I have taken, again, to listening to local radio. Not local for Kent but local to New Orleans. Yep, that New Orleans. I have a bit of a thing for the New Orleans Saints NFL team and am looking forward to seeing them play next year versus my number two team the Dolphins.
About two years ago I spent time listening to WWL radio station because they broadcast commentary of the Saints’ games. I don’t think they broadcast the games any more but I do find it interesting listening to the other programmes.
I get information about local weather, the quality of the waterways and where the best fishing is. One day I ought to visit the place to get a proper appreciation of what I listen to.
WWL doesn’t broadcast to the UK via TuneIn, but you can find it and get Sonos systems to play it.
I recently purchased a new (ish) car. The name of the new vehicle has yet to be decided but some things did need to be sorted out.
As a safety feature the car beeps an alarm inside the car while in reverse. There aren’t parking sensors so this was purely to warn the driver that you aren’t going to move forward when you depress the go pedal. This beeping was annoying. Googling around soon led to two potential ways to fix it.
If the Prius is pre-2010 then you can use the following method:
Step 1: Depress the brake pedal and hold it there.
Step 2: Press the Start/Stop button to turn on the engine.
Step 3: Push the Odometer button. Push the button on your dash designated Trip/Odometer until “ODO” is displayed on the screen. If it is already displaying this, you will have to cycle through the options to refresh it by pressing the button a total of three times.
Step 4: Press the Start/Stop button. Press the Start/Stop button to turn off the engine of your Prius.
Step 5: Press the Start/Stop button again. With your foot still on the brake, press the Start/Stop button again, and your engine will restart.
Step 6: Push and hold the Odometer button: Push the Trip/Odometer button again and do not release it.
Step 7: Press the park button. While still depressing the Trip/Odometer button, put your Prius in reverse, then immediately push the Park button. Do not release the Trip/Odometer button until this is complete.
Step 8: Push the Trip/Odometer button. Instead of the usual miles traveled on the odometer display, there should be the text “b on.” Push the Trip/Odometer button until the dashboard displays the text “b off.”
Step 9: Press the Start/Stop button again. Press the Start/Stop button again to turn your Prius’ engine off. The reverse beep is now disabled, and you will not hear it again in future trips.
This, I think, is the car equivalent of ctrl-alt-del and using reg-edit and BIOS simultaneously. Now, I can follow instructions, but I wasn’t looking forward to doing this. My car is registered as a “59” but apparently it was a 2010 model as when I looked under the dash there was a OBD2 connector.
It turns out that car manufacturers have standardised the laptop connections to the car and its CPU. This makes sense and it also allows people to connect their own devices and customise or fix or break their own car.
So, I invited a friend over who tries does hack his own car and attempt to improve or fix it. He has a Bluetooth and WiFi connector and I downloaded the Carista app on my phone. After connecting the adaptor to the car and then getting the phone secure connection running the app decided to run some diagnostics tests.
After a short while I was able to pay for a week’s subscription to the Carista app and then able to change the settings.
My car no longer constantly beeps when reversing. It beeps once. Which is good.
I also turned off the seat belt alarm. That would beep constantly too if the driver didn’t have a seat belt on. I always wear my seat belt so this noise isn’t needed either.
I’m a sucker for a space film. I love the possibilities, the stars, the tech. It just can look sooooo cool. Quite often these films leave something lacking and aren’t that good. I saw Rogue One and yesterday I watched Earthrise from Amazon Prime.
Because I watched this at home it doesn’t get an Official Parish Rating. So it was with a nerdy interest in tech and space that I went to see Passengers, I wanted to see stunning vistas and how the film-makers had dealt with the ravages of space travel. As is custom I rated this film on IMDB and you should read my guide to the rating system.
It was a perfectly enjoyable film and worth seeing, it had just the right amount of humour but I do feel that the moral issues could be covered more comprehensively in a separate film. This wasn’t a film about morals though. It was a space action thriller and as such it functioned perfectly well. Now, after here, there be dragons.
I had some minor issues with it, but not as many as with this film. So, if we allow hibernation, then we just need to look at the rest of the film to see what liberties they have taken. Mind you, coming out of hibernation looks a lot like CPR, so the travellers were more dead than deep sleeping.
The artificial gravity system seemed to be based mostly on centrifugal force [YES, I KNOW – this is why I don’t allow comments on this site]. The idea that a spinning thing in space would stop spinning when the power is switched off doesn’t quite ring true, momentum and inertia etc. But, then this does allow some pretty good visuals.
Why would little things go wrong if the spaceship was dealing with a big problem in the reactor core? I’m not sure this part of the film rings true. It bothered me a little. But, I was willing to let this go.
The swimming pool. I’m pretty sure that if the gravity was provided by the rotation of the ship then the stars outside the window were rotating the wrong way. I’ll probably have to take a few more looks at this scene but it upset something in my head and I spent a while moving my hands around in the air trying to get rotations correct. The hemispherical window was an awesome idea though.
Only one medi-pod for a ship that size? Bullshit.
When gravity suddenly turns off (?) most things will just stay where they are unless there is an impulse to them. The water in the swimming pool would have rode up the sides of the room when the spinning stopped. The sleeping characters would have moved very slowly if at all as they don’t have any forces acting on them. I refer you to Newton’s First Law Of Motion.
There are other bits and pieces but they are largely inconsequential and do not show off my understanding of sciencey shit. I do think that a film covering the morals of “living murder” would be very interesting if written by someone talented.
Oh, Arcturus. The space ship sling-shots around Arcturus. I don’t have a problem with that per se, but the ship did seem pretty close to the star. It would have fried to a crisp and everyone would have been killed by the intense radiation. While this allowed for pretty visuals [based on the SOHO observations of our own sun] the radiation shielding would need to be metres thick. Arcturus is a pretty darn big star coming in at 25.7 times the diameter of our piddly little star The Sun. It’s also 36.7 ly away and the spaceship in the film had been travelling for 30 years and had just reached 0.5c so the film makers could have done some better sums here I feel although we don’t know if the time measurement is absolute [physicists would laugh at that concept] or relative.
Last thing: The company that owns the starship made x quadrillion profit we are told. I am pretty sure that Aurora [!] then explains that a quadrillion is “a thousand billion”. I may have misheard this but a quadrillion is a million million using the US naming system. Aurora was talking about a trillion which is a LOT less money.
Quadrillion [US] – 10^12
Quadrillion [UK, but not common] – 10^24
I had some wine the other night, which was not a normal occurrence as I have given up drinking at home. The bottle was labelled and on the label was a latitude longitude coordinates.
It’s A Wine Label
Clearly this had to be investigated. You can’t mention numbers that can be checked without someone wanting to check them. I remember watching an Aussie TV show called Rescue Special Ops where they mentioned a location and so I went on Google Earth to check out where it was. The writers had done their job properly as the location was definitely in the bush [there is an awful lot of it].
So, apparently Rioja is an area in Spain. These are things I don’t really know, it could have been a person or something similar but I guess it’s logical given that Bordeaux is also a place.
So, I have saved you the time of typing in the lat long. Here is the location:
It’s a vineyard. There’s also a vineyard about 506 metres away from my house.
The other day I had another go on a PSVR headset, just to see some more trailers and play another part of a game. See this communication about why I had to sell my PSVR. One of the trailers I watched was me strapped in a chair being attacked by what looked like a zombie. This was mostly fine.
Then I played a Call Of Duty demo where I was flying a space ship. I probably managed about thirty seconds before I had to stop as the feelings of sickness were rising.
It was a good thing that I sold the PSVR (which saddens me).
This feels like a hard communication to write and for people who are interesting in not knowing anything about this film please consider this a warning that there are going to be many spoilers.
I took a trip with some science type friends to see Rogue One, the stand-alone Star Wars movie set in between film episodes three and four. I went to the Odeon cinema in Maidstone which was fine. As is a custom now I rated the film after watching it on IMDB, you should probably read this communication about the rating system and you might also be interested in this one about Star Wars Episode Seven.
I think I ought to explain this rating as a six is pretty low. Episode 7 got a ten by default but the more I think about it the more I feel I should have been more honest with myself. I’m not sure it would get a 10 now, even though I own a copy. Rogue One will probably be purchased which would default the score to a 10, but in reality the film was a little bit shit.
The Best Thing About This Movie
Do Not Read On (mostly because it is poorly written)
The best thing about this movie and quite likely the only good thing about this movie was the droid K-2SO. I would have quite happily listened to him much more throughout the film, he was the only character who seemed to have a sense of perspective, or even character. He was voiced by Alan Tudyk who has been in some of my favourite shows.
I was slightly bothered that there were no floating words telling me what had happened and that we didn’t get the Star Wars opening theme. Start with a child disobeying her father and then watching her mother killed, obviously you need psychological trauma and daddy issues to be a hero. Then we have little sequences on lots of planets that I couldn’t give a shit about and we learn that the Empire is making a massive weapon.
This film seems to be consistent with conspiracy nuts in that it believes you can have a massive infrastructure project and keep it secret from everyone, even though everyone knows this is being built. Also, it seems that the entire galaxy knows that a cargo pilot has defected with information and he needs to be debriefed.
I spent a large amount of the first act worried about intelligence gathering in a age when the whole galaxy has access to rumours and ideas. I just didn’t like it.
Then the heroine gets rescued and debriefed / interviewed in the Rebel fucking control room in front of the senators and all the bloody equipment. You DON’T put prisoners in the control room, what shit.
Then some stuff happens. I may have to come back and fill this in once I’ve seen the film again. Perhaps I can over my prisoner logistical problems.
Then we have a scene in the control room again where the Rebel senate appears to be discussing ALL the details about the secret plans in front of everyone including every pilot and vaguely important person. “The secret plans are held on this planet” etc. Arrrrrgh.
There’s a blind monk who chants shit about the force, but the film maker clearly shows him using his hearing to work out where things are, he doesn’t use the force. He’s a charlatan.
Let’s invade a planet and make it look like a Vietnam War film, that’ll keep the dads happy. I seriously felt like I was watching a ‘nam film. Bloody palm trees.
Why was there a random shutter opening and closing at the top of the data tower. WTF? It makes absolutely no sense that it is there, apart from trying to appease kids who watch and play computer games and need to get the timing correct.
So, you build a massive tower to store all your plans for every building in your Empire. Then you need a transmitter which you just happen to build on top of your tower. Finally, you place a data reader and transmit controls OUTSIDE at the TOP of the tower. Not somewhere safe inside the building. WHY would you do that? Why would you put a control system in a place where the weather will get to you? AND then you place some of the controls on the end of a platform sticking out from the tower. Fuck this movie.
I recently spent some time in the A&E department of a Kent hospital. This may or may not have been related to the previous communication. While waiting for the hours to pass I read every poster and most of the magazines in the minor injuries department. This is mostly foolish as none of it is interesting. I did see this though:
Hospital Report
I will highlight some areas of this poster. You can click on the poster to see a larger version.
Apparently 72% recommend a service, maybe. We aren’t made aware of what those 72% are recommending. It could be the coffee from the machine [I didn’t see one]. Without knowing the question this set of data make no sense.
Next of note are the responses on a scale of 1 – 6.
Responses
The percentages for these have been given to two decimal places, just in case you were desperate to know. Again we don’t know what question was being asked. The poster doesn’t say.
As for the two charts, these tell us nothing new. Absolutely nothing. They replicate the data given in the list. They are utterly pointless. I’m not known for being a fan of pie charts and this one is terrible. In my opinion if you’ve used a pie chart you haven’t done the best you can in interpreting your data.
Pie Chart
Bar Graph
Then, most helpfully we get a list of the most recent types responses to a survey question WHICH WE DO NOT KNOW.
Comments
Now we can guess the question. We also have a pretty good idea of what all of this means, but we aren’t told. This poster could have been way more informative, way simpler to read and quite a bit clearer. It says the same thing THREE times.
I’m not really having a go at the hospital. I imagine that they have been told it’s a target to make sure they have these feedback responses pinned on the wall for all to see. The hospital doesn’t have enough time or money to do this well and so they rely on a bit of software or an external agency that then does a print run and these things are pinned up all over the place. If hospitals and the NHS could be left alone to get on with their jobs, if reform was stopped, if the staff were listened to then maybe, just maybe, things like this useless poster could be stopped and the service returned to the excellence it once was.
YES I blame the tories.
Much like the shit that is happening in education at the moment.
This is just a tiny communication to get over in a basic way my concern about the next four years with Trump as president of the USA. I’m going to quote the current POTUS, it is part of his response to being asked about being black and how he manages that when talking to people:
My general theory is that if I was clear in my own mind about who I was; comfortable in my own skin; and had clarity about the way in which race continues to be this powerful factor in so many elements of our lives, but that it is not the only factor in so many aspects of our lives; that we have by no means overcome the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow and colonialism and racism, but that the progress we’ve made has been real and extraordinary; if I’m communicating my genuine belief that those who are not subject to racism can sometimes have blind spots or lack appreciation of what it feels to be on the receiving end of that — but that doesn’t mean that they’re not open to learning and caring about equality and justice — and that I can win them over, because there is goodness in the majority of people; I always felt that if I really knew that and I just communicated it as clearly as I could, that I’d be okay.
Now compare that with PEOTUS response to a question about saying he would lock up Hillary Clinton:
Well, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to think about it. Um, I feel that I want to focus on jobs, I want to focus on healthcare, I want to focus on the border and immigration and doing a really great immigration bill. We want to have a great immigration bill. And I want to focus on all of these other things that we’ve been talking about.
And also what he said when asked about what the Bushes said when they called:
Well, it was very interesting. I got a call from Father Bush, who is a wonderful man. And he just said, “Congratulations. It was an amazing campaign.” And then I got a call from George and he said– “Congratulations. It was great.” And, you know, look, it’s– it’s a tough situation. I went to war with Jeb. And Jeb’s a nice guy, but it was a nasty campaign. It was a nasty campaign. And, I mean, I’m disappointed in one thing. He signed a pledge and I don’t know how you sign a pledge and then you don’t honor it. It was a rough primary. It’s a rough primary. Although I think the general was probably just as tough. Probably as a combination, it was the roughest ever.
I fear for the English language and I fear for the world.
Recently had a good weekend at SMP near Folkestone. It was a training weekend giving skills to the CCF so they are ready to get on and enjoy some of the activities we do. On the first full day the weather was pretty poor and although warm [ish] it was overcast and drizzly. The second day was much better with brilliant sunshine and a glorious sun rise. There now follows a gallery of some of the best shots I took.
Time For Tea
Twisted Fire Starter
Parade Square
Not Concealed
Training Area Valley
Sports Field
Training
Drone Training
Catching The Light
Ready
Look At The Blue
One night at SMP I had to accompany someone to hospital. Arriving at 23:00 we finally left the minor injuries section at 03:15. Given that reveille was at 06:00 this was harsh, got into bed at 03:45. The following day was quite hard although I did manage a kip in the drone training room.
Yes, I made the title a tautology. Deliberately. Sorry.
Every now and then I create draft communications and hope to complete them at some point. There have been many that I have started but not completed. Some have died because I forgot what they were about and some have died because I simply don’t have the time to complete the communication to a good enough standard. Yes, there are standards on this site!
My current list of draft communications is:
Some of these are album reviews, which are going well but less often that initially. I’ll finish it one day.
“Advertising” may never get written because it’s about the complaints I have made to the ASA and a general rant about how terrible advertising is.
“Angels Within” is a classic take down of a bullshit magazine and website. It’ll be quite a rant but needs about two hours to complete to a decent level of shittyness.
“Flights Of Fancy” is a Fooyah investigation of the theory behind the common belief that the football at the Mile High Stadium travels further than at sea level. I have spent about an hour looking into this and I think the result will go against my initial scepticism but if that is where the evidence leads then so be it.
“Business Retreat” is a title I added but have no current idea what it is about or why I titled a communication so. I have a sneaky suspicion that it’s me ranting about Brexit. I need to rant about it. But I would also quite like the arguments to be coherent which I find difficult to express. That’s just me, I can get overwhelmed and struggle to form the best words in a good enough order to create a formal argument.
“Beat them Up” is me moaning at a news headline on the BBC and taking the article apart. It’s the education system being shat upon, surprise, surprise.
So, there, keep your eyes open or your twitter feeds running with alerts. These may or may not get written.
Sometimes you work with or know people who don’t use the correct terminology. It can occasionally be a minor irritation but also is a problem because using specific language is important to be able to communicate or understand a particular topic. So, in the past, people I have worked with have used the term “screen saver” when they meant “desktop background”. It’s a minor problem but they are wrong. Screen savers are quite specific and no longer necessary although possibly fun.
Below are the pictures I use as my desktop background at home. All were taken by me and so I own the copyright on them. Yes, I am rather proud of all the pictures. Yes, I like aircraft.
Discovery NASM
F-14 Tomcat NASM
Hercules RAF Mildenhall
Osprey RAF Mildenhall
Eagle RAF Lakenheath
Eagle RAF Lakenheath
Tornado RAF Wyton
Globemaster RAF Brize Norton
Voyager RAF Brize Norton
Hercules RAF Brize Norton
AN124 RAF Brize Norton
Dakota RAF Brize Norton
RAF Brize Norton
Merlin RAF Benson
Puma RAF Benson
I will probably change these over time, but I do want to see many more flying machines. It’s a fascination and passion. Somewhere in these erstwhile communications there are pictures of my iPhone backgrounds, somewhere. Use the search box.
My phone background is currently an obsession with the M’Era Luna festival in Hildesheim.
So the previous communication about places of abode consisted of a group of friends who grew up on the Hertfordshire borders. Two of us lived in Essex, although A only live in Essex by about 20 metres, and two of us lived in Herts.
I have another bunch of friends from university and there are parts of the internet dedicated to them. We are further spread around the world as follows:
Me in Kent
M in Fulham
J in West End
R in Houston, TX
A in Atlanta, GA
It’s a more interesting question about cardinal extremities for this bunch.
Here’re the numbers [to within a few miles each]
Me – 51°19′ N 0°28′ E
M – 51°29′ N 0°11′ W
J – 51°20′ N 0°37′ W
R – 30°10′ N 95°30′ W
A – 34° 01′ N 84°14′ W
So, in summary R is furthest south and west by a long way. M is furthest north by about 10′ and I am furthest east. Yippee, I’m first to see the sun and more than likely the first to be asleep!
But, the plot thickens very slightly as there is another who should be included in this group but he isn’t part of the Fulham Five. K lives in the Midlands and given his approximate location is:
52°26′ N 1°34′ W
K is clearly the furthest north of all of us.
I am the only one in the eastern hemisphere though!
Recently in a discussion with a group of friends D ended by saying that all was quiet on the southern front. He lives in Offenbach and so, therefore, not that you know just yet, he lives furthest east of that particular group of friends.
Some Friends – Map
So, D gets the furthest east and also south but not by a great deal. I’ve got some calculations to do in a minute. J lives in Saltash and is clearly the furthest west, and close to being the southern most!
Now some numbers:
J – 50° 24′ 21.78″N
D – 50° 6′ 32.47″N
The north-south distance between these two is:
0° 17′ 49.31″
Which turns out to be 33km.
I was more interested in who is the furthest north and by how much. The numbers for those, are:
Me – 51° 19′ 5.60″N
A – 51° 20′ 6.24″N
You can see that’s pretty close. The north-south distance for these two is:
0° 1′ 0.64″
Which turns out to be 1.872km.
It’s much closer than the difference between the other two, but I am neither the most north, south, east or west. Boo.
[The domiciles of D and J have been approximated but with 33km between them that’s not particularly an issue].
I sauntered out to the old haunt of the Cineworld at Rochester. I watched Arrival and, of course, I rated it on IMDB after watching it. You can see my scoring system explained in this communication.
This film was very good. I think the trailer somewhat over played the thriller aspect, but then that’s largely what sells I think. It’s nice to see an intelligent science fiction film. Something that makes you think and wonder. There’s too much dross and simple stuff out there at the moment. I’m not entirely sure I like the premise of this movie but it was a good watch anyway. It was the second film I had seen with a child’s death in it and I don’t like that kind of stuff, I’d rather not have those possibilities exposed.
The main thing we know about contact is how to communicate. What form or style of language will we use. This is important. For the best treatment of this read Contact.
Last night I went to Canterbury to the Curzon independent cinema there. I find Canterbury an odd place. The centre, where the shops are, is cut off by a Roman wall and a ring road from the reality of the rest of the town.
I’d not been to the Curzon cinema there before although I probably have been to those cinemas but too long ago to remember or be specific. The cinema was off a back street near the Marlowe Theatre. Inside it was quirky with an old fashioned book shop feel to it. People were drinking coffee and playing scrabble in the foyer area. The screen room itself was wide but not deep and the seats were quite comfortable with some being sofa style!
I went to see One More Time With Feeling. A documentary film about Nick Cave creating and recording music since the death of his son.
It was mostly shot in black and white and it was a very touching movie. I know nothing about Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and I’m not sure I know much now. The interviews were interesting and partly an insight into the music making process but on reflection I’m not convinced they were very revealing. The film seemed to contain about 6 or 7 music videos. I’m not sure if the band were actually recording while they played in these scenes, I would like to think so but it looked a little too staged. The scenes and interviews in between the set-piece song videos were dark, amusing and pretty much what you would expect.
I was utterly compelled for most of the film. As a terrible song writer and someone who probably should spend more time using his creative side it was interesting to hear a musician talk about the process, but I’m not at all sure it was a major revelation.
To hear someone talk about the death of a child is horrible.
Anyway, this is worth a watch. It’s musically interesting and lyrically haunting. It’s a good film.
What’s the point in having an ADS-B receiver if you aren’t going to use it when you are out of your house? So, I managed to set up some wizardry on parts of my home network and now I can see the display from outside the confines of my wireless network. I’ve done some port forwarding and other lovely stuff which is easy enough if you are adept at googling, which I am.
Family thinks I’m a god because I can use regedit to fix a computer. But I’m really quite good at JFGI.
So, I now have a Virtual Radar Service for the area around my house that I can log in to from anywhere in the world. I did have to set up a Dynamic Domain Name Service for my modem as I am not lucky enough to have a fixed IP from my broadband supplier. My router even informs the DDNS service what its new IP is whenever it restarts and because this just seems to work it makes me happy.
I did have some minor issues with the radar service as it uses Google Maps to provide a nice background and because I was using this outside of my home network I needed an API key to make this work. That was reasonably easy to set up but then it turns out that Google recommend you secure the key to a particular site so that other people can’t use your key and steal your Maps data, which would then mean Google would charge me.
It took a little while to get the formatting of this securing correct but I think I finally managed it. I guess I’ll soon find out if Google send me a massive Google Maps API bill soon!
So, I can log in to my radar server from anywhere and view it on a desktop or mobile device. That way I can see what my home system sees. It doesn’t catch all planes because some won’t be broadcasting position, see the MLAT communication. Below is a picture of a browser with my radar server running.
Virtual Radar Server
If you want access I can allow it to you. Just let me know and I’ll arrange a login and password and also give you the URL.
It was a weekend of many happenings. I usually try to keep weekend happenings to a minimum and then I can use all the spare time to see a film, exercise, mess around with technology of various forms and play the PlayStation.
This weekend was the end of my relationship with the Beast. But, it was also the start of my relationship with the Not-Beast, which has yet to be named.
Not The Beast
There’re a lots of differences between a diesel turbo six speed manual and a petrol hybrid automatic! I will probably bore you with these over time so I won’t go into the detail here. My main current issue is that I don’t know how to hill start this car. Oh, and sometimes I forget to take the “handbrake” off because in this thing it’s a “parking brake” and operated by the left foot.
The new car isn’t named yet, but will be soon. Suggestions welcome to @iparish. This purchase does now mean that the only manual driving experience I will get is either the school minibuses [limited to 100kph] or my Playstation. I’ve upgrade to a six speed manual stick for the PS4. I had been pretty good at heel-and-toeing and matching engine revs to new gears when selected. Now I’m worried my left foot will whither away through lack of use in the new car.
I spent some time in Essex this weekend and I can never be sure if I feel like I am home or whether Kent is now my home. I’ve been down here mostly since 1996 and so while not all of my life it certainly consists of quite a bit of my life. I don’t think I identify as an Essex-boy any more, but I’m not sure I was to start with.
I had a very nice run along the A1060 while in Essex.
It was good until the last mile when my left knee decided it didn’t really want to run and all I could do was hobble along keeping that leg straight. While it continued to ache through the day it turns out that a day later the upper part of my right foot hurts a lot climbing stairs. It is quite possible that my body is starting to fall apart due to age and wear and tear.
While running I spent some time directly under the flight path for the approach to Stansted Airport and I have to say I stopped twice to watch the aircraft fly overhead. It’s a lovely sight. I’m not sure why I like planes but I do.
EGSS Approach
Since I got home I have learnt of an update to No Man’s Sky. I am looking forward to seeing what that is like. I really enjoy a good hour of time exploring planets. I’ve tweeted a few things from this game, it’s nicely relaxing [as long as you don’t die].
So I am currently waiting to decide a new name for the car and enjoying the knowledge that I should get 70mpg, because, you know, the planet is fucked.
There always comes a moment when it is time to retire a vehicle or sell it on. For me, it is time to retire The Beast. It’s a rather sad moment. The Passat and I have been a large number of places and I’ve had to spend quite a bit on surgery to keep it going safely.
The Beast Retires
While this technically wasn’t the first car I owned it was the first one I actually wanted to own. Before I needed to transport p>2 around I had always owned motorbikes. There was a temporary period in my life when I owned a Nissan Micra, this lasted about five months and I’d rather not talk about it.
The Beast arrived in my life in 2006. It already had 90,000 miles on the clock and I think it was used as a rep’s car. There were a couple of odd things about it where paint had been redone poorly and there was evidence that gave rise the to suspicion that it had had a small side impact at some point. Anyway, mechanically it was sound and had a nice “pull” to it.
See this communication for a discussion of repairs and general things Beast related.
The Beast has transported me to the following locations:
It feels like a sad thing. Retiring this car. I’ve owned it for over ten years now. It’s seen me through many phases of my life. But it is now time to move on. To accept something newer.
The Beast In The Lake District (Honister Pass)The Beast from Moss Force
I know I have a video from inside the Beast travelling around the Le Mans circuit in 2008. I will continue to look for it and post it below when I find it.
So after taking the total to 215,000 miles I will say: Sleep well, Beast.
These two albums are instrumental calming albums from the beast that is Nine Inch Nails. I listen to these when I’m writing reports at work or marking stuff. It makes a very good background noise to block out other distractions. I would recommend these albums to anyone. It’s just good stuff.
This particular communication is very delayed. I went to Brooklands in between christmas and new year 2015. It was great. There are plenty of wonderful aircraft, some lovely cars and also motorbikes.
I didn’t take any photos of the planes, which is weird for me, but I did have my kids and so that probably stopped me being as free with a camera as I would have liked to be. I did take some shots of them in cockpits, but they don’t get published here.
I really want to talk about the stratospheric chamber!
The chamber is a “room” that will simulated the conditions at high altitude. This type of research was really important just after the Second World War. Fighters and jet planes were being designed to fly higher and fast and they needed to be tested safely under these conditions.
The Stratospheric Chamber looking like a Star Destroyer
It’s the largest in the world and quite fantastic to visit if you know what you are looking at. Just the idea and audacity of building something so large that can simulate those conditions. It is quite a remarkable piece of engineering and well worth seeing. I have a feeling it was only recently declassified and that makes it that much more interesting.
I would love to write loads of stuff here giving details and very interesting things but, unfortunately I don’t have the time at the moment. Also, as this is only eleven months late, I can’t remember the plaques around the design!!
