I keep waiting for my dang phone to ring.

A watched pot never boils.

I'll be praying for you, Poli.

Watching skin heal is pretty amazing.

Also, I'm surprised people falling down stairs doesn't happen more often. Just speaking for myself here, but the amount of times I walk up and down stairs everyday I feel as though I should miss a step more often.

Sigh of relief: I has it. Tests came back negative.

I've seen Hawaii, San Jose State, Emporia State, Missouri Southern, Northwestern, Arizona State, Washington, Texas, the St. Louis Rams and the Houston Texans play football...but I still haven't seen the Vols. I'm likely to see Brandon Bourbon and the Kansas Jayhawks play Oklahoma State before I could possibly see Tennessee play Kentucky.

I'm crossing my fingers for the UK/UT game this year, but I'd gladly take UT/Vandy in Nashville. I'd love to go to Knoxville and watch the UT-Martin game but that's super unlikely. I have a better shot of making the Kansas- North Dakota game instead.

Edit: Now that I think of it, my roommate's a Mizzou grad. I may end up seeing a Mizzou game this year as well.

:)

Okay, bicyclists. I'm basically on your side. You're vehicles, you're not pedestrians, and you're properly on the road, I get it. Okay, then.

So... your part of the deal is that you fucking follow the laws for vehicles. You don't get to just pedal through a red light if you feel like it, you don't get to just peel the wrong way on a one way street because you're "just a bike." No.

In or out. You're either a jeep or a baby carriage. Pick.

FUCK YES

Too many people want to have their cake and eat it too.

Stay away from NYC, your motherboard might explode.

Just saw Darth Vader's apprentice in the cafeteria.

I wish more cyclists knew that they were vehicles and obeyed the laws. And didn't do asshat things, like whip around turns that are just over hills where CARS CAN'T FREAKING SEE YOU AS THEY'RE DRIVING UP THE HILL. And don't get me started on the ones who don't wear helmets, ESPECIALLY when they're not following the rules of the road.

As a one-time (and hopefully in the near future, I will be again) cyclist, I almost want to pull over and lecture the ones that are just being asshats.

/tk

I can't say that I've ever seen any other kind.

Admittedly, I don't drive too often in cities (where I'm sure the asshattery is taken to an extreme), but where I live, there are some cyclists that do it right. And a lot that don't.

/tk

:D

SI

I know it's something we've all heard repeatedly but if you are in a photograph, it can find its way to the internet & therefore to the world quite easily. Your awareness that it's out there isn't required & more often than not neither is your permission.

No FOFC, it's not pictures of me that I'm talking about, but I'll be damned if someone didn't manage to surprise me with some linkage tonight. Nobody any of you would know or care about so the details are irrelevant but I was genuinely surprised, not by the questionable/damaging nature of the pictures themselves but rather that someone who I'm quite certain is smart enough to know better put themselves in a position for the pics to be taken. Apparently it doesn't take many beers to make even fully grown non-celebrity adults do really stupid things that could be career-enders.

Yeah, not a revelation, just sayin' ...

Hooray!!

And that's it.

Good grief my wife is watching the most boring insipid movie. I tried to sit through it but I can't so I just opened up the laptop and started typing this.

The movie is called It's Complicated or something like that. Awful.

There's a car alarm that's been going off for the last 10 minutes. It is 1:40 am local time. Every once in a while it will stop for 5 seconds to get my hopes up that it stopped completely.

I'll trade you.

Okay, motorists. I'm basically on your side. You're vehicles, you're not pedestrians, and you're properly on the road. I get it.
Okay then.

SO... your part of the deal is that you fucking follow the laws for vehicles. You don't get to just run a red light if you feel like it, you don't get to just make a turn through an intersection across which a pedestrian with the legal right of way is proceeding because you're "a damn SUV." No.

In or out. You're either a motorist with a clue or a fucking retard. Pick.

---

Sorry, QS, but as much sympathy as I have for your point of view there - and I agree, I really do - I have far greater wrath for motorists who decide that a pedestrian's right of way is less important than their need to get to Taco Bell in the next two minutes. I nearly got run over crossing two separate streets in the span of ten minutes because the cars turning right made their maneuver immediately upon the light turning green without paying the slightest attention to whether or not foot traffic had entered the crosswalk.

The bicyclist who's being a negligent dumbass is a danger, yes, and I get as irritated as anybody else to see a bicyclist who either doesn't know or doesn't care to follow the rules of the road.

On the other hand, any death he causes is most likely to be his own. That doesn't excuse his actions in the slightest, mind, but it stands in contrast to the fact that the motorist being a negligent dumbass is basically committing assault with a deadly weapon.

Okay, pedestrians, I'm basically on your side. You're a pedestrian, not a vehicle, and you're properly on the sidewalk.....no, wait, you're not! Stop jaywalking assholes! And seriously, you're crossing a road with traffic! You could act like you're in a bit of a hurry and not out for a nice, slow, leisurely walk while doing it!

I agree. When they don't follow the rules of vehicles I get fucking LIVID.

i get so livid at jaywalkers - i've been known to roll down my car window and remind them LOUDLY and ANGRILY that jaywalking is a crime in all 50 states.

and i used to walk everywhere...miles and miles. i just have no sympathy for jaywalkers.

Yep. A jaywalker gets clobbered in traffic, it deserves a Nelson Muntz HAW HAW.

A pedestrian exercising his legal right-of-way in a crosswalk, on the other hand, shouldn't have to treat the crosswalk like an obstacle course.

My brother-in-law got a ticket for running a red light on his bike. :)

two seperate arguments ^^

But they should still be paying attention and be courteous to traffic...

No one should EVER assume right of way, that's what causes accidents.

Sorry. I'm calling bullshit, at least in this context.

Not that both paying attention and proper deference to traffic are not important duties for the pedestrian, but the key modifier to deference there is 'proper.' Being courteous to traffic means not dashing across the street against a 'do not walk' sign, for example. It doesn't mean "let all the cars who want to turn right go first and then cross if the crossing light is still green."

A pedestrian crossing in a legally designated crosswalk when the "walk" light is lit up in bright green will almost never be the cause of an accident.

He is crossing in the time and place he is supposed to do so. If an accident happens, it's because someone behind the wheel of a two-ton vehicle was distracted, not paying attention, or otherwise violating traffic laws for personal benefit.

If the pedestrian cannot assume the ability to cross the street safely and unmolested when he has the clear and inarguable right of way, when does he have the right to do so?

I forgot to mention DT. The other night when I was driving home I noticed a pug hanging out in the middle of the road. I stopped my car, and managed to grab it and return it to the owner without screaming at a 4 year old.

He's free to assume whatever, but that assumption is made at considerable risk.

If the only thing someone is looking at before stepping into the street is the little light on the pole then they're either an idiot or have no regard for their own life.

Fault, legal right, etc. have nothing to do with that basic truth.

The Keurig one cup coffee maker I got for my birthday is all kinds of kick-ass.

Do not put words in my mouth.

When I am a pedestrian I take my own safety as my responsibility, regardless of what traffic is supposed to be doing. It is my own responsibility to pay attention to vehicles so I don't die. Right of way should never be assumed. This is one of the main teachings of defensive driving, which I happen to know a bit about since I'm a certified defensive driving instructor.

Regardless if a pedestrian is crossing legally in a crosswalk while the "Walk" light is lit, it's still important if you want to stay alive and not be killed for the pedestrian to pay attention to the traffic and look out for themselves.

Personally it annoys me when pedestrians don't take their own safety into consideration when they cross the street and don't pay attention to traffic, because the last thing I want to see is them getting hit by a driver that wasn't paying attention or didn't see the person because of obstacles.

I'm not discounting that pedestrians don't have the right of way, I'm just saying they can't assume it and they need to take responsibility for their well being.

As someone who walks around a lot I have my own rule. "I may be right but the driver may be an idiot." This has kept me alive more than once.

This has kept me out of several accidents as a driver as well. Many people simply don't give a shit about traffic laws, whether it be on foot, on a bike or in a car.

Sure.

Part of the pedestrian's responsibility is to make sure it's safe to cross before exercising his right of way.

But vehicles move faster than people do, and a motorist who is displaying no regard for the pedestrian's rights can make a safe crossing an unsafe one in short order, even after the pedestrian begins to cross.

And there is exactly fuck-all the pedestrian can do about that.

Exactly. Not only that, but even if I'm right- he's got something that can kill me so I'd better pay attention to it even if he's not.

SI

The jaywalking thing reminds me of a story that always makes me laugh.

An old co-worker got called for jury duty. Woman suing because she was clipped by a bus crossing the street.

She admits that the location she was crossing did not have a crosswalk. During the cross examination, they ask the driver if he was able to see her crossing, and he admits that he sees her while he's turning through the intersection. The lawyer asks why did he choose to continue the turn, couldn't he have "exited the turn and continued straight"?

Driver's answer: "I could have gone straight...but then I'd be off my route"

I can't even remember was the verdict was, but I always laugh when I remember that.

I miss the Mean Girls/Freaky Friday/Herbie Fully Loaded Lindsay Lohan. Such potential.

I enjoy browsing the web and doing normal desktop activities so much more in linux (xfce4). It really is too bad that there are still so many things that are difficult/impossible compared to windows.

Also too bad KDE4 is so freaking bloated.

Where the hell was Rowena at Mr. Holland's going away party?

There have been significantly fewer postings in the "cool images" thread since the drama with TR.

/tk

People are probably gun shy now.

I love my new GTX470.

I'm watching this E! True Hollywood Story of Andrea Yates, this mother who drown her 5 children in Texas. After watching this, I've realized I can never be on a jury. I find myself perhaps unsympathetic and/or uneducated on the matter, but I don't care how sick this woman claims to be/have been, she deserves to go straight to the chamber.

EDIT: My "random thought" for this post isn't so much about this incident... it's about how I've realized I can never be on a jury in a case like this, and I'm curious if the majority of people would feel the way I do, or if I'm in the minority?

Being unsympathetic/uneducated is no excuse to not listen to and evaluate the evidence as a juror. In this country, you are innocent until proven guilty. So, no, I do not feel the way that you do. Whether or not you are in the majority or minority, I have no idea. :)

100% of the time that I see "I. J. Reilly" on this board, I read it as "I. P. Freely"

I'm annoyed that my mail doesn't get delivered until 4pm.