idle

A soon to be ex-coworker (he's leaving my firm and therefore not highly productive in his final days anyways) introduced me to one of those websites that is bound to tie up many of your hours during the workday and make you completely unproductive. Click on it at your own risk, I wouldn't want you to get fired because you've been playing video games all day instead of work! http://www.everyvideogame.com

This site has some of my favorite classic NES games such as Tetris, Bionic Commando, and Karateka.

This coming Saturday is a big one for racing -- the season opener for the Formula 1 Championship Series in Australia, and the first major endurance race of the year in American Le Mans Series, the 12 Hours of Sebring. In F1 everyone's excited about the beginning of a new era--one without Michael Schumacher on the racing grid. The battle is on between reigning F1 Champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren Mercedes, and the hopeful successor to Schumacher's throne at Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen.

In ALMS, the focus last year was on the debut of Audi's diesel prototype in LMP1 and the Corvette vs. Aston Martin battle in GT1. But this year the big show looks to be in LMP2, where a multitude of cars will debut at the season opening 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida. Acura and Mazda make their entry into the ALMS with LMP2 entries, and hope to give Porsche's newly updated RS Spyders a run for their money. Porsche returns with its Team Penske RS Spyders but also welcomes new customers Dyson Racing to the fold with RS Spyders of their own. I'm still bummed that Lexus didn't end up fielding their GT2 class IS350 race car in ALMS, but who knows, maybe that will return someday.

motivation

It's that time of the year in Europe for the Geneva Motor show, and there are lots of cool new cars on display this year. Of course I don't have the coin nor the time right now to be jetting off to Geneva to see them in person, but thank goodness we have the Internet and legions of car fans all over the world who can share the love.

Previously I mentioned the unveiling of Lexus's IS-F at the Detroit Motor Show -- well, now here comes the latest iteration of the competition -- well actually the benchmark against which all other performance sport sedans are measured. BMW brought its M3 Concept to the Geneva show and most of the automotive press have pointed out that it pretty much is what we're going to see in dealerships later this year when the M3 goes on sale. The pertinent specs: based on the new 3-Series coupe chassis, 2 doors, 420+ HP V8 motor. Carbon-fiber roof, slightly sportier-looking body styling. The "Powerdome" bulge on the hood is supposed to be a subtle hint that the car is packing some formidable V8 muscle under the hood, but it just comes across as tacky or plain ugly in my book. Otherwise overall I think the M3 is a pretty good looking car, but is it going to be worth the hefty premium over the standard 335i coupe? I don't know. I was just reading that there are some ECU upgrades available from the likes of Vishnu or Alpina that turn up the boost on the 335i to power levels of around 360-380HP, for a lot less dough.

Another cool vehicle rolled out at the Geneva show is the Artega GT, which looks a bit like a cross between a Carrera GT, Lotus Elise, and Ferrari F430 -- all very beautiful cars. Powered by a 300HP V6 motor from VW, the Artega GT will be offered in limited numbers for around $100K.

deflation

I had another lesson last week in the "you gotta pay to play" category ... got a flat on my IS350 while driving into work. The low tire warning light came on just as I pulled into the parking lot. Sure enough, a tire was leaking badly. Just like that, I needed a new rear 255/40-18 tire. Went to the local tire shop, they said that tire is toast, couldn't be repaired. That one tire would set me back $345 and take a week to order. Yowza! I called around and fortunately my Lexus dealer had one in stock, for $296. Woohoo. I could saved some bucks buying it on Tirerack.com, but I can't be driving around on my donut spare tire all week long (what an attractive pale yellow hue the steel wheel has!) so I bit the bullet and got the new tire installed. I guess that's the price we pay for performance.

grind

Well it's been a while since my last entry, and it's my work that's to blame. The biggest case that I'm working on is scheduled to go to trial at the end of April, and the craziness has already begun. I've been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. Pre-trial preparations are a long and painful, and exceedingly tedious and repetitive process. For instance, we are working to create an exhibit list. That means that every single significant document in the case that has ever been identified, discussed, referenced, hinted at, maybe even imagined in someone's mind ("I think I might have seen a memo in the 1980-1990 time frame that mentions X") needs to be located, evaluated, indexed, and the best possible copy of it needs to be obtained. At one point that list topped over 1000 items; thank goodness we have now cut that down to around 400. But believe me, there is plenty more to do. And so we're working late, coming in early, working weekends... that's what I have to look forward to for the next 2-3 months. My whole team has relocated to a common work area on the 3rd floor of my building, which could best be described as an apocalyptic mega-cubicle in an unfinished commercial-industrial workspace. HVAC ducts, network cables, and long rows of fluorescent lights hang from the ceilings and walls unconcealed and unfettered by the niceties of wall coverings or ceiling tiles. Boxes and binders line the partitions and windows of our work area. It's pretty overwhelming and intimidating. Some of my coworkers admit to having work-related nightmares involving massive quantities of documents, numbers, binders.

We do try to keep it pretty relaxed though -- if you're going to practically live at the office you might as well be comfortable. This weekend one of my coworkers brought in a little Chihuahua puppy that she is dogsitting -- his name is Benjamin Franklin. Cute little guy, he wandered around on the table poking his nose into our documents and threatening to pee on our network router.

So, it's going to be long days, late nights for a while. I do still try to get in an hour or two of online deathmatch on the PS3 every so often; it helps me unwind to blast some slimy Chimera butt before I drop into bed...

fervor

One of the first major automotive events of the year is the Detroit Auto Show, which kicks off this week. Many car manufacturers will take this opportunity to unveil new cars, and one of the standouts this year comes from the Lexus booth. The Lexus IS-F is the first in a line of high-performance cars that will form a new marque within the Lexus brand -- designated by the letter "F". This new marque will compete with the likes of Mercedes' AMG, BMW's M Division, and Audi's S line.

The IS-F is based on, you guessed it, the Lexus IS sport sedan. The F treatment includes a 5.0 liter V8 motor pumping out over 400 horsepower, and some aggressive new styling. Time will tell if it will give the current champ of the hi-po sport sedan world, the BMW M3, a run for the money. But you know what, I am a firm believer that competition breeds excellence. You know that BMW and Mercedes can't be slacking off at the design board now that Lexus has entered the game.

Check out these links for more photos and info.

Lexus IS-F

Detroit IS-F launch coverage from Autoblog