Odd experience today: One of my coworkers walked into my office and said, “Harold, are you keeping your MINI?” Faced with selling his Subaru Impreza wagon to a friend in Virginia, W came in and asked me if I was interested in selling my MINI to him. :-) I told him I was not. Financially, it’d probably be smart if I downshifted to having only one car, but I love both my cars too much.

Now presenting,The Rotunda, a collective work of William Sanford Randall (Bill-san) and Robert Camp.

For all those of you who watched the Halftime show at the Orange Bowl, join me now in saying: TRAIN WRECK. Kelly Clarkson’s mike wasn’t on. Ashlee Simpson was 1/4 second off her backing vocal.

Lots of randomness today: Something irks me about “The Western Whitehouse,” George Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. The man’s the leader of the free world and commander of the most powerful army the world has ever known, but he’s still AN ELECTED OFFICIAL. We the people pay his salary, and he has a nice place to live near that’s in proximity to the rest of the government…the ACTUAL whitehouse. (Pic taken at the aforementioned WWW:) ...

Ahh yes, this is what my GTO looks like in Australia.

Check out this snazzy bluetooth headset Whitney got me for Christmas: Works really well so far…I’m talking to Whitney, and my phone is across the room, plugged into its charger.

Gotta love the internet… Location of every manned spacecraft from the USA

Requiem for a Gladiator: Reggie, Ambassador Father Minister Competitor Man You shall be missed, #92. God be with you.

Images of my Christmas 2004

The GTO’s freshly washed and put away, the MINI’s loaded with winter clothes and shod with Dunlop snow tires, and I’ve padded my midsection with fruitcake. Winter, do your worst!

Geeze, it’s cold out there this morning…7 deg F on the MINI thermometer. Driving the Pup after a weekend in the GTO is a study in contrasts: The clutch effort in a MINI is non-existent, making it a much better friend in dense traffic, and the much-maligned British Midlands 5-speed is like silk compared to the 6-speed Tremec in the GTO. And it’s SO easy to blip the throttle for a perfect heel-and-toe downshift in a MINI. ...

Finally some pics of the New GTO, salt encrusted though it was after my travels this weekend. Went down to Jackson to do some computer work for the library, and to show-off the new car. It was a magnificent ride down, and only a little scary during the snow bursts we saw today on the way back. The car already has over 900 miles on the odometer, and it’s averaging around 20mpg on the highway on 87-octane gas.

:-) Here’s the Vortex Thread that got me to buy the GTO. 3 guys (maybe 4) got GTOs out of the deal, but Gateway, the thread originator, didn’t pull the trigger. Lots of good GTO pics in the thread. :-)

Serenity NOW! >>sigh« Okay, when you’re going on vacation there are certain things you don’t do: -- don’t break the build. This is the prime directive, because if you’re gone, you can’t fix it. -- don’t lock half the libraries in the project just so you know no one (Harold!) can change them on you. This is the “this code is mine damnit” syndrome. I’m hung-out-to-dry today, and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. My parter on this project is out until Monday, and she screwed-up our library system royally. The only workable version of our component is on her system, and I have no way to get to it other than calling her cellphone and asking her for her system password. She didn’t check-it-in to our code library, so I can’t do any of the work assigned to me. ...

Learned something on my way to South Lexington to pick up my office-mate Patrick: Don’t try to ease into the throttle while your shifting the GTO. Clutch-in, shift, and STAY THE FREAK AWAY FROM THE THROTTLE until after you’re in the next gear. I had the poor car (still searching for a nickname…“Goat” is the traditional name for a GTO, and Big Blue is Robin’s car’s name…we’ll see what pans-out) bucking like a bronco in traffic just shifting through 1-2-3. Once I stayed away from the throttle all driveline lash ceased. ...

What can I say? I found a 2004 GTO for a steal this morning at 9:30, and by 12, I had signed the papers, traded-off my Chevy Silverado, and powered down the road in a Kentucky-Blue Pontiac that could take-on anyone. The seats are amazingly comfortable, the 350hp LS2 is both smooth and menacing, and the transmission is chunky and satisfying. The car feels brutish and blunt–it’s all force and no apologies. No wussy cylinder deactivation…if you keep your foot in it, this thing’s good for 158mph and 6mpg ...

Why OH WHY do I read The ‘Tex? I mean, all it does is give me car fever, something fierce… So, here’s the deal…Pontiac brought the GTO back to America for 2004, and priced them right out of the market at $31k. This is roughly the same price as a Chrysler 300C. Pics: GTO: 300C: Anyway, for $32k, I’m buying the Chrysler, no question. …but the plot thickens… After the inital hype died, Pontiac couldn’t give away the GTO. Styling was somewhat bland, and the 6-speed got panned for being vague, but the essentials were there: 350hp V-8 engine, manual tranny, independent rear suspension, and room for 4 people. GM’s stepping up to the plate, adding some “visual excitement” to the styling, and plopping-in the 400hp v-8 from the Z06 corvette ...

I hate our firmware guys I hate our firmware guys I hate our firmware guys I hate our firmware guys I hate our firmware guys I hate our firmware guys I’m not letting this ruin my day or anything (it’s almost over, come hell or high water), but things like this get on my nerves: Firmware and us agreed upon the behavior of our protocol 2 MONTHS AGO, and now it comes-out that both sides misunderstood the requirements. ...

Pics from the MINI Christmas part last night: Pics We arrived 45 mins late to the party with 8 MINIs there, total. Brad and Raecarol Ennis hosted the party in their pretty house in an affluent neighborhood. Most of the partygoers were families, and all the kids loved Brad’s downstairs full of toys. The only bad part of the night is it REALLY has me wanting a MINI Cooper S, especially after hearing that the new ‘Hyper Blue’ color is just like the the old Indi-Blue. Priced-one-out, and it’d be $24k, which would be about $10k over what I could get for my MINI. »Sigh«

Watched The Whole Ten Yards up at Whitney’s on Saturday night. It’s embarrasingly bad, as neither the plot nor characters make any sense. There were maybe two or three funny lines in the whole movie.