Assuming the Mayans were wrong and the world does not end 12/21/2012, a spot will be open for a speaker at my church for evening service the last Sunday in March, our traditional “April Fools” service. In the past we have done a service where children called in the elements as Yakko, Wakko, and Dot with Hello Nurse called in North by an adult, grandmotherly type. Other times previous we have had a full Coffee Service where the goddess Caffeina was invoked and various aspects of coffee represented the quarters. We have also invited artists from web comics to speak at one of these services, including Randall Millholland, Jennie Breeden, Thomas Overbeck, and an artist that does not wish to be named as having been to our church because we were boring and didn’t sacrifice a baby. I don’t know what he was expecting we may be Pagan but we’re also UU (one of the first Institutional Members of CUUPS the Covenant of Universalist Unitarian Pagans). Our church has a history that extends back to the late 1960s.
But what I’m trying to say is that we have a history of inviting outside speakers who are not religious speakers, and offer them a chance to speak on their take on the First Principle Of UU, The inherent worth and dignity of all men people. Randy went at it from a wildly obtuse angle as anyone who has read his comic knows, and Overbeck hit it out of the park with his speech. I still rank that as one of the best outside services we have ever had, even counting the professional religious speakers. The bar has been set very high, but there is no need to use that to measure yourself because we are measuring from the First Principle, the inherent worth and dignity of all people. Even the guy that got mad because we didn’t kill babies managed to get a piece of the ball with his speech.
And the suggested topic isn’t even a hard and fast requirement, Jenny Breeden spoke about growing up as a UU and becoming an artist because of that. Her speech was only tangentially connected to the First Principle, that because she had Inherent Worth and Dignity she was able to make bad awwrrt while learning to make good art and become an internationally famous web comic artist.
So, the requirements are the ability to get yourself to the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell in time for a 1930 Sunday service (there may be a 1100 service made available if that’s all you can make, and we have morning services again by then) and we need to know if you have any food restrictions because there will be a potluck dinner. We used to have our speakers come at A-kon, but we stopped that because it was interfering with their merchandising and costing them money (sorry Jennie) so now we are extending the invitation for the AF service.
More history from the first service in April, back when the time change to Daylight Savings was the first Sunday in April, we did a Reverse Service. At the time we had a set Welcoming Song, and a Dismissal Song that started and ended every service, well on the time change day we did those songs on the opposite ends of the service and deliberately let the service run long… so the Welcoming Song went off a few minutes earlier than “normal” except because of the time change it was almost an hour later. Yes I planned that service. We have had Cartoon Services on several first Sunday in April or last Sunday in March services, my favorite one was a showing of the Lum’s Springtime Special Urusei Yatsura, in Japanese. Trying to explain why there was a girl wearing a bikini flying around shooting lightning at one particular male character was worthy of a separate article all by itself. Not to mention why it was a tiger striped bikini and the girl had nubs of horns sticking out of her head. Another one of my services. In fact I have done most of the first Sunday in April or last Sunday in March services since the turn of the century for our church, it’s one of the few “traditions” we have. I didn’t present last year, but I wrote and coordinated the service. This year the brain damage has gotten worse, hence why I’m calling for outside assistance this year. If you would like you can provide a theme for calling the elements and deities (and even specify the deities, if you provide a wiki link) I will write the quarter calls and invocation of the deities.
If you want to be in the program you can contact me through this blog or via my e-mail, it’s on the blog somewhere.
PSA, Opus
Still fighting the pollen, and the Feed
The pollen still hangs on, and so do my allergies, but at a reduced level. I only had one eye glued partially shut this morning and I was able to get it open without having to pry the lids apart with my fingers, so progress. I still sound like I have been gargling with Drano when I first get up but the voice clears up by the end of my first cup of coffee. And today is going to be especially fun as I have to haul 2 busted flat panel monitors to the recycler about 3 miles from the house. There is an electronics recycler located in the Batteries Plus store over in the part of Firewheel “Mall” next to Lavon Highway that I can get to easily on Blue, but I can only haul one monitor at a time because of the need to use the straps and tie the monitor to the rack on the back so two trips.
Up first is a report on a MI wreck with several links. Authorities: Bike rider dies in Ottawa Co. crash and Man Killed Riding Bike At Night also Bicyclist killed in Monday night crash in Olive Township This is literally another blind driver syndrome, as the driver claimed to have been glare-blinded by an oncoming car’s headlights and unable to see anything on the road even after she hit the cyclist. Ordinarily I would make a comment about the driver just not paying attention, except that I have had a similar experience out riding my bike as a driver refused to dim their lights and left me unable to even see the lines on the road for several seconds. The problem is people are installing high-power bulbs in their headlights that were not made to control that much light and the “spill light” is enough to make a driver (or bike rider) glare blind even after the car has passed. I don’t see any way of fixing this situation, because the bulbs are approved for street use, the headlights are designed to physically accept the bulbs, and all the bits are legal, they just don’t work together for anyone not in the car they are installed on. This is a problem that needs to be addressed at the Federal level, because they are the ones approving the bulbs for street use, and there are headlights designed to control that much light output and put it on the road instead of other drivers’ eyes. There really isn’t anything a cyclist can do to avoid getting caught in a situation like this, because the cyclist is also going to be glare-blind after the hot-rodded headlights go by and won’t be able to do anything except try to stay on the road and not ride in front of vehicles that were passing before the other vehicle passed. The only thing that could prevent a similar wreck would be physically separated bike infrastructure with a barrier to keep motor vehicles driven by blind drivers away from cyclists.
Up the road in OK another “blind driver” kills a cyclist. UPDATE: Bicycle rider dies after collision on 71st near Highway 75 This road runs not too far from WoaB World HQ, and continues through OK and on north through KS and NE. At this time investigators don’t know how many cars hit the cyclist after the initial impact with the white car that knocked him from his bike, but it could be a case of multiple hit-and-run by a depraved population. Remember this is the same state that produced Tasha Borland who killed two cyclists without remorse because they were in the same area as she was trying to drive (on the shoulder of the road), and there were several hundred comments that supported her in various fora and comments sections.
A CA cyclist hits a median and then gets run over. Bike rider dies after falling in Watt traffic lane There is more to this than the report lets on, like what caused the cyclist to hit the median in the first place. More Cyclist hit, killed by car in North Highlands
The Mounties did it again. UPDATED BREAKING NEWS: Man charged after cyclist killed in hit-and-run accident Now it’s up to the prosecutors to do their jobs and put this criminal killer away for life plus 40 years. Interesting note, one of the comments was about a similar vehicle that harassed cyclists previous to the wreck.
A wreck in Oz. Cyclist dead after being hit by truck on Bunya Highway at Murgon At the time of the posting the investigation of the wreck had not been completed enough to release the direction of travel for the vehicles involved.
LifeStyle from TX. Supporters raise money for Austin cyclist hospitalized after hit and run Speaking as someone who has navigated the maze that is the TX Hit-and-run compensation system, he will need this. And someone with an intact brain to do the navigating for him. I will never understand how someone who is brain damaged can manage the paperwork to “prove” that he was in fact hit and damaged by a motor vehicle that did not stop for the operator to render aid as required by law. I missed out on most of what I could have gotten because I had no way to find out about it.
And those are all the links about bicycles and cycling that gave me fits. You don’t want to see the rest of the links.
Billed @$0.02, Opus
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Tagged anti-bike blatherings, blind driver syndrome, blind drivers, can you top this, cycling life, cyclist injured, cyclist killed, Dead cyclists, Don't read the comments, hit from behind, hit-and-run, Oz, Single Witness Suicidal Swerve/Single Witness Crossing Cyclist, smart LEO, Something smells, stupid cyclist, stupid drivers, stupid LEO, updates, waste of human skin