The Exigent Duality
Snow Driving and Top Systems - 07:01 CST, 2/14/22 (Sniper)
I was just having a conversation about this topic of snow driving with my eleven year-old daughter, who can't wait to start driving. She's very tall for her age, and I taught her how to operate the clutch and change gears last summer. "But snow driving", I explained, "is a whole different skill set. I will explain many things to you before you even get in the car for the first time in winter."

One of those "skill set" things I am going to introduce her to is how to control the car when the back end comes lose. Because when it's really slick, any car on any tires is going to experience at least a little oversteer, if not a lot in the case of my 350z.

I am going to take her into a big open area, turn off all traction and stability control, and have her just do donuts for awhile. Then I will show her how you turn a donut back into a straight line. They do this in Finland: forty hours of skidpad work to get your driver's license. This way, when people take a corner and the car begins to rotate, the driver doesn't panic.

My first car way back when was a 1994 model year, and didn't have anti-lock brakes. Perfect way to learn. I wish I had some way to shut those off for her too. To this day, I "pump" and am very light on the brakes, staying out of ABS except in glare ice conditions where they come on no matter how gentle I am.

On a totally different note, I took a shot at listing the "best" proprietary video game platforms of all time. So, no VGA / Adlib DOS games, no Game Boy Advance, no Amiga-- just game consoles:

  1. Sony PlayStation
  2. Nintendo Famicom
  3. Sega Mega Drive
  4. Nintendo Super Famicom
  5. Atari VCS
  6. Sony PlayStation 2
  7. NEC PC Engine
  8. Sega Saturn
  9. Nintendo Switch
  10. Sega Master System

My favorite list looks different, I think it'd be: 3DO, Mega Drive, Saturn, PC Engine, and Atari 7800. I even like add-ons such as the 32x. The Dreamcast would be in the top ten somewhere. I'd probably enjoy a Jaguar, if I could ever justify spending that kind of money on one. Versus something like the PlayStation 2, a system in which I have zero interest, but can "objectively" recognize for its enormous library.