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1. Foreign Beggars – Contact (United Colours of Beggattron)
2. Wale – Pretty Girls (Attention: Deficit)
3. DJ Quik & Kurupt – 9x Out Of 10 (BlaQKout)
4. Clipse – Popular Demand (Till The Casket Drops)
5. UGK – Still On The Grind (UGK4Life)
6. 50 Cent – Death To My Enemies (Before I Self Destruct)
7. Royce Da 5′9 – Dinner Time (Street Hop)
8. Raekwon – Kiss The Ring (Only Built For Cuban Linx II)
9. Blaq Poe – Ain’t Nuttin Changed (The Blaqprint)
10. MF Doom – Gazillion Ear (Born Like This)
11. Brother Ali – Breakin’ Dawn (Us)
12. Attitude – Money (Mixtape)

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Kings Crossing is maybe my favourite Elliott Smith song, and there are a lot of brilliant tracks in his catalogue, which was cut short by his suicide. The swirling, layered intro and the depth of the production are miles from the 4 track grain of Roman Candle, but the depression and drug abuse themes are still there. Lyrically though, it’s like there’s a realisation in the song that being successful and famous hasn’t made it all better – it just pays the bills. The lyrics are superb, but I thought with Christmas approaching this would be the best snippet to quote:

It’s Christmas time, and there’s needles on the tree
A skinny Santa’s bringing something to me
His voice is overwhelming, but his speech is slurred
And I only understand every other word.

UGK are one of my favourite groups of all time, and Pimp C’s death came as a bit of a shock. The group’s final LP, UGK4Life, was released after his death, and while there are some excellent cuts throughout, it’s the final song, Da Game Been Good To Me, that really sums up what UGK, and Pimp C in particularly, were all about.

It’s a wonderfully warm, rolling beat, with a classic sung hook by Pimp C, who also co-produced. There’s no maudlin quality to Bun B’s verse, and that and the Pimp’s two verses have them doing what they do best – putting those that don’t respect the game in their place.

It proved hard to find any information on what the format indicated for the 1993-2003 swifts, but I did find this (google translated) Hungarian site, appropriately enough as it seems the cars were built over in Hungary, which is packed with useful bits and pieces. The two most useful codes are the VIN and the model number, the VIN can be found at the back of the engine compartment, while both are printed on a sticker on the cover of the spare wheel well.

The VIN looks something like TSMMAA35S00860000 and doesn’t really seem to follow the normal VIN rules. The first three characters represent the manufacturer, in this case Magyar Suzuki. The fourth letter always seems to be M as well, but the fifth and sixth give you the body style, AA for 3 door, AB for 5 door and AH for 4 door. The next two characters related to the engine, 35 for 1.3, 44 for 1.0 and 14 for 1.6 (the engine codes themselves might identify variations, e.g. G13BA for the 8v G13BB for the 16v). This is followed by S00, then the unique identifier. This can be used to determine the year (from the same site):

1992 – 100000+
1993 – 100922+
1994 – 114286+
1995 – 133811+
1996 – 250000+
1997 – 269289+
1998 – 333054+
1999 – 399172+
2000 – 530016+
2001 – 818529+
2002 – 876161+
2003 – 920516-933375

The model code identified a few more bits and pieces. It should be nine characters long and look something like HEJ534B02. The first character is the body, H for hatchback, S for sedan. The second character gives the type, E for Swift. The third gives the numbers of doors, A – 3 door/2 seat, L – 4 door, F – 5 door, J – 3 door/five seat. The next two give the engine combination, 33 – 1.0 manual, 35 – 1.0 automatic, 53 1.3 manual, 55 1.3 automatic, 63 1.6 manual, 65, 1.6 automatic. The sixth character gives the edition, e.g GLS, GLX etc, represented by a character from 2 to Z. The seventh indicates the series, A – 1st, B – 2nd, C – 3rd, E or F – 4th. The 8th and 9th give the market it was made for, eg 02 for the UK. There’s a complete list on the hungarian site – all credit to the author for putting the work in to list all this out!

Insert A Business Card When Paying Bills. Bills contain advertisements. Why can’t you advertise your skills or services the same way? Insert a business card with you payment. You may not think anyone who opens your credit card bill payment can help you – NEVER underestimate the power of networking. As the movies 6 degrees of separation points out we are six people away from knowing someone of influence. You could be six people away from knowing the Prime Minister or The Queen.

Ask For Referrals. When giving a business card people will feel more comfortable if you say “If you know anyone that could use my services, give them my card” [...] This always places you in a better position – they will feel better about helping you and you should give them at least two cards.

Use Proper Business Card Etiquette. When you give a business card, ask for a business card. When given a business card don’t just take it and put it in your wallet. Make the person feel important by looking at their card for a few seconds – you may see something that could be a topic of discussion. Write comments on the card such as date, location and common points of interest. These comments will prove valuable when following-up with that person. This also demonstrates a sincere interest in the other person. Only then should you place the card in your wallet.

Bar existing deals, Bethesda will now publish all of id’s titles going forward, and allegedly the management of id will remain as is.

Still, it does feel a bit like the end of an era, the absorption of what is, to me at least, the most iconic game developer out there.