just a couple of cool videos for any gearhead out there.
Birth of a V12..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYQNM-eVmTQ
and the contstruction of an engine. at the end it actually simulates it running, pretty cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMKbRIlzmic
and this...well this just might be the most bad ass golf cart ever made. ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcSP22jf29I
lastly...i've always wondered about this, but now theirs video proof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9107SknOFl0
enjoy!
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Enter the Schne
One of the best jobs in the world has to be plowing roads. It’s snowing out, you get to just cruise around with no real destination and just push snow, listen to the radio, drink some coffee, maybe help the occasional damsel in distress..not a bad life I think. Only if you’ve got a proper plow though…none of those tiny sidewalk plow things. Those are a real plow trucks retarded younger brother.
Sadly though that doesn’t seem to be a job that exists here in Europe. Their philosophy on snow plowing, which I was rudely reminded of this morning, is to not do it, rather to allow the cars themselves do the plowing. Not a bad plan until you realize that we live in the real world and most cars suck in the snow. Most drivers are even worse.
On the other end of the extreme is good old Juergen Point road where my parents live. While the Swiss seem to ignore the snow that falls on the road on Juergen point the strategy is to pack the snow down and make a new road on top of the snow. This new road is a carefully constructed mix of salt and sand. Its rather effective but has the unfortunate side effect of creating enormous sand dunes on the corners each spring while coating the cars with so much salt that snow cant penetrate far enough to reach the paint.
So winter is back and to celebrate I went out to a Huttenabend last friday, basically just a party up at a ski chalet. The only problem was that it was about 10-15 deg C and there wasn't a centimetre, sorry inch, of snow. It wasn't much of a winter party but at least the beer was cold. The next day i headed up to the slopes with a few friend after the huttenabend and once again the snow was less than ideal, but the sun was out and they had an extreme skiing event going on. Unfortunately i didn't have my camera but here's a link to some pics that they have up at the mtn's site.
Thankfully global warming has changed its course. Must be the lower SUV sales.
Sadly though that doesn’t seem to be a job that exists here in Europe. Their philosophy on snow plowing, which I was rudely reminded of this morning, is to not do it, rather to allow the cars themselves do the plowing. Not a bad plan until you realize that we live in the real world and most cars suck in the snow. Most drivers are even worse.
On the other end of the extreme is good old Juergen Point road where my parents live. While the Swiss seem to ignore the snow that falls on the road on Juergen point the strategy is to pack the snow down and make a new road on top of the snow. This new road is a carefully constructed mix of salt and sand. Its rather effective but has the unfortunate side effect of creating enormous sand dunes on the corners each spring while coating the cars with so much salt that snow cant penetrate far enough to reach the paint.
So winter is back and to celebrate I went out to a Huttenabend last friday, basically just a party up at a ski chalet. The only problem was that it was about 10-15 deg C and there wasn't a centimetre, sorry inch, of snow. It wasn't much of a winter party but at least the beer was cold. The next day i headed up to the slopes with a few friend after the huttenabend and once again the snow was less than ideal, but the sun was out and they had an extreme skiing event going on. Unfortunately i didn't have my camera but here's a link to some pics that they have up at the mtn's site.
Thankfully global warming has changed its course. Must be the lower SUV sales.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Hammer of the Gods
That title is completely irrelevant here, i just that phrase in a book the other day and thought it sounded cool. Can anyone guess what the book was about? Winner gets a ½ eaten bar of swiss chocolate. ¾ eaten if you're slow.
Now to other things....I like when people come to visit but I'm always at a bit of a loss for what to do. Don't get me wrong, i'm in a really beautiful area here with lots of outdoorsy things to do but usually when people visit they want to see “Europe”..i.e. Bigger more exciting things like buildings over 3 stories, museums, people...stuff like that. Unfortunately the closest city, Zürich, is about 1.5 hrs away and the distances just climb from there.
Geneva – 3hrs.
Munich – 4 hrs.
Venice – 4hrs.
Vienna – 5hrs.
Paris – 7hrs.
etc.
etc.
Truth be told, if you spend enough time where i am you realize that this is probably more “europey” than many of the big cities. It'd be like defining America by New York City, when in reality thats just a small part of it. The problem of course is time, given only a week over here you've got to start with the New York Cities and tackle the Ohio's on a followup visit.
The reason i bring this up is that my little bro Mike, my cousin Krissy and one of their friends Matt are all coming over to visit in about a month and a half. Overlooking the fact that their ruining the ratio in my apartment i now need to figure out how to show them a good time for a week. There's the obvious things to do like ski, hike, hit some bars, maybe visit some castles, but after that this area is pretty much tapped out. Therefore i envision some trips like maybe Vienna or Rome. Afterall, i've always wanted to see the Popemobile. Mike, Matt, Krissy..in case you cant tell I'm looking for a little feedback here. Take a look at a map and let me know what you guys wanna do. Tour the swiss army knife factory...learn to yodel (spelling?..eh, why worry now)....milk a cow...?? Unfortunately you're to early for oktoberfest, but there are still lots of bars around here and I'm sure we can find some umpah lumpah music. Anything's possible.
Switching gears for a moment i get the BBC on my TV over here and they have this awesome show called “Top Gear”. For any gearhead out there, its worth checking out on Youtube. It's chockful of awesome cars and bad british humor. Here's one of my favorite episodes about playing soccer, sorry football, with minicars. Priceless. I'm not sure if you can get it on TV in the states...but thanks to Youtube and its complete ignoring of copyright laws you can see pretty much any episode. If you're bored at work and in the auto industry, you could even argue its “research”. Now where's my endorsement check??
Oh, I just remembered that they do have a Stamp Musuem in Liechtenstien...but i gotta save something for the followup visit.
Now to other things....I like when people come to visit but I'm always at a bit of a loss for what to do. Don't get me wrong, i'm in a really beautiful area here with lots of outdoorsy things to do but usually when people visit they want to see “Europe”..i.e. Bigger more exciting things like buildings over 3 stories, museums, people...stuff like that. Unfortunately the closest city, Zürich, is about 1.5 hrs away and the distances just climb from there.
Geneva – 3hrs.
Munich – 4 hrs.
Venice – 4hrs.
Vienna – 5hrs.
Paris – 7hrs.
etc.
etc.
Truth be told, if you spend enough time where i am you realize that this is probably more “europey” than many of the big cities. It'd be like defining America by New York City, when in reality thats just a small part of it. The problem of course is time, given only a week over here you've got to start with the New York Cities and tackle the Ohio's on a followup visit.
The reason i bring this up is that my little bro Mike, my cousin Krissy and one of their friends Matt are all coming over to visit in about a month and a half. Overlooking the fact that their ruining the ratio in my apartment i now need to figure out how to show them a good time for a week. There's the obvious things to do like ski, hike, hit some bars, maybe visit some castles, but after that this area is pretty much tapped out. Therefore i envision some trips like maybe Vienna or Rome. Afterall, i've always wanted to see the Popemobile. Mike, Matt, Krissy..in case you cant tell I'm looking for a little feedback here. Take a look at a map and let me know what you guys wanna do. Tour the swiss army knife factory...learn to yodel (spelling?..eh, why worry now)....milk a cow...?? Unfortunately you're to early for oktoberfest, but there are still lots of bars around here and I'm sure we can find some umpah lumpah music. Anything's possible.
Switching gears for a moment i get the BBC on my TV over here and they have this awesome show called “Top Gear”. For any gearhead out there, its worth checking out on Youtube. It's chockful of awesome cars and bad british humor. Here's one of my favorite episodes about playing soccer, sorry football, with minicars. Priceless. I'm not sure if you can get it on TV in the states...but thanks to Youtube and its complete ignoring of copyright laws you can see pretty much any episode. If you're bored at work and in the auto industry, you could even argue its “research”. Now where's my endorsement check??
Oh, I just remembered that they do have a Stamp Musuem in Liechtenstien...but i gotta save something for the followup visit.
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