I admit it. I love cars. I don’t read all the latest car news–I rely on my brother to pass on just the juicy bits–but I can tell you the difference between a turbo charger and a super charger, and I’ve even helped my brother replace an engine or two.

A couple of weeks ago, Wired posted an article about Alex Roy’s record breaking race across the county. In a car that would make the Batmobile feel under-equipped, Roy and his co-pilot shrieked from New York to Los Angeles determined to beat the real-life “cannonball run” record of 32 hours and 7 minutes. Their final time? 31 hours and 4 minutes coast to coast. Joyously, they video taped the whole thing.

Yes, I know, illegal street racing is wrong. I don’t disagree, and I tell every kid I know who wants to race about Firebird Raceway’s run what ya’ brung nights in the hopes that it will keep one more kid from getting killed.

Just the same, I’m still dying to know how these guys did it. On a lark, I popped over today to the 32 hours site to see if the video was out yet. The video is not available yet, but the trailer is.

I was mindlessly watching the trailer when suddenly I saw a familiar face I wasn’t expecting. Wait… that couldn’t be! Quick, rewind. I looked again. Could that be… Will Wright?

Another chat about procedural animation in Spore? Surprise! This one’s about fitting larger fuel tanks into a Mazda RX-7.

Sure enough, it was. I’ve been in the same room as Will Wright before, and that certainly looked like him. Rattling around in the dusty corners of my mind, something about Will Wright and illegal street racing seemed vaguely familiar, so I looked it up. And there it was: Will Wright was the winner of the 1980 “US Express” race, with a cross country time of 33 hours and 39 minutes.

And here, I thought my post about cross-country illegal street racing was going to be totally off-topic to game development. What a small world it is!

It’s November 1, which makes today the first day of “National Novel Writing Month”! If you haven’t heard of it before, this is the month when the brave, the daring and the possibly insane bust out their word processors and write that novel they’ve been meaning to all their life. It’s open to anyone who feels like doing it. The only requirement is that you must write a fiction story of some sort consisting of at least 50,000 words, all of which must be entirely written during the month of November. Short of that, pretty much anything goes.

Scary as it seems, 50,000 words isn’t that much when you break it down: It’s about 1500-2000 words per day–two or three long blog posts, to put it in perspective. It’s a tough but achievable goal even for the gainfully employed. The novels aren’t judged in any way except for meeting the minimum word count, so it doesn’t matter how bad your writing is. The point is just to get it done. Surprisingly, though, quite a few of the novels written in past years have gone on to be published, including the New York Times best seller “Water for Elephants”… presumably with some serious editing after the nanowrimo event, of course. 🙂

I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to participate–yeah, I know, I’d better decide soon, soon being now–but if I do, I know exactly what I’m going to write: a cheesy sci-fi novel. Didn’t see that coming, didja? 🙂

Sometimes you run across something so disgusting you just have to share. I already traumatized my co-workers with this one, but then I realized I hadn’t shared it with you yet, my fine readers.

Cymothoa exigua is, simply put, the nastiest parasite ever. I ran into this bugger studying crustaceans for a project at work. Cymothoa exigua is the only known parasite that functionally replaces a complete organ, in this case the tongue. It is born as a nymph and swims in the ocean until it finds a spotted rose snapper. It then enters through the fish’s gill and attaches itself to the base of fish’s tongue. The parasite diverts blood from the tongue to feed itself. As it grows and clamps around the tongue cutting off blood flow, the fish’s tongue eventually withers away and dies.

Now here’s where it gets weird: Cymothoa becomes a functional replacement for the animal’s missing tongue. Attached to the tongue stub, the fish is able to use Cymothoa as it would it’s own natural tongue, except that Cymothoa shares what the fish eats. As the fish feeds, Cymothoa consumes some of the food right out of the fish’s mouth.

After reading what the parasite does, I searched for a picture expecting to see a formless mass of flesh much like other parasites. To my shock and horror, I saw THIS:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww!! Now that’s an image I won’t be getting out of my mind for a while.

Rumors have been brewing for a while, but Capcom has now confirmed that the beautiful Okami will be coming to the Wii. The news was announced in London with an expected release date of early 2008.

I’m currently playing Okami myself, and it’s one of the more unique titles I’ve played in a long time. While the basic storyline and world design are very Zelda-esque, the Celestial Brush Techniques set Okami apart. By drawing on the screen, you can manipulate the world around you causing trees to bloom, the wind to blow and fire to appear. The graphics are done in an ink-and-wash style, as if the story were told in ancient Japanese scrolls. It’s breathtaking to look at, and a lot of fun to play.

The brush techniques seem a natural match for the Wii’s motion sensitive controller. I’m eager to see it when it is released.

Okami Confirmed for Wii

Can’t convince your significant other you need to be playing more Halo 3? How about a Halo tournament to end breast cancer!

The Cave Girls are hosting their 2nd Annual “Fight Like a Girl” Halo tournament. Proceeds from the tournament benefit the Susan G. Komen For a Cure breast cancer foundation. Tournament founder Kari Toyama explains how it all started in this interview at United for Pink.

They asked me, “Kari, would you like to participate in a bake sale?” I said, “Um, no.” So they asked, “Is there anything you are involved in that could potentially raise money?” I thought, “Hey, I love to play ‘Halo.'”

Get the full tournament details from the Cave Girls. Even if you don’t play, you can still donate!