Just a couple quick notes.
One of my cats got out Friday night and other than a quick visit to a Memorial Day BBQ that a very nice co-worker invited me too, I’ve pretty much been hanging out at home and looking for her. Last I saw she was playing “Sheena, Kitty of the Jungle” in the little stand of woods behind my house, but that was Saturday. So I’m starting to get a little twitchy/nervous. Not firing on all cylanders.
Coca Cola 600
Last night was the 600 which I listened to and monitored on Trackpass for the first time. For those that don’t know, Trackpass is a program offered for NASCAR fans that tracks some telemetry data in real time. Not only is it a live leader board and race scanner, you can read car speed, engine rpms, track position, even acceleration and braking, which is tres’ cool. And do it for two drivers at once, which is even cooler. It’s not 100%. It was particularly interesting to watch the car numbers jumping around the track during cautions. First caution Scott Riggs apparently flew backwards down the entire backstretch. And another Carl Edwards was coming down the front stretch…”No, now he’s on the back stretch. No, now he’s going into turn one. No, now he’s on pit road.” The little 99 was flying all over the place, I’m surprised he didn’t end up in the parking lot. But what can you expect for that much information being condensed into a fan site in real time.
But it’s very interesting and handy. For example, I could see how two drivers, like Jeff Gordon and Elliott Sadler handled acceleration through the turns. Jeffie hit the exact mid-point between turns one and two or three and four and stomped on it, but Elliott actually started accelerating before he hit the mid-point as he was coming out of turn one or three and accelerated much smoother. Now how much of that was his handling (having to enter turns slower ergo being able to accelerate sooner coming out of them) and how much is his style, having only watched one race this way, I’m not sure. If it is his style that’s pretty cool and proves what I have said about how he sets himself up in the turns. However, by the end of the race the car was pretty messed up and he was feathering it (I think that's the term) pretty heavily.
Anyway, not a good weekend for him over all but he seems to have handled it all with fair amount of grace. *golf clap* Remember what Churchill said Elliot, “When you are going through hell, just keep going.”
The 600 is an endurance trial, 100 miles longer than any other Cup race. 17 cars out of 42(?) finished on the lead lap, so that make Dale Jr.’s 11th place and Mark Martin 4th place finish very praise worthy. MM is up one and Dale Jr. maintains his points in the standings.
My Gawd, could it be MM’s year at last? That would be so schweet!
English as an Official Language
The French Canadian community in Maine, especially in mill towns like Lewiston, was very large minority. I got this as an e-mail from DrifterI and felt it sage enough to share:
“In regards to your comments on the "National Language" issue, the experience of the French-Canadians of Maine is instructive. They were strictly Francophone, growing up in French speaking parochial schools and living in a like community until the mid 1950's when some of the mills shut down and moved south following an extended strike. Most of the workers were totally unaware of the threat until it was too late. Basically, they had been sold our by their French speaking "Leadership". The following year, all parochial schools changed from French to English at the start of the school year.
O.K. before people start freaking out, I know this person. This next comment is facetious.
It is obvious that French-Canadians are one hell of a lot smarter than Mexicans as they made this transition without benefit of ESL classes. Then again, the Parochial schools were using their own money, rather than receiving subsidy for these students. Don St. Pierre, an engineer that I worked with in Biddeford entered the English speaking world when he walked into fourth grade that fall, yet he went on to graduate from UMO in a mechanical engineering syllabus.
There has to be a universal language in any country. I admit that even in France, you find a lot of people in certain regions who rely on school book French, being primarily Breton, Provencal, or Catalan. However, the universal language does prevent a lot of abuse.”
People do tend to forget that Latin American immigrants are not the first set of immigrants to go through this.
Congratulations!
To Karen and Curtis on the new furry addition. I just saw the pics and she’s a doll! Hope everything works out for the best, but with parents like you two, I’m not too worried about it turning out otherwise.
Will write more tomorrow! Have a nice night and Happy Memorial Day. Thanks to all the brave men and women in uniform, past and present, who have served their country’s call to arms.
Coca Cola 600
Last night was the 600 which I listened to and monitored on Trackpass for the first time. For those that don’t know, Trackpass is a program offered for NASCAR fans that tracks some telemetry data in real time. Not only is it a live leader board and race scanner, you can read car speed, engine rpms, track position, even acceleration and braking, which is tres’ cool. And do it for two drivers at once, which is even cooler. It’s not 100%. It was particularly interesting to watch the car numbers jumping around the track during cautions. First caution Scott Riggs apparently flew backwards down the entire backstretch. And another Carl Edwards was coming down the front stretch…”No, now he’s on the back stretch. No, now he’s going into turn one. No, now he’s on pit road.” The little 99 was flying all over the place, I’m surprised he didn’t end up in the parking lot. But what can you expect for that much information being condensed into a fan site in real time.
But it’s very interesting and handy. For example, I could see how two drivers, like Jeff Gordon and Elliott Sadler handled acceleration through the turns. Jeffie hit the exact mid-point between turns one and two or three and four and stomped on it, but Elliott actually started accelerating before he hit the mid-point as he was coming out of turn one or three and accelerated much smoother. Now how much of that was his handling (having to enter turns slower ergo being able to accelerate sooner coming out of them) and how much is his style, having only watched one race this way, I’m not sure. If it is his style that’s pretty cool and proves what I have said about how he sets himself up in the turns. However, by the end of the race the car was pretty messed up and he was feathering it (I think that's the term) pretty heavily.
Anyway, not a good weekend for him over all but he seems to have handled it all with fair amount of grace. *golf clap* Remember what Churchill said Elliot, “When you are going through hell, just keep going.”
The 600 is an endurance trial, 100 miles longer than any other Cup race. 17 cars out of 42(?) finished on the lead lap, so that make Dale Jr.’s 11th place and Mark Martin 4th place finish very praise worthy. MM is up one and Dale Jr. maintains his points in the standings.
My Gawd, could it be MM’s year at last? That would be so schweet!
English as an Official Language
The French Canadian community in Maine, especially in mill towns like Lewiston, was very large minority. I got this as an e-mail from DrifterI and felt it sage enough to share:
“In regards to your comments on the "National Language" issue, the experience of the French-Canadians of Maine is instructive. They were strictly Francophone, growing up in French speaking parochial schools and living in a like community until the mid 1950's when some of the mills shut down and moved south following an extended strike. Most of the workers were totally unaware of the threat until it was too late. Basically, they had been sold our by their French speaking "Leadership". The following year, all parochial schools changed from French to English at the start of the school year.
O.K. before people start freaking out, I know this person. This next comment is facetious.
It is obvious that French-Canadians are one hell of a lot smarter than Mexicans as they made this transition without benefit of ESL classes. Then again, the Parochial schools were using their own money, rather than receiving subsidy for these students. Don St. Pierre, an engineer that I worked with in Biddeford entered the English speaking world when he walked into fourth grade that fall, yet he went on to graduate from UMO in a mechanical engineering syllabus.
There has to be a universal language in any country. I admit that even in France, you find a lot of people in certain regions who rely on school book French, being primarily Breton, Provencal, or Catalan. However, the universal language does prevent a lot of abuse.”
People do tend to forget that Latin American immigrants are not the first set of immigrants to go through this.
Congratulations!
To Karen and Curtis on the new furry addition. I just saw the pics and she’s a doll! Hope everything works out for the best, but with parents like you two, I’m not too worried about it turning out otherwise.
Will write more tomorrow! Have a nice night and Happy Memorial Day. Thanks to all the brave men and women in uniform, past and present, who have served their country’s call to arms.
posted by KiplingKat | 10:41 PM
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