GTAMADDOG

Had my first taster of off-roading/green-laning today. Went out with my step-dad in his Land Rover Series 2 for a quick spin, but he ended up wanting to see what his new mud tyres could do. Most entrances to the forest here are blocked off to vehicles with large metal barriers, but a way around one of them had been created by someone in the past at some point by going over a substantial mound next to the barrier. Spent the next 40 minutes confusing people as to how we'd managed to get an old Land Rover quite a way in to the forest. I took the driver's seat after 20 minutes and spent the next 20 minutes driving down boggy/muddy dis-used tracks for vehicles and going up inclines I didn't think were possible to climb, but obviously the new tyres are doing their job. Had a laugh when we came across some young kids on mini-scrambler bikes that you often hear tearing around the forest. They thought we were the forestry commission because there are never usually vehicles in the woods apart from forestry commission vehicles so as they saw us coming around a corner they pretty much dropped their mini-scrambler's and legged it until they saw us laughing at them. Problem is I now want a Land Rover as a second vehicle :lol:

I've got those ValetPro brushes. I don't have any of the other stuff though. Need to invest in a DA polisher at some point.

Love the distant drumming in the background on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exU2YiXlfpc Can be a depressing eight minutes depending on your frame of mind beforehand though.

Can't remember if you're meant to post your own photos rather than images off the internet, but the stuff is in a box at the moment (no I didn't read the first post). I've got a knocking noise from both front corners, so with the control arm rear bushes being mentioned a lot with my symptoms I bought these. Suspension overhaul to come at some point in the future anyway: Old wiper blades started to get on my nerves, so I bought some genuine BMW wiper blades: This was a month ago, car came with the service book, but no manuals, so I sorted that out with this:

A remap might be in order once I've got a couple of bits and pieces sorted.. Saying that it has potentially got me in trouble already (more like my right foot has) and it is still standard at the moment :p

Fairly sure the first image is of DayZ Standalone rather than H1Z1. The backpack, abandoned car and two buildings are certainly something I recognise. It might be a rendering though as I've not seen that scene on my travels of Chernarus :p As far as I know H1Z1 is meant to use the same game engine that was used for Planetside 2 which copes with big player counts quite decently so it should be ok in that respect. Another game I'm sort of interested in despite it's similarities with DayZ, maybe this will get updated (finished) a bit more/quicker :p

A new guy got employed at work this week to help me out over the Summer, which is good in itself. It also turns out he's a PC gamer after having moved over from consoles a while back, so I don't have to sit there talking about boring work related stuff when it's quiet at work, already added him on Steam :p /gay.

Still enjoying this album after a week of solid listening.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEbYs0lNfq4 Imagine how good it'd be if I knew Saami, or Finnish at all :p

So you're telling me there's an Maestro that hasn't rusted? Either that or rust has found a way of forming the shape of a car and choosing the colour it wants to be :p My step-dad was going to put a Perkins diesel in his Land Rover Series 2 before he decided it would probably be (a lot) better to put a 200TDI from a Discovery in it. I think a guy from Poland drove over to England in a flat-bed to pick up the Perkins diesel when my step-dad sold it, I don't think they're that good to warrant that sort of traveling :lol: I know my step-dad's cousin has a yard down the road from his house that has loads of old cars in it. Old American ones, a few old Mercedes, and a heck of a lot of old English stuff like Triumphs, Austins and much older cars from the 50s and 60s. They've probably been sat there at least 15 years doing nothing, they even still have their old tax discs in them. Another one of his relatives has quite a few old cars. I know for a fact that there's a couple of Vauxhall Carlton 24v GSIs there that haven't moved in a decade at least, those two always interested me the most (out of the newer stuff) despite my dislike of Vauxhall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM_w_pkuJwI

Bought this album to fill one of the 6 CD auto-changer slots which I've yet to even try out...

Subscribed to this guy's channel on YouTube. Love the videos he does as well as FrankieOnPCin1080p. PsiSyndicate did a live stream of Altis Life on Arma 3 yesterday. He blew up a petrol station with one of his friends. Created an explosion which wiped out vehicles for about 2-300 metres. Server admin came on TeamSpeak after the server suspiciously went down soon after and blamed PsiSyndicate for it because he blew up the petrol station and told him not to upload to YouTube, but he did anyway. Most amusing live stream I've watched :p

I won't be doing any track days in it, that's for sure, a decent set of tyres (not best) costs getting on for £500 fitted :whistle: I may take the car up around the Brecon Beacons at some point though so a window mount should be fine for that, but I've not tested it yet.

Spent about an hour cleaning one of the rear wheel arches on the 330d so I could then apply my newly acquired Bilt Hamber Dynax S-50 anti-corrosion stuff. Looking to get all of the arches done this week as well as hopefully being able to get the car spruced up a bit more with some cleaning products I've got coming this week as well. Not as much dirt in the arch lip as I was expecting, but unfortunately my fingers seemed more able at scooping what dirt there was out of the arch lip than a wheel brush so my fingers took a beating today. Hopefully it should stop the arches from rusting out though. I could only do one arch as the 306 decided to be the immovable object of the day by having a nearly flat battery and didn't want to allow me more garage space, but she's on charge now.

Yeah, that would be my problem as well. I've got a windscreen suction mount now, and also a handlebar mount as I plan to get out on the bike this year, which is what I've told myself for the last three years, but with the added benefit of making a few videos while being out and about I might actually do it this year :p You should see my jumper :nuts:

First proper video with the GoPro and first video in the 330d. Unfortunately the camera was a bit low down (wedged under the passenger seat headrest), but some new mounts for the GoPro have just shown up so I should be able to mount it in a better location now. Only interesting thing in the video was getting stuck behind my dad being towed by an AA van :p

Would be awesome if it turns out to be true. That said, there's no way I'd pay near £45 for the PC version when I pre-ordered the PS3 version for £5 less. I think I'd finally put some good hours in to this game if it came to PC, I think I lost interest in games consoles a few years ago and I just find it a grind to play games on them compared to PC these days. I'd probably start a GTA V series on YouTube if it did come to PC. I miss making videos like my old San Andreas ones :)

Might have to wind up the GoPro I've only used once and get a video of the 330d now the car is back and running at the correct temperature and also minus six very messy swirl-flaps. Just need to find somewhere to mount the camera as the 'sticky' mount was not sticky when I tried it in the 306.

I seem to have variations of: Getting woken up (in the dream) at home by what I imagine should be an earth-quake. I take a look around every room in the house to see if anyone is home, but no-one is there. Then I open the door to my dads bedroom to discover half of his room has collapsed to ground level and the entire front of the house is just a massive gaping hole over-looking sheer chaos over the town I live in and everything in the distance. Everything appeared fine until I got to my dads room and once I looked out pretty much every building had been destroyed or was on fire, massive defects in the landscape like craters. I won't go into any more detail than that because that variation is pretty grim (all of them are if I'm honest). After looking out at the devastation for a while and panicking I notice the earth falling away in the horizon, I watch this for a while and before I know, it has reached my town, so I decide to try and run from it, so I turn around and try and sprint out of what is left of my house, only to get to a door that won't open. Just before I get caught by the earth falling away, I wake up. The variations come in the form of either a tornado or tsunami or the aforementioned apocalypse style causing the initial destruction. The tornado one is pretty insane because my brain manages to make them look quite real and there's usually a few of them causing havok. Also used to have dreams where I'd be in a car being driven by my dad, but my dad only ever accelerated. So we'd be driving along roads we use in real life and my dad would just put his foot down and not let off, even when coming to a roundabout or a junction. Usually once we got to a junction and the inevitable was about to happen I'd wake up. That one used to shake me up a lot more than the apocalypse one, somehow my brain managed to make me feel all of the forces that you would probably feel if it happened for real like acceleration, turning forces, etc. So yeah, my dreams are pretty messed up, luckily I don't get them/remember them often.

Finished work for nine days now, pretty much the last of my holiday entitlement until the new holiday year starts in April. Also got word that the work I've been having done to the 330d is now finished. Swirl flaps gone, manifold gaskets renewed, new pollen filter and air filter and EGR thermostat. Apparently the fuel filter and crankcase breather were pretty much brand new so I've got some more spare parts on top of the worn gear knob. Oil and oil filter was done as part of the deal when I bought the car. Ordered some Bilt Hamber anti-corrosion wax during the week which is now here so next week will involve me jacking the car up and cleaning the wheel arches to apply the anti-corrosion wax. Then I can just drive the thing until the ditch-finders send me into a hedge backwards :p

Need to get out with the camera more this year. Really struggled with photos yesterday after barely touching the 500D since last year's rally. IMG_1688 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr IMG_1689 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr IMG_1722 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr IMG_1734 by GTAMADDOG, on Flickr

Voted, I think I bought it from the website previously, I know I have the full alpha (?) version on my PC so I must have at some point :)

I just bought this. Brings back too many memories of Destruction Derby to ignore it. Even the damage indicator in the bottom left reminds me of Destruction Derby. Please be the new Destruction Derby..

I'm with two cameras :p They changed the layout of the stage though so I think I'll need to walk further than usual to get anywhere decent. Also got 3G internet access in the middle of the forest for the first time ever :D