New Car

New car!



It's lovely, drives well, nice to sit in, good high seat with plenty of leg/head room, etc etc.

Unfortunately, when I went to drop off some kit at cuthrose's place, I noticed that the side lights weren't working. No problem, thought I, the headlights are fine, I don't need side lights right now.

I also noted that nothing on the dashboard illuminated. Hmm, thought I, mayhap nothing lights up on this one, it's not like there are all that many controls. (The main dash readout is a big bright digital display that is always lit up.)

It wasn't until I reached my destination that I realised there were also no rear lights. Arse, thought I, and spent much of the drive home fretting about being driven into from behind. (I wasn't, though one gentle driver kindly thought to warn me of my disabled lights by flashing his own, brightly, repeatedly. How thoughtful.)

So - long story short - I think something the garage did when they disconnected the integrated radio and fitted my own must have caused a short in that circuit, because apparently the radio is on the same fuse as the non-headlamp lights, and that fuse was distinctly blown. I switched the suspect fuse out for a spare and it blew immediately.

I'm quite narked, but Scott at the garage did give me a three-month warranty covering 'everything' (apparently they would make reservations if I planned to use it to travel from London to Aberdeen daily, but they're quite happy to offer an unconditional warranty for a local commuter like myself), and even if they hadn't I'm pretty sure it was their botch job on the wiring that has caused it so I'd have pretty firm ground for making them damn well fix it. (Also they're a dealership, and I picked it up today, so I'm pretty sure that counts as "not fit for purpose" or whatever.) So I'm going to give them a ring tomorrow and be upset at them.

That is all.

UPDATE: Dropped it off with the dealer at lunchtime and it's all fixed allegedly. Apparently it was something to do with the different wires that go into the back of the stereo, and some Toyota-brand peculiarity - there's three power lines that connect to a stereo, being the Earth, the perpetual preset-preservation power feed, and the ignition-activated actual power. Unbeknownst to the engineer, when the lights are switched on, the Earth changes into the actual power - or the perpetual feed - or something weird and mad. This whole arrangement is probably so the radio knows to dim its lights, or something. Anyway, fixed now, so whatever.

BESM

Oh, last night I ran my first BESM session! (Not ever - I did another game a few years back. I don't like to guess when, I think icklejo and arwel were living in Didsbury at the time.)

I think it went quite well - people were having fun, decapitating guards and breaking vaults - though I need to have more of a look at the rules. This week was mostly intended as an introduction, so was very fast and loose, but I'm not completely comfortable yet and things did grind to a halt once or twice.

I also think I'm not great at pacing - I'll decide where things are going, and rather than prevaricate and throw obstacles or complications into the mix, it'll just happen. Which makes for speedier plot progression but also makes things seem simplistic. I tried to pad things a little early on, but I think it just came off as a bit 'yeah sure whatever' because I'm rubbish.

Also was vaguely concerned about party balance. Sean, the hacker with a Mind as high as it goes with skill points on top, was basically able to do anything to any electronic object without trying. Meanwhile Nev, as the medic, didn't really have much to do. Also she was very breakable (though I am going to allow some rejigging of stats to reflect the new understanding of the rules).

Still, Russ's neatly typed background dovetails neatly into my plot, and I may think about rewarding backgrounds with character points or something. Once I've worked out what my advancement process is going to be...