Safe Drive

So in California we have this new cell phone law. You can't have your phone next to your ear or be visibly text messaging, otherwise you get a ticket. This sounds like a wonderful idea ethically but like most people I have seen, people just don't seem to care.

I can drive around and still see people holding their phones up to their ears while driving in their cars. They are usually the ones I have to swerve around and pass on the freeways because they don't realize how slow they are going. There also the ones who drive too fast and typically are the ones causing accident.

I don't mind using my Bluetooth headset but I can see where people who are not tech savvy are had a predisposed hatred for the new cell phone law. In an angry moment toward her new piece of required technology, my mother gave me her Bluetooth headset, saving me the trouble of having to go out and get one for myself.

In her disgust she said,"These stupid things shouldn't be required. They don't even WORK!" As she handed me it, I snagged her phone and began going through the useual procedures. Options -> general settings -> Bluetooth -> (Enter Passcode). Presto change-o, it worked.

I showed her how to connect it to her phone and like the response I was expecting she said, "That is too difficult!", "Why make something this complicated required?"

I had to laugh only because it was simple to me. A person who has explored the functions and read the manual on my phone. But I can see where people would be upset with the new law. For one thing, not every device is easy to setup. Also, for older people who don't really gell with new technology, finding the Bluetooth section, (and more importantly remember where it is and remembering to shut it off), can be a hassel.

The only thing I don't like about my particular headset is that the blue light blinks fairly bright at night. The light blinks to let me know it is on, shining against my driver-side window and reflecting off of everything in my car. It is kind of distracting. But, hey, if someone got a red blinking one and sat in my passenger seat we could signal people like airliners in the sky.

On the other hand, I am glad that this law is in place. People will now use their phone less, because it is too difficult to use your phone with the headset. (You still have to look at your phone to dial, set up the headset and see who is calling you.) Maybe this law will make people realize how un-important using your phone in the car is.

Before this rule, I seldom used my phone in my car. I would pull over and use my phone if I needed to, or I would just wait to use my phone until I arrived at my destination. I don't use my phone more now that the law is in place, but I don't find it any more difficult.

It makes me happy in a way to see older people struggle with the technology in turn curbing their desire to use their phones. But at the same time there are even more people out there using their phones anyway. I hope the police strictly enforce this law, that way more people will take it seriously. This law is a great way to protect the lives of people behind the wheel.

Next stop ... putting on makeup and shaving while driving.

Title: "Safe Drive" by Cute Is What We Aim For off of "Rotation"

I'm No Da Vinci

I skipped going to work today to sleep in and the only real thing I had to do was go get some RAM for my great aunt's computer. So as I was sitting at home after all of that waiting for my girlfriend to get home from work, I picked through my comic books and decided to whip out the old pencil and paper and see what I could do.

I used to draw quite often, but as I began writing more, I stopped drawing and did other things. So I picked up the issue of the "Invincible Iron Man." If you read my review of the recent movie, you might understand the recent fascination with the character.

Anyway, I started off real well, but then I got to the legs and I decided to erase it and save it before I made it a disaster. So here is the original and what I ended up drawing.

Christine Everheart: You've been called the Da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?
Tony Stark: Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint.

Irony of Dying on Your Birthday

I am sitting in a cluttered office, pilled to the rafters with booklets filled with tiny pieces of sticky-backed paper. No, not a sticker factory, but my fathers Stamp and collectibles business. What am I doing here? Procrastinating of course. In all honesty I am helping him create an inventory of his stock so that he can put it on his website.

I just scan the object and save them onto an external hard drive which as of last week, only seven days of work, became half full. Time to lower the resolution and start over... I know. Exciting.
As I sit here and wait for the scans I did this morning to finish moving to the external hard drive, I was thinking about the idea of a birthday.

A day of celebration in honor of the day you were born. Seems simple, by why is it that parents these days just don't get them. My parents have double duty, because my twin brother and I obviously share the same day. My mother struggles to come up with things to get for us, as I am older know and my hobbies and interests no longer make sense to her.

My birthday is nearing a month over now and it is funny how little interest there is one year after my 21st. The last big birthday I had was for my 21st, some friends and I got together and tailgated before an Oakland A's game, then sat in a outfield luxury box.

But before that, and much like this year, the day passes by with a celebration and apathy from my parents, chalking up getting a simple gift to, "You didn't ask for anything." How I see it is simple. I am 22 and my rent and utilities are paid for by my parents. My jobs can't afford them yet. I don't ask for anything because, what I need, they give me.

I thought I was being selfish for even wanting to go out to dinner. That was until my brother stepped on the face of being polite and in the midst of moving into a brand-new, four-room, single bedroom apartment, asked for his birthday gift.

When my mom got home from helping him move into his new apartment she asked me, "What would you like for your birthday?" I simply shoved off the question. A few minutes later it dawned on me that my brother probably asked for something and got it ... warranting the question from my mother.

I went downstairs and asked my mother, "What did (Brother's name) want for his birthday?"
He is currently basking in the glory of 48 flat-panel inches of high-definition television. Since then I have been looking for things that I "want" for my birthday and to this very moment can't think of anything that I couldn't buy for myself.

I don't know, maybe I just want fair compensation. My older sister totals her car and gets a new one. My brother causes an accident that leaves his SUV totaled then gets the truck he has "always wanted." I would just like fair compensation.

I drive a 13 year old car with 90k miles on it that runs like it has 590k on it. I don't want a damn TV, I just want my parents to see that on the balance scale of sibling fairness, my amount has flown off the other side from the wait of the others.

This is a selfish rant, discard if you have made it this far.
"Irony of Dying on Your Birthday" by Senses Fail off of Let It Enfold You.

Barney, Start the Revolution

If there is one thing I can't stand about writing for the paper, is the blatant abuse of power by the editors. Certain ones more than others and some not at all. But the ones that do ... annoying. I am planning on being an editor next semester and I plan on never leaving a writer hanging.

Over the weekend one of the editors wanted me to cover a certain type of event that I have covered a lot already. It wasn't so bad except for the fact that the request came via their significant others' email and at 12:35 a.m. the morning of the event.

I was awake when i received the email update on my iPhone, but was so put off by the blatant disregard for my knowing of the event that it made me just want to scream. I slept in and ignored the fact that they gave me 12 hours before the event was to take place and even less time to decided whether or not I wanted to cover it.

I denied them with a big fat NO. I made up an excuse on the phone to make my emotional state feel better about being denied an ounce of professional courtesy. I am obviously still peeved about the whole incident, enough to rant to the online world about it.

But oh well, shit stinks and heavy things sink in water. Either way, the damn world keeps spinning even though we want it to stop for a few days and let us take a break.

I am sitting in the news room, resenting the fact that there is not enough time to write all the stories I need to finish but there are not enough stories to allow me to finish. Gotta love double-down downers.

Rebel without a cause

According to one reader, it has been more than a month and my posts have dwindled. So I will post and update the online world of my happenings.

I have become increasingly interested in the car that James Dean died in.

I have been very busy writing for the school newspaper. So busy that I have not been back home in three weeks, now on four.

There are three things that keep me going during the day and those are my girlfriend and red bull and the idea that I will eventually sleep in my cozy bed.

I would like to take this time to plug Iron Man, the movie, that is coming out on May second. Go and see it, and to all those producers of the movie, it better not destroy my childhood memories.

I would also like to take this time to say that I have no more time to write at the moment. Look for more posts after the end of the semester. I will be working over the summer, but I will have more time than I have right now with the newspaper.

Check out our paper. www.thespartandaily.com