We embrace attention whores here. You will not be shunned again!

If you don’t like my status updates, then unfriend me!

Ok. First off, let me say...My name is Tracy and I am a social networking addict. I have a good reason though. I want to be a big marketing person one day and social networking has become a big part of that world. That being said, I can be a little over zealous with my status updates. I know it and I am sorry. BUT...if this were a tutorial, it would go a little something like this:

How to un-friend someone

when you think their status updates are annoying

A social networking tutorial by Tracy
Step #1
Identify the annoying poster update or notification on your Facebook page.


Step #2
Click on their name which is also a hyperlink to their profile.


Step #3
Scroll to the very bottom of the profile and on the left hand side of the screen you will see a link that says "Remove from friends". Click that link.


Step #4
A pop-up window will appear which will give you the choice to "remove from friend" or "cancel". Choose "remove from friends one last time" and you are done!

What NOT to do!

#1
There is no need to be rude when the solution to annoying Facebook status updates is so simple! SO DON'T DO IT!

#2
Burning bridges is BAD, so don't do that either.

#3
Don't be that guy. The one who has to belittle people to get his point across. The one who has a pompous crappy attitude. The one who has to name call to make himself feel better. The one who doesn't know how to use the un-friend actions.

#4
Don't be THIS guy:

message1

message2

message3

My main, yet long winded point is, if you are reading this then you are more than likely my friend on Facebook. If you don't like my status updates, just un-friend me. It's not that serious to me and I would rather you do that then get me all worked up over you calling me a skank ass drift industry ho only to have you go to all of your friends and tell them all how much of a "this and that" I am...only to leave out that you were an absolute creep to me over some pettiness. This is what I have to deal with people. Everyday.

Coming Soon! Don'tFeedTheAttentionWhore.com

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Cats out of the bag. I was on Bullrun season 3. Premiere Feb 12th. on Speed.

Ok, like the title says, I can finally spill some of the beans. SOME of them. I am only allowed to admit I was on the 3rd season of Bullrun and post pics of the car. No chatter about locations and what actually went down on the show. But rest assured, I will be blogging every Friday once the show begins airing in February—so be there or be square! I will also be hosting a premiere party of some sort here in Atlanta, so I will post those details once they are all sorted out. We have plenty of time for all of that :P

Anyways, my friend George was so kind as to let me borrow his car since I had JUST sold my STI when I found out about the opportunity. It's a 1992 Lexus SC300 with a 2JZGTE engine and tranny  swap and a semi-large single turbo. The car was built at Batlground.

I took most of the stickers off before our trek back home. I didn't want to have any issues with police. I had enough of that while I was on the show. Whoops. I didn't just say that.  So here are the pics:


and here is my casting video:


Laugh all you want. There will be moar lulz to come once the season starts. I am excited and very nervous at the same time. As most of you know, I am quite a handful and I'm sure the small screen will highlight all of my wonderful qualities that you guys have come to adore.......

Also, stay tuned for more TV action going down at Batlground in Feb. I'm not allowed to spill those beans yet, but let's just say that you will be able to watch Batlground 2 nights a week on 2 channels in February.

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Some advice if you want to open a performance shop.

So, this is a post that I made on a local forum. It was in regards to someone opening a Subaru shop, but applies to anyone who is thinking of doing such a silly thing. They used the word Subaru as part of their company name (just so you know why I am discussing the marketing myopia thing). I think that over time I will make a whole series of these blogs. Running a shop and all of it's woes is the thing I am most an expert on. So heeeeeere we go!

1. 2 words—marketing myopia. You should not use Subaru in your name. I'm sure you know how long we have been in business and we started off servicing Supras only. It wasn't long before we decided we needed to open up our market a little to make ends meet. Not to mention, it is way more fun working on a few different cars, although I can see where you could call yourselves "specialists".

2. A shop in this economy is going to be hard to hold together. Especially if you aren't established. I know you guys have dealership experience, but there is a crap ton of overhead when it comes to owning your own shop and certain buy-ins are a must if you want to be able to compete with parts prices. Just something to keep in mind. We are lucky to be nationally established (especially in hard times like this) and we have customers that come in from all over the US, but it took us YEARS and TONS of money to get there.

3. This industry is very fickle. People love you today and hate you tomorrow. Owning your own business is so hard and then add a fickle clientele and you have a lot of stress on your hands.

4. You absolutely need a lawyer to draw up your invoices and agreements—you have to protect yourself from everyone who reads the Internet and can work on cars from their computer. In other words, the know-it-alls who work on their own cars then want you to fix their mistakes for cheap only to blame it on you when you can't. CYOA. That is short for cover your own ass because this example is just one of the million things that you have to address when you own your own shop. There is a LOT of liability on your hands. Performance is THEE worst when it comes to that. You can make a car all nice nice and built beautifully, but you have no control over the boost controller once the customer leaves the shop with his car.

5. Just because you have "friends" in the Subaru community doesn't mean they will always come to your shop. The first second someone is cheaper or cooler or better or closer, they will be done with you, so something to keep in mind. Don't pigeon hole yourself and make decisions based on the people you know for now—chances are, they won't be around forever. Kind of goes along with both the fickle thing and the marketing myopia thing.

6. Be careful who you let work for you and represent your shop. Your front desk is a very important job, so don't overlook it. That being said, be very careful who you choose. It's nice to have a car person there to make the incoming callers feel like you are competent to work on your cars, but usually those type of people are out for themselves. BUT if the front desk person doesn't have an interest in car stuff, they are there just to do a job rather than be a cool guy who works at a shop. This has been one of our biggest issues once I left the shop 2 years ago. I'm not the nicest person in the world, per say, but I only had the shops interest in mind....not my own agenda. If you don't have the right person at the front desk, you can get robbed blind of contacts, money and ideas.

7. Insurance is a bitch.

8. Your shop is not a playground—it is a business, so treat it as such or else you will get walked all over by your customers and friends. This was a hard lesson for us to learn and probably why most people don't like me. I have always had the role of enforcer...and my policy oriented way comes from losing our insurance once for something stupid (having someone back in the shop when the insurance guy came by). It was not easy to get back and most people don't believe when you talk about insurance, but trust me—it is easy to lose if you aren't REAL careful.

9. Also, just know that everyone knows you are the end all be all decision maker at the shop. For example: They KNOW you can do it for cheaper if you WANT to. They will whine and cry and stomp their feet, but if you have policies in place and you stick by them...then no one can act brand new.

Stay tuned for more related points in upcoming posts.

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I am a power snob.

Disclaimer: Get ready for rant.

I really hate it when a shop has an older model car and takes 5,6,7 years to finally get it working right. Especially when tons of other people have made the same power on the same car for years.

I will use 2 cars models as examples since I see it happen most with these.

Toyota Supra. IMO, a 1000 hp Supra is played out. It was done for the first time in 2001 and has been done by every Tom, Dick and Harry at this point. The fact that it took you 6 years to read an article written in Turbo magazine on how to make 1000 hp in a Supra is sad. Once a magazine has given step by step instructions on how to build a car, it's lame and played out. Get a new car. You are not an innovator at this point.

Mitsubishi Eclipse. IMO, breaking a car 11ty billion times before you get it right 6 years later is dumb. It's sad that you spent tens of thousands of dollars on a Mitsubishi. It even more sad that it took you 6 years to run decent times on a car that has run those same times 8 years ago....by many.

Now don't get me wrong. I know that for the every day Joe, these scenarios my be offensive. They might say, it takes a lot of time and dedication to build a fast car and I know that more than anyone. BUT when you obviously have 10's of thousands of dollars spent on your car several times over after blowing it up several times over or not getting it right several times over, it's lame that it took you so long to get it right when you obviously have money. It is safe to assume that this rant is geared toward shops and their "shop cars" not their customer cars.

Maybe I am spoiled by my experiences. Dan buys a car, makes big power in a few months then sells it and moves on to the next. IMO, that just shows that there are innovators and then there are lame poseurs.

/rant

Thanks for listening :twisted:

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VIDEO INSIDE! I finally edited the video of me driving a Monster Truck.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Youtube vid here. I don't know how to make this movie box bigger yet.

Oh yea baby! Ok, so I guess this is the place to tell the story. Let's see, PRI 2006. I was standing in line waiting to speak to a gentleman in the Bell Racing booth. Dan and I stood there forever waiting for our turn. You see, PRI is one of the places where us drivers dress nice for once, act professional and wait in line all day only to have our dreams squashed. Anyway, so we are standing in this line forever and there is this other guy waiting also. I had seen him throughout the week waiting to speak to some of the same people as Dan and I. So, just like the bank line, us strangers started to talk.

Turns out homeboy is a Monster Truck driver. Lionel Easler. Drives the Instigator:

Lionel Easler Instigator

At the time, he was one of the only privateers left driving in Monster Jam (later that week he signed a deal).  So, blah blah blah, "I'll call you." La tee dah, "See you around sometime."

We part ways and in 2007, I see him again at PRI. Blah blah blah, "I gave your number to the guy" blah blah blah, "Nice to see you, too."

2008, I get a call from MONSTER JAM. They want to know if I can come out to North Carolina to test. I scream and say yes, of course. So, they fly me out for 2 days. We get there in the eventing so when we wake up the next day we head to Dennis Anderson's shop aka Digger's Dungeon. We walk into the shop and it is monster truck chassis galore. It's hard to tell which truck is which because none of them have their bodies on them. I ended up having to sit in a few truck to find one that kind of fit me. These are real competition trucks that we are getting to drive, so their seats are welded in with no slider. There is no such thing as "test" trucks. They are all the real deal. So, we find me one and to be honest, I can't remember which one I drove all weekend. It wasn't a big name truck and it was down a cylindar...but it was the only one I could reach the pedals in, so I just had to deal with the cylindar issue. I couldn't tell either way. Seemed like it hauled balls to me, but it didn't jump as far as the others.

Once I get me a truck we head up to the office to watch a video made on a 1940's video camera. It was about 5 minutes long and didn't tell us much other than how to not get run over and other safety signals and procedures. Which is a good thing. Next we head out to the testing area (a big field in Dennis Anderson's backyard) and they throw us in the truck for a "drag race". It has a Powerglide, so all you really have to do is power-brake; then when you are ready to go: let off the clutch, jam the gas and shift to 2nd all at the same time. So, let me tell you! I am used to a turbo and some lag before the power hits. Let's just say I was not ready for all of that power under my ass. Ends up they have to cut me off because I went too far and I almost went in the ditch at the end of the field. LOL!

We make 3 runs then we do some figure 8's to get used to the independent rear steering, which is basically a toggle switch that you use to steer it with. Kind of crazy. I excluded it from the video because it was kind of boring to look at...although it was pretty fun for me. All in all, the drag runs and the figure 8's took about 30 minutes. Then next thing you know, they line us up to start jumping!!!!! I was like WHAT? This is all of the training we get!!!!???? I tell myself, "You gotta just do it. Everyone is watching and you are the only chick here. Man up!" So yea, basically the way you jump a monster truck is DRAG RACE off of the dirt jump then blip the gas in the air a few times so you land semi-smooth—which, by the way, there is no such thing as a smooth landing. My first jump, I almost bit my tongue off. The next few went good (aside from my low cylindar count).

Now, the next day. HOLY FREAKING CRAP! I have never been so sore in my entire life. I can't move my neck—or any body part for that matter. First thing we do is suit up and get to jumping. I was a little more confident the 2nd day and all of my jumps went fine. The last thing we learned was how to do slap wheelies. I never actually got around to the wheelie part because I was too busy working on the slapping part—SLAPPING MY NECK OFF that is. I honestly blacked out the first time I tried it. I really hit hard. I just had to shake it off and circle back around for a few more tries—2 more tries—in a row—no break to gather my beans. Same thing happend all 3 times and I just couldn't get it. I wasn't the only one, so I didn't feel too bad about it.

So, let's see. Did I get the job? I don't know. They say they only do testing every few years and that if they brought you out there to test, they already like you. They have done their research. The issue comes down to profile. They have to match a truck sponsor to your look and image. It's more than just being a good driver. Understandable. One of the guys who was training us said that he didn't hear from them for 2 years, then just one day they called and said you are flying out tomorrow to drive. They told me to watch my videos and be ready. I will never have the chance to drive/practice again until game day. That weekend was all the practice we will ever get!!!!!!

And that's my Monster Jam story.

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