fortitude

I woke up early this morning, leaping out of bed and making my way down to the TV. Not only is it the first day of my 2-week vacation, but it is also arguably the most significant weekend of the year for any true hard-core auto racing enthusiast -- the weekend in which the 24 hours of Le Mans is held. This year marks the 74th running of this legendary 24 hour long endurance race. Some of the world's most prestigious manufacturers and some of the greatest drivers of our time converge on the small town of Le Mans, France and prepare for the ultimate test of endurance, speed and reliability through the grueling day and night race around a 13.650 km (8.5 mile) circuit. Cars routinely push the limit of their performance around the track, hitting top speeds of over 200mph as they roar down the Mulsanne straight. It's about going fast, yes, but it's also about making sure your car is still running and able to cross the finish line 24 hours later.

To prepare myself for the grand spectacle, last night I popped in my DVD of the great Steve McQueen film classic, Le Mans. To this day it remains one of the greatest and most authentic films ever made about auto racing, and it is only fitting to kick off what is essentially an automotive holiday with a screening of this film.

So who will win the 24 Hours of Le Mans? It would be foolish for me to try and predict what might happen by the end of the race. But I'll say that I do have some favorite teams that I will be watching and rooting for.

In LMP1 class the dominant team for the past 6 years or so has been Audi. Their R8 race car has won nearly every year that they have participated in this event. But this year, they introduced an all new car -- the V12 turbodiesel R10. In testing and its ALMS debut race the car has shown impressive performance, outstanding fuel economy, and blistering speed. But they've also had problems with the transmission, causing one of them to drop out in the ALMS race. Will they be able to keep it together and once again fend off the attacks of the local favorite, the prototype cars of Frenchman Henri Pescarolo?

In the GT1 class, it will be an epic battle between 2 legendary manufacturers with storied histories in the Le Mans race. For the past few years the yellow Corvette Racing team cars have been the unbeatable champions. But this year the green Aston Martin DB9Rs are mounting a serious challenge and could end the Corvettes' streak -- can they pull off an upset and take the checkered flag first?

Who knows -- but I will be glued to the TV for most of the day to watch and find out!

chemical

It's hard to believe but I have not taken any vacation yet this year... and I will rack up a mind-boggling 49 days of vacation by the end of this year due to unused days rolled over from last year. That means I could take a week off every month from now until December and still have leftover days. It would be great, if my work permitted it. I'm usually too busy to take off that much time. But hey they give it to me for a reason, so I'm going to take some of it for sure. I'll be taking 2 weeks off at the end of this month (June). V. doesn't want to take enough time off to travel anywhere until later in the fall, so I may just plan little day trips here and there around the Bay Area. I could also do a few long endurance races on my PS2 with Gran Turismo 4, or play all of my Grand Theft Auto games back-to-back.


It's not all fun and games though. Since I finally have the time to do it I am going to finish the periodontal surgery that I started last year. Last year I had one side of my mouth done and it was probably the worst pain I've ever experienced. I had to chew food only on one side of my mouth for months while it healed. Now it's time to do the other side. I've got prescriptions for hydrocodone, the generic form of Vicodin, but last time it didn't kill all the pain. I think I learned my lesson and I'll be taking those pills early and regularly this time. I told my coworkers I'm going to call them and leave funny messages while I'm flying high as a kite.

Speaking of high, check out one of my favorite music videos of all time, from the Chemical Brothers -- the song is "Get Yourself High". The song was so catchy, I found myself singing it for days... and the video is pure brilliance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIoMUne4t9Y

oneupmanship

And just when I thought the 11-pound burger at Denny's Beer Barrel was plenty big enough, another burger comes along to take the crown as world's largest burger. The $250 burger from a Fuddruckers in Connecticut weighs 29.5 pounds and starts off with 33-pounds of beef before cooking. Holy moly, that's big. Why can't we find a place like that here in California? Ok, $250 for a burger is a little much but c'mon, you know you want a picture of yourself putting your arms around that thing.

http://www.slashfood.com/2006/06/03/record-breaking-burger/

prime

Hey, it's Friday so you get 2-for-1 action today on the blog!
Just caught wind of a live-action Transformers movie that will be out in Summer 2007. Director Michael Bay (The Rock, Armageddon) will team up with DreamWorks and executive producer Steven Spielberg. That should be awesome. I was a big fan of the Transformers when I was a kid, and watched the cartoon series on TV every day. In fact I think I am going to add the 1986 Transformers: The Movie to my Blockbuster queue. The improvements in computer generated animation and special effects in the past few years are amazing and this kind of movie would not have been possible 5 or 10 years ago.

For a taste of what the movie might look like (only less violent and a little bit more of a metrosexual tone), check out this Citroen C4 ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4ckJFNkra8&search=citroen%20C4

The film's official site (too early to see much there): http://www.transformerslive.com/

Coming out in the next few weeks are two other auto-related films -- The Pixar animation film Cars, and Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. I'm excited about Cars, but I'm not so sure how I feel about Tokyo Drift. I'll probably end up going to see both, but I feel a lot more confident that Cars will do well in the box office. Tokyo Drift will be exciting to watch I'm sure but I have a feeling bad acting and poor scripting will be weighing that one down. One upside though, "Snowman" Paul Walker won't be in this third installment of the series... we need a new white boy to teach the Japanese how to race and drift! Yeah, right.

gluttony

Well it's been an incredibly bad week for diet and exercise if you ask me ... especially coming off of the Memorial Day weekend. Over the past 3-day weekend and this week, I've had it all ... lobster and crab, 7 courses of beef, BBQ ribs, sushi rolls, a burger, fajitas, fried rice. Tofu, rice cakes and bean curd were definitely not high on the list. And to top it all off, the gym at work has been closed due to some mysterious plumbing problem every time I am about to go work out. So in my current fit of gastrointestinal debauchery, I am surfing the net for more ways to indulge my palate...













Loyal readers will probably recall the photo from "purpose", the man eating the ginormous cheeseburger. Well apparently these cheeseburgers are served at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Pennsylvania. (Memo to self, check airfare prices to Pennsylvania.) Their claim to fame is the world's largest burger, with a 6-pound beef patty and a total weight of over 11 pounds. It's called Ye olde 96er, for the 96 ounces of beef. One can be yours for $23.95. http://www.dennysbeerbarrelpub.com/

The brave man wearing the helmet was none other than Eric "Badlands" Booker, one of the best competitive eaters in the U.S. He took up the Denny's Beer Barrel Pub challenge to try and finish the burger within the 3-hour time limit. In the end, he failed -- he finished it, but it took him 7 hours.

Was the 6-pound burger unconquerable then? Apparently not. In January 2005, a 100-pound woman became the first person to win the Denny's Beer Barrel Pub challenge when 19-year-old Kate Stelnick of Princeton, New Jersey, downed the "96er" in 2 hours and 54 minutes, just shy of the 3-hour time limit. For her trouble, Ms. Stelnick got a special certificate, a T-shirt, and other prizes, as well as having her tab for the $23.95 burger picked up by the house. http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/bigburger.asp

A website honoring Ms. Stelnick's achievement here: http://www.katestelnick.com/

Need some dessert after that? May I recommend some cool icecream that goes down easy... with a kick. Check out Hotscream, the spicy icecream.
http://www.preferredadgroup.com/3.html