Getting Old

When I was a kid I had a racer bike. 10 Speeds, leather saddle and really, for it's time' light weight. I loved it and in the sort of icy weather we have had over the past week I loved going out and skidding and sliding everywhere. Now that I am rather grown up I have a lightweight mountain bike with sophisticated front suspension, disk brakes, large knobbly tires and built for these conditions and yet I rode it like a granny over the icy cycle tracks. I must be getting old!

Shopping!

Today I braved the delights of ASDA with the Wife and Daughter to do the weeks shopping. My role in this trip? Muscle and money, I had to carry the heavy bags and pay for it all. It's nice to be wanted.

Managed to pick up a DVD of the film 300 and the first series of Mrs Browns Boys both will be watched next weekend on my 4 day weekend off.

The nice thing about going food shopping is that I can get a few things that I want and that included some Garlic Salt and some Mixed Herbs for use in my cooking. Also got some other goodies that will be enjoyed in the next few days.

Computers - Love them or hate them?

I have a real love/hate relationship with computers and especially with Windows.
When it works it is fine, not brilliant but usable but when it decides to throw a tantrum then I find myself throwing one as well. Windows has a real knack of winding me up big time.
Today I ran an update of my security software on my lap top which I recently was given by my daughter. Unknown to me she had two virus checkers on it and the update to the one I throught was live turned it on and then there was a battle between the two that locked up my computer after about 5 mins of use!
Try as I might I could not stop it and so after much frustration I loaded Ubuntu onto it.

It's an older version of Ubuntu but it recognized this and is currently updating to the latest version. No tantrums or jumping through hoops as with Windows, it simply worked.

I am now looking forward to getting reacquainted with Ubuntu.

Yet more Platypus join in the fun

Toro Rosso

 The new cars keep coming and that nose design gets uglier.

Williams

Red Bull

Sauber

It looks like Platypus is the new standard

The new Lotus shows the latest horrible nose design is becoming a normal. It's not as bad as the Ferrari but still makes the car look pre-crashed in my eye's.

Lets hope that this massive mistake gives us good racing but as the FIA have something to do with it I very much doubt it.

Oh look, cold rain!

Why do we all panic when snow is forecast? We have had it all this week with the Harbingers of Doom (the Weathermen) telling us about the End of the World or a snow flurry as most normal people would call it. And what do we get? Total bloody chaos!


The gritters have been out for days, the roads are already white with salt, and they have huge snow ploughs on them and yet the roads jam up, cars are skidding off all over the place and the public transport grinds to a halt.

Please, please, please remember that despite all this there is only one rule in the snow that you must never break. Never eat yellow snow!

Yet another ugly one

Just as I submitted the previous post then I saw this:

The worst yet, they are going to have to censor the feed from races if all the cars are going to be like this!

First 2012 F1 Cars Launched

In the past week 3 teams have launched their F1 cars for the 2012 season and it looks like we are in for a year of really ugly cars apart from 1 team.

First launch was by the new Caterham Team and it revealed a horrible 'Platypus' nose that we have been informed is due to the new regulations

Although I love the livery it would seem that the cars are getting wings that are more and more mismatched.

Next up were McLaren and their take on the new nose is much nicer with a sweeping upper surface that does not feature the pronounced step above the suspension mounts. Actually quite a good looking machine as long as you ignore the wing mismatch. 

And finally the Ferrari, sorry about the picture it was a screen grab from the launch video.

We were hoping that the Caterham was a one off but it would seem that Ferrari have gone the same way. It looks like somebody sat on the nose molding before it was set. 'Whoops, oh well, nobody will notice!'.

Ugly, just plain ugly!

John Carter of Mars

I read the Edgar  Rice Buroughs Barsoom books as a kid and recently through the magic of e-books on my mobile I re-discovered them. Imagine my delight when, just after reading Princess of Mars I discovered the trailer for the up coming film. (The trailer on YouTube)

The Barsoom books are pure pulp Sci-Fi and I love them. Total fantasy, we have visited Mars and it appears to be a dead world, but nonetheless a wonderfully colorful and heroic set of stories that tend to be boy meets girl, falls in love and then loses girl to then find her and lose her, find her, lose her until finally there is a huge fight and it all turns out well in the end.

The world Buroughs created is full of culture, heroism and slaughter. The characters are rich and believable and the wild animals that inhabit the planet are as ferocious as the dying planet itself.

If you are a geek then this is probably a more anticipated film that Star Wars ever could be. It is like the Lord of the Rings films as it brings to life a wondorous world that has only existed in our minds eye up to know. I reall cannot wait till March 9th