#josh sans specs

[link-sans-specs]

The first one [Link] was the goldilocks nose.

GMM2422

Best Friends Vs Identical Twins Challenge

[masaru2042]

Hippity Hoppity, Stay off Railway Property!

Told as an r/entitledparents style parody.  What the engines really do have to deal with when it comes to entitled passengers.

So, I’m Dana.  I’m a driver of a sapient steam engine on a particular island that was made famous by a preacher writing a bunch of children’s books.  I’m the driver of the NWR #4 who pulls the Wild Norwester, aka the Express, a 4-6-2 Gresley A1/A3 Pacific known as Gordon.  Just a little background for those of you who don’t know who that is.  Gordon was the prototype for the A1 Pacifics designed by Nigel Gresley in 1922.  The only other A1 Pacific built in Doncaster by Nigel Gresley is Gordon’s younger brother Scott Gresley, aka the Flying Scotsman.  The reason why Gordon is now an A1/A3 is due to a rebuilt restoring him to his original shape as ordered from Doncaster, removing his straight Sudrian, white frame, and providing him with a Kylchap double exhaust to optimize fuel and water efficiency.  He also was outfitted with corridor tenders and his Sudrian frame and Fowler tender are now on display at the Sodor Railway Museum in Vicarstown.  

And me?  Well, I’m a transplant from Tennessee if anyone wonders why I’m not spelling in the English style, or using British slang.  Or BR and NWR terminology. And Gordon’s fireman is a funny guy named Josh with an equally funny boyfriend named Brian.  They both act like my big brothers.  And Gordon tends to act like my no-nonsense grandpa...among other things.  But we won’t get into those.

And just in case some of you still haven’t caught on.  Yes, he’s that big huge jerk from the Thomas and Friends show with the models.

Well, during the summer months, we get a lot of vacationers (holiday goers for you in the UK), and yes, lots of tourists.  Thanks to those books and the show, people do come from all over the world to actually see what the real engines are like.  And a lot of time, there’s a lot of dissonance from the fans who are expecting the engines to act like they do on the show.  They don’t. None of them do.  Henry isn’t a hypochondriac that complains about every little thing he’s feeling sick over, he’s in fact a very calculating, and intelligent person who pretty much knows secrets about everyone...even me when I had first come to Sodor!  Seriously, he’s really creepy!  Especially when he’s asking questions in a way to phish for information.  If Henry had a computer and actual hands, I have a feeling he might try to get into every government server on the planet just to see what personal secrets he could find.  Henry should be working with INTERPOL not the Northwestern Railway.

Thomas is very mellow thanks to his age, Percy actually can’t stand it when people think he’s a kid when in reality he’s older than Edward!  And he acts like it too.  The only one the show actually got accurate was James.  Yes, James is very full of himself.  Not as much as he is in the show, but he loves puffing around like he’s the king.  And Edward is pretty much a down to Earth guy.  And Emily acts like that older neighbor your mom knows who’s been around the world and back again and loves asking about your sign.  Yeah, that older neighbor.  The one with the bead necklace, the incense, and flowers in her hair.  I swear to God, she’s been to San Francisco.  Interesting little tidbit, Emily is the original Flying Scotsman!  No joke!

Well, it was a rather steamy and hot, summer day on the Island of Sodor, and yes I know what that sounds like!

We weren’t pulling the Express at this moment, we were actually just doing a tour excursion.  This is normal, it allows the tourists to ride the engines belonging to the “Steam Team” as the kiddies call it.  Something the engines belonging to this “Team” roll their eyes about the label.  And not in the comical way the models did.  The “uh-huh, whatever” kind of eye roll, and just chuff on by, not really caring.

So, it was our turn to take the train around, letting the tourists feel what it’s like to ride one of the fastest non-streamlined steam engines in the world.  And the one who actually did win the Great Race, even if he nearly killed himself doing so...beating out a diesel-electric and breaking his safety valve in the process.  This is something Gordon doesn’t like talking about, despite setting a world record in the process.  But still, we did give the guests a proper ride.  

Best way to describe Gordon gliding down the rails.  He’s basically like an antique expensive roadster.  You can tell the moment you tap your foot on the gas that he’s gonna floor it and show you what speed really feels like.  Not your grandma’s station wagon, I’ll tell you that!  Gordon, much like all the other engines, is always kept up to specs.  He pretty much runs as good as the day he popped out of the factory.  You wouldn’t have guessed that he’s nearing 100 years old.  Unlike his brother who is feeling his age no matter how many rebuilds he’s had.  If you haven’t come out of the coaches noticing your body made a dent on the seat, Gordon feels like he hasn’t done his job in making you feel his speed.

That is the power of a Gresley Race Horse.

We were cruising around, well...the train equivalent...and given that Gordon has two corridor tenders now, we could cruise for a long while.  Though we did have to stop a few times just for the passengers to get out take pictures of the scenery, that sort of thing.  Only this particular excursion was allowed to stop on the line.  Gordon was of course outfitted with special lamps to show that we had such permission to stop and were given proper notifications from our conductor of when it was safe to stop.  And when we stopped the guests were ordered to either stay in the coaches, or stay back from the train and rails themselves for safety reasons.  

No standing on railway property, basically.  

No standing in front of the engine on the rails.  

Do not get in the way of workmen and crewmen maintaining the engine.

We were making sure that folks understood this.  

If they got off for pictures, they were only allowed to be on the grass.  And only when they were ready to return to their coaches were they allowed to approach the train again.

Any questions they had, they could ask any of the service personnel and attendants.

And we all had radios.

We stopped, pulled over onto a siding.  And just in case he needed it since there was a lot of stopping and starting and that’s when he uses a lot more water than when he’s running, we stopped on a siding near a water tower.  Josh was filling up Gordon’s canteen and I turned on that little electric fan I clipped on above my station.  It ran off of Gordon’s dynamo too, and I was grateful for it.

I grabbed a cold bottled water from the cooler we had stashed near the main tender and pressed it to my forehead.  Already I could hear some of the kids asking “why doesn’t Gordon produce smoke from his funnel?” or “why does he smell like fish and chips?”  And well, that made me laugh.  A few months ago, Sir Topham Hatt converted Gordon into a waste vegetable oil burner.  So, that explains the fried food smell.  Honestly, it was a good thing because it often made the passengers even more hungry, which means they’d buy more food off the food cart in the Express.  Josh liked it too, he didn’t have to shovel coal anymore, just playground sand with a tiny, toy shovel into a little opening in the firebox to help keep the fire tubes from getting clogged from the oil being atomized.  And Gordon liked how much cleaner he ran.

I heard a few oldtimers snort about how that’s not a real steam engine anymore because of the oil burning rather than coal and then hear Gordon personally retort back: “You better tell Duck that, then!  The GWR went to oil in the 1940s due to coal shortages!  And don’t get me started about the poor caloric contents of today’s coal.  The wasted veggie oil actually is better for me.  Even Welsh coal is barely usable now.  No wonder the BR switched to diesel the way it did.”

And that’s why Gordon’s a WVO burner, folks!  And if any of you are wondering, yes!  He can run off of diesel fuel if he has to.  Which he did once, and no, unlike in the show, the real Gordon doesn’t bitch about the smell or look down upon diesel locomotives.

Well, enter our entitled family.  

I wasn’t the one who first spotted this family doing something they were instructed not to do by the attendants in the coaches.  That was Josh.  Gordon, on the other hand, was concentrating on what the maintenance workers were doing.  Tightening a lug nut, checking the mechanical lubrication injector, the lubricant levels, his exhaust steam injectors.  Clearing any debris out of the way, checking the fuel levels on the coaches.  Yeah, the coaches are diesel powered now.  Hatt went all out!  Servers were handing out drinks to the workers and the passengers.

I heard Josh call out: “Oi!  You can’t stand on that!  Step away from the track!”

The mother said: “We’re trying to take a group photo!”

I felt the cab tilt to the right just slightly.  Gordon’s attention was now on the family as well.

Josh: “I said, you can’t stand in the middle of the track.  Get back on the grass!”

I went to the fireman’s side of the cab, stuck my head out the window to see a very plump family, a rather large man, his equally large wife, and their cherry-red faced, plump kid in a horizontal striped T-shirt.  I also could see the patches of sweat under their armpits.  They were sweating more than I did just by stepping out of their coaches.

Then, Gordon spoke up with that big, booming, baritone voice of his.  Seriously, he should moonlight as a radio host, he’s got the timbre for it!

“You heard what my fireman said, stay off the rails!  It’s for your safety.”

Well, I hopped out the door from the cab and wiped my hands on my jeans.  

The family wasn’t willing to listen to Gordon, no matter how commanding he made his voice sound.  The father was standing on the grass with his smartphone out, taking a picture of the boy and his mother standing in between the railroad ties.  He was angled in such a way to include Gordon in the picture.

“You should smile!” said the entitled father.

Gordon growled and just sneered.  He wasn’t having any of it.  And if I hadn’t set the main brake, he’d probably jut forth just to scare the entitled mother and entitled brat off the track as a lesson.  I could hear a clacking sound, though, Gordon was flexing his friction brakes against his wheels, his way of tensing his muscles in his frustration.  His jaw was set, his teeth clenched, and his brow furrowed.

“Hey!” I called. “What the hell do you think y’all doin’?  Get off the track!”

I don’t think they liked my east Tennessean accent because the mother just turned and looked at me with disgust.  Like she was looking down at some dirty farmhand.  

I guess Gordon saw that face too, because the moment she made it, I heard a low groan from his wheels.  He sounded like he was trying to fight against the brake keeping him motionless.  The moment we met, he’s been rather overprotective of me.  It’s cute.  I could always count on him to have my back.  There was an expulsion of steam from the sides of his cylinders.  And he was rearing to open up his cock valves wide just to give them a good blast of hot vapor.  

But the mother stood firm.

“We’re trying to get a photo!  Now go back to your food cart, little missy!”

“Release the brake,” Gordon whispered, tilting towards me.

“No,” I said.

“I’ll run them over.”

“No you won’t.”

“They’ll be a bloody smear on my buffers.”

And they would once he started off.  Gordon had a lot of torque in him, he could start off in a burst like a motorcycle if he wanted.  And the last thing anyone wanted was 200 tons of locomotive racing for them.

“It’s not worth it.”

“How dare that harpy talk to you in such a manner, Dana!”

“It’s fine, sugar,” I said, laying my hand on a buffer. “Just breathe.”

He said aloud: “That’s my driver!  She’s not a serving girl!”

I heard the father laugh: “Girls can’t be drivers.”

I get that a lot!

And the clacking sound returned.

“You’ll ruin your pads doing that,” I told Gordon.

“And I’ll need to be looked over for hypertension,” he said. “Because I can feel the pain in the back of my smokebox already.  This woman…and her oaf of a husband...”

“Just breathe...in and out, Gordon.”

He took a deep breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth.  It wasn’t helping, though, as I could still hear the clacking of his brakes.

Josh had jumped down from the canteen and walked over.

“You heard what they said, off the rails, please.”

They actually listened to Josh.  I tend to get that a lot.  They don’t want to listen to me because they think I’m some food cart lady, despite not being dressed like one, but Josh...he looked like he belonged where he was.  So, he had a more air of authority than I did.  I guess it was my accent and how I try to put on that Southern sweet tea charm, you know.  So, they don’t take me seriously.

I’m a redneck to them, that’s all they care about.

Obviously, they were done taking pictures.  

Then, the kid turned and darted for the switch.

Points on the rails are set by switches that are either manually moved into positioned, or automatically moved into position, or done so from a signalman’s box.  Here, considering the remote location of this particular siding, the point had to be set by the conductor with a lever at the side of the railroad track after the conductor got the OK from RMC (Railway Mission Control) that the track was clear for Gordon to proceed.  Though this siding was on the mainline, it was quite a ways from a signalman’s box, so that’s why it had to be switched by hand from the conductor.

And yes, I realize they’re called Guards in the UK and Sodor.  But I did say I’m from the US...so...conductor.  And Gordon loves correcting my terminology.

Well, that kid bolted for the switch, and started messing around with it.

Gordon, me, and Josh all lurched forward.

“Step away from that, kid!” I shouted.

“Don’t touch that!” bellowed Gordon.

“What are you doing?!” Josh shouted.

The point was set so that any train needing to pass this siding could.  But the boy grunted and turned the point, setting the switch to the siding.  This would allow Gordon to exit the siding back onto the mainline.  And that was a bad!  This meant any train coming through would derail from the track being set improperly.

“NO!” all three of us cried.

I darted forth and tossed the kid from the lever.  Considering I worked with steam engines for a good portion of my life, I was pretty muscular and toned.  And I could toss around guys bigger than me with ease.  The kid hit the ballast and obviously skinned his elbow.  But I wasn’t worried about that.  My concern was the switch.

Whatever train would be passing by, could very well be derailed!

Who cares about a little brat and his skinned elbow?  But the EM was furious.

“How dare you assault my baby!”

Baby?  That lard of a kid looked like he was 8 years old!

And Gordon was cross. (Because of course I had to put that there.)

“Baby?” he asked. “Your little piglet just very well might cause a terrible accident!”

There was vitriol dripping from his words.

“He’s only playing!” called the mother. “Let him play!  He’s not hurting anyone.  He’s a good boy.”

“Get that crotch goblin away from the switch!” Gordon bellowed out. “Wesley!”

Crotch Goblin.  God I love you, Gordon, I thought.

Wesley was our conductor.  And he was a bit of a pushover especially with how Gordon boxed the poor kid’s ears with that voice of his.  Wesley was kinda new to the job and most of the times he was regulated to excursion duties.  Rarely did he ever serve on the Express due to his inexperience.

I could see him fiddling with his whistle, trying to straighten his hat.  He was a mess.  All the while, I was jerking back and forth trying to get the switch unstuck and set back correctly.  These switches sometimes got stuck because of the heat.

“Y-yes, sir, Mr. Gresley,” said Wesley.

Just a little fact that many of y’all don’t know.  You think we’re the ones in charge here?  The show seems to make you think that, don’t it?  Nope.  The engines are.  Especially engines with seniority like Gordon.  And he made sure everyone on his team knew it.  And again, the kid’s a pushover.

“Go help Dana with the switch!” Gordon barked.

The boy was already bawling like it was the end of the world.  And entitled mother was leaning down to comfort him.  The noise was enough to attract the other passengers to the commotion.

“What happened?” asked Wesley.

“Kid pulled the lever,” said Josh.

“She assaulted my baby!” said the entitled mother.

“I should have you all fired!” the entitled dad shouted. “And that metal monstrosity scrapped.”

“I beg your pardon!” Gordon rounded. “Don’t spit indignation at me, sir! Your piglet has endangered lives.  Wesley, is there a train coming?”

“The Express, Mr. Gresley.”

“Damn…” Gordon seemed to deflate and the color left his cheeks at the sound of a familiar, high-pitched whistle. “Henry’s coming!  This is the Flying Kipper all over again.  Hurry!”

Oh, god...I heard the stories of Henry’s crash.  Of course I knew of it from the books, and from the show.  But the real story was much more gruesome.  Awdry may have said that his driver and fireman survived for the sake of the kids, but that was far from the truth.  They were dead, both of them.  The driver’s head was bashed into to Henry’s controls, thrown from his seat. Henry’s pipes were covered in his driver’s blood. The fireman died moments later, crushed ribs and internal bleeding from the impact.  And Henry was lucky to have survived at all to be rebuilt into a Stanier Black 5.  He was a changed “man” after that.  Much sterner than when he arrived on the island.

“Sir,” I shouted. “You’re about to force an engine who just lived through a horrible wreck involving a point set wrong to relive that nightmare again.  And endangering everyone he’s currently pulling in his coaches.  When this is over, I’m making sure Hatt kicks you and your family of pork rinds off the NWR.  Have fun takin’ the bus for now on!  Or walkin’.  Y’all look like you need a good exercise anyhoo.”

The bus on this island was terrible.  Just a little FYI.

Already, Wesley was radioing the conductor on the Express, hoping to get Henry to slow down before he derailed.  The whistle was even louder.

Josh and I were pulling the lever as hard as we could.  A creak, and at last the lever budged.  The point reset to allow Henry to pass through safely.  A final whistle and the green NWR #3 came speeding on passed Gordon with the Wild Nor’wester.  I collapsed upon my butt and gasped, sweat stinging my eyes.  Josh did the same, patting me on the back.

“You all right?” he asked.

“I will be,” I said.

The conductor still held onto the entitled father and entitled mother, and they held onto their sniveling kid.  While he was holding onto his elbow.

“Wesley,” I said, looking up at the conductor. “Escort those three to the brake coach and keep an eye on them.  The first station we’re stopping at, I want them off the train and in the station master’s office.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “This way, please.”

“I should have your job!” the entitled father called.

“Get the first aid kit, and wipe the little porker’s booboo,” I said.  I slowly rose to my shaking feet. “I should leave y’all right here!  Have you hoof it to the next station.  Maybe if I’m lucky, y’all be arrested by our security guards for trespassin’ on railroad property!”

“Leave them here,” said Gordon. “Especially for that sodding ‘scrapped’ remark!”

I really didn’t give two shits about Gordon’s language here.

So many of Gordon’s brothers had been scrapped thanks to the modernization of the British Railways.  So, of course he would take that insult quite personally.  

“You hear that?” I continued. “Gordon wants to leave you stranded.  And I’m inclined to agree with him.  But I’m not petty like y’all are.”  I turned to him. “No.  Follow the rules, Gordon.  As much as we hate it.  Turn them into the station master and they’ll be banned from riding any of our coaches again.”

“I suppose that shall suffice,” he said.  It didn’t sit happy with him, though.  And it was understandable why he said that.  Gordon’s jaw was still tensed, set tightly.  I reached up and patted him on the running board and he seemed to unwind just a slight, his frame coming to a rest.

“Wankers,” he at last said to relieve any emotional steam still pinned up inside. “The lot of them.  Completely gobsmacked those types exist.”

“Yeah,” I said with a huff.

“You two finished taking the piss, or are we getting this bloody train a-moving?” Josh asked.

Gordon and I laughed.  That finally got the last kink in our collective spines untied.  I took a deep breath and rounded Gordon, only to climb in on the driver’s side.  We waited for Wesley to come back.  He no doubt already ordered the other crewmen to keep an eye on our entitled guests.  He maybe a pushover to us, but not to the passengers.  Especially the unruly ones.  He took out his pocket watch, glanced at it, and then dropped it back into his pocket.  He pulled out a radio, calling for the signal to switch the points.  The passengers were already on board.

A few of Gordon’s valves began to move just slightly.  The cock valves in his cylinders opened up with a hiss.  I pinched the brake lever and pushed it forward and Gordon clenched his friction brakes to compensate.  Then, the conductor whistled and signaled for the all clear.  Gordon steamed forwards slowly, relaxing the brakes.  As he pulled up, Wesley took hold of the railing and climbed into the cab.  

Gordon sounded his low whistle twice and he was off.

And if y’all are wondering about what happens to the points after the train passes them.  It is weight sensitive, and there’s a mechanism that puts the points back once the train clears it.  The conductor normally will see if the point had reset by the signal’s position.  And it did.  Only the lever got stuck, not the mechanism itself.

By the time the train pulled into the station, there were security guards waiting to escort the entitled family to the station master’s office for a stern talking to.  On the other platform was Henry with the Express, waiting to load his passengers.  I suppose he noticed the security guards escorting the still bickering entitled family, because he spoke up.

“Gordon, what the bloody hell happened?”

“You almost had another wreck, Henry,” Gordon replied. “No thanks to that family of pigs over there.”

“Eh?  What were they doing?”

“Messing with the points.”

“So that’s what my driver was acting all frantic about,” he said. “I thought the man was having a heart attack.”

“Nope, you nearly had a wreck like the one back in...what was it…‘36?”

“Was ‘35, actually.”

“Ah, that’s right,” Gordon said. “1935.  Bloody snowstorm.”

“I should know, I was out in it, unfortunately.  Then the Thin Clergyman decided to put my rebuild at 1951.  Don’t know why he’d did that.  That was getting close to the year Beeching was proposing his modernization plan.”

“Dreadful man.”

Gordon never liked Richard Beeching.  With good reason.

A whistle from the platform sounded and Henry got his signal to move on.

“See you back at the sheds, Gordon!” he said with a whistle, pulling out from the station.

I came walking out onto the platform, stopping right beside Gordon’s smoke box.

“I think I’m gonna go home, prop my feet up, get out a tub of chocolate ice cream and watch a stupid chick flick tonight,” then I turned to him. “Wanna join me?”

“Well, you did leave that tub of ice cream in the freezer back at the sheds,” he said. “What stupid chick flick do you want to watch?”

“How about Sex in the City?”

“Oh, that’s a ripe cabbage, isn’t it?” Gordon asked. “Brilliant.  We can both yell at the movie.”

“Hey, Josh, wanna join us?”

“Nah,” he said through the window. “Dinner night.  Brian’s cooking.”

“Have fun with that,” I said. “Hey, you make sure you share some leftovers.  You know how much I love Brian’s cooking.”

“And how much I love smelling it,” said Gordon. “I swear, if it kills me, I’ll figure out how to eat, someday.”

“I promise, Gordon,” began Josh. “I’m sure he’ll have some leftover wasted vegetable oil.  We’ll put it in the strainer and give it to you.”

“Good enough.”

Well, we all returned to our posts and continued the excursion.  

Movie night was fun too.  

The next day, we were back on Express duty.  Sir Topham Hatt came to tell us that family was banned from any excursions and any service on the railway.  Like I said, regulated to riding the bus for now on.  They were also severely fined.  Like severely, made to do some community service as well.

Funny note on that family, apparently, it wasn’t the first time that hog brat messed with the switches.  We stopped for a connection with the Skarloey Railway.  And in came Sir Handel with his passengers.  Word got around quick about the family.  And Handel knew all about it.

“They pulled that stunt with us here on the narrow gauge,” said Sir Handel. “The fat twat of a boy started messing with the points.  Rheneas saw what was happening, screeched to a halt as best as he could...and derailed.  No one was hurt, thank heavens.”

“Why the bloody hell was that family allowed to ride my excursion train, then?” Gordon asked. “If that boy pulled the same stunt as before?  And caused a wreck.”

I was out standing on the walkway between the narrow gauge track and the standard one, looking dumbfounded by what Sir Handel had said.

“The little piggy bolted away when he heard his mum calling him,” said Richard, Handel’s driver.

“Aye, greasy bugger, that one,” said Handel. “Before the security could catch up, I suppose he must’ve gotten on your train, Gordon.”

“What the actual fuck,” I said, shaking my head.

“But the security cameras caught him in the act,” said Richard. “I suppose after the second stint he caused, that was enough to ban the whole family.  He was also causing some mischief with the Smallies too.  Was trying to tip over poor Mike, calling him a toy.  Mum encouraged it too, saying ‘he’s only playing’.”

“Bloody strong, if he could attempt to tip over Mike,” said Handel. “Smallies may be small, but they are heavy.”

“Each of them weigh as much as a car,” I said.

“He could tip over your Mustang if given a chance,” said Gordon.

“Like I’d let him have it!”

Gordon chuckled.

“The Small Controller kicked the mother and her brat out,” said Handel. “Filed a report on it.  Then, they came here.  And started more trouble.”

“And then they came onto my train,” said Gordon. “Lovely, isn’t it?  We have a connection with the Arlesdale Railway.  Should let the Small Controller know we got the brat and his parents banned from all of the railway.”

“I’d say for that boy, he’s…” began Handel. “How do you American’s say it, Dana?  He rides the short bus, seems like?”

“That’s what we say, Sir Handel,” I nodded in agreement. “And his parents probably spoiled him rotten because of it.”

I took a glance back and noticed all the passengers were finally filing on board.  Turning around, I slowly trotted back toward Gordon’s cab.

“Thanks for the info!” I waved, hopping back in. “We’ll let Mr. Duncan know we had a visit from the Terror Piglet.”

Both Sir Handel and Gordon broke out into a chuckle at the name I gave the kid.

Sad fact of some parents with children that have developmental problems.  Sometimes, they just spoil them, let them do whatever they want.  Don’t bother to correct their behavior.  And this case was one of those.  I suppose my name for the kid seemed mean.  I should blame the parents more than the child for bringing him up like that.  But considering the havoc he raised, putting people and engines in danger, damaging railway property, little regard to what he was doing, and his parents encouraging the behavior, to relieve my stress, the “Terror Piglet” seemed to stick.  Judge me for my own behavior, but the kid nor his parents get no leeway with me.  I didn’t exactly have a perfect childhood either, but I did learn enough about real life not to act like a “twat” as they say over here.

Along the way, we managed to find that wretched family.  There they were, standing at a bus stop in the heat, sweating like the hogs they were.  The entitled brat looked up and started to bolt for the fence, ready to lunge himself over.  Which would be trespassing again.

I called out: “Hippity, hoppity! Stay off railway property!”

Gordon gave two short, very short, very poignant whistles as he blew on by them.  Being around Gordon for so long, I began to learn what certain whistles meant depending on how the engine sounded them.

Gordon basically flipped that family the bird in the only way an engine could.

Considering what that kid nearly made Henry do yesterday, and the horror that entailed, I didn’t correct him on it.  I only smiled.

And now, my mind turned to more important thoughts.  

Like Brian’s leftovers in the cooler.

[gravityblue]

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Hello and welcome to my Nuzzel newsletter! Adnan Ariffin (Today's Google Stock price is: 828.07.)

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This South Korean company has built a 5G search and rescue airship

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It's surprising more people aren't excited about 5G given its potential. Although more than half of global consumers expect it to deliver faster mobile networks, only a quarter think the next generation cellular network technology will lead to…

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Created to democratise credit, P2P lenders are going after big money

The Economist – Dec 5, 8:16 AM

“GET YOUR money right,” says a giant billboard in garish, Instagram-friendly colours in San Francisco's downtown. It is part of a campaign by SoFi, a fintech firm, to position itself as a one-stop shop for alternative finance. Founded…

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2020 Toyota Camry: Model overview, pricing, tech and specs - Roadshow

CNET – Sean Szymkowski – Nov 30, 5:00 AM

Big improvements are here for 2020, including optional all-wheel drive. It's the best-selling passenger car in the US, and despite a never-ending thirst for crossovers and SUVs, the Toyota Camry continues to prevail. The 2020 Toyota Camry looks a…

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Nuzzel, Inc., 665 3rd St., Suite 150, San Francisco, CA 94107

[fmservers]

Zeus raises $24M to make you a living-as-a-service landlord

Cookie-cutter corporate housing turns people into worker drones. When an employee needs to move to a new city for a few months, they’re either stuck in bland, giant apartment complexes or Airbnbs meant for shorter stays. But Zeus lets any homeowner get paid to host white-collar transient labor. Through its managed ownership model, Zeus takes on all the furnishing, upkeep, and risk of filling the home while its landlords sit back earning cash.

Zeus has quietly risen to a $40 million revenue run rate from its target 30 percent margin on renting out 800 homes in 23 cities. That’s up 5X in a year thanks to Zeus’ 100 employees. With a 90 percent occupancy rate, it’s proven employers and their talent want more unique, trustworthy, well-equipped multi-month residences that actually make them feel at home.

Now while Airbnb is distracted with its upcoming IPO, Zeus has raised $24 million to steal the corporate housing market. That includes a previous $2.5 million seed round from Bowery, the new $11.5 million Series A led by Initialized Capital whose partner Garry Tan will join Zeus’ board, and $10 million in debt to pay fixed costs like furniture. The plan is to roll up more homes, build better landlord portal software, and hammer out partnerships or in-house divisions for cleaning and furnishing.

“In the first decade out of school people used to have two jobs. Now it’s four jobs and it’s trending to five” says Zeus co-founder and CEO Kulveer Taggar. “We think in 10 years, these people won’t be buying furniture.” He imagines they’ll pay a premium for hand-holding in housing, which judging by the explosion in popularity of zero-friction on-demand services, seems like an accurate assessment of our lazy future. Meanwhile, Zeus aims to be “the quantum leap improvement in the experience of trying to rent out your home” where you just punch in your address plus some details and you’re cashing checks 10 days later.

Buying Mom A House Was Step 1

“When I sold my first startup, a bought a home for my mom in Vancouver” Taggar recalls. It was payback for when she let him remortgage her old house while he was in college to buy a condo in Mumbai he’d rent out to earn money. “Despite not having much growing up, my mom was a travel agent and we got to travel a lot” which Taggar says inspired his goal to live nomadically in homes around the world. Zeus could let other live that dream.

Zeus co-founder and CEO Kulveer Taggar

After Oxford and working as an analyst at Deutsche Bank, Taggar built student marketplace Boso before moving to the United States. There, he co-founded auction tool Auctomatic with his cousin Harjeet Taggar and future Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison, went through Y Combinator, and sold it to Live Current Media for $5 million just 10 months later. That gave him the runway to gift a home to his mom and start tinkering on new ideas.

With Y Combinator’s backing again, Taggar started NFC-triggered task launcher Tagstand, which pivoted into app settings configurer Agent, which pivoted into automatic location sharing app Status. But when his co-founder Joe Wong had to move an hour south from San Francisco to Palo Alto, Taggar was dumbfounded by how distracting the process was. Listing and securing a new tenant was difficult, as was finding a medium-term rental without having to deal with exhorbitant prices or sketchy Cragislist. Having seen his former co-founder go on to great success with Stripe’s dead-simple payments integration, Taggar wanted to combine that vision with OpenDoor’s easy home sales to making renting or renting out a place instantaneous. That spawned Zeus.

Stripe Meets OpenDoor To Beat Airbnb

To become a Zeus landlord, you just type in your address, how many bedrooms and bathrooms, and some aesthetic specs, and you get a monthly price quote for what you’ll be paid. Zeus comes in and does a 250-point quality assessment, collects floor plans, furnishes the property, and handles cleaning and maintenance. It works with partners like Helix mattresses, Parachute sheets, and Simple Human trash cans to get bulk rates. “We raised debt because we had these fixed investments into furniture. It’s not as dilutive as selling pure equity” Taggar explains.

Zeus quickly finds a tenant thanks to listings in Airbnb and relationships with employers like Darktrace and ZS Associates with lots of employees moving around. After passing background checks, tenants get digital lock codes and access to 24/7 support in case something doesn’t look right. The goal is to get someone sleeping there in just 10 days. “Traditional corporate housing is $10,000 a month in SF in the summer or at extended stay hotels. Airbnb isn’t well suited [for multi-month stays]. ” Taggar claims. “We’re about half the price of traditional corporate housing for a better product and a better experience.”

Zeus signs minimum two-year leases with landlords and tries to extend them to five years when possible. It gets one free month of rent as is standard for property managers, but doesn’t charge an additional rate. For example, Zeus might lease your home for $4,000 per month but gets the first month free, and rent it out for $5,000 so it earns $60,000 but pays you $44,000. That’s a tidy margin if Zeus can get homes filled fast and hold down its upkeep costs.

At Home, Anywhere

There’s no shortage of competitors chasing this $18 billion market in the US alone. There are the old-school corporations and chains like Oakwood and Barbary Coast that typically rent out apartments from vast, generic complexes at steep rates. Airbnb For Work made up 15 percent of the unicorn’s business last year, but the platform wasn’t designed for peace-of-mind around long-term stays. There are pure marketplaces like UrbanDoor that don’t always take care of everything for the landlord or provide consistent tenant experiences. And then there are direct competitors like $130 million-funded Sonder, $66 million-funded Domio, recently GV-backed 2nd Address, and European entants like MagicStay, AtHomeHotel, and Homelike.

There’s plenty of pie, though. With 330,000 housing units in SF alone, Zeus has plenty of room to grow. The rise of remote work means companies whose employee typically didn’t relocate may now need to bring in distant workers for a multi-month sprint. A recession could make companies more expense-cautious, leading them to rethink putting up staffers in hotels for months on end. Regulatory red tape and taxes could scare landlords away from short-term rentals and towards coprorate housing. And the need to expand into new businesses could tempt the big vacation rental platforms like Airbnb to make acquisitions in the space — or try to crush Zeus

Winners will be determined in part by who has the widest and cheapest selection of properties, but also by which makes people most comfortable in a new city. That’s why Taggar is taking a cue from WeWork by trying to arrange more community events for its tenants. Often in need of friends, Zeus could become a favorite by helping people feel part of a neighborhood rather than a faceless inmate in a massive apartment block or hotel. That gives Zeus network effect if it can develop density in top markets.

Taggar says the biggest challenge is that “I feels like I’m running five startups at once. Pricing, supply chain, customer service, B2B. We’ve decided to make everything custom — our own property manager software, our own internal CRM. We think these advantages compound, but I could be wrong and they could be wasted effort.”

The benefits of Zeus‘ success would go beyond the founder’s bank account. “I’ve had friends in New York get great opportuntiies in San Francisco but not take them because of the friction of moving” Taggar says. Routing talent where it belongs could get more things built. And easy housing might make people more apt to live abroad temporarily. Taggar concludes, “I think it’s a great way to build empathy.”

Via Josh Constine https://techcrunch.com

[link-sans-specs]

The Sans Specs Triplets 🤭

GMM2422

Best Friends Vs Identical Twins Challenge

[olivereliott]

Fat Tracker: Untitled’s Stripped-Down Moto Guzzi V9

It’s been a busy year for Hugo Eccles of Untitled Motorcycles. His Ducati Hyper Scrambler appeared on Jay Leno’s Garage, and his ‘Supernaturale’ Moto Guzzi custom won the coveted Design & Style award at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering this past June.

Moto Guzzi must have been paying attention because they recently commissioned Hugo to customize their V9 Bobber as part of their ‘Pro-Build’ program.

Untitled Motorcycles have an unusual cross-continent split: Hugo runs the San Francisco workshop, and Adam Kay the original London setup. They’ve been around since 2010, and feature regularly on EXIF and in the original bible of the modern custom scene, The Ride.

Hugo started by stripping the V9 Bobber down to the running chassis—frame, motor, and wheels—to see what lay underneath the panels.

“The V9 has a lovely Tonti-style tubular frame,” he says. “The rear of the frame, where it supports the engine, suggested the outline of a racing number plate, and that’s where the idea for a fat-wheeled flat tracker started.”

“I decided to customize the Bobber version because I like the fat-wheel look, and I wanted to retain the original 16” cast alloy wheels. The shaft drive also makes swapping the rear end tricky.”

Hugo mistakenly thought it’d be easy to find cool 16″ rubber. After three weeks of searching, he finally located a set of Heidenau K66 all-weather tires. “They’re actually scooter tires, but rated to 112mph and 639 pounds—so they’re adequately spec’d for the bike.”

Identical 140/70-16 tires are fitted both front and rear, and are interchangeable—in keeping with the flat track theme.

Hugo has cleaned up the V9’s frame, removing redundant brackets for the stock battery, airbox, and ABS. He’s also moved the rear suspension mounts forward an inch to accommodate longer Hagon 420mm (16.5″) shocks, and added a custom rear hoop to continue the flow of the frame and create a seat bump stop.

The Guzzi’s air-cooled 853cc motor is engineered for torque so it’s well suited to dirt. “I really liked the idea of creating a tension between the large transverse v-twin motor and a small body perched on top,” he says.

Inspired by the 1960s Hanna-Barbera character Magilla Gorilla—a large ape with a tiny hat—and taking cues from the lines of the Guzzi’s frame, Hugo designed a chopped-down, super-slim monobody that contrasts with the width of the transverse motor’s cylinders.

He got help from Nate Diepenbroek, a fabricator near UMC’s San Francisco workshop. “Nate and I worked together on the UMC-038 Hyper Scrambler, so we have a good working relationship: I create the design and the rough buck—usually from cardboard, foam and bondo—and Nate and I work together to translate that into metal.”

Diepenbroek used the original tank tunnel but ending up moving the side-mounted fuel pump to keep the slim fuel tank design. A dry break receiver atop the fuel tank completes the flat track race look.

The fuel tank and seat blend together into a seamless monobody design topped with a narrow, vinyl-upholstered seat that matches the grey stripe on top of the tank.

Aluminum heat shields, designed as part of the monobody, protect the rider’s legs from the exhaust. It’s a custom stainless steel system that runs over the top of the cylinders and inside the rear of the frame. Perforated exhaust tips mimic the heat shield’s hole pattern.

The removable shields, built entirely by hand, were a task in themselves. “There are 438 holes. Each one was punched, piloted, drilled and reamed before being filed, sanded, sandblasted, and finally vapor blasted. That’s about 2,200 operations,” says Hugo.

“I’ve always had a soft spot for the iconic Guzzi v-twin and the V9 motor is beautifully made so I kept it in factory-spec and finish.”

All mechanical and control elements are finished in textures of black to create a visual separation with the metallic green bodywork: “It’s a bespoke color mix from Kandy Kolor, laid down by Jay at motojrefinish, that has an extraordinary flip-flop quality. The color constantly shifts from metallic yellow to metallic green,” says Hugo.

“I really wanted to specify a color that’s both modern and also uniquely ‘Guzzi.’ That led to the iconic 1971 V7 Sport with the metallic ‘Verde Legnano’ lime green tank and red ‘Telaio Rosso’ frame.”

Hugo originally intended to mimic that combination but then decided to use the green for both the body and the frame. There’s bright red on the underside of the frame, and on the kicked up rear—where it integrates with the custom LED brake/blinker array designed with Motobox.

“This was an opportunity to push the boundaries” says Motobox’s Josh Alvarez, who built a DTRA-style front number plate. It’s got integrated turn signals and a pair of 500 lumen LED spotlights that perform as hi/lo-beams.

Up front, there’s a full array of custom controls, including switchgear by Posh Factory, wired inside clip-on bars. “They’re modified Suzuki GSX-R handlebars, mount upside down and backwards, paired with Oury grips and Magura HC1 radial masters,” Hugo explains.

The stock top bracket was retained, but modified with a prominent start button replacing the original ignition block, and a tiny Motogadget LED display machined into the top surface. A Motogadget m.unit operates a keyless RFID module built into the seat.

It’s a less-is-more approach that been applied to the whole build. “I’m a huge proponent of Lotus boss Colin Chapman’s mantra ‘simplify and add lightness’,” says Hugo, and that’s evident in the result.

It’s a pared-down, minimalist take on the Guzzi V9, almost unrecognizable from the original bike. That seems to be something of a characteristic of Hugo’s style, judging by his earlier Ducati Hyper Scrambler build.

Hugo’s recently received a commission from Ducati USA, and a joint USA/UK project with Triumph is in the pipeline: “Adam and I are going to be building two custom Triumphs—one in San Francisco and one on London—but not telling each other what we’re doing. It’ll be an in-house competition!”

Untitled Motorcycles’ Fat Tracker is on the Moto Guzzi stand at the International Motorcycle Show at Long Beach California this weekend Friday 17th to Sunday 19th November.

Untitled Motorcycles | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Erik Jutras | Moto Guzzi USA

SPECIFICATIONS Length: 203cm / 80″ Width: 71cm / 28″ Height: 104cm / 41″ Seat: 78cm / 31″ Weight: 174kg / 383lbs Fuel: 9.8 litres / 2.6 gallons

BODYWORK Custom-designed, hand-fabricated steel monobody OEM fuel pump Custom seat, upholstered in grip vinyl, UMC tag Dry break racing fuel filler cap Kustom Kolor ‘Verde Legnano’ candy paint, custom graphics

FRAME & SUSPENSION Moto Guzzi V9 frame, modified and braced Hagon 420-80STR Boxer shocks, 80mm travel Moto Guzzi V7 Marzocchi forks, 130mm travel Moto Guzzi 4.00 x 16″ cast aluminum rear wheel, shaft drive single 320mm floating front disc with Brembo 4-pot caliper Moto Guzzi 3.50 x 16″ cast aluminum front wheel 260mm rear disc and Brembo 2-pot caliper 140/70-16 Heidenau K66 tires front and rear

DRIVETRAIN 853cc air-cooled 90º transverse V-twin motor, shaft drive Custom 16GA stainless steel exhaust system, perforated tips Titanium exhaust wrap Custom fabricated brushed aluminium heat shields

CONTROLS Moto Guzzi V9 top bracket, modified Suzuki GSXR clip-on bars, modified Oury grips Posh Factory switches, internal wiring Magura HC1 brake and clutch radial masters Goodridge Sniper brake and clutch lines Race start button, integrated into top bracket Motogadget Motoscope Mini LED display, machined into top bracket Agostini rearsets, anodised to match frame

ELECTRICS Motogadget m-Unit Motogadget m-Button Motogadget m-Lock keyless RFID ignition, integrated into seat Antigravity XPS SC-1 lithium ion battery Magneti Marelli MIU-G3 single-body EFI unit with filter pod ABS removed O2 sensors removed Motobox custom-built LED tail light array with integrated turn signals Motobox custom-built illuminated headlight panel with integrated turn signals Twin Vision X Mini-Solo 500 lumen hi/lo spotlights

THANKS TO Patrick Flynn, Piaggio USA | Jessica Raya | Nate, Diepenbroek Fabrications | Simon Waterfall | Emil Lindstrom, E’SE Engineering | Peter, Magura USA | Jay Abate, motojrefinish | Josh Alvarez, Motobox | Turk, Turk’s Shop | Sean & John, Goodridge USA | Dan Acker, Acker Leatherworks | Victor Wilkens | Felicia, Heidenau USA | Chad, Sudco Int’l | Stefan, Radical Guzzi | Dana, SPD Exhausts | Hagon Suspension | Elliot, Champion Powdercoaters

[t-baba]

#313: The state of Chrome and the Web Platform today

Frontend Focus

Issue 313 — October 25, 2017

The Story of CSS Grid, From Its Creators

The story behind the CSS Grid spec, and the more than 20-year process that led to today.

Aaron Gustafson

HEAD: Everything To Go In Your HTML's 'head'

Starts from the usual basics (title, charset, etc.) but works up to a significant number of meta and link tags useful in various situations.

Josh Buchea

Saying Goodbye to Firebug

The popular webdev tool Firebug surely inspired Chrome’s DevTools but has now reached end-of-life. Here’s a look back at what it brought us during its 12-year lifespan.

Jan Honza Odvarko

Build Fully Interactive JavaScript Charts 📈 In Minutes

Get started with modern developers solution for charting and visualization. ZingChart is fully featured, integrates with popular JS frameworks, & has a robust API with endless customization options.

ZingChart   Sponsor

Chrome Dev Summit 2017 Keynote

Ben Galbraith, leader of the Chrome Web Platform team, and Dion Almaer, Google Engineering Director, discuss the state of Chrome and the Web Platform today.

Google Chrome Developers

Fast By Default: Modern Loading Best Practices

Addy Osmani runs through loading best practices for diagnosing and making real-world sites load ‘instantly’. Filmed at the Chrome Dev Summit 2017.

Google Chrome Developers

accessibilityjs: A Client-Side Accessibility Error Scanner

GitHub uses this for scanning for inaccessible elements within its interfaces during development.

GitHub

Jobs

UI Designer/Frontend DeveloperInterested in #tech4good? We’re seeking a UI Designer to work across ideation, prototyping & coding for international development. Catalpa International

craigslist seeks JavaScript Developers (San Francisco, CA)CL seeks JS developers to join our small (~50) team in SF. Come help us save the world, or at least our corner of the Internet. craigslist

Looking for your dream front-end role?Try Underdog.io, where hundreds of top tech companies go to find front-end talent. Companies email you directly as soon as next Monday. Underdog.io

In Brief

CKEditor 5 Rich Text Editor Released news Frederico Knabben

Get FlexGrid, The Best JavaScript Data Grid: Fast, Flexible, No dependencies  With no dependencies and a small footprint, Wijmo FlexGrid is built for speed and extensibility. GrapeCity Wijmo  Sponsor

Alt-texts: The Ultimate Guide to 'alt' Attribute Text tutorial Daniel Göransson

Building an Elegant Progress Ring with SVG tutorial .. and then using it as a Web Component or in Vue or React. Jeremias Menichelli

Animating a Blur Efficiently tutorial Google Developers

My Approach to Using z-index tutorial A recommendation to categorise all uses of z-index as either local or global. David Gilbertson

Thoughts on Tabbed Interfaces tutorial The art of creating an accessible tabbed component, and whether you should. Inclusive Components

Screen Capture in Google Chrome tutorial How to access the screen capture capabilities of Google Chrome from within a web app. Phil Nash

How to Build a Grid Inspector tutorial A fun little project that aims to leave you with a better understanding of how the devtools Grid Inspector tool works. Dave Geddes

Detect Supported Audio Formats with JavaScript tutorial David Walsh

Creating Component Variants with Scoped CSS Variables tutorial Jonathan Harrell

Get Your Dream Job In Tech - Learn to Code at Fullstack Academy  Fullstack Academy is the nation's leading coding school - Our graduates get hired at Google, Facebook and Amazon. Fullstack Academy  Sponsor

A Look Back at the History of CSS story Jason Hoffman

Building a Modern Mobile Media Experience video Francois Beaufort and John Pallett review best practices for mobile web media, including playback controls, pre-loading, autoplay and offline. Google Chrome Developers

Axis-Praxis: OpenType Variable Fonts in the Browser tools A web tool for playing with Variable Fonts. Laurence Penney

SVG Regular Polygon Generator tools Varun Vachhar

SQIP: A SVG-based 'Low Quality Image Preview' Technique code Generate tiny SVG-based placeholders on the server side. Tobias Baldauf

Monopoly Board Created with CSS Grid demo John Coppola

by via Frontend Focus http://ift.tt/2zOJjPn

[gossipnetwork-blog]

From Anxiety to Revenge: Rachel Bloom on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 3 & Diagnosing Rebecca Bunch

New Post has been published on https://gossip.network/from-anxiety-to-revenge-rachel-bloom-on-crazy-ex-girlfriend-season-3-diagnosing-rebecca-bunch/

From Anxiety to Revenge: Rachel Bloom on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 3 & Diagnosing Rebecca Bunch

Saying your TV show is “funny Fatal Attraction” paints quiet the image, but that’s what Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season three has been dubbed. The new season picks up with a jilted Rebecca Bunch, played by series co-creator Rachel Bloom, on a quest for revenge.

“Rebecca, for the whole show, has tried to be people she’s seen in movies and TV shows because she has no sense of who she is internally. And so she has tried to—every time she takes on another persona it’s like trying on a new costume. The same goes for this Fatal Attraction,” Bloom told E! News. “She says, ‘OK, you left me at the altar, you called me crazy, great. I’m crazy. I’m crazy and I’m f—king sexy and I’m a dynamo.’ She’s going to come in with this persona, but again, it’s the same mistake she keeps making, which is like, Rebecca, what do you really want? Who are you really?”

Aline Brosh McKenna, the show’s co-creator, said Rebecca Bunch will try to be the femme fatale she always saw herself as after Josh Chan (Vincent Rodriguez III) left her at the altar. “It’s not really her area of expertise, as we know from previous seasons she really cares tremendously about being a good person, so it’s a struggle for her. We wanted to sort of get inside the human aspects of what happens if you actually try to do something like that,” Brosh McKenna said about Rebecca’s quest for revenge.

CW

Some of the revenge Rebecca embarks on borders on the absurd, as one is to expect from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Sex tapes and poop are involved.

“Yes, these are revenge fantasies that I’ve had and never done,” Bloom admitted. “And I think what’s interesting is, the thrill of living them out is fun, but also the imagining of what happens. It’s like, ‘OK, I’m glad I never did these things because this ends in disaster.'”

A woman scorned…and then everything changes, Bloom said, “we’re going to shatter that later in the season.”

“You can’t. You absolutely can’t,” Bloom said about coming back from some of the revenge actions. “And I’m really excited to talk to you around episode seven. Like, really excited.”

Midway through the season is when Crazy Ex-Girlfriend tends to turn everything on its head. Is this her rock bottom? “Tentatively, yes,” Bloom said. Is there redemption? “Well…I will say that when you see your life as a movie…and you see yourself as a character in a genre of a movie, things are not going to go well,” she said with a laugh.

Bloom has been vocal about her and Brosh McKenna’s four-year plan for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The arc for Rebecca Bunch that was planned out before the series began remains generally intact, Bloom said, aside from an extended first season that featured some more story exploration, like with Greg (Santino Fontana, who has since left the show).

“It’s generally the same. I think what’s been very interesting—as you know, we’re diagnosing her this season and talking to therapists and looking into, ‘OK, what’s really going on with her? What’s really wrong?’ And realizing that actually we’ve been building to this kind of treatment that she needs to follow pretty organically, in ways that we kind of knew and kind of didn’t…The idea of just someone who has not explored their inner life,” Bloom said. “It was interesting because the year that we made the pilot and started writing the pilot was also the year I got engaged and also the year this anxiety I had at the age 11 came back in full force.”

“It was like, ‘It’s yours to f—k up,'” she continued. “So simultaneously while writing the pilot I began to see a psychiatrist for the first time in my life and I got into meditating and I, in a way, did somewhat of what Rebecca needs to do, which is this idea of being alone with your thoughts and getting into those really uncomfortable nooks and crannies and wanting to genuinely feel better. I was never at the lows that Rebecca’s been at, we’re different people, but that was very interesting. Those things still hold water and they teach me. Playing Rebecca now and dealing with all the mistakes she makes reminds me, ‘OK, these are the things I still need to be doing to make sure I don’t turn into her.'”

Bloom’s frankness about her own struggles with anxiety extends to the way the show deals with mental illness, sexuality and everything in between. Brosh McKenna said they take great care in researching and consulting outside experts when tackling subjects. The fact that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was created by two women and raises awareness, usually through comedy and song, will be its legacy.

“It’s pretty cool. I see it most in my live shows when people come up to me and want to tell me about their lives and how the show��s affected them. I took Twitter and Facebook off my phone just because I was spending way too much time—it fries my brain. And I can’t take Instagram off my phone because Instagram doesn’t work on the computer, but I was sitting for 20 minutes on the toilet answering tweets, rather than being on set and making my show,” she said.

“The other reason I took Twitter and Facebook off is because on the occasion you get a mean comment—I want to be able to choose when I’m going to expose myself to that rather than casually being on the s–tter and being like, ‘Oh! Someone just called me fat and stupid. F—k. Well, got to go shoot a scene!’ That kind of sucks, but I am aware of the affect. It’s very weird because I feel when you love the show, you love the show. Our fans are so loyal and they’re diehard fans. Then you see our ratings and we’re the lowest-rated show on network television. But when I’m in places like, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York…I think we’re having an impact and I definitely see the impact, I’ve heard from other show creators and writers who are like, ‘Can you read my Crazy Ex spec script?’ and I’m like, ‘Actually, legally, I can’t.'”

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is still on, but its legacy is clear. “Yeah, that’s what’s really cool for me,” Bloom said. “The idea that you can always go back and watch this, until the world is inevitably destroyed by global warming…”

Yet with all the attention and acclaim the show gets, there must be pressure for Bloom to be a role model, right? “All I can do really is keep doing what I’m doing. I think that there’s the standard I place on myself, which is to put out good work, but all I can do is keep being myself. I mean, luckily I’m not seen as like…I don’t know. All I can do is be honest and be myself,” she said.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend season three premieres Friday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. on The CW.

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[sbknews]

New Post has been published on Superbike News

New Post has been published on http://superbike-news.co.uk/wordpress/cameron-beaubier-doubles-return-sonoma-raceway/

Cameron Beaubier Doubles In Return To Sonoma Raceway

Cameron Beaubier put together a dream weekend for himself in the MotoAmerica Championship at Sonoma Raceway, the two-time defending MotoAmerica Superbike Champion sweeping both Motul Superbike races at his home track for his first double-win of the season.

After storming to victory in Saturday’s Motul Superbike race, Beaubier came back to the track in Northern California’s wine country with aspirations of doing the same thing. And that he did, the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing-backed Beaubier winning Sunday’s race by 7.2 seconds for the 23rd AMA Superbike win of his career.

“I’m just really happy with how the whole weekend went,” the 25-year-old Beaubier said. “We made a few changes here and there to get a bit more comfortable but I think we made a good step fine tuning the electronics, which we had been struggling with a bit this year. All in all it was a really successful weekend for us. Today’s race was quite a bit tougher than yesterday. Yesterday when Josh (Herrin) and Roger (Hayden) went down I think that made the race. It made the race a little easier midway. When I went to settle down I had about a 4.3-second gap and I started calming down a little bit to not make any big mistakes. I didn’t want to go throw it down the road and then Toni (Elias) shrunk the gap so I just kept my head down, kept pushing the whole way and tried to keep that gap the same. We were able to hold on, he (Toni) was riding really good, and I’m just happy I can get this done for Yamaha. I know how hard they work and they want to win real bad. I’m ready to go win in Pittsburgh.”

For the second straight day, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Toni Elias finished second to Beaubier. This time the Motul Superbike Championship points leader got to second place quicker than yesterday after again starting from ninth on the grid. Once he got to second, the Spaniard was able to chip away a little bit at Beaubier’s lead, but the Yamaha rider responded in kind to pull back away. Elias, with a 70-point lead in the championship, didn’t keep up the fight and faded to finish a tick over seven seconds behind. It was Elias’ 13th podium finish in 14 races.

“After yesterday’s race I felt there was nothing left to lose so we tried the super soft (Dunlop) tire, not the extra soft like yesterday,” Elias said. “What we calculated was perfect. I did a good start and quickly passed some riders and soon I was in second. We tried to keep that pace (with Beaubier) without making any mistakes, but he did an incredible job. He maintained that pace and was so strong. Of course, I wanted to win but I tried with all my horses and second was only so good. Sorry again for Roger (Hayden), it’s not good, but races are like this. We would like to continue like this (in the championship) and to win races. When that’s impossible, like today, then second is enough. A big thanks to my team, they always work hard and give me the best bike possible.”

Elias’ points lead didn’t suffer this weekend as his closest rival coming into Sonoma Raceway failed to finish either race. Roger Hayden was taken out of yesterday’s race by Helmet Sounds/Western Services/Meen Racing’s Josh Herrin on the opening lap. Today, Hayden crashed by himself on the third lap, leaving Northern California with no points gained in the two races. Hayden’s bad luck allowed Beaubier to move into second, 70 points behind Elias, 300-230. Hayden is third with 220 points.

Beaubier’s teammate Josh Hayes put himself on the podium for the second straight day, the four-time Superbike Champion finishing third again.

“Today at the beginning of the race it was a little bit cleaner and everybody got through a little bit better so I had some more work to do during the race,” Hayes said. “It took me a little while to get through everybody and I had to pick my spots a little more carefully. I had what felt like a little bit better pace than yesterday and overall felt like I had a little bit better motorcycle. Overall, I felt like it was a more solid day. The work I did on the bike this weekend felt like an improvement so hopefully I can carry that through to Pittsburgh and the rest of the series and be a little bit more of a permanent fixture closer to the front.”

Yamalube/Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz finished fourth and with that earned his sixth Bazzaz Superstock 1000 victory of the year, the South African suffering from arm pump but still holding off M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Jake Lewis and Quicksilver Latus Motors Kawasaki’s Bobby Fong in the final laps.

“Yesterday was a really difficult race,” Scholtz said. “After the Friday practice I felt like I had the pace to battle with these Superbike guys and take the Superstock win, but it just didn’t seem to work out like that. Jake Lewis was phenomenal, he made me look silly. We went back to the drawing board last night and changed the bike slightly and that definitely seemed to help me out, but I had some serious arm pump. I’m really happy to take the Superstock win and open up the championship lead, that’s why we’re here. Next we head into Pittsburgh and that’s where I had a really good test and I’m hoping I can just carry on taking some more wins and take the championship. That’s the ultimate goal for us.”

Herrin ended up seventh on his Superbike-spec Yamaha R1, the Georgian some 16 seconds behind Fong and three seconds ahead of Brixx Performance’s Sylvain Barrier. Genuine Broaster Chicken Honda’s Jake Gagne and TOBC Racing’s Danny Eslick rounded out the top 10 finishers.

Gerloff Again In Supersport The start wasn’t an exact repeat of Saturday’s Supersport race at Sonoma Raceway, but the outcome was the same as Monster Energy/Yamalube/Y.E.S./ Graves Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff won again, this time by 8.004 seconds over his teammate and championship rival JD Beach.

While Gerloff streaked away at the start of yesterday’s race, today he got off to a fourth-place start while Beach tried to make a break at the front. But before two laps were complete, Gerloff was out front. From there he methodically pulled away, a 10th of a second here, a 10th there until the gap at the finish was just a tick over eight seconds.

Beach managed to limit the damage to as little as possible, the Owensboro, Kentucky resident finishing second and losing five more points to his teammate Gerloff, who now leads the series standings by 14 points, 246-232, with three rounds (six races) remaining in the series.

“It feels good after a month off to come back and feel good on the bike and feel comfortable,” Gerloff said. “I felt a lot better in that race – just everything was clicking real nice. We made some changes to our bike yesterday because I knew there were a few things to improve for consistency and it definitely helped today. It’s nice to win again, to get the double, I haven’t done that all year and I’ve been wanting that. It’s a good track for me and we have a couple of tracks coming up that are good for me too so we’re going to go there (Pittsburgh) and try my best to get some more wins.

M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Valentin Debise finished third, matching his effort from Saturday. Team H35 Honda’s Benny Solis again had a lonely ride to fourth.

The battle for fifth overall was fought out until the very end with Team MG55’s Michael Gilbert getting the spot and victory in the Superstock 600 race, Presented by Riderz Law. The win was Gilbert’s third of the year and it allowed him to gain some points on championship leader Jason Aguilar. Aguilar ended up fifth in the Superstock 600 class on Sunday at Sonoma and he leads the standings by 14 points, 191-177.

Andrew Lee Racing/Tri-County Power Sports’ Andrew Lee and Palmetto Motorsports Team New Zealand’s Shane Richardson finished sixth and seventh overall and second and third in Superstock 600, respectively.

Ventura Turns The Tables On Smith A day after getting beat up by Benjamin Smith in the first of two KTM RC Cup Presented by Riderz Law races at Sonoma Raceway, CSVMoto’s Cory Ventura turned the tables on the Quarterley Racing/On Track Development rider by beating him to the flag by .394 of a second to win his third KTM race of the season.

On Saturday, Smith won the race by over 11 seconds but Ventura was having none of that on Sunday, the resident of nearby Union City, California, catching Smith before the Pennsylvanian could get away and eventually passing him for victory.

Ventura not only scored the victory, but the win also propelled him into second in the championship standings. He now trails Smith, 192-155.

“With struggling a bit with mistakes yesterday and with him (Smith) putting a little bit of a gap on me, it was definitely a good confidence builder going into Pittsburgh,” Ventura said. “Last night I sat down with my coach and talked about it a bit. I was losing a lot of time in sector one and we really broke it down. We noticed that Ben really got a good drive out of one and today we knew we just had to do it.”

RESULTS

Motul Superbike

Cameron Beaubier, Roseville, Calif., Yamaha

Toni Elias, Barcelona, Spain, Suzuki

Josh Hayes, Gulfport, Miss., Yamaha

Mathew Scholtz, Durban, South Africa, Yamaha

Jake Lewis, Owensboro, Ky, Suzuki

Bobby Fong, Stockton, Calif., Kawasaki

Josh Herrin, Dublin, Ga., Yamaha

Sylvain Barrier, Oynnax, France, BMW

Jake Gagne, San Diego, Calif., Honda

Danny Eslick, Tulsa, Ok, Yamaha

Motul Superbike Championship Standings

Toni Elias, Barcelona, Spain, Suzuki – 300

Cameron Beaubier, Roseville, Calif., Yamaha – 230

Roger Hayden, Owensboro, Ky., Suzuki – 220

Josh Hayes, Gulfport, Miss., Yamaha – 156

Mathew Scholtz, Durban, South Africa, Yamaha – 136

Jake Lewis, Owensboro, Ky, Suzuki – 117

Bobby Fong, Stockton, Calif., Kawasaki – 116

Josh Herrin, Dublin, Ga., Yamaha – 114

Danny Eslick, Tulsa, Okla., Yamaha – 97

Kyle Wyman, Macedon, N.Y., Yamaha – 88

Bazzaz Superstock 1000

Mathew Scholtz, Dublin, South Africa, Yamaha

Jake Lewis, Owensboro, Ky, Suzuki

Bobby Fong, Stockton, Calif., Kawasaki

Danny Eslick, Tulsa, Okla., Yamaha

David Anthony, Melbourne, Australia, Kawasaki

Bryce Prince, Bakersfield, Calif., Yamaha

Tyler O’Hara, Petaluma, Calif., Yamaha

Wyatt Farris, Calistoga, Calif., Kawasaki

Jeremy Coffey, Vancouver, Wa., Kawasaki

Sam Verderico, Wenatchee, Wa., Yamaha

Bazzaz Superstock 1000 Championship Standings

Mathew Scholtz, Durban, South Africa, Yamaha – 286

Jake Lewis, Owensboro, Ky., Suzuki – 235

Bobby Fong, Stockton, Calif., Kawasaki – 214

Danny Eslick, Tulsa, Okla., Yamaha – 194

Hayden Gillim, Philpot, Ky., Suzuki – 151

Bryce Prince, Bakersfield, Calif., Yamaha – 147

Max Flinders, Preston, England, Yamaha – 108

David Anthony, Murrieta, Calif., Kawasaki – 58

Tyler O’Hara, Petaluma, Calif., Kawasaki – 54

Anthony Kosinski, Crumstown, Ind., Yamaha – 37

Supersport

Garrett Gerloff, New Waverly, Texas, Yamaha

JD Beach, Owensboro, Ky., Yamaha

Valentin Debise, Albi, France, Suzuki

Benny Solis, North Hollywood, Calif., Honda

Michael Gilbert, Santa Ana, Calif., Yamaha

Andrew Lee, Clovis, Calif., Yamaha

Shane Richardson, Wellington, New Zealand, Kawasaki

Braeden Ortt, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Yamaha

Jason Aguilar, Placentia, Calif., Yamaha

Jayson Uribe, Napa, Calif., Yamaha

Supersport Championship Standings

Garrett Gerloff, New Waverly, Texas, Yamaha – 246

JD Beach, Owensboro, Ky., Yamaha – 232

Valentin Debise, Albi, France, Suzuki – 156

Benny Solis, North Hollywood, Calif., Honda – 153

Jason Aguilar, Placentia, Calif., Yamaha – 95

Michael Gilbert, Santa Ana, Calif., Yamaha – 89

Daytona Anderson, Riverside, Calif., Suzuki – 79

Nick McFadden, Owensboro, Ky., Suzuki – 79

Shane Richardson, Wellington, New Zealand, Kawasaki – 75

Connor Blevins, Oklahoma City, Okla., Kawasaki – 73

Superstock 600

Michael Gilbert, Santa Ana, Calif., Yamaha

Andrew Lee, Clovis, Calif., Yamaha

Shane Richardson, Wellington, New Zealand, Kawasaki

Braeden Ortt, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Yamaha

Jason Aguilar, Placentia, Calif., Yamaha

Nick McFadden, Owensboro, Ky., Suzuki

Deion Campbell, San Jose, Calif., Yamaha

Ashton Yates, Milledgeville, Ga., Yamaha

Andy DiBrino, Tualatin, Or., Yamaha

Conner Blevins, Oklahoma City, Okla., Kawasaki

Superstock 600 Championship Standings

Jason Aguilar, Placentia, Calif., Yamaha – 191

Michael Gilbert, Santa Ana, Calif., Yamaha – 177

Conner Blevins, Oklahoma City, Okla., Kawasaki – 147

Shane Richardson, Wellington, New Zealand, Kawasaki – 144

Nick McFadden, Owensboro, Ky., Suzuki – 138

Braeden Ortt, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Yamaha – 121

JC Camacho, Deer Park, Texas, Suzuki – 99

Andrew Lee, Clovis, Calif., Yamaha – 91

Anthony Mazziotto III, Hammonton, N.J., Yamaha – 65

Ashton Yates, Milledgeville, Ga., Yamaha – 58

KTM RC Cup

Cory Ventura, Union City, Calif., KTM

Benjamin Smith, Glenmoore, Pa., KTM

Draik Beauchamp, Knoxville, Tn., KTM

Alex Dumas, Quebec, Canada, KTM

Tyler Linders, Mission Viejo, Calif., KTM

Brett Voorhees, Placerville, Calif., KTM

Gavin Anthony, Hillard, Oh., KTM

Trevor Standish, Roswell, Ga., KTM

Nate Minster, Oak Grove, Minn., KTM

Toby Khamsouk, Banning, Calif., KTM

KTM RC Cup Championship Standings

Benjamin Smith, Glenmoore, Pa., KTM – 192

Cory Ventura, Union City, Calif., KTM – 155

Draik Beauchamp, Knoxville, Tn., KTM- 141

Jackson Blackmon, Rock Hill, SC, KTM – 136

Alex Dumas, Quebec, Canada, KTM – 123

Toby Khamsouk, Banning, Calif., KTM – 102

Trevor Standish, Roswell, Ga., KTM – 91

Gavin Anthony, Hillard, Oh., KTM – 83

Sergio Rodriguez, Oxnard, Calif., KTM – 63

Nate Minster, Oak Grove, Minn., KTM – 60

http://superbike-news.co.uk/wordpress/back-superbikes-return-sonoma-raceway/

[theghettoracer-blog]

Written by Frank M. Lin 3/30/2017 5:41 am @ San Francisco, California – the latest 2018 Honda Civic Type-R was unveiled officially in AutoCon in Southern California recently.  I was randomly surfing and came across a collection of rave reviews about the good old DC2 ITR.  Check them out.

  The wait has been so long that I’m not even excited about the new CTR in USA.  I mean it’s like, I’ll believe it when I actually get to drive it.  Lol lol.  But I tell you guys what I REALLY LIKE the current generation of Civic’s.  Be it the sedan, the 5 door fastback or even the coupe.  It looks impressive in every way.  I’m going to definitely R&D parts for it.  They are selling like hot cakes in San Francisco Bay Area.  They are EVERYWHERE!!  Honda sold something like 36,000 of them in January of 2017 alone.  When I stopped by the locale dealer to pick up a brochure for the new Civic they don’t even have any!!  They ran out…   if that’s not an indication of how popular the car is I don’t know what does.

    “Once every generation, one car stands out for using advanced technology to provide a new peak of driving pleasure. Our aim was to make the Integra Type R the outstanding car of our generation.” Hisao Suzuki, President, Honda Research and Development, Europe.

“Some car makers talk about building cars for road and track… but Honda went ahead and did it. It’s laid the sauce on thick, too, so the Type R won’t be to everyone’s taste.” Wheels, March 2001

“The weighting of the steering is glorious, the feel of the wheel rim superb and the chassis absolutely intuitive. It practically implores you to rip in and join the fun, allowing the driver to be an integral part of the experience. It’s simultaneously, a tool and a toy, singing its song for you alone.” MOTOR, January 2001

“Toss the Type R into even the slightest bend and you’ll feel it rotate about its axis like a true racecar. Once out, the tail is easily balanced with the throttle just as the automotive gods always intended. Absolutely awesome.” Josh Jacquot; Sport Compact Car, April 2001

“The Type R is a finely honed tool for driving fast, a car engineered in almost every detail not to coddle or insulate, but to communicate. If driving a Type R doesn’t make the petroleum in your blood boil, you should collect your pushrods and go home.” Dave Coleman; Sport Compact Car, April 2001

“The Acura Integra Type R is designed for autocrossers and road racers who revere performance and handling above all else. This car makes no pretense of being a car for the masses. The Type R was designed by racers for racers… It’s an exclusive cult car.” Grassroots Motorsports, April 2001

“The Honda Integra Type R, though, is no normal front-driver. While the bodyshell is starting to look dated (and outrageous with the Type R’s wing), the interesting stuff is all underneath. It’s virtually a road registerable club racer, with braces inside and underneath the boot, as well as across the engine bay; there’s the rock solid race spec suspension, the gun Recaro seats, the thick leather steering wheel and, the secret weapon, a limited slip differential.” MOTOR, October, 2000

“The Honda is really something to savour on a good bit of road. There’s the sensational engine note, full of menace, purpose and anger, the wonderful shift action and the instant throttle response. It’s easy to drive quickly in any weather and it gets its power to the road amazingly well. It’s a furiously busy weapon built to charge over racetracks and mountain passes time and again… if it’s reputations you want to cut down, get yourself a Type R and go hunting… It’s gallant. It’s fast. And it’s a winner.” MOTOR, October, 2000

“A really awesome car. Plenty of bang for your bucks from behind the wheel. The engine sounds fantastic and revs all the way to 9,000 rpm and the power is still there. The chassis surprised me. For a front driver it’s so user-friendly. It turns in superbly and doesn’t understeer or get tailly. It’s quite neutral. It gets a little bit nervous at the rear in the high speed stuff, but it’s very, very hard to make a mistake and get it to do anything drastic. One of the favorite for sure.” MOTOR, October, 2000

“Raw, uncompromising driver’s car that’s too much for some, but so taut, so well set-up and with such a terrific engine, you’ll be gasping for superlatives.” Wheels, December 2000

“The way the Type R’s shifter is literally perfect in throw and action are unmatched anywhere else. Shifts at redline are rewarded with immediate power delivery in the next gear, steering speed and precision are awesome and seats that actually hold you in place go a long way towards making the Type R a real driver’s car.” Sport Compact Car, November 2000

“The Type R’s chassis and power combination tends to be untouchable when tested under [winding mountain road] conditions, (at least at this price point).” Sport Compact Car, November 2000

“The Integra Type R, however, is a focused, concentrated, near-racecar environment at ten-tenths. It involves the driver more in the business of going fast, supplying keen feedback and amazing control sharpness… We like to think Sport Compact Car readers understand the merits of balance, precision and thorough sorting of a car’s chassis and engine – all of which the Integra Type R exhibits in excess.” Sport Compact Car, November 2000

“The VTEC power delivery is addictive, the chassis is razor sharp, the interior has just the bare essentials, and its one of those cars you need to drive before you die … [the Integra Type R] is one of Japan’s best kept secrets.” EVO Magazine, September 2000

“Bury your preconceptions about front wheel drive and you’ll find Honda’s Integra Type R is one of the world’s ultimate driving machines.” EVO Magazine, August 2000

“The original feisty front-drive coupe, with a jewel-like 1.8 litre VTEC ‘four’ and benchmark handling. The Type R concept at it’s very best. You would never believe a front-drive car could possess as much poise and adjustability as the Integra Type R… Honda must be smiling. It also makes the best noise of any four pot in production.” EVO Magazine, May 2000

“This [car] is the business. This does it all properly. This is a car which someone has taken the time to refine for track work. It does everything terrifically from its direct and exact gearshift to its gear ratios. Honda has done its homework with a sharpened pencil… From the form-fitting winged bucket seats, you’re very much a part of the car. It feels really solid like a real racing car. And it sounds fabulous.” Wheels, February 2000

“The Honda Integra Type R is immensely rewarding, provided you drive it with a purpose. Treated like a daily driver, the bone-jarring ride and booming cabin noise will batter you into submission. But driven hard, as its maker intended, the Type R is the ultimate drug-free high.” Wheels, December 1999

“The Integra Type R is much more than the sum of its parts. Response and reaction to driver input is almost instantaneous, endowing the pedals and steering wheel with a delightful communication. Lightning quick throttle response places a massive strain on the Bridgestone Potenzas as they attempt to disperse the power.” Wheels, December 1999

“The Integra Type R demands attention. Become distracted and you risk losing everything… This is a focused car for serious drivers; posers apply elsewhere… Every little flick of the wheel and stab on the pedal is rewarded with an immediate accurate response.” Wheels, December 1999

“If you want the closest thing to a race car for under [Australian]$30,000 then the Integra Type R is for you.” Wheels, December 1999

“With the race goggles firmly in place, issues like ride quality become almost irrelevant.” Wheels, December 1999

“The Type R surprised us with its aggression on turn-in and with the incredibly tight lines that could be held through the corners.” Wheels, December 1999

“Rewriting the rules of automotive performance, the Type R makes no excuses for its extraneous rear seats, its traditionally suspect drivetrain layout, or its quasi-utilitarian styling. Despite these “handicaps,” the Type R proudly stands out from the crowd as a brutally effective weapon of single-minded purposefulness. The Type R is a giant-killer on the track, taking on cars much more expensive. By all appearances the Type R is untouchable.” Sport Compact Car, April 1999

“Currently the car to have in this sector and a truly spectacular drive. Stripped of all creature comforts, this is a true sports car with a superb, free-revving 187 bhp engine, amazing levels of roadholding and grip with the sharpest steering of any mass-market coupe. Very tough and well-built but lacks any pretense of refinement.” What Car?, August 1999

“… I’d found it was indeed an admirable work of steely Japanese engineering.” CAR, February 1999

“Fundamentally the Integra feels like a simple, rudely mechanical car, but it’s very clever with it. It pares driving down to its raw materials – instant engine response, and a noise to match; fantastic turn-in and feedback (road surface through your seat, grip through the wheel). It takes a few miles to cut through the Integra Type R’s superficial showiness, which is all rawness and racy pretensions, but beneath that, it is an awesome driver’s car. Like the way it drives, its appeal is elemental – that back to basic, deeply psychological pleasure in pointing and squirting in a car, down roads that rip and roar like the winding ribbon of a rollercoaster… This is the pure way.” CAR, February 1999

“The truth is, though, the Integra Type R remains an enigma, titanium gear knob and all.” CAR, February 1999

“… like the off-duty competition car it is, it’s an impossible car to drive absent-mindedly without looking very amateur indeed.” CAR, February 1999

“Limited numbers. Perfectly focused. Marginal business for a major carmaker, true. The kind of product that driving evangelists drool over and marketing saps witter on about as a ‘halo product’ which ‘strengthens the brand proposition.’ ” CAR, October 1998

“… the Integra Type R is pure-bred Japanese – as seductive a reflection of Tokyo’s obsession with the mad, bad and dangerous-to-resist bits of driving as Nissan’s Skyline GT-R.” CAR, October 1998

“There are faster cars than the Integra Type R, sure enough. But few that are as unashamedly emotional in their appeal.” CAR, October 1998

“The Integra Type R encourages you, you sad car purist, to listen for the onset of serious good stuff.” CAR, October 1998

“The Integra Type R feels like it was painstakingly honed as a statement, to reposition Honda as a creator of adrenaline-soused cars.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R, more than anything else, is defiant narrowcasting. You either get it or you don’t.” CAR, May 1998

“…you feel the Integra Type R; there’s an irrefutable mechanical quality. Plunge hard and late into a corner and this car adjusts through neutral to understeer, poised, sharp, accurate.” CAR, May 1998

“There’s cleverness, too, in the way the Cocker Spaniel-on-sulphate alacrity of the engine ties in with the alertness of the limited slip differential, the fabulously tough brakes with Porsche pedal feel and perfectly weighted steering to allow you, quite simply, to get the jollies, big time.” CAR, May 1998

“…the Integra Type R propounds a strictly emotional appeal. There’s nothing rational about a loud, firmly sprung car that will annoy eight passengers out of ten. The Integra Type R exists at one remove from rational. It’s selfish.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R propounds a strictly emotional appeal… The Integra Type R is emotional like the Blues is emotional… Should you ponder if the Integra Type R be less demanding, you miss the point.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R appeals to the racing driver in you, the suppressed sliver in your soul which is obsessed with tricky bits of engineering that the person in the street is genetically resistant to, the chunk of your heart which beats faster when you’re on a satisfying road in a satisfying car, the part of you which says you will never, ever, drive a Vauxhall Vectra by choice.” CAR, May 1998

“No European car, irrespective of price, matches the sheer intensity of the Integra Type R. This car re-defines middle-management performance machinery as a product light on deportment and heavy on thrills. But beware. Integra Type R is, above all, addictive. And definitely raw.” CAR, May 1998

“The Integra Type R is as extreme a car as you can buy, irrespective of price. There are days when you will hate the noise, the rort, the big rear wing masking the rear view, a literally uncomfortable relationship with zitular road surfaces, times when the ownership effort seems too damned wearing. But those moments will be outnumbered tenfold by the sheer bonkers perfection of the thing, the way it delivers pleasure – raw, demanding, self-obsessed, techno, laugh-’til-you-burst delight – at a level other car makers don’t understand.” CAR, May 1998

“Like every great lightweight, Honda’s Integra Type R is a brilliant drive because the engineers dispensed with unnecessary luxury items, concentrating instead on honing the mechanical package to maximize the car’s performance, handling and roadholding.” Performance Car, April 1998

“In short, its one very special motor, turning even the shortest journey into a qualifying lap.” Performance Car, April 1998

“Driven as it’s intended the Integra Type R is a blisteringly quick real-world car.” Performance Car, April 1998

“The chassis is a gem, too, with amazing levels of grip and traction but retaining equally brilliant levels of feedback and throttle adjustability.” Performance Car, April 1998

“Its a magical combination of Peugeot 306 GTI 6 fluidity, Ford Puma feel and [Renault] Clio Williams balance but with an infinitely adaptable cornering attitude, from steady understeer through neutral four wheel drifts to tail-out lift-off oversteer without ever feeling twitchy or unstable. All of which goes to make the Integra Type R the most focused, best handling front wheel drive car we’ve ever driven.” Performance Car, April 1998

“Put simply, the Integra Type R is the most enthralling front drive car we’ve ever had the luck to get our sticky mits on. It’s a race-sharpened road car with a hand finished motor, stiffened body shell and Recaro interior…” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“Amazingly, the engine isn’t the highlight of the Type R. The chassis is simply spectacular. Whether you’re on the road or racetrack, you can do almost anything with it. Understeer isn’t on the agenda, even in the wet, and with a little fancy throttle work you can vary the cornering attitude from delicious four wheel drifts to lurid oversteer with a lift of your right foot.” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“The wonderful thing about this is the forgiving nature with which it lets go. With a little practice you can drive straight to 100% and then start to play.” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“Think of the Integra Type R as a sports coupe and you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, regard it as a front drive Lotus Elise with a roof and you’ll be just about spot-on.” CAR Performance Car of the Year, January 1998

“… there is a deftness and dialogue between the steering wheels and the road that’s almost Lotus Elise in its purity.” CAR, November 1997

“Push your luck and the Integra Type R will let go, but it is so informative that you’re never kept in the dark about what’s coming and you can with fine steering inputs.” CAR, November 1997

“… the Integra Type R is one of those cars that you don’t want to get out of. Even after 200 odd miles, deep into Sunday night, I’m still seeking out empty back roads whacking the lights onto full beam and listening to the sound of roadside stones bouncing off of the sills, doing a Colin McRae, just driving and driving fast. This little Honda with the so-what shape has gate crashed a very select club where the only criteria for membership is unalloyed driving pleasure.” CAR, November 1997

“The Integra Type R disguises its front wheel drive layout with sensational track-bred handling.” CAR, December 1997

“Wrist-flick through the gears and extend that marvelous engine to the sort of revs that sends cranks through the blocks of most rivals and you’ll reach nirvana that you would have thought well beyond a front drive car.” CAR, December 1997

“On a racetrack the Integra Type R is the best handling FWD car any of us can remember. It steers more like a race car than a road car, turning in with a sharpness and élan that bely its streetcar disguise. And once committed through a bend, it hangs on with amazing grace… It doesn’t scrabble and scream and drift and porpoise, like many front drive cars on the edge of their abilities. It just powers around the bend in a nicely controlled drift.” CAR, December 1997

“On the track the Integra Type R kisses goodbye to understeer and marks a new benchmark for front drive precision. If it had a little more life at 7/10ths on the road, we’d be hardly able to contain ourselves.” CAR, December 1997

“If you want to know what real top-end power feels like, the Integra Type R will get you closer to [Team Honda Sport Touring Car race driver, Gabriele] Tarquini’s weekend car than anything this side of a Ferrari F355.” Autocar, August 27, 1997

“The Integra Type R is actually closer in character to a Ferrari F355 than the NSX is. If this doesn’t make it the best car ever to come out of Japan, I’m not sure what does.” Autocar, August 27, 1997

“Brilliant. Absolutely and utterly brilliant. The Integra Type R is a supreme driver’s car at a price that makes sense…” Performance Car, November 1997

“Some cars feel fast. Some cars are fast. Some cars, like the Integra Type R, are both at the same time.” Performance Car, November 1997

“Its extraordinary performance combined with its excellent chassis dynamics give the Type R enough point to point potential to embarrass supercars and makes you question the need to spend more than £20k on a sportscar.” Performance Car, November 1997

“The sensation you have is that of being in a racing car, in terms of reaction speed and aggressive driving position.” Gabriele Tarquini, Team Honda Sport Touring Car race driver.

“Incredible. The best road car engine I’ve ever driven on a race circuit.” James Kay former Touring Car Champion.

New Honda Civic Type-R and the old press quotes about the Honda DC2 Integra Type-R Written by Frank M. Lin 3/30/2017 5:41 am @ San Francisco, California - the latest 2018 Honda Civic Type-R was unveiled officially in AutoCon in Southern California recently.  

[brendagilliam2]

Meet the Twitter designer who shuns all social media

Jon Bell will speak at Generate San Francisco on 9 June, alongside Aaron Gustafson, Stephanie Rewis, Rachel Nabors, Steve Souders, Josh Brewer and eight other great speakers. Get your ticket today!

Please introduce yourself. What do you do? I’m a product designer that loves to write and teach. I’ve worked on lots of products from Real Player back in 2000 to consulting at Frog Design to startups to Windows Phone to my current job at Twitter. On the side, I founded a company that teaches design called UX Launchpad.

What’s life like working at Twitter? The other day I was DMing with someone in a war zone about some Twitter feature ideas that would help them to survive. That’s how life is: humbling and complicated. Everyone has ideas about what Twitter should do, and only a small group of people actually get to design and ship them. That’s always on my mind.

What’s your typical day like? I’ve mocked up a helpful chart:

I’ve been doing this work professionally for 17 years, and over 20 if you count freelance web work in the mid-90s. I’ve found the most joy in ‘leaning out‘.

It freaks people out sometimes. You come onto a team and expect the senior designer to take the hardest stuff and the junior people to have smaller tasks. But I like to flip it. Give the new people the biggest challenges, then be there for discussion. Trust them and they’ll grow faster.

Other than lots and lots of listening, I spend a lot of time helping people craft stories and writing what I call ‘design rationale’ documents. I like to write design specs like I’m a journalist or a historian. My thinking is: don’t just explain what you did, explain every single tradeoff. Explain why. This is where Design Explosions came from.

Do you still do Design Explosions? Yup! It’s like an indie band you used to love who’s taking a suspiciously long hiatus. Then after you give up on them they suddenly release one more album. You buy it out of nostalgia and think, ‘Hm, maybe they should have just stopped at the hiatus’. But I’m not that smart.

What are your top three tools that you use in your day-to-day work?

You work at Twitter but have very little online presence, even on Twitter. Please explain. Gladly! This should sum it up:

That didn’t clarify anything, did it? Darn it.

Among other things UX Launchpad teaches UX design to non-designers. How do you do that? What’s the single most important thing engineers and dev would need to get their head around? UX Launchpad’s entire reason for existing is to teach design to non-designers. Here’s the summary:

My co-founder William Van Hecke and I both feel very strongly that design is just problem solving. We spend all day demystifying design to make it as fun and hands-on as possible. 

I modelled the class on Penn & Teller. Like them, we don’t have a lot of patience for making our field an ivory tower that only some people can access. It’s way more accessible and fun than it seems when you’re talking to some arrogant jerk at a networking event about how great he is.

When engineers or product managers leave our class, they’ll often say they haven’t had that much fun with building and creating since they were much younger. Mission accomplished! If you’re not playing, you’re doing it wrong.

What’s the Design Play Manifesto? I started a design conference called Design Play that’s now approaching its fourth year. I also did a meetup in Seattle for a while called Design Play. In both cases, it all comes down to the simple (science-based) fact that people do better problem solving when they’re feeling comfortable and positive. This graph sums it up:

So the manifesto (currently in draft form) is me trying to spread the thinking a bit in an open source way. A couple of Design Play meetups have happened around the world since then, which is so cool.

The description for your Generate San Francisco session is unusual. What can people expect to take away from the talk? I purposely keep it vague because it’s a unique talk format, but for the curious I have an article I wrote about it here. And for the slightly less curious I have this marketing department-approved PR image. Share with all your friends, especially the target demographics my company is currently geo and topic targeting for maximum shareholder value. Am I doing this right?

What irritates you most about product design and how could we avoid those mistakes? I won’t answer here for fear of being blacklisted from the design community. But I’m writing a series of essays called Unpopular Opinions About Design, so if anyone is reading this, I’d love to chat with you about it at the conference! I’m a hoot in person. Don’t be shy.

What’s your advice to anyone aspiring to work at a big tech company? See previous answer. I can talk about this for hours. Literally. Like, when I get going, a crowd sometimes forms because it’s so out of place seeing someone talk so frankly and excessively. Come be a part of the freak show!

What are the three biggest lessons you’ve learned in your career?

Jon Bell will give a presentation at Generate San Francisco alongside 13 other great speakers from the likes of Netflix, NASA, Uber, Salesforce and more. Topics covered include adaptive interfaces, web animations, design and performance, prototyping, design systems… and astronaut autonomy through design. Get your ticket today!

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The post Meet the Twitter designer who shuns all social media appeared first on Brenda Gilliam.

from Brenda Gilliam http://brendagilliam.com/meet-the-twitter-designer-who-shuns-all-social-media/

[link-sans-specs]

2 Guys, 1 Robe

Mythical Society

Musical Shots- GME 2023 Pre-Show

[shadyglitterpolice]

Samsung Galaxy Note 8: What we know about Samsung's Note 7 do-over

It isn't often that a company as tight-lipped as Samsung confirms a future phone down to its very name, but extreme times call for extreme measures. Having had to toss out its entire Note 7 production in the wake of two combustible battery flaws, Samsung has apparently decided to reveal some details.

Enlarge Image

Note phones are all about that stylus.Sarah Tew/CNET

So here's what we know about the Note 8 for sure.

1. It's happening. Samsung mobile chief DJ Koh confirmed this to CNET. Both that the phone is coming as part of the Note's yearly release cycle, and that it will indeed be called the Note 8.

2. The Note 8 will use Samsung's new eight-point battery test, which the company instituted as part of a revised testing measure after discovering holes in its battery testing that led to the Note 7 failures. In fact, the upcoming Galaxy S8 phone will use it too, along with every other Samsung phone going forward.

3. The Galaxy Note 8 shouldn't be confused with the Galaxy S8, a separate phone that's expected to debut in March or April.

What else?

There haven't been a lot of other leaks so far. We're still expecting the Note 8 to come in August if it continues to follow Samsung's typical release cycle. Last year's Note 7 came a little earlier than usual (early August rather than late August), but the phone has been announced before Apple's yearly iPhone (early September) ever since the Note series began. In recent years it's shown up in stores before the iPhone, too.

Enlarge Image

Even after skipping the Note 6, the Note 8 will still be Samsung's eighth Note phone.Josh Miller/CNET

Note phones represent Samsung's power user series. They're large-screen devices equipped with a digital stylus called the S Pen. The Note 7 was the first handset other than the experimental Edge series to feature a curved screen.

Now that the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are expected to also have large screens and curved sides by default, it's anyone's guess how the Note 8 will stand out from the S8 and S8 Plus, apart from that S Pen.

We do know that Samsung Note usually has specs that are a half-step above that year's Galaxy S device. It often gets new software features, too -- a sentiment echoed by Koh when he spoke to CNET:

"I will bring back a better, safer and very innovative Note 8," Koh said.

But with the S8 phones right around the corner and the Note 8 still months away, there's still plenty of time for rumors and leaks to form a picture of the future phone that could restore the Note family's charred reputation.

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[t-baba]

This Week in Mobile Web Development (#147)

Read this on the Web

Mobile Web Weekly March 1, 2017   #147

Peter Cooper recommends

Progressive Web App Libraries in Production — “In 2017, if you aren’t taking advantage of Service Workers, you’re leaving performance wins for returning users on the table.” Addy Osmani

Holly Schinsky recommends

Touch Devices Should Not Be Judged By Their Size — Media queries aren’t always enough when designing for touch screens, but a new Interaction Media spec can help by detecting pointing device and hover capabilities. Andres Galante

Brian Rinaldi recommends

Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages Now Accounts for 7% of Traffic to Big US Publishers — According to data released by Adobe Analytics, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) now accounts for a significant and growing portion of traffic to major publishers. Rich McCormick

Sponsored

Learn to develop your next web or mobile application with ReactJS — Register for Rangle’s free React online course for developers on March 31. The second of a three-part series, this course is designed for developers interested in diving into the React library. Rangle.io

Holly Schinsky recommends

How to Build Your Own Progressive Image Loader — A handy technique for progressive image loading to provide the best performance in your hybrid mobile apps. Craig Buckler

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Why I Love Element Queries and You Should Too — What makes element queries powerful and how you can get started using them with the EQCSS plugin. Tommy Hodgins

Chris Brandrick recommends

Nokia’s 3310 Returns to Life As A Modern Classic — Basic web use is achieved via the bundled Opera Mini browser, running over a 2.5G connection. Tom Warren

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How to Build an Ionic 2 App with Native Plugin Integrations Coding Sans

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Great Alternatives to Hamburger Menus — How to make your navigation obvious and keep people engaged. Mobiscroll

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Sneak Preview of NativeScript 3.0 — Georgi Atanasov gives us a sneak preview of NativeScript 3.0, due out in mid-April. NativeScript

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How to Make Your App a PWA Mirosław Ciastek

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Increasing Performance with Efficient DOM Writes in Ionic 2 Josh Morony

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Introduction to Ionic 2 — A look at what’s new and changed between Ionic 1 and 2 and whether you should choose Ionic 2 for your project. Wernher-Bel Ancheta

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Ionic Split Panel Component — An in-depth look at the split panel component recently released by Ionic. Chris Griffith

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How to Install 3rd Party Libraries in Ionic 2 Joshua Morony

Brian Rinaldi recommends

CSS Grid: Learning New Layout - Responsive — A quick comparison of the code necessary to create a grid with and without CSS Grid support. Susan Robertson

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A Roundup of Vue.js-Supporting Mobile Hybrid App Frameworks — A roundup of hybrid mobile frameworks supporting Vue.js 2.0. Alligator.io

Holly Schinsky recommends

Testing on Multiple Form factors — Maya-kai mirrors gestures and user interactions in React Native applications, making it useful for testing apps on devices with different screen sizes at the same time. Parashuram N

Peter Cooper recommends

Design a Perfect Search Box — How this element can be improved in order to save the user time in going where they want. Nick Babich

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spacegrid: A Basic, Responsive Grid Layout Jonathan Speek

Curated by Brian Rinaldi and Holly Schinsky for Cooperpress. Cooperpress is located at Office 30, Fairfield Enterprise Centre, Louth, LN11 0LS, UK Update your email address or stop receiving MWW here

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[link-sans-specs]

Boobaloobaloobies

GME3

[link-sans-specs]

'Cause it's so tempting to like either a) smash it or b) kiss it.

GMM746

Playing Glass Baseball