just heard a story on NPR
about a man in California
who installed solar panels.
he then discovered that his neighbor's redwood trees often shaded the panels.
apparently CA has a law that it is illegal for anything you own to shade someone's panels.
so he sued.
seven years later the courts found in his favor
and his neighbor had to significantly trim back the trees.


idiots in California: saving the world's natural resources -- no matter what.

so i'm headed east on Roosevelt coming from Home Depot
about to cross State to head back to Lake Shore Drive.
there's a left turn lane which is beginning to emerge on my immediate left
and i'm stopped at a traffic signal, about eight cars deep.
i can't pull any more forward,
and several cars are just squeezing past me to get into the new lane.

*bump*

a f** g***** b**** p******* in her boyfriend's Excursion
having seen the various sensibly sized city cars fitting past me
has attempted to follow suit and plowed right into the back left corner of my car.
i look back in extreme agitation.
i _REALLY_ don't want to deal with a fender bender in -this- intersection
at 10am on a Saturday morning.
the ripple effect into other people's days will be insane.

apparently she didn't want to deal with it either.
because instead of waiting for the light and then pulling through after i moved
she -PUT HER FOOT DOWN- and -DROVE THROUGH- the corner of my car
sped off, made her left turn,
never to be seen again.
because i'd pulled up as flush to the cab in front of me as i could
in an effort to help the previous cars get into that lane,
i couldn't swing left and give chase.


among other reasons to hate Chicago,
this city is also turning me into a racist.
it isn't that people from certain demographics -can't- drive,
but that they chose to use their minority status as a weapon
and -deliberately- drive as recklessly and aggressively as possible
because they know no one can say boo about it
without it becoming a race issue which they know they'll win.

today's tasty tweets

• 10:46 i finally get to do something that doesn't resemble monkey work. #

public education in this country will be
and at this point -should be
replaced by private education for the majority of young people
for one very simple and obvious reason that everyone is ignoring:

parents now treat education as a service being provided to -their- child.
they expect and demand individualized service and performance.

the core, binding principle of public education is communal and catholic.
all for one, one for all.

parents all want to believe their child is exceptional in some way shape or form.
either exceptionally gifted
or exceptionally broken.
if parents can't have an A+ honor roll student,
they expect their kid to be in every special education program possible
or at the very least one on one tutoring to ensure improvement.

when parents disagree with the way schools handle their child
they tend to blame it on teacher incompetence, laziness
or lack of school funding which is preventing more personalized programs.

it never occurs to them that the reason they disagree with the school
is that the school's decision is based on what is best for -all- children collectively
not on what is best for -that- child in a vacuum.

try to explain that to a parent and be prepared to have your head removed.


this conflict will continue to destroy public education
as it has already begun to do for decades now
until the entire premise simply ceases to be untenable.

today's tasty tweets

• 01:09 that may have been the most psychologically damaging thing i've ever done. i think i may be permanently broken from that show. #

today's tasty tweets

• 08:32 shut up shut up shut up shut UP you stupid queen SHUT UP!!! this is an OFFICE not your local coffee shop. #
• 11:29 going with the team to chinatown for lunch to say goodbye to Ben #
• 13:49 wow. almost actually real chinese food. #
• 14:50 once again, friday afternoon, and facebook performance goes completely to seed. #
• 15:00 whatever happened to Eminem? did the Fab Five give him a free make-over and turn him metro? #
• 15:37 tomorrow/sunday i will finish X Files up through season four. that show has not aged well at all. #

today's tasty tweets

• 09:36 really wish if it is going to keep raining that it would get warmer, not colder. #
• 10:13 my wife just informed me that she has scritched the dog's chin #lunnie #
• 10:20 my wife just informed me that the dog is now chewing a nylabone #lunnie #
• 10:33 my wife has just informed me that our dog has bear foots #lunnie #

today's tasty tweets

• 08:39 my entire itunes library (5600 songs) mysteriously vanished over night. itunes wasn't even running. #
• 08:40 no laptop at work today, can't do audio from work station, no rap battle for me :( #plaidteam #
• 08:48 oh my god, what the hell does life expect from me? i can't take much more of this. #
• 14:50 days like this are the days i wish i could cease to care. #
• 17:34 once again the Chicago branch of the USPS can go fly a kite in a lightening storm. #

people who deny a rational, ordered, qualitative universe
who then demand rational, ordered behavior
which meets their own minimum standards of quality
from the people they interact with.

me: we disagree about A, that's probably going to make it tough for us to get along. people who disagree with me about A usually end up deciding i'm an ass sooner or later.

you: but A isn't really very important, how could it terminate a friendship?

me: it is important to me. in fact, it is one of the cornerstones of my personal philosophy and world view.

you: but it's just art! and bad art at that! it isn't important. there's no way it can terminate our friendship.

me: you just called something very dear to me bad and unimportant, can you not see how this is likely to create friction in our relationship? you are making me feel like my ideas are completely irrelevant to you, which leads me to question why you even talk to me.

you: i don't want to talk about this. if you can't handle that, fine. your loss.

me: you just proved my point, thank you.

you: no i didn't, you're the one who said we couldn't be friends unless we talked about this.

me: actually, no, i said nothing of the sort. i just said in my experience people who disagree with me about it tend to eventually not like me anymore.

you: *fingers in your ears* LALALALALALALALALALAL all your fault good bye!

me: wow. i guess i'm glad we came to this conclusion so quickly, it saves time later. good bye.