The Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) was held this week, an annual event featuring mainly professional motorcycle riders riding at absolutely insane speeds around a 37 mile course on an island in the Irish Sea. These are country roads, and the course takes them through small towns where the roads are narrow and lined with stone walls.

Just watch a few minutes of this video, which shows Michael Dunlop setting a new record of over 133 mph average for the course. To average this means going almost 200 mph in some sections! In the last event of the week, Dunlop again broke the record and almost lapped at an average of 134mph (see photo above.)

This week two competitors lost their lives at the event, the last one being the 250th person to die at the Isle of Man TT. It’s surely one of the most insane, and dangerous, sporting events on the calendar. Period.

A recent article in Slate online magazine presents the current state of household debt in the US. This graph appears there:

What’s interesting is that while someone with a mortgage probably has an offsetting asset of approximately equal value, there’s no asset of value to offset the credit card debt, the car is probably not worth as much as the loan balance, and the prospects of paying off those student loans are getting grimmer by the day (although a college degree is still a good investment compared to the alternatives!)

So I’d be worried about those credit card balances, and that auto loan, first.

I’ve been trying a new technique for capturing cars while they are moving. This is a pretty common technique used in car magazines (and their electronic equivalents) but I have never tried to do it myself. First there’s the challenge of deciding on the exposure settings to blur the background and road to show motion, but keep the car looking sharp and in focus. But then there’s the challenge of photographing while driving…

I’ve been on two photo shoots now to try it out, and here’s what I got:

As Donald Trump surges from one win to another in the Republican primaries, he continues to confound both the Republican establishment, and many people across the country who normally don’t “get involved” in politics. A lot of the best news stories about The Donald were written in the late summer of 2015 as his candidacy moved from side show to center stage. You can read some insightful articles about his demagoguery from The Economist, or the similarities between Trump and Italy’s disastrous Silvio Berlusconi by the Federalist, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

So in recognition of the ascendency of The Donald to the steps of political greatness, I have created a new bumper sticker:

Recently I was asked by my bank to change my password. This coincided with a new website and mobile banking interface for the bank. The new password had to be at least 8 characters long and contain at least one number, one capital letter and one special character. Whaaaat? It works out that this kind of password is actually not very secure, and more likely to be hacked by a computer hacker than more simple passwords. It might not come as a surprise, but computers can try out combinations of characters in nano-seconds. The number of combinations that must be searched before finding your password is directly related to the length of your password. This password:

mydogisblackbutmycatispink

is way more secure than this password:

Fr1ed3gg

And the first password is easier to remember! I complained to the bank, but it fell on deaf ears. I was told they consulted with experts on internet security and follow banking industry practice to ensure the highest level of security through password choice. That’s just bullshit.

You can read more about password security in this WIRED article.

My article on buying the Porsche GT4 appears in this month’s Ramblings magazine, published by the PCA Roadrunner Region.

This photo was made outside the Ancient Cities cafe in Mountainair, central NM on a January weekend. Temperatures reached the mid-50s, which is more than enough to run those Michelin Cup 2 tires on the GT cars. Red and white GT4s, white, speed yellow and sapphire blue metallic GT3s, and a delightful carrara white 993 from 1998.

Cars like these are pretty good in poor weather, so long as you define poor weather as temperatures in the 40s, water on the road but not deep or frozen, and show on the sides of the road, not the middle! Fortunately many days in winter are just like this in New Mexico, which means drive outs are possible, if you don’t mind getting your car a little dirty.

And photos come out well in the light of a slightly overcast day.

I left 2015 with a reflection, that upon reading, seemed a bit depressing. Although I think 2016 will be a year full of global, and national troubles and terrors, it’s a bit doom and gloom. Although the local, national and global context of my life is important, I’m a passenger on that particular ride. My preferred place is behind the wheel, so much of my pleasure comes from those opportunities to literally drive!

So, 2016 is going to be a year focusing on driving my new GT4. Once the weather gets a little friendlier, I’m hoping to organize four weekend drive outs around New Mexico. I also want to take the car to the track, and see how it does: it’s supposed to be a track oriented car, and I look forward to see if I’m up to the task.

…and I’ve kept this website alive, which I’ll call a Festivus Miracle, since I’m not a blogger, I’m not into sharing the fine details of my life with the world (friends or strangers through social media), and I’m lazy.

And I should wrap up the festive season with thanks (Thanksgiving), greetings (Christmas), and reflections (the New Year). Thanks to my family and friends, especially those who I have met in the Porsche club, for me feel wanted and special. Greetings to the same for joy in a world full of fear and trepidation. Fortunately hope remains. The future looks bleak only because the present is so wonderful. And the turn of the year is a time to reflect on the great achievements of the last 12 months, and a chance to wish for better in the next. I’m hopeful for more of the same, actually, not because I’ve become complacent, but because I’ve decided to pursue those things that bring me happiness. I did many of those things this year, and hope to do them again, in the next.

The list of worries facing the world in 2016 is long for sure. The ascendancy of the Islamic State, continued effects of global warming, the growth of nationalism in the United States, and the increasing influence of ignorance and bigotry. But in 2015 we saw a comet (67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko) encountered, photographed, and landed-upon, and Pluto visioned like never before, even in our imaginations! We finally (only in the last weeks of December) saw a rocket take-off, deploy cargo, and land safely back on earth. [Lots of other great things here] It was a fantastic year for the achievements of the human mind and spirit. Good and bad must stay in balance–one does not exist without the other. I’ll focus on the good bits right now.