Category Sports

In the Name of Smaller Car Fires

I have participated in five track days at full sized road courses. The first time was in a 1990 Eagle Talon at the Reno-Fernley Raceway. That car had sporty brake pads and stock rotors. It made around 230 horsepower and weighed around 3000 lbs. I pulled that car into the pits after my second session and […]

Race Report!

Man it feels good to get back on a racetrack! My lovely new Brocinante, recently recovered from open chassis surgery, finally made her debut in the arena, and what an arena it was. Injae Speedium, a new circuit in the rugged mountains of northeastern Korea, slots into that sweet spot between beautiful and diabolical. Just […]

Fear and Loathing and Elderly Korean Cars

Have you ever owned a beautiful thing while knowing that, just beneath the surface, that beautiful thing is rotting away? Have you ever made a beautiful thing ugly? Have you ever described a 15 year-old Korean psuedo sports car as beautiful? I bought my 2002 Tuscani about six months ago. It had obviously been cared […]

Rocinante Gets Sharper Teeth

Crappy econo-box racecars, versions 1.0 and 2.0 The great and legendary Rocinante, my 2002 Hyundai Avante (Elantra), spent an entirely unacceptable 12 months in stock configuration. How I bowed my head in disgrace as beloved ancestors sneered at my pathetically stock ride. “Bah,” my mother said. “These springs sag like your spirit. Your Rocinante rocks […]

Safety

It’s important to protect children. If we don’t give them safe places to play, they might get cuts or get bruises. If we don’t give children a safe environment, they might experience failure and be sad. We should never, ever let children play with fire or touch machines. Fire is dangerous and it makes smoke, […]

The Stupor Bowl

In trivial news, the New England Patriots lost the 2008 Super Bowl to the New York Giants. In non-trivial news, I celebrated that day by attending the momentous, historical Stupor Bowl VI. The Stupor Bowl is a more or less annual exhibition of mutant bike culture and extreme- skills contests put on by the Reno […]

Decision Time

When second wave feminists argue for near absolute sameness between men and women – psychological, sexual, physical – they run headlong into a simple yet distressing question. What is a woman?

No More Daewoo of Death, It’s the Hyundai of Horror!

THE TRANSITION My 98 Daewoo Nubira, that rusty, crusty old car my middle school students and I transformed into a competent track rig four years ago, has finally passed from this mortal coil. A chunk of concrete, set at the perfect height to go under the bumper, snag the rear subframe and twist it beyond […]

The John Galt, Zombie Hunter Fantasy

Let’s do a quick compare and contrast. I’ve got two hyper-famous basketball players in mind.   Player A, from his highschool days on, has been known for teamwork. I don’t mean this in the sense of some nauseatingly inspirational cliche either, I mean there are articles by people with PhDs analyzing Player A’s abiding psychological […]