Crap Streets & City Planning
A rant....
Sacramento has grown on me... allot. Its not a city conducive to tourism or people who don't know their way around. The bars, shops and restaurants are peppered around the city in a haphazard manner that I have yet to decode. There is a down town mall but even this is easy to totally by pass. It is inwards facing to itself - I know, crazy. And totally insular. With the street system the way it is you can totally miss the mall/shopping centre.
As I have learned more about the city I've found the good stuff bit by bit. Parks, delightful coffee shops and bars. You name it Sacramento has it. But there really doesn't seem to be a logic to it.
My main gripe however, now living in the down town of the city is the roads, streets etc. Sacramento actually has round-a-bouts (or "rotary's" as some yanks call 'em), but they have stop signs on 2 of the 4 entrances to it. This is absurd based on the logic of a round a bout where giving way is king and enables the traffic to flow freely. There is no logic to the stop signs which appear haphazard and random. There are 2 way streets where one of the lanes entering the street is blocked off (often when you come at it form the other direction off of a one way street) which I totally fail to see the logic for. This lack of logic isn't surprising as it seems to extend to the one way system which isn't simply up and down, up and down like many one way systems are - its not even like that in chunks. Again random!
Picture this 5 one way lanes, turns into 4 one way lanes. One lane comes at you from the opposite direction. No barrier, just arrows on the ground forcing that lane to go left (from the 5 system) and right (from the opposite direction). And all this happening in the light rail lane.
In summary: Arnie, or whoever is responsible for it: Sort out the streets in Sacramento. Whoever's bright idea it was to confuse drivers to try slow them down (the only logic, surely?) should be sacked and the streets re purposed. Add some sense to it. Confusing drivers can only add to a lack of safety.
FAKE FACT: Taxi drivers (the few of them that exist - there are not many in Sacto, oh I wonder why...) in Sacramento live, on average, 10 years less than your average Taxi driver because the stress they get in their day to day job takes many years off of their lives.
P.S.> Sacramento's city planning is rubbish in general so I'm not that surprised about the streets - commercial peppered with residential with the occasional industrial bit... whoa. Easy now Mr. City Planner.
Yes? Do you like electronic music? No? What about the Beatles? Yes? Even their song "Tomorrow never knows" uses the techniques that define electronic music!
Like it or not Electronic music is here to stay and Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music exposes the EM world like never before. From its nascent beginnings to the full flown cacophony of genre's extant today the I-GEM (and it is a Gem) is enough to keep even the marginally interested engaged. And to EM aficionado's its enough to keep you captivated for hours at a time, days on end.
The I-GEM truly is one of the best things that has ever come out of humanity - next to the wheel, sliced bread, music itself, and this yellow sponge brick thing my girlfriend has to remove cat hair from furniture and carpets.
Spanning the decades and sounds with parent and child links to every style, genre and sub-genre this guide provides you with both a witty commentary and samples of each and every combination of this rich musical medium.
Click directly from the title link or
through here to get to the guide. You need flash installed. When you get to Ishkurs page, click on the large central graphic to load the guide. Turn up your speakers, sit back, relax and enjoy.
Its lunch time... After a recent re-jigging of the photo pages on my
Fluid Pixel Productions site (small amount of free time I've had in the past few nights) I've come up with a new way of managing the plethora of "albums" on the photo site. I've even managed to update the site with some more recent pictures & some more artsy photos!
Wow! 1999! 6 years ago... Shazzam... That's quite some time. A leisurely lunch perusal of shots makes me realize how all those memories get jumbled up together. Some seem like yesterday, and some seem like allot longer ago than that!
Its wonderful to see the fun had in
the wonder years with some fab peps;
Steve Donkin, Steve Such,
Timur Demirag,
Pardeep Bhakar,
Dave Tingey,
Will Thompson,
Ian Bailey ,
Simon Hardwick,
Ali Jarvis & Elliot la Porte, and then there is these reprabates
Forsey,
Jase,
Rob & Alun (AKA Chris Bathurst),
Esser,
Mr Gillingman, Deli (no known photos exist)... to name but a few. It's inspired me to do profiles of each of them for the site... but with things they way they are now (in the midst of moving from Folsom to downtown Sacramento) that will have to wait... Possibly forever, maybe I'll do groups - ok now I'm waffling ;-) Then there are all those people you just plain forget about, "oh yeah, I remember them" :-)
All in all I'm glad to have the photo's only clicks away, not just for myself but for my friends and family too. Reminiscing is a joy to partake in - as long as it doesn't consume you. So to end on a joke...
Q: How many people does it take to change a light bulb?
A: 4. 1 to change the bulb and 3 to reminisce about how great the old bulb was.
Live in the present, rock on, and
check out the photos... S-Unit forever ;-)
Evolve your persona
To address recent comments about “not believing everything you read”. I agree with that comment. It also applies to see, & hear. Even when sources are reliable or honest there is always the human element of opinion at the very least which jades everything another person tells us. And at the most total deception and lies, manipulation, control etc. I understand the theory “there is no truth just different amounts of information”… but do believe in the truth and have respect for those who live by it.
The posters comment “Perhaps choose one or two opinions which can help evolve your persona, but attempting to make drastic personal changes will likely bring more issues than positive outcomes” is intriguing. Quite the assumption to the negative on personal change, sounds like someone who’s scared of change. I’d recommend “Who moved my cheese” By Spencer Johnson. Some great opinions in there ;-)
Choice is fundamental to humanity and freedom so (unless repressed/oppressed) we do naturally choose from the opinions and information absorbed from our education, experiences and exposure to others. The very nature of learning, be it directly from a Taoist master, a business mentor, a teacher, or a book is that we assimilate information and build our own perspective from that. Some learning is interactive, some is one directional. Why limit yourself to choosing only a few opinions? Is this not short sighted, and restrictive? Does this not do one justice in ones capability to grow beyond what one learns externally by limiting the input? That was, however the posters opinion, power to them for their choice of building their persona. I’m going to keep learning from as many sources as possible, including literature of all types to satisfy my ongoing need for greater and broader perspective of life.
Triangulation, (http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+triangulation) as with using multiple (three of more) points to identify a location the more information that we have, the more methodologies, precepts, concepts, opinions, and sources of information we have, the more accurate our understanding of the location, thought, or truth. With only one or two opinions are you maximising your capability to grow into something greater?
A final thought on making money selling life teaching books. Great observation! Who knows what motive is truly behind the book. Another reason to read lots of books, attend lots of seminars and have lots of conversations with people – be it experts or “just” the experienced – to gather as much information as possible for your triangulation. These people are professionals. As are politicians, the police, business owners, priests and more. All people who have a great deal of influence in peoples lives. Let alone the musicians (ok there are plenty of struggling artists), sports personalities, and social workers. In a capitalist society it is money that makes the world go round (oh, and love ;-)) so I really don’t find it surprising these books/seminars cost money. The great thing about books is you can find them in libraries. I suggest joining one and gathering your information there (said with a healthy does of sarcasm, served with a healthy smile and intended in good jest).
Of course, that’s all my opinion and you don’t have to choose it to evolve your persona.
Good luck triangulating!
