Making Thanksgiving plans with a cyclist

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5700021/

My Best of 00’s

Inspired by Paste magazine’s Best of the Decade list…

• Doves “The Last Broadcast”
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah “Clap Your Hands Say Yeah” 
• National “Boxer” 
• Frightened Rabbit “The Midnight Organ Fight” 
• The Format “Dog Problems” 
• Sufjan Stevens “Illinoise” 
• Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson “Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson” 
• Radiohead “Kid A” 
• Andrew Bird (hard to choose just one album) 
• Bon Iver “For Emma, Forever Ago” 
• The Strokes “This is It” 
• Mew “And The Glass Handed Kites” 

I know I have forgotten a few.

 

Driving and cell phones

Seems that cell phones are the biggest driver distraction today. Have you seen the driver in the fast lane that hangs out directly beside a slower moving vehicle for miles and never notices the ¼ mile line of traffic backed up behind him? How about the car at the intersection that does not proceed when the light turns green? The erratic driver who can't keep his speed in a 30MPH range?

A friend argued the other day, "Hey, it doesn't make sense to have laws pick on the latest technology." Fair enough. Enforcing a more general "Driving While Distracted" law makes sense to me. Although not nearly as pervasive a problem as cell phones, I agree that driving while eating half a dozen Taco Bell crunchy tacos while drinking a Super Size Slurpy, while dancing to the newest Lady Gaga tune does not make sense either.

Terrorist

http://wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=69844#comments

Finished Erik Larson's "The Devil in the White City".

First non-fiction I have read in months. Except for a brief mention in a 1961 episode of the Twilight Zone, I knew nothing about Chicago's World Fair before reading this book. (Actually, the Twilight Zone was about the 1933 World Fair. This book was about the 1893 edition.)

I enjoyed learning about the times (It never occurred to me that there was a department whose sole task was to light/extinguish the city's gas lamps or that townspeople of the time got breaking news by standing outside of the newspaper offices.) I was impressed by the size of the undertaking (20,000 men working at one time) and intrigued by the murders, but the author wore me out a bit with too much detail.

Next, I return to The Dark Tower. Volume 3.

Wow.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101970323