Miscellaneous Stuff

To those wondering - no the riots didn't get close to me.  Though we are about halfway between London and Birmingham, two of the places where the riots were worst.  It's just an awful situation that is really hard to explain or comprehend why it got so bad.

I'm still having some computer issues - software issues actually, not my laptop.  I'm getting closer every day, but not by much.  I do finally have an updated license file so that I can try the program I wanted to use from the start, so I'm hopeful that a long day on campus today can net me a lot of progress.

We did have a test day at Donington with the Caterham yesterday which was good despite it being kinda chilly, very windy, and a little wet in the afternoon.  It was productive, we figured out that the setup Jamie likes results in overheated front tires, which is ok for qualifying, but makes a 30 minute race pretty hard.  I think the day reminded me how much I enjoy this stuff, and why I'm over here.  It had been very hard recently when all my problems with my project had been piling up.  We did put the passenger seat in and get ride alongs for a few laps too, which was really fun.  I did actually drive it for a few minutes too, not on track, just up and down the paddock after we changed brake pads.  So yea, I need a job so I can buy a car ;)  Speaking of jobs, no real news there, just gotta keep plugging away sending resumes out.  It is annoying how long cover letters take to write.  At least there seem to be a good number of jobs being posted, just gotta find the right place at the right time that understands my broken 'English' I suppose.  

I have realized that I can use soccer goals or swingsets on the playgrounds around here for pullups.  This makes my workouts much more complete and gives me some more variety of things I can do. 

Well it's about time finally to walk to the bus stop, been up since 6:30 but can't get to campus until a little before 9:30, so much fun.

Update: Apparently there were some small rioting/looting etc. in Milton Keynes and Bletchley which is just south.  I hadn't seen it reported anywhere, but it was apparently on the local police webpages.