Won a Writing Challenge and it Had an Unexpected Bonus

Some of you might know that I am a sometime contributor to the official Brad Keselowski website. (I have been a fan of his for about six or seven years). Currently, they are holding a creative writing challenge with different themes every week. I won't bore you with all the details, but the theme a couple of weeks ago was "If Brad Keselowski was a character in Wizard of Oz, who would he be and why?" (paraphrased)

Thing is, I have never seen the movie nor read the book. So, I took an online crash course on the "plot" and asked Tom a bunch of questions. He has actually seen it, so I got to pick his brain. I created a simple cut and paste pic on the Paint program (it's all I have) of the race car under a rainbow and sent the submission on.

Well, I was notified a couple of days ago that I won. No, it was not like taking candy from a baby. There are a couple of professional sports writers competing as well. And no, there is no money involved, but I am supposed to get some signed Brad Keselowski swag.

Oh, it gets much better though. Today, when I signed into my Twitter account (I still use a desktop for that) to promote my daily cat post, I saw that I had a bunch of notifications. In a nutshell, I saw a tweet (see below) that another award for winning the challenge was having a decal with my name placed on a race car that Brad Keselowski owns. It is truck  number 19 driven by Tyler Reddick and it will race at Talladega this weekend on October 18.

As you can see on the picture, it's a pretty big decal, right under the breast cancer ribbon.

Now, some of you might have heard stuff about Brad Keselowski about how he is a bad guy (especially lately), but let me tell you: He is one of the NASCAR drivers/owners who does the most for his fans. And that is saying a lot because I know that a lot of them do appreciate their fans. Okay, the lesser team owners and drivers are close to their fans also, but for a big name organization to care about their fans this much is pretty awesome.

How in the World Does One Combine Poetry and NASCAR?

I have actually done that twice. Okay, so I never said it was good poetry. My most recent attempt is for a contest that is being held on the 2012 NASCAR champion's website. The challenge is in regards to said driver (Brad Keselowski). It is a creative challenge that asks: " If Brad were a monster, what would he be, and why?"

If you think that is a strange question to ask, I agree. However, there is a method behind the madness (NASCAR is not all about madness). The monster theme has to do with the most recent race because that race track has a huge monster statue out front.

Yup, and that explains the strange image that goes with this post too. And where does the poetry bit come in? That was just my idea to make my entry more creative because the NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski himself will pick the winner.

Anyway, to make my stats look more impressive and to help me earn points towards NASCAR swag, I would appreciate if you could visit my entry and use any of the social media buttons on the post to share it. Thanks!

Human Versus Cat Round 13

Last week's NASCAR race took place in Sonoma. Yup, they had to turn right on a road course. Those fantasy picks picks are always tricky. I have no picture of how Gracie made her race picks because we had to bribe her with cat treats. We put them in the box so she had to dig for the paper balls. If you don't know what this is about, this post explains it.

Here are the picks that took her many hours to come up with:

39 (Ryan Newman)
48 (Jimmie Johnson)
13 (Casey Mears)
29 (Kevin Harvick)
30 (David Stremme)

Here is how it played out for Gracie: 58 points for Newman, 35 points for Johnson, 28 points for Mears, 34 points for Harvick and 8 points for Stremme for a total of 163 points. She is now ranked at the 41.4 percentile for all Nascar on Fox players with a total of 1,852 point. In the Brad Keselowski league she is 750 out of 1209. As always, keep in mind that her stats are skewed because she did not play the first 3 races of the season.

My picks:

15 (Clint Boyer)
99 (Carl Edwards)
14 (Tony Stewart)
16 (Greg Biffle)
9 (Marcos Ambrose)

Here is how the points played out for me:78 for Boyer, 41 for Edwards, 16 for Stewart, 36 for Biffle and 38 for Ambrose for a total of 209 points. I am ranked at the 70.3 percentile for all Nascar on Fox players with a total of 2,779 points. For the Ryan Newman league I rank 136 out of 413.

Human Versus Cat Round 12

Yes, I've been slacking off posting Nascar results. If you don't know what this series is about, this post explains it.

Actually, the Michigan race picks were quite interesting. Here is how it all played out:

Gracie's picks:

31 (Jeff Burton) 68 points
27 (Paul Menard) 30 points
78 (Kurt Busch) 10 points
5 (Kasey Kahne) 7 points
18 (Kyle Busch) 40 points

Total: 155 points.

Now, while this total might not seem impressive, she actually picked four drivers who practiced in the top 5. Too bad the race played out a little differently, but all were pretty strong drivers.

Her point total of  1689 moved her up slightly in the standings (for all Nascar on Fox league players) to 41.6 percent. In the Brad Keselowski league that ranked her 747 out of 1211. Remember that her stats are skewed because I did not have her "play" the first 3 races of the season.

My picks:

5 (Kasey Kahne) 14 points
99 (Carl Edwards) 37 points
88 (Dale Earnhardt) 8 points
16 (Greg Biffle) 48 points
22 (Joey Logano) 36 points

Total: 143 points

Dale Jr. blowing a motor killed my points, even though I picked the race winner (Greg Biffle) and guess what: The cat beat me by 12 points!

After this race, I dropped to 67.5 percent for all Nascar on Fox players with a point total of 2570 for the season. In the Ryan Newman league I was ranked 148 out of 412, another drop over last week.

Human Versus Cat Round 11

With the spring segment behind us, Gracie and I will now be on even pawing, err footing, when it comes to playing the NASCAR fantasy league on Fox. Why? Because she did not play the first three races of the spring segment because I had not thought of this crazy idea. If you want to know how all this started, this post explains it.

Anyway, race 1 (but round 11 for us) of the summer segment for the NASCAR on Fox fantasy league was Pocono. All of Friday's track action (rounds of practice and qualifying) was washed out, thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea, yet Gracie still made her picks enthusiastically.

55 (Mark Martin)
31 (Jeff Burton)
27 (Paul Menard)
15 (Clint Boyer)
42 (Juan Pablo Montoya)

That is an impressive list of picks. See, while only 43 drivers race, there are many more numbers of drivers out there in the box. I made it fair and we tossed in all the numbers of drivers who only make a few races, or start and park. So far, she has managed not to pick too many of those. On the rare occasion she happens to pick a number of a racer not in the race, we let her pick again.

Mine were not so easy to made because I often base my picks on what happened during practice and qualifying. I almost felt like digging randomly in the box. I did not, of course because that is Gracie's box. Here is what I came up with:

5 (Kasey Kahne)
99 (Carl Edwards)
88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.)
16 (Greg Biffle)
29 (Kevin Harvick)

And how did this shake out? Gracie scored 50 for Martin, 33 for Burton, 14 for Menard, 29 for Boyer and 30 for Montoya for a total of 156. She dropped slightly overall to a 41.3 percentile for all NASCAR on Fox players and in the Brad Keselowski league to 748 out of 1208.

Gracie almost got me. However, on the last lap Paul Menard blew a tire and instead of finishing top 10, finished 30th, or she would have outscored me.

My results were pretty dismal thanks to Kasey Kahne having mechanical trouble. It's never a good sign when one of your drivers pulls off the track during lap 2. I scored 16 for him, 27 for Edwards, 41 for Earnhardt Jr., 42 for Biffle and 35 for Harvick for a total of 161 points. I dropped quite a bit to the 68.1 percentile for all NASCAR on Fox players and rank 144 out of 409 for the Ryan Newman league.

Human Versus Cat: Spring Segment Results

As promised, here are the results of the first 10 rounds for the NASCAR fantasy league on Fox. If you missed what led up to this, this post explains it.

First is Gracie's score sheet for her Team Threeeee. Note that there are 13 numbered races on the score sheet, but it starts with race 4, not race 1. That is because I did not have the idea for her to make picks until race 4 of the season. What is a good score for a race? Anything over 200 is pretty darn good, and over 150 is okay, in my opinion.

Now note race 9, the results underlined in purple: She placed in the 71.5 percentile of all NASCAR on Fox players and as you can see, her score of 185 for that race ranked her 8,505 from all players. How many total players were there? It's hard to tell. I've done some math by taking in consideration how many players appear in the individual leagues and I would say it's several tens of thousands at least. Not bad for random picks! See also that she scored once over 50 % and even her lowest was not lower than 7.8 percent. As you will see shortly, even I managed worse!

Here is my overview for the spring segment for Team Bloomin39. Note that for race 11 I placed in the 99 percentile with a score of 239 and placed 291 out of tens of thousands of players. I also scored over 200 points three times. Now note how I started off the season ... with dismal percentiles of 5.9 and 3.5. Even the cat never did this badly!

Human Versus Cat Round 10

Last weekend's race in Dover was the last for the 13-race spring segment for the NASCAR fantasy league we are playing. If you aren't sure what this is about, this previous post explains it. Gracie made her picks on the Friday before the race. Here they are:

99 Carl Edwards
10 Danica Patrick
5 Kasey Kahne
43 Aric Almirola
38 David Gilliland

Here is how she scored: 60 points for captain Edwards, 20 points for Patrick, 22 points for Kahne, 26 points for Almirola, and 7 points for David Gilliland for a total of 135 points for the race. This brings her up to the 41.7 percentile for all NASCAR on Fox players with a total score of 1,378 for 10 races. Remember that she did not play the first 3 weeks. In the Brad Keselowski league she finished 737 of 1,206.

My picks:

99 Carl Edwards (same as Gracie)
11 Denny Hamlin
42 Juan Pablo Montoya
29 Kevin Harvick
16 Greg Biffle

I scored 60 points for captain Edwards, 11 points for Hamlin, 43 points for Montoya, 37 points for Harvick and 29 points for Biffle and a total of 180 points for the race. This brings me up to the 72.6 percentile for all NASCAR on Fox players with a total score of 2,266 for all 13 races of the Spring segment. In the Ryan Newman league I jumped up to 116 of 408.

We will of course keep playing. The next summer segment consists of 13 races as well. Gracie and I will now be on equal footing as I did not think of having her do picks until race 4 of the season. Before the next race post, I will present a post with a complete summary for our spring segments. It looks very interesting, not just for me.

Riding With Brad Keselowski - Again

One of my favorite NASCAR drivers, Brad Keselowski, is famous for being very interactive with his fans (especially via Twitter), and he even involves them, when he can. Last year, for example, he had a contest where people could get their Twitter handle on his truck that he raced in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. I even have a pic of it. (Mike W. is the one who figured out where my name was--look for the orange circle). How did Brad fare? Not well, he wrecked it.

 

Anyway, when I found out several months ago (on Twitter of course) that you could get your picture on Brad's car for the All Star race (held last Saturday), of course I had to participate. This is the pic I entered:

No, I don't drink, but Miller Lite is the major sponsor for BK's car, so I had Tom take a pic of me at The Stadium (local sports bar). He submitted a pic too:

Once all was processed, the website did let us search for our pics and gave us the coordinates. I was row 9, Column 24 look for the yellow mark):

Tom's pic appeared on row 52, column 47:

Why are our pics above and below the car? It's kind of hard to explain, but this mosaic poster was just for purchasing purposes. This was optional of course, getting your pic on the car was free.

Here is what the actual race car looked like. 

(pic is from Nascar.com)

Unfortunately, we did not get to see much of it as on lap 3 Brad had to pull of the track with transmission problems. Sigh.

Human Versus Cat Round 8

Gracie made her picks the day before the May 11 Darlington NASCAR race.(If you do not know what this is about, this post explains it). It took her all afternoon. She did pick the captain quickly enough, but the others took some time.

Anyway, this is what she came up with:

22 (Joey Logano)
27 (Paul Menard)
39 (Ryan Newman)
32 (Timmy Hill)
34 (David Regan)

It seems that making new paper balls (to take the scent of the old ones) sort of worked, as she picked some different drivers. Alas, she picked Newman again, for the fourth time this season, which means she can't pick him again until the NASCAR of Fox fantasy league spring segment is over. Which should be soon.

And here are my picks. Yes, they are getting more difficult to make as I've maxed out several drivers too.

20 (Matt Kenseth)
11 (Denny Hamlin)
56 (Martin Truex)
78 (Kurt Busch)
48 (Jimmie Johnson)

The results

Gracie scored 44 points for Logano, 25 points for Menard, 34 points for Newman, 11 points for Hill and 5 points for Ragan. The latter was last week's race winner, which just shows you how fickle this sport is. Her total for the race was 119 points. She is ranked 778 out of 1,193 in the Brad Keselowski league and her percentile for all NASCAR on Fox players is 37.3. As always, keep in mind that she did not "play" for the first 3 races, so the stats are skewed.

As for myself, I am afraid I have to do some horn-tooting. I picked the winner and second place driver as well as the fourth finisher. My worst finishing driver ended up 14th (Kurt Busch). I also found a new screen that tells you how your percentile and rank went for all NASCAR on Fox players, not just the league finish. I'll get to that in a bit, after I tally up:

94 points for the race winner (Kenseth), 42 for Hamlin, 32 for Truex, 31 for Kurt Busch and 40 for Jimmie Johnson for a total of 239 points. That, my folks, placed me 291 out of all NASCAR on Fox players with a 99 percentile for this race (which bumps my all-around percentage for the spring segment to 70.8). How many players are there? It says 9,999+, but I am guessing it's way more than 10,000. Maybe even closer to 100,000? I'd like to find out, that is for sure. As far as my rankings go for the Ryan Newman league I am now 123 out of 404.

Human Versus Cat Round 7

As I said in last week's post, we had to make new paper balls for Gracie so she could make her picks for the Talladega Race. (If you do not know what this is about, this post explains it). We were hoping that it would remove the scent on her "favorites," having picked two drivers four times already, which is the maximum allowed for the NASCAR on Fox fantasy league.

Her are the five numbered paper balls (drivers) she chose, and yes, she actually picked some different numbers this time around.Although, she was a little hesitant at first. I guess she was confused by the black Sharpie smell (from when I wrote the numbers on the papers). Prior papers were numbered with ink pen, but it was hard to read those after uncrinkling the paper balls.

51 (Regan Smith)
5 (Kasey Kahne)
98 (Michael McDowell)
48 (Jimmie Johnson)
11 (Brian Vickers/Denny Hamlin) The reason I listed two drivers is because Denny Hamlin was injured during a prior race and Brian Vickers is his relief driver.

If you follow NASCAR, you know that Talladega is one of only two restrictor plate tracks and because of the nature of the racing there, just about anyone has a shot at winning.

That made it difficult for me to make my picks as picking winners for a restrictor plate race is somewhat of a crap shoot. Here are my picks:

88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.)
27 (Paul Menard)
99 (Carl Edwards)
55 (Michael Waltrip)
1 (Jamie McMurray)

The results

I am really annoyed with this week's result because they shorted Gracie by points. See, when I selected the 11 car for the lineup it would not let me choose Denny Hamlin for it as it said "not entered," even though he started the race and earned the points. So, I selected Brian Vickers. Here is what happened during the race: At the first caution Denny got out and let Brian Vickers finish the race. Yet, Gracie got 0 points. Not fair, as Brian Vickers  was the only selection they allowed for the 11 car. I am really mad about this, but what can I do. Anyway, here is how it all played out:

Gracie scored 76 for Regan Smith, 2 for Kasey Kahne, 23 for Michael McDowell and 40 for Jimmie Johnson for a total of 141 points. She moved up in rankings for the sub league to 783 out of 1188 with a 35.9 percentage of all Fox players. Remember that her stats are skewed because she did not participate in this during the first three races of the season.

I scored 54 points for Dale Jr., 19 points for Paul Menard, 42 points for Carl Edwards, 40 points for Michael Waltrip and 22 points for Jamie McMurray for a total of 177 points. I moved up in rankings for the sub league to 163 out of 401 with a 62.3 percentage of all Fox players.

Human Versus Cat Round 6

Many of you have wondered how exactly The Princess makes her car number picks for the NASCAR fantasy league. (If you do not know what this is about, this post explains it). So Tom took a video of Gracie and as you can see, her "pick box" has a new paint scheme too. The video is only two minutes long, so no need to run out for popcorn or adult beverages, but I find it very entertaining.

We will also have to do some additional work. As you can see by Gracie's picks below she seems to go for the same numbers over and over, despite mixing them up real well. We wonder if it is because her scent is on certain paper balls. So next week we will have a whole new set of papers for her to work with. It will be interesting to see if she will still pick the same ones.

She is very partial to the number 3. A lot of her picks either have the digit 3 as part of the car number, can add up to 3, or divide by 3. It's fitting as her team name is Threeeee. I will post more on that in the following weeks. Also, she picks the Stewart/Haas team drivers (Tony [#14]  and Ryan [#39]) a lot ... except for Danica Patrick (#10). Even the cat knows not to pick her! Although, Tony hasn't exactly been hot either. Who knew that Newman (my favorite but not exactly a top driver) would out-perform his boss so far? Yes, I digress.

So, without further ado, here are Gracie's picks for the Richmond race:

31 (Jeff Burton)
93 (Travis Kvapil)
15 (Clint Boyer)
39 (Ryan Newman)
14 (Tony Stewart)

And here are my picks for the Bloomin39 team:

15 (Clint Boyer)
11 (Brian Vickers)
20 (Matt Kenseth)
5 (Kasey Kahne)
29 (Kevin Harvick)

Here are the results:

Gracie scored 80 points for Jeff Burton, 7 points for Travis Kvapil, 43 points for Clint Boyer, 29 points for Ryan Newman and 26 points for Tony Stewart for a total of 185 points. She shot up to 32.1 percent for all Nascar of Fox fantasy players and is now ranked 840 out of 1,177 Brad Keselowski fans. That is a huge jump! Not bad for not playing for the first three races.

I scored 86 points for Clint Boyer, 9 points for Brian Vickers, 39 points for Matt Kenseth, 23 points for Kasey Kahne, and 47 points for Kevin Harvick (who won the race) for a total of 204 points. I am now ranked 203 out of 399 (a slow climb up) and a percentile of 55.1 for all Nascar on Fox players (bigger jump).

Human Versus Cat Round 5

Gracie made her picks for the NASCAR race in Kansas on April 18, the day of the huge flooding which came after the record-setting storms. (If you do not know what I am talking about, this explains the NASCAR kitty story). We had spent a pretty  much sleepless night because of the strong storms. Of course Gracie slept as storms do not bother her. She actually watched a hurricane from a window sill before, but that is another story.

I had taken the box with numbers out on Thursday morning and set it on the bedroom floor, figuring she would deal with picking the drivers when ready. I had just settled in bed to try to catch up on some well-needed rest when Gracie started scratching in the box, mixing her numbers, and scooping some out. Yes, the pics are blurry because she was pretty vigorous about mixing them up. Regardless, she picked some of the same drivers again that she chose for prior races. How strange.

Here are Gracie's picks:

36 (JJ Yeley)
39 (Ryan Newman)
31 (Jeff Burton)
14 (Tony Stewart)
13 (Casey Mears)

And here are my picks:

18 (Kyle Busch)
56 (Martin Truex)
43 (Aric Almirola)
5 (Kasey Kahne)
15 (Clint Boyer)

Gracie's results:

Gracie scored 18, 31, 26, 23, and 10 points, respectively, for a race total of 108. Who knew that Ryan Newman would be her highest scoring driver? While he is my favorite driver, I won't ever pick him as I am a realist. Well, I picked him once and he finished a dismal 40th or so. That taught me.

Her new points total is 667 and despite the terrible captain's pick (JJ is a nice guy, I've met him, but he drives sub-par equipment), her percentage for all NASCAR of Fox players jumped to 15.6. She even improved her ranking in the sub-league (fans of Brad Keselowski) by 3 to 1045 out of 1168. It makes me wonder what humans with NASCAR knowledge choose for their picks!

As always, keep in mind that Gracie did not play the first three races, so her stats are skewed when compared to the whole season.

My results:

I picked four top ten finishers (2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th), but Kyle Busch, my team captain, ruined my points by finishing 38th. I managed a respectable total of 170 (12+41+36+42+39), clawing my way up by four spots in the Ryan Newman fan league for a rank of 229/396. My combined score for all races is 1,314, which means I also gained a little in overall percentage from all NASCAR of Fox players with a total of 48.4 percent.

Sorry, Gracie, Mom won this round.

Human Versus Cat Round 4

Gracie made her fantasy picks for today's NASCAR race in Texas on Friday morning. (If you don't know what I am talking about, this explains it). Well, at first we tried Thursday night, but she showed no interest in it. Even Friday morning, as you can tell by the picture above, she was not as enthusiastic as last week.

So, I dumped all the paper balls out on the floor. That got her going. You might wonder if she did not just bat them all, or several, around at once. Actually, no. The first four she picked one by one, only with the fifth numbered ball did she go kind of crazy. I waited until one "driver" was singled out, then we picked that one.

Here is what Gracie picked:

34 (David Ragan)
56 (Martin Truex)
15 (Clint Boyer)
14 (Tony Stewart)
31 (Jeff Burton)

The interesting thing is that I mentioned David Ragan in an article I finished for a client the night before. Unfortunately, the poor guy has no chance of winning the race for the princess. We are also starting to see a pattern with Gracie's picks ... I will tell you about it in the following weeks.

Gracie scored 38, 43, 29, 23, 21 respectively. She got the second place right, Martin Truex. Despite that, she did not beat me, but it was a respectable showing. She scored 154 points for this race for a percentage of 11.5 overall with a total season score of 559. In her league (fans of Brad Keselowski) she ranks 1048 out of 1156. As always, remember that she missed the first three races, so the stats are skewed.

Here were my picks: (no, no photo of me)

16 (Greg Biffle)
24 (Jeff Gordon
99 (Carl Edwards)
20 (Matt Kenseth)
88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr)

My scores were 80, 7, 41, 32, 15 respectively (I only picked two drivers in the top ten, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards) for a total of 175 points. That bumps my percentage to 47.1 with a total score of 1144 and I am ranked 233 out of 393 of my league (Ryan Newman fans).

Human Versus Cat Round 3

 As you can see above, Gracie really got into making her picks for the Martinsville Nascar race. (If you don't know what I am talking about, read this post). Here they are:

56 (Martin Truex)
99 (Carl Edwards)
27 (Paul Menard)
33 (Landon Cassill)
38 (David Gilliland)

Here are my picks:

24 (Jeff Gordon)
55 (Brian Vickers)
42 (Juan Pablo Montoya)
2 (Brad Keselowski)
48 (Jimmie Johnson)

She scored 8, 29, 25, 11, and 16 respectively for a total of 89 points. Poor kitty. She would have done better, but her team captain, Martin Truex, finished third-last. Carl Edwards came in 9th and Paul Menard 16th. All three drivers were not bad choices, they just had some bad luck.

She is ranked 1025 out of 1141 for her individual league (fans of Brad Keselowski) and at a 10.4 percentile. As I say every week: Remember that she missed the first two races (because I did not think to have her play until the third race), so the stats are skewed.

I scored 82, 33, 18, 38, and 48 respectively for a total of 219 points. Four out of my five picks placed top ten, among those the winner (Jimmie Johnson). I am now ranked 232 out of 391 for my individual league (fans of Ryan Newman) and am at the 44.3 percentile of all Nascar on Fox players.

Since Gracie won round two and I won round one, the score is now 2:1 for me. How will next week turn out? Stay tuned!

Human Versus Cat Round 2

When Gracie made her Nascar fantasy picks for the California race, she really got into it. She actually made them early, on Tuesday March 19. Why? Well, she seemed in what we call psycho kitty mood, so we brought out the box with the numbered paper balls.

She actually stood in front of the box (it's not that big, I'll have to post a pic of it at a later date) and put her paw in it, mixing the paper balls vigorously. Then she scooped out one paper which we used as team captain. She then dumped the box on its side and we took the four balls that rolled out for the next four picks. The top 5 she came up with were: Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman. I picked Clint Boyer (Captain), Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson.

The cat actually beat me today, despite me picking the winner of the race (Kyle Busch) because two out of my top 5 blew up (literally). Gracie scored 168 points to my 147 points. Good job, Gracie! Here is the rundown:

Gracie

Car 31: 54 points
Car 14: 23 points
Car 1: 25 points
Car 48: 32 points
Car 39: 34 points

She is now ranked 996 out of 1112 in her league and has a 9.9 percentile over all. Remember that she only played 2 races out of 5, hence the skewed stats.

Me

Car 15: 18 points
Car 18:  48 points
Car 88: 42 points
Car 55: 7 points
Car 48: 32 points

I am ranked a dismal 258 out of 388 thanks to my awful Daytona picks for the season-opener. My percentile is 32. I played all games, so my percentage is higher.

Human Versus Cat Round 1

Remember when I posted about my cat making NASCAR fantasy picks? Well, here are the results for the race on March 17 in Bristol:

Gracie

Car 13: 58 points
Car 15: 39 points
Car 42: 14 points
Car 33: 11 points
Car 99: 26 points

For a total of 148 points and rank #1000 out of 1068 and a 6.5 percentile. That is not bad, considering this was race 4 of the season and her points are counted against all others who played all races.

Me

Car 18: 86 points
Car 20: 10 points
Car 11: 23 points
Car 24: 11 points
Car 75: 41 points

For a total of 171 points and rank #283 out of 380 and a 25 percentile.

Human Versus Cat

I've been playing Nascar fantasy leagues for a few years now. I like to think that I know the sport as I even won tickets to a race once for having the highest score on a local radio league for a race. However, I started out so badly this year and made the comment that my cat could have done better. That is when I came up with the crazy idea of letting Princess Gracie make picks for real.

So, I signed her up for the same league I play at the time through Nascar on Fox. After all, if a groundhog is used as a weatherman, chickens pick super bowl winners, and John Roberts' dog can make picks ... If you don't follow the sport, John R. is a Nascar analyst who actually did have his dog made some picks last year.

We wrote each driver's name on a piece of paper, balled it up, and put them in a box. What cat can resist boxes? Sure enough, Gracie investigated quickly enough and the first 5 that come out is what I used for the first fantasy picks. These were 13 (Casey Mears), 99 (Carl Edwards), 15 (Clint Boyer), 42 (Juan Pablo Montoya) and 33 (Landon Cassill).

Her user name is Nascat3 and her team name is Threeeee because when we say the word threeeee it means treats. So, it's her favorite number. Why did we come up with this? Because treats are kept in our kitchen drawer number 3, so when she sits in front of it, we ask: "Do you want threeeee?" Animal lovers will get it .... All others may think we are nuts, but a little insanity makes life interesting. Also, 3 is the number of Tom's favorite driver, the late Dale Earnhardt, and you can never go wrong with that.

No, I do not drink, I came up with this while stone sober!

PS: Gracie also has a twitter account: follow her @GraciePurrs

Riding with Brad Keselowski

(Image from Bradracing.com)

Okay, so I am not physically in the car with Brad, but I got my name on the deck lid for the Camping World Truck Series race tonight (February 24). How? A few weeks ago, the ever Twitter-friendly BK held a contest on Twitter for race fans to get their names on the truck. I entered, but forgot about it until today when I saw the #19 truck practicing on TV. I went to his website to see if there was an announcement of who made it. Indeed, he put up the list of names, and mine's on it, as @HeepAlex, my Nascar Twitter handle.

What's more, he even tweeted a picture of the truck so we could see it. Well, since there are over 2,600 names I can't exactly pick it out, but here is what the truck looks like. Pretty cool, I think.

The Gulf Widens

August 4 sure was an interesting day. It saw the biggest stock market decline since the financial fiasco in 2008, despite the USA maintaining its AAA credit rating with a last-ditch effort in raising the debt ceiling and spending cuts. This was followed by world-wide reports of sinking economies in reaction to the US stock market. Today also marked President Obama’s and NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon’s birthdays, number 50 and 40 respectively.

Also in NASCAR, it was announced that Roush Fenway Racing, after months of speculation and much tweeted hooplah, re-signed their driver Carl Edwards to a sweet new racing deal. How sweet of course is not being divulged, but it was let on that it had quite a few zeroes.

This follows on the heels of the end of the NFL lockout where “lowered” salaries still equal hundreds of thousands of dollars paid for each second of play, and rapper SoulJa Boy forking over 55 Million Dollars for a private jet this week.

All the while I was following CNN and listened to the argument whether the unemployment rate is 9.4 percent or 9.5 percent. No one ever mentions that it is actually higher than that – once you no longer draw unemployment or do not qualify to begin with you are no longer counted as unemployed.

Of course this is nothing new; there will always be those with a whole lot more than those with a whole lot less. Nor is it good for the soul to envy those who worked for what they have.

However, as an armchair observer of humanity, such as it is, I wonder if the monetary awards of those mentioned above (and many others) justify the effort they put in and if they ever think of where they came from.

For example, at one time I was a Carl Edwards fan because of his humble beginnings and the stories he used to tell about sleeping in his car because he had no money for hotel rooms. He also gave his trophies away at one time and seemed a down-to-earth guy. But eventually even he graduated to his own jet airplane. Today, after he announced his deal (people are speculating that he dragged it out to get more money) I watched his eyes to find that person from long ago but I did not see it.

What's In a Name?

I am a huge NASCAR fan, so as usual, I was watching yesterday. No, not the race, I watch everything that goes with it - practice, qualifying, etc - because that is when you get the scoop on everyone and what is going on behind the scenes. Also, you get to see interviews of your favorite drivers who otherwise get ignored if they are not running top 10, or if their name isn't Dale Earnhardt Jr.


During one segment, they were interviewing one of my favorite drivers in the Nationwide Series, Trevor Bayne. Now, if you have any knowledge of NASCAR at all you know that drivers have very prominent sponsors displayed on their race cars. No sponsors - no racing. Trevor Bayne's sponsor happens to me OUT! Pet Care, which is exactly how it appears on the hood of his car. Well, with colors and circles and all that but of course I can't duplicate that here.

I like cats, and cats are pets, so I went online and checked out the website. That is when I found out that OUT! has products like dog training pads and other items that are advertised to remove dog stains and odors. Well, they call it "pet" stains but the whole website is all about dogs, with pictures of dogs. I know that dogs are pets, but other animals are pets too. I went to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and this is the definition of pet: "a domesticated animal kept for pleasure rather than utility."

Are dogs the only pets out there? Do only dogs cause pet stains? During my adult life, I have had plenty of animal species kept for purposes other than utility so in my mind that makes them all pets. I can safely say from experience they all cause "pet" stains. Ever tried cleaning up after a ferret? Or a snake when it does its business? This is what I was thinking about during the commercials. I may sound like an anal retentive nerd, but if it is okay to think about beer, sex, women, shopping, chores etc (depending on your gender) during commercials, I think it is quite alright for me to think about language.

As someone whose native language is not English, I rely on literal translations of words to make sure I use the correct ones. Or, as an ex-boyfriend once said to me: "Must you be so bloody literal?" So, where anyone else probably would lay this matter to rest, my mind went back to another "pet-related" incident years ago. My (at the time) eight year old daughter kept seeing Pet Smart commercials saying you could bring your "pets" to the store. She had a cat and I am sure you can see where this is going. Yes, I was the idiot who listened to my daughter's wish and brought her cat inside the Pet Smart to take it shopping. Needless to say the cat was not at all happy with all the dogs in the store, but that is another blog.

Why this obsession over one product and name? If you have any friends at all who are into NASCAR you know that a lot of us will buy certain products to support their favorite drivers - and stay away from others. I know of several guys who will pass up a Lowe's and drive farther to a Home Depot. Not because they like Joey Logano (whose sponsor is Home Depot), but because they do not like Jimmie Johnson (whose sponsor is Lowe's). Of course this works the other way around as well.

Also, it goes deeper than that. I am a person who does not like assumptions. If you see the word "pet" somewhere, people should not have to assume it is for dogs exclusively. If you are selling dog products, call them dog products. I could discuss this concept further when applied to targeting people in mass advertising, but my domesticated animal that I keep for pleasure wants her dinner.