Larian Studios Forums General Chat Things to hate today

TTHT: insomnia. It's 1:30am and I've already been up 2½ hours. There's something not quite right about today starting so early it was yesterday. D:

TTHT:

Insomnia. Again. It's a bit sad when 1am is starting to feel like a lie in.

My hair: yesterday was actually a "good hair day", but only because it was so full of dry shampoo, spray conditioner, hairspray and other stuff that it was so matted it couldn't misbehave. Today I need to wash it properly so it'll go back to being the usual "unruly cloud of frizz". And it needs re-dying. Again. Argh.

My driving: I often think I just shouldn't. Technically it's okay, but I lack common sense. And any inclination to use the brakes.

HMRC managed to cock up by substituting my work address for my home address. No idea why they chose to do this, but I only found out when they sent me a tax code to my work address.

I cannot change the address online because the date I moved into my home address is, oddly enough, before the date they have decided I moved in at work. I tried ringing them but, surprise surprise, I cannot get through to a person.

Bah humbug and damnation.

My RTX 3080 card estimated delivery was pushed back from 8 days ago to January 2nd, 2021. 😔

I've had nothing but aggro from HMRC ever since they were rebranded HMRC. All fairly minor stuff, but consistent, low-level incompetence and inadequacy and, as you said, absolutely impossible to communicate with. The Inland Revenue is a bit British Rail in that you'd never think at the time that you're look back at that era with fondness and be impressed with their relative efficiency and organisational skills. For a long time, the only means of getting hold of HMRC has been to raise a complaint, and even then it's a bit of a case of "can't help, won't help".


Argh, kill etc. That's really irritating.

Well, patience gives appetite or something among those lines.

By the time the card is delivered it will have been superceded.

I'm lucky to have received the letter at all, to be honest. The address on the letter was very vague (my name, the nearest town and the postcode), but where I work is huge, sprawling and not exactly easy to access.

Our local post office and mailing room chaps deserve a lot of credit!

Brakes have their uses but I prefer the one on the right. Re insomnia, I am certain you will have researched how to deal with it (or attempt to deal with it) but I find that getting out of bed, listening to an audio book and maybe having some tea can help.

Not quite sure about the "one on the right" reference; at first I assumed motorbikes until I remembered it's brake and clutch and a footbrake. Fortunately I never got into biking in spite of a fairly regularly recurring interest since my teens.

And today is a smelly hair day: since I had a day off from doing stressful stuff I decided to stress myself out by dying it. Ammonia-free? Hell no! And it stinks, no matter how many times I rinsed it. D:

Ah sorry, UK car driver here. I think the technical term is acceleratrix or something. Hmm..don't know much about hair dye.

Oh I see. Should've been obvious, which is why I missed it. American cars have the same arrangement even though the steering wheel is on the wrong side. I drove an automatic while I was there otherwise I would've just ended up trying to wind down the window every time I wanted to change gear.

Actually I drive an automatic now but that's probably a good thing as I'm pretty much a nemesis of gearboxes given that I've pwned, erm, several. I don't mean being all grindy, just not very subtle. But our fat lardy-arse diesel Mondeo automatic is keen and does wheelspins and lets me be a hooligan so it's okay.

My hair still smells. D: Time for yet another wash.

There is a special place in the hells/hell (which I technically don't believe exists) for people who destroy gearboxes. I love my DSG more than most humans its .... erm, I've said too much.

I think there's a special place in hell for people with no clutch control! I remember the daily ritual of the woman who lived opposite many years ago where she would put her poor car through a series of loud grinding noises, revving the engine like mad to get it eventually crawling off the drive at which point it would roll backwards across the road until it bumped into the kerb. In the couple of years I lived there she never got any better.

In my case I think I'm just too impatient and change gear too quick. And, y'know, teeth and things eventually break off. Then again you get some gearboxes that are just horrible. I had a Calibra turbo (yeah I know, showing my age) for a brief while and its six-speed gearbox was cool in theory but if you could get the bugger into gear. Turns out it wasn't just me and my "ways" but a common complaint.

"I think there's a special place in hell for people with no clutch control!" I agree When combustion engines eventually go the way of the horse, all cars (assuming they are not just relegated to non-interactive, self-driving meat conveyors) will be electric and .... goodbye manual clutches. Still, we will probably still be able to buy exciting and involved cars. Even if they are electric. I had an RX8 in which the gear box lasted just 32000 miles. Awful car.

Pity it's bad, Mazda normally make pretty solid stuff. I nearly got an MX5 back in the day but ended up with the Calibra (company car scheme decided to become Vauxhall-obsessed). Electric cars, tho'... I'm just finding it hard to develop much enthusiasm for what is basically a milk float, however quick it may or may not be. I'm not even a petrol-head, but I just think a rechargeable car is a bit soulless.

Oh, and automatic handbrakes: they're just wrong. I mean fundamentally wrong as the whole point is that it's supposed to be a mechanical failsafe, but feels wrong, and often works wrong: I borrowed a Vectra (? I think; whatever is the current-ish boring grey Vauxhall, anyway) that had one and it was impossible to reverse off our driveway without the car rolling forwards. Horrible thing. Edit: and I mean a manual gearbox etc; my clutch control is normally pretty good but no matter what I tried the brake would disengage before the clutch had a chance to hold the car. Seems it was a choice of rolling forwards or doing a backwards wheelspin or something, neither of which is exactly ideal. That car was especially bad, I had a Mondeo with the same setup that didn't roll but I still didn't like it.

I think Mazda as a brand are fine. Its the RX8. Poorly built and with a rotary engine that WILL fail. Yeah, I dont get why they messed with the handbrake. Actually I do, but I'd rather they hadnt. Talking about things I hate today...... mmmgonna say.....vegitairian ready meals. They suck. Without question.

I treated myself to an X-type Jaguar a few months back, having always wanted a Jag. Finding 1st is sometimes a 'try again' moment, but the gearbox is so generous that I've accidentally pulled away from junctions in 3rd. It makes my long commute almost bearable.

Mind you, it isn't exactly green or efficient.

Not my first choice but I imagine the experience is certainly more engaging that most of the current generation of commuter cruisers. Saying that, I do love my Scirocco R. The 19" wheels dont do much for the ride, but it is fun.

I've never been much of a car person; it is only about 7-8 years since I got a car licence. I'd always previously been a motorbikist, with no intention of buying a car. However, the old classic Jaguars were an exception and I was always drawn to them.

Having seen the writing on the wall for my old Toyota as it approached its latest MOT, I decided to take the plunge and go for a Jag. It doesn't have the same level of toys as more modern cars, and the 2.5 V6 petrol engine drinks fuel like a Wigan hen-night drinks Lambrini, but it is the achieving of an old promise to myself.


Back to moans, just about everywhere on my commute to work seems to be construction work. My beautiful maroon paintwork is continually splattered with road-crap.