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Dec. 5th, 2008
dear Chicago Transit Authority,
i love you, but we really need to talk.
over the last week or so, the weather has turned decidedly wintry. the temperature has rarely been above freezing for longer than a couple of hours at a time. snow has fallen, melted, and refrozen into ice.
it's this that we need to talk about: the ice. yes, it's bad enough when there is ice on the sidewalk. i'm careful when i step, and i try not to fall. if i fell, it could hurt a bit, but life-threatening consequences of slipping and falling on the ice are extremely unlikely.
even so, most of the businesses and landlords around dear old wrigleyville are doing what they can to make my life a little easier--or, at least, to avoid getting sued by someone who slips and falls on their portion of sidewalk. i know it's a new concept at the forefront of accident prevention, but i would like for you to listen carefully: they went to the hardware store, bought a bag of salt, spread the salt on the sidewalk, and got rid of the ice.
as icy as the sidewalks were before the salt was applied, they were not nearly as icy as the platform at the southport brown line station still is. this has turned my morning commute from a joyous indulgence of my public transit love into a scary, scary experience. if i slip on the ice on the el platform, i face the same possible consequences as falling on the sidewalk. i could rip my clothing, scrape my knee, or break a leg or an arm.
however, i face also face the additional dangerous possibility of slipping and falling off of the platform onto the train track. once that happens, i have two wonderfully transit-geeky ways to shuffle off this mortal coil: either getting shocked by the third rail, or getting run over by an oncoming train. as much as i love your trains, i'm not quite ready to die prostrate before one of them simply because i'm a klutz who slipped on a patch of ice.
in short, salt the platform. now.
if you don't have the money to do it now, i question the priorities espoused by whoever writes your budget. but, i know there are fare increases kicking in for the new year. you can at least use some of that new money coming in to buy some salt for the el platforms. it'll make me feel a lot safer during my commute, and will be a lot less expensive than the inevitable wrongful death lawsuit when someone slips on your unsalted el platform, gets shocked by the third rail, and is then flattened by an oncoming train.
love,
the persecuted crack smoker
i love you, but we really need to talk.
over the last week or so, the weather has turned decidedly wintry. the temperature has rarely been above freezing for longer than a couple of hours at a time. snow has fallen, melted, and refrozen into ice.
it's this that we need to talk about: the ice. yes, it's bad enough when there is ice on the sidewalk. i'm careful when i step, and i try not to fall. if i fell, it could hurt a bit, but life-threatening consequences of slipping and falling on the ice are extremely unlikely.
even so, most of the businesses and landlords around dear old wrigleyville are doing what they can to make my life a little easier--or, at least, to avoid getting sued by someone who slips and falls on their portion of sidewalk. i know it's a new concept at the forefront of accident prevention, but i would like for you to listen carefully: they went to the hardware store, bought a bag of salt, spread the salt on the sidewalk, and got rid of the ice.
as icy as the sidewalks were before the salt was applied, they were not nearly as icy as the platform at the southport brown line station still is. this has turned my morning commute from a joyous indulgence of my public transit love into a scary, scary experience. if i slip on the ice on the el platform, i face the same possible consequences as falling on the sidewalk. i could rip my clothing, scrape my knee, or break a leg or an arm.
however, i face also face the additional dangerous possibility of slipping and falling off of the platform onto the train track. once that happens, i have two wonderfully transit-geeky ways to shuffle off this mortal coil: either getting shocked by the third rail, or getting run over by an oncoming train. as much as i love your trains, i'm not quite ready to die prostrate before one of them simply because i'm a klutz who slipped on a patch of ice.
in short, salt the platform. now.
if you don't have the money to do it now, i question the priorities espoused by whoever writes your budget. but, i know there are fare increases kicking in for the new year. you can at least use some of that new money coming in to buy some salt for the el platforms. it'll make me feel a lot safer during my commute, and will be a lot less expensive than the inevitable wrongful death lawsuit when someone slips on your unsalted el platform, gets shocked by the third rail, and is then flattened by an oncoming train.
love,
the persecuted crack smoker
on karaoke
Dec. 5th, 2008 04:04 pmthere was an article on the new york times website today about karaoke rage. there was recently a guy who was killed in a karaoke establishment because someone else thought he was hogging the mike. every so often, there will be news articles about people who are severely beaten or killed because they butchered someone else's favourite song, or because they just plain sucked at karaoke.
maybe this is because i'm american, and americans don't take their karaoke quite as seriously, but--don't you expect people to suck and/or try to get as much performance time as possible at karaoke? that's kind of the point.
you don't have to be any good at karaoke to go and sing. there's no vetting process--anyone who shows up and signs up gets to sing. some people are really good. some people are really bad. most people fall somewhere in between. the point is, they feel like doing it. if you're in the bar, and you don't want to listen to any old joe off the street pick up a mike and sing--then don't go to the bar on karaoke night. there are a million other places to get your Drink and/or your Socialization on. so, if you don't feel like listening to people who suck at karaoke, don't go to a certain bar when it's karaoke night and start beating up or killing the singers that suck. just find another bar that doesn't have karaoke that night.
and, if a guy hogs the mic, it's not necessarily the guy's fault. i get the feeling that a lot of people who sing karaoke want to hog the mike. karaoke singers, especially the hardcore ones, are attention whores. karaoke bars should know this, and have the karaoke host make a proactive effort to manage the requests to sing, and mix the new singers in with people who want to sing multiple times. most good karaoke bars get a rotation going, and insert new singers accordingly, so no one person hogs the mic. at bars that just let people sign up on a sheet and sing in the order they sign, be prepared to see the hardcore karaoke freaks come up to the stage frequently. if you don't like mic hogs, ask the management to institute a rotation, or find another karaoke bar that regulates its rotation well.
luckily, i've never seen a particularly egregious episode of karaoke rage. i've seen a little grumbling and jeering at times. the closest thing to karaoke-fueled violence i ever saw was at Tom's, this really shitty karaoke bar in st. louis that i went to a few times, as a last resort. i was there with the foof, and he was up there singing. he wasn't quite in his best voice that day. some old guy at the bar picked up his oxygen tank, lugged it across the bar with him, and started chucking popcorn at foofy. one of the bartenders quickly noticed, made him stop throwing popcorn, and escorted him away. although it's definitely not a nice thing to do, a doddering old guy chucking popcorn is a far cry from actual karaoke-related violence; if that's the worst i've seen after all the karaoke i've done over the years, i feel safe in saying that it's a lot safer to be a karaoke singer in america than it is to be one in a country where they take it far more seriously.
***
also, in that article, they reference a comment made by malaysia's information minister, putting down karaoke singers by comparing them to bloggers, and stating that they "take pleasure in their own singing but have no influence." that's true, but what's the harm in it? as someone who avidly blogs and avidly sings karaoke, it seems obvious to me that i like both blogging and karaokeing for similar reasons.
i'm not good enough at singing or at writing to do them professionally, but i still really like doing both of them in public. at karaoke, i have an audience of whoever happens to be in the bar that night, and if someone finds me good or entertaining, cool. if not, it's no big deal. it's the same thing with blogging. this blog is on the internet, and i have an audience of whoever stumbles across it from a link or a google search. if they come across it, like it, and start to follow it, it makes me happy. if they come across it and think it sucks, no harm done.
i can think of few less bothersome ways to indulge the fact that i'm a self-important asshat than karaoke and blogging. i'm not forcing myself or my delusions of grandeur on anyone in either case. at karaoke, the only people who have to listen to me are the people who willingly walked into a karaoke bar. on my blog, the only people who have to put up with what i blather on about all the time are the ones who choose to follow my entries on their link lists or rss feeders.
no harm done.
maybe this is because i'm american, and americans don't take their karaoke quite as seriously, but--don't you expect people to suck and/or try to get as much performance time as possible at karaoke? that's kind of the point.
you don't have to be any good at karaoke to go and sing. there's no vetting process--anyone who shows up and signs up gets to sing. some people are really good. some people are really bad. most people fall somewhere in between. the point is, they feel like doing it. if you're in the bar, and you don't want to listen to any old joe off the street pick up a mike and sing--then don't go to the bar on karaoke night. there are a million other places to get your Drink and/or your Socialization on. so, if you don't feel like listening to people who suck at karaoke, don't go to a certain bar when it's karaoke night and start beating up or killing the singers that suck. just find another bar that doesn't have karaoke that night.
and, if a guy hogs the mic, it's not necessarily the guy's fault. i get the feeling that a lot of people who sing karaoke want to hog the mike. karaoke singers, especially the hardcore ones, are attention whores. karaoke bars should know this, and have the karaoke host make a proactive effort to manage the requests to sing, and mix the new singers in with people who want to sing multiple times. most good karaoke bars get a rotation going, and insert new singers accordingly, so no one person hogs the mic. at bars that just let people sign up on a sheet and sing in the order they sign, be prepared to see the hardcore karaoke freaks come up to the stage frequently. if you don't like mic hogs, ask the management to institute a rotation, or find another karaoke bar that regulates its rotation well.
luckily, i've never seen a particularly egregious episode of karaoke rage. i've seen a little grumbling and jeering at times. the closest thing to karaoke-fueled violence i ever saw was at Tom's, this really shitty karaoke bar in st. louis that i went to a few times, as a last resort. i was there with the foof, and he was up there singing. he wasn't quite in his best voice that day. some old guy at the bar picked up his oxygen tank, lugged it across the bar with him, and started chucking popcorn at foofy. one of the bartenders quickly noticed, made him stop throwing popcorn, and escorted him away. although it's definitely not a nice thing to do, a doddering old guy chucking popcorn is a far cry from actual karaoke-related violence; if that's the worst i've seen after all the karaoke i've done over the years, i feel safe in saying that it's a lot safer to be a karaoke singer in america than it is to be one in a country where they take it far more seriously.
***
also, in that article, they reference a comment made by malaysia's information minister, putting down karaoke singers by comparing them to bloggers, and stating that they "take pleasure in their own singing but have no influence." that's true, but what's the harm in it? as someone who avidly blogs and avidly sings karaoke, it seems obvious to me that i like both blogging and karaokeing for similar reasons.
i'm not good enough at singing or at writing to do them professionally, but i still really like doing both of them in public. at karaoke, i have an audience of whoever happens to be in the bar that night, and if someone finds me good or entertaining, cool. if not, it's no big deal. it's the same thing with blogging. this blog is on the internet, and i have an audience of whoever stumbles across it from a link or a google search. if they come across it, like it, and start to follow it, it makes me happy. if they come across it and think it sucks, no harm done.
i can think of few less bothersome ways to indulge the fact that i'm a self-important asshat than karaoke and blogging. i'm not forcing myself or my delusions of grandeur on anyone in either case. at karaoke, the only people who have to listen to me are the people who willingly walked into a karaoke bar. on my blog, the only people who have to put up with what i blather on about all the time are the ones who choose to follow my entries on their link lists or rss feeders.
no harm done.
chicago 2600
Dec. 5th, 2008 10:40 pmi'm at 2600 right now. it's a small crowd this month, but cool people are here, and it's probably the most fun meeting i've been to since i started attending 2600 meetings.
i'm frustrated because i can't ssh into my box at home. it's my fault for being stupid--i should have made sure the port was still open, and that the dynamic ip hadn't reset itself. i hadn't checked that in about a month, because i hadn't had the need. i should have checked. i didn't, so i can't access the data on my main computer--which means i cannot access the program i wanted to work on from here.
[what kind of program? that's for me to know and you to find out...maybe...if i decide to tell you.]
however, all kinds of awesome has transpired, enough that i can almost get over my idiocy and my inability to access my program.
first off, i found out about unetbootin, which is a program that makes bootable usb sticks of linux distributions. this is awesome, because the process of manually making bootable usb sticks is a royal pain in the ass. i've killed several perfectly good usb sticks while trying to make them live...and, even if i didn't kill them, i still couldn't boot from them. in other words, i was full of fail. apparently i'm not the only one who finds that process to be a total pain in the ass, so it's exciting to have a program to help me make them now.
secondly, it turns out that planning meetings for a chicago hackerspace have started! i knew there were rumblings about it when i was at 2600 two months ago, but it's actually happening. meetings are tuesday evenings at 7pm, at mercury cafe...i know what i'm doing on tuesday nights from here on out!
i'm frustrated because i can't ssh into my box at home. it's my fault for being stupid--i should have made sure the port was still open, and that the dynamic ip hadn't reset itself. i hadn't checked that in about a month, because i hadn't had the need. i should have checked. i didn't, so i can't access the data on my main computer--which means i cannot access the program i wanted to work on from here.
[what kind of program? that's for me to know and you to find out...maybe...if i decide to tell you.]
however, all kinds of awesome has transpired, enough that i can almost get over my idiocy and my inability to access my program.
first off, i found out about unetbootin, which is a program that makes bootable usb sticks of linux distributions. this is awesome, because the process of manually making bootable usb sticks is a royal pain in the ass. i've killed several perfectly good usb sticks while trying to make them live...and, even if i didn't kill them, i still couldn't boot from them. in other words, i was full of fail. apparently i'm not the only one who finds that process to be a total pain in the ass, so it's exciting to have a program to help me make them now.
secondly, it turns out that planning meetings for a chicago hackerspace have started! i knew there were rumblings about it when i was at 2600 two months ago, but it's actually happening. meetings are tuesday evenings at 7pm, at mercury cafe...i know what i'm doing on tuesday nights from here on out!
