The Singularity Collective

- Chris Isaak – Wicked Game

The world was on fire and no one could save me but you.
It’s strange what desire will make foolish people do.
I never dreamed that I’d meet somebody like you.
And I never dreamed that I knew somebody like you.

No, I don’t want to fall in love.   (This world is only gonna break your heart)
No, I don’t want to fall in love.   (This world is only gonna break your heart)
With you.   (This world is only gonna break your heart)

What a wicked game to play, to make me feel this way.
What a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you.
What a wicked thing to say, you never felt this way.
What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you and,

I want to fall in love.   (This world is only gonna break your heart)
No, I want to fall in love.   (This world is only gonna break your heart)
With you.

The world was on fire and no one could save me but you.
It’s strange what desire will make foolish people do.
I never dreamed that I’d love somebody like you.
And I never dreamed that I’d lose somebody like you no,

No, I want to fall in love.   (This world is only gonna break your heart)
No, I want to fall in love.   (This world is only gonna break your heart)
With you.   (This world is only gonna break your heart)
No, I…   (This world is only gonna break your heart)
(This world is only gonna break your heart)

Nobody loves no one.

This is a short story I wrote based on one of the characters I play in Star Trek Online.

***********************************************
“wIy yIcha’ (trans. #1),” Lieutenant Commander Kih’Vok sutai Pallara growled.

“luq (trans. #2),” replied Ensign Jh’Naq. A moment later, the forward viewscreen changed to a tactical view, displaying a top down view of their current position to within twenty AUs.

The U.S.S. Robert L. Howard was currently in deep space, just barely galactic core-ward of two light years from the planet Ker’rat, enroute back to Sol and Earthdock for updated orders from a rendevous at K7 Station. A suspicious, fleeting, contact had been made during a routine sensor sweep by Lieutenant Sudok, the ship’s Science Officer and XO, so Kih”vok had dropped the vessel out of warp in preparation of a possible confrontation. They were still very near hostile space… klingon attack groups had been known to reach this deep into Federation territory on several occasions.

Lieutenant Sudok cleared his throat. “Captain,” he stated, “you are doing it again sir.”

Kih’Vok turned and glared at Sudok for a moment. “And now you know why I requested Klingon tactical officers,” he said slowly, his english heavily accented.

Sudok nodded once, the movement quick and birdlike. “Conceeded.”

“Situation,” Kih’Vok said, still glaring at Sudok.

The Science Officer turned and tapped a few keys for a brief moment. “Situation unchanged,” he replied. “Scans indicate ionization in the local vicinity consistent with impulse engine emissions; however, the dispersal of the emissions suggests approximately seven point three hours have passed since they were discharged.”

Kih’Vok continued looking at his Executive Officer for a moment before turning back to the viewscreen and leaning back in his chair. He pondered the screen for a few moments, rubbing his chin, before glancing at his helmsman. “One quarter impulse power. Go to yellow alert.”

“luq,” Jh’Naq replied, his hands moving over his console quickly. Moments later klaxons sounded, and the alert lighting switched on to yellow, bathing the bridge in a yellowish hue.

Suddenly the familiar whistle tone of an inbound voice communication alert sounded. Ensign Jax turned quickly to look at his console, then spun to face Kih’Vok, who had quickly gotten up out of his seat and was now facing him.

“Sir,” he almost shouted, “we have an incoming message! Video; signal is consistent with a Klingon origin!”

Kih’Vok turned to face the screen, slowly walking towards the Tactical station. “On screen,” he blurted over his shoulder at Jax. “DaH!” (trans. #3)

The forward viewscreen blurred for a moment, followed by a brief second of static. Suddenly it changed – before them all was the low lit face of a Klingon, the red light playing across his features, making him look even more predatory than his normal fierce countenance. Dressed in a standard black and red battle uniform, with a trimmed beard and moustache, he glared through the screen with a sneering smirk.

“Well, well, well…” he said slowly in thickly accented english, and chuckled. “If it isn’t my little cousin Kih’Vok.”

Kih’Vok did not look surprised. The two glared heavily at each other across the screen for a few moments. “Krimex,” Kih’Vok said with heavy disdain. “Out collecting the scraps the Empire has tossed at your feet are you? Or have you become J’mpok’s errand boy, you verengan Ha’DIbaH? (trans. #4)” he finished with a sneer.

Krimex zantai Pallara leaned back in his chair as he laughed, the dim light of his bridge bringing his face into even deeper shadow. Looking down his nose at Kih’Vok, he bared his teeth for a moment. “Always sharp with the tongue, weren’t we?” He continued to chuckle. “My little tIch (trans. #5),” he continued, “don’t you recall all the beatings I gave you for it?”

Kih’Vok ground his teeth for a moment. “Oh, I remember them well, toDSaH (trans. #6),” he replied. He pointed at the screen… at the long dark, puckered scar that ran down Krimex’s left cheek. “Just as, I’m sure, you remember my Daqtagh (trans. #7) that last time you tried,” he growled menacingly.

“Yes,” Krimex said slowly, drawing the word out as he ran his gloved fingers across the scar. “I remember your Daqtagh. I still haven’t had the opportunity to pay you back, in kind, for it.”

“That’s because you avoided me afterwards, little nuch (trans. #8),” Kih’Vok said grimly, a tight tooth baring smile on his face.

Krimex dropped his hand and shifted in his seat, nostrils flaring as he replied. “No. No, no, no…” he said slowly, waving a finger back and forth. “pujwI’ HIvlu’chugh quvbe’lu’, remember? ‘There is no honor in attacking the weak.’”

Kih’Vok laughed harshly. “My ‘weakness’ is displayed for all to see across your face, Krimex,” he said. “As Kahless gives me strength, someday I’ll sheath my Daqtagh in your heart… and feel it as it pumps it’s last as you die.” Clenching his jaw he growled as he finished.

Krimex then leaned back in his chair and laughed, the sound like gravel being tossed about inside a washbucket, his eyes never leaving Kih’Vok’s. After a few moments he leaned forward, a grim, sneering smile on his face. “So. Are you enjoying your Federation Ha’DIbaH?” He glared more menacingly. “How does it feel to know you are a maghwI (trans. #9)? To know that you have put a permanent stain on our House?” He slowly sat back in his chair. “The nentay cha’DIch (trans. #10) was false. You are no Warrior,” he sneered. “You are no Klingon.”

Despite himself, Kih’Vok felt himself take a step forward, his fists clenching with fury. “I have always been Klingon, more than can be said for you,” he growled, teeth clenched. “Did your brothers see your face before you killed them? Or did you hide in the dark, skulking like a boqrat?”

“That’s it, my little tIch,” he said, still chuckling. “Your Warrior’s instinct is still strong. But you’ve forsaken the right to call yourself a Warrior by your rejection of the Empire.” Suddenly his expression changed… feirce, glaring, his brows bristling. “IwlIj ghogh yIQoy!” he shouted He raised his fist in the air, clenching it so hard it shook, jerking it with emphasis as he spoke.. “tlhIngan maH! SuvmeH’ej charghmeH bogh tlhInganpu’! tlhIngan wo’ bIghHa’ QI’tomer rom, ghobma’ batlhvaD je!” He pointed at the screen, singling out Kih’Vok’s bridge crew as he continued. “yuQjIjDIvI jaghlIj; ‘urlIj quvHa’ SoH ‘ej qorDu’lIj!” (trans. #11)

Kih’Vok breathed deeply as Krimex’s tirade commenced, waiting until he finished. When he spoke, he lowered his head until he gazed at Krimex from under his eyebrows, his voice low, his words careful and meticulous – quoting verbatim from Kahless. “noH QapmeH wo’ Qaw’lu’chugh yay chavbe’lu.’” (trans. #12)

Krimex almost jumped out of his chair; he shifted forward, thrusting his face at the screen, his eyes bulging with anger. “QamvIS Hegh qaq law’ torvIS yIn qaq puS!” he shouted harshly, teeth clenched in hate. (trans. #13)

Kih’Vok glared at Krimex for a moment before he continued. “J’mpok discarded the Khitomer Accords to suit his personal thirst for violence, destruction, and butchery” he stated coldly in english. “To attack an ally whom the Empire has had an alliance with for more than one hundred years is dishonorable – a stab in the back. J’mpok has dishonored you all… and he has smeared all Klingons with the stench of cowardice.”

Krimex fairly shook with barely contained rage. He lowered his head until he glowered at Kih’Vok below his bushy eyebrows. “Little tIch,” he said quietly, “I shall show you the price for your own treason and cowardice.” He was silent for a moment before he continued. “This transmission ends, now!” The screen abruptly went blank.

Jh’Naq suddenly stiffened. “Captain, Bird of Prey decloaking at twelve hundred kelikam… I mean, kilometers!” he shouted.

Kih’Vok laughed grimly at Jh’Naq’s statement as he headed for the captain’s chair. “Red Alert! Shields to full! Full impulse power now!” As he sat down in his chair, he glanced at Jh’Naq. “Lock forward viewer on Krimex.” He began to chuckle, a slow, evil smile playing across his face. “bortaS bIr jablu’DI’ reH QaQqu’ nay’, cousin” he said gratingly. (trans. #14)

The forward viewer displayed static for a brief second before switching. In the foreground, framed by a background of distant gas clouds and asteroids, a B’Rel Bird of Prey began to bank hard in the Robert L. Howard’s direction… it’s plasma turret discharging shots that began to splash off the Howard’s shields.

“She’s coming about, Captain,” Lieutenant KuH’pas called out.

Kih’Vok turned to KuH’pas. “Fire all weapons, maximum power, at Krimex. Hold your torpedo salvo until my mark.”

“luq,” he replied. His fingers dancing over the console, the sound of phaser fire could suddenly be heard dimly through the hull as the Howard’s phasers went online, coupled with the deep thrum of the phaser cannons. In the viewer, long streaks of red along with blasts of phaser plasma flashed across space and began splashing against the Bird of Prey, causing the vessel’s forward shields to glow brightly.

However, Krimex now faced the Howard directly; immediately distruptor fire flashed from the ship’s cannons, while at the same time a photon torpedo was launched. The discharged energy cracked across the intervening distance and slammed into the Howard’s forward shields, rocking the ship.

“Sir!” KuH’pas shouted over the din. “Forward shields down to sixty percent!”

“Keep firing on him,” Kih’Vok growled loudly. “DaH!”

The two ships headed almost straight for one another, hurtling at each other, both at maximum impulse power. Raw, unbridled energy flashed between them, splashing across each vessel and rocking them both. Suddenly there was a bright flash across the foward hull of the Bird of Prey, an ugly black smear left in it’s wake.

“Bird of Prey’s forward shield collapsing!” KuH’pas shouted.

Kih’Vok slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair, leaning forward hard, his teeth clenched. “bakH (trans. #15)!” he shouted curtly.

“luq!” KuH’pas replied, and the Howard shuddered with the launch of two photon torpedoes. The bridge crew watched as the brightly glowing balls of contained photon energy flashed across the shortening distace… the Bird of Prey made a desperate bank hard to starboard, but it wasn’t enough. The torpedoes slammed into the forward hull, causing massive damage that tore sections of the hull away. For a brief moment there was a jet of gas that plumed from the damaged area.

“Direct hit!” KuH’pas shouted. “Hull breached, damage level near critical!”

Kih’Vok watched the viewscreen as the Bird of Prey banked hard, it’s turret still blasting at his ship. “Status?” he called.

“Forward shields down to thirty two percent, light hull damage from bleed through. No major damage.” KuH’pas’ voice was calm and cool.

“Excellent,” Kih’Vok stated. “Keep firing, all weapons; hold torpedoes on my mark.” He turned to Jh’Naq. “Bank to follow him, and don’t let him get to our rear quarter.”

“HIja’” Jh’Naq replied.

The Howard banked to pursue the damaged Bird of Prey, continuously barraging it with cannon and phaser fire. The vessel repeatedly banked port and starboard in a desperate attempt to dislodge the Howard from it’s rear quarter… however, severe damage made it impossible. The repeated glow of the shield discharge from energy fire began to wane less and less bright, until once again streaks of damage appeared on the hull near the left warp engine pod.

“Krimex’s Rear shields have collapsed Captain!” KuH’pas crowed.

“bakH!” Kih’Vok shouted.

Again two torpedoes flashed across the distance separating both vessels. They impacted the Bird of Prey’s hull near the lower part of the right warp engine pod. There was a huge explosion – a bright, instant flash – and peices of the warp engine and much of the rear section of the starboard wing flew in all directions. The Bird of Prey ceased all vectored movement and, continuing on it’s last direction of travel, began to slowly tumble, trailing a line of debris.

Several of the bridge crew shouted, some raised their fists and crowed happily. Kih’Vok looked at each of them in turn, smiling grimly until he turned to Sudok. His Executive Officer simply looked at him for a moment, then suddenly raised his eyebrow.

“Congratulations, Captain,” Sudok stated simply.

Kih’Vok’s smile waned. “What does a Vulcan know of honor anyway,” he growled as he glared at Sudok.

Sudok indicated the viewscreen with a nod. “Honor appears to be a dangerous concept,” he stated crisply.

Kih’Vok grunted in disgust, and turned to KuH’pas. “Status,” he said curtly.

“Sir, damage is minimal. Our shields took most of his barrage.”

“And Krimex?” Kih’Vok smiled grimly in anticipation of the report.

“The Bird of Prey has been crippled,” KuH’pas stated simply. “The torpedo impacts caused two hull breaches, serious damage to ship integrity, and the destruction of one warp engine along with sections of the hull.”

Kih’Vok turned back to Sudok. “Scan. I want to know if that Ha’DIbaH still lives,” he grated.

Sudok turned to his console and tapped several keys. He watched the screens for a moment before he turned back to Kih’Vok. “There are twenty-six life signs aboard the ship. Crew compliment appears to have been thirty-seven, so it is likely eleven of the crew perished during the engagement.”

Kih’Vok was quiet for a moment as he considered. He then turned and walked to the Helm console. “Hail that nuch quvHa’ (trans. #16).”

Jh’Naq complied. A moment later he looked up at Kih’Vok. “They answer the hail sir.”

“Good. Put it on screen.”

The screen blurred for a moment, followed by a brief second of static, and then the face of Krimex appeared. The sections of the bridge visable behind him showed damage… the screen itself was slighly obscured by smoke.

“Well, cousin,” Kih’Vok stated, standing with his arms crossed. “Again we see who is the better Warrior.”

Krimex seemed to be shaking with anger. “You treasonous bastard,” he grated, his teeth clenched. “You won’t gloat so much in a few moments.” He smiled grimly.

“Spare yourself the ignominy of an attempt at glory with the suicidal destruction of your vessel,” Kih’Vok chuckled. “Your sensors must be damaged; allow me to assist you. We are twenty-four hundred kelikams from your position.” Now Kih’Vok did laugh. “Far to distant for your pathetic attempt at retribution to have any effect.”

Krimex spat at the screen. “Then why talk? Finish me.” He leaned towards the screen. “Or have your dealings with Starfleet made you soft?”

Kih’Vok laughed… a long, low chuckle completely devoid of mirth. “No cousin. I don’t think so.” He shifted his weight as he glared with undisguised hatred at his cousin. “pujwI’ HIvlu’chugh quvbe’lu’,” he said quietly. “”There is no honor in attacking the weak.’ Isn’t that one of your favorite sayings?” He leaned towards the viewscreen himself. “I leave you, once again, like I left you before – bleeding, your face torn open. Only this time I leave you to your crew. I doubt they are satisfied with a captain as incapable as you.”

Krimex appeared to look about his bridge, a look of careful fury and daring on his face.

“A transcript of this battle will, somehow, find it’s way to Klingon channels.” Kih’Vok chuckled harshly. “If you survive the next few minutes, I suspect that news of your defeat for a second time by me will no doubt cause you some obstacles in your next assignment – most likely, I would guess, on Rura Penthe.”

Krimex glared with naked hatred at Kih’Vok, and then shouted with impotent rage. Both eyes bulging, he raised his fists as he roared.

Kih’Vok smiled grimly, and then slowly leaned even closer to the screen. “But know that, if you do survive, someday I will find you. And when I do, I will cut out your heart and feed it to Fek’lhr (trans. #17).” His smile vanished, replaced by a look of cold, unremitting hatred. “This transmission ends.”

The viewscreen immediately switched back to a view of the Bird of Prey slowly and helplessly tumbling through space. Kih’Vok watched it for a moment, a cold smile on his face, and then he turned and walked back to the captain’s chair. Standing there for a moment, he turned to Jh’Naq.

“Secure from Red Alert. New course, Sol Spacedock, warp seven.” He then turned to Sudok. “Get damage parties working on the minor damage that Krimex did to the ship. And forward a copy of the transcript of this battle to my quarters.”

Almost in unison both officers replied with “Sir.”

“I’ll be in my quarters for the next twenty minutes.” He began to walk towards the turbolift, a slow triumphant smile playing across his scarred face.

*******************************************************
Klingon Translation Footnote

Some of the Klingon phrases and sentences may or may not have incorrect grammar. I apologize if the grammar in some cases is off. Klingon is a tricky language.
All translations of words and phrases is listed below.

Trans # 1 : “Tactical Display”
Trans # 2 : “Affirmative”
Trans # 3 : “Now!”
Trans # 4 : “Ferengi Dog” (deadly insult)
Trans # 5 : (general insult, untranslatable)
Trans # 6 : (general insult, similar to ‘bastard’ or ‘jackass’)
Trans # 7 : (Warrior’s Knife – a ceremonial blade all Warriors carry)
Trans # 8 : “Coward”
Trans # 9 : “Traitor” (-to the Empire)
Trans # 10: (Second Rite of Ascension – when a Klingon becomes a true Warrior)
Trans # 11: “Listen to the voice of your blood! We are Klingons! Klingons are born to fight and conquer! The Khitomer Accords imprisoned the Empire, and we now fight for our honor! The Federation is your enemy; your treason has dishonored you and your family!”
Trans # 12: “Destroying an empire to win a war is no victory.”
Trans # 13: “Better to die on our feet than live on our knees!”
Trans # 14: “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
Trans # 16: “Dishonorable coward”
Trans # 17: (Similar to the Terran Devil – guards the Klingon equivalent of the Gates of Hell)

Ok.

For those of you who don’t know, I play an mmo called Star Trek Online. As one would imagine, it’s a massively multiplayer online RPG game about – Star Trek. Inside the game, there are Tribbles. Now – if you don’t know what a Tribble is, I cannot help you, and most likely you should stop reading now as little of the rest of this post will make much sense to you.

In Star Trek Online, the developers had seen fit to actually include Tribbles in the game – and what’s more, they actually can induce “buffs” that assist your characters in some way, such as with regeneration from damage, healing, resistances, etc. Furthermore – Tribbles can be bred, so that you can breed the type of Tribble you want to use to get the “buff” you are specifically looking for.

Well, the other day I saw one of the wiki articles floating around about Tribble Breeding. I got to thinking that would be kinda cool to do as a side task while playing the game, so I picked up a level 1 tribble from the Exchange (because I’d replicated all the ones I’ve found as drops). I don’t have much of anything in the bank, so I put the tribble in there with some food and left it for 24 hours.

I came back – and viola! A level 2 tribble! In this particular case – a Thompson.

Now – I have a rather active imagination, and as a musician I have weird things pop into my head all the time when I see or hear things throughout the day from a music perspective. The very first thing that popped into my head when I saw it was a Thompson was that old ’80′s song by the Thompson Twins – Hold me now.

Well… I just couldn’t get it out of my head. Like – all night. Then this morning I started joking about making a parody about tribbles… and rambled off a few lyric jokes to my friend… which got me rolling.

And here it is. It’s a parody all about tribbles in STO, sung to and replacing the lyrics of the Thompson Twins – Hold me now.

(For those of you not familiar with tribble names, you can find the names of the tribble breeds here on this chart – http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/9…rchyanidea.jpg)

——————————————————–
Thompson Tribbles – Pet me now

I have a tribble
I keep to myself
I hold it and feed it and pet it whenever
I’ve lost me some health

It’s always here with me
In my pocket it’s stored
It purrs and it stirs and it shakes and it makes me
feel like I’m adored

[chorus - sung by tribble]
Oh, pet me now
Oh, let healing start
Don’t sell me!
Let my purr soothe your heart
Let all Klingons depart

I only have one now
I wish I had two
I’ve seen other’s who’ve made a small fortune by selling
Zincs, Daxters and Yus

So perhaps I should breed it!
Yea, I’ll breed me some more!
I’ll take all the young and I’ll sell them all inside
the Sol Exchange store

[chorus - sung by tribble]
Oh, pet me now
Oh, let buffing start
Don’t sell me!
Take my buffs to impart
Wipe Klingons off the charts

Oh, pet me now
Oh, let regen start
Don’t sell me!
Let your arm grow it’s part
Like a piece of fine art

[bridge]

Now I’m on an away team
My Ricossa in hand
I left all the rest in my stateroom back on
the U.S.S. Portland

Oh no, look at that Redshirt!
He’s all tattered and torn!
Well, if he’d taken the Nielson I’d offered we wouldn’t
be having to mourn

[outro chorus - sung by tribble]
Oh, pet me now (I’m really not a two bit part)
Oh, let healing start (let me help you play your part)
Don’t sell me! (ooh don’t sell me!)
Let my purr soothe your heart
Let all Klingons depart

Oh, pet me now (I’m really not a two bit part)
Oh, let buffing start (let me help you play your part)
Don’t sell me! (ooh don’t sell me!)
Take my buffs to impart
Wipe Klingons off the charts

Oh, pet me now (I’m really not a two bit part)
Oh, let regen start (let me help you play your part)
Don’t sell me! (ooh don’t sell me!)
Let your arm grow it’s part
Like a piece of fine art

[fade out]

Oh boy! It’s quite the cool gadget as anyone who’s seen one or has one knows, but I haven’t had the opportunity to really mess around with one before now. I normally don’t care for anything created by Apple, but this is a pretty nice phone.

I already have a bunch of free apps on it, most just fun stuff with a few other tools – like Yellow Pages and some things. I also have a few World of Warcraft apps on it to check Talents, Guild stuff, etc.

All in all it’s pretty cool, and I’m enjoying it.

So. Last night – Thursday, February 10th 2010 – was the Late Night Racing League’s first Truck race of the season (sponsored by MLDesigns). I’ve pretty much been waiting for this race now for the last couple months, I couldn’t wait to get back on the track with the bunch of guys I run with and start turning some laps.

However, I had a real fun issue right from the start.

I have two installations of NASCAR Racing 2003 Season on my system – one for my own personal use for offline racing and championships (mostly running the NNC08 Nationwide mod), and one for my LNR online racing. I keep them separate simply because it’s cleaner for me to do so – I generally delete any non-player car from my LNR install to keep the series\car directories down. So it was with some chagrin that I opened up NR2003 to start a testing session at Daytona to ensure everything was running smoothly – only to find that I couldn’t see a single setup in any of my setup folders in the sim.

I tried a number of different things, but none of them worked. Finally, in exasperation because practice was almost half over, I placed the NTS09 Truck series folder in my offline NR2003\series folder added all my setups to my profile, and my settings .inf files. That allowed me to actually get in and race.

I had a pretty good setup… I’d taken a public one from SetupGuru.com and made a couple modifications to it. It ran smooth and clean in the draft and would suck up nicely to a truck in front of me once I got a couple truck lengths behind it. So I was looking forward to a good race and finishing well.

Our first 21 laps of the race were caution free. We all ran really good, one guy (Steve) blew his clutch but was able to drift to the apron and away from the pack. There were more than 20 guys racing. The first incident occurred when one of the guys decided to pit a lap early… the driver immediately behind him didn’t expect him to brake as suddenly as he did, and they touched. This created an accident that collected up at least 3 other trucks – all right in front of me sliding down towards the tri-oval as I sped out of turn 4. I was able to drive through them all and take the yellow at the line in 12th position (for those who don’t do this kind of thing, when wrecks like that happen in front of you it happens so fast you have no time to even think. It’s only afterwards – after you’ve somehow managed to thread your way through sliding and careening trucks at 190 miles an hour – that you get that “holy crap” feeling).

We all came into the pits under the yellow – I took four tires and gas and got out… but then decided to come back in on the last yellow lap to top off with gas, which put me round about 15th place in the field once the green flag flew.

Out we go again, and I raced hard in the high line for about six laps or so… when “BANG!!” my engine blows up. No water temp overheating warning light. No over rev light. No oil pressure warning light. Nothing. Just one second I’m screaming along behind a truck at 192 miles an hour, the engine wide open… the next second silence save for the truck engines around me. The instantaneous loss of acceleration on the rear of the truck started it fishtailing, and before I could get out of the way of the guy behind me we just barely touched – his front bumper lightly brushing my rear bumper. That of course exacerbated my slide… I slid sideways down onto the apron in turn 1, and then the momentum carried me back up across the track up into the outside wall.

Thankfully no one else was collected up in my slide… but I wasn’t very happy. This isn’t the first time I’ve had engines blow for no apparent reason.

Turns out however, that there was apparent reason.

My rpm philosophy was off. The truck physics rpm horsepower peaks at around 8000 to 8500 rpms. I had my truck running – in the draft – at just over 9100 rpms. While not enough to cause an over revved warning light, that high of an rpm for sustained periods seriously damages the engine. After I found this out after discussing it with some of the more experienced guys, I thought back on it and realized that in almost every case where this same sort of thing occurred I had the engine revved up too high.

Well. There’s a lesson learned. Hopefully the same won’t happen again tonight at the SuperSpeedway Series Talladega opener, or the Cup Series Daytona opener on Friday.

As I’ve mentioned a few times earlier in this blog, I have a small recording setup at home. This mostly consists of an Ibanez RG550 Roadstar electric guitar, a ZOOM 8 track digital recording studio, a fairly good quality recording microphone, and all the necessary peripherals; however, the primary component of this is my Korg TR61 synthesizer :

Now – the Korg TR61 is a typical modern Korg synth, and as such has an extremely robust operating system. As such, it’s got a fairly steep learning curve. Furthermore, the documentation that comes with the synthesizer (and that’s available on the web) is fairly “textbook” in nature – which doesn’t leave very much room for ingenuity. Since I tend to be fairly lax when it comes to reading manuals (like, almost all techies), this has led to rather long periods of time where my $1100 synth sits on the table and collects dust.

Recently however, I finally found a complete set of tutorial DVD’s that provide an eyeball view of the menus and functions in action at Sudosonic.Com. I bought the DVD for my system and it arrived just the other day. I’m really looking forward to going through the disk and tutorials and adding to my knowledge of the system so I can start recording some of my own music in the near future.

Since I’m doing all my own recording, the synth was originally purchased to take the place of a full band while I concentrate on the guitar parts and singing. I already have several tracks I’ve laid down on my ZOOM recording studio, but they are in rudimentary stages at best. This new development will allow me to begin to refine and finalize them.

On another note – the Korg TR61 comes with an SD card slot for additional memory storage. Out of the box the synth doesn not have the capacity to store songs created in their finalized form (or currently finalized form). It will only save the basics – any modifications you’ve made to sequencing, timing, tone editing and EQ is lost. This is kind of a pain, but it was made even worse because I simply assumed at the time that an SD card for the synth would be a big purhase – $70 plus or more. As a result I simply didn’t even bother to look them up.

Well, I went ahead and did that yesterday. The synth will take up to 1gig of memory on an SD card, so I hunted around for the correct type of SD card. Turns out the thing will accept most types – and the most recommended is a Sandisk 1gb SD card. I checked the price – and the damn thing costs a whopping $8.95! So I plan on picking up a couple of them here in the next few days so I can save the tunes that will be developed in the near future.

Looking forward to it – should be fun.

Well, I think it’s finally time. Time to simply come out and admit it mostly to myself, but perhaps to others as well (who’ve known for a long while now probably).

I think my foray into the flight simulation world has finally come to an end. Permanently.

I simply have absolutely no desire to do any sort of flight simulation related activity anymore at all. Not even combat flight simulation related. Every time I think I’m going to go home and later on fire up the sim and fly somewhere, when I finally get in front of my computer all I can think about is how long it’s gonna take, all the time required to get the plane up off the ground, the boredom of the enroute flight itself… and of course, this isn’t even talking about the inconvenience of having to contact ATC if I fly online and actually communicate with people. It’s just not something I’m even remotely interested at all in anymore.

Now this isn’t to say that I’m not interested in aviation anymore… not at all. I still love planes, and aviation, and still plan on getting a private pilot license someday so I can fly.

But doing it in the sim world? Nope. There’s tons of other things I’d much rather do on my system… which I’ve come to begin doing – in some cases again – now that I’m not spending an inordinate amount of time on flight simulation. Racing, for one. Developing a website for my old RPG campaign world for another. And those are just a couple.

It may be that this is just a symptom of rather huge burnout on my part. Who knows? Perhaps a year from now I’ll be flying across the virtual skies again. But I rather doubt it at this point.

Ah well. As they say, c’est la vie.

For years now I’ve been wanting to get back into roleplaying games (and playing my tactical war games – but that’s another topic altogether). The primary issue has always been time… and now that I have a 3 year old daughter my time is even more restricted than it ever was before.

As a result, I recently began looking at online solutions. I had tried to begin a game back in ’99 using mIRC as the contact / chat client with a dice bot, and that worked… ok… but the game petered out after only a couple sessions. After that I didn’t pay much attention to online solutions for years. I briefly looked at a couple systems, like OpenRPG but at the time they were so clunky and difficult to simply jump into that I ignored them entirely.

However, recently the bug has been biting me more than ever before (as indicated in a previous post) and I encountered Fantasy Grounds. Out of all the Virtual Table Top programs I researched (or, “VTT’s” for short), it seemed to have the most potential of them all, so purchased a copy. I’ve been working on learning the system ever since – and am planning on setting up and starting a campaign using the product in the near future.

You know, after the last year or so, things have occurred in the spectrum of daily life regarding politics, the state of the economy, and essential freedoms and liberties that have begun to really put pressure on everyone’s daily lives. This has begun to manifest itself in a growing propensity for individuals to voice their opinions louder and louder than they normally would under given circumstances, which of course begins to alienate those around them who hold to either different beliefs or opinions on the same subjects.

I’ve had an interesting life, and throughout my life I have see-sawed from one end of the spectrum back to the other end. I’m happy to say that I have ended up somewhere in the middle since – albeit a bit to the so called “left”.

When I was in high school, the Cold War was still going on. Due to the Cold War, and much of the resultant propaganda being spread around at the time, I was pretty much a rather staunch Republican. I was non-religious, but the basic principles of the Republican Party aligned very closely with my own. I was utterly convinced that we were going to eventually go to war against the Soviet Union, and nothing could make me believe otherwise. I grew up during high school at China Lake – which was (according to popular propaganda at the time – although with the testing that went on there for the Navy it wouldn’t have surprised me if it was true) one of the top targets on the Soviet Union’s ICBM target list. I had the added benefit of having a bedroom facing the street, and living in a house only one house away from a major street. As a result, usually about three to four times a week I’d bolt out of bed sweating and terrified when a car turned into the street we lived on and it’s lights illuminated my room. The flash always woke me up, horrified that “it had begun” and that in a split second I’d be vaporized by the atomic blast as it swept over the house.

As I grew older, and after realizing that the chances of actually fighting the Soviet Union were disappearing rather rapidly, I was forced to re-examine much of my view on many things. It was at this point in my life that I began a swing towards the Democratic Party side of the spectrum. This went on for years – until September 11th, 2001… and the resultant Bush Administration and what he did to not only our country, but the global community, on his crusade against “terrorism”.

If I was largely independent before, the Bush Administration began shoving me more and more towards the left. As things progressively got worse, and more and more American soldiers died in a war that was perpetuated by Bush with lies of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” that didn’t exist, the more angry I became. This once again forced me to begin to re-examine my perspectives, and strangely I found that I was a very very different person than I had been in high school. Almost an opposite in fact.

Other issues and perspectives on things such as belief in God, religion, freedoms, and my active part in these things began to rear their heads, and I was forced to examine them as well. Abortion, gay rights, all these things became important issues and having to examine them was tough. I had a lot of preconceived notions about things that had been drilled into my head due to dogma related to my mother’s advocacy of church attendance that I had to shake off, and other preconceived notions that clouded the reality of all these issues in misinformation, duality, and frankly lies. I spent most of the time between the September 11 attacks and the 2008 election slowly stewing over these issues.

With the 2008 Presidential Election, I paid careful attention to all of the candidates. Most of them were fluff that I ignored, but I truly felt that one candidate in particular had the gumption to get us on the right track – despite being a Republican. That was Ron Paul. During our state’s Primaries, I voted for Ron Paul, hoping he’d get the Republican nomination. Unfortunately that was not to be – instead the vote put John McCain into the Republican seat.

Now – I respect McCain for his part in the Vietnam War, and feel for the guy having to spend years in a POW camp. However, I simply did not – and still do not – feel that he would have made a good President, mostly because he had a bad habit of shifting his loyalties, specifically whereas Bush was concerned. So I could not, in good conscience, vote for the guy. I felt Obama had a better idealism for the direction of the country to get us out of the quandry left to us by Bush.

Now, here we are nine months later. The entire country is even more divided now than they were under Bush. And, frankly, it’s sickening. At a time when we should all be combining forces to fix problems, everyone’s too busy pointing fingers and playing the blame game to get anything done.

And here’s the meat of my article – friendships.

What does one do when friends one has are so caught up in the dogma of the opposition that there’s no possibility of a middle ground? One cannot discuss the situation with them, because they will refuse to listen and feel attacked – and so do you once they begin to attack your perspectives. It’s even more frustrating when you know they are thinking themselves “Oh, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about…”

I don’t have the ability to ignore such things. It’s simply not in my makeup to do so, and as such I end up finding myself distancing my contact with friends I’ve known for a long time because I just don’t want to put up with oppositional perspectives that – I feel – are based entirely on misinformation and fear mongering. It’s even worse when you know that your friends are watching and listening to propaganda shows where you have found that the topic of discussion is pure speculation or fiction trying to be passed on as fact – such as the FOX News allegations against the government Cars.Gov website. You can’t really have any sort of one on one discourse about anything related to such topics when they are brought up because it becomes an uncomfortable conversation – or worse, you get ignored (which has always been my personal favorite – if one just doesn’t wish to discuss the situation, then just say so – ignoring me or anyone else is just flat disrespectful and rude).

I guess this sort of thing is where real and true friendships prove themselves. I can respect opposite opinions as long as they are based on factual perspectives, not on misinformation, fear mongering, and lies. Opposite perspectives are part of a democratic society and should be encouraged. But the current political climate is just ridiculous and becoming more and more antagonistic and hateful. There’s a huge majority of individuals in our country both on the extreme left and extreme right that have absolutely no room in their minds for any opinion other than their own. This is not healthy for the country’s political spectrum, and it’s leading to a widening rift between the two sides that is threatening to spill over into other aspects of our lives.

This also leads to religion unfortunately. With Obama being raised in an islamic household, the religious debate in the country has completely exploded out of control. The US Constitution 2nd Amendment grants that all people will be able to have freedom of all religion, and that the country’s legislative body will be free from religion as a state sanctioned policy in all legislative decisions – hence the division between “church and state”. However, a growing majority of people in this country for some reason seem to interpret “freedom of religion” to mean that you can believe any christian denominational belief you want – but anything else, especially islam, is taboo. I’m sick and tired of this entire problem. Christians seem to think they have the absolute authority to do whatever they do “in the name of christ” even if that means lamb blasting and judging others according to their interpretation of the bible (which – incidentally – ironically is completely against what these people profess to believe). Some twisted ideology that anyone associated with islam is automatically a fundamentalist and dangerous. This is frankly ridiculous nonsense. I’ve seen “christians” whom I’m far more frightened of than islamics and hindus. In fact, as a rule, christians are the ones who are more volatile and dangerous. And in fact most christians are so caught up in the dogma that they don’t even see how insulting it is when they say such things as “we’ll pray for you” when you are having issues, or how insulting it is when they do it behind your back – all due to this presumptuous opinion they have due to their dogma that they are “helping” you “because you need the help of god”.

How does one handle this delicate situation amongst friends? I don’t know. I must admit that the older I get, the more I have to deal with the dogmatic nature of religion in general and the close mindedness of the masses of sheep that follow in it’s footsteps the more angry and cynical about it I become. The more I just don’t want to even hear about it anymore – the more phrases like “that’s god’s will” or “accept jesus into your heart” make me physically cringe and my skin crawl. There always seems to be this underlying issue that you have to respect their religion – but because they are “christians” they don’t have to respect your beliefs at all (because you are wrong!). Like when I say things like god dammit in chat conversations and am replied to with “I wish you wouldn’t say that” but then I’m forced to listen to and read “I’ll pray for you” or “god works in mysterious ways…”. I guess the biggest thing about it that really irks me is the duplicity of it. I’m / we’re supposed to respect them because they are christians – but we don’t get the same respect back because we aren’t christians. Even the term “christian” makes me cringe anymore.

I just don’t know what to do or how to handle any of this sort of thing. I know the friends I can count on – and I know the ones I can see I’m going to have problems with in the future the more things in society progress as they are. Perhaps its best simply to cut the ties and go on rather than attempt to cling to a fragile, tenuous friendship at best.

All I know is that I’m tired of the path our country, and our society, is heading down – and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better soon.

Roleplaying is something that I hardly ever write about, not directly. Since even today it is still a touchy subject in some ways, it’s difficult to write anything about it without the majority of the rest of society looking at you as if you are a weirdo, associating you with the typical stereotype of the High School roleplayer – coke bottle glasses, whiny voice, bad hygiene, etc. Part of this is due to the fact that most people simply do not understand roleplaying and roleplaying games in particular, and as is typically the case, one fears (at some level) what one does not know – hence the heckling and stereotyping.

I got my start with roleplaying at a very early age. It was shortly after my parents divorced in 1978, my mother was seeing a new man who eventually became my stepfather. I was introduced to this new “game” by my close friend who lived next door to me… it was called “Dungeons and Dragons”. I immediately became enamored with the game, and we would play it regularly at recess and lunch at school, and at my friend’s house.

My mother and stepfather didn’t understand the game at all, and were wary about it. It didn’t help that they were both devout christians – and were being fed all the nonsense, rumor, and misinformation about the game by the established clergy and religious community. It was only a few months later that they brought me into the kitchen and showed me an article in some religious magazine that explained how some college kid had been so taken by the game that he went crazy and disappeared into the sewers of some college (this was actually regarding James Dallas Egbert III and known as the “Steam Tunnel Incident“- the article was written before he was found to be living with friends – this incident was also made into a movie called Mazes and Monsters). Naturally, due to the bias of the religious organizations attacking the game based on the fact that there were “devils”, “demons”, and other evil creatures in it, the article was extremely critical and negative – and didn’t have the facts straight in the least, either about the game itself or the Steam Tunnel Incident in particular. I was informed by my parents at that moment that I was no longer allowed to play the game. I tried to tell them that said “demons, devils, and other evil creatures” where – obviously – necessary in a game where the players goals are to seek treasure and battle evil – but my arguments fell on deaf ears, as have the same arguments fallen on the deaf ears of the naysayers and religious organizations over the years.

What my parents didn’t understand, and what they – and the majority of the religious establishment and negative naysayers refused to understand or even consider – was that with our lives in such a huge state of turmoil, and me being only a kid at the time and not understanding any of what was happening, roleplaying for me – and at that time Dungeons and Dragons – was a huge outlet for my emotions. Of course, I didn’t realize this until much later, but this is the primary reason why many of us who play the game do continue to play it even into our 40′s. Playing Dungeons and Dragons, or DnD as it’s referred to, allowed me to step outside myself and channel negative energy into something that was at least mildly constructive… it allowed me to get rid of anger and resentment in this way through the characters I played. In a very real sense, for several years playing DnD kept me sane. Which, in light of the negativity portrayed by prominent religious leaders and organizations about the game – specifically that it skews the boundaries between reality and fantasy and makes young people more prone to insanity – is rather humorous. The fact that the majority of kids that tend to fall into playing roleplaying games are emotionally scarred for one reason or another tends to fall on deaf ears, and people simply do not want to accept the truth as to why they are drawn to them.

Being the rather rebellious teenager I developed into I of course ignored my parents decree that I stop, and simply began to play the game without them knowing that I did. At this point in time the game had been advanced to the next edition – Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, or AD&D. I spent a great deal of my allowance and lawn mowing money on the books which I stashed in various places around the house so my parents wouldn’t find them. It was during this period that I started “running” games – or in the lingo of the game itself, “Dungeon Mastering” games. Some of these developed into long term “campaigns”, where the same group of people would play out their character’s progression and advancement through time in the game. I grew to enjoy Dungeon Mastering (or DMing) even more than just playing the game, because I could channel even more of my frustrations, anger, and other wild and lost emotions into the worlds I created. Naturally I was caught on several occasions by my parents with roleplaying contraband now and then, and I always got out of it by claiming it was a friend of mine’s book(s) or dice.

I was introduced to several other roleplaying genres during this period as well – some of which my parents ironically allowed me to play, such as Top Secret (a modern spy roleplaying game), Star Frontiers (a futuristic sci-fi game), Traveller (another sci-fi roleplaying game), and Boot Hill (a roleplaying game set in the Old West). I played all of these to a greater or lesser degree, but AD&D was still my game of choice at the time, and I played it with my friends as often as possible without my parents knowledge. Evidently they figured it out eventually however, because they finally realized that I was going to play it whether they wanted me to or not, and so right before my 16th birthday they suddenly “allowed” me to play it again.

One big issue I had during this period was dealing with people my age at school. With the same old anti-roleplaying game mentality that was prevalent in society at the time, kids would be incredibly cruel to other kids they knew played the game. Granted, the majority of these types were the actual stereotyped individual… but I was anything but. I was getting into music at the time, and during the mid ’80′s we were referred to as “stoners”. We typically went around in ripped up jeans, t-shirts with unbuttoned flannel overshirts with the sleeves rolled up, and long hair, sometimes ratted. I looked like everything but the stereotype. Because of the constant heckling and ridicule, I made it a point to ensure that no one outside my immediate circle of friends knew I played roleplaying games.

At any rate, all my frustrations with my early teenage life, my parents (which whom I had a stormy, volatile relationship with at best), and other issues were all channeled into roleplaying games during this period. Right after high school I started playing with a guy to DM’ed a campaign and I elected to play a mage, or magic-user. Into him I channeled all my negative energy. He turned out to be a very bad guy – he was hated by a couple of the other characters played by my friends.

But – and here’s the whole point of this – what would people rather have, a volatile, pissed off friend, spouse, or child… or one who controls their emotions and channels such strong emotions into a medium that actually allows them to use these emotions in a creative, thought provoking way? Is it better to bottle up these emotions, or spend thousands on psychiatric help or therapy that in most cases really doesn’t help in the long run… or to spend a few hours every couple of weeks letting out all those issues through a medium that allows these issues to be channeled and controlled in an environment that is fun and relaxed?

Over the years since I’ve been married I have not had the ability to get involved in roleplaying games nearly as much, and I can honestly say that I have suffered a bit as a result. The outlet I had in the past isn’t, or wasn’t there – and trying to fill it with something else just didn’t cut it. My wife doesn’t understand – and I don’t expect her to, since most people who’ve never really played these games even begin to understand them – let alone want to, mostly because of the stigma and mis-information surrounding them to this day. I just wish the stigmata of society about roleplaying games would mature, and people would understand why guys like me play them. I’m living proof that the allegations of most religious organizations regarding how roleplaying games affect or destroy lives is completely false – I’ve been playing these games for 31 years, and I have never gone psychotic, am not violent, have no severe emotional or mental issues or illnesses, and still think satanic worship and witchcraft is dangerous and – frankly – stupid.

Lately however, I actually have found communities online that play roleplaying games in a format I never considered – what is known as “play by post“. Essentially, the game is played on a forum. This eliminates the need to have players get together as a group. I’ve started on a few of these so far and am enjoying them immensely. Furthermore, I happened to find a program called Fantasy Grounds that is what is known as a “virtual table top“. This allows people to – essentially – play face to face across an internet connection, so there is no need to actually pick up and go anywhere. The price is a bit steep – but I think it’s well worth it due to the customization of the system you get, and what you can get out of it.

So I’m getting back into roleplaying games again, just in a different format that I had in the past. It’s enjoyable, fun, thought provoking, and creative… and what’s more the play by post method has the further benefit of allowing one to practice their writing skills.

Today I got an email in my yahoo email account that, well, frankly made me laugh till it brought tears to my eyes.

It was from someone named “Robert S. Mueller, III“… and the subject line was “Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division“. The message the spammer used as his / her masking email address was “washington.fields@ic.fbi.gov“.

When I saw the email… and after I picked myself up off the floor and wiped tears from my eyes so I could see again… I saved it, because I knew this one was going to be good. First, there is no “Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division” in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. All Anti-Terrorist activity is now handled, after the September 11th, 2001 attacks, by the Office of Homeland Security. Furthermore, even prior to that date, domestic terrorist activity was a completely separate division from financial criminal investigation. All international illegal activities involving terrorist activity were handled (or were supposed to be handled) by the Central Intelligence Agency.

My email client has a virus scanner so I wasn’t concerned about getting infected with a virus by opening the message to view it. Since I’d had a similar message in the past that was long, involved, and actually rather creative that attempted to convince me that the FBI had been “tracking” me for months and that several million dollars were about to be deposited into my bank account – so for the sake of cooperation and to avoid prison time I could provide my bank information to “assist” in apprehending said criminals, I was curious about what exactly this one would say.

So I open the message… and the body of the message – in it’s entirety – was :

OPEN THE FILE FROM THE FBI.

Included was a text file named FBI.txt.

Now – the stupidity, ignorance, and just blatant moronic idiocy of most spammers is mildly amusing at times, since most up to date spam filters intercept a good 95% of it nowadays, but this is just freakin’ hilarious. I never thought I’d see the day when the idiot spammers would simply be too damn lazy to actually try to construct something that even slightly sounded legitimate.

So – to “Robert S. Mueller, III” and the rest of your posse… LOL!! You people are little more than a bunch of stupid idiots.

Well, I had hoped to be able to make a better accounting of myself from last years race at New Hampshire. Last year it was my first race with the League, and I ended up parking the car after two self spins. My setup was just not all that great and I was unable to really control the car in the turns “at speed” – so I was way off pace most of the time until I parked it about halfway through the race.

This year, I practiced and practiced – and just couldn’t come up with a setup that would work. I was already close to being suspended for a race due to a couple of spins in previous races, and I didn’t want to cause myself to get that suspension – so instead of risking it, and risking wrecking a bunch of guys who were much better than my car was – I ran the initial pace lap, then the first green flag lap and then parked the car.

I don’t know what it is about New Hampshire that I can’t seem to wrap my head around. It’s a flat mile track, and for some reason no matter how I drive the car, if I try to really push the car into the turns, I lose it – every single time – in turn 3. I get just past the “cut” and begin to let off the brakes and the rear end will snap around like it’s being shot out of a cannon. I’ve made change after change after change on my setup(s) to try to fix the lose entry condition and nothing seems to work. From small, incremental changes all the way up to massive overhauls of the left rear and right front weight and spring settings.

I’m sure it’s completely possible that my line, and how I’m driving the car, is a good part of the issue, but I’ve tried different lines into and out of the turns, and it hasn’t really changed anything.

I guess we all have “that one track” that bites us in the ass – and mine, apparently, is New Hampshire.

Well… I haven’t posted here for a while, lots of things going on at home, work… the usual mid-life responsibilities.

I started getting heavily into EVE Online for a while with some guys I knew at work. It was kind of fun, the new updates they have done over the years have really livened up the game and graphically enhanced it immensely. But after a couple months of play – it was back to the same old thing again… mining desperately for profit. I even finally got one of my characters skilled up enough to utilize Exploration skills and run in a Covert Ops cloaked ship… and even that didn’t make it any more interesting after a while.

Still play World of Warcraft, and likely won’t ever stop. I enjoy it primarily because it’s low key and easy to play and doesn’t require a huge learning curve… and I find that the older I get the less I crave games that really have a steep curve (this is in exception to racing and flight sims however).

I’m working on getting back into wargaming again. I contacted a guy on the forums at BoardgameGeek.Com who wants to give the old Victory Games shelf game Pacific War a shot. We both have it, and we’ve both had it for years and years and never played it. So we’ll be playing a “Play by EMail” game of it (or, “PBeM” as it’s called) using the VASSAL wargame engine where we can play turns, save them as “log” files and send them via email. Then the other player loads the log file and “steps” through it until the log file is over, then records their turn and sends it back… and so on.

Other than that, I’ve gotten rather heavily back into online NASCAR Racing. I started with the ASCORS League, and have run a few races there on Saturday’s with the GNS League they have running. I secured a contract with Triad Motorsports to drive the #49 Dodge Autozone car full time, and my first start in that car was last week at Kentucky Motor Speedway. I finished on the lead lap, no wrecks or spins. Tomorrow we run New Hampshire – I’m hoping I can give a better accounting of myself than I did last year.

I also joined up with a great bunch of guys at the Late Night Racing League (or “LNR” as it’s referred to). Right now I’m running on Wednesday nights in their Truck series, and Thursday nights in their SuperSpeedway series. I’ve really enjoyed the short amount of time I’ve spent with them so far – they seem like a good bunch and like to help each other out. Despite the competition, they are much more easy going and mild mannered than most of the guys at ASCORS… who, in my own opinion, take it just a little too seriously at times.

Later on, after I get my new trucks and car painted for the LNR 2009b schedule, I’ll put up renders of them here.

That’s about it for now.

Well, my personal sentiments about Kyle “KY” Busch have finally been summed up perfectly – and by his own loud, obnoxious mouth no less.

Kyle Busch’s post race Bristol comments

I don’t really think anything else needs to be said – except that obviously little boy Kyle has a major inferiority complex with Dale Jr. if he’s taking so much time to bash him. Trouble is, while Jr. may not be winning races lately, the primary reason he’s so popular is because of four things Kyle Busch does not, and if the past is any indication, will not ever have :

Honesty, Integrity, Character, and Respect.

I’d say more, but KY isn’t worth another 2 seconds of my time.

Ok, I’m venting a bit here.

I’d hoped that, now that the new season was upon us, that the Kyle Busch (better known to me and others I know who hate him as much as I do as either “little boy Kyle” or “KY”) faboy club in NASCAR – most notably, the announcers (Mike Joy, Darrel Waltrip, etc.) would tone down a bit. That, finally, we wouldn’t have to hear the constant slobbering and wiping of chins as they sing the praises of KY.

And then, here we go again with his win today at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

They all cheer like little schoolboys when he makes a pass. They all shout for joy when he passes Clint Boyer for the lead late in the race (which, in classic Busch form, he “bumped” his way past him rather than make a clean pass). They piss all over themselves when he wins the race, crossing the checkered flag.

There’s no other driver in the entire sport that NASCAR pisses all over themselves like that. No other driver gets them all excited like a pimple faced teenager on his Prom night.

It’s damned sickening really. Pathetic. Here we go again with another round of BuschCAR. And to think I was even rooting for Jeff Gordon to win – just so KY wouldn’t. I turned the race off just before he won simply because I couldn’t stomach watching him win.

Now, the vast majority of the KY fans out there all sit on their soap boxes and shout platitudes to one another about why we all hate Busch – and they all try to say it’s because he’s winning when our favorite driver isn’t. While that may be true with some of us, for me and most of the rest of the fans I know who hate him winning races has nothing to do with it.

It’s his attitude.

He’s a little punk, snot nosed kid with a chip on his shoulder so big it leaves room for no one else. He drives like a damned maniac, he bumps, bashes, and slams other drivers out of the way if he can’t make a clean pass (notice that whenever he causes incidents they never show his in-car or top-car camera views… odd coincidence, huh). He has absolutely no respect for anybody on the track or off the track, and no respect for long time drivers and veterans out there – either by the way he drives, his attitude, or his mouth. He’s everything we didn’t need in the sport – regardless of what NASCAR says, and what his fans say.

And when you consider that 90% of his fans are “new” NASCAR fans with severe cases of “the winingest driver syndrome”, all it does is feed the beast. Like putting a fire out with kerosene.

His brother Kurt Busch was voted the year before he won the Cup Championship as being one of the top three most hated athletes in sports – and this was a poll that included all sports, not just NASCAR. Here we have his punk-ass brother, who’s even worse than he was.

There’s other guys out there starting their careers who are genuinely good guys. Good drivers with great attitudes, and who give respect where it’s been earned. They own up when they make mistakes. They genuinely feel badly when something they do causes problems for others. They race hard but give when it’s time to give, or wait for the right move rather that forcing the issue. These are guys like A.J. Allmendinger, Joey Logano, David Ragan.

Busch does none of these things.

All I can hope is that he’ll do something so stupid that the fire will go out and we’ll have NASCAR back again. Or that he tries to tangle his horns with someone like Tony Stewart. Or that he likes F1 racing so much that he leaves NASCAR for it.