Formula 1 2006 Turkish Grand Prix

Congratulations to Felipe Massa on his "Double Shot" weekend in Turkey. His first Pole Position, and his first Flag to Flag win.

He drove a very good race throughout with zero mistakes, he was even prepared to give up the victory near the end as he slowed down just incase Mike got by Alonslow. He would have given Mike the victory no problem. A tough decision to make but he would have done it for sure.

Was sorry to see Ferrari double stack the boys on the pit stop, which is why Mike got passed in the pits by Alonslack. Now we're 12 points out with Four races to go. Mike must win each of the remaining races with Alonslow placing Third or worse. Next race is in Italy on Sept. 8 - 10, Would love to see an Alonso DNF and Mike take the win. That would be sweet.

City Cyclists

Approximately 70,000 motor-vehicle collisions are reported each year in Toronto. Although bicycles are involved in less than 2 per cent of these (around 1,200 per year), cyclists account for over 6 per cent of the city's traffic-related injuries. – This was taken from Toronto’s website and I gotta tell ya, I’m getting very tired of the cyclist’s taking up the road space they do.
Even though they are classified as a vehicle on the road, ( A bicycle is a vehicle under the Ontario Highway Traffic Act (HTA). This means that, as a cyclist, you have the same rights and responsibilities to obey all traffic laws as other road users. ) they do nothing but slow everyone down.

I say put ‘em on the sidewalk like everyone else and free up the roads for the Real vehicles. I also say that if they are classified as a vehicle, then they should be regulated as such, and any bike not up to standards such as having working lights and reflective equipment should be ticketed, same goes for disobeying the rules of the road. How many times have you encountered a traffic jam only to see five minutes later that the cause of the tie up is two cyclists traveling side by side who figure they have every right to take the entire lane for their 20 km/h joyride because “we are classified as a vehicle”.

Bullshite, Put ‘em on the sidewalk I say, put ‘em on the sidewalk. I tell you, they might be able to stop on a dime and make sharp turns, but they are no match for a 3000 lb vehicle moving at 35 km/h or more, that’s for damn sure. Jagoff time wasting cyclists.

RBC Visa Classic II and "The Call"

So, late last week I get a call from the RBC Sales and Promotions people. The sales person on the other end of the line proceeded to tell me that I was a “valued, long time client of theirs” and that they had this excellent “client upgrade” they would really like to give to me to show their appreciation for being such a good client. All I had to do to obtain this was go from my current Visa Classic credit card to a Visa Classic II credit card. I was told that if I did this, I would be able to use all of my purchases to garner points of some kind that would be able to be put towards purchases etc…. I was also told that I would get 3000 bonus points if I signed up right then and there.

As a quick aside, I find points useless because you usually only get 1 for every twenty spent or sometimes 1 per dollar but even still, it takes 40,000 points just to get something half decent so screw that shite.

Anyways, back to the phone call.
The gentleman also said that the yearly fee was $35 and the interest rate was a full 1.5 percent more than I currently pay. Needless to say, I declined. When the guy asked me ”how come”, I said that I don’t pay any fee for carrying the card right now and I pay less interest , why in hell’s name would I want to upgrade if that’s what’s on offer. Then I said that if they really valued me as a client they should erase my debt or cut my current interest rate in half. All of a sudden the kid lost his professionalism and said “okay G” because he knew full well that what he was peddling was shite, and that I had been smart enough to catch it. I then hung up. Moral of the story, should you listen to any sales calls from anybody or any business……………..Always listen closely to what is being said. Always, always, always.

The Parker "51" - Best Pen Ever Designed.

This is said to be the most perfectly balanced, finest handcrafted writing instrument ever made.
I would like to add this to my collection one day, preferably soon.
For more indepth information, click the link below.

The one in the box is a Parker 51 Special Edition. Launched in October 2002, the 51 Special Edition is available with black or Vista Blue barrels. The finish of cap on the Special Edition Black pen is in two-tone "vermeil" gold plated on white metal, whilst the Vista Blue pen carries an all white metal cap. The Empire State designed cap, and the blue diamond clip, first featured on the Parker 51 of the 1940s. The hand polished hooded 18K gold nib is fed by a precision engineered twin-channeled, ink feed and collector system for smooth writing. Pocket clips and trim are 23K gold plated. The black and the Vista Blue finishes, in combination with the Empire State caps, make both pens very attractive. Filling is via ink

http://www.vintagepens.com/parker_51.shtml

One of the worst designed roads - Ever!!!

That's right folks, The DVP (Don Valley Parkway). Whom ever designed this roadway way back when obviously had ZERO foresight on Urban sprawl or the eventual expansion of the City of Toronto.

Now, no matter the time of day or night, save for 3am and holidays, you can't expect a smooth ride or hassle free travel at all.
The traffic volume is simply too much. And this is during the summer when people are on holidays, just wait 'till September.

You will have noticed that over the last couple of years that they (the City) have tried to alleviate some of the congestion especially at the DVP/404 Interchange. All they did was make it worse. They really thought that putting an HOV lane in from 16th Ave. in the north all the way down to the 401 would speed things up. WRONG. Now, a small handful of cars get to whip by you while you sit and stew, only for you to have to let them back in all the way down at the 401 which slows everyone down because now you have Three or Four lanes whittling down into Two. Ya, Real Nice F'in Planning guy's. Wake the hell up next time. Jagoff's. As you can see from the second photo, the Real Estate beside the Highway can not be expropriated to add lanes or anything so we in the city are stuck with this time wasting road and it's only going to get worse.
Ahhh well, That's the City for ya.

OH YA, I almost forgot, add to the mix the usual bunch of timid scared drivers and now we're talking really SSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
So much so that you can leave work at 5:10pm and pull in your driveway at 6:50pm. And that's on a beautiful sunny dry weather day. I won't get into when it's raining or snowing or when an accident occurs taking out a lane or two in the process. That's a whole other story for another day.

Blogger Etiquette?....Does it even exist?...NO

Lets talk Blogger etiquette shall we………….Basically I was told last night that there is such a thing as etiquette on blogs.
Well, this is the first I ever heard of it. I always figured that seein as it was MY blog I could do or say whatever the hell I wanted, including responding to people’s comments in any fashion I choose. I think I was told that because said person is still feeling the retribution burn from one of last weeks responses to their comments which proved that they did no due diligence before responding to my article in the first place. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH FEEL IT, BUD FOX JR.

Formula 1 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix

Wow, what a race, excitement to the nines.
Firstly, congratulations must go out to Jenson for finally winning his first Grand Prix. Secondly, I think Ferrari made a critical tactical error not putting Mike on Slicks when the track was drying out. Had they have done that I dare say he would definitely have finished on the podium. Some of my friends have complained that Mike was driving rather erratically when De La Rosa was trying to pass him in the late stages of the race and although it was wet off the racing line and Mike's tires were shot I would have to say upon further review that yes, he was a little out of line to drive like that but in his defense, it is near the end of the season so you must expect things like this. Had it have been earlier in the year, I'm sure he would have pulled over and let De La Rosa by.

Also, The race stewards didn't see anything wrong with the driving style so there was no penalty.
Next up we have Alonslow, and through no fault of his own, the car had it's first mechanical failure of the year. Ah well, such is the way.

Now lets talk about Kimi, was there something other than water in his drinks bottle??? Maybe some JD perhaps??, Christ, he says that the car in front of him slowed down for no reason and he had nowhere to go but up the backside of the car. I don't buy it. I say he made a mistake in calculating the pass by half the width of the front tire and paid for it in a large way. C'mon Kimi pay attention will ya.
Now we have the summer break for three weeks which should be enough time to digest the Hungarian Goulash we just had and I'm sure the appetites will be ready for the Turkey in Istanbul on August 25th.
See you at the track.

Hungarian Grand Prix - Saturday Review

Well well well. As I make every effort to be unbiased on this Blog, it is only right to report that Mr. Schumacher bought himself a Two second penalty earlier on Saturday afternoon for passing a few cars under a Red Flag situation. Therefore, they added Two seconds onto a beautiful Pole position lap of 1:185's and now he will start 12th on the grid while Alonslow will start 15th.

Should everyone get through the first Three corners ok on the opening lap, I'm quite confident that Mike will finish the race on the podium. He is almost guaranteed a one spot bump up the finishing order if he manages to get in behind Massa because the Team will tell Massa to let him by so he can get the maximum points available. Hopefully this will be the case and it will be very nice if Alonso finishes 9th - last so that he gets no points.

We will see come Sunday morning and it is sure to be a fantastic race, probably the best race so far this season. Be sure and watch it won't you and look for my race recap later on Sunday afternoon.

Hungarian Grand Prix - Friday Review

ALONSO IS AT IT AGAIN.











The following is quoted from Formula1.com

"Hungarian Grand Prix stewards have penalized world champion Fernando Alonso for an incident involving Red Bull's Robert Doornbos during Friday practice at the Hungaroring. Additionally, Alonso received a similar penalty for overtaking another car after the session had finished, under waved yellow flags."

What this means is that no matter what time Alonso sets in qualifying on Saturday (today) he will have Two seconds deducted from his time, which means he'll probably start Sundays race from the back of the grid. For myself and other Ferrari fans this is great news. All we need now is for Schumacher to win the pole position and win the race on Sunday while hopefully Alonslow gets Zero points thus giving Mike the lead in the Championship.

These incidents aren't the first time Alonslack has stepped out of line. A few races ago during the parade lap or a restart he jammed his brakes on in front of Kimi and Kimi damn near ran right into the back of him. It was a move that was very deliberate and could have caused a major accident. This maneuver, of course went unpunished by the stewards of the race but his antics were caught this time, so he will pay the price. Good on ya Alonso, your wearin it well.

Lightning.......And Trying To Capture It

Congratulations to my friend Paula on capturing this lightning strike during last night's storm.









She used an Olympus Stylus 300 Camera with 3.2 Megapixels, had it set on the Night Shot setting and took over 100 shots.

As it turns out, this was the second picture she took. All the others produced nothing. I have been trying for years to capture lightning strikes and have had no success, YET.
I think she should go buy a lottery ticket or something as it was extremely lucky to get this shot.
Well done Paula.