General conversation thread: Chat about anything that's not WipEout.

Thanks SR, dunno what else to say atm. numb. The funeral is tomorrow, (Muslims have to bury their dead within 3 days) and it's gonna be even harder when I see his father shoulder the weight of his son...

... that's gonna kill a part of me, inside - just know it. Another friend of mine died in 1998, and a part of me kinda died when I saw that his father was in line to shoulder the weight of his sons coffin - near the end of the line where you lower the body into the grave (Body is taken out of coffin first).

was going to talk about the ug ness of christmas trees(we just got ours) but meh
my condolences Ace, much love to you and Rashid's family
& seasons greetings for those who believe in that sorta thing and those who love binging on turkey and such

-zer:donut

Im terribly sorry, ACE. Ive been dealing with a family bout with cancer too. I feel for ya, bro. Stay strong. LiveStrong.

You too bud. And thank you for your kind words :)

The funeral was today at 5:30pm gmt... Huge turnout. Was very cold - freezing in fact. Muslim cemetaries are not as nicely maintained as some well established Christian cenetaries, so it was tricky navigating our way around the other graves (ice and hard uneven mud/ground), was pretty dark too - only the occasional bit of light from a hand held HID lamp (about 4 of these). There must have been at least a 1000 people there... I saw a lot of old friends who I hadn't seen. Some in years. I managed to get near the grave, when the prayers were being called. All us friends were there, and some got emotional. Those bonds were there from nursery days, there's friends, and then there's friends who are more like brothers... Was pretty intense. I'm proud of my friends, they all managed to turn up. Some travelling from far away to be there.

There was a lot of Rashids family there too, as you'd expect. Lots of elders aswell, who took care of the calling to prayer and stuff. I'm gonna miss my friend... But I'm confident he's in a better place.

hey ace, i'm very sorry to read about that. death is never easy to handle and i offer my sincerest condolences. perhaps a positive is that it brought so many people together to grieve, but i'm sorry about your friend. RIP

Just started using my PS3 for proper non-downladable games and it's ****ed...brilliant -_-

First I get “An error occurred during the start operation. 80010514″

Some geyser told me to restore the file system so I did, now everything is freezing up and I'm in a loop of having to restore the file system every 5 mins because my games keep freezing.

Edit: Now I just get “An error occurred during the start operation. 80010514″ regardless.

Dammit I knew I should have just stuck with 'the game that must not be named (in this thread ;) )'

Stupid ****ing useless piece of.....

RAGE :bomb

Hope is not lost, young padiwan. The same thing happened to me. You have to reset your account infos. Hold the power button down until you get a screen that asks you to restore to default settings, but be warned-- youll have to re-activate ALL of the accounts on the system. This WILL NOT delete your saves, media or stored games (or any other DLC for that matter).
[Wow...Im all sorts of 'techie-guru today...not bad for a crappy 'passed couple-o-days']

Shouldn't that sort of thing be in the actual game-related and PS3 tech threads?

Answer: Why, yes, it should. :g

There's a PS3 tech thread?

Well the good news it, it works ^_^

Thanks a bunch abukii :g

...although now every time my PS3 freezes I have to go through the same process to get it working again. :pirate

Spoke too soon, still doesn't work. Dammit! I REALLY want to punch my PS3 but I reckon that'd just make things worse (but I would feel SO much better ;) )

Then your blu-ray drive might be on the fritz :(
Im sorry:(:(
LoL...Lance, are you refewrring to the "Error Code" thread? I dont think anyone should have to contribute to that one...means their system is being wonky :) If not, by all means...make a new thread and I will aid and abet. Its hard to actually 'diagnose' a system "hypethetically" though. But, Ill do what I can.
*runs off to check on Wolfkills thread*

Here is another PS3 WipEout HD question:Does the game freeze up when you press the PS Button while loading online mode?(Mine is download)

Wrong thread. ;)

F.E.I.S.A.R - Did you mean to ask that in this the following thread? This one is supposed to be a non-WipEout haven.
http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/sho...t=5273&page=91
I think there will be lots of other places where the game freezing is mentioned too, if you have a search.

On topic
I became slightly depressed yesterday. Based on a BBC article, it seems that house prices are rising at a rate faster than I can save money, even though I'm saving virtually everything I earn. Even if I were to save every single penny I possibly could, they'd still be rising faster than my savings. All this really means, is that I'll have less savings after buying, once I can actually afford something (based on getting a big enough mortgage, which depends on salary). But it's annoying to be in this position. I'd like to move out to gain some independence and find somewhere more convenient for getting to work. But if I were to move out of home and start paying proper hefty London rent (As opposed to smallish money-to-Dad type rent), then I'll be even more screwed in a few years' time. Knowing how much I would need to save would only make the rent feel like money down the drain. I really thought I was in a reasonable position, as I've basically been a scrooge my whole life. :|

Damn, sounds like a crap situation to be in.

Have you tried playing online roulette? The only thing I can think of is making more money, apart from that I don't have any ideas :(
Whereabouts in London you trying to move? You could try sharing with someone...maybe...possibly?

Saturn, I can relate to your story. My brother is in almost the same situation. He, his wife and their 1 year old girl, my niece, is stuck in a rented apartment, with no hope of saving enough money to pay the downpayment on a house.
While the rest of the country suffers from declining prices, for some reason that just doesn't happen here abouts.

That basically means that I get richer and richer just by owning a house and my brother and his wife is just stuck in their small apartment, despite both having reasonably paying jobs.

And on that happy note, I'll wish you all a Happy New Year - gotta get started cleaning the fish and crabs :D

Saturn mate - I feel for your predicament mate. London living is expensive as hell though, so it just means that knowing the art of the "scrimp 'n save" = WIN. A small one type apartment starts at around £700 PCM locally in East London, and a can of coke is still 50p :D Around the same as what you pay in your ends...

... the suck of London is the commute - hideously de-energising experiences to be had in the rush hours of London - and you pay an arm and leg for it...

Bah - almost forgot the whole congestion charging issue - it may have alleviated some traffic from central London but in reality, it has just diverted it around London, therefore increasing carbon footprint (moronic)... sorry, I'm off on one aren't I? :paperbag ok ok I'll shut up.

:donut

@Saturn-- Almost the same situation here. Back in October, 2 friends and myself were on the hunt for a house. We found several that should have been condemned and 1 "keeper". The asking price was 115,000 dollars USD. We bid $110K. It came time to finallize and we signed the papers...only one problem-- in the uber fine print (that was never explained to us by either banks or realtors), it stated we had 48 hours to do ALL of the home repairs upon signing. This included a boiler, new kitchen and a new roof. It was literally impossible. So longer story short, they kept our $1000 deposit and we lost the house. Now prices are going back up and theres not a snowbalkls chance in hell that we're going to get a 3 bedroom house for what our loan is. Stupid banks and realtors!!!!!

The system that governs us - has indeed ****ed us... :( royally, with like a big fat hairy baseball bat! Bastards! :evil

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Originally Posted by ACE-FLO

... the suck of London is the commute - hideously de-energising experiences to be had in the rush hours of London - and you pay an arm and leg for it...

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This is one of the main things that makes me want to move somewhere a bit more convenient. At the moment I have to get a packed train and a packed tube. The trains are cancelled frequently in the slightest bit of bad weather, which is even more annoying. There's one which is relatively empty, because it's only 5 minutes after the previous one, but it's cancelled about half the time, with no reason given. I don't think many people can realise just how draining it is doing the commute every day. It's almost like a fight for survival. It is indeed, also ridiculously expensive. I almost felt a bit silly finding it so tiring, but then my old family doctor admitted this himself, without any prompting. I think he also called it 'hell'.:(

Even with all the gripes though, I'm in a reasonably privileged position. I'm not in the position where I have to pay rent but I can at least afford to move out and pay rent for myself if I choose to. That makes me one of the lucky ones really. But given how much it will cost me in the long run, I'm not sure it's worth it. It's a hefty price to pay for a feeling of independence, and compared to putting the money towards a mortgage, it's really cash down the drain in some ways. I've looked at part own, part rent schemes, but so far not found anything particularly appealing. They're either in places that seem less convenient than where I am now, or they're in dodgy areas. It's not like I want to live anywhere particularly swanky - just that, when you find somewhere that looks like a nice apartment, and then it turns out to be in the area of London which is reported as having the highest murder rate, and when everyone who asks if it's an OK place to live is straight up told NO, it suddenly becomes less appealing. -_-

Yeah, that commute is a killer man. I sometimes let entire trains just leave the platform, sometimes delaying my journey intentionally buy up to half hour, just so I can get a seat, and even then I end up being squashed between quasimodo and shrek :D Nah, seriously, it really does suck. my stop is Leytonstone on the central line, and beleive me when I say 'it feels like the whole of East London lives here' - everyone gets off at this stop, or the one before it which is called Leyton :D

Quote:

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just that, when you find somewhere that looks like a nice apartment, and then it turns out to be in the area of London which is reported as having the highest murder rate, and when everyone who asks if it's an OK place to live is straight up told NO, it suddenly becomes less appealing. -_-

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A friend of mine is renting a one bed for around £680 PCM, its a nice flat but the crime rate is pain. In the 5 months he's lived in his flat (also in Leytonstone), his car has been broken into twice (nothing nicked though:?) we've chased muggers down the road once and 2 murders have taken placew, countless stabbings and a rape have occured in the ends... one of the murders was on the top of my road, and I live in a nice part, Upper Leytonstone (toff :D)

The only real reason to live here I guess is to be close to work, or to be entertained - or both...

...but being entertained costs money in the city... there's just too much temptation. Which is why i've chosen to keep a lower profile these last couple years. Gotta admit, Wipeout and the Zone (Rob you are a legend) have helped keep me occupied in my free, idle hours - otherwise, it's split commitments between work, family, GF and friends - and that split commitment is one helluva hard balance to achieve the older I get :? And the older I get, I realise that I need to put money away too. Got a lil stashed away but its clearly not enough to start out, build yer own nest etc. There's millions of us in the same hole, trying to find a way of getting on the property ladder, yet we have to slave over it - just to secure a roof. Slave - over - it...

Ya know SR, Say you had the deposit, and you had the job which paid good peas, and say with your skill of scrimp n save - you had to find a mortgage deal... where the hell would you start? The marketplace is saturated with a staggerring number of mortgage options from each lender... just figuring all this out takes work, and damn I don't think I could handle the stress on my own. I'd need to be married and let the wife handle that kinda thing :D kidding kidding :D but the question stands - is it becoming increasingly difficult to get on the property ladder? :?