I hadn't watched NASCAR in a very long time but caught the last, umm, 40 laps or so last night. Three large wrecks, some big lead changes, cars zipping by at just under 200 mph... it sure is a spectacle.

Yes but still I can understand why fans like myself tend to get frowned upon. It's not the most sophisticated group in the world and after all, we're watching 43 people make left turns for three hours, this isn't the apex of human endeavor. :P

It's not, but neither is playing video games.

People can make fun of it, but watching a car get squirrely at ~190MPH simply by the changing airflow from being in close proximity to other cars at that speed, and then seeing the results of that squirming car... the sport takes some serious balls that the armchair critics will never possess.

I'd find it more interesting than watching golf or tennis (even with the attractive ladies grunting) on TV, but I have no interest in watching NASCAR. I have no problems with people that like to watch it.
I love the engine noise of NASCAR race cars, I dislike the grand prix's high-pitched engine noise whine, but I hate the oval track of NASCAR. Combine NASCAR race cars and the Grand Prix track would be awesome, and I would most likely watch.

Definitely more fun for me. When we lived near Road Atlanta (15 minute drive) we would attend the historic events. One feature was retired NASCAR race cars, awesome to watch with those beasts thundering out of the corners. Wish we had better media access to the Touring Car series' throughout the world.

If you do like watching road racing you might want to see if VIR hosts any vintage events - you get a huge variety of cars to ogle, and these events usually encourage people to bring out the cars that have been hidden in their garages. Heaven for car dorks.

This was my biggest - almost only - regret of moving from Atlanta: we're now much farther away (two hours) from a world-class road racing venue.

Not sure if I used the right term, I probably meant Formula One with the snaking track that they have to navigate. I just find that more fascinating, but I really hate that high-pitched whine of the F1 cars.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Take a look here: http://virnow.com/track/configurations/

The good twisty stuff but with a wide variety of cars.

Stupid dreams about work <grumble grumble>...

Happens whenever I get a short-notice call from the OEM who used to employ me, to make a visit to a customer and fix a machine. The night before I leave I get these really weird dreams that always have something to do with working with them. Last night in the dream I was driving around in the middle of nowhere, totally unrelated to work, and got lost. I backtracked just a short distance and found myself at the office. Huh? Went in and got a hero's welcome from everyone there (we got along well), and was told that I would be taking one of their new guys with me on the job for the next few days. Oh, and I bumped into a friend and his wife from twenty years back and she starts getting a bit "friendly" with me in the break room, in front of her husband and a couple other people. "Yeah, hey, great to see you. Gotta go."

Er, what?

The dream the time before that was a trade show situation. Popped in a day before the show was to start and I'm put in charge of getting all the machinery up, running, and made pretty in time for the show. Nobody was cooperating, instead socializing with everyone else from the industry who were also in town for the show.

The crappy part is that I'm then tossing and turning the rest of the night, which isn't great when you have a couple hours or more of drive time ahead of you. Usually ends with me giving up on sleep and getting an earlier start than anticipated, and not having enough sleep for the drive.

Fortunately, today's drive is just two hours - to a place I haven't been before, so that will keep me up. At least it ought to be an interesting day since they make fun products (US and Canada folks have heard of them, for certain) and it's pretty cool to get a tour to see how they are built.

I hate it when the compiler is right.
You know this. You write a nice little source and that piece of shit keeps complaining about everything. So you check everything and everything seems to be fine. GOD DAMN IT JUST COMPILE THE FUCKING CODE YOU USELESS TROLL.
And then hours late you find that tiny mistake. I fucking hate it when the compiler is right. Unfortunately it's basicly alway right... fuck you.

No dreams this time, but still woke up at 3:15 with less than 6 hours sleep. Laid in bed for half an hour, sleep wasn't happening, so now I'm up. Another 3-hour drive this morning to work on a machine model that was a real piece o' crap right out-of-the-box.

Often poor results occur when a premium brand tries to make in-roads to the entry-level market. So-so design, utter crap for software, and built in a place where the labor pool quality varies with the weather. It was always a 50-50 lottery on whether the one-week installation would finish on time, or if you'd be there for another one or two weeks fixing problems.

At work, bored to death. I am seated with two women but while the left one is friendly and one on the right doesn't seem to talk at all. When I am out, I have no trouble talking to completely 'random' women but in a social setup it gets awkward and I just go into a shell. Don't want to get intimately familiar with anyone here.....I have become a social recluse.

I'm the exact opposite. At work I can talk to anyone, but out in public I am a social recluse/outcast. I've always believed in the saying, don't dip your pen in company ink. It's just bad for the work environment to date in house (not the dating part, but the inevitable break-up part). However, you spend half your waking life working, and it's easy to get to know people at work, unlike out in the Wild West of the public world.

My university has a convention called Freecon every year. One of the features is a maid cafe, and I was planning on volunteering at it doing a maid crossplay. I told my mother my plans over the phone today, and I was forbidden from doing it because it "sounds gay" and "I shouldn't waste my money on foolishness."

I too follow the platinum rule and avoid hooking up with women at the work place. The girl on the left has been asking me loads of questions (perhaps out of boredom) and the one on the right imagines that I am an arrogant, stuck up snob. I am friendly but I don't go out of my way to talk to people at work.

People have over the years perceived me as being cold, aloof and arrogant. Strangely enough, such behavior makes more women come and talk to me...

Damned things!!! Why can't things be the way I magically want them! Back in the day, things used to do what they're supposed to. And they liked it that way!

Sorry, just feeling like a grumpy old man after spending hours on the long thread about regional pricing.