Tag Archive | sports

Is It Time To Evolve Our Opinion Of Danica?

Danica Patrick & Tony Stewart Are Fast Friends 2013 USA Today

Danica Patrick & Tony Stewart Are Fast Friends
(Photo: Davis Turner, for USA TODAY)

Danica Patrick Enter The 2013 Sprint Cup Series
by Springwolf

If you’ve read any of my Nascar posts, you know I’m pretty critical of Danica. Just check out “Why Nascar Fans Don’t Like Danica” and you’ll find the reasons why.

This year she will be driving the GoDaddy #10 Chevy full time in the Sprint Cup series for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Now as a major Tony Stewart fan, I’ve been conflicted about Danica from the beginning. I want to support him as both a driver and an owner. But it’s been hard where she’s concerned. Even knowing how much Tony likes her and believes in her abilities. (Danica and Tony are Fast Friends by Nate Ryan – USA Today)

Make no mistake, I think bringing her on board at Stewart-Haas Racing is a great business decision. She’s immensely popular. She garners a great deal of attention no matter what she does or where she goes.

As the Marketing reps say…there’s no such thing as bad publicity. You merely need to look at the response to this years Superbowl GoDaddy commercial to see that concept working in reality. As soon at that supermodel/nerd kiss commercial aired, Twitter lit up with comments. With each and every one of them mentioning “Go Daddy” in their disgust. But that gross commercial, pulled in record business for the Dot.com and that’s what it’s all about. Sales!

So yeah it’s a great business decision having her on the team. But business decisions don’t play out on the track with fans hoping for a win from their favorite driver. Continue reading →

Tony Stewart Enters An Exclusive Club

Jan30

Three Time Sprint Cup 2011 Champion – Tony Stewart

The Over 40 Champions Club

Only 8 Drivers, over 40, have been crowned Champion in Nascar’s history. The most recent came in 2011 when 40 year old Tony Stewart won the third of his three Nascar Sprint Cup Championships.

Tony is also the only Driver in Nascar’s history to win the top Championship title under its three modern sponsors; Winston Cup, Nextel Cup and the current Sprint Cup.

And he’s also the only current driver to win under the old point system and the new race to The Chase point system.

Tony enters the Over 40 Club and joins some of the greatest drivers in the history of Nascar! Continue reading →

New Android App Review – Digital Frame

Jan16

Set Up A Digital Picture Slideshow

I’m a Mom and like all Moms I love looking at and displaying the pictures of my family. Today you can spend hundreds of dollars on digital picture frames and set them around your house. You can set up screen savers on your PC and show off your pictures when you’re not working. Or if you’re on Windows 7 or greater, you can set up a desk top widget and display your albums proudly.

Now when I’m working on my PC, I have multiple windows open and I’m constantly doing something. It’s not often during the day that the screen saver has time to kick in. So having a digital picture frame would be awesome on my desk. I received a digital frame for Christmas one year and it worked for about 10 months before it crashed and we could never get it working again. Thankfully the husband didn’t spend that much on it, but it was enough to steer us away from other frames and especially more expensive ones.

When I picked up my new Galaxy Nexus one of the first things I did was move a few current family pictures to it. Mostly because I was going to meet family for lunch and I knew they’d want to see the latest photos of the Prince. On the way home I wondered if there was a digital frame app? It wasn’t until today that I had to really sit down and look for one. Continue reading →

2012 Fiscal Cliff Bill And Nascar – The Real Story & The Mis-information

Jan6

Nothing like a sunset over RIR!

How Assumptions Can Create Mis-Information

Last month Washington DC was in its usual fight over money, budgets and bills when it finally agreed on several little deals to create what’s being called on the street as the Fiscal Cliff Bill. Along with being a sports fan, an author and teacher, I’m also a political junkie. And one thing that irritates me more than the stupidity in Washington, is the B.S. and spin that the average American buys into at the hands of sloppy reporting and sensationalize journalism.

When that mis-information touches on something I care about, I tend to speak up. Such is the case of a recent story published in the Washington Post this week. An opinion piece, which I guess means the opinionated author doesn’t need to check their facts before publication. The article entitled “From NASCAR to rum, the 10 weirdest parts of the ‘fiscal cliff’ bill” was posted by Brad Plumer on January 2, 2013.

In this article Mr. Plumer makes the following statement: Continue reading →

New App Reviews For Android

Dec10

Updates To My Galaxy Nexus App Reviews

I’ve added two new apps to my phone. HBOGO and CNN. And I’ve updated the review for the Nascar app through the Sprint network.

My laptop crashed right after Thanksgiving. Very irritating! But it meant I paid more attention to what we were watching on TV. I noticed a commercial on HBO about their new phone app, to take HBO with you. Thought that was interesting! It didn’t occur to me to watch HBO on my phone. And why not? We watch other videos, why not HBO?! So I ran off to the Google play store and there it was: HBOGO. I LOVE this app!

Not long after we were out shopping and someone at one of our local stores mentioned some breaking news. They were looking for information on the radio. Well I have a smart phone now (honestly I’m still not used to this). So I got on the browser and looked for info. In my search I saw a link to download CNNs app. Hey..there’s an idea. News at your finger tips.

That prompted me to check on our local news, for us that’s the local NBC station. Sure enough they have an android app. I didn’t add a review for them, since they’re local, but check out what we think of HBOGo and CNN’s app.

You’ll find all my app reviews @ Android App Review. Yeah..real unique I know.

No Indy 500 / Coke 600 For Stewart

Dec7

3-Time Sprint Cup Champion
Tony Stewart
“The People’s Champion”

Tony Stewart Announces: No Double for 2013

Smoke fans were excited at the proposition that their favorite driver might run the infamous racing “Double” in 2013. What’s the Double? Well it’s only one of the most arduous days in racing, requiring a race car driver to participate in the Indianapolis 500 AND the Coca-Cola 600 in the same day. Yep, two of the longest races of the season for both Indy and Nascar series racing.

Tony Stewart has run the Double before. He ran both races in 1999, his Nascar Rookie year. He finished 9th in the Indy 500 and 4th in the Coke 600. He completed 1,090 miles of the 1,100 miles of the combined races. Pretty fantastic finishes in both races.

In 2001, Smoke made the attempt at the Double again. This time running all of the 1,100 miles even with a brief 17 minute rain delay in Indy. In addition he proved his talent and ability as a race car driver by improving his previous effort finishes in both races. Crossing the finish line at Indy in 6th and 3rd at the Coke 600.

So when Roger Penske made the public offer for Tony to run the Double again next year, fans were excited! During the final Awards ceremony in Vegas for Nascar’s Championship Week, Standing at the microphone for his speech as owner of this years Nascar Championship team, Penske announces “Where’s Stewart? How about doing the double at Indy this year? You available?” And while the banquet hall erupted in laugher, Mr. Penske was serious. Explaining his offer was in earnest at a later after awards ceremony interview. Continue reading →

Daytona Shootout Entries for 2013

Dec5

2013 Shootout – February 16 on FOX

3-Time Sprint Cup Champion
Tony Stewart

73 days until the Daytona Shootout! But hours after the checkered flag dropped on the 2012 running of the Daytona Shootout, NASCAR announced new eligibility standards for the 2013 race. Back in February 2012 Jeff Gluck posted details about the changes on The New Eligibility Rules.

The biggest change the rules put on the 2013 running is the return to pole winners and previous Shootout winners only. While many applaud this return to the old school, it means the current Cup Champion is not eligible to participate. Many Brad Keselowski fans are upset about that. But this isn’t the first time the Cup Champion hasn’t participated in the shoot out. The last time that happened was 2004 when 2003 Cup Champion Matt Kenseth was excluded from the shootout race.

That’s not the only change people are talking about. It doesn’t seem right not to call the shootout by it’s old familiar title “The Budweiser Shootout”. But Budweiser no longer sponsors the shootout. They do sponsor the Duels which will be held February 21, 2013 on Speed.

The 2013 Shootout Entries.

22 Drivers are eligible to participate in the 2013 Daytona Shootout.
As of February 12th, 2013; 19 Drivers have signed up to race the renamed Sprint Unlimited race. For us however, it will always be the Shootout!
Continue reading →

2012 Nascar Sprint Cup Champions Week

Dec1

Fast Forward Through The Awards

We’ve watched all the Nascar Award shows that have been televised. We learned a few years ago to record them and fast forward through the boring or uninteresting parts. Last night’s show was no exception and only made me more appreciative of the fast forward button.

I like Howie as a stand-up comedian. As a host of an award show, he was unimpressive and some of his antics truly took away from the ‘class’ that was shown by others during the evening. That was very disappointing.

In his article Nascar Awards Banquet:Thoughts On The Ceremony, Jeff Gluck mentions “..the evening became more TV-focused in recent years, it took a significant move toward that direction with a new format debuted Friday night at the Wynn in Las Vegas.“

I can understand the need to break up the evening in sections for viewers. However, being a viewer means you’re not in Vegas to take in the sights and sounds of the week. I would have been much happier with a fuller replay of the events that occurred during the week. Such as more tape from Are Nascar Drivers Smarter Than A Fifth Grader. I would have liked to have seen more of Tony’s push-up contest with Rutledge Wood, and how about the Car Parade and burn outs on the Vegas Strip? Continue reading →

Feeling Down About The Last Race Of The Season?

Nov16

Daytona 500 Trophy

There’s Only 100 Days To Daytona!

Next season isn’t that far away. So if you’re already feeling let down that your driver isn’t competing for a title, start counting now for next year.

The next Daytona 500 will be Tony Stewart’s 501st start. He has won several times at Daytona in the summer series. But he has never taken home the trophy from the 500.

He’ll start the year with a new primary sponsor, Bass Pro Shops for the #14 Chevy. Ryan Newman will be back in the #39 with Quicken Loans. And Stewart-Haas Racing will field a 3rd car for Spring Cup, with Danica Patrick in the GoDaddy car.

Of course Dale Jr will also be back in his #88 Chevy with Hendrick. Trevor Bayne will be running a full-time schedule in Nationwide and a limited schedule in Cup. Continue reading →

Spooky Celebrations

Oct29

Merry Samhain or Happy Halloween

What ever your celebration we hope you have a safe and happy one!