Oppression of the Lawful, CD-Rs, and Eating Bugs
6/26/1
I woke up today with a feeling that I was in a hotel or on vacation. It was a good feeling. Aisai had gotten up before me to take her sister to the airport.
However, on the way to work, I got really down. I was on the Parkway going 50 mph, the speed limit, and getting passed by everyone. I was tailgated. Trucks surged at me, trying to intimidate me into going faster. It made me think about something:
Lawlessness. It made me very sad for a while.
What if there was some law that was made, just to see if people respected the law. And then whoever was in charge could look down and say, �Look, look at the depravity. They do not obey the laws.� Not a single person this morning wanted to obey the law.
There is a stereotype in movies of the hotshot kid who speeds around town. The stereotype does not stand well now because everyone is a hot shot who speeds around town.
Another speed related gripe: This weekend we took Aisai�s sister, mom, and some assorted niece and nephew types to the Tennessee Valley Aquarium in Chattanooga. On the way back, when you get off I-24 and get onto US72, stupid old Tennessee has the speed limit 30 mph.
When you are in Alabama, and not in a city, the speed limit on 72 is 65 mph. Alabama may be a lot of things, but at least it sets reasonable speed limits.
I know I did this gripe recently, but I�ve run into it again, twice recently in fact. I can�t stand it when a governing body sets a sped limit that they think people will break by some percentage, so they crank it down to get the desired speed. That makes all the law-abiding citizens look like morons. 30 miles per hour? I just got off an interstate.
The other situation both Aisai and I had, but at different times. When I left for work on Friday, they had I-565 down to one lane, the left lane. They also had a State Trooper parked at the beginning of the construction. Regardless of the trooper, I would go the speed limit.
However, they pushed us over to the left lane and then lowered the speed limit to 50 mph. Now, that might not sound to bad, and honestly, it isn�t. For the safety of the workers on the road, I consider that a completely reasonable speed.
The girl in the Saturn behind me didn�t think so. She was screaming and cursing and waving her arms. My cruise control was oblivious to this however.
When the construction cleared, I got back to 70 mph as fast as the Kronos could take me. It took her a little while to finally pass me.
That was before the Tennessee 30 mph thing. Friday, I went against my instincts to obey the law. It was very unsafe to allow the jerk-girl to tailgate me, but I think that even if I was at 70 she would have been on my bumper. She just seemed to have that mentality.
But in Tennessee, I broke the law. I could not go 30 mph when semi trucks are going 70 mph next to me. And that angers me.
In other news: all my computer parts came in and I now have a table full of my old computer and my new parts mixed all up. I need to find out which pins the power button plugs into and the hard drive light, etc. The case was not made for my �AT� board, but there was a little thing that could be snapped in which would account for the keyboard plug type.
When I figure out how to get it back together, and if all things work, I will have 4 times more RAM and a CD burner and have a case that I can actually expand with. I think I�ll keep the old Connor 420 meg drive in there, since I have room for it. I actually have room for another hard drive, even with me keeping the old 40x CD.
One of my first CDs that I will burn will be a collection CD for Aisai�s mom. She found the Everything But The Girl CD �Amplified Heart� to be very restful. Restful is a key term that describes the music she is wanting. She only owns four non-Christmas CDs. Neil Diamond, Neil Diamond, Neil Diamond, and Steel Drum Music of the Caribbean.
I like to put the steel drum music on at Christmas.
Where I work, we are having an insect outbreak. There are probably a few tens of millions of bugs flying around. I only ate two by accident yesterday.
And no, the rest weren�t eaten on purpose.