Frenzied Daddy

I rode my bike for a long time- it was my only form of travel besides my feet and the bus until shortly before the DQ was born. When I drive, I try to respect the boundaries of bikers. I give them plenty of room, check for bikes behind me when I open my door.

There was a seriously aggravating biker lady on 21st yesterday, headed south, near the overpass over I-84. The first thing I noticed was that she couldn’t bike a straight line, so the cars, and we’re talking morning rush hour traffic, the cars couldn’t depend on her staying out of their lane. They had to pass her gingerly. The second thing I noticed was that her helmet was in the basket over the rear wheel. Not on her head. I guess there was something fragile in the basket that was worth more than her brains– not that she was using those! She swerved into traffic a few cars ahead of me to pass another biker. Yeah, not one much for single file. She didn’t signal for that, or when she swerved back into the “bike lane.”

And she ran red lights.

I didn’t have to pass her- she turned left and went up Stark or Oak or something. And she finally used her signals.

Geez.

I haven’t been writing as much as usual because my time is tied up with a client. It’s an especially rough contract for me because our “design styles” are completely different. It’s easier to explain as caricature; everything’s in shades of grey here, so bear with me. I’m not as extreme as I paint, and he’s not as extreme as I paint in this next paragraph.

I’m pretty lassaize-faire about webdesign. I’m concerned about colors and how well they work together, proximity, alignment and simplicity. For me, something “doesn’t display right” if it’s in the wrong place or if some lesser important piece obscures it. I don’t really care if IE and FF display differently, as long as they’re not “horribly screwed up.” My client, on the other hand, has spent hours creating the pages he wants, exactly how he wants them, and the judge of my success at recreating them is based on the difference between a screenshot and his photoshop file. If an element is a pixel out of alignment, he sees it right away.

Our disparity is made worse by my status in the project; I took on a “back end” role, understanding that the design would be covered by someone else. That someone else has vanished, and I’m trying to take the one page he designed for a previous incarnation of a page ( elements have changed and he had an imperfect understanding of the page ) and make it work for the real page. So I’m working with a flawed copy, trying to make a perfect copy for exact specifications I disagree with on a philosophical level.

It’s been a pain in the ass. I’m sure, for both of us. And he asked me for a schedule for the rest of the project, with deadlines. When I presented him with one, he asked me about the consequences of missing the deadlines- what if I miss a deadline? Which made me think of contracts that say “5000, if completed by X, losing 10% per day it’s late.”

Not like I’m planning to miss any deadlines, but this project is eating up family time, play time, relaxation time, sleep time. In my priorities it comes right after my full time job. It’s essential, and I know it, that he gets his website up and live before the deadline. I’ve made some stupid mistakes with some parts of it, but overall I’m happy with the project. I’ve put off other work that our finances need me to focus on, and am working diligently on his site.

In an unrelated issue, I had to go give some blood for a cholesterol screening this week. I give blood at the red cross pretty frequently, and it’s always easy. I go in, get stabbed, get drained, and get some juice. When I went in for the cholesterol screening, they drew blood out of the same arm that the Red Cross uses. Well, they tried, but couldn’t find the vein. So they tried the other arm; and missed the vein there too; in fact, they fished around with the needle before they got frustrated and got someone else to do the draw. Now I have a bruise ( a little bruise, a dime-sized bruise ) in my elbow. The phlebotomist apologized, and that was it.

But every time I look at it, I think “yeah, I was inconvenienced here.” But they were doing their job, it just didn’t go as well as we wanted.

Five technically legal signs to put up in your library. Man, that “Patriot Act” annoys me.

A ninth grader in Tennessee has been charged with theft and sent to court for stealing … a forty cent lunch. Fifteen year old Jon Riker receives a reduced lunch at Gallatin’s Station Camp High School. One day last semester, his mother forgot to give him the forty cents for lunch. He was hungry at lunch and he went through the line and didn’t pay. He received a three day suspension and a court date.

Ok, so the kid did take lunch without paying for it. But forty cents is a little silly. The problem is the school’s no tolerance stance on lunch thefts. I think a more appropriate solution could have been found, perhaps involving dish washing, or detention, or something.

In the mother’s defense, she’s been a little frenzied herself. They have a family of six, and tje youngest had brain surgery recently. I have lunch money slip my mind too, but I just get an annoyed phone call from the cafeteria lady who reminds me to send in some lunch money.

In the spirit of “sending in lunch money,” some people are banding together to send lunch to kids at the school; sending forty cents to

Station Camp High School
600 Lower Station Camp Creek Road (1040 Bison Trail)
Gallatin, TN 37066
Attn: Principal Art Crook

With a kind note suggesting he use the forty cents to buy lunch for other kids who don’t have the money, and following that up with a suggestion to find creative, appropriate punishments for kids who steal lunch.

source

The world is abuzz with the news that Microsoft is making another play for Yahoo. I’m not sure what this means, overall, but the technological folks in my life won’t stop talking about it.

However, I found news of another cable cut in the Middle East positively alarming. Ok, one break in an underwater cable, sure, could be an accident. Two cuts? kind of weird. But three?!!

What happened at the beginning of the mess in Iraq? Do you remember the bloggers, the news, the live video feeds? I do. I remember the blog of the Iranian, recording everything that happened in his town. ( This chart taken from The Internet Traffic Report. )

Yeah, sure, I’m willing to admit that I’m susceptible to conspiracy theories, especially against the “current political regime.” But now, Iran’s network is cut off from the Internet. Major lines of communication are out of commission for at least two days, possibly as many as ten.

Doesn’t that strike you as scary? Or am I off my rocker? Again.

I’m getting mildly crotchety in my old age. I spend way too much time on the internet reading insightful blog posts and other forums. I tell ya, it’s wearing me out. I’ve had it up to -here- though with blatant apostrophe abuse. People, an apostrophe does not mean “hang on there’s an s coming!”

So when I read this post about the author wearing an “Arrest Bush” t-shirt to his local Outback restaurant and being confronted by a little old lady, I was dumbfounded. On one hand, he had a salient point about what happens after we arrest Bush; that the little old lady wanted to make sure he knew about the Nuremburg war crimes, and that Bush needed to be tried against those standards, and the little old lady was agreeing with him. On the other, he used an apostophe in a possessive “its” ( … as it’s guiding power… )

Damn, damn damn. Whatever shall I do?

Who is the genius who, when given a demitasse of delicious, pungent espresso with a sweet fluffy crema, passed over the steamed milk, passed over the cream, passed over the chocolate, passed over the lemon zest and decided to dump tap water into it?

And call it “American,” ok, Americano.

Great; a watery espresso…the only kind of person who would drink a watery espresso would be an American? I hate americanoes. Give me either the drip coffee or the straight espresso. If you must dilute the espresso, use ice; it’s the same thing, but cold, and so easier for me to wrap my brain around.

And to add injury to insult, most places, including Starbucks, screw up the ratio and make truly watery coffee. It’s pathetic. Although I will admit that a large coffee at Dutch Brothers is almost palatable; four shots of espresso in a 24 oz cup, filled with water. It almost takes like coffee. But still. Bleah.

Don’t insult me with an Americano. I’d rather drink coffee from seven-eleven.

When I first caught wind of this, I thought it was a sick version of some “viral buzz” for the new Batman movie ( The Dark Knight ) which looks ( looked ? ) awesome.

But, no, now that I find the story on the New York Times, it sounds like he’s dead. The police said they did not suspect foul play and said they found pills near body.

source

In fricking conceivable.

Here’s the link for a trailer for The Dark Knight. I don’t know what they’ll do now; if filming is done ( doubt it ) or what.

Trailer

Damn, who’s laughing now?

It sounds too cool for school.

The Lightkeeper!!