The Virtual Life

 The weather here has been pretty consistent- SNOW. It's really rare for us to get snow here in Tennessee, and it makes driving something you actually avoid. I've missed a day and a half of work because of the powdery stuff. Since driving for pleasure cannot be accomplished in the real world, I've had to turn to the virtaul world for my fix: Gran Turismo 3.

 Actually, GT3 has been sitting on the shelf while I've been working on Baldur's Gate. Today I wiped the dust off of GT3 and took it for a spin. Damn.

 If you stop playing for a month or two you forget just how close this game is to the real thing. The first time I raced on Deep Forest Raceway there was a split second I thought I was inside a car. It's that good, and if you love cars you probably already own it (plus GT1 and GT2).

MR2 @ 02:28:46 AM 

Call Of The Wild

 I used to have a '95 Toyota Pickup. I've never felt such hatred and passion towards a vehicle as I did towards that truck. Four and a half years she was mine, and not a week went by where I didn't curse her. When it rained the loss of traction at the rear wheels was almost total, making any trip a lesson in skid control. I had two accidents (my only two, so far, knock on sheetmetal) in that truck. They were both a result of icy roads, so I can't blame the 'Yota totally, but the inherent forward biased weight distribution in all truck designs significantly contributed to the loss of control. Even with the rear end weighed down with a tree stump traction was iffy. Overall it was not a very satisfactory vehicle by my standards.

 And yet, I find myself wanting her back from time to time. I moved into my current residence using that truck, and it's suprising just how much you can stuff into the bed. She only had a four-banger, but it pulled like a bear on steroids and made a damn fine throaty growl. She was almost as fast as my old Supra, and could go places a car would find difficult.

 Once you're out of Nashville, it only takes a few turns off the main routes to end up on dirt roads. We call 'em the "red roads" because the Tennessee clay that makes up their surface is a reddish orange. They're not very car friendly, but the old 'Yota would take the bumps and ruts with aplomb, asking for more. You're really out in the country when you ride the red roads.

 During the summers I would spend one of my off days exploring. A quick stop at a store for some cokes and a full tank of gas and I was set until the tank ran dry. I know those roads better than the streets of Nashville, and have discovered many sights most people here don't know about. Look closely and you'll find ghost towns, beautiful waterfalls, pristine fishing holes, and scenic vistas of the Tennessee landscape. It's a different kind of driving from blasting through some switchbacks in a sports car, but no less enjoyable.

MR2 @ 12:39:30 PM 

Parallel Lives

 I take the interstate to work, and in a couple of sections I can see roads that are running alongside my route for some miles. Viewed from above it looks like two roads running parallel, but from our vantage point on the surface you can see that they are two entirely different creatures.

 Interstates are a marvel of modern engineering. They allow us to travel immense distances in relative safety at high speeds. They are also a blight upon the land. An interstate highway must be relatively flat to be successful, so obstacles to this are neutralized in the most expedient fashion. If there's a hill in the way you use dynamite to blast a path through it. Gotta cross a gorge? Build a bridge (a very utilitarian bridge, with no artistic value whatsoever). Interstates are one of our modern necessary evils, and our lives would be much poorer without them. But really, can't we put a little more emphasis on making them more a thing of beauty instead of just functional constructions?

MR2 @ 02:15:57 PM 

Interesting Read

MR2 @ 04:20:07 AM 

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