Another boring day at the office
I hope you don’t mind if I post this, Felix — I thought it was cool and I figured since you’d mentioned it on your blog that it was okay. Squeak and I’ll pull it.
This is where Felix works. She’s a test driver for GM. She says it isn’t all that cool, but she doesn’t spend her day sitting between a woman with cattarh and a man who tacks “…and all like that…” on the end of every sentence he speaks.
Posted: February 21st, 2008 under blogging, minions, personal.
Comments: 26
Comments
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: February 21, 2008, 3:06 pm
Is that the place out southeast (more east) of Phoenix?
I used to drive by that place occasionally. Always pissed me off that I couldn’t see anything good from the road.
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: February 21, 2008, 3:56 pm
Blimey! I took one look at that pic and immediately thought, “Bastards! Someone’s stolen the circuit diagram for my brain!”
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 21, 2008, 4:00 pm
What’s the big loop at the top? The Booze Cycle?
Comment from porknbean
Time: February 21, 2008, 4:38 pm
Funny looking crop circles.
Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: February 21, 2008, 4:42 pm
Dspite the fact that it’s already been established that this is a test track, I’m going to have to go with…particle accelerator.
Comment from iamfelix
Time: February 21, 2008, 5:28 pm
‘Tis a 4.5 mi., 5 lane test track. And yes, it’s in MI — Milford, to be exact, about 45 miles west of Detroit. But I do like that particle accelerator idea!
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 21, 2008, 5:37 pm
It actually looks rather pretty, what with all the wooded spots. Is the big round thing the only track, or are some of those odd shapes tracks, too?
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 21, 2008, 5:38 pm
Okay, somebody just got here with a Google search of “big buck tooth weasel to buy.”
NOT FUNNY. I am not for sale. And it’s only a little overbite.
Comment from iamfelix
Time: February 21, 2008, 5:42 pm
PG info here and here (Google satellite) and here (something with a video that I can’t even watch because it’s blocked @work). This will have to be fished out of the spam filter by our intrepid hostess because of all the links.
🙂
Comment from iamfelix
Time: February 21, 2008, 5:44 pm
It is a pretty place, especially in early spring & middling fall. All the roads you see (save the building area) are test roads. I just left a link-filled comment in your spam filter, Stoaty.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 21, 2008, 5:47 pm
I’ll fetch it!
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 21, 2008, 5:56 pm
The video was cool. I wonder if you were one of those blurry faces at the big table when they swung the camera down? 🙂
General Motors’ Milford Proving Grounds was the industry’s first dedicated automobile testing facility when it opened in 1924. It covers 4,000 acres, and over 4,800 staff work in its 107 buildings today. The proving ground includes the equivalent of 132 mi of highway-quality roads for vehicle testing. Some roads are open only to drivers who have passed special performance driving training.
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: February 21, 2008, 5:59 pm
Holy Overbite! You can zoom in with that Googly thing! I figured it’d just be a dumb sat photo or whatever.
I looked for you iamfelix, but I didn’t see you. Can you wave at us or moon us or something?
BTW: I’ll see your “buck tooth” and raise you one hit on “Obama’s Pants”, Weaz. *smirks*
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 21, 2008, 8:11 pm
Oh, I *like* this Google query:
because teh zombies aren’t going to kill tehmselves
And Google, of course, helpfully tries to correct all the “teh”s.
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: February 21, 2008, 9:26 pm
Let’s be honest, folks. The kewlest test track in the entire multiverse is, of course, Italian.
It’s actually on the fucking roof of the Lingotto, Turin factory, which was built in 1921.
That’s the roof. These are Italians. It has a low wall.
Look and weep http://www.quartzcity.net/2006/10/05/futurists-gone-wild-the-fiat-rooftop-test-track/
Comment from Steamboat McGoo
Time: February 21, 2008, 9:52 pm
By god you’re right, Weaz. “Did you mean…”
Italians are strange. It’s gotta be all that pasta they eat. And the tomatoes.
Comment from porknbean
Time: February 21, 2008, 10:18 pm
Italians are strange. It’s gotta be all that pasta they eat. And the tomatoes.
I went there once. They are beeyootiful people and the food is good.
You could always pick out the Americans and Germans amongst them. ‘Schtark'(plump) as Uncle would say, wearing knee socks and dress shoes.
If my son ever becomes rich, (not holding my breath as I can’t get him to move his ass off the sofa to study and Obamalamadingdong has other plans for all of our moneys), he said he would buy me a villa in Italy.
Comment from iamfelix’s brother. Really.
Time: February 21, 2008, 11:08 pm
They used to have real handsome PTSB (part time scum bag) security officers at that GM facility, but we all left to become guitar players. :-þ
That elongated 8 looking thing in the middle of the top circle is called the Vehicle Dynamics Test Area, and is a lot of fun. Various portions of that middle pad are (were? They may have changed things since I was there) covered in exotic materials like epoxy and high grade jennite, which when wetted down, allow one to simulate driving on ice, rain soaked roads, etc., and do some pretty spectacular skids, spins and other fun maneuvers. The VDTA was once the domain of a delightful person known as the VDTA Vixen, but she left to raise puppies.
If you zoom in toward the bottom right, you might be able to see Felix rescuing yet another homeless cat near the Powertrain facility.
Comment from Muslihoon
Time: February 22, 2008, 1:27 am
Your Grace: not to get personal, but do you and Uncle B observe tea-time whilst in Terra Anglorum? If so, what type of tea and with what food/snacks?
Tea-time is still quite popular among South Asians particularly those still in South Asia. Snacks are almost always served, which can range from small sandwiches or biscuits to deep-fried desi stuff (yum!) like pakoras and samosas and fruit chaat (the last one being a type of very delicious yet syrupy and sugary fruit salad).
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: February 22, 2008, 7:36 am
Felix’ bro: the video showed the thing where they replace the rear wheels with wobbly wheels on stalks, to stimulate losing control in a skid. It was cool. You should watch it, if you’re ever on a machine that lets you watch vids. (And if you’re stuck doing your surfing on a work machine — be careful!)
We do indeed observe tea, Musli. Uncle B will only drink the strongest of Assam teas. So strong, in fact, that I often take his tea bag when he’s done with it and wave it over my cup, to make tea of a more appropriate strength. When it’s loose tea, I add more milk.
We’re in the camp that treats tea as a proper small meal, so what we eat varies wildly. Salmon sammiches. Baked apples. Uncle B sometimes even has slices of vile black fruit cake.
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: February 22, 2008, 8:03 am
Mmmmmm… fruit cake!
You know, even if I hated it, I’d still eat it, just to enjoy the look on her Ladyship’s face when I do.
Comment from porknbean
Time: February 22, 2008, 1:31 pm
Ugh…fruitcake. That’s almost as bad as watching my husband eat squid or octopus.
Comment from Muslihoon
Time: February 22, 2008, 1:32 pm
Thanks for answering my question, S. Weasel and Uncle B!
Comment from quark2
Time: February 24, 2008, 10:04 am
Did you know that “two matoes” are
a member of the nightshade family?
Neither did I.
Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: February 24, 2008, 10:08 am
Did you know that “two matoes” are
a member of the nightshade family?
…and potato, tobacco, capsicum and aubergine/eggplant.
A man could pretty much live off the Solanaceae alone.
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