GTAMADDOG

I think I need to try to sink a lot more hours in to this as it hasn't really been anything memorable so far, for me anyway. Apparently it gets better the more you progress through the story, but by Sunday last weekend I found myself playing other games already and I'd only had FC3 for two days. It doesn't really give me any real urge to play it, I just randomly think "Hmm, haven't played it in quite a while so I better get my money's worth out of it" and go on it for a while. Seeing as I've got a week off I'll see how far I can get and see if it gets any better. Feel like I'm getting the flu now though so I'll probably just stay in bed half the week instead :p I like the graphics, I like the weapons, I like the vehicles, but nothing else really engages me.

This album is currently on repeat in the car:

This guy has got the right idea:

Another week off work. Wooooo. I like how many times I've said that in the last couple of pages of this thread. Good times. Christmas shopping almost done now, just a few more bits and pieces to get. Plus a Secret Santa present for work, still don't have a clue what to get for that. I've started doing commentary videos on YouTube as well. I started off a bit shaky and with dodgy microphone settings, but we're getting there. Thinking of doing a Minecraft series now following the progression of anything I build. First video is uploading as I type this. Shame when I start recording a video I can't think of anything funny to say to keep people entertained, I've usually got loads of funny comments flying around my head when I'm not recording :p

Started my Christmas shopping. Still quite a way off finishing, but I've got all the cards, got some gift vouchers, some stuff for my mum and step-dad. Sort of know what to get my dad, but it's expensive so me and my sister are going halves so I'm just waiting for her to respond to my email before I buy it. Don't know what to get my sister. Even more so I don't know what to get for the person I chose at random to buy a present for as part of the Secret Santa at work which I find the most concerning because I really don't have a clue what to get. I would be happy if I managed to get all of the shopping done a week before Christmas. I'm usually wrapping stuff up/getting the last few bits and pieces a couple of days before.

Received my copy from ShopTo today, longest day at work ever... until the day GTA V is released anyway. Not really arsed about saving £2.63 or whatever other deals people have found so I'm happy :p Got it installed. Already have a Uplay account somehow, when I first entered the name GTAMADDOG it said "This username is taken" and I was confused as frig why someone would use my name. Turns out I've somehow already registered. There is an update which is taking ages for me to download, but I imagine that's a combination of my slow internet and the hit the servers are taking rather than a huge update.

This album has been stuck on repeat for two weeks now. Yet another album that reminds me of good college times, mainly because it's one of two albums I always used to listen to while I was there.

A bad day? A bad week.. Friggin' weather seems to bring out all of the traffic related problems imaginable. Part of me also thinks it is also down to the people who get hired as temporary Christmas staff at this time of year who aren't used to driving in the dark causing no end of problems as well as adding extra traffic. For all 9 months prior to now there has not been one accident at all on any of the roads I use. Monday - Accident a few miles away from work at a roundabout on the way home. Broken down car just up the road before it. Apparently someone had managed to crash into the middle of the roundabout blocking it off. I queued for four miles in stop-start traffic for that when according to my mum the accident happened before 3PM and was pretty much cleared by the time she went through. Didn't get home until 6:30PM when I'm normally home by 5:40PM. Tuesday and Wednesday were fine, I think. I know Tuesday was. For some reason I can only recall Wednesday morning when I had to drive through three floods to get to work. Thursday - Accident on my normal route home from work. Apparently a tree landed on a moving car due to the high winds. First they closed the first section of the road which caused a huge tail-back, so I queued in that for three miles down a road that runs parallel to it. Just as I was about to cut across a lane back onto the normal route I heard on the local radio that another part of the road had been closed due to another tree blocking the road. So I had to sit in the traffic jam for another four miles. The office manager actually heard about all of this while I was at work and allowed me to go at 4:30PM instead of 5PM. Still didn't get home until 6:15PM. Today - Completely fed up with the traffic, sat at work watching the traffic news on the BBC website this afternoon. An alert pops up for a car on fire on the first section of dual carriageway I use on the way home. Carriageway closed. Brilliant. Expecting the worst as I left work, traffic was normal, they had opened the road again just in time. Luck ran out there, got on to the next dual carriageway and another traffic jam. Don't know why, it's never usually there. Queue in that for two miles. Thankfully that was it, but I still had to put up with differing idiots who think that 30MPH is a good speed to be doing on a 60MPH road. Can't really get around it even if I know about the incidents before I leave. The only two alternative routes are south-bound on the M5 to the Severn Bridge which is quite a way, plus paying the bridge toll which is a waste of time as I never carry any cash. Then there's north-bound up to Tewkesbury which is quite a way again and then across the M50 which is double the mileage. The job really isn't worth all of this hassle.

A few from last weekend: IMG_1065 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr IMG_1084 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr IMG_1101 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr Completely lost touch with how to use the 500D I think, haven't used it properly since February.

Went to see some of this last Sunday:

Oh dear lord. Please don't post things like this without pre-warning me :cool: :drool:

Lol, iPhone photos? They look better than my DSLR photos :lol:

Got the car cleaned before it rained, it's now safely tucked away in the garage. Finally decided to have a go at re-installing Windows on my new SSD drive. Took 30 minutes to get Windows 7 to recognise the other new 1TB drive and my old hard drive which I backed up some stuff on and wanted to copy back over, but it seems to be running fine now. Just need to connect up the other old hard drive again so I can copy my music across which will take many, many years.

Yeah, I went for their own brand wiper blades last time and they've been good. Only problem I've had with them is that they don't seem to like cleaning the bottom left corner of the windscreen properly, but as I hardly ever look out of that side it hasn't bothered me, it's possibly due to the curve of the windscreen rather than the wiper blades though. I've almost had them a year now and they still clear the windscreen quite well, so they haven't done too bad at all for own-brand wipers. Anything was better than my last rear wiper blade. The thing was hanging on by a thread so I dared not use it until I got a new one, lol.

Back to work tomorrow. Where's me holiday gone!?!? On the bright side I worked out I've still got 12 days holiday to use before April next year so I can still have a couple of weeks off besides Christmas week. Problem is I want to book them for this week and next week. Really can't be bothered with going back to work.

Where's me cookie!?

Finally managed to get the rear brakes done on the car. Had to drill the screw out that holds the one brake disc on as it didn't move an a millimeter the whole time I was trying to get it to budge. Luckily I've got some spares so I put a new one in for the new brake disc. Haven't been out for a drive yet as I only managed to get it all sorted and all the tools cleared away at 9PM last night, but when I reverse the car out the garage and tested the brakes a little there seems to be a lot more bite to them. For what is essentially an easy job I had to face: Rounded off locking wheel nuts on both wheels (all four actually so I changed the fronts for standard wheel nuts as well). Rusted caliper bolts. Rusted solid brake disc screws. Rusted solid caliper guide pins. The bolts/pins that I had to reuse I cleaned up and put copper grease on them to stop them corroding. I probably won't need to do the brakes again, but hopefully whoever has to change them next will find it a lot less annoying than I did.

Finally managed to buy my own truck. A Valliant FH16 with the 750BHP engine and a load of spotlights on it. She's a beast. Now I've only got $1,700 :(

I'll contribute another truck interior photo. It's actually inside the recovery truck which we had to call out coming back from holiday in June (step-dad neglected to find the reason for the car losing so much water before we went on holiday). The driver pulled up in the middle of a McDonalds car park and went in to buy some coffee while there was a queue of traffic behind beeping their horns while I was taking the photo:p Went surprisingly well for a hefty truck with a lardy MK3 Golf GTI sat on top of it. http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/380250_10151135183972034_538755415_n.jpg

I bought some Bosch Aero-Twin wiper blades. Don't really need them yet, but I felt like buying something :P Bought them from WiperBlades.co.uk. Brilliant customer service there, would definitely recommend them. I bought them on the 23rd September and selected 1st class shipping, but after two weeks they hadn't arrived so I emailed WiperBlades and they said check with your local sorting office so I did a week later as I had to collect another parcel. They had nothing for my address. Emailed WiperBlades again and they shipped some more out recorded delivery. Can't fault them. I'll get a picture up of the blades (ooo the excitement), maybe, if I can get the last brake disc and pad sorted on my car.

Maybe one for the Porsche fans. It's more of a documentary (32 minutes) rather than a short clip like most videos in this thread are. It even kept me interested for the whole running time and I'm not a great fan of Porsche's. It's not on YouTube so here's a link to the video: Urban Outlaw | Reelhouse

You wouldn't when it snows (if it snows) :p

It would help wouldn't it? :p Unfortunately the thread is two pages for me because that's how I roll.

God damn locking wheel nuts. I hate the things. If I manage to get them undone I'll burn the things to a crisp. They shouldn't be difficult to undo because I was the person who tightened them up last, but the locking nut key is worn out so as soon as you apply any sort of force to try and get the nut undone the key just falls off. Think it's time to hammer a socket on there and try that method after some WD40 has sunk in for it a bit. I basically looked at the ordinary wheel nuts and they came undone (not really because that would be dangerous, but they were easy enough).

I was bored and I had to do an errand today so I thought I'd see what the 500D was like at recording in-car videos. I have a large Gorillapod, but I've lost one of the attachments so I couldn't use that. I improvised by wedging the camera under the passenger seat headrest and then secured it a bit more by wrapping bungee cord around it. Unfortunately I think the camera will need to be mounted on a much more solid surface as it seems to pick up even the slightest bumps/ripples in the road. It's a boring video, but it involves driving: