Thursday, October 14, 2004
reference to omega post
just a pointer to a short post not in my main blog stream: things omega 14. if you care to look, fine, but it's more for my own use.
general politival commentary
i'm trying to avoid getting pulled into the election stuff, i want to keep some objectivity. which is an interesting thing to have to consciously do. normally elections slide right by me unnoticed. it was hard to avoid the 2000 one, of course, but that was more of an after-the-fact thing. this one is different. strange thing to see that many people so evenly split. does that indicate randomness ? also strange - and disappointing - to see all that irrationality from all sides.
admittedly, i have my own preference as well between the two major candidates. but neither of them is my first choice. how often has there even been a “first choice“ for people ? and i don't mean one that they were brainwashed into. it's the old political saw of the “lesser of two evils“, but that's so overworn and cynical as to be a rather useless third position, one more numerous than those voting independently.
we need a better mechanism for coming up with viable candidates. and this is actually rather achievable. but it would be a drastic revision to today's system, in reality or perception. it seems we are too entrenched in more fundamental and invisible problems to achieve useful progress. meanwhile we nitpick about lesser issues. i mean, really, does it matter what president we have ? and should it ? i mean from a practical perspective. this country has so much baggage that choice of bellboy is irrelevant.
recent "what's happening"
no, that's not a perspective problem, that's one big ass beer..
updates from the last week:
- got broadband one week ago today. cool. of course, larger pipes suck more time. i didn't figure on that effect. or did i ? i avoid tech things because i know i can't put 'em down.
- anyway, i put a new server online, accessible from the net. nothing there yet but a mirror of my main site, and some playing with windows media server (a live video feed - of my chair). i'm not posting a link since i don't have a permanent url yet, and also since i'm also not certain what i'm going to publish there.
- i keep looking at replacing the jeep tailgate, which i need to do to get my hardtop on, which i need to do to get the boat in the garage, which i need to do so i can work on it this winter. but it looks like replacing the tailgate will be costly one way or the other. the best bet is just to keep it bumped out, but it tends to bend back when used. arghh...
- fixed bunches of boat stuff, including making the trailer legal. but as for the boat, the dnr officer wasn't pleased that i had no paper trail of ownership. still waiting on that.
- hiked over at cincinnati nature center on a warm sunny fall day. it's been some years, and there are improvements, and other things being left in disrepair. c'est la ...
steve's note on volvo vs. jeep
a recent humorous anecdote:
While out for lunch, running an errand one day, I was pondering the thought of what it really would take to destroy a Volvo. To be more specific, _MY_ Volvo. I quite often find myself looking around at all the cars on the road, contemplating which ones would really stand up in an accident, and which ones would be totally obliterated.
So there I was, driving down Reed-Hartman in Blue Ash, at high noon (Clint Eastwood sound effect), and it occurred to me in an instant... the ultimate scenario that would allow me to study the results of an impact involving my Volvo and another vehicle. I decided to pick the first Jeep, preferably in motion, and run my Volvo headfirst into it.
Sure enough, I found a willing, yet unsuspecting, victim coming out of the Wendy's parking lot in a Navy blue Jeep Wrangler. By the time he realized his mistake (pulling out in front of me), it was too late and I had hit him dead-on in the driver's side of his Jeep. Apparently those galloping Swedish horse(s) had suprised him. It was an enjoyable impact that smashed my front grill, a corner light, and sent the bumper cover flying onto the ground... a nice effect. Since I had not attempted to use them, there was no damage to the brakes on my car. The Jeep however, probably had major frame damage... I'm not sure if it was driveable.
The only problem with this scenario was as follows:
There happened to be two of Blue Ash's finest officers that were at the scene and saw the entire accident. Since they had just monitored my velocity with a radar, they could and did attest to the fact that I was indeed under the speed limit. The other unfortunate issue that they brought up was that there was no traffic light or stop sign along the path that my vehicle had taken southbound on Reed-Hartmann prior to the impact. So what this meant was that the driver of the Jeep that I had hit was entirely responsible (at fault in legal terms) and was issued a citation.
So, to make a long story a little longer, yesterday the insurance adjuster showed up. I've been driving my Volvo for two weeks now and have not noticed any abnormalities to it's ride or handling. I had also done a preliminary estimate of the parts that it would take to fix the minor cosmetic defects caused by the accident. It looks like for under $100 I can purchase the corner light and grill that I need. That is, if I don't find them on our other spare Volvo that Hana had previously (gently) set aside as a parts car(read: totalled it). The adjuster gave me a rental car for a week and cut me a check for $1731.43. I'm not sure how I would spend all that on the Volvo, so, I guess I will have to put it into my Ferrari fund for future automotive needs.
So Lenny, how's your BMW doing? Feel like playing chicken with a Volvo?
Steve