Life is like a box of chocolates ..............

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Thank God for magnetism.

Wow, I had forgotten a lot of pedestrian 'rules' since coming to Germany. Cars STOP. Pedestrians always seem to have the right of way and I have become accustomed to that and take it for granted.

Last week some friends and I went to Portugal. Drivers there don't stop for anyone. I found myself jumping many times out of the road for a driver that sped up even after seeing me. IMO it wasn't malicious just they weren't going to change their driving habits for a few foreigners.

Moral, don't walk in Southern Europe.

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"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

I treat everyone the same, or try to anyway. I don't casually label the term "stupid" on anyone. My brother, for example, had a reading disorder and did poorly in school. I was convinced he was stupid. One year, out came the chess board. I changed my mind in a hurry. I even spent a few days off reading up on chess, playing it online, against computers, ect, ect, ect. Lots and lots or practice. Learned opening moves, traps, suprises. Day later, I challanged my brother and again went down in flames.

Fifteen years later, I have never, NEVER beaten my brother in chess. Never!

Moral of the story: They may look like an idiot now, but hurry along before you find out they'll smoke your @#$@ at something else.

Today, I was lucky to be not overly focused, or I would have been hit *again*.

If you're focused, it takes only a split second to react on a green light. and with a bike, you do accelerate fast, so you're almost immediately onto the road. That's why other directions get a redlight some seconds before you get a green light. That's also why you should never "just hit the red light". Especially not if you're coming from behind the cyclist! (and making a turn in front of him).

I was waiting for the light, thinking happy thoughts, see my light switching to green, start, and ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM a car flashes right in front of me. Obviously he or she "went along with the rest of the pack" and happily took those few red seconds along. He or she could see me standing. There are traffic laws for a reason!

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

double post, soz

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Earth's rotation is caused by penguins running around the south pole. Prove me wrong.

Ow, that's very simple: I laugh at them, then you burn some calories and laughing is good for you health!

Case in point:

http://tomvangaever.be/Data/fun/slich_goan.wmv

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Earth's rotation is caused by penguins running around the south pole. Prove me wrong.

that was stupid, but he let it be posted on the internet LOL

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"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

Do not let the stupidity or selfishness of another person consume your thoughts, you cannot control how they behave. At most you can control your reaction. Chosing to let it continuously burn you like this is a waste of a brilliant mind. The best that you can hope for is that in the future this person does not roll through another stop sign and run down a family. I agree with Gill's post and do my best to give pedestrians the right of way, being the pedestrian vs the car, has little chance of winning. Yes there are stupid people that abuse that right of way, and in some cases, you almost want to at least bruise their shin with the bumber of you car, but again, why waste your time thinking about it after the fact. It happened, you can't undue it. More than likely the person on the other end has their own view of how the event went down. More so, if you approach them and start screaming in their face, you are the one that is going to come off as a whacko.
Just the other day, in the parking lot, I saw and old man back out without even glancing in his mirror and if not for the quick reaction of the mother, carrying her infant and holding the hand of her toddler, he would have run them down. I felt her initial reaction of kicking the mans car and screaming at him was perfectly natural, but as she persisted in trying to intimidate him into learning his lesson, she, in my opinion, was loosing her correctness. he would not have run her down on purpose, he was careless, as we all make mistakes. In the end, no one was actually hurt and hopefully, it put a little mark in his memory to check before he backs out.

What was that stunt even supposed to be? What was he trying to do?

Wow - this hits home, as I've encountered this.

Yes they do deal with things differently. However, some of the things are much the same.

I was recently violently harrassed on the road while riding my bicycle home from work. I had to do some pretty fancy maneuvering to keep him from hitting me or me from running into the back of his car (the driver kept slamming on his brakes to get me to slam into the back of him).

After the fourth attempt on their part, I yelled at the top of my voice (pretty darn loud - I probably would have been a world-class hog-caller...). It was enough to scare 'em straight, and they roared off. I got the make, model, and color of the car, and all but 2 characters of their license plate.

Plus, there are cameras at that particular intersection.

When I went to make a statement to the Politzei, they said German law prevents them from filing a complaint unless license (sans only one character) is given (though it only takes one witness for them to launch an investigation). Furthermore, they said they're prohibited from using intersection cameras for evidence, even though the Polizei routinely issues tickets via radar/camera sites set up randomly throughout Germany. Even though there was only one vehicle and driver matching the complete description I gave them in all of Germany, they could not

That's what is different.

Here's what's the same:

I think if these jokers had tried to get me to rear-end them one more time, I'd have hopped off my bike onto the trunk of their car and planted two very deep impressions in the top of their roof.

Even if they had roared off, it would have taught them a lesson. If they'd stayed, I'm sure the Politzei's response to anything they would have said would have been something like this: "You mean to tell me that this bicyclist, who we see travelling this road on a regular basis without incident (they pass me at least once every three days, and I've worked with them on two occasions regarding local bicycling safety), jumped off his bike while both you and he were moving just to put dents in the roof of your car?"

I think that, and including character letters both from work and my work with the Politzei towards local cycling safety, would have been enough to counter any such potential claim and force a conviction.

If only I had ONE more character from their license plate!

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.