gaggle64

And how many of those are just variations of you saying "hi"?

Dude, you didn't even join the arsing dating site until a few weeks ago, in fact you refused until we all yelled at you. How many messages have you even sent?

Uh oh, Lewis & Maldonaldo starting within ten feet of each other. Incredible qualifying from Lewis though, another scorcher.

Bookstand, for cookbooks ostensibly but perfect for propping up books and notepads and the like to read while typing.

Yikes, those sound like some hardcore anxiety dreams you've got coming on there. Still in a rough spot at the moment?

Somebody raised a good point on Tumblr - Jake now has a kid en route and the new job will let him stay in the UK year round.

I'll miss Jake but I won't be sorry to have more Lee front & centre. She'll find her own role in the race intros - she could be the disapproving frown to their antics or something. "Oh hey DC what's... EDDIE GET DOWN FROM THERE."

If there's a better expenditure of £8.85, I haven't yet heard of it.

Never in my whole life have tried so hard to get things done and ultimately achieved so little by the end of it. I'm frustrated. I'm going to burn everything. Everything must burn.

Good write up on the subject by Andrew Benson - I didn't realise Mercedes were still ramping themselves up to full strength. Even in pure "driver" terms it doesn't look like any easy choice. Additional rumours are that Schumacher has been offered a contract for next year, McLaren have already approached Perez and Heikki's managers have been called to Maranello. It's silly season folks. Also, this from Tumblr:

Sid Watkins has passed away, confirmed by the BBC F1 twitter feed.

Damn, there's no 2D showing within a hundred miles of me. Blast it all, 3D gives me such a bolting headache. DVD purchase for me I think.

Actual mental image I have of you these days:

Welcome aboard sah! We hope you'll ramble some more and help fill the forum out some. Start it! I had a copy knocking around for ages too and now that I finally busted it open it's one of the finest games I've played in years. The level design & aesthetics are just exquisite.

Not a fan of Kimi's tenure at the Big Red? Although the idea of a driver spending their entire career with one team was a romantic one I always assumed the day would come when performance, money or just a fresh break would be too tempting a prospect for a Lewis. I think he'll go to Merc and settle in very comfortably very quickly. I agree with JA that from the point of obtaining Lewis, The Silver Arrows have three years to get something good done. If Lewis turns out to be the catalyst they needed he'll be placed among the greatest of the sport. If they don't, everything will just seem obvious with hindsight.

As far as I'm aware it seems unlikely they're equipped to build their own engines any time soon, though building their own is assumed to be an eventual goal. The official line is they'll continue using Mercedes for seasons to come, but rumours of talks with Honda and others have been reported previously.

Yeah, generally I've always supported the driver over the team, although I do like McLaren and I hope they continue being successful, would love to see them become their own engine manufacturer. All drivers aside, Williams would probably be the focus of my support, through thick and thin.

He sounds nervy & emotional about everything though. "So Lewis, what are you going to have for lunch?" "Well, uh, I haven't really ordered yet, but I am in at the advanced stage of checking the menu, all I can say is, I'm definitely looking at the melon starter." If he's in "advanced negotiations" with McLaren I'm thinking his reps are using Mercedes as leverage.

Mercedes will be able to offer him a boatload of money over anything even McLaren can cough up. Chances are they'll be able to offer him much more freedom with personal sponsors as well, which has been the main sticking point in Lewis' negotiations with McLaren. Merc have a good design team so it is strange they haven't punched right to the front yet - if Schumacher goes they may feel a raw talent like Lewis could be the ticket to lead them into the top tier. I'll also be surprised if Lewis doesn't still have a solid line to Norbert Haug from his pre-Silver Arrow seasons. If McLaren are shaking themselves around, revving up for even bigger and better things, there may be a more stable team Lewis is already well familiar with waiting in the other garage. I'm going to say a move is eminently possible - if it's a good idea, only time will tell. Personally, I'm surprised there hasn't been more possible buzz around di Resta for Mercedes already, I was expecting him to be fast tracked straight out of their stable.

Dammit he all he still had projects in the works. He seemed to have fun no matter what he was doing and obviously still had plenty to give, such a damn loss. Just look at him in Talladega Nights for example, a pretty average movie but he still gets in and puts his all into it. Green Mile was great but to me this is what marked him out as a great actor.

God fucking dammit, Michael Clarke Duncan is dead. I don't know if it's worth a whole thread but that's basically ruined a good day. Shit.

I'm not super deep into yet (lvl 6) and I'm not a regular MMO player but I highly recommend it. The art direction is superb, the world feels as fluid as a well designed single player game and it is constantly chucking stuff at you to do with nice dollops of XP at the end of it, so there's a rarely a dull moment. It's pretty well written too, I chose an Asura character and they're such hilariously enormous self-congratulating pricks I can't help chuckling through each story conversation.

Can't say I enjoyed that as much as I wanted to, Hamilton, Kamui, Romain and Heikki are four my favourite drivers and everything that could've gone wrong for them did and then some. I was at least hoping Schumi would steal a podium but no luck there either. Bah.

Quali in a few hours, and DC & Jake have been sharing a room apparently:

I had a subscription to them way back when they were called N64 and then NGC then Ngamer for a time - manage to get few letters and, spoofy TOP 5s and other odds and ends published in them. The fact that they published those small things helps sustain my need to keep writing. They were great mag, funny irreverent and always honest with their reviews, occasionally even in the face of public opinion. I see on their site they haven't lost that. The more things change the more they stay the same, and sometimes that's a good thing.