In a story about “rough driving” during the last weekends NASCAR race:

Earnhardt said his warning, which came shortly after Gordon made his comments on television, was a result of bumping in the turn. He backed off from then on even though he never felt anybody was in danger. “There’s so much grip my mom could drive these cars,” he said. “There wasn’t no way I was going to spin nobody out. I guess it made Jeff Gordon a little nervous.”

It is pretty easy to like someone who responds to “you are being too rough” with “my mom is tougher than you, shorty”. Can you smell that ? It just might be some of that good ol’ fashioned testosterone creeping back into NASCAR.

Also — Vickers: You are one Fructis commercial from becoming a short-fruity-hair-wearing-no-talent-driver-goat-fucking-prison-bitch. Learn to drive please. You are on my list now too. It is just whether you rank below Robby Gordon or above Kurt Busch (Rubberhead) that I’ve yet to decide. Enjoy the company

Anyhooo…. Most of the weekend has been spent watching World Cup games. I’m not planning on watching all of them – Tivo only has instructions to record the England, U.S, and Spain games. I may have to alter that if any of them go tits-up before the elimination round. I have had two consecutive mornings of coffee, sofa, blanket and el World Cupo. Currently Mexico is trying to convince Iran to bring their “war faces” next time. I’m hoping to see one of my 3 teams make it far enough to get me interested in the final games. I do find myself really wishing I had HD TV at this point – but only with a HD Tivo. Soon, but must pay off other bills and purchase a house.

Speaking of said house…it is looking like time to re-evaluate the finances and determine exactly how much of my income I really want to spend on a house payment. From the initial look at the current rates of exspenditure, I won’t be able to afford a house that I really like. Boogers. I’d really really like to get a nicer house because I don’t fancy myself moving in the next 10 years again unless something really strange happens. Yes, I like my new job that much

Speaking of said job (and here starteth the rantingseth) – I’m starting to get a bit miffed at the old job, where I started to think that I wasn’t bright enough or skilled enough to do actual Lustre hacking — network, kernel, disk layer, super-complex distributed networking programming. Yes, I’m not going to design the next great filesystem, but I really am starting to think that I can make a pretty good swipe at debugging and understanding the code base. Time will tell It just pisses me off that someone or worse yet — myself — convinced me that there were limits to my skills in this area without actually exploring them.

Ok – the old elbow is starting to kill me here from some retarded furniture re-arranging last night. Just a final note to those Right Coasters – I’ll be in Philly Jun 30th, July 3rd-4th and in D.C July 1st-3rd. Be there or get sprung.

Cheers!

So — just a bit of background. The Great American Hillclimbs take place in the South Hills of Billings, MT. The race is to see who can drive to the top of the ‘Bentonite Nightmare’, aka a 400 foot hill that is just about straight up, call it 70 degrees or so. Most folks do not make it all the way up, they end up not having enough traction, motor, or momentum to get all the way up. Oh yeah, this takes serious skill and a goodly amount of balls (lack of brains works in a pinch). It is impressive, and not just from a RedNeck point of view, these are for the most part heavily customized or purpose built machines. We are talking extended swingarms, paddle tires, different suspension, not to mention that they motors are from all walks of life – dirt bikes, street bikes, snowmobiles, well you get the picture. And these folks are willing to break them — tumble back down the hill break them. It was said that it was $100 a bounce, I’m guessing it starts higher than that. Some of the riders had wonderful dismounts, the bikes flipping several times in the air and then careening down the hill until a “catcher” grabbed it and roped it off. All in all, a wonderful event if it were just for the motorhead part of it…but well, let’say it is only a good reason to party like rock stars.

Here are a few links to slightly more event related photos and videos:

• Transworld Motocross
• Gagzette

Party, why yes we did! I took a fair number of pics you can find here. I’m going to pull the rest under the “more” tag to protect the innocent. WARNING Explict RedNeck behavior revealed and explained, not to mention photos of men in women’s underwear. You’ve been warned!

So we started off a couple of weeks before the event planning things out. It takes place in a field at the end of July in Montana. It will be hot and dry, so get shade. Landon found a smoking deal on pop-up canopies at Gart, so he and I picked a 10′x10′ each. Shade – check. We spent a night dinking around with how to set these things up on the pickups so that we could be elevated enough to see over all the other folks.

Oh yeah, did I mention that you are in this field with 10,000 other people? The parking lot is lined out with painted lines into rows so things are slightly organized. So we arrived at 6.30am to start setting up, mainly to get the choice spots near the front and along the isle. With it being so hot, we wanted to make sure we got a good view of the copious traffic that was sure to be there. God bless women who should and then do wear bikini tops! Oh yeah, back to setting up. I went all altruistic and sprung for the fixings for steak & eggs. Landon was kind enough to cook them up so us lazy folks could get setup and eat. We also rented a Port-a-shitter so that we could avoid the masses and their disgusting habits. Oh yeah, you know you’ve gone high-dollar when you can afford a personal toilet!

Once we were good and full, the drinking and racing started. Oh yeah, and more drinking, then we drank some, and a bit more, then got drunk and continued to drink and enjoy being drunk.

Now that we’ve consumed a good amount of booze (some of us nearly a litre of Maker’s, oof), we make way to the pond to do some skinny dipping, cool off, and drink some more. Who says that copious amounts of booze and heat do not mix? Oh yeah, this was only day 1 of 2. Suffice to say that it was a blast and thankfully I left before the strip poker game really got ugly. Oy, what is it about these people wanting to get naked?

Day 2: Otherwise known as the big party day. This is when they run the big bikes — aka the “pro” riders. The entire parking lot was packed, I’ve never seen that many people in one spot in Billings. I was pretty well queasy from the day before, as were a few others so the day was a light one for drinking so more racing was watched. We re-arranged the trucks a bit so the two canopies could cover all 4 truck beds — good idea Matt. Towards the end of the day, brains started getting cooked and between the sheriff deputies running around on their 4 wheelers to break up fights, we tried to get girls to flash us, something every group of guys within shouting (and believe me they did) distance did. Yeah, such a proud moment there BTW – some people just need to grow up — a little in-group drama signaled the end of happy-fun time and off home it twas for A/C and water. Lots of water.

Well, it looks like I survived the biggest party in Billings this year, so I can cross that one off the list. It was truly a blast, thankfully I had some exquisite company to keep me sane — you really do rock! I’m just trying to imagine how we will top this next year….

Sat Morning I was the official pit & road crew for my 1/2 marathon friend. It turns out there is a 6am and it is pretty early, but sadly the sun has risen at that point. Dropped off for the start (in Laurel), headed home, ate breakfast, filled gas, got a cup of coffee, drove back, and they are still running. A whole new respect for those that abuse their bodies in such a fashion. For crying out loud, my truck takes more than 1 gallon of gas (yes, such a gas-guzzler) to go that far! Sometimes people just need a friend, and it is nice to be that friend

The rest of Sat was spent dozing and avoiding the heat until the next softball game at 3.30pm. It was freaking hot, but not as bad as the previous evening. I played the whole game, and had one of the best games of the year — all over the outfield helping back up tough plays, lots of good compliments. I still need to work on the hitting a bit, but I’m making good progress there. Not too shabby for not having played in years. We still lost 10-15, bumping us out of the tournament, but it was a great game nonetheless. Off to home to scarf down a pizza and nurse my wounds. I slid into homeplate to score a run, forgetting that sand works much like a cheese grater. It suuuure is ugly, that is for sure. Out to the pond during a big rain storm for the night. Played cards in the gazebo with the crew until midnight or so, I was pooped. Bogart is hillarious — running around in the rain and pond, then comes in right under the table where we are all sitting and shakes off. Hosed everyone — good doggy!

Sunday was another day of playing mechanic. The truck no longer leaks ATF out of the transfer case and has a bright shiny new A/C compressor installed. I just need to get a few new parts and adjust the power steering belt tension — then we have A/C in the truck! wOOt!!! All that is left is to do the rear brakes and get new tires. Sooo gonna be glad to have that done! It was pretty fun hanging out at the shop all day. Matt, Mandy, Landon and Mary were there for food runs & comic relief. Bogart got to run around with 3 other dogs for the day and wear himself out. Speaking of which — funniest Landon quote of the day: “Ha! On Wednesday Bogart will live up to his full name — he will be Humpfrey (hump-free)”. Yes, goes to the doc Wed for the snippy-snip. I am still chuckling about that joke…poor dog! Stopped by Mom’s for a beer on the porch and a chit-chat before I came home to NAPCAR and bed. Such a tiring day.

A fun weekend, sadly not enough Harley rides, but I am looking forward to a couple of planned weekend road trips to make sure I get enough miles on the girl. Hrm, need to go down this week and get those new plates too. Wee, now off for another rat race week!

Saturday: It was 63F, so I got the Harley out of the garage and leathered up. As the grandparents had come in from North Dakota with Walt & Sarah, I rode up to Red Lodge. The ride was fantatic, right up there with heading to the beach last Sept. I could have set the throttle lock at 80 and never slowed down. It was pretty fun pulling out to pass people starting at 70 and by the time I got back in the right lane doing 100+. Wee! It did get a bit chilly the closer I got. Gee, who would have thought a 2500 foot elevation change would make such a difference. It was the first time I got to ride into the mountains, and I am so looking forward to doing more of that this summer. I had a nice chat with the fam and headed back after a bit, before it got too cold.

Sunday: Ahhh, bliss. I slept in, lounged around until noon until I got a surprise visit from Mom. We cleaned the kitchen, cooked up steaks and salad, and watched NACAR-slash-took naps. I ended up working that night, to get a few things cleaned up before Monday rolled around.

On a side note, there really is nothing better than forced laziness on a Sunday — especially when Tivo affords you a mid-race nap. As tomorrow is a holiday for us US folks (well at least one of the ones CFS observes), I’m gonna be having a fine Monday of sleeping in and …god who knows what. The utility room and garage could use some serious help getting arranged, and I suppose a trip around the house with a mop bucket would not kill me. I really do need to get the place ready for use — especially if I am going to be potty training a puppy in the utility room. I’m guessing that dog pee does not help ones brewing equipment either. Mmmmm DoggyDoo Brew. I’ve got to say it — “now there is some GOOD brown ale!”

Hrm — there have been a few things rattling round my head lately, so hold on for some random rants…

I’ve spent the last week or two working on automating the release testing for work, and it is a good feeling to check in on things over the weekend and see things are still holding water. We should now have 100% coverage for the architecture and (supported) kernel version combinations. There are still little exotics like networking and disk that could vary, but that is for another day — if the clusters we use even have the hardware. Hopefully with that out of the way, I can finish up my training and start getting ready for the team launch in Boston. It sounds as if I am getting back into management a bit — but this time in a fashion that seems a lot more palatable. I’m hoping for a much different experience than last summer — that was too much and I have a feeling it contributed to killing my stomach and last relationship. On the whole, work in the last month has been fantastic — much like it was this time last year. I am actually being crafty and creative with the work I’m doing. I think that might be the best indicator of how much I am enjoying work.

Koelzter and I keep chatting about getting another pottery wheel so we can start throwing again — I think I need to start making this a reality soon. I am finding myself wanting to create some fun pieces — if nothing else, to fill in empty spots in my dish collection. I think with brewing beer and tossing clay, there could be some quite interesting creations showing up here soon. I am not sure where the creativeness is coming from, but I think a lot of it is just me being a lot happier, but of course having good friends for inspiration helps too. I am amused at myself — seeing myself starting to get more interested in these types of things is fun. I’m not saying that living on the Right Coast killed my creative drive, but I think I did not have near the opportunities that I can make for myself here. I do think that being exposed to the diversity of the art and culture around Philadelphia gives me a much more ‘valid’ appreciation of the arts. I’ll put it this way — I want to do much the same things as I did before I left, but now I really appreciate them more and have much more background to use to find ideas. Now if I could only find the food here…

Dirt bikes…so, Kris, Travis and Landon all have bikes. I’m thinking that I need to get another one (I blew up the motor on the last one a few years ago), as from the sounds of it, the group heads up camping and riding quite a bit during the summer and that flat sounds like a blast. I’ve ridden dirt bikes almost all my life, and there really is nothing like manhandling a bike around a field somewhere or going airborne for measurable amounts of time. I’ve got all the camping equipment and a pickup to get there, so just a matter of filling out the picture with a bike. The good thing about having friends who are really into bikes is that they find really good deals on used bikes. Hrm — with all this fun, I might have to break out my ‘real’ camera again to capture some photos for the walls here. I don’t think I have taken real pictures with the N70 in several years, but for action photos I have a feeling it will outpace the point-and-squirt digital by a few miles.

Cooking. It must be the return of my arse to the gym, but I really want to do a lot more cooking now. I’ve been pretty bad lately and have been hitting Wendy’s like 4 times a week — bad Nic. I’ve got a pretty good selection of favorites (honestly, a lot of them come from the big red Betty Crocker cookbook Allison bought me for Christmas a few years ago), and they are all pretty healthy, so I’m looking forward to eating the food too. Must be the desire to feel ‘light’ again — food is a big part of that.

Women. Being single again has come at a bit of shock, and for a while I was looking quite hard for someone,but I think that urge has subsided somewhat. Brooke said something the other night that was quite true — you need to be single until you are ok with being single again. Well put! So perhaps I am realzing that and moving on with things because I know I need to — not because I feel like it . I have to say that realizing that amount myself was tough for a day or so, but looking back it is kinda fun knowing myself this well. Weee!

Well I think I’ve exposed enough of my thoughts for one day — any more and I will probably scare my feeble readership to the hills.