I had begun to wonder about all this rain that was supposed to be coming with the spring and summertime here. I have to say either I've been lucky so far or my expectations of rain nearly every day were incorrect! Anyway, it's raining today, and rained just a little yesterday. Tomorrow at Oulton is supposed to have showers too. At least it's not very cold or humid!
Today is going to be a bit hectic. A few meetings will fill up the morning quickly, and then I have to go look at the bigger room that is now available in Newport. I'm 95% sure I will take it, unless it is just absolutely awful. Yes the other room fell through again, and no I don't feel like giving details, I'm really fed up with how frustrating the search has been. Then I have to get back home to finish packing up for the race this weekend. We're leaving at 7 tonight, so I should have enough time. I almost tried to pack last night, but wound up deciding to wait.
Maybe I'll be able to catch a little MLB Opening Day action too before we head out tonight. I have no idea what my internet access over Friday and Saturday will be by the way, but I'll be back home late Saturday night.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Sleep!
After going pretty late and early for both basketball games and racing this weekend, I hit the sack pretty early last night. Fell asleep watching the first few minutes of a BBC documentary about the years of F1 when fatalities were a really regular occurrence. It was interesting, but I was really tired. I also managed to sleep in till almost 8, which is amazing and I haven't done that in a long time. I'm going to do some work on our project from home this morning - building a ChassisSim model of a rally track to use for car simulation. Usually you generate the maps from data logs off of a car, but seeing as this track doesn't exist, we're doing it by guesswork and hand!
I did make myself a nice breakfast, egg and bacon on an English muffin. Tasted good with some green tea on the side. The weather is nice again today, a little over 40, but sunny and not too windy so it feels good. Temperature might actually hit 60 this afternoon too!
I did make myself a nice breakfast, egg and bacon on an English muffin. Tasted good with some green tea on the side. The weather is nice again today, a little over 40, but sunny and not too windy so it feels good. Temperature might actually hit 60 this afternoon too!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Busy is Good
Finally I'm getting back to being truly busy with things going on. Even if some of it is stuff I'm really just choosing to do. Saturday was pretty much consumed with going to Silverstone to watch the Britcar GP. There was some other racing too, an original Mini series, an Alfa Romeo series, ex Formula BMW cars and a couple others. We migrated around the circuit and watched just about every turn at some point. It was good, as I actually hadn't been around to some of the turns. Watched a little basketball at night and went to bed relatively early as we finally lost the spring hour this weekend.
I got up early and got a ride from Rob to campus to watch the Australian GP with a group of us. We had a BBQ breakfast of sausages and bacon, which honestly I think filled me up for the whole day. I got back home and did a couple loads of laundry while finishing up booking trains and hotels for Jess' trip in a couple weeks. Then I took a bike ride down the Canal to a garden center that I'd figured out has a good food and beer selection, mainly Scottish stuff. Picked up a few goodies, but did resist their baked goods, mainly their scones, which looked really good. From there I rode home and then back out to the gym for my first workout in like 5 days, which was good. If you like inflicting pain, look up and try an exercise called a "manmaker". Good stuff.
Then I stopped at a couple of Wetherspoons to see which beer festival ales they had on and found a few good ones. The best part is they were £2.05 each! Best one was a beer from San Diego - Ballast Point Calico Amber. I think they fly the brewer over here and have the beer brewed on a system locally to avoid having to ship overseas. An interesting concept that seems to work pretty well.
Going to have a light dinner tonight, still not truly hungry - probably just a little bread, cheese and a spinach salad. I will attempt to stay up through the UNC game, don't know how successful that will be, since I was up at 5:30 this morning for the race!
Picasa Album from the BTCC Test day and Britcar event
I got up early and got a ride from Rob to campus to watch the Australian GP with a group of us. We had a BBQ breakfast of sausages and bacon, which honestly I think filled me up for the whole day. I got back home and did a couple loads of laundry while finishing up booking trains and hotels for Jess' trip in a couple weeks. Then I took a bike ride down the Canal to a garden center that I'd figured out has a good food and beer selection, mainly Scottish stuff. Picked up a few goodies, but did resist their baked goods, mainly their scones, which looked really good. From there I rode home and then back out to the gym for my first workout in like 5 days, which was good. If you like inflicting pain, look up and try an exercise called a "manmaker". Good stuff.
Then I stopped at a couple of Wetherspoons to see which beer festival ales they had on and found a few good ones. The best part is they were £2.05 each! Best one was a beer from San Diego - Ballast Point Calico Amber. I think they fly the brewer over here and have the beer brewed on a system locally to avoid having to ship overseas. An interesting concept that seems to work pretty well.
Going to have a light dinner tonight, still not truly hungry - probably just a little bread, cheese and a spinach salad. I will attempt to stay up through the UNC game, don't know how successful that will be, since I was up at 5:30 this morning for the race!
Picasa Album from the BTCC Test day and Britcar event
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| 2011 BTCC Media and Britcar Silverstone GP |
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Exciting Stuff
Yesterday was really enjoyable. The 8 hours of track time flew by. We were busy learning the car, adjusting ride heights, sway bars, front toe, and constantly filling up the gas tank! The car was really easy to work on, it is quite a simple car, and nothing like working on the production cars I'm used to. No more having to take of six other things just to get to the part you really need to change! The weather really couldn't have been better, sunny all day, and almost 60 degrees too. Wore a T-shirt most of the day for the first time in many months. It was really great being back out at a track, I really was missing it. I forgot my camera, so no pictures, sorry :( There were some very nice cars there, M3's, a race prepped Porsche and Lamborghini, and a selection of Caterhams, Radicals, and a few other similar cars that I didn't recognise. Standing on the pit wall as the Lambo was screaming by was just really great!
The racing is really getting going here now. We're off to Silverstone twice in the next 3 days - today for the BTCC media and test day, and Saturday for a Britcar event. Of course F1 is finally back too.
Our project is coming along too, still tons to do before April 12th for our next review.
The racing is really getting going here now. We're off to Silverstone twice in the next 3 days - today for the BTCC media and test day, and Saturday for a Britcar event. Of course F1 is finally back too.
Our project is coming along too, still tons to do before April 12th for our next review.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Committed to a Place...
But there is still some uncertainty, the owner needs to find out when her tenant is exactly moving out. Luckily I can extend my stay for a few days in my current place, so it should still work out. It will be tricky because next weekend is the first Caterham race, so I'll be gone from Thursday night to Sunday night. The place is in a great location, and there's only one other tenant. 30 second walk to the bus stop. 2 minute walk to 2 different Co-op grocery stores. I'll have to figure out if I want to continue a gym membership, I might not honestly. Hopefully I can nail down a move date this afternoon.
We have a presentation from Chris Aylett, the CEO of the Motorsports Industry Association today regarding Energy Efficient Motorsport. It should be interesting to hear his opinions on where technology is headed. Hopefully it will align with some of our choices for our project!
I did get a couple of key responses from 2 companies on our group project that we had been waiting on last night. Things that we were kind of waiting on to further progress with our design.
Someone convinced me that I should go to the BTCC day tomorrow, so I'm going! Yay for 2 weekdays at the track, the weather is shaping up to be (I think) unseasonably warm and not completely overcast too.
We have a presentation from Chris Aylett, the CEO of the Motorsports Industry Association today regarding Energy Efficient Motorsport. It should be interesting to hear his opinions on where technology is headed. Hopefully it will align with some of our choices for our project!
I did get a couple of key responses from 2 companies on our group project that we had been waiting on last night. Things that we were kind of waiting on to further progress with our design.
Someone convinced me that I should go to the BTCC day tomorrow, so I'm going! Yay for 2 weekdays at the track, the weather is shaping up to be (I think) unseasonably warm and not completely overcast too.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Semi Update on Housing
The place in Willen that I saw on Saturday will work I think. Finally got two responses on other options in Newport last night and this morning. Hopefully I can see those tonight. At least I have one as a fall back now, though I don't want to keep the owners waiting on an answer from me. It would be an improvement I think, but still a few drawbacks - smaller room, no real living room, and no desk area in the room. It would cut about 10 minutes off the bus ride, which is better than nothing, but not as good as I'd hoped. At least the bus stop is much closer to the house though - appx a quarter mile.
Been a busy morning so far - and have a small group meeting this afternoon. We are definitely going to Snetterton on Wednesday for a test day with the Caterham. Leaving at 6am! Should be a good day. Then on Thursday some of the class is going to Silverstone for the BTCC test and media day. Since I'm gone all day Wednesday I might skip that to continue working on the project stuff. Undecided on that, we'll see how the rest of today and tomorrow goes with that.
At the risk of jinxing my bracket - I am in first place after the weekend somehow. Though my Southeast bracket is completely in shambles, I only have Florida left out of the 4 teams, and I had them losing the next game anyway!
Been a busy morning so far - and have a small group meeting this afternoon. We are definitely going to Snetterton on Wednesday for a test day with the Caterham. Leaving at 6am! Should be a good day. Then on Thursday some of the class is going to Silverstone for the BTCC test and media day. Since I'm gone all day Wednesday I might skip that to continue working on the project stuff. Undecided on that, we'll see how the rest of today and tomorrow goes with that.
At the risk of jinxing my bracket - I am in first place after the weekend somehow. Though my Southeast bracket is completely in shambles, I only have Florida left out of the 4 teams, and I had them losing the next game anyway!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
What Rain?
It is shaping up to be a quite beautiful day here actually. It's already 45 and sunny, and is supposed to get up to a little over 50. I woke up to the barking dog this morning at 6:30 unfortunately. But made it productive - caught up on blogs and stuff from last night, played around with some new software now that I can remote connect a true VPN session on campus, and then made some breakfast. Just got back from a good workout at the gym, which didn't happen much this week, so that felt good.
I need to kind of plan what my bike ride this afternoon will be to take advantage of this weather. Just need to plan it around visiting a possible option for housing over near Willen Lake. I'm out of options in Newport unless I hear back from any of the ads I responded to in the next couple days. Disappointing. The Lake would be a nice ride, but it will be way too crowded with walkers I'm sure.
England is going for a Grand Slam in the 6 Nations this afternoon at 5 too. So after checking out the place and whatever route I plan (that I will wind up getting lost on) I'm probably going to go out to watch that, it is a pretty big deal here.
I need to kind of plan what my bike ride this afternoon will be to take advantage of this weather. Just need to plan it around visiting a possible option for housing over near Willen Lake. I'm out of options in Newport unless I hear back from any of the ads I responded to in the next couple days. Disappointing. The Lake would be a nice ride, but it will be way too crowded with walkers I'm sure.
England is going for a Grand Slam in the 6 Nations this afternoon at 5 too. So after checking out the place and whatever route I plan (that I will wind up getting lost on) I'm probably going to go out to watch that, it is a pretty big deal here.
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