Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
I finally got a new digital camera last week…. It’s pretty nice. I wish I could download pictures to my PC. Thankfully, I have a Mac now. (I hated when annoying people said things like that before I had a Mac. ;)
— Evan Williams, Back Behind the Lens
I’ve got a habit of hanging up on people if I know that they’re calling me from a cell phone in their car. I’ve been grumbled at this on more than a few occasions, especially lately when they can use the excuse that they’re using a ‘hands free’ headset, so they don’t have to have one hand on the phone. I’ll still get off the phone — I’ve never believed that jabbering on a cell phone while driving, with or without a headset, is safe.
Looks like researchers agree with me.
Talking on a mobile phone while driving your car is just as dangerous when using hands-free equipment as when holding the phone in your hand, according to a Swedish study published on Monday.
The National Road Administration (SNRA) tested 48 people in driving simulators, dividing them into two groups — one with and the one without hands-free mobile phone devices.
The drivers in both groups received about 10 phone calls each during 1.5 hours of simulated driving in different conditions. The test revealed almost no difference in reaction time between the two groups.
“It is the distraction of the phone conversation that is the problem,” Ingemar Skogo, the SNRA director general, told Reuters.
So, please — if you’re going to call me — get out of the damn car first.
I’ve been having a lot of fun with my guests — hence the lack of posts lately. I’ve got to go off to work, so I don’t have time for a wrapup right now, but I can point you over to Kirsten’s account of the last two days.
Of primary interest, however, is the public unveiling of a drink I came up with a few years back, and had been quite popular among my friends since then. We’ve just finally given it a name:
Quickie (shot)\
Equal parts Jagermeister and Aftershock or Goldschlager.This is, by far, the most devious shot I have ever had. Babycakes says he came up with the idea for the shot when Jagermeister and Aftershock were both popular shots on their own. He decided to try and mix them – a stab in the dark he figured would either be a horrific failure or a gleaming success. Let me tell you – it’s definitely a gleaming success. You take this shot, wait about five or ten seconds, and then wham! It’s like you’ve just been right fucked and got hit up with a delayed orgasm. It had also not been named, this was the one I suggested. I think Babycakes may have previously referred to it as a Jagershock.
Enjoy!
Everyone else on the ‘net has reported this already, but hey, I’ve got visitors — I’m allowed to be a bit slow.
Steve Jobs announced the usual slew of goodies during his WWDC keynote speech. To sum up:
I just found out while wandering around today that Seattle’s 5th Ave. Theatre will be putting on the Rocky Horror Show this September!
I am so there.
Poking my head up for a few moments to say hello!
Prairie came in to town Friday night, Kirsten and Denton showed up at my door Saturday morning, and the four of us have been having fun just tooling around town and hanging out. Some wandering around, a stop by Dragonfish for dinner last night, and a trip out to the Seattle Center to see Matrix: Reloaded in their IMAX theater.
It was HUGE. Fun, though!
That’s the excitement so far…
Just on the off chance you hadn’t heard yet, Canada earlier this week decided to recognize gay marriages.
SFGate columnist Mark Morford has a wonderful commentary that is well worth reading all of.
“I don’t really know what this means, what it represents, what it entails, what gay people stand for, where they come from or what they do or why they do it or how they become that way in the first place or even if they’re allowed to vote or fly in airplanes,” announced a very trembly George W. Bush at a hastily arranged press conference in the Super Mega Hetero Gun Room of the White House.
“But I do know we won’t stand for it, and if these gul-dang furriner evildoers think they can get away with these kinds of tender unions and hand holdings and loving smiles and beautiful intimate commitments, well, they haven’t seen America’s righteous firepower!” he shouted, pounding his cute little fist on the podium. “We shall prevail!” Then he fainted.
[…]
Already, America’s perspective has been affected. In a shocking new poll, fully 41 percent of Americans now believe the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 tragedy were, in fact, gay married Canadians.
Similarly, 23 percent are now convinced Saddam Hussein was either “somewhat” or “almost totally” Canadian. Or gay. Or a member of Loverboy.
[…]
Meanwhile, the rest of the largely benevolent and open-hearted and divinely attuned polyamorous universe just laughed and nodded very, very approvingly at Canada and said, well Jesus with a riding crop and a rainbow flag, it’s about goddamn time, you know?
(via Len)
Can anyone out there give me a better translation of this page (a Russian-language LiveJournal that links to a post of mine) than Babelfish’s translation?
I’d kind of like to know what the discussion is about, but Babelfish’s translation leaves a bit to be desired.
The wind brings down snow and howls after the window.The transformation of America into the scoop is accompanied by sharp climate variation.So it must be.
The MoveOn primary that I posted about earlier today is apparently attracting all sorts of attention (as it should) — unfortunately, not all of it is good.
More than a million Internet users will be invited to vote in a virtual Democratic primary next week, but this most modern of elections is facing age-old allegations of vote-rigging.
Howard Dean, who has built an extensive network of Internet-savvy supporters, is expected to get the most votes in the MoveOn.org primary. Organizers of the site say any advantage for the former Vermont governor is due to his appeal among their members, and not any misdeeds in their process or because one of their employees worked on his campaign.
Officials in Dick Gephardt’s campaign said they were surprised when their supporters who registered got an e-mail encouraging them to vote for Dean. Gephardt’s team considered pulling out of the primary but decided to stay in.
“We are not going to change our participation at this point, but we are concerned that the process seems to be rigged,” said Erik Smith, a spokesman for the presidential campaign of the Missouri lawmaker. “We think there is a legitimate role for MoveOn to organize grass-roots support for candidates, but we are worried that it appears they are playing favorites.”
Of course, if the Gephardt people knew what they were talking about, they would have known that Dean’s e-mail was just one of three e-mails being sent out, one from each of the top three candidates in MoveOn’s polls.
Boyd said everyone registered on the site got the Dean e-mail Wednesday because he finished in the top three in a poll conducted by the campaign last month. The other top finishers also got to send a message — Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s was sent Thursday; Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich will send his Friday.
Dean, not being one to take an accusation like this laying down, posted the following rebuttal to his website:
\”MoveOn has done more to get people involved and to give them a voice in the political process than any other organization in recent memory. To question the integrity of MoveOn and its 1.4 million members is outrageous and only serves to further erode the American people’s belief that their voices matter.
\”People in Washington wonder why so many have been turning away from the political process. This type of baseless accusation only gives them one more reason to tune out.
“My campaign will continue to stand for one thing: citizen participation. We must not allow Washington cynicism to erode the fundamental belief that people at the grassroots can make a difference in their government. Join me, and let’s move on.”
(via Taegan Goddard)
Today’s BlogFodder asks for 11 objects in your immediate vicinity.
The sad thing is, I could quite honestly take the easy route out and give “Eleven empty Dr. Pepper cans” as my answer. Good thing that more housecleaning is on the schedule for tonight.
Fascinating, isn’t it?