Transport Tycoon Forums

So the Thread of Randomness has turned into a place for anyone to start a random conversation about just about anything but most likely something related to themselves.

I originally wrote:Yes, thats right. I'm brining Off Topic to a whole new level. Here i shall try to write things, like rantings, ravings, weird stories and the like.

Day uno! And it starts with a bus. A single deck? Or a double deck? Who knows? But I do know that it will still be full of school and college peeps. If I wake up early enough I get to catch the 07:55(08:00) but if I'm lazy it’s another 30 to 40 minutes to wait. It’s ok though. If I’m especially lucky I get a lift with a friend of my sisters. (Yes I do have friends.) This didn’t always be the case though. I used to live a whole SIX miles closer. In Chippenham. But some bugger decided we should move. So we did, to Calne, a place that can suck so much more that an already rather sucky place. I honestly do not know how it manages it. It just does.

What really sucks however, is being single. For those who have a “other half” it’s ok. But for us bachelors, it’s depressing, lonely, and damn annoying. I went to an event one week later than usual, and the place was FILLED with couples! I mean, please, can’t they go on the last week or summit!? It’s ok though, well, for me. I know there’s someone bigger than anything that loves me. They have a plan for me, (I hope). Anyway, that’s all for now. Feel free to add your rantings and ravings and such like.

As you can see I've grown up and matured somewhat since starting the thread. To be young is nice, but it'd be better if the past dissapeared too...
orudge is gay

When will it be a decade since the thread started?

I encountered something very unique once - a bus with one and a half decks. It was like a coach in that you had to climb the Eiffel Tower to get onto the thing, but there was a lower level behind the engine and baggage compartment with 10 or so seats in it. Mental.

Sorry, but I'm sick of people whinging about being single. Get over it.

And I believe I have encountered musical perfection here.



While I'm here, I am going to have a rant.

iLiKETRAiNS may be the most unique band to have ever existed. Everything about them is unmatched by other modern artists. Their sound is immense - the shimmering, brooding, effect-drenched guitars of Guy Bannister and Dave Martin slowly build up to intense walls of sound, backed by the regimental pounding of drummer Simon Fogal. Alistair Bowis managed to forge consistently brilliant basslines, and Ashley Dean plays, of all instruments, a cornet, it's powerful tones blasting through their songs' climaxes.

Frontman Dave Martin is not insignificantly odd, but like all the best not insignificantly odd frontmen he is an extremely nice man when you speak to him off-stage (which I have done, twice, and am on first-name terms with him. Go me!). His voice is just amazing - a menacing baritone chanting songs about trains, historical figures and death, occasionally all three in the same song. It adds yet another unique slant to the band.

And let's look at their songs. Early iLiKETRAiNS were a very different story. Yes, it was post-rock, but it was hidden underneath summery acoustic guitars. Then they started to go a bit evil - I can think of five songs where the death of someone is the central theme. THELASTDAYOFWiNTER is about the protagonist's lover falling through ice and subsequently drowning. Both parts of BEFORETHECURTAiNSCLOSE concern jealousy that eventually leads to murder, as does STAiNLESSSTEEL. THEACCiDENT tackles that timeless subject of someone drinking a poisoned drink at a party that was meant for someone else - don't you just hate it when that happens? - spawning the immortal line "You were caught up in the crossfire, so to speak".

Now, they've turned into history buffs. Glance through the mini-album PROGRESS,REFORM or new single SPENCERPERCEVAL and you'll see what I mean. TERRANOVA is about Robert Falcon Scott's failed attempt to discover the South Pole, and follow-up NOMiLiTARYPARADE is about a Norwegian explorer who was removed from the team who eventually discovered the South Pole weeks before they set off. AROOKHOUSEFORBOBBY concerns troubled chess genius Bobby Fischer, and CiTiZEN is a reprise on his political status. THEBEECHiNGREPORT is about that ball-bag Dr Richard Beeching, whose infamous report resulted in most of Britain's rural railway network being closed down.

It saddens me that the TRAiNS are still largely unknown (although they did fill up the Birmingham Barfly which is pretty damn good), compared with all the other drivel around at the moment. The Fratellis made it on the back of a single whose chorus is made entirely of the word 'Duh'. The Automatic wrote a good song in Monster... then released an album which is basically 12 covers of it. Mika can sing high enough to pester dogs but other than that is what is colloquially known as a tossbag. Then you have the Kaiser Chiefs hopping around yelling 'Ruby' over and over and over again.

All I ask is that if you happen to be in a music shop any time soon, you part with 4 English pounds to buy iLiKETRAiNS's new single SPENCERPERCEVAL, a brief, catchy 10-minute number on the only British prime minister to ever have been assassinated. And if that description doesn't persuade you to buy it, I don't know what will.

And I challenge you to find me a better opening line than "Please don't go into the kitchen, that's where the knives are, and I won't be held responsible".

Again, we had such topic already.

Randomness is fun I admit.

Firstly, I believe that this thread of randomness could actually work rather well IF, and only IF, we all comment on the post or 2 prior to our own, as has been done, that way it will retain a sense of randomosity whilst still having some sort of focus, so as not to descend into some horrid mess.

Firstly, I am a la'al bit drunkle but hopefully still sensible and coherent (except for the Cumbrian dialect at the start of this sentence), forgive me if I'm not.

Second, Weirdy's right when he says that being single is a bit of a drag, I wholeheartedly agree, but r too is right, you can't get bogged down in this s***. I've recently had a bit of a revelation in finding that if you look at love/infatuation as a way of solving all of your problems and becoming infinitely happy, you're going to be disappointed, and you're going to be a s*** boyfriend, this way of looking of things merely treats women as being a means to an end, always a bad thing and not the foundation of a successful relationship.

Third, I had heard of iLiKETRAiNS r, and I just had a listen to SPENCERPERCEVAL (link), the tune is very much to my liking, but at the moment I can't quite get along with the guy's voice, I'll try a few more of their songs soon though.

Finally (please check these guys out everyone, as well as iLiKETRAiNS, or are me and r the only post-rock/post-punk fans here?), I'll extol the virtues of Interpol, a wonderfully strange band, an acquired taste I'll admit, but still my favourite (along with good ol' Chilis and Maximo Park of course).

Interpol - PDA
Interpol - Obstacle 1 (live)

There, a decently lengthed post for once, please, constructive comments to keep the random thread alive!

P.S. Well I'll be damned, my 300th post was actually quite good!

I can't really relate to the deck things. Here in Calgary we have single-deck buses, and those aren't even extra long and sectioned! I do like the fact that they stand out quite well, and the bus drivers are usually friendly.

I have never heard of iLiKETRAiNS. Ever. Can't really talk about that. I'm not really all that into newer bands. I like classical music. A little of Beethoven, a little of Pachelbel, and mostly Bach.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes you hear of things, or learn of things, and then everyone else seems to be talking about the aforementioned things a lot? Maybe it's the fact that you listen to it more, or maybe it's some sort of global consciousness. I think it's weird, anyways.

Hrmp. Firefox just cashed out on me trying to press enter, what an arse.
And now twice. Anyway, i quite liked that band r, it was, unique. But good, i think i might try to find more of them. *checks time*. :S Still got another hour, hmmmmmmmm. Yes, so, bands eh? I bet i could name a few artist that you may not of heard of, and might not want to listen to.

And about the single thing, it's just one of my many complaints about life.
I hate life with a vengeance at times you know, that helps, you can say "uh-huh" whenever someone calls you things.

Right, thats satisfyingly random. ish.

Hurrah, iLiKETRAiNS fans are gradually uniting!

Time for my 2 cents.

This is about suburban areas. And how badly they suck. Keep in mind, spent the majority of my adult life living in a city.

I miss living in Boston, natrually. Nothing interesting ever happens in the 'burbs, it's all soccer moms, big-box stores, chain restaraunts, and snobby people. Also, if anything does happen, it's during the week, during the daytime. There's no place to go at midnight for a good pizza and beer.

Also, the suburbs are too..well, suburban. As in sub-urban. It's all spread out, nothing is close to the houses. Back in Boston, I could walk a block to the grocery store, another block to the aformentioned pizza place and bar. I could walk down the street, at 1:30 AM, in my bathrobe, and not get a funny look. OK, maybe a few. But not many. Now, if I walk down my street in a bathrobe, someone will see me, and whisper about it, and now I'm the laughing stock of the neighbourhood, the eccentric guy in that house with all the spare car parts in the garage. I always was that guy. But in a city, there are enough eccentrics to not get many funny looks. Back to the point I was going to make, if I walk a block down my street, I end up at another suburban road, but this time without a sidewalk. Another block, I'm...still in the middle of suburbia. People wonder why our enviroment's severaly effed up, and I point at the fact that to get ANYWHERE in the 'burbs, you need a car.

@r: Follow my Interpol video links and give 'em a chance baznitch, I watched over 9 minutes of iLiKETRAiNS dangit!

@everyone: Ditto the above, kind of.

@lws: I grew up in neither a city nor suburbia, just a small village, near a small town. It wasn't bad, nice and peaceful etc, but it did become a reet pain in the arse when you wanted some fun, or some sort of shop or service you'd only find in a city (hmm, sounded dodgy that). Living in the centre of Newcastle is great, even being a small city everything is still so much more convenient!

I've listened to Interpol before, they're pretty good but they don't really set me on fire. Sorry.

So, i'm working today, Vouluntarirly. It's good fun when you have nothing to do, but, they are going to be closing on saturdays because of a lack of staff. It's a shame really, but, that business for you.

Continuing the music trend, i think you lot ought to try bands like OneHundredHours, and a dance/techno guy called Andy Hunter. I actually seem to like a wide range of music from orchestral to rock. anyway, work.

Ehhh. In spectacular fashion, I ran a .pif. It failed for what would seem to be it's main task of sending itself to all my msn c<Firefox crashed RIGHT HERE!>ontacts. Loudly.
It seems A LOT of technology is unstable these days so i'm going to refrain from using the [enter] button. That means one long paragraph. I'm going to leave the poor machine on overnight too. If it is still in working order in the morning, then i'm going to dance. With Orudge, circumstances permitting.
Now, i bid you all Good Night.

[This is an Aprils Fool joke.]



[Not.]

Yeah... I believe it was Ameecher that sent you it.

Guess where he got it from

I was set it by an unassuming friend. Apologies - I'm not really with it to follow usual safety precautions.

For that same reason, I'm gonna be a dad soon

I swore quite a lot when that bloody thing went mental.

Since this is a randomness thread I shall congratulate Dave on being a father and then run around with a chicken on my head while heiling and singing God save the queen.

r wrote:And I believe I have encountered musical perfection here.

I like the background, but I hate the words.

Well, i know what time my pc stopped working, roughly.
How? you ask, well, the clock was at 05:20AM something at 09:20AM.
It lost a whole four hours!
Now i think about it, i'm going to delete a suspicious package from my computer. Now, i'm going to ensure Explorer.exe has no access to the internet *at all*.
Remember, if explorer wants to connect to somewhere, IT A FRIGGIN VIRUS!
Now to see how much of the task was completed.
That's a no. Now i'm going to go find a replacement for the program which seems to be failing more and more.
Good day to you all.

Ok, so, to top off that fact that my pc may well need to be re-installed, the 7.46GB file i left it turned on to download did not finish. Why? The bloody boiler tripped the friggin power! I thought it might be a good idea to leave it, but, I'll be damned if it doesn't finish this decade.
That is all.
(r - I liked that first band you linked to.)

What are birds? We just don't know.

Ok, so, i go the six miles to chippenham this evening for a gathering. It finishes earlier than i expected so i start to think about how to get home. I ring my mum and ask, no. So, then i think about the awesome youth worker, who happens to be there, no. He already has to take 3 other people home, including his other half. However, he agrees to take me the rather short distance to the bus station, (Good choice as it has the no.55 timetable(, and so i get there thinking "Woo, earlier than the bus". Too early. It was about 21:15, i look at the time table, "Eh? It's changed. Oh bugger!".
The next bus was at 22:05. So, i think, i'll call my mum, again. No. No mobile credit, no coins (Well, eight p, but the damn call box wanted 40p). So i wait. My mum ends up calling me - ("What!? Why didn't you tell me?" (Uhhh, perhapse because i didn't know?)). Finally a yes. She picks me up after i see a friggin 55 pull into the damn bus station.

To any stagecoach employee's - YOUR BOSS IS A LOAD OF POO!

Sucks living in a rural area huh, every time I wanna go out back here at home I need to have a lift into town and a bus or taxi back, everything's so much easier back in Newcastle, although admittedly that's because the student accommodation is right in the centre.

r, Arcade Fire do indeed rawk, gotta get their new album, but first priority is Maximo Park's new album out today, damn not being able to walk into town and get it straight away!