Chatty Cathy Can’t Drive in Cali

Yes, it’s finally going into effect. As of July 1, 2008,  California is putting into effect those ever-feared laws about driving while using your cell phone.

Let me lay out the facts for you (then offer up my opinion):

• Drivers over 18 can only use a hands-free device when driving in the car
• Drivers under 18 cannot use a hands-free device (which means no cellphone use at all)
• You can only use a phone (sans hands-free) to call an emergency service (i.e. 911, Police, Fire)
• Push-to-Talk doesn’t qualify as “hands-free”, but Speakerphone does
• The law doesn’t prohibit drivers from dialing while driving
• The law doesn’t specifiy about texting while driving, so it’s okay, but not recommended

Don’t be scared by those people telling you it’s a couple hundred for the ticket. The fines are $20 for a first offense and $50 for subsequent offenses. The DMV is reported about the ticket, but you don’t receive a point on your record.

This law is stupid.

Sure, we are removing a distraction from drivers. If it’s the physicality of needing two hands then you can’t eat, change the station, or in anyway occupy one of your hands?  If it’s the mental atmosphere of engaging in conversation, you can’t talk to anyone in your car or listen too intently to your music or talk radio? Well then maybe it’s both. Maybe it’s the combination of those two distractions.

If the intent is to minimize cell phone use in the car, it won’t work. People who talk on their cell phones are going to talk on their cell phones regardless of the law. If they use speakerphone (which still occupies that second hand) or a bluetooth device, it won’t change the concentration they are putting on their phone conversation versus their driving.

For me, the hastle of getting and using  a hands-free device is more distracting than just putting the phone up to my ear.  Some can say that having the phone at your ear blocks your vision, but how deep can we carry that? Having passengers in your car blocks you vision. Not looking blocks your vision, too. I think more people just don’t look.

And why is it okay to text? With texting, you have to take you eyes off the road and look just at  your phone. You have to actively use one hand, typing– and for some people using a second hand. How is that safe? I would fully support a no-texting-while-driving law because that’s just common sense.

There is definitely a safe way and an an unsafe way to use your phone in the car, but ‘hands-free’ laws aren’t the answer. I think the state is going to be a looking at a lot of revenue (in small doses) from this law.  They should have made the fine higher. (Thanks to us, they didn’t.)

Check out this site for a full Q&A.

Tune into the Small Networks for Summer

Summer is usually quite the drag for us TV watchers. Having been robbed of a full season this past year, I am even more anxious for the fall. Summer isn’t all cheesy reality and boring reruns, though. Two networks have shows worthy of our attention.

USA’s Burn Notice is one of the wittiest and cleverest spy shows since the original Get Smart. A sharp and cynical spy, Michael, has been “burned,” abandoned and left for dead, in Miami with an ex-girlfriend and plenty of trouble to stir up. The second season kicks off on Thurs, July 10th at 10pm.

TBS’s My Boys is another great summer show that seems to fly under the radar. PJ is a sports writer in Chicago, with just the right amount of tom-boy and real girl to keep the show interesting. Last season left us with a wicked cliff hanger– after a string of boyfriends and almost boyfriends, she ran off on vacation with one of her many male interests. Who could it be? We’ll find out with the second season airing Thursdays at 9:30pm (or catch this one online).

Tune in for both and tell us what you think.

I Never Thought This Day Would Come

For quite sometime I’ve watched and read the anime Inuyasha. I mean, I’ve dedicated some serious time to it! (I started when I was a freshman in high school and it’s now my 5th year in college.) However, today, I found out author Rumiko Takahashi has finished it! (At a whopping 56 volumes, meaning 558 chapters!) I nearly cried! I’ve waited years for this moment and it’s finally come.

For those who don’t know, Inuyasha is about a Jr. High School girl (eventually a High School girl) who ends up in feudal Japan and travels with a half-demon named Inuyasha collecting sacred jewel shards. (This is the most basic summary, please check wikipedia.com for a full plot summary)

9 years of waiting, reading and watching has finally come to an end. This is either incredibly amazing or incredibly sad. (I’d like to think it’s amazing.)

Starbucks is playing nice.

Having recently partnered with AT&T, Starbucks is doing something generous and long overdue.

Free WiFi (with a small catch).

If you buy a Starbucks Card (or already happen to have one since they are the universal gift of every holiday where you have to give a lot of things to a lot of meaningless people), you can register it online. Once you register you are part of the “Starbucks Rewards Program” where you get some perks.

They send you a free drink. (Correction: Not send you the drink. Send you a coupon for a free drink.) You get free modifiers to your drink whenever you use the card. You don’t have to pay extra for things like soy milk and fancy flavors. The best part is that you get free AT&T wireless internet in every Starbucks location, which means anywhere you happen to be.

I know I’m taking them up on the offer. Thanks, AT&T, for knocking some sense into Starbucks. Maybe you aren’t so horrible after all.

You say ‘hand shaken’ and I hear ‘blah’.

Yesterday I saw a commercial for a “hand stirred” fruit milkshake smoothie of some sort new at Wendy’s. As someone who’s worked at Starbucks (albeit happily) for much longer than intended, I’ve seen plenty of the “hand shaken” or “hand stirred” nonsense. Why do advertisers see it as such a great selling point at mass produced locations?

First off, it’s Wendy’s for goodness sake. While the company probably encourages excellence and performance, it’s still fast food. It’s still food that you can drive up to a window and receive in less than three minutes. It’s food that has been demographically selected and manufactured for the entire nation to enjoy at every Wendy’s location on every street corner from the ghetto to the suburbs. You aren’t getting personal or gourmet.

Second off, the people making these things don’t have the expertise and aren’t given enough money to care about shaking, stirring, or whatever is required of them. When it comes down to it, time is everything. The faster you get your food, the happier you are. Managers know it. Employees know it.

Third, and most relevantly, having worked in semi “fast food” and been given instructions on “hand shaken” beverages, I know that it means squat. Starbucks is higher quality than most places out there, but we still take quite a liberty with those personal touches to your drinks. If we ring 30 transactions a half an hour on an average day, that’s at the very least 30 drinks, more realistically beyond double that. Yes, your drink will be made well, I can promise you that, but those fancy personal touches that are advertised aren’t always part of the process.

Now step it down to real fast food like Wendy’s. Don’t even think that they are going to take the time out to do anything personal to your beverage, except spit in it if you piss them off.

Here’s the long and short of it: Unless you are paying top dollar from a restaurant or professional, “hand shaken” means nothing.

Don’t Forget to Bring Your Glowsticks to Disneyland

Rumor is that June 14th is Raver day at Disneyland, so don’t be weirded out by the rainbow dressed, pacifier sucking adults that are walking around the park; it’s just their way.

You can google for photo evidence that such a day exists, although, the day is never official. Kids just find out by word or mouth, internet forums or myspace (that’s how I found out about it).

CLICK HERE to see pictures.

WWII Will Never Die

The other day during one of our Keeping Note think-tank sessions, we were talking about how the generation of people who lived through World War II are almost all gone. It struck us as extremely sad that the people of that generation, along with their stories and realities, were disappearing. They lived through something unlike anything the world has and will possibly ever see and the generations from here on out will become more and more detached from the history of WWII.

Blind Spot is a documentary interview with Hitler’s personal secretary. Traudl Junge lived in Hitler’s bunker and ate meals with him during the last three years of the war, leading up to Hitler’s suicide. While isolated from the war completely, she learned to love and respect Hitler as a father-figure and her upstanding boss, never really knowing what it was he was doing. She took the final dictation of his will and testament and was with him in the bunker when he died.

While the movie is simply an hour and a half of this woman, Traudl Junge, talking to the camera her life and experiences as Hitler’s personal secretary, the stories she has to tell and the way she describes the most dangerous and evil man in history are amazing.

I’m happy that her narrative and her experiences didn’t die with her. Her story is one that we can keep for future generations to not lose touch with the horrors and reality of WWII.

A Party Divided: Democrats Go Right When They Feel There’s Nothing “Left”

You can view Hillary Clinton’s speech and sign up for Barack Obama’s website at: hillaryclinton.com or go directly to Obama’s wesite: barackobama.com

I’m a Hillary Clinton supporter and I was sad to see her end her campaign. (But let’s face it, it was inevitable) She put up a great fight, ( a great Machiavellian fight!) but it saddens me to see what has become of her supporters.

I’ve read many comments left on blogs and news articles that upset me and have enraged others. Why is it that former Hillary supporters are willing to change sides rather quickly, just because the Democratic representative is now Barack Obama? If anything, he is the person CLOSEST to Hillary’s ideals and the Democratic Party’s ideals.

In Hillary Clinton’s speech, she understood the need for a UNITED party, not a broken one.

“The way to continue our fight, to accomplish the goals for which we stand, is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama, the next president of the United States….Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on a vicotry he has won and the extrordinary race he has run. I ENDORSE HIM AND THROW MY FULL SUPPORT BEHIND HIM.”

All those urging others to switch to independent, to vote Republican, just because you hate Barak Obama for irrelevant reasons, I urge you to reconsider. In our system of government, there is no way a third party can win. It’s not built to support a third party. Majority of the populous will vote either Democrat (Obama) or Republican (McCain) and (in my opinion), a third party vote in this upcoming election, will be a waste. Those votes can go to the party you truly support. Have we forgotten the 2000 election when the Nader votes could have gone else where?

I have also read ridiculous reasons from various blogs and other sources, such as AOL’s straw pole, to not vote for Obama and ways to libel his name. I read a comment that said, “He’s not an American citizen. His father is from Africa. It’s being investigated.” Well, someone has not done their reading. Yes, his father is African, but his mother is an American citizen, which makes him an American citizen.

Another comment was a rant about how he never wore the American flag pin until now and how he’s never saluted when the national anthem was played. Are you serious?! This is your strongest reason not to vote for a leader? There are more important issues to follow when choosing a candidate. Also, a lot of people have been put of by his name, Barack Hussein Obama. Once again, this is the last thing you should focus on. If anything, this is a prejudicial judgement based on his name and not his leadership skills. Let me remind you of another point in Hillary Clinton’s speech,

“There are no acceptable limits, no acceptable prejudices, in the 21st century.”

Instead of spending your energy focusing on trifles, read about him and his ideas. Research what he supports, what he doesn’t support and what he plans for this country and then make your judgements. If you truly do not agree with him and find that you agree with other ideas, then fine. Just don’t take action based on shallow reasoning.

It is my hope that the Democratic party will stand together, rather than divided. In 40 years, there have been 10 presidential elections where only 3 terms were served by a Democrat. ( 2 terms belonged to Bill Clinton.) Let us try to put a Democrat back in office. If you are Hillary Clinton supporter then try to support her wishes and support Barack Obama.

Using Hillary Clinton’s words:

“The Democratic Party is a family and now it is time to restore the ties that bind us together and to come together around the ideals we share, the values we cherish and the country we love. We may have started on separate journeys, but today our paths have merged and we’re all heading towards the same destination, united and more ready than ever to win in November, and two turn our country around because so much is at stake.”

(Not all that write for KN follow the Democratic Party. Although, classified as a Moderate myself, I tend to lean towards the Democratic Party.)

Who is the Killer in Sherman Alexie’s Indian Killer?

Image Source: Fantastic Fiction

I’ve noticed this question appear many times in my blog stats, since I have a previous blog about the novel.

Now, I’m going to shed some light on that question.

The answer is that no one is sure and that’s why Sherman titled his book, “Indian Killer”. He wants the reader to see the title, and consider whether the murderer kills Indians or if the killer is an Indian.

Often, people tend to think the Killer is John, but to be honest that is all assumption because the book doesn’t clearly name a character as obviously guilty.

I want that!

I am a slave to product placement. When I saw Speed strut across screen in that blue jacket, I knew that I had to have it. Whether I wore it or I roped my boyfriend/brother/anyone into wearing, I knew that this movie wasn’t the end of me and the jacket.

I don’t feel ashamed because everyone has had a moment like this. After tirelessly searching for the jacket, I was just about to give up until I found this webpage.

filmjackets.com

These guys help you find the jacket you are looking for. Search their site and see all of the great movie apparel they’ve hunted down from Indiana Jones to Cry Baby. They even confirm if it’s the actual brand manufacturer from the film.

I’ve asked them to find one for me since it’s their specialty. I know it’s from a company called Belstaff that outfits tons of hollywood blockbusters. Let’s hope the site can come through!