mrbrown

I, mrbrown, am the accidental author of a popular Singapore website, mrbrown.com, that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997.

When not writing, I play Xbox Live, PC games, World of Warcraft, DoTA, Team Fortress 2, Soul Caliber 3 on PS2, watch too many movies and anime, buy too many gadgets, rear fish and ride my bikes.

I have known my wife for more than 20 years and we live in an HDB Flat (apartment: public housing) in the heartlands of Singapore. We have three children, Faith who is seven and autistic, Isaac, who is five years old, and Joy, three, who is the littlest newest addition to the brood.

I ride to work daily. I own four bikes.

I own a used Specialized Hardrock Comp Disc (2006) mountain bike in limited edition Army Green colour. I upgraded it with a Lookin seat (with Royal Gel), XT M770 SPD pedals, and Tektro Aquila cable disc brakes.

Other new parts: Shimano 2008 Deore rear derailleur, 2008 Deore front derailleur and 2008 Deore Rapidfire Plus shifters. I also changed to a 2007 XT Hollowtech II 48T touring crankset and BB, XT Chain, and 2008 XT 9-speed Cassette. I took out the heavy stock Marzocchi MZ-3 shocks and replaced it with an OEM alloy rigid fork.

Also changed the Witch Ditch wheels (with the Schwalbe Marathon Cross 1.75 touring tires I put on it) to Mavic 719 rims, with Shimano M475 hubs and Alpine Triple-butted spokes and Panaracer T-serv Messenger 26x1.25 slicks.

Only things stock left from the original Hardrock are the frame, seatpost, handlebar and headset.

It is also outfitted with a Cat Eye mirror, a Cat Eye Strada wireless cyclometer, Cat Eye TL-LD610 red blinker, Cat Eye HL-EL320 front light, and Topeak Aero Wedge Clip-on saddle bag.

My latest bicycle is a silver Scott Sub 20 (2007) hybrid. It has been upgraded with a carbon handlebar, a 2008 Shimano SLX crankset, 2008 XT Shadow shifters, 2008 Deore front derailleur, and Ultegra 9-speed cassette.

I also have a white Dahon Curve D3 folding bicycle I use for my commute, which is also handy for mixed mode commuting. It is fitted with a Cat Eye TL-LD610 red blinker and two very bright S-Sun front lights.

The upper part of the Dahon Curve bike is pretty much all new parts. My foldie now sports a Pazzaz carbon seat post, Rido Glow-in-the-dark saddle, Radius VRO handle post, Syntace VRO clamps, AL carbon handle bar, and Ergon R2M magnesium grips.

My main bicycle is a blue Dahon Mu P24 folding bicycle. I ride it most often as it is a workhorse. The upper part of the bicycle is almost identical to the Curve in upgrades except that I didn't add a carbon handlebar.

All four bicycles have racks, and I own 2 sets of panniers (a pair of cheapo Lotus ones and a pair of yellow Ortlieb Back Roller Classics). I also have a huge Topeak MTX Trunk Bag DXP and a spare Lotus trunk bag. My bicycle luggage pretty much covers all my carrying needs.

My primary lighting comes from a pair of Fenix L2D Premium Q5 flashlights which give a maximum of 180 lumens of light each, and a helmet-mounted Fenix P2D flashlight which can crank out another 180 lumens. My rear red blinkers are mostly Cat Eye TL-LD610s and I usually mount two. My helmet has a Sigma Micro red blinker attached behind.

All my bicycles have mirrors mounted on them. I also have an eyeglass mounted mirror I use sometimes.

Yes, I know. I am a bicycle commuting geek.



Site Details:

The original version of this site is now in the process of being migrated.

And I USED to have a regular Friday column for TODAY newspaper.

The mobile edition to this site is winksite.com/mrbrown/mobile. Just use your WAP phone and read this site on the move! Finally, some use for GPRS!

Comments on this blog are moderated. This means that that when you post a comment, it goes into a holding area for me to approve. So if your comment does not show up immediately, do not fret. I assure you I will be very liberal in approving comments, but I will not tolerate spam, personal attacks, gratuitous profanity and racist attacks. My blog, my rules.

The RSS feed for this site is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/mrbrown, and the RSS feed for the Comments is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/mrbrowncomments

My Flickr site is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-brown (Flickr username: mr brown)

My podcasts are found at:

http://mrbrownshow.com (RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/mrbrownshow )

http://wtfshow.com (RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/wtfshow )

http://seewhatshow.com (RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/seewhatshow )

Twitter: @mrbrown


Disclaimer: All opinions expressed herein by the author remains the sole responsibility of the author, and not representative of any third party, except where otherwise attributed. Further to this, the author does not endorse nor take responsibility for any information or opinion expressed by any third party in any comments, trackbacks or links external to this website.


Computer Details (because I am geek)

I have been an Apple user since 1990. During that time, I have owned a Mac SE, a Mac SE/30, a Mac IIcx, a Mac LCII that became a Mac LC475 later, a Mac IIfx, a Performa 550, a Mac Centris 660AV, a Mac Quadra 840AV, a Mac PowerMac 8100/80, a Powerbook G3 Pismo, and an Aluminium 15" PowerBook G4. There are probably some Macs I missed in that list, because there was a time I had a new Mac every 3 months. I even owned a Newton 110.

My podcast studio currently has an eMac 1.25 GHz with 1.25GB of ram, a 17-inch iMac G5 1.9GHz iSight with 1.5GB of ram and 160GB HDD, a 20-inch iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz with 2GB of ram and 250GB HDD, a white Macbook Intel Core Duo 2GHz with 2GB of ram and 120GB HDD, and four external hard drives totaling 4TB of storage. I use a green Razer Copperhead mouse with a white eXact Mat. My wife uses a iMac G5. They both run off a Linksys BEFSR41 Linksys WRT54G Router with a WRE54G Range Expander that is also giving Internet access to 2 Xboxes and a homemade PC (MSI 865PE NEO2-PLS motherboard, Pentium 4 2.8C, 1Gb PC3200 DDR400 CL2.5 Dual Channel memory, Gainward Nvidia 5900XT 128MB video card, Soundblaster Live sound card, Cambridge Soundworks FPS2000 speakers, 200Gb+ 80GB HDD, Sony 52XCDRW, TDK 16/12Dual Layer DVD-RW, all inside a black aluminium Cooler Master Centurion V casing with side window. I also have a Samsung SyncMaster 710T LCD monitor via DVI, a Logitech LX700 Wireless keyboard and a Razer Diamondback Plasma Limited Edition mouse with Razer eXact Mat). The PC is for games only, and yes, it is getting old.