May 31, 2014

Furiously Napping. I Mean "Typing." Furiously Typing.


Has the world come to this?

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May 30, 2014

No Excuse, Just Sharknose

I'm not exactly dawdling on the Ben-To! writeup, but there's only so much you can do when you're spending 12 hours/day at work.  So here's some Sharknose instead.

Weekend is here... writing will follow!

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May 28, 2014

INCOMING!!!

Now that things have slowed down a teeny little bit at work, I've been able to get rolling on the next episodic writeup for Ben-To!  I almost think it's gonna be kinda good, too.  Anyway, since I DO still have to be at work in the morning, I had to stop writing about the foodfighters.  However, just so you still think I love you, here's a Zephyr for ya!

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May 26, 2014

F1 Update!: Monaco 2014

The blue skies over the Cote de Azur belied the chance of rain as the field formed up on Boulevard Albert 1er.  All eyes were on the two silver Mercedes up at the front of the grid; comments had been exchanged between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg after the debacle that was Qualifying, leading many to believe that there would be serious bumping and grinding at Turn 1.  Did that happen?  Did we actually have a race where some car other than a Mercedes had a chance to win?  THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2014 Grand Prix of Monaco!

*LIGHTS OUT!:  Of course not.  Twenty or thirty years ago, Formula 1 was different and Hamilton could have punted Rosberg into the harbor without much in the way of repercussions.  Now, however?  There was no way Hamilton was going to do anything more than crowd his teammate as much as possible without touching him.  As it turned out, he wasn't even able to do that as Rosberg got off the line very well.  All the Brit could do was fall into trail behind him as they went through Turn 1.  Just as it looked like we were going to have a repeat of... well, every race this season thus far... a Force India was tipped into the Armco barriers in a location on the track with no fast way to get it off.  Berndt Maylander was duly summoned and a Safety Car period begun.  Two laps later, the restart put paid to any hope the rest of the field had.

*BANG ZOOM!:  By the top of the hill, in Casino Square, the two Silver Arrows had opened up a lead of at least a second, if not more, while Red Bull driver 4Time Vettel suddenly slowed.  First his turbo unit appeared to fail, then his RB10 seemed to get stuck in gear.  The team retired him a lap later.  As it turned out, it hardly mattered.  There were two races going on in Monaco: Rosberg vs Hamilton, and everybody else racing for third.

*MOST OF THE RACE
:  Hamilton hung on the rear wing of Rosberg's Mercedes like he was attached by a rubber band.  The lead would stretch out a bit, then snap back to under a second, then stretch out a bit... repeat as desired.  Until Lap 25.

*LAST CHANCE:  When Adrian Sutil dropped it coming out of the Tunnel, scattering a vast amount of debris across the Nouvelle Chicane, it was clear a Safety Car was going to have to be summoned.  This gave Hamilton a chance to make a strategic call that could win the race... or not.  If he pitted before the SC came out, he might "pass in the pits", so to speak.  Instead, he didn't, and Mercedes called both drivers in on the same lap once the SC was on the track.  Hamilton immediately went into full-blown whinybaby mode.  "I can't believe you didn't call me in a lap earlier", he radioed to the pits, assuming that they could see the accident coming.  The race was, for all intents and purposes, over at that point.

*MEANWHILE:  Something strange was happening down the field.  The Marussia of Jules Bianchi was sitting in 13th position and looking kinda racy.  Not racy enough to actually pass anybody on merit, it must be noted, but racy.  And then, the Racing Gods grinned.  Jules Vergne suffered exhaust failure.  Valtteri Bottas had an engine failure.  Esteban! clipped the wall and retired with a broken suspension.  Then came the big one: McLaren's Kevin Magnussen lost power.  Jenson Button went past him in the hairpin, but Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, in an attempt to follow Button through, overcooked it and pushed both himself and Magnussen into the outside of the turn.  And when Bianchi cruised past the two of them, he was in 8th place.

*THE END:  Hamilton was making movements at Rosberg, who was being forced to conserve fuel.  At any other circuit, this would have meant he'd be passed in no time, but this was Monaco.  Narrow city streets with no grip and identical cars is no way to try and pass someone.  With 12 laps to go, he was all over his young German teammate... and then inexplicably dropped back!  In the space of a lap, he lost nearly four seconds.  The call came over the radio: "I can't see anything out of my left eye.  There's something in it.  It's impossible."  Whatever it was cleared up soon enough, but Hamilton nearly fell into the clutches of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in the process.  Nearly.  In the end, it was another Mercedes 1-2, with a nine-second gap between the two teammates, and less than a half-second separating Hamilton and Ricciardo.  What was even bigger, though, was the gulf that had opened between the two teammates who were long-time friends.  Hamilton didn't congratulate Rosberg, not even a perfunctory handshake or pat on the helmet, as is normal.  On the podium, Hamilton barely acknowledged his teammate.  This has the potential of coming to a bad end.

*MEANWHILE, PT 2:   Bianchi was still in 8th place, but, alas, when he crossed the finish line he was only four seconds ahead of Lettuce Grosjean.  You see, earlier in the race, Bianchi had been given a five-second stop-and-go penalty, which he duly served... under a Safety Car period, a no-no.  So he was given another five-second penalty, which the team decided he would NOT serve, instead having the penalty applied to his final time.  This was done, dropping him down to 9th place.  This was the first time Marussia had earned points in their career.

*DRIVER OF THE RACE
: Jules Bianchi.  Seriously.  In a below-average car on a circuit just waiting to rip your wheels off, he managed to legitimately finish 8th.  Sometimes Monaco coughs up a big surprise, and while people generally only notice when it's up at the front of the grid, when it's something like this, F1U! will notice.  Congrats, Jules!

*TEAM OF THE RACE:  Mercedes.  The cracks are beginning to show, though... cracks that could cost them the season sweep they're now aiming for.

*MOMENT OF THE RACE:

It's hard not to be happy for Marussia.  We here at F1U! are managing it, as we expected Caterham to break through first, but it's hard.

*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:

more...

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May 25, 2014

F1U Monaco Coming Monday

I'm trying, but nothing's happening!  I keep getting distracted from writing, either by the Coca-Cola 600 or by the incredible pull of Civilization 5... I'm playing Japan on a Huge Earth map, and I've managed to colonize everything to the East of 90°E down to Australia, up to the Arctic circle.  There's also a small but growing corner of the Empire in what would be called Chile.  Problem is, the Iroquois had no other competition on North America, and they're spoiling for a fight.

Get it together, Wonderduck!

So, um, yeah, tomorrow!  Good stuff in Monaco!  Look forward to it!

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While You Wait

Since the F1U! won't be up for a while, here's some videos for you to watch while you wait!

Somewhere, Ph.Duck is laughing so hard, he's crying.


I'm not a huge fan of dogs.  This sort of thing is one reason why.


I love cats.  I'm not sayin' nuthin'.


I'm not sure how I feel about putting up an ad for Mobil 1... but it's a new Tooned thingie.  If y'all care, I'll keep posting them.  If you say no, I'll stop.

That should keep you busy for a while.

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May 24, 2014

F1 Quals: Monaco 2014

Sitting on the pole, while sounding painful, is quite important in Formula 1.  If you're on the pole (ow!), or one of the first four places, your chances of winning any race goes up exponentially.  Nowhere is that more true than the small French fishing village that hosts the crown jewel of the F1 calendar, Monaco.  The race is Sunday, so that means Qualifying was today... and how did they end up?  Let's take a look at the (very) provisional grid for the 2014 Grand Prix of Monaco:

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:17.678 1:16.465 1:15.989
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:17.823 1:16.354 1:16.048
3 Hooly Dooly Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:17.900 1:17.233 1:16.384
4 4Time Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:18.383 1:17.074 1:16.547
5 HWMNBN Ferrari 1:17.853 1:17.200 1:16.686
6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:17.902 1:17.398 1:17.389
7 Jules Vergne STR-Renault 1:17.557 1:17.657 1:17.540
8 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.978 1:17.609 1:17.555
9 Kid Kvyat STR-Renault 1:18.616 1:17.594 1:18.090
10 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:18.108 1:17.755 1:18.327
11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:18.432 1:17.846
12 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.890 1:17.988
13 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:18.407 1:18.082
14 Lettuce Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:18.335 1:18.196
15 Crashtor Maldozer Lotus-Renault 1:18.585 1:18.356
16 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:18.209 No time
17 Esteban! Sauber-Ferrari 1:18.741

18 Adrian F'n Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:18.745

19 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1:19.332

20 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1:19.928

21 Gandalf Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1:20.133

22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1:21.732


Q1 107% Time
1:22.985


Well, what a shock, Mercedes with another front-row lockout.  I never would have seen that coming.  Once Q3 began, there wasn't any question that one of the Silver Arrows would be on pole, it was more "which one?"  It turned out to be the guy who was raised and grew up in Monaco.

But.  Nico Rosberg is currently under Steward's Investigation for an incident in the closing moments of Q3.  He had set the fastest lap earlier in the session, but during his last run with about a minute left to go, he lost control of his car and skidded into the run-off area at Mirabeau.  This brought out a local yellow, which meant that everybody had to slow in that section of the track... and all of the challengers for pole were also behind Rosberg on the circuit.  So much for the race for pole!

Rosberg is proclaiming his innocence, and he's almost certainly right.  Doesn't mean he didn't ruin the hot laps of everybody else... including, ohbytheway Lewis Hamilton his teammate... and therefore deserve a penalty.  We'll see what the Stewards say; I'm glad I don't have to make the call on it!  Penalties could range from his fastest lap in Q3 being invalidated to total exclusion from the race.

More as/if it comes in... we might know until raceday.  See ya then!

UPDATE: No action will be taken against Rosberg!

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May 23, 2014

Three Day Weekend!

I get three days off... in a row!

I don't even know what to do with myself.  Oh wait, yes I do.

Operation Nap-As-Often-As-Possible... commence!

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May 22, 2014

F1 Practice: Monaco 2014

Rain.  Rain is the great equalizer in Formula 1.  Rain takes traction levels and sends them plummeting into the abyss.  Cars with great grip become merely average, and cars with lousy grip become potential race winners... they're not affected as much.  Rain makes any race better, and the right amount of rain can make any race a classic.  Rain is always welcome.

Except this is Monaco, it's Thursday, and the rain hit just before Practice #2 got started.  For the first half-hour, nary an engine was cranked nor a tire turned.  Why?  Because up until then, all a team could discover about their cars would be how fast it could be turned to scrap.  Monaco is something of a low-grip circuit at the best of times, the rain made that even worse... then throw in the 2014 high-torque-low-downforce cars that are twitchy anyway?  There isn't enough carbon fiber in the world. 

Eventually we did have cars on track, running awkwardly careful laps on Intermediate tires that were just barely capable of coping with the amount of water.  It wasn't until about five minutes left in the session that teams started to bolt on the super-soft tires and let the drivers loose.  Even then, we had squirmy slidy squirmyness all over the place.  Even the man who wound up on top of the timesheet, HWMNBN, looked like his Ferrari was this close to trying to sneak into the casino without paying.  Then everybody packed it in, breathed a sigh of relief, and got ready to take Friday off.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  No.  There may not be any scheduled activities on Friday, but rest assured that the teams will be busy working on the cars.  Anything they can do to make the run for pole that much easier, they will.  We'll see which ones are successful on Saturday... come back then to find out!

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May 20, 2014

Racing Stuff On TV!: Memorial Day 2014

This is the weekend F1 fans live for.  The glitz.  The glamour.  The stars.  The circuit.  This is where and when Formula 1 is everything people think of when they think "Formula 1".  Let's take a look at the track map, shall we?
Oh, wait.  That's the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the 2014 Indianapolis 500!  2.5 miles of nothing but speed, speed and more speed.  Ed Carpenter went a shade over 231mph to win his second consecutive pole position at Indy, and this year former F1 drivers Jack Newhouse, The Pope, SeaBass, ~TAKU!~, and... um... Justin... are in the field as well*.  The flag drops on the American Classic at roughly 1212pm Central time on Sunday.  But that's not the track map we're looking for today, no no.  Here's the place:

Whoops, nope!  That's Charlotte Motor Speedway, home of NASCAR's 2014 Coca-Cola 600!  1.5 miles of 24°-banked turns will see a full field of 43 cars,   The longest non-enduro race in America starts at 5pm Central time, and will finish under the lights in one hell of a spectacle!  But even that isn't what we've come here for... this is:

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present to you Monaco, the most insane top-of-the-league circuit in the world.  "But Wonderduck," I hear you ask, and I've really gotta learn how you pull that trick off, "F1 doesn't go 231 mph, or have 43 cars on a banked-oval track, how is THIS insane?"  Because, my sneaky voice-throwing friend, this race involves cars that are worth tens of millions of dollars, using the highest of high-end technology, and they're racing here:

...harborfront of a small French fishing village.  It's the crown jewel of F1 races, and perhaps the only one where high speed really doesn't matter all that much.  I mean, there are places at Monaco where the cars are going substantially slower than the maximum pit-lane speed for either NASCAR or IndyCar.  It's a ridiculously narrow, cramped, bumpy, dangerous, silly place to have a race these days.  But it is the one race most racers in the world would kill to win.

And this weekend, it's going to be live on the big network!  Let's take a look at where and when the Legendary Announce Team will be located during coverage:
THURSDAY
P2: 7a - 830a live on NBCSN
SATURDAY
Quals: 7a - 830a live on NBCSN
SUNDAY
2014 Grand Prix of Monaco: 630a - 9a live on NBC

The Grand Slam of Motor Racing Fandom is this Sunday, folks... Monaco, Indy, the 600, all in one day.  1270 miles of racing... are you fan enough?  I failed last year, missing about 75 miles of the NASCAR race (I was asleep).  I'm not sure if I'm going to give it a shot... what about you?

*That's Jacques Villeneuve, Juan Pablo Montoya, Sebastien Bourdais, Takuma Sato and... um.. Justin Wilson for all of you readers who don't remember my old nicknames for these guys.  Except for Wilson; he drove in 2003, pre-Pond.

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May 19, 2014

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast...

I guess Mu.Nu.land is having another slowdown!  We're going to wait until Tuesday to do the F1 on TV as a result, but if there's another server failure, remember that we get Monaco this weekend.  That means Practice is on Thursday morning, not Friday!

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May 15, 2014

Almost Done, Just About.

Friday is the last day of Finals, and that means the last day of Buyback at the Duck U Bookstore.  Which means that yours truly is pretty much exhausted.  Last week was 60+ hours, this week stands a very good chance of nudging over that point, and that doesn't even count Sunday's shift, which is technically next week.  What I'm saying is that finding out that the Mu.Nu server had been attacked by Australian Sugar Gliders and that The Pond was to be down for a few days didn't disturb anywhere near as much as it should have.

Sugar Glider caught on camera during its attack run
This sounds bad, I know, and really I should be more saddened by the loss of a month or so of pictures in posts, but I'm not.  Still, as a proud member of the Justified Ancients of Mu.Nu, for a blog that's nearing its ninth birthday is nothing if not ancient (in blog years, that is), I'm glad to have The Pond back.  All kudos to Pixy for his heavyweight tech wizardry!

I'm going to go pass out now.

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May 14, 2014

F1 Update!: Spain 2014

(We're back!  Thanks to Pixy for fixing the servers!)

An overcast sky from overnight rains greeted the masses as they congregated at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcalounger.  As the F1 Circus rolled onto the starting grid, their tasks-at-hand was quite simple.  For the two Mercedes drivers, sitting 1-2 at the top of the field, it was "beat your teammate."  One, Nico Rosberg, won the first race of the season, finished second in the other three, and held the Driver's Championship points lead.  The other, Lewis Hamilton, had won the last three races and sat on pole.  For the other 20 drivers, the job was "beat Mercedes."  Could anybody manage that task today?  THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2014 Grand Prix of Spain!

*LIGHTS OUT:  That last question was answered shortly after the race began: "no."  Hamilton  got away cleanly while Rosberg had a mediocre start, allowing the 2008 World Champion to open up a couple of seconds worth of lead.  It never got much larger than that, promising an interesting struggle between the two in the long run.  Behind them, however, the rest of the field could only gasp in full-blown horror as the Silver Arrows disappeared into the distance at a rate of a second per lap.  It became pretty obvious that we were looking at a race that was likely to be won in the pit lane, not on track.  And then the entire F1U! analysis team dozed off in their comfy chairs.

*RED HOT PIT ACTION:  We were woken up (see "Moment of the Race", below) just in time for the first round of pit stops... where nothing really happened.  Of the Merc drivers, Hamilton pitted first on Lap 18, relinquishing the lead to Rosberg.  Surprisingly, the robotic Mercedes pit crew coughed up a four-second pit stop for the Brit.  Not horrible, surely, but not what they usually manage either.  His teammate stopped on Lap 20 after cranking out a fast lap, had a three-second long pitstop... and wound up only 3.8 seconds behind his Hamilton.

*WASH RINSE REPEAT:  The rest of the race was exactly the same until the final round of pitstops around Lap 40.  The two Merc drivers were on different tire strategies, with Hamilton starting on Mediums, putting on another set of Mediums at the first stop, and having to put on a set of Hard tires during the last stint.  Meanwhile, Rosberg's strategy was Medium-Hard-Medium, hoping to take advantage of the softer compound to chase down his teammate.  This was clearly a concern for the British driver, as he was constantly asking his pit wall how far behind his teammate was, where was he picking up time, etc etc etc.  The lead began to drop.

*DRAMATIC FINISH?  HA HA NO.:  While Rosberg was whittling away at Hamilton's lead, one never got the feeling that he could really catch his teammate.  He got close, finishing just over a half-second behind as the race ended.  After the race, he suggested that if he just had another lap or two, he could have attacked the leader.  But he didn't have those two laps, and thus is now second in the Driver's Championship.

*EEEK!: The rest of the field could only watch in awe and terror.  The two Mercedes lapped everybody up to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, in 7th place, and was very close to lapping HWMNBN in 6th at the end, finishing 87 seconds ahead on a circuit where the fast lap was 88.  The third place finisher, Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, was nearly 50 seconds in arrears.

*DRIVER OF THE RACE:  It annoys us to have to do this, but Red Bull's Seb Vettel began the race in 15th after a gearbox failure in Quals.  He managed to work his way up the field to end up in 4th, behind his teammate Ricciardo.  Okay, yes, he was 20-some seconds behind his podium-standing teammate, but still.  Ugh.

*TEAM OF THE RACE:  Mercedes.  They're so dominant it's frightening.  At least Red Bull looked like they could be caught, occasionally, but this?  Yeesh.

*MOMENT OF THE RACE:  The knock on the door just in time for the first pit stops, heralding the arrival of tasty tasty pizza from Maciano's.  The F1U! analysis crew are big fans of the double-dough pizza with sausage and extra cheese, which was on the menu today.  Their stuffed pizza is tasty and recommended.  Strangely, we're not fans of their Chicago-style deep dish pizza, which uses a different, sweeter, sauce.  That the knock on the door woke the assembled scribblers from a collective sleep should tell you everything you need to know about the action level of the 2014 Grand Prix of Spain.

*SELECTED DRIVER'S QUOTES OF THE RACE:

more...

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May 10, 2014

F1 Quals: Spain 2014

It was a lovely day in Barcalounger as the cars jumped onto the circuit for Qualifying.  Did anybody have the secret of hunting down the Silver Arrows?  Let's take a look at the provisional grid for the 2014 Grand Prix of Spain:

Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 Shiv Hamilton Mercedes 1:27.238 1:26.210 1:25.232
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:26.764 1:26.088 1:25.400
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:28.053 1:26.613 1:26.285
4 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:28.198 1:27.563 1:26.632
5 Lettuce Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:28.472 1:27.258 1:26.960
6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:28.308 1:27.335 1:27.104
7 HWMNBN Ferrari 1:28.329 1:27.602 1:27.140
8 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.279 1:27.570 1:27.335
9 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:28.061 1:27.016 1:27.402
10 NotAppearingInYourPicture Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:27.958 1:27.052 No time
11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:28.155 1:27.685
12 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:28.469 1:28.002
13 Kid Kvyat STR-Renault 1:28.074 1:28.039
14 Esteban! Sauber-Ferrari 1:28.374 1:28.280
15 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.389 No time
16 Jules Vergne STR-Renault 1:28.194 No time
17 Adrian F'n Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:28.563

18 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1:29.586

19 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1:30.177

20 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1:30.312

21 Gandalf Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1:30.375

22 Crashtor Maldozer Lotus-Renault No time


Q1 107% Time
1:32.837

Crashtor brought out a red flag in Q1 when he... you guessed it, crashed!  Even better, since he didn't set a time, he races at the discretion of the Race Stewards.  Oh please oh please don't let him on the track, he's a danger to himself and others.

In Q2, neither Jules Vergne's Toro Rosso nor Kevin Magnussen's McLaren turned a wheel... Vergne because he got distracted by a crater in Snæfell and wound up with a 10-spot grid penalty, and Magnussen because of the depression caused by not equaling his performance in Australia... or a problem with his ERS unit., one of the two.

But then an amazing thing happened: Mr Notappearinginyourpicture Vettel couldn't find second gear out of the pits, then couldn't find his gearbox shortly thereafter.  He's going to take a 5-spot penalty while Red Bull scrapes the remains of his old one out of the chassis... which means he'll really be starting 15th.  In the past, this would mean he'd have a long run up the field and end up in 2nd place, maybe.  Not this year... probably.

Unamazing thing: the two Mercedes locked out the front row.  Please note, however, just how much of a lead polesitter Lewis Hamilton had over third-place Daniel Ricciardo.  Nope, your eyes don't deceive you, it really is over a second.  Ladies and gentlemen, all the paprika in the world isn't going to make this paella taste any better come race day.  Nevertheless, F1Update! will be all over it, even if we've never much cared for paella.  See ya then.

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May 08, 2014

Still Alive

No, no, not the song that became a phenomena, then became overplayed, then became kind of annoying.  I'm talking about myself.  I've been ridiculously busy at the Duck U Bookstore this week.  We're heading full-speed for Finals week, which starts on Monday, which means Buyback.  It also means that we're going crazy with cap & gown sales for graduation, and oh, there was the visit from the Poet Laureate of the United States, too.  Did I mention that there's a registration day for new students on Saturday?  Yeah, I broke the 40 hour mark for the week today... at Noon.

I have no idea when this is going to slow down, so please be patient with me.  Ben-To! Ep05 is coming, the GP of Spain is coming, more figma pictures are coming, yadda yadda yadda.  It'll all be worth the wait.  I promise.

(I hope)

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May 05, 2014

F1 on NBCSN: Spain 2014

The last of the first batch of flyaway races was China, two weeks ago.  Now the season really starts in earnest, because now the F1 Circus gets to begin the European races.  As is usually the case, the first of these all-important stops is the Grand Prix of Spain in Barcalounger!  Here's the track map:

Its when the teams get home to Europe that the various upgraded implements of destruction downforce get bolted to the cars and sent off for their first real runs.  For some teams, this means a return to dominance.  For others, total failure.  And nobody truly knows which is which until the cars begin running.  It's all so exciting.

Okay, I exaggerate slightly.  The thing about Barcalounger is that for many, many years, it was the home of F1 testing.  Once upon a time, teams knew where every crack in the pavement was, how many layers of paint were on the curbs, where the asphalt changed composition, anything you could think of.  As a result, the Grand Prix of Spain was almost always a processional: since everybody knew everything about the circuit, there would never be a surprise.  And there would also never be passing.

DRS changed that, of course.  And now the new tech regs promise to do it again.  As I've said all season, I have no idea what the race will be like: it could be a parade, it could be another one-sided runaway, it could be a close-fought struggle.  Fortunately, we'll have the Legendary Announce Team to describe it all for us on the following schedule:

FRIDAY
P2: 7a - 830a live
SATURDAY
Quals: 7a - 830a live
SUNDAY
Grand Prix of Spain: 630a - 9a live

F1Update! will be all over the race; it's the preliminaries that we're not sure of quite yet: we've got a big registration day on Saturday morning, and Finals begin in a week.  Gonna be a long one for us here.

In any case... see ya here!

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May 04, 2014

mrmrmrbrlrmr mrrmrlrbrlmr mrrlrbrlrnrlrbrrlllrmrmrbr

So why is it that my F1 scribblings always describe Kimi Raikkonen as mumbling his way through interviews?

I don't know if you knew this or not, but English is not his first language.  It's true!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:28 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 39 words, total size 1 kb.

May 03, 2014

Name This Mystery Ship XXIX: Yes, Really.

While I'm working on the Ben-To! writeup, here's a little brainteaser for ya.  Heh.  I got no hints for ya...

There ya go.  Yep, I'm a bastitch... granted. 

CXT, FDM, y'know the rules: you don't get to play for a while.  Everybody else, have at it.  Remember, no imagesearch... you're a poopiehead if you use an image searching app or anything like that.

UPDATE: Okay, CTX, FDM... you're let off the leash.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:42 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 79 words, total size 1 kb.

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