Imola Grand Prix

I've regained my interest in Formula 1 this year. Results aren't what I'd hoped for so far from Honda Racing F1 but definitely a good team progressing at the right pace...

One of the big reasons I'd stopped watching F1 was the death of Aryton Senna at Imola. Senna up until the moment of death was the motorsport equivalent of Beethoven. As the story goes, Beethoven overcame growing disability in his later years. To see Senna race in his final grand prixes with McLaren/Honda was akin to listening to the final movement of Beethoven's 9th... Something that was lost to me in the following years was that sense of "wow, THIS is what racing is all about - competition at it's purest."

To watch Michael Schumacher scream through Tamburello on his way to beating Senna's pole position record was a bittersweet moment. Sappy sports fan rantings aside, I deeply admire Schumi for his technical brilliance, and his competitive spirit. But for me, Ferrari's dominance over the past decade or so just lacked that gutwrenching "fire" that the Senna/Mansell/Williams Renault/McLaren Honda days had.

The past grand prix at Imola saw many significant moments. The breaking of Senna's pole postion record and Ferrari's (not just Schumacher's) return to form amongst others. Not as obviously, I think there was the most "real" indication that Formula 1 is entering another period of sweeping drama. There are many figurative and literal moments of explosiveness in the events so far this season.

WBC blues...

OK, so Korea is out of the WBC. You have to tip your hat to Team Japan, they played a consitent, persistent focused game. Baseball as it should be.

Tho' there's a part of me that believes Korea could've/should've won.

So much is written about the rare "passion" the Japanese team played with. An "American passion" with Asian attention to detail play... exactly what Korea had up until saturday night. It's not like Korea lacked this passion. The crowd was into it right from the start. Jae Seo pitched like he was in the World Series. Team Korea's defense was sparkling. All in all, it was a closely matched game, until...

Most baseball news covering the game points to the home run off of BK as the critical moment of the game. Yes, the first run tacked on the board did swing the momentum in Japan's favor... but I think it's what BK did to the next batter that sealed it for Korea. Fukudome, who hit the home run, made a statement about how emotion carried the ball. Without going into it, his story, his hit had all the makings of a backstory most screen writers can only aspire to. This was the "passion" everyone was talking about. BK's response to the home run?

He drilled the next batter.

Which set the table for and RBI double, and effectively shut the door on all of Team Korea's passion that night. He could've let the home run stay the 1 run it should've been. He should've shown professionalism (he still plays pro-ball right?) and pitch to the next batter instead of drilling him (on the first damn pitch!). He could've shown the control he had prior to that one bad pitch. But he didn't.

In my admittedly biased eyes (I am a Yankees fan... if you know baseball and not just the rivalry between Korea and Japan, you'll know what I'm talking about) he was the last stumbling step just short of wining a mile long race.

Losing a baseball game is fine, there is no shame in having been outplayed. I still admire and have enormous amounts of pride (yes, pride) in what Team Korea has shown during the WBC. But all of Team Korea's passion amounted to little more than smoke because of one person's temper.

Congratulations Japan. Excellent game! I'm still rooting for Cuba tho...

2006 Formula 1 - Bahrain

Season kicked off this past weekend with Fernando Alonso taking the win for Renault in Bahrain. A really tight, dramatic race that was gripping from the very beginning... too bad i fell asleep for the live broadcast (3AM - Pacific). Actually that's not true. I saw the pre-race interview, fell asleep, then woke up in time for the podium.

Regardless of which driver and which team you're pulling for the seaons' off to a great, competitive start. V8's et al. Go Honda!

Google video fun...

or, "sometimes you just need a tickle":

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!
http://media.putfile.com/Family-Guy---Peanut-Butter-Jelly-Time37

Sinking?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6801926416414761527&q=berlitz

Night of Fire!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=426566504844044258&q=night+of+fire

hahaha!

Designer Frustrations - "Lorem ipsum" as filler...

Ever been in a conversation like this? (from either perspective):

designer: Please get me the final content as soon as you can.
other: I'll have it for you in __ days.
designer: Ok, but I really need it as soon as it's finalized.
other: Just use Greek text for now and we can pop in the final copy when it's ready.

__ x 2 days later.

designer: I'm going to need another day to adjust the layout. Unless you can edit the text down?
other: We're already past deadline which was yesterday!

----------

Sometimes, just sometimes, I need to remind myself that given the chance to eff things up, most people will.

The Edible Schoolyard

The Edible Schoolyard

My wife and I have been cooking a lot lately. Admittedly, out of necessity since eating out all the time costs a ton of money. Surprisingly, we've taken to it with enthusiasm instead of approaching it like it was a chore (even doing dishes... but that's a personality quirk I don't care to explain at the moment).

I came across the site for the Edible Schoolyard on Slashfood. Just reading about it makes me think there IS hope afterall for the creative mind to gain traction and affect change in this ridiculously over politic'd world... Oy! The Berkeley in me escaped there for a second. =)

buried

the obligatory, "I've been so busy blah blah blah, and I'll catch up soon, blah..." post. In other words, lame excuse for not blogging.

Oh hey, my blog's been spammed... check the comments in the previous entry.