The fickle finger of fate

Saturday was my big offshore fishing trip that I pulled the local card on. I knew I shouldn't have done that. When I try to be sly in any way it ends up biting me, just as it did this time.

The seas were 5-7 feet so they would not take the boat out. The irony of the situation? It turned out to be a beautiful day, was over 100° F, and yet we were all land bound. Not a boat to be rented or a charter to be had. Ah well, that should teach me to try an underhanded trick like the local card.

Since my plans were dashed I headed over to the mall and purchased a "Driving Force Pro" which is a steering wheel made by Logitech. It's main use is for the Playstation 2 game Gran Turismo 4 which has been in my regular rotation of video games for some time now. I've actually almost completed the game and kind of got bored with it so I started it over. In case you aren't familiar with the game it is a driving simulation game. You begin with 10 thousand dollars to purchase a car, race for money, pay for upgrades to various components on your cars. Eventually you have won all the races and have so much money that it is what I think winning the lottery would be like: an exercise in collecting.

The wheel adds to the realism and makes the game even more frustrating and therefore masochistically enjoyable. One of the features available on all cars is what are called driving aids. These include traction control as well as active stability management (which helps you take corners more easily.) Since I have never driven a car with either of these features I decided to turn them off. This further creates a challenge since it is now not only easy to spin cars around at high speeds it is quite common. Built into the steering wheel are all kinds of motors that turn the wheel much like a real car's steering wheel would do. If you find yourself spinning in the roadway at 100+ miles per hour, grabbing the wheel can be a harrowing experience.

...In related news, I'm a video game geek and am hiding from all the company (not really mine) at the computer / playstation 2 desk.