guineasmithpig

well, the kit i suggested is what i've seen to be the best product for the different areas of an audio setup. my advice would be, if you can't afford at least £200 on a headunit, £100 on front components, £60 on coaxials, £150 on (each) sub, about £400 for amps for such a setup, and obviously cabling and soundproofing varies from car to car, don't bother until you can afford! So i guess your looking at about a grand+ for a high quality setup. you could do it for £200, but then whats the point on spending £200 on something crap? better to save up for quality kit that you'll never have to upgrade. what type of music you listen to would determine the size/type of speaker you go for. obviously if your talkin SQ+ or sound off car, then things are a bit different! but a good all-rounder system should suit most tastes, with only the sub ruining things if you ain't careful.

Best Alpine headunit you can afford Focal components in the front Infinity 2 ways in the back Focal 13in sub Alpine amps - monoblock for the sub, 2ch or 4ch for door speakers and just buy the best of what you can afford all round. i'd like to be goin for the focal polyglass kit, V12 series amps, and to be honest the Infinity ref5012 coaxials i have, just spazzed into the foam-based parcel shelf of my fiesta, have performed better than any 6x9s i ever had or heard (unless you want bass without needing a sub, but in this case they are ideal). i'll be slappin them in the back doors of my estate when i finally get it and the 13in sub has plenty of beef and clarity, so i'd probably go for a single one of those. personally, i'd probs go for 2 smaller ones for my kind o music, but if you want deeper bassy stuff, 1 13 works a treat. if you wanna go nuts, have a look at diamond audio stuff. expensive, but velly good!

MC Hammer vid for the win. just because its ace Drummer and bassist goin ballistic playin at record speed! Mudvayne - Dig (Music Video) Best make up ever? Mudvayne - Not Falling Another awesome song with an equally awesome video Drowning pool - Bodies Nearly forgot this one! Black Eye Peas - My Hump because Fergie is hotness Pendulum - Voodoo People Just found on YouTube. Never seen it before. Cool vid Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up How has this not been posted yet?! Motorhead - Ace of Spades Dear God, please tell me someone else found this funny! I was in stitches... Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy Chris Cunningham Godly-ness Very weird. Very good, but very weird! More Chris Cunningham Godly-ness thats just a couple of my faves. the pendulum and ace of spades vids were only found searchin for others though! anything by mudvayne, prodigy, or slipknot is usually pretty cool. also, all the works of chris cunningham. Smithy

does oral count? i could live of my lady's bj's forever! and i wouldn't have to give her anything in return, just let her go shoe shoppin with some of the interest earned. winner!

Me! I'm at Oxford Brookes. not been involved with the team much this year, as i gotta concentrate on some other studies. but me and a mate are designing a monoshock system as an option for next years car as our engineering design project for this semester. we thought that sounded like fun, but turns out we have to design a huge chunk of the chassis as well, from the front roll hoop forward. damn it! we have 10 weeks to do the whole design report! we'll probably be a bit more involved with design meetings and stuff as we need to see what they'll be doing for suspension geometry to incorporate in our plans. smithy

that was on at 5.30pm when i was closing the shop. wondered what the hell it was!

they always do a thing called clearing as well with uni applications. its for late applicants and people who didn't get the required grades and so on. basically trying to find you the next best placement if you didn't get onto your first choice degree or uni. so there is hope yet. i'd perhaps simply try ringing the uni department/s you are planning to apply to. they are very friendly and will always find you someone to chat to about courses and applying. our head of department is constantly under fire from people on the course and applicants. poor guy never gets a break! but he's awesome and really helpful. just get yourself out there. if you show enough of an interest, then they are more likely to remember you and your case. hell, Brunell uni rang me at 8pm at night on results day, asking ME if I'd go and study there. and i only got a B and 3 E's at A-level! best of luck, i'm sure you'll be suprised how much feed back you'll get if you speak to as many possibly sources as you can Smithy

mudvayne killswitch arch enemy bloodsimple and finally, my favourite band at the moment....... American Head Charge. both their albums (War of Art, and The Feeding) that i have are absolutely fantastic, no track skipping, just constant listening pleasure. don't really like emo screamy stuff, and not really got into atreyu, trivium, etc. though my mate is constantly raving about em

SWEET VIDEO BIG 'UN is that the beasty BB7 you had off me? i told it was immense! i reckon it was the extra finger push power that sent you flyin at the end smithy

i was just gettin into gaps to front wheel before packing it in for a bit last year. biggest ever was at reading, but was never measured, so i dunno fondest memory was tarty doing one in mansfield (i think) and his drilled 321 wheel collapsing. laughed quite a bit that day! only tips i'd give is really beast your weight over the front (takes a bit of bottle) and punch the front end into/onto the object your aiming for, as you would with your feet and the back wheel. just look at what you wanna aim for, and concentrate on shoving your front wheel at it. as long as your front wheel lands on it, it don't matter if you step off or whatever. its when you bottle it and land on your down tube or (worst) headtube that it hurts! smithy

hope mono i have has lasted 4 destroyed rims, one accident resulting in the hub hitting the floor. seal of approval from myself. had it about 6 years now (not been in use the last year though)

beckham has done quite a bit for charity as it happens. never saw the beckhams charity ball then? or comic relief stuff? its good that he does em, but again, we're talking about WHY they get paid so much, which is bollox

well, in that case, i think should lower wages and ticket prices all at once. i couldn't justify paying ANYBODY £50,000 a week no matter how much the club earned in whatever sport. its just a ludicrous amount of money, and if that much money is floating round with nothing better to be spent on, i reckon they should help poorer people with it, instead of scamming them £50 or whatever it is these days for a ticket to one game. again, this is all just opinion, and obviously, there a few different ones around this post too. but firefighters and stuff should get way more than they do. yeah footballers train a lot, but firefighters practice live saving procedures day in day out, have to work different shifts where they spend time away from family (if anyone mentions the world cup, they deserve a kick. remember the phil neville thing?) and they make a REAL difference to peoples lives. david beckham has done shit all to help this country. just helped to make clubs and players and sponsor companies richer ( ok, maybe a bit harsh, as i seem to remember him doing training sessions and stuff, though thats got nothing to do with why he gets paid so much) now i know a lot of people are saying 'well you'd take it if you had the opportunity', and having lots of money would be nice, but i just can't see where they earn the right to that much money for what they do. the whole charity argument is there too, david beckhams auctions and stuff, but again, why do they get paid so much in the first place!? i just don't see it.....

apologies for the Alpina D3. i realised about 3 secs after posting that the BMW diesels are turdo'd, but didn't have chance to change. i was 3 mins late back from lunch due to your little challenge anyways! also didn't have time to investigate the new clio either (i did 100bhp per litre, not per tonne), not seen much bumf on the new ones, apart from them being fat and slow due to crash reg's. good challenge though. not really seen much that comes close without being turbo/supercharged

new clio sport is rumoured to have 100bhp per tonne. though i guess we ain't close enough to a saloon with that the search continues...... aha!!!!! do i get this one?! BMW Alpina D3

the thing that annoys me is they get paid no matter how they perform (as far as i'm aware). most recent example would be the liverpool arsenal game the other day. 3 - 6?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? they shouldn't play ANY of the players after a game like that! now yes, arsenal won and scored loads of goals, but if your scoring 6, you shouldn't be letting in 3 at the other end too! abismal performance, and an embarrassment to the game. agreed, footballers wages are absolutely appauling. I mean, we have NHS cutbacks and wards closing down, which could probably survive on half a players weekly wages for the same period of time. teams should be FORCED to cut players wages and do something more useful with the money if they're gonna throw it around like that. I mean, what the hell do you spend +£50,000 a week on? (average wage for the top four teams i think). also, performance related pay should be implimented, like piece work. not just on wins, but how well you played to your potential. and a good point was made above, these guys are entertainers. firemen and policemen (and women) put their lives (and that of their family) on the line to save other people and protect what good is left in this country. and they get a salary half that of some footballers weekly wage. absolutely ridiculous grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, this country is just generally twisted no matter what area you look in. Emigrating becomes more appealing by the day smithy

a teacher at our school was called Richard Head. his mother remarried when he was younger, and he decided to take on his stepdad's surname because it amused him. brave guy also have a mate called adam, who's surname is Cocks, as opposed to the usual Cox. funny middle names are being constantly added to his coursework and registers i dunno what i'd change mine to, though my girlfriend (simone) was gonna be named Serendipity, which seems a bit weird (though would be totally normal in the USA)

i guess it depends where you're living then. me n the missus were looking at 1 bedroom flats in oxford area/s, and they're around £900 per month. we got a mortgage quote of £125k (which is ridiculously high considering i'll be a student only adding £300 a month to the house income! again, the joys of knowing a financial advisor) though thats still strugglin to find us anywhere. Oxford is ridiculously expensive. 1 bed flats start around £150k!!! hopefully we can get a better mortgage if she lands a job with the Faststream course, as the quote was based on her earning £16k, and the Faststream jobs are a bit higher paid. smithy

main things to consider are that renting will cost more per month than the mortgage repayments on the same house. however, all maintenance should be covered, at no extra cost to yourself, which in my case stacks up to a lot! in our student house so far, we've had the double glazing, power shower, door and window locks, and fridge freezer all replaced in the last 5 months. now imagin all that crap going wrong if you could only just scrape together the mortgage repayments. also, rent payments tend to be a bit more flexible if you're short (ie, if your injuredand can't work or something). however, when renting, you have no equity against loans and crap, and also no way of recovering money you've spent as you would when selling your house, giving you chance to buy cheaper and make a profit. you also are constrained to what you can do to the house as far as decorating, modifying and what you do there with renting. common problems are pets, tinkering with cars, and keeping bikes indoors and stuff. they also tend to rip you off for damage to a rented property also. there's plenty of other stuff as well, though these are the main things me and the missus are thinking about as we are moving in together over summer. also try speaking to an independent financial adviser! Luckily I have a friend who is one, but there help and advice is often invaluable. predictions about house prices, wheres best to live, companies offering deposit free mortgages and first time buyer specials. all stuff everyday folk don't get to hear about! and make sure they aren't tied into certain companies commission and stuff. INDEPENDENT is the key word! best of luck smithy

taken from my GT4 gallery

Mr Tinkle

i reckon they should introduce a minimum speed limit. say about 120mph on the motorway? this keeps everyone awake and alert, traffic moving freely, no traffic jams. and best of all, crappy caravaners or retards who are scared of motorways would stay off them. problem solved. i also believe that lane discipline has got to be the biggest contributing factor to motorway accidents (apart from maybe heavy rain). People driving too slowly or stubbornly for the lane they're in causes tailgating, and then some plonker ahead does the same, you get a rear end shunt, and everybody dies. i reckon poor lane discipline should result in an automatic ban. again, set a minimum speed limit and be done with it smithy

remember when weight saving went REALLY mad? people were running F519 rear rims, X517 front, with El Gato rear/Mythos front. trying to get stocks down to 20lbs didn't Monty manage a 17lb stock, or something daft? First time i started doing 'tricks' on my mountain bike was after picking up a shiny new copy of MBUK Tricks & Stunts special as soon as it came into the shop where i did a paper round. That must have been 8 or 9 years ago now. Have been out of trials for about a year or so now, but still clinging to my old skool Giant in the hope of building it to play on over summer

errrrrm, in my opinion (and the importers) and my experience, the SWs have been better for trials. The theory is that the DW bars have the two walls to help reduce fatigue due to vibrations in DH racing and such. in trials, the force on the bar tends to come in big lumps causing a big flex. here, the walls reach the point where they bind in places, causing stress rises and the bar goes snap. i had 3 sets of DWs replace under warranty, and when the last set went, i consulted the importers who then replaced them with a set of SWs (also labelled up with the WF (world force) logos on newer bars for some strange reason, even they don't know why because the World force is a different bar!). also, the SWs are shot peened, rather than gloss finish as with DWs, which helps disperse skin stresses better. not a massive thing, but every little helps anyways, no creaking, no breakages after 18months use, during which i started doing bigger moves to front wheel, though eliminated big drops to flat from my riding. They DWs on my 4X bike have started creaking now, though they are a bit old, so gonna ring up and see if they can be replaced before snapping. Azonic importers have been really good with warranty stuff, especially snapped bars, so gonna give it a whirl to some up, i personally now would use SWs over DWs due to experience, and what seems like a bit of engineering logic Smithy

huh? wasthat an insult aimed at me? i'm sure i stated the desired punchline? twas in reply to the '28 year olds' earlier. or am i missing your humour? aaaaaaaaaaaaaanyways......