LOOK OUT!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, things have just become rather hectic around here. I have a conference coming up in a couple of weeks and I need to get things ready for it. Of course nothing is working so I'm scrambling like mad. Ah the joys!

Now there is something you should be aware of, some of you know this, some of you may not. My going to a conference may endanger your life!

Ok, so I'm being all Faux News dramatic, but there really is a correlation between my attendance of conferences and major world event (usually involving death). So far it seems that the odds are somewhere just around 50% that something big will happen when I go to a conference. If you don't believe me here's the list of past events:

Chicago, Sept. 2001 - We all know what happened with that one. Needless to say the pressures of having to present a talk on September 11th kind of vanished when we figured out what was happening. But the conference continued and then we were stuck in the US until we found our way out by train...ah 17 hours on the train from Chicago to Toronto, how fun!

Baltimore, Oct. 2002 - This was the same conference series that I was attending in Chicago the year prior. Now admittedly this was possibly the most minor event to occur. But the last day of the conference the Beltway Sniper started shooting people in Baltimore. At this point I started to have a bad feeling about this conference series.

Ottawa, Aug. 2003 - This time death wasn't involved, but this was the largest blackout in history at the time, and still holds for North America. We lost the whole last day of the conference and a few friends had some serious problems getting home with all the missed flights. More fun, what can I say.

Chicago, March 2004 - Back in Chicago again, this can't be a good sign can it. Nope, yet again the 11th of a month that I'm in Chicago coincides with a massive terrorist attack. This time it's the Madrid train bombing. And I think this also put it at 4 events in 8 conferences, not a really good record.

So with that in mind I should let you all know that I'm going to conference from Feb. 22nd to the 2nd of March. There is a little extra time on the front end of the conference because I'll be meeting Deirdre in Chicago. Oh yeah, the conference is in Chicago. I'm not sure what happens when I'm there not on the 11th of the month, but just the same, don't travel if you can avoid it and stay away from crowded places or points of military strategic importance.

Good luck!

Laws to protect the stupid

I don't get it, I try but I just can't understand it. Why are there so many laws out there, and more being put into effect all the time, to protect the mortally ignorant? Incidentally I'm trying to make a new ranking system for stupidity based upon the one in place for obesity.

I just read an article describing a new law that is being proposed for New York. The law will make it illegal to use an ipod, cell phone or blackberry like device while walking across a crosswalk. So this is it people, we become so dumb that they are about to outlaw the equivalent of chewing gum and walking! What's next, police escorts to ensure we get across each intersection safely?

As a kid I was taught to look both ways before crossing the street, and look how well that worked. If idiots out there don't want to bother listening to that advice and would rather take their chances with city buses and NYC cabs, I say let them. If anything they will help alert other morons to the risks. I could understand the legislation if their stupidity put others at danger, but somehow I don't think the 32 year-old lawyer on his blackberry is going to do too much damage to Bruno in the garbage truck.

Maybe lawmakers should start to pay more attention to some of the pressing issues at hand, rather than interfering with the enjoyment of the daily lives of their citizens.