wagner

Fanatec CSL Elite Load Cell pedals

Fanatec CSL Elite steering wheel base

Fanatec Clubsport BMW M3 steering wheel

 

It's funny because I'm not any faster with the new stuff, but it feels sooo much better :-) (at least that's how I justify it). Also easier to be consistent lap after lap on the load cell brake pedal.

I have a Logitec G920 I got off Coaster. The only thing I don't like is the brake pedal, I had to make some adjustments in the game to account for it.

I wanted to go with Fanatec but just can't afford it right now.

I'm still trying to get out of the Rookie class right now. I've been just racing as clean as I can, but not hanging back in the pack. I want to get some good experience along the way.

Is there a huge difference between using a PC and console (PS4)?

 

In terms of quality, races, hardware, etc?

Quality is based on your rig and how high you can crank graphics up. I would say so far it's on par with a console. The physics and racing is where I think it's better.

So far I've had a blast with it, very challenging for sure.

Did u have to build a crazy computer setup?

Not really. There's a lot out there on different builds. You can probably get by with a $500 build if the specs are right.

Since we can't race our full-size cars still for some unknown reason anybody iRace?

I built a computer for it last weekend and started. I'm going to do mostly dirt oval, paved oval, and offroad I think.

So far I'm learning more each time I fire it up but I haven't entered any official races yet. I want to be able to get around the track more than a few laps without piling the car up.

So which part of the media reports were wrong?

 

eta: Arrest does necessarily mean physical arrest, it just doesn't necessarily mean cuffed and hauled off to central booking. I was arrested once, ironically in Hamilton County, issued a citation, and sent on my way. I was not cuffed but I was put in the back of a patrol car while my citation was issued. I was not free to leave. It's a pretty lame example of being arrested, but it doesn't mean I wasn't.

 

Likewise, it appears that Thomakos was arrested, issued a citation, and then presumably sent on his way. This is documented in public records. The Hamilton County Sheriff relayed this information to reporters, who appear to have correctly relayed it to us. There is no lie, there is no manipulation. Your two sources were wrong. This took me like 2 minutes to fact check while lying in bed with a hangover. Be. a. better. skeptic.

I actually looked up the citation/arrest thing later and saw they can be used interchangeably. I had no idea and learned something new.

Now, this is also something that a lot of people know, hence why the people I talked to that were physically there said he wasn't arrested.

Now, as for manipulation by the media, I still stand by that statement and here's why.

It all comes down to how you word something, I deal with this every day as I write different stories and social media posts. The use of a single word will completely change context and how something is viewed, trust me, learned that lesson.

So, from a journalistic standpoint what is going to get more clicks/views during the COVID-19 craze? A story about a person who opened up a business and was "cited" or someone who opened up a business and was "arrested".

As you pointed out, both terms are correct, but someone being "arrested" has more pop to it. This is something I see all the time in modern shit journalism, the use of different words to drive the narrative ever so slightly in a different way, the use of a different image or video, or trying to be the first to break a story without all the facts.

This Plandemic video is another example, lots of pop, but how true is it really? Should you trust someone who just got out of the county hotel? My experience tells me that everyone that's been on the wrong side of the law has a compelling story as to why they shouldn't have been locked up...

You're ALMOST right....

If you would have dug just a little deeper you would have seen the notes...

05/02/2020 CITED

05/02/2020 ARREST DATE/TIME

(Arrest does not necessarily mean physical arrest,but may just be the issuance of a citation.)

I'm guessing he was CITED for the violation.

NASA sent an email stating their Memorial Day event is now in limbo with more news expected next week. Surprisingly Chin still says they’re all-go at Mid Ohio the weekend prior to that.

 

On the Karting front our club cancelled our May race and won’t try to pick up until mid June at the earliest. New Castle in Indiana had a race over the last weekend, but now has been shut down.

 

Supposedly KilKare had a race over the weekend and are facing fines from it, but that’s the rumor mill no first hand knowledge.

It wasn't KillKare, it was Edgewater. That whole deal is pretty jacked up, they got the shaft from the government totally and it shows why you shouldn't trust the media at all.

Now, let me explain why I have made this statement so there is zero confusion.

1. The track manager went to his local officials and told them what he was going to do and explained what precautions they were going to take. The problem is, he never got it in writing, so when things went sideways and the Dirty 30 crash happened they burnt him.

2. The media put a story out that the track manager was arrested during the event and even went as far as to cite charges against him. This is 100% false and was totally fabricated by the media. I talked with a couple of people that were there, it flat never happened, period.

So, keep this in mind when you buy into every word the media has to say on both sides of the COVID-19 argument. We as a country are being manipulated from all sides.

anyone else having serious mental fatigue over this yet?

Mine is based around the whole damn situation. My life has been completely fucked up over this whole deal, my profession is having the life choked out of it like a chick with a daddy kink and self-esteem issues.

Seems like there's lotta fuckery going on with the covid numbers and how its coded when they someone comes into the hospital. Regardless of what the actual sickness/death is. Hospitals seem to get more federal dollars if they log as many patients and deaths from covid when many are really from other causes that get lumped in with covid in the yearly average.

 

Seems like we are being had on multiple levels here. I hope they figure this out and people dont go full civil war on the nanny states.

I've been trying to look at this from a logical level. We know there is a virus, it makes people sick, and some of those people die.

Here's what I don't understand. So all of the sudden our food supply chain is in "grave danger" because these meat processing plants are about to shut down, countless animals have to be killed and not used, just end of the world type stuff.

Why are these meat proccessing plants seeing these massive spikes in case numbers when we aren't seeing this with places that are open to the public like a grocery store or home improvement story?

One would think that since these stores are staffed by people who have been exposed to so many other people they would be ravaged by COVID and forced to shut down. I've only seen a couple of stories on the news where grocery store workers habe come down with it.

Based on general logic you would think that if you worked at a job where you were exposed to a large amount of people from the general public you would be at a higher risk.

It's almost like I've seen this situation before...

Yeah that’s a bummer for sure. Even with virtual meetings car and karting events sure still seem like 100+ people in one area at one time. Now, it sure seems like the same thing could be said of a Walmart parking lot on any given day, but that’s just my observation.

Track owners are raising bloody hell behind the scenes with the elected officials over this. Tracks in the south have opened up for testing with 50 car limits and social distancing without any issues.

Personally, I would feel much safer at a race versus going to the store. Open air venue and plenty of room for people to stay away from me.

I've been doing everything I can to practice social distancing at the store when I have to go, however, most people don't.

I've not received a stimulus check/deposit, and I am expecting to. I am this week on the 2nd week of my 2-weeks of mandated unpaid furlough by my employer.

 

I never had to use the unemployment system before, but I filed a claim for the 1st week on a Monday and received a direct deposit the Thursday of that same week. I did the same this past Monday and received correspondence that I should receive a payment most likely tomorrow.

 

The site is clunky and feels a lot like e-filing your taxes, but the system has worked fine for me. If there are people forced to use the phone hotline to file a claim I imagine that's painful at best.

You are the first person I've seen that I have direct contact get paid. I know of another CR member that couldn't even get on the site to file, it just crashed all the time. He was told to try at midnight or in the early morning hours becauase that's when the site worked.

Two other people I know have jumped through every hoop and never got paid. Said there was some type of error or issue on the state's side and they can never reach anybody to get it sorted out.

I've seen other people all posting similar stories in replies to status on social media.

It's a shitshow and I feel terrible for all those getting sucked into this. My wife and I are watching the OH, MI, and CA state sites to see if our companies are putting layoff notices up. I know mine is coming, just not sure when the axe is going to fall.

Maybe I'll go to truck driving school.

I was laid off in December and my severance just ran out right before all this Corona stuff. I filed for unemployment and haven't seen anything from them yet and searching for a job right now is damn near impossible (unless I want to make half or less than I was). So the stimulus is padding the bank account with what I had set aside (I wasn't counting on unemployment to come through), should get us by until I am gainfully employed again. For now, I'm just enjoying being home with the kids.

Good luck with the unemployment man. Everything I'm seeing from people I know is that there are no payments going out at all and it's just a big cluster fuck.

Look at this red-blooded local American hero.....

 

http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/bill-bader-intends-to-open-norwalk-facility-regardless-of-federal-restrictions-in?fbclid=IwAR1Vcb-Hlr9l3LgOaIgFEF5YqRNeKLKGYrFYCnqDvz-ZC6JiAqPM-MDfLno

 

 

Wagner, you should come up for opening day! Sell your pics to the major news networks for big$$$

If I go it will be for official work business and that means I can't sell my shots. Besides, I'll let Mike the track photog do that, he's an amazing person and needs that money.

There are tracks that have already opened for testing. Darlington had 40 or 50 cars yesterday.

It really isn't that hard to run a race with some social distancing and such. Jessie Adams did it out in California a month ago. People just need to follow rules and outsiders need to mind their business.

once all these careers start to go away, we will see more people killing themselves than this fucking virus.

 

That will be the 20-45 year olds. A group that is 99.8% safe from this virus.

With all the shouting going on from every side this is something that is really being overlooked.

I'm a pretty strong person but I've hit my breaking point seeing everything going on around me in the industry and to my friends. I guess the only way to describe it is shell shock.

Good people in the industry that had no reason to think they're job would be at risk, boom screwed. I've had freelancers call me crying because there's no work, nobody is hiring, can't even get a non-industry professional job.

It's so scary to think everything you've ever worked for is about to go away and nobody even cares because it's for the greater good. By the time your suffering begins there's no hope or help.

Things are beginning to look worse for the entertainment and sports industries. We're starting to hear the idea being floated that there will be no sports and no large gatherings until FALL of 2021.

This is what's being floated behind closed doors right now and hasn't been fully vetted to be released to the public. From what I'm being told there are "negotiations" going on between people in the industry and the government on this.

Companies have stopped paying for advertising and halted all sponsorship checks. So all of your automotive magazines are going to die. All of them, Hot Rod, Motortrend, everything...

To be 100% honest with what I know based on the automotive industry right now this will effectively kill the car hobby, period. Even the biggest of the big companies are starting to hit the breaking point right now. It will finish closing race tracks and there won't be any sanctioning bodies left.

I know the NHRA has cut pretty much everybody they can. NASCAR is going to be the first big one to fall. There are multiple tracks that have already said the won't open in 2020 at all.

Right now Norwalk has THREE paid people on its staff, all at reduced pay, and Bader himself isn't even drawing a check.

With all that being said, anybody hiring? I'm going to be out of work I would say in 2-3 months.

https://imgur.com/sUyBGHZ

https://imgur.com/CQcJZ3U

not going to lie, I've seen some people fuck up RC stuff, but I've never seen that before.

I don't think it's fixable, it looks like the case was damaged and they tried some repair that didn't go as planned

This is another one of the shows that I helped to develop and write, but for this one, I actually have to go on camera.

I received the draft of the CDC/FEMA plan. They call for a phasing in approach starting May 1 and having most areas and things open with precautions in place by June. However, with "hot spots" still shelter in place as needed. Some say it's too optimistic, but I hope it's about right.

I saw someone share a news story from a non-accredited outlet that Chris Fowler said College Football won't happen this fall. I didn't share that because I looked around and couldn't see it on any real websites so take that for what it's worth.

Then you have stuff like this

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/14/governor-newsom-mass-gatherings-not-in-the-cards-when-california-lockdown-is-lifted/

Wags, do you know anyone that does repairs on brushless motors and esc’s? I bought a brushless for my sons rig from eBay and it was haggard. Wires to the esc are pretty tore up and they “fixed” it with some goop mess. Unfortunately the seller pulled a disappearing act and I’m stuck with it and a sad 11 year old.

 

Edit: as for the connectors, you can buy traxxas ones on eBay but I recommend switching them to deans or Anderson power poles (or other quality connectors)

A local hobby shop might be able to. Post a picture and I might be able to walk you through how to do it on your own depending on what's going on.

OK but let's pretend we're all on Gilligan's island, you're the skipper. The professor says that a storm is coming and we'll all die of exposure if we don't build a shelter. Gilligan starts losing his shit because he doesn't want to die. But building a shelter is hard work, so Thurston Howell's dumb ass convinces Marryanne and Ginger and his whore wife that the storm won't be so bad, and building a shelter is dangerous anyway what with the hammers and all. So you vote, 4 to 3 and no shelter gets built. Everyone dies.

 

Now you're at the pearly gates and you slap Gilligan on the back of the head like the skipper does and say, "If you hadn't gotten so hysterical this wouldn't have happened."

 

For some reason your knee-jerk reaction isn't to be upset with the Thurston Howells that are peddling misinformation, distrust, and bad-faith arguments, but the Gilligans and whatever "media" you think are responsible for the Gilligans.

 

For every "sky is falling" pundit I can guarantee you I can find an equally moronic Sean Hannity segment where he says everything is fine and this is all overblown. We can all agree that pundits are jackasses, but why not direct more ire towards the jackasses who are actively working to undermine an effort which you yourself consider necessary? I can brush off the sky is falling crowd, I have a lot harder time brushing off the "this'll all go away in April when it gets warmer" crowd.

 

 

 

DeWine wasn't the smartest guy in the room, he just made the (IMHO) minimal effort of actually listening to scientists. It's a pretty low bar for politicians to meet and yet he's one of the few who did. I give him more credit for how he's handled everything afterwards (he really has been stellar, I know I've said it before), but that initial step of listening to the fucking scientists should have been what every functioning adult did.

 

Did you know that there are STILL 7 states that haven't issued lockdown orders? I didn't. Guess what letter is after their respective governor's names. It's crazy how much Republicans hate scientists.

 

 

 

The PPE situation is not going to be solved by the free market -- no company is going to stockpile PPE for a hypothetical payday every 100 years, and no company is going to be able to compete on a global scale with China without some kind of price fixing. It's a problem that requires a competent government to solve. I hope we all keep that in mind when we're exercising our right to hold our elected officials accountable.

I brush off the "everything is fine people" just like the sky is falling people, neither group have a clue. Mire ire is equal for both groups and I judge people based on which group they follow.

Elected officials are going to do what will keep them in office, that's always been the case and will continue to be the case.

I read an article in Forbes that talked about how companies are trying to spread their supply chain out more to mitigate future disruptions. China doesn't play fair so it's hard to compete with how they operate, that was explained in the article as well.

I'd be interested to see what medical professionals have to say about these temporary hospitals and navy ships not getting used.

From a project manager's standpoint if certain hospitals are overwhelmed why didn't the medical professionals move some of the load to these other locations to free up resources?

The PPE shortage is another interesting issue that shows a global problem. The very country we use for cheap manufacturing of these products was ground zero for the shit show. Maybe that needs to be looked at because we all know this situation is going to happen again.

Take a look at your own words then, man. Someone can easily construe you saying "You've got people on one side screaming the sky is falling and we have to take these extreme measures" as to mean you don't think those extreme measures are necessary, or that anyone who's in favor of extreme measures thinks the sky is falling. Do you see that now? You're saying that wasn't your intent, that you agree with DeWine that these extreme measures are necessary. Be more careful in the future.

 

Say something like, "There are reasonable people basing their decisions on facts and putting [information] out there in a thoughtful way who say that these extreme measures are necessary, and then you've got people on the other side who...." Is that an accurate statement of your position?

 

If "the sky is falling" people are saying the exact same thing as the reasonable people like DeWine, and the other side isn't agreeing with the reasonable people like DeWine, maybe your beef isn't really with the sky is falling crowd.

There is a difference between the sky is falling people and DeWine's facts in my opinion.

- Sky is falling people are parroting the junk being pushed by different outlets whether it's true or not. An example would be the alleged mass graves of New York. I've got a few sky is falling people in my social circles that post things they are told and believe is the truth.

- DeWine and his followers (like me) look at the real facts and see things are bad, but not as bad as they COULD HAVE been.

Where the real train wreck starts is when you have the optics of the truth get jacked up because people can't see there are problems outside of their little world. So that's why you have people in areas where the outbreak is that bad getting pissed because the big doom and gloom never happened.

It's a great case study in media optics, manipulation, and how things are presented. Meanwhile you have China trying to hide what actually happened...

At first I thought DeWine was being a nut job, now it looks like he really was the smartest person in the room. After seeing things fully unfold what he said needed to be done and what was done matched up, this led to a more positive outcome.

Yeah theres all kinds of batteries out there. But you can even buy alternative 'name brand' batteries than the traxxas ones for like half the cost. I wouldn't recommend buying the cheapest china crap on the planet, you don't want the batteries to explode and catch your RC or.... house on fire.

This, get the name brand stuff. Also, make sure you charge batteries correctly when it comes to Lipos. I would invest in an ammo can to charge them in along with a lipo sack.

Lipo fires are no joke, trust me