I won’t say that it is the question (and now I think of it, what is it that makes me type ‘thtat’ when I’m writing the word ‘that’?) but it definitely is a question, and a question that has popped into my mind a lot lately. Even adding to this feel that maybe I should was discovering my friend Talhaug’s blog and how he manages to keep a live blog by adding not every day, and not even every week. I suspect the purpose for him is, as for me, to write for oneself rather than for others, and thus it doesn’t really matter when and where etc. Of course, knowing someone expects something to show up here does add a little pressure to it, which is fine really, just know that I don’t give a fuck, I’m doing this for me.
Of course, when I’m going back to Taiwan this summer, I’ll be adding probably next to daily stuff here as a travel diary kinda thing, much like I did last time.
So, let me go through what happened since last time and generally ramble on about everything and nothing. I’ve started to play Eve Online again, which is a massive online game, much to the dismay of my fiancée. I can understand how boring it must be for her that I spend time doing something she doesn’t take an interest in at all – and sometimes even I think it is a little boring now that the first month or so has settled. A guy I fly with in the game called in a pimped version of IRC, and I kind of agree that it is.
I’m also slowly starting to form the plan of a rebuild of my Mercedes, which involves changing engine and whatever I’ll need to change the car stand to security standards etc so that it can run legally on the roads. As I have no idea what to do, I’ve rejoined the local Mercedes club and I’m posting heavily on their forums online to figure out just how big this project is. I have the 1996 model C-180 (W202) which holds a 1.8 litre engine with about 125 horsepower, and I’ve got a 3,2 litre engine from a 2000 model CLK (W208) which holds about 218 horsepower. Vroooom! Needless to say it’s gonna make it a lot funner to ride, but also I’ll need to make sure that the suspension, steering, brakes and probably a lot else to hold up to the added power. I’m not doing this to get a racecar actually, I just want a smoother ride and available power for when I overtake someone (I my mind when overtaking it should happen quickly for safety) and espescially for when I pull my trailer, cuz now it feels like the car is struggling with that a little. I’ve been told to compare my vehicle to the MB C36 AMG model which is fairly like how mine will turn out in the end with these modifications. I’ve also discovered that my car has the ‘S202 look’, which is from the facelift the series got in 1997. Cool.
Turns out this project is way bigger than I ever imagined, so I think I’m going to do as recommended and write a letter to the Norwegian office of automotives (Statens Vegvesen) and ask them what they require to be done. I imagine they will require quite a lot of details seen to, and I must remember to photographically document EVERY single thing I do to the car during this process, if I ever get started on it.
A positive thing to this whole thing, is that I’m now noticing smaller things about the car that needs to be seen to. There seems to be some minor corrosion appearing in the rear wheel arches (both sides), as well as another dot on the thingamajig connecting the roof to the front of the car (I really have NO idea what that would be called in english, comments with suggestions appreciated!). There’s also some around the handle opening the boot, but I knew about this though. All of these minor details needs to be looked into as well, I want my car to look its best as well as performing as such. Besides, not taking care of these things will ultimately destroy the car, no?
I’ve learned a little bit of programming for the iPhone and for mac OS X. I haven’t been good keeping up with it lately though, so I guess I should make a plan for myself to have a continous development going, including the development of my own skills. It does feel good when you finally make a program work though, that you have designet from scratch yourself. I guess it is the same feeling that you get when you take a step back and look at the painting you’ve done, or house you built. The feeling of admiring your own creation.
I just found an amazing site with parts for Mercedes Benz cars, called Euro Merc Mercedes Parts. Hopefully their reliability is as good as their prices. I’ll need to remember them for the future.
Oh and yes, I still have the most wonderful girlfriend in the world!
