1. Take your time in Los Santos. Get all the tags. Get weapons mastery in machine-pistols, H&K, AK, sawn-off shot gun. Take your time conquering all the 'hoods. It probably is best to build a solid foundation.

2. There is a uzi/mac-10 type thingy in the storm drain under the steel bridge behind CJ's house. There is also body armor in the same storm drain about a bridge away. There is a knuckle-duster and a 9 milli around the houses of the cul-de-sac where CJ lives. Spray can (for the tags) on top of the roof of the pawn shop - these appear to be replenished bd I think, od at the bare minimum. So there's no lack of weapons there.

3. To skill up on weapons, go to the pizza stack in Idlewood. There should be quite a few ballas homies there. keep walking round the pizza place - they'll come at you sooner or later. Take them out. Take their cash and guns. Repeat. Low on health? Eat some pizza. Cops coming at you for your wanted level? There's the pay and spray across the way, just jack a passing car and drive thru' and fix your wanted level.

4. Need some dough? Well if the ballas hoodlums aren't giving you enough cash - go burglarize a few houses. There's a burglar van in what's best described as 'council housing commission' flats nearby, just near the gym and binco clothes shop.

5. Apart from that? Well two machine pistols at hitman level can lay down a pretty impressive hail of lead. Even the H&K at hitman level can't boast that level of firepower although it certainly outranges the twin pistols.

Have fun and drop in your hints here :)

7. It's free (okay this may not apply in the US but for more progressive countries - and yes, this is a dig at you yanks <wink> this is true)

sigh.... there's probably more...

Feel free to add in your own reasons, lads...

Okay what's the long term solution?

Erdoc has not figured it out yet but likely will involve one of the following:
1. Somehow fix the mechanism above, maybe improvise it... Stronger plastic or metal bit. Note, clean the grooves, it helps.

2. Replace the optical drive. Easier said than done, erdoc does not know how the optical drive interfaces with the PS2 mobo (if anyone does know let me know if there's an easy work around).

3. Get a new PS2. The newer one. Hopefully those bastards at Sony have gotten a better mechanism.

Interestingly enough, erdoc's other optical drives including a cheap taiwanese DVD drive which reads ANY region at all, does not appear to share this silly weakness, and given the stuff erdoc has put it thru (750 mb CD-R's overburned etc) his other drives have not yet konked.

Anyway, apologies that this post has little to do with emergency medicine or palms, but what the heck...