More shameless begging

OK I am in serious need of some charity here.

Part the first is my computer, which is dying. The CD-ROM drive is dead and fails to recognize a disk in the drive which makes fixing the OS problematic, which is another problem I have with my computer. I can’t access my MySpace page or talk to any of my friends there until I upgrade my browser, which requires I upgrade my OS which requires I have a computer that can reboot and also a working CD-ROM drive. The rebooting issue is a problem because I can’t shut down the computer because of a flaky power supply that works for as long as it isn’t turned off, but sometimes doesn’t want to restart after being shut down. What that boils down to is the ‘puter is on its last legs.

Part the second, I need to get some fenders for Gigi. I’m getting tired of shoes full of water when the wet stuff is on the streets or falling from the skies and then on the streets. Also Gigi would stay a lot cleaner and would look better if mud and clag would stay confined in the area of the tires instead of getting sprayed all over the bike. And safety would be enhanced if the front tire wasn’t throwing water and road grime in my face when my speed exceeds 13 MPH. If I wasn’t wearing glasses it would be different but after a few minutes of road gunk getting sprayed in my face my outward visibility is drastically impaired.

Third is this:

I have been asking about getting it made into a tattoo, but I have zero budget and I have been quoted prices ranging from $250 to $2000 to get it made beautiful. It’s not just the ugly scar that is the problem, there is also what the scar represents in my mind. Every day I get up with huge scars, both on my body and in my mind and psyche, while the guy that tried to kill me gets up with no consequences for his actions whatsoever, except whatever karma has placed on him in this life. I’m tired of the ugly reminder that someone tried to kill me because I was there doing something that had absolutely no negative impact on his life whatsoever, and he gets to live his life while I’m scarred physically and mentally and unable to work. So, what I’m asking for here is either a tattoo to make it beautiful, or plastic surgery to make it go away. I’ll still be physically and mentally scarred, but at least I won’t have that monster reminding about it me every day. And it will then remind me that there are people that care.

PSA, Opus

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Meet the new boss NASCAR, same as the old boss, and the Feed

As for what I do when I’m not battling for your (and my) rights to the roads, well I watch motorsports. Yesterday I watched Denny Hamlin win the race at Homestead Miami, while Jimmie Johnson won his 4^th straight championship, a Cup record and I think a NASCAR record. Now why do I watch stock car racing? Well for one thing, there are a lot of people in that line of work that I know personally, having lived in the South all my adult life. But I was a fan of Cup since they called it Grand National, before Winston ever graced the series’ name. Even when I was living in Hawaii I knew Fireball Roberts and Junior Johnson (no relation to Jimmie) were race car drivers, and I would build models of race cars. When I was a young father I would race my Honda CVCC in SCCA Solo II competition because that was safe and also as much as I could afford. Then I built a few cars for the Modified Category in that type of competition. Then I moved away from having a place to work on cars, started working 60 hour weeks in a factory, and had to give all that up. But enough of ancient history, we have a Feed to get through.

Up first is another report on the pellet gun drive-by shooting of a cyclist in Austin, from my examiner.com colleague. Cyclist assaulted with pellet gun Notice that even though they know the location of the perp, no mention has been made of an arrest, just charges. It was just a cyclist, don’t want to go to too much trouble. If the perp comes back to TX before the statute of limitations on the charge runs out he might get arrested and tried. Don’t hold your breath.

A cyclist is hit while not riding on the road and is charged for the wreck? Teen bike rider hurt in crash with pickup I don’t know if this is a result of him being a cyclist or having an Islamic-sounding surname, or if he might be a person of color, any of which would explain why he was charged with a traffic offense in spite of not being on the road when he was hit. The only thing I can say about this wreck was the cyclist was riding against traffic direction when he was not on the road but near it.

A similar incident to the Austin TX shooting except multiple victims and no known perp yet, in Enn Zed. Drive-by paintball gun shootings probed The main difference between the weapons used is a paintball gun has a lower muzzle velocity and a much heavier projectile that normally doesn’t penetrate but instead produces blunt force trauma in a very confined area.

Also in Enn Zed is a protest over cyclists’ rights and a memorial ride. Cyclists hold memorial ride for killed colleague

Finally, an infrastructure article from CA. Protecting California Bicyclists No matter where you ride infrastructure both real and legal is important, especially the legal infrastructure. Having roads to ride on won’t matter a hill of beans if there is no legal protection on those roads. And of course laws are useless without law enforcement to back them up.

And that’s all I have for you today. I hope you had a nice weekend and I hope you have a magnificent Thanksgiving feast for my USAian readers, the rest of you have a nice week, too.

Billed @$.02, Opus