Photo by daveynin

I live in Pittsburgh, where i am sure the traffic lights are desynchronized on purpose. Randomly setting to red and green cannot
make us stop in so many traffic lights. Pittsburgh could easily use a little traffic-light programming! I am ok with it, since i ride my bike everywhere everyday.

today, i was especially surprised. a huge line of cars waiting at a stop sign, where usually there is no traffic. even during rush hour, 8:30am. i was sure it was an accident. naive, very naive. it was CONSTRUCTION. how can you allow construction to happen during rush hour, reducing from 2 to 1 the number of lanes leading to a traffic light? obviously, the number of cars per lane doubles, and the amount of time to go thru the light increases tremendously.

putting road construction during rush hour? it's broken!

seriously, who's the genius who invented tea/coffee plastic stirrers? and i do not mean that facetiously (btw, i've been told that facetious is the only word in English that has all vowels in order!). i am dead serious. must be a genius to take something very thin and very round (least amount of friction) to stir (that is, to move liquid around)!!!!

a spoon?
a flat surface?
a mini paddle?
nahhhhh, let's go for the smallest straw possible.
and, while we're at it, let's tempt the uninitiated to suck really hot coffee/tea thru that micro straw. then we can really inflict some damage, by directing a jet of quasi-boiling water/liquid directly onto someone's tongue or soft palate. great idea!!!!


"this will never sell" would be the common sense thing to say. but marketing is marketing (and Windows Vista is here to prove it!), and all use the micro straw coffee/tea stirrers!!!

More on water... this time, brought to you by PWSA.
Pittsburgh Water and Sewage Authority, perhaps other cities have the same issue and other utilities have the same issue.
It's all about information, how to gather, how to distribute, how to update.
But at PWSA, there is no issue. Because no matter how you do it, they get it wrong.
You call, you write, you fill up the forms, you tick the box on the envelope... to no avail.

photo by eyesore9.

You cannot change your address or who is paying the bill.
We're now well into the third millenium and the web is spread all over the world.
Can't we have a simple webform with a secure ID to do it? Is that too much to ask for?

Air... We all need air... Some people have air for free, they open the window and there is air. Some people like unconditional air, some people like conditioned air. And thus humanity (?) created AC. And the summer comes and we turn on the AC and we see It's Good. And humanity created more efficient AC units, and we thought that was Good. Better. More is Better. Mo' cold during the summer, mo' better.

Until it's unbearably cold.
We walk into a room, and there it is: door handles are cold to the touch, people want to huddle together but it's a business meeting not a party, the smart and not forgetful ones (the lucky ones) remembered to bring their jackets, coats, long sleeve anything.

AC is definitely broken.

Either we don't know how to control our HVAC systems or we can't control it. I think it's the latter: cannot control it. Modern technology (even buildings that were built this millenium!) has not fixed the problem. It takes years to be able to comply with a setpoint! It's broken!

vitamin water: what is this, anyway?
they are a cool company, with a cool idea... as their bottle says:

vitamin + water = all you need

what could be better?

photo by eyesore9.

  the only thing they do NOT tell you is one little tiny secret.

13 grams of sugar in each serving.

novel idea: what could be better than vitamin + water + sugar?

try vitamin + water.

a more novel (noveler? that sounds even cooler!) idea:

try water + fruit.

not only it's good for you, but it's also more filling and then you will eat less.

my 2 cents. don't start collecting it, otherwise you'll be a rich wo/man when you collect!