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Driving Lesson #18

I had another ‘funny feet’ day today, not as bad as two lessons ago however. I was being a little hasty trying to move off – this is part of becoming more confident we think, I am no longer able to crawl away without any gas on the flat as I am bringing the clutch up much faster. This means I have to adjust my technique sligtly by putting on the gas and then bringing the clutch up, this is often coupled with taking the hand brake off. It is a lot to think about at once, but I picked it up well.

I was proud of my turning round in the road, I managed it without prompting, questioning myself or hitting the kerb, thus I only had to do it once, much nicer on my legs. Reversing round a corner in the dark was hard work as I kept loosing the kerb, had to try it three times before I managed it. Didn’t do great on the last try either.

I am still happy with my progress! Next lesson same time next week!

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Driving Lesson #17

Today was another funny driving lesson my feet weren’t quite right, and I kept doing silly things made a bit of a mess of turning round in the road and didn’t get reversing round a corner quite right. One of the things I was doing particularly wrong was putting the clutch down while breaking, for some reason I have it stuck in my head that clutch goes down when slowing down, rather than just before I come to a stop. Kev got me too take my foot of clutch pedal when driving and rest it on the side (which has done wonders for my ankles) it also delays me putting the clutch down.

The second thing I had problems with today was again braking, I was a little heavy on the brake which probably comes down to anticipation or not as my case is.

I learn’t something about roundabouts though, if I scan round the roundabout in a clockwise direction when approaching/stopped at the roundabout I check the most important thing last, i.e. traffic from the right.

There were many more little things, Kev seems to think that after the current block of lessons are up I probably won’t need another full block before I am ready to take my test. Scary stuff.

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Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog on iTunes

I promised myself I would blog about Dr. Horrible again once it was released on iTunes UK, it seems like an age since it was available for free over the web, and then so quickly it disappeared again. It is however now available through iTunes UK, along with the sound track (which has been available for a few weeks now). Unfortunately I didn’t pick it up on my RSS feeds until too late to download and watch tonight, hopefully get a chance to plug in and watch at the weekend.

Thank you Joss, Jed, Zach and Maurissa and everyone who plied their trade to bringing this story to life!

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Driving Lesson #16

So, today went much better than last week. We did quite a nice loop of the area  I am contemplating taking a GPS with me next time and leaving it logging on the back seat so that I actually know where I have actually been. Maybe I will do that when I have passed my test, could be a little distracting if it started beeping at me.

I got two major things from my lesson today; first being that after last week driving isn’t that bad after all, the second is that speed limit signs should be seen on both sides of the road like a gate.

The above example is taken from the A259 (actually it is flipped along the horizontal axis for the sake of clarity) moving towards Peacehaven in a 40 zone, passing a side road that is national speed limit before moving into a 30 zone.

What I did was see the national speed limit signs and speed up, in my head I had seen the signs but not really thought about it too careful, what I need to remember is speed limits are like gates you have to pass through them for them to take effect, i.e. if I had been turning left up the side road I would have passed through the national speed limit gates.

Another lesson next Monday.

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Driving Tips

The BBC has posted a list of 10 “driving tips” to make your driving experience more enjoyable and rewarding, the article has the added advantage of providing an insight into the day-to-day driving skills that people develop on thier own without any formal instruction.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7635486.stm

I particuarly liked number 3 – “Make Eye Contact When You Can”; which is something I picked up a few years ago while walking around town making eye contact with people walking towards you often helped both parties to pass eachother without bumping or jostling. It is not something I had thought about with regard to driving, although I am going to try and put it into practice at pedestrian crossings if I get a chance.

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Driving Lesson #15

Grrr… argh… that didn’t go so well had massive problems with my feet today stalled on hill starts wanted to accelerate round corners, people beeping at me – if you are in the 0.01% of people that beep at learner drivers please try to remember it makes it worse! – Kev went through strategies for keeping moving on minor to major junctions.

I can’t think of a way to draw it as a picture but basically it is as follows:

1. Coming up to a junction, whilst scanning – ask yourself “is it clear?” (this is in the “I can see no cars” and the “I can clearly see both oncoming traffic and traffic you are joining)
2. If the answer is “no” – continue up to the “commit point” – that is the give way line – asking the same question.
3. If the answer becomes “yes” check your speed and change gear as appropriate (<5mph = first, everything else = second).
4. If the answer remains “no” when you reach the commit point, stop, put the handbrake on, change into first and be ready to move off when it is clear.

My brain is a bit “fuzzy” after that lesson, so as with everything don’t take it a good driving practice or anything similar – it is just what I taken away from what Kev has taught.

Next Lesson: Same time next week.

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Driving Lesson #14

Finished my 14th driving lesson about an hour ago, we covered much of the same thing as previous lessons some driving on fast roads and town roads the some manoeuvre. Not much to be said really I felt more relaxed despite stalling more than in the previous lesson. My observations were more than a little lax in places, I completely forgot to check my blind spot while reversing round the corner.

Kev did get a chance to fill in my driver record, I now have:

• 4x 5’s (Cockpit Checks, Safety Checks, Controls and Instruments and Signals)
• 8x 4’s
• 5x 3’s
• 1x 2’s
• 1x 1’s
• 1x 0’s (Emergency Stops)

Please with my progress so far, need plenty more practice only got to wait till Monday for my next lesson, looking forward to it!

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Driving Lesson #13

Had my first ever evening driving lesson this evening, Kev and I went to Seaford and back again over the course of the lesson, using some national speed limit single carriageways and some town driving.

Had a slightly hairy moment when I decided to change lanes while going round a roundabout, actually scratch the “slightly hairy”; it was down right dangerous. My mistake was; I had this image in my mind that if you are going straight on at a roundabout you go round the out side… what I had not got straight in my head was that if you are in the right hand lane stay in the right hand lane, all comes down to Mirror-Signal-Manovure.

I messed up turning round in the road and had to do it in four points rather than three, which was no big deal really it was slightly frustrating.

A huge upside was that I had not forgotten as much as I expected to, I spent some time revising from what I have posted up here – Really helped. So fellow learner drivers practice “stealth revision”:

1. Do your lesson
2. Write down what you learned
3. Next day… read through what you wrote down, correct as required
4. Day before your next lesson (or after a week which ever comes sooner) read through your write up again
5. If possible read through it again just before your lesson to keep it in your head

Kev is more than happy to read through what I have written, and I am sure your ADI will be equally as happy. I check back on my notes when ever I have a free minute on the bus. It is stealth because it dosn’t feel like revision!

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Back to the Urban Battlefield

No, I haven’t taken up free running I have just been playing a little more Call of Duty 4 over the past week, I was encouraged to look back at it by a friend some time ago. Only just got round to trying it again.

Since I last played there has been another patch, that includes new maps (I thought there were four maps, however I have only played three.

I seem to be playing fairly well still, I go through phases where I can get some awesome scores for a map or two a few matches later I can’t seem to get a single kill in. Finished the above match a few minutes ago – decided it was best to call it a night and end on a high rather than risk a crushing defeat in the next match.

The community seems to have matured, there are more clans hosting public servers that they actually play on and there are fewer M302 spammers around it seems. A wider range of weapons in use for the different roles, and occasionally organized teams of randoms all going stealth (my preferred class – Silenced MP5, Silenced USP .45, 3 Frag Grenades, UAV Jammer, Dead Silence and a stun grenade). This is probably the class that gets me the most kills.

My main tactic is slowly move around the map with one or two other people dressed for stealth, taking people out as we go. Aim for head shots where possible you can usually predict where people are going to pop up, in the corner of windows in between gaps in walls. The range of the silenced MP5 is severely reduced so sniping from a distance can only be done with short bursts (i usually try to squeeze out two or three bullets with two short clicks).

The more I play it the more I wonder if I might enjoy being in a clan that is on a competitive gaming ladder. Then again what with playing EVE, Team Fortress 2 and AudioSurf fairly regularly makes me wonder if I would ever have the time.

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Steam

The day I purchased AudioSurf was the first day that I even saw Steam (Content Delivery), sure I had heard lots of people talk about it, many people praising its loveliness and many more complaining that it was evil.

I had never had the need to install it, I owned Half Life (Video Game) (never finished it) and had played a bit of Counter Strike 1.6 in my time, but I had never felt the need to take it any further and buy Half Life 2.

While I was downloading AudioSurf, I noticed that there was 9 hours remaining of a free trial of Team Fortress 2 so I set that to download while I messed about else where. Now, I think Team Fortress is great, fun for a quick session blatting away at a couple of foes, that wasn’t what hooked me onto Steam, no it was the ease of it all.

I simply double clicked “Team Fortress” in My Games and it told me about the offer and guided me through downloading it (which was pressing “next” three times), when it was finished downloading I double clicked it again and it launched Team Fortress. I have been dreaming of software like this for years, so simple yet so effective.

Steam has a huge library of games, including some great packs such as The Orange Box, there is also a nifty “gift” system which allows you to pass on games you have two copies of, for example if you bought Half Life 2, then The Orange Box you would have two copies of Half Life 2 one of which you can pass on to a friend.

In summary, I think Valve Corporation has done a top job on Steam, without falling into the DRM traps that so many publishers seem to be dropping themselves into. I will post back when I have played the games a bit more, for the time being pleased with my discovery.

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