Crazy Lawsuit Game

We bought some delicious cranberry cheddar from Whole Foods (via Vermont) in order to make fondue for a late anniversary dinner. We never got around to it but that should happen this week sometime.

I missed an autocross to write yesterday. It hurt but I performed quality work and am now closer to finishing and graduating.

I present in group meeting today and will show various positive results.

A co-worker, his wife, his wife's sister, her man, J and I all went hiking on Saturday. It was nice. I miss camping though. I would've loved to stay near our final destination, pitch a tent, scrounge for firewood, cook dinner over a fire, lay down, look at the stars and sleep in my comfy warm sleeping bag, instead of hiking back down the mountain, getting into a car and eating chicken fingers from Guthries.

Real post and pictures coming later this week. Feliz Monday everyone!

Labels: autocross, hiking, weekend

Randy Pobst is a racecar driver. He started out as an autocrosser with the Sports Car Club of America and worked his way up to road racer and then eventually made enough contacts and friends to get a job getting paid to drive a racecar. He is definitely a "gentleman racer" and races clean every time I see him get behind the wheel. Randy also writes a column in the SCCA's periodical and racing with honor was this month's topic. Days of Thunder was mentioned and has seemingly influenced many racers who actually think that "rubbin' is racin'". Randy has the opposite opinion. If you can't make the pass clean, then you didn't deserve the pass.

Formula 1 and their billion dollar operation is in France this weekend at Magny-Course. I caught a little bit of practice this morning and it should be interesting although the course looks tight and not many chances for passing which should be a good challenge for Lewis Hamilton who is receiving a 10 spot penalty for crashing into Kimi in Montreal last race. So the best Lewis can hope for is to start the race in 11th. Qualifying starts at 8 am on SpeedTV tomorrow morning. The race will be broadcast on Fox at 1 pm on Sunday with the race taped and delayed. Last race Fox had zero pre-show which is usually Peter Windsor walking around grid and interviewing team principals, drivers and other notable people and is great and really sets up the show and mood for the race. Fox also cut out most of the awards ceremony and all but 2 questions of the post race interviews. All of this pre and post race coverage is important because it really lets people see more of what goes on in Formula 1 and is very entertaining.

NASCAR and their billion dollar operation will FINALLY turn left AND right this weekend in California at Infineon Raceway, formerly known as Sears Point. Some teams bring in "road course specialists" aka racecar drivers to replace their oval specialists(?) so they stand a better chance of getting a good result. It seems that the Red Bull team didn't do so hot at Infineon last year, so they've been testing at VIR and some Road Atlanta testing coming up in July. I guess they either can't afford to hire drivers (ha!) or they actually want all around drivers in their cars. Take your pick. Personally I would like to know that my driver can race well on ovals and road courses but maybe that's why I'm not a team manager of a NASCAR team. I'll have to look into when qualifying is and what channel but I do know that the race is on TNT this Sunday at 3:30.

The Indy cars are going in ovals somewhere this weekend. Good luck Danica! You too Graham Rahal!

J and I are going to my grandmother's family reunion this Saturday down in GA and then climbing at Adrenaline Climbing in Suwanee on the way home.

Check ya on the flip side!

Labels: autocross, climbing, Danica Patrick, F1, Red Bull

-Fry expressing his disappointment that ultimate robot fighting was rigged, from the "Raging Bender" episode from Futurama's 2nd season.

I'm actually going into Arrested Development withdrawal. I heard someone quote the show and had no idea who said it or what show it was from. Yes it's possible that they misquoted, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

So Dr. Acura and Dr. Protege are both officially PhD holders. They're flying off to Houston to look at houses and Dr. Acura has an interview with one of her bosses.

J had a serious Office Space moment yesterday. She had trouble with one of her tests and 3 or 4 bosses came to her to talk about it. Yes, she received the memo and understands the policy and just forgot this one time to put a cover sheet on her TPS report.

Writing is coming along. I need to up my writing time on the weekends and once I'm done teaching lab (next week is the last day), I hope to up my writing time on the weekdays too.

Cleaning the apartment will happen this weekend. My folks are coming into the country and then into town next Thursday and they'll be here through the weekend. They'll hop the train to the 'Ham early Sun. morning. I think the train leaves here around 6 or 6:30 am.

If anyone is going to be in the area this Saturday, the Clemson Sports Car Club is having a car show on Saturday. It should be fun but obviously we would much rather have an autocross but the head parking Nazi took care of that plan. I'll get pics on Saturday and hopefully show you why we can't autocross in that lot anymore, or at least not a fun course.

Labels: Acura, Arrested Development, autocross, cars, Futurama, Mom and Dad, Protege

I'm pretty sure I strained my middle finger of my left hand using our new rock rings. I know this because it hurts if you push on it and it happened last year on the middle finger of my right hand. I can still climb though. The wall will be closed next week due to Spring Break (woohoo) so hopefully it'll heal some then.

I saw a lovely Focus rally car for sale online. Here it is now! He's asking $9000 which is really reasonable considering my budget for building my Focus in a Rally Focus is at least $15,000 and everyone always says to buy your first rally car instead of building it yourself. Hopefully when I can afford to blow that much on a hobby, there will be a Focus with a cage and the works available and reasonably priced.

My racing is on hold for right now. My struts are blown and need to be changed. The March BMW event was canceled so now the closest autocross is the BMW event in October. Boo. What that means is I'll be traveling to Charlotte or Atlanta if I want to drive my Focus in anger around cones in a parking lot.

I think I got ditched for lunch so I'll be eating at my desk by myself. Don't feel sorry for me; I love hanging out with me.

Sick of flipping through the channels looking for non-NASCAR racing? Have no fear! Formula 1 starts this Friday in the Land Down Under! I read an article about Scott Speed (former Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 driver) who was forced out of F1 and then came to NASCAR, just to try something different. I'll have to get the whole quote out of Car&Driver but he did say that driving a stock car "is like driving a boat".

I hope my eventual and still theoretical son or daughter enjoy cars and racing and the outdoors. Honestly I'm hoping for a girl because I know J wants one and my mom would love a granddaughter after raising two rambunctious boys. It would be hard in some respects but easier in others. A fast guy is not that rare, but a fast girl? Those are in short supply. And I know J would love to have a pink racecar in the garage.

With energy prices currently going off the chart, I think J is coming around on motorcycle riding. We looked at the BMW dealer a few weekends ago and if we can find one that will fit her (and I get out of school and get a job and we have a garage and the weather is nice to ride) then we'll probably go ahead and pick one up so that I can commute on it and she can learn to ride. The only real problem is that they're small so drivers don't always see them and physics is not on our side if we have an accident.

Labels: autocross, motorcycle, rally

Big thanks to Subaru for sponsoring the Subaru Challenge this past Saturday, November 17! It was an autocross for Subaru vehicles and their sister cars made by Saab. I think there were 1 or 2 Saabs there. The majority were Subaru WRXs and STis with a few mid 90's Imprezas, a Legacy here and there and one SVX. I of course was co-driving Subaru's Subaru. His fastest time was a 49.576 and mine was a 49.671, so just a hair off his time. Subaru's regular co-driver was having some cone trouble and was a bit further back with a 50.163. We didn't think you could have 3 drivers in the same car in the same class, I moved to a higher class so I would drive in another group. They got 3rd and 4th in ESP and I locked down 4th in SM. RAW time I was 20th out of 99 and the tough SM PAX dropped me to 28. Basically PAX is a system that the SCCA conjures up to "equalize" all the classes. You multiply your raw time by the PAX to get your PAX time. ESP's PAX is 0.834 and SM is 0.856. The toughest class is AM and its PAX is 1.000. No mathematical help in that class. The "easiest" class is HS with a PAX of 0.792.

I was very pleased with my performance but really wanted to get Focus out there to see what she could do.

The course was very fast with some nice offset transitions. The fast parts were really fast, full throttle fast, and the slow stuff was fun with lots of steering input.

Full results by class
RAW time results
PAX time results

We're not going anywhere for Thanksgiving and I'm planning on working most of the time, so I'll see you later!

Labels: autocross, Subaru

Moe Syzlak from the Moe'N'Lisa episode, that's the episode where the Simpsons go to the WordLoaf writers' conference in Vermont. Tom Wolfe, Jonathan Franzen and Michael Chabon guest star (and/or voice). WordLoaf is a spoof of the actual Bread Loaf Writers' Conference at Middlebury College in Vermont.

The autocross was lots of fun on Sunday. I was the 3rd car out and spun out like crazy. I was coming off a turn and wasn't looking ahead like I'm supposed to and the first cone of a slalom caught me off guard so I cut the wheel hard to the left and tapped the brakes a bit. The rear end stepped out and there was nothing I could do. I didn't hit any cones though and didn't stall the car (because "in a spin, both feet in", that is both feet on the brake and clutch, or both feet on the brakes for automatic drivers), so pulled away and got a 50 second run. I shaved 9 seconds on my 2nd and 3rd runs down to 41.7 seconds. I figured I could go a bit faster in places and shaved another 0.7 seconds for a 41.0 flat. Good enough for 4th in class out of 13, 35 out of 153 in PAX, and 65 out of 153 in raw time. Not too shabby.

J and I cleaned last night. We've been in our current abode for 6 months now and it's time for a change. We moved the couches around and are getting rid of some things that I was supposed to sell on eBay but never got around to doing, so I will be freecycling them. It did clear up some nice space downstairs though. Of course now our spare bedroom is completely out of control, but we'll tackle that task at a later date.

If anyone likes Subarus, the Subaru Challenge will be coming to an Atlanta near you! We'll be at the Turner Field parking lots (the Green lot I believe) all morning and most of the afternoon this Saturday November 17th. This is an official Subaru event so they'll have examples of the newly redesigned 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX, and I think one is actually in the autocross. I'll be co-driving Subaru's Subaru. I can't wait!

Please click here for a sneak peak at the new Subaru World Rally Championship (WRC) Impreza WRX STi.

Labels: autocross, Subaru, weekend

My heart felt gratitude to all the veterans who have fought for this great country of ours. Especially thanks to both my grandfathers and Uncle Tony. I love you guys.

The autocross was lots of fun this weekend and since it was in Greenville, I made it home by 3 pm. Of course I left at 6:45 am.

I'll be back later with a recap of the event and some comments.

Labels: autocross, weekend

Eh, easy title and a pseudo-milestone. I'll have a complete recap tomorrow but just wanted to get the autocross story out of the way.

Dinner ended about 10 pm, Arpa, a Spanish tapas restaurant in downtown Charlotte, got back to the hotel, lied down and relaxed. Then 11:45 pm on my birthday rolled around ,I bid J adieu and headed off to the Continental Tire factory. Huge thanks to Continental Tires for allowing us use of a couple of their parking lots. There was a tiny issue with registration but I had pre-registered and it was all okay. Swapped tires and got in line. Nice off-throttle oversteer but I hit a cone. 34.7 and I spent the rest of the morning trying to match it. It wasn't to be. My official fastest was a 35.2 (you got 6 official runs and as many practice runs as you could wait in line for). It was a tad frustrating but at least I was consistent. My slowest was a 35.4, not a bad spread, and only a few cones all night. Incidentally, if I would've recorded the 34.7, that only would've bumped me up to 9 out of 15. 10th in class, 104 out of 147 raw time, 90 out of 147 PAX. Besides feeling that I'm at my limits and need to take a driving school or spend lots of money on the car, I had a great time. Lots of practice, camaraderie, and only $30. Keep the racing off the streets yo.

After my work assignment I was able to get in 9 runs in 4 hours. Last year I got about 15 in the same amount of time. Needless to say, the event grew and we had a much larger contingent of night owls this year.

The rest of Seth's exciting Charlotte Birthday O'rama tomorrow. Be sure to tune in to ESPN at 8 pm eastern to watch the Clemson Tigers take on the Florida State Seminoles.

Labels: autocross, Charlotte

Due to advances in technology, the smoke detector near the elevator was able to contact the fire department and tell them that there was a fire on the 4th floor of Hunter Laboratories (the Chemistry Dept.). From the time the call was received it took them 20 minutes to get here and get the fire under control. Nice work Clemson University Fire Department!

The cause was a solvent still (used to "dry", or remove water, a solvent). In this case it was an isopropanol still that went dry and the drying agent, CS₂ carbon disulfide, went up in flames. The fire was contained to that lab and there was some standing water in other labs, but that's no big deal at all. Our lab floods a bit at least once a month. Yes we've called maintenance and they've been up here at least 7 times and still can't figure out what's going on.

Our lab was completely safe and unharmed but if we hadn't had the fancy fire alarm system, this fire which started at 9 pm on Friday, would've been decidedly worse. So huge accolades to Technology.

Today is the department picnic. What it means for us is we get some free booze and dinner and it's also our first real opportunity to meet the new grad students (first years) and get to know them and recruit them to join our group. We're at a healthy 4 students, 3 of which are grad students and the other guy just graduated and is post doc-ing. So we need some new blood in the group. So far my plan is to take a few of our crystals and actually show the newbies what we do, which is more than other groups can really do. You just can't be obnoxious about it because that's what a few of the faculty do and they don't wear it well. We have projects, we have money, we just need another set of hands or two and some sharp minds and we'll be set for a few more years.

I just set up an awesome weekend for J and I. It's my birthday present to myself and J a little too. We're going up to Charlotte Sat. morning, going shopping (J needs a dress for a wedding and some bachelorette party in Miami clothes, oh sorry "needs" these clothes), then checking into the hotel, doing dinner somewhere, resting a bit and then at midnight I will be going to the 2nd 12 hours of the Central Carolina Region's 24 Hour autocross. It's from noon Sat. to noon Sun. I did all 24 last year and from midnight to noon, there aren't too many people up and about so you can drive and drive and drive until you can't keep your eyes open anymore. So I imagine I'll be content about 6 or 7 am, go back to J, sleep, eat lunch and then go to Body Worlds! I've wanted to see this exhibit for a few years now and finally get the chance. I don't think they allow cameras but I'll be sure and recap the entire crazy weekend.

Have a good Tuesday!

Labels: autocross, Charlotte, chemistry, fire, weekend

I'm not really burnt out on blogging, but writing my dissertation has somehow sapped me of my creative writing desires. You figure it would be a great outlet after writing all technical-like to come over here and just spout off about whatever I want, instead of what my results dictate.

Money has been popping into my head recently. Nothing major just that J and I don't have tons of it, but we don't live in a box either.

The autocross on Saturday went well enough but I got beat by someone by 1.5 seconds. I had previously beaten this guy at the Doublecross and I'm fairly certain I have no idea where to make up almost 2 full seconds on that course. I'm at an impasse. I don't think the car can go faster as is and I don't think I can go faster as is, so the next step is to invest in a driving school or buy some more go fast parts. At the same time autocross really is just a hobby and I don't want all my spare money to go towards it. I spend enough as it is. My true passion is rally and I know that is going to be wicked expensive. I have decided that my current plan is to save money and every upgrade will be legal for rallying first and useful for autocross second.

I also got to ride in a 2005 Lotus Elise! Damn. I really do love that tiny little car. I was almost sitting on top of the driver as she was flying around the course. Would I give up rallying for that car? Maybe. Depends on a few factors but it's definitely a possibility. But if I did that then I would still have expenses by taking it to the track and I would still need the tow vehicle and trailer.

Maybe I should become a Buddhist so I don't have to worry about these material possessions anymore.

I was building my tow vehicle today on Chevy and Ford's websites. Shouldn't air conditioning be standard? Does anyone really not want that as an option? I would love a diesel. So much torque and a turbo and if I came across a vat of used filtered vegetable oil, I could convert it into fuel.

I read Roland S. Martin's column in CNN.com. It deals with lust and greed and how the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity) all preach how lust and greed are bad. But that doesn't mean that sex and money should be taboo subjects. As a Southern Baptist I was raised that sex before marriage was bad, mmmkay but thankfully my parents also mentioned that sex in a marriage is a wonderful beautiful thing that should be enjoyed, so I'm not as screwed up as some of the poor souls out there.

But a business venture popped into my head. It would be kind of like Real Sex but for poor sexually repressed Christians who were only taught that sex was bad and dirty. Maybe a book or a video or a traveling workshop where Christians who want to spice up their marriage come to J and I, give us some money, and then we give them some ideas and pointers. Not a bad idea. Maybe after this degree is out of the way I can come up with something more concrete.

Labels: autocross, business idea, sex and religion

Oh, if I haven't mentioned it before, the Clemson Sports Car Club lost its ability to autocross on campus because of Geary Robinson, the new director of parking services. We've been autocrossing on campus for 30 years and then he comes in and decides its dangerous and destroying "his" lots. Right. We have a skydiving club but driving around a parking lot is "dangerous".

I'm pretty sure it's personal and is only vaguely in the interest of the university.

But we all became spoiled having them on campus. It was so nice being able to wake up around 8:30 or 9 and drive 5 minutes to campus, swap some tires, hang out, work the course, drive and then make it home by 2 pm. The results would be up the next day or even the same day.

But now I have to wake up at 5:30, leave the house at 6, get to Turner Field at 8, swap tires, hang out, work the course, drive, eat lunch, work some more and drive again. If I would've left immediately after the autocross was over, I might've made it home by 5:30, but I stopped by Ikea to pick up some shelves. Ikea is pretty nuts on Sundays past 12:30 but it was jam packed on Saturday evening. Even the self-serve, 10 items or less line took 10-15 minutes to get through, but I did beat the guy in line ahead of me. I was flying. I would like to thank J for teaching me the ways of the scanner and checkout procedure and years of video game play for getting me ready to quickly read the text on the screen.

I also realized I'm slowly learning parts of Atlanta. I sort of know how to get around 16th through 10th Street, near Georgia Tech and Ikea. I know the block immediately surrounding Turner Field (take Exit 246 from 85/75 Southbound), there's a KFC/Taco Bell there if you get hungry, and I know the 20 to 85 route through Atlanta, and that's it.

If When I get lost in Atlanta, I usually find the direction that I'm supposed to be going and follow that road until I see a sign for an interstate. This usually works pretty well.

Do you guys think I should get some "Focus" mud flaps?

The guy wants $40 for all 4 and they look kinda cool and would definitely give my Focus a rally look to it. You can't even really see them if it's dark.


I don't know. I'll ask J and see what she thinks. I might hold off and save that money for my new brakes.

Labels: autocross, Focus, Ikea

For breakfast I had a delicious egg and cheese bagel. I'm nominally trying to lose weight and exercise. What I'm really doing is trying to avoid diabetes and heart problems as long as freakin' possible. I wanted breakfast though. Some would say "it's the most important meal of the day". I don't know about all that but I do know that most breakfast foods are utterly delicious and should not be restricted to being served from 6 to 11 am. Waffles for dinner! Omelettes for lunch! Those are my battle cries.

I also knew that Ray Kroc's favorite restaurant was having a special on bacon, egg and cheese biscuits at the low low price of 2 for $2.22. They're practically giving them away. And at 440 calories, 25 g of fat, and a full 1.34 g of Na (g = grams, Na = Sodium). So that's roughly a fifth of your daily calories, 38% of your daily fat, and a cool 56% of your daily Na. And you just bought 2 so double all of that. Wow. Haha! Missed that little nugget. One also contains 245 mg of cholesterol which is 82% of your daily intake. I assume these are all the government standard of what a "healthy person" is supposed to eat. Yikes.

But I'm trying to stay away from all fast food and we went to the store on Mon. so I have plenty of breakfast things to eat. I decided to make my own egg and cheese breakfast. No biscuits but I had some Lender's Mini Bagels. I can't remember its stats offhand and ye olde internet isn't coming up with any answers so we'll just assume it was a regular 3 oz. bagel for 220 calories and 1.5 g of fat. I of course added cheese so assuming a 26 g serving size (which I think is about twice what I used) 110 calories, 9 g of fat, 0.18 g of Na and only 25 mg of cholesterol. The egg weighs in with 75 calories, 5 g of fat, 213 mg of cholesterol (damn!).

I'm sick of all these numbers. I saved some money and didn't eat 2 of them like I would have if I went with McD's. And eggs have lots of cholesterol in them. Hmmm, maybe it's time to start tossing a yolk or two since that's what contains all that cholesterol and fat. Anyone ever used Egg Beaters? Are they any good?

I just did this as an experiment and would go insane if I kept track of every little thing that went into my body. I've always wanted to try keeping track and weighing all portions of food, but that takes all the fun out of food. It becomes work at that point.

Did I mention that I'm a TB carrier? Yes I was exposed to someone who had tuberculosis and now I'm carrying around TB bacteria. I have known this fact since before I came to Clemson and never really thought about it. We had a small TB scare in the department. He's back at work and isn't contagious but I have been caught up in the web of DHEC (dept. of health and environment class? Ah, control) I had my X-ray, they wanted a better angle at it, so I had to go back the following week. It was nothing and now all I have to do to get rid of those TB bacteria is take INH aka isozianid once a day for 6 to 9 months. And to counteract some of the harmful side effects, like liver damage, I get to take a B6 vitamin aka pyridoxine twice a day for as long as I have to take the Zid (INH is too close to NIH in my book so it's getting a new name).

All the pills are free, or I wouldn't be taking them, but I have to go get blood work done every so often to make sure my liver is still livering and functioning properly.

Off to work! I decided to autocross in Atlanta this Saturday at Turner Field instead of in Asheville, NC at Bele Chere. While the Bele Chere autocross sounds cool and it's the only autocross in the country on public streets during a festival, it's only on a 5 lane wide street and they only get a block, so it's basically down and back for a 30 second run, and you only get 3 of them for an entry fee of $25. In Atlanta, the lot is HUGE and I'll be getting 6 50 seconds runs for $30 and the distance to either event is almost the same, so my decision was pretty easy. Almost 3 times as much seat time for almost the same price and almost the same driving distance.

For any new readers who don't know what I autocross, it's my 2004 black Ford Focus ZX3. Check it:

Labels: autocross, Breakfast, disease

Ikea was great. They didn't have the huge $8 shoe shelves that we wanted but I'm going to the 'Ham in a few weeks and can swing by on my way home to pick those up.

I really like my new tie/belt racks. I had exactly enough ties to fill one of the racks. Oh yes, it was meant to be.

Traffic was heavy but not too bad. Ikea was bustling when we got there about 10 am and then it got crazy around 12:30-1.

I picked up a "Make Your Own 6 Pack" of beer at the Plez-U in Pendleton because they have one of the best beer selections around. I will have reviews and pics of the ones I have tried so far. Included will be a small homage to Hunter S. Thompson.

One of our old Ikea shelves finally made it up onto the wall as a faux mantle and above it is a new clock J picked out that has the temp inside and outside. The outdoor sensor stays outside and the indoor transmitter stays inside, includes a outdoor temp. display and transmits for up to 30 meters! So even though the clock is downstairs, we will know what the temp. is outside. We have it set to Fahrenheit because we live in the States and are not comfortable with just Celsius. I wish it would display both simultaneously.

I also hopefully will be back in ATL this weekend with the Atlanta Region SCCA's Super Regional autocross. It's a 2 day event but I'll just be doing one day. Protege is supposed to co-drive with me and we're just trying to decide what day is better.

Back tomorrow with pictures and reviews. Chemist's honor.

Labels: autocross, Ikea, preview, weekend

This weekend was awesome.

Drive down to the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds (GCF), get a few practice starts with the drag racing style timing lights, (sorry, I was talking with the energy co. to get the power off at our old place, not that you could sense the pause in the typing), get the car teched and ready to race, we also had to have several stickers on our cars since it was a national event, we got around actually sticking them on the cars by putting them on magnets so they're nice and removable.

After that we went over to Fish Lake to camp. The sun was down and it was nice and cool. We hung out, had some beers (Sweet Water Blue which is unavailable in SC) and then it started to rain. Crazy rain with flashes of purplish cracks of light. There were a couple that were definitely too close for comfort. At the start of the rain we huddled under a tree (there were 4 of us, Protege, Subaru, myself and Suby's co-driver) and then it soaked the tree and started really coming down so we ran to the safety of Focus, rolled down the windows and stuck an umbrella out the windows so we could have a breeze. My tent kept me dry for most of the night except for a small pool at the foot of the tent.

We would arrive the next day and get 6 qualifying runs, 3 from each side (remember it was a Doublecross so there were 2 cars on course with a mutual finish line and different starting lanes) and we wouldn't know how well we did until that evening. I qualified 120 out of 137, Protege was 119, Subaru was 109 and his co-driver was 104. It isn't that we're that bad, it's that everyone else was that good. This was a national event that you can win some decent money at so the good drivers come out of the woodworks. My goal was not last in my class and I was 3rd to last and I was very pleased with how Focus was handling and my driving.

They had a cook-out that evening with brats and hot dogs and pulled pork sandwiches and they even provided beer. It was from the Atlanta Brewing Company. Their Peachtree Pale Ale was waaaay too hoppy and bitter for my taste but their Blonde Ale was freakin' phenomenal.

That night we stayed at the Best Western in Lawrenceville. Nice rooms but the guy working the night counter was having a bad day. He didn't tell us any of the features of the hotel (like breakfast would be in the room behind us from 6-9 or that you could get pool towels from the front desk) but was a nice guy besides that.

Woke up at 6 am AGAIN and made our way back to the GCF. I was paired up against a stripped down old Civic in E Prepared, which means it was light and fast and on racing slicks. The point of the drag lights at the start was to make the event more fair. If I would've gone up against that Civic straight up on my street tires in STS (Street Touring Stock) I would've been destroyed, so they offset the lights depending on your class. So I had a few second headstart over the Civic. It was a good run, slow in, fast out, smooth, smooth, smooth, FINISH! Crap, he beat me, but I hear over the PA system that he hit a cone. I won! Then I raced a very fast S2000 and lost by several seconds. It's a double elimination bracket so I get another shot to keep racing that day. I'm up against a new 2007 Mazda MX5 (Miata) that is stock except for race tires. This is gonna be close. We pull up to the line and I get a few tenths of a head start. Coming around to the finish and....I lost. Poo. The one consolation is that it's still early and I can go ahead and changed my tires in the shade and get the car mostly packed before I have to show up for my work assignment.

You have to see this hat I bought for this event. I've always wanted a hat that will keep my face and neck shaded. A baseball cap isn't going to cut it. So I stopped by REI (the one in Buford near the Mall of Georgia) since it was on our way. Sunglasses and a hat on sale and $43 later I'm on the road with eye, head and neck protection from the sun. The other guys teased me about my big hat, saying I looked like an explorer, but they didn't think it was so funny on the second day and I was barely sunburned on my face and neck.

So much fun and I have so much to learn and so much to do to my Focus if I really want to be nationally competitive but that isn't my goal. I'm a rally driver. I want to get sideways in the dirt and fly past trees at 60 mph. Autocross is just a hobby and seat time until I get my rally car. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Whoops, almost forgot. My friend Derek was able to come down from his house near Suwanee and watch a few of my qualifying runs on Sat. morning. I hadn't seen him since he was in our wedding last Nov. I had hoped at least one ATL blogger could've made it but I understand that you were busy and had other things to do.

Labels: autocross, camping, Doublecross, Drift Atlanta, Focus, Protege, Subaru

I miss that set up for jokes.

The autocross went well on Saturday. It was hot and I don't see how anyone lives in Columbia on purpose. Our friend in the Evo laid down a 38.8 and I wanted to get into the 39s but could only muster a 40.5. I was co-driving Subaru's Suby and he was able to get down to 40.1, so he redeemed himself after I beat him in his own car at an Atlanta event. Decent course, but the South Carolina's region never has stellar courses. I probably couldn't do any better but I would like to give it a shot. I'll post the link with results whenever they get them up.

I can't believe I haven't remembered this story until now but better late than never I suppose. This took place 2-3 months ago.

Around the bend I come, the same bend I take everyday going and coming home from work, and I see a few kids standing by the side of the road. There are a few families that live around here so nothing new but it's a young boy and two older girls. The young boy is holding a baby wrapped in cloth. He's tickling and laughing with the baby. He moves to cross the street and drops the child! Oh no! I think to myself. Maybe I should stop and make sure everything is okay. When he drops the baby, the kids eyes become dinner saucers as one of the girls rushes over to the baby's side. Then I notice the sheen coming off the baby's head. WTF? Oh, it's a plastic baby! Hahahahaha, excellent at-home Jackass recreation. And I completely bought it for a few fractions of a second. The kids continue their street theatre with some wailing and shouts. As I pass the kids, a huge smile is on my face letting them know I appreciated their performance.

Labels: autocross, Jackass

It's Tuesday. Many parts for Focus have been ordered. Her serpentine belt has been squealing, so we're going to try replacing the belt tensioner. The radiator support and some lug studs are also being replaced.

An autocross is taking place this weekend in Columbia, SC. It's going to be hot. Stupid hot. Kills babies and old people hot. It's going to be good practice for the Doublecross Challenge in Atlanta at the end of the month. Here are last year's posts concerning the event. In a nut shell, it is two autocross courses that will be run simultaneously and have a mutual finish line. It's confusing but if it sounds interesting, please drive on over the the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds and check it out on both Saturday, June 30th and Sunday, July 1st.

This year, we will also be camping the first night and then staying in a hotel for the second night so we can take showers and what not. Of course as of right now I'm the only 1 of the 3 resident autocrossers who is signed up, so I might be looking for a place to crash both those nights. We'll see.

It is part of the SCCA ProSolo National Tour, so the competition will be nationally competitive. I'm gonna get waxed but it's gonna be fun!

Labels: autocross, Doublecross, Focus

Nope, wasn't going anywhere at all with that title. Sorry.

There's only 2 of us in lab today. One guy's parents are in town for gradamation and the other's boyfriend is in town from her native US territory (it's the most well known one), so I doubt they'll be coming in today. So a nice quiet day in lab. Actually since the majority of students are now gone, it's going to be a nice quiet summer. Occasionally we'll get an undergrad working in our lab for the summer, but we're not even getting one of those, so lots of quality lab time that I will try and use to its fullest cuz it's only going to get more hectic.

Excellent additions by Tom to my last post. Definitely make sure all the wheels are round and not egg-shaped (wheel shop can take care of that if you can't tell visually), and if they are super fancy and you're concerned about their finish, make your concerns known to the shop owner and the guy mounting the tires on your wheels. Some places, I'm looking at you Wal-Mart, don't really give a shit if they scratch up your nice shiny wheels, so yet another reason to never set foot in Wal-Mart.

This weekend is going to be great! J is going with Protege and his fiance, we'll call her CL for Acura reasons, to a concert (is it still a concert if its a DJ and not a band?) at the Tabernacle in ATL on Fri. night and since CL is super hardcore like that, they'll be driving home that night. At least they'll have J's doctor prescribed uppers, just in case someone gets sleepy. Ah-ha! I knew the Tabernacle was a multi-level venue! I have personally never been there but I hear it's a great place to catch a show in ATL; much more cozy than a large arena show.

The DJ spinning is Paul Van Dyk of international fame, so it should be a very sick show.

I, on the other hand, will be traveling back to Fish Lake in Nowheresville, GA with Subaru after getting to Road Atlanta around 3 pm on Friday to catch practice and qualifying for Drift Atlanta! I'm sure it will prove to be a tire shredding, rip roaring good time. I missed it the first year it was down there but never again! The control those guys have over those cars is almost unbelievable. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing Tanner Foust, who is probably still in his AEM Memphis Audio 350Z, Rhys Millen in the Red Bull Pontiac Solstice and Samuel Hubinette in the new Mopar Drift Charger. Everyone puts on a good show but those are some of the more high profile guys. The word on the street is that there is also going to be a drift Porsche out there too, so that should be exciting and piss off lots of old rich guys too. I'm not sure how Jerry Seinfeld would feel about, but I think as long as its on a track and exposing the Porsche name to a different demographic, he'd be all for it. Oh yeah, Stephan Verdier will be there too. He's another amazing rally driver who is trying his hand at some hot slideways action action action.

Here's a link to the driver's page. Lots of skilled athletes in that bunch. Hopefully I'll get some pictures with some of them and if I can find something cool for them to autograph that isn't too heavy to carry around, maybe I'll get a few John Hancocks as well.

And that's just Friday! So leave Road ATL, go to Fish Lake, eat, hang out, sleep, wake up and then head down to Turner Field and autocross! Last year they had some really cool racing in the morning before Drift Atlanta (the drifting starts at 3 pm on Fri. and Sat.) but this year it's only a bunch of Spec Panoz race cars, which are cool the first couple times you see them, but if you go to Road Atlanta for any race series, odds are you're gonna see some Panoz cars flying around the track. So we'll be skipping that and autocrossing with the Atlanta region SCCA. I haven't driven Subaru's Suby since we installed the clutch and he got the tuning chip for it, so I'm EXTREMELY EXCITED! I like driving fast cars, what can I say.

I still remember the first time I autocrossed the Suby, I was still using Focus braking points in my head and didn't factor in the all wheel drive, AWD, or the turbo, so I was going way too fast for my late braking point and took a few cones down with me. So now in the back of my head the little guy is whispering "this car is alot faster than Focus, you'll have to brake sooner and maybe more often" which is true but with all the differentials and all 4 tires being driven by the engine, you can get on the power alot sooner than in Focus. Just remember that the car has to be pointed the right way before you punch it. Slow in, fast out is definitely the Subaru mantra, and it's also true for basically any car you're trying to drive fast.

I'll be in tomorrow morning and then on Monday we'll have a weekend recap! And maybe even a few pictures!

Labels: autocross, camping, concert, drift, Drift Atlanta, Subaru, wheels

One of the songs that, for me, really solidified the Rolling Stones as one of the greats. It didn't hurt that my suitemate (one of the two guys in the adjacent dorm room with whom we shared a bathroom) would start his day with that Stones CD and made sure that it was loud and we could hear it. Wonderful way to start the day.

Heroes was pretty good last night. We leapt into the future 5 years after the nuclear bomb (aka Peter Petrelli who absorbed the radiation guy's power) has destroyed half of NYC and "mutants" are considered terrorists and being captured. If you don't think you need a shape shifter on your side, think again. Magneto's righthand wo-man is Mystique, a shape shifter, and in Heroes, many people have been tricked by the shape shifter, but it turns out that Peter's brother Nathan is president of the USA except we found out he's really Sylar! Oh no! And he was the mastermind behind people with superpowers becoming outlaws. It's alot easier to take over the world if a) you're the president of the USA and b) you're using said power to exterminate all other mutants, so they're won't be anyone left to stop you. Kind of the reverse of Magneto's plan in the first X-men, which was to turn everyone into a mutant. It's still a good show even if they're "borrowing" some ideas from great comic books.

So Peter is helping Past Hiro (who can teleport and time travel) get back to the past and kill Sylar before he orchestrates his plan. I'm not sure if they're going to wrap it up in 3 seasons, or wrap up a few of the storylines, but I'm fairly certain we'll at least figure out if they stop the catastrophe from happening.

Another thing I noticed they've never addressed is what Sylar does after he takes off the top of the skull. He pops the top and then presumably does something sinister with the brain. I have taken the liberty of adding my own slurping sounds whenever they cut away from what is about to happen. Maybe he makes a smoothie. Maybe he just touches the brain and gets the power. Who knows? It isn't super important but just something I was wondering about. And if you're trying to recreate my slurping noises at home, it's very similar to the sound Sir Anthony Hopkins made after delivering his famous Silence of the Lambs line: "I ate his liver with some favre beans and a nice chianti."

I planted some tomatoes, green bell peppers and some zuchinni yesterday so I'll keep you posted on that. Maybe even a pic or two.

We also found a new place to live. The previous tenants skipped out and left holes in the wall, a hole in a door, some gross couches and a bedframe, so they're gonna clean all that up and make it "reasonable" to use their word. I also had to sign a paper stating that the security deposit I'm giving them is mine but they get to keep any interest that it accumulates. Nice. I wish I was a slumlord. But it's a 2 story townhouse which will be a first for both J and myself. We've been one story dwellers our entire lives. I'm sure Leon will like running up and down the stairs.

We had a call about Julio but it was a fake Julio. This cat had orange spots on it and not stripes. Julio has about a month and a half to show back up before we move. When we move out, I will officially give up hope that he will ever come back.

This weekend was lots of fun. I autocrossed Focus at the BMW factory in Greer. We set up a small Focus showdown and had Foci from ATL, Asheville and even Knoxville. I came in dead last out of the Foci. But that's okay. I'm still learning but am to the point where I need some semi-professional instruction, so I'm gonna try and make it to a driving school this summer. It was still lots of fun. Check out the results here. My class, Street Touring, is about halfway down the page. I'm #21 and got 8 out of 11 cars in my class and Foci swept the top 3 spots! Hooray! Focus Powah!

Then we went to eat at TGIFridays and talked, hung out and enjoyed each others' company.

I'm getting the new set of wheels I picked up for Focus sandblasted tomorrow. The previous owner spraypainted them black and their original paint color was a bronzish/gold. The gold might look good on my black car, but I don't think there's a good way to get just the black off, so we're going to bare metal and then I'll decide if I want to spraypaint it another color, or just clearcoat it and keep it bare aluminum. Right now I'm leaning towards bare metal but we'll see.

Labels: autocross, Focus, Heroes, Julio and Leon, moving, Samford

Yep, back to work.

Edit: Happy Earth Day! Try and think about how you impact the Earth today and whether it's a positive impact or a negative one. And for the love, plant something!

Initial thoughts about my pre-oral. It went well, but it was definitely tough. They pointed out some things I need to work on, mostly my crystal structures (I need to know them like the back of my hand), but they said I had much improved over last time, so bonus.

It was such a relief to finally be done with it, but at the same time now that that hurdle has been cleared there are still 2-3 major ones depending on your views. Writing my dissertation and defending it being the big 2 and I also have to give a final seminar for the department, which is a big deal but not as big a deal as the other two.

And after seeing my labmate slave over his dissertation for 3-4 months, I will be starting it as soon as freakin' possible. I am also gonna try my damndest to get out in May '08. Yeah, that's a solid 7 yrs. of grad school but I've only been in this group for 4, so it balances out a tad, but not enough to make me pretend I haven't been here since Aug. of 2001.

If anyone in ATL felt something a little different in the air yesterday, that was me. I was in Atlanta, the Turner Field parking lot to be specific, for an autocross with the Atlanta region of the SCCA. My fresh new tires that look like this:

are straight from Japan courtesy of Falken Tires and they are their very sticky RT-615. Lots of grip and very predictable at the limit. These will be just autocross tires and I'm hoping to get at least 2 years of autocrossing out of them.

I got the chance to race against a good guy I know from GA Tech. His name's Jeremy and he's very fast in his red 90's Saturn SC2. He won second in our class (STS) and was off the nationally prepped class winning Civic by only a second or two. My (time) goal for the day was mid 53's and I barely eeked into the 53s with a 53.999 on my last run. It felt so good and fast though. It was so good that it made me pissed that I had pussy footed it around the course the first time with a 56.058. I improved a full two seconds and there was still more time out there, but that's what I get for not having autocrossed since December.

But it was a good practice day for the real event, which is the Focaljet.com SouthEastern Focus Autocross Showdown that is coming up this Sunday. The Focus boards I roam around in, a bunch of us in the Southeast, all autocross our Foci (plural of Focus) and wanted an event that was central enough that a large contigent of SE Focaljet people could make it to the race. That race just happens to be 45 minutes from my house. There are already some predictions being tossed around:
Prediction :
1st place: MichaelXi
2nd: Me
3rd: Jim Smola (my co-driver)
4th: Mutant1
5th: Seth (Silonius) Sorry Seth, I've seen Mutant rule on GT4. I see you gots the Falkens! SWEEET!
6th: ZX3autoxstasy
7th: CCC (but could be a sleeper)
No 5th isn't that high, but the other guys have extremely well set-up cars, have lots more experience, and are generally better drivers than I, but that's why we race the race, to see how it all shakes down. I'm gonna give it my all and see if I can't take down some of the big guns.

Now that my evenings have been freed up a bit, I'm planning on going through my archives (archiving, if you will) and coming up with some "Best of Seth" posts and I'll be sure and highlight the ones that I will be taking down before I start my job search, that should at least start around December. So keep an eye out for those posts.

I saw a billboard for Amendment 2 in Georgia that you'll be voting on on Nov. 7. It had something to do with the outdoors. I can't remember the website and googling it wasn't helpful. Any Georgians have any details?

I wonder what we're voting on this year and the next? Hopefully I won't be around to vote in next year's elections though. At least not from this state.

Labels: autocross, Earth Day, pre-oral, voting