Lost in OK

It’s been a slow start to this site.  I’ve been caught up a bit too much at work to really work on it, but I haven’t given up.  Before I can get the local content up, I thought I would pass along some external stuff I find out there in the blogosphere.  I have to say that cycling in Oklahoma City seems much safer and easier than it was before I went to college back in 95.  I think drivers here are finally getting used to seeing cyclists around town.  However, I think there are still some areas for improvement including stop signs.  I wanted to pass on this letter to motorists about 4-way stop signs:

There’s a cool photography collection over at the New York Times by Michelle V. Agins featuring photographs of night workers.

I’m glad to see that the Courts have decided that the 4th Amendment is a geographic privilege and not an actual right.

A federal appeals court in Manhattan upheld the convictions on Monday of three Al Qaeda operatives in a ruling that bolsters the government’s power to investigate terrorism by holding that a key Constitutional protection afforded to Americans does not apply overseas.

The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit holds for the first time that government agents may obtain admissible evidence against United States citizens through warrantless searches abroad.

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Staring at trucking regulation software code had started dissolving my brain as of late.  I’ve got way to much to do and too little time. And yet, I needed a project to take my mind off of it.  As many of you know, I’ve really gotten back into cycling lately (no spandex jokes necessary) and while I love riding around town, there’s not much in information about resources for Oklahoma City cyclists.  So, I’ve started OKCBicyclist.com in hopes of someday fixing that problem.  There’s nothing there yet, but you’ve got to start somewhere.  I figured a few of my local readers might be interested.  Oh yeah, before I forget, I know that  I’m no graphic designer. ;)

I guess I needed a new experiment.  I’ve recently returned to cycling after an extended absence and while Oklahoma City has improved dramatically as a biking city we’ve still got a ways to go to become a real bicycle friendly metropolis.  One thing that I’ve found lacking is the difficulty to find information about cycling resources in town.  The trail maps haven’t been updated in ages and there just doesn’t seem to be a very active web group out there disseminating information.  So, I decided to put this site together.  I know that there is a lot of work to do, but all great journeys start with small steps.

On my way home tonight I came as close to my own demise as I have ever been before.  I was stopped at the corner on my bicycle with a fellow bicyclist next to me and a truck behind me. The car shown on the left, struck a van about a block down the street then hit a Jeep, which flipped over on its roof and somehow continued on down the block at an incredible rate of speed considering it had no front end and slipped behind me by about 5 feet and struck the truck behind me spinning it around.  He couldn’t have been going less than 70 miles an hour in a 35.  Several people were hurt including one of the passengers in the PT Cruiser.  All and all, a very unnerving experience.  Fortunately, the driver of the truck behind me had the presence of mind to realize that he could have avoided the hit by going forward, but instead deciding to take the hit full on rather than run over the two cyclists in front of him.  He’s my new best friend to be sure.

I’ve been working like crazy for the last couple of months.  This weekend, it really caught up with me so I took my eyes away from the code for a little bit and finished up some photos that are way, way, way past due . .

Photos Below:

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The great find of the day from the 2008 Republican Party Platform:

We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself.

Via: Ben Smith’s Blog: McCain and the platform - Politico.com

Flickr has added another incredible collection of photographs to their commons site, this time from the George Eastman House collection.  There are some amazing shots to check out . . .

This is certainly true this week . . .

No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.
Judge Gideon J. Tucker

Via: Judge Gideon J. Tucker Quotes - The Quotations Page