And Now For Something Completely Different....

Folding

I played Texas Hold ‘Em for the first time this weekend and had a blast, but mostly for the additional competition of “The Most Imaginative Way to Fold”:

“I fold like a paper airplane.”
“I fold like an origami crane”
“I fold like a dry cleaners”
“I fold like a circus tent.”
“I fold like a French diplomat”
“I fold like the Polish army”
…and so on.

I actually didn’t do too badly, pulled out a couple straights. :D With the cards anyway, couldn't even come close on the "Folding" competition.


Racing

I don’t watch TV much, so apparently I have been missing out on some of the more colorful commentary on this last weekend’s Busch race in Mexico City. (Congrats to Martin Truex Jr. on his win. That seemed like a hairy track and he had some stiff competition.). Now I know this will fly in the face of popular opinion, but quite frankly, I’m all for it having a regular race or two outside our borders. I really don’t see why NASCAR is something that Americans have to keep to themselves. Europeans play American Football, Americans play European Football (otherwise known as Soccer), F1, Indy, Rally cars and a host of other racing leagues are international, why marginalize NASCAR by keeping it completely in country? Just thinking about it (since I haven’t driven any of these cars) I would imagine the skill set for driving a Nextel Cup car to be quite different than that of other racing series, why not show that skill set off?

This is the conundrum NASCAR seems to be caught in with it’s fans (in general, not all): They want the sport to garner respect, but they want to keep it entirely to themselves.

The sport won’t get respect unless we go show people what it’s all about, right?

I understand that this is another big change in the middle of a lot of changes (from “mastermind” Brian France), but I don’t think this is necessarily bad.

And if drivers from Brazil or Japan or Mexico or France or Italy or Outer Mongolia or wherever happen to bump an American team from their place in the field, well, tough luck. Go make a better car, go practice to become a better driver. That’s sports, that’s competition. If anything, this might step the racing up a notch.

Emoticons and Pics

I need ‘em.

Quote of the Day

"But there's a lot of people that hate my guts, too. There's some people that don't like me....I never really wanted to tick anybody off. You've just got to know, and I learned early, that there's going to be people that like what you do, whether you're a writer or a race car driver, and there's going to be people that disagree with you and don't like what you stand for and don't like what you said. There's really nothing you can do. You've just got to roll with the punches." ~ Dale Earnhardt Jr.