where you'll be i'll know

Boss squared wants to change my role at work. I like my role at work.

We also have some pilot builds of a new pacemaker at work and we can't get rid of the damned things. We have tried four times to ship them and failed. There is nothing wrong with the parts - it's all paperwork.

I am still playing Spore but I have pretty much played the crap out of it. I have been rereading some books but I only have relatively few books with me so I'm kind of sick of them. Prodrive is weeks away and there are no good Firebirds online.

it was over before it started

Had another near miss on a Firebird - found an '87 Firebird Formula on CL that had the right color, wheels, transmission, engine...unfortunately when I called to see the car later that day it was in the process of being sold.

Finished rereading the Caves of Steel quartet - don't know what to read next. Maybe Catch-22 again.

I took the day off of work tomorrow, but I don't know what to do. At least I won't be at work.

you tell me i can't slow down

Diesel power has emerged as the dominating fuel in Le Mans series endurance racing, with Audi and Peugeot competing neck-and-neck for top honors. But that's about to change, if the Automobile Club de l'Ouest
(ACO) has anything to say about it. ACO, the body that organizes the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the LMS championships in Europe and North America, has announced new rules aimed at reducing the performance of the diesel racers to level the playing field with the gasoline-fueled competitors.

The new regulations would include air restrictors reduced in diameter by 10% and a decrease in allowable turbo boost on the oil-burners. The move is also aimed at impeding laps times in the name of safety, with a 3 minute 30 second La Sarthe lap time as the target, where the Peugeot 908s lapped the circuit in the low 3:08s this year.

Additional rule-book amendments include the banning of tire warmers, a reduction in the permissible size of rear wings and the allowance of only one wheel gun for each pit crew, all in an effort to reduce costs and raise lap times.

This is another reason I don't care for racing. You would think they objective would be to get around the track as fast as possible, but it's actually just to put on a good show. The only reason the C6.R and DBR9 battles at Le Mans were close was because the Corvette had to carry ballast.

Also, how can they argue these latest changes are for safety if they are banning tire warmers and reducing wing sizes? That's like saying my car is safer if you cut the brakes lines.

You could argue that by making the cars all the same you focus everything on the driver. But people-only sports don't put up with this. If one runner is faster than all the others they don't make him wear lead weights and a parachute. If someone is different that's just how they are.

I think racing cars should either be allowed to be as specialized as possible or left completely stock.

it's easier to be broken

I had a bit of a surprise at work today when I check my calendar and found I'd been signed up for a reliability statistics class. This was set up weeks ago but I will forget anything set up more than a week in advance. The instructor is a physics Ph.D. who retired and teaches physics, with this on the side.

He gave us homework.

I was amused and procrastinated so I could finish the last main objectives in Spore and do my laundry. So I waited to the last minute as usual. I finally got it done but it was a pain. This is why I LEFT school.

At least I have Monday off as a personal day. And the only person who knows (my boss) probably forgot.

drive until you lose the road

I signed up for an advanced driver's ed class at PIR. I was not able to swing it so I could take a day off and do that instead of work, but it should still be good. We'll see if they kick me out.

Since I finished that Brian Greene book I went back to my limited book collection and dug out an Asimov, one of my favorite authors.

LHC is finally being ramped to full power on Wednesday, although that is only for one beam - collisions won't take place for another two months, and then it will take six months just for them to figure out the first data. I have mixed feelings about HEP but I'm interested to see what they can find.

the weight of storm on memories

I finally finished reading The Fabric of the Cosmos. I got the book when it came out several years ago, but it came at as bad time as I was working out how to exit physics at that point. The first time I didn't even make it through the first chapter before I got fed up with the theories Greene brought up; fortunately after forcing myself through they turned out to be crap in the end. The book is OK - the first section is kind of annoying because Greene has to build up the current picture through history. The middle section is pretty good and has some interesting ideas. The last section of the book is pretty much just a rehashing of The Elegant Universe. The book is now four years old but I don't know how much further the new theories have gotten since they've just been finishing LHC in that time.

It's the time of year when a bunch of new games come out and I have been occupied with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 and Mercenaries 2. Which are pretty much exact opposites. My 360 was in a bad way the day I got Tiger Woods, but it somehow got over it and hasn't had any troubles since.

As for the games themselves, they are both sequels and don't seem quite as good as the previous incarnations. Tiger Woods 09 is just an evolution of last year's game. It does feature a new dynamic attribute system, but since I don't play like a normal person at least one of my attributes will take a whack after each round. Mercenaries 2 is more of a letdown - the original game was more organized and focused with the 'deck of cards' and the story was deeper. Mercs 2 also seems easier and shorter than the original. It's still pretty fun but won't be something I play over and over.

don't know how to play my part

Tried to go check out a Firebird today, but the guy flaked out and I wasn't able to meet up with him. Along the way I got cut off big time by a guy in a big stupid truck, but I was able to cut back in front of him without further escalation. There was also a guy in a Jeep driving along wearing two hats at the same time. Which means he thought to himself, No. One hat is insufficient for this situation.

rss

It looks like Craigslist changed something about how they organize cars and it screwed up my RSS feeds, so now I have to go update all 9 of them.

On Friday I decided to clean up the Wikipedia entry for the Genesis Coupe. I didn't think it was that bad but I edited every section, then reorganized the whole thing, and the more I look the more there is to edit. It was just kind of thrown together.

synergy or two

I decided to break out my geek skills on the Genesis Coupe website music. Using a Shockwave decompiler I was able to isolate the tracks, and I reintegrated them with ACID 5.0. Now I don't have to worry about what they are or losing them when the website gets updated. Still no news on when the car goes into production.

Continuing with the geek theme, I worked out that my policy of leaving fans on 24/7 means they represent about a quarter of all the power I use. I picked up some digital timers and now they will shut off while I'm at work and snap back on an hour before I get off work. Assuming people don't pull any more surprise 5:00 meetings. Like today.

is it better to be safe than sorry

The Malibu just had its first fill-up since getting the spark plugs changed, and it looks like that may have done a bit of good. It certainly wasn't any conscious effort to be more economical, because I got pulled over yesterday for speeding after I finally got off work - hosed again, the other quality person bailed around 4:30 without even asking if I could be the one who had to stay late.