Seeping Matter

The AMA brought Supercross back to Salt Lake City, thank heaven.  My life is complete again.

We sat on about the third row right in front of the most critical rhythm section of the track – a series of seven jumps, increasing in size to the fourth (where the tunnel is), then symmetrically decreasing on the back half.  K-Dub (pictured) and Stewart both were able to do this section 2-3-2 in practice, but nobody else could do it.  Reed tried and failed a couple of times before giving up.  Most fast guys went 1-2-3-1.

When the main event began, Reed grabbed the holeshot, and within a few turns Stewart was right behind him.  It went like this for a good 12-14 laps or so, I can’t remember exactly.  Stewart passed Reed on the rhythm section shown above by going 2-3-2 through it while Reed went 1-2-3-1.  Reed passed him back a few seconds later, and on the next lap Reed suddenly started going 2-3-2 through this section as well – and doing it better than Stewart could.  It was awesome to see him just start doing that in the main event, and watching that happen about 50 feet away from me was really cool.

Some of the racing got pretty close and aggressive.  Stewart took issue with it, because he doesn’t think people should be able to race him the same way he races other people.  Reed passed him pretty hard on one occasion; it reminded me quite a bit of a number of passes Stewart has put on Reed.  Usually when this happens to Reed he just takes it in stride, and usually when this happens to James he takes the liberty of pointing out what a dirty rider he thinks Reed is.  Stewart is a flat-out hypocrite, but I can cut him a break I guess, because that’s not his biggest flaw.

Everything fell apart for Reed, though, when they caught up to Stewart’s teammate, Kyle Chisholm.  At this point Stewart was barely leading with Reed catching up again.  Chisholm was given the blue flag as the leaders came by.  Chisholm was not racing anyone else for position at the time.  Expected behavior in this case is for the lapper to pull off while the leaders pass, then continue.  Chisholm did this as Stewart passed, but then inexplicably started racing Reed as though they were competing for a position, running him high into one turn, taking the racing line through the next rhythm section, and finally attempting an obvious t-bone takeout move in the next 180 degree turn.  There was no way Chisholm would have made the turn with the line he was taking.  He was obviously trying to take Reed out of the race.

He failed, but by this point the damage was done.  He had taken almost two seconds off of Reed’s lap time, putting Reed that far behind Stewart.  With each rider running within one or two tenths of each other on lap times, there was no way to make that up in the few remaining laps.  So instead of having a chance to win the race and go into Vegas tied in points, Reed had to settle for second and go to Vegas six points down.  Stewart only needs a podium finish in Vegas to take the championship; he doesn’t need to win.  Chisholm’s riding tactics likely cost Reed a meaningful shot at defending his title.

Chisholm was black-flagged a couple of laps later and rode off the track in deserved shame.

If Chisholm always rode this way we might be able to attribute this behavior to his riding style, like Eric Sorby, who was an idiot who tried to take anyone out just for the fun of it.  (He’s retired now, and I say good riddance.)  But Chisholm isn’t usually like this, he’s always seemed to be a pretty decent guy and a talented rider.  Having watched it live and again on TV, I have to think that he was intentionally trying to take Reed out.  And since he doesn’t normally do that, I have to figure he did it in this case because L&M/San Manuel Yamaha told him to do it.

I can’t be convinced that this was anything other than team tactics.  Stewart claims he doesn’t need help to beat Reed, but there’s a lot of evidence to the contrary this season.  Stewart, along with his team manager and anyone else who gets asked, claims there were no team tactics and they don’t know what Chisholm was thinking.  What else will they say?  There’s no hard evidence of team tactics, it’s just the most logical explanation for what happened.

Part of me wishes the AMA would penalize the team, take points away from both riders or something.  Since I’m pretty convinced there were team tactics I think that is appropriate.  Some say Stewart wasn’t involved, but he’s on the team, and he should be standing up for a fair race.  But the other part of me doesn’t want the AMA giving out penalties without proof.

Regardless of what happens, I think this taints Stewarts championship, assuming he wins, which is likely at this point.  His 2009 championship will always have a little asterisk by it, where the footnote reads “He secured the championship by cheating.”

It’s that time again, to do the music experiment update.  Some good progress has been made.

Current standings:

• Current Artist – Album – Song:  Foo Fighters – Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace – Erase/Replace
• Songs listened to:  2590
• Total songs:  9718
• Percentage complete:  26.65%
• Estimated completion:  September 2010

Huh, I’m not doing as well as I thought.

The F’s have been alright so far, with Faith No More and Foo Fighters in particular being pretty good.  Fear Factory, on the other hand, was pretty lousy and so I sorta cheated and just got rid of them altogether.  Yuck.

I listened to about 300 songs last month, so if I do about the same this month I might get as far as George Lynch with some of the highlights including Genesis and maybe Garbage and Fuel, depending on whether the recommendations for those bands were sound.  We’ll see.  Boy isn’t this fun!

Image credit: amazon.com

And by that I mean, the interaction is dumb, not the user.  Since I was the user, I think that goes without saying.

Anyway, earlier this week AMEX sent me a survey request, since I used their tool at work to book travel to Seattle last week.  And since my back kept me awake all night before, I had a low tolerance for dumbness.  So I got this survey, and I thought I would share the answers.

Moral:  Don’t ask dumb questions.

I hope it helps them.

Leprechaun is a really terrible horror movie that somehow got a 30% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer.  My guess is that about 3 out of every ten people who rated the movie did not understand the rating system.  Leprechaun is also a fake movie.

Really, it is a horribly bad movie.  Not “evil” bad, just “lame” bad.  It is also the funniest movie ever.

It was when I was in college.  One Friday night, me and my buddies were all hanging out because none of us could get any dates.  So we decided to go to the video store and rent some videos.  We went to a place called Hastings, which they still have in Logan, before they invented Blockbuster, where you would rent the movie and then inexplicably would have to return it the next day.  Anyway, my roommate Shannon (not a girl) paid for the movies, because he had a job and therefore all the rest of us assumed he had money.

We rented two or three videos.  One of these was The Golden Child, for reasons I probably don’t have to explain.  Another was Leprechaun, a new release at the time.  All we really knew about Leprechaun was that it had Jennifer Aniston in it, you know, when she was, uh, younger.  So it had some promise.

When we got back to the apartment, most of the group wanted to watch The Golden Child, including my roommate Shannon.  Brandon and I took Leprechaun into the other room and watched that instead.

For nearly two hours we watched intently, but what can I say – it totally, completely sucked.  When it ended, I turned to Brandon and said, “You know what we should do?  We should make a big noise and act like this movie just ended and that it was the most awesome ending ever.  Then those other guys will stay up and watch the whole thing and have to suffer through it like we did.”  Brandon liked this idea, so we really played it up as we started shouting and whooping and hollering as we came out of the other room, telling everyone how awesome it was.

“WHOA!  That was the coolest ending EVER!  You guys have to see it!!”

They were a bit surprised.  ”Really?” they said.  ”Oh yeah,” we continued.  ”It seems kinda lame at first, but you have to watch the whole thing all the way through, even if it seems lame.  It totally throws you at the end, it is way awesome.”

Well, we completely convinced everyone, including Shannon, who said, “Okay.  The rest of you guys have to wait for me.  I can’t watch it tonight, and I have to leave this weekend, but I’ll come back on Monday and we can watch it Monday.”

Heeheeheehee.

Well, Monday comes.  Shannon had by this point kept the movie an extra three days at the additional cost of $3 per day.  It came time to watch the movie, and all these other guys showed up.  Shannon said, “Yeah, I told all these other friends of mine about how awesome you guys said this movie is, so they came over to watch it with us.”

So there’s like ten guys here in the room and the movie starts.  Ten guys, intently watching every single second of the movie.  Every so often, one guy would look over at me, with an expression that said, “Really?”  And I’d return an expression that said, “Yes.  Trust me.”  It also said, “You sucker.”  But that was after they looked away.

They watched that movie clear into the closing credits waiting for it to get good.  We waited for someone to figure it out.  Finally someone said, “…… what the …… ?”

Brandon and I burst out laughing.  Shannon was totally upset that he’d spent an extra $9 and invited all his friends over to watch one of the worst movies he’d ever seen.

Yeah.  Funniest movie ever.

Wow, sometimes the pressure of my job is almost more than any reasonable person can stand.  And I’m feeling it now, because I just got a new boss.

I’m kinda like Michael Scott in this way, and many other ways.  For example, I’m incredibly funny.  And all of my employees really, really love me.  And I just got a new boss.  Unlike Michael Scott, I don’t have any plans to leave the company.

But I did stress out about this, in seriousness.  I mean, I’m so much like Michael Scott, probably my new boss would be just like Michael Scott’s new boss is, which is to say, a hardcore, emotionless freak.  Would he dislike me?  I mean, it is unthinkable – but who could dislike Michael Scott?  His new boss!

So I was totally freaking out by the time I got to work today, the day my new boss started work.  Oddly, my new boss isn’t much like Michael Scott’s.  In fact, he seems pretty cool.  He didn’t even get mad at me for coming to work late today.

No, what created the pressure was that Zach told Chris, my new boss, that he should read my blog.  Because, he said, it’s funny.

OHNO!!!

I have to think of something funny!  Something funny to put in my blog!  Today!  Under pressure!  Zach told Chris my blog is funny!  If I don’t type something funny, then he won’t know how funny I am!

Lame.  Zach, that was lame of you to put me in that situation, especially since you don’t have a blog of any consequence.  I mean, I’ve talked about my other boss, Luis, who wasn’t exactly my boss but is still my VP, on this blog.  He doesn’t actually know about my blog though so he never reads it.  But now surely Chris will read my blog since Zach told him it is so funny.  However, to be clear, I do not blame Chris, my new boss and the person in charge of my employment and livelihood, for this situation at all.  Not at all!  Chris is the smartest, hippest, coolest person I know on the face of the earth, with the possible exception of Luis, in case he reads this blog also!  And highly respected!  And smart!  Did I say smart?

Anyway, there’s nothing I can do about it now.  I have to think of something funny to write about.

Ah.  I have it.  I will tell the story about the funniest movie I ever saw, in college.  It deserves its own post.

The movie “French Kiss” with Kevin Kline and that one chick is one of me and Amber’s favorite VHS movies.  (In our house, there are three time periods to movies – DVD movies, VHS movies, and pre-VHS movies.  No Blu-Ray yet.)  I like it, but the reason is not because it is a romantic comedy with that one chick in it.  And the reason is not because it says “French” in the title and I’m trying to suck up to my boss, Luis, who lives in France.  No, I like it because it has some really, really funny Canadians in it.  Like Strange Brew!

No.  Actually, not.  But it is a pretty funny movie.  And there is this part, which is not funny, where Luc is explaining to that one chick about what makes wines different from each other – that they take in elements from their environment that contribute to their unique flavor and texture.  For example, if you spill some wine in the dirt, and then scoop it up with your cup and drink it anyway, you will probably get some dirt crumbs in there, which changes the texture from “smooth” to “gritty” and just tends to get you even more drunk than you were before.  And that’s why I don’t drink.

Anyway, I was thinking about that today, and how similar that is to software engineers.  See, software engineers, also, take in elements from their environment that make them unique.  In fact, an easy way to say this is that software engineers who live in one part of the world are better than software engineers who live in another part of the world because of their superior geography.

For example, you might have one software engineer, let’s call him Steve.  He might live in an peninsula that is called a valley, surrounded on three sides by ocean, with real estate that is unreasonably expensive.  Or you might have another software engineer, let’s call him Bill, who lives in a place where it rains all the time, in the land of Nirvana and Alice In Chains and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Starbucks.  Or another guy, named Nathan, who lives in an area with tight roads that wind all over creation, also with expensive real estate, elitist professional sports teams, and where nobody ever pronounces the letter “r”.

Compare these people to someone named Drew, for the sake of argument.  This guy, also a software engineer, lives in an area with big mountains, lots of Mormons, and secret sand dunes where someone exactly like myself can go riding motocross bikes.

Anyone can see that there is simply no way Drew will ever be able to measure up to the likes of Steve, Bill, and Nathan.  I mean, just take into account the geographic considerations!  How can big mountains ever hope to make you the kind of software engineer you could have been if instead you had been surrounded by ocean or Soundgarden?  The simple answer is:  they can’t.  I mean, be serious.  This, my friends, is the effect of geography on software engineers – geography can make the difference between you being really excellent and simply mediocre.  Secret sand dunes are really amazing, but they obviously cannot make you into the kind of software engineer you could have been if instead you were to replace those dunes with expensive real estate.

My brother does this fantasy F1 thing at his work with these three girls he works with.  He’s obviously cherrypicking here – since he watches every F1 qualifying and every F1 race, he thinks he can destroy these three girls in fantasy F1 because he knows so much more about F1 than they do.

(My brother has a different approach to women than I do.  Historically, I always tried to treat them nice, because I wanted them to pay attention to me.  He always tried to treat them like crap, because he wanted them to go away.  Of course, he always had girls falling over themselves to worship him, whereas with me they always sprinted away from me like creeping death.  When I got to college I started treating girls badly, against my nature, and then they started paying attention.  And of course, the girl I liked the most, I treated her the worst, so she would marry me, and it worked out great.

Hey, girls, its true.  Don’t blame me – you girls are the ones that make it this way.)

Anyway, it is really funny that my brother is doing this, because his all-Finn fantasy F1 team totally got pwned this week, and he is currently in LAST PLACE in his fantasy F1 league.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Ah, I can’t blame him.  I mean, who in their right mind would have said, going into the first race in Melbourne, “Hmm.  Yeah, probably the Brawn team will rock!  Surely they will sweep the top two qualifying spots as well as the top two podium spots!  Surely Brawn, Toyota, Williams, and Red Bull will be the fastest teams!  Surely McLaren will be competing with Force India for worst team on the grid!”

Seriously – who would’ve thought?  Brawn GP is the former Honda factory team.  The team that competed with Force India last year for worst team on the grid.  The team whose car sucked so badly that they weren’t even competitive with the Super Aguri team who was running Honda’s customer engine and previous year chassis.  And who in their right mind would have ever voted against Ferrari and McLaren being at the top of the charts?  They’ve dominated F1 for years now!

I expect by about mid-season we’ll see Ferrari and McLaren dominating like before – those teams adjust so well.  But who knows?  Would it be so bad if any team except Force India was able to win?  This might be the start of a really exciting and interesting season, even if the cars do look a little weird.

As a follow up to the Behold Air Oakley post, I just had to mention the most common response people have when seeing that picture, which is, “Uh, that’s fake.”

Wow.  Very astute of you to determine that!  You mean for some reason you didn’t think he really has a seven foot vertical leap?