the way i saw it

here's the way i saw the incident invovling the mclaren team in Q3 of formula one qualifying from the hungaroring today. it was obvious right from the start of Q3 that lewis hamilton was MUCH quicker than fernanco alonso (so much quicker, in fact, that hamilton absolutely took off while alonso actually got passed by kimi raikonnen in the ferrari -- the same ferrari that hasn't been even close to matching the speed of the mclaren all weekend long!) now, if you know anything at all about formula one that would lead you to believe that fernando was much heavier on fuel than his teammate. this was all but confirmed by the team after qualifying when they said that fernando was supposed to get the benefit of getting out of the pits first and ultimately getting an extra lap. according to the team, lewis decided to ignore team orders to let alonso by in the opening lap of Q3 thus throwing their strategy out of the window. here's where the story gets interesting to me....

to rectify the situation the team decided to bring fernando in first and hold him in the pits to put hamilton behind him.

hmmmmm........

let me write that again....to fix the fact that alonso was going to lose a lap on his teammate, the team chose to hold him in the pits while his teammate completed his lap.

i'm no engineer, but if alonso was essentially going to lose a lap of fuel because of hamilton's decision to ignore the team how is the solution to hold him in the pits while hamilton completes yet another lap? wouldn't that now lose him 2 laps of fuel to his teammate?

up to that point, what i did see in the tv coverage was...
#1 as i already mentioned, the fact that alonso was clearly heavier on fuel than his teammate
#2 alonso seemed to be unhappy with somebody on the pit wall during that first stop...definitely some finger pointing from alonso during the delayed stop


ok, moving on to the second stop...

alonso again pits before hamilton, but this time the team doesn't hold him quite as long....BUT once the lollipop was lifted, it seems that now alonso made the decision to ignore the team and he did not leave the pits for another 1o seconds, in effect leaving not enough time for hamilton to complete his stop and get a final hot lap in. alonso went on to take pole leaving hamilton with P2. what happened next is what was most interesting to me.

ron dennis, team principal (the boss), went to talk to alonso who turned a cold shoulder to him...didn't say a word...to the boss...hmmmmmm....

my take......

its no secret that lewis hamilton is ron dennis' chosen driver...its well publicised that dennis has been grooming hamilton from a young age to drive his f1 car. alonso signed to drive for mclaren before it was known that hamilton would be in the sister car. i hate to ever think that any driver gets better equipment than his teammate, especially at a first rate team like mclaren, but just looking at this weekend and only this weekend...why did hamilton's car work well with the option tire while alonso's car didn't? anyway, my point in that is to say that it seems that hamilton is being given a preferred driver role at mclaren over alonso. now, when you're talking about michael schumacher and rubens barrichello you can almost accept that. schumacher was a champion, while barrichelo was not. in the mclaren case. fernando alonso is 2 time defending f1 champ, lewis hamilton is a rookie. if i were fernando i'd be a bit annoyed if my rookie teammate was being given a preferred driver role on my team. which brings me right back to what happened today.

lewis was told by the team to let alonso by at the beginning of Q3. lewis knows he's the #1 driver and so decided he would do no such thing. i can't really explain what happened in alonso's first pit stop, except by using conspiracy theory, but what i can say with some confidence is that fernando was not happy to be sitting in the pits for so long. in the second stop, fernando decided that he's the #1 driver and he would wait in the pits long enough that hamilton would not be able to complete another flyer.

the winner in the end. NOBODY. fernando lost his pole position. mclaren loses any points which they would have secured in this race, which lets be honest, was going to be maximum points, nobody was touching mclaren this weekend. but the real question to come out of all of this for me is....where will fernando alonso be driving next year?

Steve Matchett

i got this from http://www.speedtv.com/speed/bio/105/

its the profile page for one steve matchett...he's one of the formula one analysts/commentators on speed, he also used to be a formula one engineer. i thought it was way interesting and while i don't completely agree with everything he says, i do completely understand what he means and where he's coming from....

anyway, here it is...

Honestly, the world confuses me. The real world that is. I don’t understand it and I don’t really desire to. I’ve tried and I’ve failed. I used to follow the news, keep up with current affairs but I found I was becoming so disheartened by all the things in the world that we, as individuals, have no control over, that I made a conscious effort to shut it out. The facts are these: I can help someone to cross the road; prevent a kid from running under a bus; help a neighbour with a leaky tap or a reluctant starter motor. But there is nothing on earth I can do, absolutely nothing to prevent a bomber (for reasons I find totally unfathomable) blowing himself and countless innocents to death. All I can do is to weep and feel beyond useless. So, some years ago I made a simple decision: to help where I can and do what I can to shield myself from the bad stuff, the evil oily slick that threatens to engulf us. For some time now my hearing and my short-term memory haven’t been so great, I wonder if some of this is a result of my attitude to what’s happening around me? Some may call this simple philosophy running away from reality, escapism, but, frankly, I don’t care what they call it. I do know this, however: by immersing myself only in what inspires, I have become a considerably happier person. A friend once told me that my approach to life has the feel of Buddhism about it. I’m not particularly religious, certainly not a practising Buddhist, but if we do share a similar ethos, well, it does make me feel a little less selfish. And I’m all for that. Formula 1 is part of my life: Escapism in its purest form. It’s a world I do understand, that I do follow and I take great enjoyment from sharing my thoughts of that world. The competition between Ferrari and McLaren, the passionate, heart-pounding desire for each team to beat the other to the winner’s trophy? Yes, I get that. The rifle crack of an exhaust as the throttle is blipped; the banshee-like wail from an engine running at 19,000rpm? Yep, I get that too! Just the thought of it sends a tingle down the spine! Problems in a pit stop, a wheel nut spinning out of reach of a mechanic’s grasping fingers! React! React! Reach for the spare nut; set the gun to tighten, align the drive pegs twixt wheel and axle; pound the nut home; release the car back into action! No panic, just ultra-swift beautifully poised efficiency! Yes, yes, I get it, I get all of that! Wow, I’ve never typed so fast or used so many exclamation points! Forgive me but that is what grand prix racing does for me. It excites! It’s so much more that the greatest sport in the world, it’s the greatest lifestyle in the world. I know I’m exceedingly lucky to have it, to be a part of it, and to share it with friends, with colleagues and Speed’s viewers, well, it’s just the icing on a fabulous cake.

some new ideas

i just wanted to get some thoughts i'm working on written down. so here they are, in a very crude form...hopefully i'll be able to get my shit together and eventually write something about these that resembles intelligent coherent thoughts...

#1 my worst fear, a VERY REAL fear...losing my mind, literally going crazy...my brain is ALWAYS working, i'm ALWAYS thinking about something (multiple things simultaneously, usually)...a lot of times i'm only half asleep cuz i'm thinking about things...fortunately i've been able to keep it all under control and basically, for lack of a better way to put it, categorize my thoughts and keep everything understandable and even when i'm jumping from one thought to another, i'm able to keep myself sane...i fear that i will lose the ability to keep my thoughts in line, that one day i'll end up staring at a wall with a million thoughts in my mind, none of which have anything to do with any other one and i'll not be capable of organizing any of it

#2 dreams, i'm always thinking about something when it comes to dreams...we'll thank august for that since he introduced me to the movie Waking Life (if you haven't seen it, SEE IT!!! and on that note, also see A Scanner Darkly by the same director)...but anyway, most recently my dream thoughts have revolved around how much they actually exist, if that makes sense...for instance, i'm having memories of dreams...vivid memories...so vivid that they could've actually happened, but i know that it's a dream that i'm remembering...the problem is, i've lost any perception of time when it comes to my dreams...well, dreams aren't controlled by time like real life anyway, BUT now i can't remember when i dreamed something....lets say i woke up this morning thinking about a dream, i have no idea whether i just dreamed that or if i'm remembering a dream i had 3 months ago...and now its got me so confused that i have a dream that i think was a recurring dream in my childhood, but now i'm thinking it was a more recent dream and for whatever reason i'm making up the fact that it was a dream from years ago....and right now writing this i'm thinking its possible that i had one dream in which i was thinking about a recurring dream from my childhood...ugh, that's too much....

idiot cop = stupid law

my usual drive home from work takes me through a patch of road that is usually monitored by cops just itching to give somebody a speeding ticket. a speed trap, if you will. i've not gotten a ticket...i don't speed. but i've seen something here several times that really aggravates me. there's a traffic law in this state that provides safety for police officers giving tickets or doing whatever on the side of the road. if a police car is on the shoulder with lights flashing, you are required, by law, to slow down to 20 miles under the speed limit or move over to the next lane. i'm all for the safety of cops, well the safety of people in general...here's my problem and the reason for this blog...

there is a cop, standing next to his car (lights NOT flashing), with a gun (speed gun, not firearm) in his hands extended away from his body....if i explained that right, you're now picturing this fool, trying to catch somebody speeding...i'm still ok with this, its annoying and i think a total misuse of police presence but whatever...this is where the picture gets interesting...upon catching somebody speeding, the jackass, puts his hands down, steps out into the MIDDLE OF THE STREET, and puts a hand up in front of him to signal to the guy in the car to stop and pull over....ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?!?!?!?!?!?!?! what world do you come from that you think its even remotely safe to walk into the middle of oncoming traffic...speeding traffic, no less. you make the slow down/pull over law really stupid because who's being protected by that law? some asshole that walks onto oncoming traffic? fuck that, he doesn't need to be protected...he needs to be commited!

boxing pride

the contender on espn. last night's episode was the fight between walter "2 guns" wright and cornelius "k-9" bundrage. wright had the option to choose another fight, but he chose to fight k-9 because of a personal vendetta (as sugar ray put it). i was ok with that decision because there was NO REASON that k-9 should ever beat wright. wright is clearly the better boxer. but when a boxer goes into the ring with a guy who is CLEARLY a bigger puncher and a better fighter he needs to remember to BOX!! because of pride, wright decided to go into the ring with k-9 and try to fight instead of box. WHAT A FUCKING IDIOT! sure, wright had his moments in the fight where he looked good, but you're always going to get that when you're in there with a fighter. the bigger punches he throws, the more he's gonna leave himself open to getting caught with a big punch. naturally, he lost a unanimous decision because of a lack of discipline. anyway, i think we'll see walter wright in the future. if he can remember to just box and use his awesome skill instead of trying to throw down with guys that are clearly going to kick his ass if he does, i think he has a very promising career ahead of him. we shall see.

as for k-9, my prediction is....he wont go past the next round, steve forbes is much too good. i think steve forbes is a boxer who has the discipline and focus to continue to box against a guy like k-9, and i think steve forbes might just also have the strength to stand toe to toe with k-9 if he had to. again, we shall see.

Nothing Good Ever Happens After 2 AM

that was the title of tonights episode of "How I Met Your Mother." i'm not going to say much about it, but if you watched, you know what i'm talking about. that was the most depressing show EVER! it was still good, but dammit, i haven't ever felt this shitty after watching a television show.

my gift!

all i want for christm.....hang on

all i want for x-m.....wait

all i want for the holidays....that can't be right

you know what...fuck all that...what i want is to be able to drive down the street and see "CHRISTMAS TREES FOR SALE HERE" not some silly ass sign that says "holiday trees" when what they should say is "holiday trees, we hope we didn't offend you, please buy from our pathetic asses" ... if you're offended by "christmas trees" then you're probably not gonna buy one any damn way, so get over it...christmas trees are a stupid tradition, just the thought of them makes me stop and say to myself, "damn, that's some stupid shit" .. but why change anything about any tradition (no matter how insignificant and retarded) because someone who doesn't even follow in that tradition doesn't like it? FUCK THEM! and by the way....

all i want for CHRISTmas is to truly know that i already have everything i need