Pink Miata

It may be hard to see from the picture, but the above image is of a pink Mazda Miata. I spotted it last night while driving home from gymnastics. There are not many things that make a statement quite like a pink Miata. I was curious as to the gender of the driver, but I was never next to them to catch a glance. If it is a girl that drives the car, there are not many straight guys that would want a ride. If it is a guy that drives the car then I think it is almost pretty certain they must be gay. It is one of those times you just have to accept the stereotype. I highly doubt a straight guy could comfortably drive a pink Miata.

There was a Top Gear Episode where Richard Hammond test drove a pink Nissan Micra. He put a paper bag over his head while driving through his hometown. He then proceeded to leave the car on the side of the road. A pink Miata fits in the exact same category as a pink Nissan Micra.

Swimming on the Internet

Swimming being a low profile sport, especially in the United States, doesn’t allow for much scrutiny when it comes to reporting news. Only a handful of swimming related media outlets exist on the internet. None are a part of some giant media conglomerate with extensive international circulation however. The largest is now probably Wasserman Media Group since their scope encompasses more than just the sport of swimming. That doesn’t mean the group holds high standards for its news reporting though. TimedFinals.com, a swim blog that is part of the Wasserman clutches, has been berated multiple times for directly copying content from the next most prominent swimming news source, Swimming World Magazine. While some information might come in the form of pre-written content (ie press releases), that does not mean it is acceptable to directly post it without referencing the source it came from.

I noticed that TimedFinals.com has a Site Meter link at the bottom of the page. I followed the link hoping to check out their traffic report, however that was not available to see. I did notice the list of top Site Meter websites though. It just so happened that number 10 on the list is a site for which I write, Autoblog.com. Autoblog.com is owned by one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, AOL/Time Warner. One can imagine that such a large corporation has something to lose if one of its employees is negligent with their reporting. Oftentimes news is reported in the form of a press release. For such things a brief summary with some commentary is constructed, then the full press release is pasted in the post italicized and the source is noted. All images are either captured personally by the authors or they are supplied by companies for editorial use. TimedFinals.com does not reference any sources for the information it reports. I agree that it is a shady tactic. Editorial posts do not need sources, however if you begin reporting information on major corporations or organizations without giving a source and your story effects the stock market for the day, prepare to take the windfall.

Swimming is definitely not like the automotive industry in that there are gigantic corporations whose worth can be affected by journalists. Perhaps it could get that way though, Speedo is a company with something to lose. I really hope to see swimming media become more significant. First people really need to clean things up and get it together with modern times. There is so much technical information involved in swimming and I don’t see anyone exploring it. The print media coming out of Sports Publication International (Swimming World Magazine) typically has some more in-depth articles, however their circulation is abominable. There is no way for it to reach the general masses or even general fitness enthusiasts.

This post was brought on by a couple recent posts on other swimming related blogs such as Tony Austin’s SCAQ Swimmer Blog and the Texas Swimming Blog. They are both gathering more and more attention with their content. I think it is a very good thing for the sport. I like the opinions that get expressed. I may not agree with everything all the time, but it creates debate which is a wonderful thing. I hope they keep it up as it keeps swimming more grounded.

UPDATE:
Amazing, I wrote this post today and now it seems that Timed Finals has taken to noting their sources as this was recently posted: http://www.timedfinals.com/11122007/flash-swim-meets-can-make-money/. I suppose it is a start...

Surge Monster

When the pressure ratio between the air inside a turbocharger and the atmosphere increases, but the flow rate through the turbocharger remains low, surge occurs. While the concept of surge is a rather complicated tasked to explain, it can be easily identified as a swishing noise. There are certain size turbochargers when mated to particular engines that are known producers of surge. A good example is the use of twin HKS GT-RS turbochargers on an RB26DETT engine. You can really hear the surge at low rpms. For this reason the GT-RS has earned the name surge monster.

While working for a turbocharger manufacturer I had made the request to marketing that a cutesy company mascot would be cool. A lot of Japanese companies have all sorts of products branded with their cutesy logo that people go gaga over. In particular Tein is a company that has endless amounts of marketing material featuring their cartoony damper mascot. I even have a stuffed version of it that I call Dampy. One day I decided to take matters in to my own hands and I created a rough drawing for the Surge Monster.

I am not quite sure yet what the Surge Monster will represent though. Surge is not a desirable function. A turbocharger submitted to excessive surge operation experiences high thrust loads which can lead to failure. Surge is not something to glorify. I want to say then that the Surge Monster is a champion of surge. He exists to educate and prevent. A proper turbocharger size match and realistic power goals keeps surge at bay. However, the Surge Monster could be the bad guy. He could be the evil Surge Monster that creates this undesirable function. Then the purple dinosaur can come along and defeat the evil Surge Monster with his education on turbocharger sizing and engine building.

Yamuna Body Rolling

I have had this chronic hamstring problem for a few years. It started when I made it a priority to greatly increase my flexibility. I made use of my frayed knot (pretty much a thick rope) to stretch my legs. However at one point I got a bit overzealous and pulled my right leg too far. That was miserable to recover from and my stretching did not progress too far with the methods I knew how to employ. Eventually I began adult gymnastics and my flexibility increased enormously. However between all the stretching and rest days something pissed off the right hamstring again and it has been feeling crunchy for awhile. It gets particularly annoying during running when the hamstring decides it just does not want to contract anymore. I finally said enough is enough and went in for some physical therapy.

I am so glad I gave in and sought therapy because I learned about Yamuna body rolling. You take a little air filled ball and roll it around under your own body weight. It is just the right size to get into key areas. My hamstring kept getting inflamed because it was under a lot of stress in the center of the muscle. As I kept forcing the stretch it would pull from the center, not distribute the stretch throughout the whole muscle. With the Yamuna ball I can stretch certain muscles a little bit at a time throughout the whole length of the muscle. It gets the muscles stretched without all the strain concentrated in one area. I am excited to now add it in to my routine. We'll see if it can help me achieve my middle splits sooner than later.

Malibu is on Fire Again

My bedroom window looks right out to the hills of Malibu. This morning I woke up to see a huge plume of smoke pouring off the hillside. I immediately knew Malibu was on fire again. I grabbed my nice new camera and snapped some pics.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympics

I am a sucker for anything Olympics. I can't help it. It was a dream of mine for so long, ok so it stil is in a way. I think I could do something in the Modern Pentathlon. However, I like having a normal life (um ok not so normal, but I would miss playing with cars!) so I am not too keen on dedicating all my time to training. Also training is expensive (Dara Torres spends $100k/year). If there is no money (or health insurance) coming in it makes things difficult... Anyway recently the game Mario and Sonic at the Olympics came out for the Wii. I am so excited about this game! It even has swimming! The picture above is a screen capture of the swimming event. It looks too cute. There is also gymnastics, albeit just trampoline and vault, but there is still gymnastics. Maybe I will try and pick it up on Black Friday.

2009 R35 Nissan GT-R at Chiat/Day

On Saturday afternoon Nissan USA, Edmunds.com and Chiat/Day organized a GT-R owners meet for viewing of the new 2009 R35 GT-R. About 14 GT-Rs in total showed up which is quite a lot to have together in one location in the United States. I took some photos that will be posted on Autoblog.com as soon as Edmunds gets their coverage together.

2009 GT-R

Future Responsibilities

The above picture was taken from the Cunningham Quill Architects' website. It is a photo of their project Holman Hall. Holman Hall happens to be the residence of my parental units. That means it will be the responsibility of my brother and myself to maintain in the future. It isn't so bad I guess... I just feel like I have a long way to go in investing and a lot to learn in order to be financially sound for the future responsibilities. I love the property though. Thankfully my parents also took my suggestion and put in a 25 yard lap pool, mostly for my enjoyment on my rare visits home. When I'm not there though the dogs make good use of it, well so does my mom and her aqua jogger (the parents aren't the swimmers, it’s just me).
More photos from Cunningham Quill can be found here:
http://www.cunninghamquill.com/pages/Project.aspx?PROJECT=66

Scion Party SEMA 2007