F1 Quals: Russia 2015

If there was a race that's clearly cursed, it's the 2015 Grand Prix of Russia.  Why do I say that?  Practice 1 was badly affected when, ironically, a cleaning truck dumped a metric fsckton of diesel fuel on the circuit.  Even after the mess was dealt with, the track in the area was still slick.  Practice 2 started in a heavy rain, but just from Turn 12 to Turn 2.  The rest of the circuit was only slightly damp, which was absolutely the worst possible result as far as the teams were concerned... you can't learn anything with the track like that.  The slightly damp part was okay for slicks, but those would be suicide on the wet part.  Likewise, you could put full wets or inters on for the wet part, but they'd be chewed to hell on the dry.  So there was practically no running during Practice 2.  And today's Practice 3 was stopped at the halfway point after Carlos Sainz Jr had a heavy wreck.  He actually went under the TecPro barriers and caused serious damage to the backing steel barrier. 

He was essentially unhurt, and is apparently campaigning the doctors to let him race on Sunday.  However, the required repairs to the steel barrier were so extensive that not only was Practice 3 stopped, but the following GP3 race was cancelled as well.  So did Quals go off without a hitch, or did the ghost of Stalin, unhappy with all the comingling with the western powers, reach up out of the tarmac and rip out the suspensions of the cars?  Here's the provisional grid for the 2015 Grand Prix of Russia:

Of course, only 19 cars qualified; Sainz's was too badly damaged to repair in the hour or so the team had.  Late reports from Sochi are that he's been medically cleared to race, by the way.  No doubt the Stewards will allow him to race.  Up at the top very little has changed.  Oh, it's Rosberg instead of Hamilton on pole, but that's really not a huge shock.  Bottas in the Williams shouldn't come as a surprise either: Mercedes engine, after all.  Nor should the Ferraris being where they are stun anybody by now.  Really, it's a bog-standard grid for a nightmare-plagued race.

In other news, Lettuce Grosjean was officially confirmed as the primary driver for Haas F1's inaugural season.  Great pickup for a rookie team: he's got six years experience, a handful of podiums, and has the greatest nickname I've ever come up with for a F1 driver.  Definitely no downside to him, except he'll probably be moved to Haas's technical partner, Ferrari, in a few years.  Still no word on who'll be in the second seat, except it seems very unlikely it'll be the long-rumored American driver.  Unless they somehow pull Rossi from Manor, that is... and I don't expect that to happen, worse luck. 

Race in the morning, see you afterwards.

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It's Been An Unhealthy Week

It all started Wednesday night after the Cubs game.  Something I ate was disagreeing with me, and somewhere around 3am, I had a complete and total stomach reboot.  Or, as it's said in the Blargletron, "blarglarglarglarglarglarglarglarglarglohgodblarglarglarglarglargl."  Thursday was better in that I made it through the day without any illness-related incident, but I felt like death warmed over all day.  Today, I woke up feeling like death not warmed over and with a sore throat to boot.  I still don't feel well, and I need a nap.

So how are you?

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"Just Go Out And Play."

That was Cubs manager Joe Maddon's instruction to his team before tonight's wild card game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  They did.

Starter Jake Arrietta went out and became the first pitcher ever to throw a shutout with at least 10 strikeouts (11, in this case) and no walks in a post-season game.  Rookie Kyle Schwarber blasted a 449foot home run into the Allegheny River beyond PNC Park's right field fence, CF Dexter Fowler added another for a final score of 4-0.  And I'll be damned if I'm not smilin' like a damfool.

Next up is another first ever: the Cubs face the St Louis Cardinals in the postseason.  There will be blood, and we will all be lucky to survive it.

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F1 on NBCSN: Russia 2015

Last year saw the debut of the Grand Prix of Russia, but it was a very bittersweet race to say the least.  Indeed, one got the impression that the drivers weren't all that thrilled to be there... understandable, considering what had happened in Japan a couple of weeks earlier.  That's not a knock on Sochi, the atmosphere probably would have been the same at any circuit on the calendar.  So here's the map for the second Grand Prix of All The Russias:

Guess who designed it?  That's right, it's a Tilkedrome, though it doesn't have his hallmark long straight followed by a stupid idea of a turn. Probably because he didn't have unlimited control of the venue: the circuit winds through Sochi Olympic Park, home of the 2014 Winter Olympics.  There were probably too many buildings in the way for him to do his usual design tricks.

Last year, the circuit proved to be very gentle on tires... indeed, Nico Rosberg managed to go 52 laps on one set of tires, when the whole race was 53 in total.  The surface is a year older now, so maybe it'll be a little less "sweet", but that's not the way to bet.  Look for another one-stopper, and another rather less-than-exciting race.  Hopefully we can actually see someone trying to challenge the lead.

Fortunately for our sanity, the Legendary Announce Team will be bringing us EXTENDED coverage this time around!  Let's take a look at the broadcast schedule:
FRIDAY
Practice 2: 6am - 730am live
SATURDAY
Practice 3: 5am - 630am live-ish?
Quals: 7am - 830am live
SUNDAY
2015 Grand Prix of Russia: 530am - 8am live
That's right, we're getting to see Saturday's Practice 3!  That's uncommon... I think it's usually just at Austin and occasionally Montreal that we see that.  Why?  Probably just needed to fill time is my guess.  All times are Pond Central, of course.  Add an hour if you're out there on the east coast, take two hours off if you're in Oregon or California, and it's whatever time you want it to be if you're on the North Pole.

You may remember I mentioned something about an announcement at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix F1U!... there was a chance I was going to have to drop my satellite plan due to lack of fundaging, but that turned out not to be entirely the case.  So no worries, my usual desultory F1 coverage will be along on Sunday as usual.  See ya then.

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Random Anime Picture #103: Peaceful

-YKK OVA #1, Ep02

Because sometimes, you just need some Alpha to make the day right.

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Gakkou Gurashi Ep04 and Ep05

Two episodes at once?  I can hear you, my assembled readers, asking in unison if I'm insane, if I've lost my mind, if I have, in fact, gone 'round the bend.  To which I respond with "well, duh."  There is, however, a method to my madness.  I have done two episodes at once before, but they were "nutshelled", or brief recaps of episodes that were pointless or annoying or both.  Not this time!  In a fair and just world, these two episodes of Gakkou Gurashi would have either been aired back-to-back or as one hour-long episode.  Well, this isn't a fair and just world, obviously.  Obviously, The Pond is not fair and just either, but I can at least try to improve this little corner of the planet by doing this.  I'll fail, of course... improving the planet is not accomplished by blogging about anime... but the effort will have been made.  That's gotta count for something, right?  Now, before we get started, allow me to repeat myself.  I'm blogging about the anime, not the manga.  I'm not interested in knowing how things are done or aren't done in the manga, nor in what's coming up in the show.  I'm watching it as I blog, so I'm literally no farther than Ep05.  So if I say something that is proven false in a later episode, I don't want to know about it.  All of this is a lot of words to say No Spoilers.  Please don't make me be grumpy at you.  You don't know what I'm capable of.  Okay, now that we've gotten that out of the way... as you may remember, Ep03 was mostly flashback to that day.  We don't find out how they get off the roof, but I guess that's okay!  What will we learn about today?

Yuki is hand-drawing a graduation album... after all, it's soon to be that time of year for them... and Miki is helping, in exchange for Yuki actually doing her chores.  Yuri and Kurumi were apparently gardening, look at those daikons... and no, that's not a euphemism for anything.  I'm amused that while I meant to type "euphemism", my fingers actually generated "euphonium".  I also badly mangled "euphemism" to the point that spellcheck couldn't quite figure out what I was trying to say.  Sometimes I wonder about myself.  Anyway, Yuki is a lousy artist, go figure, and everybody makes fun of her for it, also go figure.

Miki, on the other hand, is quite good... to the point where the others are wondering who the girl is with her in the picture.  "She was a... close friend," she says with a sad look as we fade into another flashback.  Lots of those in this show, huh?

more...

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Random Anime Picture #102: Gurk!

-Gakkou Gurashi, Ep03

I hope to have the two-episode writeup completed tonight, probably late enough to be considered "tomorrow".  The Ep04 portion has been done for a few days, and I've been making my way through Ep05 in my copious free time.  But for sure tonight!  I hope.

UPDATE 1240a, 10/4/2015:  Those of you with "ha ha ha never gonna happen" in the betting pool, make sure to pick up your winnings.  The siren's call of sleepytime was too strong and a "short nap" became a "long nap", then an even longer one.  The upshot is that the writeup will be up Sunday sometime as opposed to, oh, right about now.  Sorry 'bout that.

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Ladies And Gentlemen, May I Present To You...

...the 2015 Chicago Cubs rookies!

Handsome young men, all.

Oh, by the way, the Cubs are in the playoffs and have the third-best record in Baseball, in large part because of these well-dressed rookies.  Unfortunately, the Pirates have the second-best record, and the [Censored] have the best.  That's right, the three best records in baseball are all in the NL Central. 

Here's how the playoffs are going to work.  First off you get the one-game-winner-takes-all Wild Card game.  That's likely to be the Cubs at Pittsburgh.  The winner of that game gets to play the team with the best record:  the [Censored].  Meanwhile, the Dodgers and Mets play each other.  The winner of that gets to play the NL Central winner.

The Cubs have a remarkably good shot at this, actually.  I'm not going to be sad if they don't win... they weren't supposed to be this good this fast, next year was always the target... but I sure won't be unhappy if they trash the Pirates and go up against the wounded, limping, vulnerable [Censored]! 

First time in the playoffs since 2008.  Wow.

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