My old home, in ruins…

It appears that drug addicts have made my old home, a place that was practically sacred to me, into a drug nest.

This hurts me deep down inside.

My dad built the first two parts with very little help. I helped with the third part of the house.

I had expected this to be knocked down already, given how fast the guy who bought the property from us wanted us out of there. It’s been 19 months, man. 19 months since he rushed us out of there, gave my mother grief because our search for a new home took longer than he wanted, and yet he’s done jack with it.

I wish I could have my old home back, just so I could clean up the place, and have a place to stay.

I’m going to have to wait a little, to see my paycheck, because I would rather know what it will be, so I can make offers, but I know I also want to get into a place that gives me a smooth curve to work with.

$500 a month wouldn’t be bad to pay at all, if it includes utilities. I suspect that not only can I afford that once I start getting paid regularly, but I can also get myself back onto my feet fairly quickly.

Just wish me a little more luck, and let’s see what happens.

This intersection is the absolute bane of those of us who commute on foot here in Tampa, FL.
Ashley St. (left) is a two way street, with southbound traffic coming freshly off the Interstate only a block north of this crossing.
Cass St. (right) is a one way street, just entering downtown Tampa.

Ashley, going southbound, has four lanes going straight across, and a single turn lane. The northbound half of the street has two lanes going normally, and a turn lane that starts a block earlier.

Cass Street has four lanes, with one of them dedicated to turning left, and one other a split left-straight lane.

The issue with this is,
When you try to cross Ashley Street on foot, using the pedestrian signals, and you’re headed East, it’s nearly impossible to do, because of two things:

• The people turning from Cass to Ashley seemingly ignore pedestrians until they’re about to hit one. This gets to be annoying as all hell.
• The crosswalk indicator goes from Walk, to a flashing Don’t Walk in a matter of mere seconds (About five seconds, to be specific).

Heading West is only marginally better, as you get the chance to get across the street a little early, due to slower traffic headed North, combined with entering the crosswalk early, before the Walk signal is illuminated.

The entire street needs improvement with its walk signals, but this spot is most relevant to me since I cross here, or a block north, to go to the Public Library.

Argh, indeed.

Almost un-homeless now.

When I was a kid, I grew up on PBS. I remember Sesame Street (though Big Bird traumatised me as a child More, for another story.), Arthur, The Reppies, Nova, Nature, 3-2-1 CONTACT!, and numerous other shows that showed up on the two PBS channels we have here in Tampa (Channel 3, WEDU; Channel 16, WUSF). In fact, I admit that those were the two channels I enjoyed the most, because they were the way I thought television should be: unfettered by constant reminders to drink Cloaca-Cola, requests to join the Dyspepsian Generation (You got the right one baby, uh-huh), and lacking in reinforcement that sex is a requirement to be popular on television!

I’d like to help save this resource while it still exists.
If I ever were to decide to have children, I would love to have PBS around for them.

I never really got to listen to NPR as a child — I probably thought that it was too boring then, but the issue is, both NPR and PBS are public resources that many of us rely on for news, education, and entertainment. If we let the United States Government take a knife to their already limited budgets, this could easily spell the end of quality television and radio shows in our country.

Therefore, I ask you to help me out. Put your name to this, and show our Government that you want them to show respect to public broadcasting. Put the knife away, and don’t cut their budgets!

Thank you for your time,

— Justin H.

Hi,

President Bush just proposed drastic cuts to NPR and PBS. We’ve stopped similar cuts in the past, but enough is enough: With the new Congress, we can make sure this never happens again.

We need Congress to save NPR and PBS once and for all.

Can you help out by signing this petition to Congress? It’s really easy—just click the link below:

Civic.MoveOn.ORG, Public Broadcasting, Referral link

Thanks!

[tags]Save Public Broadcasting, NPR, PBS, United States, Government, Politics, MoveOn.org, Children’s Programming, Commercial-free News, Commercial-free Television, Petition[/tags]

“This was an incident where the deputy felt his life was being threatened and rather than using a gun he used a Taser,” Sheriff Don Fleming said. “When you’ve got a guy bigger than you, waving a baton is like waving a feather at him and we don’t want to shoot a student.”

The Archuleta family questions why deadly force was used and not a Taser gun which fires a disabling electric shock.

This is why I’m in favor of [tag]Tasers[/tag] and other, safer alternatives than a gunshot wound to the head.
Yes, Tasers still have a potential to kill, like any weapon, but it’s still not that bad. It’s more likely to disable you and keep you from getting yourself killed by a regular firearm.

There’s an appropriate time for any weapon. If the officer’s pretty much in range, and you decide to charge him, yes, he can taser you. If he’s a hundred feet away and you’re waving a gun, then yeah, he can shoot you with his firearm, because the taser is OUT OF RANGE.

I’ve spoken with several officers who carry tasers in my city. For them to be able to carry their taser, they have to undergo training to use it. Part of their training is to know what to expect if a suspect manages to get the taser out of their hands and zaps them with it. These guys and gals know what fifty thousand volts feels like.

I’d rather not take a hit from any of the stuff they can use, but I’d prefer pepper spray or a taser to being shot and wounded by a firearm.

It’s a rather useful tool. Just put in the two addresses or intersections nearest your destinations, choose a departure or arrival time, and Get Directions.

The service is laid atop [tag]Google Maps[/tag], and uses authoritative data from the Testing regions (there are a total of nine cities testing out Google Transit at this time) to show routes and scheduled times. They may or may not cover routes on detours, so be advised that this is only to be considered as a general guide on riding public transportation.

One of the nicest things about it is, although you are looking up bus routes in general, you can also switch it over to driving mode, should you choose to change your mind and drive or get a ride from point A to point B.

[tag]Google Transit[/tag] is the name of this new tool.
Hopefully, we’ll see more cities adopt it — I’d love to see PSTA jump on board, too.

It’s a quiet place, with a friendly atmosphere and very inexpensive internet terminals. I would much rather pay $6 per hour here at Jake’s (delicious pricing), and be able to order a cup of coffee (I have a cup of Jamaican Me Crazy right here), or a cup of [tag]cappuccino[/tag], a bite to eat, or something, than go to FedEx-Kinko’s, deal with their sterilized environment and anywhere between ~$13 and ~$19.26 per hour terminals that are very crippled (not even Mozilla installed, for shame).

Need something installed on the terminal at Jake’s? Just ask.
Need something off your USB thumb drive? Plug it in. Can’t do THAT at Kinko’s.

The environment is very peaceful.

If you’re in the [tag]Tampa[/tag] area, you should check ‘em out.

For $20, 1,250,000 tickets were sold (Total of $25,000,000 pulled in), as a limited run. This game sold out in ten days. No one else may purchase a ticket from a retailer location.

My coworker and I were standing around the lotto machine at work one afternoon, when an urgent email popped onto its screen, telling us that there were only 65000 tickets left. I tell her, “That game’s selling out tonight. I bet there’ll be a ticket on eBay soon. Sell me a ticket.”

Now, [tag]eBay[/tag] has a policy against selling lottery or raffle tickets through their site.

This person found a clever way around that particular rule, by [tag]auctioning[/tag] a CD Jewel Case, and giving the ticket with it for free.

I think I’ll have to tell her about that, and how right I was.

Now, I don’t think that guy’s gonna get too many bids, starting his so high. I’d have started at $100, not $1,000. That’d be profit right there, at least, and of course, it might even escalate into a bidding war. But, starting at $1,000? If I bought that, and the ticket inside lost, I’d be mightily irked about that. $1,000 for a piece of plastic to store a CD or DVD in? Yeah. Right.

Still, it’s pretty funny. ;D

Bay News 9 reported^[a] on Sunday that drivers are to give cyclists a three foot berth, or face the consequences.

Failure to do so, and being spotted by an officer will result in a moving violation fine, as well as points added to your license.

What would please me more is if cyclists would actually, you know… used the sidewalks when they’re available and in reasonable condition. Too often have I driven or cycled down the road, to watch some cocky cyclist riding half-in the lane for traffic, causing everyone behind him to slow down and honk their horns.

Fix that particular issue, or start ticketing the cyclists, too, and I will be more pleased with the idea.