I got home Friday from the round-trip ride to Leonard , Texas. My old BMW K75 was hacked by the good folks at Texas Sidecars and you can see a picture by clicking on the thumbnail or by visiting Data Port Two.
Cruising west on I-20 I was surprised to see that the speed limit had jumped from 70 to 80 miles per hour. Oddly enough…or maybe not oddly at all… this happened somewhere between Midland and Odessa in the heart of the oil patch.
Non-truck traffic immediately pushed to 80+ while I motored on at something between 60 and 65. The new outfit would go a lot faster than that but I wasn’t sure just what gas mileage I’d get with the new sidecar at higher speeds.
I was passed by every vehicle on the road, including lots of enormous SUVs. At one gas station I stopped at the previous driver had put in 55 bucks worth of gas!
It seems to me that a good first step toward conserving energy would be to reinstate the 55 mph limit. Well, make it 60 and exempt trucks.
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On this trip I spent 5 nights in Motels and enjoyed five ‘augmented’ continental breakfasts while large screen TVs in each of the breakfast rooms reported the “news.” Frankly I never watch TV news. I listen to NPR, read newspapers on line and check what’s new in the blogosphere.
I can’t begin to imagine how uninformed people are whose only news source is TV. Pretty appalling.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Bloggers as Journalists
I meant to comment about this story…or call attention to it…but then I had to leave town for a couple of days and it slipped by.
A newspaper in Boston, BostonNOW, is planning to incorporate reportage by bloggers on a regular basis. This will go a long way to breaking down the Chinese Wall that academically trained journalists think ought to separate the blogosphere from ‘real journalism.’
We could use one or two bloggers on a regular basis in our local press.
Example: Surely one of the best-informed political writers in Arizona is Ted Prezelski. His prose is clean and direct and he knows a world more about where Arizona’s political bodies are buried than the Star’s political reporter, who was just a pup when Ted started working in, and observing, local politics.
The BostonNOW web site is here. You can get to the NPR story here.
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On The Road
I’m riding the K75 to Texas tomorrow. More about that and occasional updates at Data Port Two.
A newspaper in Boston, BostonNOW, is planning to incorporate reportage by bloggers on a regular basis. This will go a long way to breaking down the Chinese Wall that academically trained journalists think ought to separate the blogosphere from ‘real journalism.’
We could use one or two bloggers on a regular basis in our local press.
Example: Surely one of the best-informed political writers in Arizona is Ted Prezelski. His prose is clean and direct and he knows a world more about where Arizona’s political bodies are buried than the Star’s political reporter, who was just a pup when Ted started working in, and observing, local politics.
The BostonNOW web site is here. You can get to the NPR story here.
............................................................................
On The Road
I’m riding the K75 to Texas tomorrow. More about that and occasional updates at Data Port Two.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
The Shape of Things to Come
Getting Hacked
By this time next week I will be just outside Leonard Texas, on my way to the home of Texas Sidecars, where I’ll be having a Ranger sidecar wed to my 1990 BMW K75.
This will be a much lighter, trickier, and probably slower outfit than what I have been driving for the past year…the renowned “Yellow Peril.” The YP is being reclaimed by its owner after a year in Tucson. He and I, accompanied by my wife Katherine (also a hacker) will take my K-Hack and the YP to Milwaukee for the BMWMOA national rally.
Close of “Good Woman”
The Rogue Theatre production of “The Good Woman of Setzuan” closed its three week run this past Sunday. Yes, I am a member of the Rogue’s ensemble company…but quite apart from that let me say that even if I weren’t my judgement would be that the Rogue Theatre offers the most challenging theatre-going in Tucson.
Next season’s offerings open with Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”
Visit The Rogue Theatre!
The Other Blog
Posting to The Data Port will be thin during the summer as the riding season calls us out on the road and we let the nation’s political life grind on in the background. Oh, I imagine there’ll be something to say here from time to time but the other blog, Data Port Two, will get most of the attention.
Hey, Grand Prix sidecar racing is underway in Europe and North America!
By this time next week I will be just outside Leonard Texas, on my way to the home of Texas Sidecars, where I’ll be having a Ranger sidecar wed to my 1990 BMW K75.
This will be a much lighter, trickier, and probably slower outfit than what I have been driving for the past year…the renowned “Yellow Peril.” The YP is being reclaimed by its owner after a year in Tucson. He and I, accompanied by my wife Katherine (also a hacker) will take my K-Hack and the YP to Milwaukee for the BMWMOA national rally.
Close of “Good Woman”
The Rogue Theatre production of “The Good Woman of Setzuan” closed its three week run this past Sunday. Yes, I am a member of the Rogue’s ensemble company…but quite apart from that let me say that even if I weren’t my judgement would be that the Rogue Theatre offers the most challenging theatre-going in Tucson.
Next season’s offerings open with Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”
Visit The Rogue Theatre!
The Other Blog
Posting to The Data Port will be thin during the summer as the riding season calls us out on the road and we let the nation’s political life grind on in the background. Oh, I imagine there’ll be something to say here from time to time but the other blog, Data Port Two, will get most of the attention.
Hey, Grand Prix sidecar racing is underway in Europe and North America!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
A Play for Lefties
Forgive this shameless plug for a current job of work I’m doing, but I thought there might be some lefty bloggers in and around Tucson who’d like it.This is the last week of The Rogue Theatre’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s “The Good Woman of Setzuan.” Tomorrow, Thursday April 12, Is ‘Pay What You Will’ night. Not a bad deal for revolutionaries on a budget. Details on where and when at the link above.
Working on this show is one of the reasons I’ve let blogging slide. Once it closes, and I’ve taken a short ride, I’ll be back on a more regular basis.
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