Occasionally there are events you see- either live or on TV (delayed telecast)- that you can say after wards "I saw it all happen!"
Last night's MotoGP was such an event. I have already blogged about my sweaty man love for Troy Bayliss, so it was extra grouse/orsum/wicked to see him lead from start to finish and win his first ever MotoGP race, and also be the first to take wins in both World Superbike and MotoGP. Troy's victory was overshadowed somewhat by the fact that the 2006 world title was yet to be decided- the first time in 14 years that it was going to come down to the final race. And it was unlike anything anyone expected. American Nicky Hayden was taken out of the last race by his own team mate and gave up his world title lead to Valentino Rossi. Rossi started this event 8 points ahead of hayden, then grabbed pole and the pundits called it: Rossi to win world title. Backing Rossi at this point is like backing Roger Federer at 40 love match point, or Bradman to make 100 while on 99... etc.
The Sporting Gods had their money on someone else:
"In a stunning turn of events, Hayden, whose motto is 'Chasin' the dream,' won the 2006 MotoGP World Championship after championship rival Valentino Rossi crashed on the fifth of 30 laps, losing the front end in the looping second turn while in seventh place in the title-determining Valencia Grand Prix."
I am going to say something that i thought I would never say about Valentino Rossi: choker. Honestly I have never seen the multi-time world champ look so tentative on a bike. Shocking start, (first on the grid, 7th turn one) and then he did not even look like he was going to make his way up the order. The maths was as follows: if Hayden won the race, Rossi needed to be second. In my view, if Rossi had stayed upright, Hayden would have pushed harder, with a 2nd or first in the offing. I think Rossi would have finished outside the top 5.
In short, I think Hayden could have won no matter what Rossi did.
History will record this as the year that the unbeatable Valentino Rossi was beaten. I think it's the end of Rossi chasing "other things" like F1 drives, rally drives (he's off to Rally of NZ shortly) and perhaps even marks the point where he tones down the "larrikin" (though I hope not). Yes, he fell off twice this year by his own hand. Yes, he was punted off by other riders and yes, he had mechanical problems on occasion.
Hats off to Nicky Hayden. This could not happen to a nicer guy. Last year at the Phillip Island MotoGP, Mr Tricky and I were in the hallway that lead from the press conference area. Nicky was walking through (no entourage with him) post-race and we congratulated him on his podium finish. He smiled and said (in that Kentucky accent of his): "Hey guys thanks. I had a GREAT time!"
It's time I came out and admitted my number one man crush... ( the list is rather short: 1)
I LOVE TROY BAYLISS. I've met him once and frankly he didn't notice me, but I've dealt with it.
I was shattered when he left Ducati (read: was booted). I was excited when he went to Honda, and was equally disappointed when the Honda thing did not work out (the bike just didn't suit his style- making him even cooler in my book!)
This year it was great to see him back in World Super Bikes, back on a Ducati, back winning. Another world title.
When Duacti announced Troy would be replacing Sete Gibernau in MotoGP for the final race, I was suitably excited. Troy has been on the podium at Valencia before and my hopes have been high.
Qualifying results overnight:
"Rossi will be difficult to beat after recording the fastest time of the qualifying session with a sizzling lap of one minute 31.002 seconds, just a fraction of a second faster than 2006 World Superbike champion Troy Bayliss on 1.31.210."
Bow DOWN before the great man. On a bike he's not ridden in two years, in a category he's not been in for one year, he sweeps all but Valentino Rossi before him.
Oh my man crush grows (ohh err!!)
BTW ladies (and my gay/man crush brethren), he's handsome to boot:
It's with some excitement that I would like to announce that from Wednesday November 8th, I will be a regular segment guest and producer on radio 3AW 693 on The Neil Mitchell show.
The segment will focus on motoring in all its forms: travel, commuting, politics, leisure, luxury, sports and racing. (I'll also seek to slip in the odd motorcycle story!)
I'll be doing an initial stint on the lead up to Xmas, then we'll go away for holidays and hit the airwaves in 2007 with throttles pinned wide open.
Info:
Neil Mitchell is the number one Morning show host in Victoria.
The assertive, campaigning and entertaining, Neil Mitchell has dominated Melbourne talk radio for over a decade! He sets the agenda, breaks the news and campaigns on behalf of his listeners. Mitchell leads, while the rest of the Melbourne media follows.
Tom Reynolds is a Melbourne based Freelance Journalist. He's written motorsport and motoring articles for a wide range of publications and has also dabbled in IT journalism- back when it was dangerous and new. He's managed and presented on community radio stations as well as being 3AW's motorsport correspondent.
"I heard a useful rule about predicting success during my (failed) attempt at creating a hit Dilbert animated TV show. While watching the Dilbert pilot being tested on a focus group, an experienced executive explained to me the most non-intuitive way to predict success. Since then I’ve observed it to be true a number of times. It goes like this:
If everyone exposed to a product likes it, the product will not succeed."
I'm working from home this week, so I thought' I'd complete my task. In terms of task orientation, I'm the goddamn Tominator of tasks:
Listen. And understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
Stranglely menacing quotes aside. Let's HIT IT!!
11) Know the information gatekeepers.
Hmmm. I'm going to mod that Mr Scoble. "Know where the real power lies" No use sucking up to people who don't count. If someone is on the nose, no point in putting your nose near them.
If there's assmosis to be done, aim high (or low as it were) and stick to your task. The only reason to suck up to someone low is so they can introduce you to someone higher. Then ditch them like a dirty ashtray. Your colleagues won't respect you, but what's respect anyway?
12) Never change the URL of your weblog. I've done it once and I lost much of my readership and it took several months to build up the same reader patterns and trust. I just broke that. I was here, and now I'm here. I'm still the same person. I must say though, this site's back end works real gud. Y'see when I'm done typing on the keyboardy whatnot, I hit this little ol' "publish" button- and what do you know? The post goes live. Fantastic stuff!
13) If your life is in turmoil and/or you're unhappy, don't write. When I was going through my divorce, it affected my writing in subtle ways. Lately I've been feeling a lot better, and I notice my writing and readership quality has been going up too. Turmoil? Yes. Unhappy? Hell no! In fact I feel like ...erm, BOTH of the sons in Luke 15;11-32:
"Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!" "My son," the father said, "you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found."
14) If you don't have the answers, say so. Not having the answers is human. But, get them and exceed expectations. If you say you'll know by tomorrow afternoon, make sure you know in the morning.
I'd like some answers. Sometimes the mysteries of the universe aren't revealed between company announcements. I want some answers- by tomorrow!!
15) Never lie. You'll get caught and you'll lose credibility that you'll never get back.
Unless you are dealing with the media. Then lie til it freakin hurts! Say random one word things to media enquiries and run while they ponder. "Mongoose!!" sprints
16) Never hide information. Just like the space shuttle engineers, your information will get out and then you'll lose credibility. If only it were true Mr S. if only...
17) If you have information that might get you in a lawsuit, see a lawyer before posting, but do it fast. Speed is key here. If it takes you two weeks to answer what's going on in the marketplace because you're scared of what your legal hit will be, then you're screwed anyway. Your competitors will figure it out and outmaneuver you.
Oh snap! If you have information, try to forget it.
18) Link to your competitors and say nice things about them. I did do that. It didn't work out too well..
19) BOGU. This means "Bend Over and Grease Up."
Oh, I'm an expert on this... NOW. I wasn't until... oh say 8.30 am last Friday.
20) Be the authority on your product/company.
I was and am. And now I'm spending wasy too much time here.
So, in summary. IGNORE THAT SCOBLE IDIOT! Listening to him might do your company some good, but won't necessarily keep you employed.
But you will be able to look God/Yahweh/Allah in the eye when the time comes.
One slightly battered, bung-kneed 34-yr-old media whore hound. Able to tell it like it could be for short periods between other engagements.
In return for unfeasibly high remuneration I will:
Do all the IT helpdesk support for your organisation in the event your IT dept has confused its rectum and humerus.
Assist your poor downtrodden people when others are ready to eat them.
Put the 'anal' into analyst.
Make you look good, then let you take all credit.
Tell you the size and nature of the defecation that's about to hit the oscillation. You may not like that part, but that's your problem.
Have bloglines.com open all day on my desktop. Fast moving world, pays to stay on top. It's one of my minimum conditions for working.
Never grow tired of "seeing your vacant faces staring back at me wanting me to fill your empty lives with humor [and ideas-Tom] you couldn't possibly think of yourselves...." Bill Hicks
"Qantas says it is disappointed that it will receive the first of its Airbus A380 aircraft about two years late. Airbus has announced that production problems have forced it to delay deliveries by another year on average."
Yeah, please please RUSH development of a 500 passenger carrying aircraft that could probably wipe out a NATION should it fall from the sky...
"When I started this blog it was, and remains, my intention to tackle some of the real issues that stand between the Telstra That Is and the Telstra That Could Be. "
I love this letter. It starts out edgy, then migrates to mad town. The last paragraph is just fantastic. ALL APPLAUD!
"Conceivable issues for women at war
RE 'Let women fight' ( The Age, 2/10). There is a slight problem with the Geneva Conventions, which were drawn up before affirmative action and equal employment opportunities existed. Females and transgender soldiers are not covered. China, Israel, Russia and Vietnam have scrapped their female combat soldier experiments.
Could the Government be sued by an offspring if a soldier, in the early stages of pregnancy, is bayoneted, blasted, gassed, inoculated or shot? Military medical personnel would have to carry out pregnancy tests before X-raying incoming casualties. Possibly females would have to be withdrawn from a combat unit after conception or sign a contract to the effect they will not become pregnant while posted to a combat unit.
Politicians should direct their legislative energies towards outlawing married soldiers and their partners from having affairs with other soldiers or their partners, as in the US. The current no-intimate-contact-on-military-duty policy does not safeguard soldiers from colleagues who are serial breakers of trust. This is a serious threat to military unit cohesion. Chris Gardiner, Dundas, NSW"
Yes! Here's the campaign: "If ya wear army boots- no roots!"
The death of my sister from breast cancer left a void in my life, my family and the world that, to this day, has not been filled.
This month, I'm going to participate in a web based project called "Pink For October":
Web sites will Go Pink during the month of October to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research.
I'm going to need to fiddle my very-much-black-skewed blog site's sttyle sheet for the month.
I've just had a crack at Harvey Norman's website. I wanted to check out Xbox 360, a new laptop and maybe a digital SLR camera.
So I signed up, waited for the confirmation email and went it.
I can say that in this day and age, this is the worst retail based website I have ever seen. You can order- How? Where is the product range? Where are the prices? The only way I could even see a product was, in desperation I went to the frickin SITE MAP. The site map? Holy hell the only time you look at a site map is to check out the overall number of pages. I haven't looked at a site map since about 2000/1.
There are no details about the products in the laptop section. You have to do your legwork via the manufacturer site.
It just beggars belief that the "leading" elec/comp etc retailer in Australia has a site in 2006 that would have been a disgrace back in 1997... Harvey Norman Website: Home
