November 16, 2005

    I phoned Sask. Smartest Radio Listener contest, and was the second to get to answer.
Q: Sask. had a record harvest in 1901 but half of the crop was lost. Why?

A: I guessed hail (which wasn't brilliant) since the first person guessed frost.  After I'd hung up I started to reason that if it wasn't flood or fire, then it had something to do with transportation most likely a train accident.  It turns out the correct answer was due to the trains not being able to move the grain, and a lot of it spoiled.

    I just emailed Mr. Gormley with this letter:

    The Leonids are coming Thursday night.  If it's clear, go outside in the evening and look up, north and east and you should see a streak of light at least every 20 minutes, if not more often.  Bundle up and stay warm if it's as cold as it is here today (-20C).

    Unless you're a computer geek, you've probably not heard of OpenDocument.  It's a new way of saving word processor and spreadsheet files, so that it will work on any computer.  The problem is that Microsoft didn't invent it, and doesn't want to include support for it in their Office programs even though it would be free to do so.
    Here's what OpenDocument means for you:
"Remember how when you tried to move your assignment from my computer to your computer and it didn't work because I don't have Microsoft Office?"

-"Yeah?"

"Well, OpenDocument means it would have worked."

-"Oh. Cool."

    Microsoft is fighting the adoption of the free competitor OpenOffice.org which includes support of OpenDocument, in the state of Mass.  They are worried that if OpenDocument is included in Word and Excel, then people will begin to use only the free Open Office.  Our governments could be saving millions of dollars a year by implementing OpenDocument as our standard instead of Microsoft's proprietary formats which don't open on computers without Microsoft Office.
==

    Now my Internet connection isn't working.  The Mounties must have read what I wrote about the new wiretap law, and decided to pull my plug I guess. [Update: It's back and working, took about an hour but I think I fixed it, the modem needed restarting, or Sasktel fixed something on their end, I'm not sure which.]

November 15, 2005

    The Sun reports that Paris Hilton's boyfriend caused $115,000 damage at a party they went to. "Furious Paris, whose family owns the Hilton Hotel chain, yelled at him: “I don’t want Hard Rock to think I bring in people who do this stuff.”"  Well, tough Paris!  You don't exactly get your family to think you're responsible by dating a destructive oaf and taking him to parties.

    The company that everyone is beginning to love to hate, Sony announced that they'll recall the DRM infected CDs from stores and offer consumers an alternative.

    I know a few people are wondering what the story is with KK of the Riders, and how he got injured since they didn't see the play that did it.  There are rumours going around about his injury that I'm not going to post here unless they are confirmed by reliable sources, but you can contact me if you're dying to know, and I'll tell you what I've heard which could be completely wrong;  After the Trevis Smith charges, it could just be the Regina rumour mill running ragged.

    I was doing laundry tonight, and when I leave my apartment the hallway to the stairs is completely thick with cigarette smoke.  It seeps under my door into my apartment sometimes and I suddenly think somethings burning on my stove until I realize what it is.  It's quite annoying.  On the second floor where there's the laundry machines, there's a different smoke smell.  I wonder what's on the 3rd floor, I'm almost afraid to go up there and take a good whiff.

    I'm also looking online at Edmunds.com for a car that is fuel efficient and won't break the bank buying it.  My thoughts of a Golf TDI sank a bit when I saw people selling them for about $19,000 in Regina.

    By looking at the polling data from Pollingreport.ca, I noticed that the Green Party is taking votes away from the Conservatives.  This is probably due to people who won't support the Liberals after they showed they've been corrupted, and won't support the Conservatives due to their ultra conservative views on things such as marriage law, and gun policy.  Personally I have no problem with scrapping the failed gun registry, but should the Conservatives get into power I think there's a real chance that they'll try to take human rights away from homosexuals in an attempt to "protect" the rights that religious people who fear gays, already have protected simply by being in the vast majority.
    If more polling companies started offering the Green Party as a viable party choice instead of lumping them in with "Other", then we'd see their numbers shoot up by 5% easily, and quite likely a Green Party member or two in the coming election which is looking like it will be in December.  If Paul Martin blinks before Harper does, then we'll be going to the polls before Santa pays the taxpayer a visit.

November 14, 2005

    There was a blizzard today, so I didn't drive anywhere, but into the city to pick up a printer.

    Thoughts on the "urban myth" that cities carry both rural expenses and their own:

"Why should we [urban dwellers] have to pay more for our phone service/electricity/roads/etc, etc, etc just so you [rural dwellers] can afford yours? If you like living in the middle of nowhere so much then be prepared to pay for it."

Why? Because you're not all selfish city slickers? Seriously though, because your groceries and oil and everything doesn't come from downtown New York, and if you want supplies in your cities you'll need people and support structures outside of cities to support your urban lifestyle. If you want skilled people to work out of the city you'll have to provide them with health care, communication, education, and entertainment, so consider supporting rural Internet service to be part of your grocery bill.  You'll either pay it in rural subsidies, on your loaf of bread, or in revolution if you manage things badly enough in the central government.

    My friend Alvil has gone to Korea to teach english at a school.  He's setting up a blog, which is bound to have interesting stories and photos.

November 13, 2005

    Have you ever thrown a spear or dart with an atlatl?  It's a stick with a pin on it, that speeds up a spear, and ancient hunters used it.  Here's a video of my failed atlatl attempt. You have to let go of the dart, but not the atlatl.

    The Riders play Montreal today in the East Semi-Final playoff football game.  I think the Riders will win this one, but it will be a close game. [Update: Well the Riders stunk out the place, scoring no points in the first half.  We lost 30 - 14, so things better change in the off season.  Callers to the "Fifth Quarter on CKRM" were suggesting that coaches have to change for there to be an improvement, and one called for Kenton Keith to be traded to Edmonton to improve team morale.]

    "Sony execs crowed a few weeks ago that their latest MP3 players were THE iPod Killers."  What we didn't know, is that the Sony MP3 player actually DOES kill you if you copy non-DRM music to it. Look it up, it's in their End User License Agreement.
    Actually Sony's MP3 Player won't kill you (at least not yet), but you'd be making a mistake by buying one over a competing product since Sony's draconian user agreements and their malware laced music CDs are infected with DRM that damages your computer.  Make sure to let your friends know that Sony products should be avoided at least until they lose their upcoming court battle with consumers.

    Leger Marketing GALLUP polling called this morning about the bird flu.  They were wondering where I knew the virus was, and if humans could catch it, and how confident I was in various parties providing me with protection.  The guy asking the questions from his Manitoba office, was going to give me the Leger website at the end of the call and suggested I write it down, but then said, "you sound pretty intelligent you'll probably just remember it."  I typed it into my web browser instead of writing it down as he said it - no remembering involved.

    I made buffalo burger meat sauce with mushrooms and noodles for supper, which was very good.  I haven't ever made meat sauce before, but dumping it out of the jar isn't too challenging, and slicing mushrooms is pretty easy too.  I fried the buffalo burger and chopped it up before putting it into the sauce.  If you don't try cooking, I suggest it as an easy meal to learn how to cook something that looks and tastes impressive.  Good cooking starts in the store when you buy something you've not tried before (and comes from a jar already mixed).

November 12, 2005

    Motor cars in Saskatchewan 1926.  Be sure to obtain your permit free of charge before touring by automobile.

    .000640GB of RAM is all anyone will ever need on their rack server. - Saskboy

    Canadians want our money back.  The United States imposed illegal tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber, and have $5 Billion of Canada's money that they are stalling in giving back.  A kid from B.C. has proposed a boycott of McDonalds on December 3, 2005 so please join in.  (Besides, McDonalds isn't a good place to eat anyway.)

    Next Generation Star Trek, as written in Dr. Seuss format.

    I was looking for pictures of other broken bike helmets, and came across a page from a few years back where an Arizonan was hit from behind while biking and suffered about the same damage that I got from getting hit on the left.  I realized yesterday that a lot of my bruising wasn't directly from the impact of the van, but from my leg getting pinched between the van and my bike saddle which had its frame bent in the crash.

November 11, 2005

    I heard on CBC just before the 11:00 AM broadcast of Remembrance Day ceremonies from Ottawa, that some places in Canada don't give the day as a school holiday.  That's pretty shocking I think, and can't imagine why they'd not honour veterans with Nov. 11 as a holiday.

    If you happen to be looking for a job, I found the job I'm working right now at JobSetc.ca. You sign up and get jobs you'd want emailed to you every day so you don't even have to go job hunting.

    You can see some of Wood Mountain's Stampede history in pictures at this site.

    Pictures of Elevators in Saskatchewan are available here.

    The Youth Criminal Justice Act has some odd wording in the part about sentencing.  Instead of making the wording forward thinking, it specifically singles out "aboriginal youth" as deserving special consideration during sentencing.  This is obviously an attempt to have the judge take into account youths with difficult family backgrounds, and acknowledges that a disproportionate number of first nations people end up in Canada's prisons, but I think they should have not discriminated racially in penning the law.  It would be better to have required judges to give consideration to "anyone from a background that currently has a disproportionate number of people with similar family backgrounds already in prison," so that when another minority is racially discriminated against either by the justice system or the community at large, the law won't need to be amended to protect them.  We can foresee a day when first nations people aren't picked on by the justice system, and don't have issues of severe poverty, right?

Poetry as they say
Can bring a smile to your day
Or darken it with gloomy storms
Frighten it with ghostly forms
Reminisce of times long past
Or hearken back to Friday last
Create a subtle silent joke
Or chortle like a drunken bloke
Poetry does this and more
So write in verse, don't be a bore!

November 10, 2005

    Today I tried new software from tutor.com.  It's a Netmeeting clone that uses Shockwave software to work.  It seems to work well enough when it's running.

    I went shopping at the Co-op today, and remembered everything but to get more salsa.  I bought spaghetti sauce instead and didn't remember my chip dip was running low.

    I also went without crutches for the first time today, and managed just fine.  My leg is stronger than yesterday, and I have more flexibility back too.

    I'm almost caught up to present-day shows of Lost.  The series is interesting, but I'm concerned it is getting to be too much of a soap opera to bother with, since it requires a little time investment to understand what's going on.

November 9, 2005

    Sasktel called me and told me they fixed my blog's space.  Too bad they didn't think to call when they'd fixed it, or sent an email that they had.
    Gormley got his flu shot on the radio, and I learned that the needles hurt less since they don't have to be put through a rubber stopper, they come pre-filled and don't have burrs on them.  A guy phoned in and said he didn't believe in getting the shot, because he's not had any prescription medicine since 1965 when he was forced to after a car accident, and he's not had the flu in that time.  He admitted to a cold a couple years ago, and was somewhat impressed at his good health, until he said he didn't like putting foreign substances into his body, and right after said he owed his strong immune system to herbal supplements.  It's then that I started laughing.  Herbal supplements, natural or not, are supplemental to a healthy diet.  So much for not taking any extras into his body to stay well, and he probably doesn't realize that A.S.A. or Aspirin is a naturally occurring drug, as is pot, opium, etc.

    I drove down to Esterhazy today, and saw the K1 mine on the way.  The roads as you can see were less than impressive, although they were working on them with graders and plows.

November 8, 2005
    Sasktel has finally fixed my blog's space tonight, so I'm uploading the past few days stuff here now.

    An interesting psychology blog.

    Another Saskatchewan blog, although this one's from Regina.

    Something pretty funny was on the radio today.  The president of CTV was trying to sell the importance of network news sources as the "gatherers of news", since he doesn't know of any bloggers that interview people for facts.  Then he tried to follow up his first point (which is partly valid), and said that people would want professionals to present the news.  Bloggers are in some cases professional news presenters, and the fun of blogs is that you don't have Lloyd Robertson reading news at you, that you looked at 14 hours ago on the web.  You have an uncensored view of daily events, not regulated by the CRTC and advertisers.

    Ipsos Reid phoned me about the lottery tonight.  Their survey took too long, it was at least a half an hour on the phone, telling them eventually that I think the Western Canadian Lottery Corporation preys upon the weak willed and stupid essentially, but that it's ultimately up to the victim to stop being victimized by it.  It's a shame though that Saskatchewan is so dependent on gambling to make ends meet, when it causes so many people-problems.  It's really a way to distribute money away from some of the poorest in society to everyone else, which only widens the poverty gap.  Though it's the lottery's players fault for overdoing it, we should take stronger measures to ensure people don't plunge themselves into poverty over a gambling addiction.

    And just when I thought the evening couldn't get any more interesting after a phone call from a pseudo telemarketer that wanted to suck my brain dry for lottery stats, and the premier of Rick Mercer Report, a fire alarm went off at 9:15, and startled everyone in my section of the building.  It turned itself off after 30 seconds, after I'd started cursing my bad luck at only having shoes from forgetting my boots at work, and this being the biggest snow day of the season so far.  I met three of my neighbours though, on the upside, one of them found out it was just a test of the alarm.  It was nice of the testers to tell us it was going to happen, I thought, and so did my neighbours.

November 7, 2005

    The Vatican made a pronouncement against Intelligent Design, backing up what I said about ID being a backhanded attempt at teaching Christian creationism in the science classroom using non-scientific "evidence" from the Bible.

    I went to Buchanan today, and Springside.  After work I went shopping for groceries and took the bus home.  I can't figure out why the bus always smells, but it's kind of unfortunate that it does.

    I came across a CFL blog called Twelve Men on the Field.  It has a lot of information if you're really into CFL stats and sites.

November 6, 2005

    I made my CFL standings prediction on Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:20 am

The Riders had a 9 - 9 record in 1989 when they won the Grey Cup, so it's possible we'll pull it off again this year.  The odds are against us though, so as much as I'd like us to win, I'm going to predict a Grey Cup for Toronto, who will beat us in the East Final.  B.C. will lose to Calgary in the West Final.

    Today I returned to the scene of the bike accident, and took a few pictures.  It's been my longest walk since my injury happened, and it's good to know that I can walk 2km if I have to before I'm fully healed.  For the picture to the left, just picture me laying in the crosswalk on my side, head pointing south to the right in the picture.  If I get really bored, I might make a funny animation out of it, with me flying through the air, onto the pavement.

    As France descends into anarchy, I wonder what it will take for Canada or the USA to do the same.  Given our more dispersed population in Saskatchewan, it would be easy for large groups of people to avoid the conflict entirely if one breaks out for less than a month.  It's sad events like the Paris riots that make gun ownership all too tempting for self defense.  I'm shocked that France hasn't called in the military to crack down on the people burning cars and buildings.  I think it's a week overdue.

    Scientists have developed a model to predict wobbling bridges, like the high-profile problem with London's Millennium Bridge. The Millennium Bridge was closed soon after it opened to pedestrian traffic, because it was swaying too much. "The $32 million US bridge was designed to withstand weight and height, but did not account for human nature. People fall spontaneously into step with the swaying of bridges, said Steven Strogatz, a professor of theoretical and applied mechanics at Cornell University. The bridge was closed for 20 months until giant shock absorbers solved the problem at a cost of $8.9 million US." "Strogatz and his colleagues applied ideas used to describe other oscillations such as in neurons and fireflies."

    And now Sasktel has managed to break my webhost tonight, so I can't upload this new entry tonight.  I'll hope they get to fixing it by sometime on Monday.  For now I have an archive page I was able to rename to the main page, serving my site's visitors.  It's not perfect, but it's the best solution for the time being.

November 5, 2005

    PEMS is the completely safe organ enhancement product for men with a sense of humour. [Caution: PEMS is not appropriate for young children, or prudes who faint before they read the joke.]

    "Porn" as you've never considered it before, is yours for free. [Link Probably Safe For Work]

    Ad jokes for Google, by Google - Ads that are poorly mismatched to the content on my pages. I'll be updating this more when I notice funny ads.  So far there have been several creepy ads by creationism organizations that attempt to debunk science using mumbo jumbo.  And some about depositions, and lawyers, probably due to my mention of my bike accident last week.

    A morbid entry is ahead.  Someone on Slashdot.org was bemoaning the exhumation of remains thought to be Copernicus', and was concerned about his privacy.  I replied with this:
    "Death is anything but private.  Some people in our culture may perceive funeral rites to be private, but death itself is public.  What happens when you croak in your car, or on a path?  In the woods or in the bath?  Your smell alone gives your location away.  All sorts of people will gather to cart you away.  Your picture or story goes into the paper.  And if you're lucky, in a thousand years, you'll teach kids looking at your bones what it was like to live with MP3 players, and mortality.  Death is reintroducing your private body into the public domain.  If there's one thing you won't care about when you're dead, it's your privacy."

    I've submitted a story to Slashdot about fireball meteors, and they are going to post it soon.  I've seen a fireball, or something like one once, while I was driving west near Weyburn with a friend.  I was the passenger, and looked out the windshield to see a bright green streak that lit up the clouds, which was strange because it was still daylight out.  My hope is that the observatories set up by my former astronomy professor at the UofR and other points in the province, while yield the location of the next big meteorite strike in SK.  Last time, the heater failed and the convex mirror they use above the camera to reflect the 360 degree horizon, had frosted over and was worthless.

The Riders played B.C. tonight, and beat them again, 13 - 12 by scoring only one touchdown, in the last two minutes of the game to finally gain the lead.  It was an impressive defensive effort, especially after being hammered in the press this week over the Trevis Smith sex related charges in Surrey, B.C.

November 4, 2005

    On the radio today, there was talk about a book with information on how to survive in odd circumstances, such as being trapped on an ice berg, or inside a sewer. Worst Case Scenarios is a book series, and looks pretty interesting.

    There was a discussion today about how you perceive yourself.  I was being silly so I wrote:
I'm a meat popscicle on two metal sticks that hold me up when I walk.
I'm also devilishly handsome when seen from above, and am more interesting than Wikipedia, and the Encyclopedia Britannica put together between two pieces of bread. I have stylish flair to which none can compare. Two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet, two nipples, and two lungs. I'm witty when given enough time to be so, and awkward when not. But above all else, I'm completely serious 100% of the time, which makes it harder to figure out if I'm arrogant, or just kidding. Punnichy, SK Main St. and elevator to the north.

November 3, 2005

    Just call me Scooter Limpy.  I still barely need the crutches to get around, but now it's not my bruise from the impact that's bothering me, but rather the muscle on the other side of the leg, no doubt cramping up from lack of use.  Or perhaps it's being overused, or just used in the wrong way, but it takes nearly constant massage to make it possible to lift my leg properly.  I'm hoping by morning it will have improved more.

Here's a couple pictures of Norquay, SK.

    I was in Canora and Norquay for work today.  It snowed a little, and rained a little, and is snowing right now, after 10:00 PM.  In Canora, the librarian was having homemade Russian soup brought over, and she offered me some so I tried it.  She called it Halooski, and it's a noodle soup, but the noodles are homemade and like tiny biscuits or won tons without meat in them.  There's also potato and onions, and it was very good.

November 2, 2005

    You can look up Canadian laws that are in the House of Commons. It's handy to see what to get outraged over, or when a good day to watch cpac.ca will come up.

    I phoned the radio in an attempt to finally win the Sask. Smartest Radio Listener contest, and I got through but got the wrong answer.  I figured out it's important to call early, because otherwise you miss hearing the question and the first answers, since you can't listen to the phone and the radio at the same time.  You have to listen to the phone so that you know when to speak, but the phone has the radio live, which comes out about 15 seconds later on the Internet.  The question this week was an easy one.
Q: Saskatchewan once had 5000 of these, what are they?

    I've had over 50 hits today from people looking for Sony Rootkit info, so here's a followup to my earlier posting on it.

Dear Sony,
I'd like you to know how displeased I am that you've put DRM in your Compact Discs, and I'm shocked that "Van Zant's" CD is reported to have a "rootkit" virus that infects Windows so that certain file names remain hidden from even anti-virus scanners.  Your product has endangered thousands of music fans, by crippling their Windows system in yet another way that virus writers can exploit.

I think you owe your customers better.

Sincerely,
Saskboy
Yorkton, SK  CANADA

November 1, 2005

    I went back to work today, and didn't have too much difficulty getting around.  It was a little awkward printing a report, since the paper is tractor-feed and I had to bend under a desk to get the printout.  I also worked over at Yorkton Public, since a dumb terminal up and died overnight.  I guess being 20 something years old, things go wrong sometimes.  At least it wasn't hit by a van ;-)

    Speaking of being hit by a van [nice little segway {or however you spell it}], I finally got my 2 minute conversation with a police officer, who was nice enough to bring me my bike back when he came over to pick up my statement, which I was nice enough to type out for him the other day.

    And without further adeiu {there I go again with en francais words I can't spell, since it's actually "adieu", unless I've completely used the wrong word which is possible and it's just "ado"} here are smashed, mashed, and crashed bike pictures:

October 31, 2005

    Happy Halloween everyone!  In the spirit of the day, my leg has turned a ghoulish yellow and black.  It's feeling better though and I have more strength back in it.  I stayed home from work today, since I'd be kinda worthless doing any work under a desk, or carrying my equipment around.  I think by tomorrow I'll have recovered enough to do some real computer work.

    There's a picture of Mars I took last night, when it's the biggest it will appear to the naked eye, for much more than a decade.  It's still going to be very visible in the east after 8 PM  for many more weeks, but the sooner you can see it the easier it will be to spot.  The photo shown is using a 3X zoom on a Canon Powershot S30, taken at 3 Megapixels, JPG, ISO 50, and a shutter speed of 15 seconds with F4.9.

    And for those into Halloween colours and gore, I have a photo of my massive leg bruise.  It's bigger than my palm, and hopefully going away soon.

New Sony music CD installs "Rootkit" Trojan [virus] onto your Windows

October 30, 2005

    Paul Martin addresses the nation on the softwood lumber.  He says he's going to continue pushing the US to live up to the NAFTA rulings in Canada's favour, as long as it takes to get our money back.  Good for him.

    My leg is doing better today, I can almost walk without crutches, but I wince with each step so I'm sticking to the crutches a while longer.

Litigation is so overrated
This fact can not be debated
A lawyer will say
"Let's make him pay!"
But I notice his fee is inflated.

A fellow from Slashdot.org opined that "Intelligent Design could be boosted by finding hidden messages in ancient DNA such as "Kilroy was here"."
Finding "Gawd waz here" micro-engraved onto DNA, RNA, or Buckyballs would certainly put some weight into the Intelligent Design hoax.  Why aren't they out looking for that to test this signature hypothesis?

"And it could drop in rank by showing an observable example of natural selection turning something simple into something complex before the eyes and cameras of many observers."
Something simple:
Creationism: God Did It!

...turned into something complex:
Intelligent Design: God Did It, with SCIENCE!

    If you're looking for observable evolution within a human lifespan, man do you not understand evolution.  Evolution by definition takes generations, and although many animals have generations that don't last as long as a human life, it still is pushing things time wise for any human-observable change to show up.
    If you aren't a "flat-earther" and recognize that the earth is about 4 Billion years old, let me demonstrate how long a million years is.  A year is a long time to you right?  Well 100 is about your lifetime, and so seems about as infinitely long as a human can experience first hand.  Imagine 10 lifetimes, that's 1,000 years.  Then since you're metricly inclined, you'll realize right away that one thousand, 10-lifetimes is 1 Million years.  Think of the changes in biology in the past 10 lifetimes, and judging by the fossil record from 10 million years ago, why are there no fossils of humans that old, and where did the animals that were around 10 million years ago, go?  Evolution presents a plausible explanation for changes in biology that we can see in the fossil record, and even today with changes to microbes and fauna that have died out.

    ID might seem plausible to some, but it still relies on an unprovable Christian God to make it all work.  Then of course there's the problem that God himself needs a creator to have made him, etc.  To break problems down into manageable chunks, humans often omit extra data that doesn't affect the outcome of their project.  There's no benefit from including God in calculations in science class, since he's not a defined constant even.  If he were a defined value, we could cancel him out in our equations, but since we don't really need him in science, why is there a push to complicate science?

Something like:
God + E = MC^2 + God

  It's an agenda to put Christian fundamentalism into school, plain and simple.  Please don't support it, or you're supporting the radicalization of our youth, for use in future religious wars.
==

October 28, 2005

    I'm on the road to recovery now, after my bike accident.  My leg is no worse which is promising, and my ankle is nearly back to normal.  I'm a little surprised the police haven't phoned me back by now, so I'm going to call them to see if they want my statement.
    I phoned them, and the Constable is busy today, so he's calling me on Sunday.  The other fellow driving the van is getting a ticket for failing to yield.

Pedaling to Superstore
He was looking to explore
But a van got in his way,
Changed his outlook on the day,
What was to be an easy ride,
Ended with him on his side.
Helmet smashed and leg in pain,
Thankful for his intact brain,
The Mounties say he's in the clear,
But tell that to his swollen rear!

A friend online wrote this for me: [Ike is the cute little dog at the bottom of this page, and he's in Texas]

    It's not ready yet, but it's coming soon Vast Left Wing Conspiracy Forums.

October 27, 2005  -  semi-permanent link to this date

    On my way to the store from work today, while obeying local traffic laws, a van encountered my body improperly. One sore leg, and smashed bike [and helmet] later = Survived, and not really upset right now.
    The fellow in the full size '80s van did a left turn into me, and I did my best to get out of the way [which was MY way, by the way], but his headlight caught my leg. I went down, and he stopped, and fortunately my momentum kept me out of the path of his wheels, although I was high enough up that it wasn't really a danger.  The driver wasn't looking in the right place when he hit me.  He didn't even see me until the noise of impact, he was looking down the street, instead of into the turn.  There apparently was a red vehicle somewhere behind me that he was trying to clear the intersection for, but failed to leave it clear for me more importantly.

    WOW! Excuse me, I just had a flashback there and jumped a little bit.  If I think about it, I can relive the moment of impact, and it's a really surreal thing.  My mind was racing I suppose you could say, although essentially the race was a tie between "Oh crap!", "I wish I could fly or speed up more", and definitely the thought "What am I supposed to do now," as I skidded to a halt on my side a couple meters from my bike.  There was a feeling that I should know what to do about being in the crosshairs of a turning vehicle, which probably comes from playing video games with crashing vehicles in the first person perspective [eg. Carmageddon].  Then as I was schmucked it felt pretty much like a heavy door blowing into you -- sending you flying with a noise and hot energy that comes with getting clobbered or tackled.  I didn't lose consciousness as my head and body hit the pavement, and I could feel that my helmet was probably broken as I rested my head on the pavement after or maybe before wildly looking around as best I could to see if the van had stopped and that no one else was going to run over me.  I was laying in the path of a car stopped for the red light, and the driver got out of her vehicle to help me.  I decided that an ambulance wasn't a bad idea, and the next left-turner who hadn't got to start turning, phoned the Mounties on his cell phone.  I was considering moving to the edge of the road, but it would have involved me dragging myself in pain, and with people standing around me I wasn't in immediate danger of being run over again.  The lady from the car retrieved my headlight light bulb and some other pieces, while the van driver brought me the two C batteries.  The thing had apparently split open upon impacting the ground and had flown apart but didn't break.  I'm still missing the crucial switch piece, so I'm hoping it's still attached to my bike remains or was picked up instead of being left at the accident scene on the corner of Dalebrook Dr. and Broadway Ave. to be run over repeatedly.

    Don't ever get hit by a vehicle, it's like getting hip checked by a big metal bat. I think as I encountered the bumper I cried out, "What the hell are you doing?" in response to him taking my right of way, and my vehicle-injury-virginity.  And I'm not sure, but as I fell whatever I said turned into "UNHGG!". What kinda sucked about the impact was he was speeding up still as he hit me, so he might have been going as fast as 35km/h by my rough estimation.
    I wish I had had a helmet camera on, because I'm not doing that ever again.  Oh my gosh, I wonder what sitting on a bike again is going to do to my mind?  I'll probably have a flash of terror for an instant, then be ok again.  But getting hit by a van wasn't as bad as I thought it could be.  "Bring on the Mack Truck, yeah baby! You can't hurt me!" *I spring up pumping a victory fist into the air, then crumple to the ground whimpering as my leg gives out.*

    I feel, and know, I'm lucky [well as lucky as someone hit by a van can be]. One of my friends in another city was almost hit on his bike today too.  It's strange that someone online I know, knows of a bike-left-turn victim too, but they turned out much worse than I from the sound of the emergency vehicle response.

    I always wear a helmet, except for the first 8 years or so I biked as a kid and they didn't really have them available.  I resisted the first few years my parents bought me one [especially since it was neon green], but ever since I've been biking in the city as an adult I don't go without it [but for when I'm borrowing a bike and one isn't available].  I'd have clunked my head on the pavement, and judging by the cracks in the polystyrene foam, I put a lot of my energy into landing on my head, since I can't find scratches on my gloves or coat.  Nothing in my backpack was crushed either, and the poppy I was wearing didn't skewer me with the pin.  I can think of a thousand worse outcomes short of dying and none of them happened to me.

    One of the questions the nurse at the hospital asked, which is standard I guess, was "When was your last bowel movement?"  I told the truth, but I could have lied and said, "When the big fricken van ran into me!"

    [Pictures of my bike are of course forthcoming... Stay tuned.] If you stayed tuned, here are pictures, added Nov. 1, 2005.

In the news, this was kinda sad:
“This is like the Third World,” said Claudia Shaw [about Florida after Hurricane Wilma], who spent several hours in a gas line. “We live in a state where we suffer from these storms every year. Where is the planning?”
I guess people there forgot that the planning comes in not living in a hurricane zone, or getting the heck out of there when one is coming.

October 26, 2005

Tom DeLay's mug shot is available now.  I'm kinda missing the placard below his face.

I find it rather odd that Garry B. my Yorkton-Melville Conservative MP doesn't seem to care about intellectual property rights issues, yet writes a rant about physical property rights.

Here's another person that agrees with my position that Daylight Saving Time should be tossed to the dogs if not severely modified from its present state of misdirection.

Archives & More & More & More & even older blog available here.