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NASCAR at MIS
-----What can I say about NASCAR? Well, it was my first time actually seeing it in person, and the only thing I can really say about it, is that it's fast. Really fast. It's crazy how fast they are going. My friend said they move close to 300 km/h. When you stand down by the track and watch them go by, all you hear is a "bzzzt," and then it's gone. It really is impressive. There were three races. On Friday we watched the ARCA series, which I am told, are semi-professional drivers. I guess they still screw up a lot, but either way, that was cool. Saturday was truck racing, which I like the best. Trucks are not as fast as the other cars, but they are fun to watch. Then on Sunday was the "main event" where the actual "good" drivers race. It was pretty cool, and I got a lot of pictures.
Those are just a couple of the shots I took. I want to try and see if I can do any fake tilt-shift photos with some of the pictures I took. It's not hard, it just involves picking the right one. I had fun, and aside from the muggy weather, it was awesome. I think that was a pretty good trip for my first visit to the US. One thing I noticed between the US and Canada, is that there are way more billboards along the highways in the states. In Canada, you hardly see them, if at all.
Posted in "Travel" on Wednesday June 16 2010
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Michigan
-----I'm going on a trip today. To the United States. I've never been. I know, it's crazy that a guy my age has never been to the states, but what can I say? I've never really had a reason too. I have no family there, and when I was younger, my parents wouldn't want to lug five kids around in a different country. Heck, they didn't like doing that in this country!
My friend goes to watch NASCAR every year down in Michigan, and this year his sister didn't want to go, so he asked if I wanted to go with them this year. We will be spending four days down there, and I'm pretty excited. I admit, I don't know much about racing, but it will be fun nonetheless.
I'll be bringing my camera, and I think I can get some awesome shots. Time to try out my 70-300mm Sigma zoom lens. It's not an incredibly fast lens, so hopefully it's nice and bright out. I'm going to have to hand hold it, and will need to use some fast shutter speeds. The general rule to get a still (not blurry) shot is make the shutter speed 1/focal length. So, if I have it extended out all the time, I will need at least 1/300sec.
Anyway, I will post some pictures when I get back. I'm sure there will be a lot.
(Side note: I added a new security question to the comments section. Turns out I forgot about spam. Someone went to town, and posted almost 800 spam comments. All you have to do is answer whether fire is hot or cold. Pretty simple.)
Posted in "Travel" on Thursday June 10 2010
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Chaos Cars - Red Baron All Broke Up
-----Me and a group of my friends run a race car down at Delaware Speedway. We've been running a 1994 Chevrolet Cavalier, dubbed "The Red Baron," for three years. There have been a few problems within the life of the car, but for the most part, all of those have been fixable, albeit some were a total bugger to fix in the first place. Well, it was my turn to race this past Saturday and our car was in working order for once, so we didn't expect too many problems.
That is the car. A beauty eh? I mean, you have to look past all the dents, and the mangled aspects of the car, but it runs well, well, it did... So, we all lined up to present our cars. The division, "Chaos Cars," is not your average racing division. Instead of just going around the track like in normal racing, there are obstacles placed in the way. So, there are barrel turns, where you have to go around a barrel a certain number of times. There are stop-boxes, where you have to stop in the middle of the track. Slaloms, and other cool stuff like that.
Once the race started, we all just gunned it. I was doing pretty good, in my opinion. When, during the second lap or so, the front passenger side tire gave out, either because of a hit or just from constant wear, and after two more laps, I was forced to leave the track mid-race. There was no pickup, since all the power to move the car was left on the shoulders of one tire. There was no point in coming in last, and possibly damaging the car even more. Well, this is what the tire looked like.
That's it pointing straight. Obviously not supposed to look like that!
Turns out the drive axle/ball joint snapped, as well as the break rotor snapped clean off from the hub, so not only was there no way to power the wheel, you could not stop the wheel with the brakes if you wanted.
Look at that move!
After assessing the damage, it looks like the Red Baron will have to be put to rest. Luckily we have a second car waiting to take the spirit of the Red Baron on, and continue his legacy. Hopefully we can get it built in time!
Posted in "Misc." on Sunday May 23 2010
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Custom-made fire pit
-----I've had a fire pit for a couple years now. It was a metal one, and it did a pretty good job for what it was meant for. But, it was a few years old, and me neglecting to cover it up in the winter, caused it to rust over. There was pretty much nothing left of it this year. Just a giant hole in a hunk of metal. Needless to say, I like to burn stuff, so I wanted a new fire pit. But, they are also expensive. I decided to actually build one out of some more solid materials, so I don't have to worry about replacing it every three years. That money adds up! I figured a hole in the ground would be the best way to go. I had a paving stone lying around already, and that was perfect for the bottom. I then got three bags of crushed limestone, and 50 bricks of paving stone. Dug a hole, and went to town. I think it turned out pretty good. I used the limestone as a base for everything, and then for the sides. It's a perfect size too, as my original pit cover fits perfectly on it as well.
This image kinda sucks. I took it with my camera phone.
That's it! A beauty eh? There might be some problems with air, but I've seen people who just jam an old washer drum in the ground, and those work fine. Hopefully the weather stays nice, and I can give it a test run soon.
Posted in "Misc." on Friday May 21 2010
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Welcome!
-----I want to welcome you all to the ninthblock blog. This is a place where I can post anything that I wish to share, such as events that are going on in my life, work that I'm doing, or cool things I find on the Internet (or in real life too!)
I want to give a very big thanks to codegrrl.com, where I found an incredibly helpful bunch of tutorials on how to make a blog from scratch. http://codegrrl.com/category/tutorials/build-a-blog
I know this design isn't quite pretty, but I'll work on it as I go. I don't know how often I will update this blog, but needless to say, it may be a bit touch-and-go for a while.
So, I hope you enjoy the site so far. You should jump around with the links at the bottom of this page, and take a look around.
Posted in "News" on Wednesday May 19 2010
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