I just entered a competition through CareerOne by writing creatively in 25 words or less why I want a new laptop. Other than my current one is 4 years old and has a dying video card, here it is in 15:
I’d gain an aptitude for helmsmanship crossmedia
to write, proclaim and falsify my ergophobia.
Last night had an interesting astronomical phenomenon, where the alignment of Venus, Jupiter and the Moon made a smiling face. I went up the road to Goodwood oval and took some photos, one of which has been since featured on News.com.au.
Job searching is going slow. I’m thinking of the possibility of moving interstate.
Well it’s nearly 24 hours ’til I leave Japan. So far I’ve packed 6 boxes (!), and think I can fit the rest of the small things in my suitcase, backpack and laptop bag. I reckon I’m under the 20 kg limit, but will find out in maybe two hours or so when I finish. Yesterday I successfully sold my G25 racing wheel for 20,000 yen at Media Pocket (where I bought my Wii on the first day of launch) in Oosu, about what it currently costs new in Australia (I bought it for 38,000 on Amazon 6 months ago).
Today I’ll try and sell my tripod and keyboard, and possibly my telephoto lens as I want to upgrade sometime soon.
Last night myself and Yuka with a little help from Atsushi successfully ate a bowl of mixed sushi with miso soup and more than 1.6kg of rice. It took us about 35 minutes. If a single person eats it in under 20 mins it’s free! (otherwise 3800 yen)
I will be leaving Japan for a while on the 14th of November flying Qantas, landing in Adelaide early on Saturday afternoon. I will be back.
Here’s some photos from a week and a half ago at the ASI workshop. They’ve just finished work on the ‘Tetsu GTR’, a Bentley Continental GT Speed with a widened wheelbase to 1800mm, added dry carbon panels (in a v pattern on the bonnet, whose grill has also been lengthened) and tuned 6.0L W12 from 550 to 800hp. The sound is quite unbelievable.
Readying the stickers
Putting the stickers on, caaaaaaaareful
Washing the Tetsu GTR
Side view of the widened modification
The Tetsu GTR
Last night a mate took me for a drive in his 90’s integra into the mountains, on some roads around a lake. As we were almost there (following a slower mx5), we came across a guy who had tapped his silvia into the side of the mountain. When we left a few hours later (around 2.30am), the car was being towed away. Here’s some dodgy camera phone footage.
Ok that’s the boring bit out of the way. A lap of the lake takes around 12 minutes, starting and finishing at the dam (marked with the red cross). There were lots of cars there, some imprezas, silvias, a group of ae86s. Everyone goes anticlockwise.
On the first half of our first lap, we got stuck behind a kei car (car with a yellow licence plate, has limited power) whose driver was driving really fast, it was quite surprising, and fun seeing a low powered front wheel drive getting the rear a little loose. After the first lap, the front tyres were a little warmed up, maybe between 30 and 35 degrees going by touch, with the right tyre a good 5 or so degrees warmer. After the third lap they were maybe somewhere around 40, with both around the same temp.
This video is from the last quarter or so of a lap.
Overall I think the Aussie producers have done a great job. I think the presenters are quite good, they just need to relax more. The visual style is 100% in top gear taste. I really look forward to future episodes.
Problems I noticed from the first viewing.
1) Scripting. What was the first story about? Was it a review of 4×4s? Was it a road test? Was it a challenge? Was it a race? There was no explanation of the supposed track around the dunes; no explanation that they had to navigate around the flags. They should let the audience know of the rules that they apparently are trying to follow. Of course I guess an Aussie thing would be not taking it seriously and winging it, but it defeats the purpose of the story.
2) Where was the introduction to the track?? What on earth does it look like? We at least need a description of what it is, what kind of corners, straights etc it has, otherwise the laps are meaningless. After the first timed lap, the little guy said something like ‘that’s pretty fast’, but from our point of view there is nothing to compare it to.
3) The filming of the stig’s laps don’t even warrant a 1 star rating. Some of the worst camera angles, camera work, in car shots, and sound I have ever heard. Why on earth didn’t they have a microphone on the track? We didn’t get to hear the exhaust note of any of the cars. The GTR sounded like a vacuum cleaner through the in-car camera’s microphone, whereas it sounds completely different in real life (personal experience). The editing was awful. They mixed in-car sounds with video of completely different parts of the track, eg braking for a corner with the sound of accelerating. This segment needs urgent improvement or else there is no reason to have a stig.
4) What car do the celebrities drive? Is it a barina? What is it’s spec? Again, bad scripting.
5) Who made the ‘Keep Left’ graphic just before the ad breaks? It’s ugly, two dimensional, and completely in the wrong style for the program. If it’s what SBS does for every tv show then I guess that’s excusable.
6) What were they thinking? Printing on paper and not card??? Cheeeeeeap.
7) Car review quality. I didn’t hear any specific specifications. I don’t want to hear ‘it has more power’. I want to hear how many horses it has. By stating facts, opinions are more founded, thus appearing more professional. As this is the first episode, we need more specifics in order to make comparisons. We want car information. As far as I know, the green shark car was only referred two on a few occasions, and twice as ‘this little car’. The least they could do is do a little research.
Choice of cars. Very good choice of relevant newsworthy cars, but did they review six 4×4’s in this episode? Or were the three from the first segment the ones used in the snow? Not enough information was given about the cars for me to understand if they were the same or different. If they were the same, there needed to be a link between the two segments. Was it part of a Top Gear Challenge? If so, what were the results? There should be a conclusion to each segment in the studio, whether it be a tally of times or final words.
Top Gear Australia had a good first episode, but serious flaws in segment introductions and execution need attention.
August Boehm is currently back home in Australia, with interests in artistic technologies, speed sports, and martial arts.
