Thursday, August 30, 2007

A Day in the Life...of a SL Race Car Driver...part 1

Everyday on SL for me , begins here at my house in the Mistress Sim. I share the land with my friends Rayne Niven , Khrys Bailey , Ronni Boa and Wren Hyun. We own 1/4 a sim, not a huge amount but very cozy . The tropical setting and seaside life is very nice. This pic shows sunrise from my house.

--This new home is years away from the craphole neighborhood i used to live in at the Marwood Sim, typical mainland sim , mish mash of junk , clubs that are always empty, buildings that were there before i even got there, ive never even seen used or anything .
--Of course cant mention my old home in Marwood without mentioning my neighbor, who owned atleast 5000 sqm of land smack dab in front of me , i talked to him a few times, his goal was to make his land look like a ghetto/ slum....buddy you sure did, warehouses with broken out windows , annoying signs , burning trash, burning cars ect.. ect..



The first business of the day is to put on my bunny slippers and wander on down to Khrys' house and enjoy a cigarette and cup of coffee on her cabana. Khrys' house is very nice, right on the water , nice breezes blowing in, the sound of seagulls .....ok Khrys' house has streaming porn on a wide screen TV, who can blame me for hanging out here alot . Its a nice place to get my first fix of nicotine and caffeine and contemplate the agenda for the day .



Soon enough the sun has risen a bit more in the
sky, and what better thing to do... but lay out in it like a lazy bum. Here i am sunning myself on my lounger, sipping a pink flavored drink, and enjoying a copy of OMG magazine . A very nice magazine , with articles on fashion , locations , gadgets , profiles on racing arenas around SL ....ok...its also full of scantily clad women i admit it. But the articles are nice too. To the left in this pic is the white victorian style house owned by my girlfriend Rayne Niven ...right next door....love it hehe




By now ive burned off enough of the clock that Khrys has come online, and what better than to enjoy a nice game of Backgammon with a friend. Here i am strategizing moves to use on Crazy Doll Kabuki. Of course Doll beats me too quickly for me to ever use these moves ....have you ever captured fireflies in a jar and shook them up....sometime id like to find a big enough jar and do that to Doll hehe , and believe me it wouldnt take a big jar either.
----Also seen in this pic is one of my fav boats , my Trudeau Bluewater Schooner, i sometimes take it to Starboard yacht club and sail . Starboards is a very nice place located in the Hollywood sim, they hold regular Flying Tako races there that are always a lot of fun. Also nearby the yacht club is a scenic full 18 hole golf course, a very nice place over all.


----To be continued

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Crippy Oh Abducted!!!!!!...oops i mean inducted


Today i was honored to be inducted in the SL Racing Hall of Fame , but its easy to be humbled by the thought of my fellow peer drivers who also deserve such a honor , mainly Jafo Tendaze, Doll Kabuki , Yum Divisadero , Silk Bamboo, Subwoofer Fuhr and others.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Race #8 at PSU Speedway


Im doing 2 posts in a row cause ive been wanting to post about our new uniforms but never got around to it .


I was hoping this would be a happier post , but the gods of the internet worked against me this time . Everything went as planned , i would estimate i practiced atleast 20 hours for this race, trying to get it down as good as i could.


Race day comes , and im happy my girlfriend Rayne is able to make it to the race, her support is always appreciated =) Qualify session begins , each 2 car teams take turns running 5 timed laps to determine the race order for the days races. The drivers are then split into groups of 6. Group 1 races for places 1st to 6th, Group 2 races for places 7th to 12th ect...


Teams qualify in order of their ranking , being in first place Archer qualifies last , this may have its advantages allowing us to see what times we need to beat from the whole field , but its hell on the nerves i tell ya lol.
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Actualy driving the qualify laps is no relief to sweaty palms either, after my first 3 laps , even though i felt i had done enough to get into top 6 , my laps were falling short. Lap 4 my hands start to shake a little knowing its coming down to the wire hehe , but you just have to suck it in.
Lap 4 ended up being the trick for me , sticking me at 4th overall of the 15 drivers racing .
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First up is the Group 3 and then Group 2 races, good friend Yum Divisadero was having graphics problems or im sure she would have won the Group 3 race.
Crazy Doll Kabuki was steady and fast in the Group 2 race, and after race leader Abacus Ministrobel took way too long during his 2nd pit stop, Doll rolled by him to get the checkered flag for her first FormulaSL win =)
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Next up was the 30 lap Group 1 race. It started well enough , i put my usual plan in effect , just trying to stay steady and consistent , and it worked well enough , i soon found myself in 3rd , behind Jafo in 2nd and Motorato Ware in 1st . Moto took a spin and hit the wall , Jafo was by her , and soon i was too . Thats how most of the race went , i was constantly watching for Moto expecting her to come roaring up behind me with every little error in cornering i made or slip of my tires.
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Jafo musta spun out or hit a wall cause at some point around lap 19-20 i was right behind him , it would be bad team work if i tried to force a pass , possibly messing up both our races. But a couple bad laps , where i lost traction and had cornering problems and Jafo pulled well ahead of me . Its been awhile since we finished 1st and 2nd , and this was the scenario i had been working towards all week long .
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Lap by lap the race counted down , i think i saw Moto a few times , but she wasnt making significant gains as long as i didnt completely crack up. Lap 28 i rounded the hairpin that would send me down the front straight across the line and begin the last lap of the race, and barring any errors during that ...1st and 2nd places again for Archer.......suddenly my car rolls to a stop, i try to get out and resit incase it was a car error... nothing happens...i immediately IM Les White the race director letting him know my problem.....about this time i glance over to see my Comcast internet cable modem ...has crashed. It takes 10 minutes to come back and i get back online .
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Race is over , i get 6th place, or last place i should say . Leaving plenty of work to be done for the next race at Snowpeach , which will be in 2 weeks . Grats to Jafo on his 5th win of the season .../shakes fist at Comcast

Gearing Up


This week we recieved our new team uniforms , thanks to Shiryu Musashi of Musashi Motorsports. Jafo and i were already fans of his work and were happy when he agreed to make our new custon uniforms . Please search Musashi-Do to find his clothing store , he has a wide range of clothes available, beach wear, casual, formal ect... all every nicely done. Located near his clothes store is his car shop where he sells several models of high quality vehicles.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

An Introduction to .....Archer Racing Team


Having raced at the Pontiac Fairgrounds for several months , i decided to see what else was out there. One of the first vehicles i got in SL , was the Hawk 10R racing motorcycle, created by Les White. I knew Les had a couple tracks and there was a league involved , but for one reason or another i never got around to checking it out .


I went and visited Mooz raceway for the first time , where i learned Season 2 of MotoSL had just ended. But busy Les White was hard at work on Formula 1 race cars for a new series he planned to start within a couple months. It was a expensive league to join, but i immediately could tell Les wasnt messing around and intended it to be the best in SL , so this got me giddy and hyper to get a team going to join in on the fun .


My first couple attempts to recruit a team from the Fairgrounds failed (spank Yum Divisadero and Doll Kabuki). But luckily i found interest in it from another Fairgrounds driver , Jafo Tendaze. Jafo was fairly new to Fairgrounds , but was already winning races and proving himself to be a talented driver.


Thus was formed Archer Racing , we paid up our dues and our Black and gold cars were the first ones completed for the new league . Competition looked very stiff, Motorato Ware and Silk Bamboo formed a team for OMG magazine , both already proved themselves top notch racers in MotoSL season 2. Several other top drivers including Kalel Mommsen and Jake Abramovich , certainly made us feel like under dogs coming into the pre-season races.


Jafo quickly proved his skills in the pre-season , qualifying for all the Group A races , and eventualy winning a string of them including the first 3 regular season races, i dont know how many in a row total, enough to make the other racers mumur of bodily harm and make them loiter around his car looking for ways to sabotage him /giggles.


As for me , i didnt qualify for any Group A races during pre-season, but won several of the Group B races , which boosted my confidence. But opening day was gonna be the true test , i managed to qualify for the Group A race and Jafo and i ended up finishing 1st and 2nd . In fact we managed to finish 1st and 2nd in 3 of the first 4 races, including Race 4, where i broke Jafo's streak by winning the race myself .


Currently Archer Racing still holds firmly onto 1st place in the team rankings, with OMG closing the gap and the Codename: Denmark team not far behind them . Jafo leads the league in individual points. Unfortunately after 6 races in 2nd place , i fell to 4th place after 3 poor performances in a row . Next up is Race #8 (of 12) at PSU raceway on Saturday, to me its a race of great importance, my goal is no less than getting Archer 2 spots on the podium once again (Podium is 1st thru 3rd place) and hopefully make up some ground ive lost over the last 3 races.
If top of the line SL racing interests you , please check out RaceSL.com, the leagues home page.
You can find standings, detailed narratives of each race , photos and videos. Its been great fun so far , stay tuned for my take on race #8 on saturday /knocks on wood /makes sign of benediction ect... /giggle

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Crippy Oh Blog opens


Hi this is Crippy with my first blog post , i think my goal for my blog will be shed a little light on the parts of SL i enjoy and support.
Currently this includes racing in the Pontiac sponsored Second Life Stock Car Racing Association (SLSCRA), Racing in FormulaSL and MotoSL leagues. Sailing (some racing too ) , my new home on the Mistress island sim , some combat aspects of SL including NoR and Combat: Samurai island. I also lead a active social life in SL and may perhaps touch on that now and then hehe.
Also always exploring and trying to invlove myself in new things i come across .See you there =)
Crippy Oh