That is the title in a Motorcycle magazine that Angel has. This article has been on my desk for a while and I wanted to post the highlights...

A woman in Kansas, driving an SUV, makes a left turn in front of a motorcycle, killing rider and passenger. She pleads no contest to a charge of failing to yield the right of way. Her penalty? $60 fine and $117 in court costs.

A man driving a van in Wisconsin makes a left turn in front of a motorcycle (story sound familiar?) killing driver and passenger. Two dead and he pays less than $200 in fines and court costs for failure to yield.

A woman in Michigan pulls away from a stop sign into the path of a motorcyclist. Motorcyclist=dead. She is charged with negligent homicide, but will likely get off with nothing more than probation.

Basically, killing motorcyclists seems to be less of a crime than speeding, or parking facing the wrong direction on the street (I have done both and my combined fines were higher than the combined fines for any of the stories above). It really is crazy how little respect Motorcycles get on and off the street in the US.

Ok, so I have never really watched, nor followed Pop Idol, or the American equivalent, American Idol, until this year. We started to watch it mainly for the funny, disturbing, and sometimes absurd contestants who audition for American Idol, but somehow we got a little hooked, and so we are... the Final 9 (does not have the same ring to it as the Sweet Sixteen, or the Elite 8 [Reference to College Basketball Playoff format]).

The big problem with this season is simple... Either the American public is REALLY REALLY STUPID, or the Vote for the Worst campaign is working, because Sanjaya is still in the competition, and he REALLY, REALLY SUCKS. This week (and if you have not seen this weeks results stop reading HERE) he was not kicked off, hell he wasn't even in the bottom 3. Gina, the resident rocker chick was... and that was just plain wrong.

In other news, it seems that Kermit is sad no more... he must be on a good high!

...But only in a straight line!!!

That seems to be the problem with most nearly all drivers I have encountered here in Houston. There is a section of my trip back from Angel's where it is a straight road. You stop at some lights then after a couple of hundred yards there is a loop (270 degrees clockwise) from Waugh to Memorial. This is a great turn and I love to take it at fullspeed, or close to it. Problem is that people round here cannot. Many, many times I have been cut off by idiots who gun it a tthe lights, then cut in to take the turn... unfortunately they have to slow way down to do so. Pisses me off!

Happened twice today. Once the person cut me off then slowed down and the other time they rode my ass then dropped back in the turn... and in the latter case (which actually happened earlier in the daya than the former!) they were driving a 3 series BMW so I KNOW for a fact that they could take the turn at the same speed I did.

If they can't take a turn at speed, then STAY OFF MY ASS! :D

So I was flying back to Houston from Detroit early this morning. I had heard last night about the foiled terror attacks in London. My first and only thought about that was 'Yay for the English security system'... I then arrive at the airport at 7:30am EST to check-in for my flight. Little did I know that I (along with every other person in the airport) was a security risk.. all because I am not keen on being a stinky boy all the time!!!

Having already gotten my boarding card I went straight to the longer than average security line and having been bumped up to first class I went straight to the first class line. Get to the front very quickly only to find that ANY liquid or gel or spray in my bag needed to be removed and thrown out. End result is that I am now MacGyver... having the ability to blow anything and everything up with tootpaste and hair gel! I threw it all away and got through. Get to the gte and find out that if you bought a drink inside the airport (after security check) you would need to throw it out before you could board the plane!!

Freeking ridiculous... another case of jumping higher and further than really maybe required. I understand why these measures are in place, but come on... they are just taking it WAY too far!

Thank you... Rant Over!
Oh yeah, and now I get to go reuy all my stuff and will expense it to the company!!!

UPDATE: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that hotel samples of lotion, shampoo and conditioner that were in my carry on managed to make it through the hightech security systems... Basically, it all comes down to the honour system... 'do you have bombs?', 'No', 'Ok, off you go'!!! CRAZZZZZYYYY

It do be the number one reason for road rage a recent survey has concluded... and I would not disagree with that statement, based on my experience last night.

I had just dropped by Angel's to pick up my bag after Capoeira class. It was nearing to 23:00 and I was hot, sweaty, and tired. Result was me taking it easy on the drive home. I stop at a set of lights and suddenly this pick-up truck appears behind me. No big deal as the lights were red... They then turned green and that is when the fun started!

I take off from the lights, although not pushing at all and the guy behind starts tailgating me... and real feeking close at that! I proceed to forget that I have an accelerator and the car starts to slow down... I suddenly him accelerate behind me and try and overtake me on the outside. The thing to remember is I am in the outside lane, and he was overtaking (illegally i am sure) on the outside... My automatic reaction was to accelerate back up to speed to stop him (I know not nice, and not strictly right, but this guy had pissed me off). I proceed to drive at the speed limit, right alongside another car... end result is me having a big lump of shit hanging off the back of my car (the pickup that is... he was tailing me the whole way!).

At one point I see the lights ahead turn green and I floor it, which results in me leaving him in the dust. as I pull up to the lights at Westheimer and move into the filter lane to turn left, he comes screeching up, nearly taking the back corner off my car and screeches to a halt. He then starts making all these gestures and giving me 'angry' looks, to which I just smile and shake my head. The lights turn green for me first (he is going straight) and I give him the wanker salute as I drive by... but I really think the guy was too stupid to know what it means.

All in all and interesting drive home, certainly not what i expected, and it just reinforces my opinion that people like that should have their cars turned into junk metal, their licences shredded, and while we are at it, castrate the asshole... I don't think his genes are anything that should be allowed to continue to propagate!!!

Friday night we went to have breakfast for dinner (mmmmmm... Breakfast!!!) a the House of Pies. Well we had two couples sharing a booth behind us... all of a slightly older generation. One of the women gets a call from either her daughter, granddaughter, great-grand... you get the idea. Any way, it was a cause for celebration as the daughter had just gotten engaged. Seems the boyfriend brought her up to the roof and said 'we have so many great memories together in this city, what is your favourite?'... and bla bla bla he pops the questions. very romantic, bla bla bla. How do I know all this, you ask? Well, quite simple really... the stupid obnoxius biatch was kind enough to put the girl on speakerphone and talk loudly enough for the whole restaurant to hear!
........
Before we made it to breakfast for dinner, we were running some errands, including going to Target (which by the way has great deals on cat food, Kashi bars and Top Flite golf balls, it would seem). We park up and right beside us is this dipstick who I thought was just pulling through to the next lane, or was waiting on someone, or at least had broken down... but NOOOOOOOOOOO she actually had parked. Now, if you have ever been to the US, you will know that the car parking spaces tend to be big enough to house a family of 4... i.e. they are huge! Well, as the photo below shows (not very well I might add), she managed to take up not 1, not 2, hell not even 3 spots, but 4 of them! And she quite happily jumped out of her car and went into the shop! Astounding!!!

........
Finally... we went to play pool with Arthur and Kirsten on Saturday night, and at a table near to us was this incredibly fat chick in tight jeans and a, what looked like, crop top... I think it was meant to be a full size top, but her belly was just too big! She, at various points, tried to tuck her belly into her jeans, which failed miserably, resulting in the top riding up higher and the flab jiggling like Homer Simpson taking his physical ('Wooo Watch That Blubber Fly!!'). Needless to say, if you saw that, you would instantly want to go on a diet... regardless of how much you weigh!

That must be what we all are. The news was on in the background last night, and one story caught my attention...Student expelled for being gay.

yup at the University of the Cumberlands a 20 year old student was expelled because he wrote on a personal webpage that he was gay.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/14294381.htm

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3788068.html

The thing that really gets to me is not just what the University President said;

'Any student who engages in or promotes sexual behavior not consistent with Christian principles (including sex outside marriage and homosexuality) may be suspended or asked to withdraw from the University of the Cumberlands'

'At the University of the Cumberlands, we hold students to a higher standard. Students know the rules before they come to this institution. We've followed our policies and procedures in keeping with our traditional denominational beliefs'

... but what did get to me was what one student who was interviewed said. It went something like;

'...I don't understand why he was expelled. He was openly gay but did not flaunt it. And, a lot of other people do things that are evil like drinking, having sex and drugs'

Now if they were doing all three at once that would be interesting, but shit on me... who would want to go to a freak show uni like this???? Glad I went to a liberal religious school like King's! :p