September 2003
September 28
So, we all forgot about Kimi… I’m talking about qualifying for the Indianapolis Grand Prix of course! With all the Schumacher/Montoya talk, it was easy to forget there is a young Finn in the championship battle too. And as his qualifying performance shows: he’s right in with a chance. It’s going to be a fascinating race, and having missed qualifying due to a reason beyond my control (the VCR failed to record from timer), and belief, it’s going to be very interesting to see what strategies everyone’s on and to see one almighty motor race. Roll on this evening!
Since the last entry, I’ve made two large updates to The Programme Covers Project, the latter incorporating a new background image for the main title which I think looks nice, certainly better than it was. I’m working on the next update either side of writing this entry!
Well what a Grand Prix it was! All the action and excitement a Penultimate Race of the Season should hold… now it’s all eyes on Schumacher ahead of the finale at Suzuka in two weeks time. With just one point needed it’s almost in the bag, but as today’s race proved, there’s no givens in Formula 1.
As a side note, or probably a more apt name would be a “rant”: When you walk into one of your village pubs to find a group of your so-called friends in there, playing pool and settling down to drinks without having invited you along too, you get rather cheesed off. When you listen to their feeble excuses, like “Oh, we only just decided to come” and “We’re only going to be here for an hour,” you can’t help but think “what tossers” (and if you don’t have a respectable journal readership, you might have thought something a bit stronger!).
September 18
To my delight, this morning I received over sixty high-quality print-outs of motor racing programme covers from a very kind fellow in Australia named Michael Evans. Michael lived in England for six years, joined the VSCC and attended just about all their events, duly including them in the bunch. The covers spread such an array of motor racing history and show an amazing timeline of art — almost a century — from early 1900’s racing through to ‘90’s meetings. Without checking (‘cos it would take a while…) several of Michael’s contributions will be the earliest additions yet, from as early as ‘05!
It’s going to take me some time to go through them all, but in my brief flicks through so far, one rather interesting cover that struck me is from Spa, ‘65. It gives the impression of being digital imagery, by using an almost pixel-oriented technique. There are many others of note, and many minutes ahead of me to enjoy the Walk Through Time.
In news more personal, I’ve almost completed Nick Hornby’s latest [but not new] book How to Be Good, which I’m thoroughly enjoying: the man simply has so much talent, and wit. I was going to add a ‘Reading’ section beneath the menu to include its cover and a ‘Subscribed’ section for F1 Racing magazine, but alas, I haven’t quite got around to it yet. By the time I do I’ll probably have finished Hornby’s novel and moved onto Tony Parsons’ Man and Wife; another book that’s been gathering dust for far too long.
September 15
Lots more tape trades are to come. I’m currently copying eight tapes, all featuring Stevie Hyper D that I’m going to be selling rather than trading. Now I’m not sure if I’ve just welcomed any trouble (with copyright issues and the like) by stating that, but it’s with the best intentions. The guy has no tapes to trade but really wants to get hold of some of my stuff, so a sale is really the only way it can be done. Please don’t get any ideas: this does not mean I will be selling any originals/tape packs, nor does it mean I will do this on a regular basis. These are exceptional circumstances. And besides, he offered good money!
I usually enjoy recording tapes for people, because it gives me a chance to listen to someone else’s choice for once, and that way I listen to some stuff I wouldn’t normally pick. This time however, I’m not affording myself the time to enjoy it because I’m copying them all on high-speed dub. I have very little time to copy them, and I am under pressure to get them done soon because I’m being paid.
The weekend saw the fastest F1 race ever, beating Peter Gethin’s 32 year record which was also claimed at Monza, but when there were no chicanes between the high-speed straights. It’s pretty amazing to think that today’s cars average the same speed on a circuit with two tight chicanes and another one, as they did thirty odd years ago when it’s straights were undisturbed.
I’m predicting that Schumacher will go on to bag his record sixth title, and fourth consecutive. If Ferrari hadn’t found their form in Monza I would probably be writing something very different, but they did, so I’m not. Monza was always going to suit the super-aerodynamic Ferrari, as traditionally Indianapolis does. Oh and Suzuka doesn’t have that bad a history for the Scuderia either! There are two more exciting races left of the season, and I just can’t wait!
September 8
I’m slowly working towards the next update of The Programme Covers Project. Progress is slow, as every track page with new covers being added has to be converted to the new layout first. This is a very tedious task indeed, I can tell you.
So far large track pages such as Indianapolis and Monaco have been converted, more large [and few small] ones will follow, including Montreal — the Gilles Villeneuve circuit — which is currently dropped from next year’s F1 calendar. That’s a real shame, as the races there are always exciting and generate great racing. You can view the programme covers from every F1 race held in Montreal at The Programme Covers Project (not including this year’s, yet; but after the forthcoming update, it will).
Tomorrow morning I’ve got an appointment at the hospital, for what I hope is just a regular check-up on the progress of my shoulder, after that bike accident. I’m able to move my arm around without any considerable discomfort, and last Tuesday I went back to work, which I found to be okay. It still aches a little bit from time to time (almost always when eating dinner), and clicks occasionally when under pressure, but I’m sure eventually I won’t be able to notice it at all.
September 6
In the name of accessibility, I’ve added definitions to the abbreviations throughout the site, by way of the title attribute on the acronym element. They should of course all be marked up as abbr, however, Internet Explorer doesn’t support it, so I’ve been forced to use the less semantic acronym element. The main proportion of my visitors are using Internet Explorer, so I always deem it necessary to support it; without going to too much effort and using too many un-semantic work-arounds.