Super Rookie’s World

I got the following email in the Super-Rookie.com email bag:

your blog is slacking. 

xoxo,

Brandon Gavic

Yes, I am getting crap about my blog from this guy:

You can read Gavic’s blog here. Oh, wait. That thing hasn’t worked for some time.

If Gavic ever cowboy’s up and decides to race again I can only hope that it is at the velodrome and he somehow convinces Dewey to be his Madison partner. They would instantly be Tier-One contendors and Cybercop would crap in his see-through shorts because of Gavic’s inclination to ride recumbents.

That is a Super-Rookie Dot Com Guarantee.

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I watched, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” the other night. It was pretty darn good. I would recommend it to any movie fan who enjoys in-depth character studies. The movie is really long, but it is really well done. It earned to Academy Award Nominations. One was for Cinematography and the other was for Best Supporting Actor (Casey Affleck). The Cinematography was really great and I would hope some of you will check it out.

A few weeks back I posted about the Top 10 Endangered Historic Sites according to the Minnesota Preservation Alliance. The number one site was was the St. Louis County Jail in Duluth. The building is owned by the county, but is a local historic site according to the city of Duluth. The county wants to tear down the building (designed by Daniel Burnham) to build a 40 spot private parking lot. The cost of demolition would cost $535,000 which equates to roughly $14,000 per space. Various developers have contacted the county about buying the facility, but the County isn’t returning calls.

A shame.

It is a pretty awesome building:

The county lost their bid to demo the building at a commission hearing, but is appealing the case to the city council. It just doesn’t make much sense to me. The building, according to this article, is an important piece to the cities original intentions and to place a parking lot on the site would be a shame. Here is another story from the Duluth News-Tribune that discussed the permit denial.

A definite shame.

I will be the first to admit that I jumped on the F1 bandwagon halfway through last season after finally getting the Speed Network. I was really confused by all of the regulations and systems, but over time with some minimal research and watching of races and qualifying with Sarah and The Landlord I have gotten the hang of it. Smithers has a great write up about the most recent drama that has hit the scene. It is just like what we saw at the velodrome last season when Cybercop, pulled a Cybercop and complained about Tainter’s helmet after his squad destroyed the former’s in the Team Pursuit. Remember that?

My favorite part about F1 racing is the Qualifying that takes place before the actual racing. Since passing is rare the Q session is super important, but there are all types of rules that make it extremely exciting. The best way to describe the system is to apply it to match sprint qualifying at the Velodrome.

• The first qualifying session is 20minutes long. All racers would be allowed on the track whenever they wanted and can start a flying 200m at anytime (remembering that any other rider could be doing the same thing!).
• Riders are allowed to better their times up until the 20min has expired for the first session. Therefore, if Skibby was happy with his time that he threw down in the first 4 min of the session he could leave the track and monitor progress and come onto the track at any point during the 20min if his time slips into the bottom 5.
• The 5 slowest riders (likely to include Frye) would leave the qualfying process and be seeded 16-20.
• The second qualifying session is 15minutes long and would follow the same procedure as the first. All racers would be required to attempt a time and the 5 slowest would be seeded from 11-15.
• The last qualifying session would be 10minutes long and would follow the same procedure, except there is a major catch. The catch is that the racers wouldn’t be allowed to change their gearing after qualifying! This means that you run what you brung (in F1 they don’t let you refuel after the last Q session!).
• The final riders are seeded 1-10 and the racing begins.

I think this type of qualifying for an event would be awesome. I am sure some would complain ($10 if you can name the complainer) and the officials would be completely frazled with all of the racers trying to get their 200m times in (multiple efforts could be going at once), but it would one hell of a site.

Plus, we would be able to see Hans try at least 3 flying 200m attempts in a 1hr time period.

Think about all of the tactics that could be used…do you go out fast in Q1, or do you hold back for a run into Q3?

I think Smithers should make it happen for the Radius series.

It could work.

Get ready.

Buy some of his wine while you are at it.

This means that our humble abode is 100% Toyota this year as Sarah is sticking with Timo for 2009.

Can’t wait for some awesome racing.

The inside of the IKEA by the river is nice.

I don’t know if it saves the outside, but it is definitely worth a visit.

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I am finding it very difficult to justify spending $60+ dollars a week to race. It didn’t cost this much a few years ago when I was making more money. I know I am not the only one that is thinking about this. How much is too much?

The track is $20 this summer.

Road races are seeing increases due to $1 more in USAC surcharge and $3-5 for the use of chip timing. It is starting to add up with flyers already published with $30-35 entry fees. I understand the need for promoters to break even, but I will be racing a lot less this year if the fees keep going up. It isn’t personal, it is just economical.

I ain’t Mr. Moneybags anymore.

Sarah and I are heading to the Guthrie tonight.

This marks the first time I have been into the giant IKEA next to the river.

Good times?

I am not really a fan of the architecture. Perhaps the only thing worse in the Twin Cities is this place:

At what point do you finally just say enough?

About 10 years ago there were record floods in the Red River Valley. Why are individuals surprised every spring when it starts to flood? What I don’t understand is why they a) don’t move, b) build a levee that is 15feet higher than the levels of the “once in a century” flood from 1997. Argh.

I am sure that it isn’t that simple, but seriously.

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If you have a partial RSS feed it will be deleted from my reader within the next week. I hate partial feeds.

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I am finally eating food again. The effects of the Z-Man have subsided.

For the second time in less than 4 months I headed down to Kansas City. Last time was for the Cyclocross National Championships (very marginal) and this time it was for the Wizards vs. Toronto FC MLS Game (very marginal). It was a quick trip and I was joined by Sarah and a group of 12 soccer dorks from the Twin Cities. It was a ton of fun and the game was a real blast.

However, the best part was this:

That, my friends, is the Z-Man. It is from the legendary Oklahoma Joe’s Bar-B-Que. It was only $5.95 and it kept me full for the next two days. It consists of slow roasted Beef-Brisket, Provolone Cheese, and two onion rings on a Kaiser Roll. Quite possibly the best sandwhich I have ever had.

Long live the Z-Man.

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The game was a ton of fun. The nice 70degree weather made it even better. It was kind of sad seeing the top level of US Soccer being played inside a small minor-league baseball stadium, but knowing that the new 18,000 seat stadium will be opening in a year or two makes it all worth it. I can’t say that I am much of a Wizards fan as the name is awfully geeky, but their fans seemed nice (although a tiny bit unoriginal). We had our section a little confused with the idea of Hot Nuts.

In the end it was a fun weekend with good company and a nice weather to boot.

The MLS season starts tonight (Thursday) with the Seattle Sounders FC versus Red Bull New York. (dis) pointed out a few months ago that either way I lose. Well, I believe I am able to move on from the RBNY as my favorite team with the introduction of the Seattle Sounders into the league.

I am pulling for Seattle in this one with RBNY still holding down second in my heart (first in the East) because of Angle and Woly. Yep, that is all that is going on in the sports world. Well, that and the fact that I have picked Siena to go to the Final Four in the NCAAs*.

Seattle #1:

Red Bull New York #2 (thanks to Angel’s awesomeness):

The Final Four Bound Siena Saints (check the creative logo!):

*They only have to beat Ohio State and #1seed Louisville to have a chance for this to happen. Heck, it could happen.

I am getting the Team Leader a gallon of this for his wedding.