OD404

See I like my 318IS (E36). As a cheap and reliable runabout it's been flawless, grated there are faster cars out there, and better handling ones, but it's still reasonably fun to drive and serves as a practical car alongside the RX-7. Speaking of which... Picked up my new bonnet at the weekend!

In typical rotary fashion; a new engine... More specifically, I noticed that one of the water seals in the block was beginning to give up the ghost and while it still had plenty of miles left before it really became an issue, I figured I'd be proactive. So the engine is coming out for a full seal change, the apex seals will be inspected before I decide whether or not to replace those, if they aren't too worn I'll just replace the springs behind them to give compression a boost. The block is also going to be ported to give a little more flow at top end (whilst maintaining low end torque). Gonna clean up the engine bay and fit a new cooling system and intercooler and delete some unwanted bits and pieces. Hopefully the result all this will be about 340bhp (limited by the capacity of the fuel system) but achieved with the turbos running stock boost levels at the very most. I've also got a new bonnet on its way, and intend to give the interior a complete overhaul, but that's taking a back seat until I've got it back on the road again.

Been one hell of a long time since I posted anything regarding my car, but things are changing...

It's not as bad as we make out. Money wise I earn more than enough at my age to have a comfortable living and have all the hobbies I want. However in terms of effort versus pay it's not great. People don't stay in engineering because it's a cash cow (it may be the reason they get into it initially), they stay because they enjoy the work, which I do. A couple of years back I read an article in the Times talking about average wages in different sectors. Engineering came out with the highest average wage and I think that tells a good story. That in some ways this profession is very like to earn you a comfortable standard of living, but the very high paid jobs are extremely rare. Fortunately the lower paid jobs tend to be better earners than those in other professions. As for my job, I'm now the lead structural analyst for our Tier 4 engine program, which is more project management than analysis work, but along side that I'm also now the lead CFD analyst at our tech centre, which stops me getting too bored with Microsoft project

What the hell, if no-one else is going to say it then I will: Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Anything fairly recent, with a reasonable amount of special effects or impressive landscapes will bring out the best in Bluray. So along with the current suggestions, here are a couple more: Lord of the Rings Transformers The Planet Earth series (and similar) Along with those I also recently got Fight Club and Predator, and was amazed at how well the conversions were done. Just about to order the Alien Quadrilogy on Bluray so hoping the conversions are just as good.

Your link to a graph showing oil production levels can be a little misleading as availability of oil and cost of extraction are only a couple of factors which determine amount of oil produced in a year. Global demand, storage and other factors can have an effect and wouldn't necessarily be an indication of an on going or impending 'crisis'. I'm hoping that's not your only source? I manage to sit on both sides of the fence with this. Developing new engines and power generation equipment that use less fuel/oil as well as utilising waste heat to reduce the need for heating mean's that I am helping to reduce our consumpsion of fossil fuel. But on the other hand my car does 17mpg

GT5 uses the PS3 eye to give you this feature

I'm a computational analyst for Cummins diesel engines. I get involved with stress/fatigue analysis, structural dynamics and fluid analysis for various engine components.

Agreed, I'm pretty sure no-one on here can truely say they were actually noticably better off while we had the 15% VAT rate... If anything it was more of a gimmick to get us to spend more under the illusion that we had loads more to spend, whereas the reality was that a few less pence on everything we buy is not going to make a difference. As someone who keeps a good eye on my finanaces I can say without a doubt that it made no difference to my outgoings. The increase to 20% in my view will have the same marginal effect on people's individual lives, but add all those marginal increases together for the whole county and the government will actually receive a decent amount to help the defecit. Besides, fuel prices vary more than the 2.5% VAT increase anyway...

Looking forward to GT5 arriving tomorrow, Black Ops just hasn't impressed me to be honest

Can't say I've been that impressed so far

Another vote here for buying the boots new. I bought my first pair new and then got the board and bindings off ebay. You can find some real bargins out there, I got an unused board and bindings for £170 posted, when the board alone was worth about £300 new. I've since changed all my gear, but only because I'm at a stage where I know what equipment suits me. When you start out, in theory you could learn to ride anything, but the fact remains that poorly fitting boots will hurt. Good luck with learning, having somewhere close you can keep going to will be a huge help!

Wish someone would send me highlights

This man speaketh the truth. You need to sort out what you can afford to buy and run (including how much you can afford for insurance as that's likely to be the biggest outlay at your age), then start looking .