As expected, Fernando Alonso clinched the World Championship today in Brazil – with two races to go, Alonso’s 117 season points to Räikkönen’s 94.Result: Montoya, Räikkönen, Alonso
Next up: Suzuka in Japan on 09-Oct (actually on SpeedTV live on Saturday, 08-Oct, night 11:30 PM CT pre-race)
Anne is only mildly amused that it took the skins of three rare pink polka poodle puppies to create her new outfit.
As a consummate gadget-hound, I recently took the handheld plunge and picked up a Dell Axim X50v. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled – it’s very cool. I can now check my gmail and surf wirelessly @ Panera, my local library, etc. without my laptop. (The Bluetooth GPS receiver is on its way….. ;->).
Even though the display on the X50 has pretty incredible resolution (VGA), I’m starting to appreciate sites that are ‘mobile-enabled’ with style sheets optimized for handheld use.
As such, I decided to experiment a bit with this site and have provided an alternate style sheet for handheld (and printing) use (you can see the differences by trying a ‘Print Preview’ from your browser).
It’s scary when I can’t remember the last time I restrung one of my guitars. I don’t know if this means that I’m playing them less or that I’m more ‘gentle’ with them – but the high E on my trusty daily beater (the Hondo H-18-12) finally popped.I did have another new set of strings lying around, but I remembered an article I read recently about the great things the W. L. Gore company (the ‘Gore’ in goretex) was doing, one of them being guitar strings. (Yes, guitar strings, and floss, and a bunch of other seemingly unrelated but innovative things). I did a quick search and found that this brand of strings is called ‘Elixir‘ and saw that they were available at the local Guitar Center.
I was surprised how quickly they went on and got ’settled’ (I used to have to wait overnight to tune to give the strings some time to stretch, etc…).
The big selling point of these new strings is a coating on the wound strings (the thicker strings that have another thin wire wrapped around a central wire) that prevents the build-up of the usual crud (dirt, finger oil, etc.) that accumulates over time and lots of playing – the result being that the strings maintain a lot of their brilliance and tone (”5 times longer!!” if you can believe Elixir’s propaganda).
My fingers are thankful….I don’t know if it’s this new coating, new strings, or the fact that my old strings were so ‘old’…..but it’s much more comfortable to play now and the guitar sounds great.
As is typical this season… great race: McLaren-Mercedes 1-2 at the start; a wet track with varying degrees of dryness and the requisite shifting tire strategies; Fisichella with a high-speed shunt; Sato running up Michael Schumacher’s tailpipe and knocking both of them out (and Schumacher slapping Sato upside the helmet after the altercation); Pizzonia knocking Montoya out (and throwing a wrench into the constructor’s points standings)…
Result: Räikkönen, Alonso, Button
The Championship still hasn’t been officially locked up (although Alonso will still take it) since Räikkönen kept his remote mathematical hopes alive by winning today (Alonso still leads Räikkönen by 25 points….with three races left).
Next up: Brazil on 25-Sep (11:30 AM CT – pre-race on SpeedTV).
Lupita and I celebrate twelve wonderful years of wedded bliss today…. here’s to the next 50!
Nine years ago (Labor Day weekend 1996), I purchased one of my all-time favorite cars: a 1998 BMW M5. Lupita and I were out to lunch at Portillo’s in Schaumburg and I decided to go across the street to Patrick BMW, since I had seen the M5 in an ad earlier in the weekend. A quick test drive and then one thing led to another…..
To top it off, the next day I started at InstallShield, which is where I made my professional home for the next almost nine years.
The M5 was eventually traded in for my 540 in February of 2000, InstallShield was acquired by Macrovision in July 2004, and I moved on in June 2005.
Although he’ll mathematically clinch the championship next race, Alonso pretty much has it locked up with a 27 point lead over Räikkönen (103 to 76).
Result: Montoya, Alonso, Fisichella (Räikkönen in 4th).
Next up: Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) on 11-Sep (6:30 AM CT pre-race on SpeedTV).