The Christmas Day Truce of 1914

Image courtesy of www.wikipedia.org

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca. Merry Christmas all of you or whatever you celebrate around this time, my Christmas day 2016 has been very typically quiet but I am not complaining, I have got a lot of what I wanted for Christmas so I'm okay.

My day has been mostly me staring at my phone, waiting for one of my favourite YouTubers Broughy1322 to hit 100,000 subscribers, and he did it! I also logged onto GTA Online to claim my free unicorn mask which I am very much pleased with, and also after the last few days with helping my friends get money on GTA and mainly my friend Ahmed so he could get his classic Porsche 911.

But it was after I had just been to my Granny's house for Christmas dinner that I got the idea to write this quickly, I don't know if this will be long but I just wanted to write this quick, I don't want to be away from my parents long enough for them to be like "Come down here now you unsocial little shit". Anyway back on track, the thing I want to talk about is the Christmas Day Truce.

T'was the Christmas period 1914, the British soldiers who are in the trenches in France, they were promised to be home by Christmas after the war broke out. The same was told to the German soldiers, and the many months of sitting down in these trenches, ready to shoot an 'enemy' because our governments were at war.

The night descends upon them, and the British soldiers hear the Germans singing Stille Nacht in harmony, the Brits join in with the same song Silent Night and what happens the following morning is perhaps the most symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst the most violent events of human history. One soldier pops up from behind the British trench, a German soldier is ready to pull the trigger but instead, stand down.

Everyone from the British side and the German side leave their trenches, they exchange season greetings, gifts, food, there was even games of football played between the young Nigel's and Otto's. For the first time, the Brits and Germans were seen to each other to a certain degree, as not a 'target' or any other word to make them nothing more than something to kill, but as individuals. With parents, siblings, partners, children, family back home, a humanisation of all these people, who are all humans and should always have been.

There's this nobility seen with going to war and dying for your country, and my movie I absolutely adore does illustrate this to such a great extent, Testament Of Youth. Behind the act of war, are individuals who shouldn't be reduced down to nothing but a person who lived shorter than they should have.

These men defied what they were told to do, and the unofficial truce of Christmas 102 years ago is a reminder to us all, your fellow human is just that.

2016 has been dreadful, but one thing I want all of you to remember, you have each other. All of you, please remember that and show the ones you love this Christmas, that you do. They are more to you than you should make clear if you don't do that already. That will be all everyone.

I look forward to getting back into my regular type of articles, that I hope you will all stick around to enjoy. Remember everyone, good will to you all as the British and German soldiers displayed, and we need to remind generations to come what these incredible individuals did. Thank you.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and until we meet again.
Luca.

Something I like about myself

Hello you. The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca. So, if any of you are unfortunate enough to follow me on Instagram (Due to my over excessive shit-postings), you may have clicked on my story a few days ago and seen something I wrote. The particular example that I am referring to is finding something you like about yourself and writing about it.

Not to sound all guru like, or spiritual or pretentious by being like "Spread peace, love and positivity and the world will be such a better place" or any of that bullshit. Allow me to provide you with the reason why I wrote that, and not to sound like I am asking for pity or anything because that's the last thing I want from this. I may or may not have touched upon this before, I go to something called talking therapy and speak to someone about things that have gone before in my life, the results of those things and how I can best overcome some fears.

One of the things me and the person I speak to there talk about a lot is how I never think of anything that I do as a great thing, and by that I mean, I don't apparently give myself enough credit. This has been a thing I just thought was the norm, that nobody ever thinks of anything good that they do as a great and commendable thing themselves. Though if I feel I've done wrong, I know that fine well and I think everyone should, nonetheless it has resulted in myself being somewhat apparently a tad negative regarding the things I do.

With all of that being said though, I still firmly believe I don't deserve commending for doing good things. Though having been thinking for a bit, I do think despite all the deprecation I throw my own way, what if instead of being me, I was just some unfortunate soul who had to tolerate my existence? The perspective of someone who knows me, who themselves believes their own idea of average is themselves and anything they do, because I can safely say that I see a lot of good in people. One of those people is my friend Emma, who is responsible for me coming up with this idea.

Emma she has her own blog which I will link here (https://emdoesbookreviews.wordpress.com/) where she reviews mainly books - as you can tell by that title - and I highly recommend it for any of you bookworms. I will say here and now though, Emma has gone to university and won't be posting on it extensively but there is already stuff there to enjoy. Like I've just said to Emma, it's like getting into a TV series that has been running for many years, there's already a lot of stuff to enjoy before there's any more to come.

Anyway, I feel like I've gone off topic there. Basically, Emma has always been a huge help in regards to many things, and why she is relevant here is because of her support in regards to my attempts when trying to contact Warner Bros and whoever else to make a movie adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (If you want to know more, click here - https://redsone-shot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/what-is-voice-with-no-power-part-2.html).

I've never been someone who just thinks of something that should happen and never act on it. As far back as I can remember, I write off to whoever I can if I can see the benefits of something happening, it's why I began this blog because as naïve and pathetic as it may seem, just having it out there is enough for me and hopefully, it can become reality.

Notice there how I used sort of negative words to describe what I do? That's something I've always done but now, I am not just thinking of someone who may look at me and laugh, I am trying to place myself in the mind of another type of person. It was after the comment that Emma left on my article that really stuck a chord with me, that you can go read if you scroll to the bottom of it or I can just copy and paste it here.

'Luca...
It's been a while since we talked, but reading this, reading how you talk about chasing your dreams and not giving up, I've been reminded just how fantastic you are. You know I love your insight for this project (which you have stuck by the entire time) and you know how much this story means to me as well as you, and I am so proud of your determination with it. Chase your dreams, my friend <3

Your friend Emma' - emdoesbookreviews

This was the first time I could ever see a perspective that was a positive one. I've obviously got some amazing friends who mean the world to me that have told me things like that before, I could never see it from their point of view. I never consider myself an interesting person, I have made that clear before but because of this, I unconsciously put myself down. But thanks to Emma, I think I can write this and encourage you to do the same. This is, something I like about myself.

That something is, whatever I am passionate about, I don't just let it go easily and I want to try and put it in the minds of the correct people. But I don't do it out of huge personal gain, by that I mean I don't want to get a huge amount of credit or money, I just want the thing I am pushing for to exist whether I benefit in that manner or not.

A recent example, I had this idea for a new type of racing game called Giro d'Strada. I had decided to try and contact the developers of Assetto Corsa, so I accidentally assumed it was 505 Games who distribute the game rather than make it and they pointed me in the direction of the forums that the actual developers of the game - Kunos Simulazioni - are always checking on. If any of you are interested, here is my forums post here (http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/free-roam-based-racing-game-giro-dstrada.40219/#post-802549). I do plan on going into a hell of a lot more detail with my Giro d'Strada idea so stay tuned for that.

As much as it is about me wanting to see a game like this, I am not so unreasonable that I would only ever push for something if only I would like it or it would be convenient for me. If I was like that, I would ask my parents for a LaFerrari Aperta and say they didn't love me if they would not, but thankfully I am not.

My point is, I could take this idea and run with it, try and get a lot of money by making the game myself but I just want this game to exist so I can play it and enjoy it, and for other people to do so as well because I believe there is a gap in the market for a game like this. I would not trust myself to not screw it up also, but whether someone wants to make money off of a concept I've come up with, I don't mind. I'd expect to have some say in the game though at the very least!

If whatever I push for on here or in any other part of life, I never want to gain any notoriety from it. I write about something because I believe in it being a success. Whether it be this game that I have just spoken about, my last article talking about a British based premier single seater championship that will provide an alternative to F1 for some drivers, the Curious Incident movie with Taron Egerton as the main character, a four door convertible Rolls Royce based on the Enus Windsor Drop from GTA Online, or on the flip side a bunch of real life cars that I believe would make great and popular vehicles in GTA, or any possible concept I will conjure up in the future.

It doesn't matter for me that I'd become rich if I claimed these ideas for myself and ran with them. As much of an annoyance it can be that there are absolute dickheads who earn a shit tonne of money for the shady stuff that they do, I am at complete ease with the way I am in regards to all of this.

I do have plans to obviously make my living, I have opportunities that are coming up soon that excite me and I also plan on writing fictional novels (Which I have touched upon before) that may do me well for the future, who knows? If you remember my article on The Accountant, I talk about how I'd love to see novels based on the lore surrounding Ben Affleck's character from the film, and I would do it myself but I do want to see the character and lore done well by a much more celebrated or even acknowledged author. So I'd appreciate being the consumer if someone who was a very good writer decided to write novels about Christian Wolff, since I couldn't trust myself to do it right.

The other thing I like about myself, I'm grateful. I know the term "You can't be sad because people have it worse" is perhaps a very guilt inducing statement but I do carry this with me quite strongly. My birthday was November 27th and I turned 20, and on the day I got a new red hoodie (My third one..), Zootropolis on DVD, some money for my PSN wallet but most of all, my new Logitech G29 steering wheel.

My Instagram followers will know about this. I have it directly in front of me as I write this, and if any of you have seen an article I wrote about gaming racing, I talk about how I miss the times I used to drive on my PS3. Now I can drive on my PS4 and the feeling of turning this force feedback wheel and applying the power on Assetto Corsa whilst driving a LaFerrari around the Nürburgring Nordschleife was amazing.

I am getting a few movies on DVD for Christmas but they aren't that expensive, I just wanted a steering wheel for my games console again and I've got it, I'm set for a while now. Whilst I have acknowledged the quiet life I lead, I am grateful for so much and I am looking forward to what will happen next. Even if whatever is next for me is overwhelming and too much, I have some absolutely wonderful people around me who I am forever grateful for.

I'm seeing Rogue One this weekend with my friends Lauren and Matthew, I cannot wait to see the new Star Wars movie. Tomorrow is first and foremost my dad's birthday but also apparently, a new GTA update is going live called Import/Export which I cannot contain my excitement for. I am playing 'Small Hands' by Keaton Henson as I finish this article and most of all, I am happy with who I am and grateful for what I have. Thank you all.

Before I end, why don't any of you write something similar to this? I know friends who are going through hard times and whilst I don't want to again, come across as a pretentious douchebag, all of you have something that makes you worth it, and no it isn't L'Oreal.

Until we meet again,
Luca.

The national F1 alternative - A fan's perspective

Image courtesy of www.motorsport.com

Hello you! The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca, welcome to my Red's One-Shot blog and I am very excited to bring you this article, as I have been waiting to write it for ages. Allow me to provide some background on it though.

Before I do, I want to disclose that whilst I know fine well that I am not selling anything and that means I probably don't need to tell of my biases, I feel it would just be better if I let you guys know here. I am making this article in partnership with the people behind this championship, but I do speak as a fan who is very intrigued by the concept. So to clear this up, I am not paid by Chadwick Motorsport to make this article, I volunteered to write about it from a racing fan's perspective.

On September 13th of this year, motorsport.com published an article talking about a new professional single seater championship that would be racing in Britain and it instantly intrigued me to an incredible degree. The article in question is linked here (http://www.motorsport.com/openwheel/news/gp2-level-single-seater-series-set-for-2017-debut-in-great-britain-826141/) and things that were said in this article included that it would be on the same kind of performance levels as a GP2 car. For those of you who don't know, GP2 is seen as the junior racing series right below Formula One, racing on the same weekend as the F1 drivers alongside the Grand Prix.

The reason why this perked my interest is that it is absolutely unheard of to have a domestic racing championship in Europe at the level of performance. Usually when climbing the racing ladder, you have entry level championships like Formula 4 and Formula Renault 2.0 racing both in national and European championships, then you have the next step up being Formula 3 championships which have been scaled down in terms of national championships since more drivers are choosing to race in the European championships at this level.

But the level that this new British racing championship is unheard of on a national scale, with like I've already said, performance that is very comparable to that of GP2 and Formula V8 3.5. It did make me wonder, how would this appeal to a driver looking to move up the racing ladder into F1? We will get to that in a bit.

Next up, that part where I said, racing in the winter? Before I go on, my contact at Chadwick told me that they are now pursuing a series set in a more traditional format, that being from the beginning months of one year to the later months of that same year.

The original idea was to race between December and March, providing racing drivers at the level of GP2 and Formula V8 3.5 a chance to race during the off season and keep themselves sharp. Maybe also, drivers in lower junior single seater series could utilise this smaller scale championship that will not clash with their main campaign. They could use this to their advantage in order to try their hand at racing these type of cars whilst they don't immediately have a budget, which by the way is a huge problem in racing nowadays and what we will get onto soon.

I know a lot of what I just said is now no longer relevant because I have now been informed that they are pursuing a more traditional schedule structure that most championships follow. Whilst the idea of a winter series at that level would work brilliantly, as many single seater series take place during the European winter months (Examples: Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand, MRF Challenge in India and other parts of Middle Eastern Asia, even a future FIA certified F3 series), but the fact that this series was taking place in the UK during the winter was a concern.

No matter though because now that this UK based championship will now run during the more traditional months, I now have reason to believe that this will now fill a gap in the motor racing market. That reason is as follows.

Speaking extensively about GP2, many F1 drivers have won championships in GP2 since that series' inception in 2005. The inaugural champion was Nico Rosberg, who as we know is now the F1 champion and now has just hung up his helmet, and his team mate for the last few years at the Mercedes GP team and three-time champion Lewis Hamilton, won the GP2 championship the year before moving up to F1. From 2005 to 2011, every single champion graduated to F1 the following year with the exception of 2008 champion Giorgio Pantano, who had a small campaign in F1 with the Jordan team back in 2004.

Since then though, with the amount of drivers trying to make it to F1, it hasn't since been the case that the tradition of the GP2 champion immediately graduates to F1. 2012 champion Davide Valsecchi and 2013 champion Fabio Leimer never got the chance, and since then all the GP2 champions have had to wait a year. That includes Renault F1 driver Jolyon Palmer and McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne, with reigning champion and Red Bull backed Pierre Gasly unable to take one of the Toro Rosso drives and can't stay in GP2 since the rules prohibit the champion from competing.

Vandoorne spent his 2016 campaign in Super Formula, which is the top-line Japanese single seater championship and it seems that Gasly and also former GP3 champion Alex Lynn will be heading over to the Far East to race there this year. Not to discredit Japanese motorsport because as far as Asian based motorsport championships go, Japan are pretty much the only country who embrace it to such an incredible degree.

But when concerning world motorsport, Europe is the main home and we have no proper alternative to F1 here unfortunately, not as far as car performance goes but more in terms of its competitive nature. This is where I believe this series will come in, because thanks to my contact at Chadwick Motorsport, I have been told some incredible figures and facts regarding cost entry that I believe will be incentive enough for many top line drivers to race in this series. This is where I talk about money.

Ever heard the term 'Pay driver' in motorsport? It's a sad fact but motorsport is the only sport (As far as I'm aware) that money plays more of a part in over actual talent, and that's why you will often see drivers who are obviously not as talented as many of their peers, picked for drives in high cost motorsport. I touched on this before in an article I wrote about the chance of video game based racing becoming popularised by the fact that there would be very little in the way of money involved, because the cars used in video games are obviously digitally created so there would not be any need for money to be used to repair the cars.

So in regards to this series, here is what I was told that will be the case for entry into the British based championship. The initial entry costs are £375,000 which will cover pretty much everything such as the cost of each individual car and engine, race entry fees, permits, transport, personnel, maintenance and trackside support, with anything further than that not yet defined in terms of cost. For every season after from then on, the cost will be cut down to just £75,000 due to the car and engine's cost having already been covered in the first season, and this is absolutely remarkable! (Note: These figures may change but the Chadwick Motorsport guys are set on keeping the series costs to as little as possible.)

I just want to get it out there right now, I am not an expert and I have no way of finding out if these numbers are true, but I heard these numbers thrown around when discussing the prices to run for a season in these junior formulae series. GP3 racing cost I believe about US$600,000, Formula Renault 3.5 (Now Formula V8 3.5) costs US$800,000 and GP2 costs an astonishing US$5,000,000 for a season. So to think that after the introductory year after the cars and engines have been developed, for the entry fee to cost less than £100,000 is incredible, so this will allow drivers who don't have as much money to compete in most competitive championships to revitalise their professional single seater career.

The reason why I believe this has been achieved is because Chadwick Motorsport will be running every single entry in the series, and this method was last utilised in the FIA's Formula Two championship which ran between 2009 and 2012. It's a stroke of genius on Chadwick's end to do this, especially considering that for the most part, the series will remain in Britain with I believe one possible overseas round, hopefully at Spa. That's my next point actually.

Being the enthusiastic individual I am, I got talking with my contact at Chadwick regarding this series' possible schedule. I obviously don't run the championship so my word isn't fact in the slightest, but as far as I am concerned, the best racing schedule for this series would be alongside the British GT and the BRDC British F3 championships. Partly because tagging onto the same program will lower the costs of hauling the freight around but mostly because as far as the top line British national racing championships go, the schedule for a weekend alongside British GT and F3 is far less packed than let's say, British Touring Cars.

I've been to Croft many times to watch the BTCC and loved it, but the current TOCA package that always tag along with BTCC and get their races shown on ITV4 is already at its peak when it comes support races. The Chadwick-ran series is planning on having all of its three races on the final day which is exactly what BTCC does, and having a Sunday structured with the first Chadwick-ran series race, then a BRDC F3 race, then Chadwick, BRDC F3, final Chadwick race then the British GT race. Obviously some variables apply there, which I won't get too deep into.

Plus also when you consider the calibre of the circuits that British GT and F3 have been attending in recent years, you have obviously the big guns like Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, but then you have some great national circuits like Snetterton, Rockingham and probably my favourite, Oulton Park which just so happens to be the closest to where I live. Unfortunately, no Thruxton but no matter.

Without sounding way too sensationalising of this new series, Chadwick have gone beyond the call of duty when it comes to not only providing drivers who want to continue their single seater career, but also with fans due to the fact that they may be pursuing a one day format for all the races. Like what BTCC does, have one or two practice sessions the previous day before qualifying then leaving all the racing for the big day. That would provide more than enough incentive for the fans to flock up on the day of the racing, and with the main British GT race and one or two British F3 races also there as well.

Just want to add, as far as broadcasting goes for those who want to watch at home. Chadwick are pursuing a YouTube live streaming method which has worked in the past for DTM, and I imagine perhaps they could strike up a deal with ITV, BT or Motors TV to show highlights a week later or maybe even live.

Anyhow, in conclusion! It's a British based championship with cars that use a 4.0-litre V10 that produce 640 horsepower, with according to my contact at Chadwick, ticket prices that will be kept to as little as possible. I may have bias here but when I heard about this championship, my ears perked up and I took notice, and I am writing this as a fan who is excited to see this series happen. Because there will be more than enough drivers who will be willing to compete in this championship and hopefully, all the talented ones will be placed in the series and we can have some great racing in what I am confident will not only be the premier domestic single seater championship, but will be a top line concept for other drivers that are based in Europe to want to hop over to this crummy rock off of the coast of France.

Before I end off, I want to thank Chadwick for authorising me to write this article and entrusted me with a lot of information and I have respected their trust. I would very much like to attend an event at some point, maybe if they do become a part of the British GT and F3 program (Here's hoping) and they go to Oulton Park for the first round, I could go there.

So anyway, if you've made it this far and are not bored to death, I thank you. Hope you enjoyed and I'll be publishing another article in the next coming days.

Alright! That will do, so until we meet again.
Luca.