I’m now part of an F1 Team

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I’ve been given the honour of being a moderator on the Official Sauber F1 Team Community on Google Plus, for apparently being “passionate and knowledgeable about F1 motor racing”.

Sauber F1 Team Google Plus Community Moderator

So I’m officially part of the Sauber F1 Team! Sauber are the first team to jump into Google Plus so far and have done so in a big way, supplying great insight into the team and being very engaging with their fans and so it has been easy for me to become a fan. My job as Community Moderator is just to make sure conversations stay on topic and people don’t use rude words, but pretty soon I fully expect to become a test driver and perhaps earn a seat in an F1 car just like Sebastian Vettel did all those years ago.

Sebastian Vettel, Sauber, 2007

Finger-boy in 2007 for Sauber

Breaking Bad: The best TV in the last 5 years

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I picked up on Breaking Bad from some workmates during the third season. They told me it started well and remained strong through the second season which is almost rare nowadays. So I decided to give it a go.

Breaking Bad tells the story of Walter White, who’s had the rough end of the pineapple for most of his life: clearly a brilliant chemist, he was a co-founder of a company but left for personal reasons only to see it grow into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. He is relegated to teaching high school chemistry to uninterested, disrespectful uninterested students, and takes a second job cleaning cars at the local car wash to supplement his income. He’s married, and has a teenage son with Cerebral Palsy. He’s just turned 50, and has found out his wife is pregnant. And that he has inoperable terminal lung cancer.

Knowing he will soon die, he must find a way to ensure their financial security after he is gone.

Watching a news report on a drug bust, he is impressed by the amount of money confiscated by the authorities. He accompanies his DEA brother-in-law on a drug bust and sees a former student, dropout Jesse Pinkman, fleeing the scene. Later he looks up Jesse using the school records and forms a partnership. “You know the business, and I know the chemistry”.

The series explores the changes overcoming Walter as he deals with his own mortality. As the series progresses, he becomes darker and more sinister but at every turn he is only doing what he thinks is best to provide for his family. Pride, at losing out on selling his share of the company he founded for $5000, is also telling and changes how he views his new successes.

HeisenbergIndeed, he changes his whole persona and appearance taking on the Mr Hyde of “Heisenberg” to his own Dr Jekyll of mild mannered Walter. After his cancer goes into remission he becomes an unstoppable force, feeding an insatiable need to succeed and build an empire.

Breaking Bad is full of strong characters and memorable dialog. We’re half way through the last season with the last episodes coming in August. These two videos are a great summary of the show and should be enough to convince you to pick it up if you haven’t already.

 

The most awkward F1 podium ever

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So, the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix was run and won yesterday with Mark Webber Sebastian Vettel taking the chequered. flag.

Yep, it was pretty much Mark Webber’s race, with Vettel under orders not to overtake Webber in the closing stages and not to challenge for the lead. Webber was leading and on his way to the win. The team technicians advised he needed to conserve fuel and tyres, so he “dialed his car back” meaning he changed fuel and power settings and wasn’t as aggressive into corners.

But, on the 46th lap (5-6 laps remaining) Vettel launched a huge attack on Webber, ignoring team orders and overtook Webber to essentially steal the win.

Contrast to the Mercedes team of Hamilton and Rosberg in 3rd and 4th. Hamilton was in pretty dire circumstances with fuel and needed to coast for the last 8-10 laps. Rosberg was behind and repeatedly asked to overtake Hamilton so he could challenge the Red Bulls. He was repeatedly denied and ordered to keep his distance which, to his credit, he did and allowed Hamilton to step up to take third place on the podium.

This lead to one of the most awkward podiums in history.

There was very little celebrating happening. Webber was sore at Vettel who knew he messed up. And Hamilton knew that Rosberg should have been standing there instead of himself.

The interview after the race was equally painful. I thought Webber was going to punch Vettel in the throat at one point. It was painful to watch. Vettel did himself no favours in the team, and put pressure on an already strained relationship.

Some quotes:

“You’ve got some explaining to do” – Christian Horner to Vettel via the team radio after crossing the finish line

“The team made their decision. Seb made his own decision and he will have protection as usual” – Webber at the post-race press conference.

“Hai guise! Bye Guise!” – Hamilton, now racing for Mercedes, to the McLaren pit crew after pulling into the wrong garage for fresh tyres.

We also managed a Malaysian Seafood Laksa, with mine being washed down with a celebratory Red Bull beverage.

A night with ZZ Top and Guns N’ Roses

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Despite being a music fan, I’ve only ever been to a few concerts: David Lee Roth, Aerosmith, Jimmy Barnes, Sammy Hagar, Van Halen, Garbage (along with Alanis Morrisette) and a few others. I’ve been to plenty of gigs at pubs and whatnot. Back in my Uni days I’d follow Chain around from pub to pub, and occasionally catch Dave Hole and other shows at smaller venues. Of all the bands that I’d been a fan of and had an influence on me, I’d pretty much seen them all.

There has always been two glaring omissions from this list. I have been a ZZ Top fan since before I can remember… early high school is where I started my appreciation for blues and I always considered ZZ Top, and in particular Billy Gibbons, to be the finest blues musician to ever pluck the guitar strings. This was way before 1984s Eliminator and 1986s Afterburner. Wailing blues just reached out and grabbed a hold of me in ways that were hard to explain.

I started Uni in 1988, and was exposed to more people and their musical tastes than during my time at high school. I was introduced to Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses. It was released six months prior, but for some reason I’d never heard it. There are twelve songs on this album, and from the intimidating, aggressive opening of “Welcome to the Jungle” to the close of the last song “Rocket Queen”, every song is powerful strong, and all merge together into a perfect album. Indeed, to this day it is the highest selling debut album in history and my introduction to Punk Metal, and I was hooked. No piece of media had grabbed my attention like this since the movie Blade Runner.

Anyhow, despite hemming and hawing and coming close a couple times and finding excuses such as unjustifiably high concert ticket prices I never actually saw either of these bands live. So it was with great surprise that Suzanne booked us two tickets for a double bill featuring both bands at the new Perth Arena!

Rose Tattoo were the openers. I have seen these guys a couple times at different places, but they were never my cup of tea. I recognised various songs, but I wasn’t there to see them and while they were enjoyable, I was getting restless to see my good friends Billy, Dusty and Frank.

They opened with “I Thank You” from their 1979 album Deguello, and while they didn’t go all the way back to ZZ Top’s First Album, there were plenty of songs from the early 70′s, through the 80′s, 90′s, 2000′s all the way up to a rockin’ “Gotsta Get Paid” from last year. Their repertoire covers five decades. They’ve played and stayed together for more than forty years! There aren’t many bands who can claim the same. Their concert was silky smooth, and almost effortless. It’s simply amazing how two guitars and a drum kit can sound so “full”, feeding the dynamic range from high to low frequencies. Billy Gibbons is simply amazing.

Compare this to Guns ‘N Roses, who have up to five guitars at a time on stage, plus keyboards and two sets of drums. I’m not saying one sounds better than the other, mind. It’s just mind blowing how Gibbons can seemingly play rhythm and melody at the same time, leaving bass to Hill.

Also, Axl Rose is the only current member from the original band. Not that having a revolving door it’s a bad thing either way, because it’s mostly about the music.

Guns N’ Roses played the best songs from Appetite for Destruction, Lies, Use Your Illusion I & 2 as well as the new songs from Chinese Democracy, which I’ll admit I didn’t recognise as I don’t have that album on my iPod. The show was great! Very enjoyable and memorable. Axl suffered from some poor reviews in the newspaper saying that he struggled with his range in some songs, but from where I was sitting he didn’t put a foot wrong.

In all, it was a great night, albeit a very tiring one as I’d only got off the plane from Singapore early that morning.

Now I have only two more concerts I ever want to go see: Oasis and Jamiroquai. If we ever find these two touring Australia on a double bill, you can bet we’ll be getting tickets.

 

My walk along the Singapore Formula 1 track

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I finally ticked one item off my bucket list this week when I took a walk along a real life Formula 1 track.

Singapore F1 track walk

It took me a little over an hour to walk the 5 and a bit km after work. I stuck as close as I could to the track, but along the start/finish line on the east side it was closed off. They were taking down the seating for the Chinese New Year parade. I had to jump a fence and duck in and out and get a photo:

From our office at the Raffles tower (at the marker on the above map) you get a good view of half the track. I’m trying to swing it so I can be here for the next race and watch it live.

My thoughts on Danica Patrick and her Daytona 500 pole position

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Oh, this title…

Danica Patrick working that poleDanica Patrick has leapt back into the motor racing headlines by becoming the first woman to secure pole for the 2013 NASCAR Cup opener at Daytona. Previously, the highly popular 30-year-old American, who is stealing the show at the pinnacle of US motor sport, has insisted she has little interest in exploring her options in Formula One. But could more doors open now?

Good grief, I don’t think so. And neither do those in the know:

Sebastian Vettel : “First of all, hats off to Danica for her achievements. But motor sport in the US just has a completely different culture.”

Helmut Marko : “You have to look at Danica’s results in the road races. It’s not enough. We are looking for drivers based on performance, not by quota.”

Niki Lauda : “For ten years. I’ve told Bernie Ecclestone he’s dopey for not getting a woman into Formula One. If we could get a woman into the top six, you would immediately have twice as many fans in front of the TV. It has to be said that the technical level in the US does not compare to the level in Formula One. This is also reflected in the drivers. The last American who had success in Europe was Mario Andretti — and that was in my day!”

The sad thing is, Lauda is right. Chuck a hot woman into the mix and you’re gonna get bums on seats and eyes on the TVs. Take a look at Anna Kournikova who, while a competent tennis player, never won a Grand Slam title and often was never seen after the first round. But her hot little ass was guaranteed to sell more tickets and get higher TV ratings and so she was always invited to tournaments in which she had no chance of progressing to the final.

Murzik

The list of female F1 drivers is pretty short and unfortunately the latest candidate, Spaniard Maria De Villota, crashed and lost an eye while testing for Marussia last year. She was talented, and at the end of the day I’d rather watch talented drivers than attractive drivers in the World Drivers Championship.

My experience playing Ingress

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IngressSo, I’ve been playing Ingress for the last few weeks. Ingress is an augmented reality game where two shadowy organisations wrestle for dominance over the minds of Earth’s human population: Enlightenment are trying to establish mind-control portals all over the world to help aliens called Shapers bring a powerful Enlightenment that will lead to an evolution of humankind. Resistance are trying to stop them.

 

The cool thing about the game is that it’s out there, in the “Outer-net”, in the “real world” you might have heard so much about. Ingress actually requires you to get off the sofa, away from the keyboard, and run around in the fresh air. All you need is your Android phone.

Game play involves taking control of “Portals” which are located at points of interest such as sculptures, murals, or significant buildings. You take control of a portal by placing your own Resonators on them which, in game terms, tunes the portal to your own team’s energy.

You can attack an enemy-controlled portal by firing “XM Pusles” at them, which sap the energy from the portal by destroying the other team’s Resonators.

You can Hack any Portal to gain XM Pulses, Resonators, Portal Keys and other items used in the game.

But to actually use the items requires two things: you to be in proximity to the Portals as well as the use of XM, or Exotic Matter, which is distributed fairly randomly around the streets. You gain XM by, again, coming into proximity and allowing your XM Scanner (a fancy name for your Android phone) to pick it up.

So my lunch hours have been spent briskly walking around the city collecting XM and hacking Portals, attacking the Enlightened Portals and placing Resonators at the Resistance Portals. I generally do a couple circuits of 3-4 city blocks in an hour. I’ve changed my walking patterns before and after work so that I can walk past these Portals to get a few Hacks in. I managed to take down my first Level 4 (mid-strength) Enlightened Portal the other day, being the Lord Forrest statue in Supreme Court Gardens. It changed hands again fairly quickly. Indeed, the map changes hourly. There seems to be a lot of unemployed no-lifers or students playing it and they’ve managed to level themselves up fairly quickly.

It’s a fun game though. It’s meant to be a social game as well. In wandering around the city to the various Portals, you tend to see a lot of the same group of people constantly checking their phones. Covertly checking their screen you can see a telltale blue or green glow, an indication they’re playing Ingress. Generally you can say hello, or give them a nod and a wink and ask them what team they’re on. If they’re Enlightened or Resistance, it doesn’t really matter. I met one guy from Hong Kong who was actually using Ingress as a sight-seeing tool. It turns out he was also a very high level Resistance player and he helped us out by placing some of the highest level resonators ever seen in Perth.

How does one get in on this action? Well, for now it’s a closed invitation-only beta, though you can go to the web site and request an invite. I hear invites are being dealt out 2-3 months after the request is received. If you’re after a social game that’s good for your health, you could do worse than Ingress.

 

Is it hot enough for ya?

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Last week was hot in Australia. Pretty damn hot. So hot in fact that the Bureau of Meteorology were caught short and had to amend the scale on their temperature charts by adding two more colours to represent temperatures above 50:

So ladies, start melting cuz the boy is hotter than hot!

The hottest day I remember experiencing was 44.4 on January 12 1979, a date I remember because it happened to be my birthday. 50-52-54 is unimaginable.