I saw this article about bicycles needing to stay out of the road on statenews.com a while ago. I’m pretty sure it came through bikeportland. I skimmed it, tagged it as another righteous idiot, and moved on. A thread showed up on point83 today and I went back. I get it, it’s a college paper, and this likely to be full of “Fuck yeah!” yelling asshats whose entitlement filled youth is now empowered by the impression that they’re college education makes their opinions informative. All the same, this isn’t Shelly The Republican, this is “college news”.

I’m frustrated by new specific laws popping up, it’s contrary to my pro-liberty beliefs. No cell phones while driving, no texting while driving. That Zack argues that killing someone wouldn’t be his fault because he was busy texting, thus not paying attention and they were in his way underscores the lack of personal responsibility that’s taken hold in so many. This only creates a larger movement for more of these irrelevant laws. “He wouldn’t have died if texting while driving was illegal”. Sure, but isn’t being a fucktard called reckless endangerment or something these days? Vehicular manslaughter?

I enjoy the argument that goes, “My concern is not merely about inconvenience. [there was a bicyclist in my way, so I did something unsafe to avoid being inconvenienced by their speed, thus creating an unsafe situation, and it was totally their fault. Man.]”

But roads are for cars, not bicyclists.

Bicycles traditionally have a right to the road. Sidewalks (with the exception of Multi-Use Paths) are rarely designed with bicycle traffic in mind, and often unsafe for bicycle operation. Just last night I was complaining about the overwhelming tendency of people (particularly in college debate) to make arguments and statements based on magic fairy dust. I’m willing to bet this is borne from, “I’ve always driven my car on the road, and I see cars on the road, theretofore, that’s what roads are for.” with absolutely no consideration put into actual transportation design.

I get it, bicyclists — you’re in the Tour de France.

I get it, driver – you’re in a Nascar race. That totally fucking explains the spoiler on the back of your sedan.

And the capstone argument? Most of the drivers on campus speed, so bicyclists are creating a dangerous situation.

Right, not merely about inconvenience. Shut the fuck up and get off the internet.

edit to add: Great mockery, Zack’s website.
“Major: International Relations and Journalism”.

Tomorrow night I start pre-calculus I at Seattle Central. When was the last time I took a college class? The failed attempt at business classes at University of Maine at Augusta over the television at the Ellsworth extension I bet. When I took the Compass test at SCCC, it placed me into Pre-calc II. That didn’t make any sense at all, having dropped out of Algebra II two or three times in my life. Not that class specifically, but whatever school I happened to be going to at the time. The first time was recognizing that high school and the paths it lead to simply weren’t making me happy, or going to. Then at UMA, where else? I’m pretty sure Physics was the only class I took at EMTC (before it was EMCC) in preparation for the Computer Networking program that I bailed on when I saw the syllabus and realized the last quarter of the last year would touch on what I was learning myself that summer.

But back to school I go all the same; for some math and computer science in the hopes that if I do see something that looks like it might be more interesting that the conversations I have with my colleagues and the resulting projects, I won’t have to worry about prerequisites.

And so I’ve been working through an Algebra book, recalling work I did a decade ago. Time allowing, I’ve got another Algebra book to work through after to fill in whatever holes were formed when I wasn’t paying attention because life suddenly seemed so much more important than school. Along with some Pre-calc. We’ll see.

I do most of my work at the dining room table, listening to some music. There’s the least distraction here, than downstairs or my room. I went to my room to get my laptop, because looking at the photographs I have in this room… made me need to shape some feelings into letters.

Most of the pictures I have in this room are of adventures. Most were ones I was on: motorcycling on the olympic peninsula, weekend trip to SF, Big Bend in Texas, the cascades, Yellowstone, the arboretum, the puget sound. Plus a couple of my parents, building the camp at Lunkasoos, reminding me of two people I never met until years later when they were different people.

A huge part of me is suddenly, and surprisingly, ready to leave Seattle. I’m juggling far too much to do it at the moment. Lawyers, debts, projects, all need finishing up. Where to? Out there! Life! Adventure!

An unusual or exciting experience

Because.

Some time ago I saw this yellow card magnet from Aerostich and I thought about making something for bicycling. I tried to contact some seattle bicycle advocacy people about the idea on myspace, but never heard back, so eventually I did it.

The other day I was reading some bicycling related articles on the Internet and found this one at crosscut about Peter Miller’s Yellow Cards. Peter writes about the origins of the idea,

… Aerostich copied them from my site after seeing them in the news, probably from the crosscut article. So the same steps happened, but in a different order. I think what you’re doing looks really really great. As you can see in my site, I originally posted the idea as an open-source contribution to the cycling community, so I am glad to see it expanding outwards.

I used to ride with Boston Critical Mass and came up with the Yellow Card in Chicago after a fatal accident occurred in front of my house (a bus killed a father of three). I really don’t like that Aerostich is charging a buck a piece for them (breaking creative commons liscence), but my desire to make it open source is a desire to encourage growth. It’s how market’s operate. Even after posting instructions on how to make them, I’ve gotten frequent requests to sell them. So I am really amped that you are choosing to give them out. That’s what I’ve been doing the whole time.

…

Lastly, you may find this totally pictographic iteration funny:
http://sooper-genius.blogspot.com/2006/12/this-is-bicycle-yellow-card-dont-let.html

It’s really exciting to know this started with bicycling, and that there’s momentum behind it.

Old Hispanic Guy: “So I heard you’re the big boss now.”
Old White Guy: “No, I thought you were.”
OHG: “I was going to be, but they didn’t want a Mexican in charge.”
OWG: “Come on, this is the United States of America.”
OHG: “This was the United States of America.”

I love the service elevator. I think blue collar people tend be more cynical and have more of a tendency towards sarcasm, while white collar folks think that’s all unprofessional and rude.

Which is why I’ll never be successful.