I'm a little bit sick of driving. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy my car, and my ride to and from work isn't much of a pain at all (except that it takes 45 minutes). But I just seem to be doing too much driving these days. I'm putting over 25K miles a year on my car, which translates into who-knows-how-many hours. Fortunately, I have plenty to do in there - everything from listening to FM radio (sports on 103.7 WEEI and 99.7 FM, talk radio on 96.9 WTKK), my Sirius satellite radio and my iPod to talking on my cell phone and, yes, taking pictures. Lately though, the new Prince album has dominated the car. As a long-time Prince fan, I must say this is a very good album - easily better than Musicology and could possibly spawn a few big hits. The album will debut at #1 this week on the charts, the first time he's done that since 1986. Yes, eighty-six. Oh, and for those of you who couldn't get past the raunchiness of Prince in his heyday (however quaint it may seem in these gansta rap days), you'll be glad to hear that he doesn't utter a single swear on the CD, thanks to his conversion to a Jehovah's Witness (see, they're good for something besides ringing your doorbell).

Fantastic! No, not the kitchen cleaner or the old NBA slogan. I'm talking about the truly fanastic ones - the Fantastic Four. The FF comic book was my favorite when I was a kid (I always identified with the nerdy Reed Richards), and I've finally got around to watching last year's feature film version, which I had purchased on DVD a couple months ago. Though they took a lot of liberties with the story, I really liked the movie. It was fun and captured the spirit of the characters. All of the FF was very well cast - even Sue Storm, though I was a bit worried that Jessica Alba wouldn't have the substance to play the Invisible Girl. But I must admit she (like everyone else) was excellent. Which is good, because I've been waiting a long time for an accurate FF movie. The cartoon series from 1978 lacked the Human Torch - and substituted Herbie the Robot (see photo) instead. I had always assumed that the Torch was replaced because they were too lazy to draw him. It turns out that it was a licensing issue, and Stan Lee decided that Herbie would appeal to kids. After all, this was the same year that R2-D2 took the world by storm. Hey, at least it wasn't as blatant a ripoff as that mechanical owl from Clash of Titans in 1981. Then there was the 1994 FF movie that was made on the (super) cheap just to keep the licence active. But that's all in the past - this time they got it right. Well, except for the bad guy. Dr. Doom is one of my favorite comic villains, and the movie turns him into another Joe Corporate evil guy with powers, instead of the brilliantly mad dictator of a small country wearing a self-designed suit of armor (with a bit of witchcraft to boot). Oh, and they cast Julian McMahon from Nip/Tuck as Doom - he has the right look but I kept waiting for him to say "so what don't you like about yourself?" But on the whole I was pleased with the movie and I'm sure I will watch it again someday (it's not just a "oner").

It's been getting warmer lately, and Spring Fever is already striking me. I've done a decent job of getting outside over the winter (despite not working on my snowboarding at all), but I'm still feeling a bit cooped up. So I can't wait to be spending most of my days outdoors again. As I do every year, I'm planning on playing more tennis this year, and I also need to get out those new golf clubs and justify their purchase with some quality play (relative to my usual hacker self, of course). I enjoy golf, but I must admit that I don't have much natural talent for the game. It's not that I'm bad at it, but I don't find it as easy as sports where speed and dexterity are rewarded, like tennis or basketball. Still, it's far from my worst sport, which is without a doubt bowling (if you consider bowling a sport). When I was a beginning golfer, my golf scores were actually higher than my bowling scores. That's bad. My greatest bowling achievement is the simple bowling video game I wrote when I was a kid for the TRS-80 Model III (geek alert). Of course, as you can see from the above photo, my hula hooping skills aren't much better than my bowling game. Yes, an activity that even very small children can master is my greatest challenge. I look forward to renewing my battle with the dreaded circle soon...

It's finally time for the Formula 1 season to start and I'm excited. I've been religiously following the winter testing and car launches (what the teams call it when they "introduce" their new machine to much fanfare) and getting more and more psyched because the HondaF1 team looks to be very competitive. This is big news because it may allow my favorite driver, Jenson Button, to get his first win and fight for the championship. The season opening race takes place Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m. EST (Thank God for Tivo/DVR). The reason it is on so early is because it takes place in Bahrain. Normally, it's much later (8:00 a.m. for most of the European races).
If you've never watched a race, give it a look on Speed TV. All 22 cars (11 2-car teams) start from a stop when the red lights go off and drag race to the first corner - to me this is the best minute in sports. From there it's a game of strategy - who will pit first for fuel, how many times will each driver stop, who is taking care of their tires, etc. It can be tough to follow for a novice, but it gets easier with time. And though passing is rare (unlike in NASCAR), that's because it so much more difficult to pull off. When it happens, you'll find yourself jumping out of your seat and talking about it the next day with, well, me. So give the glamorous world of F1 a chance... read a race preview, pick a team and a driver to root for and join the fun! (Note: Bernie Ecclestone did not pay me to write this blog entry.)

Like most males, I like cars. I subscribe to more than one car magazine (Car & Driver is the best, though I really enjoy the design analysis in Automobile), and I love to go fast. In my youth, that meant driving fast on the road. But these days I'm not much of a speeder, and I'd like to keep my no-speeding-ticket streak going. Yes, I amazingly have zero speeding tickets (knocking on wood). Ironically, driving fast on a racetrack is one of the main reasons I've slowed down on the road. My brother Larry joined the Audi Quattro club a number of years ago and attended a "track event" at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, CT. A couple of days of instruction and driving as fast as he wanted on a purpose built road course and he was hooked. The rest of us bros then got involved over time. It's a lot of fun, and you learn a ton about what your car (and you) are capable of at speed. And it's not just for fun - this is the type of knowledge that can save your life by helping you avoid an accident that others wouldn't. Over the years we've also attending a winter driving school (locked my keys in the car on the top of a mountain in N.H. - oops!), and even a track event at NHIS on our sport bikes. It's a great time, and I've become a better driver from each experience. Of course, when we just want to play it's time to hit the go cart track. Sadly, each time we find a new favorite track, it closes down within a few years. First there was the track in Pawcatuck, CT that we were kicked off for rough driving (we didn't mind since we were on our last tickets), the "slick track" in Milbury, MA and the "3/4 scale Indycars" in Tewksbury, MA, which were very fun and fast though only for time trials and not actual racing. Let's hope a better fate awaits F1 Boston, where we just recently mixed it up.