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Nicktendo

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Posts posted by Nicktendo

    Formula 1 2011

    in General Chit Chat

    Posted

    According to Bernie and Martin Whitmarsh, via James Allen's blog, the BBC will be showing a FULL re-run of the races they don't broadcast (i.e. tape delay, similar to what they have in America), not just highlights. While this is SOMETHING positive in the fact that it'll still be possible to watch all 20 races in full on FTA, one only needs to look at the popularity of the sport in the US to see just how much damage this will do. The casual fans will just switch off, and that's a good 80-90% of them.

    Amy Winehouse Found Dead

    in General Chit Chat

    Posted

    I only discovered Amy's music a year or so ago, but it was genuinely the most engaging and emotional music I've heard from a British artist in such a long time. It literally sends shivers down my spine when I hear her unmistakable, beautiful voice tinged with tragedy and sorrow.

     

    She was completely and utterly unique in life and in music, for better or for worse, she will never be forgotton and will forever remain amongst the most beautifully gifted people to have walked the earth.

     

    R.I.P Amy.

    NTSC Gamecube games!

    in Trades and Sales

    Posted

    Got these for sale... Get your Freeloader discs at the ready and enjoy them in 480p on the Wii!

     

    Super Mario Sunshine

    F-Zero GX

    Zelda: Wind Waker (no instructions)

    Star Wars: Rogue Leader

    Viewtiful Joe

    Starfox Adventures

    Luigi's Mansion

    Star Wars: Rebel Strike

    Wave Race Blue Storm (disc only)

    Formula 1 2011

    in General Chit Chat

    Posted

    It really annoys me that the BBC's F1 coverage has become more about the personalities of the presenters and their 'hi-jinx' rather than building up a race or going round the teams. The teams at the back virtually get no mention.

     

    Also, Jake is a massive bell-end who's developed a huge ego problem.

    How do you solve a problem like North Korea?

    in General Chit Chat

    Posted · Edited by Nicktendo

    Here's a couple of pictures my uncle sent me in an email, plus some words he wrote about each one..

     

    I attach a couple of photos from Pyongyang in May. One is of the school administrator who looked after me every day at the first school. Her smile of welcome every morning genuinely lifted my spirits in order to perform at a higher level and get through the five classes without flagging. A delightful person whom, if I had never disbelieved governments, media and gossip, I should never have met, and then I would have been the poorer.

     

    The other photo is of the three amigos, three teachers, myself and one from each of the two schools. Terrific people again; how much fun and laughter we had in the evenings as we talked over the day's teaching or they told me of their own careers from early youth! We also had plenty of fun in the classroom, especially with Mr. Ham, the younger and very dapper teacher on my left. He took up cricket with a vengeance and played with me and the boys every afternoon (Yorkshire's next demon bowler, if they want him!)

     

    Although, its certainly terrible that people are starving, but looking past that, this might actually be a good thing in a way. Starving people are much more likely to stand up for themselves and fight back than people who have other options.

     

    About this Emasher, my Uncle said, that whilst in Pyongyang it was both shocking and refreshing to see so many smiles on the faces of members of the public. It seemed very genuinely like a happy place to live. People who seemed at peace and content with what they have in life, constantly smiling. Not on the brink of overthrowing a cruel dictatorship.

     

    He contrasted this to the way that, since he left for Australia in the mid-Eighties, every time he returns to England the general mood of the people seems to drop more. He can sometimes wander down a major shopping street without seeing anyone who seems genuinely happy. Everyone has a look of worry, concern or anguish and he believes this has gotten worse over time. Not to mention what relatively poor health (espeically the elderly) people seem to be in. In his opinion it's not as bad or 'severe' in Australia.

     

    An intersting comparison anyway. Have a look down your steert, are people smiling? Do people seem happy?

    How do you solve a problem like North Korea?

    in General Chit Chat

    Posted · Edited by Nicktendo

    Major Bump:

     

    I met up with my Uncle yesterday who has just got back from spending another 2 weeks in North Korea teaching English to 13-14 year old boys in a school in Central Pyongyang. The trip was extremely successful, to the point where he will now be going back every May and November for 3 weeks a time to teach English at various schools in the countries capital, with a plan to do it in the other major cities in 2-3 years’ time.

     

    He shared a few stories and anecdotes with me about his time in Korea, introducing the boys to the games of Cricket and Frisbee, after taking a bat and frisbee with him. Of course they were fascinated and thoroughly enjoyed the new experiences. He managed to take a copy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica CD with him so they could learn more about the Western World and its history, in a more in-depth way from what they had been taught at school, with the idea of helping their English reading skills.

     

    He told me that the school he was at this time was a very good school which required the boys to pass exams for entry. The students were bright, and had a real thirst for knowledge, always asking questions. The majority, he said, would go on to study science, medicine or computer technology at graduate level, which is why the English training was so important at this early stage, and all of them had a firm grasp of English and could express themselves very well when they had "English only" Lessons. They are still obsessed with FIFA and Lionel Messi. (Obviously they still haven't experienced PES then... ;))

     

    He did say this time that he noticed how much of a sharp wit the boys had this time and one day he set them the assignment of telling a joke in class, first in Korean to everyone and then in English, so that if it didn't translate well, others could help out. Here are a couple of the jokes they told:

     

    A soldier is in a battle at the border with the South Koreans and suddenly turns around and starts running away from the battle. He runs as fast as his legs will carry him. By the time he reaches his home village, an officer is already at his house waiting for him. "What are you doing?! Leaving in the heat of the battle, are you crazy?! Explain yourself private!" - "Well sir, the earth is shaped like a Tomato. I am simply taking the long route and attacking from the other side."

     

    A Schoolboy turns up for an exam without a pencil. Appalled at this the teacher stands him up in front of the class: “Boy!” He says “Boy, where is your pencil? Why don’t you have it? This is ludicrous!” The boy stands in silence, looking slightly ashamed. “Well boy, answer me!” Still no response. “Boy, your pencil is the most vital instrument, just like a gun to a soldier! What kind of soldier would turn up without his gun?!” Suddenly a wry smirk crosses the boy’s face. “Well sir,” the boy remarks, “What about a general?”

     

    The boys didn’t laugh at the second joke, and when my uncle asked why, the said it was because they’ve heard it so many times before! And when he repeated it to the teachers, they too had heard it before. My Uncle’s conclusion from the “tell a joke” lesson was that many of these jokes, like the one above in particular mocked the military and authority figures, and this was done comfortably and openly in a public setting in front of a Westerner, 2 blocks away from Kim Il Sung Square and the Parliament Building. Now I don’t know what you would constitute to be a ‘Police State,’ but to me at least, I don’t know how that label can be applied in this instance. The lack of fear of punishment or execution, suggests it is not something which is ready to happen to people on a whim like we are lead to believe.

     

    So as you can see, an experience one perhaps wouldn’t expect to gain from North Korea. My uncle wrote to the Guardian about his experiences last time he went and they didn’t reply, so obviously weren’t interested. He will be giving a guest lecture at both Princeton and Yale on his time in North Korea in the near future, let’s see if he makes it through customs first though!

     

    One final point, my Uncle invited some of the teachers to come to Canberra, Australia (Which is where he teaches) in exchange for his time in Korea; however the Australian government currently has a policy that all North Korean citizens are banned from entry while the country is conducting Nuclear Weapons experiments. He wrote to the Governor of his state (the ACT) asking for exemption, explaining the situation. Again he received no response. I find it Ironic that the Australian government would be the ones suspecting North Korean citizens would be intelligence gathering and ban them from entry as opposed to the other way round. Kind of makes you realise that these situations are never black and white, and most of what were led to believe always has a hidden agenda.

     

    I hope you enjoyed reading, I will update everyone again in December if he has any more stories. If someone wants to start a thread, “How do you solve a problem like Iran?” He stated to me yesterday, he has an Iranian contact and wants to make plans to visit the country in the future ;)

    The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS

    in Nintendo Gaming

    Posted

    I hate you all. I hate you so much. You bastards have tapped into that stupid section in my brain I thought I'd managed to bereave, bury and burn the remains of. But no, thanks to your 'conversation' and my inherent lack of resistance to such threads, I now find myself resurecting 'nostalgia' and placing myself on the cusp of wanting a handheld games console. Since 2001, I've been home console exclusive, I've moved with the times, man. Now... now I'm going to buy something I don't even want just so I can spend 30 hours pretending I'm 12 and memory wanking over stuff I'm repeating for the 8th or 9th time.

     

    I could be composing a symphony, engrossing myself in the works of Marx and Engles or even writing a poorly scripted novel with charachters more 2-dimensional than the cast of How I met Your Mother. Instead, I'm back in 1998 where I have a beatles haircut, I can't differentiate between your and you're / there and they're, and I'm getting a strange sensation in my nethers over polygonal triangular breasts, barely covered by something resmebling a vine.

     

    This is not progress.

    Fuck you N-E.

    Formula 1 2011

    in General Chit Chat

    Posted

    Agree with everything you just said! Didn't you find it weird how on live TV that blonde girl gave him a kiss for every year apart from 94!?!

     

    If anything, that film made me question the existance of god more than anything I've seen. He was something else, that's for sure.

     

    I have to say as an UTTERLY hardcore athiest who despises all forms of organised religion, I also found myself questioning things like this. I really cannot put it into words... but I think, in a spiritual (not religious, per se) sense, there was something very different about Senna which is too weird to be coincedence, though I don't believe it relates to a 'god' as such. Just a connection to a spiritual power not explainable by tools such as science.

     

    As for the 94 benneton, they never proved it was using illegal TC but Michael did get some flying starts that year. They found that the car did contain coding to do with TC but i think they concluded that it hadn't been used. Schumacher was banned for a few races though because Benneton were found guilty of taking the safety filter cap off the refueling rig. There's a youtube clip of Senna leading Schumacher as they come into the pits at Brazil and Schumacher comes out ahead.

     

    I have always been under the impression that the '94 Benetton cheated in someway. The whole issue of it's electronic technology is still to this day a question without an answer and using both the fuel rig and Singapore '08 as an reference, I would say the Briatore, F1's biggest shit stain is likely to have used questionable methods in the running of his team. That car was lightning, but only in the hands of Schumacher. Lehto, Herbert and Verstappen all struggled to even place in the points in it, a fact which in itself begs 2 possible scenarios. Either the car was brilliant but difficult to drive and Schumacher was just the much better driver who could cope with it, or only Schumacher's car was using the banned technology.. I'll let you make your own minds up.. ;)

     

    Here's what happens when cheating goes wrong though...

     

     

    I just downloaded the entire 1996 season. Over the next week I'll be reliving those glorious moments where Damon Hill became king. And all to the soothing sounds of Murray Walker :love:

    Formula 1 2011

    in General Chit Chat

    Posted

    Yeah I can't wait to see it, the first race I ever watched was Spain 1994 with my dad just 2 races after he died. Didn't miss one for 10 years after that, and I only truly discovered about Senna in 2003/4 when I started watching old videos and stuff.

     

    I absoluelty love the guy and I wish I'd watched a few of his races live, I knew my dad was a big fan (after Mansell of course :D ). I do think history has remembered him kindly, as he certainly was completely ruthless and I'm not looking forward to the fact that the movie doesn't look too favourably on Prost, another driver I admire. Senna was and always will be on another level though, a truly immense talent who I think will never be bettered. Despite his ruthless side in the cockpit, his compassion outside of it and push for driver safety and welfare is something which, again, no other driver has ever come close to topping. A true legend in every sense of the word.

     

    On another note, I just submitted my entry to Hispania's VIP tickets for Valencia competition. You have to prove you're the biggest fan, and I took the piss a bit... a lot, so I doubt I'll win.

    Formula 1 2011

    in General Chit Chat

    Posted

    I don't understand all the hate for Valencia, sure it's yet to throw up a decent race but this year it WILL be different. I absolutely adore the track on F1 2010, it's very fast and very challenging and mastering it requires a lot of patience and skill. Sure it's no Monaco but it's still a good circuit (with decent overtaking spots), so I hope this year we get a good race.

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