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It's the Great CD Roadtrip! The one where I play every CD in my car for, at most, the length of a tank of gas. This one got a short run because I filled up at half a tank (the same apartment building that was on fire last time I got gas was on fire again?!?1), but I think that's appropriate (er, the CD's brevity of tenure, not the fire). For me, Mike Shinoda's Post-Traumatic belongs to a very particular place and time and that time isn't June 2025, but it will always mean a lot to me.

Shinoda's tour came to Detroit in mid-November 2018, and it's the only concert I've ever been to by myself. It was at The Fillmore, and I remember thinking that it was *so cold* and *so dark* and *so late* but *so worth it* because I've never been to a concert that scooped up the emotions in the room and led them so entirely. To this day I think of this concert as a masterwork. There was also such a feeling of the collective in the air, everyone in public mourning together. Unforgettable.

Edit: Losing it a little because apparently I changed out this CD on the very day this album was released in in 2018!

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I love this race team.

The 5 got wrecked out by someone who shan't be named on Lap 7 of 200, spent 35ish laps behind the wall, then went back on track in the hopes that someone else would wreck out and they could gain on points. When that didn't happen, Cliff was going to take them behind the wall, but KL sounded so sad on the radio and didn't want to stop making laps that he convinced Cliff they'd just stay out. Like, Cliff told him they couldn't earn anymore points based on laps remaining, and when KL didn't want to take the car behind the wall Cliff was just like, okay, let's run some laps. And started asking him like, how can we play with this? You want qualifying tires? Normal tires? KL almost always sounds like a wet blanket on the radio, and Cliff is so even-keeled, no matter what.

I taught swim lessons to kids for a brief while, and that's what Cliff sounds like when he says stuff post-wreck like, "I got eyes on you. Keep coming to us. I know it's hard to drive it." He's just so??? CLIFF???

But he also knows how to lay the hammer down. During Nashville--another wet blanket race--at a certain point he was just like, "You need to stop whining about the car and just go race." Which is a direction KL takes well, honestly, because his response was "Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. Same page."

Anyway, the 5 spent most of the race just running time trials by itself. And hey, it worked:

[The little green stopwatch designates the Quick Time for the field.]

It's a little artificial, because they were running in a hole in the field so didn't have to navigate any traffic, and also went up to qualifying air in the tires, unlike the cars running actual race conditions, but they hit the Quick Time even before the QL tires went on.

Might as well make a teaspoon of lemonade with all those lemons. Nice reminder to myself that even if all hell breaks loose and all hope is lost on something, just run the race and finish what you started.

Edit: NASCAR is also such a great place to be continually reminded of the importance of media literacy. Like, in the truly zany things people will feel qualified to say in comment threads and whatnot, lol, but also in terms of what the broadcast says. Which I don't necessarily fault them for overall--they have 37 teams to keep track of and a live race to call; they can only work from what information they have--but I will say that having heard all the 5 radio, the booth's summary/interpretation is just not... correct? So, grains of salt everywhere.

I mean, I will also say that the booth's overall take on the 5 team in both the short- and long-term is also fundamentally not correct, and it drives me a little insane every week, like, they must be stopped, where are these storylines even coming from?? And that I do have qualms about. But in today's case they just didn't have the information because why would they, and their analysis in the moment happened to be incorrect. Such is the nature of live events--but it's also a usefully cut-and-dry case of limited perspective.

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So, you might or might not have other people in the car but no taking turns and swapping drivers. Just you driving for the whole day

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me: self, don't infantilize the racecars they're grown-ass men

the racecars:

Cliff Daniels: Brake fans. Kyle Larson: I got it. Cliff: Brake fans, please. KL: I got it! Cliff: Do you have your brake fans on. KL: I said I got it like five times!! Cliff: OK.

-- 5 Team radio communications, CDMX 2025 Practice 1

i love the racecars

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Also, this was in my work parking lot on Wednesday morning. And I was like, “Man, someone did NOT want to come to work today and decided to make the absolute most of it”:

And then.

I saw.

What was in the backseat.

THE ABSOLUTE ✨MOST ✨

What an icon.

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Honestly, for 30 minutes and almost zero skill or finesse required, I’m not mad about this! Especially since all of the paint on this car is, frankly, extremely jacked up to begin with, so this brings it pretty much into alignment with everything else. Thanks, combination of ChrisFix and CVR POV!

(Three or four months ago I scraped my friend’s gate trying to get out of their yard, rip.) There's more to do on this panel, but I wanted to test this and see how it holds up before I go all in.

💖 Also, guess who was manufactured this month, 19 years ago 💖

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I feel like in this day and age Yahoo! is one of those cryptid companies that only exists in NASCAR, but simply writing "Yahoooooooooooooooo!" with as many Os as possible and wrapping them around the car is genuinely inspired. I love this stupid car!!

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The lady checking me out at the thrift store today complimented the art I was buying. 😭

Friends, esteemed colleagues.

I was unfortunately not there to buy art.

I was there to buy three 16x20 canvases for $3.75:

I need to iron the T-shirts (and buy pushpins that aren’t shaped like ***narwhals***/are flush with the wall) but I think these are gonna look ACE. 🔥🔥🔥

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This car is spiteful, full of a baby's venom

One of my students has been keeping their car at my house over the summers, because its subframe is rotted out and driving all the way back home and then back to school would probably be too taxing on it. But I wasn't home when they dropped it off last month, so I told them to just park it wherever and I'd re-park it somewhere out of the way, disconnect the battery, etc. later.

Welp. Later came and the key. Would not. Budge. Which to me signals steering lock, but even fidgeting appropriately I couldn't get it to work, couldn't get it to work. Then I ended up actually locking out the steering wheel and I was like LMAO and gave up, because if it's their battery or starter, etc., I don't want to be messing with their car while they're not here.

This morning the spot I wanted to park it in opened up, and I looked this little Suzuki blueberry in the eye like TODAY'S THE DAY. TODAY WE BREAK YOU. And surprise surprise, after some coercion I was able to unlock the steering and get it going.

Only to not be able to get the hood open, because the clasp has developed its own sapience. And then to realize I forgot to re-lock the car before disconnecting the battery, and while I can manually lock all the doors, I cannot lock the trunk. But I'm not going to reconnect the battery and try to re-open the hood for THAT. We will stare each other down for the rest of the summer.

He's cute, though. Looks like this guy:

It will be our last summer together, little blueberry. <3 Enjoy it while it lasts!

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A grab bag of random NASCAR 2025 thoughts (--I lied, I guess these are just JGR thoughts)

Christopher Bell

This year NASCAR seems to be trying to introduce Christopher Bell as some kind of breakout talent no one's heart about, which feels nuts to me because he is not... having??? a breakout year??? He's made the Championship 4 three times in a row and has had regular wins on top of impressive consistency leading to points? I know he won races-in-a-row in early 2025 and that's why he's drawing attention, but how is that more threatening than his entire deal this whole time? He's an incredible talent on dirt and a Chili Bowl master. He's been a threat this whole time??? @the-kings-tail-fin's theory is that if you don't know CBell's dirt record then you don't know CBell, and maybe that's true--having been dealt psychic damage by CBell and the Chili Bowl does indeed run deeeeep.

Denny Hamlin

I hope that Denny has talked to his daughters about *why* stadiums full of people would be booing their dad and smacktalking him. Because otherwise I feel like it would feel so bad to be proud of your dad at the track and have all that vitriol raining down and for why?? He's your dad?? Taylor seems like she takes it in stride and kind of knows the deal (daddy's a villain), maybe even embraces it, but I kind of feel like Molly is old enough to understand the vibe but not to understand the performance, poor bb...

Personally, I think Denny is the ideal NASCAR driver to be a fan of: I don't really believe in choosing "best" drivers, because I really feel like it's apples to oranges and some weekends you're making a pie and some weekends you're making a smoothie (though some drivers know how to make both, even with unexpected fruits, and some don't), but I still think Denny is the best/deadliest active driver in the field. I think for sure he's done the most for the sport out of all active drivers, as someone who has been a consistent champion of the drivers council; a savvy/cutthroat team owner; someone who is willing to sue NASCAR; and, of course, very vocal about what he wants to see at the level of the entire sport vs. what he doesn't. Sometimes expressed diplomatically and reasonably and sometimes expressed in the most brazen Tweet imaginable.

But all that and because he's chosen to go black hat and take up the villain mantel the last few years, whenever epic misfortune befalls him or he makes the worst on-track decision imaginable, it's hilarious rather than deeply sad, because it usually kind of feels like just deserts. He's perfect.

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And we're back to the Great CD Roadtrip! The one where I play every CD in my car for the length of a tank of gas. This one was kind of broken up, in that I played a lot of audiobooks and got a lot of gas--Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange; most of Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; Inland by Tea Obreht; most of Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng--but I think it about evened out.

Sick Beatz 2018 is the best mix CD I've ever made--it has incredible replayability, and it's one where other people actually agree about that. What only two of them know, however, is that this CD is chock full of "songs that remind me of Cars 3" and "songs that remind me of SWDW." It also features Vin Diesel having mixed himself into singing along with a Selena Gomez song, which is a must-listen.

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I’ve changed my mind; I have no thoughts, because I am dead. I was so sad that I died

I am having so many very intense emotions about racecars but for now, Charlotte:

Ready, set, go. ❤️🧡

💮 我慢して💮

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I am having so many very intense emotions about racecars but for now, Charlotte:

Ready, set, go. ❤️🧡

💮 我慢して💮

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You can't register kei trucks in NY State but IF YOU COULD I would import a Subaru Sambar and name him Sam and it wouldn't be short for Sambar; it would be short for Samovar. Samovar, my little teacup truck.

</3

Hakone, JP, 2023

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Kansas (Spring) 2025

🏆 Pole

🏆 Stage 1

🏆 Stage 2

🏆 10,000 career laps led

🏆 Record for most laps led at Kansas

🏆 Fastest Lap

🏆 Win

🏆 Tied for most wins at Kansas

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 For my birthday!!! Kyle Larson ran a perfect race!!! at Kansas, my favorite race track!!! He even threw a classical Kyle Larson problem (tire abuse) into the equation, for flavor. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

My sister:

"So is Kyle Larson some kind of speedster Lightning McQueen?"

"TIRES? He IS Lightning McQueen"

"Watch out Bell, he has new a new right front now"

And then Kyle Larson's tire started coming apart on the last lap, which really could have been a Lightning McQueen moment:

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Take your NASCAR to work day, hehehehe