from digg and The New Yorker :
Since zinc has soared in value, producing a penny now costs about 1.7 cents. Since the Mint currently manufactures more than seven billion pennies a year and “sells” them to the Federal Reserve at their face value, the Treasury incurs an annual penny deficit of about fifty million dollars—referred to as “negative seigniorage.”
Yeah, same as last weekend; I’m trying to go offline again. Although, I’ve already been doing research for work and checking the office email today… Well, I’m stopping now. I can still be reached by cell.
So, it turns out that Washington Chevy ordered a bunch of parts without authorization and now we’re stuck getting our almost totaled car fixed. Really, no one authorized them to order anything. It reeks of fraud.
This is getting ridiculous and I’m reaching the point where I’m thinking that letting a lawyer handle the whole mess is the smartest alternative. Outside of a couple exceptions, I dislike dealing with lawyers, but that seems to be the most efficient avenue.
This a picture of my car. It was taken at night and doesn’t do the damage full justice. The front is either missing or disjointed, so are the hood and driver side door.
The damage totals almost 6k. We’re thinking of buying something else. It’s already starting to rust on the lot because the damn insurance companies took so long to get anything accomplished. Thank you Erie Insurance and State Farm.
I was actually considering a Prius at some point, but it’s looking like we might get an HHR.
This isn’t really affordable, but it makes little sense to repair my seriously damaged…and quickly aging Hyundai. It runs great, but also has major mileage.
I’m sure we’ll figure something out.
It’s turning out to be a rather busy week.
We finally received a rental car. It’s about time.
Hopefully I can get through the pile of things at work and have another uneventful weekend.
We’d like to go down and visit my family. I don’t know when it’s going to be possible to do this.
On the plus side, it’s getting much more pleasant outside. Spring is arriving.
Through use of a new regenerative powder, a man’s severed finger is regrown. Incredible…
Okay, I’m going to try what I attempted last weekend, and go offline the entire weekend….without the car accident this time. I think the flu has finally caught up with me as well, so I’m hoping to rest and recover. If anyone needs me, call the secret emergency number (I still have my cell of course). If you don’t know it….well, you figure it out.
This is amazing. I need one. No, I need several.
‘Legendary British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.’
HaHaHa. More craziness from big brother and bureaucracy, as reported by Engadget:
by Paul Miller
There’s just one, fairly ironic, flaw to the otherwise totally lovable red light cameras that adorn Dallas: they work too well. Turns out the cams have curtailed red light infractions by 50 percent, which in turn has put a budget crunch on City Hall. The city is now considering stopping its planned rollout of more cameras, or shutting down the cameras on a rotating basis — upkeep when off is next to nothing, but the city pays $3,799 per month per online camera to its service provider. That sounds like quite a spendy broadband bill, but we’re not the experts here. Just remember kids, your government wants what’s best for you, and what’s best for you is a well-funded government, alright?
from digg:
So, ok, everyone makes a mistake sometimes, but few of us have ever dropped a bomb from our fighter jet by accident, as happened late last week in Tulsa.
from digg and the New York Times:
The Dalai Lama said that he would not instruct his followers inside Tibet to surrender before Chinese authorities, and he described feeling “helpless” in preventing what he feared could be an imminent blood bath. He endorsed the right to peaceful protest, accusing Beijing of carrying out “a rule of terror”.
This is how I spent my weekend.
Steph and I went out to survey polling places for accessibility. We got about a mile down the road when someone cut us off on Route 18…at full speed. Physics won.
We ended up stopping…by hitting a telephone pole…after colliding with the errant driver/car.
Nonetheless, ultimately, we’re all okay. Were just really, really banged up.
It’s a good pic though. They kept me like that (strapped down) for almost two hours…then six more hours of waiting and tests. Steph busted up her knee and lower back.
Nonetheless, all alive. The other party was fine.
Next we get to see what happens with our beloved Hyundia. If I can get them, I’ll post pics of the car.
I’m going offline for the rest of the weekend. I need a break from external stimulus. I’m only expecting one phone call. I’ll see the digital world again Monday.
My friend and mentor, Roland Sykes, passed away today (3/10/2008). I will always remember him as a teacher and activist of the highest caliber, as a wizard among men. His dedication and contributions to the disability rights movement have helped to change the world for the better. He will be missed.
From Mouth Magazine and Lucy Gwin
Roland’s Field Commander’s Manual
When I can do it properly, I’ll be penning my own comments about the life of my amazing friend…And a special thanks to Kevin for putting up the memorial pages.
Hail to the bus driver.
It’s been a very difficult day. So, I’m posting Grace to cheer me up.
We took the macbook in to get serviced today for the flickering screen, unfortunately it wouldn’t reproduce the effect there. Thankfully, we have Applecare and it’s covered for another year. The new Apple Air is nice, I’ve worked without optical drives on subcompact laptops before, so I think I might have found my next work machine. However, I’m still getting the kinks out of working in a dual boot enviorment with XP and Parallels at the office. Some specific work applications are finicky. It’s still better than Vista or XP only though.
While I’m a big fan of getting more sunlight, a missing hour of sleep will mess me up for at least the next week. No Fun.
-