Nokia Internet Tablet Icon

(Image License)

Hope you like it!

I’m almost ashamed of how long it’s taken me to get round to writing this post, but stuff is a bit full on at the mo. A couple of weeks ago I cashed in a driving experience voucher my wife brought me for Christmas, yep not only does it take me two weeks to write a post, but it takes me 9 months to book a day out !

The experience was with u drive cars based in oxford; it was an early is start. The booking was for 11 O’Clock Am, but you had to turn up 30mins early for a briefing. The deal is you’re there to drive the car, (one that you’ll probably never be able to afford) not race, drive. The instructor will want you to take the 1st lap comfortably (i.e. boy racer mode off), once their happy your not gonna write it off you floor it !

It all look place on a private air field, the circuit was a run way with “turning points” at either end. U drive do other non-Ferrari stuff so there was a 911 there, an evo, a scooby-doo, a couple of others and some racing thing I didn’t recognise.

So you’re briefed up, and then it’s the nervous wait. I explained to “The Mrs”, the wait was a bit like queuing for a really big rolla-coaster
- you want to do it, you know it’s a little dangerous, you’re going to do it, and it’ll be awesome ! The instructor bloke moves the car out of the parking space, it roars – sweeeeeeeeeet, and the bloke before you get’s in, and yep he poodles away at 5mph, he pulls round the corner and away, 30secs later you can hear the car roaring back, turns and floors it away – SMART !

It’s my turn, I’m allowed past the safety barrier, and you actually realise how big these things are; I got it, it’s a long way down. The inside is leather, tight, but comfortable. You’re sat with your feet straight out in-front, the wheel’s relatively high (I’m 6ft so seeing wasn’t an issue) but what surprised me was how high & small the gear box was. As instructed I pull away carefully, the clutch is really hard/tough/strong, you feel a little like a learner because the whole driving thing is different, the main exception is you’re acutely aware it’s costing you £10 per minute !

I’ve pulled onto the 1st straight, the gear box is short and hard/tough/strong (again), the instructor says, put your foot down and when you see the brake sign on your right – do it ! I’ve put my foot down, no sooner than I’ve thought “down” rev’s are monster high, and I’m rapidly changing gear – jerking all the way – only up to 4th (out of 6) and it’s time to slow down and turn round to go back up the runway.

I brake heavy, and use 2nd to slow me down, the car actually feels heavy round the hair pin. The instructor bloke guides me round, and points me in a straight directions. 2nd go, flooring it, 6/7k rpms on each gear, up to 5, f*ckin screaming along… brake, brake, brake, BRAKE ! oops came in a little quick.

Ok I’m ready now, hit the clutch hard, change gear fast, aim for smooth. I fly down, smoother than before, so frickin quick. Hair pin is easier this time, and the instructors gets me to floor it out the corner, go go go go , done turning round again, the bloke behind in the F1 ferrari wants to overtake (he’s got flappy paddles so they went quicker everytime), actually this puts me off a little, but I still hit 5th – yeah baby.

Last go, can I hit 6th ? Foot down, but 1st change is a jerker – dam ! – hit 5th anyway. Each lap was felt monster quick, rev’s high everytime, the bloke says she’ll do 100Mph in 3rd gear ! I just wish I had a chance to look at the speedo !

I pull the car into park, the adrenaline is pumping, went so quick, so awesome. I don’t wanna get out… nothing will go like that ! I’m out, time to reflect, would I spend the money again – hell yeah! – would I spend £100,000 on one ? (please!)

Well I hope you enjoy the pics!

I don’t know what it is this month, but the wallpapers are flowing out of me!!

It's like, Gnome meets Mac meets Neo!

EDIT: Now available on art.gnome

EDIT: art.gnome link.

Look at this, dry for ages, and 2 posts in a day!

Actually this happened a couple of days ago, my laptop crashed, and this black & stripy screen is what I got, I thought it’d make a cool gnome art

Making good use of the time she crashed.

My best friend is an accountant; he’s much cooler than me, very sociable and can pretty much drink anyone under the table !

We’ve been mates for years, hell, he was my best man, but I’ve always been the IT Geek out of the two of us. Well today the secret geek in him was revealed when I received this picture in an e-mail.

Awesome !

Not too much, not too little.

I like gradients, blue and was aiming for something simple. A copy can be downloaded from gnome look here. I don’t suppose it’s good enough for art.gnome so I won’t bother

Tiz cold in here!

Frosy Grass is by far my most successful piece of gnome art; it’s got my best rating in art.gnome.org, and has a massive 3209 downloads (art.gnome = 2425 gnome look = 784).

Today, I just found something really cool, Frosty Grass is in a novel presentation video !!!!!!
Take a look at http://www.linuxedge.org/?q=node/58 it’s a demonstration of new rendering for gnome; fancy transparent windows, flipping desktops, all that cool stuff. As you’ll notice in the 1st few seconds of the video my art work is in the folder that gets moved,stretched and faded in the presentation !

As you can tell I’m over the moon about this, I think It’s well cool, I just wish I’d found it earlier

So here we have it… Gnome Blogger

The back grounds are transparent so you can mess with the colours, I’ve done a light and a dark one depending on your taste !

It looks like gallery2 has buggered up the screen shots , so you can see some at art.gnome or gnome-look:

• Gnome Blogger white.
• Gnome Blogger black

Tango Beer
Backgrounds – GNOME

It’s under different name, but it’s nice to see the art.gnome people like my simple beer wallpaper