Long Overdue Rant (Edited 2/12/09)

Today's "Toothpaste for Dinner" comic is relevant and too good not to repost here. Thanks for the awesome comic Drew.

toothpastefordinner.com

.C si rewsna ,wonk t'ndid uoy fI


Fact: Using your hazards in a snow storm confuses people. What are you trying to tell me? Are your brakes out? Is your steering dead? Do you actually have a hazardous situation that is unique to your vehicle? Because if not, you need to turn off your hazard lights. Everyone else can clearly see that conditions are icy and snowy and as such, extra caution should be afforded. They can see this because the BMV doesn't issue drivers licenses to the blind. And if they did, it still wouldn't matter, because they couldn't see your needless usage of the hazard lights. Perhaps I should be thankful that you choose to display your winter driving incompetence to the world, so that I can keep a full lane between you and I when pass by, as you probably are also driving about 15 mph on the highway. But I would need to do that anyway, because if you did decide to switch lanes, I would have no heads up, your turn signal doesn't show up with the hazards on. While you're at it, be sure to brake heavily, especially around curves. I hear that's the best way to end up in the ditch.

Remnants of Ike

Almost 2 weeks ago now, the last vengeful remains of Hurricane Ike collided with a cold front above Ohio and wrought havoc. Mostly among the trees. Here are 2 pictures, one from just after the windstorm, and one from just a few hours ago.




Wow that was a lot of work. Too bad its still not really finished...

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If anyone actually reads this, be excited to know that as I get some time, I'll be uploading the riveting account of Dave & Steve's Awesome California Adventure. It should be rife with pictures and dry writing... when I get time to put it all up here. Maybe at the end of the week. We'll see how work turns out.

Heat Lightning

Awesome! It felt good to take some pictures again. I may have to do this more often.

This heat lightning has been going on the last couple nights here in Columbus. If we have it again tomorrow night, I may have more pictures to post.

Mountain Man

What a beautiful vista. If there was more swimming going on in Appalachia, I could see myself moving there for the fun mountain driving and beautiful views. But alas, the sport is all but non-existent there.

Anyway I just returned from a service trip to a little place called Harlan, in Kentucky. It was enjoyable week of hard work and pleasant company. It's just a shame though to see such a nice area exploited for its mineral wealth (i.e. Coal).

The trip down was made during the day, but the return trip was made mostly in the dark. And driving 300 odd miles in the pitch blackness of the countryside gives a man time to think. To think about why so many people find it necessary to run their hi-beams on the interstate. In 300 or so miles of driving, I never once had trouble seeing far enough ahead of me. Except of course when I was being blinded by hi-beams in my side view mirrors or oncoming traffic. Oh well, I'll try not get too frustrated with the thoughtlessness of others.

In other driving news, who has the right of way in this situation? Me, turning left from the main road into a parking lot, or another car turning onto the main road from the next parking lot. (Hint: It's me. I started on the main road. Way to go Belden Village drivers)

The Price of Gas

Or "What I've learned about Hot Air."

Yesterday, Kyle pointed out an article regarding HRC's attempts to equate herself with the common man. This time it was by buying a man a tank of gas. You can read a very brief article relating to it here, and if you really want more, Google is pretty handy.

Now for my beef. Am I seriously the only one here with a brain? Or at least the only one who occasionally is able to apply it toward everyday life skills sort of problems?

Ok, I know that I exaggerate. Kyle is capable of utilizing his mental capacity as well, and I feel confident in my parents ability to think as well. But like it says above, I am a hyperbole abuser. Deal with it.

For my point. Back in 2004 my sister was rudely run into, while driving my original car, by a woman on a cell phone. Needless to say, my car was total loss. So I needed a new vehicle. Unfortunately the exceedingly generous $830 condolence check the insurance company cut me had little ability to replace my car. Luckily, my cousin had just moved his family into a smaller city house, and no longer had any room for he and his wife's 3rd vehicle. They decided to get rid of one, and knowing that I was in need I was given his 1994 Ford Explorer.

This was during the "glory" days of gasoline in 2004. You remember. $1.70 a gallon. That seems like a happy memory now. Regardless, having purchased gas in my own driving lifetime for less than $1.00, I felt these prices were outrageous, and I was concerned that the fuel efficiency of my new vehicle was a significant drawback. But I accepted the car, and continue to drive it because, poor student from lower middle class background that I am, I don't have a couple grand lying around with which to purchase a new-used car.

In any case, I was only 19 at the time, yet I still recognized and was concerned by my own vehicles fuel efficiency, and the rising cost of petrol. 19! 19! At what age does common sense kick in for regular folks anyway? When does it happen? Understanding things like fuel efficiency, elementary economic theory (supply and demand), and how to cook a meal for yourself should be common knowledge. These should be mandatory (I HATE that word) requirements for high school graduation.

Oh Congratulations, you can do Algebra II and read at an 8th grade level, but neither do you understand that driving a giant MANpensation(tm) truck with a V12 engine and a 1 ton frame is going to be a bit expensive because of its woeful fuel inefficiency, nor can you cook your own spaghetti.

I think a better high school graduation requirement would be this:
1) Be able to plot a chart relating fuel efficiency to engine size (here's a hint, if MPGs are on the y-axis and engine size on the x-axis, the trend line slopes down to the right)
2) Be able to show that because demand for goods such as gasoline is inelastic, producers lack incentives to lower the price
3) Be able to make a delicious breakfast of waffles, followed by a lunch of grilled cheese with tomato soup, and finishing with a dinner of pasta in a roux based pseudo-alfredo sauce. (the ability to make a roux is utterly indespensible knowledge)

We've come how far?

Class of 2003, do you still recognize these tubes, what they hold inside? I do. Pogs. I saw these sitting on my desk. Do you still have yours? How old were we when these things were popular? Fourth or fifth grade maybe? Anyway, I've kept mine all these years, and they've just been waiting for the muse to inspire me with some pseudo-ironic-retro project to use them in. Until that time, they sit alone, and unused and unwanted, like so many fads.

The point of all this is that seeing these Pogs today made me think of elementary school fads in a broader sense. It was about 15 years ago, when *everyone* I knew just had to have these things. Even then I rarely bought into fads like these (lack of funds), but this one was different. Despite my meager allowance (I recall receiving $5 every 2 weeks), I could still afford pogs. They sold for like 10 cents each in a bin a Marc's. Finally a fad that even the poor kids could take part in.

I recall that pogs even received some national media converage, just as mass media was really coming into its own during the early to mid-nineties. The coverage was pretty evenhanded as I remember, some focusing on the origin of the fad (I think it pointed to Hawaii, but i was like 10 at the time. No memory from that long ago is untainted by the lens of the present). Yet other coverage focused on the negative aspects of the fad, things like it being a intro to gambling (you could "play for keeps"), or fighting over who-stole-who's-10-cent-disc-of-cardboard or some other inane garbage like that (some kids are extremely possessive, going even the step further to attempt to possess the unpossessible. Thanks a lot consumer culture). But largely it (being pogs) was a safe and inexpensive fad.

Today however, look at the current fads among school-age kids being covered in the media. The choking game? Raiding mommy's medicine cabinet? Are you serious?!? We had pogs! Pogs! Or toward the end of my school-age years, Pokemon cards. Either way simple pieces of cardboard. What has happened to us?

Not to mention that the media fuels all of this. I know that parents need to be informed about the threats that their children face, its a legitimate concern. But frankly, its irresponsible . Take the choking game for example. I found out about it for the first time talking to a swim team parent back home after I had blacked out briefly on the pool deck. She said the way I looked reminded her of what would happen when they would purposely help each other to blackout (for the purpose of a "high") in girls scouts when she was younger. The point of that story is this: I was 20 at the time. I had lived 20 years of my life at the time, and never even new that "the choking game" was a thing. And by the time I knew about it, I was old enough to know that purposely causing yourself to blackout was, to put it mildly, a stupid idea.

Back to the irresponsible media. Its irresponsible to broadcast these pieces during the evening news because there are kids watching. And sure the news focuses on the negative aspects of these trends (risk of death, etc.), but they always mention why these negative behaviors are being performed in the first place, to achieve a perceived high. Many (I suspect most) kids think in terms of pleasure, not pain. What I mean is that even though the news report said a dozen times that this activity is dangerous and shouldn't be done, the kids mind shut down the moment he heard the single potentially fun thing about it. The purported high. Once that happened, the kid's mind shut off all the negatives, and started thinking about all the fun he could be having. OK, thats kind of a "choking-game" orientated response, and in no way absolves parents of their parental duties, but lets consider the recent trend of prescription drug abuse among minors.

When I was younger the thought had literally never occurred to me that sneaking a few of daddy's pain pills could make me feel gooooooood. But if there
had been a had report describing (please read the following with a sarcastic tone) the all encompassing pleasures of prescription meds back in 1995, things could have been different. I don't think these things things come naturally to kids. A two year old may eat some pills and die, but the toddler ate the pills because it puts literally everything in its mouth (seriously, you've got to watch that), not because it was looking dull the pain of its new molars coming in, or mommy no longer paying so much attention to it because of the new baby. Did you just read the last sentence? That notion is insane. Sure, I've already claimed that kids are just looking to have fun with the decisions they make. But look at it this way. Does choking yourself or taking medicine appear fun on the exterior?

NO! So lets leave it that way. We do not need to suggest that it could be.

I got here from pogs, POGS for crying out loud. But it all comes to this. If I get any, any choice at all in the current fad sweeping through our school systems a few years down the road when I have kids, I choose pogs. No matter how stupid or inane they may be.