That Horse Will Never Win A Race

The makers of Coors and Miller Lite plan to combine their U.S. brewing operations in an effort to compete better against industry leader Anheuser-Busch. The joint venture announced Tuesday will be known as MillerCoors and will have responsibility for selling brands including Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft, Coors, Coors Light and Molson Canadian in the U.S.

Mother Nature 4 NASCAR 0

Another rain out for the Michigan NNC race.

Plan is to run the race today but Mother Nature is not playing by the same rules. Tomorrow is the last hope of getting in the race this week. If not it might become the last race of the year.

Wonder what the weather is like in Michigan in November?

GoRemy

I have added another member to the Blog roll.

It is not really Nascar related but from reading the guys Blog he is a Jimmy Johnson fan.

However he does have some really funny YouTube videos that he produces and stars in so I will give him a pass on the Jimmy Johnson fan part.

Go on over and check it out.

Micheal Vick

I think it is high time that the Atlanta Falcon’s drop Michael Vick and use the money from the lowered salary cap and get a QB that really wants to play football. And they can get some receives that can actually caught the ball.

First it was the “water bottle” with the strange brown substance. Why would you keep your jewelry in a secret compartment that has a strange brown substance in it anyway? That would get your jewelry dirty.

You think the guy would be smart enough to have a member of his entourage carry the weed bottle.

Then we have the missed meeting in Washington DC because he was bumped from his stand-by seat on Air Tran. You make how much money a year and your flying stand-by because it is free since they were your sponsor? Something wrong with that picture.

Now we have the dog fighting which he blames on family members that took advantage of his generosity. Sure Mike we all believe you. You have been such the role model of an upstanding citizen.

The NFL and other sports like Basketball and Baseball that have control over the teams need to change the way things are done with players. Nascar does not really apply because the teams are independent.

First and foremost they need a code of conduct that all players must abide by. After all there is a lot of young kids that admire these people and they are really not that good of a role model.

Here is my list that needs to be part of every team and player contract.

No players drafted out of high school. All eligible players for the draft must finish their senior year of college before they can be drafted and they must finish with a C+ average or better in a normal degree program that is offered to all students. No more under water basket weaving degrees.

No multi million dollar contracts for rookie players and no outside sponsors. All players must play their first two years making the league minimum salary only. After their first two years and they have shown that they really want to play they can be eligible for larger contracts and sponsorship deals.

No strikes. Players are paid to play not strike because they don’t like the way things are. You don’t like your current job situation, find another one.

Mandatory 100% drug testing for all starting players day of the game. You pee in a cup before you take the field. Should the results come back positive a second test will be done from an independent lab of the original sample. Should that test come back positive you are banned for the rest of the season and forfeit the rest of your salary which is put in to a fund to pay for the drug testing. You can play the next year but should you test positive a second time in your career you are banned for life and ineligible for any retirement fund that the league might provide as well as the Hall of Fame for your sport.

No entourage. If you come from the projects you need to leave the projects behind you when you get to the big leagues. All those so called friends are just leaches and will get you in more trouble they you are worth. When MTV comes over to your crib we do not want to see a bunch of hoodlums sitting around your pool drinking up all your alcohol and making stupid gang signs with their fingers.

When you leave the stadium or make public appearance no bling bling and a suit is required. Also mandatory when you travel on personal or public business. You want to wear your bling bling, wear it at home, unless MTV is there then the above rule applies.

No appearing in rap videos.

Speak proper English. Unless you come from another country we expect you to be smart enough to speak proper English. No slang or ebonics allowed.

Players must adhere to personal grooming standards. No more corn rows, dread locks or afros or peach fuzz on your face. You are old enough to play in the big leagues you are old enough to shave and get a proper hair cut. You are playing for a professional sports team so try to look like one.

And lastly, your a grown up so act like one. No on field tantrums or hissy fits. No locker room interviews where you vent your anger at the officials or other players. No throwing bats or kicking the water cooler. And don’t pick up the bases and throw them around. That is what the coach is for.

Job

Well the overseas Kuwait job is pretty much a no go. Not worth it base on the pay. I don’t mind the other stuff. I can put up with the working conditions and the long hours, nothing new there but not for the pay they want to give you.

I guess if I was single or just wanted to disappear that would be the place to go though. Still looking for others. There is a new contract signed for Qatar for basically the same thing so I might polish up my resume and send it off.

Biggest issue for me is that right now I am not physically fit enough to go do something like that. Of course I have been telling myself I am going to get back into shape but so far I have not. Guess I just don’t really have the motivation.

Maybe between now and when school starts next month I can find some motivation. Once school starts it will be easier because I will have to get up early anyway to take my son to school.

We will see.

Pepsi 400 one last time

Not sure if it has been confirmed but I think this will be the last Pepsi 400. Been sort of out of the loop for a few weeks and just generally out of it.

Based on their practice speeds here is my picks for who will make the race outside of the 35 owner points.

#21-Bill Elliott [PC], 32nd
#00-David Reutimann, 33rd
#36-Jeremy Mayfield, 35th
#55-Michael Waltrip, 38th
#22-Dave Blaney, 39th
#60-Boris Said, 40th
#78-Kenny Wallace, 41st
#10-Scott Riggs, 42nd

I actually like the night race at Daytona better then the season opener. The only reason the season opener is fun to watch is because you had to endure 3 months without any racing.

For me motor sports is the only sports that I really care anything about and even then I am not crazy about it like a lot of people are.

Writers block

Never have been able to really put down what I think or feel into words that would actually form a complete sentence or be just some rambling rant.

Been doing some research into a job in Kuwait. The job is a Combat Support Associate or CSA. Officially it would be Force Protection for the military bases in Kuwait. Anything from standing a static post or searching vehicles coming on to the base to mobile patrol. Pretty much the same stuff I did as a MP in the Army.

From all the people who have make comments about the job you spend 12 hours a day in the hot sun working for little pay and having to put up with a lot of BS. Sounds just like the Army.

You work 12 hours a day and sometimes up to 7 days a week but at least a minimum of 60 hours a week.

The conditions don’t bother me or the long hours because I am use to that and I like to keep busy. What really gets me is the low pay. The guy I am talking with says he was making $13.40 hr and that was a few months ago.

I have a hard time understanding how they can pay a low wage like that and then expect you to give up everything in the States and go to Kuwait and do the work that they want you do to. I would think they would have a hard time recruiting people and based on the number of job openings they post on their website I believe they are.

I guess for some young buck just getting out the military that wants to get in on the action over in Iraq this is a good stepping stone to get your foot in the door.

I have also heard from my contact in Iraq that the company that holds the current contract for CSA services for the military will be loosing that contract in October and someone else taking over. I have not been able to confirm that and wonder if it is true because according to the company website they are under contract with the military till 2009. But of course all these contracts are constantly reviewed and if the company is not standing up to their end of the agreement they can loose the contract. There is also rumors about embezzlement but that is no surprise. Seems a lot of companies that get military contracts end up with some sort of investigation on them. Just ask KBR.

Most people would probably say that from everything I have mentioned they would not even consider working a job like that and I agree. But it is still under consideration. The biggest issue for me is the pay. If I can not make close to twice what I make now there is no point. I have been looking for other jobs in that area.

There is a new contact awarded in Qatar for base operations and base security just inked and they are looking for people to go there. Be nice if I could get some sort of IT job there which would be more in line with what I do know.

Oh well guess I will just have to keep looking. The danger does not bother me. I am looking for a way to spend a year working and make a lot of money doing it and the Middle East seems to be the place to do that.

Welcome Back

Well I made it safely back from vacation. I hope all 3 of my faithful readers where able to survive without me for a week.

Actually I got back on Saturday just been busy getting ready to go back to work and doing a few other stuff around the house like sleeping so this is the first time I have had to sit down and post something.

Vacation was good.

Had good weather most of the time. Spent 2 days at the “beach” and 2 days jet skiing. The last day jet skiing it was sort of cold so we did not spend that much time out on the water. Nice thing about it was there was not very many other people on the lake. Just one boat with some people riding around on a sled and the sheriff patrol so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. If it was not for the fact that my son got pretty cold he would have wanted to stay out longer.

First day at the “beach” I got a little sunburn. I used sunblock but forgot one spot. Who puts sun block on the tops of their feet? Well now I know.

I have a hard time calling it a beach since it is on a lake but other then there is no big waves you really would not know that you were at Lake Michigan and not somewhere on the Gulf or something. Water is a little cooler also but it was not that bad.

We did not do the jet skiing on Lake Michigan. We go to friends of the wife who live on a fairly large lake in the area and use their jet ski. they are the same nationality as my wife so they let me and my son go out on the lake on the jet ski and they sit around eating fish heads, rice and what ever else they like. Actually its not fish heads but there is fish involved and we’re not talking salmon.

Nice thing is every one we know up there is really nice and they open up their houses to us. They all want us to make this a yearly family vacation and we have several people wanting us to stay with them when we do come up there. We will see how that goes.

Guess I will have to play a little catch up with the nascar stuff. Who would have thought Kyle Petty would get caught swearing on the air, Dodge would win a CoT race and Toyota would win a pole.

Milwaukee online report and other stuff

Not much to report on the Milwaukee CTS Nascor race. I did not race.

When I build my racing chair it was built for the black MOMO so when I switched over to the G25 I found that my pedals are to close to me because the stand they are on is longer then the black MOMO. I tried to move them out further but there is no way to fasten them down so they kept moving around when I would use the throttle or brake. If I move my chair back then I can’t reach the wheel in a comfortable manner.

If you notice the in car camera shots of drivers in Nascar you will notice that they sit very close to the steering wheel. They do this so that their arms are not extended out away from their body. If they had to race 4 hours with their arms extended out you can imagine how tired they would get. Well I do the same thing. Granted I don’t race for 4 hours but it is usually over an hour or more depending on the number of cautions so there was no way I would be able to race with my pedals sliding around and my arms extended out to reach the wheel.

So until I rectify that problem racing might have to be tabled for now.

I have been thinking about building me a new racing rig since the wife seems to think the one I have is not to good looking, she says it is “ugly”. Granting it was build on the fly without much of a plan but it is build for practicality not looks. Maybe one of these days I will post a picture of it before I build a new one. Matter of fact I might have one in my photo bucket. Sure enough here it is. That was when I was testing it. Now I have a nice surround sound attached and a different PC but the chair is the same.

My goal is to build something that is movable. I am wanting to set up a spare room at my house as sort of a den and then I want to get a 32″ TV to put on the wall. If I make the race chair so it can be easily moved then I want to just use the S cable on the video card to hook up to the TV. That way I can use the TV to race and just move the chair out of the way when I am not using it. Now to just get that plan approved by the wife. Time will tell but in the mean time I still need to rebuild the race chair. I can always do the TV thing later.

Close to Home

Was looking for something intersting in the News to read and found this article.

I know exactly were that prison is because my parents live in Deer Lodge which is were the prison truck was found after the guys escaped.

My parents live on the edge of the town that is closes to the prison which is about 5-10 miles away. It is a medium security work farm prison for none violent offenders. Still anyone that ends up in prison could be violent. My parents tell me that it is not all that uncommon for a prisoner to just walk off the ranch and end up in town. When ever that happens there is alarms that will sound at the prison. My parents can hear them from their house when that happens. I am sure I will get a call from my mom telling me about this event.