The Daytona "Pepsi 400" Race

Sunrise on Saturday morning. This photo was taken from the camera 3 location (which is the one they always use to show the cars leaving the pits.

After a couple of weeks off, I was scheduled to work the Pepsi 400 which is held here in Daytona Beach. With the sad news of Jerry's death on Monday night, when I showed up at work on tuesday morning, I alerted the crew that I'd need to be leaving for 2 days during the work week. We had a long discussion about it and decided that if the days I needed to be gone would turn out to be thursday and friday, then I'd probably not need to bring in a replacement. During the day on tuesday, my brother Buddy called me to tell me the schedule for the services and it turned out to be thursday and friday - the best possible days for my work week.

To explain this further: The first 2 days we are on site (this week was tueday and wednesday) are extremely busy days where we haul tons of equipment out into the field and place it in strategic positions based on the individual track. After setting up all of this equipment which gathers data constantly, we have to work on the method of getting this data back to the our production truck. The paths of this data can take many forms including fiber optics, phone cable (RJ-11), ethernet cable (RJ-45) and combinations of those. We have to bring back the data from our special sensors we have on each of the cameras that we have our sensors on as well as from our telemetry recievers that we have placed all around the track - which are used to receive the info from the cars and send it to us.

Where possible, we try to use fiber because it's very reliable and has almost no limit to how much data we can send on it. Very often, we have to use a combination of RJ11 - which carries information in an analog form and then convert this analog signal to a digital signal and pass it back to the truck via fiber. Anyway, the point of all of this info was to say that we try to get all of this done in the first 2 days and then the remainder of the time before the races is spent trouble shooting the data flow and this part of the job can be done by less people if necessary.

Also, taking all the equipment apart and getting it back into the truck after the main race is another time that we need to have as many 'hands on deck' as possible. So, the days I needed to be gone worked out best for all of the crew and we didn't need to call in a replacement for my position. The guys said they'd cover me and were very helpful and I greatly appreciate it.

Well, Friday night's Busch race was rained out and for some reason, Nascar decided to run it on Saturday morning at 9am - with the scheduled Cup race for 8 pm on Saturday night. What this meant was we would have a 22 hour PLUS workday. It was very exhausting and I spent all day Sunday doing nothing but recovering. I'm glad I didn't have to travel this week.

This is a photo of our control room where we make the "TV Magic". During races where I don't operate the 3D cam, I sit at one of the 2 computer monitors in the far left.


These 2 photos above are from the camera position inside turn 2. On race day, we had to be in at 5 am, so I was out in the field as the sun was coming up.

There were thousands of fireworks mortars set up for the fireworks display after the race. It was funny in a way because a normal TV camera costs about $200,000 including the lense and all of these fireworks were set up around 5 of DirecTV's cameras. Not ideal.


The raceways use trucks with jet engines mounted sideways on the back to dry the track. Here's 4 of them turning around to go back for another pass. When these truck dry by you (at about 3 mph) it's so loud you have to hold your ears - but they do dry the track very efficently.

A Sad Turn of Events

The last few days have been especially difficult. My sister Libby, who lives in Columbia, SC has been married to her husband Jerry Teal since Valentines Day of 2000. From the moment I met Jerry, I realized what a great person he was. He's one of those people that seem genuinely interested in almost anything you have to say. I have lots of life experiences that are fairly unique and he's always have plenty of questions about them and wanted to know more. It's not unusual for people to ask me what I've been doing and then kinda 'fade away' from my answer and lose interest quickly - because I might not be the easiest person to relate to. I've gotten used to that, but it wasn't that way with Jerry. He really was interested enough to ask questions. He really was the kinda person who liked learning new things.

Jerry was also quite the historian and was extremely interesting to listen to when he'd start telling you about the history of areas that we'd meet up in. The fact that Jerry treated my sister like a princess was just icing on the cake.

About a month ago, Jerry and Libby found out that Jerry had a tumor in his brain. It was quite advanced and inoperable. Jan and I went by about 2 weeks ago to visit with Libby and Jerry and to just let him know we were thinking about him. He was scheduled to begin chemotherapy for his tumor on this past monday.

During his treatment, Jerry's body decided to react adversely and he left this earth after midnight with Libby by his side. This is one of those things that you just can't figure out why it happens.

We drove up to Columbia on Thursday morning and stayed at their house. We attended the Funeral Home on Thursday night and the funeral on Friday. It was a very sad occasion, but there was no doubt that Jerry was loved and appreciated in the community. Hundreds of people were on hand to say goodbye to Jerry and express their support for Libby as well as Jerry's mother, brother and kids. There was an endless supply of people with stories to tell of how Jerry had helped them out very selflessly over the years. It was obvious that he was one of those special people who does a lot for the community, but never speaks about it or expects anything in return.

My sister Libby is going to have a tough road ahead of her in regards to her emotions and dealing with the large void in her life. It's a sad, sad thing to think about. You're here and your life is going just fine at any given moment and then it's turned upside down in the blink of an eye.

I could never have personally picked a better person for my sister. I just hope I had let him know this to some degree.

Don't forget to appreciate your loved ones. Also, don't forget to forgive them for not being perfect - or worse. Life's really short.

Still (and even more) a believer

I've been watching with GREAT interest - the upcoming release of the iPhone from Apple. It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I'm an Apple evangelist. I believe completely in the company's philosophy on how things work. It's like I tell my P.C. friends: A Mac user LOVES his computer. A P.C. user Tolerates his computer. That difference alone should speak volumes to anyone who is paying attention.

So as the release of the iPhone (which was announced back in January) has gotten closer, I've read quite a bit of opinion by 'naysayers' of how it won't be successful. I guess it's just the job of people to write and many people just don't like the fact that Apple is so successful lately (last 5 years).

One of the things I read (and hear) to support the opinion that the iPhone will be a commercial failure is it's price. $499 or $599 depending on the amount of memory you get. One thing that these naysayers have either forgotten or simply chosen not to remember is the Motorola Razr which came out around 2 years ago. It was $499 as well and it went on to be the best selling model of mobile phones in the world AND it was little more than a phone - and to be honest - a pretty crappy phone at that. It was mostly stylish - which itself was enough to make people select it over other options. I possessed one of these Razr's for a day - when my own phone crapped out and I had to get a loaner - and it had about the worst possible audio imaginable.

Then, I read in todays paper - an article which again pointed out how expensive the iPhone is and then went on to tell about the competition entering the market against the iPhone - so called "iPhone killers". It listed the HTC TOUCH - at $666, the Nokia N95 - at $749, and the LG PRADA at $800. None of these phones do some of the cool stuff that the iPhone does BUT they cost more.

It's funny to read this stuff when I'm so confident that Apple has a commercial success of epic proportions that's about to be released on friday. There are 23 patents on the iPhone. Apple has made it so user friendly - that I think it may be hard for some 'non-mac' users to get used to it at first. The use of this product is going to be such a 'natural' feel - that the workflow will come without thought. If you have a few minutes - check out this video - showing the use of the iPhone. This really does change everything.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/guidedtour.html

Currently, I'm trying really hard to NOT go and buy one when they come out on friday. It's very hard to resist - when it epitomizes exactly what I want in a mobile device EXCEPT one thing. It currently only uses EDGE technology for transmission of data. Edge is a fast data transmission system BUT it's not REALLY fast. I feel like Apple will release a version with 3G technology (REALLY FAST) around Christmas time and I think I'd rather wait for it. There's a couple of other small things that I don't think are optimal in the product (no user replaceable battery) and small stuff like that. Still, Jan has said that if I want to get one now, she'll take it when I want to replace it with a 'higher tech' model. That may just be all the excuse I need to get one sooner than later.

Really, if you wonder what all of this excitement is about - watch the video and THEN if you still wonder - then GOOD for you!! Be glad you don't have the tech- gadget addiction that I have.

Catching up - again

I'm a bit behind on my blogging, so I'll catch up on what's been happening since my last post a week ago or so.

I headed home on monday - leaving Detroit around 8 am and getting into Daytona Beach around noon. With a connection in Atlanta - that's about as efficient as flying commercially can get. I had a 30 minute layover in ATL - which is almost too short for normal changing of planes in Atlanta, but it just so happened that the connecting flight was in the same concourse as the arriving flight, so when I got to the gate - they were boarding. Peachy.

In the Detroit Airport, I took this photo below of the water fountain in front of a parked 747. I thought it was more artistic than it turned out to be, but I was quite tired and not feeling well, so my judgement may have been off:


The underground tunnels that connect the concourses in Detroit are pretty weird. They have a colorful lightshow that's always changing with very 'futuristic' music playing. A photo doesn't do it justice, but here's one anyway.


Back at home, I'm getting into the groove of not working for a few weeks. I've actually been slightly sick with a cough and various other flu-like symptoms since I got home, so I haven't been doing much. My engine mechanic was supposed to have an oil leak on my boat fixed when I got back home (a leak that he has been working on since late January). I was very unhappy when I got back and realized he hadn't even touched it yet. I was hoping to take the boat out, but now it looks like it will be late this week before he is finished.

Instead, Jan and I have decided to take a trip up north (of here). We're going to head to Columbia SC to visit my ailing brother-in-law, then to Winston-Salem to see family and for Jan to visit her ailing Aunt - then we're going to head over to the Outer Banks for few days of vacation-like hanging with our friends.

We closed on the California City spec house on Monday. It was nice to get that behind us. We have used or plan soon to use all of that money in very a judicious manner. Currently, we owe no one (have no debt) other than our house. I'm paying down that a bit this week and "re-casting" the loan on our house. This simply means that they will take the new - lower amount we owe on the house and refigure the payment structure with the same repayment period and same rate - to come up with a new and lower monthly payment.

We really like this house and have had mixed feelings about putting it on the market. It's not selling right now anyway, so we're just going to enjoy living here while we do and then move on to the next "chapter" in our life (whatever that is) when it does sell.

Here's a photo taken from our pool area. Everything is very vibrant and green back here -especially in the evenings.