GTAMADDOG

Sort of reminds me of the Top Gear episode when they buy cars they think are suitable for a teenager and when they are at the test track they do a challenge involving a hand-brake turn to try and impress three girls :p It was my birthday yesterday. I don't know why, but the people at work went all out and put up balloons and banners, they even gave me a card which they had put money in to and I got £55, was quite stunned really. My mum got me an iPad, I'm guessing this is because I seem to use my step-dads iPad a lot when I'm at my mums. My dad got me a super car experience day which allows me to drive four cars; an Aston Martin DB9, Porsche 911 or 996, Lamborghini Gallardo and either a Ferrari 355 or 360. I said to both of my parents that they really shouldn't have spent so much, I know my mum really wants to upgrade to another Golf and the money spent on the iPad could've gone towards the deposit for getting one before she goes in to hospital for her operation. I had a suspicion my dad would get me an experience day as me and my sister sent him on one for his last birthday which he was both pleased and not so pleased about as he had a thrill ride in an Ariel Atom which he wasn't keen on :p

There had been an accident on my normal route to work yesterday morning which meant the road got closed. I risked seeing how far I could get along the road anyway and didn't get within 5 miles of the accident before I came across a police barricade and got directed down another road. Luckily I know my way 'round these here parts quite well so within 5 seconds I'd thought of another route which involved some narrow lanes which cut through to another A-road which almost runs parallel with the one I used. Wish I'd just gone the longer route and used the motorway. I've been down the lanes before in other cars, but not the 306 and nothing prepared me for how badly I was going to get shook up. Suspension found every ripple in the road and made it feel like I was in a cocktail shaker. Got out of that with my brain almost intact and my suspension significantly worse off. Then I got stuck in a queue of school traffic which was queued up a hill where I found out no matter how hard I pulled my handbrake on, it no longer really works as I just got a load of creaking from the brakes while I slowly rolled towards the BMW X6 in front of me. Then because all of the traffic from the other road was using the same road as the normal traffic I had to sit in a stupidly long queue. Got to work 15 minutes late which wasn't bad, but I had a crap time there as well.

I'd hazard a guess it's a 1.9 TDI going by the age/badge combination. Can't be sure on the BHP as I don't think the Passat B5 used the same red-lettering system as the MK4 Golf. Maybe 110BHP. Bullet-proof engine anyway.

Finally decided to install the SSD drive I bought at the start of the year. Connected it up to a SATA 6GB/s port on the motherboard and was fully well expecting that to be it, but no. This has never happened before, but I got onto the desktop and Windows said it was installing device drivers for my two old drives for some reason, but not the SSD. It finished that and then asked me to restart, so I did. Then I set about trying to get the SSD to be recognised so I plugged the cable into another port on the motherboard, start the computer... "BOOTMGR is missing". WTF. Panic sets in as I haven't backed up every last thing I wanted to yet. Cue loads of shouting and swearing by swapping cables and ports with it still saying BOOTMGR is missing. Then I unplug the DVD drive and secondary HDD and voila, Windows loads and SSD drivers install. Shut down, plug DVD drive and remaining HDD in and we're up and running again. I probably did something wrong a long the line somewhere (all drives are SATA), but I'm too tired to realise/care. So now I've got one less brand new PC component sat around doing nothing. Next week it's the turn of the 1TB HDD to be installed which has been sat around waiting for two years since I bought it, ready for me to probably go through all of the same crap again, plus reinstalling Windows. I'll let the SSD drive run for the next week or so to make sure there's nothing wrong with it, and then Windows will be installed on it.

The only game where I can drift and/or power-slide a car for a decent length of time without the car crashing into the only tree in a field backwards in a fire-ball, all while people were driving behind me thinking I was awesome. Shame TDU2 couldn't have the same sort of handling characteristics so I could resume it. Might have to install it again for old-time sake.

I wasn't implying the Skoda was interesting at all. I was basically saying my mind is still split and I don't know what I want my next car to be, e.g. interesting or a bit more sensible. Don't want a BMW as most (if not all) are driven by complete idiots (a 'nice' word in exchange for the term I usually use) around here. If I had something 1-Series style it'd be a MK5 Golf.. so I might as well just stick with the Octavia because they're cheaper to buy than the equivalent Golf.

A car of some sort. Got so many I'd like in various shapes, sizes and engines, but I'm struggling to narrow down the list :p Basically, I don't know what I want. I can see it being a Skoda of some description though, it may not even be a vRS. Part of me wants to get a petrol to see what they're like to live with, the other part of me says I'll start kicking myself a few weeks down the line because I'll take a hit on fuel economy and I'd be better off with a diesel. Then another part of me says I want something sensible, and another part of me says I want something a bit more "out there" or interesting. Would love an Octavia vRS in the Race Blue Metallic colour, but I can't afford the insurance, well I can, but I don't want to pay an insurance company a penny of what they're asking because it's a bit more than what I'd be comfortable with paying.

Bank Holiday Monday. Wooo! I almost succeeded in doing what I hoped to do. Absolutely sod all. Usually I have to do something or be somewhere else every single day of the week, but I set aside today to be a total lazy day. Got out of bed late, made breakfast, sat on the computer, played a stupid amount of Sleeping Dogs and CS: Global Offensive, chilled out to some music. Then I accidentally did some clothes washing, but that's the only work I did all day, just like old school/college holiday times. Also been reminiscing about old times as I always do. Enjoyed it so much I think I might book my birthday off work in a couple of weeks so I can do it again, I might also book the week before Christmas off as well so I get two weeks off like I used to.

This will probably be my game of the year. Can hardly stop playing it.

I think I love this band/album. Actually.. no, I do love them. I don't know who the guy is who uploaded most of their songs to YouTube either, but he puts awesome photographs in the videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQitsTvGvko

Oh no.. It's getting awfully close to that time when I start having dreams that I've got the game, then I wake up and the realisation sets in that the game won't be released for ages, then the rest of my day is depressing. It's been the same with every GTA game since GTA 3 was about to be released on the PC.

But the ultimate question is did the rain bead on the paintwork? :p

Radio 1 for half of the commute each way to/from work. I say half because my car only picks it up once I'm closer to built up areas. Would probably listen to Kerrang otherwise, but you can only either get it on DAB or if you're closer to somewhere near Birmingham I think.

Not sure if I want to buy my dads Fabia vRS so I can make it do this sort of thing: ...or save up a bit more and get a MK2 Octavia vRS. I'd still get 50MPG+ even if I modified the Fabia where-as if I bought an Octavia I'd only ever get about 35MPG at the most.

Some Just Cause 2 Multiplayer, first clip is pretty boring, but the rest isn't too bad:

If you choose to build your own and you need help then you know where me and/or Adam are :p It's up to you whether you buy pre-built or make your own though. I'd always build my own, but I like building it and then seeing what I've made running at the end, even if I usually do find one or two problems along the way because I get pee'd off with all the cables and have blonde moments even though I'm not blonde :p

Some post-hardcore, enjoying this genre quite a lot at the moment, I like the mix of clean vocals and growls. I blame Kelvjy for introducing me to Adept in this thread :p

Standard issue BBS wheels and a ridiculous amount of grey and black and dull: http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/g1.jpg

That was my thought as well as they do have rust-proofing, but the exhaust seem to be an issue with fitment and so on for some reason. Either way, I've got mine sorted out now, put the new clamp on the mid to back box and straightened it out. Had to play about with the heat-shield a bit as the exhaust kept knocking on that. Forgot there was already a new clamp on just before the middle box as I'd changed the catalytic converter last year, so that's another spare part to add to my collection :p

Reminds me of what happened to my catalytic converter, the pipe on the one end of that completely rusted through. I do wonder if the exhaust is one of the weak points with our generation of Peugeots as they always seem to be a problem on the owners forums. My exhaust is coming off completely tomorrow. I've bought two new clamps to hold a couple of the sections sections together and I'm going to straighten it out properly as well as it keeps twisting and ends up rattling against the heat-shield or rear bumper.

Death Metal band, but a branch off from their normal style for an orchestral song. How a song manages to be so calming, yet sound so menacing is beyond me...

Just did an MOT history check on my car expecting it to be clocked because my steering wheel is stupidly worn considering its mileage, but it all adds up, so must be French quality letting the wheel down. Some points of laughter though, the MOT advisories from previous years: 2006: Offside Rear brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened. Slight binding o/s/r brakes. Horn requires replacing. Handbrake requires attention. 2007: Brake pedal anti-slip provision missing. Offside Rear brake disc excessively scored. Horn not loud enough to be heard by another road user. (Car failed this test, lol) 2008: No advisories 2009: Nearside Rear Lower Shock absorber has a slightly worn bush (don't know how it lasted so long, but I replaced it a couple of months ago with two new shock absorbers) 2010: No advisories 2011: Wear to o/s front tyre -- wear to front brake discs (all replaced by January 2012) 2012: Slight blow from rear exhaust joint -- hand brake efficiency just in limit (I knew about the exhaust blowing and the handbrake works fine so me no understand) Ordered some new Meguiars Gold Class Car Shampoo from Amazon and was annoyed to learn they'd dispatched it using DPD which meant I couldn't collect it from the post office as when I'm not in the couriers usually take it back to their depot 20 miles away. Get home today, no card in the door to say they couldn't deliver. Dad has already been home and DPD had left my parcel with the guy next door who came over straight away to give my parcel to my dad, and it was waiting on my desk when I got home. Sweet.

Blows what I was going to post out of the water, but another equally unassuming MK2 Golf.. Currently for sale on eBay and it looks like a basic Golf on the outside.

Screenshots look sweeeeeeeeeet. Shut up and take my money.

Apparently this song is all over the place, but I've only heard it on Hart of Dixie (Mmmm, Rachel Bilson) and YouTube so far.