The Reality Check

Maybe Lulu.com and Amazon.com has reached a new business partnership I didn't know about.  Or perhaps someone up there likes me.

Whatever the reason, Amazon.com now has The Buddy Wayne Chronicles in stock!

I needed a boost to my sales for the two years I have sold this book, and this could be it.  A lot more people know about Amazon.com than Lulu.com; in fact, its chief executive officer, Jeff Bezos, is a former pick for Person of the Year by Time magazine.

In this e-mail sent to me yesterday, Lulu.com explains how this will work:

There will be some differences between your listing on Lulu and your listing on Amazon.  Amazon charges a fee to list your book, and in order to cover that cost your book will be listed with a 30% markup; however your royalty will remain the same, and your book's price on Lulu will not change.  Furthermore, your book sales on Amazon will reflect in your Lulu account immediately.

To purchase the book through Amazon.com, follow this link.

Tags: book news

It has been four months since I have been at this web site.  This post explains the reasons for my extended absence and also serves as a personal update.

As I wrote in January, I was in classes at ABC Adult School in Cerritos, CA.  Those classes continue until June 12.  I have taken a mixture of Internet and computer program classes, including PowerPoint, Flash, and Dreamweaver.  I selected these classes because they contain valuable skills for when the job market improves.  I hope to receive a vocational degree sometime early next year.

Also, I have gained an interest in simulated sports leagues based on all-time rosters.  I did something like this for NASCAR (up to 2005 or so) on this site until I abandoned it.  I felt this was a mistake, so I restarted it.  Since then, I have moved on to the National Football League and I will soon add Major League Baseball.  This is a side interest that I have had for quite some time.  You can see the results at http://alltimesports.freeforums.org.  Click on the "all NFL" or "all NASCAR" tabs from that page.

Finally, with the book now two years old, I simply stopped promoting...

Tags: other pages

Due to my increased schedule at ABC Adult School in Cerritos, CA, where I have begun taking classes, I do not anticipate continuing my comprehensive coverage of NASCAR racing this year.  This includes "The setup" on Fridays and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" on Mondays.

I now attend two hours a day, five days a week; on February 2, this will become four hours a day every day.

However, my love of NASCAR racing will not change and I will continue to watch all the action.

I appreciate your understanding in this matter.

Tags: other entries

Happy new year, everyone!

For my first post of 2009, I will let you know about two actual young men who fit much of the Buddy Wayne Barefoot profile.  I call them BWIRLs - Buddy Waynes in Real Life.

• Boo Boo Stewart, who will turn 15 this month, is a multitalented martial artist and entertainer.  Stewart, whose real name is Nils Allen Stewart Jr., has appeared in several B-grade movies and is a member of the teen pop band T-Squad.  His father Nils is an actor and stuntman, and his brother Fivel and sister Maegan are also actors.  Boo Boo has been inducted into the Martial Arts Junior Hall of Fame in honor of his consecutive junior world championships in karate, in 2002 and '03.  Boo Boo claims six different ethnic backgrounds in his descent.
• Percy Miller is a freshman on the University of Southern California men's basketball team.  On November 28, he scored his first basket in college as he saw some action at the end of a Trojans blowout win over the University of Tennessee, Martin.  Miller was recruited out of Beverly Hills High School, where he averaged 13.9 points a game as a junior but was...

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While I was doing searches on the one-in-a-trillion chance that a real person with the real last name of McRipper is walking around the face of the Earth, I stumbled upon this kick-butt femme fatale.  She has piercing eyes, powerful roller skates, and a hatred for Barack Obama!

The character was conceived by a Filipino known only as Lykex and drawn by a Floridian named Mistress Blood.

Here is the character, and here is the character description.

By the way, the only person with the last name that is known to exist is Mary McRipper, who lived in Ireland and Canada in the mid-19th century.  I would put up the link, but it is on the Ancestry.com subscription service, which I can no longer afford to pay for.

If I don't post again before the 25th, merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you.

UPDATE 1/31/2009: I have a two-week free subscription and I took advantage of it!  Here's the page that mentions Mary McRipper, mother of 1870s Ontario (Canada) bride Susan West.

Tags: other entries

I haven't posted since the end of the NASCAR season, so here are a few things I have picked up in the meantime:

• Brian Barefoot is wrapping up his 17th season of editing the reality television franchise Survivor.  The winner of Survivor: Gabon will be revealed live this coming Sunday night on CBS.  Barefoot has edited every cycle of the show and most of its episodes.
• Southern Mississippi punter/placekicker Britt Barefoot plays his final game for the Golden Eagles against Troy in the New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 21.  Britt, interestingly, is a cousin-of-law of Lance Bass, who finished third in the most recent season of Dancing with the Stars.
• Patricia Barefoot is a "feminist artist" whose art has been displayed at the A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, NY.
• Moving on to NASCAR: The three awards banquets have been held.  The Cup event featured a video tribute to its 60th anniversary introduced by Kevin Costner, and a formal lineup of speeches.  The Nationwide and truck banquets were less formal and in fact resembled talk shows with hosts interviewing "guests" who finished atop the standings.
• Drivers and teams will have more time off, as the traditional January testing at Daytona International Speedway has...

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All hail Jimmie Johnson, the new master and dominator of NASCAR!

THE GOOD

• Of course, the coronation of Jimmie Johnson took place after the checkered flag on Sunday.  Johnson finished 15th at the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, much better than the 36th place he needed.  For the first time since 1978, a driver has won three consecutive championships in what is now the Sprint Cup Series; Cale Yarborough pulled out the same feat from 1976-1978.  And it can be argued that Johnson's "three-peat"(TM) was harder than Yarborough's, because of the current Chase system.  In that system, points are reset after 26 races and all the qualifying drivers then start the next 10 races more or less even in the standings.  Therefore, point swings are more significant at the end of the season.
• For Carl Edwards, the word "bittersweet" does not even begin to describe the last two days of the NASCAR season.  He swept the Cup and Nationwide Series races at Homestead, becoming the first driver to do so.  However, Edwards had to settle for second in the final standings of both series.  In the Cup standings, he fell 69 points short of Johnson, while Edwards lost to Clint Bowyer by...

Tags: nascar, race reviews

For the seventh consecutive year, NASCAR's top three sanctioned series will all end their seasons at Homestead-Miami Speedway in South Florida.  And for the first time in at least a few years, none of the titles have been settled.

Granted, some leaders are closer to the championship than others.  As any fan knows, Jimmie Johnson is on the brink of history; not since 1978 has a driver won the Sprint Cup season championship three straight times.  But Carl Edwards is holding out hope for a massive miracle.  Meanwhile, Edwards is also second in the Nationwide Series championship race, trying to complete a comeback from 241 points down to defeat Clint Bowyer, who took over the points lead in March.  The race with the most suspense, by far, is for the last truck series trophy to bear the Craftsman name.  Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday are coming off dual dismal runs last week at Phoenix and are still separated by three points.  That title will probably come down to whoever has the best finish at the line in the Homestead finale.

All of the drama will play out on a 1 1/2-mile progressive banked track amidst the palm trees along the backstretch.

SPRINT...

Tags: nascar, race previews

History is on the verge for the best driver in NASCAR, while two other major title pictures remain unclear after the drivers and teams leave Phoenix International Raceway.

THE GOOD

• Everyone wondered how Jimmie Johnson would respond after his first bad showing of the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup.  The answer was resounding and clear.  Johnson won the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 from the pole position on Sunday evening, reaching victory circle for the seventh time this year.  The win was another dominating performance, as Johnson led 239 of the race's 314 laps.    The #48 driver became the first winner of three consecutive Cup races at Phoenix.  About the only thing he didn't do was leave with such a margin as to allow him only to start the Homestead finale to win the championship.  As it is, he can finish as low as 36th next Sunday to win the title for the third straight season.
• Carl Edwards now needs a miracle to win the championship, but at least he finished high enough - fourth place - to leave the door open.
• Kurt Busch came home in second place, best since his win at Loudon, NH in June and...

Tags: nascar, race reviews

Three days after Barack Obama was elected as the eventual 44th President of the United States, the fate of three points races in NASCAR have yet to be decided.  In fact, at last week's tripleheader at Texas Motor Speedway, all of them - Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Craftsman Truck series - had the margin between first and second place become smaller.

The Cup race, thought to be fait accompli for Jimmie Johnson, was thrown into doubt with Johnson's first "poor" finish in the Chase period, which was 15th one lap down.  Race winner Carl Edwards took 77 points off the margin and made it less likely that Johnson will clinch this weekend, thereby forcing the Chase all the way to next week's season finale at Homestead.  (The scenarios are below.)

Meanwhile, both the Nationwide and truck series leads were reduced by 25 points each.  In the N'wide series, Edwards is also in second place, now 91 points behind the leader, Clint Bowyer.  Bowyer's largest lead had been 241 points.  But by far the hottest remaining race is among the trucks.  Johnny Benson leads Ron Hornaday by only six points.  That's the closest margin between the first- and second-place drivers in the 14-year history...

Tags: nascar, race previews