This is a very old website, with very old links, converted from Google Classic to the new Google Sites. Little of it will be updated.
Post date: Sep 29, 2009 8:55:49 PM
I set up and took down my political blog before anyone had a chance to notice it. That was just a big mistake and should be stricken from the record.
I moved 20 short stories from Sweven Volant into The Haunted Notebook and wrote 30 more stories on top of that. Then, due to lack of feedback and pageviews, I took that one down as well.
I recently took down Small Laws, which was actually getting some attention, but little of it was positive. Mostly, articles were being referenced in other places without my cognizance, where insular communities insulted me and my concerns. It's hilarious: you can cite the law, you can produce photographs to conclusively demonstrate what people are doing wrong--even on a level of common sense and self-preservation, independent of legislature--and they will still argue in defense of their actions.
All that remains is Postalatry and Sweven Volant. The latter will stay up just because that's my go-to, catch-all dumping ground. I need to write somewhere. Postalatry may not fare so well: I set it up intending to talk about my interests (stationery, linguistics, etc.) but its only subscriber recently quit reading, and no one tunes in at all. I have to wonder what the point of writing these entries is, for others' benefit, when you know no one is interested in anything you have to say.
But I took down my traffic-ranting blog and today was just a shit day for traffic... cyclist traffic. Okay, yes, that Chinese girl on her cell phone ignored my turn signal and drove up to cut me off this morning, yes, there was one incident of vehicular belligerence. But this afternoon it was a string of near-misses as cyclists cut me off and edged me out of the lane from all directions. Old man ignored the bike-only stop sign at the end of the off-ramp from the Greenway and almost rode into the street in front of me, while some gutterpunk salmoned up Bryant directly at me. Old lady without a helmet cut me off at a four-way stop: I'd stopped at the stop sign, as did three cars at the intersection, and she just sailed through hers, expecting everyone to stay out of her way.
If I act on this, I'm a vigilante. If I voice it, I've got a stick up my ass. If I confide in anyone, their reaction will be to ask what I did to deserve it or to defend the actions of everyone else; ultimately, their advice will be for me to continue to take it. And all of this is far beneath the police's attention: they have publicly stated they lack the resources to regularly enforce cyclist infractions. Meanwhile, the cyclists in this city break more and more laws and then claim they're being victimized when something unfortunate befalls them. They want all the privileges and none of the responsibility.
I have absolutely no recourse. I don't know what's acceptable to do right now. All I want to do is peaceably bike to and from work (I don't want to drive in this lawless, chaotic traffic, and I don't want to ride the bus), and the city's message is that this is an unreasonable expectation.