How can I (legally) stop someone from texting and driving?

Posted under .: Random Musings on May 22nd, 2016 by

On my way home from Starbucks this morning, I was cut off and nearly killed by a young girl in a Prius. She was texting as she merged onto the four-lane highway. She continued to text throughout the event that nearly killed us both. I honestly don’t think she noticed what had happened. I was going about 35 MPH when her Prius nearly took off the nose of my Jeep. I slammed on the brakes, checked my side mstoptextinganddrivingirror, and swerved into the fast lane. There was about two car lengths open in front of a truck. He had to brake to avoid me, but I was able to quickly dodge back into the slow lane. After that amount of adrenaline so early in the morning, I almost didn’t need coffee anymore. Almost.

I was following the girl in the Prius, watching her continue to text. Her eyes were mostly on the phone. I could see them through her rear-view mirror. Only occasionally did she glance up at the road. As we approached the next intersection, the light turned yellow. The girl in the Prius had no idea, so I blew my horn to get her attention. She looked up at the light as it turned red, slammed on her brakes, looked back at me, and then flipped me the middle finger. Of course she quickly directed her attention back to the phone.

I don’t believe I have ever felt such road rage. I wanted to tromp on the gas and ram my Jeep into her cute little Prius. I wanted to get out of the Jeep, walk up to her Prius, smash the window, and slap her silly. I wanted to take a baseball bat and demolish that little red Prius. Of course, if I did any of those things, I would have probably wound up in jail. So I just took two deep breaths, changed lanes and sped past her.

Here is my moral dilemma: That menace of a girl will probably end up causing an accident. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But some day. The odds are not in her favor. She probably won’t kill herself either; she will probably take out a family of four. Would a few days in jail and some fines be worth it to prevent a future tragedy that may cost lives?

There are a lot of depressing facts about texting and driving here: http://stoptextsstopwrecks.org. Unfortunately, their tips are focused on the texters (is that a word?).

Random musings from this week:

  • Disappointed my 9-ball team did not advance to the Local Team Championships.
  • The Penguins better win tonight since I will be missing Game of Thrones to attend the game.
  • Still reading Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman. Still loving it too.
  • The series finale of Banshee was phenomenal. I will truly miss that show.

‘Blue moon’ rises Saturday

Posted under .: Random Musings on May 21st, 2016 by

 This weekend, aIMG_0343 full moon will rise in the night sky, a so-called Blue Moon.

If you are curious about that, this article explains the sorted history of blue moons.

Source: ‘Blue moon’ rises Saturday — but it won’t be blue: A full moon history

To read, or not to read?

Posted under .: Miscellany Entertainment, .: Random Musings, .: Writery things on May 8th, 2016 by

This afternoon I was struggling to read a highly-praised novel that I was hating. I thought it was just me, that I was failing as a reader, so I kept trudging along, page after terrible page. I had promised myself to read today, and read I would. After about thirty minutes I realized I had finished several chapters. I didn’t hate it anymore. But I wasn’t really reading it either. I was actually just ignoring it. I could not remember anything I had read. I even clicked back a few pages only to discover the words were entirely foreign to me.  I finally accepted defeat and closed the book forever.old-books

Despite all of that I still wanted to read. After I deleted the daydream-inducing novel, I searched through the other titles I had available. I finally noticed the icon for Neil Gaiman’s new collection of short stories. I don’t know why I waited so long to start reading Trigger Warning. It has been on my Kindle for months, unopened. It is opened now, and it is delightful.

Random musings from this week.

  • I finished watching Sherpa this weekend. I can’t resist the allure of Mt. Everest.
  • I really really wanted the Penguins to close out the series against the Capitals tonight.
  • I feel inspired to finish that collection of short stories I’ve been working on for years.
  • I have already grown weary of all the election coverage.
  • The final season of Banshee is great so far.

Eternal Patrol

Posted under .: Drunken Sailors, .: Random Musings on April 10th, 2016 by

thresherOn April 10, 1963 at 0917 the USS Thresher (SSN-593) transmitted her final chilling message: “Exceeding test depth.” Moments later her hull imploded and 129 submariners and shipyard workers lost their lives. The implosion reportedly occurred in 0.1 seconds, too fast for the human nervous system to perceive. For the sake of those lost souls, I’ve always hoped that is true.

Sailors rest your oars, your brothers have assumed the watch.

The Walking Dumb

Posted under .: Miscellany Entertainment, .: Random Musings, .: Writery things on March 28th, 2016 by

I have infrequently posted and tweeted about my growing contempt for The Walking Dead. This will be the final such post. I will watch the finale this weekend, but I will spare the critique. I am considering it a wake – you never want to say anything bad about the deceased. And The Walking Dead is now dead to me. I have listened to all the excuses and explanations, but I have finally decided that the show is just terrible. It is TWD2terribly written. It is terribly directed. And there are terrible acting performances. There is no longer any redeemable quality to this show whatsoever. I have grown weary of the pointless and illogical plot twists. There were moments of potential, but the lack of creativity was astounding: wasted characters, insipid dialogue, and irrational choices. The zombies have become my favorite character.  I wish them well.

Other random musings from last week:

  1. The Black Sails season was so good it inspired me to write a pirate-themed short story.
  2. I posted my review of Erica Crockett’s The Ram on Wednesday. You should definitely check it out.
  3. I don’t watch college basketball, but I successfully picked three of the final four. North Carolina is still alive as my choice for winner.

Random musings from this weekend

Posted under .: Drunken Sailors, .: Miscellany Entertainment, .: Random Musings, .: Writery things on March 20th, 2016 by
  • Black Sails killed one of my favorite characters and there is only one episode left in the season. Very depressed on both counts. On the plus side, I discovered that Michael Crichton wrote a novel called Pirate Latitudes. I am not a fan of posthumously published novels, but it’s about pirates, so I added it to the reading list.skull
  • Watched the latest episode of Better Call Saul. It keeps getting better.
  • I put the finishing touches on my review of Erica Crockett’s The Ram. I’ll post it on Wednesday to coincide with the official release. Be sure to check it out.
  • It is the first day of spring. It is snowing in western PA. What the hell?
  • I am mentally preparing myself to despise The Walking Dumb tonight. I am hoping they will eventually make me so angry that I will follow through with my repeated threats to stop watching.

What does this sentence mean?

Posted under .: Random Musings, .: Writery things on March 11th, 2016 by

On Wednesday night, two gunmen killed six people at a backyard barbecue.  Several local and national news outlets have reported on the incident. Since the tragedy happened near Pittsburgh, not far from where I live, I have been keeping tabs on the investigation. Today I was reading an article on CNN.com. Drugs were likely involved, one of the injured was the intended target, no suspects have been identified, etc. However, once sentence has haunted me all afternoon…

“Another neighbor said he saw a bloody dog run out of the backyard with a bullet falling off its tail. “

What could that sentence possibly mean? Is the neighbor suggesting that a bullet landed on the dog’s tail and that the bullet fell off as the poor mutt fled for his life? The physical improbability of that is staggering. Was the blood from the dog or one of the victims? Could it be a typo? What other possible sentence could include a singular bullet and a dog’s tail? Was the dog struck in the tail by a stray bullet? Did his tail then fall off resulting in the blood? Where is the dog now? Is any of this information even pertinent?

Dear CNN: I need more information.

In case they edit the article, I grabbed a screen shot as evidence. After viewing it again, I have even more questions. Did the neighbor hear bullets or gunshots? There is an important difference. Does the ellipsis indicate an expletive or did she momentarily forget what to call the concrete structure adjacent to the door? Is the random inclusion of the red bible and the white teddy bear meant to symbolize the terror?

Capture

 

I already miss The X-Files

Posted under .: Miscellany Entertainment, .: Random Musings on February 19th, 2016 by

xfilesNo matter what happens on the season finale of The X-Files, I will be sad. I almost don’t want to watch. I might save it on my DVR for a while just to savor its existence. Six episodes is simply not enough. The first five were more creative and entertaining than anything I have watched since Breaking Bad. My only hope is that the success of this mini-series is enough to convince them to make more. I need more Mulder and Scully in my life.

Zen and Groundhogs

Posted under .: Random Musings on February 2nd, 2016 by

Harold Ramis’ 1993 movie “Groundhog Day” is so entertaining, you’ll want to see it again, and again, and again.

Source: ‘Groundhog Day,’ the Buddhist lifehacker movie – CNN.com

 

A fun article about the spiritual implications of a rodent’s shadow.  I guess it’s not even an original idea. A quick search led me to a similar article – “Buddhism and Groundhog Day” – by  Lewis Richmond in 2012.

Coffee and Motherboards

Posted under .: Coffee, .: Random Musings, .: Writery things on January 17th, 2016 by

Coffee. Motherboards. The two have very little to do with one another except that they describe my Saturday in its entirety. One was quite disconcerting, the other, sublime.

quillMy laptop died quite suddenly for unknown causes earlier this week. This is a cautionary tale for all writers. Although it was only a couple months old, it died in its sleep with no warning.  I tried everything I could to wake it from its eternal slumber; I pushed every button, I cursed, I begged, and for a brief moment I nearly wept. As a last resort I headed to Best Buy in search of expert advice. “It’s the motherboard,” was all the guy at The Geek Squad could tell me. He then proceeded to extort $100 from me to save my files. As it turned out, it would take more like $250 since the motherboard was soldered to the hard-drive in some manner that all but ensured complete destruction of all the bits and bytes. I decided to roll the dice, since there was a chance all was lost already. I last backed up the files on 12/10. This is my warning to all writers: back up your files daily, or maybe even hourly.IMG_20160116_152008057

For the rest of the day, I mourned the loss of my words. I don’t remember them all, but perhaps they were the greatest words I had ever written. I decided to brew some coffee to soothe my writer’s lament. I poured some filtered water into the kettle and turned on the stove. I opened a bag of Starbucks small-lot coffee and set the grinder to medium-coarse. I retrieved the Chemex brewer and carefully placed the filter. As I did these things, I already started feeling calmer with the scent of freshly ground coffee in the air. The kettle began to whistle. I slowly poured the boiling water over the grounds and watched  them bloom. By the time I savored the first sip, I had begun to take solace in a few things: 1) The holidays were dry for inspiration, so maybe I didn’t lose too much, 2) the laptop was only a part-time scribing device; the desktop still functioned, and 3) I use a lot of index cards, journals, and good old-fashioned ink.

All that said, I hope karma is real and that my words are returned tenfold.

Here are some random musings about today:

  1. The Seahawks are ruining my lazy day of watching football. No one likes a blow-out. The Steelers had best deliver later today.
  2. I am deeply absorbed in a draft of Erica Crockett’s The Ram. You should probably befriend her and seek your own advanced copy.
  3. Clicking through the news, I saw a photo of the freed hostages stepping off a plane in Germany. It is almost 35 years to the day since I watched the last Iranian hostage crisis unfold (January 20, 1981). I don’t ever want to see another one.

UPDATE 1/31/16: My laptop was returned from the Geek Squad this week. I held my breath as it booted up. Much to my surprise and delight, all of my files were intact exactly where I left them. There was much rejoicing.

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