Set Trans Am to STUN!!!

I know, that was a lame title, but it goes with the picture. Went Autoxing yesterday at the San Felipe Casino. When I arrived there were people maddly cleaning the course since it was completely covered with dried mud (I think it is also the pit for the dirt track guys). Everyone in a rear drive car is looking at the dirt (not to mention the hydraulic fluid in one of the faster turns) and thinking "well crap!"




Here is uncle Rob, kicking up the dust that was still on the track. This is after at least his second run, so appx 60 cars minimum have been over this already (30 cars x 2 runs).


I somehow ended up in the afternoon driving group (read: almost every other car was wearing racing shoes while I was on normal tires). The setup was for all cars to get 5 runs to be done in time, there were ~60 cars.

Run 1: No time-apparently the sensors were not ready, I didn't feel bad because I had overshot a corner anyway and had to back up. The drifting action was extreme, the front held suprisingly well, but between the dirt on the track and 350 ft-lbs of torque the rear tires decided enough was enough.

ReRun 1: I was thinking if I could post a 65 I would feel really good about it because the best a guy I met with a 03 Mustang GT got was 67.426 and I figured he might be about my skill level, plus he was also running street tires. Still with major drift action I managed a 65.931. Score!!!

Run 2: Much the same as RR1 Time: 64.694 whooo...improvement.

Run 3: Same drifting...I think I may just like drifting. 64.479

Run 4: I decided to see if my drifting was hurting my times, I ran it felt good...wheres my time?

ReRun4: Try same thing again, I wasn't as smooth as I was on the previous run, oh well...Wheres my time? Apparently the wind was blowing trash past the sensors and screwing things up.

ReRun4-2: Try the same thing again, the smoothness was pretty good this time : 64.066 Sweet...almost half a second.

Run 5: Decide to try smooth again, went pretty well, but the geo sized turn at the end of the track went badly for me (not cone wise, just big car-tight spot wise): 64.363, still better than the drift runs.

So yes, I got 8 runs for the price of five, it was pretty awesome. Just for reference of how fast the course could be done FTD was a Stalker V6 with a 53.063 and the average was 62.066. Another thing for me was I didn't realize all the novices were 1 class. This put me against some carrs that fit the track better size wise: miata, focus, civic, etc. If I hadn't been novice I would have won my class...being the only car in it :) There was another STUN car, it was an 05 Legacy, I believe he was running some sticky tires-best of 60.885, so he would have beaten me. Oh well.

This is what I referred to as the Geo sized corner, there were more cone casualties here than anywhere else on the track. Believe it or not there is actually a third cone on the inside of the corner, somehow my car never met any of the cones on the track.

I owe thanks to the guy who let me use his magnetic 16s and my friend in the GT for his blue tape. More of my pics at http://s149.photobucket.com/albums/s73/wolverine350r/

Bear Cross, Bear Shield

This took place only a few blocks form where I live now, about 30 minutes after I left for work. Source: KRQE News 13

Bear drops by for checkup
Source: KRQE News 13

Cell-phone video caught bear in lobby.

RIO RANCHO -- A young bear wandered into a health-care center in Rio Rancho this morning causing quite a stir but no injuries before he was darted and returned to the wilds.

As one wildlife officer observed, if you're going to be darted with tranquilizer, you might as well get it done in a hospital.

And the 125-pound black bear had already gotten the attention of some residents and the Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety as the 911 calls came in:

Operator: Regional 9-1-1. What's your emergency?

Caller: There's a bear in my back yard.

The bear was running around the neighborhood all morning long, but DPS and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish officers didn't catch up with him until he arrived at the Presbyterian Medical Group building at Southern and 38th Street.

And, well, let himself right in.

“The automatic doors opened,” DPS Officer John Francis said. “He got caught in between the automatic doors.

“Once the interior doors opened, the bear made his way inside.”

Employees at the health center said the bear did knock before entering.

“He was right in front of the glass doors there, banging on them, trying to get them open,” nurse Sean DeLoach said.

Employees at first they tried to keep the bear from getting through the doors but then thought better of it.

“When the first set opened, there was a bunch of us in the lobby area,” DeLoach said. “We all decided that was a good time to leave.”

Eight employees and two patients quickly vacated the lobby.

DPS officers cornered the bear and held him until game officers arrived to tranquilize and capture it.

DeLoach said he didn't mind the surprise visit adding the bear didn't threaten anyone and was very courteous.

“Yes, he was very neat and tidy," DeLoach said. "We were trying to get him to schedule some more patients for us, but…"

Game officers believe the bear made his way into Rio Rancho from the Jemez or Manzano mountains after he was displaced by his mother or a more dominant bear.

Once the bear slept off the tranquilizer, he was released back into the Manzano Mountains.

The New Mexico CW guy

I saw him today, corner of Central and University. I was suprised that he hadn't caused an accident yet. Although this guy on the power-chair was poised to take him down. Sorry for the cell phone pic.

Land Rover: 1, PT Cruiser: 0

This was recently causing a rather large traffic jam as I drove home the other day. This PT had rear-ended a Land Rover (which I was unable to get a picture of (similar to pic on the right). I would call the Land Rover the winner as the only visible damage was a broken lens on one of the bumper tail lights. I think the guy in the picture was the owner of the PT, it was still smoking a bit...

Feeling safe at UNM

Ok, so the university has this new alert system for emergencies after what happened a few weeks ago. It sends a text message to your cell so that you can be alerted of danger.

So the other day I was leaving the me building and stopped on the grassy hill area to send a few last e-mails out. While I was there a fire truck showed up, then another, then another. This continued until there were 5 fire trucks (at least one labled Hazmat and one Heavy Rescue), one fire department ambulance, and at least two of their SUVs. Apparently there was no danger, because I never got a text.

I was reading in the paper where the bomb squad had been called to one of the parking structures about a week ago, and there had also been a hazardous chemical spill in the area of the pharmacy building--again, no text messages/e-mails, nothing. The response to this was that "there was no danger to the majority of the campus."

At least I received an e-mail several months ago after an appartent car thief fired shots at campus police and then ran into the campus to hide...of course it was a minimum of 3 hours after it happened that I got the e-mail.

I HATE tests and other school rantings

Ok, so I just finished my last class session of the semester and now only have the final exam to look forward to. I see a few problems with this.

1. The final is next Thursday (some of you are thinking "nice a week to study"), well its at 7:30 am --who in Hell schedules these things?
2. I am not sure what to expect, we only had 1 homework since the last exam and it was on the material of the last exam.
3. That brought the HW total to 3 for the semester.
4. ~50% of the new material is not in the book and I think it will comprise 60% of the final exam at least.
5. The prof is an off campus Sandia guy, he is really cool, but there is really only e-mail communication, which can make it hard to have questions answered.

So here I sit in my little room in the basement with a machine worth roughly 25 times my yearly pay here. It just received an upgrade that was nearly 7 times my annual pay. BAH!!! that is all I have to say. I guess the upside to the job is that I am getting a free trip to Greece this summer to go to a conference and present some of my research. I also think this will be a great opportunity to see what research is being done elsewhere and maybe give me some ideas about what will go into my thesis.


Update: A in the class...BAMM!!!

Everybody does

As may be seen in my picture (and here) I have a "new" car. I bought it in ~ February. Here is the info:

Year:91
Make: Pontiac
Model: Trans Am WS-6
Motor: L-98
Trans: 700R4 (well I couldn't find a decent 5-speed)

I still have the truck also, and the resto projects, bringing my # of cars owned to 4 + the wreck. I have taken the car to 1/4 mile only to find out that the transmission refuses to shift at WOT. I guess there is a governor in the 700R4 that can wear out and cause this, I am hoping this is the case as I hear it costs only a few bucks.

And to anyone else who asks-I will not be growing a mullet to go with the car. (thanks Raven)

I also recently acquired a "new" campus cruiser at a UNM police auction. For $50 I was able to score an older TREK 4500. I replaced the tubes and I have been riding it no problem. I plan to sand off the purple spray can job and replace it with something else or just polish the aluminum.

Ok, lets see if I can do this

It now seems that I have been sucked into the world of blogging for one reason or another...I guess it might be a good way to keep track of the things that I have done. As a notice to anyone reading this, my English skills are not the best, so don't go grammer teacher on me. ;)