Ramblings and LimeWire

Not much has been going on recently. I was in Echuca last week for a competition which I run here, and that was good. Managed to get on the soup a bit, do some driving and enjoy the days up there. Last time up there I had a freaky dream. I had the same dream twice in one night, and was later told that the place was haunted. Spooky.

Work has been very busy as I am implementing a new quality system for members of the association I work for.

And as usual there is a fair bit of resistance. You get that.

Some people have asked, why I work for an association. The answer is simple. I applied and go the job. It has worked out OK. I get a car, a phone and some other benefits. One of the bonuses of working in the food industry is that I get a bit of free product. This helps with the finances, and also helps with other people as well, as they get freebies.

This weekend sees my sister's 40^th birthday celebration. We are all heading out tomorrow night to see the band my brother plays in. It should be a good night. I have also been getting into LimeWire. It's great.

I like the fact that I can get CDs that I might have purchased and got one that honked and sample it before hand. I've purchased CDs before as I've like one song, and found the rest to be shit. Bare Naked Ladies was an example of this.

I'm sorry I've even said that, as it was a shit CD. I purchased it because a mate said it was good. Fuck. It was shit. Over produced piece of shit. Fuck that was a shit CD. He even said that it was their best CD! If that was their best, I'd hate to hear the worst!

I am sorry I've even mentioned that, as it was shit. As penance, I've kept it as a reminder never to be so rash. And more importantly, not to listen to that mate when he makes musically suggestions.

I've downloaded some David Lee Roth, Van Halen, Fine Young Cannibals, The Grates and Lily Allen. Now I didn't think I'd like Lily Allen, but it is a cool CD. I am now looking for some Tears for Fears, The La's and other Generation X hits. Might even get the full CD of Songs from the big chair, as I had it on vinyl, and was probably unlikely to replace it on CD.

I might even down load the Breakfast Club sound track and have an afternoon of pubescent regression.

Get into LimeWire and fight the power! Rock on.

Mission accomplished

Hello again. Been awhile, but you get that.

I have been busy. In my spare time I have been putting the shots of the CDs I have on the iPod onto into my iTunes and then onto my iPod. I have over 3800 songs, and in the last week or so I have added over 1500 images for the tracks. It is still uploading now, and has taken about 30 minutes to do. Hard work, but rewarding.

Anyone listening to 3MA in sunny Mildura would have heard my dulcet tones on the wireless. A media star.

I have a photo below looking towards the Grampians from the Murtoa Road, up from Horsham. It was windy and shows how desolate the area up there is. It's pretty green though. Good for the cockies.

I noticed also that the new series of the Ricky Gervais podcast starts in a couple of days time. I enjoyed the first two and will be getting these two also.

I also got a new external hard drive, and the IT dude we use here set up a script that updates only one section of my hard drive so that if this one on this computer shits itself, I have a copy of my iTunes and photos. Happy days.

We had lunch with my sister on the weekend, as it is her birthday this week. Good news. Her son is looking good. He is going to be a big boy.

Best get back into it. wall to wall, fuck all

Vale 205

I used to have a fast car. It was a Peugeot 205 GTi. It went fast. And it was only a 1.9 litre. When I was in France, I saw one from the cab, and told the cabbie that I had one. He nearly had a crash, and kept asking me about it. I felt like a celebrity. Only time that's happened. He was also doing 170 km/h without a seatbelt on. When I saw the speedo hit 160 km/h, I put mine on.

I purchased it in 2000. It was a good unit. I did a lot of kilometres in that car. When I had a period of unemployment, it was my main source of employment as I used to use it to deliver food at night.

It had a few small issues. An oil pressure hose burst twice, dumping the sump on the road. Once it happened when I was doing 40 kilometres an hour, the second time it happened was when I was doing 110. That was enough of that! So I got it fixed, and it never occurred again.

However. With the tightening of the belt that is needed in these new Howar/Costello times. I decided that it was time for it to go. I was rarely driving it, and it was not a new car, having been manufactured in 1987. I did not advertise for it to be sold, as I wasn't too keen on some young idiot getting it and thrashing it into the ground or using the boot space to put some sub-woofers into. Instead I had an enquiry from my brother.

He has a mate, who is much more handy than I will ever be. Merv is his name. And he wanted a project. Now, the 205 is a good unit. It was pretty much stock standard, in all regards. There was very little that I did to it, because I didn't need to. It had an aftermarket sunroof, but that was put in in 1989, and was very expensive for its time. It still worked and the majority of the time when I was driving it, I had it open. Not all the way, just tilted open to get some air circulating through the car.

Anyhoo, Merv came over, liked what he saw, I told him the price and the deal was done.

He came by a week or so later, and picked it up. Mind you the alternator was broke, so I fixed that ($700 later). But it had to be.

I was very sad to see it go on the 28 July 2006. It is the second longest relationship I have had. My partner and I have been together for nearly 10 years (10 great years! As she reminds me), and I had this car for six. Only my animal companions have been around longer.

It was a sad day to see the 205 go. I will never own one like that car again, as it had only done 187,000 kilometres and I was the third owner.

I know that Merv is going to look after it. He once put a V8 into a Austin-Healy. And he got booted out of the A-H car club too, because of that. He will be a good owner, and has promised me that I can come and visit it.

I saw his son, Owen, too (you can check out his work here). Owen did the work on my shoulder of Elvis' TCB sign. I told him I would catch up and he could do some more. He was pretty interested in that. And since I am now a convert to the blue singlet, I should be able to fit in even more.

So, it is with a heavy heart I say Vale 205. Merv, I hope it brings you as much fun as it did me. Here are some pictures of it for me and you to remember it by.