The collected works of ScottyB

An explosive race, started out wet, dried out later.

Not watching the race has hurt my enthusiasm this race. It’s slightly disappointing to miss a race that perfectly coincides with this time zone, but in the wake of the fantastic race at Bathurst and the coverage by a rival channel, I’ll let it slide. Don’t think I could have bared watch both at the same time. I’d have most definitely suffered a massive coronary from the stress.

Undoubtedly, Vettel was the driver of the day. After having his penalty from Japan rescinded, he incurred another for apparently blocking Kovalainen in Qualifying. Then went on from 17th on the grid to finish 4th on a slippery track with all the pressure over him from the last round and completely redeeming his Japan performance. I see big things for this bloke.

Once again, rain makes for the best racing. Unpredictability is king.

It was also the race where Lewis Hamilton could have wrapped up the Championship. The place where he ends up in the gravel on Lap 31, relegating the Championship hopes down to the last race in Brazil.

I can’t say I’m disappointed, we now have an EPIC showdown set for the final round. Three drivers in with a shot of winning the title. It will be hardcore F1 racing at its limit. All decided at the last round. Couldn’t have wished for a better solution to the season.

Most unfortunately, its telecast in the wee hours of the morning means I’ll probably miss it. Dammit.

Unless I take a Monday off work. Hmmmm…

Results: China

1 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari Winner
2 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Mercedes +9.8 secs
3 Felipe Massa Ferrari +12.8 secs
4 Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari +53.5 secs
5 Jenson Button Honda +68.6 secs
6 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari +73.6 secs
7 Nick Heidfeld BMW +74.2 secs
8 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault +80.7 secs

Link: F1.com

The 2007 race was, without a doubt, the most exciting I have watched.

The last 30 minutes was just sensational.

FORD 1-2-3.

Craig Lowndes / Jamie Whincup you guys are legends! Awesome racing. Slicks in the wet. Nuts. Sensationally nuts.

What a fantastic race. Absolutely elated.

Must remember to watch this series more. Beautiful.

Finally the latest Colin McRae title was released in Australia. Picked up a copy of it on Thursday upon its release.

I had played the demo so I knew basically what to expect, but if there’s ever a demo that undersells its full version, its this one.

Some of the stages are so photo realistic, its just incredible. The game is more ‘arcade’ than its predecessors, but it doesn’t take away from the ultimately fun gameplay that has followed the series since the beginning.

I’ve focussed mainly on Career mode thus far. The Tier 1 levels offering basic challenge across a wide variety of surfaces and various car types. Currently just stepped up to Tier 5 and the competition is much stronger, the stages much more complex. It offers a fantastic challenge for its genre.

The statistics are a great addition to the game.. Longest Slide, Highest Jump, Fastest Speed, Distance Traveled, Total Driving Time.. and many more. It’s a fantastic indication of how much you’re putting into the game and where your strengths and weaknesses are.

All in all, a polished final game. Even the menu system is pioneering in its application. Yet another title I’m proud to add to the ever-growing PS3 collection.

When the temperature rose to a toasty 36 degrees Celsius.

Sydney received gusty winds and 35C heat – the hottest early spring day in 148 years.

Of course, Australia doesn’t see a hot day without a bushfire. And as of this afternoon, over 40 were raging around the state. The F3 Freeway, the Old Pacific Highway and the rail lines between Sydney, the Central Coast and Newcastle were all closed shortly after 4pm after fire broke out near Cowan.

It was a day of dry heat - and strangely, it didn’t feel that hot. With relative humidity barely cracking the double figures, it was a reasonable day to be outside. Matter of fact, I spent a good portion of the afternoon in the shed and really thought the feeling belied the outrageous temp reading on the MINI.

A Southerly change has just come through, knocking the temperature down (its a more reasonable 27 here at the moment in the middle of the night, but the humidity is up around the 70-80% again) and brings promise of a cooler day tomorrow.

Spring has arrived, but Summer is here already.

It’s gonna be a long hot summer.

My holiday is over already.

10 days goes pretty quickly, especially now that we are approaching Christmas.

Time flies when you’re having fun as the saying goes. And even though I’ve been pretty much confined to the house for most of my week vacation, I’ve had some serious fun. It’s been a nerdy sort of fun - plenty of PS3 gaming in there. Managed to finish Motorstorm yesterday (and was grossly disappointed to find out that there are no rewards for battling the arduous ‘Apocalypse’ ticket 21.. but anyway) and working solidly through Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

Even had some time over the last few days to get out to the pool. We’ve had some crazy (suddenly) hot weather here which is always good for toning the skin in before the ‘real’ Summer gets here, preventing insta-burn just walking from the car to work as has occurred in years past.

The long weekend has come and gone, the oldies are back and I’m off to work again tomorrow.

Such is life. At least it’s been an awesome past week.

On the way up to Williamtown to pick up my parents yesterday, I was driving along, when suddenly, a little black/brown ‘ball’ caught my eye up on the road ahead.

At first, I thought nothing of it, just a piece of rubbish or a chunk of truck tyre or something.. but as I hurtled closer, I realised that the object was moving. It had a shape.. and somewhere under the big lump were little feet, slowly powering it across the (no doubt hot) asphalt road surface.

The car beside me and I both slowed down as we realised it was indeed, a little Echidna making the crossing along the busy highway.

No haste at all.. he (or she) just ambled across in front of us like it had all the time in the world, completely oblivious to the obvious danger of its crossing. Cute little thing - I have to admit, I’ve never seen one up close before, certainly not in the wild - just in Zoos and photos.

Hope the other road patrons were as thoughtful as we were!

Godspeed little Echidna

There’s been a bit of a Hillary Swank fest lately, with ‘Freedom Writers’ and ‘The Reaping’ both appearing on the new release shelves at Video Ezy at virtually the same time. I got aroud to hiring out the latter while I was on holiday.

“Thousands of years ago there was a series of bizarre occurrences that many believed to have been the Ten Biblical Plagues. No one thought they could happen again. Until now.”

Sounded cheesy.

But I’ll watch anything and I’d read that there were some pretty wild special effects in this one, so decided to give it a whirl.

Without giving too much away, I have to say that while the visual effects aren’t exactly ground-breaking or academy-award winning material, they are nothing short of impressive and effective for the film. The river of blood - I guess CGI - was extremely well done, quite a faultless representation.

Biblical plagues arrive in the town and scientists are sent out to ‘disprove’ the religious theory. And have quite some trouble doing so.

There are plenty of cheap scares - and the plot is a little hard to follow sometimes, but there was something about this one. I enjoyed it, even though it wasn’t spectacular.

Link: The Reaping at IMDB