More Racetracks from Space

Tim linked to this article in Wired that features satellite photos of famous race tracks from space. It had no Darlington. WTF? So, just for the hell of it are a few the race tracks I have visited.

Darlington. Notice in the bottom left corner you can see the legendary fishing pond which lead to the track having its distinct egg shape. It's also the only track I have seen my favorite driver, Mark Martin, win a race.



Rockingham Speedway, the track NASCAR allowed to die by staging February races and doing nothing to develop that area. Going to a race here was the last thing my Step Dad and I did together before his heart attack.



Lancaster Speedway in Lancaster, SC. Just about a half an hour from my front door is this awesome half mile dirt track. It's been a couple of years since I have been there and I hope to rectify that this summer.


Charlotte Motor Speedway. I've seem more race action here than anywhere else. It's an incredible race track with 40 plus years of history. It's big and fast and challenging and it's also the only place I have witnessed another's death. Twice.


This is the notorious "S" curve outside of Maple City, MI that is on the route to Glen Lake High School for those students that lived in the Maple City and Cedar areas. The game was to see how fast you could go through the turns. More than one kid has put his car in a ditch here. You truly have not lived until you've ridden a bus driven by one of those old Polack bus drivers that used to take these two turns like they were on the last lap of an F1 race.


Martinsville. This classic old short track is near the Virginia/North Carolina border. I went there for the first time this last October. It was cold but the racing was superb.

Concrete Ship Deteriorates, World Watches

The other day science fiction writer Michael Swanwick posted a picture on his blog of the concrete ship called the Atlantus that ran aground off the shore of New Jersey while being towed back in 1926. I got interested and did some searching a found a few pictures on Flickr which I posted below and a nice history of ship can be seen here. Like my Dad says, you learn something new everyday.

Motel Glory

Last night Mel and I ventured down to Rock Hill, SC to visit a great little dump called the Money on Cherry Rd. Two bands were playing that I wanted to see, George Terry and the Zealots and my coworker Greg's band, Motel Glory. Both were great. George comes into the library a lot and we've played Greg's CD a few times so this was a good chance for us. It was fun. The Money has some personality and George and Greg have both written some pretty great songs and Motel Glory has a lot of energy and they are really tight. They also are not afraid let loose and have some fun onstage which is fun for the audience. Below is a video of the song Pull the Pin by Motel Glory.

Old Timey Photographs

There is a Japanese website called Old Timey Photo Labs that will take a photograph you upload or provide a link for and transform it so it looks like it was taken in 1910. Examples of a few of mine are below.

Sunset over Southpark

Sunset over Southpark
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

Pretty standard sunset shot but I like it.

The Big Rock in the Sky

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Originally uploaded by zzazazz

During the solstice we were at Target and the moon was especially pretty.

Holy Crap

Horse faced man in Scotland seen in Google Street View! Would a horse faced man be an alien from outer space or would he be Satan? Discuss!

The view I had earlier has been deleted but I found another angle to use because I am cool like that.


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Endorsed by Hello Henry

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Originally uploaded by zzazazz

That's just how good Zack's Hamburgers is.

Hello and Goodbye

I see the meeting between the president and General McChrystal lasted all of thirty minutes. That's a good sign. I hope when they sat down to talk the first thing President Obama said was, "You're fired and here's why." He then listed the reasons why and then the general apologized and then headed off into retirement.

Frederik Pohl Remembers Arthur C. Clarke

"Arthur wasn’t a religious man in any usual sense — in the instructions he left for his own funeral, he was emphatic that there be no religious aspects to the services. He thought — as is described in The Last Theorem — that the most valuable function of a church was to provide a Sunday school for you to send your children to, on the principle that exposing them to religion in childhood, like inoculating them against polio, would prevent serious religiosity later on."

I tell you what, it worked for me.

Dustin Johnson
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

I didn't realize until I looked at my Flickr stats for today that I photographed the recently infamous Dustin Johnson at the Quail Hollow Pro-Am this spring. All I can tell you about him that day is that he knocked the holy hell out of the ball right here. Whammo!

Steve Poltz is an old...

I had never heard of Steve Poltz until today but he must be cool if Mojo Nixon sings at his birthday party. Audio not safe for work or kids or mature people.

Wow, Did she really say that?

Karen Harrington is running for congress in Florida. When asked about Congressman Etheridge's recent scuffle with the two punks who ambushed him on the street she compared Etheridge's response to the behavior of Stalin's government. That's insane. Her response is more crazy than Etheridge's was inappropriate. Video below.



I am very annoyed at the fake outrage by the people on the right over Etheridge's embarrassing video. I agree with Mark Washburn's recent Charlotte Observer column. Etheridge did make a mistake when he apologized. These two kids didn't identify themselves. They were obviously looking to create an embarrassing video with their loaded question about the "Obama agenda." He owed them nothing. As a public figure he should have been more on his toes here but this is hardly the scandal the right would like it to be.

Oh, Jesus!, Oh Jesus! Oh, Jesus! etc

Youtube has introduced simple online video editing. I played with it a little this morning and it's pretty handy.

We make it your way

Last weekend Melanie and I traveled to Winston Salem for nephew's high school graduation. The ceremony was nice although I don't know how the choir rated singing two songs. What made them so special? What I don't understand is why schools even bother asking those in attendance to hold their applause to the end because people cheer for almost every kid that walks across the stage. If they're serious about it they should start tazing and removing from the event those that do cheer before the end.

Back at the Clark's house they had a cookout and I love how they did it. Instead of grilling a piece of meat to each guest's specifications they set out some halibut and fixings and allowed you to dress your fish however you wanted. John, father of the graduate, then tossed the 12 tin foil wrapped entrees on the grill for twenty minutes and then we sat down to eat. Every person's dinner was unique and they were all tasty. Mine featured water chestnuts and green pepper. The graduate's uncle, seen below, decided to create his own version of the Food Network show Man vs. Food. He won.



A panorama of the ceremony

Not a Bad Idea

Joe Haldeman on one way to to become a writer.

Red Sky at Sunset

Awesome red sky last night after some storms blew through right before the sun set.

Baby Birds is Ugly

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Originally uploaded by zzazazz

Real ugly. Super ugly.

What the?

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Originally uploaded by zzazazz

There is a new condo project on Sharon Rd called Ashley Park. Not only did they install a new signal light that adds a good thirty seconds to my commute but they just recently installed something every new condominium project needs, an obelisk. Jesus, it's ugly.

Izzy Stradlin'

My most viewed picture on Flickr, with 2,149 views, is this picture I took of Izzy Stradlin' at a now defunct rock club in Charlotte called Rocky's. Rocky's was a good place to see band. I saw a few good shows there. Molly Hatchet and Blue Oyster Cult stand out as especially good shows and Ice T with Body Count was a doozy. This Izzy Stradlin' show is by far the best show I saw at Rocky's. I saw a sign at the front of the club that said photography was not allowed but I snuck my camera in by holding it tight to my side. I was only able to snap a few pictures before a bouncer told me "no pictures." The pictures all came out real grainy because I couldn't use a flash. At least he let me keep the film.

Kasey Kahen gets up in the air

Kasey Kahen gets up in the air
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

Since Pocono is such a big track you can forget how fast they are going until this happens.

Mel on the Train

I've always liked this picture. I think we were on our way to the library staff day.

Some Flickr Finds

Today's theme is Pictures of Charlotte's Skyline

































The view from Crowders Mountain, about an hour's drive west of Charlotte.