Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Driving pet peeves, part two...
As I've posted before, I do a fair amount of driving in my daily life. Mostly freeway driving, but still, a fair amount. Because of all that driving, I have the opportunity to see all types of drivers, vehicles, pedestrians, and road conditions. And, as I stated in my first posting about driving pet peeves, this is my blog and if someone reading this has a problem with what I'm writing, get your own blog.
I want to start with potholes. They are a fact of life in Wisconsin, and I give credit to the crews that work hard to keep them filled in. However, the City of Milwaukee seems to excel at not filling them in. And, they waste money on senseless projects that could easily be forgotten and use that money instead to build the roads back up to level. Two weeks ago as I was driving west on Capitol drive, lanes were closed off for what I at first thought was road repair, but was for island clean-out. A crew of five people were doing flower bed maintenance. Raking, cutting dead plants down, mulching, etc. Meanwhile, I bounced out of a pot hole so big that my car bottom scraped the edge of the hole. Why is that crew not FILLING IN THE POT HOLES? I don't give a rodent's buttocks about the island flower beds. As far as I'm concerned, pave the stupid islands over and FIX THE POT HOLES! How much money is wasted on employees, equipments, supplies, water, and electricity for something that no one really cares about? When was the last time you even THOUGHT about the flowers in the island dividers? And, there were three teams fixing these islands along the way of my drive back to interstate 43. What a colossal waste of taxpayer money.
My next gripe is with motorcyclists and bicyclists. This time of year brings warnings from every media outlet that (usually "cage" or four wheelers) drivers should be on the look-out for these individuals. I come back to the same thought every single time. Shouldn't EVERY driver, no matter the vehicle, be on the look-out for things they could hit? As with everything that relates to humans in life, there is a broad range of good to bad. But, for some reason, we are expected to accept that ANYONE who rides a two-wheeler as the PERFECT embodiment of road safety and perfection. That somehow the cyclist is NEVER at fault, and that they can do no wrong. That this romanticized notion of the cyclist is somehow above the law. Two years ago as I was driving to work in the summer, there was a traffic jam on south 43 that had both lanes of traffic stopped. As I waited for the traffic to start moving again, I heard a motorcycle moving. And sure enough, I looked in my driver's side mirror and lo and behold here is Mr. I-can-do-no-wrong motorcyclist driving BETWEEN the two lanes of cars. Right on the dotted line. I have seen this several times since then, and it absolutely infuriates me because all that needs to happen is for someone to decide they are going to switch lanes and butt their car out and Mr. Motorcyclist is history and the car driver is at fault.
I have also observed on several occasions young kids on sport bikes going incredible speeds on the freeways. They weave in and out of traffic and have absolutely no regard for traffic laws, safety, or anyone's lives, including their own. And what makes it really exciting is when a car driver makes a lane switch and because these cycle-jerks are going so fast ends up accidentally cutting one of them off. And yet, it's the "cage" drivers who are expected to be the only ones responsible for road safety.
I work across the street from UW-Milwaukee, and this last Tuesday when I was making a right turn onto Oakland ave, a bicyclist came rolling along on my LEFT side, cut in-between me and the driver in front of me, scooted along the curb and then crossed the street in the crosswalk while riding his bike. Traffic was stopped for the red light, but when the bike person cut in front of my car, I had just tapped the accelerator to start moving forward before making my right turn as the light had just turned green. I blared the horn at him, but all he did was turn and smile and wave at me. I really want to know when in our society the rules stopped being applied to everyone? As a side note, I'm really tired of pedestrians taking advantage of the crosswalk rules. While I was trying to avoid bike boy, there was a group of kids who were jumping back and forth between the cross walk and the curb. What this effectively did was make the drivers who were going straight slam on their brakes and the ones who were trying to turn right, not. And these are the kids who will be running the country in a few years. The best they can do is play "red-light, green-light" with traffic? They would jump back to the curb, laugh, and when the cars started moving again, jump into the crosswalk and make the cars stop. Infuriated doesn't even begin to describe my level of road rage at that point. It took me two light cycles to get through that intersection. I was already late for my class as I was leaving work late to drive to school, yet these yahoos had the law on their side and knew that the car drivers couldn't do anything about them being in the crosswalk. Once they did start to cross the street, they STOPPED half-way through the intersection to tear-around and have a chat. Just stood there laughing. Future leaders of America....
My last peeve of this blog is parking lots. Why do the traffic rules not apply in parking lots? Drivers that cut across the lanes, parking areas, and cut other drivers off so they can get ahead by one second are never in short supply. A parking lot is not a free for all! Rules still apply there. And, put your carts in the cart returns or I'll send my husband after you....
I want to start with potholes. They are a fact of life in Wisconsin, and I give credit to the crews that work hard to keep them filled in. However, the City of Milwaukee seems to excel at not filling them in. And, they waste money on senseless projects that could easily be forgotten and use that money instead to build the roads back up to level. Two weeks ago as I was driving west on Capitol drive, lanes were closed off for what I at first thought was road repair, but was for island clean-out. A crew of five people were doing flower bed maintenance. Raking, cutting dead plants down, mulching, etc. Meanwhile, I bounced out of a pot hole so big that my car bottom scraped the edge of the hole. Why is that crew not FILLING IN THE POT HOLES? I don't give a rodent's buttocks about the island flower beds. As far as I'm concerned, pave the stupid islands over and FIX THE POT HOLES! How much money is wasted on employees, equipments, supplies, water, and electricity for something that no one really cares about? When was the last time you even THOUGHT about the flowers in the island dividers? And, there were three teams fixing these islands along the way of my drive back to interstate 43. What a colossal waste of taxpayer money.
My next gripe is with motorcyclists and bicyclists. This time of year brings warnings from every media outlet that (usually "cage" or four wheelers) drivers should be on the look-out for these individuals. I come back to the same thought every single time. Shouldn't EVERY driver, no matter the vehicle, be on the look-out for things they could hit? As with everything that relates to humans in life, there is a broad range of good to bad. But, for some reason, we are expected to accept that ANYONE who rides a two-wheeler as the PERFECT embodiment of road safety and perfection. That somehow the cyclist is NEVER at fault, and that they can do no wrong. That this romanticized notion of the cyclist is somehow above the law. Two years ago as I was driving to work in the summer, there was a traffic jam on south 43 that had both lanes of traffic stopped. As I waited for the traffic to start moving again, I heard a motorcycle moving. And sure enough, I looked in my driver's side mirror and lo and behold here is Mr. I-can-do-no-wrong motorcyclist driving BETWEEN the two lanes of cars. Right on the dotted line. I have seen this several times since then, and it absolutely infuriates me because all that needs to happen is for someone to decide they are going to switch lanes and butt their car out and Mr. Motorcyclist is history and the car driver is at fault.
I have also observed on several occasions young kids on sport bikes going incredible speeds on the freeways. They weave in and out of traffic and have absolutely no regard for traffic laws, safety, or anyone's lives, including their own. And what makes it really exciting is when a car driver makes a lane switch and because these cycle-jerks are going so fast ends up accidentally cutting one of them off. And yet, it's the "cage" drivers who are expected to be the only ones responsible for road safety.
I work across the street from UW-Milwaukee, and this last Tuesday when I was making a right turn onto Oakland ave, a bicyclist came rolling along on my LEFT side, cut in-between me and the driver in front of me, scooted along the curb and then crossed the street in the crosswalk while riding his bike. Traffic was stopped for the red light, but when the bike person cut in front of my car, I had just tapped the accelerator to start moving forward before making my right turn as the light had just turned green. I blared the horn at him, but all he did was turn and smile and wave at me. I really want to know when in our society the rules stopped being applied to everyone? As a side note, I'm really tired of pedestrians taking advantage of the crosswalk rules. While I was trying to avoid bike boy, there was a group of kids who were jumping back and forth between the cross walk and the curb. What this effectively did was make the drivers who were going straight slam on their brakes and the ones who were trying to turn right, not. And these are the kids who will be running the country in a few years. The best they can do is play "red-light, green-light" with traffic? They would jump back to the curb, laugh, and when the cars started moving again, jump into the crosswalk and make the cars stop. Infuriated doesn't even begin to describe my level of road rage at that point. It took me two light cycles to get through that intersection. I was already late for my class as I was leaving work late to drive to school, yet these yahoos had the law on their side and knew that the car drivers couldn't do anything about them being in the crosswalk. Once they did start to cross the street, they STOPPED half-way through the intersection to tear-around and have a chat. Just stood there laughing. Future leaders of America....
My last peeve of this blog is parking lots. Why do the traffic rules not apply in parking lots? Drivers that cut across the lanes, parking areas, and cut other drivers off so they can get ahead by one second are never in short supply. A parking lot is not a free for all! Rules still apply there. And, put your carts in the cart returns or I'll send my husband after you....
Saturday, April 11, 2009
I joined Facebook several weeks ago, and I have 12 friends now. I'm not sure how I feel about Facebook and the whole exposing every detail of my life, but it is kind of fun. I keep finding people who are on there that I know, and how the typical reaction goes:
Friend or Me: "Wow! You're on Facebook? Will you be my friend?" (Shades of Mr. Rogers there..) As if you are not friends before, you some how have to prove you have friends.
And then the general ensuing of hand expressions and disbelief that either one of us is on Facebook. I was sucked into it from Natalie, who had sent out invites to me a couple of times. I finally gave in to curiosity and joined. I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. It is fun, and I find myself wasting more than a few minutes on it sometimes. It's also fun to see the different sides of people you think you know. This got me thinking to how we choose to present our public selves to the world around us and how the shield of Facebook sometimes makes it a little too easy to reveal ourselves. And, to be fair, Facebook is not any different from any other blog or personal webpage on the internet. It's the safety of being able to post something on the web, and not having to "face" the other person or persons reading or, in the case of my blog, not reading what you've just laid out for the world to examine. Forever. I find it ironic that people will cry foul and bemoan the loss of privacy one minute and then post something on the web the next. Of course, you choose the information you want out there, but sometimes people can't, won't, or don't know that they should filter ideas before posting.
Several weeks ago, there were stories on the local newscasts about teenagers using their mobile devices and computers to do something called "sexting". Sending explicit messages or pictures of themselves to other people they may or may not know. The story had warnings about not doing this, and telling parents they need to have a talk with their teens about why this isn't a good idea. Now, I realize that when I was a teen, cells were probably only being used by the military, were 100lbs, and cost a small fortune, but it never occured to me or my friends to exchange explicit messages or pictures of ourselves with each other or people we didn't know. Seems like a no-brainer when you take the electronic aspect out of it. The personal interaction required to do so stops you in your tracks. I guess the absence of digital photography and mobile devices probably helped with that , but my point is, just because we have the technology now doesn't mean that some things in life should change. It is (or should be) understood that you just don't do certain things. My parents never had to say to me that you shouldn't send these messages and images to other people.
I'm not a parent, but I have a hard time imagining myself saying to my teens, "you know you aren't supposed to send naked pictures of yourself to friends and strangers, right? You probably shouldn't post them on your webpage and Facebook pages either, right?" Isn't this a foregone conclusion? Why do the digital devices used for such purposes allow someone to drop all sense of inhibition? Or, in a not so extreme example, let people post things they would never say to another face to face? Just because someone may never meet the person they are commenting on in the real world, doesn't mean they should call them vile names or be hurtful. I stay away from chat groups and forums, but my husband has several for HD and home theater that he participates in. The moderators don't always remove posts quickly, and I'm often surprised at the venom exchanged between posters. What are the chances they would act like that if they had the person right in front of them?
While I still have fun with Facebook, and love to find new friends, I can't help but feel it is a bit "stalkerish" when they want me to divulge my address book under the pretense of finding more friends for me. Or that I should just start putting in names of people I know and see if they turn up. If they wanted to be friends with me, or have contact with me, wouldn't they just contact me? I won't be allowing access to my address book, as I just don't think it is any of Facebook's business knowing who all of my contacts are. But, I'm guessing there are a lot of people who don't think twice about that.
So, if you want to be my friend, look me up. Or just talk to me. Either way, you'll get the same person whether in real life or cyberlife.
P.S. On a completely unrelated note, what happened to the term cyber-space?
Friend or Me: "Wow! You're on Facebook? Will you be my friend?" (Shades of Mr. Rogers there..) As if you are not friends before, you some how have to prove you have friends.
And then the general ensuing of hand expressions and disbelief that either one of us is on Facebook. I was sucked into it from Natalie, who had sent out invites to me a couple of times. I finally gave in to curiosity and joined. I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. It is fun, and I find myself wasting more than a few minutes on it sometimes. It's also fun to see the different sides of people you think you know. This got me thinking to how we choose to present our public selves to the world around us and how the shield of Facebook sometimes makes it a little too easy to reveal ourselves. And, to be fair, Facebook is not any different from any other blog or personal webpage on the internet. It's the safety of being able to post something on the web, and not having to "face" the other person or persons reading or, in the case of my blog, not reading what you've just laid out for the world to examine. Forever. I find it ironic that people will cry foul and bemoan the loss of privacy one minute and then post something on the web the next. Of course, you choose the information you want out there, but sometimes people can't, won't, or don't know that they should filter ideas before posting.
Several weeks ago, there were stories on the local newscasts about teenagers using their mobile devices and computers to do something called "sexting". Sending explicit messages or pictures of themselves to other people they may or may not know. The story had warnings about not doing this, and telling parents they need to have a talk with their teens about why this isn't a good idea. Now, I realize that when I was a teen, cells were probably only being used by the military, were 100lbs, and cost a small fortune, but it never occured to me or my friends to exchange explicit messages or pictures of ourselves with each other or people we didn't know. Seems like a no-brainer when you take the electronic aspect out of it. The personal interaction required to do so stops you in your tracks. I guess the absence of digital photography and mobile devices probably helped with that , but my point is, just because we have the technology now doesn't mean that some things in life should change. It is (or should be) understood that you just don't do certain things. My parents never had to say to me that you shouldn't send these messages and images to other people.
I'm not a parent, but I have a hard time imagining myself saying to my teens, "you know you aren't supposed to send naked pictures of yourself to friends and strangers, right? You probably shouldn't post them on your webpage and Facebook pages either, right?" Isn't this a foregone conclusion? Why do the digital devices used for such purposes allow someone to drop all sense of inhibition? Or, in a not so extreme example, let people post things they would never say to another face to face? Just because someone may never meet the person they are commenting on in the real world, doesn't mean they should call them vile names or be hurtful. I stay away from chat groups and forums, but my husband has several for HD and home theater that he participates in. The moderators don't always remove posts quickly, and I'm often surprised at the venom exchanged between posters. What are the chances they would act like that if they had the person right in front of them?
While I still have fun with Facebook, and love to find new friends, I can't help but feel it is a bit "stalkerish" when they want me to divulge my address book under the pretense of finding more friends for me. Or that I should just start putting in names of people I know and see if they turn up. If they wanted to be friends with me, or have contact with me, wouldn't they just contact me? I won't be allowing access to my address book, as I just don't think it is any of Facebook's business knowing who all of my contacts are. But, I'm guessing there are a lot of people who don't think twice about that.
So, if you want to be my friend, look me up. Or just talk to me. Either way, you'll get the same person whether in real life or cyberlife.
P.S. On a completely unrelated note, what happened to the term cyber-space?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)