07/30/2001
Back from Pocono. Good weekend, Good race, Little burnt from the sun, but not nearly as bad as 2 years ago.
Ive been watching NASCAR for some time now, and this year started out special because of Dodge making a return to Cup... funny though.. not only did they return to Winston Cup, but they also sponsored about a third of the races this year. thats A LOT of advertisment. Over the developing season from the anticipated domination of Dodge at Daytona to now, I have had some thoughts about this.. We know that Chrysler hasnt been in the greatest shape financially and a return to the most popular and fastest growing sport was probably the best form of publicity they could get. but if you ask me they were too worried about the fame they thought they were going to get and now they are playing the "poor us" side rather than the "were gonna kick ass" side. If they were really interested in running well this year they should have entered some cars in the Busch Series. that would have given them the seat time and extra notes that they would need to make those cars a little better. Reguardless of that though, theres something else to consider which I have said from the very begining. Take a look at the drivers that are in Dodges this year that were in something else last year. Bill Elliott, Sterling Marlin, John Andretti, Kyle Petty, and Ward Burton. All 5 of those drivers are pretty much running exactly the same as they had in the past. 1 from a Ford, 1 from a Chevy, and 3 from Pontiacs. They didnt win much in the past few seasons and they arent winning now. for the most part they are running like they always have. Dodge didnt put them all in victory circle like they had hoped, but they didnt kill any kind of record breaking streak they had going from last year either. So how can their performance be blamed on a "disadvantage" that the Dodges have? if anything they are all running a little bit better than they did last year. Isnt that good? So while I was there at the races, the news started flying, over the weekend the decision was made to give the Dodges more front air dam... 2 inches forward below the bumper to be exact. this is as of Augest 1st. Ummm.... why? because the Dodge hasnt won yet this year? Ill bet you ANY MONEY that if Jeff Gordon or Dale Jarrett had been put in to a Dodge ride this year that Dodge would have the fame they were looking for. but instead they put people in them who didnt normally run too well hoping to make them run extra well and say "look what we did, Dodge must be number 1". Didnt quite work out though, and now they feel the need to cry. They have already gotten more HP in their engines, a better aero package for the roof and spoiler with the exception of the Talledega package, and now they are getting this front air dam adjustment and calling it much needed help. Take those 5 Drivers and pay no attention to what they drive. ok?.. Give each one of them more horse power and a better air package. NASCAR has basically decided to single out 5 drivers who havent done too well lately and give them all extra stuff that the rest of the field doesnt have. Is that fair? No. Its already been proven in almost all the aero tests that Sterling Marlins car has been in that he had the best setup of all the cars, so whats the deal? If last year NASCAR had gone to those 5 drivers in their Fords, Chevys, and Pontiacs and said "here, take this and itll make you run better" it wouldnt have gone too far, but now that those same 5 drivers are all in a Dodge its happening and its horse shit. the other 5 drivers who make up the 10 car Dodge field are rookies for crying out loud, So you cant expect them to be running front of the pack each week anyway. I have nothing against Dodge winning, but I want to see them win on their own, not with a pitty package.
For more information on this you can also read
This Article on NASCAR Online.
07/26/2001
Yeah so I kind of fell off the earth for a few days... thats ok. So whats Mermaid been up to?... well I have been sharpening my Perl skills. I have a few things that I have made which will be getting used on this site within the next few weeks. just some cool utils and stuff. wrote them all from scratch for the most part, no borrowed code. Perl is bunches of fun, and its very efficient. I have so many ideas for things to do with it now,.. every day I think of something else cool to try. Ive been using it for a few years, but now Im actually getting in to it a lot more.
Tomorrow morning we are going to the Pocono Raceway again for the infield experience.
Moose is going with us this year,.. that should be interesting. Watch for us on TV, the TNT and NBC coverage seem to like showing a lot of infield shots, and we always park by turn 3. Should be back on Sunday night sometime.. until then, have fun,.. later.
07/20/2001
the
chick tourney has been reset once again. go play!
07/17/2001
If your using MS-IE to view this page, highlight the colored numbers below to find out a secret message!
0123456789
1234567890
2345678901
3456789012
4567890123
5678901234
6789012345
Ok, so its no secret, but its pretty cool, isnt it?
07/16/2001
Sometimes I feel like there are certain things that we dont need..... Like the sun. It just needs to go away. We can live in the dark. infact.. itll probably be lots of fun. might be good for the economy too.. but my point for today is because of driving.. It doesnt seem to matter which way Im driving, its always in my face blinding me. if its not blinding me, its burning me to the point that I look like leather, but thats another story. today, merging on to 9 from the ansville circle I looked to the left to see if there was anyone in that lane, so that I could pass all the slow moving trucks that have to stop at the overpass. no one was coming from the other road, the light was red, and it seemed as if no one was next to me either... the sun was very blinding though, and I missed the black pickup truck that either made an illegal tuen in the lane next to me, or went through the red light from the other road. I begin my shift to the left and as soon as I was about 1 inch away from his side, the shaddows came in to play and all I could see was truck. I quickly swerved back to the right, got some screeching out of the tires, and avoided the situation that could have been. I couldnt have been more than a half an inch away from that truck when I saw what had happened. I have no idea where he came from, but if the damn sun hadnt been blinding me it wouldnt have happened. I have a few other things that just need to go away too.. but Ill complain about them another time.
07/11/2001
Was reading NASCAR Online yesterday and saw them talking about the possibility of McDonnalds going back to Bill Elliott! and it could possibly happen this weekend! That would be nice,.. Id feel bad for the guy that has that sponsor right now, but he has failed to qualify for 6 events so far, and I guess McDonnalds wants that advertisment. that works out for that Dodge team too because aparently Dodge cant sponsor 2 cars anymore, and a sponsor would be needed as of 2002, so if McDonnalds goes to Bill Elliott, then Dodge will stay with Casey Atwood. that would be pretty cool to see Bill back in that red and yellow paint scheeme.
07/08/2001
the
chick tourney has been reset. go play!
07/05/2001
The smaller of the 2 fish died this morning :(
The big one is left by himself now, but the one that moose got didnt make it. he was doing so well too. I dont know what happened. I was even going to change their water today. I feel so bad for the poor little thing.
07/04/2001
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Happy July Fourth!
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07/02/2001
Needless to say,.. I was upset the other day. I hate having a pet die. Its just one of the worst feelings. even though it was only my pet for a day, it still sucked. I went back to the carnival the next night, not planning on tring to "replace" the fish,.. not even wanting another at that point, but for some reason the person there showd me that they got new fish that morning, and there was this big gold one that she said I could have if I won. Immediatly getting attached to the cute little thing I played the game and won. then for some reason my friend moose played the game and won too. he wanted me to have the fish, so they put them both in the same bag and I took them home. Verona didnt get another fish. She might get one of those fighting fish from the pet store. So I clean the bowl, I put the 2 fish in there and they were swimming around all night, and they ate the food I put in there, and they are still doing well today, so Mermaid is happy now! But I still feel terrible about the other ones.
