Boy, with all those long winded posts, you were probably worrying about where all the pretty pictures went. They’re back! (For this post, anyway). (more…)

A week or so ago, I found my way to the Webcomic Questionable Content, and it’s really been doing weird things to my funny bone. Thought I’d share.

Meanwhile, you should be reading Alastair Reynolds. Go, now!

Who remembers my classic pissed-off tenant e-mail to my landlord?

I’m not the only one with gripes: check out this post from January of 2005. It’s still getting comments. I think the only thing that surprises me is that Hen-Webb hasn’t offered me a few months of free rent to take it down. (In which case, my answer would’ve been whole-heartedly “YES!” because I’m totally cool with bribes*, but now that I don’t live there anymore? Fuck ‘em).

I’m not going to directly quote the first of the newest comments, left by Jen, but I will quote her second and provide a direct link to the site referenced.

If anyone else happens across this entry and would like to file their complaints online, as tenants, regarding Hendersen-Webb, using the power of social media to hopefully effect consumer change, please check out the site linked to this comment.

The snarky part of me wants to remind Jen that while her problems are in Howard County, the bulk of Henderson-Webb’s properties are in Baltimore County, and maybe the subtitle of the blog should be, instead, “Tenants’ Rights to Fair Treatment in Howard, Anne Arundel & Baltimore Counties, Maryland.”

Hope you get some traffic from this link, Jen. You and Tim have my moral support.

*Especially when I’m the beneficiary of said bribing.

Editorial Note: I originally wrote this as a draft for some reason, and failed to click ‘publish.’ It probably would’ve been more timely several months ago … but whatever. That landlord letter is still fucking classic (albeit, not classy – oh well!)

Wombat‘s wife Shmausen e-mailed me a link (and complete text) of a post from The Volokh Conspiracy on the dangers of trying to earn cashamundo from your blog:

Don’t Sell Ads on Your Blog:

Just a friendly public service reminder, prompted by a brief conversation I had over the weekend: If you (1) make only a little money by selling ads on your blog (or having a tipjar), and (2) you have homeowner’s insurance (or, in some instances, renter’s insurance), and (3) you worry about the possible risk of defamation lawsuits, invasion of privacy lawsuits, and the like — and the expense of defending the lawsuits even if you ultimate prevail — consider going entirely noncommercial.

I highly suggest reading the entire post. You’ll note — if you ever noticed — that the Google Ads and Amazon-search feature have been removed from the blog. I’d rather be safe than sorry.

There’s this antecdote in my wide and varied and (very small) arsenal of antecdotes. I tend to like it, which is why I keep using it. So, when the Germans used to build cars, they didn’t put in radios or cup holders or back massagers or anything that would distract a person’s attention from operating the car. After all, the Germans reasoned, what do you have to do in the car that’s more important than not smashing it into someone else?

Meanwhile, here in America, we’ve always been fond of our driving distractions: listening to the radio while watching a portable TV while eating a sandwich and ripping out our nose hairs while trying to answer the damn cell phone. It’s a wonder our automobile-accident death rate is as low as it is.

There’s a bill in the Maryland Senate to ban hand-held wireless devices while operating a motor vehicle is heading for a vote. Personally, I think it’s very reasonable: at the same time, I don’t think it’s enough.

The problem with driving while holding and talking on, say, a cell phone (as opposed to a bannana) is two-fold: one is that you’re using a hand to hold your cell phone. What if the car in front of you swerves or you need to take emergency evasive action? Face it, you’re not going to have the reaction time or the ability with one hand even if that hand is supplemented by both knees.

I agree whole-heartedly with this excerpt from the linked article above:

Some lawmakers asked why drivers should be banned from using hand-held devices but allowed to use hands-free devices.

The second-half of that fold is that exactly: the problem isn’t holding something while driving, the problem is distracted driving. Even using a hands-free set, a driver talking on his or her cell phone is still distracted: the amount of concentration they’re putting into that phone call is attention away from the road.

There’s an interesting little bit on the Naval Safety Center’s webpage about distracted driving:

Driving instructors estimate that a driver makes 200 decisions for every mile of driving. If you’re mentally solving business or family problems while driving, you’re adding to the total cognitive workload. If you take your eyes off the road for three or four seconds at 55 mph, the car travels the length of a football field. Other factors, such as fatigue, weather and traffic conditions, can make distractions even more potent.

If Maryland’s legislators are serious about traffic safety, they’ll ban the use of cell phones while driving altogether, hands-free or no. If Marylanders are serious about traffic safety, we’ll start pulling over to the side of the road to answer our cell phones, read our maps, reach under the seat for that CD case. In the end, Annapolis can pass laws, but true traffic safety is all about the people you might kill or injure while driving distracted, and the decisions you make to negate that possibility.

I’ve known Maiki for six or seven years: we were both members of the [EGBT] counter-strike clan where we were fans of suicidal-Para runs. Lately, Maiki’s taken over the hosting and webmastering duties for MalnurturedSnay.net, for which I am grateful. Last week, I got a call from him out of the blue: he was coming into DC from California and wanted to know if I was free for a get-together? Well, of course! So, having known him for many many years over the internet, it was about one in the afternoon Saturday on a cold rainy/hot sunny day in Silver Spring when we finally got to meet.

There was a little communication mix-up: he was staying in Bethesda with friends, and I was expecting him to arrive on the Metro. However, Maiki & Co. decided to drive instead. To get out of the rain while I was waiting for them, meanwhile, I’d bought a pass and was waiting on the platform (hence, the lovely photo above). I can’t remember the last time I was on a Metro train, but I’ll just take the opportunity to say that I think living in/near DC would be cool if only for the access to that great mass-transit ability.

Anyway, having met up with Maiki and Nick, Alex, and Kelly, we strolled from the parking garages (we all parked west of 29) east past the Discovery building (Nick is a fellow Astro Empires player, so we discussed that to the amusement of everyone else: “Astro Fuckers!”), to a sort of weird street-blocked off place with a spooky “Avenue at White Marsh” vibe. After some time at Galaxies Billiards (that’s Nick I’m trying to blind with my flash, so as to help Maiki with his game — that’s Kelly on the stool, and Alex is nursing a beer somewhere to my left). After some games played and some beers consumed, we traipsed over to Pho-Hiep Hoa and had us some Vietnamese food. Maiki got a toothpick in his rice, but I’m happy to report my order was clear — as far as I could tell — of foreign substances.

On our way back to the garages (via a stop at some place called Marimekko), we all became aware of a semi-robotic voice saying “HELP WILL BE HERE SHORTLY”* — a guy, in the pouring rain, was leaning against the tall blue “EMERGENCY” call-box, pressing whatever button it is that emits that robotic voice with one hand, while digging through a flower-box with the other. Shoulda taken a photo! I was half expecting the call-box to say, “I get the message fucker, now stop pushing my buttons! More than you already have! Fucker!”

All in all, it was a pretty nice day. It could’ve been nicer — like if Mommy Nature could’ve chosen between “cold and rainy” or “sunny and hot” instead of alternating between the two — but it was a very fun afternoon, and I was glad to meet Maiki and make some new friends.

*Or something similar.

For taking my nice, well-reasoned post from yesterday, and turning it on its head. My ‘irony conclusion’, at any rate (I was really fond of that sentence…) Turns out: the mess (in Florida, at any rate) is all the fault of the Republicans! (And here I’d been, blaming it on the Democrats!)

Interesting about Florida … however, that does not appear to be the case in Michigan, according to this MSNBC article I found:

According to sources inside both parties, the two state parties in Michigan have agreed to move the state’s primary — legislatively — to Jan. 15. This is a compromise date out of respect for Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, who really wanted to move the primary to Jan. 8. Others wanted the primary on Jan. 22 as a way to, essentially, play ball with the other early states. There was a nice window being created for a Jan. 22, 2008 event. But by moving to Jan. 15, this will put pressure on the other early states to either entertain a December event or lobby the two national parties to not sanction Michigan at all.

I’m still a little unclear as to why exactly the DNC decided to strip all of the delegates from both states when they could’ve chosen only to strip half. I wonder if there’s more to the story, or if the DNC just decided on that course of action so that they could claim to be twice as focused on the integrity of the elections than their RNC counterparts. Well, bet they’re all “whoopsing” that decision now over at the DNC: Florida may have been an RNC mess, but they certainly added to it with their questionable delegate decision.

Last but not least: yeah, Lindsay’s easy on the eyes, but it makes a geek’s heart all-a-flutter to see a moon-sized planet-blowing-up battlestation on my laptop’s screen.

The title mocking Bender’s line in “Bender’s Big Score” when he does a power slide across the deck of the Delivery Express building in celebration of Futrama’s return. These great little Lego models make my heart glad (and thinking of the alien bartender signing for his package makes part of me cringe in sympathy with a cartoon character).

HT: David Raynes

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Primary controversy in Michigan and Florida since participating in the comment thread on this post by Epiphany in Baltimore.

If you’ve been paying attention to the Democratic Primary, you probably had the queasy feeling that sooner or later the Democratic National Committee’s decision to not seat the delegates in the Michigan and Florida primaries would come back to bite the party in the rear — and the more closely contested this Primary has been, that outcome is now what everyone is talking about.

Hillary Clinton is demanding that those states’ delegates be seated: well, of course she is — she won those contests. Here’s the hitch, though: all of the Democratic nominees were asked to remove their names from those states’ ballots, and all agreed not to campaign in either states. Florida listed all of the Democratic nominees on their ballots anyway, but in Michigan, John Edwards withdrew. Barack Obama withdrew. Hillary Clinton did not.

I’m in favor of the seating of Michigan’s and Florida’s delegates: with the proviso that the primaries need to be re-held. That seems to be the general consensus, although everyone seems to be asking “How?” Governor Crist of Florida is refusing to use Florida tax-dollars to fund a new Primary, which seems to mean the DNC will have to dig into its pockets: problematic, because when there is a candidate, that’ll be less money available for his or her campaign against John McCain.

Ironically, Florida and Michigan moved their primaries up so that they could have a ‘say’ in the primary process, which has usually been resolved by the point their voters … vote. The Democrats behind these moves knew that they’d be in trouble with the DNC, they knew that they might forfeit their delegates, and they considered it a reasonable trade-off in a Primary in which everybody thought Hillary Clinton had the nomination wrapped up and would cease to be competitive after Super Tuesday. Ironic: a move that was intended to give voters an important voice in the process wound up costing them exactly that.

UDPATE:

In my in-box:

Hi.

I’m working over at MobLogic, and we have a show tomorrow about the Florida delegate mess. I’ve loved reading your stuff on the subject, but we think there’s something new to be said here. Check it out tomorrow on the site, or email me for the embed code.

You might find it interesting, you might think it’s bullshit, but let us know. Your opinion means a lot to us.

Thanks!
Amanda Elend

I can’t quite figure out if this is a genuine e-mail or a mass-copy sent to every blog that’s popped up after a search for “Florida delegate mess”, but Lindsay Campbell‘s cute, so I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

The Death Penalty. Abolish it. That’s the choice that faced Maryland lawmakers today … but they opted to do other important stuff, according to the Examiner: like surfing the internet. Here’s why I think the death penalty should be abolished:

3. It costs more money to put someone to death than it does to keep them alive in prison on a life-without-parole prison sentence. This shouldn’t be a financial issue, but, well, there it is.

2. It’s punishing on the families of the victims: how many times should they have to go through a trial? I know the counter-argument: we could reduce the appeals process. Really? Because death is pretty final. At least Walter Lomax got to walk out of jail forty years after his questionable conviction. Kind of hard to release a corpse if you have made a mistake.

And last — or, um, first since this is in reverse order — but not by any means least:

1. It doesn’t serve as a deterrent.

On a last, emotional note … death is an escape. Given the choice between spending the next sixty or seventy years in a tiny concrete cell or dying, hell, I’ll take the easy way every day: give me the damn chair! And I don’t for a second believe the talk about how prisoners have it so easy. If people really believed that prisons were luxury resorts they weren’t allowed to leave, they’d be committing crimes in droves. If there’s a choice between life in prison or death, I’d take death: and that’s why people convicted of heinous crimes that would otherwise earn them death should be forced to live the entirety of their natural lives in captivity.

In my e-mail box, from ACW:

I just thought of something… wouldn’t this post of Snay’s, particularly the last line, predate LOLcat speak? If so, is he some sort of prophet that can channel bizarre internet memes of the future, but only when he’s drunk? It is from 10/23/2005 and I think that’s well before LOLcats. Am I wrong?

All I have to say to that is:

Fuk uze intrntz, wherez my royalteez?

UPDATE:

(Many mucho thanks to Common Wombat for the first LOLZCATZ, and adding the text to the second — that’s my kitties!)

$1,051.

That’s a hefty chunk of change for a recent college grad like me. That’s my rent and utilities for a month. That’s a quarter of my yearly car payment. That’s enough Kraft Macaroni & Cheese to, well, make me seriously consider the possibility of offing myself before eating another bowl of that orange-cheese paste.

That’s also what the nation’s traffic accidents are costing me per year, according to a study by AAA, and conducted by Maryland-based Cambridge Systematics Inc. From The Jay-Zee:

To calculate the crash costs, researchers took into account factors such as property damage, lost earnings, medical costs, emergency services, legal costs and travel delays.

The nation’s largest cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, face billions of dollars in costs each year from car accidents. In the New York metropolitan area, they cost the region $18 billion a year, or about $962 per person, while they cost Los Angeles more than $10 billion a year, or $817 per person.

Robert L. Darbelnet, AAA’s president and chief executive, noted that nearly 43,000 people die each year on the nation’s roadways but that “the annual tally of motor vehicle-related fatalities barely registers as a blip in most people’s minds.”

“It’s time for motor vehicle crashes to be viewed as the public health threat they are,” Darbelnet said.

To address the high costs, AAA recommended that lawmakers make safety more of a priority in their transportation planning and pursue measures such as stiffer laws on drunken and impaired driving. The organization also recommended that all states pass primary enforcement seat belt laws, which allow law enforcement officers to stop motorists if their only offense is failing to buckle up.

From my own experiences, I think it’s rather safe to say that Maryland drivers could do with a hefty dose of common sense traffic enforcement. Several years ago, a cop friend told me, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Everyone drives like an angel when they see a police cruiser.” Indeed. I don’t know if you and I are getting the same message from this statement, but it tells me that everyone knows how to safely operate a vehicle. In the absence of visible enforcement, however, we simply choose to speed, dash through red-lights, roll through stop signs, disregard the right of way, and place not only own but the well-being of our fellow citizens in harm’s way.

I think correcting Maryland’s obnoxious driver problem won’t be resolved simply by putting up traffic light cameras or sticking a marked police cruiser on every corner. It’s fine to say that we need to make safety more of a priority, but this problem won’t be resolved by ticketing and fining: there has to be a solution that encourages people to not drive like a reckless fool. I call it “Snay’s Common Sense Traffic Enforcement.” It comes in four somewhat-easy-to-read bullet points:

1. Increased visible and rotating traffic enforcement.

Run radar on the major roads and on neighborhood roads. Utilize unmarked vehicles. Get creative, and get visible! Don’t speed trap the same places everyday: rotate it.

2. Cars are for driving.

Distracted Driving is dangerous driving. No cell-phones. No texting. No bowl of cereal propped in your lap while you’re shaving with your left hand, holding your coffee with your right, and steering with your knees. I’d call this behavior Reckless Endangerment — and it needs to be enforced that way.

3. Get ‘em Young.

Since I think it’s important to encourage good driving skills early (can’t teach an old driver new tricks, and all), a marked increase in severity for new (probationary) drivers. First ticket? Court appearance, safe driving classes, and PBJ. Second ticket? Probationary license suspended, safe driving classes. Third ticket? License revoked until that driver’s 18th birthday.

4. No Fines! Yes Court!

Exactly as it sounds. Fines? We don’t need no stinkin’ fines! (I’m sure Maryland’s politicians would disagree with me.) But all tickets would require the violator to appear in Circuit Court.

Maryland already has Probation Before Judgement, allowing the ticket to be dismissed from a person’s record after its successful completion (i.e.: no moving violations). PBJ is a wonderful deterrent: a way for the driver him or herself to determine whether or not the points from that ticket make their way to their insurance company. All they have to do is drive safe.

Why won’t my grand plan happen? Because no fines would probably be a fairly serious blow to the state’s and the counties’ coffers. So we’re as it’s always been – two hands on the wheel, keep your eyes open, and good luck: we’re all going to need it when we’re on the road with each other. (Watch out for deer, too.)

Isn’t March supposed to come in like a lion or something?

I mean, I’d heard it was supposed to snow yesterday, but of course, it didn’t: tomorrow’s supposed to be sixty-three degrees. Almost time to break out the shorts and figure out what I did with the sunscreen (not to mention time to start wishing I had a Wrangler again).

Also,I love this political ad from the 60s:

Love Massey’s closing line.