April 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from United By Yucca written in the month of April 2006.
Two things happened this morning on my way in to work that are fairly representative of a normal ride in.
I cycle most days from Lewisham to Old Street and back again on my fixed gear road bike, and have done on and off for the last 5 years. (Edit: As David rightly points out - only 4 months on a fixed gear bike - the rest on MTBs.)
I don’t often use the ‘official’ cycle route suggested by TFL, as it takes me through a couple of estates where I have been attacked on a number of occasions by bored kids. My normal route is up the Old Kent Road, over London Bridge and up through the city via Moorgate.
Incident #1: On the Old Kent Road, near the large new Asda BBS (Big Box Store) I was riding up the road on the green colour cycle lane part of the road, on the inside of a stationary bus.
The traffic in front of the bus started moving and as it set off, it pulled in and pushed me onto the curb; where I had to dismount and wait for the bus to pass.
At the next lights, I knocked on the bus drivers’ window and said “Hi, I’m not going to be abusive or rude, but can I just ask that next time you don’t run me off the road when I’m using a green cycle path?”
The driver laughed and said - “I let you out earlier at the road works”.
I said, “That doesn’t give you the right to run me off the road later.”
She laughed.
I said, “This isn’t funny - this is my life we’re talking about”
She then said - “All the other bus drivers do it.”
And so on.
In the end I was able to extract and apology and a promise not to do it again - but I think you can see what I’m up against.
Incident #2: In order to redress the balance, and having watched a couple of cyclists continually jumping red lights all the way up Moorgate, I caught up with one guy at a set of lights and asked if I may make a polite point. He said yes.
I said, “Every time you jump a red light, you are giving car drivers an excuse to treat us [cyclists] badly.”
He said that he didn’t do it very often, and that he was late for work and that he only did it when it was safe etc etc.
I suggested that is was difficult for us to take the moral high ground with other road users when as a group we are constantly breaking the law.
In the end he said he agreed with me. He may have just wanted me to go away - but you never know he may stop pissing off car drivers and start obeying the traffic lights.
My new tactic is going to be to take photos (whenever it is safe to do so) - of bus and taxi drivers who try and kill me and cyclists who are giving cause to these self same bus and taxi drivers by jumping red lights - and post them here.
My other plan (for the future) is to strap a small digital video camera to my helmet and try and capture a typical journey to work. All I need is a mini digi-video camera - so anybody with one to spare, feel free to contact me.
Also check out - http://stopatred.org/
Written by exmonkey on April 28th, 2006 with 3 comments.
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We had to clean the office today - client visit.
I am always amazed at the amount of dust balls that accumulate under the desk in the heaving mass of coiled compter related cables.
Is this a new type of dust or is it that prior to the computing age, the conditions that encourage the accumulation of iDusttm simply didn’t exist?
Written by exmonkey on April 27th, 2006 with 3 comments.
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Amazon are providing a great new range of products - they sent me an email totell me know all about it.
Good though these items are, I’m not sure I’m quite ready for either a used bin bag or packet of razors let alone a used toothbrush head - no matter what the savings.
Written by exmonkey on April 24th, 2006 with no comments.
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Rant.
Seriously - what do people think is happening when they spray Glade Meadow Fresh air freshener in their lounge because the dog floated an air biscuit?
Assuming that they have some kind of medical or psychological condition that makes them smell the chemical tang produced by the vile canisters of aerosol crap, these people must somehow associate the reek with cleanliness or hygiene. So what do they think is happening to the airborne microscopic particles of chemical as they breathe deeply of the scented air? And we wonder why allergies and cancers are on the increase…
Anyway - it just put me in mind of the plague, and its association with pockets stuffed with sweet smelling flowers and lavender, used in the mistaken belief that a strong smell will cleanse the air of the bad humors that cause illness. Clearly the Glade plugin buying public haven’t moved on to much since the days of leeches and bloodletting.
Written by exmonkey on April 21st, 2006 with no comments.
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Hitman.us
Found by Stephen - the answer to a number of life’s irriating problems.
Written by exmonkey on April 18th, 2006 with no comments.
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I took the train in today - I have to go out for a drink with some friends in Covent Garden this evening (when in truth I’d rather be at finishing the work I’m doing on the van - another story).
Anyway, on the train I was sitting next to a fairly young woman who was listening to her iPod Nano. I noticed that the display on the iPod still had the curling remains of the little bit of transparent, factory applied protective sticky plastic.
This may be a crass generalisation, but I have seen this practice before - new electronic devices (phones, PDAs, DVD players etc) still with their protective plastic skins attached - and on every occasion the device in question has been owned by a woman.
Conversely, I know of no man who would suffer such a piece of plastic to remain attached. It’s the very first thing to be removed, just before the instruction manual gets binned.
I believe that this difference is of the same order as the one that makes men incapable of not setting the clock on the video (thus erasing the flashing 12:00 that nags at your very soul like a little evil eye, winking at you from the corner of the room).
Do these differences between the sexes mean anything? No, probably not – but it’s odd, no?
Written by exmonkey on April 12th, 2006 with 1 comment.
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Argos - chocolate fountain.
According to the blurb, it’s the perfect centrepiece for any occasion.
If John of Patmos were to take some mushrooms and re-write The Book of Revelations for our time, I believe that this would be as big a marker for the end of days as the Whore of Babylon riding the the seven headed beast, whilst the four horseman ride forth.
Written by exmonkey on April 9th, 2006 with no comments.
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This woman has a little folding chair for her wait at the station. The thing that caught my eye was how close she sat to the edge. Several trains came and went while she waited.
Maybe she was wondering why all these people where in her lounge.
Written by exmonkey on April 4th, 2006 with 2 comments.
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