Crazy Lawsuit Game

I'll get to my review of the DJ Tiesto show at the North Atlanta Trade Center in Norcross, GA last Friday night (Saturday morning) on September 14th in a second.

First I want to tell you about the fight/accident that almost happened as J and I were going to Miyabi's for a kick ass sushi dinner.

We're waiting patiently right here:

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Perfect! Thanks Google Maps and your crazy satellites!

We're waiting in the left hand turn lane facing the right side of that image, waiting to turn into the on-ramp at the top of the image. We're #4 car in line. #1 is a very pretty big Benz AMG coupe, CLK or something, #2 is a Camry or something, and #3 is a very pretty champagne Audi A4 2.0L Turbo. Light turns green and the AMG is off! I see him turn into the mini on-ramp, roughly in the middle of the image. But out of my right peripheral vision I see some big white truck towing a small trailer come FLYING into the picture! Shit! The AMG slams on its brakes and comes to a complete stop. I look for a YIELD sign on our side but then realize that if we yielded that we would block traffic and that would make no sense. So this stupid truck is in a big 'ol hurry and not paying attention. What a deuche.

But wait! The truck comes to a complete stop too and the guy gets out of his truck! Fight? Fight? Fight! But it wasn't meant to be. The AMG guy stayed in his comfy leather lair and just yelled some insults out his window. Boring. Oh no! #2 and #3 in line came to complete stops too! WTF! Go around! Later J would say that she thought #2 and #3 were too close and couldn't go around. Rookie mistakes. Me being the more competent driver have left plenty of maneuvering room in between the A4 and Tercel. I lay on the horn and realize that isn't going to work. Traffic in both lanes is at a standstill. I'm not sure if they're just stupid or are waiting to see a fight that isn't going to happen. I drop Tercel into first and tear around all the cars just sitting at the entrance to the on-ramp. Still on the horn and give the two stupid fight teases a nice one finger salute as I tear on by.

Ah, good times.

DJ Tiesto was pretty impressive. The venue was a tad lackluster. Concrete floors, a few concession stands ($7 Jagr shots), and a very nice light display up front and in the middle of the crowd was a large structure with some more lights. Good security, lots of restrooms and smoking was allowed inside since it's a private venue.

Doors opened at 10 and I was in no hurry to go stand in line. It was a nice night and I knew Tiesto wouldn't go on until at least midnight. They finally convinced me to get in line at 10:30 and it moved fairly quickly. Once inside and affixed with the proper 21+ wrist band (which the guy made entirely too tight) we went to the bar and got some libations. They had neat little Jager bomb glasses (which is a shot of Jagermeister and Red Bull) that had the Jager (straight from a Jagerator) in the middle isolated from the surrounding moat of Red Bull. Neat idea even if it only holds no more than 1/4th a can of Red Bull, which I guess is the point. Profit profit profit.

Hung out and danced some (the opening DJ was okay), walked around the venue, people watched. The demographic was fairly unique. Mainly white with a few African-Americans, Oriental and Hispanics, all within the 18-49 demographic. Definitely an eclectic mix of people from all walks of life.

About 1 am they announced that DJ Tiesto was about to take the stage. Everyone started making their way towards the stage. We made it into the middle and had a good view of the stage. He comes out and has a spoken word intro for his Elements of Life set. It was a good mix of beats and lights. The visuals of people in Ace bandages got a little old after the first hour and a half and I think everyone felt the crowd coming down about 2:45 or so. The lights go out again and Tiesto kicked it up a notch. The next hour of music was absolutely phenomenal. The crowd was into it the entire time and it felt like we had been abandoned when he left the stage at 4 am. It was such an amazing show. I'm glad Atlanta had a show like that and can't wait for others. The opening DJ came back on and we got out of there as fast as possible.

The cool morning GA air was such a relief after the heat of thousands dancing for hours on end. The water we stashed in Focus for afterwards saved our lives.

J and I went with Protege and Acura (who are getting married this Saturday!) and Protege was telling me that there was some drama going on near the one set of bleachers that were set up. People ODing and spasming on the concrete. Glad I missed that. During the show, J and I danced, kissed, hugged, walked around, stood swaying to the music to cool down (it was a good 10 degrees cooler outside the main mass of people) and danced some more. We definitely worked off the Chipotle dinner we had all enjoyed earlier in the evening.

Shit! Which reminds me. After dinner, we went to Green's on Ponce de Leon in downtown? midtown? Atlanta. For starters let's look at the keg list from Georgia. Nice huh? Lots of selection to please any beer drinker. Now lets look at the keg list from South Carolina. Oooh, I can special order Amstel Light? Score! Just another reason why SC sucks.

They had a walk-in Belgian beer cooler/humidor. So many different amazing beers. They had cases of SweetWater, but no Blue, which made me blue. They had the large (750 mL) bottles of Lambic in 5 different flavors. High gravity beers, barleywines, meads, honey wine, ales, porters, stouts, pilsners, all hand-crafted for your enjoyment. It would take months to drink your way through this place. Maybe a liver or two. We picked up 2 big Lambics, I picked up a 750 mL of Ommegang Abbey Ale, and a 750 mL of Grand Marnier because it's delicious and was on sale for $30.

After our sushi dinner we shopped at Whole Foods which had a very decent beer selection (even though I couldn't buy any because it was Sunday, yes another reason SC sucks, although there are lots of other states that don't sell alcohol on Sunday) and they even had the big Lambic but not the selection of flavors. So it looks like Whole Foods on Woodruff is my new favorite beer supplier.

Labels: accident, Acura, beer, concert, Protege, weekend

Seeing as how Dawn was the only responder, she gets to hear her choice.

We do our reactions in silver (Ag) tubes that we weld shut and then heat up to 300-500 degree Celsius and 10,000 - 20,000 PSI. They retain some pressure inside the tubes mostly from the decrease in entropy, or just because. We all know this and are careful to wear eye glasses and lab coats when opening our Ag tubes. Some tubes are small and we only put in 0.4 mL of water and others are larger and hold 4 mL of water. This was a large tube and it contained 4 mL of 10 M KOH (potassium hydroxide).

I make my initial cut into the tube to start the opening process and nothing happens. I turn it and make another cut. Release the pressure! I feel a small shower of wet. Oh shit. Okay think. This doesn't burn yet but it will. It splattered on my cheeks and some on my neck. Eye wash! No, the eye wash drains into the floor and will make a huge mess. It isn't that kind of emergency. Ow! It's starting to burn! Take off my shuffle who got hit but is no worse for the wear. Sink! Turn water on and use the hose to direct water at my face. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh. Much better.

Since it was only a small amount, albeit fairly concentrated, I knew water would get rid of it and I didn't want to waste time looking for sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda which is a natural buffer and can neutralize an acid or a base)

My eye goggles saved my eyes from getting a direct shot but my face was uncovered. My t-shirt was saved by my lab coat but it's just a t-shirt. The ipod has some marks on it but it still works just fine. Phew, that was close. I looked at my goggles after and there were 8-9 spots of it directly over my right eye. That would've been bad, Seth can't really see anymore bad.

From now on I will be wearing the full face shield that we have to open tubes from now on. Yikes.

Moral of the story: Wear your safety gear at all times and you might be able to see on the way home.

I love this blog. It's my own little Freedom of Speech zone. But it isn't just mine, it's yours too. You are free to say anything you want here, anything at all. I might not agree with it or understand it but it is your right to be able to say it.

I was rewatching Fuck last night and I loved one of George Carlin's clips. It was how we learn the bad words. When we're young words are just words and we have to be taught their meanings. You don't know a word is bad until you say it and someone tells you not to, and it reminded me of the first time I ever said fuck.

This story takes place at our old house (we lived on that cul-de-sac and Dad worked at the church just to the left) I was 6 or 7 so that puts us smack dab in the middle of 1985 or 1986. My dad, brother and I were in our room and Dad was telling us a story. I can't remember the story at all but something was gross, so Brother said "Yucky!" Not wanting to be outdone I said "Yucky trucky!" cuz rhyming is cool. My brother comes back with "yucky ducky!" so I naturally pick the next letter in the alphabet and say "yucky fucky!" completely oblivious to the meaning of the wonderful word I just made up. SETH! I don't ever want to hear you said that word again! my dad firmly tells me. Whoa, that was pretty forceful, that's some word. So I kept it in my head for years and years and finally got comfortable enough to start using it here and there. Not around kids or people who take great offense to it, but the last part is pretty tricky. How do you know who will be offended by it?

It's a very special word because not everyone uses it and even people who do use it, don't say it all the time. Alanis said something to that affect in the documentary and she's right.

So I'm dedicating my 3 year blogiversary to Li Zhao, the First Amendment and to you, my loyal band of readers!

Labels: 1st amendment, accident, dirty words, KOH

R1 had to be in Athens beforehand, so he rode over with his parents on Friday. R2 and I drove R2's mom's Cadillac over Saturday morning. We had some time to kill so we made our way to the liquor store and picked up some Skyy. As we're leaving the store, R2 pulls into traffic, a tad too quickly. There was a car turning into the store parking lot down from the exit we were using and we ended up in the back of another vehicle (no clue what it was). R2 claimed that the ABS was at fault and if we'd been in his BMW w/o ABS, we wouldn't have hit them. Sure thing. We get back on the road and have a few screwdrivers in the parking lot before the ceremony, just to relax and get past the minor fender bender. We would later find out, our adventures had only begun.

Star Wars Theme recessional later and everyone heads downstairs for the reception. Wine, finger foods, polite conversation, spending time with friends and family and it's over. Trying to save money we decide to pile back into the Cadillac and head home and we've picked up R1 who didn't want to stick around since nothing really fun happens the day after the wedding (unless it was yours and that first full day of being married is surreal).

We both didn't drink at the reception because we didn't like the wine too much and we would be driving. So we head out on the road and R1 is out like a light by the time we hit Atlanta, about 30 minutes into the 3ish hour trip. I'm doing a good job as co-driver/navigator talking with R2 keeping him conversing and his mind alert. Somewhere near the 173 or 193 mile marker on I-20 in Alabama, a good song comes on the radio and I pause and enjoy. R2 gets quiet and I he's enjoying the song too.

Then I start to see grass from the median creep into the outer edge of the left headlight. Huh, that's weird, R2 must be screwing around trying to scare me, I think to myself. Creep, creep, then there is grass directly in front of the left headlight and that's when I decide that unfortunately he isn't joking and is out cold. So I start screaming "R2! Wake up! Wake up we're in the median!" He jolts awake and cranks the wheel to the right but it's too late, we're already sideways mowing down the tall grass in the median. Fortunately it's about 4 am and there isn't much traffic. We get traction and slingshot to the other side of the interstate and fly into the ditch off the right side of the road. We hit the front of the car, bounce out of the ditch and slowly come to a halt directly in front of the 173 or 193 mile marker (it's directly in front of a small overpass if you're ever traveling west on I-20 in East Alabama).

I get out of the car and I'm visibly shaking. I hit my knee a bit during the collision but that's about it. Of course I'm wearing my seatbelt. R1 was lying down in the back and was not. Afterwards he recounts waking up to me screaming and only seeing grass flying over the windshield and past the windows. He's certain we were all going to die. R2 calls his dad and AAA and they both arrive about the same time. Before the State Trooper shows up a local (Lincoln?) police officer shows up and chats with us and makes sure no one hits us by parking behind us with his lights on.

We all make it home safely and early in the morning. I swing by my grandparents house because R2's mom called my grandmother and told them we were in an accident but were all fine. I make the "I'm sure I'm okay, no I don't want to go to the hospital" speech and convince them I'm fine.

I go home and reflect on our harrowing ordeal. I thank my lucky stars and Cadillac and then get some much needed sleep.

Labels: accident, Cadillac, friends, story, wedding

There was a girl who was hit by the CATbus around 12:15 this afternoon. No details but we do know that she was trapped under the bus and was then air-lifted to an area hospital.

This is a quote from an eyewitness:

Yeah, I saw the whole thing. She was walking in the crosswalk when the CAT bus hit her. She looked pretty mangled and I heard troopers say she might lose a leg if she survives from the injuries. It was gruesome and disturbing to watch something like that.

So please keep this girl and her family and friends in your thoughts. I'll update with more details when I get them.

Update: Unfortunately she didn't make it. My heart fell when I heard. Local story.

Update #2: WYFF 4 News sucks! They jumped the gun on the story! She's alive! Hooray! Apparently there were "conflicting reports". Right. But she is in stable condition and was airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital and her name may or may not be Kellie Jureka and she may or may not be a freshman physics major.

Update #3: She has a Facebook page, (you may or may not be able to see it) if it is in fact the girl from the above update. From some other accounts it sounds like she was trying to catch the bus and ran right in front of it. Whatever happened, I hope she makes it out of this stronger and wiser and comes back and kicks physics ass!

Update #4: An eyewitness account from a guy on the bus who struck Kellie

i was in the bus.... it was horrible, the worst thing i've ever seen in my life

if she does make it she is going to be screwed up for life

to clear some things up that i read:

-she wasn't on the phone
-it was DEFINATELY the drivers fault - he turned into her.... if he had went straight and slowed down a little he woudl have missed her
-he didn't brake till he hit her
-he had AMPLE time to slow down or turn away from her instead of into her... she didn't walk out right infront of it.... the bus was a ways down the road when she walked out..... not like he didn't have anytime to react
-she was in the middle of the road when she got hit... he turned that way and she was walking to the left... so he turned into her!
-the driver was an elderly man
-the bus was not going around anything or get moved after the accident... he turned into her... i can't figure out why
-she was out in the open walking from the right side of the road to the left and she was pined under the right side of the bus right under where u go to get in and under the right front tire some.... once again... if he went straight and slowed down he woudl have missed her

this is a PERFECT example of why they should test these drivers on some type of course before letting them drive.... nobody on the bus said to slow down or anything b/c it was so obvious that we assumed that he saw her.... i saw her WAY before he started turning into her or anything.... i have no f-in idea wtf he was thinking....

Yikes. The driver has already quit by the way.

Regular posting will resume tomorrow.

Labels: accident, CATbus