, but eh. My car is for driving.

Side note: I use a smartphone with google maps to navigate areas I'm not familiar with. The dashboard is curvy and most of it has a pebbled texture, so it's difficult to use a phone suction mount. There are some suction mounts with "gel" pads but these seem like more of a semi-permanent solution and I don't want to mar the finish of the plastic. I ended up getting a cd mount, and it worked quite well.

Why the 2013 MX5
Primarily, it boils down to budget, running costs/maintenance and safety.

Budget wise, I'd love to get a newer car. The ND Miata or Fiat 124 would be great. While used prices for 2016 models are still quite high, it's doable. But the problem is, insurance. My ICBC insurance is crazy high as a new driver, and I only count as having one year of driving experience, so only 5% off my insurance. The ND or 124 would be far to expensive to justify as I don't daily drive. There's also the fact that I'm a new driver, and this will be my first car. I could afford a newer ND or 124... but if I damage it... ouch!

Running costs and maintenance wise, the ND is the obvious winner. The car's newer, smaller, lighter, and the new engine has crazy good fuel economy. I'm slightly regretful of that. The NC is pretty old and has been in production for a decade. But, because of this, the later model years have had the bugs worked out and in general, it seems like a very solid car with excellent reliability.

As much as I'd love to own a NA or NB Miata, they are over a decade old, with some of them about 30 years old. Rust can be an issue with these cars. If I had my own garage, I might've gone with the NA, because, popup headlights.

But I live in an apartment with a parking spot, so I can do little more than clean my car :-/

The safety aspect is also important. Newer cars have more safety features, and while I think the newer ND's safety features are slightly over the top, I think the NCs are just perfect. I would really like to have a parking camera, but I'll deal with that when I really need it. For now, I think the NC is great for what it is.

I'm looking forward to summer!

Looks like I'm getting a Miata...

Long story short, my car sharing jaunts have been somewhat costly, and buying a car would probably be cheaper. This would be true if I bought a nice used car (Mazda 2 mmmmm) but I really wanted something that's:

• Convertible
• FR or MR Layout
• Small and lightweight
• Ideally with a lsd as an option

That's pretty easy, let's narrow down some brands I can think off the top of my head and if they're in the running:

• Mercedes - I know they do some convertibles but I honestly don't know what they are. I also don't happen to be mr moneybags, so, nope.
• BMW - Z3, Z4. Concerned about cost of maintenance, and those within my budget are long in tooth. i8 roadster looks amazeballs, but even if I earned big bucks, that's a bit too flashy (and big) for my tastes.
• Porsche - Targa 4S is cool! Used ones are just slightly above my budget but I have concerns about maintenance costs. Also, not rich.
• Honda - Del Sol is out, FWD - if not it looks really cute and awesome with the Integra-ish front. S2000 is no longer in production, unmodified ones are very expensive here - you can almost buy a brand new ND for some of the good AP2s.
• Mazda - MX5 of course, in budget, very lightweight, small. Japanese reliability. Strong community. There were also a few convertible RX7s when I wrote this post in my area, but they're really old, and I don't want to deal with worn apex seals.
• Toyota - I'm honestly very dissapointed with Toyota... Minor rant: I don't consider the new 86 a toyota. Neither the new Supra. They've seem to have forgotten the amazing history they've got in the past..... They appear to have given up on the sports car market and I have lost interest in them. The Solara is fwd, which means nope.
• Subaru - I accidentally listed them here because, the wrx is an icon. I don't remember them having any convertibles lol.
• Mitsubishi - OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU WHY ARE YOU MAKING ONLY SUVS BRING BACK THE GLORY DAYS OF RALLYING! Their Eclipse is unfortunately FWD. Not a fan of the styling either.
• Nissan - their Z is really the only choice but I'm not a fan of their styling. And it's quite heavy.
• Hawk Cars - One day, if I have a garage, they'll be in the running
• Lotus - Elise? I'm not that hardcore. Neither can I afford one lol.
• Factory Five - Like the other kit cars... one day, if I have a garage.
• Caterham - there's actually one for sale in my area when I wrote this... this car is a few steps above the Elise in terms of hardcore level, so a definite nooope for me :P
• Koenigsegg - I'm trolling you readers at this point.
• I'm excluding US cars from the list, as apart from a few iconic cars e.g. Trans Am, Viper, Corvette, Mustang etc etc I'm not that familiar with 'em.

So it seems like the Mazda MX5s are the main choice. That's great, early generation MX5s are tiny and very affordable.  But I want to balance a few things

• Budget
• Age of car
• Safety
• Cost of Insurance
• Running costs
• Maintenance Costs

I'm going to skip the budgetary discussion - I'll just say I can afford a used NC mx5. The ND, while I am certain I can qualify for a loan, I can't justify the depreciation. In addition, I don't commute, else the ND would jump to the top of the list as it has amazing fuel efficiency. Another reason why I'm less keen on the ND is the styling. It's quite a looker, and I want something more low-key. Honestly if I wanted something on the ND platform, I'd prefer the looks of a Fiat 124 Spider.

So, between the NA, NB and NC, I had a hard time choosing, but first - can I fit in the car? The NB is purportedly the tightest of the three, so probably not that. Now the NA looks amazing and popup headlights for the win! However, the NA is also very old, with the newest ones produced in 1997? That means all the NAs on the road are over two decades old, with some reaching three decades old.

I don't want to deal with a classic car, so that kinda leaves the NC. It basically ticks all the boxes: I can afford/justify it. The age of the car isn't horrendous (I was looking primarily at vehicles under 10 years old), insurance for the NC is a fair jump from the NA, but doable. Running costs appear to be reasonable. Oil changes and tires aren't super expensive. The fuel mileage I actually consider it to be quite poor, but I'm not driving it everyday, and I'm comparing it to the ND with it's modern fuel efficient engine as well as the econoboxes I rent. So it's fine.

Maintenance wise, it seems like it's a really well sorted car. There are some issues to be wary of, for example, the coolant tank appears to wear out in about a decade, and can lead to catastrophic engine failure. Thankfully it's not too expensive to swap in a new one, and there are aftermarket metal tanks.

There are 3 versions of the NC, they run from 2006-08, 2009-2012, and 2013-2015. I'm not fond of the so-called NC2, that ran from 2009-2012 - they had a front grill trimmed in silver. Urgh. I'd buy the car if it was right, and get some plastidip to paint over that trim. The original one, has what I consider a very classic look. While the final revision, dubbed NC3, had a more aggressive fascia. I choose the 2013 primarily as the trim with the lsd has a very nice front lip.

I've driven a two NCs now, and I found that I fit. Just. I have 2-3 inches of space above my head with the top up, hopefully that would be sufficient space for a helmet when I go autocrossing. The shifter. Wow. Well I've only driven a Toyota Echo before this, but the shifter's response is awesome. Snick snick snick. And the clutch is very easy to engage. The seat was also great. Of the few brands I've rented, Mazda seats, for some reason, fit me the best.

The throttle though, threw me off. The first NC I drove in a suburban area and the owner had no insurance on it, so I took it super easy, only first gear. Eh. However, a few days ago I took a test drive with a 2013 NC and visited the highways. Oh my goodness this car has some punch! (I'm pretty sure all you experienced drivers are laughing right now :P) Thankfully after a few minutes I got the hang of it and drove it without revving the engine uber high. It felt like it had alot of power just waiting in the wings to be unleashed.


The car I drove had a power retractable hard top, PRHT in miata-speak, and with the top up the cabin it felt snug. There were no problems chatting with the salesperson. The blindspots in the NC3 with the top up are pretty bad. Say the Mazda 2/3s or Fits I tend to rent, I could turn my head left to check the blindspots while keeping my shoulder blades against the seat. Not in the MX5, I really had to lead over to make sure things are clear on the left, and the right side is basically one big blindspot.



Even so, I made the test drive with little issues. When I got the car back though, I went through a checklist of things to check out, one of which was of course the top. Pressing a button and watching the sky open up above you is just... wow.  And with the top down, blind spots are a thing of the past.  Visibility is amazing, as is the open air experience. Sadly, I did not get a chance to drive with the top down, but that will change shortly :)

Not sure what else to say. I'll be taking this car for a pre purchase inspection soon. Can't wait to see the chassis bracing and aluminum arms once it's on a lift :) If all goes well, I'll be a proud owner of a used MX5 soon.

I do hope to purchase a new MX5 next, as I think that Mazda is one of the few manufacturers who still cater to people who care about driving, and I will vote with my money.

Buying a car in Vancouver

Blargh. Did you know in British Columbia, you'd have to pay 12% tax (5% GST + 7% PST)? I found that out a few days ago and it's been a bummer :-/ Factoring in the high ICBC insurance for a new driver - I was quoted 3.2k++ for one year's pleasure insurance (i.e. not a daily driver), and I also have to pay for monthly parking. Add all the maintenance costs, and petrol for the car... Gah! It adds up for something that is not a necessity in my life.

Last month though, I took my carshares over 1400km, and the bill is not pretty lol. I thought it'd be nice to have a car to take _really_ long distances, as well as to go autocross with. I'd budgeted enough to pull the trigger on some pre-2005 NA/NB Miatas, but then came across this 12% pst and that totally blew through what I'd budgeted >.>

That said... I've been considering what I want to use a car for:

- Travel around BC, Northern USA (Primary use)
- Autocross (Not a priority, nice to have)

And I definitely want a Miata as my first car, so I am now considering getting a 2006/2007 model, the NC.

Reasons to get a NC:
- Newer vehicle, with more modern safety design
- 11, 12 years old vs some NAs that are over 25 years old
- Largest Miata, should fit my fat butt
- Modern amenities

Reasons not to get an NC:
- Price
- Lack of pop-up headlights
- Purist think it's not a real miata - like I care

Going to check out some NCs at a dealership tomorrow, then I'll have to decide how that will slow down my retirement plans. The easy way out, is to do overtime. Sadly I haven't been doing much as I've been finishing work ahead of schedule >.>

Duffey Lake Road

Last weekend, I traveled 522km from Vancouver up to Lillooet and back just to drive along Duffey Lake Road. It was a brilliant day out, and I made several stops, one at Squamish for a short rest break, and then I had lunch at Grimm's Deli in Pemberton. From there, it was just under two hours to get to Lillooet along Duffey Lake Road. I then retraced my way back, but I only stopped at Squamish for dinner, as the drive took far longer than expected, and was almost dark by the time I returned to Pemberton.

This road winds through the mountains and it used to be the old way to get to the interior of BC but now its superseded by the coquihala. As you can see in the video, not many vehicles travel this route. I rented out my favourite Mazda 3 for the day, and it did admirably all the way.

Once April comes around though, I'm going to do it again, but with the Scion FRS - between October and March only vehicles with winter/M+S tires are allowed up north, and the FRS only has sport tires. Whatever that means. I think it'd definitely carve up those mountain roads with impunity :3

Dash cam observations

One of my favourite pastimes is watching dash cam videos. Primarily, I use it as a tool to observe situations and how I can learn from the mistakes of others and to avoid getting into those situations.

First, people are just too damned assertive of their right of way. If someone wants to enter your lane, even if they are not in the right, just back off, let them in. I keep seeing people just speeding up to close the gap instead of just letting people in, and both vehicles get damaged. What's up with that? Is it worth your time and money just to be right? I don't get this.

Next, drive defensively! Oh my synthesizers, why do people drive so fast and also keep close to the cars ahead? Leave enough space in order to respond to the situation ahead! It also gives a much better view. I just don't get people.

That said, I'm one of those lucky few that don't need to commute to work and only drive for pleasure. Perhaps if I had to drive everyday, I would sing a different tune.

My experience so far in Vancouver has been very positive. Sure, I've encountered red light runners and idiots that don't turn correctly. But in general I feel that other drivers are pretty chill. I've also been reviewing my own footage, and I think that - based on the stripes on the road - that folks here in Vancouver don't drive as fast as footage I watch in the states down south.

Got a dashcam.. because.

I recently purchased a Vantrue N1 Pro dashcam. I thought it'd be good to have after watching all the bad Vancouver driver videos on youtube. Thus far, I must say I haven't met any crazy bad drivers - yes, I've driven through Richmond and Surrey - and if anything I thought most of the folk are pretty chill. Definitely have met some people with no regard for others, but just slowing down and letting 'em go ahead does the trick.

So far, I've been using it to improve my driving skills. For example, over the weekend, I entered a right turn lane over a solid line instead of the dotted lines closer to the intersection. Not going to make that mistake again!

The N1 pro is one of the "middle" of the pack cameras. It doesn't have the almighty super capacitor people rave about, and it only does 1080P. It doesn't have wifi, and it only captures the forward view. What I did like about it is the price, and contents of the package.

First, it comes stock with a suction mount. That's perfect for people like me who drive only carshares. Next, there's a 12V to USB mini cable for powering the camera. That cable also provides an additional usb port for charging, pretty neat. Also included is a micro usb cable. You can power the camera via mini usb through a port on the suction mount, or to the camera via micro usb. Interesting design choices, but eh.

In use, it's fine, I guess? It's my first dashcam*. It captures the going-ons in front of my ride very adequately. To be clear, it's not one of those "2k" cameras, and license plates and similarly small details are only visible up close when everything's not moving. The controls are not very intuitive, but once you've read the manual, it's clears it straight up.

One minor annoyance of this camera is the input for the mini usb faces to the driver's left, I wish it was on the right. If not, the camera works great for it's price. I could use the micro usb cable, which is exits on the right of the camera, but I won't subject a tiny microusb cable to the weight of the cable, and the mini usb is the one that has the 12V adaptor connected to it.
 

The packaging is probably my main gripe. It's too damned nice. I really dislike how "wanna be Apple" the packaging felt like. For gods sake, all I need is a a box with some protection, I don't need no fancy slide out paper sheath with quality printed manuals. And a separate box to hold the cables and mount. Slick, high quality bag of the camera. No seriously, I'm not sure how much the packaging adds to the price. It's really nice, and I'm just going to toss it in my storeroom till I sell the camera.

If there's one thing I hope the camera will be updated with is the exposure compensation. Right now you can only adjust it in gradations of one stop, that's pretty massive. I think having the option of half stops would really improve the blown out skies. Also, there's no memory card with it. I'm using a 32GB card with it at the moment and it fills up pretty rapidly; three minutes of footage runs about 345mb, so about 4hours-ish of footage. No biggie, as the camera has a loop mode that erases old footage when the card fills up.

I must say some days I wish I'd just blew more money and got a top of the line 2k camera. But I don't drive that much, and if I really wanted good driving footage, it would be better money spend getting a mount for my dslr.

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*I originally bought a Viofo A119S, but it just stopped working like after fifteen minutes. Didn't want to deal with that so returned it andn got the N1 instead. The A119S does seem like a better camera though; high resolution, super capacitor. And the button layout made more sense. Packaging was not over the top. But yeah, failing after barely half an hour? Nah I'm good.

Cars!

I've got my N license in British Columbia a few weeks ago! This means I can drive alone in a car, but only with one passenger, and restrictions like no electronics usage etc. After two years, assuming I'm still alive and not maimed anyone, I can be upgraded to a full license and will be able to use a gps (yes!) and carry more people.

Now cars here in Canada are extremely cheap, from a Singaporean's perspective. A brand new Mazda 3 GT for example is about 25k. EXTREMELY CHEAP. That would probably cost like 3,4 times more back home.

Now, I'm one of those idiots that care about investing for retirement and personal finance. Can I afford a car? Easy. Can I justify it? No. So, I've opted instead to go with car shares. There's lots of car shares (and rental companies) here in Vancouver. I've barely over a year of experience, and some carshares need over 2 years of driving experience (e.g. Zipcar, Evo). The two that allow, as afar as I know is Modo and car2go.

Haven't driven much with car2go, mainly because it's a bit more expensive than Modo. Modo's about 2.50 for half an hour plus .30 a km, but car2go runs about 32 cents a minute, so even a ten minute jaunt costs a fair bit. It gets cheaper if you get one of the packages, e.g. an hour is 13 bucks, or 22 cents a minute. But Modo's five bucks an hour for their regular vehicle + 30c a km.

The key advantage of car2go is they're great for one-way trips. You don't need to return the vehicle to its start point, so long as it's parked at a proper parking space. I try my best to plan out one way trips because the smart car is good fun, but it rarely occurs.

Now the smart for two is a pretty solid vehicle. I love the throttle and brakes, and the car is so easy handle. A few things I thought might not be so good, especially going downhill, is that I need to crane my head down in order to see the traffic lights.  Visibility on the rear isn't the best either. Overall, it's a fun peppy car. Haven't taken it on the highway sadly, I'd be keen to see how it handles there.

Modo is Vancouver's big car share co-op, and the one I've been driving the last few weeks. I've driven a few cars and thought I'd put down some thoughts about them:

2016 Honda Fit (Blue)
Compact, throttle is a bit more responsive than I like. I'm sorry to say while I think this is a brilliant ride for the price, I thought it was a bit forgettable. It's.... a car.

2016 Honda Fit (Red)
I'm not sure what's with this particular Fit, but this car drives great! It had a "Eco" button that I don't remember seeing on the Blue one (edit: It's there, I checked recently). With that enabled, the car accelerates really nicely, but eco turned off, the car became really sensitive to throttle input. The fuel economy of this car appeared really bad though, I drove about 100km (downtown to Belcarra National Park, to New Westminster then back downtown) and that ate up nearly half a tank of gas (?!). Odd.

2016 Honda CR-V
I never liked SUVs, but I had to find out exactly why they're clogging up the road. This car feels damned planted on the road, and the steering feel is excellent. Eco mode is brilliant, makes for easy throttle control, and regular mode was a bit more touch but gives plenty of power to go uphill in New Westminster. It's wider, but I think the higher seating position allows me to better know where I am on the road. Lots of space inside, and lots of usb ports to share too, plus two 12v ports! I can see why people like 'em but I think I'm gonna stick to smaller cars like the Fit.

Fiat 500
I really want to like this car, and I will definitely rent it again, but it's the most twitchy car I've driven so far, it's rather scary when driving on a wet highway. The engine noise is also the loudest of all the cars I've tried. It's fun to hear the revs, but I soon got sick of it. The auto transmission also shifts around the 50km/h mark, which is annoying. The steering has zero feel, but it's super maneuverable.

I love the interior though, it's so kitsch! Unfortunately I don't like the rpm/kmph display, it's confusing with the RPM reading on the inner ring, and the kmph on the outer ring with a gear/cog motif that makes it difficult to read exactly how fast you're going.

Still, it's a very popular vehicle and I've not been able to rent it when I needed a car. There's also other variants that I want to try, like the 500C (convertible! oooooh) and the performance model, the Abarth. Not a big fan of the later - don't like the text emblazoned on the sides, and the interior is a boring single tone, not kitsch enough for my taste.

While this has 4 seats, there's no way anyone's going to be sitting in the back lol. Well, maybe if they're like, tiny. One great thing about this car, only two doors, brilliant. That way, you only need to buy one bazooka, point it to the right, and let it rip when you see a t-rex trying to get in. Don't reload when driving, that's unsafe.

Mazda 3 Sport
OMG this car rocks! It's got good enough power for hillclimbs and getting on the highways. Interior is boring and un-kitsch but super comfy. Throttle is... not super direct, I feel there's a slight lag but it's a good thing. I thought I could control it the easiest. Dashboard is boring and utilitarian.Two usb ports and a 12v socket in the center console.

Handling is pretty solid, I felt very confident on the highways or narrow roads. I've also got brand bias, as I'm a big fan of the MX5 and FD3S, both of which I've never ridden lol. #initiald

If I ever needed to buy a car, this is probably at the top of my list. The main problem: It has 4 doors, meaning 3 extra egress points for velociraptors to enter the vehicle. It's expensive to buy like, 3 mini guns as anti-velociraptor defense.

(2014?) Toyota Prius C
I think this car is brilliant for city driving in mostly flat area; it doesn't have the strongest engine and you can hear it whine when you're on-ramping a highway or climbing steep hills. And New Westminster has steep hills! Not the steepest in BC but yeah I can easily floor the throttle and the car just.... tries its best to accelerate. The throttle positioning is also a bit tight; I had to keep shifting my foot to get a good place else I'd be trying to push against the right wall.

The throttle is great at low speed and for city driving, I feel it's very optimized for that range. When on the highways, yeah, flooring it doesn't really do much lol. Steering is very solid, it doesn't feel as "on rails" as the Mazda 3, but I felt very confident with it. I like the brakes as well, it was easy to slow down without over compensating.

The shifter does feel a bit cheap, but usable. No dashboard behind the wheel - the speedo is in the center and it's a digital readout. I thought this was a great speedo unit - unambiguous and easy to read. Definitely the car I had the easiest time keeping my speed with. I also think it was the only car I've driven so far that has a dash cam.

And yes, this car has 4 doors, which presents a problem when being assaulted by dinosaurs that know how to open doors. Consider buying one anti personnel mine, aimed at yourself, it's cheaper and you'd probably feel less pain than being eaten alive by dinosaurs.

2017 Toyota Prius C
The prius c above was recently replaced by this newer one. I only took it out for a short drive for dinner, and essentially I think it's a more refined version of the older one. Environmental controls were a tad confusing but I just put it into Auto mode and set a temperature and it worked great. Didn't get a chance to use the cruise control, mainly because I couldn't find it in the dark and I had to get to a dinner. Mazdas and Hondas have it just by my right thumb, and makes it easy to toggle on/off. I did think the older Prius C had more grunt off the line, but it was rainy today so possibly the TC kicked in. The headrest also felt rather hard, definitely not a car to go for long cruises in. I think, like the previous version, that it's easy to park and a very good city use vehicle. Oh, the e-brake mechanism? Very delightful to use :)

2012 Mazda 2
Eh, this is like Mazda's analog to the Honda Fit. Overall, I think the Fit is a better vehicle - but I'm comparing a 2012 vehicle to a 2016, so I'll stop there. That said, I really enjoy this car. Of all the brands I've tried so far, the Mazdas fit me the best. Even this budget car fits me really well. Handling is good, and small size means easy to park.

2018 Hyundai Elantra
The impression I got was that Hyundai made less than good cars. Evidently that's in the long past. While I don't fit just quite right with it, it was an excellent ride, and I really loved the backup camera in this car! I will have to take it out for a long jaunt like the Mazda 3 to really get the feel of it. If I had to nit pick, I would say that compared to the Mazda 3 it has a slight understeer entering the turn, and the steering wheel's grip was a little on the smooth side.

2015 Nissan Versa Note
Eh, I doubt I will rent this car again. I found the handling a bit too squirrelly for my taste, and I did not fit very well in the driver's seat. Throttle response I felt was smoother than the Mazda 2, which was nice, but the brakes felt really weak.

2016 Scion FR-S
Best handling car of all the cars I've driven to date. Wow. This thing just takes corners like a champ. And it's super flat in turns. Throttle is amazing and shifts so fast. Zomg. Come next year, I'm taking this up the mountains for a spin. The ride quality is rather harsh though. It also has rear seats, which I'd totally forgotten. Definitely only for kids. If not, it's a great place for bags and stuff.

2018 Toyota Prius
Oh my god. This car is the plushest car I've ridden. It goes over bumps and rougher patches of road effortlessly. Handling is vague, feels like I'm driving a cloud. I do think the Prius-C has more driving character. On the flip side, the interior of this car is pretty nice, and the one I drove had a backup camera is is sweeeeeet!

One interesting tidbit - the back of the prius is mostly plastic - I could not stick my N sign on any of the surfaces. The sides of the car are metal though, my N sign sticks well and fine there. Acceleration is nice and smooth, and the brakes are also quite nice, and they can jam the car to a hard stop if you push it deep enough. I think thus far, this and the Mazda 3 are my top choices for long trips.

Unfortunately, the Prius has 4 doors, so yes, it increases the difficulty of defending yourself if sharks attack.

Leckerton UHA-4

I was wondering about my storage rack today and came across this bit of kit I bought when I was still working in Australia, a Leckerton Audio UHA-4 portable DAC. I bought this waaay back in 2015 when I was still messing about with gear, in particular, the Focusrite VRM Box.

The VRM box allowed you to simulate speakers using your headphones, and while I have no idea how accurate or usable the simulations were, they did one thing really well - I really thought the audio was coming from in front of me, like I was listening to speakers. Too many times I panicked when I'd looked at the clock and realized I was mixing after midnight - only to realize.... whew... I was on my headphones. On my vrm box.

With regular headphones, the music usually appears inside of you, somewhere between your ears, with stereo material coming from the left or right. I won't go into the details why this is so, but consider this: When you listen to speakers, both speakers contribute to both ears. Some of the sound enters your ears directly, but lots of it enters later - after bouncing off your table, ceiling, walls.

You get none of that with headphones - the audio goes directly to your ears, one earcup covering each of your squishy input receptacle.

The UHA-4 was bought after much reading to get the same effect of the vrm box with my mp3 player. It has a crossfeed function that bleeds some of the source from one side into the other, simulating what we'd hear with speakers.

Unfortunately, the reason why I haven't touched this piece of kit for years is that the crossfeed doesn't really do much for me. I tested it with logic by panning a mono source to just one ear, and with crossfeed on, there is definitely bleed being sent to the other ear, but I had no change in spatial difference, nothing like the vrm box. It was still inside of me, if a bit warmer. I decided it was time to sell it, so I packaged it up good... and never got around to selling it.

So today I picked it out again to try the crossfeed for shit and giggles, because hey, maybe my hearing has improved with age!!! Yeah riiight. But still I plugged it in and listen to some tunes with my pair of Grados SR80 and I realized something.

This baby makes the bass much "tighter". The bass in the SR80 is normally sufficient but this amp seems to balance out the music really really well. On top of that, the really detailed high frequencies which always make me take off my grados after an hour or so appear to have been tamed and smoothed out. I'm really impressed. All my music is new and fresh again!

Vintage watches

Recently got back on the watchmaking bandwagon, and instead of just fiddling around with antique pocket watch movements, I decided to get some "mostly working" vintage watches that I could use as dailies. I'm hoping to learn how movements fit into cases,so I can fit my other movements into cases. That would be something to actually do with the hobby, since I can't really have a lathe or mill in my tiny apartment. Not unless I want to endure the ire of my neighbours.

This Girard Perregaux above is my current daily. There's something about the vintage dial that gives me strong bauhaus vibes. According to the seller, it's equipped with a Girad Perregaux cal 03 movement. This handsome piece has been running nigh-perfectly on time in the last few days, so I'm reluctant to pull it apart. Pretty amazing for something build decades before I was born.

My issue with this watch is how small it is. The crown is miniscule, and the act of winding it up is quite harsh on the fingertips.

The straps it came with are terrible though. Supposed to be new, but the buckle broke apart the very first time I wore it >.> Time to go searching for a nice comfortable band.

Now this Gruen is another one I hope to put to use on occasions I wear a waistcoat. Unfortunately the movement - a Veri Thin Precision - appears to be a bit sticky - it works for a few hours then stops. Then goes, then stops. I hope the balance staff didn't get damaged in transit. Will be pulling this baby apart to give it a good cleaning/inspection to see if that would help. More than likely I'll break it into a few million pieces.

I'll be visiting Germany later this month, one of the things I hope to buy there are vintage watches made in the GDR. For example, GUB, Ruhla, Glashutte. Need to read up more on how Lange saved the german watchmaking industry. For that reason, I'm heading down to Dresden, then Glashutte to soak in the history of german watchmaking.

Getting Redshift3D to run on a macbook pro

Getting back into more houdini out of work, and thought I'd try out the Redshift gpu renderer.

It took me several hours, but I finally got it workingon my 2014 macbook pro.
- Purchase Houdini Indie (Apprentice does not allow 3rd party renderers)
- Install CUDA Drivers
- Install matching Nvidia Web Drivers
- Setup houdini.env file
- Install specific version of houdini to match the compiled dso.

And... then I found out I the mbp's 2GB GT 750m had insufficient vram left over to run anything heavy. Just a few toruses and I was out of vram >.>

Bwa.

I guess I'll have to research egpus tomorrow.

Kurious : 1 minute

I had the privilege of attending a session of Circ du Soleil's Kurious this fine evening, and my words are simply inadequate to describe the spectacle I saw.

For the first twenty minutes or so, I was somewhat put off as I could not find any narrative to the amazing performance. Hey, one of my hobbies is writing, ok?

But when the show ended, it came to me there... perhaps there was a narrative. What we experienced over the two-hour long performance, was really an expansion of possibilities for every minute in our lives.

If you watch the show, watch the clock.

Advent Children Complete

Holy Crap. Netflix - Canada - recently included Advent Children in its lineup, and I was like... eh, I've watched it nearly every day for years, might be good to catch it again later.

Finally watched it tonight and I was like... wait a second. I don't remember many of the scenes in this film... has old age finally caught up with me?!

This is because: It's Advent Children Complete. Ah.

Complete solves ties up several loose ends the original film, such as, how did Denzel suddenly become part of Tiffa/Cloud's family? Why would he suddenly go off with a random stranger to be cured? (He still does it but at least there's improved context). The final battle got revamped halfway through it, there's proper blood now, and Sephiroth really gives Cloud a good beating. And Cloud's new omnislash takes it to a new level.

Lots of detail has been added as well, more dirt during fights, and scratches on the 'cycles.

Still, I wished when the did complete, they would just friggin' fix the "people running in circles around a monster for ten minutes and not running away" scene. That's so beyond lame. And let's not get started with the water hydrant scene. Laaaaaame. There is absolutely ZERO chance of that amount of water forcing back a summon that probably weighs a ton or two.

Music wise, they've changed the edit a fair bit, and I personally prefer the pieces chosen in the original. I also question some of the edits, it just doesn't cut as well at times. Originally, Cid's entrance was him saving Tiffa. That scene is totally gone, and it's very jarring to watch him suddenly appear to just introduce the High Serra.

Overall, super pleased to have watched it. Always nice to catch up with kid memories.

Serious Sam 3: BFE and Borderlands 2

These two are _seriously_ old games, and I'm just gonna write some thoughts on them because I'm on holiday, and I got them last week. Us OSX players don't really get much choice, eh?

So first, Serious Sam. This game was a very different experience from the first game, and overall I probably won't want to play it again. The first Serious Sam is frikkin a bag of laughs and a simple, endless gorefest. I don't think it's _that_ fun playing solo, but in multiplayer it's amazing, especially with friends.

I didn't feel the same way in BFE. First the maps are a pain in the ass to navigate. I found them overly large, and I'm supposed to hunt down keys to open gates. That just threw off my pacing. Sure, we need some things to break up the endless waves of enemies, but I felt the "fetch quests" were just slowing down the game and I didn't feel any need for them. There were also some underground maps that were dark, and I could barely see anything at all. I'm wondering if there's a calibration problem on my screen as my friends were able to take down those chittering space monkeys in the dark with seemingly no problem. Gah.

And oh, those gates that stop you from progressing until you found a key? Seriously? As unfit as I am, I am certain I can climb over them. That totally breaks whatever little immersion I had of the game. I also didn't like that you had to press E to climb ladders. Like... what?

In any case, this is a game from 2011, and gaming has progressed tremendously since then. I'd hope Since I rarely spend time actually playing games these days. On the plus side, the frame rate is amazeballs even when entire regions are clustered with smoke/dust sprites. The SBC cannon brings back so many memories, and having them split apart a werebull down the middle is lol-tastic.

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Borderlands 2 released a year later, is a serious eye opener. Now these days, while I don't actively play games, I do watch playthroughs on youtube. I'm personally more interested in how the story works, rather than wanting to actually play a game.

Now borderlands blew me away with how well developed and thought out the UI, controls and levels were. From my no-longer-a-gamer perspective, it is a game that's really well polished. I am still amazed when I can walk up to a tiny little object on the floor, and am able to read the text on it. Like... is this the mega-texturing thing I've read up from before? Totally, mind blown.

Story wise, I found it quite passe. Fetch quests all over the places, and there were some plotholes (how could Roland die?! He was a vault hunter too!!! And one shot KO? It wasn't even a headshot!!!) My first run through I tried to blaze through it without any side quests and found it nigh impossible for certain missions - my level was just too low, and was taking forever to do damage to enemies. After reading up some hints, I finally got around to doing quests, which both boosted my levels and gave me some equipment that was super useful against specific enemies/bosses.

The final boss I was a bit non-plussed - for a warrior supposedly able to destroy everything on the planet it's... actually quite small in stature. And the amusing part was taking it down with just a plain old pistol lol.  That said, if we ignore the story, in terms of gameplay the pacing was superb, and the bosses, I really enjoyed lots of the boss fights. Many pushed me in the corner, but I was still able to break out of it.

I've played 4 of the 6 classes in the game, and a few days ago I decided to just uninstall the game because I could not help myself wanting to play it. Definitely a game to play for sure.

Neato D3

I bought my original Neato XV11 late 2013, and it sadly gave up the ghost around mid 2015. I got it repaired (took close to five months to get it fixed), and it continued to run till a few months ago when it suddenly shut down, and only had a half-glowing led around its "run" button. It'd come alive again for no particular reason at times, and was perplexing to come home to a robo vacuum just lying in the middle of the room.

According to the interwebs, this is likely a sign of a failed capacitor, aka the C10 fault. A capacitor should be an easy thing to replace, or so I thought, but taking apart the XV11 was far more of a chore than expected. In the end, there were some screws that were inaccessible as I didn't have screwdrivers long enough, so I decided, it's time for a new vacuum.

My choices were simple, Neato is basically still top of the pack for robo vacuums. And I definitely wanted a vacuum that had Li-ion batteries. That boiled me down to a few vacuums, and thought I'd just pick from the latest crop.

The D3 is the cheapest of the pack, and I choose it as it did not have a side brush attachment. Less things to fail, or maintain. It also has a smaller bin capacity as well as battery size. Given how "large" my "apartment" is though, those are non issues.

I've been running it for a few days and it more or less functions the same as the XV11. There are a things to note:

• Not as loud as the XV11, which is nice.
• "Gentle Navigation" mode keep a bit more distance from objects, and the Neato moves at a slower pace. I've noted that this mode bumps into stuff much less, but it seems that it causes the Neato to occasionally avoid small, tighter areas. 
• Have to use a phone app + wifi (2.4ghz, specifically!) to setup the Neato. Seriously? It even requires you to create an account with the Neato website. wtf. The XV11's firmware was more than enough to setup a schedule to run 3 times a week. That's all I need. If I want to run the robot, I can just.. you know, walk over and press the run button. I can't see me needing to, oh, I'm in Europe right now, but I _really_ want to vacuum my room. They could have done it like with some security cameras; each camera has a unique QR code that the app uses, and doesn't need to create an account for.  I personally think this "connected" business is just marketing stirring RND's pot of stew.
  If, I could say, have a visualization of the slam algorithm as the robot does its chores, sure, maybe, it'd be a cute thing to have for show and tell. But not required for a domestic robot. Bleh bleh bleh.
• li-ion batteries. These are the good stuff, and while I would have preferred to get a cheaper, last generation robot, I spent the extra moola for them.

Overall though, I'm still rating it pretty high. These robots save me untold amount of hours just cleaning up the dust and detritus, and they have pretty low maintenance The XV11's probably going to craigslist to be sold for parts. It works... when it wants to, so hopefully it's next owner can sort it out.

Defold Game Engine

I haven't fooled around with game engines in a long while, and I recently learned about Defold. It's an engine bought over by King (of Candy Crush fame), and it's primarily for 2D development, though it's a 3D engine at heart.

I've been playing with it for over a week, mainly learning Lua and going through the various tutorials. For what it's designed for, it's superb.

However, when I started to deviate from its roots, I found it quite challenging to work with.

For a start, the camera. In Unity for example, it's quite straightforward to setup/position the camera, ortho or 3D, and do stuff like space transforms from screen space to world. It's all worked out in the api.

In Defold, things get a little more tricky.

The camera is pre-defined to work in a certain way, with the camera centered at the bottom left of the screen, which is perfect for what the engine is designed for. Given the genre of games that King develops, as well as a fair amount of games I've seen in the forums, this is perfect. It works out of the box, not much tweaking required.

For me, I wanted to try something different, a camera centered at 0,0 and that's when things got tricky.

To do so, you'll need to figure out a projection matrix for it. It's challenging, as I'm not a strong maths person. Embarrassing, considering what my job is. Hours were spent on Scratchapixel trying to understand exactly how it all works. I've definitely walked away with an improved understanding of the rendering pipeline, as well as a refresher course on matrices :)



On the flip side, the html 5 export is an interesting thing, it would be cool to dev mini games for my chromebook and stuff like that. I'm also quite fond of the way they handle input, some of my basic tests for mouse/keyboard input went flawlessly. Haven't yet tried touch, but given as I'm not as fascinated with mobile game dev as before, I don't think I'll bother.

I think the key draw for me is the engine's dev team. Defold was original developed years ago before it was bought over, and the development team, including the original developers, are active in the forums. That's houdini-like levels of awesome!

I've read many arguments why not to use an engine by King, (Banner Saga trademark thingy). That's really icky, but you know what, the engine itself was created way before King, and the folks developing Defold are responsive on the forums. For that reason - plus I'm not a game developer - I've decided to stick with Defold as my fun engine for choice for the time being.

Visualizing airflow!

This is beyond cool, Schlieren Photography. My first thoughts were, "Hey! Would be awesome to visualize the airflow over diy rc wings."

Upon closer scrutiny, it's setup requires a fair bit of space, and needs a few pieces of equipment that are probably not so easy to obtain.

Still bloody cool though!

BV141 Inspired Flying Wing

First up, I want to be clear that this little side project has been stopped as it's far too complex for what I'd like to achieve. Without further ado, here're a few snapshots of my BV141 inspired flying wing.

The BV141 is highly unique in that the pilot sits on a separate pod that's not obstructed by the prop, allowing great visibility in its proposed role as a recon aircraft. I thought this would be a fun to tackle, as such a wing design would provide many advantages:

• Plank-style wing would be very easy to construct from dollar tree foam/readi-board
• Tractor prop would be quieter than pusher
• Pod could be used for a camera with no obstruction from prop

This is where I decided not to continue it further:

• To connect the pod securely to the main fuselage (or wing), would require additional weight a traditional pusher prop wing won't require. Such additional complexity would mean more work in the event of the crash.
• Spinning blades of doom in the front. Nuff' said.
• Wetted area of the addition pod, would pose much more drag than a single in-line fuselage on a pusher wing.
• The flight characteristics of my kfm4 wing were superb, and I thought that it would be better to start from an already good design.

Even so, based on my estimates, it should be possible to get the design completed under 250g, and it'd be legal to fly here in Canada.

250g is truly a challenging limit to build to. Not only do we need to use lightweight components, we have to decide between spending the weight on batteries for longer flight times, or for payloads.

Lightweight aircraft also have difficulty flying in the wind. 

I'll be reverting to a pusher chevron wing design. It's long been my wish to have a wood fuselage alongside foam wings, and with my canard project stalled, this will be my new target.