On the 22nd February 2005, Jason Kottke decided he would run his blog full time. To support himself and family through this time, he asked his readership to become micropatrons by donating a small sum of money.
A year to the day and Jason posted about the year in review in which he announces he is going to throw in the towel. I congratulate Jason for giving it a whirl and throughout the year, he has provided an awesome amount of content to the masses from his site.
What I fail to understand though, is how its considered newsworthy by a big gun technology site such as ZDNet? Maybe it was a slow news day or they needed a human interest story, I just don’t see how it is significant enough to warrant space on a site like that.
Last week, I was half way through writing about the staggering appointment of Eddie McGuire as the CEO of the Channel Nine when Milorad piped me at the post. It was of a similar sentiment, give it a read, I’m sure you’ll laugh – I know I did.
February 14 every year, people around the world celebrate Valentines Day – a day to enjoy and rejoice in the company of your loved ones. When I returned home from work today, my beautiful wife had laid a few tiny surprises for me around the house. I love it when Claire makes little things, they are often simple in concept but they have her unique style and touch applied.
The weekend of the 4th & 5th of February saw the Brisbane International Speedway host the Australian Sprintcar Championships. Approximately 50 drivers turned up for the event, which was an excellent turnout.
At the start of the evening on Saturday, the track conditions where poor and far too wet. The first heat held for the sprintcars was actually re-run, as the drivers and event organisers felt they were at an unfair disadvantage running first. It was so wet in fact, that there was nearly a 30 second difference in a 12 lap race between the start and end of the night. As the evening progressed, the sprintcars wore the raceline in and they soon started to grip up as expected.
The large turnout of cars ended up causing some problems. Each heat was running about 12-14 cars and it was a little too tight; the by product of course was a seemingly never ending string of accidents. The additional accidents consumed more time than expected and as the clock kept clicking towards the curfew, events were dropped from the program in an attempt for us to finish on time.
Once the track dried out and the sprintcars started to get good grip, there was plenty of great racing taking place. On the whole, I don’t think they weren’t quite as fast as the World Sprintcar Series event held there towards the end of 2005. The single biggest downside to the event this time was parking, what a nightmare. Expecting that we’d be able to get out of the car park in reasonable time, we parked inside the venue. We received a rude surprise when we sat at a stand still for nearly 25 minutes waiting to get out of the car park. Next time, I think we’ll park outside and toward the main road – it’ll make for a much more convenient getaway.
Next on the motor racing calendar will be the Winter Nationals at Willowbank Raceway in June!
Videos
Opening 3 laps, looking primarily at turn 3, 4 and main straight. If you’re having trouble watching the embedded video below, you can view the first three laps of the Australian Sprintcar Championships directly on YouTube.
Opening 3 laps, looking at turn 1 and 2. If you’re having problems viewing the embedded video below, you can watch the Australian Sprincar Championship directly on YouTube.
In December, I mentioned that for my birthday, the guys at work bought me a soft breast look-a-like stress toy. Needless to say, it was a hit in the office with everyone taking every opportunity to give it a squish – even a few of the females.
As we continued to squeeze, squish and distort the breast – it appeared that there were weaker bits in the rubber. After a while, every time you squeezed it – it was distorting in the same places. As a result, when it wasn’t being squished, it now had lumps – it had tumours! Soon, we were tossing it around the office and deliberately distorting it by holding onto the base of the breast and wobbling it.
Following on from the deliberate wobbling, on Friday I enacted a Kung Foo Master – substituting the breast stress toy for traditional nunchakus. As it turns out, it stretched a little further than anticipated and as it swung over my shoulder and into my back – it burst! Needless to say, the contents of the stress toy went everywhere. Thankfully, it was filled with a slightly silicone based water and it dried and/or cleaned up easily.
