Backwards Racing? Yeah, Backwards Racing

8 Laps in Reverse, as fast as you can.

This is an older video of the Wild & Crazy Back-up cars from Columbus 151 Speedway in Columbus, WI. The video is focused on my car but you get a good feel for the racing and the carnage that happens when you race in reverse.

Most every Friday Night in the summer you'll find me at Columbus 151 Speedway.

Chad Fowler Quote

"I'm sick of being associated with arrogant bastards."

- Chad Fowler

Surprise visitor makes an appearance in Portland

So, I am sitting in a conference session and who do I see? My dog, Wrinkles!

The speaker was going through a few funny pictures to get the crowd warmed up. And up pops this picture of my dog.

It was a crazy moment.

DHH - Keynote quote

"Rails 2.0 is not going to be a unicorn."

RailsConf '07

Jon and I are in Portland, we flew in on Wednesday morning, and picked up our rental car. We drove down to Bend, OR (2.5 hours) and visited my cousin and his wife (Michael and Gillian). We enjoyed a BBQ and bonfire with Michael, Gillian, Dick & Diane (Gillian's Parents), and a few of their friends (Jordan, Susan & James).

We took the scenic route back to Portland through Sisters, OR and testing the Dodge Charger RT on some back mountain roads.

Flip This Car

The buzz in real estate these days is house "Flipping". Buy an older house that needs work throw a bunch of time and money at it and sell it for a huge profit.

That's what I've done here to a 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna only without a lot of money and I have no intention of selling.

Before


After


A striking change with just a little paint and some new decals.

Race Results Week 3

This season I have seen by far the most door-to-door type racing in my entire twelve-year career. That's a statement about the quality of the equipment I've been given, my growth as a driver, and the level of competition brought by my fellow back-up racers.

The TTL Photography Chevrolet was just awesome.

From the Columbus 151 Speedway Press Release:

Jim Remsik, Jr of DeForest claimed the 8 lap back up feature win after running down the leader half way through the event. Wayne Hook grabbed the lead on the first lap and stayed out front as Remsik was running him down. Remsik caught Hook and made the winning pass on lap four with Bruce Havel in tow for second. Havel made several attempts at a pass for the lead, but Remsik had too much and was able to hold him off. At the line, it was Remsik for the win followed by Havel and George Wachuta.

Race Reports Week 1 & 2

Combined race reports for weeks 1 & 2. Subconsciously, I probably didn't want to post week 1 on it's own.

Week 1
I had residual mechanical problems from last year that caused me to make it on track but, not be able to race. Big bummer but, I got the 4 points for making an attempt.

Week 2
After the failure of week one I was happy to make some laps at speed. My low point total placed me on the front row outside. From there I took off and had the early lead. In fact I lead the first six or so laps. Laps that were filled with side by side racing with seven time back-up champion Bruce Havel and I door-to-door, backwards, at speeds reaching almost 60 MPH. We came upon the slower traffic of Wayne Hook. Going through the corner Bruce took the high groove and I took the low groove splitting around Wayne and then coming back together door-to-door. Subsequent lapped traffic stole the victory from me.

Second place for the second race of the season. Makes me wish I had been able to make the first race...

Being noticed on Flickr

A blog I read regularly, Strobist, is in the middle of a series on the future of Flickr. Specifically how it will be monetized and evolve into a marketplace for photography and photographers.

How timely is it that earlier this week I was contacted by an artist from Fountain Valley, California who was interested in using one of my photos as the inspiration for a painting? After a few emails back and forth he has agreed to compensate me for his use of my work. The artist, Bradford J. Salamon, will also send me a digital copy of the finished version.

It's been a pleasant experience dealing with Bradford and I am excited to see the results of his work. It is also a great feeling to know what you do is inspiring to others.

New Camera Body

Well, my money is in Paypal's hands and in "Pending" status according to the seller. This is my new camera once the money actually gets deposited.

Canon EOS 1 D Mark II (2) N

Worthy of a few bullet points:

• 8.2 Megapixel


• 8.5 Frames Per Second (Up to 48 shots continuous, 22 Raw)


• 45 Point Auto Focus


• Weather Sealed Body


• Exposes from 30 Seconds to 1/8000 sec


• Uses CompactFlash and/or SD Memory Cards

Now all I need to do is learn to take pictures!

Release, relief and pain

Well, I figured I should probably make an entry here, it seems like forever since I posted anything.

After a quick re-engagement I got a call on Friday from John Olson of the State Lab of Hygiene. My work there was done. The Time and Status Reporting application that I was brought in to adapt from DFI's implementation was working as expected on all fronts.

So, again, I'm done with them.

I finished our taxes tonight. Pleasantly surprised that we're getting a refund this year. *Phew*

Working on a toothache and a bottle of vicodin. Toothache is winning to this point. :S

Working on a purchase that would provide a serious improvement in camera equipment. Details are emerging but, I'll sit on them until I have secured the deal. Things are looking good though. Hoping Paypal doesn't choke on my payment.

Sick Again ...

Well, I managed to pick up another cold. I think it is directly related to the stress of a deadline at work, no not DFI, no not the Ruby On Rails project with Jon, the other work the State Lab of Hygiene.

The good news? I just delivered the "final" version. So, I don't have that hanging over me any more. Now to get the Ruby On Rails thing on track... n/m. We need to get that thing moving, ideally deployed before RailsConf '07 in May.

External HD

As you, my loyal readers .. err reader .. knows I recently had to go without my Mac Book for an unknown amount of time. This posed two problems. I didn't have my environment for working on a Ruby On Rails startup with a friend and I didn't have my windows environment for my other job.

I needed an external hard drive and suddenly had an urgent need for one this Sunday so that I could help out one of Jen's friends. Her iMac was complaining that she didn't have enough disk space. Kristen had over 3000 pictures and wanted to keep all of them. Archiving them to disc was a suitable option for her, in fact, she tried to do it herself.

Unfortunately, she didn't have enough hard drive space to burn the disc, to give her more space on her hard drive.

Western Digital WDG1SU5000 500GB MyBook Premium ES Edition External Hard Drive to the rescue!

You've seen FlickrDogs.com and FlickrBabes.com (kinda safe for work, stop back when you get home) well, with all of the good topics taken I've started FlickrCars.com. :D

Just kidding.

Interested in cars? Come check out the site. Got a Flickr account? Join the group and post some pics

FlickrCars.com

MacBook Pro is back!

I'm sitting at Culver's procrastinating about stuff I need to get done for a client. Life is bhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifack to normal.

Phenomenal turn around time at Madison Computer Works with my issue. My video display started displaying patterns of diagonally striped noise. I took it in to Glenn S. at MCW at 2:19PM yesterday. At 3:42 PM today I get a phone call saying it's ready to be picked up. Wow!

I had reason to expect a fast-ish turnaround. Glenn told me he could order parts by 3PM and see them the next day. He also warned that he had a higher than usual volume of work which tempered my expectations.

"So, what's the damage?" I asked
"It's still under warranty, no charge" he replied.

Yay!

Take THAT all you Dell totin' Apple haters!

Look under your chair, you'd be surprised at what you might find.

My MacBook (Pro) is dead ...

All good things must come to an end. My MacBook Pro caught a case of Faulty Logic Board syndrome and stopped functioning last night.

The fine folks at Madison Computer Works are doing their best to revive it. By all accounts the remedy is a quick hardware swap. Quick once they have parts on hand and not facing the largest onslaught of calls in recent memory.

Glen the "MacGuy" at MCW said since he would order the parts before 3pm the should be there sometime tomorrow. If I can maintain some priority perhaps I'll get my life back on track tomorrow night.

Of course I have no back-ups of my data, are you kidding? Looks like a multi-100's GB FireWire Drive is in my future.

Sean Johnson of IntentionallyDesigned.com prepares to bowl.

WiiBreak2
Originally uploaded by jremsikjr.

This life-sized display is generated by a projector at BarCampMadison.

Sean is trying to keep up with the other bowlers who, as you can see, are perfect so far this game.

BarCamp Madison

BarCamp Madison was held over the weekend at the Inn on the Park on the Captiol Square in Madison, WI.

BarCamp is a complimentary event to FooCamp, the very exclusive event hosted by Tim O'Reilly and company, where everyone is encouraged to participate. Sessions are lead by anyone with knowledge to share on a topic. In a session about blogs and nobody covered WordPress? Sign-up to lead a session.

Check out the Flickr Photo Pool for BarCamp Madison

See what others are saying about BarCampMadison.

Watch the WiiFight Midwest video here!

Reciprocity

One good link deserves another.

As I was digging through my site's visitors in Google Analytics I noticed a small spike (statlagmite?) beginning 2/19. The source? A link to my Polar Plunge account from The Isthmus.

The article has links to other's accounts and includes video which shows among other groups the frogs that got engaged 'just' before my group staged.

Go check out the videos and start planning your costume for next year.