Rant VIII: The Reckoning

GasBandit

Staff member
If you're upset at the "texas redneck" comment, I don't mean to imply everyone from Texas is a redneck. Shit, I lived there for more than 40 years ;)
"Naw, I'm not a redneck, I'm from Texas."
"What's the difference?"
"Well, we ride horses.. and they ride.. their cousins."
 
Yeah, that's what I meant..you can rush the intersection on a yellow in Texas and be fine
In Royal Oak, MI in August of 2006 I received a ticket for running a left turn yellow and was forced to pay a fine and get points, etc., because I had not cleared the intersection before the light turned red. No idea if the rules are different now, though.

--Patrick
 

figmentPez

Staff member
I just can't stand speed traps. If you have a cop waiting for people to break a speed limit that everyone knows is way too slow, your law sucks.
And what about speed traps where people are consistently going an unsafe speed? There are a few cases like that around here, where people routinely do 60+ in a 45 zone, where even 45 is pushing the limits of safety coming around a heavily wooded curve in a high traffic commercial area. Sometimes people are fucking stupid when it comes to driving, and there needs to be some sort of monitoring. Not every speed trap is just a cash cow.
 

Cajungal

Staff member
Drivers around here can be such entitled shitheads that I don't take any complaints seriously anymore--about speed traps, cameras (which I don't care for much either), timing of traffic lights. At this point all translates to, "I don't get to do whatever the hell I want and treat the road like my own personal Mario Kart game." It needs to be much harder to get a driver's license.
 
In Royal Oak, MI in August of 2006 I received a ticket for running a left turn yellow and was forced to pay a fine and get points, etc., because I had not cleared the intersection before the light turned red. No idea if the rules are different now, though.

--Patrick
No. This happened to me about three hours ago, also in Royal Oak.
 

fade

Staff member
I can think of a few places I'd really like to see a speedtrap. E.g. every school zone around here. In some neighborhoods, they're overkill because no one walks. Everyone walks or rides bikes to school here.
 
This town has a useless school zone at the high school. It is basically impossible for anyone to walk to a school on a major highway that is surrounded by absentee land owners. Yet you have to drive 35 mph past a school that is 200 yards off the highway and has a traffic light that goes into the campus.
 
That seems like a ticket you should contest, because if you are in the intersection waiting to turn, and you can't do it until assholes clear out, you still need to make the turn to get out of the way, and I think it would still be considered legal.

Maybe it varies by state, I dunno.[DOUBLEPOST=1422302609,1422302494][/DOUBLEPOST]If you’re turning left on a Green Light, then YES you should pull into the intersection when you’re waiting (under normal conditions; which are, there is an open space for your vehicle to fit into once you turn). This lines up your vehicle so that you have a short turn across traffic. There are also legal implications. When the light changes to yellow or red, you’re allowed to exit the intersection, and you should turn only when it is safe, regardless of the colour of the traffic light. (It could be green, yellow, red, pink, purple or brown by the time it’s safe. The point is, do not turn until it is clearly 120% safe to do so.)
 
In my case, I did not even enter the intersection until after the light had turned yellow, so perhaps that is why I was ticketed.
Also, it happened during Dream Cruise, which may have contributed due to officers having zero tolerance.

--Patrick
 

Dave

Staff member
Not sure if this is a rant or an epic win or what. So I'm doing it here. Call it a rant with a happy ending.

As you all know, I am in an improv comedy group called Workhouse Entertainment. We've been around for about five years, working fairly steadily. This is almost unheard of for a short-form group, especially in Omaha. Well, one of the founders quit the group a couple months ago and did so in a spectacular way. She's starting to gain traction as a stand-up road-dog, so she was being pulled in several directions. But since she was in charge of a lot of things like contract work and our booking site, it was getting problematic. So I took over a few of the things and the rest of us banded together to help her out. She...took it badly. She seemed to think that we weren't valuing her skills so came the spectacular quitting.

The rant comes in that there's a regular place that we play called the Pizza Shoppe. It's a great venue and we love playing there, but since the girl left the manager hasn't helped me figure out when we could get back there. They kept putting me off and putting me off and I thought that maybe they just didn't want us around any longer.

So today I get a message from the girl who quit telling me that we needed to "reschedule our June gig". Okay, I'll call Carla and...wait. What? Our JUNE gig? Turns out that she had booked us four gigs coming up - March 14, April 25, May 9, and that elusive June date. Add in two high-paying gigs in March (7th & 21st) and a possible high-paying gig on April 18 and you have a very busy troupe.

Turns out the girl who quit thought we knew and the booking lady was putting me off because she didn't think we needed more dates. Why she didn't say anything about the other dates is beyond me. But Dave is going to be a busy boy this summer!
 
Not sure if this is a rant or an epic win or what. So I'm doing it here. Call it a rant with a happy ending.

As you all know, I am in an improv comedy group called Workhouse Entertainment. We've been around for about five years, working fairly steadily. This is almost unheard of for a short-form group, especially in Omaha. Well, one of the founders quit the group a couple months ago and did so in a spectacular way. She's starting to gain traction as a stand-up road-dog, so she was being pulled in several directions. But since she was in charge of a lot of things like contract work and our booking site, it was getting problematic. So I took over a few of the things and the rest of us banded together to help her out. She...took it badly. She seemed to think that we weren't valuing her skills so came the spectacular quitting.

The rant comes in that there's a regular place that we play called the Pizza Shoppe. It's a great venue and we love playing there, but since the girl left the manager hasn't helped me figure out when we could get back there. They kept putting me off and putting me off and I thought that maybe they just didn't want us around any longer.

So today I get a message from the girl who quit telling me that we needed to "reschedule our June gig". Okay, I'll call Carla and...wait. What? Our JUNE gig? Turns out that she had booked us four gigs coming up - March 14, April 25, May 9, and that elusive June date. Add in two high-paying gigs in March (7th & 21st) and a possible high-paying gig on April 18 and you have a very busy troupe.

Turns out the girl who quit thought we knew and the booking lady was putting me off because she didn't think we needed more dates. Why she didn't say anything about the other dates is beyond me. But Dave is going to be a busy boy this summer!
"Yes, and" your way to glory!
 
Still haven't gotten word about a rescheduled stress test, but that's on the docs, not me.

I checked the status of my claims on my health insurance's website. I haven't received a bill from the hospital yet, but not counting the ambulance, it's going to be around $450. Which is a lot better than the $4000+ I would have been on the hook for without insurance. That or filing for medicaid, getting turned down, and then having the entire thing written off as a charity case. Just the paperwork for medicaid is insulting. It implies that having a car or any quality of life possessions is frowned upon.

But, thanks to the ACA, I don't have the state suggesting I sell my possessions to pay my hospital bills. I also don't have to spend nearly $350 a month per insurance. The subsidized premium is around $40.
 
But, thanks to the ACA, I don't have the state suggesting I sell my possessions to pay my hospital bills. I also don't have to spend nearly $350 a month per insurance. The subsidized premium is around $40.
Filthy communist! That's, like, Western Europe-level payments and reimbursements there! THIS WILL NOT STAND.

I mean, good for you, I'm glad that, at least for some people, this program is working the way it should, despite all the administrative nonsense and whatnot surrounding it.
 
Filthy communist! That's, like, Western Europe-level payments and reimbursements there! THIS WILL NOT STAND.

I mean, good for you, I'm glad that, at least for some people, this program is working the way it should, despite all the administrative nonsense and whatnot surrounding it.
i can't believe i'm saying this and meaning it...

but, thanks Obama.
 
Uuuugh. Apparently I had nothing better to do tonight because I just had a unnecessarily long debate with someone on Twitter about art, academia, and criticism.

They were absolutely convinced that art should not be critiqued or studied. That it should be viewed and give the viewer an emotion and such. That creating art and expression has nothing to do with the brain, but the soul, and there are no outside influences or inspirations.

Which, coming from the world of academia and having studied and graduated in English Literature, I know is a load of horse hockey. For one, there is something to be said of studying and criticizing art or literature in order to learn its deeper meanings, allegories, or allusions. You learn to appreciate that artist more by looking into their influences or historical context. Two, you can enjoy something and still study or critique it. There's absolutely no reason why you can't do both. I mentioned Ulysses as a prime example of this: that it can't be read on its own because it's near incomprehensible without studying its allusions and allegories. It's barely English on a surface reading.

But this guy was absolutely adamant. And of course, belittling me and insulting me the whole ride, saying that I'm limited, or stupid, or impaired. I don't know why I bothered with him the whole time, but I guess that shows the kind of mood I'm in tonight.
 
This just gets better:



He's trying to get me to read Tolstoy's "What is Art" in order to convince me that I'm reading too much into art. Yet he doesn't understand the hilarious, delicious irony that he wants me to study a critique in order to understand that I can't critique art.

And I think I caught him in his own bullshit:

[DOUBLEPOST=1422423633,1422423366][/DOUBLEPOST]
 
This just gets better:



He's trying to get me to read Tolstoy's "What is Art" in order to convince me that I'm reading too much into art. Yet he doesn't understand the hilarious, delicious irony that he wants me to study a critique in order to understand that I can't critique art.

And I think I caught him in his own bullshit:

[DOUBLEPOST=1422423633,1422423366][/DOUBLEPOST]
Well we can certainly tell he's not an English major.
 
Must be a sloan news day, to be delta all these puns, it's enough to make anybody kraus.
I hate to be a drip, but any more of these puns, and someone's getting a Pfister right plumb in the flapper.

But you needn't get your nose out of joint. I'll solder on. I'm taking the plunger today to buy a new one.
 

fade

Staff member
Uuuugh. Apparently I had nothing better to do tonight because I just had a unnecessarily long debate with someone on Twitter about art, academia, and criticism.

They were absolutely convinced that art should not be critiqued or studied. That it should be viewed and give the viewer an emotion and such. That creating art and expression has nothing to do with the brain, but the soul, and there are no outside influences or inspirations.

Which, coming from the world of academia and having studied and graduated in English Literature, I know is a load of horse hockey. For one, there is something to be said of studying and criticizing art or literature in order to learn its deeper meanings, allegories, or allusions. You learn to appreciate that artist more by looking into their influences or historical context. Two, you can enjoy something and still study or critique it. There's absolutely no reason why you can't do both. I mentioned Ulysses as a prime example of this: that it can't be read on its own because it's near incomprehensible without studying its allusions and allegories. It's barely English on a surface reading.

But this guy was absolutely adamant. And of course, belittling me and insulting me the whole ride, saying that I'm limited, or stupid, or impaired. I don't know why I bothered with him the whole time, but I guess that shows the kind of mood I'm in tonight.
Boy, he'd really hate to get into it with a hardcore deconstructionist.
 

fade

Staff member
These puns are running hot and cold. I've got a sinking feeling that they'll soon circle the drain. I mean, how long can you go on basin your jokes on this stuff? We've seen everything but the kitchen sink.
 
These puns are running hot and cold. I've got a sinking feeling that they'll soon circle the drain. I mean, how long can you go on basin your jokes on this stuff? We've seen everything but the kitchen sink.
I hate to clog the forums up with this kind of stuff. But until someone elbows their way in here to put a stopper to it, we'll just have to go with the flow. I guess I can handle it, so long as the mods don't blow a gasket.
 
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