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Our Journey to England

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

After a rough night of weather in the Chicago area my wife and I decided that we would get to the airport very early. The roads could be bad and we also wanted to make sure we were there early so we could organize if there were delays or changes.

As it turned out, the roads to the airport had been ploughed and cleared perfectly, so at 12 noon (6pm UK) Friday, we were at the airport. Our flight was supposed to leave at 6:50pm.

By 4pm we were told our flight would be delayed until 8:15pm due to delays in Ireland.

We boarded and left Chicago (who had had bad weather, but had no delays of its own doing) at 8:15pm (2:15am UK).

After 6-7 hours of our seven and a half hour flight we were told by the Captain that Dublin was closed and we were being re-routed. Initially he said he was trying to get somewhere else in Ireland but then managed to get us into Glasgow (which was fine for us, we could take a train south). Unfortunately, after flying towards Glasgow for a little while we were diverted from Glasgow and landed at Prestwick (near Glasgow, Scotland) on a runway covered in snow. We sat on that runway, in the plane, for two hours!

Eventually the Captain said that they were being re-fuelled and were going to try making it to Dublin. He said that Dublin was currently closed, but we’d either try to land there, or land in Shannon (near Dublin) as that had opened. We took off from a snowy Prestwick and managed to land in Dublin (it had opened while we were in the air).

When we got to Dublin we realized just what a mess the UK and Ireland were in. We were about 5 hours late for our flight to Manchester, England and it had been canceled – as had every other flight to Manchester.

After getting through Immigration (which granted us access to both Ireland and the UK), we lined up in a queue which was 400ft long in the baggage area for about 20mins before we were told this was not going to be the right line. We went up to departures and found the right desk for Aer Lingus, talked to someone who got us a flight to London, UK at 6:30pm UK (12:30pm Chicago time on Saturday).

The line for that desk was 300ft long also. They were managing the line with staff to stop queue jumping and I have to say I’m really impressed with how Aer Lingus were dealing with things. A major thing which was done for us is that when we checked-in for our flight to London the agent actually had to leave and go back through customs so he could manually find and tag our bags (which had originally been checked-in through to a closed Manchester Airport).

While we were waiting for our plane in Dublin, I booked a rental car in London (we originally had one booked in Manchester). Our flight was supposed to leave at 6:30pm, but because of a late arriving plane we eventually left at 8:15pm… While getting on the plane we heard a Stewardess from another airline saying that they were not sending any more flights after ours to London! We got on the plane and after they de-iced the wings we were sat warming the engines and the heavens opened… The snow started falling very much like a blizzard.

For the first time I saw a pilot do things to prepare for something going wrong. He was obviously totally blind as when I looked out of the window I could hardly see anything. The runway looked to have quite a thick layer of snow and I saw the pilot maneuver the plane so he was going to be able to use every inch of available runway. He also held the brake as he wound the engine up near full power (normally it seems like they’ll wind the engine up to full power while rolling along) before he released them. It felt like the pilot was struggling with the rudder quite a bit in the strong wind… Certainly wasn’t nice conditions out there, but we made it.

We landed at London, England at about 10pm UK (4pm Chicago) and made our way to the car rental. We got a great deal (better than we did from Manchester) and arranged things so we can drop the car at Manchester when we left the country. We left London at about 11pm and arrived at my parents at about 2am UK (8pm Chicago).

So 32 hours of travel in these conditions? That’s pretty good. The most embarrassing thing though is that Chicago weather was worse than England or Ireland. We were delayed leaving Chicago because of Ireland, not Chicago. How can the United States cope just fine with this type of thing? How am I able to drive up and down roads in the Chicago area just fine? How was I able to come to England and drive for 3 hours from the south all the way up-north without any issues whatsoever while the News stations are saying nobody can move? The British Media strikes once again, I think. Things are no way near as bad as the media are saying they are and I wonder if some people just wanted some time off work!

Honestly though, it is a little embarrassing. I know the UK and Ireland are not used to getting a proper Winter (well actually, we always used to get proper ones, just not recently), but considering what I see every day in an area like I live in the USA, I’m pretty ashamed at how a nation can fall apart.

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Happy New Year

Friday, January 1st, 2010

Happy New Year everyone!

I have the feeling this will be a pivotal year. Just lately I’ve had a really hard time with the fact that we had to move away from Massachusetts and back to Illinois, but I am starting to feel better. I felt bad because I felt like I was giving up the first thing I truly loved and (by extension) my job. I worked in Mass at the iRacing.com office, that office contained people like Dave Kaemmer who wrote Indy 500, the game I played at Kieron Ashley-Smith’s house (on his PC) when I was 16 between our end-of-school exams (when I should have been revising). I played those racing games and simulations religiously, for years, and even developed a successful Web site (which I since left, and which has since I left shut down); The same Web site John Henry (the Boston Red Sox owner) discovered me from and hired me to work with iRacing. Simracing in some form has essentially been my life for 20 years, or more.

I still work with iRacing.com, but not being in the office is a pretty big blow. It really means I can never advance in my career and it can be pretty lonely and demoralizing at times working from home (bring on the cabin-fever!) I also risk the fact that it could easily be ‘too difficult’ to work with someone out of the office and I guess my only real solace there is that I really am kind of my own department! There’s things I do that if I wasn’t there would probably stop unless someone could figure out how to automate them and there’s things I do that I don’t really feel any other single person could do all of… There’s probably even a few regular duties (things I have to do every day) which I doubt nobody even knows about, and the amount of Private Messages, emails to my personal addresses and even messages on Facebook that I get which are purely about iRacing means I am fairly well entwined with the company – in the eyes of our customers. Saying that, I can’t help but feel like it’ll end at some point and I’ll have to find something else (hence the bulk of the sadness about the move). On-top of that, I got to know a couple of people in the office that I really, really like as friends and I miss them quite a bit. There were obviously a lot of guys around and it was a typical male atmosphere with the typical laughs and jokes we all enjoy.

Sheila has been talking a lot about having children just lately, too, and while I want to have children with her I am worried about her schooling. I think that with a child, she’ll give up school. I know she doesn’t think that, but I think it’ll be too much for her to look after a child, work and study. She is a straight-A student at the moment with a 4.0 GPA and I don’t want her to lose what she wants, she’ll probably regret it.

A really positive thing just lately is that as of April, 2009 I have been establishing credit! I got a Social Security card when I became a legal resident here in the United States and it took a year for me to be able to get going… I think as an adult it’s incredibly difficult to get that first rung, especially in such a deep economic downturn. Back in 2008 I attempted to get a secured Credit Card – and was denied. I was denied because the idiot at Bank of America put the card for $400 when I asked for a $300 one. I kept $300 in my savings account for them to use and guess what? They couldn’t find the $400 they were looking for… We then moved to Massachusetts and of course that screwed everything up: Everything I tried to get my Credit Rating building failed because they couldn’t establish that I was me! I tried to use Bank of America’s Privacy Assist, only to find that the bumbling idiot on the phone didn’t know how to do his job either and couldn’t let me access my own credit file…

I ended up opening a Eufora Pre-paid Card, which said that it reported to credit. They take a monthly payment of $6.65, so I just loaded the account up with enough money for a year and forgot about it! When we moved back to Illinois at the end of 2009 I contacted Privacy Assist, spoke to a woman with brains who confirmed my identity and found that both Eufora and another credit line I had been attached to had both been reporting – and my credit rating was no longer ZERO! Woohoo!

That is actually pretty big for me… It was nice to see great gains on my rating within a year. This means that going for a house of some sort doesn’t have to be too far in our future…

So, kids, houses and the job thing… I told you it was going to be pivotal.

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It’s been a while… Want a free iRacing trial? Hey, that rhymes!

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Edit: Free trial of iRacing disabled. Click here to see details of a reduced price one instead.

Ok, so it has been a while since I made any kind of blog post whatsoever. There are a myriad of reasons for that, not least because I got into using Facebook to express myself rather than my blog. I think I’ll probably get more into this again though and also try to find my interest in photography again, too.

So, what have I been up to?

Well, Sheila and I decided we’re moving back to Chicago at the end of October. She misses her family and friends a lot and of course, my marriage comes before my work. We (well, I) drove to Chicago in August and have found a great apartment which we’ll rent until we’re stable enough to buy a place.

I’ve also bought firstly a 10 gallon fish tank (in July), soon after progressing to a 55 gallon fish tank. I’m getting pretty addicted and learning so much about the whole process of keeping fish. I’m keeping Tropical Freshwater fish (most breeds come from Amazon River fish, but some come from Asian rivers). Really enjoying this and if you follow me on Facebook at all, you’ve probably seen photos of my fish on the Wall.

My 55 gallon fish tank, complete with the dead guy's skull.

My 55 gallon fish tank, complete with the dead guy's skull.


Thirdly, I’ve been working. It’s been an incredibly busy period for iRacing…

I’ve been involved with the setup of the new inRacing News Web site, which is a great site mixing iRacing news and real-world racing news from many different series.

I took over and then have been managing the companies Facebook page. I regularly post news items, screenshots – all the good stuff – there for people to share with their friends. It’s a way for iRacing members to keep in-touch, for ex/prospective-subscribers to see if iRacing now has that item they’ve been waiting for and also, it’s great viral marketing.

We sponsored Marcos Ambrose (one of my personal heroes as I have been watching him race since he raced in England, then followed him racing Aussie V8’s – a series I love) at Pocono. I got to go and now I’m probably ruined for attending a NASCAR race ever again. Why? Because I got to sit next to the crew chief on the pitbox and watch the race from there… It was an awesome experience and the level of interaction and access I had was just awesome. I shot and produced a quick testimonial from Marcos about the software and you can see that on the companies Youtube channel (which I’ve also been busy running)!

We also recently announced IndyCar will be coming to iRacing in the Fall of 2009. This is a huge deal for me personally and I’m extremely excited. During my school exams (when I was 16) my friend Kieron and I went back to his house (he had a PC, I didn’t) to play on my copy of (I owned it, he didn’t) Indy 500 – The Simulation. I had no idea who produced the sim, infact in those days I don’t think I knew there was any difference between a developer and a publisher. It’s now 20 years after that software was released and it’s incredible that I’m now working in the same office, just a few doors down from the man responsible. I had quite a part in the announcement (which took place at Infineon Raceway), as I was tasked with providing the first ever footage of the Dallara IndyCar in the simulation at nowhere other than Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I drove some laps in the very early version of the car available to me and put together a comparative video (meant for amusement and an indication of how far we have come) to be used in the press conference… Everybody seemed to find it almost as much fun as I did!

After the press conference, I was tasked with the duty of editing the press conference just like I had for the NASCAR press conference. I think I did a pretty good job with it and you can see the IndyCar edited footage here.

It was also pretty cool interacting with some people from IndyCar (and actually being recognized by someone from IndyCar by name who said they remembered me from RSC) while getting them the footage they needed to produce their own edit of the press conference. You can view that on their Youtube channel here.

Anyway, that’s pretty much what I have been up to recently. Now onto the thing I am up to now…

I’ve been trying to get a suitable ‘demo’ trial of iRacing put together for new members for a while and I finally managed to get it done. Until now, the only way to try iRacing without paying was either illegal and out-of-date by a long way, or provided you with two pieces of content that you would not be able to race in anger against others during your trial period. The Radical Sportscars promotion gave you your first month of iRacing membership, Silverstone Circuit, the Radical SR8 sportscar along with the basic content you normally get with a 1-month subscription, but as I said, the Radical is Class B – it takes longer than the trial period to be able to race that.

So what have I setup? Two new-member trials.
SB2000
The first, aimed primarily at Papyrus simulation users who are still running Grand Prix Legends, includes a free first month, the Skip Barber Formula 2000, Virginia International Raceway and of course, the basic content normally included with a 1-month subscription (Pontiac Solstice, Legends Ford ‘34 Coupe, SCCA Spec Racer Ford, Lanier National Speedway, Lime Rock Park, Oxford Plains Speedway, Summit Point Raceway, South Boston Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca).

So, why did I choose the Skip Barber Formula 2000? Because it’s a lot of fun and out of all the iRacing cars it drives the most like a car from Grand Prix Legends. You can also reach a Rookie 4.0 license within a few hours of membership and this will allow you to drive this car in official races.

Why did I choose Virginia International Raceway? This track is like a cross between Spa-Francorchamps and the Nurburgring in Grand Prix Legends. This track needs to be tamed and it can give you that sense of exhilaration and achievement which you until now believed could only be gotten after lapping the ‘ring. It’s also a very important track for your career within iRacing (it is used all the way up the ladder) and comes with seven (yes, seven) track configurations.

Any Tips? Yes. The SB2000 is a school car, it is supposed to be driven in a technically correct manner. You need to either be on the throttle or brake at all times to keep it stable; If you lift off the throttle completely in the middle of a turn, it will likely spin out on you for example. Think about where the weight of the car is moving to, be smooth and try to keep even a little bit of throttle down in each turn to keep weight in the rear.

To claim your free first month new account ‘SB2000+VIR’ version, go here, use promo code: REMOVED DUE TO ABUSE
Late Model
The second promo code allows Papyrus simulation users who are still running any of the NASCAR Racing simulations a free first month, the Chevy Monte-Carlo SS late model, Martinsville Speedway and of course, the basic content normally included with a 1-month subscription (Pontiac Solstice, Legends Ford ‘34 Coupe, SCCA Spec Racer Ford, Lanier National Speedway, Lime Rock Park, Oxford Plains Speedway, Summit Point Raceway, South Boston Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca).

So, why did I choose the Chevy Monte-Carlo SS? Because it’s a lot of fun. Secondly, because it’s a lot of fun (and I do know I said it twice). This is my favorite stock car. It doesn’t require you to be so precise and you can drive this car the way you want to drive it – and it rewards you every way. I drive this car with what I call ‘happy hands’, as I am constantly working the wheel and the feel the car gives is just superb. This car will show you just how far things have come since NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. You can also reach a Rookie 4.0 license within a few hours of membership and this will allow you to drive this car in official races.

Why did I choose Martinsville Speedway? because who could say no to this paperclip-shaped beauty? It produces close side-by-side and bumper to nose racing every time. This track is one of the few tracks on the late model schedule in iRacing that isn’t already given to you with the basic subscription, and although my favorite track on the schedule is Concord (a three-turn oval) I thought it better to give you Martinsville Speedway, which is used later in your iRacing career all the way up the ladder.

Any Tips? The late model, as I said before, is very driveable. The best way to drive it technically will be as smooth as possible, but the car easily accepts being sideways and has enough feeling to allow you time to recover it. Many say the late model series in iRacing provides the best quality racing available…

To claim your free first month new account ‘LM+Marty’ version, go here, use promo code: REMOVED DUE TO ABUSE

How the subscription works/things you need to know:

The promotion code creates a new account. Therefore, this cannot be used to add content to an existing account in any way.

A credit/debit card or Paypal account is required and will be needed to access the trial.

This is a free first month. You can cancel payment for the second (and onwards) months at any time. When logged into the members Web site, go to the My Account link, click cancel and cancel again. Regular monthly billing is $19 per month.

Some credit/debit cards (especially European banks) will not accept a $0 transaction. To get around this, we sometimes request $1 – which will show as pending, but this $1 will drop back into your account and will not be taken.

You can switch your trial to a 3-month, 6-month or 1-year subscription at any time. Go to the My Account link on the members Web site and renew the account. Any amount of time you purchase will be added to the time remaining on your trial.

If you buy any additional content on the trial account, but do not wish to continue the trial after the first month, the additional content will be waiting for you to re-subscribe at a later date along with all your racing stats and license.

At the moment there is no end-date for this promotion. But one is set in the system for 31st December, 2009.

If you have any questions about the trial, feel free to contact me by email or facebook.

Feel free to share this iRacing trial information on any other Web site or forum.

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So I passed my Driving Test…

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

I passed my U.S. driving test today. MUCH easier than the British testing system, but I’m not going to complain!

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Making Strides for Breast Cancer

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

My wife and I will be walking again this year in Chicago. If you would be able to help us fund raise, please click the donate ribbon to the left.

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We’re Moving…

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

Sheila and I are moving from Chicago, Illinois to Woburn, Massachusetts. It’s a pretty big move, especially for Sheila. Sheila will be a long way from her family and knowing just how close they all are, I think it’s going to be hard for her. Things are made a little better because she seems genuinely excited and happy to be moving where we’re moving – it’s simply gorgeous – so her happiness on that front should help quite a bit.

Horn Pond. This beautiful lake is about a thirty-second walk from our new home in Woburn, MA.

Horn Pond. This beautiful lake is about a thirty-second walk from our new home in Woburn, MA.

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Being Poor…

Monday, August 18th, 2008

Normally if I buy from Amazon, I’ll buy from Amazon themselves. But, the other day, I bought myself a new steering wheel for my computer and as I was going for the cheapest one I could find (I don’t have the money for anything else at the moment), I went for a private seller who had a pretty good feedback rating…

Here’s what I ordered:

Here’s what I got today:

Can you spot the difference? Rather than sending me a piece of electronic equipment that plugs into a computer and allows me to control racing games or simulations in a more realistic manner, they sent me a Denim bag that’s labeled “only for girls” and is supposed to serve as a case for a Nintendo DS.

It annoys me a lot because we have NO money right now and I am buying a steering wheel at the expense of other things – because it relates to my job. I’m really hoping to be full-time soon, but in the meantime, even after being accepted by Immigration I still feel like the USCIS are screwing me, every day.

There’s a definite piece of me that doesn’t even feel worthy of a title like a second-rate citizen (because I’m not even qualified to call myself a citizen yet!)… ARGH! I just hate this stuff… I’m buying a $21 (twenty-one dollar) steering wheel that is a similar design to one I had almost ten years ago and I feel just totally held back. Like I’m back where I was ten years ago in my life… I feel very poor right now and them sending the wrong thing, although laughable, is kind of crushing. $21, and after waiting for it to arrive… Feeling happy that I’d be able to control the cars in the simulation properly at last – some ‘bag’ arrives instead.

I guess I’m too sensitive about spending any money right now and I feel like the $30.41 that company has of our money is something I know could be used for something better.

I have to tell myself and my wife “no” and say “we can’t” so much, you wouldn’t believe it. I hate doing it, but we can’t afford to do anything… After the highs of going to the (free) airshow on Friday and Saturday, it’s back to the grind now, where life is a constant struggle and my only real release is walking to the (free) Zoo in Lincoln Park. Just lately I haven’t even felt able to do that though because it’s so damn hot that if I go outside, I can’t afford to pay ‘tourist rate’ for a drink and I’ll probably keel over and die in the heat.

They’re right when they say that money doesn’t bring happiness, they are. But having none of it? That is soul destroying… Sheila has given up so much to be with me.

Here’s a quick list of the things that have been caused by having no money:
I live on soup and packet-rice. We occasionally make a stew but it has to last us a few days. We got married on April 11th, 2007 – in a courthouse (not every girls dream, exactly) – the ‘ceremony’ lasted just over 60 seconds. We planned to have a wedding ceremony on April 11th, 2008 – we couldn’t afford it. We will probably never have a wedding ceremony… Every time Sheila thinks about this, she gets upset. We buy clothes per-item when the old one falls apart (Sheila has one pair of comfortable gym shoes right now – find me another woman with one pair!) We wear (proudly) $40 plain gold bands as wedding rings, my ring – apparently – is a woman’s style but: It’s all we could afford. I sold my laptop when I came over here, it was fairly new and cost me $2000… I sold it for $650 and bought computer parts off eBay to build a desktop PC for $500. Why? We needed that $150 I didn’t use. We don’t buy anything we don’t feel we need. We don’t do anything we want to that costs money. The list goes on, and on, frankly I’m tired of writing them.

Being poor… Sucks. $30.41 – It’s nothing really, is it? It feels like so much money right now…

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Congratulations to my Brother!

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

My brother Matthew got into the University of Glasgow! Rated as one of the 100-best universities in the world, founded in 1451, it’s a wonderful reward for the hard work he has put in over the past few years.

Congratulations Matthew!

Credit: University of Glasgow.

Credit: University of Glasgow.

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Tornado in Chicago

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Yesterday evening we started to get severe storm warnings coming up over the programming on TV. This is quite normal, we get bad storms here (though usually they’re only really bad far away from the city). But when the weather service starts to break into programming entirely – you know it’s serious.

They started to say that there was rotation in the clouds (something else we’re used to hearing happen out to the south, west and north of us) and that this may lead to a Tornado… But something was different yesterday: This storm – unlike every other since I have been here – was on course to hit Chicago itself. Normally the effect of the Lake on weather systems helps to avoid this kind of situation for the city, but as the clouds got darker, the warnings started to happen more often and eventually, the Tornado warning sirens started to sound in the city – we knew it was coming!

Sheila’s parents had left for home just a little while before the sirens sounded, so obviously Sheila’s main concern was for them. They called us part way through the storm to tell us to look out for the windows blowing in as their car was being blown around and they knew it was strong. They eventually got home and are fine – as are we. It was just crazy…

The worst storms I’ve ever experienced in the UK were less severe then the smallest storm I have ever seen in the Mid-West. The storms out here are just unbelievable and with the temperatures approaching 100° – it’s more likely to get cloud rotation and if the funnel works it’s way down to the ground – a tornado.

The tornado apparently touched down in the suburb Sheila lived in when she met me and has caused a bit of damage. There are 238,000 people currently without power in the Chicago area… But you know what? Like every major storm it’ll get fixed and it’ll get fixed quickly.

The storm started off with what seemed a thunderstorm and then really suddenly the wind kicked up and our chairs on the deck all slid to the left side. One of them looked like it was going to fall down the stairs, so looking at the trees and seeing the wind didn’t seem too bad, I opened the door and pulled it inside (I didn’t have time to secure it or the other chairs, as I felt the air pressure and gusts starting to get stronger). We then came inside, shut off everything electrical that we thought could cause an issue and then I setup my camera to try to get some footage of the storm. Click the image below to go to YouTube and watch the footage…

Click the image above. On YouTube you can click the \'high quality\' link for better quality video.

Click the image above to view the video.

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My skin is peeling… The Cats love it (ew!)

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Ever since Sheila and I went to the beach the other week, my skin has been slowly peeling. It’s kind of hard to evade the baking sun here (it’s out all damn day), and I’ve probably had a whole Summer’s worth already and we’re only just dipping our toes into August.

Anyway, the really sick thing is that my skin sheds and the Kittens eat it. Gross, huh?

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