1/2 Century

This post marks the 50th post to toothpickbandit.blogspot.com. I've been writing stuff for all to read for almost 12 months now. It all started late one night when I wanted to make a comment to Ariskah's blog but she'd set it so you had to be a member before you could make comments (since changed) so I signed up. Lots has happened over this time, as I'm sure some of you have read. If I recall correctly, the majority of my posts have been very short, except for 2 very long ones that covered a 3 week period while we were on holiday in Sydney. (I don't have any decent stats and I can't be bothered working any out) So there we have it.

I in no way intended for this to be a monumentous spiel about blogging, I just happened to notice the post count as I logged in. Instead this was supposed to be a quick update to say that I have done-up the front page of Hulks Garage and added a picture of the V8 mini. I have also put yet another car onto the Hulks Cars page. There are still some vehicles missing, I've got to find a picture of the car that Dad bought me to learn to drive in, I also need to remember to take some photo's of the "Silly Little Japanese Car" & Hulks Wagon, when it's light and add them in too.

On another note, since this has turned into a LONG post as opposed to a quick update, Delta's new big bed FINALLY arrived after Mum rang the place and left a very grumpy message on their answerphone, so Dad and I have spent the last 20 minutes or so putting it together for her. Maybe I can convince Delta that she needs to make her own blog and she can tell you all about it, unlikely though, because her knee is giving her grief and I don't think she'll be able to sit at the computer long enough to write one.

And now, while we're still with the numbers, a parting comment from P-Style.

Fun in the Mud

With the guidance of the Underground Laboratory we here at HulksGarage have conducted our first experiment. The experiment concerns the effect of warm exhaust gas applied under pressure to rain-soaked clay. The results are spectacular with clay and mud ending up all over the back of Hulks Wagon (and all over General Greavous, who was supervising the experiment).

What happened was as follows:-

During lunch today I went to Supercheap Auto & Manna bookshop. Upon returning to work I backed Hulks Wagon into my carpark, thinking I had hit the wheel stop. Unfortunately, the carparks are designed for "silly little Japanese cars" and so the tow bar hit the clay bank, dislodging a chunk of clay, before the back wheels hit the wheel stop. It was raining so I left the car there, what I didn't realise is that the exhaust pipe was now almost touching the clay bank. After work I had offered to give General Greavous a lift home because he had biked into work and it was pouring with rain. When I started the car to pull it forward to give us access to the boot, the jet from the exhaust dislodged some of the clay and sprayed it all over the back of the car and all over General Greavous.

When I dropped General Greavous home, I missed his driveway and ended up on the grass. All of a sudden Hulks Wagon didn't want to go forward any more and sat spinning it wheels. We got the bike out of the boot and then because it was downhill I was able to just roll backwards out of the mud, leaving deep wheel-ruts.

Games and Movies

On Friday night I went with Delta to see Ice Age 2. It was average. There were some funny bits but on the whole it was average. Save yourself $20 and wait til it comes out on DVD.

Also on Friday night, I downloaded TrackMania Nations. It is very good, it's also free. It's along the same lines as all the other TrackMania games but is more geared toward on-line play. It's quite cool, complete with a national & international ranking system. My current rank is 314562, I think I need to play some more.

Car Shuffle

Okay, I've updated the "Hulks Cars" page and tidied it up a little. Now it's kind of like an index page that links to individual pages with photos of each car (currently only two but I will add more as I find/take the photos). There's also a little bit of info written about the cars.

Pretty Colours

I've just spent the last hour fitting a new screen to my cellphone. Thanks to the boys over at formymobile I managed to get some new parts, which arrived this morning. Now I can see the whole screen again & the picture quality is nice and sharp. I also bought a new casing for it, a nice blue one, so I'll be able to tell it apart from all other T610's because they were only ever sold as silver in NZ.