Insuring the Calibra could be a problem...

My renewal came through a bit high so I thought I'd ring round.. I've only had a couple of quotes but they aren't what I'd call "cheap". I know why it is. Claims do not help.
More ringing round to be done...

XBox 360

Having not seen any game footage yet, it surprises me to find that I'm really impressed with the specs of MS's new toy.
Officially announced last night (May 12th) on MTV, the new box has some clever tricks up it's sleave...
Get over to Gamespy for all the detail you need. Check out the videos too as they show the insides (which has to be a first!) and the design specs.

Friday baby.. Friday

Well I think I've posted every day this week. Not bad eh? At least the blog is being used rather than abused. Heh.

So I settled down for a quick Forza sesh' last night. Straight to the 'ring with a C6. Ruddy quick car, that... but it's still a yank and doesn't do cornering the way I imagined it would (it's a game, mind!). Didn't finish that as I mashed it pretty good early on. Straight on over to the 996 GT3 and tried again. Noooow we're talking! Okay, definitely not as quick off the line as the big V8 is but it's so much more "chuckable" in the corners.. really enjoyed that.
Did a few of the "Career" mode races and won some cheap metal... I think I'll enjoy this game. :D

I really should upload those 911 pics.. think I might do that now. :)

Success!

So it doesn't hurt to hassle your insurance company.
The quote I've been given is more than I expected - and I'm happy to accept it. I could probably squeeze a bit more from them but it's been 2 months and 2 days since I started this and I'm tired of waiting - and this means I can buy the car I'm looking at! :D
No, I won't say what I'm being offered.. lol

WoW Battlegrounds live on test server

I rarely post about WoW as I've not really enjoyed playing it recently. It's become drawn out and the tasks set don't really lead anywhere. To sum up - playing is largely pointless.
However, raid groups have started to pop up and the much vaunted battlegrounds are on their way.
What is a battle ground? Well it's a player (number) limited area that has a goal. Teams can join up and enter (like an instance) and take ownership of areas/building etc and basically war for it all. I liken it to the old 2D space shoot-em-ups where you work your way up the playing field to the "Boss" at the top. The reality is different but that's the way it works in my head.
Will this be any good? Time will tell.
Read about it here.

Forget water-cooling your PC...

Why not try oil-cooling?

It's yet to be translated in to English but the assumption is that vegetable oil doesn't conduct electricity but also creates a "cool" environment for the system.

It's a bit extreme for my tastes. lol.

Another day..

..another dollar.
Well, once again I shall be hassling the insurance company. Even if I had believed their initial estimates I'd have heard by now. Of course - that's not true.

Forza Motorsport appeared this morning! Yey! I haven't opened it yet but I intend to do that this evening after I teach at the gym. I've been waiting on this a good while now - it's taken nearly as long to make as GT4 did on the PS2.
Go Google it and look at the great piccies... I'm personally more interested in the tracks - the 'ring! :)

Road monkies

They exist; don't think they don't!

3 lanes, which one should you be in? Left. How fast should you be travelling on a clear, dry day? 70mph.
So last night I see a road monkey. It wasn't obvious as it was disguised as a young lady (circa, 25) with boyfriend in tow. She was travelling at.. wait for it... 45mph in the middle lane of the M27 at 4:45pm on a Tuesday afternoon.
If you know this road then you'll know that it's a busy one and rarely can you have the luxury of travelling at such pathetically dangerous speeds for the hell of it. I undertook her at 55mph - I dared not go any quicker, but neither did I have the outright power (Clio) to leap across 2 lanes, climb to 70mph and then throw myself across a further 3 to get to my junction in safety.

This was a road monkey. Beware.

Still no progress

I don't want to be a pain (despite what my friends may tell you). All I want is an answer. A figure. An offer.. nothing more. Well that's not strictly true - I want a wad of cash. However, in the first instance I want to tell a very patient man that I'm going to buy his car. He won't be patient for long (and nor should he).
I shall continue to pester my insurance company until I get some satisfaction. Whatever that may be.
Oh, if you hadn't guessed - I just phoned and was told I'll be contacted when they can be arsed to.

Wednesday it is, Wednesday...

You can't keep a good blogger down. Or at least, you can't keep a blogger down.
Another day, another dollar - but will I get my insurance company to pull their finger out? Errr. Hmm. Ummm. Well, I shall post later on that one.
I saw my good friend Si last night. It seems odd to see him back "daaaan saaaaaf" after so long but it also seems right I guess. The next few months for him will be odd - his life is kind of in flux and he's not really sure what's going to happen - so I wish him all the best.
The 911 I've seen is still about - and it sounds like a cracker of a car. I really hope I can secure it.

Tea time.

Insurance update

Or more accurately, lack of.

The "It'll be reviewed today" quote I had yesterday is now a "It hasn't been reviewed as they're very busy". So I was honest and said I was going to pester every day. I'm sick of waiting and I know I'll not get anything sorted before this other car is sold. Of course, will another come up when I have the money? No, it won't. That's called "Sod's law" don't you know.

X3: Reunion

I've posted before about the X games. I loved the startling beauty and the gorgeous soundtracks - but hated the 15/20 hours of gameplay required to make 1 credit. I don't have 15 hours to devote.. so neither of the previous games kept my attention.
This news story from PC ZONE has some shots and info on the third in the X series. This includes a fancy new engine and probably another 20/30 hours of gameplay before you find out how to turn the ship's engine on. A shame.. it's so pretty. :)

Pirates of the Caribbean - ONLINE!

Oh good grief.
Right off the back of my last blog I happened upon this. In fact, it was in the next e-mail I had from PC ZONE.
It's due to be released along-side (yeah, joke intended) the next film next summer... next.. summer. 2005 or 2006? I can't be bothered to look..
In fact, this one will suck. LOTR may be okay with the backing it has.. and the history. But this is based on a themepark ride at Disneyland. Yeahhhhh.
Well time will tell. I hope. :)

Lord of the Rings... ONLINE!

It's not new.. at least, it's not new "news". Last year this little oddity jumped up amid the throws of post-LOTR trilogy madness and announced it's intentions. Back then it was Middle Earth Online - or something just as obvious. However, it's developers/publishers has changed and now it's Lord of the Rings. Online.
The initial pics and info do sound quite interesting (read the Gamespy article here) - but I wonder if it'll try to be another WoW (without the "bad guy" element). I don't know. It's not out until 2006 and by then it will likely have changed considerably (as, I hope, will WoW).

I give it a "meh" out of 10. :)

Dear diary...

Ok, so it's a pathetic excuse to make it look like I'm updating the site. But I am! :)

Have I mentioned how little I like insurance companies? Well I'm about to. You see, I wrote my 911 off a couple of months ago. This sort of thing happens and there is nothing I could have done about it at the time (other than not drive it in the first place). As gutted as I am about the whole thing I had some solace in the fact that I paid a very large amount of money to an insurance company to protect from this very eventuality. Unfortunately, as is often the case, I'm sat here two months later - still paying for the damn thing - and have seen very little in the way of activity from the company in question.
Now, don't misunderstand me here. I'm not slating them. It's just that it isn't all that hard to review some pieces of paper and pay up. Yeah, I'm not the only person that has insurance - but I am the customer - and therefore, right. Having been in a customer facing industry before, I know how it works.
To make matters worse, I've found a car (that will be long sold before I get any money). She's identical to my previous effort, and at a great price. Humph.

I chased them yesterday and I will chase them today. It won't help me but at least I'm trying.

It's Tuesday.

I'm a lazy sod....

Yup it's true. I can't be bothered with computers right now. I guess it's partly due to the weather (it's been nice!) and partly due to pure laziness. But I've been feeling like that a lot recently. WoW has gone out the window. Meh.. I have no energy to play bloody computer games - at least, nothing more involving that a 5 minute blast. WoW is not that. LOL.

Education gets told to lose MS. Heh. I love it. It'll never happen (as usual) but it's nice to hear that things are happening. I don't hate MS - not at all - but I like the competition (it's healthy).

Longhorn gets RSOD. Why? Stupid idea.. why not just let the offending module die and then have it restart? Meh.

New XBox anyone?. I doubt it'll retail looking anything like that but.. whatever. Meh. Again. :D

What else? Well the Calibra is sat doing nothing at the moment. Time is short and I can't play. Meh. I'll get round to it! This weekend I think I'll spend playing. Rain or not. Although I may be arranging a long drive instead.. hmmm. That's not related to this though.

Gemma is back at Uni. I've been up there this weekend. I always enjoy that! Only another 8 weeks and a year left (yeah, work that out) and she's back for good. Can't say I'll be upset when she's back! :)

The show season is upon us. Next month it's the Performance Vauxhall Show at Santa Pod. Then a month later, in the same area, is the VBOA's show at the Billing Aquadrome (go Google it if you can be bothered!). i really enjoy these shows and it lets me show off the car and my hard work. Next year may be quite different as work and the car may put me in a position that may make me miss them. Either that, or the full respray, retrim and more engine work will. Hehe. Me? Mad? Never.

Right.. it's lunch time.