Saturday, November 30, 2013
I had a great Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving here in the United States was Thursday, the 28th. I ate a lot of food which I helped prepare. We ate a turkey with honey teriyaki marinade. It was very delicious. My mom's boyfriend fried it in peanut oil so it smelled like french fries from the burger joint Five Guys. I had a couple of my friends over. It was my first Thanksgiving without one of my triplet brothers, who's attending a computer college in Utah right now. I think he just ate some ramen noodles on Thursday because my dad told me that he said he ate ramen literally every day. I think the only think I'm really thankful for is that I'm in college now. I was really getting tired of high school at the beginning of this calendar year. Now we're going into December and we get to celebrate Christmas.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Called into work this morning
Today (Saturday) I was going to stay at my house all day and be lazy. But at about 6:45 this morning my mom woke me up and said somebody called out of the grocery store where I work as a porter, and they wanted to know if I could fill in for them. I didn't want to, of course. But then my mom said I would get paid extra money for this unscheduled shift. I'm always wanting money to buy things so then I said yes, I would go to work this morning. It was a six-hour shift from 8 to 2. I kind of prefer working in the morning over my usual shift, 12 to 5. It still felt like a normal day at work and no one mentioned that I wasn't scheduled to be there today. So the bottom line: I hated going into work on such short notice, but at least I made some extra money from it!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
My reflections on the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season
Last year, I talked about my thoughts at the end of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season. I decided to do another reflection this year now that the season has officially ended.
The Daytona 500 opened the season on February 24. Jimmie Johnson won the race for the second time in his career, the first being 2006. Johnson then held the points lead for the entire regular season and went on to win five more races, including the July race at Daytona. This made him the first driver to sweep Daytona in a season since Bobby Allison did it in 1982.
When the Chase for the Sprint Cup started in September at Chicagoland (in a race delayed several hours by rain), Matt Kenseth won and took the points lead. Kenseth won seven races in 2013, more than any driver. His first win came on March 10 at Las Vegas on his birthday.
In the end, it was Jimmie Johnson who picked up his sixth Sprint Cup title in the season finale at Homestead on Sunday. Johnson has now won six titles in eight seasons, the first five of which came consecutively between 2006 and 2010. The race was won by Denny Hamlin, who ended his season on a high note after having several struggles, including a hard crash on the final lap at California on March 24. It was Hamlin's first win of the season (and therefore his only win of the season due to it being the last race of the year). This marks the eighth straight season that Hamlin has won at least one Cup race. Matt Kenseth finished second in both the race and the championship on Sunday.
Sunday's race was a bit painful for me to watch because it marked several "lasts", as the season finale every year does. It was Kevin Harvick's last race with Richard Childress Racing in their #29 car, which he had driven since his first Cup season in 2001. The #29 car used to be the #3 car driven by Dale Earnhardt. After Earnhardt died in a crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, Richard Childress tapped Harvick to replace him, and also changed the car's number from 3 to 29. Harvick's teammate, Jeff Burton in the #31 car, also made his last start with RCR on Sunday. Harvick will move to the new #4 car owned by Tony Stewart, and Richard Childress' grandson Austin Dillon will replace Harvick. There are rumors that the #29 car will also be changed back to the #3 car. Burton is without a full-time ride for 2014, but it has been confirmed that Ryan Newman is leaving Stewart-Haas Racing to replace him in the #31 car. In addition, Ken Schrader made his last Sprint Cup start ever on Sunday, while Mark Martin has said it was likely his last race ever as well.
The season was also marked by injuries and two indirect deaths, as well as a race-fixing scandal. Denny Hamlin's California crash was mentioned above. In August, during a sprint car dirt track race, Tony Stewart suffered a broken leg in a violent flip and was forced to miss the rest of the season. Stewart had competed in every Sprint Cup race run since his very first race in the series, the 1999 Daytona 500. He was replaced in his #14 car by Max Papis (at Watkins Glen only), Austin Dillon and Mark Martin during the rest of the season. On May 16, former driver Dick Trickle committed suicide at a cemetery in North Carolina, and on June 12, Jason Leffler was killed in a sprint car crash in New Jersey. In September, at the final race of the regular season at Richmond, Michael Waltrip Racing was accused of getting Clint Bowyer to spin out on purpose so Martin Truex Jr. could get into the Chase. This led to NAPA Auto Parts leaving Truex's #56 car effective at season's end. NAPA had been affiliated with Michael Waltrip since 2001, when he joined Dale Earnhardt Inc. as the driver of their #15 car.
My favorite races this year were the rain-delayed Aaron's 499 at Talladega on May 6 won by David Ragan, the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma on June 23 won by Martin Truex Jr. (his first win since 2007), the Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire on July 15 won by Brian Vickers (the first win for Michael Waltrip Racing's #55 car) and the second Talladega race last month won by Jamie McMurray.
A couple other driver changes for 2014: Kyle Larson will drive Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's #42 car as Juan Pablo Montoya's replacement as Montoya goes back to IndyCar, Kurt Busch will drive a new fourth car with Stewart-Haas Racing, and Martin Truex Jr. will replace Kurt Busch in the #78 at Furniture Row Racing after being ousted from Michael Waltrip Racing due to the Richmond schedule. Kurt Busch will now have been in five different cars in each season since 2010, his last year in Penske Racing's #2.
So there you have it. Those are my words at the end of the 2013 Sprint Cup season. I hope 2014 will be another great year.
The Daytona 500 opened the season on February 24. Jimmie Johnson won the race for the second time in his career, the first being 2006. Johnson then held the points lead for the entire regular season and went on to win five more races, including the July race at Daytona. This made him the first driver to sweep Daytona in a season since Bobby Allison did it in 1982.
When the Chase for the Sprint Cup started in September at Chicagoland (in a race delayed several hours by rain), Matt Kenseth won and took the points lead. Kenseth won seven races in 2013, more than any driver. His first win came on March 10 at Las Vegas on his birthday.
In the end, it was Jimmie Johnson who picked up his sixth Sprint Cup title in the season finale at Homestead on Sunday. Johnson has now won six titles in eight seasons, the first five of which came consecutively between 2006 and 2010. The race was won by Denny Hamlin, who ended his season on a high note after having several struggles, including a hard crash on the final lap at California on March 24. It was Hamlin's first win of the season (and therefore his only win of the season due to it being the last race of the year). This marks the eighth straight season that Hamlin has won at least one Cup race. Matt Kenseth finished second in both the race and the championship on Sunday.
Sunday's race was a bit painful for me to watch because it marked several "lasts", as the season finale every year does. It was Kevin Harvick's last race with Richard Childress Racing in their #29 car, which he had driven since his first Cup season in 2001. The #29 car used to be the #3 car driven by Dale Earnhardt. After Earnhardt died in a crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, Richard Childress tapped Harvick to replace him, and also changed the car's number from 3 to 29. Harvick's teammate, Jeff Burton in the #31 car, also made his last start with RCR on Sunday. Harvick will move to the new #4 car owned by Tony Stewart, and Richard Childress' grandson Austin Dillon will replace Harvick. There are rumors that the #29 car will also be changed back to the #3 car. Burton is without a full-time ride for 2014, but it has been confirmed that Ryan Newman is leaving Stewart-Haas Racing to replace him in the #31 car. In addition, Ken Schrader made his last Sprint Cup start ever on Sunday, while Mark Martin has said it was likely his last race ever as well.
The season was also marked by injuries and two indirect deaths, as well as a race-fixing scandal. Denny Hamlin's California crash was mentioned above. In August, during a sprint car dirt track race, Tony Stewart suffered a broken leg in a violent flip and was forced to miss the rest of the season. Stewart had competed in every Sprint Cup race run since his very first race in the series, the 1999 Daytona 500. He was replaced in his #14 car by Max Papis (at Watkins Glen only), Austin Dillon and Mark Martin during the rest of the season. On May 16, former driver Dick Trickle committed suicide at a cemetery in North Carolina, and on June 12, Jason Leffler was killed in a sprint car crash in New Jersey. In September, at the final race of the regular season at Richmond, Michael Waltrip Racing was accused of getting Clint Bowyer to spin out on purpose so Martin Truex Jr. could get into the Chase. This led to NAPA Auto Parts leaving Truex's #56 car effective at season's end. NAPA had been affiliated with Michael Waltrip since 2001, when he joined Dale Earnhardt Inc. as the driver of their #15 car.
My favorite races this year were the rain-delayed Aaron's 499 at Talladega on May 6 won by David Ragan, the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma on June 23 won by Martin Truex Jr. (his first win since 2007), the Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire on July 15 won by Brian Vickers (the first win for Michael Waltrip Racing's #55 car) and the second Talladega race last month won by Jamie McMurray.
A couple other driver changes for 2014: Kyle Larson will drive Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's #42 car as Juan Pablo Montoya's replacement as Montoya goes back to IndyCar, Kurt Busch will drive a new fourth car with Stewart-Haas Racing, and Martin Truex Jr. will replace Kurt Busch in the #78 at Furniture Row Racing after being ousted from Michael Waltrip Racing due to the Richmond schedule. Kurt Busch will now have been in five different cars in each season since 2010, his last year in Penske Racing's #2.
So there you have it. Those are my words at the end of the 2013 Sprint Cup season. I hope 2014 will be another great year.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
I'm having a nice November so far
November is almost half over and it's been my most productive month since the summer. I'm starting to get back into some things that I sort of just totally forgot about and stopped doing. I've also been more active on YouTube. Also, I'm getting a lot of my energy and motivation back. I definitely had a low period in my life from about late August to late October. But my November has been really good so far and it's about time I had this kind of phase again.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
One extra hour of sleep tonight
Daylight saving time ends at 2:00 this morning (at least in the U.S. Eastern Time Zone). That means I get to sleep for one extra hour tonight, which means I'll be more well-rested that usual for work (at a grocery store 15 minutes away). It also means that tomorrow, November 3, will technically be 25 hours long instead of just 24. I think I like "falling back" a lot more than "springing forward" when it comes to changing clocks.
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