Anthology of Interest

Jamie, my brother in-law, has started up a blog of his own. So far, he has mostly written about driving. Aside from a short Mini Cooper review (he likes it), the entries are rants about bad or inconsiderate drivers in Calgary.

In the spirit of Jamie's blog, here are my two pet peeves about Victorian drivers.

1) People veer left, into the next lane, and then turn right. I guess this is so that they can make a sharper right hand turn without hitting the curb. It always freaks me out though: just how far left are they going to go? Are they changing lanes into me? I wonder if they are teaching this maneuver in driving school out here or something, as I don't recall ever seeing this in Calgary.

2) Late use of signal lights. The signal light is pretty much useless when you turn it on five feet before you turn. Some people also neglect to turn on their signal light when they intend to merge. I will generally make a space for people if I can see the blinken light, but looking for people checking their blind-spot (it's nice that they do though) is less reliable.

What is your worst driving habit? Mine is changing lanes very late when I pass another car. Gotta stop doing that!

And that all I have to say about that (at the moment).

Here are some pictures that Rod and Sherri took at the solar car race finish line. Awsome performance U of C!

Tamara somehow got herself a free pass to a movie at Cinecenta. I think it was free with her iced latte or something. Tonight she redeemed it to see Crash. I had to pay.

Crash is a very good movie. It's a relatively low budget drama, but with a lot of largish names. People like Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, and Ryan Phillippe. It's an ensemble movie that follows the stories of about six groups of people, and how they cross over each other over the course of about two days.

Its got characters, storytelling, plot advancement, acting, surprises, miracles, personal growth, and generally all the stuff that makes a good drama. It is set in L.A., and the early part of the movie focuses a lot on racial tension. That is sort of the root of everyone's problem in the whole thing. Its all shades of grey, nothing is black and white. People are stubborn, rude, angry, alone, and generally just real people. The people you think are the bad guys turn out to be the hero's, and the people you think are the good guys turn out to be evil. But that's an oversimplification; everyone is both the good guy and the bad guy, depending on the situation and the circumstance.

It was masterfully directed and overall put together very well. Good music too. Highly recommended.