o-bLog

And it was.

Grabbed a train up from Albury to Sydney at 12 midnight Saturday in first class with 2 others which worked out to be a winner, considering the number of passengers in first class:

Not bad huh.

Anyway that took us about 8 or so hours, with some people making us wait as they had to bus them down from Melbourne because of the Aussie heatwave. More of that later. Anyway we got in at about 8:30 and then hopped on a train straight to the stadium. (Acer Arena) Got there with plenty of time to spare and had a look around the motoring showcase. Pics are all uploaded here to the o-fLickr account (and are in slideshow on the left there too):

o-fLickr – TopGear Live Trip 2009

Vid of acer arena here too:

Plenty of good stuff to see, and the show was great. Favourite parts were definately car soccer and a surprisingly awesome sort of “taming” scene between a black HSV W427 and a martial arts girl with a staff. They made it seem like she was defending herself against a bull, and the W427 moved around the arena like an angry animal. Worked way better than I thought possible. Show went for about 75 minutes, give or take hilariously awesome live adervtisements for Hyundai (girl in a black helmet and red leather jumpsuit drifting around in a Hyundai) and Navman (who resolved a married couples quarrel about map reading in song) and then it was time for the flight home. Took a taxi to the airport after havingt o actually call for one rather than find a taxi rank for some unfathomable reason, and arrived in about 20-30 minutes. Checked in then had a quick bite to eat then onto the plane:

After an awesome takeoff (love pilots who give it everything as soon as they get the chance on takeoff, so much so that we were 5 minutes early) we had a pretty smooth flight back. Took a random pic out the side window I kinda like as we were approaching a big cloud bank (and the start of smoke from the crazy fires):

When we left Sydney, it was roughly 33 Degrees C and calm as could be. When we got to Albury, it was about 38-40 Degress, extremely windy and a hell of a lot of smoke. So much so we got the smoke-haze sun effect:

Astute people might notice that I’m not in the FTO in that pic. Reason being its now in the 3 month unregistered period whilst I try to find the tyres I want in this damn town at a reasonable price. Everything I’ve found has been ridiculously expensive for no good reason. Looking at Maxxis MA-V1’s or Federal SS595’s. Still haven’t been able to find anything yet though.

As for the current fire situation, a couple of friends of ours have recently lost everything. House & contents I’m sure.

Hoping to save a little extra cash while the FTO’s off the road for those 3 months, as I want to get it lowered / other mods all done at the same time, including a full service. Then I’ve gotta pay for rego and CTP so its gonna be one expensive effort lol.

Think thats all for now. Will hopefully get the FTO up and running and get some pics up of it on its new shoes and springs.

Another time when I’ve neglected the blog. Oh well better late than never.

FTO is going ok, new front bar fitted and full respray, the repairers completely botched a lot of things however. Still, after all that it looks like this: (Opens in a new window)

So, at least it looks good. New tyres and full service coming up soon.

Moved into a new place as well. Townhouse in the middle of Albury. Great location, huge garage and great rent for the the features. Really happy. Got all new furniture for there as well. New links for the blog too, such as Flickr and Youtube.

Works going good, found that I’ve pulled a heck of a lot of calls over the last 90 days, more than anyone else by at least a hundred, and my logging of jobs is at 96%, which is just slightly above exactly what the superiors have asked of me. Happy about that actually, really happy.

Future plans or goals at the moment are working towards a permanent position at work, and if that becomes a reality, then I’m working towards a CV8 Monaro. Best all-round combination of power, comfort, and functionality.

TopGear Live coming up as well, already booked tickets to train, plane and the show. Going with about another 6 or so people which should be awesome. I don’t know how much longer Clarkson is going to keep on with TG Live so I decided I definately needed to see him before he retires, whenever that may be.

I’m sure I’ll think of more to add as I continue updating the blagmatron.

I just popped down to the repairers to check on how the FTO was going after I took her in for her complete respray etc and I’ve never seen the thing so stripped back.

She’s pretty naked huh. I also noticed what an absolutely awful system the thing has for an air intake, look where it goes around the front to the front bar. Soon as I get that change the better. As more repairs and details come to hand I’ll post them up. Shes going to look good!

Well today I got offered a 12 month contract with CSU, and found out that the FTO’s front bar is out of the mould. After a couple days of baking shes on her way down to the repairer. Should be going in then next Tuesday.

Yeah whatever. Been a while since I updated this, but after some coaching and prodding I decided I would. Ive had this thing for a long time now and Im not going to let it die.

For a start, I may as well start with the most interesting news which is that I crashed the FTO up at Falls Creek on Good Friday. I was taking a left hand bend which fell away fairly fast, and the tail let go. The FTO is a 60/40 front and rear weight distribution so when I took the corner it just had nothing to hold it down nor did it have any grip. I went into the guardrail at about a 30 degree angle, and by the time it hit I had already corrected it. the tail whipped back and tapped it as well, and I pulled it up about 20 metres down the road. I did get pics with my phone, here they are:

But this actually comes as a blessing in disguise, the insurance excess is $1200, 600 for driver age, 600 standard excess. Add to that I’m throwing on another 800 to have the entire car resprayed, the spoiler removed, all stickers removed, instead of just the left side. I got a quote from Jacob Body & Paint for $1450 to paint the parts I wanted, not withought removing the spoiler or even doing the entire car. Add to that Im sourcing my own front bar (aftermarket) and its going to only cost me $150 to have it put on. so all up, $2150 for a full respray, new front bar, spoiler removed from the boot and it all welded over the holes. This is the veilside front bar:

I like it a lot really. Don’t need to do the sides or tail imho, none of the kits look any good on it.

Moved out about a week and a half ago as well, moved in with a friend in the middle of Albury and I’m really enjoying it. A sense of responsibility combined with freedom basically overcame me after the first few nights. I have everything I need, and the move took me about 4 hours. Even better still that we have a shared love of cooking so the meals have been great. Only problem is the carparking, but I’m getting used to it.

To support the moving out, I got a new job at Charles Sturt University as the AudioVisual tech, and a member of the service desk. I handle videoconferences, teleconferencing, projectors and loan laptops, etc. Then on my other days I help students & staff with their minor IT issues. Im really happy there despite the job being so very busy. One thing I have discovered though is a company called Polycom. Whom I now await to unleash zombies from somewhere using a T Virus. This is the company logo:

That red logo and text comes on the screen every time you start a videoconference accompanied by deep brooding music. If anyone is going to replicate Umbrella Corp its these guys.

I can’t remember if I mentioned it here either but I bought a new laptop a little while ago. Its a Core2 7500, 256Mb 8600MGT, 3gb of DDR and a 320Gb HDD. I got it to take to lans and so far its been awesome. Heres a pic:

Oh yeah, I also got:

New mouse:

New screen: (Samsung 2232BW, 3000:1cd, 2ms, 1680×1650)

I think thats everything for now. Will try to update more often from now on.

Man, been a while since I’ve updated this sucker. There will be a ton of information, so here we go.

Where to start, well maybe the FTO is a good choice. Its currently in my local mechanics garage after she overheated for a second time whilst after some heavy driving. (I was driving it hard, so all blames lies on me if its something I did) The first time it overheated was on the Saturday before Christmas and needed to be towed. At that point I found out it was the heater hose which had cracked and was leaking all my coolant out the bottom of the car, dripping onto the exhaust and causing an awful smoke to come from underneath the car. The second time I was driving it sedately after a period of thrashing it through traffic and another small hose has cracked near the engine and was spraying onto the intake manifold. Was out of water, filled it up and drove to the garage and thats where it is now as I stated at the beginning of this paragraph. My awesome mechanic is going to replace every single hose in the engine bay, and I agree that this is a good plan as it seems with the heat that its just burning through the old original hoses damn quickly.

It should be fine, like the last time it overheated. I’m just scared that I may have damaged it as when I noticed the temp gauge it was in the 120’s, the far end of the scale. :\

Went to Melbourne for about 5 days just after Christmas, returned just before the new year. Saw the cricket, went shopping etc, and I’m now the proud owner of a new Wireless card and a yuppie Bluetooth headset. I need it for driving. The cricket was boring as hell though, I mean, I remember it being roughly 130 from 390 balls at one point, for the first 3 or 4 hours the run rate was less than one an over. I mean COME ON. HIT SOMETHING. Anything, hit the umpire with the stumps or something, anything. Thank god we’re members of the MCG as I could go back in the cool and get awesome food, and being in the shade was great too. (I still got burnt, gg skin)

As for the work front, I have more on Monday and Tuesday, at CSU again. The work is sporadic but I welcome any. I also have some possible work with another department within CSU so I’m trying to get onto that but so far have had no response from the number I was given. I will make some more inquiries soon. Nothing big I think, just tech support for a few weeks. I’m intrigued as to know what the payrolls look like in that place, I mean everyone seems to be a casual for some reason.

The reason I’m so happy to have work at the moment as well is that the moveout plans are still going ahead, I just need a small job to fill in the gaps in the bills etc. I’ve found some very nice places though actually, quite expensive but I would rather live on noodles and water in a nice place than takeout pizza in a slum.

I’ve also changed my favourite album ever in the last few weeks, to Audioslaves self titled album. That is absolutely awesome beyond belief. I’ve never thought before that every track was so so good. In other good music related talk, Daft Punk are ridiculously good live, they remix all their songs and they all come out great on different beats.

I’ve also been reading a new book I got for Christmas, Richard Hammond’s recollection of his Jetcar crash, and he went through a LOT more than he showed on TV. He was almost certainly in recovery during season 9, and even in season 10 he doesn’t look his full self when you see some of the pictures within the book. His mental state was so disturbed that they organised for a team of ex special forces men to get him and his family to Scotland away from the press as their presence could overwhelm him and he could regress. He couldn’t remember what had happened 3 seconds ago most times after the accident and they were afraid he would lose his eye it was that badly damaged. A good read.

I’ve ordered 6 new shirts too, all from Snorgtees, which has some actually hilarious designs for once. No more SplitReason for me after these guys. Hope the arrive soon, and then I have to organise the import tax or whatever it is when you import goods from other countries. I had never heard of it before though so I have no idea.

Seen a few movies lately too, those being Shoot Em Up, I Am Legend, StarDust, the awesomely named Don’t Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood, and Death At A Funeral. Overall the best out of this lot is Shoot Em Up by a long margin, with I Am Legend coming in second. Shoot Em Up is just what you want from an action film, that is, pointless hilariously cheesy action with one liners and a gritty chisel jawed hero kicking the crap out of the bad guys with reckless abandon. This movie would go awesome with booze.

I Am Legend would be a 10 from me if the ending and CGI had been better. Definitely worth seeing for the city of New York being completely deserted though. Don’t Be A Menace is a hilarious old black parody movie from ‘96 which I first saw with a mate in high school. I grabbed it just to laugh at all the things we laughed at so long ago. Its still funny. Stardust and Death At A Funeral are both okay, but not fantastic. Worth seeing if nothing else is around. StarDust actually bored me somewhat in places, and so did Death At A Funeral.

On the movies coming out soon front, the thing that absolutely dominates my calendar is Cloverfield. HELL YES MONSTER MOVIE. I’ve always loved giant monster movies and this shall be no exception.It has already been confirmed that you see the monster close up at least a couple of times so its not going to be like LOST with mysterious balls of gas and crap like that.Lets go a destroyed New York!

Well, I think thats about everything thats been happening of late, or at least the super short version. I hope to keep this more up to date from now on though.

huge update coming

Spent the last week at a friends place then went to a LAN on Saturday which bored the hell out of me as theres still no good games out (Thats including Enemy Territory: Quake Wars) and there wasn’t anything to download that I didn’t have already. A big happy birthday to my mate who’s birthday was on the 8th (yesterday) and mine is tomorrow. Nothing big this year, I’m preferring to go function over fun. Need some clothes and maybe something fun for the FTO like new springs or giving it a random service. Not much else to report.

Well, they do. Just in general. Refund finally came through and I just went and got a cheapo Live! 5.1 to tide me over.

After the last bout of TV watching I realised that I haven’t watched through about 80% of season 2 of Prison Break, so I caught up on that over the least couple of days. Good series, but I think I’m tiring quickly of plot twists. Only so many times I can see Michael and Lincoln be trapped somehow. I think its kind of how I lost interest with LOST. (No pun intended) where they never answered anything. Only reason I stuck with Prison Break is that they actually ‘win’ a lot of the time so it actually gives you something to remember when you think about what they’ve achieved.

I got some new music the other day as well, Polysics, and I finally found a KMFDM single that I had been looking for after a hugely long search: “KMFDM – A Drug Against War (Overdose Mix)”. I also found the videoclip to the track on YouTube too, and aside from the crazy Hawaiian muscle woman I like it about as much as the song:

The overdose mix version only came out with the single to Drug Against War so thats why every version I found wasn’t the right one. Only disappointment is that it sounds like in the version I first heard that it was remixed to have even heavier drums or something.

Team Fortress 2 came out the other day as well, and its pretty damn fun. Because of its overall sillyness with animations taunts and yells it doesn’t seem like the game to wear you down, and the automatic yells from other players when you heal them or you build them stuff makes it seem a lot more community minded than games like DoD:S and CS:S. The only problem I can see is that some of the maps really are awfully designed and laid out, and according to an original Team Fortress player half the game is gone or nerfed. Apparently Medics had an ‘infect’ ability that gave the enemy team a disease when they got it and could pass it on to other teammates. Oh and god I hate spies, as everyone else who isn’t one does.

Been doing a bit of modding too, to both my phone and the xbox. I just updated the xbox to the latest Xbox Media Centre and its really good, much more options and things like that. Like, I can change the colours of everything in the skin and the background image etc. The big thing I’ve been modding however is my phone. I’ve got a few tools that allow me to get into the inner workings of the phone so you can change all the settings and default images in it as well. I’ve removed basically everything to do with Telstra aside from one menu which I can’t delete otherwise the home screen can’t do icons view anymore. I’ve also altered its volume via its actual database file which tells the phone how loud it should be for each level. Got a few skins for it too (Which is a lot harder than it sounds as you can’t just copy paste the skins onto the phone, you have to install them into a hidden system folder) like Vista, iPhone, and a couple of black ones. Vista is the best though and I’ll be sticking with it.

Whats surprising is that ModMyMoto where I got the files from is the main database to get all of my files and I thought that there would be something like ModMyNokia and alike for the other brands of phones but there isn’t. See a friend recently got a Nokia 6300 (Which is only $199 from Vodaphone at the moment, to buy outright) and I can’t find anything on modding the suckers, theres no outright software like there is for mine to change everything.

Oh may as well plug CarAdvice.com.au while I’m posting, best motoring based site I’ve seen in ages simply because of the good amount of posted content and the frequent updates which are nearly always Aussie related. Plus they have the same stance on speeding and speed cameras that I do. Its safe in the right circumstances.

Been thinking about getting King Springs for the FTO as well, drop the thing by about 35mm at the front and 25mm at the rear. Something like that anyway I can’t remember exactly as I’m getting kinda tired so I’ll also end this here.

I’ve been steadily downloading more and more Iron Chef, each episode is just so good to watch for ideas and showing me just how good food can (or should) be in comparison to what I usually eat. Also its fun to watch simply for the ridiculous outfits the chairman arrives in and the incredible quality of the ingredients.

As well as Iron Chef, I got Band Of Brothers again on the weekend, and I’m watching through that again. Best war series ever bar none. Also got the latest Formula 1 race to watch too. Oh, and a friend linked me to this, thats a lot of space for very little money. Even the 750Gb drives are only $295. I’ll be getting one asap.