As an early April's Fool gag, NBC has put together some comical "The More You Know" public service announcements starring the cast of the fantastic sitcom, The Office. Even better, they are all in character which I think is a great meta joke about how the series is premised as a documentary. They are beautifully faux serious and range from self-important to completely casual to very ernest about the mundane. Its a great send-up of the "The More You Know" spots and well worth a viewing.
So, go watch them.
Yeah, that's all I've got.
3.31.2006
2.26.2006
For all the numismatists in the house
Since I accidentally knocked over the used film container holding them, I had an opportunity to take account of my 50-State Quarters collection. Something I do with feverish anticipation about once every 18 months or so.
See, the program was supposed to inspire a new era of coin collecting, and it kind of did. But only kind of. Mostly, it just inspired a lot of people like me who kinda wanted a full collection, but we're really that invested into doing much for it. So after a couple years of being on the look-out for new quarters, I know think of it every once and a while and scramble to locate quarters I know I once had but don't seem to have right now. Usually, this coincides with whenever I decide to roll my extra quarters because frankly I don't really care that much.
I appear to be missing Arkansas, Minnesota, and Kansas. I know I had Arkansas and Minnesota at some point, but I apparently never bothered to set one aside. I'm actually also missing Florida, but I'm pretty sure I have that at work after doing this about a year ago and going through a friends coins at work. Never bothered to bring it home, though.
Part of the problem is that, well, the designs kinda suck. They are either horribly boring nature scenes (Like Oregon and West Virginia) or insanely busy as they cram far too much into the quarter. (Like Arkansas, Florida, and South Carolina)
I know the purpose of the program is to offer local color to the quarters, so I'll excuse Vermont's need to enshrine maple syrup production or but some of them are still kinda weird. Like Alabama honoring Helen Keller. Hey, I don't have a problem with her, but is she really all Alabama has? Well, maybe. Ditto Delaware championing of and Iowa putting a freakin' school house on a quarter seem pretty weak.
Also entertaining are the similiarities in the various states. Kansas for instance went with a buffalo for their design. A dumb idea given the buffalo's association with the nickel, but there you are. It really sucked for the good state of North Dakota though, as their design also incorporates the buffalo. One assumes out of spite for Kansas getting there first, though, ND slipped in 2 buffalo. Ohio is also a total design whore as they swiped elements from TWO other states that had a better claim on them. Rather than celebrate anything from Ohio, they opted to celebrate people born in Ohio who did important things elsewhere. Namely, the Wright Brothers first flight in North Carolina and Florida's part in the space program.
Some of the best designs were early designs. Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania all had nice, simple designs that did their job. And kudos to New Jersey for honoring a genuinely important historical event with the crossing of the Delaware.
Two designs, though, stand out as the best to date. Texas is my favorite by far. It takes the elements of MA, NY, and PA (state outline with little added) and refines it. Where the other states all included a human form on their design, which while understandable isn't very strong visually in the small size, Texas went with a simple Texas lone-star. Its a very strong visual, augmented well with a lariat design around the sides. This is easily my favorite design to date. The runner-up for me is my home state of Connecticut. While the Charter Oak ran the risk of being too local for anyone to care, it was very well suited for the Quarter. It makes for a nice, clean visual that still has tons of detail and interest. It only loses points because the story of the Charter Oak is a bit too distant (predating the Revolution by almost 100 years) even though the whole story is pretty fun. The lights going out and something turning up missing is such a cliche, its actually quite gratifying to know it did once happen with something quite important.
The worst design, though, goes to the darn fools of New Hampshire who saw fit to honor a natural landmark, the Old Man in the Mountain. Fair enough. Even if a rock formation that sorta looked like a person in profile didn't seem really important, plenty of others followed suit with nature scenes with less dynamic results. The real problem, though, is that rock formation was known at the time to be unstable. Indeed, they'd known this for about 100 years. Over that 100 years, they repeatedly tried to prevent its impending demise, patching cracks and adding support. Yet, they saw fit to use such a precarious visual as their lasting State Quarter symbol. In less than 3 years after the quarter was released, the rock formation completely collpased. Not quite the symbol of a state's permianance that I'd see fit for a Quarter, but there you are.
See, the program was supposed to inspire a new era of coin collecting, and it kind of did. But only kind of. Mostly, it just inspired a lot of people like me who kinda wanted a full collection, but we're really that invested into doing much for it. So after a couple years of being on the look-out for new quarters, I know think of it every once and a while and scramble to locate quarters I know I once had but don't seem to have right now. Usually, this coincides with whenever I decide to roll my extra quarters because frankly I don't really care that much.
I appear to be missing Arkansas, Minnesota, and Kansas. I know I had Arkansas and Minnesota at some point, but I apparently never bothered to set one aside. I'm actually also missing Florida, but I'm pretty sure I have that at work after doing this about a year ago and going through a friends coins at work. Never bothered to bring it home, though.
Part of the problem is that, well, the designs kinda suck. They are either horribly boring nature scenes (Like Oregon and West Virginia) or insanely busy as they cram far too much into the quarter. (Like Arkansas, Florida, and South Carolina)
I know the purpose of the program is to offer local color to the quarters, so I'll excuse Vermont's need to enshrine maple syrup production or but some of them are still kinda weird. Like Alabama honoring Helen Keller. Hey, I don't have a problem with her, but is she really all Alabama has? Well, maybe. Ditto Delaware championing of and Iowa putting a freakin' school house on a quarter seem pretty weak.
Also entertaining are the similiarities in the various states. Kansas for instance went with a buffalo for their design. A dumb idea given the buffalo's association with the nickel, but there you are. It really sucked for the good state of North Dakota though, as their design also incorporates the buffalo. One assumes out of spite for Kansas getting there first, though, ND slipped in 2 buffalo. Ohio is also a total design whore as they swiped elements from TWO other states that had a better claim on them. Rather than celebrate anything from Ohio, they opted to celebrate people born in Ohio who did important things elsewhere. Namely, the Wright Brothers first flight in North Carolina and Florida's part in the space program.
Some of the best designs were early designs. Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania all had nice, simple designs that did their job. And kudos to New Jersey for honoring a genuinely important historical event with the crossing of the Delaware.
Two designs, though, stand out as the best to date. Texas is my favorite by far. It takes the elements of MA, NY, and PA (state outline with little added) and refines it. Where the other states all included a human form on their design, which while understandable isn't very strong visually in the small size, Texas went with a simple Texas lone-star. Its a very strong visual, augmented well with a lariat design around the sides. This is easily my favorite design to date. The runner-up for me is my home state of Connecticut. While the Charter Oak ran the risk of being too local for anyone to care, it was very well suited for the Quarter. It makes for a nice, clean visual that still has tons of detail and interest. It only loses points because the story of the Charter Oak is a bit too distant (predating the Revolution by almost 100 years) even though the whole story is pretty fun. The lights going out and something turning up missing is such a cliche, its actually quite gratifying to know it did once happen with something quite important.
The worst design, though, goes to the darn fools of New Hampshire who saw fit to honor a natural landmark, the Old Man in the Mountain. Fair enough. Even if a rock formation that sorta looked like a person in profile didn't seem really important, plenty of others followed suit with nature scenes with less dynamic results. The real problem, though, is that rock formation was known at the time to be unstable. Indeed, they'd known this for about 100 years. Over that 100 years, they repeatedly tried to prevent its impending demise, patching cracks and adding support. Yet, they saw fit to use such a precarious visual as their lasting State Quarter symbol. In less than 3 years after the quarter was released, the rock formation completely collpased. Not quite the symbol of a state's permianance that I'd see fit for a Quarter, but there you are.
2.09.2006
She was all crazy fat
So, feminists blogs are rightfully all abuzz about this stunningly awful article in the The Prospect. I saw it at Pandagon myself. Here's the abridged story...
There once was a pretty pretty girl. Said girl develops paranoid schizophrenia complete with audio hallucinations. Girl is eventually hospitalized where the staff marvels at her pretty prettiness. They put her on a drug which cures her schizophrenia and also increases her appetite and she gains 42lbs. Staff is alarmed that her pretty prettiness is gone and take her OFF the medication that cured her schizophrenia and put her on something else. The weight comes off, the voices come back, and the docs grudgingly put her back on the first meds. She gets better again. She gets fat again. She's okay with this. Her family is okay with this. Doctors and journalists can't get over the fact that her pretty prettiness is now lumpen (seriously, they said lumpen) lumpiness. They are even more shocked that she's okay with not being crippled with schizophrenia if it means being kinda fat. She's sane, but at what cost? *gasp*
Reading the story, its genuinely alarming how the medical professionals (and their journalistic storytelling partners) are so fixated on her appearance when we're dealing with a young woman with an extraordinarily debilitating mental illness that was destroying her life. Granted, weight gain from medication is different than being born (or dieting oneself) fat. In so far as the medication may have induced an extremely increased appetite and changes in her metabolism, those things should be considered if they can be controlled. If they can't be, then it should be quickly recognized that the benefits outweight the complications. But its clear they weren't concerned about the health implications of the drug's side effects. No, here we get a glimpse into the honest motivations of at least some in the health care business as with regards to fat people. It really isn't about health. Its about the pretty prettiness.
The flip way the article talks about her is very close to sickening and absolutely crosses over at points. Such as the "charming" tale of her apparent rape by a fellow patient at her psych ward. Its related as an anecdote of just how pretty she was. The lad just couldn't keep himself from breaking into her room, you see. She was THAT pretty. The article doesn't even flinch as it proceeds to say how she got worse at this point without every pausing to consider the break-in by a male patient who entered her bed and one dearly hopes but honestly doubts went no further.
It lingers on the details of her weight gain. No glancing consideration of health concerns, which I'd grant would be at least a valid concern in this limited scope, even if nothing could be done about it. The story laments at how her face filled out (first with human emotion, then sinisterly followed by FAT!) and her belly grew out of her jeans. Honestly, its like I'm reading some humiliation based Feeder eroitca. So, the pull her off the drug, let it run out of her system, and start her on something new. Her mental problems resurface. Do they put her back on the first drug, which she had only been on the normal dose of? Nope. They up her to the max of the new drug, unwilling to give up on her pretty prettiness. Meanwhile, this young woman is going through hell as her disease completely consumes her.
And yet, even in such an obvious case, the doc apparently had to struggle to do the obvious thing. Sure, she didn't hear voices anymore, but she becomes so doughy! Thankfully, they do the right thing and cure the girl to the great pleasure of her family. But it doesn't end there. You see, it turns out the the young woman is very happy that she has been able to recover from her illness. She didn't seem to care much about gaining some weight. Presumably, to her the opportunity to live a normal life was far more desirably than looking pretty. And thus was unfathomable to her doctors who were still consumed with guilt for what they had done to her.
Seriously, he cures this woman and is just beside himselve over turning her pretty prettiness into fatty fatness. He looked at it as Faustian pact. Once beautiful and insane, now fat and sane. This is genuinely regarded as an equal trade off. As in fat was just as bad as paranoid schizophrenia. Indeed, he ponders whether he lack of concern is a side-effect of the drugs or a product of her illness to begin with. Because clearly she must be crazy to be happy about recovering from a severe mental illness at the cost of a few pounds of fat. Honestly, the whole story is just shocking and distressing and sad. Sad that doctors would treat a patient like this.
Its not like weight gain is an unknown side effect of this drug. They knew it would happen and they knew they couldn't control the side-effects. I don't get all the shock and distress over it. Even assuming the damage to her metabolism does make her vulnerable to health problems from being fat, those risks are still relatively minor. Especially in the stark contrast from having your life controlled by severe mental illness. I'm stunned that all the doctors care about is how she looks, not her mental health or physical health. And I'm also just as shocked that the writer really thought there was some kind of tragic dilemia here. Woman was sick. Woman got better. Hooray! What's the problem? It is pathetic that being a little fat and suffering from paranoid schizophrenia could be seen as equal.
There once was a pretty pretty girl. Said girl develops paranoid schizophrenia complete with audio hallucinations. Girl is eventually hospitalized where the staff marvels at her pretty prettiness. They put her on a drug which cures her schizophrenia and also increases her appetite and she gains 42lbs. Staff is alarmed that her pretty prettiness is gone and take her OFF the medication that cured her schizophrenia and put her on something else. The weight comes off, the voices come back, and the docs grudgingly put her back on the first meds. She gets better again. She gets fat again. She's okay with this. Her family is okay with this. Doctors and journalists can't get over the fact that her pretty prettiness is now lumpen (seriously, they said lumpen) lumpiness. They are even more shocked that she's okay with not being crippled with schizophrenia if it means being kinda fat. She's sane, but at what cost? *gasp*
Reading the story, its genuinely alarming how the medical professionals (and their journalistic storytelling partners) are so fixated on her appearance when we're dealing with a young woman with an extraordinarily debilitating mental illness that was destroying her life. Granted, weight gain from medication is different than being born (or dieting oneself) fat. In so far as the medication may have induced an extremely increased appetite and changes in her metabolism, those things should be considered if they can be controlled. If they can't be, then it should be quickly recognized that the benefits outweight the complications. But its clear they weren't concerned about the health implications of the drug's side effects. No, here we get a glimpse into the honest motivations of at least some in the health care business as with regards to fat people. It really isn't about health. Its about the pretty prettiness.
The flip way the article talks about her is very close to sickening and absolutely crosses over at points. Such as the "charming" tale of her apparent rape by a fellow patient at her psych ward. Its related as an anecdote of just how pretty she was. The lad just couldn't keep himself from breaking into her room, you see. She was THAT pretty. The article doesn't even flinch as it proceeds to say how she got worse at this point without every pausing to consider the break-in by a male patient who entered her bed and one dearly hopes but honestly doubts went no further.
It lingers on the details of her weight gain. No glancing consideration of health concerns, which I'd grant would be at least a valid concern in this limited scope, even if nothing could be done about it. The story laments at how her face filled out (first with human emotion, then sinisterly followed by FAT!) and her belly grew out of her jeans. Honestly, its like I'm reading some humiliation based Feeder eroitca. So, the pull her off the drug, let it run out of her system, and start her on something new. Her mental problems resurface. Do they put her back on the first drug, which she had only been on the normal dose of? Nope. They up her to the max of the new drug, unwilling to give up on her pretty prettiness. Meanwhile, this young woman is going through hell as her disease completely consumes her.
And yet, even in such an obvious case, the doc apparently had to struggle to do the obvious thing. Sure, she didn't hear voices anymore, but she becomes so doughy! Thankfully, they do the right thing and cure the girl to the great pleasure of her family. But it doesn't end there. You see, it turns out the the young woman is very happy that she has been able to recover from her illness. She didn't seem to care much about gaining some weight. Presumably, to her the opportunity to live a normal life was far more desirably than looking pretty. And thus was unfathomable to her doctors who were still consumed with guilt for what they had done to her.
Seriously, he cures this woman and is just beside himselve over turning her pretty prettiness into fatty fatness. He looked at it as Faustian pact. Once beautiful and insane, now fat and sane. This is genuinely regarded as an equal trade off. As in fat was just as bad as paranoid schizophrenia. Indeed, he ponders whether he lack of concern is a side-effect of the drugs or a product of her illness to begin with. Because clearly she must be crazy to be happy about recovering from a severe mental illness at the cost of a few pounds of fat. Honestly, the whole story is just shocking and distressing and sad. Sad that doctors would treat a patient like this.
Its not like weight gain is an unknown side effect of this drug. They knew it would happen and they knew they couldn't control the side-effects. I don't get all the shock and distress over it. Even assuming the damage to her metabolism does make her vulnerable to health problems from being fat, those risks are still relatively minor. Especially in the stark contrast from having your life controlled by severe mental illness. I'm stunned that all the doctors care about is how she looks, not her mental health or physical health. And I'm also just as shocked that the writer really thought there was some kind of tragic dilemia here. Woman was sick. Woman got better. Hooray! What's the problem? It is pathetic that being a little fat and suffering from paranoid schizophrenia could be seen as equal.
1.31.2006
Seriously, 7 people
I'm realized amazed by how many people I'm seeing with "A Million Little Pieces" on the train. Just in the last day I've seen 7 people with the book. Seven! Isn't that a bit much for a book that was just widely discredited and whose author was exposed as a shameless liar who is passing off his fanciful and self-abosrbed re-scripting of his life as an actual memoir. I mean, I'm definetly a writer who shamefully writes about myself, but I always come up with fictional dopplegangers even when its blatently my life. I guess the author, James Frey, tried that but no one waned to buy it, so he changed it to be his life story.
But this all came tumbling down when The Smoking Gun ran a story showing him to be a fraud. They went out doing what they always do and tried to dig up a mug shot of Frey, who's "memoir" is chock full of arrests and trouble with the law. They found one, but came up suspiciously empty at many of his supposed arrest sites. A little digging later, and they realize every major event in the book was badly rearranged from what actually. Most disturbing was taking a tragic car accident that occured while he was in high school and casting himself in a starring role as the misunderstood victim. To appropriate someone's very real tragedy for such a craven purpose really strikes me as disgusting.
So why on EARTH are people still reading him? Honestly. He's a liar. He's basically been forced to admit that now that the truth is all out. I do not get it.
But this all came tumbling down when The Smoking Gun ran a story showing him to be a fraud. They went out doing what they always do and tried to dig up a mug shot of Frey, who's "memoir" is chock full of arrests and trouble with the law. They found one, but came up suspiciously empty at many of his supposed arrest sites. A little digging later, and they realize every major event in the book was badly rearranged from what actually. Most disturbing was taking a tragic car accident that occured while he was in high school and casting himself in a starring role as the misunderstood victim. To appropriate someone's very real tragedy for such a craven purpose really strikes me as disgusting.
So why on EARTH are people still reading him? Honestly. He's a liar. He's basically been forced to admit that now that the truth is all out. I do not get it.
12.22.2005
Happy Holidays!
So, it was getting closer and closer to XMas, and I had yet to do anything about cards. I always hate buying cards so I usually try to make something myself. Made some really nifty cards last year, actually. But, I didn't have the time to put into that this year, so I tried to think outside the box. (Not many people know this, but I'm actually confined to a box, so that phrase has a different meaning for me.)
(that joke is in no way meant to disparage people who are confined to boxes)
(that disclaimer was in no way meant to disparage people who get upset about people making jokes about people confined to boxes. Moving on...)
So, I thought I'd release my inner star and tape a video holiday card. Which is precisely what I did. Nothing too special, just with some of my perhaps unsuccessful attempts at humor. If you'd care to view it, you can visit here.
You can also download the file directly here.
I almost created an alternative video with a director's commentary track because I thought that would be hilarious, but better sense prevailed. There can be a fine line between genuinely pompous and mockingly pompous.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy my humble efforts. If not, well, screw you. Oh, and happy holidays!
(that joke is in no way meant to disparage people who are confined to boxes)
(that disclaimer was in no way meant to disparage people who get upset about people making jokes about people confined to boxes. Moving on...)
So, I thought I'd release my inner star and tape a video holiday card. Which is precisely what I did. Nothing too special, just with some of my perhaps unsuccessful attempts at humor. If you'd care to view it, you can visit here.
You can also download the file directly here.
I almost created an alternative video with a director's commentary track because I thought that would be hilarious, but better sense prevailed. There can be a fine line between genuinely pompous and mockingly pompous.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy my humble efforts. If not, well, screw you. Oh, and happy holidays!
11.29.2005
Old Navy's Women
I keep meaning to mention this but keep forgetting. A few weeks back I got a flyer from Old Navy. Very ordinary stuff. I almost didn't even notice what I'm commenting on because it blended so seemlessly into the piece.
As I imagine many of my few readers know, Old Navy recently rolled out their Women's Sizes line which is appearing in more and more of their retail outlets as well as online. The flyer I got was one of those across the board deals promoting men's, women's, children's, pet's, etc. What really impressed me, though, was that they didn't create a Women's sizes gheto in the piece. They weren't shoved off to a corner or left out entirely.
No, instead, they were right there with the thin models. Wearing the same style of clothing, too. There was nothing in the posing or presentation to set the plus-size model off as Other. She's right there with the other models wearing the "Item of the weak" (jeans) and accented with a nice blazer from the Women's Plus line that seemed like the same style of blazer one of the thin models was wearing. It felt so wonderfully refreshing and encouraging to see a plus-size model treated like she was normal.
Yes, I know, it'd be nice if plus size models were sized so they were representative of more plus-size women. That's definetly some progress we're overdue for. But so's this. And credit where its due, the model didn't look merely "big boned". She had a round face and even evidence of a belly see with her unbuttoned blazer. I actually only noticed her when the thought crossed my head "hey, she's kinda cute for a model" at which point in dawned on me that she was actually a plus-size model. Its that seemless. There is a little "Women's Plus" logo off her shoulder to brand the product name being promoted, but there is nothing wrong with branding.
Anyway, I just wanted to share.
As I imagine many of my few readers know, Old Navy recently rolled out their Women's Sizes line which is appearing in more and more of their retail outlets as well as online. The flyer I got was one of those across the board deals promoting men's, women's, children's, pet's, etc. What really impressed me, though, was that they didn't create a Women's sizes gheto in the piece. They weren't shoved off to a corner or left out entirely.
No, instead, they were right there with the thin models. Wearing the same style of clothing, too. There was nothing in the posing or presentation to set the plus-size model off as Other. She's right there with the other models wearing the "Item of the weak" (jeans) and accented with a nice blazer from the Women's Plus line that seemed like the same style of blazer one of the thin models was wearing. It felt so wonderfully refreshing and encouraging to see a plus-size model treated like she was normal.
Yes, I know, it'd be nice if plus size models were sized so they were representative of more plus-size women. That's definetly some progress we're overdue for. But so's this. And credit where its due, the model didn't look merely "big boned". She had a round face and even evidence of a belly see with her unbuttoned blazer. I actually only noticed her when the thought crossed my head "hey, she's kinda cute for a model" at which point in dawned on me that she was actually a plus-size model. Its that seemless. There is a little "Women's Plus" logo off her shoulder to brand the product name being promoted, but there is nothing wrong with branding.
Anyway, I just wanted to share.
11.01.2005
The Big Time
So, a cool thing happened for me today. I won't post it here because some sad little people have much too much time on their hands, but if you know me, contact me and I'll let you know my happy news.
10.30.2005
The new Dick Clark
So, I'm watching the latest edition of televised crack, VH1's I Love the 80's: 3D, and am really taken aback by Chuck Woolery. The guy seriously doesn't look like he's aged since The Love Connection back in the 80's. Admitedly, I first new him as the host of the Scrabble game show back in the day. What can I say, The Love Connection wasn't quite my thing when I was 8.
Back then, he looked like he was in his early 40's, which he was. But now he's like 64 but could easily pass for early 40's. I wonder if when he was younger, he always looked a little older. Some people seem to be like that. They just always look a certain age, both before and after that certain age. From the pics I can find, that may well be the case. Heck, when he was in his early 30's he was playing an elderly mailman on the New Zoo Revue. That almost makes me want to get the DVD.
Back then, he looked like he was in his early 40's, which he was. But now he's like 64 but could easily pass for early 40's. I wonder if when he was younger, he always looked a little older. Some people seem to be like that. They just always look a certain age, both before and after that certain age. From the pics I can find, that may well be the case. Heck, when he was in his early 30's he was playing an elderly mailman on the New Zoo Revue. That almost makes me want to get the DVD.
10.28.2005
m4w
So, I'm thinking of putting in any personal ads in the future "only dates women with digestive systems". Probably still wouldn't do any good, though.
Yeah, that's it.
Yeah, that's it.
9.22.2005
Funny thing happened on the way to work...
I was hit by a car today.
Okay, that sounds more dramatic than it actually was, but its also completely accurate. I debated writing about this on my semi-fictionalized blog that I haven't told you about but most of you have probably figured out anyway (especially my stalkers), but its too good of a story to fictionalize it even if I need to write something over there.
I was walking across a crosswalk next to a train station. Suffice to say, this is a busy crosswalk. I look both ways and see a car a good distance away, traveling slowly. He has plenty of time to stop and, well, its the law, so I assume he will be doing so. I start crossing while checking traffic in the other direction which has quite dutifully stopped. At this point I realize that the car in my lane is still proceeding to come at me. And is showing no signs of being interested in stopping.
This is a moment where is is very difficult to plot out your next action. I'm close to walking out of his path anyway, but at this point, it may not do me any good. Sure enough, after trying to move out of the way, the car knocks into me as the driver finally bothered to notice me and hit his breaks. I fell into his hood, though my feet stayed on the ground. My hand and thigh stung, but thankfully I was basically okay.
At this point, I'm kind of in shock. I actually was hit by a car once before, but then I was admitedly taking a bit more a risk. It also only grazed me. Here I was crossing a busy crosswalk over a not especially busy street and a slow moving car hits me because the driver was dangerously not paying attention.
The driver, to his limited credit, begins apologizing. Now, I'm not sure if you've ever been hit by a car due to the careless actions of a driver, but it would seem that "sorry" doesn't cut it. Not that I think anything he could have said would have made my sentiment any better, mind you. I'm just saying that when you were just hit by a car, you don't much care if the driver is now sorry.
I was running late for work and could quickly tell I wasn't seriously injured. So, although I wanted to get the guy arrested, I settled for cussing him out on the street. Not that I had all that much to offer beyond "what the hell?" and "what the fuck?" and variations there on, but it was a little cathartic, anyway. Still, I was shaking the entire train ride into work. Nearly getting killed kind of leaves you wound up. I swear, crossing the street should not be such a death sport in and around Boston, but there you are. I'm a really good pedestrian, too. I nearly never jaywalk. Always look both ways. I'm just not shy about expecting drivers to obey the law and yeild for me. I'm also not inclined to offer expressiond of gratitude for doing so. Sorry, but I see no reason to wave thanks at drivers for obeying the law. I still do it sometimes out of reflex, but that's not something I should have to do. It isn't rude to not wave thanks at a driver like that. What are you thanking them for? Not breaking the law and killing you? Sorry, but I think that's a fair expectation of people. If I thanked everyone who declined to murder me, that'd pretty much take up my entire day.
Anyway, that's my hit by a car story. See you all next month.
Okay, that sounds more dramatic than it actually was, but its also completely accurate. I debated writing about this on my semi-fictionalized blog that I haven't told you about but most of you have probably figured out anyway (especially my stalkers), but its too good of a story to fictionalize it even if I need to write something over there.
I was walking across a crosswalk next to a train station. Suffice to say, this is a busy crosswalk. I look both ways and see a car a good distance away, traveling slowly. He has plenty of time to stop and, well, its the law, so I assume he will be doing so. I start crossing while checking traffic in the other direction which has quite dutifully stopped. At this point I realize that the car in my lane is still proceeding to come at me. And is showing no signs of being interested in stopping.
This is a moment where is is very difficult to plot out your next action. I'm close to walking out of his path anyway, but at this point, it may not do me any good. Sure enough, after trying to move out of the way, the car knocks into me as the driver finally bothered to notice me and hit his breaks. I fell into his hood, though my feet stayed on the ground. My hand and thigh stung, but thankfully I was basically okay.
At this point, I'm kind of in shock. I actually was hit by a car once before, but then I was admitedly taking a bit more a risk. It also only grazed me. Here I was crossing a busy crosswalk over a not especially busy street and a slow moving car hits me because the driver was dangerously not paying attention.
The driver, to his limited credit, begins apologizing. Now, I'm not sure if you've ever been hit by a car due to the careless actions of a driver, but it would seem that "sorry" doesn't cut it. Not that I think anything he could have said would have made my sentiment any better, mind you. I'm just saying that when you were just hit by a car, you don't much care if the driver is now sorry.
I was running late for work and could quickly tell I wasn't seriously injured. So, although I wanted to get the guy arrested, I settled for cussing him out on the street. Not that I had all that much to offer beyond "what the hell?" and "what the fuck?" and variations there on, but it was a little cathartic, anyway. Still, I was shaking the entire train ride into work. Nearly getting killed kind of leaves you wound up. I swear, crossing the street should not be such a death sport in and around Boston, but there you are. I'm a really good pedestrian, too. I nearly never jaywalk. Always look both ways. I'm just not shy about expecting drivers to obey the law and yeild for me. I'm also not inclined to offer expressiond of gratitude for doing so. Sorry, but I see no reason to wave thanks at drivers for obeying the law. I still do it sometimes out of reflex, but that's not something I should have to do. It isn't rude to not wave thanks at a driver like that. What are you thanking them for? Not breaking the law and killing you? Sorry, but I think that's a fair expectation of people. If I thanked everyone who declined to murder me, that'd pretty much take up my entire day.
Anyway, that's my hit by a car story. See you all next month.
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