...Okay... There's this guy I went to high school with... Not a friend. At all. I can very accurately describe him as my greatest enemy throughout high school. Fortunately upon graduation he was someone I never had to deal with again.

Well, he's now in the news - on his way home from his deployment from Afghanistan in the US Marine Corps.

And he's coming home in a coffin.

It's almost like a bad joke - the biggest asshole I had to deal with in high school is now a local hero and I'm basically required to respect him(and I seriously do, don't get me wrong), but at the same time I have a seething hatred for this douchebag.

Life's a bitch.

Like my fiancee, I'm more than a little irritated at all the whining going on about the whole notes accessibility issue. I agree wholeheartedly with the journal she posted, so I didn't really think of much to add.

Until I had issues with a Christmas gift ordered from WalMart.com. You see, what happened here is something WORTH bitching about because if things hadn't been handled smoothly like FedEx, I coulda lost $50.00 on this - Wal-Mart sure as hell isn't gonna take responsibility for this if it had to come down to complete disaster.

You see, this was my first ever order from the Wal-Mart website. I chose them because Amazon.com wouldn't have the item in for 1-2 weeks, and they had the best price after shipping of all available alternatives.

So I sign up, put in my information, and process the order. I didn't bother to check my address information since I copy/paste from a file on my harddrive to ensure I don't have any typos.

However, I suddenly get a call from FedEx trying to find us. They're looking in the wrong place. Why? Because there's a W (for "West") at the end of my street address that Wal-Mart saved as an E. I looked up the equivalent E address later on and found that no such address even exists, so that certainly helped avoid disaster, but after informing them of the mistake FedEx corrected it and I received the package today.

However, upon trying to FIX the address issue at the website, it simply saved with an E again. Even when I added in my zipcode extension, it changed it to what it WOULD be if it had been the equivalent E address. So far, my customer service report has not been replied to(beyond the automated message asking me to reply to it if it didn't solve my problem, that is).

Now, even in worst-case scenario I'd be lucky since I would have "only" lost $50. But people buy far more expensive items through that site on a daily basis and I GUARANTEE a lot of them have fallen afoul of this error. How things turned out for them, I don't know, but that's the thing... This is a website error that can cost people SIGNIFICANT amounts of money.

And you're whining that admins have access to something they SHOULD have access to for your protection? Every single one of you whiners can KISS MY ASS.

PDG = Pretty Damn Good.

I have only one minor gripe about this film - it did end up being the first movie I ever saw in 3D thanks SOLELY to my theater quietly upgrading themselves to be 3D capable and not even mentioning it until this film arrived. That's not the gripe, shut up.

The gripe I have is....Well... Remember a few journals ago when I talked about how the studios are taking 3D more seriously this time and don't just have shit flying in your face? Well, a couple of Tron Legacy's post-production guys apparently didn't get the memo. There are a couple of moments with in-your-face 3D that illicit a groaning response in otherwise well-done action scenes.

However, the aforementioned moments won't even be noticed when you watch in 2D - they're just moments that we've seen a million times in action movies before the current 3D trend(one of them is the common slow-motion saliva flight after a character gets punched in the face). It's just that they put TOO MUCH emphasis on it when they made the film 3D.

But all in all, Tron Legacy kicks ass. Go see it. Now. Why are you still sitting here reading this? GO. NOW.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ba.....urn=nba-294473

Now, I do not KNOW where the writer of the above article is from, but I'd be willing to bet it's not northern Ohio. Most people up here know the weather well enough to know that it was not a valid excuse in this particular situation.

Each image of the slideshow contains a different portion of the story in text form below it. Read all for full info:

http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/ge.....2003%2F12%2F10

...My fiancee has them.

See her journal for more information: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1894936/

FIVE. CONSECUTIVE. CUP. TITLES.

Holy shit. Consecutive titles are hard to do in ANY form of racing, but when your series' schedule is a whopping 36 races, that makes it a much more impressive achievement.

What's more, you can't say that Jimmie Johnson didn't fight for this one. He came into the last race SECOND in points, up against the amazingly strong Denny Hamlin.

Going into this season, I predicted Johnson would falter when they switched back to the spoiler on the cars. Although theoretically it should not have made much of a difference, I know from experience it would have had a profound effect on how to set up the car. At first it seemed like my prediction was right - Johnson's team struggled(for the most part) in the races after the spoiler was brought back, but he came back to challenge strong and prove why he won the previous four titles.

After having a title so close and losing it in the last race, Hamlin's going to be out for blood next season. I severely doubt Johnson will be able to stretch his consecutive title runs any further.

But despite that, I can now predict with certainty that Jimmie Johnson will become the first driver to win 8 Cup titles.

But I doubt he'll manage to become the John Force of NASCAR.

...But only after I've seen it in 2D.

You see, despite the beliefs of some of the more resistant folks out there(like Angry Joe), 3D is NOT a mere fad this time around. Oh, it's sure as hell NOT going to be as big as the studios are trying to push on us, but it's here to stay this time.

The reason is simple: The studios have, for the most part, given up on trying to gimmick out the idea of 3D. Instead of placing an overly strong emphasis on having shit fly in your face, they're treating it more maturely and simply presenting a movie as normal... It just HAPPENS to be in 3D.

Additionally, this 3D technology has been around for decades. In the past, it's been limited to theme parks(mostly Disney World) because of the insane expense and complex equipment required for it. Now this can be done cheaply and easily, it can be applied in a much more serious manner. And we're getting that now. In the past, 3D was merely a gimmick. Now it can be a serious enhancement of how you view a film.

Really, the only thing holding it back this time is the fact that a lot of people get bad headaches watching stuff in 3D. Unlike HD(where only about 40% of people can see an appreciable difference in the color depth and resolution but nearly EVERYONE can see the upgraded framerate, for the record), 3D can actually cause physical pain. If it weren't for that, 3D would be the next HD.

But even if that was irrelevant, a GOOD movie can be enjoyed just as much in 2D as in 3D. Whenever an Avatar psychofan challenged a hater with the "but it's meant to be seen in 3D!" I'm quick to call bullshit. 3D can NEVER be a requirement for a movie to be enjoyed, and the studios seem to be figuring this out. Avatar is just as enjoyable in 2D as it is in 3D(for the record, these are the opinions of literally everyone I know personally who bothered to see Avatar in 3D), for one simple fact:

In 3D or 2D, you're watching the same movie. The only difference? HOW you're watching it.

3D should be a bonus. Not a selling point. This is why I will NOT be going to see Star Wars in 3D.

But back to Tron Legacy - Everything I've seen is pointing to this movie being as awesome as Avatar, but without environmental overtones to water it down. Additionally, if there's a movie concept begging for 3D, it's Tron.

But I'll be seeing it in 2D first. And if it's as awesome as the trailers make it appear, I'll check it out again... In 3D. For the first time.

And mark my words, 3D is here to stay this time. But you'll have a choice whether or not to bother with it.

...Our DSR project is essentially stalled after receiving some bad news from our aero expert: The design we've been working on with produce an inordinate amount of drag. Far too much to make an effective DSR. If we were to look into CSR, we may be able to overcome the drag with sheer horsepower, but as it stands the design will not work.

CSR is out of the question for this car. If we go into CSR, we'll simply use the Chiron that I'm currently using to keep my skills up at autocrosses. But that car will be expensive to run competitively -one of the reasons we've backed away from CSR- while at autocrosses we're basically just an exhibition entry - not racing for anything so we can back things down to reduce wear and tear.

We need to completely reconceptualize our DSR, hopefully around a design that can used the parts of the frame we've already constructed. In the hopes of salvaging our work thus far, our aerodynamics expert is looking into something uncommon(and which may be illegal, I have to check with the SCCA) in D-Sports racing: A closed-top car. With an enclosed cockpit, the drag will be reduced drastically, but it will produce a higher center of gravity which could create problems in the corners.

Confidence that the DSR will happen with what we've built sofar: Zero. One way or another we'll have to revisit every single aspect of it. It's most likely that this car would only be worth finishing if I was to enter it in NASA Super Unlimited.

http://www.indystar.com/article/201.....IndyStar.com|s

'Bout damn time there was some competition. Let's hope they can do a reasonable job of this.

I pray for an aero kit in addition to an engine. But with Chevy, I doubt an aero kit would be wise. They've been making some good I4s and V6s lately, though, so the new engine regs should be favorable for their chances against Honda.

..My XBox360 that is. OVer the past year I've fixed several red rings of death. Felt good to be able to fix my own XBox when it went bad. But last night I started getting Error E74 - which means one of four things:

1: Thw A/V cables are loose.
2: The A/V cables are going bad.
3: Precursor to a red ring.
4: The GPU is dying.

Sadly, after running all tests, it is clear that the problem is possibility #4. The GPU is dying out. After years of faithful service, my XBox is dead...




In other news, I am now the proud owner of an XBox360 Slim.

"But it just came out yesterday!"

I'm not a gaming master, but if the controls can be set up to my liking first-person shooters are the games I am best at. So long as perfect sniping isn't an absolute requirement. That's why I've beaten this game the day after it's release.

In any case, the game is short. Not ODST short - it's definitely long enough to justify it's price tag, but it's short compared to a lot of FPS games out there.

The alterations to the controls were minor - it took me very little time to readjust. I played the opening mission on Easy mode to do so then went back and upped it to Normal(replaying the first level) once adjusted - as per my standard operating procedure with video games.

All that said, I have one major warning to give to anyone considering playing this game:

If you suffer from depression, DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME.

Yeah - we all know how it has to end. But Bungie still manages to present it in a manner that can be quite a downer. Bungie did not drop the ball on the presentation the way Team Ninja did with Metroid Other M. If the main bulk of the game didn't leave you feeling a bit down, the post-credits gameplay WILL do so.

As entertaining as the Halo franchise has been, there really hasn't been anything that induced shock and awe since the first game. And the first game was mostly down to having graphics equal to the best gaming computers at the time, combined with the complete lack of load screens once the gameplay had begun - the plot didn't start giving us much to talk about until Halo 2. I guess it's kind of appropriate that the first game's direct prequel would end up giving us the "holy shit" factor the franchise had been lacking since the first game.

Halo Reach is filled with visuals that drive home the plot beautifully and a metric fuckton of "they did NOT just do that" moments. Even knowing how the game will end does not reduce the shock that results from many of the game's more unexpected moments.

As much as I like Halo, I've never considered the games "Game of the Year" material. I used to think a lot of the franchise's honors were just people letting their mindless fanboy out for a brief moment. But Halo: Reach is deserving of every accolade it will undoubtedly receive.

Including the honor of being hated by douchebags for no other reason than "it's too popular to be any good."

I have only one complaint about the game: The customization of your Spartan. I wasn't expecting much, but I was expecting more options than what the game has. Even if you unlock everything, your options are painfully limited compared to what could have been. It's sad.

I'd hoped for a more obvious difference between male and female Spartans, as well. The only obvious difference is your character's voice(and there is only one each for male and female), and the female Spartan's armor isn't as bulky as the male Spartan's. In many games with good character customization, some people tend to make more female chars than male because it's somehow easier to make female chars look badass(though sometimes they're using that word as a placeholder for "sexy," we'll stick to "badass" here since you're not gonna get "sexy" out of a MJOLNIR armor). The customization in Halo Reach doesn't even give you enough to work with to give major differentiation between the two.

The customization is so bland, I ended up using a female Spartan SOLELY because the less bulky armor looked more "futuristic" to me. That's it. Sometimes it's just that poorly done.

Ultimately, this shortcoming doesn't hamper the real meat of the game, though. It is the best game in the Halo franchise, it is one of the best games of the year, and it's now the standard all console-based FPS games should strive to meet.

If depressing storylines don't bother you, definitely check it out.

So, I go rent Halo Reach today. Come home and pop it in, customize my Spartan, and start up the campaign. A minute into the opening cinematic, it freezes. Okay, no big deal I've had random freeze glitches in the past, even with new games, so I reboot the console...

RED RING OF DEATH.

Yeah. God decided I was gonna fucking EARN my playtime on this game. I've already fixed her up and got her running again, though. So have a laugh - it's alright.

After a serious crash during the Moto2 event at Misano World Circuit, 19-year-old Shoya Tomizawa died from severe subsequent cranial, thoracic and abdominal injuries.

May he rest in peace.

Despite taking Tim's life far too early and on the same day as my grandfather, the world provided us with several nice things to cheer us up: Great weather at Mid-Ohio, a great ALMS race, getting to shake Simon Pagenaud's hand after the race, and the defining moment of the trip: BRETT FAVRE WALKING A CAT IN LEXINGTON, OHIO.

I love this fucked up little world we live in.

A bit surprisingly, both of my grandfather and Tim succumbed to their respective caners last night. May they rest in peace. Gramps died peacefully at home in bed, Tim had been in rough shape for a few days and I'm glad to know that his suffering has ended.

My annual trip to the ALMS race at Mid-Ohio today with my brother will go on as planned - neither Tim nor my grandfather would want us to skip it. If we did, they would both rise from the dead and kill us. This year's trip will be dedicated to their memory.

Okay, I'm running Windows XP. I would like to install my old copy of Mechwarrior 3, but... I can't. It recognizes the disk, but it won't run it. Even trying to run in Compatibility Mode doesn't work. It simply will not run.

As far as I can tell, the CD itself is fine. When I attempt to install, setup.exe appears in my Task Manager, but nothing happens.

Any suggestions?

Put quickly and simply, my grandfather has chosen to forego treatment to prolong his life. He's day to day right now and may not even last the weekend.

Unless the cancer miraculously goes into remission, Tim won't last the summer.

Fun times ahead, huh?

(due to the content of this image not meeting submission guidelines so far as I am aware, I have uploaded it to Jen's flickr account to distribute. If this type of image is actually acceptable for normal submission, please let me know)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080.....bf792629_b.jpg

Pescarolo Sport was started in 2000 by 24 Hours of Le Mans legend Henri Pescarolo. Pescarolo holds the Le Mans record of 33 starts as a driver, and has won the race overall four times with two additional class wins. A cash-strapped team through most of it's existence, Pescarolo Sport holds the honor of being the only gasoline-powered team to beat a factory Audi R10 on pure pace(IE, not due to an Audi mechanical failure) in 2006 - finishing second to the winning R10 but well ahead of the third-placed R10.

Pescarolo entered the customer chassis market with their Pescarolo 01 in 2007(upgraded to the 01 Evo in 2009). The 01 quickly became a favorite amongst privateers, but in 2008 the stylish and extremely quick Lola coupes came on the scene, smashing the Pescarolos in LMP2 with the aid of the Porsche RS Spyder, and knocking them off their position as best gasoline powered cars in LMP1.

Ever since, the team had been in a downward spiral(even selling their chassis making business to Sora Racing, hoping to stay in business). Last month, the team was put into receivership. Although a revival is possible, Pescarolo Sport as it's been known since 2000 is sadly gone forever.

Let it's legacy live on in the memory of racing fans everywhere.

Why? ...Because I am actively searching for a complete English-language broadcast of the 1977 South African Grand Prix...

...Okay, not really, but godDAMN am I sore! Most of my left side is bruised and I've got a twisted ankle.

I knew that, having never ridden a motorbike in my life, today's test was gonna end poorly. Thankfully nowhere near as badly as I'd feared. As the only person at this tryout with zero motorbike experience I went last up and spent most of the day getting lessons and pointers on how to handle the thing as well as trading some racing stories with a few guys who had done some racing.

Given that I'm doing this to get access to a really good Suzuki engine tuner, I was a tad surprised to find out the test was on a Yamaha YZF-R1. I'm not much of a bike guy, but you don't have to be to know the "R1" as it's more well known. It's pretty much the most advanced superbike you can buy(or at least damn near). It's the bike that gets all of Yamaha's MotoGP technology once it's ready for the road. I had even once considered using the R1's engine for our DSR, but heard some bad stories about attempts to run a DSR on it.

As it turns out, the guy who gathered us for this test runs a motorcycle dealership that sells Suzukis, Kawasakis, and Yamahas. No wonder I'm testing a Yamaha to get access to well-tuned Suzuki engines.

Anyhow, when my turn came around things started out slow but after a few laps I was able to get some speed going and got in ten good and quick(but slow) laps in. Then on my eleventh lap I squeezed in some power coming out of turn 2 and the bike said, "FUCK YOU" and flung me off in a pretty nasty highside. Landed on my left side, resulting in some nasty bruises and slid along a bit. My right foot hit the curbing and I twisted my ankle as a result(yes, we had it looked at in the hospital - no broken bones, no sprain, just twisted my ankle). Painful, but nothing serious.

Still, I got the engine tuner's number and I've been assured this guy will put in a good word for me. So hopefully I'm getting some good engines for my pain.

One of the more experienced riders said I did pretty good for having never ridden a motorbike before.

Okay, I got a bit of an interesting phone call earlier today...

Now, as you all know, I've done some race driving in the past and I HOPE to be doing more in the future if we can get the DSR built. When looking into sourcing an engine, my name got around a tiny bit and I got a call from a guy trying to set up a race team.

Wow! A chance at a big break for a lucky but untalented guy like me? How can I resist?!

Oh... An AMA Superbike team... Joy.

Now, just to make things clear, the best engines to run in D-Sports Racing right now are motorcycle engines. That's how my name started popping up amongst such folks - We were looking to source a Suzuki powerplant for the car and as my name bounced around the fact that this was for a CAR eventually died out. The fact that I would be driving had not.

So I very politely informed this guy what we were actually doing and that I don't even have a rider's license - Bikes just aren't my thing. Granted I DO watch motorcycle racing, but the only series I watch consistently is MotoGP.

Still, this guy is rather convincing so he talked me into coming down to Mid-Ohio in a few days to try out for his team. Because this is not an official race and not on public roads my lack of a motorbike competition or road license means nothing. This guy is apparently of the belief that if you can drive a car fast you can ride a bike fast - provided you have a good sense of balance. His reasoning isn't too far off in that if you can process what's going on at high speed easily you really only have to worry about learning the new controls scheme.

You could say it's kinda like learning a new button layout for your favorite videogame... At 140 MPH, though. I expect I'll find myself flat on the pavement very early on. Don't expect to see me racing in the AMA Superbike Championship anytime soon.

To be 100% honest, the only reason I'm even bothering is because the guy's promised to put in a good word with a really good Suzuki engine tuner if I give this a serious attempt. And with the Suzuki being the engine of choice in DSR right now, you're goddamn right I'm gonna take a shot at something that's likely to give my racing SOME sort of boost.

You won't be seeing me in AMA after this, but you might just see me at the SCCA Runoffs thanks to this.

A pretty good chunk of us have lost loved ones to cancer. Such has never happened to me before, but now I'm facing it on a double level.

First up, my grandfather. If you knew him, you'd not be able to tell anything was wrong, but he was recently diagnosed with an as-yet-unidentified cancer that's too far advanced to have high hopes of treatment for. It hurts, but it's sort of okay. He's in a good mood about it and his own words on the matter have taken off a lot of the hurt: "I'm 87. How many good years would I have had left, anyway?" At this point it looks like he's going to get at least another good year before the cancer starts having a major affect on quality of life - as I said, he doesn't currently look any worse for wear than he did before the diagnosis. He's already made clear he plans to use his time well to say his proper goodbyes - and if there's anything good about cancer, it's that chance to say goodbye properly. They say it goes a long way towards helping people heal once a loved one is gone. I guess I'll soon see if that's true.

The one that REALLY stings, however, hurts so bad because there is no way to look at it in a positive light. Beyond the saying goodbyes, there is nothing nice about his condition. He hasn't had 87 years to live a full life like my grandfather. He's not even 60 years old yet.

His name is Tim, and he's one of my father's best friends. But more than that, the guy's like an uncle to me. I grew up with his kids, his wife was my most common babysitter when I was growing up. They live just down the road. I know this guy and love him like family. And he's going to be taken away far too soon. Unlike my grandfather, he's already in fairly bad shape. I hope he can hold on in reasonable condition for another 9 months or so - have a drink with his old friend John(another friend of my dad who died of cancer a few years ago - I didn't know John too well, though) one more time before he goes, but honestly it's not looking good. I'm sad to say that based on what we know right now, I don't think he has another four months to go. He was a school science teacher and his diagnosis came after an ER trip just after school let out. At the end of the school year, he seemed just fine. Same kind, jovial, friendly guy I've known for as long I can remember. Now, he might not make it through the summer. And it hurts.

Surprisingly, it hurts more than knowing my grandfather's life is coming to an end. Maybe it's because his is likely to come sooner the way things look right now, maybe it's because his life is going to end so much sooner than it should be, but either way it hurts a lot more than I thought it would. I'm usually the guy who keep a reasonably sunny disposition and tries to help people cheer up and move on faster after loved ones die - I grieve in private and then worry about everyone else. But for the past couple of days, I haven't been able to hide how this has been bothering me from ANYONE I know. Today, for the first time in my entire life, I found it difficult to focus at work. And given how much I love my work and can get into it, that speaks volumes.

I can't say enough kinds words about both Tim AND my grandfather. Both are the type of good, hard-working, helpful, kind, and caring people that make the world a better place, and when they're gone this world will be a little worse off. I can only hope things go well for them in their final days, and I ask all of you who believe to pray for them both in the coming hardships and for their souls once they finally do pass.

Hey, remember a while back when I posted that journal about basing our DSR on a Lola LMP? Well, for a number of complex technical reasons, that plan had to be scrapped(in short: the design modifications needed to compete in DSR and CSR would have completely fucked the aerodynamics). While looking into other design ideas, I happened to be randomly surfing old Le Mans image archives and stumbled across an older LMP that bore some similarities to one of our ideas. The Durango LMP1: http://www.racingsportscars.com/pho.....-06-15-019.jpg

Or as it was known in the FIA Sportscar Championship, the GMS Durango MG PM01(why can't racecar manufacturers give the cars cool names?).

I did a little research and found the car won it's class a couple of times in the FIA Sportscar Championship. Up against competition from Dome, Riley & Scott, Courage Competition and Pescarolo Sport that's pretty good. Certainly makes it an appealing design to use.

And after consulting with our aerodynamics "expert"(he has no degree, but he's got enough knowledge to design a good baby prototype. Whether he can design a Stohr-beater we'll someday find out), who also knows the SCCA technical regulations pretty well, we've determined we can pretty much make a smaller version of the same damn car to use.

Yup, we're literally going to copy that car's aerodynamics directly. The only major difference will be the engine(obviously) and smaller size of the car. Like I noted when we were considering basing it off the Lola, this wont be the first time a DSR was based on an LMP, but the Speads chassis was NOT a direct copy of the Audi R8 on which it was based. Same thing with our plans to base the car on the Lola LMPs. This will be, to my knowledge, the first time a DSR or CSR has ever been a direct copy of an actual, top-flight racecar.

So... Does this seem like cheating to you?



On a related note, you may have noticed my comment on racecar names above. Well, we plan to give our car a pretty cool name. I'm asking Jen to post the journal about that, and you can view it here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1418678/ Post name submissions ONLY to her journal.