tekHedd – the blog

Or more importantly, is a bicycle a pedestrian when in the crosswalk?

As almost nobody knows or cares about, I commute on a bicycle. When I ride my bike, just about every day I have to dodge a car, pedestrian, other biker, or random obstacle from outer space. Alien probings and zombie attacks are quite rare, but now that summer is here hardly a day goes by when I don’t have to dodge a bicycle doing something idiotic.

The most common thing bikers do to annoy me is run red lights. And stop signs. And just generally ignore all the laws. There are two problems with this. First, of course, it’s illegal: bikes are supposed to be the same as cars. More importantly, it makes cars resent bikers. It’s dangerous enough out here without people actually aiming for me on purpose!

The most annoying biker is the one that rides in the bike lane…going the wrong direction. This biker never has a helmet, rarely has a headlight, and sometimes expects me to swerve into traffic to go around him. I put my head down and play chicken in this case.

But the one that confuses me most is the biker who rides on the sidewalk. Now, in some parts of town, this is legal. However, when this biker enters the crosswalk, (s)he expects to get the right of way. Half the time this is a nice cruiser bike, with a very nice person wearing a helmet on it. But then they act like they have the right of way, and ride right out in front of you. What makes this most annoying, though, is that I can’t decide whether they do.

So, the question of the day is: If you ride your bike carefully out into the middle of the street in a crosswalk, do you have the right of way?

So, more and more I’m starting to see how griefing could be fun, in a completely selfish and hateful way. Just go watch for weak enemies, and see how miserable you can make them. I mean, fun as long as you’re winning. And the true griefer quits as soon as he’s not winning, yes?

It’s not about skill, it’s about taking out your frustrations on someone weaker.

What the heck. My friends are on this stupid PvP server. It’ll give me something to work towards.

So, in my last entry I said my latest beer was insipid and uninteresting. Well, it turns out that it was just undercarbonated. A sweet, simple beer like that tastes better when it’s not actually flat.

And it was indeed flat. So, I cranked up that CO2 pressure, and now it’s a strong B+ beer. :)

And I’ve been running around doing PvE content in the WoW expansion. You know, I think that WoW could use a little more carbonation sometimes, too. But I quite like the PvE content. Hardcore players always disrespect their commitment to the PvE side of things, but I think they know what they’re doing. Of course, if Bliz really think WoW caters to hardcore PvPers, they’re nuts.

And my guild mates are always talking about : “Oh, now you’re level N, so you have to go do these quests to get this piece of gear because it’s UBER.” Do I look like I care whether I’m uber? See that lonely K at the very end of my bartles-and-james profile? That’s right. While it’s not a strong bias, I really don’t care as much about killing as any other part of the gaming experience. Maybe I should leave and go back to being a Joiner, cause membership rules, but not if you have to do a bunch of
stupid stuff to be in the club.