Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Theft of my online self?

How weird is this: I can't access my Facebook or Yahoo! accounts. I've tried logging into them and it just shoots me back to the login screens. Am I being followed by the government or is someone hacking my accounts? Probably neither, but a little extra paranoia never hurt anyone. 

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Grades

Well, it's that time of year again: the end of the semester. I've finished the finals, critiques, papers, and whatnot. Now I wait for my grades. So I'll be around, refreshing my browser every thirty seconds while I'm online until they're all posted. I don't know why I care so much, or need to know so badly. Maybe I'm compensating hardcore for five years of sub-par report cards, or those three years when I had to race home at lunch to intercept my midterms before my parents could find them. I am trying to chill out. Example: I studied modestly (and apparently adequately) for my Baroque Art exam. I did not stress. I went to class, took the test, aced the class.

Goal: Repeat laid-back, academically exceptional behavior this summer, next fall, and next spring.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Hooray, Felipe Massa! (The Turkey Edition)

Felipe Massa had his third consecutive win at Turkey this morning, and I am so proud! I was going to watch the race at LUNDs, but the network wouldn't let me run TVU Player, so I had to read the live race commentary on PlanetF1. Needless to say, I was totally jittery and tense, trying to imagine what was going on, etcetera, etcetera. Apparently I wasn't the only one. According to Rob Smedley (Massa's race engineer), Felipe was having a bit of a freak-out in the car, especially when Lewis Hamilton passed him:
"We had to keep him calm by telling him that Hamilton was three-stopping and the race would come back to him if he kept his head."
And yes, the race did come back and now Felipe Massa can celebrate his Turkish hat-trick and make jokes about how he now qualifies to get a Turkish passport.

I'm pretty pleased with Kimi Raikkonen's performance. Granted it wasn't his best, but he did drive the whole race with a damaged front wing and even set fastest lap! It would have been interesting to see what Heikki Kovalainen could have done if he hadn't had the puncture. I have no problem seeing him win races, but it was nice to see Ferrari win again today. We're massively ahead in the points! Stefano Domenicali keeps denying that Ferrari is "dominant" this season. True, one can't be too optimistic, but I bet you anything he gets out of those interviews and says, "Yeah, we actually are the best, kthnx!" With this win, Massa pulls into a tie with Hamilton for second (28 points), just seven behind Kimi (35 points). I'd love to see Massa win a title. :) I was talking to my mom about that today and I told her that I think he looks like my cat, Ponca:

Me: He's so adorable. He looks like my cat.
My mom: Does he have a little pink nose, too?
My dad: (Angry expression which translates into, "You better not have gotten a pet!")
My mom to my dad: "F1 driver."
My dad: (Shakes head which translates to, "Oh no, not the racing again..)
Me: "Maybe we should just get him to come live with me. He'd be like a pet, but ten times better. He could live in the closet in the living room."
My mom: "I don't think he's going to want to live in your closet."
Me: "Well, we could make a better closet!"

Here's to the better closet!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Farewell, Super-Girly :(

Today Honda officially dealt the death knell to Super Aguri. It's a shame. Although I'm not a die-hard fan of the team, it's still kind of unfortunate. They were a sweet, likable outfit, generally unoffensive, didn't cause any drama, and (as I found out last night) had very attractive team merchandise. After Honda got the SAF1 team trucks banned from the paddock in Turkey, I just knew that things weren't going to turn out well in the end. I kind of wish it all could have been worked out, just because I wanted to know who the mystery investors Weigl had lined up were! What would have become of Super Aguri? Would they have gotten better? Would they beat someone out and not have been the back-marker team? We'll never know. I guess the bigger question is what's going to happen to Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato. I can see Sato getting picked up by someone to test. He's not a bad driver and he used to do pretty well. He's consistently done better than Davidson at Super Aguri, that's for sure. But poor Ant. I really hope he can get something to work out for him. Look how sad he looks. :(










Kudos to Aguri Suzuki for what he said about Nick Fry. Namely:
"I don't understand how suddenly Nick Fry needs to be commenting on everything. [. . .] Honda were our backers and he's not the CEO of Honda. I have no interest in Nick Fry whatsoever and have no idea what he was talking about."

You tell him, Aguri! You have to admit, it was a bit out of order for Nick Fry to suddenly start acting like the Antichrist.


Monday, May 5, 2008

Victory!

So here's a fun story.:

Today I went to the MOA by tram. There's a girl sitting across the aisle from me and when the tram stops I get up like normal, as did she. The doors open, we both get off, blah, blah, blah. Not unusual, right? Anyways, she starts walking moderately fast. I'm doing my thing, walking briskly (my "brisk" being equivalent to power-walking, minus the ridiculous arm swinging) through the mob on the platform and she's walking right next to me. Then she looks at me weird and noticeably speeds up. I'm just walking along and then she starts trying to cut in front of me. Suddenly I'm thinking, "What, is this a race? I walk faster than you; get out of my way." So I start to walk faster, just concentrating on getting across the road to the Transit Hub doors, inside so I can find jeans that probably won't fit right, etcetera! And she smirks at me and starts walking faster! I'm not even joking! It was like, "Pffft! I can beat that! You've got nothing! It's SO on!" I was totally not going to get beaten in a walking race at the MOA by that girl! It was not going to happen! So there we were, doing everything short of running into the mall. For the record, I won. And she looked pissed.

I know this makes me sound crazy. I am more competitive than I thought.

Gossip Girl

Whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA! How did I not know about this show? Ahh, the drama! And the bad acting! And the bad casting! And Serena "killed someone"?! I don't even know who she is, but I need to know more! Can anyone help me download?

Shuffle-Board

Well, my sources tell me that Ferrari (and Renault) have been actively looking at signing Robert Kubica for next season. The fact that Ferrari is shopping around tells me something, namely that in all probability one of my favorite drivers is no longer going to be with my favorite team. Sobering, isn't it? So who are we going to lose? Although Stefano Domenicali has assured us that there's absolutely no truth in it, there has been some speculation that Kimi Raikkonen may retire at the end of the season and walk away from F1 if he wins back-to-back championships (definitely a possibility, as you'll see if you've looked at the standings lately). It's also no secret that at the start of the season there were real doubts about Felipe Massa's prospects of keeping his race seat in 2009. As much as I hate to say it, I'm leaning towards Felipe leaving. Robert Kubica is an equally amiable guy and also a quality driver, but he differs from Massa in that he seems to be more coolheaded and less excitable behind the wheel. Those things are infinitely desirable, I'm sure. I'm not saying that Massa is always making mistakes based on those aspects, but unfortunately it happens occasionally.

So here I am, sitting on my couch, supposed to be writing a paper and trying to decide how I feel about Robert Kubica. I will be sad to lose my regular driver(s). I would miss Felipe Massa dearly (although I guess it won't be as if he has died; I am making this much more dramatic than it needs to be lol), but I'm fairly sure he could get a drive somewhere else. I guess, all-in-all, I could get used to Kubica. He is really tall, a poker player, and he talks with his hands, which pleases me to no end. I love this picture! Exactly what he is trying to say/convey, well, I'm stumped, but isn't it great?!










So I'm making the best out of the situation. I guess there's always the possibility that Ferrari is finally getting rid of Marc Gene (whose chief position as of late seems to be Blogger Extraordinaire, rather than Test Driver). Still, it'd be a shame to see Robert Kubica only doing testing work there.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Nick Fry = Outrageous (and not in a good way)

So... I'm kind of starting to think that Nick Fry (Honda Racing CEO and Team Principal) is kind of a douche. Without even waiting to see what Weigl and Super Aguri are offering on Tuesday, he tells the FIA they're not racing in Turkey. Hence Super Aguri can't get their trucks or crews into the paddock. What a jerk!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Team-Mate Wars: Spain

It would be interesting to know which of Massa and Raikkonen got the optimum Ferrari strategy and who had to settle for the next best thing. You'd assume Raikkonen. Kimi's improvement in qualifying form is making it look increasingly like Ferrari Game Over before half the season is over. Massa needs to do something quickly before becoming the next Rubens Barrichello (amiable small Brazilian who can be relied on to follow his team leader home, and talented enough to develop his own set-up options).
-Andrew Davies, Planet F1

Oh, noes! Felipe, win more races! However, I am confident about his chances in Turkey

Turkey is to Felipe as Spa is to Kimi Raikkonen. He has back-to-back wins there from 2006 and 2007. I'm predicting Massa will ace qualifying and pull away from Kimi in the race just like at Bahrain. Winning enough races to pull away from Kimi in the championship? Doubtful, but I'm a dreamer.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Prez

Eeee, I is the president of theArt History Undergraduate Association for the 2008-2009 school year!