FxPro Cyprus Rally 2010

This year FxPro Cyprus Rally is not the part of the World Rally Championship (WRC).  Instead, it’s a stage of some Intercontinental Rally Championship (IRC).  Not only that, but also it’s the last stage of IRC, by which both the winning driver and the winning manufacturer have already been decided.  Needless to say, there wasn’t much to see, so I decided to skip the even altogether this year.  And I almost did.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS17SePRFoM]

Yesterday though I went to spend some time with son at Yermasogia dam, which became somewhat traditional for us, before going to Pehnidotopos kids entertainment center.  While driving to the dam we were passed by a few rally cars, which gave me a suspicion that the rally stage was somewhere up the road.  That was surprising, because I thought the event finished on Saturday.

It turned out the suspicion was right.  There was some stage of the rally up the road and it had its finish line exactly on the dam itself.  Left with no choice, Maxim and I went to watch.  We were late, of course, but still managed to catch a few cars on the asphalt road.

Most Cyprus Rally stages are on gravel and I was wondering how much fun is it to watch the cars driving on asphalt.  Surfaces with less traction – gravel, snow and ice – provide a full range of spectator entertainment.  Asphalt, of course, is faster, but is it as much fun?  The answer is no.  While the cars still drift and skid, the pass you by much faster, and there is no aftermath, such as dust and flying stones.  Boring.  Even though the scenery is beautiful.

Having no camera with me, I shot a few short videos using my mobile phone.  You can see them at my YouTube channel.

Пикничок-с

Как-то давече был на пикнике с друзьями.  И повода то, в общем, не было.  И собрались как-то на скору руку.  И компания была далеко не в полном составе.  Да и были недолго.  Тем не менее, получилось всё равно весьма душевно, а главное – весело.

И каким-то совершенно непостежимым образом даже видео камера присутствовала.  Обычно, конечно, видеозаписи пьянок и поседелок мало кому интересны.  Да и редко они с этой самой камеры куда-то выбираются.  Но тут и с этим получился полный порядок.  Вот коротенький ролик, который, хоть и не в полной мере, но всё-таки даёт некое представление о том, что происходит на сих мероприятиях.

Medieval technical support

Yesterday I discovered that the video of medieval tech support might be too old now and that the younger generation of IT guys could have easily missed it.  Here it goes, a piece of classics, for everyone to enjoy.  By the way, you don’t have to work in IT to have a laugh at it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cd7Bsp3dDo]