I wish I ran TCD for a day... then again

I'm going to Book the driver of AQ501 on a seemingly trivial thing, not having a working rear indicator light on the bike. Now the powers that be probably don't care but it did bring to attention something that I had forgotten about, that was pedal cycles without either a headlight or a rear reflector. Again though, the powers that be don't seem too bothered.

Another guy who needs to be a permanent pedestrian

The rider of AD 984 was next to me at a traffic light at a four-way intersection. The second that he noticed that the lights for the crossing traffic went red, he zoomed on through, not even caring if the pedestrian lights were going to go green next.

I wonder if it's worth caring about anymore.

Reverse racism is one of those bizarre subjects that I think about every so often. There are some black people here who think that there's no such thing - that they are free to discriminate against white people because after all "they did it to us in the past".

Let it go, people. And trying to be cute about it by implying things rather than saying it outright doesn't help at all. Ugh. Try to rise above that level.

Friendship between men and women

The CBS Early Show had an interesting piece on the issue regarding whether or not men and women can be friends. I tend to agree with the interviewee in how she believes how men and women operate when it comes to the opposite sex and friendship. Heck, I've been there, heh. I can't yet comment on the latter part of her interview when she discusses a situation with married folks in the workplace. Worth a read, the article.

I try to stay out of the political landscape, especially locally - for the main reason that I don't trust any of these guys as far as I can throw them. But I have no qualms agreeing with certain people when they call out others who would villify them. One such person is Christian Dunleavy and his web blog politics.bm has grown into an interesting read. His latest article takes aim at a woman who responded to a commentary he made with such patronizing disdain that I had to shudder. One of my pet peeves is deliberate sarcasm when used to attack someone and it can really spoil what can otherwise be an intelligent debate. Don't be surprised to see more of that site's content linked to from Beachlime.

Bikes and Mobile Phones not a great combo

Been meaning to discuss this for some time now actually but the re-occurances keep on happening. This morning, I was overtaken by a young female on a bike, her left hand propping up her cellphone to her head. I would Book her for this, but I can't really since I recognize that there is no apparent law in place regarding this activity.

Surely, this is not a safe activity by any means. If a dog (or young child) suddenly darted across the street, would the rider be able to brake and maintain balance and not cause an incident with the dog (or child) or with other traffic on the road, considering that while they have one hand on the cell phone their attention is at least partially diverted by the conversation and the physical act of holding up their cell phone?

Additionally there's the issue of signalling a turn, something that is almost impossible to achieve on one of our bikes what with the indicator being on the opposite handle to the throttle. Car drivers similarly can be dangerous when they're using their cell phones while driving. I've witnessed quite a fair number of occassions where a driver has made a sudden turn without signalling, and the common factor to most of them was that the driver has been using one hand to hold up their mobile phone while they chat away. This could be possible disasters waiting to happen. To me, it would seem to take a very responsible and safe driver to be able to pull it off and there are too many of the 'other kind' on the roads today.

I would like to see the local government do something about this potentially dangerous activity, even a simple discussion about it, and the effects that it could have on fellow drivers and on pedestrians.

More helpless fools

Someone is suing American TV network NBC because of the show Fear Factor. And in rightful fashion, he's getting slagged by among others, Reality News Online. Really. Why don't people take responsibility for their or their children's television viewing habits?

Quiet on the Whappenings Front

Aivar from the Earthrealm Mortal Kombat Forums produced this music video featuring the legendary Shang Tsung (if you know your video games, you should have heard of him), it's available in the Products section of the website.

Other than that, I have a nice cake from the fine folks at Tortuga and these are some of the best rum cakes in the world, if I do say so myself. Mmm...

Anyway, nothing major to report. Still preparing to buy a new PC soon. I want to get a Playstation 2 for my sister, but I refuse to spend the $100 markup on what the product would retail for state-side. Looking for someone travelling soon.

Welcome, 2005

Wisdom tooth extracted... actually not too bad and the dentist was good, but then again I'm not sure all the anasthetic has worn off just yet so if you hear any loud screaming over the next few hours you'll know.

My sister's birthday is today, oddly enough, so I'll give her a call. Can't talk too much I think so heck. Not like I'm big on the phone talk thing in the first place, mind you.

I was re-reading my blog entries and wondered if it was a coincedence that I thought of Sofia from Sweden and next thing there's the big news about the tsunami. Thousands of Scandanavian tourists are believed lost, so now I'm in a slight bit of worry here. Oy.