The rarely updated blog of Adam Smith

The new iPod Touch

Nice. So one day late after launch I get my hands, and finger prints on a new iPod touch, to keep me sweet until the iPhone is out, but also to help on a 14hr flight to Thailand next week.

Gotta say, first play I love it. The interface is just lovely to use. Especially after using the shitty jerky bug-ridden interface on the N95. I haven’t properly set it up yet, but the few photos, tunes and vids I have put on there look amazing. The touch zoom interaction works so naturally, I even think my Nan could use it.

The gimp in me ensured the WiFi was configured and working as a priority, after which I chose to watch YouTube on a 4inch display while sitting in front of my computer. Gotta love watching steaming videos from your hand. Trips to the toilet have remained frequent throughout the day.

Carrera 4S

Well, after 4 weeks of waiting for Hans ’sitting on’ Fritz to send over a simple spring from Germany, I decided to give up on the GT3.

This pretty much worked out for the best, given that everyone I’ve been within a 5 mile range of since last month has told me it was a stupid idea. Buying a track car to sit on Woking ring road for hours on end is pretty much like going out with Jordan to capitalise on her vocab for intense games of Scrabble.

Anyhow, this little beauty came on the market on Friday night, and was duly purchased by noon the next day. Although a little slower than the GT3, it has absolutely every extra going for it. Much more practical for everyday use. Ah, you gotta love it when you have the ability to convince yourself that spending every penny you’ve ever earnt on a car is actually considered practical. It’s all about points of reference!

So, I drove it back from the dealers and actually fell in love. I didn’t realise there was this extra element to driving, actual pleasure at every twist and turn, and this has nothing to do with speed, more down to the way it handles. Its 4WD and is pretty much on rails as you take it round a bend at full pelt. Although getting up to 60 in the time it takes to shit your pants is also fucking cool.

Being a closet geek, the technical stuff got me just as excited, the built in phone, satnav, actual computer, BOSE sound system, etc… The geek police stopped me only a few clicks away from texting Twitter from the dashboard computer. That would have represented a new low. Almost as low as writing a blog when there are keys in my pocket and….

It was a Saturday morning, I was ten minutes early for a haircut and had some time to kill / hands to warm before my appointment. Wandering around Windsor enjoying one of the first Saturday mornings I’ve ever seen without a hangover, I found myself staring into the window of a Sony Center in much the same way a Big Issue seller would stare into the happy place that is McDonalds and imagine the sweet sweet taste of a Big Mac.

With my brain totally switched off for fear of a rational thought, I wandered in to look at the tellies. Hmmm, nice HD tellies.

After being asked several times if I needed assistance by unknowledgeable Saturday staff, I showed an interest in an LCD Bravia TV. To fill the rather large hole left in my soul due to the fact I couldn’t pick up my car this weekend, I went on to further quench my thirst for irrational purchases by picking up the TV and one of only 3 remaining PlayStation 3s, convincing myself that I ‘needed a Blu-Ray player anyway’ and that this is just a cheap (thus actually saving money) way to achieve that. An eager salesman with very little persuading threw in an extra wireless controller, HDMI cable and TV stand with it as well. The gaming joy awaiting was going to be unstoppable.

Turned out to be a rather expensive hair chop, but the rest of the day was as expected as I breached new levels of geek configuring the PS3 to my wireless, PSP and after much faff, Flickr Account with the help of Flickr Backup. All about seeing your photos in 3D realness.

I then joined fellow excited geeks across the country in Resistance: Fall of Man in multiplayer mode, where I soon realised that due to my arms being longer than anyone else online, my hand/eye co-ordination made for great cannon fodder. Still great though, I’d even go as far as to say its the most fun you can have online with two hands.

Cleaned!

Although she’s drained me of most of my disposable income over the last 2 years, I love this car and only have just one more drive to work in it before its taken off my hands forever.

I just sold it to a chap from Auto-trader made me an offer. I’ve added £2.5k of body kits, exhausts, induction kits etc over the past year which made bog all difference to the resale value. As much as I enjoyed chavving it up, I won’t be making that mistake on my GT3 that I plan to pick up on Saturday, having been Carlos for 4 days.

The guy I sold it to is only from Lightwater, so I will no doubt see her again with another man caressing her steering wheel as he takes her up the M3.