Checksum Arcanius

I have been remiss in updating the Checksum Arcanius Photo Gallery, but i got on my horse the last couple of days and have caught up. The uploaded photos encompass the months of July 2008 through January 2009, including the transition from my old Canon A610 camera to my new Canon SD 990 IS in December (thanks Dad!)

Of particular interest may be the photo of the enormous amount of snow recieved at my parent’s house:

About 30 inches of snow piled up outside my parent's place

Today while riding to class (a little late), I was stopped by a University of Washington Police Officer on a bicycle for, as he claims, “blowing through a stop sign.” He went through the regular cop intimidation attempts, but I have learned that I have gotten much better at not letting these tactics affect me. Throughout the ordeal, I never admitted any knowledge of guilt (and I still do not), and I even refused to sign the ticket , so where my signature might otherwise be, the cop wrote what looks like “Given to D”.

I have several thoughts after contemplating the incident and my response:

1. I have seen this particular bike cop around before, and I know that I could probably ride considerably faster than him (unless he has been hiding his prowess very well). So, perhaps I could have “gotten away” — he is probably just lucky that I did stop behind the car in front of me soon after my alleged infraction. I stopped because I consider it rude to pass cars close on the right under most circumstances.
2. The cop asked me if I had a drivers license on me, which I did and I told him so. I didn’t give it to him until he asked me for it (and even then he never actually asked me for it, he just implied that he wanted it). I’m curious as to what would have happened if I didn’t have the license on me, or if I had told him I didn’t. I certainly don’t need to have my drivers license with me most of the time, so perhaps I should stop carrying it around most of the time. I already have a “everyday” set of keys and a “driving” set of keys; perhaps I should do the same with my wallet.
3. The cop told me that the fine was $124.00. But then the ticket says the fine is $103.00. Or $103.60, depending on where on the ticket you look. What is up with cops and lying?
4. I will almost certainly contest the ticket. This will cost the system more than they can possibly gain from giving it to me. We should probably all contest every ticket ever, to ensure that it is not financially viable to continue giving tickets out.

For the curious, I was cited under RCW 46.61.050 with the accompanying text “FAIL TO OBEY TRAFFIC ? CONTROL NUICE Bicycle $103.60”. Feeling generous today, I will interpret “NUICE” to be “DEVICE”, which would make the citation make sense.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a biased observer. After the armpittsburg stealers stole (with help from the referees) Super Bowl XL from the Seahawks, I have basically been anti-steeler. So I was unhappy that they made it to the Super Bowl again, but I held out hope that the Arizona Cardinals would be able to pull out a win. Nevertheless, I maintained a nagging doubt — the mighty, popular, league-favored, presidentally-blessed stealers versus a relatively small market, perennially crappy, barely-sold-out-playoffs NFC West team like Arizona — who would the league want to win? Would the referess try to throw the game again?

Unfortunately, the nagging doubt was right, and for the second time in four years, the stealers have an illegitimate Vince Lombardi Trophy.

This time, at least, the referees tried to hide their bias a little more. They overturned plays that they obviously had to instead of ignoring evidence (like the phantom quarterback sneak touchdown in XL). They even threw some flags against Pittsburg when it wouldn’t hurt them (the defensive holding against Fitzgerald) or when it was beyond blatantly obvious (the atrocious on-field assault by Harrison). They nevertheless conveniently ignored holding on Harrison’s runback, at least one blatant steelers block-in-the-back, and let us not forget the phantom roughing the passer and running into the holder penalties. Thirty yards given to the stealers right when there initial momentum was in question.

Then of course there were the two terrible calls against Arizona that required coach’s challenges. Unlike in tennis, however, in football you don’t get an infinite number of correct challenges — you only get three, maximum, so basically the officials tied the hands of the Cardinals by making sure that they couldn’t use a challenge on a play they weren’t absolutely sure was wrong.

The coup de grace, of course, was the failure to review Kurt Warner’s “fumble” at the end of the game. It sure looked to me like his arm was coming forward when the ball came out, but even it it really was a fumble, there is no excuse (other than wanting the stealers to win) for not reviewing the play.

The stealers may have six super bowl titles, but at least two of them came at the expense of teams that outplayed them and outcompeted them throughout both games, and deserved to win. Instead, in both cases, the league and its referees ensured a different outcome. This is modern American sports, I guess. Make the game exciting, but make sure the right team wins. It makes me sick. I just wonder if I’ll have the gumption to stay away.