Slow Twitch – Elizabeth Hansen
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Jeremy Clarkson: The weak point of the modern car is the squidgy organic bit behind the wheel.
Richard Hammond: “I’ll guarantee that nothing exciting, vibrant, dynamic, new, creative, hopeful, or beneficial in any way to humanity has ever been done, thought of, or driven to in that drab, dreary, entirely beige willfully awful pile of misery”.
Richard’s opinion of the Morris Marina from Series 13, Episode 5 (110th episode).
From Richard Hammond’s lastest article on … hands-on engineering
“My mate Hadrian, an engineer, came over with all the required kit for the operation, including the new lump of chassis. His stated intention was to pull up a chair and work his way through a giant sack of popcorn while I provided the entertainment by burning the workshop to the ground and blinding myself as I learned how to weld. Good plan.”
Read the whole thing at: http://www.topgear.com/uk/richard-hammond/richard-hammond-top-gear-magazine-column-2012-03-27
Series 14 Episode 6 (118 show) original air date 12-27-09.
The Bolivia Special
Richard Hammond: We’re close to the equator.
Jeremy Clarkson: We’re very close to it. Perhaps we’re on it.
Richard: No we can’t be. We’d see it … a big dotted line.
About 2 months ago, my girlfriend started reading Richard Hammond’s On the Edge
. She kept reading bits to me until I could take it no more – about 10 minutes – and went off an bought my own copy. Needless to say it took me awhile to crack the spine (figuratively… I like to keep my books as pristine as possible) even though she kept quoting bits to me. And then I read a bit, and then a little bit more not getting very far. So a couple of days ago I bought the audio version, only after checking to make sure the voice on the other end of the earphones was Richard. Unfortunately it is an abridged version. I have 2 problems with abridged version. 1) Bits are missing. and 2) if the author had wanted those bits missing he (or she) wouldn’t have written them in the first place. How do they know what I will think is important? So basically I get annoyed. And having read the 1st couple of chapters, I could see out what was missing right off the bat. Oh well.
In this case however, since I plan to actually read the book, I’m not annoyed. Well, not too annoyed. I would have like to have heard the entire book. It’s only 3 hours long so I could almost get the whole thing in during lunch (good). But it’s a 308 page book, so quite a lot is missing (bad).
This “is his compelling account of life before and after the accident and an honest description of his recovery, full of drama and incident.” It starts in his childhood, pops up to his adulthood, moves on to when he gets his job on Top Gear and then goes to when he has a 288 mile an hour crash in a racer called the “Vampire”. This is where his wife Mindy takes over telling the story. She tells from after the crash until he starts to regain his memory. And this is part I truely like about the the audio book … Richard reads his part and Mindy reads her part. And then once Richard regains his memory they share the read of the last bits of the book.
I was blown away by Mindy’s part of the book. She had me laughing and crying and wanting to give her a big hug. WOW! What an amazing, strong woman! But the one thing the reviews seem to gloss over is this is a love story. It’s Mindy’s love and devotion to her husband. These two are truely soul mates and very much belong together. You can hear it in their voices when they speak of each other. He is so fortunate to have her in his life – of which he is completely aware.
I normally don’t like audio books. I do make exceptions when the books are biographies or autobiographies and are read by the person who is being written about. Another nice thing is when you are familar with the voice. I fell asleep the 1st night listening to the first part. This was a nice novelty as the book didn’t drop on my nose waking me up with a start. Nor did my Beloved have to pry the book from my hand waking me as he turns off the light. Richard just kept chatting on in my ear as I drifted off. I’m starting see the appeal of audio books.
I will say I did enjoy listening to this one. Now when I go back to read the book, I can hear both of the Hammond’s in my head.
Ok, not really Richard Hammond. Richard Hammond’s book On the Edge: My Story. And it really wasn’t a sound sleep, it was more like a doze and I was woken up when the book knocked me in the face. Thank God it was a paperback. So obviously I haven’t gotten very far, page 6 or so. Here is the publisher’s description…
“In September 2006, Richard Hammond suffered a serious brain injury following a high-speed car crash. Here is his compelling account of life before and after the accident and an honest description of his recovery, full of drama and incident. An adrenalin junkie long before his association with Top Gear, Richard tells the story of his life, from the small boy showing off with ridiculous stunts on his bicycle to the adolescent with a near-obsessive attraction to speed and the smell of petrol. After a series of jobs in local radio, he graduated to television. His insights into the personalities, the camaraderie, and the stunts for which Top Gear has become famous, make compulsive reading. It was while filming that Richard was involved in a high speed crash, driving a jet-powered dragster. His wife Mindy tells the story of the anxious hours and days of watching and waiting until he finally emerged from his coma. In an extraordinarily powerful piece of writing, she and Richard then piece together the stages of his recovery as his shattered mind slowly reformed. The final chapter recounts his return home and his triumphant reappearance in front of the cameras.
You can click here to buy it on Amazon.
The book has no introduction. Well, it does, but it’s on the back cover. Once you open the front cover he gets right to the meat of his story. There are 3 sets of pictures from various times in his life. The one that is my most favourite (it is a review of a British book after all) is one from his youth. He has that signature imphish look that we all know from Top Gear. And since I’ve really only gotten past the beginning chapter, I don’t have much more to say. Now.
From EA: Your favorite lighthearted Sims universe is going old-school – back to the times of castles, kings, jesters and knights! Control your Sims and decide their fates in this new fantasy. From serf and squire to Lady and Lord, role-play and immerse yourself in a dramatic, story-driven adventure. Create your hero and determine your Sim’s destiny – the possibilities are endless. Long Live The Sims!
This is my walkthrough of Sims Medieval for iPhone. It will be a work in process until I finish replaying the game. This isn’t a review, although I had fun with the game. This is not a how to I buy furniture for my house type guide. I am assuming you know how the game works and how each of the buttons work. If you don’t know this, create a throw away Sim and push all the buttons until you know what they do.
Stop reading now if you don’t like spoilers and hints and cheats. I’m talking this paragraph now. The next paragraph starts the spoilers. Ok. You’ve been warned.
If you have any questions about how to do something I will try to the answer the question if you leave me a comment. http://www.supercheats.com/iphoneipad/thesimsmedievalquestions.php has a lot of answers. Actually that’s wereh I got all my answers before I decided to write this. Okay… here goes.
Do NOT EVER!
In the “Options” menu, do not ever, ever, ever tap “Reset Data” unless you want to start the game from scratch. Not only will it re-hide all your goals it will DELETE all your Sims. The good news is, if you tap it accidentally you do get the option to tap the red X and not reset.
The Objective:
Complete all 43 goals.
The Skills:
Strength
Agility
Spirituality
Charisma
Your skills are increased by doing quests. Each different quest raises your skills by different amounts and you get a different number of simoleons too. You can increase your Skills by doing various acitivites in between quests. In order to increase your strength you will need to purchase an armory (this is actually part of a goal so don’t buy one until you are prompted). In order to increase your agility you need to play darts. You can buy one or use the one at the Tavern. In order to increase your spirituality you will need to read books. Once you reach a certain level you can buy one or read the books at the Church or at the Wizards. In order to increase your charisma you will need to look in a mirror. You can go to the Herbalists or once you reach a certain level you can buy one for your house.
The Status (focus points):
Hunger – Eat
Energy – Sleep/Sit
Social – Talk to another Sim
Fun – play dice, fish, pull a sword from a stone, watch stars
Every 24 Sim hours you get 4 focus points to do quests to meet goals. Fortunately there are only 4 status’ that you must keep up. At the stroke of Midnight (00:00) your focus points will increase by 1 for each of the above 4 that are statisfied (in the green). If one is not fully satisified at midnight, you will receive the focus point once you do satisfy it.
The Bonus:
Faith – Pray
If you increase your faith and keep it 3/4 full (or higher) you will get an one focus point for faith and then an extra bonus point for being euphoric. In order to pray you will need to either go to the church or buy your own Prayer alter.
The Stories:
The Charitable Guy
Way of the Brave
Religious Commitment
Political Commitment
There are actually 55 total goals. However you have to have 4 different Sims to complete all 55. Each of the 4 Stories have 39 shared goals and 4 unique goals. Below are list the various goals with the focus points it takes to achieve the goal in parentheses and the townie who gives you the quest.
Shared Goals:
Hero’s lesson (1) Tariq the Brave
Fish Soup (3) Farmelin
Heroic Challenge n°1 (0) Quest Panel
The Drakhans (3) Tariq
Ugly Kid (3) Firmin
Heroic Challenge n°2 (0) Quest Panel
I’m Dabest (3) Will Dabest
A Mysterious Plant (3) Firmin
Plants amateur (3) Kamelia
The Fish Master (3) Innkeeper
Spread the Word (3) Brother Jules
Point of View (3) Kamelia
Chicken Wings (3) Farmelin
Heroic Challenge n°3 (0) Quest Panel
Return of Will Dabest (4) Will Dabest
Funny Haircut (4) Firmin
The Rootless Mushrooms (3) Innkeeper
Plants Collector (3) Kamila
Collect for Charity (3) Brother Jules
Sticky Bob (4) Sticky Bob
The Fish Master (4) Innkeeper
The Stories Goals:
Story: The Charitable Guy I (10) Mortemer
Story: The Charitable Guy II (10) Mortemer
http://taciej.com/blog/?page_id=2055 is a link to the page with the steps for each of the quests.
Ok. On a Top Gear theme. My girlfriend alerted me to Richard Hammond’s lastest mastery of the english language.
Richard Hammond on: sport buttons
Here are 2 quotes from it.
“And then, like an alarm clock strapped to a stick of dynamite, the rev-counter’s needle ticked up to 7,500rpm, and all hell was let loose. Suddenly, my eyes made a dive for my neck, my stomach and lungs were straining to escape backwards out of my riding jeans, and the scenery to either side went all stretchy and thin. ”
And
“Kermit had gone crazy, pulled out a death ray, bitten the head off a chicken, drunk eight litres of tequila and shagged Miss Piggy in a skip outside a nightclub.”
And what does that have to do with a “sport button” (which supposedly changes the suspension in a car to make it stiffer and better handling)? You’ll have to read the article and find out.