So I have a confession: I LOVE The Big Blue Bridge! It’s the bridge that crosses Telegraph and I-94, I’m not sure why I like it, it’s kind of a bright blue and other than that, I just like it. If you’re in the car with me when I’m crossing it, if I didn’t say anything I think you’d notice something was up.

This is the side view (and it’s not perfect), I don’t think I’ve ever been thrilled with any of my crossing the bridge photos, it’s hard to see the depth (there’s no where to stand, so focus and such isn’t really an option). This is for my 31 photos in 31 days project today.

Speaking of things on the road, this guy is driving down the street with writing on the back of his truck and it took me a few minutes to get a view (and then a few more to get a photo).

This guy has some anger issues, I’m not really sure who he’s yelling at? The government? The Governor? The public? Of course, I had to go look up the definition because I’ve never heard the phrase before. Notice the parts written on both sides of the license plates too. And then the profanity, I can’t believe he hasn’t got a ticket for that yet.

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Doctor Who has been around for almost fifty years, I never got into it, I knew he was a SciFi icon but it wasn’t my thing at all, which is strange in that it’s about a time traveler and I love time travel. In 2005 they reintroduced the series after being off the air for over fifteen years (kind of a reboot). I caught an episode here or there but it just didn’t click and then I was watching an episode and it clicked. They were a year behind in the US so I started looking for episodes to get all caught up and ending up watching the two seasons out of order with the two different doctors but eventually I figured it all out. Now I love it and I feel all giddy when it comes to all things Doctor Who.

So why do I love Doctor Who?!? It’s this story about hope and learning and redemption. It’s about friends and love and understanding and learning. It’s about forgiveness and balance and making things right. It’s about doing the right thing and making peace and hope. Yes, I know I said hope already.

Did you notice that I didn’t even mention adventure, time travel or aliens? That’s the fun part but not the heart of it.

Actually, as I wrote that last part it made me think of something that Rose said at the end of the first season (2005) when she was trying to figure out what to do without The Doctor in her life, I thought maybe I’d steal an item or two for my list, but I’m just going to cut and paste the whole thing:

“It was a better life. I don’t mean all the traveling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things. That don’t matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. … You don’t just give up. You don’t just let things happen. You make a stand. You say “no”! You have the guts to do what’s right when everyone else just runs away!”

- Rose in The Parting of the Ways

It’s got lots of running and lots of holding hands; I’m big on holding hands so maybe that part has more impact on me. And it’s fun, with a capital FUN.

Just so you know this is part of the Ten Day Doctor Who Challenge (and I have no idea where I got this list from, maybe Tumblr?) so I’ll be doing these for the next few weeks.

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I always love Chicago, I’ve had incredible luck with the weather when you consider the number of times I’ve been there and it’s almost always a different experience than the last time I was there. That’s not to say I don’t do some of the same things: I bike or rollerblade, I get ribs at SRO and I hit the Apple Store; after all, I am a creature of habit (habits?). And with all the people there, you can’t help but spend some time people watching…

This little girl was sitting right on the edge of the pier(?) looking into Lake Michigan. There were a few other kids with her and they were all pretty peaceful down there by the water, there is a beach not far away and I think they’d been there for a while (some were wet and I’m pretty sure they hadn’t jumped off the edge there). This photo was taken almost right behind the Adler Planetarium.

It was a nice day but it was hot out, these people were out relaxing during their lunch. This is downtown Chicago at State Street and Wacker Drive and the river is just out of sight to the left. I’d been relaxing in the shade by the water and didn’t even realize how the big steps were benches and grass until I’d gone up those stairs.

There were people running, walking, biking and blading everywhere (mostly along Lake Michigan). It was really hot when this runner was out and it was still early in the day but there were still lots of people out. You can see the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier in the background.

Yeah, I know I title this “People in Chicago” but there are some tiny people in the distance in it. In the distance you can see Chicago in the distance. From the left we’ve got Navy Pier, the Hancock Building, Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) and to my right (not in the photo) across the road is the LIncoln Park Zoo (to give you a frame of reference as I try to do with my photos).

This is my 31 photos in 31 days photo for today.

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So this kid Trevor plays songs on the computers at Apple stores and records videos of himself dancing to them and posts them to YouTube. They’re entertaining and he’s certainly not shy! I actually heard about him because someone else was complaining about the girls in the background making fun of him in a different video and that they’re the ones that look like idiots…

I’m wondering out if Trevor is really just marketing for “Active”, he sure wears a lot of shirts with their name on it. And as far as I know, the other shirts could be their brand too.

And if that’s not the case, why the heck isn’t someone paying him to wear their shirts?!?

Either way, it looks like he’s having fun and that’s all that matters. I’m not sure how old he is, but he did comments on being 5’1″.

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Have a great Valentine’s Day everyone. You might not be with someone, but there’s still someone out there looking for you.

At least I’m hoping there’s still someone out there looking for me…

* I have no idea if they’re on a honeymoon, but it’s what I choose to imagine for today!

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I think it would drive many of you all cRaZy but I think I could handle it.

Wouldn’t live be easier, if you did everything literally? Eventually things would get better after the crazy parts but I think it could be a good place to be.

Let’s not worry about the underlying themes, bring them to the top or don’t bring them at all….

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Throughout life, even before cell phones and even before call waiting, I’ve called people on the phone sometimes initiating (but sometimes returning a call) and they don’t answer so I leave (or not leave) a message. I then move on with my day: I hop in the shower, go to work, I start some laundry, go for a bike ride or I might have even placed the call before walking into a meeting of some sort (it’s not like I’m calling people at 4:59 on a business day).

I can’t tell you the number of times I get a call back within moments and, because I’m not there any more, I can’t take the call so I end up with a message that says “why aren’t you there?”. In most of these cases I have no reason to believe they’ll be calling me back in a few minutes, I have no idea why they didn’t take my call. In a few cases, I’ve even gotten a “I don’t like that you aren’t then when I call you right back!”. I’m not on a tether, I’ve committed no crime…

Isn’t the real question,
“Where were they when I called?”?

If I don’t know you’re calling me back soon, why would I be sitting by the phone? They weren’t sitting by the phone, right? I could be there for hours and still be unavailable when you finally call. Especially these days, many people have call waiting, if they needed to click over just to say “I’ll call you back in 5, unless it’s important”, or they could text back with out even interrupting their call (although I’d prefer “I’ll be done in an hour” compared to “what do you want?”). The other problem is when someone does answer when already on a call, they say they’ll call you back in 5 minutes (or an hour) and triple the time has past. How long do you wait before leaving or calling back? If you leave, are you in trouble because they said they would call?

I’m not a big fan of people clicking over for every incoming call, so if I’m expecting a call I’ll tell a person I’m talking to (at the start of the conversation), “I do need to take a very quick call from so-and-so” or “I’m on my way to meet someone, so if they call I need to take it for a minute”. Otherwise I generally ignore call waiting. Although, when doing a job search, I’m apt to take unknown callers when from area codes of where I’m applying.

Related sidebar: I’ve noticed times that when I don’t leave a message, I think I’m more likely to get a call back when I don’t leave one! But then it doesn’t mean they played the actual message (if I left one) that might have some useful info like “I’m running late, I’m hopping into the shower and I’ll be on my way”.

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So people used to say something like “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?”, for most of my life I think the closest I could come to that was “Where was I during the attempted Reagan assignation?”, it’s not the same thing, but it’s a President being shot so it’s what came to mind for me in those situations.

Two other things that stick in my head were the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. The Challenger sticks more in my head mostly due to the imagery of it’s explosion 73 seconds after the launch.

Clearly for many people, “Where were you on September 11th, 2001?” will be that type of question. Personally, that one sticks in my head mostly because I saw much of it live. But then I assume the attacks was designed that way, one crash so that everyone was watching and then additional crashes while so many were already watching. And then so many watched the towers fall so even if you missed the earlier part of the disaster there still parts for you to catch live.

It’s generally disasters or death that people remember: The Oklahoma City bombing (1995), the London Bombing (2005), when John Lennon was shot, when Princess Diana died and things along those lines (FYI, I don’t remember when all these happened). That’s sad that these are the parts of life that people remember and talk about. Keep in mind, it’s not when the event happened it’s really about when you heard about it.

Maybe because disasters are always disasters to most people but great things to one person aren’t always a great thing to another person…

If you can think of some “Where were you?” events, please add them to the comments!

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Neil Gaiman was speaking in Toledo tonight and I was able to go. Another cool birthday present that can be considered to be priceless, the cost of the item has nothing to do with the value of it.

He was part of an author series put on by the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and the local newspaper the Toledo Blade. If you don’t know who he is be sure to read some of my 18 earlier posts about Neil Gaiman; at least that’s who he is to me. Even though I’d read a few earlier things, it was The Sandman where I got hooked on him (thanks to Chad in college).

When we were looking for a place to eat I double-checked his Twitter feed to make sure he hadn’t mentioned where he was eating or doing something else beforehand. That might seem silly, but just hours before when he needed to be there he mentioned that he was looking for a cafe to write in* and a little while later that his phone was giving him problems and he was going to give it a factory reset* so he might not be reachable for a bit. That might seem a little silly, but I have got to eat somewhere, right? But no such luck.

There were a lot of people there tonight, it was at the Stranahan Theater in Toledo, Ohio, and I’d been there before; by strange coincidence I’d seen Tori Amos there. He was given a very nice introduction by someone at the newspaper who, I think most of the audience would agree, had no idea who he was; it’s too bad they couldn’t have had a big fan at the paper read something about him.

He then talked a bit, told us the story of how he heard he won the Newberry Award, did a delightful reading of the beginning of The Graveyard Book (the first 20 pages) and gave us the background of how he wrote the book. Then he did a really long question and answer session. He wasn’t doing autographs and he apologized for this (I knew this in advance so I wasn’t disappointed). It was a really nice evening and was glad I was able to attend.

When were leaving, there was a line-up of cars in front, so I tried to cut out around the back to avoid the traffic. And there he was leaving the building talking to a few fans! So I stopped the car and grabbed my envelope (this is where I stuck a few things to get autographed, I knew he wasn’t signing but I like to be prepared, I even had my own Sharpie!). So I ran over there and asked him for an autograph and shook his hand! He was super-nice and he actually commented on the non-typical item of his that I choose to have him autograph. Awesome!

I did only bother him for one autograph even thought I had a few things with me. But while I forgot all about getting a picture (of him or with him) since I was so excited, I did have the sense to introduce him to a friend (that I abandoned as I dashed from the car) to him as a recent fan; she’s thirteen and sometimes shy so I didn’t think she’d come over, I’m so glad she came over and that she even got to shake his hand. It wasn’t as big of a deal for her, but maybe she’ll tell all her friends at school tomorrow that she met the guy who wrote Coraline.

So it’s a few hours later and I’m still really really excited about it. Going somewhere when I knew he wasn’t giving autographs and getting the autograph and getting to meet him. What a great evening!

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Admiral Grace hopper lived from December 9, 1907 to January 1, 1992 and had a lot more to do with computing than most names you know today.

“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for. ”

She graduated from Vassar in Mathematics and Physics and got her Ph.D. from Yale in the same subjects. She to a leave of absence from Vasser, where she was an Associate Professor of Mathematics, and joined the Navy Reserve. I’ve got a few quotes of hers in this post. She’s also attributed to phrase “bugs” in the computer (or maybe “debugging”), but I’ve heard so many stories about that I’m not so sure but here’s a photo with notes.

In the 1970s she pioneered the implementation of standards for computer languages (like COBOL and FORTRAN).

“It’s always easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.”

She was on 60 minutes in 1982, here’s part 1 and part 2, she’s pretty funny.

Here’s a video of her on Letterman (Oct. 2, 1986). She holds her own pretty good and explains how fast light and electricity can travel. It’s some of the same jokes from the 60 Minutes interview, but dumbed down for Dave.

Here’s the original YouTube link.

In 1971 ACM created the Grace Murray Hopper Award which is awarded to the outstanding young (35 or younger) computer professional of the year, selected on the basis of a single recent major technical or service contribution. Be sure to click the link, you’ll see some familiar names (Wozniak, Joy, Kurzweil, and more).

“The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.”

Additional info on Admiral Hopper: There is a conference named in her honor Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. She’s received 47 honorary degrees. When she retired she was the oldest active person in the military! She was in the Navy for 43 years; from 1943-1966, 1967-1971, and 1972-1986. The Navy’s USS Hopper, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, is named after her.

Why am I talking about her today? Because I signed a pledge that said “I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same“. I’m one of those 1,000 people, actually when last I looked it’s up to 1,610 people (I think I was number 844 to sign up).

Info on the post taken from here, her WIkipedia entry and some other info I’ve posted before.

Later: I see Brenda Wallace, Kathleen Weaver, Miguel Esquirol Ríos, cr0n.net, Joanna Bryson, Carolyn and Andy Roberts chose the same topic as I did.

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Tags and Categories: Ada Lovelace, Ada Lovelace Day, AdaLovelaceDay09, ALD09, computers, computers, computing, Grace Hopper, people, people, PledgeBank, quotes, quotes, technology, technology
]]> http://GarySaid.com/rear-admiral-grace-murray-hopper/feed/ 0 http://GarySaid.com/no-candy-to-children-if-their-parents-support-obama/ http://GarySaid.com/no-candy-to-children-if-their-parents-support-obama/#comments Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:14:55 +0000 Gary from http://GarySaid.com/ http://GarySaid.com/wpindex.php/thoughts/no-candy-to-children-if-their-parents-support-obama/ The video shows it all. Here’s the original Detroit Fox video. Or try here.

Shouldn’t this be illegal since she’s buying votes?

Please leave a comment or trackback about No Candy to Children if their parents support Obama, click the tags and categories below [...]

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The video shows it all.

Here’s the original Detroit Fox video. Or try here.

Shouldn’t this be illegal since she’s buying votes?

Please leave a comment or trackback about No Candy to Children if their parents support Obama, click the tags and categories below for related information or visit http://GarySaid.com/ for more posts.

Tags and Categories: candy, Detroit, Halloween, holidays + events, Idiots, kids, kids, news, news, Obama, people, people
]]> http://GarySaid.com/no-candy-to-children-if-their-parents-support-obama/feed/ 4 http://GarySaid.com/victims-of-a-technological-age-the-phone-victim/ http://GarySaid.com/victims-of-a-technological-age-the-phone-victim/#comments Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:06:40 +0000 Gary from http://GarySaid.com/ http://GarySaid.com/wpindex.php/?p=2029 I’ve never understood how technology seems to trap some people and when I say “technology” I’m talking about mostly low-tech. The most common thing that I can’t understand is the phone.

Gotta Get It – Some people have to get the phone when it rings no matter what they are doing. It doesn’t [...]

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I’ve never understood how technology seems to trap some people and when I say “technology” I’m talking about mostly low-tech. The most common thing that I can’t understand is the phone.

Gotta Get It – Some people have to get the phone when it rings no matter what they are doing. It doesn’t matter what is happening they have to go answer the phone if it rings. They already have an answering machine so they aren’t going to miss any information.

Gotta Check It – Other’s have to know who it is even if they aren’t going to answer, they have to check the Caller ID to see who they aren’t going to talk to. These are the people in the past who would have monitored their answering machine to get the same information.

Gotta Be More Important – If the call waiting is going off they have to switch over, doesn’t matter if they know who it is or not, they’ve got to switch over to the other call. I can see this a little bit if they don’t have voice mail at home, but if they’ve got Caller ID they can call them back. The need to put someone off for a few minutes so that they can talk to someone else first compared to just calling the second caller back a few minutes later doesn’t make any sense to me.

Voice Mail Inconsistencies – What’s confusing (to me) is some people have to also check their voice mail as soon as they see they have a message, but others can let it sit for a while or not even check to see if there is a message on their answering machine. My experience is the more that a person have a “Gotta” issue (see above) the more likely that they have the ability to let messages rest on a machine somewhere.

The Phone Victim is the worst of most technologies, maybe because it’s such a simple technology it doesn’t seem to be hindered by age it affects both the young and old.

If it’s important – they will leave a message, they will call back and they’ve got other ways to contact you (other phones, e-mail, etc.).

My issues – I’d completely disable the call-waiting on my phone but it’s the only phone I have so if someone is trying to reach me they can’t call another number (but they could leave a voice mail). Personally, I try to only switch over to an incoming call when it’s someone I’m meeting shortly in case something is changing our plans. I’ll also switch over if I’m expecting some info from someone that requires some quick interactivity but I’ll warn the call I’m on at the start of the conversation. I’m also more likely to switch over on long-time friends that I talk to all the time but that’s the benefit of

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Tags and Categories: people, technology, technology
]]> http://GarySaid.com/victims-of-a-technological-age-the-phone-victim/feed/ 0 http://GarySaid.com/politics-new-rules/ http://GarySaid.com/politics-new-rules/#comments Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:13:50 +0000 Gary from http://GarySaid.com/ http://GarySaid.com/wpindex.php/thoughts/politics-new-rules/ These are my new rules for campaigning:

You can’t talk about your opponent.

That’s it. I’m tired of them answering a question by talking about their opponent. It doesn’t tell me what they are thinking. It’s a waste of time if I want to hear what a politician is thinking and planning if they [...]

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These are my new rules for campaigning:

• You can’t talk about your opponent.

That’s it. I’m tired of them answering a question by talking about their opponent. It doesn’t tell me what they are thinking. It’s a waste of time if I want to hear what a politician is thinking and planning if they are wasting half their time talking about what their opponent is (or isn’t) doing.

They need to sell themselves! Show us what they can do. Convince me to like you not to dislike the “other guy”…Imagine if you were trying to get a job and you spent half your time talking about (and bad mouthing) the competition. Or if you were trying to get a date and badmouthing the other guy trying to win her heart. Or telling the police office who pulled you over that guy in the other lane was driving faster. You’re not going to get very far.

Speaking the competitions name over and over and over again can’t be great marketing either. How often do you see Coke or Pepsi mention their competitor in an ad?

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Tags and Categories: campaigning, debates, news, opponent, people, politics
]]> http://GarySaid.com/politics-new-rules/feed/ 2 http://GarySaid.com/one-of-the-oddest-things-in-facebook-imho/ http://GarySaid.com/one-of-the-oddest-things-in-facebook-imho/#comments Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:04:07 +0000 Gary from http://GarySaid.com/ http://GarySaid.com/wpindex.php/thoughts/one-of-the-oddest-things-in-facebook-imho/ So getting user updates about other users on FaceBook is interesting, but I always think ones like this are strange: It just strikes me as odd. I suppose it’s not any odder than changing your profile to stating that you’re married, but one generates congratulations and the other doesn’t.

UPDATE: In addition you can change [...]

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So getting user updates about other users on FaceBook is interesting, but I always think ones like this are strange:

It just strikes me as odd. I suppose it’s not any odder than changing your profile to stating that you’re married, but one generates congratulations and the other doesn’t.

UPDATE: In addition you can change your profile (this is the same person’s info whom actually made this change today) to read:

Jane Doe So it’s an strange system. It might as well as have a category labeled “confused”.Sorry for the crappy image edit but I guess I never installed graphic programs on this laptop (I’ve got something but I’ve never understood layers properly).

BTW – Feel free to add me to your FaceBook profile if you use FaceBook.

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Tags and Categories: Facebook, people, privacy, social networking, web sites
]]> http://GarySaid.com/one-of-the-oddest-things-in-facebook-imho/feed/ 0 http://GarySaid.com/home-run-if-im-mentioning-sports-its-got-to-be-worth-mentioning-right/ http://GarySaid.com/home-run-if-im-mentioning-sports-its-got-to-be-worth-mentioning-right/#comments Sun, 18 May 2008 07:13:23 +0000 Gary from http://GarySaid.com/ http://GarySaid.com/wpindex.php/thoughts/home-run-if-im-mentioning-sports-its-got-to-be-worth-mentioning-right/ I saw this at Dean’s World. It was a interesting not-normal sports story and I decided to put it up a I was watching it. But as I teared up a few times during the video, I decided I should share it with you all too…

There’s a story here to go [...]

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I saw this at Dean’s World. It was a interesting not-normal sports story and I decided to put it up a I was watching it.

But as I teared up a few times during the video, I decided I should share it with you all too…

There’s a story here to go with it..

Please leave a comment or trackback about Home Run! – If I’m mentioning sports, it’s got to be worth mentioning, right?, click the tags and categories below for related information or visit http://GarySaid.com/ for more posts.

Tags and Categories: acl, activities + sports, Chicago, Home Run, people, Sarah Tucholsky, western Oregon
]]> http://GarySaid.com/home-run-if-im-mentioning-sports-its-got-to-be-worth-mentioning-right/feed/ 0 http://GarySaid.com/local-homeless-people/ http://GarySaid.com/local-homeless-people/#comments Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:17:29 +0000 Gary from http://GarySaid.com/ http://GarySaid.com/wpindex.php/thoughts/local-homeless-people/ So I was Burger King today and once in a while I’ll see one of the local homeless people in there (usually it’s when it’s really cold out), I think there’s 3 in particular that I recognize. Today, all three were in there (actually one was on the was out as one came in) [...]

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So I was Burger King today and once in a while I’ll see one of the local homeless people in there (usually it’s when it’s really cold out), I think there’s 3 in particular that I recognize. Today, all three were in there (actually one was on the was out as one came in) which I thought was strange since I’ve been at BK a little more than usual lately and today it’s nowhere near as cold as it has been. Two are schizophrenic, not that I’m qualified to judge, and the other is kinda quiet. The one guy just seems to drink his coffee and step outside for a smoke and talks to himself, he seems to be the most well off, I’ve even seen him get a beer or two at the bar before (it’s possible this guy isn’t homeless). The quiet guy seems to have all his stuff with him (3 big bags) and he must have been there for a while, I saw someone ask him to leave after a while. The woman, I’ve seen her pull stuff out of the trash, and she asked me for my left over fries one time and I gave he those and some cash. Today I intentionally left my uneaten onion rings and my half-eaten Whopper on my tray at the table and she had grabbed it before I got out the door; I’m not sure why it’s a problem for me to just offer her a few dollars.

When I’m out of town if someone asks nice (even semi-nice) for some money, I’m easy to cough up a buck or two; and in some places, that’s every block or so. I always make sure I have some cash on me for that reason. But the local homeless, I never know how to deal with them, actually they’ve never asked for money at the Burger King but I’d be glad to give them some money, but I hate to offer and for some reason I’d hate them expect it from then on (not that it’d really be a problem).If I’m somewhere around town and someone asks for cash, I’m more likely to buy them a meal if there’s an opportunity, I’d rather spend $5-10 on a meal then hand them a few dollars cash if I can (especially if I can smell alcohol or see bloodshot eyes).

It’s when it’s the locals that I see often when it throws me. And I’m not sure why this keeps me so off balance…?

It all makes me sad and feel pretty ungrateful when I complain about stuff in the wonderful life that I have. I’ve got a nice paying job, no debt (other than my house) and I’ve been doing pretty good at saving for my retirement someday. I give money to the shelter when they are doing fund raisers and to school when they’re having auctions and other things when they are happening around town; I could do more I’m sure, but I could certainly doing less too.

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Tags and Categories: america, Burger King, homeless, money, people, people
]]> http://GarySaid.com/local-homeless-people/feed/ 0 http://GarySaid.com/student-removed-from-kerry-speech-tasered-after-resisting/ http://GarySaid.com/student-removed-from-kerry-speech-tasered-after-resisting/#comments Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:29:19 +0000 Gary from http://GarySaid.com/ http://GarySaid.com/wpindex.php/thoughts/student-removed-from-kerry-speech-tasered-after-resisting/ So I’m sure many of you know about the student at the Kerry Forum at the University of Florida (here’s one of many videos available). What I don’t seem to understand is why everyone is upset that they tasered him for what he was speaking about. From what [...]

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So I’m sure many of you know about the student at the Kerry Forum at the University of Florida (here’s one of many videos available). What I don’t seem to understand is why everyone is upset that they tasered him for what he was speaking about. From what I saw, they made him leave for not giving up the mic (which was cut off) and possibly what he was speaking about (and the audience applauded for them making him leave). What they tasered him for was for fighting as they were trying to escort him out. There were four or five police trying to get him to leave and he clearly wasn’t leaving. To me, it looked as if he wanted a scene or had some kind of mental instability.

Am I missing something?!? I’m not saying the tasering was or was not excessive, but let’s be clear as to why they zapped him, it wasn’t for his words (I can’t imagine the zappers were even listening that close) it was for resisting to leave. I will agree the extra zaps were probably too much (it sounded like a few), especially if cuffed already, but it didn’t really slow him down so I can’t imagine it set as a regular taser (it never took Veronica Mars more than one zap to get someone in line). I generally don’t mess with the law, but I do know you don’t mess with security / police / secret service when it deals with senators / presidential candidates and when a bunch of people are escorting you out the building, you’re probably going to lose if you fight with them about it.

From this Blog from the Washington Post I get the feeling this student was familiar with the local police.

Here’s a local Miami news survey and 44% (of over 18,000 votes) say he deserved it, cast your vote! The results really surprised me…Random extra thoughts:

It didn’t even seem like he was listening to Kerry when he was talking to him.

When he was screaming “don’t taser me”, I have to assume they were threatening to taser him if he didn’t calm down. Otherwise why scream it?

It’s possible I’m mistaken and the audience was applauding him just for making the scene, but I don’t think they applauded until he was being escorted out. I don’t think he was considered to be under arrest until he was actually resisting leaving, I don’t think they arrested him for his words.

Watch some of the longer versions of the video that show after they get him out of the room and down the stairs (about 2 minutes in). He keeps acting like the “inciting a riot” charge was due to the talking and not the resisting to leave. He wouldn’t give them his name, or ID and acted like they were “going to give him [me] to the government”. It’s all cRaZy talk at the end.

He has his own web site at theandrewmeyer.com , please note his e-mail address if you visit.

The Bloggerheads do a lot of looking at the different angles and timelines.

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Tags and Categories: Andrew Meyer, Don't tase me, don't tase me bro, John Kerry, news, people, student, taser, Tasering, University of Florida, Veronica Mars, Vote
]]> http://GarySaid.com/student-removed-from-kerry-speech-tasered-after-resisting/feed/ 2 http://GarySaid.com/my-early-muir-owl/ http://GarySaid.com/my-early-muir-owl/#comments Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:31:11 +0000 Gary from http://GarySaid.com/ http://GarySaid.com/wpindex.php/thoughts/my-early-muir-owl/ Hint – It’s an anagram. And it’s cute (and geeky), so don’t watch it if that doesn’t appeal to you… My worry would be what if you didn’t get the answer you wanted…“Serge Gandaora”, the make believe artist, is actually another anagram – “George and Sara”

Please leave a comment or trackback about My [...]

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Hint – It’s an anagram. And it’s cute (and geeky), so don’t watch it if that doesn’t appeal to you…

My worry would be what if you didn’t get the answer you wanted…“Serge Gandaora”, the make believe artist, is actually another anagram – “George and Sara”

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Tags and Categories: anagram, engagement, funny, people, proposal, serge gandaora, wedding, Will You Marry Me, YouTube
]]> http://GarySaid.com/my-early-muir-owl/feed/ 1 http://GarySaid.com/a-wonderful-white-wedding/ http://GarySaid.com/a-wonderful-white-wedding/#comments Wed, 09 May 2007 15:44:49 +0000 Gary from http://GarySaid.com/ http://GarySaid.com/wpindex.php/thoughts/a-wonderful-white-wedding/ I thought this was funny. I usually ignore these but I clicked this one… It was titled Funny Father Daughter Dance “A Wonderful White Wedding”. It takes a minute to get to the good part but it’s definitely different for a wedding.

On a (completely unrelated) side note Wedding Crashers is a kinda [...]

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I thought this was funny. I usually ignore these but I clicked this one…

It was titled Funny Father Daughter Dance “A Wonderful White Wedding”. It takes a minute to get to the good part but it’s definitely different for a wedding.

On a (completely unrelated) side note Wedding Crashers is a kinda funny candid camera show on Monday Nights. You need to fast forward through the talking parts but the practical jokes are pretty good. If you’ve only seen it this week, try it again this weeks episode was kinda weak…

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Tags and Categories: funny, people, television, Video, wedding, wedding crashers
]]> http://GarySaid.com/a-wonderful-white-wedding/feed/ 0 http://GarySaid.com/are-the-terms-whitelist-and-blacklist-racist/ http://GarySaid.com/are-the-terms-whitelist-and-blacklist-racist/#comments Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:07:06 +0000 Gary from http://GarySaid.com/ http://GarySaid.com/wpindex.php/thoughts/are-the-terms-whitelist-and-blacklist-racist/ It’s kind of a simple question, but I can’t find a specific answer. Do the terms, WhiteList and BlackList, that we commonly use these days to block/allow e-mail, web sites and comments have racist origins?

I can’t find the answer. I think about it every time I modify instructions for our mail filtering at [...]

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It’s kind of a simple question, but I can’t find a specific answer. Do the terms, WhiteList and BlackList, that we commonly use these days to block/allow e-mail, web sites and comments have racist origins?

I can’t find the answer. I think about it every time I modify instructions for our mail filtering at work, just waiting for someone to ask me, but I can’t find an answer anywhere on the history of it. I’ve found some things when looking on-line related to hollywood (usually political writing) and on blackballing people (also from work or organizations) but nothing on the origins of the word even in that context.

I’ve seen some software FAQs skate around it with some stupid explanations to avoid the issue, but I think red + green universally mean stop + go so greenlist and redlist makes sense and since we don’t have green people it wouldn’t be considered racist (or even incorrectly thought to be). Maybe this is a non-issue, but I’m wondering what you think.There are tons of options: stop/go, allow/deny, junk/non-junk, etc. Also, even if it doesn’t have racist origins if people perceive it to be, then how much of a difference is there.

Later: Ah, I found this and I do recall part of the origins of blackball, I knew this, I just forgot that I knew it….

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Tags and Categories: blacklist, general, people, racist, spam, television, whitelist
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