Greg's Horrible Waste of Internet Bandwidth

...it can certainly make life a lot less stressful and enjoyable. But how much of it is really required? I got to thinking about this, given all the class-warfare-hand-wringing lately about the "rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer." Life's not only about money; after all, do you really think really rich people are "happier" than the rest of us? I don't think so. I believe the major difference in one's "happiness quotient" says more about one's ability to meet their basic needs. The problem - and the solution for those of us not "filthy rich" - is to avoid ratcheting up one's definition of "basic". Boyle's Law says that a gas will expand to fill its container. And while our finances are certainly not subject to this physical law, we certainly act like they are. How many times after getting a new job, a fat raise, and/or a nice bonus have we gone out and splurged, bought a new car, a new house, or e...

Go see it. Whether you're a fan or not, you'll enjoy it (and if you're not a fan now, you will be). I walked out of that movie speechless with a big lump in my throat; all I could say to those that went with me was, "I need a beer". Hair up on the neck during the Brazil GP win, heart pounding when they splashed "Imola 1994" on the screen, head in hands when "it" happened. Go see it.

Remember the "video store"? You should, it's not been that long since you had two or three just around the corner. The VHS revolution started out as a simple time-shifting device along with replacing your 16mm camera for family stuff, then companies figured out you'd love stopping by on the way home from work to grab a VHS movie for watching that night. Didn't take too long for DVDs to supplant VHS tapes; probably the only reason you have a VHS player in your house right now is to transfer family stuff from VHS to DVD. Well, paradigms are a shiftin' again. Home "media centers" (or whatever the current marketing term is) are quickly replacing DVDs; I put together a system using a Western Digital Live Plus that combines access to a hard drive and to NetFlix. To get rid of all those DVDs on the shelf in the family room I "ripped" all the DVDs to that hard drive and now watch them through the WDTV device (I keep the physical DVDs as backups...

So, of the Nürburgring; or more accurately for this discussion, the Nordschleife ("Northern Loop"). Those of you that know it, need no further info; that of you that don't, well...it's hard to describe. You can "google" it to get the basic info, which really comes down to "...it's an old race track in Germany, very long, many turns (most blind) and it winds through the Eifel mountains. It was built in the 1920's as a testing and race facility to showcase German engineering, and is itself a feat of civil engineering. It is such a difficult track to learn and drive well - and in the end, so unsafe by today's standards - that even Formula One chose to stop racing there after 1976. World-famous F1 driver Jackie Stewart dubbed it "The Green Hell"." But that's all facts and figures. Why would a race track in nowhere Germany deserve such fascination within the automotive world? Why are not other tracks as heralded a the 'R...

So, I'm taking a trip to the Nürburgring late March. For those that don't recognize this name, "The Ring" is a race track in Germany, northwest of Frankfurt; mention this name to an automotive enthusiast and their eyes are sure to widen. To an enthusiast, it's automotive mecca...but more on The 'Ring later... I created this blog on the suggestion of my wife, Thea. Since she won't be accompanying with me on this trip (I'm going with some racer buddies) she thought it might be interesting for me to create a blog about his trip, to keep track of thoughts and experiences. And, I suspect, since she kinda wanted to go with me, with a blog she could be there vicariously (and it doesn't hurt to keep track of me, either ;)...) She also probably remembers that during our last trip to Germany and the 'Ring (January '99) I was consistently on my laptop writing down thoughts and observations (like the one time we were at a museum cafe and I wrote for ...

"Some say" I tend to be wordy. I'll make my first post ironically brief...

A lesson in women....... Let’s say a guy named Allen is attracted to a woman named Elaine. He asks her out to a movie; she accepts and they have a pretty good time. A few nights later he asks her out to dinner, and again they enjoy themselves. They continue to see each other regularly, and after a while neither one of them is seeing anybody else. And then, one evening as they’re driving home, a thought occurs to Elaine, and, without really thinking, she says out loud: "Do you realize that, as of tonight, we've been seeing each other for exactly six months?" There was a sudden silence in the car; to Elaine, it seems like a very loud silence. She thinks to herself, "Geez, I wonder if it bothers him that I said that. Maybe he’s been feeling confined by our relationship; maybe he thinks I’m trying to push him into some kind of obligation that he doesn't want, or isn't sure of." And Allen is thinking, "Gosh. Six months." And Elaine is thin...