Your tax dollars hard at work
TSA is about to prove once again what a bunch of incompetent fools they are. It is likely they will announce on Friday the relaxation of air safety rules to shorten the list of items banned from carry-on luggage. Among the things soon to be permissible are scissors less than four inches and screwdrivers less than seven.1
Where to start? What idiot decided that a seven inch screwdriver is as dangerous as a four inch pair of scissors? Who needs a screwdriver on an airplane anyway? Are they trying to make it easier for appliance repairmen or computer technicians to bring their work with them on the plane? How about making sensible restrictions on scissors like they have to be blunt nosed? Or they have to be the "safety" scissors designed for preschoolers? Honestly, the only people I've heard having issues with being unable to bring scissors on board are mothers who are trying to keep their children entertained. Safety scissors would take care of the kiddies and cut yarn (if knitting needles were on this new list—because twelve inch knitting needles might go all the way through the body, but a seven inch screwdriver will only go most of the way through) and thread—assuming two inch needles for embroidery or cross-stitch make the list.
There is also talk of making screening agents federal air marshals. Are you kidding me? I'm all for making changes so that security screener isn't a dead end job on par with fast food engineer. People who have chances for advancement and real career opportunities are more likely to have incentive to be competent and efficient, in other words more like the woman who X-rayed my photo backpack and hand searched it twice before asking me if there was anything in the bag that might look like an antenna, whereupon I told her how to find the cable release that had wedged itself into a crevice in the bottom of the bag and less like the woman who unzipped the bag just far enough to see there was a camera in the top and zipped it back up. If you're going to drag me out of line to do a visual search, then, dammit, you'd better do a thorough search! The X-ray machine told you there was a camera in there!
But air marshals? If they want to be a federal air marshal what is stopping them now? I assume air marshals have to attend some kind of police academy. They are carrying a weapon and are presumably trained in defusing tense, potentially violent situations. Will this mean that each and every TSA screening agent will have to attend a training academy first? Does that sound completely unrealistic and unlikely to happen to anyone besides me?
Keeping up with the Joneses
My neighbors already have their Christmas lights up.
I hate them.
World Cup, Milwaukee
Well, competition is over. No records set here, but that was to be expected. Apparently Milwaukee is one of the slowest rinks around. I'm told air density and humidity play a role as well as the quality of the ice. The ability to control the environment has something to do with ice quality. The fastest ice in the world is, believe it or not, Salt Lake City. That explains why most of the world records have been set there. One official I was talking to told me that the ice in Milwaukee is about one second slower than Salt Lake.
Subract a second off D's times and he did well. I had two people, an offical and the wife of an official, tell me D looks very good for only having just started training on the ice. I'm proud of him in any case. Next major race is in Calgary in March.
World Cup, Milwaukee
It's warmer today, thank goodness. Starting in the low 40s today. Sitting at warm ups again. The Dutch do this cool "synchro" skating during warm up where two skaters go around the oval almost nose to butt moving in unison. It's very cool to watch. Doubt it will make the same kind of impression in a photo, but if I'm lucky I'll catch it.
I don't have the right kind of lens for shooting this stuff. Looking around a bit it seems the "right" kind of lens for this is in the $1000 range...at the low end. Lovely. Guess, I'll just have to skip lunch and save my lunch money for, oh, the next five years. Here are a few photos from Saturday's races.
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Even Wetten, Norway
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Vincent Labrie, Canada
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Joji Kato, Japan, current world record holder in the 500m
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Ermanno Ioriatti, Italy
World Cup, Milwaukee
Well, it did warm up in here by the end of the day. Outside, it started out in the mid 20s this morning and made it up to the mid 30s today. It ought to tell you something about the building that the exterior temperature affects the interior temperature as much as it does. I have a hard time believing human body heat could raise the temperature of as large a space as this one is. There was a decent crowd for the division A skaters, but that only lasted a couple hours.
D did well, but not as well as he would have liked. He missed the national record for Mexico in the 100m by .03 seconds. He'll be racing the 500m and the 1000m tomorrow.
World Cup, Milwaukee
Blogging live from the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee. I am not one who gets cold easily—in fact, I usually turn the thermostat up when I have company over to keep my guests from getting cold—but I'd just like to say it's fricking cold in here! Yes, I know. It's an ice rink. Well, I spent last weekend at the ice oval in Salt Lake City for the World Cup races there and was fine in a light jacket. After spending an hour here last night, I came back today adding long johns, gloves and a scarf to my ski coat. Of course that means you risk heat stroke going to the bathroom, but I guess that's better than sticking to the toilet seat.
Competition hasn't started yet, but skaters are jogging around the track and beginning to warm up. A friend of mine told me he loves speed skating. It's not hard to see why. This place is a paradise for the connoisseur of the human back side. And the legs on these guys...oh, my. In Randy's case, the copious quantities of latex probably doesn't hurt either.
German Waterbed Gag
If you haven't seen this yet, it's a definate must. Try not to fall out of your chair.
Christmas Spirit
Some digital wizardry for fans of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra that's fun to watch.
Freeway Etiquette 101
- Just because the posted speed limit is 65, that does not entitle you to drive 65 in the inside lane. Believe it or not, the law requires you to allow people to pass, regardless of their speed. Go to church and pray for all the godless sinners who exceed the speed limit if that makes you feel better, but I'd lay odds even God thinks you're being insufferably arrogant.
- If I turn on my blinker I am doing you the courtesy of informing you of my intent to change lanes. I am not asking your permission. Don't speed up to try and close the gap.
- Don't ride my tail in the middle lane. I have a lead foot as it is. I am not going to feel bad that you can't do 85 in the middle lane. The left hand lane is called the passing lane. Use it.
- If traffic is heavy and we are in the left hand lane, don't expect me to ride the tail of the person in front of me so you can feel better about riding mine.
- If someone in front of you is going 67 mph and you pull in front of me to pass them, going 67.4 does not constitute passing.
- If my passing you snaps you out of whatever reverie you were lost in and you now realize how annoyingly slow you were going, don't decide to speed up and pace me. Either maintain your current speed or speed up and pass me, but get the hell out of the way.
- Don't expect me to move over just because you haven't figured out that the HOV restrictions on the left lane ended 500 yards back. See #3.
- If I move over to let you pass me and I have 100 yards or less before I over take the car in front of me, then, for crying out loud, pass me! See #5. Riding my tail and then just creeping past me officially makes you an obnoxious asshole.
- If you are going to jump into my lane, cut me off, and then maintain your current speed causing me to break to avoid running you over, there had better be debris in the road—you know, like a dead cow or a steel safe. "The mood grabbed me" is not even a valid reason for changing lanes, much less for cutting me, or anyone else, off.
- It is okay to pass a highway patrolman at 70 mph. It is not okay to pass a highway patrolman at 80mph, though we appreciate you taking him out of traffic and breaking up the log jam of cowards who don't have the gonads to pass him at all.
I’m entitled.
My boyfriend is the new national 500m speed skating record holder for Mexico. The previous record holder has vowed to not let it stand. We'll see. D has only been seriously training for about six four months. He's only going to get faster. I suspect he'll break his own record soon enough.