Here's something I've wondered for a long while: why not take the coolest looking car exteriors from years ago and simply put into them the most modern and efficient interiors? For example, I think the best looking cars were from the 1960's... the Barracuda first comes to mind. Yes, I would say as a class of cars, the muscle cars of the 60's (and early 70's) are the most awesome and rad to look at.But being muscle cars and not exactly designed to get the most mileage nor the best safety and crash test results, they are outdated to modern concerns and needs. It would seem to me that it wouldn't be impossible to outfit new cars with the best that modern technology has to offer, even including hybrid technology, yet keeping the awesome exteriors of yesteryear. Of course, it's not as simple as snapping an outer shell on and off like a toy slot car, although wouldn't that be neat?I realize the materials used in modern car manufacturing are different and that would play a big role, as well as other complications that I'm not aware of, but it still sounds good to me. As you can tell, as far as I'm concerned, how fast a car goes or how it sounds (like a muscle car) isn't as important as how it looks. Actually, I'm not all that interested in driving period - it's all about the looks! Er, as long as they're aerodynamic and not shaped like boxes, if you've been reading my recent blog entries.
I am on Twitter to help me keep up with my favorite sports teams, primarily the 49ers. I follow a dozen or so people right now. Besides their respective abilities to keep up with the latest news and information, aka getting the 'scoops,' one of the things that makes one person's blog more appealing than that of another is the typestyle that is used and how large it is. I am very responsive to the visual appeal of one layout over another and how easy it is to read for aging eyes like mine.
For example, I used to find Matt Maiocco's online articles more appealing when he wrote for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat than now where he writes for CSN Bay Area. The Press Democrat's website is less busy looking and simply more attractive. The typestyle is larger and makes current writer Grant Cohn's pieces look even better. I enjoy seeing what he has to say as it is, and his articles are easy on the eyes too.
Presentation matters.
Going 2 - 2 in the preseason? Pretty good, I'll take it!
What was most important in last night's victory, in my humble opinion, is that the 49ers came away from it feeling confident. Especially after their confidence sapping loss to the Texans the week before. What this all means is finally on the horizon - the next game counts! And it's against a division rival, the Seattle Seahawks.
Also of major significance was the paucity of injuries. The only serious one was to linebacker Keaton Kristick... serious in that he was carted off the field. What this means to his chances of making the roster, time will tell. Unfortunately, it cost him a valuable opportunity to show the coaching staff that he deserves a place on the team, opening the door for players such as Alex Joseph to impress - which he did. The team has one final week or so to decide on their opening day roster and to prepare for the first game of the season.
It's a roller coaster ride of emotions, feeling good about the team's prospects and also feeling bad. Right now, things are looking up (or 'arrow up' to borrow a phrase from Coach Harbaugh) - but next week's game will really determine where they stand. And yet, so will the following 15 games. It's a long, long road, and while it would surely be neat to win the division and go to the playoffs, I just need to see things improving this year with some light at the end of the tunnel, that light being several Super Bowl Championships in the years to come!
There was a time when maximizing aerodynamics in car design was paramount to getting the most out of fuel efficiency and minimizing drag. As I understand it, there would be wind tunnels designed specifically for this task and it always made complete sense to me. There is something so elegant about seeing air flow as it streams smoothly around a solid object.
But in recent years, all that seems to have been thrown out the window with some of the new motor vehicle designs. Have you seen them on the roads? They are shaped like boxes, apparently designed to maximize the buffeting of the air fighting its way around them while minimizing flow and efficiency. Or simply with the goal of making some sort of visual statement, physics be damned.
Sure, they might be better for packing and moving - think moving truck - but I wonder whatever happened to the science and engineering behind the study of aerodynamics?
Another massacre!
Today's entry might as well be the same one I typed up after the big loss to the Saints a couple of weeks ago. And now, just as then: no worries. In the short term, sure... there might be worries, but that's only if I don't want to give the new coaching staff any time to implement their changes. It will take time, to be sure. We're only three weeks into the preseason, for all those sourpusses out there.
Now, I happen to think that the 49ers are working with more talent and a better situation than Bill Walsh inherited when he took over the team back in the 1970's. Even so, this year the Harbaugh regime missed out on an important off-season of activity due to the situation with the CBA.
As the regular season gets going though, what's important is how do the Niners compete with the rest of the league in general? Clearly, they don't measure up with a team as good as the Houston Texans, but to have shown improvement, the Niners should at least be in the middle of the league - that's what I hope anyway. But if not, as long as they're putting something great together, I'll be fine. No one should expect them to win the Super Bowl this year or next year. Going with the Bill Walsh comparison, it'd be nice if they won it all in three years, but those are lofty expectations. Will they be contenders - that will be a more realistic hope.
What came to my mind as I watched the game last night are the Jimmy Johnson-era Dallas Cowboys with a young Troy Aikman being installed at quarterback. As I recall that first year, they went 1 - 15. It took a few seasons for them to become champions. So as long as the Jim Harbaugh-era shows the same potential of building a champion, let's all be patient.
That's not to say that all coaching regimes should be given at least three years to win the Super Bowl. Looking back, I have to agree that recent 49ers coaches had to go. But I continue to be VERY excited to have Harbaugh as head coach. Even Eddie DeBartolo, Jr. had some missteps when he first ran the team. And he stuck with Bill Walsh even after his team went 2 - 14 his first year as head coach. As long as we know that the right system is being put in place and that things will jell eventually, well, however much we can 'know' something like that, it should be an ultimately satisfying ride for 49ers fans!
Harbaugh's first win!!!
As head coach that is. It was a team victory, of course. And a preseason victory, which makes it a bit like a grain of salt. But it feels so good!
Just as last week's awful defeat to the Saints, I have to tell myself not to make too, too much of this week's victory over the Raiders. Have I used the word 'victory' enough times? It was a victory after all...
I am a bit fearful of next week's game against the Houston Texans. It appears that they have a very high-powered offense. But it will be a good test for us, as is every game. I am liking very much the play-calling by Harbaugh's coaching staff - it seems varied, flexible and opportunistic. And not just in that it was effective. I'm rambling, aren't I? Just typing thoughts as they come to me... I'm watching the Giants game right now. Now their season seems to be at the tipping point.
Or rather, is retired.
I just read online that Burger King is changing its marketing campaign and retiring that gosh-awful King mascot... you know, that shiny, big-headed monstrosity that is the stuff of nightmares. He, or it, has been thrown into other situations outside of just television commercials, such as football promotions. It's been such a horrid and almost ubiquitous character that I'd really grown to dislike Burger King. And I've always preferred its food to many other fast-food chains.
Some commercials that come to mind: a couple is lying in bed having woken up with the daylight, one of them gets up to draw up the blinds... and there's the King looking in the window! I always pictured myself grabbing a baseball bat and chasing after him, yelling "Did you get a good look at my wife?" Another showed a construction worker, high, high up on a steel girder, and the King appears suddenly in front of him. What the... ? This is supposed to be, what, edgy?? Because I thought it was at the very least creepy.
I don't often eat fast food, but there have been those rare occasions when I possibly could have chosen to eat at Burger King and didn't because of that darned 'King' thing – on posters and wall hangings for example. But now, if I want a Whopper, it may be an option. Yes, disturbing, offensive, or otherwise unappealing ad campaigns and commercials are enough for me to quietly boycott businesses and companies.
