Ruth joins the family

After a brief consultation with Dave on the preferred Ford Fiestas I find the best looking 1.25 on Autotrader, the next day (Saturday) I'm rolling into Camden with my brother, father and Paul to check it out. After we find it we give it a quick look over and a test drive, running good for the most part, a ten year old Zetec engine with low mileage, Ghia spec electric windows, central locking and all the other luxury level bells and whistles, things it looked like a pretty sweet deal for 750 pound coins. The woman selling it had half a dozen other people on the line trying to find their way there, so I decided to grab it before any of them arrived.
There’s a few scratches I’ll be able to t-cut out, a few small dents I won’t, plasticy shit interior, it burns a bit too much oil when pushing it, and the tappets need aligning. But it has new springs and brakes with the recent MOT, and for £750 it shifts, easily cruising at 90 on the way home, so I’m rather content with it.

When I got back I was quick on insuring it, and by half 3 me and Paul were on the road.
The front tyres looked a bit feeble so I thought the first port of call would be the garage to fill up and check the pressure. The manual says they should be at 31 PSI, and I found them to be at 15! Thinking back to the 90MPH ride home suddenly became a bit chilling. After pumping them up and moving out it became so much more wonderfully responsive.

The lulz began on Sunday, with Dan and Bertie we thought about going to Woburn zoo, but after seeing the £17.50 ticket price we completely ditched that idea. So instead we decided to pimp my ride, with a budget of free.
After almost two hours of serious mechanical expertise we decided to hit the town and woo the ladies. With my special K spoiler, cardboard fiber bodykit, go faster stripes and personalised hood ornament, I was the coolest kid in town.
After showing the Stevenage massive who’s boss later that night I had to take it off, and spend a while scrubbing off the cellotape residue today.
With an iPod tapey thing generously donated by Paul, all the old stickers taken off, new floor mats and a good clean she scrubs up alright.
Let the good times roll.

Why so serious.

Well I had a pretty cool weekend. Hanging out with Neil and Haku is always a great laugh, mostly blazing GTA races, Ikaruga and the usual Naruto 3.
MCM was its usual self, but continued the declining level of enjoyment I recieve from each one. It's still amusing enough to see all the cosplayers and have a look at what's on offer, and in the end it's something for us to do other than sitting around playing games all day. But the annoying kids, socially awkward shut-ins and arrogant assholes that take themselves too seriously were out in full force, and that'll certainly put a downer on any event.
After Neil left on Sunday I went to see the new Indiana Jones film with Haku and Paul, on a totally spur of the moment thing, and found it to be a surprisingly good movie. Still no patch on the classics, and could have done with a whole lot less of George Lucas and his novelty characters and sci-fi overkill, and a whole lot more of Steven Spielberg and his quality skills.

I started watching Ichigo Mashimaro a few days ago, and it's just as funny as all the hype suggests. I'm really having to pace myself so I don't blast through the unfortunately short 12 episode series too quickly.
I also started watching Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, an absolute blast from the past which has really surprised me with how addicted it has me. At first I just wanted to check it out along with Tenchi Universe after reminiscing about the good ol' Toonami days of school, so many years ago. I was just expecting some nostalgia lulz and for that to be the end of it, especially as it's a lengthy 49 episodes, but the classic art style, unfiltered nostalgia and typcial Gundam politics has got me hooked. I think this'll be an awesome series for me to encode and put on my iPod to watch during my lunch breaks.

Tomorrow I'll be heading into London with Bertie and the clan for some shits and giggles at the X Factor auditions. After managing to charm his was past one of the co-owners of SONY he's in for a chance to face David Cowell and test his worth. In the name of the Emperor I pray he gets that oppertunity.

Winning

So I passed my test, good times.
Headed out, was a bit busier than I was expecting, did a turn in the road, reverse around corner and emergency stop, went back, said it was a good drive, happy days.
I really am so god damn happy I've got my licence now. When I was in the waiting room for the first test I suddenly got absurdly nervous, the only time I ever remember being anywhere near that nervous was back in the lower years of primary school when I was doing my first school play, doing the typical "I don't want to go out, bawwww!" routine. I was that apprehensive purely because getting my licence is the only thing I think I've ever actually cared about, in my entire life.
Of course there's been other stuff I've wanted, winning competitions, tournaments and games, doing well in various pursuits, but of all those things it wouldn't have really made a massive difference if I'd failed or not got the result I wanted. Getting my licence and driving, it's all I've ever really given a damn about, other stuff comes and goes and I've never really been tied down to anything, but driving is everything to me.
Man, I'm starting to sound like Takumi.
Anyway, I've got my licence and now just need my car. I've got a few lined up to look at and have been in contact with people, so it's only a matter of time now.

Got the next MCM on Saturday. I had no interest in going until I met up with Jess and that lot in London and they gave me a new reason. Neil's coming down from Liverpool tomorrow, and Haku'll be coming back to mine from MCM, so the usual good time gaming and hanging out will be had, especially as I have a free house for the next four days.
I was put off MCM because of all the absurdly childish faggotory from all the hyperactive 14 to 17 year olds, but I guess there's a lot of good to it too, and for the most part it's what you make of it with the people you're with, so I'll just try my best to persevere that bullshit.

All wings, report in

GENTLEMEN.
It's been a long time. I have summoned you here today to discuss the liquidation of cyclists.
But let's back up for just one second, where did it all go wrong?
I arrived at Blackpool on Sunday just over a month ago, stepping off the coach I was immediately hit by what a dive it is. Seriously, the boulevard was like Las Vegas meets Chernobyl, and one steet back from that was the ghetto. Just like anywhere else in England, it had its nice areas too, but why anyone would want to come here on a 'holiday' I will never know.
The one thing Blackpool had going for it was the fact that it's street racer central. Everything everyone's said about cars being cheaper up north is so absurdly true, you'll see very few modified FWDs and a silly amount of Jap imports. Within an hour of being there I saw an R34 GTR, so I was sufficiently impressed.
My instructor was pretty cool, which I was very worried about, as getting stuck with a bad instructor for a week would've been hell. The other guy I was paired with was alright, a total builder but we all got on great.
The week went pretty quickly, driving during the day and either reading on seawall or playing my DS in the hotel during the evening.
Failed my test, all because I overtook a fucking cyclist without leaving a 'safe distance'. If I was going to fail I wanted to put the car on its roof or into an orphanage, not a stupid little thing like that.
Ahh well, I've been driving with Andrew's old instructor since I got back, who really knows his stuff. Got my test next Wednesday morning, and if I fail that I really don't know what I'll do.

I met up with Ellie and a bunch of other people in London the Saturday after Blackpool. It was rather strange as I'd been on the coach all night and had managed no sleep at all, but I still wasn't tired at all even after walking around London all day.
We did a tour of some pretty cool shops, and I managed to bag volumes 23 to 29 of Initial D for £2 each out of a bargin bin, now I just need to buy volumes 13 to 22 to catch up...
I met some really cool people (and some real elitist pricks) and generally enjoyed it. We spent the second half of the day at the Namco arcade which was pretty awesome. I'd been there before, but when you're just passing through is totally different to when you properly stop and take your time. Best part of it was the Wangan Midnight: Maximum Tune 3 arcade machine. Which while having a silly amount of catch-up turned on, proved to be the most awesome arcade racer I'd ever played. I spent a lot of money on that with Pill, who while having no previous interest in motorsports was really enthuiastic about the racing games, definitely a potential getaway driver. Also hung out a lot with Jess, who seems to share pretty much all my interests and has a delightfully overenthusiastic fan-girl side.
I'll be seeing all these crazy cats again at MCM next weekend.

Started watching a bit more anime again recently, although I've dropped Moyashimon and haven't been able to bring myself to watch any more Baccano! yet.
Most notably I watched the six episodes of Golden Boy, which is freakin' hilarous, quite possibly the funniest comedy anime I've ever seen.
I also blasted through the entirety of Infinite Ryvius alarmingly fast, I really didn't expect it to grab me as much as it did. It's basically Lord of the Flies in space as it follows a ship full of stranded teenagers left to sort themselves out for six months.
Now I'm watching Toward the Terra, which has also really grabbed me, although it certainly has a lot of things that really do not appeal to me. It's main attractions are the situation the main character finds himself in and the sci-fi genre. But the thing that really gets on my nerves is how some of it is so blatantly aimed at pleasing fan-girls, which shouldn't be surprising as it was recommended to me by a serious yaoi fan, but there's only so much eye rolling I can do at the heart-throb mentor and his antics, luckily he's on the verge of death, so hopefully he'll kick the bucket and get out of my face soon enough.

I've left out a lot of junk that I've been up to, but I guess that's what's gonna happen when I don't update for a month. Hopefully I'll have nothing but good times next week and will get back on the ball, we'll see how things go.

Spoilers to follow

I watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest a few days ago, pretty messed up ending with the dude getting a lobotomy, seriously not cool. Typical Jack Nicholson performance though, doing the crazy thing he does best.

I got my DS card on Wednesday, which is really impressive considering it left Hong Kong on Sunday. Some seriously fine work, China.
Been happily getting into Elite Beat Agents, Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright, Trauma Center and WarioWare, with another half a dozen games I've yet to properly try. I'm really bitter about Advance Wars being the only game that doesn't work though, I absolutely loved the original on the GBA and was really looking forward to this one, a bit heart breaking that I won't be able to spend all those hours executing brilliant tactical maneuvers like I did with the first.

I'm encoding videos to put on my iPod as I type this, the first few episodes of Moyashimon and the last few of Manabi Straight, some Breaking Bad and the Argentinian rally are all going on there, which should be a very good amount to see me through the week.

Other than that I'm pretty much set, just one more day and then I can piss off for a week, excellent.

This time next week

After finding a return coach to Blackpool for under 35 sterling I got straight on booking my intensive course, which is all set for the week after next. I'll be leaving next Sunday and hopefully returning the Friday after with my licence.
The card for my DS was posted from Hong Kong today, with a claimed seven to fifteen days delivery it's pretty dubious if it'll get here in time, but all I can do is pray it does as it will be seriously indispensable for the trip.

I've started watching the anime series Baccano!, which is alright. It's sold as a sort of a 1920s American Gangster deal with lots of different characters with completely different stories intertwining, kind of making it sound like the next Cowboy Bebop, but it's nowhere near that good. The one cool thing about it is how it seems to have every famous voice actor under the sun, from Vicious to Kyon's sister back to Ryosuke Takahashi, it had me pausing the first episode every five minutes to find out where I knew that voice from.

I started watching Breaking Bad recently as well, which is a really dark comedy about a science teacher that discovers he has cancer, and with less than two years to live he starts making crystal meth to leave his family with some money, with hilarous consequences.
The lead's played by Hal from Malcolm in the Middle, which is the perfect casting. But typical to every decent American series that tries to do something a little different, it only has seven episodes, I'm enjoying it while it's here though.

One rather nice discovery is the Jazz Spastiks, who I came across in a random drifting video on youtube. Great beats, and a 23 track album for only £7, a very reasonable price that I am more than willing to pay when every penny goes to the artist.
Might even be the first album I've ever bought.

G-Boys 4 eva

I had a very brief look at Now and Then, Here and There before deleting its punk ass off my machine. It may be highly acclaimed but with artwork that cheap and old the story would have to be fucking ground breaking to make up for it, and I am pretty sure it's not that good.

I've started working my way through the films on my list of things to watch, as opposed to spending most of my time trawling through series. I always want to find the next really epic series to get into and absolutely lose myself in, but the problem is that these series are few and far between. Titles with the quality of Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Haruhi Suzumiya are rare to say the least, for the most part anime series have relatively low production costs and are just cashing in on a successful manga series. Films on the other hand are only an hour or two long, so have much improved animation and direction with none of the filler used to pad things out in between.

The night before last Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade took the stage, and I'd say it was alright. It felt rather reminiscent of Ghost in the Shell, with the heavy political discourse broken up by the odd action scene. Of course it's nowhere near the level of excellence that GitS stands atop, and is not particularly a film I can see myself going back to watch any time soon, but it was still enjoyable.

Last night I sat down to The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which was pretty damn good. I'd describe it as kinda like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya on ritalin, in being a pleasant slice of life comedy with sci-fi undertones. The characters were rather generic with routine plot development, but for something as banal as it was there wasn't much fault to find in it other than its mundanity. A quality film overall, enjoyable viewing for all audiences.

I also finished watching Ikebukuro West Gate Park the night before last, which had manly tears streaming down my face, so epic. I seriously love this series, not just for the fact that it has some absolutely fantastic characters, but for the sort of curt realism in which each episode doesn't end happily ever after, but also doesn't purposefully go out of its way to be overly morbid. It's definitely one of those sort of great series that doesn't simply fit into any genre, and I am sad to see it end. Hell, I'd go as far as buying it on DVD if it was subbed and released over here, not that it ever will be, crime.

I finished My Boss, My Hero today, it really milked the feel-good ending for all it was worth, but that's what the whole series was all about, a silly happy-go-lucky series made to put a smile on your face. And that's exactly what it did, lovable characters where everything turns out alright in the end and leaves you all cheered up. A frivolous comedy, good times.

On a completely unrelated note, you know what's an awesome word?
Mega.
After seeing a picture of Mega Blocks on 4chan it's made me realize how underused that word is, you only ever hear it in product names like Mega Blocks and Mega Man. Is it even possible to use it in a sentence as anything but the prefix to a noun?
"Hey, check out that 4X4, that is mega."
Hell yeah, that's a word I'm totally going to have to use more often.

School killings to school lunches

I finished watching the Mexican rally yesterday, just in time for the Argentinian rally this weekend.
It was heartbreaking to see Latvala fall back and lose to Loeb due to turbo problems after leading through the first day, a double win would've been absurdly awesome, but at least he walked away with a third place podium finish. I would've usually preferred to see him only come second to Hirvonen, but being pushed down to third by Atkinson is alright as the wacky Australian has got some serious skills, but always fails to hit the big points because of some stupid little mistake, so it's pretty cool to see him get some winning done.
In the end I would've just wanted Hirvonen to come first, but considering the amount of punctures he suffered he's lucky he managed to hold fourth place and walk away with the points that he did, securing him first place in the '08 rally overall, albeit by one point. As narrow a lead as he may have over the world champ, the Argentinian stages should be in the Finnish favour, so I'm really hoping to see some excellent driving to widen the gap before Loeb dominates all the tarmac stages.

I also finally got around to finishing off School Days yesterday, after not having sat down to it for quite a while I ended up watching the last six episodes over a couple of days. While I just about enjoyed it, I wouldn't call it pleasant viewing.
At first I was desperate to get to the drama, really looking forward to it, but when it finally came I was quite taken aback. As should've been expected from that sort of heartbreak it just ended up being really sad, and quite uncomfortably familiar at certain points. Then I just wanted Makoto dead, I honestly couldn't wait for his ass to get iced for all the bastardly thing he's done, but when he did get knifed up I just found myself thinking 'This isn't any better, this is just terrible!'
So it was a bit of a downer overall, still glad I watched it of course.

I then watched Blood: The Last Vampire, quite a short film at only 45 minutes long. Set on an American military base on Japan there was more spoken English than Japanese, but it really wasn't very enjoyable as they all speak very slowly and decisively, like they sourced the voice actors straight out of a language tape. A really stupid move on the producers part, they should either have Japanese subtitles or have them speak in Japanese, having them speak as they were could have arguably ruined the film, as the voice actors are of course one of the deciding factors in any animated media's quality.
The rest of the film was alright, despite my general dislike of these kind of fantasy films. The animation had a decent budget and looked pretty good, and they didn't try to go over the top with big crazy spells and all that stupid crap, which is so often the crux of the genre.
In all, interesting enough.

With all this death and despair I decided I really needed to get into some of the more upbeat titles on my list of things to watch.

First off was Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! The easy going, slice-of-life comedy is exactly what I was looking for, with cute characters, charming animation and all that heart warming razzmatazz, I'm sure it'll keep me amused for a good while.

I've also started watching Moyashimon, a series about a first year university student that can see and communicate with microbes. I'm watching this one because not only is it a lighthearted comedy, but it propagates the idea that agricultural students are all hot and sexy raging lesbians, so good times are sure to be had.
It's proving itself to be one of those anime titles that I'll actually learn something from too, with each of the bacteria and micro-organisms that are mentioned notes are provided giving brief information on them, much of which you wouldn't even understand the jokes that are being made without.
So this seems to be an alright series. It's not actually all that funny and I really don't like the main characters, but I'm gonna have to stick with it for the lesbian love triangles and crazy uni drama further down the line.

Call it

I finally got round to watching No Country For Old Men a couple of days ago, I just had to after hearing everyone rave about it so much. It was alright, but once again I would not consider it anywhere near deserving of the praise it received. Javier Bardem was especially cool chips, and pretty much the sole reason it is as popular as it is, while Tommy Lee Jones did the same character he's done for the last thirty seven years. What really let it down was the ending, of which two out of three parts it consisted of were complete failures, while one part was actually pretty cool, but still nowhere near enough to redeem the film as a whole.

I sat down to Freeway the next day, which was rather enjoyable. It's one of those good old fashioned straight forward films with plot development that wouldn't have flunked you out of film school, as opposed to the 'I'm going to conclude the film by telling you about my dream which is completely unrelated to anything you've sat through for the last hundred and twenty minutes because that's DEEP and MEANINGFUL.' like some other such films...
Kiefer Sutherland gave another creepy-awesome performance, much like his Lost Boys, Dark City, Phone Booth days, with Reese Witherspoon showing that some women can find a productive place in our society outside of the kitchen if they really wish it hard enough.

Spending all my requisition

After 13 hours of waking torment I had a chat with some people and cheered the fuck up, so things haven't been so bad after the last few days.

I've been playing The Orange Box quite a bit this week, I got over the loss of keyboard and mouse on Half-Life 2 and Portal pretty quickly, and while the graphics aren't as good on Half-Life 2 as they are on my PC I've gotten used to it and can't really notice the difference anymore.
Team Fortress however, is mightily affected by the 360. The lack of accuracy with keyboard and mouse make spray&pray classes like the heavy and pyro, and splash damage classes like the Soldier and Demoman much more favorable, as getting a kill with any normal weapon is next to impossible. Also, the lack of dedicated servers really stings, a majority of the few servers there are at any one time are hosted by idiots whose connections can't manage more than eight players, which is bloody ridiculous on a game like TF2 where the optimal amount is at least double that.
Mostly I've enjoyed playing through Half-Life again, the achievements are absolutely brilliant for my completionist attitude, so I've been happily immersing myself in it, trawling through and completing each task.

I was all set and ready to install everything on my new hard drive this weekend, I had my list of programs to download and everything tidied up and organized ready to copy over. But as I plug in my 'new' HDD I find XP already installed on it, and as it tries to boot it simply fails and restarts every time I turn my computer on. I am mightily angry at ebuyer for sending me their used shit and am going to call them up tomorrow demanding not only a replacement, but compensation. I'm seriously pissed off about this and am not going to walk away from this empty handed.

One rather mega win this weekend was the acquisition of a Nintendo DS from my brother. He's given me his almost unused black Lite with a browser, so I got straight online and ordered a flash cart for £25, which is an absolutely fantastic total price when everything I'll have in the end will be worth about 10 times that. The problem is that while I'm sitting here with the DS in front of me, and an awesome list of games for it on my computer, I have to wait 14 to 28 days for it to arrive from Hong Kong. It's absolute heartbreak as I've got really excited about it and want to play it now.
Despite the long wait for that, it should be just in time for my trip to Blackpool. I was good to go for next week, but as Dad's using the car for what could be the next three weeks, I've got a long wait for that too. But at least when I do go I'll have plenty to occupy myself with when I'm not driving.