It's 7 am. Apparently I've stayed up all night. I can see the sky just starting to lighten. I just stayed up all night for no reason. I have a final on Friday around noon, so if I go to be at noon today, I'll wake up at 8pm, study most of the night, take my final, and collapse around 5pm. This is shaping up nicely, actually. I also have the false alertness of insomnia.

Except that I'm going to a birthday party Friday night. Hmmmm.

Mood: sleepy

Today my church had a groundbreaking ceremony for the new building. It was pretty boring. The mayor was there, and I got a picture of me with him mostly to irritate my mother.

Unfortunately my camera/phone was set on crappy mode, so it's a really lousy picture.

Mood: amused

He's speaking this evening.

Contrary to popular belief, I am neither interested in nor willing to experiment with dating or having sex with anyone very far from what I consider to be a heterosexual woman. I just thought it would be good to state that in public before anything untoward happens.

We spoke about many things, mostly centered around bicycling (and why I haven't cycled in ages). Nasty accidents, and the best routes around hills. She's a gardener by trade, with one partner and a truck that runs on expensive gasoline.

Then we both went our separate ways, without trading names. It was wonderfully liberating.

Chemical signs on rail cars: Safety feature or terror target?

By Donald E. Coleman / The Fresno Bee

Monday, March 14, 2005

Fresno Fire Chief Randy Bruegman and others on the front line of emergency response are weighing in strongly against removing diamond-shaped signs from rail cars used to ship dangerous chemicals.

The small placards serve as critical labels to emergency responders, telling them what kind of hazard is posed by a derailment, spill or leak. But federal homeland security officials worry that they could invite acts of terrorism.

( More WTF inside )

I know it's old, but I just ran across it.

This is proof that DHS is run by complete morons. Yes. Let's review what the system is for:

When there's a train crash, and chemicals are leaking onto the ground, emergency responders need to know what to do about it. They also need to stay safe. An NFPA 704 fire diamond will tell you most everything you need to know, within five seconds or so. That's why we paint them a foot high on the side of train cars, and just about everywhere else they'll fit.

For all my life there's been a steady trend toward standardizing warning labels. We've all been trained to believe that this is good, because

Now, there are dangers to this also. People who don't need to know that the material in the train car is poisonous, can learn that easily. They can exploit that knowledge to cause havoc.

So, let's replace the warning labels with barcodes or RFID tags!

What does this get us? If there is a train crash, first responders will have to futz around for a while to find their ruggedized barcode or RFID reader. That's another 5 minutes that toxic chemicals are spilling into the ground you walk on, the water you drink, and the air you breathe. All in the name of preventing vandalism that won't ever happen.

Isn't America great?

Mood: infuriated

Yesterday/today I went to Bubble Bobble 2, my first rave. As much as I tend to dislike crowds, I quite enjoyed it.

0. Explanation?

This was a foam party. I didn't quite know what that was before I went, but I knew from Wikipedia that there would be bubbles involved. Sure enough, there were bubbles.

I went with Oz. In fact, he was the one who convinced me to go. kaizokuo was also going to come, but he had a change of plans.

1. I can't eat this burger any more

We took the bus downtown and walked around. Outside of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop two girls sat down. Oz said "I bet I know where those girls are going ..." Sure enough, I recognized one of them later.

Oz ate most of a burger at the ferry terminal McDonald's. By "most", I mean "half". Then we walked south for a while until we got to 110 S Horton St.

2. In which I tell you some stuff

When we went in (around 10pm, an hour after the stated start time) they were between loads of bubbles. The floor was smeared with lathered bubbles. I thought that it was pretty lame; fortunately they made more bubbles soon.

Studio Seven has two floors; on the upper floor was the VIP lounge and some other stuff. VIP tickets cost twice as much, for which you get unlimited water and access to basically reserved seating in the VIP lounge. There are also seats on the main floor, which are much more fun — in the VIP lounge you get a whole couch to yourself, but on the public seating you get to share with the nice people next to you. This brings me to a wonderful aspect of raver culture, by the way. It seems like it's not possible, but just about everyone is nice to everyone else. If you want to sit, then someone will stand up for you. People give away their possessions freely. And there are lots of hugs! I love hugs.

Right, back to what's on the upper floor. There's also a back room, in which there were secondary DJs. I only went in briefly, because the back room was about 20 F hotter than the rest of the venue. I probably could take it after a few minutes, but I didn't. *shrug*

Also, as in the phreaking community, everyone goes by a handle. Today I met Holiday, Apples, Masseuse, Sparkle, and Num-nums. (At least, those are the names I remember.)

3. Good decisions, bad decisions

Good decisions that I made:

• Bought earplugs - $1

Bad decisions that I made:

• Wore shoes - my feet were sodden all the way home. The event ended at 4am; the buses start on Sundays at 6am. Yay! FREEZING COLD FEET.

I can't think of any more right now.

Yesterday as I was walking through Pioneer Square on my way to catch the 27 at 3rd & Yesler a homeless man asked me for some change. He pulled out a pitiful collection of nickels and pennies from his pocket and halfheartedly sorted through them as he asked me if I had a little money to give him. Out of habit I lied that I only had fifty cents and needed to get home, and wished him better luck later. He seemed disappointed. After hearing today's sermon on sloth, I felt bad that I had done that. I want to walk around downtown and give away hundreds of sandwiches that have five-dollar bills taped to the bottom.