I Wish I Had The Answers

My dad's Jeep is crapping out, my truck is making this wretched squealing sound (no it's not a belt, it's metal on metal) whenever I steer and idles like junk. I wish I knew how to work on cars. I want to be a mechanic, not merely a parts replacer. You should look at my desk, which at the moment happens to be my kitchen table. Auto repair manuals are sprawled out as I shift from book to book, and newspapers are displayed in a similar fashion, with my handy-dandy oversized Mickey Mouse coffee mug my sister got me for Christmas two years ago.

My brain is wired soooo weird. I don't have a job, which is nice, but it also has it's shortcomings; first, no income. Second, I am just about bored silly! This is me. Wake up, shower, put on music, make coffee, email, pour coffee into Mickey, nytimes.com, local news, gripe about how I read the local news yesterday on nytimes.com. By now, it's 11:30. Skateboard for about an hour, then it's lunchtime, usually a sandwich. Reheat coffee, email, nytimes.com. Xbox, skateboard. Now it's about 4:00. Snack, email, nytimes.com and general browsing. Call several people. All working, schooling, hanging out with their girlfriends, or just unspecified "busy." Dinner time. Eat, Make more music. If I haven't gotten a call by about 9, I give it up, watch Monk or something, go upstairs, check email and nytimes.com, go downstairs read until about 12:00, think about my cars and how to fix them, and go to sleep at an unspecified hour. Then I do it again. And again. I was so bored I watched CSPAN the other day! And I actually like it!

As you can see, all of this nothing has given me time to completely perfect my inner nerd. Today at Bernie's going away party, my friend Steve made a remark that the end of the food tables and leaning against the railing was a very strategic spot. And what do I do? I start naming off geographic locations! Upon a phone call to my other friend Simon, who asked me to tell him what I knew, I began rattling off the current news in the country of Pakistan! OH. MY. GOODNESS. I collect maps. Who collects maps??? I am reading through these technical manuals of Jeep Cherokees and Chevy S-10s as if they were pleasure reading.

At one point I took this Strength Finder test online. Fourth down was input. Essentially, being a a packrat of knowledge. Wanting to learn all sorts of random things, because you never know when you're going to need it. Like at the end of a food line at a going away party.

And that's the end. Good story, yes?

Tragedy Divides Skateboarders

These are the headlines every day on my beloved morning paper. For four days. For crying out loud! I really need to get a real newspaper.

Here's the story: a 16 year old skateboarder without a helmet was goofing around with his buddies, doing what we call "skitching," or being towed by a car. He was hanging on to an open drivers side window going about 15-20 mph when he got the speed wobbles (when the board starts to shake because the tolerance of the trucks has been exceeded or something. I don't know. Ask an engineer) and fell, first hitting his head, then being run over by the car that was towing him. He was killed.

Since this has been getting so much press and I have a connection to the situation, I feel compelled to weigh in on the subject. I am a skateboarder. I have broken my arm, and it hurts. I've hit my head and it sucks. Gouges, scrapes, dirty-nasty- gross infected wounds, rolled ankles, getting sacked on rails, I've been there. And as I get older it affects the way I skate, because this body has to last me forever. When I broke my arm, I had about 12 doctors/nurses ask me if I was wearing a helmet. No. I wasn't. And I still don't. Unwise? Perhaps, even probably so. Why not? Because it's the summer time, and I don't need an extra four pounds of plastic on my head making me sweat. It's not a law, but if it was, I still wouldn't. Because my lack-of-helmet keeps me in reality. There is a false security that is derived from such things, and people can do dumb things wearing a helmet and still get worked.

How does this apply to the situation? News-flash: if this kid had been wearing a helmet, he still would have gotten run over by a car. It wouldn't have changed anything. He wasn't being smart. He was hanging on to the drivers' window, while others choose to hang on to the bumper where the wheels are in front of you rather than behind. I have never skitched and don't plan to, because it seems less than intelligent. I didn't even know it was illegal, but I'm bummed out that it is because someone in Olympia who's never ridden a skateboard decided to make it so. I take issue with where I feel this is headed, to the legislative process where a bunch of politicians are going to mandate helmets while skateboarding, bike riding, or other wheeled sports where some sort of damage could be incurred to the noggin of the poor, unsuspecting, idiotic,
doing-stupid-things-that-don't-make-sense rider. Someone in the Columbian advocated the mandatory use of helmets for everyone under 16. Can you imagine getting carded every time you go to a skatepark!?

Here's my stance, now that I've led up to it; Helmets are a personal thing. Parents can mandate them as a condition for being allowed to skate in the driveway, but I'll bet you as soon as the kid is old enough to hop a bus to the skatepark or other skate spot, that helmet's merely gonna dangle from the backpack. An option, if you will. In case the kid needs a little bit of extra assurance before they get wrecked doing something that's above their limits. But while just cruising down a hill to the next spot, I'm betting, no helmet.

Many pay-to-skate parks mandate helmets to protect themselves from lawsuits. This works, because that's the condition for skating in a confined indoor area, and kids will do that just to have a spot to skate in the crappy Portland rainy season.

The point is, the rider needs to make the decision for themself that they want to wear a helmet.
Safety? Knowing limits? Just wanting to look cool? It's their call. No legislation is going to make kids want to wear helmets, just like making skitching illegal didn't prevent this kid from doing it.

For example, up on the mountain snowboarding, I choose to wear a helmet. $90 for a helmet with headphones and $20 for wrist guards is the price I paid for protection from the unknown in an icy snowboard park, where trees, skiers, and other boarders tend to make their way into your landing. Perhaps it's easier for me because most of my friends choose to wear helmets as well, and as a result, we've ridden away from things one without a helmet would not.

The Timberline staff doesn't mandate a helmet law, and helmets are not uncommon up on the mountain. Conversely, a mandatory helmet law is impossible to enforce by law, and most skaters are adverse to cops anyway because they are often the ones called to kick us out of spots. The whole "We're just trying to protect you" thing won't hold any water. To us, all it is is The Man trying to regulate our fun.

The bottom line: Know your limits. Don't do anything dumb or drastic. Wear a helmet if you want to because even though I don't, I recognize it really is a smart thing to do. There is a definite plus: If you choose to wear a helmet and smack your head on the concrete, you'll be the one to call the paramedics when the guy behind you doesn't get up.

WOW. I am PAYING Someone to Take My Jeep

OK. Let me explain. This all hit the fan in the last 45 minutes or so, and I am pretty sure I have found the right course of action. A few months ago, I purchased a 1986 Jeep Cherokee. White, 4x4, two door. This thing rocked, and I had always wanted one. One catch. It had 256,000 miles on it. Didn't matter, to my perspective, because it ran great, and if it was taken care of it would run forever. I asked my dad if he was in my position, would he buy this Jeep. His response "I think I might." Yeah, I didn't take the hint.

Driving it home, it quit. I was able to get it rolling again, but the problem persisted, growing more frequent. After a few attempts to fix it, my good buddy Simon and I went out to drive our cars through the mud. It was a really dumb thing for both of us to do, because he fried his starter going through a big puddle, and I bent a rod trying to pull him out of it. He has since become fed up with his car as well, and is trying to get rid of it, though he is not nearly as desparate as I am.

I took the Jeep to the shop. Upon arrival, I started it up to see if he could tell what it was. As soon as he heard it, he said "turn that thing off, it's gonna blow up." Damage: $3000, engine rebuild. Kill me now. I held off, and he said since it was a lot of money to find a spot on the curb and just leave it there until I figured out what I wanted to do. So I did.

Turns out I parked it in the wrong place. I received the impound notice today, and I have the option of just letting the DOL just have the car and sell it off at an auction. All I have to do is pay the towing and storage fees, totaling to about $400. I called several wrecking yards, they'll give me $175 for it, but since it doesn't run I'd have to have it towed, which would just about even me out. I might come away $100 ahead, which still leaves me $300 behind. I'm just tired of dealing with it. So I may just give it to the DOL and be done, and never do it again. My old Chevy is gettin' me around great for now. Either way, this whole ordeal is coming to a close and I am sooo glad.

Just Woke Up...Junk!

I couldn't tell you why I am doin' any sort of mental stimulation, such as typing. Relying primarily upon my remembrance of the keyboard, I basically just started to say good morning. It's raining again. This I don't mind so much, but it rained yesterday and it came to the point that I was watching CSPAN in addition to crochetting a hat. I guess I could read or something, maybe go down to Starbucks on 8th & Columbia to obtain a print version of the New York Times. And coffee. Well, coffee's first on the agenda. And food. I'm actually hungry this morning! WOW. Ok so this was a waste of bandwidth.

It's Friday Morning

Which really isn't any different than any other morning, considering I don't do that much. I have been assigned the task of ripping the ignition coil out of the Jeep to test it, which I would whole-heartedly prefer not to do, but life's tough and I should probably get a helmet.

And I also really realized that I don't really have anything to talk about, other than the U.S. just signed a $20 billion arms deal with Israel. It's going to be over the next ten years, and things keep heating up over there. Lemme tell ya, they'll probably need them, considering we just gave a bunch of the Gulf States, including those that harbor terrorists, including Saudi Arabia (sort of contradictory, if I do say so myself but they have oil, so what're ya gonna do) a whole mess of guns as well.

OH and Iraqis trying to go through back channels to get guns from the Italian mafia. They ultimately wanted Russian made ones, and that's where they were intercepted. I don't know why, it was like the fourth page back in the Columbian. Obviously important.

So I'll sit and sip my coffee, ponder the implications of such things, and go swear at the Jeep for awhile. The screws for the ignition coil are facing out probably an inch from the valve cover. If I ever get it out, it's gonna take a miracle to get it back in.

Studying for Finals...

I was attempting to study for a Mid-East final exam in...six hours. However I find that it is simply too nice outside to bother with something so trivial. What's to study? I didn't buy the book, so it's not like I can read it. Instead, I took meticulous notes, checked the news every day to see if anything interesting is happening, and went to almost all the lectures.

Recently, I found myself in a lecture watching footage on the riots and fighting in Palestine, and something happened to me that never had before in such a context; I had a sickening feeling in my gut and a lump in my throat. As the footage continued, it showed a Palestinian child, certainly no older than ten, hanging on to his father, or brother, or it could have been someone completely random. I don't know. What I do know is that it was during a riot, and this kid was just out in the middle of it. They were behind some kind of obstacle that should have provided a reasonable amount of cover. As smoke descended upon them, there was a series of gunshots. The smoke lifted, and the boy was shot through the head, laying in his "protector"s lap, who in turn was in a state of shock.

I had just about had enough, put my head on my desk, whispered a prayer for those people. Violence in a daily ritual for them. I realized how much I cared. They're people, just like us.

I was recently told that my belief that I am a citizen of the earth, rather than the United States, was a load of crap. Rather than push the point, I let it go. I wish I hadn't. Yes, I live in the United States. But Jesus died for both Jews and gentiles. Not just Americans. Yes, Palestinians. Radical muslim clerics. Men in India who burn their daughters alive when they don't have sons. Homosexuals. Murderers, thieves. No one is exempt from his love. And as a Christ follower, I am called to love others. Other Christians, yes. But not just Christian, Jew, or American. Everyone. Even people trying to kill me. That's hard to swallow, much less post on the internet for all to see. Which brings up the issue of self defense, which I will have to bring up another time, because that's a worm from one can jumping into another.

So the next time I can't sleep, I'll ponder self defense and the 2nd Amendment. Maybe even how self defense is used as an excuse. For something like an invasion of a certain country, that might be making nukes. Or they might not. It's important that we invade so that we can find out. Yeah, that was sarcasm.

Catostrophic Bridge Failure Means No One Talks About Anything Else

As the last few days have unfolded, I had been mandated by my Political Science teacher to gather information- same story- from several different sources. Easier said than done, because this was right after the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis. One source, a broadcast source on OPB, covered the story I needed straight away. The other, Fox news, didn't care about a massive blow to the Iraqi government. A bridge had collapsed, gosh dangit! And they were going to be the first one to announce the fifth casualty if they had to interview the same people all night, because I sat down to watch at about 11:00 PM.

Yes, it brings into account ridiculous amounts of government spending that could have been used to avert the disaster. Yes, people were injured and killed. I know people are worried that all of our bridges are going to fall down, and we should expect to see some legislation pass here in the next few months. I express my condolences, and I am glad it has drawn attention to all the stupid things built at the expense of safety.

But for crying out loud, there are other people in this world besides us, disasters and triumphs alike. As the United States, principle occupier of Iraq, we as citizens have a vested interest in it's future (cheap oil comes to mind, but it depends who you ask.) India is emerging as a world power, and they recently elected their first female prime minister. IN INDIA!!! That's AWESOME!

So I guess I'm just sort of irritated that the most live coverage my story got on CNN was a little blurb on the ticker. However, I was able to find my broadcast on CNN.com with little searching which means they did run it at some point. Fox.com had a little article on it, and was ignored on the ticker. OPB made it first on their list on their 1:00 AM broadcast the day after it happened. At least someone cares what's happining outside their own backyard.

Meanwhile, I hear the Northbound I-5 bridge over the Columbia has a safety rating of 20/100. Yeah...We should probably get that fixed...