public
Captain Slow Charging
This year, I was again able to meet friends I don’t see that often, and have a great time with them while talking about cars and drinking beer.
That was the Ukraine-Romania roadtrip. For me, this year’s Ringmeet instead came with a weird, unprecedented feel of ”What the hell am I doing here?”
It all came down to very poor judgement on display, fueled with a weird, supercharged ”fuck you” energy that usually gets you kicked out of campsites. On Friday evening people got so turbo fucking drunk it made quiz hosting a complete 90+db pain, and the following revving engines and asshole behaviour made me head to the hotel soon. In the morning, checking Ringmeet telegram messages I saw this had been a good idea for anyone valuing sleep.
In short:
No respect for the other campsite people, no respect for Ringmeet arrangers who will take the heat if things go wrong, no respect for people who had brought kids along or people who had travelled from afar, no respect for Ringmeet itself. Stretch all available goodwill far enough and I could see VS giving FinalGear the cold shoulder. Had I brought new-to-Ringmeet people along, I would have been fucklng appalled.
After a day at the track and the Saturday evening dinner me and Lauri headed to Weihs to finalize the quiz award ceremony with Mikko joining us later for the TG part he masterminded. During that time, the awards had randomly started with no communication on the Ringmeet channel about the start time; we had expected an on-the-hour opening as earlier. As a result, Mikko wasn’t even present at the tent to receive his award. It felt weirdy outsider-like to stand in the open awning, looking at the rushed ceremony inside.
I’m not sour about the quiz going to shit from beginning to end results, as I care just as little about it now as everyone else. The problem is easily avoidable bullshit decisions that can be fixed by not being fucking stupid.
By Sunday, when the drunkenness had evolved to a hangover, the mood felt like old time Ringmeet with genuine camaraderie back on track, like it has been for a decade. But this year made me think the meet is autopiloting itself into a barrier with everyone drunk on the back seat, too busy patting each other on the back. Because all it takes for a meet to go well is that there’s plenty of alcohol and exhaust noise, right?
If I want that, I can just go to a BMW tuner fest in Finland. It’s cheaper.
That was the Ukraine-Romania roadtrip. For me, this year’s Ringmeet instead came with a weird, unprecedented feel of ”What the hell am I doing here?”
It all came down to very poor judgement on display, fueled with a weird, supercharged ”fuck you” energy that usually gets you kicked out of campsites. On Friday evening people got so turbo fucking drunk it made quiz hosting a complete 90+db pain, and the following revving engines and asshole behaviour made me head to the hotel soon. In the morning, checking Ringmeet telegram messages I saw this had been a good idea for anyone valuing sleep.
In short:
No respect for the other campsite people, no respect for Ringmeet arrangers who will take the heat if things go wrong, no respect for people who had brought kids along or people who had travelled from afar, no respect for Ringmeet itself. Stretch all available goodwill far enough and I could see VS giving FinalGear the cold shoulder. Had I brought new-to-Ringmeet people along, I would have been fucklng appalled.
After a day at the track and the Saturday evening dinner me and Lauri headed to Weihs to finalize the quiz award ceremony with Mikko joining us later for the TG part he masterminded. During that time, the awards had randomly started with no communication on the Ringmeet channel about the start time; we had expected an on-the-hour opening as earlier. As a result, Mikko wasn’t even present at the tent to receive his award. It felt weirdy outsider-like to stand in the open awning, looking at the rushed ceremony inside.
I’m not sour about the quiz going to shit from beginning to end results, as I care just as little about it now as everyone else. The problem is easily avoidable bullshit decisions that can be fixed by not being fucking stupid.
By Sunday, when the drunkenness had evolved to a hangover, the mood felt like old time Ringmeet with genuine camaraderie back on track, like it has been for a decade. But this year made me think the meet is autopiloting itself into a barrier with everyone drunk on the back seat, too busy patting each other on the back. Because all it takes for a meet to go well is that there’s plenty of alcohol and exhaust noise, right?
If I want that, I can just go to a BMW tuner fest in Finland. It’s cheaper.