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I was looking at the latest news about what is going on and was reading about Nada. I happened to glance and read something about maskups. It was related to this picture on Wired about artist called Girl Talk. While looking for the music on YouTube I kept getting the standard maintenance message. This lead me to twitter to see if there was any ‘buzz’ about it being down. I glanced and the friend feed and since I’ve met and I used to read Robert Scoble who now works at Rackspace where I used to work. This lead me to Traveling Geeks. Followed by not recognizing the geek behind Pop17.  Finally leads me to these great photos by Dina Goldstein called Fallen Princesses. I find the last image with Jasmine really striking considering what is currently going on. It’s interesting the mashups and cross linking can lead us to in this tangled thing we called the world wide web.

So this morning I wake at about 5:30 AM to the rain outside. In the back of my mind I’m thinking I’ll sleep in and wait for the accidents to die down. Around 8 AM my wife walks in and suggests I wait to go into work there are accidents up and down I35. Around 9 AM I start to head into work I’m not but 3 minutes into my drive to work when I run across a truck that is backwards facing traffic with no one there to assist. As I drive by I notice the guy seems a little dazed. So I park my car far enough away and begin walking to his car. Being pretty careful as the other drivers just fly past. I ask the guy if he’s OK and if he needs assistance. He says he’s OK but still seems a little shaken. He gets out of his car and almost gets hit. I suggest he get back into his car and I’ll call for help. [Diagram: Car Accident Before] I call the Universal City police department directly (it’s on my speed dial). They say it’s out of their area. I am then forwarded to what I’m told is ‘911 dispatch’ who says it’s out of their area and that I have to call Live Oak. (FYI for someone here in San Antonio in charge of the police departments this has got to stop this is the third time I’ve been told it’s “out of our area” and the situation goes from bad to worse.) She proceeds to give me a number instead of forwarding me. I start dialing the number, walking back to my car, as I watch another accident unfold on the access road to I35 below. It’s then that I hang up and start dialing 911. It’s right at that time that a small car (blue in the pictures) coming from 1604 hits the front of the truck (red in the pictures). I remember the truck in the right hand lane didn’t yield (green in the pictures). [Car Accident During] The truck starts moving back towards me. Then another car runs into her from behind and causes the truck to hit me. At that same time the other car (the one that hit the truck first) is smashed and pushed into the other lane in front of the truck (green) that didn’t yield. So when it was all said and done. I ended up hanging off the back of the truck. With my right side aching and my knee banged up pretty bad. I hopped back to my car just in case another car came and realized my cell phone was missing. At this point everyone was out of their cars asking if everyone was OK. Traffic had stopped. I proceeded to look for my cell phone to call 911. I found it in the back of the truck (red). I headed to the girl in the first car who is now adjacent to where I was standing. She was banged up pretty bad. [Car Accident After] Before I could dial 911 a cop showed up. EMS showed up a few minutes after. I made some phone calls. After getting my information and getting the OK from the EMS on scene I drove myself to the hospital. After a few X-rays and some CAT scans nothing is broken. So all in all the lesson learned is “No good deed goes unpunished”.

Update 2009:What prompted this posting is someone sent me a post card to my parents address. It read just this…

White Flag – Dido

So first off why send the post card? Why not just pick up the phone? I’ve had the same cell phone number… it’s never changed. Then it reminded me of a post I started last year. It’s been in the draft area for almost a year now. I never did answer why I don’t just look someone up and call them. So read the draft post below… and then read the response and drop me a line.

So, it’s the new year and I usually start wondering how people I know are doing. Normally, one would go through the email list and start emailing. However, now in the Web 2.0… 3.0… x.0… whatever. You just search. Their LinkedIn Profiles show up, MySpace page, YouTube videos, etc. Almost their entire online history. It’s kind of fun and fascinating really. Then, there is the funny side effect where you start searching outside of your close friends and start searching other people you just know or knew. This however I think borders on the dangerous - to contact or not to contact. Some friendships or relationships ended for a reason… even if you (I) still don’t have a clue why after 10 years. I had this rule when dating never date the same person twice. You broke up for a reason and your bound to run into that same reason the second (third, fourth, etc) time around. It served we well over the years. I, of course, learned this the very hard way. My memories of college in Austin are so vivid some times. It was a very emotional growing time for me. I personally think it’s those years that molded me into who I am today. I have to admit thought there are times when you wonder. Take in point your first crush or love. Do you ever really stop having some feeling for them. I personally think that time is loves greatest healer. I believe over time you have the memories of those feels, they never really go away your memory of them changes over time. Seeing them or reading about them bring those ‘memorized feelings’ back. This usually happens when I start looking up past girl friends. My list is by no means large there was MG (hs), AM, EV, RE (college), GB, and CB (after college). It’s interesting to see what they are up to. But it always leads to the temptation to contact them. I would urge against this. However, I’m always tempted to see did I make the right decisions in life. Something I always dwell on. At the end of the day I have a wife I’m crazy about and my sons. What more can you ask for? Nothing. I have a great job (every job has it’s moments); understanding wife that lets me go out, play with LEGO, and have these crazy ideas; a roof over my shoulder (three actually); and a great family support group.

I never did finish the post. So here’s my answer why I haven’t contacted you. First off at one point I most likely made myself available to talk, etc. I tried (sometimes not as well as I would have liked – I’m really not very good with this) to end things amicability so if you needed a friend you could contact me and we could reminisce or laugh and remember the good times. Or if you just needed help you could call and ask. What happened is at some point you said to stop contacting you or you stopped replying to emails.

So I guess what I’m saying is I’m not opposed to catching up and seeing that at the end of the day your OK.

If your someone out there who is wondering if they should contact me and we were friends, co-workers, classmates, etc. Just drop me a line the worst that can happen is your message gets lost in the spam filter.

So I started reading about…

• Iridium Satellites
• Discussion with Co-Worker about visiting South or North Pole
• Stargate Continuum
• HMS Tireless (S88)
• Chemical Oxygen Generator

It’s amazing what you learn in 10 minutes.

So I’ve been criticized before for having my computer science students play poker in class. I usually have some type of card game in my beginning level programming classes I teach. Blackjack, poker, or some other card based problem/simulation/game is usually a semester long project. I think it is and excellent example of using some basic CS related skills regardless of the language it is programmed in. It’s great to see there is actually a group that supports this and more importantly has some very significant people backing it. I personally am not very good at poker however I always enjoy a good game.