JohnS' Random Rants

Yay!

2008-07-16T19:45:00Z

Happy Birthday jul1et

Race of Champions

2008-07-15T20:11:54Z

On the 14th December this year, the Race of Champions is at Wembley. Last year the event was a bundle of fun, with Schumacher stalling, Kovaleinen binning an Aston, and lots of other on track action. So I plan to go again.

I don't fancy the really cheap seats, but there's an early booking offer open for a week or two, and so the reasonable seats are £30 each.

Anyone fancy joining me?

Goodwood Festival of Speed

2008-07-14T20:10:27Z

We marshalled the rally stage at the Goodwood FoS this weekend. It was much fun, but very tiring. Still as we were only working for one half of the day, it gave us plenty of time to go and drool at the pretties.

Some highlights for me were:

Seeing the new Mazda Furai go up the hill.
The Wacky Races cars
Justin Law's immense run up the hill in the Le Mans Jag (fastest run of the weekend)
Helping push start the fiat rally car after its roll just by our marshal post on the first morning
The fact that the fiat went on to keep circulating after a trip to Chichester to buy goggles (it had no windscreen left) and indeed was still doing runs at the end of the weekend.
Alfa Romeo 8C Competitizione.
Being in amongst the cars at the start line when the vintage F1 cars started their engine.
Standing a couple of feet from Lewis Hamilton as he turned the McMerc SLR before heading out on his run.
Getting to wish a certain norwegian driver luck for Rally Finland.
Chatting to Guy Wilks
Hanging around a few feet from Nick Mason and his Auto Union vintage race car.
Marcus Dodd's immense balls to the wall rally driving skills.
Seeing pennyanne's delight after she got to meet her heroes almost daily.
Being invited into the House by Lord March, and enjoying his champers and cake, and rounding off the weekend by getting to thank the man himself.

More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ephra1m/sets/72157606160401510/

Damn...

2008-07-14T19:55:39Z

http://www.rockandblues.uk.com/

Well, once again my birthday do is scuppered. And I'm sure that the organisers had said after the last time that they cancelled and then reinstated it that the license was agreed. Not impressed.

Anyone got any clever ideas for something fun to do over the weekend of the 25th-27th?

A wonderful weekend

2008-07-08T23:29:54Z

The F1 was amazing, thanks to pennyanne and pauln, and not forgetting november_girl.

In lieu of intelligently written commentary, here are some (mostly) badly framed and snapped piccies.

Taking photos of very fast cars is hard... but my wife did an excellent job with this one.

We got to lig with the stars.

The company was excellent...

He didn't finish the race, but still looked pretty cheery come party time.

He, however, did finish, and was over the moon come party time.

There's more lurking over on my Flickr account, none of them great. Unlike the weekend which was!

Motorsport

2008-07-04T20:20:28Z

First off, a quick hurrah at odds with my post title. Hurrah for being an Uncle. I promised that I'd hold off until the proud parents had a chance to post, but that being done, I can now express my extreme delight at being an Uncle. Not least cos it gives me the opportunity to be disreputable at young Davey and buy him innapropriate presents. Grats to both parents!

Anyway, today was the friday practice at the British Grand Prix. Silverstone has a rep for being hard to get into, and so I took at back route that not only got me there in good time, but also gave me an opportunity to play with my Porsche on the twisty stuff, which is one of its favourite places. Yeee, and indeed, Haaaaa!

Good practice sessions too. Young Lewis and Heikki look pretty racy; Kimi, whilst fast, doesn't look entirely comfortable; and Fillipe, Fernando, and Jarno gave us lots of broken cars to look at. The Red Bulls seem particularly quick this weekend thus far, as do the Toyotas, when they aren't shedding their rear wings and plunging into the Armco. Even Jenson posted a decent time!

Toyota have the best booth babes. Red Bull the most tongues in cheeks (there's actually a full publishing outfit on site producing the irreverent "Red Bulletin"). Honda have the most pretention - in the form of a giant inflatable cinema with a 15 min short promoting their green credentials and racing heritage... how environmentally responsible is a giant inflatable cinema anyway? McLaren have the biggest crowds. And Ferrarrrrarrrrar have the most merchandise... by a distance.

Seeing a man named Senna put a motor car on pole sent a shiver down my spine. Seems nephew Bruno is quite a talent. Formula BMW is sllllllooooooooooowwwwwwwww (at least in comparison with F1 and GP2). The Silverstone Racing Drivers Club have the best bar (and we have guest passes to it). And I am too old for any of the E-Zones.

Anyway, qualifying tomorrow and race sunday. W00t!

Special thanks to pennyanne for the tix, and to pauln for the good company.

Hussah!

2008-06-25T18:32:18Z

About time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7473243.stm

A fine weekend.

2008-06-23T11:37:22Z

Solsticey midsummer ball goodness was great, and t'was lovely to see many friends and to have much dancing.
Hangover the following morning, not so good.
Roads over the plains very good indeed, especially when Impreza is applied to them.
Seeing november_girl's uncle and his other half was surprisingly fun, with much petrolheadedness and the like.
Missing little sister due to lateness not so good, but an hour visit to parents was about right.
Holland v Russia - my favourites go out, beaten by the better team. Props to the Ruskies.
Magny Cours - GJ Trulli! Bad job race officials. GJ Ron Dennis for not swearing in the post race interview.
Spain vs Italy - Thank god that the dour, dull, negative Italians have gone. On with the fine attacking footie!

If I owned a stately home...

2008-06-18T07:56:25Z

I'm not sure that I'd be able to cope with someone doing this.

But then Lord March is much cooler than I am!

Really looking forward to that weekend now.

This evening I shall...

2008-06-17T13:17:33Z

...mostly be supporting Romania.

Firefox Download Day

2008-06-17T08:45:38Z

The best browser gets an update today, and they are trying for a world record number of downloads. Improved location bar functions, tagged bookmarks, download manager improvements and further crash resilience make this a release that I'm looking forward to immensely.

I know, it's a bit no-life sad to be looking forward to a release of a browser, but with the amount of time that I ~~waste~~ spend on the web, the improvements may actually make quite a difference to my day to day life.

Sports Musings

2008-06-11T11:26:43Z

I'll hide stuff behind cuts, as I know that a number of people are allergic to sport.

So, the Euros sans Home nations. Frankly, I'm not convinced anyone expected to see Wales or Northern Ireland there and Scotland were an outside chance at best, but England really should have made it. Still, they didn't and if I'm honest, they didn't deserve to. Listless players failing to be inspired by an average manager. I felt a bit sorry for McLaren, as he was woefully underqualified for the job, and has now blown any chance of ever getting to that level again. I think that given the right experience and time, he could mature into a very decent international manager, but he's now a complete managerial jonah and it's going to take a lot to get his career back on track.

Still, progress under Capello seems to be there, if slow. It's nice to see an English team passing the ball around, even if they do occasionally seem to regress to the "long ball over the top". Now, I want to see Crouch move to a team where he gets some regular starts against decent opposition (somewhere like Man City probably). I want to see Theo Walcott get some regular games at the Arse. I want to see Sean Wright Phillips resurrect his career. And I want to see the England team realise that you need to play differently depending on who you have up front. Barry and Gerrard in the middle, please, with Frankie Lampard coming on as an impact sub for one of them. And for god's sake, never ever again a Neville.

Anyway, the Euros are proving entertaining even without (or perhaps because of the lack of) England. My chosen teams are Holland and Spain, both of whom are off to flyers. The dutch, in particular, impressed me in their first game. Sure Italy were poor, and that first goal was insane (though legitimate by the rules, which have been outed for the idiocy that they are), but the Dutch were comprehensive in their dismantling of the World Cup holders. I liked their 4-2-3-1 formation too. Now, I'd like Romania to dump the italians out, and for Holland to pulverise the French - and Romania and Holland through from that group. Unlikely, but would be funny.

Other teams that would be nice to see suceed are the Swedes, the Czechs and the Russians. Don't think any of them have a hope tho.

In slightly less high fallutin circles, it's all gone fairly quiet on the Forest front. Commons turned Judas on us, and headed down the A52 to Direby. I expect a warm welcome back for him next season in our 3 games against them (the 2 league matches and the Clough memorial trophy). We're trying to land Peter Whittingham from Cardiff apparently, who would be a good signing IMO; and I suspect that we are still pursuing Leon Best from Cov; but beyond that I've heard little. Rumours of Kieran Richardson on loan are just that, but would make me very happy if they came true, and we seem to be developing some sensible ties in the Far East. All in all, I'm looking forward to a fun season in the CCC, and here's hoping that we can avoid relegation.

Last weekend was the Renault World Series at Silverstone. A free day of Renault motorsport, there were single seaters and saloons and clios and the like, along with some demos. It was good fun, with the exceedingly noisy 3.5 litre racers being my highlight. The glorious weather made the day all the more pleasant, and the good company of rjstra, his dad and my lovely wife made it a great day out.

That meant that I didn't get to see the Canadian Grand Prix until late on sunday evening. And what a woeful mess young Lewis made of it too! The omens were never good when he was making fun of his dad for crashing the Porsche at 30mph, but at least he clobbered Kimi rather than Kubica. Still it all makes for a good fun championship, and these things are a learning experience. I'm consistently annoyed by the ITV presenters writing off the chances of the Pole winning the championship, though - sure, he's ina slower car, but he is consistent, unlike many of his rivals. I cannot express quite how much I am looking forward to the British Grand Prix... it should be awesome fun to actually be there!

The Rallying is also shaping up to be a terrific season, with one point seperating Loeb and Hirvonen, and a wide number of drivers capable of winning rallies (especially with the new Scooby proving much more competitive than the outgoing car). Gigi Galli and young Matthew Wilson are both doing well, which makes me happy. The coverage on Dave is leaps and bounds ahead of the old ITV4 dross, and we're going to make 2 rounds this year, in Finland (hussah!) and Wales, which we'll marshal.

We're also off to the Goodwood Festival of Speed to marshal it, which should be an absolute hoot. With confirmed drivers including Hamilton, Button, Solberg, Hirvonen, Wilson, Wilson, Kankkunen, Moss, McNish, Bourdais and Blomqvist amongst many many many others, I'm all excited. With free entry, free food, and a party in exchange for Marshalling, the deal is also very good.

So, loads to look forward to this season. Hurrah!

A season of two extremes, last year. As some of you know, I support two teams in the NFL, the AFC Oakland Raiders and the NFC New York Giants. Oakland were quite pitiful. OK, "quite" is proabably an understatement - they were dire. A 4-12 season is never going to be covered in glory, but the Silver and Black were never convincing even in victory.

The Giants, on the other hand, had one of the best seasons in their history. They started slow, with a loss to Washington on opening day, that I watched in a sports bar in New York city. But over the season they built towards a crescendo. Eternally written off by the analysts and the press, they seemed to take heart from this and in the playoffs they were masterful, winning through to the NFC championship and a place in the Superbowl against a New England Patriots team looking to go completely unbeaten all season. As massive underdogs few gave the Giants a chance, but they did it! Magnificent.

The off season has brought the news that the Giants linebacker and defensive talisman Michael Strahan is retiring. A Giant all his career, Strahan will be sorely missed. Still, I am hopeful that the team can mount a decent challenge to retain their title.

In great news, lupercal has secured us tickets to go and see the regular season NFL game between the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers in October. Really looking forward to this, as I've always wanted to watch a live competitive match.

It's a test against New Zealand this weekend. It's going to be brutal, and England are going to lose. Hopefully, they'll lose well, rather than losing badly; but with Johno confirmed as manager and yet not in post at the moment, I can see it being a shambles. Still, fingers crossed that the lads can provide a decent challenge to the All Blacks; one that points to a recovery over the next couple of years.

Massively multiplayer musing

2008-06-09T13:32:17Z

As some of you are aware, I have, for a couple of years now, been playing World of Warcraft. I've been very much enjoying it, playing with a guild full of friends, and gradually making our way through the endgame; we've managed a full clear of Karazhan, and have poked our heads into Gruul's Lair and Zul'Aman. I'd even been enjoying it enough, that I'd been maintaining an infrequent blog over at http://chaintrap.net

But, of late, I have been affected by a malaise. Enthusiasm has been ever harder to come by, I'm burnt out on the rep grinds (having got my main 70 Hunter to exalted with the SSO) and the only raiding that the guild has been participating in has been happening on a monday, it seems. And monday is not a night I can join in (being as there are fortnightly motor club meets to go to).

When I have logged on, it's been my little horde rogue that's got the attention, rather than any of my alliance toons.

So, I've been off in search of fresh pastures on the MMO front. Age of Conan is where most of the guild seem to have gone for their off-WoW kicks; but I find Howard's world to be mysogynistic and regressive, and so am put off by that. The general reports coming our of the game don't seem marvellous either.

So instead, I have gone to the small, buggy, yet interesting, Pirates of the Burning Sea. Set in the Carribean in the 18th Century, it's a lovely blend of MMO simplicity with historical detail. Sure it's buggy as all hell (at times), and the net code could do with a lot of optimisation; but sailing around, launching a broadside of bar shot into the masts of a pirate and watching their rigging and masts collapse, as you prepare a volley of Langridge and a boarding action is soooo much fun.

The unrest system and port battles look like a lot of fun, but will have to wait til I'm a lot bigger before I can usefully participate. Still, I think that the game could turn out to be a real rough diamond... I shall just have to wait and see whether the attraction continues.

In the meantime, I shall continue to monitor the progress of Warhammer as it inches towards release, and perhaps occasionally pop onto WoW to say hi to people. Anyone know of any other MMOs on their way that look promising?

Hussah!

2008-06-04T17:38:11Z

http://www.planetrock.co.uk/article.asp?id=731764

Good news indeed.

A post! A post!

2008-05-31T19:22:00Z

It doesn't often happen, but this is indeed a post on my poor neglected journal.

Well, yesterday was lovely curry and chats with lupercal, boglin, pax_draconis, averylaterabbit and the lovely, gorgeous and very talented november_girl at the Sylhet in King's Heath (see, an apostrophe, for those privy to that conversation). I am amazed at how the food can be so tasty and yet the service so very very poor. Still, was fun.

This morning, my lil sister and her tall hubby (fragglered and garethyoung) came over to visit. 'cept my lil sis isn't so little, being as she is full of my nephew-to-be. Anyhoo, we fed her icecream and had a lovely, if all too brief chat.

I have changed car today. Gone is the poor red Celica, which I will miss, and now I am the proud owner of an early Menoporsche. I did love the Celica, but in latter days I came to realise that she looked faster than she was (comparisons with 'nita's japanese monster didn't help), and that she had a tendency to wallow through the corners. The Porsche, an '87 944, doesn't wallow at all, springing from corner to corner like a tightly coiled springy thing. No doubt it will turn into a massive money pit, be completely unreliable and I'll be cursing her by year's end. But, in the meantime, I shall ~~play cheesy 80's pop very loudly, wear red braces and drink imported foreign lager~~ thoroughly enjoy her.

Tomorrow is the Wychwood Festival with dreamfire and rjstra and the lovely, gorgeous and very talented november_girl amongst others. The Imagined Village and Kate Rusby and other folk luminaries, in a field with some lovely real Ale. Spiffing.

Also, since last I wrote, the mighty Nottingham Forest have managed to get themselves promoted to the CCC. A nervy last day left me with no fingernails, but a big grin. Now for back to back promotions! (Or more likely a fraught season striving for safety). Still we have signed a welshman with an enormous slap head, who I understand is prone to scoring a lot, as long as he's not playing for Direby.

Anyway, I am resolved to post a bit more frequently here, though whether I can stick to this resolution remains to be seen.

PC games up for grabs

2008-04-02T14:15:38Z

So, I'm having a bit of a clear out of the study in preparation for new desks and the like; and have a big old stack of games that I need to get rid of. Mostly late 90s/early 2000s stuff, there's all sorts in there... Quake, Deus Ex, Caesar 3, Grand Prix 3, a real mixture. Some of it I plan to Ebay (who'd have thought that FF VIII was worth anything?!), but a load of it is free to a good home.

The only catch is that you must be able to pick it up from Studley some time in the next couple of weeks (the sooner, the better).

So this is Bucharest

2008-02-15T17:55:09Z

This place is odd. Not just the hotel bar in which I'm sat, swigging on a Silva Blonde (it's a type of beer!) and typing this; but the entire city. I don't understand it, with its french-communist concrete edifices and its roman-aspirational medieval churches. I'm more than a little baffled by its architecture as political statement grandeur and its transient monasteries (and I do mean the monasteries themselves not their monks).

But what I do know, is that I like it. And I like its people. I like its style, its swagger and its modesty. I like that it has more shoe shops than superstores, its beer is lovely... and cheap; and that its modern art resides within the worlds largest folly. I like this place a lot.

But I don't understand it. Not a bit of it.

Hell, we're off to witness some genuine drac-related cheese in a few minutes, through the snow (which has laid a blanket of a couple of inches in the past couple of hours), and from there to a heavy metal pub crawl. What's not to like?

One for the rugby fans...

2008-01-14T09:30:49Z

Whilst I love football, this made me laugh out loud.

http://www.landrover.co.uk/Micrositesscript/englandsrealpassion/default.asp

Click watch to see the movie - work safe, as long as giggling is allowed.

B-movie - Sat 15th Dec

2007-10-29T21:12:17Z

So... who's going then? Looks like november_girl and I are going to be there!

Hurrah!

Casual raiding ftw (WoW related)

2007-10-03T07:51:46Z

Our guild downed The Curator for the first time last night! It took 5 or so goes, but we did it. Not a big achievement to most, but to us it was a triumph. Go us!

Another video

2007-09-25T14:18:26Z

With all the controversy that the New Zealand Haka has been causing of late... I though it might be good to look back at how it should be done. As demonstrated by the 1979 New Zealand rugby team.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ96rNaHR_E

Right... right... no, no, the other right!

2007-09-24T10:36:46Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIsB2xARCCY

This made me laugh a lot. Poor farmer.

England v South Africa

2007-09-14T17:40:13Z

I shall we watching...
Through my fingers...
Ah well, at least losing to South Africa isn't as embarassing as losing to Samoa will be...
Or, losing to Argentina was for Les Bleu...
Which still makes me smile.

So good they named it twice...

2007-09-13T08:51:30Z

First things first, a slightly belated happy birthday to jfs, hope you had a good one matey - and a massive grats to jimfer and catpooka on their engagement. Matrimony = ++good.

Anyway, on with the New York related wiffle, .

I'm going to assume that most of you have read november_girl's post here, and so focus on some of the things that she didn't talk about.

Ground Zero, Sept 11th, and a sense of anger.
It's an odd place, Ground Zero. A building site in the middle of the financial district, business people move around its perimeter taking of deals and shares, restaurants and bars, everyday, ordinary mundanities. Whilst we, the tourists, those least affected by the events of 6 years ago, stand quietly, awkwardly, remembering our own experiences of the day that the world changed. It feels somewhat mawkish to be moved by the place, when those around us, the very people who were here or hereabouts back then, aren't. But, I guess, when you live with this everyday, it is best to put those memeories to the back of your mind, whilst visitors have the luxury of melancholy reflection. I don't know what I had expected, and I was rewarded with a feeling that i struggle to articulate. Somehow it is difficult to reconcile the building site with the images seared into my memory of that day. But as we walked around the edge of the site, I couldn't help but remember the people that threw themselves from the building. Did they land here? Or here? Or over there? For me, the feeling was reminisicent of the killing fields at Choeng Ek in Cambodia. So many people dead, innocents in the main, and not even the attempts at reconstruction will make the place seem clean. I hope that I'd feel different once the Freedom Tower exists, but I'm not certain that I will.
After all that has followed that day in 2001, the injustices heaped on one another, there is still nothing that had prepared me for the emotion I felt looking at that site. Sadness for those that died, and for the wonderful city that paid a horrible price for its government's follies. Anger that vile vicious individuals had chosen to punish a citizenry for the sins of their rulers, both real and imaginary. And a slight lingering sickness at the establishment that used, and still uses, the horror of that day to its own political ends.
I am glad that we were there on the 10th, and that we decided not to return on the 11th. The media and government circus that leeches from the true grief of that day induces nausea.

[Note: At this point, I have gone away and taken a few moments to stop feeling quite so upset. I hadn't realised that i felt quite so strongly about this, until the time came to put it down in writing. Clearly, I find catharsis in this process, and hope that you will bear with the previous paragraphs and read them as they are, an attempt to articulate a series of complicated emotions. Anyway... on with lighter things]

Turtles in Central Park.
There are turtles in the lake in Central Park. Turtles are cool. And cute. I have decided. And , it appears that turtles are fans of pretzel.

Where are all the rude people?
New York, home of the "whatever", "blow me" and the F-word. Or not. As any long term readers of my journal may remember, it was much the same in Paris. We went expecting rudeness and found only courtesy. New Yorkers are blunt, for sure, but blunt is better than disingenuous. Friendly, helpful, chatty... and oh so diverse; the people of NYC were great fun and a pleasure to interact with. They went out of their way to help, from the random cigar smoking stranger on Wall Street; through the limo-cab driver who once lived on Ladypool Road in Brum; to the Maitre d who actually seemed upset when we decided not to eat in his restaurant, and then delighted when we changed our minds; and Ilya the NY biker who recognised us from a momentary meeting in the street a couple of hours previous. Everyone we met did their best to be helpful, and polite. We did, however, discover a new game. Most establishments, shops, restaurants, bars and the like, will greet you with a polite "How are you today?", the answer to which is expected to be "fine" or "good" or similar. However, if you then append "and how about you?" to your answer, it quite takes them by surprise. It's very funny.

America - it's quite big, really.
I've now visited NYC, Washington DC and New Orleans (pre-Katrina), and the diversity and differences in these cities has left me hankering after more. The US is proving to be a far more intriguing and beguiling place than I ever thought it would. It was almost certainly somewhat short-sighted of me to expect that it would be as simple as it appears externally; but I hope that over the years I get to experience a little more of this fascinating country.

Belgian waffles, maple syrup and canadian bacon for brekkie.
None more American. (?!)

Camera musing...

2007-09-03T13:41:33Z

Lots of you out there are photographically accomplished, I count some exceedingly talented snappers and shooters on my f'list... so, it's time to ask for help.

I currently have a Fujifilm compact digital camera, that I bought a couple of years ago. It's an alright lil camera, and has served me fairly well. However, it has some shortcomings. Firstly, whilst in Cambodia I ran out of memory space on my XD cards. No problem, I just went out and bought another card, a spangly new 1Gb card for not so many dollars. I stuck it into the camera and figured all would be well. Nope. After a lot of titting around, it was discovered that my camera only supports 128Mb cards. Not ideal. I still have a lot of XD cards that I'd like to keep using, so any prospective new camera needs to take them.

Also, as you are all aware, november_girl and I go to watch motorsport a lot. I like to take a camera to take some photos. Unfortunately, my current camera has an annoying delay between pressing the button and taking the photo. By which time, my subject automobile is nothing more than a cloud of dust somewhere out of the frame. The only way that I can get pictures of cars is if they are stopped, or if I track them with the camera and hope that I can stay with them in time for the photo to take. Yet again, not ideal.

So, the question is, is there a camera that will solve these problems at a reasonably (read very) cheap price? My budget is probably £100-150 (if I decide I can afford it at all). I don't want anything too big either... I'd like to be able to take it touristing without feeling like I have a big "mug me" sign around my neck.

It occurs to me that later this week, the missus and I fly to New York for a few days. given the favourable exchange rates, and the reputation of NYC as a shopping mecca, it might be a good time to look at picking up a new camera, perhaps. Is there any reason that this wouldn't be a good idea?

Help me LJ camera types!