Everyone who has known me since i joined TMcArthur.net only knew me as a college student hoping some day to graduate with my BSE in mechanical engineering. Well as of May 12, 2011 it was no longer a dream, i finally graduated with my degree with academic honors. My second job interview took place only a few days later. After what i considered a horrible interview i got a call on June 9th offering me the job. As of July 11th I am a product engineer at Honeywell Aerospace.
After all those years of college, all the failures (and there were many), all the successes, and all the hard work i finally can say i made it. I have finally moved on with my life. However with that chapter over a new chapter can begin and i'm looking forward to what this next chapter may hold.
Well, I have to say, car problems suck. Last week i was driving when i started to notice a vibration in the passenger rear. Since i was leaving for Texas the next day, i left it be. On Thursday this week, i took my car over to a friends house to see what it was. It turns out the tire had a huge bubble in the tread and the belts were visible on the outer edges of the tire. There was also a few bubbles on the inner sidewall of the tire. The truth be told, i'm lucky the tire hadn't blown already. Also, before i removed the tire, i noticed one of the lugnuts was missing. Once i got the wheel off, i saw the the stud was broken! Please remember i only bought this thing a few months ago, and there was a cover over it, so this was a nice little surprise.
So the story goes, i took the tire over to discount and when i showed him the tire, the first thing he said was, "lets get the air out of this thing before it blows in the showroom." LOL. of course with only 3 studs left, i knew it would be a better idea to put the wheel on myelf just in case. I know that at those tire shops, the way over toque the studs, and if they broke another, then i was in real trouble.
So i'm in my apartments parking lot baking in 100+ plus heat, in the sun, changing my wheel. sure enough, while taking my spare off, another stud snaps. but it's snaps farther up, there is still hope i can get a nut on there after i clean it up. After an hour of filing and test fiting the nut, success, i can get enough threads that it wont be too horrible dangerous. but because the stud snap inside the nut, the nut is useless. In the end, i have to "barrow" a nut off of another wheel, so i'm down to 2 wheels with 3 nuts on them. Now i need to drive to the autoparts store, buy the repalcement parts and then drive arcoss town to my dads to hopefully fix it.
It's risky, but i'll take the chance, i have no other chioce. Wish me luck.
Well, this Spring semester has been a rough one, heres everything that has happened in the last 16 weeks:
Mid January: School starts back. I'm enrolled in Calc 3, Diff Eq., Micro Econ, and History 102. Of course the 2 importaint classes are Calc 3 and Diff Eq. Also, i'm searching for an apartment. I also win to opening round of our slotcar season. The race is the final one ever to be held at our current house. This ends 19+ years of races at this residence.
End of January: Me and my brother find a place and decide to try living together. The price is right. We sign the paperwork and set Feb. 9th as our move in day.
Early Febuary: The move in day is here. This sets a long weekend of moving using only our small truck and trailer. I also have a slotcar race to attend which i do badly only fiishing 4th. By the end of the weekend, all my stuff is in my new apartment. Good thing is the first test in all my classes are still atleast a week away.
Mid to Late Febuary: My first Diff Eq. test is a disater. I earned a whole 33% on the test. My Calc 3 test is better, but not much only scoring a 67%. On the plus side, my room is all setup, pictures hung, etc...
Early March: I'm still struggling in my math classes, but improving. My Calc 3 testest are all around 70% plus or minus a few points. Also, this marks my first month living away from my parents, even though my dad is paying the bills for now.
Spring Break: This was another spring break where i say i'm gonna catchup in school, but just ended up playing video games. To top it off, i spend the last night before going back to school getting very drunk. Another wasted chance that might haunt me in the end.
April 1st: This might be the worst day of the semester. Its Sunday and there is nothing in the place to drink. So i decide to make a trip upto the Quick Trip. I get down the stairs only to find my car is nowhere to be found. I call the police, but they are useless. I file my reports knowing it's pointless. I endup having to have my brother drive me across town to pick up my Dad's girlfriends old beater so i have some way of getting to school the next day. It has no A/C, but it will have to do.
Mid April: Thing in my Diff Eq. class are improving. My homework gardes are much better. I also get a 70% on my 2nd test. Calc 3 is going the same as before, just barely passing.
Early May: School is coming to an end. My test are improving quite a bit. My last Calc 3 test is a shocker. I get a 97%. My last Diff Eq. test is also a 81.3%. Going into finals, I had a chance to pass all my classes. I have since found out that i did pass my Diff Eq. class. It was a huge comeback. I have also been payed by my inscuace company for my car. it's less than i would have liked, but it's better than nothing.
So ends another semester, one of the hardest for me ever. I know i have forgotten stuff too. Like selling the house i grew up in. but this is long, so time for it to end.
After driving in many R2P races and stewarding many others, I have noticed a steady decline in many driving aspecs. I am not here to name names or anything, and I have no interest in flaming anyone, this is just an observers point of view.
The biggest thing I have noticed is a huge lack of patients when overtaking. This is especially true in the doubleheader series when the fast drivers are placed at the back (either because of an accident in race 1 or the grid inversion). I have seen many instances of blatent ramming and very poor judgement of passing attemps. Most of these can't be explained away as simple mistakes either, as many are repeat offenders. Although these drivers (who are the definite minority here) do get penalties during or after the races, the race is already ruined for the other drivers involved.
I have also noticed many drivers that have no interest in giving an inch on track. I'm not saying to make passing easy, but maybe giving up once the position is lost and focus on your counter attack. Slamming the door once the passing driver is already along side is pointless and foolish as it will only end in your demise.
But as with the negative, there is a huge positive. Those of us that know how to race fair and clean have great fun during the races, and we almost always finish (every once in a while a mistake is made). I have had wonderful battles with many drivers here like Bruce Fisher, Grecian Worship, George Sandman, Tim McArthur, etc... the list goes on. I have to say I have had more fun racing here in the last 4 monthes than in my whole online career. It seems like every week I have the battle tooth and nail with someone, which is what it's all about here.
I think the main problem is everyone is taking this way too seriously and forgeting why we are all here. We are all here to have fun a play together and it's a lot more fun for everyone if we all play nice.
Well thats my rant, i'm very curious about the comments I'll get.
Well, as of this passed Sunday, i have moved from home and now share an apartment with my brother. Of course moving in the middle of the semester really sucks, especially the weekend before a big differental equations test. Any way, it was a very strange feeling spending my last night in the room i had called mine for the last 19.5 years (since i was 4 years old). but i also felt like i was getting out of a rut. everyday our apartment feels a little more like home as we put up our pictures and setup everything.
Of course the move didn't go super smooth, especially when dealing with the cable company (god i hate it too). but thats another blog/rant.
I hope to have some pictures of my place up soon, when i finally get the place all put away.
David "Nissan Man" Banta
I now have GTR2, and all i can say is wow is it FPS hungery. especially with rain driving. i've tired everything to get FPS atleast into the 50's, but when around lots of "stuff" all i get is in the 30's, which sucks. any tips, i'm already running in DX7, with low Rez track textures, shadows and SE's off. i dunnow what else to try :(.
Well, i think my computer problems are fixed. I have been having corruption problems with my old harddrive (at least that seems to have been causing it). So i bought a new Segate 400 GB SATA harddrive for around $140 including tax. I also got a ATI Radon 9800 Pro for free form a friend from another club. I can't believe the huge difference. Now GTL and rFactor look awsome compared to before. and they run better too. I'm so happy :), Let the racing contiune!!!
For anyone who a) knows what a Porsche 956 is and b) misses the Group C glory days, then you have to check out the incar 956 video.
The video, avaible at motorbooks, has Derek Bell personally showing us around many classic tracks in their 1983 configuration from the cockpit of his Porsche 956. These aren't slow laps either, you can tell at many points he really is pushing the car to the limit. The tracks included are The Nurbergring Long Course, Silverstone, Le Mans, Spa, Kyalami, Fuji, and Brand Hatch. This video gives an awsome sense of the insanity of racing these cars on some of these tracks. The only cons of this video are that you can tell the footage is old and you wish there was more footage.
If you love Group C cars and wish you could of had an onboard lap at Le Mans topping out at 246 mph on the Musanne straight, then this video is for you. This truely is an era in racing we will never see again, and it really is sad to know that.
Dammit, i'm pissed!!!
I was surfing the net last night, got in somewhere i shouldn't of been and got a virus. I was a bad one my antivirus couldn't heal. And now I am reinstalling windows as we speak. What a pain in the ass.
UPDATE: I have a new install of windows and i'm getting everything back to normal slowly. I hope to be ready for the race tomorrow.
WIPs were just posted at rcentral, here are some pics:
One of the best years of Cart is finally getting a game, 8 years later. I call Zanardi's car.
