And it is the 8th consecutive weekend that I shall be out of Akron.....this time I'm off to NJ/NYC (again)...to meet up with the cousin and his wife and some friends I have not seen in a while...

Thankfully the last weekned and this one were not road trips ( I love driving but 6 weeknds in a row and it gets tiring)....otherwise it has been all driving and Kiddo has proven to be a great companion....hopefullly she should be done with her 20K mile servicing and ready to make another road trip the 31st Dec. weekend.....damn I love this car...

if i dont end up posting before the new year....the goodluck and godspeed....may the force be with you...and remember...the answer is always 42

Winding Road is this free online auto magazine......

The latest issue has a story about the Bugatti Veyron, which is the new supercar (Pg. 28) and then there is a satirical piece (Pg. 15) on the anti-supercar and the author has decided to call that car - The Karthikeyan... and he says the chief engineer will be Eddie Jordan..:).....I just find that very funny

Anyways small excerpts from both articles...

The Bugatti Veyron...

Take the Veyron's official top speed of 253 mph. The Veyron is actually capable of pushing on past 257 mph, with each further 1 mph beyond 248 mph requiring an additional 8 hp to overcome air resistance. At maximum speed, the 8-liter W-16 engine is consuming fuel at a rate of 2.3 mpg, meaning the 22-gallon tank would run dry after just 12 minutes (or 51 miles) of flat-out motoring............According to Bugatti, 0-60 mph takes under 2.5 seconds,0-125 mph 7.3 seconds, 0-186 mph 16.7 seconds and 0-250 mph 55.6. To put it in perspective, if a fully wound-up McLaren F1 went past a poised, stationary Veyron at 100 mph and the Veyron driver gave it the gun as the F1 passed, the Bugatti would still reach 200 mph just before the McLaren did. Head spinning, I retired to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

The article on The Karthikeyan

And just as the Veyron was named after a racing driver, so should we name the anti-supercar. Now, pipe down in the back:Despite the obvious parallels with this wheezing, underachieving snail of a car, we will not be calling the antisupercar “Little E.” After all, it will be an endearing, characterful car with go-kart handling, not a self absorbed prima donna who reeks of Old Spice. The namesake driver should be slow, but charmingly so. Karthikeyan it is then – but what’s in name?

Ohhhhh and BTW...... their cover article is on the Corvette ZO6...*grin*

Attended my second and last show last night from the U2 Vertigo tour at The Q in Cleveland........the set list was slightly different from the one that was played at The Palace in Detroit...

got to listen to Yahweh and 40......and Mysterious Ways which is one of those songs which may not be one of their most popular but is one i really like along with Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses(which the played the concert in Detroit) ....From the new album there was Original of The Species along with Vertigo, Love and Peace or Else, City of Blinding Lights and Yahweh........and I was thrilled to hear Bono sing Norwegian Wood right after Original of the Species......Norwegian Wood is one of my all time favorite Beatles' song.......The encore had another John Lenon song which is Instant Karma....during the encore when they were playing Until the end of the World, Bono was running behing The Edge around the elipse and all this while the song is on and The Edge still has his guitar on and is srtumming the music.....that was a great sight too.....all in all..paisa vasool......and the brother and his wife enjoyed it a lot too......

now I prepare myself for Queen + Paul Rodgers in Cleveland on March 21st...*grin*

The Setlist....

Main Set:
City of Blinding Lights,
Vertigo - She Loves You,
Elevation,
Gloria,
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - In a Little While,
Beautiful Day,
Original of the Species - Norwegian Wood,
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own,
Love and Peace or Else,
Sunday Bloody Sunday - Rock the Casbah,
Bullet the Blue Sky,
Miss Sarajevo,
Pride,
Where the Streets Have No Name,
One - Help

Encore(s):
Until the End of the World,
Mysterious Ways,
With or Without You,
Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of,
Instant Karma,
Yahweh,
40......

I'm not 30 yet......haven't gotten to a stage where I think I am facing any sort of crisis...... and so when I got down to watching High Fidelity ( had read the basic premise) last night, I wasn't expecting too much that I could associate with....was I wrong or what!!!!

One of the refreshing movies I have seen of late....I think the last one was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind....





John Cusack is great as Rob Gordon, the 30 something guy who once again finds out that the woman he is dating is walking out on him...he then makes a list of his top 5 breakups and tries to understand why things happen to him the way they happen in these 5 relationships which inlcude his current one......an excellent soundtrack, which made the music much more enjoyable for me.....this one is a MUST WATCH

some memorable quotes...

THIS IS HOW THE MOVIE STARTS

Rob: What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

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AND SOME MORE........

Laura: Listen, Rob, would you have sex with me? Because I want to feel something else than this. It either that, or I go home and put my hand in the fire. Unless you want to stub cigarettes out on my arm.
Rob: No. I only have a few left, I've been saving them for later.
Laura: Right. It'll have to be sex, then.
Rob: Right. Right.

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Rob: It would be nice to think that since I was 14, times have changed. Relationships have become more sophisticated. Females less cruel. Skins thicker. Instincts more developed. But there seems to be an element of that afternoon in everything that's happened to me since. All my romantic stories are a scrambled version of that first one.

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Rob: Sometimes I got so bored of trying to touch her breast that I would try to touch her between her legs. It was like trying to borrow a dollar, getting turned down, and asking for 50 grand instead.
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Yahoo mail has the worst filter settings for spam mail.....I sent a mail to our Akron Cricket Club ka yahoo group...and since I am a part of the group and hence on the mailing list, I get mails in my inbox that are sent out by me....but this time around that mail found itself in the bulk folder.......and this is inspite of the fact that in the from column it said it was from me and it had my own yahoo mail ID:)

shame on yahoo.....tchh tchh!!!!!