MINI takes the States

Had a fun time last night...went down to hang out at the tailgate party as the MINI takes the States tour rolled through St. Louis. Buncha free stuff and good food, ice cream, etc, plus we got to check out some hot minis. There were a few customized paint jobs and one GP. Then there was the M600 Flamethrower... 500+ horsepower, under 1700 lbs, a few hundred grand in mods. Quartermile in 11.0 seconds. It was pretty sick. And these guys on Team Fireball build them constantly, this is just one of the latest in their line of Fireballed cars...
Also got a free ticket to sit in the partybox (thanks ESPN) but we got crushed by the Marlins, so it might rate as the second worst game I've been to.

Here's some pics:







Cheers,
MC

google video

first it was one every few weeks...the most recent funny thing people are posting on their friends/guild/hobby forums. Then it was one every few days. Now it seems there are about 10 to 50 funny videos (and about 500 unfunny ones) hitting the web daily and you can't even keep up with them if you just want to see the best...it's like having a TV with 2057 channels and everything on.

And yet... when you see real talent..someone who gets the medium and is both enjoying themselves with it and entertaining the anonymous masses. Well, you just have to applaud.

This guy Curtis Drew a.k.a. the Parodyking, is flippin brilliant. The Madonna video is just so bad and tongue-in-cheek that it made me laugh. Then I really thought about it...how ballsy do you have to be as a teenager to put that much video out on the web basically making an ass out of yourself? Between stupid and ballsy, I am going to give Curtis the nod for ballsy in that he has a talent, albeit a strange and twisted one, and he's using it for the power of good. Runaway and Feel Good, Inc are both pretty good. I like the way you move has some good style too... I think he perfectly captures the personality of the Bodyrockers vocalist. And he has no mic...the guy is doing all this with primitive circa 2003 tools!

So again, my question is... with such a huge vista of expression and communication out there as the Net, how brave would you have to be to permanently put some video out there of you being a dork? We've all acted like an idiot at some time or other in front of friends or family, and yeah, some people do that routinely at karaoke bars... but to throw it out there on Google video... You are posting your own version of Paris Hilton's video (okay, well maybe not quite that embarrassing) out there to live in infamy. I hope you're okay with the fact that you might own a company some day and perhaps be in politics...yet you're still best known for the rest of your life as one of the Two Chinese Students , I mean Backstreet Boys.

By the way, and if in some way you've been under a rock without Google Video for the last two years, that 'I want it that way' video is still the best. If you don't agree, correct me. Gotta love the roommate in the background ignoring them.

For those of you who don't like any of these...okay, fine, I'm not posting it for you. Your refined sense of humor is probably more suited to Bill Maher or Woody Allen. I suppose you don't like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog either eh? Don't dismiss the stupid! It will live on long after wit and intelligence are gone.

boo

I'd just like to say that traffic tickets for speeding are lame as all hell. I know the cops doing it are just doing their job, but it's just annoying that they have to go out there, watch 50-100 people drive by exceeding the speed limit by 8-14 mph and then jump up and ruin the day of the lucky driver who is going 16mph over. All so that the municipality can make some revenue. Don't kid me about safety. I was in a line of folks on the highway, with a guy in front of me and behind me, and trucks next to me, everyone's doing 55, and there's no room to pass. It's almost impossible to be going faster than the guy in front of me for more than a split-second as there's no room to pass and I've been following him for the past mile... but allegedly, I was going 61 for a second. 'You were overtaking him slightly' mr helpful officer says. Thanks....are you kidding me??? Do you really comprehend that everyone within 20 cars of the person you're ticketing was exceeding the speed limit, including at least 3 or 4 18-wheelers? Oh, but Hazelwood needs money, sure... and they'll get slightly more because of the twisted justice system in this country. Say it with me now kids... points on license bad, lawyers good. I knew you could.

Damn expensive night when I was just 10 minutes earlier feeling good about digging out of a $16 hole in poker and only ending up down $3 (lost on the last hand). Then Mr. $250 inconvenience fee throws on his lights and decides to ruin my evening. And I'm cheap by nature, so that's a lot of cash and it hurts. I held off on buying some dragon books for my son last night because I wasn't really thrilled at paying $17 for shipping for the 5 books...even if I was getting them all at half price or better. Sigh...try to save $17 and then life comes along and kicks you in the ---- for a few hundred.

Yes, I'm in a bad mood now. I think Ice-T said it best. Nod your head if you get that reference.

And for the record, yes I exceed the speed limit sometimes, while driving both safely and attentively, but it's really annoying to get a ticket when I'm actually behaving. Sigh. I guess it's the first installment of what my Mini dealer called the 'extra tax that I just write off to owning the car...' (He said he gets 5-6 tix a year... sadly I guess I'm used to getting one every 2 years or so.) Btw, another tip for you kids... if you bother to _get_ a radar detector and then only use it say 70% of the time you're out driving, well, you're just asking for it.

Drive safely. And by all means stay 10 miles over since they don't care about it. Hypocritical @$#*s.

film adaptations of classic fantasy

You know, now that we're a year+ removed in retrospect from Lord of the Rings...all the fans are so relieved and thankful that not only did they not mess it up, but it was great, and it introduced a lot of the world to one of the best books ever written. I can't wait to see the Hobbit brought to the big screen eventually by Pete Jackson. I am starting to believe after movies like The Matrix, X-Men, Spiderman, that a very good attempt at Ender's Game will someday be made... again, we fans must wait and cross our fingers, whispering 'don't F it up...don't F it up'.

That said... this one has me very nervous. More info on this site dragonlance-movie.com. Hmm..animated...not live action and not heavy CGI... I am worried. Look at what was done with the dragons in Reign of Fire. I really think they could do a pretty good job of this if they spent a serious budget on it...but there's the rub eh? It's pure fantasy, and probably not mainstream enough to penetrate the Harry Potter/Tolkien audience.

Let's hope they don't F it up badly. But what was the last non-CGI animated movie that was good? Final Fantasy Spirits Within? If it can measure up to that we'll be lucky.

READ THIS ARTICLE

This is an amazing article on Iraq, from a journalist that's there all the time, not living on a US base or embedded with the troops, but out talking with the people and being among them. It's sad to hear. I think too many of us in America are still under the impression that the 'Iraq War' is about the US and the new Iraqi government against insurgents... no, this is pretty much a full-on civil war already according to this article, with more civilian casualties than militants.

Life in Hell, A Baghdad Diary

The numbers are staggering, as the author points out, the worst casualties coming out of Lebanon and Israel pale beside the average daily figures of Iraq--and it's almost all Iraqi v. Iraqi now.

How long will it take for peace to come? I'd say 5 years is a minimum, so it's a tough call, yes, but I think the US and the UN needs to get out of there now except for humanitarian efforts. It's hard to watch a gang war occur down the street from your balcony without wanting to intervene, but much like Palestine and Israel for the past few decades, some things just have to be solved by the involved parties. I know that's an isolationist point-of-view, but I think you have to face facts after you make a determined effort to be the world's policeman. Some problems just can't be solved by outsiders, and we can't enforce our wishes on the people as a whole (the Hussein regime DID need to go).

Taking a closer look at some of the worst places in the world definitely reminds me that most of us have it really really good. Remember that when you fill up your tank and you are annoyed with the price of gas.

Notes from 12:57 am

Minesweeper sucks.
You just can't walk away til you have a good run.
Evil little thing. Nasty minesweepersses.

feeling hot hot hot

You know those rare people you meet who think air conditioning is a luxury which one can do without? 'I drive around all the time in my old car and do without it...you get used to it man.' These are lunatics! I suppose they also think the incandescent lightbulb is a fancy bit of technology better left alone, so they only use torches and candles at home.

Our otherwise wonderful vacation took an evil turn at its very end yesterday just as we're travelling through Indiana...ye olde hoosier state. As we drive through Indianapolis, a scant 240 miles from home or so, after making nice time from the Lake and Pennsylvania...there is a change in the air. With a small sigh, our air conditioner in the Caravan just decides to stop working. I look up immediately and notice the computer heading says West, 98 degrees. Oh, nice... So much for having your systems checked and fluids topped off two weeks previous! Hey, fancy 4 hours in an oven with your family? And options? Not many. One shudders to think what you do when the dead air conditioner luck combines with that old standby, the flat tire or dead engine luck.

Well, to make a long story short, it sucked and we definitely needed the bag of ice we picked up at a quickie mart. The boys were none too thrilled with the heat and Darlene and I weren't much happier than they were. With an appointment made for Thursday via cell phone, and the problem mostly diagnosed as something we couldn't fix, we just settled in to drive...with the fan going and the windows cracked...and the outside temp now 100 degrees. About 3:30 pm on a hot afternoon on the last day of July and you're sitting in a box of metal with an internal combustion engine churning along at 75 to 80 mph. Oh joy. Hours later we stumbled into the (thankfully) mostly cool house and showered, exhausted and beat... and when I get home today the air conditioner here is on its last legs as well. They'll be out to fix that tomorrow morning, but today we just toughed it out--don't ask why. Remember I'm inherently cheap...the air conditioner is really really old, and I'm hoping I don't have to replace it, but at the same time the service visit alone will cost us more than the car is going to -- go go gadget 'power train plus' warranty, the odds have just paid off on that one. To have them out tonight woulda been a lot more money and I figured we could make it... as I sit here sweating and the house is still 86 degrees (with air circulating, but not cooling), I am second-guessing that call now. I'm also dreading the news that we are propping up an extinct dinosaur of an AC unit...a new one will cost a pretty penny alone, but if you're going to replace that you also ... yeah, new furnace etc... ouch ouch ouch, someone has just kneed my wallet in a bad place.

By the way, Pennsylvania is lovely this time of year... remind me to retire up there some day for all my summers. Highlight of the trip - Cam gets 3rd place in 4-and-under swimming at the Water Sports, good for a trophy! Woo woo! He was lovin' it but I think I was even happier than he was. Super proud papa!

All for now. Hope your air is working. Stay cool San Diego.