This past Sunday, I was able to go to the NHRA Finals near Columbus, Ohio by way of my friend, Ben, who's uncle has extra free tickets (thanks!). I'd never been to a top-fuel drag race before, or any races before for that matter, so it was exciting since I didn't know what to expect.
When we got there, we went back around to Nitro Alley, which was the pit area, and walked past all the crews getting the cars (and motorcycles) ready. After a quick tour of the pit area, we went back to other side of the strip where Ben's uncle usually hangs out, which is ride up against the fence some thirty feet away from the cars.
I had worried about my ears getting damaged and Ben was able to pick up a pair of earplugs for both of us at the one of the many vendors stationed around the track. Those were a life-saver, because once those top-fuel dragsters and funny cars were going, the amount of sound they made would have unbearable without protection.
These were the national finals, so there were vehicles and drivers all around the country there to compete (there was even the MAC Tools/West Coast Choppers Jesse James dragster). Each round consisted of both cars doing a burnout to warm the tires up and lay down some rubber on the track, then they lined back up at the "Christmas Tree" where they waited for the green light. Once those cars took off and passed by us, they vibration and heat you felt coming off of the engines was incredible. It really was like nothing I'd every experienced before. There were some great matchups, with differences in time coming as close as 1,2 and 3 thousanths of a second. There were some really fast speeds, with the top speed for the day being 334 mph, which was the fourth fastest time in the history of drag racing (which the same man also held 2 of the other fastest times).
After the top-fuel dragsters, there were top-fuel funny cars, then pro-stock cars, pro-stock motorcycles, super-gas cars, stock and modified cars. Only the top-fuel vehicles were really exhilerating to watch, with the pro-stock cars coming in a distant second.
There were elimination rounds for several hours in 65 minute intervals, so we didn't stay for the last round, but we left after either the last, or second to last, semi-final round of top-fuel dragsters and funny cars, and by that time, the weather had finally gotten to where it started raining right as we got to the car.
After we got back to Ben's uncle's house, we travelled home and saw Star Wars: Episode III, which was really cool (definitely the best of the 'new' trilogy).
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Drunk Driver!
Well, it's been a while since I last updated but there's been some things that have been going on that seemed more important than blogging and other than that, nothing else much happens here. I still need to flesh out my previous post about Detroit a little, but I've been lazy and preoccupied.
I attented my grandmother's funeral (I can't even remember if it was this week or last; my sleeping schedule's so messed up. That took about a week. My brother came home again for a bit, so that was a plus. Then, we all went up to Newcomerstown, Ohio to attend the funeral. I brought my dog, so I didn't go to the viewing the night before the funeral, but all of my cousins and most of the traveling families were staying in the Hampton Inn (what a coincidence, huh?) not far from my grandmother's homestead.
Then, back home to boring home. Well, I've watched lots of TV, spent a lot of time on the PC. Oh, I applied for a job at the bookstore at Ginghamsburg, but I must not have gotten it. I haven't done any sermons since.
My friend soft-modded his Xbox and installed Xbox Media Center, which is so cool. There's so much you can do with it, besides turning your Xbox into almost a Windows Media Center PC. You can listen to your music, whether it's off your PC, or any other PC on the same network. You can view DVDs (without the DVD remote), watch videos off your PC and look at pictures. You can even read RSS feeds and receive your weather from the Weather Channel's website. Other cool things you can do are change the color of the "Ring of Light" (the colored LED surrounding the eject button on the Xbox). Now, he's copying my games and backing them up for me, and he installed some emulators, along with ROMs supplied by me. If I didn't have Xbox Live, I might do it to mine. I'm a little envious.
Well, as for things this week and tonight especially, I've been keeping up with all the news that has been coming out of E3 so far (through handy RSS feeds in Trillian; I love feeds!). Xbox 360 I'm looking forward to, PS3 (a little, but not much) and am even impressed with the design of the Nintendo Revolution (so small). Now, all Xbox 360 needs is a slot-loading HD-DVD (or Blu-ray) drive (and maybe a few more cores) and it's perfect in my book. To me, it's the overal complete package of "hardware, software and services" (the official tagline) that makes it stand above the rest. Besides, I stopped liking Mario after SNES. :p
Tonight, though, my friend Randy (hmm, he sounds familiar) got me to go to the gym and work out (which I need to do). It was a nice mix of weight and cardio training (I need more cardio). Then, we went back to his place and played some Forza Motorsport on my Xbox on his HDTV (I NEED one bad!).
Then, at 2AM, I left for home taking Dixie and the way home, I was one car behind what, at first, appeared to be someone turning off to the left, as he went into the middle turn lane of the road. Then, he continued on, so I figured that he must have that he had to turn too early, only he kept driving in the middle lane for a while and I thought to myself, "What's this guy doing?"
Well, he stayed in the middle lane, but then he started weaving back and forth and I knew he was drunk. He started vearing into the incoming traffic's lane right in front of some dips, so he could've easily gotten into an accident. Then, his vearing became more violent and he pulled back over onto the proper side of the road. The car in front of me turned left and I continued to watch this pickup as he came very close to the curb. I was back a safe distance and I saw that he almost didn't stop at the red light at National Rd. I was hoping he would get pulled over and not get into an accident, and at that moment, I saw a sheriff pull to the side street to the right before coming to National. I kept watching him as he went through the light (I'm not sure if the light was green or not) and proceeding to run up onto the curb to the right and drive off of it (it felt like something out of Wildest Police Chases!). I pulled into the side street and pulled my window down, and yelled to the sheriff while pointing my hand straight at the truck, "Hey, there's a drunk driver up there, a pickup. I just saw him run up off the curb, so you need to pull him over, man!" Well, he took a right and came up to the red light, and stopped (most likely looking down National to see if he took a right towards I-70. He continued straight (the way the truck went) and sped up looking for him. I followed trying to make sure that he found him, but the truck, most likely knowing that he was being followed (or maybe not), pulled into a parking lot to the right where there was a bar (was this guy ducking from the cop or did he really need to get more drunk?!). The cop slowed up and turned around, then went into the parking lot. That's when I had gone far enough away, so that I could not see what happened after, but I hope that guy was taken off the street and punished. That was the worst display of drunkeness I've ever seen. It was shocking and horrifying at the same time.
I attented my grandmother's funeral (I can't even remember if it was this week or last; my sleeping schedule's so messed up. That took about a week. My brother came home again for a bit, so that was a plus. Then, we all went up to Newcomerstown, Ohio to attend the funeral. I brought my dog, so I didn't go to the viewing the night before the funeral, but all of my cousins and most of the traveling families were staying in the Hampton Inn (what a coincidence, huh?) not far from my grandmother's homestead.
Then, back home to boring home. Well, I've watched lots of TV, spent a lot of time on the PC. Oh, I applied for a job at the bookstore at Ginghamsburg, but I must not have gotten it. I haven't done any sermons since.
My friend soft-modded his Xbox and installed Xbox Media Center, which is so cool. There's so much you can do with it, besides turning your Xbox into almost a Windows Media Center PC. You can listen to your music, whether it's off your PC, or any other PC on the same network. You can view DVDs (without the DVD remote), watch videos off your PC and look at pictures. You can even read RSS feeds and receive your weather from the Weather Channel's website. Other cool things you can do are change the color of the "Ring of Light" (the colored LED surrounding the eject button on the Xbox). Now, he's copying my games and backing them up for me, and he installed some emulators, along with ROMs supplied by me. If I didn't have Xbox Live, I might do it to mine. I'm a little envious.
Well, as for things this week and tonight especially, I've been keeping up with all the news that has been coming out of E3 so far (through handy RSS feeds in Trillian; I love feeds!). Xbox 360 I'm looking forward to, PS3 (a little, but not much) and am even impressed with the design of the Nintendo Revolution (so small). Now, all Xbox 360 needs is a slot-loading HD-DVD (or Blu-ray) drive (and maybe a few more cores) and it's perfect in my book. To me, it's the overal complete package of "hardware, software and services" (the official tagline) that makes it stand above the rest. Besides, I stopped liking Mario after SNES. :p
Tonight, though, my friend Randy (hmm, he sounds familiar) got me to go to the gym and work out (which I need to do). It was a nice mix of weight and cardio training (I need more cardio). Then, we went back to his place and played some Forza Motorsport on my Xbox on his HDTV (I NEED one bad!).
Then, at 2AM, I left for home taking Dixie and the way home, I was one car behind what, at first, appeared to be someone turning off to the left, as he went into the middle turn lane of the road. Then, he continued on, so I figured that he must have that he had to turn too early, only he kept driving in the middle lane for a while and I thought to myself, "What's this guy doing?"
Well, he stayed in the middle lane, but then he started weaving back and forth and I knew he was drunk. He started vearing into the incoming traffic's lane right in front of some dips, so he could've easily gotten into an accident. Then, his vearing became more violent and he pulled back over onto the proper side of the road. The car in front of me turned left and I continued to watch this pickup as he came very close to the curb. I was back a safe distance and I saw that he almost didn't stop at the red light at National Rd. I was hoping he would get pulled over and not get into an accident, and at that moment, I saw a sheriff pull to the side street to the right before coming to National. I kept watching him as he went through the light (I'm not sure if the light was green or not) and proceeding to run up onto the curb to the right and drive off of it (it felt like something out of Wildest Police Chases!). I pulled into the side street and pulled my window down, and yelled to the sheriff while pointing my hand straight at the truck, "Hey, there's a drunk driver up there, a pickup. I just saw him run up off the curb, so you need to pull him over, man!" Well, he took a right and came up to the red light, and stopped (most likely looking down National to see if he took a right towards I-70. He continued straight (the way the truck went) and sped up looking for him. I followed trying to make sure that he found him, but the truck, most likely knowing that he was being followed (or maybe not), pulled into a parking lot to the right where there was a bar (was this guy ducking from the cop or did he really need to get more drunk?!). The cop slowed up and turned around, then went into the parking lot. That's when I had gone far enough away, so that I could not see what happened after, but I hope that guy was taken off the street and punished. That was the worst display of drunkeness I've ever seen. It was shocking and horrifying at the same time.
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