gaggle64

Early-early shift, customer completely destroying my afternoon by giving me the F1 results without warning and Diana Wynne Jones is dead. Fuck everything and everyone in or around it. You know things are getting bad when Bernard Black stops being a comedy character in your eyes and becomes a working class hero.

Heads up y'all, couple of good-looking F1 documentaries on BBC4 right now. They'll be on iPlayer after as well.

If I had a capable laptop I'd be all over this like a rash. One day, one day...

Wow, ominous performance for Vettel, just incredible. The car looks so planted and balanced it almost seems as if he could just take his hands off the wheel and let it run itself. It'll be the double for him this year surely? Amazing turnaround from McLaren, though the nature of the track might be flattering them. No excuses from Ferrari though, where were they? Also Kobayashi looks fantastic in that Saubre, hanging it out on every turn, truly special to watch. Surely someone in the top flight of teams has a tab on his name somewhere. Vettel & Kobayashi? Hamilton & Kobayashi? No matter which way you slice it it just sounds... right. Fascinating article about the possible existence of a "mini-KERS" on the Red Bull here. Whether or not you think it exists probably depends on if you believe Adrian Newey is an evil mastermind. I know what my guess is.

I take some comfort in not knowing what will happen, though that's probably because I know what I want to strive for and who I am. I know I'm going back to Uni and a new place, hopefully to start the next phase in life proper. After that it's all in the air, for better or for worse, and that excites me tremendously. It also helps that I know 110% I don't want to stay where I am now no matter how difficult things are liable to get by leaving. The only vague thought I can offer is just to focus on the next step - just get your course finished even if you have to limp across the finish line or if you've totally had enough take a wild stab at something else. Then you can move on to the next step after that. Things always pan out one way or the other, but you've got to allow yourself to fail. It's going happen anyway.

Wow, bad match against Intergalacto. Wasn't so much a football match as an 22-man fight. Disappointing really, my defence just didn't turn up on the day.

Based on their practice pace I would guesstimate that McLaren are back in the third fastest spot out of the gate again. They seem to have sorted their reliability issues out, which constitutes massive progress by itself. It's impossible to predict what will happen without knowing how each car uses the new tires under race conditions relative to each other - no point in a lightening quick car that chews through rubber like a caterpillar through wet cabbage.

Oh please that was nothing, you should've been seen the forum Swede Riot of '05. I was just an innocent boy then, innocent and naive. But of course, as I'm sure many will recall, all of that was to change...

And now, here's Vettel shearing a sheep, because... uh...

Ah yes, the infamous Ice Cream Encounter. Kimi was never my kind of driver but I definitely can see why you and others like him.

So glad Bahrain is gone for the moment (maybe forever, who knows the way things are going) and Melbourne has been restored to it's rightful place at the head of the calendar, as nature intended. I hope we don't loose it with the political and financial troubles it's been facing, it rarely fails to throw up interesting races. Incidentally I'm not expecting to get a solid idea of each team's pace until Round 2 Malaysia, where at 5pm local time we will also find out how effectively each car operates as a monohull schooner.

My customers don't want complaint forms - they want to know why are range of beers aren't bigger. Or what the difference is between two different brands of tomato soup. Or why we have new baskets. Any chance we could order in a pallet of gin? Is it just the 20 bags of sugar we have on the shelf? Are you SURE you don't have any pints of the Organic milk left? Just the Thai ready meals on offer? But that's confusing! So I smile and I try to help and see what we have and where else they can find what they need but I feel like a crazy person for doing it. The sane answer to all the above would be, in order - we're a small corner store for Christ's sake, I don't arsing know, we're not a goddamn wholesaler, baskets are baskets so deal, we have limited store and not a black hole that shits this stuff out, should've tried earlier then 10 minutes from closing time, it's written in plain fucking English on the fucking box what the fucking hell is wrong with you? And it's just been that for 7 hours. Nothing violent. Nothing extraordinary. Just a constant stream of petty boring pernikity arseholes that no sane individual would take seriously unless they were paid to. Which I am and I hate myself for it.

Survival tip for working in retail: Assume everyone is an idiot, it'll save you tons of hassle.

Dare I dream of promotion?

After a lot of cock-teasing by dribbling screen shots onto the internet a date & price for the last piece of significant DLC has finally arrived folks: "Arrival" will launch March 29th for 560 MSPoints or $6.99: I do wish he'd shut up and take my money. Here's one of those screens to whet your appetite - Also Hackett is back. Lance Henriksen people!

Happy Birthday my good sif, I shall see you.... ON THE FIELD! Audio

Maybe not with Robert but I agree it's a distant possibility - but more distant then Red Bull. How about Webber, with his 1 year extension deal? Retirement can't be far off for him at any rate. Kubica with Vettel next year?

From the file marked "Interesting but Not Unexpected"- Horner does the equivalent making googly-eyes and soft cooing noises towards Hamilton from across the Daily Telegraph. You've got to think that if McLaren can't prove themselves able to consistently deliver a car and Red Bull are, for all Hamilton's history with the team, it may only be a matter of time.

Vettel has committed to Red Bull until 2014. Two years ago I would've told him he was mad. Two years ago.

Yeah, 10,000 out of a town of 17,000. Just thinking about it makes my gut sink to the floor. I've been wondering what the damage is elsewhere. Japan has obviously taken a grievous toll but I wonder what the damage has been like on the many small islands dotted around the Pacific, places that don't have the resources that Japan has. Edit: Speaking of which-

That's some crazy sheeeeeit right there.

Or even worse, letting it slip onto a subscription channel.

I busted a gut when I first saw this. Amazingly quotable pieces of dialogue and surprisingly wonderful animation. Dammit Nintendo, get this series back on track! "Maybe it's finally time to stop taking the easy route." "Great, let's head to Sector Z." "I meant in life."

Your blood-chillingly terrifying image for the day, folks.

Looks like it, though it doesn't look like it's going to be a 2009-type disaster for McLaren either. The real interest is further down the field - Williams and Sauber look fantastic this year, I'd love to see them push closer to the front.