zerolight

iPhone 4, originally uploaded by zerolight.

Finally got myself an iPhone. IBM opened up the Corporate tariff to iPhones and from October will even pick up my data charges in addition to Business calls. My personal calls are mere buttons, so it’d have been rude not to get a 32GB iPhone 4.

It’s not often I’m still playing a game 5 months after its release. But in the case of Forza 3 I am. It get’s a lot of flak, for dropping the custom public lobbies in lieu of hoppers, and there’s the continuing dominance of AWD Vipers and Audis. But that aside, it’s an excellent driving experience with excellent graphics, and terrific community features.

True, the online hopper system is a horrible introduction that should have been left where it belongs – in FPS games like Halo and MW2. The hoppers have turned everyone into Rank Whores who only drive leaderboard cars, and shunt everyone out of their way. Sure, Custom Public Lobbies as provided in Forza 2 would eliminate the ground hog day that is Hopperland. But it’s not the only way.

Find some like minded individuals and there’s lots of fun to be had in Private Custom Lobbies. I signed up to the 2O4F clan a couple of months ago, a group of folk who are “too old for forza”. We are currently about 200 members strong, and always have good clean racing, mostly in a non league format – even the spec races, and have an age range of 25 to around 50 or 60, so no whiney kids! Great bunch of guys – if you are over 25 and love Forza you should look them up.

I’ve also been enjoying the Forza 3 Tuning Marketplace Community – it’s a great way to extend the longevity of the game. Here, as well as buying and selling tunes and paint through the forums, you can enter community hosted tuning competitions which can be lucrative and are always fun. It’s a great place to find strong tunes that might otherwise disappear amongst the masses on the SF – most of the guys on the TM forum are great tuners and very fast racers. I’ve had a few successful tunes recently, and scored 3rd place in the recent Slo Poke tuning competition which put my RWD Celica #112 on the leaderboards and scored me a couple of million virtual credits. Building a great car, then seeing some of the top drivers do really great things with it is quite satisfying.

Yes, I’m a Geek!

On the whole, guitar amp modellers suck big hairy balls. No point in beating around the bush. I’ve tried most of what’s on the Market, and they all sucked.

Back before I met my wife, when I had no kids and really didn’t give a rat’s ass about my neighbours, I went through a series of nice valve amps that sounded incredible and made your nipples vibrate. My favourites were the Peavey EVH 5150 and the Mesa Rectoverb. I used to play through those things for hours every day.

Then I moved into a flat, and shortly afterwards my future wife moved in too. That, understandably, resulted in me parting company with my valve amp. The guy who bought that Mesa got a bargain!

This was 2001. Digital amp modelling was taking off in the shape of the Line 6 Pod series. I bought one since they were quite cheap. Compared to the amp modelling that preceded it, the POD was terrific. Compared, to a real amp, the POD was pap. There’s a sterility to these modellers, combined with a slighlty unpleasant fizz, and a stiff feel. This feeling is the hardest thing to quantify, impossible to describe to a non-guitarist, yet the most important thing to a guitarist, even more so than tone. A good guitar amp does more than just amplify your guitar, it’s a instrument in it’s own right, and like all instruments feel is everything. So this failing on the PODs part is significant.
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Happy New Year Everyone!

Here’s my list:

Plus:

Rafi – He’s turned into a wonderful, chatty, loveable little guy. A really cute little toddler.

Ali – He’s doing really great at nursery, he’s coping surprisingly well with T1D, and he’s my little buddy.

Zee – My darling wife has had to cope with a lot of turmoil this year, not the least of which has been Ali’s T1D. She still manages to be a great mother and wife.

Parents – Zee’s mum visited again and was a tremendous help, as always, and promises to return in 2010. We’ve seen my parents and sister several times this year.

Tyler – my main (and only) guitar is still the perfect guitar for me. This is a first! I’m usually itching to sell by now. Of course an electric guitar without an amp is like a garage without a Corvette – to paraphrase Jim Tyler. Maybe this year will see me finally get that AxeFX Ultra.

My Xbox 360 didn’t die this year. That’s a first. I bought a new one anyway, why break with tradition?

I was promoted to band 8, got a meager salary increase, and a company car allowance. Goodbye to paid overtime!

Sleepless nights are a thing of the past, except when Ali has a bug / cold which plays havoc with his blood sugar. Rafi loves to sleep for hours and hours.

We had a nice trip to Paris in October, pre T1D, and enjoyed Christmas with my parents last week.

I got a nice, big, fast, quad core iMac i7 27″ for my birthday which I really enjoy.
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The following route has rapidly become my favorite cycling route, which I do whenever I have a couple of hours free to bike. It’s basically a return trip to Pollock Park from Jordanhill via the Glasgow Science Center along Glasgow’s Cycle Route number 7. It takes just 30 mins each way, along some nice cycle paths, so it’s an enjoyable cycle. The reward is Pollock Park’s dedicated MTB trails made up of three grades of single track – Green (Easy), Blue (Intermediate), and Red (Difficult). These can be linked together to form a good 15 minute lap of fairly technical single track, with plenty of roots, rocky steps, and twisty stuff to put a smile on your face and remind you why you love mountain biking. The Red route is really only difficult if you start jumping across the table tops and minor drops, but you can bypass those quite easily. The Blue route is really nice. I’m so glad I found these trails as I don’t have the time to travel out to proper all day trail centers like Glentress.