OUTATIME

Yesterday, as I looked at our local newspaper, I saw that they were referencing the date with Back to the Future. Knowing our level of journalism our local paper does, I paid little attention to it. First off, I'm just annoyed at how pop-culture is all over the place these days. There was a time where referencing movies and shows was done between few people. Enough that films like Mallrats and Clerks resonated with me and my friends and when "Family Guy" premiered, my co-workers told me that show reminded them of me. Now it's everywhere and in an annoying and unclever way. Like people will make a reference, then say, "that was a [insert reference's reference] reference." Our local paper being no different from that annoyance, this type of annoying article is done on a quite regular basis.

So I was surprised to see that the "Daily Show" and "the Nightly Show" had both made big deals about it. The Nerdist had already done a report about this earlier in the year - with hoverboards and not sure what else. But someone at USA Today dropped the ball on this one. Anyone else could be excused for this but as far as marketing goes - understanding popular culture and taking advantage of that and exploiting things to any level to advance your product - especially in the highly competitive market of journalism - they should've been on this and making the big deal of it. So why, the day after, do they put out the cover that was in Back to the Future II? Someone, late at night or at the very least, the early afternoon probably noticed it or recognized this fact and acted on it. So today, we have this collector's item...with today's date: October 22, 2015.

Anyway, added to my fury over idiocy which derives from selfishness, complecency, and people's misuse of technology (meaning for every other purpose than for being a fountainhead of information on virtually any subject) is my ongoing frustration with bicycling in a city which refuses to educate itself for their own betterment. I will not even go into the surface-street situation here but just the bike trail. Now, riding a bike on the bike path in my neighborhood I automatically stayed to the right; just because it was how things were set up - not just for the streets but also hallways in school and high-traffic events at stadiums, arenas, etc. It just gave order and allowed things to flow well.

Today we have people who are not able to think rationally. People, during summer time high-traffic on the trail, even as several bicyclists and walkers and runners are passing at varying speeds, they still merge onto the trail without looking - not even glancing. The northbound Keystone trail next to 24 Hour Fitness (a breeding ground for idiots - look at all the dumbass driving going in and out of that place) there is a tree right at the entrance to the trail there and many times I slow because I know they cannot see oncoming traffic, yet they have no problem just darting out head-first into said traffic and yelp as they almost get hit. What the fuck were they expecting?! And this idiocy increases as the weather cools down into fall and winter since -even more so- they do not expect people to be out and about. Which is no excuse, one still should be keeping a steady path. That's why it is enforced in safe driving classes how you hold a steady path and why one should not change speeds approaching merge lanes because other vehicles are judging merging based on current, existing speeds; speeding up or slowing down ruins the flow and thus leads to back-ups and accidents.

So why do people on the trail when you are passing and announce, "Passing on your left!" do they jump and go to their left or more to the right. You are just announcing your presence. Obviously one who announces it is watching you so your moving makes it more dangerous. Just stay to the right and do not be these idiots who fucking meander throughout the path - EVEN DURING THE SUMMER SEASON!!!

When I started swimming I read about pool etiquette just to be aware when I go to a pool and know what to expect and how to not make things fuck up. This is where part of my "people's misuse of technology" gets me. People use their GD devices for everything except things that are beneficial like looking up addresses AHEAD OF TIME and maybe reading about bicycling (and all bicyclists, btw, should do this as well because we have no shortage of morons there) and trail etiquette. I learned, again when I was a kid, if there are NO SIDEWALKS OR LANES that one should run against traffic because most drivers do not look for runners. I again looked this up as I have started running as well. So on something like, say, the Keystone trail, why the fuck does it make sense for people to run on the right side of the path (their left side)? Even if it did make sense to them that one runs on the right, one has to know bicyclists do not have any reason to ride on the left aside from passing or very small other circumstances such as turning left from a one way street. Knowing that, how does a path flow efficiently if bikes rode on the same side as opposing running-traffic? No sense. And why the hell do these stupid-ass business people walking to lunch (because they have learned recently that walking is good and healthy and can be fun and relaxing) take up the sidewalk like they're filming the beginning to Reservoir Dogs? Aside from those assheads, people who just are walking or running on the path, how do they think that taking up the entire path makes sense? They aren't thinking - except for themselves. And these idiots that walk to their left side of the path, they do not even see how dangerous (even though directions are marked there) it is to round a blind turn when bicyclists are zooming around. And being a cyclists, I have my hands at-the-ready of my brakes in case there are these idiots then I can still stop, but most cyclists do not think like that.

Just briefly on the street deal, I almost got hit riding to the Old Market Sunday morning. I know people are not too aware for pedestrians and bicyclists anyway (though most of those peds and cyclists are just as dumb) but on a Sunday morning, even more so because they assume no one is around. So I see a car pull into Leavenworth as I'm approaching. The driver looks to her right and I keep my eye on her face. She glances towards my direction as I approach the intersection but I know enough that even if one makes eye contact, does not mean they see you. As I approach, I quickly glance back for any last-minute jackasses who do that speed-up-hook-in-front-of-you moves and as I turn around, she pulls out and I - and her- hit the brakes. She looks taken aback and I just stare at her and proceed.

This is what one deals with daily here and there is such a resistance and uproar for bike lanes when there is no traffic here and we are trying to build ourselves as a big city. This is something we should be educating about and taking care of before we get to that point and are just full of traffic and no parking and no solution. The bike rack I use at school because its convenient and no one used it is packed this semester. no problem except idiots pack their bikes on it and one day it took five minutes to maneuver my bike out of the rack and the next day my bike was locked on with another. That was another whole debacle which had Jeanne come down, the security on his phone and me telling him how it's stupid they cannot cut the lock because it's a bike and its absurd I should either have to wait or come back later. I told him I'll cut it off and throw this bike in the street and he said he'd call the police to which I told him he should because I'm calling my wife to come with a bolt-cutter, so he was doing that as Jeanne arrived. Point being, any other direction these people head are bike racks; bigger ones. There is no excuse. i've done it when I arrived and they were full. It takes no additional effort - in fact, it takes more to have to nestle your bike and lock within the existing ones.