A good week

You know, this has been a good week. Much better than last week. The shortness of breath I'd been experiencing for the last few months was originally diagnosed as asthma, but bronchodilators weren't doing much, and a series of tests followed, which pointed to a restriction , rather than an obstruction. That wasn't particularly comforting, as there are lots of restrictive lung diseases, and none of them are good. Last weekend I sat at home and waited for the results of a CT scan, and so things started looking up on Monday when I was told it wasn't anything serious, just a buggered phrenic nerve.

Tuesday got better as I finally found my Swiss Army knife, thought lost to the world in the morass we call an attic. It might only have one red panel instead of two, but the blades still hold an edge, and it would have been a shame to hold on to it for 18 years and then lose it in Kentucky.

Things continued looking up all the way through to the weekend. A tip-off lead me to a local sporting goods store, where they not only had a pair of the black Air Jordans I missed out on in November, they were my size, and reduced by $25! Plus I got to buy a machete, for clearing out the garden. Any day you get to buy a machete has to be a good day.

On the way to buy croissants this morning I decided to take an hour's detour on the way home. It being a lovely day, I'd taken the Miata, and I've not had a spirited drive in that car since leaving San Diego. I did discover some interesting back roads, but I think with 115,000 miles, and Bridgestone tyres that are great in the wet but a little uninspiring in the dry, I think my days of caning that car round narrow country lanes are at an end.

R2D2 postbox

R2D2 postbox
Originally uploaded by Dr JonboyG.

I had heard these were coming, but didn't know when or if they'd make it to Lexington. Well, they did.

In-N-Out

In-N-Out
Originally uploaded by Dr JonboyG.

A long day so far, wandering around San Francisco. It seems no-one opens before 12 pm, so my arriving at SelfEdge at 10 am wasn't the best idea. I ventured off to Recon, (walking from Embarcadero) but they were also closed. I decided to kill time by looking for food, and stumbled across In-N-Out!

Recon's a great spot - they had the One time only Air Max shoes, but (un)luckily for me the grey/green 95s were only in a size 6.5. I nearly broke down and bought the 97s or the DQM Bacon 95s but the 360 sole just didn't quite do it for me.

SelfEdge was also cool, and again, my wallet lucked out as the SelfEdgexIron Hearts aren't out until tomorrow. At $380+tax that's a good thing! I did end up with a regular pair of Iron Hearts,

West coast in the house

Here I am, safe and sound, in Berkeley. After a hellish pair of flights, both of which were around an hour late, I arrived at the Women's Faculty Club at UCB at around 1.30 am last night.

Today I'm off to check out SelfEdge, and maybe Nort/Recon if there's time. Then the NPA annual meeting starts proper.

I don't mind being new places, but the more I do it, the more I grow to hate the travelling in between.

Spring is here

Blossom
Originally uploaded by Dr JonboyG.

You can tell it's spring by the blossom everywhere, and the 2" thick layer of yellow pollen on everything.

The tree pictured here is but one of a multitude of this species, planted all over town. What you can see is how nice it looks. What you can't see is the stench; somewhere between rotting milk and pond slime. God alone knows who's bright idea it was to stick them all over campus, but they should probably be hanging from one...

Yet another site for you to read

In addition to my regular posts at Ars Technica, my irregular updates here, and the occasional post at Auto-Journals, you can read yet more of my ramblings at Slamxhype, "Back off man, I'm a scientist." Expect entries to be more of a cultural bent. Well, my kind of culture, anyway.

The start of a new season

First off, I haven't been writing here as much as I'd hoped recently. February was mostly spent in bed with pneumonia, which was less fun than it sounds. Since then I've been busy catching up with work and writing for Nobel Intent, leaving not that much time for anything else.

After a long and boring winter, the 2007 sporting season has finally kicked off properly, with both the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Australian GP. Sebring was a great race, with a few surprises along the way. As expected, P1 was an Audi walkover, and GT1 the same for the Corvettes.

Audi R10
Corvette C-6R

In P2 however, all four Porsche RS Spyders faltered thanks to a 50p electrical connector, allowing the Andretti-Green Acura to take the top spot. Didn't see that one coming.

Penske Porsche RS Spyder

Dyson Porsche RS Spyder
Andretti-Green Acura Courage
The GT2 battle between the F430 GTs and 997 GT3 RSRs went down to the wire, with Jamie Melo in the Ferrari snatching it from Jörg Bergmeister at the very last corner. Melo put the Porsche in the wall at least twice on that lap, but what else would you expect from a Ferrari?

Flying Lizard Porsche GT3 RSR

Risi Ferrari F430 GT

Immediately following Sebring was the Australian GP, which threw up a few surprises of its own. Taku's superb 10th place in qualifying sadly didn't translate to points, but Lewis Hamilton drove a superb race to 3rd. Sadly Kimi Raikkonen won in his debut for Ferrari, who hadn't turned back into the Italian basketcase of yore. I was hoping that with Schumacher gone, Brawn on sabatical and Rory Byrne off in Thailand the boys in red would revert to their early 90s form, but in Australia at least they still seem to have it.

Takuma Sato celebrating p10 on the grid

Lewis Hamilton
ALMS images courtesy of American Le Mans and F1 images from Autosport.