I found out I’m not a racing fan anymore

Well, at least I don’t think I am a fan of major american racing series anymore.  Today is the last day of the NASCAR season.  The championship race.  It all comes down to this, and I can’t be bothered to even turn the TV on.  I would rather clean the gutters on the house or do graphics work than waste the time.  Last week was the end of the champcar season, and I had the same feeling.  I would say that almost without a doubt, I am no longer interested.

According to the TV ratings, I am not alone in turning NASCAR off.  Viewership in the US is off by about 10% this year from what I can tell, and many of the races have seats available on race day, walk up and buy a ticket on race day.  2 years ago you would have had to kill people to get tickets to most of the races.

There is little innovation, nothing new… 50% of the races are run on cookie cutter track that, except for the skyline in the background, could all be the same track.  The entire race often hinges on who can save gas to avoid a pitstop or who put the right 1/4 pound of air in that right front tire.  480 miles of nothing to get 20 miles of racing, in a series who’s point system rewards average and doesn’t give anyone a real reason to win.  The artificial “race to the chase” and “the chase” tries very hard to create some tension and stop run away seasons, but all it does is turn 33 drivers into lame ducks too scared to race anyone in the top 10, and turns the top 10 in boring bots too scared to race in case they screw up their average points finish.

When racing stops rewarding winning, people stop wanting to win.  They race for points, they race for scoring better than average, and all they do is aim to be slightly better than average, because that is all it takes.  Make the chase, and even at 10th place, you are only 50 points behind. 23% of the drivers make the chase, so you only have to be in the 77th percentile to make it in.

Champcar and the IRL are no better at this point.  Champcar is packed full of no-names and lame brains, unsponsored cars, stupid street races on tracks so tight nobody can pass without a major incident, and short fields that would make my local circle track cancel a class for lack of competitors.  IRL has the names and the Indy500, but a bunch of other cookie cutter races and all the competition of a pin the tail on the donkey contest.

I still enjoy F1 from a totally technical stand point, I enjoy how strategy, driver skill, and the choices of others all interplay.  But that is a sport of billionaires… and it is pretty hard to swallow at times.

Too bad… I really use to enjoy racing. 🙂

Of things small and minor…

First off, happy birthday to me… I turned a shocking (and some would say impressive) 42 on Thursday.  Quiet day, fielded some phone calls and emails from the well wishers (thanks!), and generally played it cool.   42 is suppose to be the answer to life, the universe, and everything, so here is to seeing if it fact it is true.

My birthday present is that my main desktop here got a prety solid upgrade, now up to a core2 duo processor(s) and a nice GEForce 7300GT video card, which certainly has improved the view from over here.  The thing is a beast, and runs pretty much everything like salsa through a goose.  It’s a nice way to celebrate getting older, I guess, by making your tool work better!

In order to pick up the parts, I did another “rental car” run to Toronto.  Hit two cars I had reviewed before, so no reason to run over that ground again.  But safe to say that my opinion of the new Camry was solidified by another 600kms behind the wheel of one of the nicest 4 door sedans in the class.  I could run that one all day and all night and never get tired!

In the porn world, well, not too much new and exciting.  The Jordan Capri Honeymoon Video is slowly leaking out, which is all good.  One thing for sure, this girl could likely suck a golf ball through a garden hose.  Nice stuff!

As for my own stuff, well… an important date coming up for me on November 16th will sort of clear up some things for me and give me an idea on some of the things I will be working on in the next 12 months or so.  Until then, I am in sort of a weird holding pattern, cleaning up some stuff and generally making all the porn stuff work better and be more up to date.  Otherwise, I am pretty quiet, and actually taking some time for myself these days, which feels pretty darn good.

So, enjoy!  Don’t forget to check out findpics free porn!