Montjuic

If I start putting up a post for every time I feel nostalgia, or feel dejavu, or i feel I've been sucked into a memory world without the least of provocation this would be a much more active blog. However this morning the nostalgia is of chronic nature, its hardcore and I must do something about it. I would have saved the trouble of posting now if i had actually blogged about wondering about Europe... well when i was wondering about Europe, but never mind, this morning it was being sucked into one sunset at Montjuic. One might ask what the hell Montjuic is, one might suggest that perhaps it is a mountain, and indeed it is, well close enough, its a hill, alright enough of weird talk (maybe). It is a hill, literally meaning hill of Jews or Jupiter, whoever said the name the first time must have been mumbling because they aren't sure whether its one way or the other. It is located in Barcelona. So what is so special about this one mountain? maybe nothing let me rattle however.

Its been the site for world fairs, formula 1 races (alas way before my time), strategic point for bombing the city when people were not behaving as they were expected to, mass murder via killing squads, military prison, political prison, the olympics, and also strangely enough  for a complicated experiment which measured the distance from North Pole to the Equator.

So why nostalgia for this such a mishmash of history, I guess I have to thank luck for that. As "luck" would have it, the time I reached Montjuic was that of late afternoon in fact an hour away from sunset. I could see the whole of Barcelona spread out before me from my vantage point, the light falling on it was perfect shade of fire, golden, alive, intoxicating. It was one of those moments when you disconnect from the real world, I had, i was in a dream. From the Teleferic i made my way towards the top.

At the top, befitting the dreamlike quality of this whole episode is a Castle, a medieval fortification residing in a space shaped like a starred pentagon, surrounded by enormous moats complete with bastions and buttresses. Though by now the light is waning the place had not been lit up by flood lights and much to my relief. The only place I would have wanted to be in here was the top of the castle, and to the top I went, chose a spot facing the setting sun, and I watched it drown into the Mediterranean, and the sky dance with hues of sunset and then night. Thankfully floodlights still had not been stirred. and you could see the first stars, the harbor, the ships, the lights of Barcelona glittering like rubies, and sapphires and citrine diamonds, the moon shined ever brighter for the contrast I had witnessed, I could see it shining on top of the Keep. As the last traces of sun went away, and the floodlights were switched on it was time to go, I took it all in and left.

Okay the last two paragraphs were rather "heavy" in nature, but then again so is my nostalgia, I would not mind one such sunset again., and what made it special was the fact that I was completely at peace, no conflict, no struggle, no distraction, just peace. Okay maybe there might have been minor distractions like people in the way of a photo  I wanted to take but nothing major.

Maybe if I find my way there again, it wouldn't be the same, maybe it was just a special one-time spell, but I think I'm going to try and find my way there again anyways.

Venezia

Venice 2010

There was no Internet yesterday, for most part, and I did not feel like writing, reading, or watching or anything. So the the only other option was to go through the pictures I've taken and subject it to photo-editing. This ones from Venice, and as I lack actual painting prowess, I'm going to "copy" this with oil paint, Fingers crossed!

A History of Venice
The Impressionist

I Love Florence

2nd Oct, 2009

I loved Florence, I simply love it. Today was my first day at Florence and the minute I got out of the San Maria Train Station. I loved it. It was love at first feel shall we call it, It was alive, familiar, invigorating yet wonderful, just like love should be.

I Love Florence

2nd Oct, 2009

I loved Florence, I simply love it. Today was my first day at Florence and the minute I got out of the San Maria Train Station. I loved it. It was love at first feel shall we call it, It was alive, familiar, invigorating yet wonderful, just like love should be.

The Seasonal Variables

Hmm do Bernie or FIA have a plan? If they do it definately seems to be to continually make Formula 1 not what we remember it to be! Or have they actually stumbled across racing gold with specs for this season! This soul searching has been brought about by Shanghai race weekend. It was Glorious! accidently or not F1 right now has these set of variables that might make the weekends way more fun than have been in awhile, The 1st two races seemed like Vettel playing the piper to the rest and inc, Shanghai seemed like a true race with my wish of seeing Vettel defend his position come true, although his inability to defend #1 was not due to lack of his talent sadly but due to the tyre strategy, Hami was just way  too fast and together with his fresher tryes from 3 stops than Seb on his quite beaten out softs from 2 stops, And its official RBR have *bleep* KERS problem and unless they get that sorted out starting from Pole wouldn't make much of a difference (except maybe for Constructors Championship).


Special mention for Webbo before I start talking about variables, Thank you Webber for being that amazing and awesome; I haven't cheered for anyone for awhile( not since kimi left =[ ) and though we know you have a troubled car, we ( read meh ) want you to kick @*& all season. Amen ( I am not quite sure if that counts as a prayer but whatever).


Alright the STUFF that make f1 yummy for us at this point in time are maybe uneccesary and overkill type techlongies(but who cares really! as long as it gives us more vroom and bang) aka KERS and DRS and of course all credit to Perilli for making these amazing tyres who no one is quite sure how to work properly, much love. I want to give a bit of a rant for KERS and DRS and rules applying to them so here it goes.


DRS (Drag Reduction System)
the ^drag reduction system^ is essentially movable rear wings, If you adjust front wings it effects the balance of the car, if you adjust rear wings it effects the drag. So the FIA decided the teams should not cheat by using the adjustable front wings and that wanting balance in your car was not desirable =/, so they were chucked off ( not the wings but the regulations), and only rear wing adjustment was allowed. Reducing the angle of the rear wings reduces the drag, therefore letting you go faster in straights and helping you overtake. Although this rule should apply to any straight section of the track the FIA restricts it to one straight section calling it the "Over taking zone", a Driver cannot use DRS at any other point on the track, and He can ONLY do so while in that overtaking zone and less than a second behind the driver he means to overtake. As with KERS there are problems with actually incorporating the unit with the car. Although I think there should be less restrictions on how teams engineer their aerodynamics yet if this is the only bone being thrown their way atleast it should not be restricted to predefined areas on the track. Although in theory this aught to work but have not seen any amazing overtaking done due to this system.


KERS (Kenetic Energy Recovery System)
The type of KERS being used by F1 cars at the moment ( or attempting to use ) are either electrical (battery) or mechanical(flywheel), hydraulic KERS are bigger and heavier than thier cousins so can not be used for F1 cars. The Principle is the energy generated under braking is stored in an accumulator for using later to provide a speed boost. The boost allowed is limited to 80bhp every 7 seconds per lap, you can eitehr use it spurts at different points on the lap or all at once. The boost provided is indeed significant. In theory it looks very pretty but but most teams are having problems with implementing it. An F1 car essentially made to be light aught to be able to accommodate a 35kg increase of a standard KERS unit but they dont apparently; and weight is not the only problem RBR tried using a smaller KERS unit so that it would give them energy boosts in smaller bursts however even with the lighter weight the system its self was faulty that is the energy either would not always get saved or not properly.


Of these two I think KERS is an important variable. DRS might be completely scrapped by FIA if doesnt start showing some game. Tyres by Perilli are turning out to be a source of joy, they were under fire due to the marbles issue; that is the tyres seemed to be degrading too quickly. Even more it was speculated  tyre debris aka marbles were a hazard. This hazard seemed to have been rather vague in nature but nonetheless it was used to highlight Perilli's quick tyre wear problem. However this nuance might have turned into a blessing, with teams having to be more tactical with their tyre choices and strategies. The difference of tyre strategy was standing yesterday on the podium, Hamilton and Webber being the clear winners of it. 


I'm not for restricting the game too much, but I guess as I am not the one controlling that factor I can only whine about it time and again, but in the meantime make the best of it; As long as F1 keeps Speed, Strategy and Awesome I wont complain much.

The Seasonal Variables

Hmm do Bernie or FIA have a plan? If they do it definately seems to be to continually make Formula 1 not what we remember it to be! Or have they actually stumbled across racing gold with specs for this season! This soul searching has been brought about by Shanghai race weekend. It was Glorious! accidently or not F1 right now has these set of variables that might make the weekends way more fun than have been in awhile, The 1st two races seemed like Vettel playing the piper to the rest and inc, Shanghai seemed like a true race with my wish of seeing Vettel defend his position come true, although his inability to defend #1 was not due to lack of his talent sadly but due to the tyre strategy, Hami was just way  too fast and together with his fresher tryes from 3 stops than Seb on his quite beaten out softs from 2 stops, And its official RBR have *bleep* KERS problem and unless they get that sorted out starting from Pole wouldn't make much of a difference (except maybe for Constructors Championship).


Special mention for Webbo before I start talking about variables, Thank you Webber for being that amazing and awesome; I haven't cheered for anyone for awhile( not since kimi left =[ ) and though we know you have a troubled car, we ( read meh ) want you to kick @*& all season. Amen ( I am not quite sure if that counts as a prayer but whatever).


Alright the STUFF that make f1 yummy for us at this point in time are maybe uneccesary and overkill type techlongies(but who cares really! as long as it gives us more vroom and bang) aka KERS and DRS and of course all credit to Perilli for making these amazing tyres who no one is quite sure how to work properly, much love. I want to give a bit of a rant for KERS and DRS and rules applying to them so here it goes.


DRS (Drag Reduction System)
the ^drag reduction system^ is essentially movable rear wings, If you adjust front wings it effects the balance of the car, if you adjust rear wings it effects the drag. So the FIA decided the teams should not cheat by using the adjustable front wings and that wanting balance in your car was not desirable =/, so they were chucked off ( not the wings but the regulations), and only rear wing adjustment was allowed. Reducing the angle of the rear wings reduces the drag, therefore letting you go faster in straights and helping you overtake. Although this rule should apply to any straight section of the track the FIA restricts it to one straight section calling it the "Over taking zone", a Driver cannot use DRS at any other point on the track, and He can ONLY do so while in that overtaking zone and less than a second behind the driver he means to overtake. As with KERS there are problems with actually incorporating the unit with the car. Although I think there should be less restrictions on how teams engineer their aerodynamics yet if this is the only bone being thrown their way atleast it should not be restricted to predefined areas on the track. Although in theory this aught to work but have not seen any amazing overtaking done due to this system.


KERS (Kenetic Energy Recovery System)
The type of KERS being used by F1 cars at the moment ( or attempting to use ) are either electrical (battery) or mechanical(flywheel), hydraulic KERS are bigger and heavier than thier cousins so can not be used for F1 cars. The Principle is the energy generated under braking is stored in an accumulator for using later to provide a speed boost. The boost allowed is limited to 80bhp every 7 seconds per lap, you can eitehr use it spurts at different points on the lap or all at once. The boost provided is indeed significant. In theory it looks very pretty but but most teams are having problems with implementing it. An F1 car essentially made to be light aught to be able to accommodate a 35kg increase of a standard KERS unit but they dont apparently; and weight is not the only problem RBR tried using a smaller KERS unit so that it would give them energy boosts in smaller bursts however even with the lighter weight the system its self was faulty that is the energy either would not always get saved or not properly.


Of these two I think KERS is an important variable. DRS might be completely scrapped by FIA if doesnt start showing some game. Tyres by Perilli are turning out to be a source of joy, they were under fire due to the marbles issue; that is the tyres seemed to be degrading too quickly. Even more it was speculated  tyre debris aka marbles were a hazard. This hazard seemed to have been rather vague in nature but nonetheless it was used to highlight Perilli's quick tyre wear problem. However this nuance might have turned into a blessing, with teams having to be more tactical with their tyre choices and strategies. The difference of tyre strategy was standing yesterday on the podium, Hamilton and Webber being the clear winners of it. 


I'm not for restricting the game too much, but I guess as I am not the one controlling that factor I can only whine about it time and again, but in the meantime make the best of it; As long as F1 keeps Speed, Strategy and Awesome I wont complain much.