A Non-Sarcastic addendum to my last post.

A breathtaking interview with Shelby Steele.

Link Here.

Diversity, Thy Name Is NASCAR...

A couple years ago, NASCAR stopped donating to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/Push coalition after pressure was put on NASCAR by a group of conservative lawyers. See this article. It was widely suspected that the donations amounted to a bribe to keep Jackson and his minions from picketing the "Cracker"-ness of the sport and its fan base.

Now, for the first time in about twenty years, a black driver will attempt to qualify for a NASCAR Nextel-Cup Series race. Story here. I'm wondering if Jesse Jackson will require that he be allowed a larger engine or a ten lap spot like he does for college admissions programs?

For what it's worth, according to the NASCAR article, the only black to ever win a Championship Series race was Wendell Scott. And he did it at the height of this country's racial divide, in 1963.

Redefining words.

im·mi·nent -- Pronunciation Key (m-nnt)
adj. About to occur; impending: in imminent danger.

That is what I though it meant.

Here is what the media thinks it means:

im·mi·nent -- Pronunciation Key (m-nnt)
adj. Might-could possibly happen sometime within the next twenty or so years

See this story.

NASCAR Trackpass Can Kiss my A$$.

Ok. Here's the story. Two years ago, I signed up with Nascar Trackpass so I could listen to the drivers's radios over the internet during races. That was fine, but I let the subscription lapse after the season. (Or so I thought.)

Last year, shortly after the Daytona 500, our bank account was hit again for the service that I thought had lapsed and had not been renewed. Turned out that you had to personally cancel the subscription or it would auto-renew. (Given the time of year, you can probably see where I'm going with this.) We cancelled at that point and told them not to draw any money from us again.

About a week ago, I received a notice from my old bank saying that my old account, which, stupidly, I hadn't closed, was overdrawn because of a new charge from the idiots at Trackpass. We immediately called trackpass to see what the hell was going on after calling the bank and having them suspend the overdraft charges. Trackpass said that the old accounts were handled by RealNetworks and we'd have to contact them to get proof that we actually cancelled. So we did. RealNetworks provided us with an Email stating that we had cancelled the account on February 26, 2005. We forwarded the Email to Trackpass as had been requested. Then we didn't hear anything for a few days.

We called Trackpass back and they said that we were still ineligible for a refund because they believed that the Email that we sent them, which included a logged Incident Number and our account number, was a fake. At this point we hit the roof and started swearing profusely. Discussions with the idiots at Trackpass went downhill from there.

We then tried to call RealNetworks back and they have an automated message stating that they are no longer accepting calls from anyone related to old Trackpass accounts. (Gee, I Wonder Why? Could all of the people Trackpass screwed last week be bombarding their customer service for proof of cancellation that Trackpass is just going to ignore anyway?

Now we're going through the bank to have the withdrawal declared fraudulent. Luckily we have the email from Real. (And I will say, that the people at Real were reasonably accomodating of our request.)

I think I've finally figured out how Nascar makes so much money. They use the old-fashioned method....THEY FUCKING STEAL IT.

So, here's my last statement to everyone even remotely related to administering Nascar Trackpass: Fuck you, and I hope your children develop inoperable brain tumors.

Another hurricane-related tid-bit.

We received a newsletter from the mayor's office yeaterday. The volunteer fire department is looking for anyone interested in becoming a new member. The money earmarked to repair the street leading to our house was rescinded to help cover expenses related to the hurricanes. And the Police Chief asked that people lock up everything that they possibly can and leave nothing outside because, for some reason, property thefts have skyrocketed lately.

I wonder what could possibly be causing the rise in crime? cough, cough ...FEMA Trailer Park less than ten miles away... cough, cough

A little thin lately.

Things have been a bit hectic lately. The weather's been fine so I've been working on the cars and the grounds. Ended up getting a sunburn last weekend. (That's hard to take in early March.)

There are a few things up in the air that I plan to orate about but I have to wait until all of the shoes drop.

Currently, I await the arrival of the new battery enclosure for my drag-car. That installation will make it legal again. Then it will be time to see what's left in the old girl. She hasn't been run much in the last seven years or so because of family and monetary commitments, but now there is time for some relaxation.

The car is a solid 14.00 car. My goal for the next few years is to maintain consistency while improving the car into the mid 11's. The only thing required is more motor. I'm debating replacing the current one as a unit or slapping a small blower onto the existing block. The blower would be cheaper in the short term, but will probably be the more difficult way to achieve an 11 second 1320.

Another project I just completed is the installation of a new stereo in my truck. JL Audio is rather proud of their speakers and enclosures, but now that I've fired it up and tuned it, they have every right to be. Absolutely unbelievable. And the technology that SONY has incorporated into their new decks for tuning individual speakers allows even the factory speakers in the vehicle to sound amazing. I'm very pleased with the installation.

Also, to update the last post. The fan replacement went very well and did fix the noise problem. It also allowed me to reduce electrical consumption because the new motor is rated at 1.8 fewer Amps than the old one. But, there hasn't been much testing as the weather has been such that I haven't turned the HVAC system on since I installed the new fan.

They're predicting strong Thunderstorms today and a high tomorrow near 85, so I expect I'll get to test the A/C soon.