The service cuts implemented by Metro yesterday illustrate how harmful the actions of MDOT & the Missouri government have been to the health and vitality of public transportation in St. Louis.

Really, the fact that our neighboring state of Illinois funds public transportation at something like 10x Missouri’s level shows just how laughably short-sighted this state’s transportation policy has been. This shows a skewed vision of what St. Louis should become as a city, a trust in the continuation of a cheap-oil-based economy, and I dare say a immoral failure to serve the poor and helpless. For me, the service cuts are an inconvenience to my bike-and-train commute. For others in your community, they are the severing of their freedom of movement.

As the provider of vital infrastructure that serves the state, I request that you do all that is in your power to redirect funding and regulation in a manner that encourages and enables the success of public transportation, even at the cost of a reduction in meeting car-based needs.

Your Constituent,
Noel Weichbrodt

“The spectator is set at an absolute distance, a distance that precludes practical or goal-oriented participation. But this distance is aesthetic distance in a true sense, for it signifies the distance necessary for seeing, and thus makes possible a genuine and comprehensive participation in what is presented before us. A spectator’s ecstatic self-forgetfulness corresponds to his continuity with himself. Precisely that in which one loses oneself as a spectator demands that one grasp the continuity of meaning. For it is the truth of our own world—the religious and moral world in which we live—that is presented before us and in which we recognize ourselves…What rends him from himself at the same time gives him back the whole of his being.”

–Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, p. 128.

I write for therapy. Eagerly anticipated this game, sat first row, 25 yard line, wore me scarf (thanks, wife), sunk my head in shame at defeat.

As a team, our World Cup squad just wasn’t there. No runs, no diagonals. O’Brien and Convey’s through balls were laughably wasted because no one bothered to make the run to be there for them. We started with a new formation for Arena’s Nats, 4-3-3, and then switched to a 3-5-2 for the last 20 minutes to press for the first goal. Our back was solid until the switch to 3-5-2 (a 3 without Gooch and with Cherondolo and Gibbs??? Bruce, eat more bananas. We need defense, not offense, in the back 3). This was a shame, because the crowd was peppy with chants and colors. Largest soccer crowd ever in Tennessee, yo. Far from the moribund concrete structure that was the Birmingham stadium last year. After the last four minutes of stoppage, I was like a kid, not wanting my, ahem, hopeful heros to stop playing. 90 minutes too short.

• Items of interest:
• don’t panic
• The Times
• Pluses and minuses
• post-game quotes
• player ratings
• Personal notes from personal observations:
  • Upside: Schooled. Gumby was fast and pernicious, especially providing some harassing defense in the midfield. Mastroni looked sharp, defending and distributing. He looked ready for Serie A, not like a Rapid. Convey sparked our only sustained offensive attacks. Imagine: running at the midfield, beating a guy, and passing it through the defense to a forward! Is that what the English teach you? Gooch = Daddy.
  • Downside: hotel trouble. Landycakes had already checked out of his hotel in Nashville, and never bothered with the game. It was especially galling to see him sauntering around the middle of the pitch as Morocco did touch-passes through the middle two yards in front of him. Gibbs’ positioning was scary like a 15th floor balcony with no rail. McBride was…where was Brian again? Did Conrad lock in his hotel room? Jimmy!.. Wolff’s gameplan: run really fast, trap like an elephant, pass like a brick, run really fast and make it all up. Unfortunately, like most soccer players, he can kick the ball faster than he can run and catch up with it. Deuce, Ching, EJ: call your mommy, you forgot your game back at home. Keller was still eating the complimentary breakfast he snuck out, and didn’t come out for that loose ball that ended up in his net in the 89th.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Proposed class or classes of copyrighted work(s) to be exempted:
Motion Pictures, Software, Audio Recordings, and Digital Text.
Brief summary of the argument(s) in support of the exemption proposed above:
These classes of works (Motion Pictures, Software, Audio Recordings, and Digital Text) have traditionally been granted copyrights for the purpose of encouraging the public dissemination of the works for the benefit and use of the public by providing a property incentive to the originator for a short period of time. The DMCA ignores this traditional cause of granting a copyright, and moreover establishes crippling restrictions on the aforementioned “benefit and use of the public”. As such, the DMCA’s use should be restricted to the text of the DMCA itself, with the consequence being that any private party which attempts to discern the workings of the DCMA with the intent to apply it in any broader fashion outside of the text of the Act itself would be committing a punishable, criminal action under the DMCA.

Just an idea
I am awaiting a response from the LoC.
Found via Slashdot.

Thank you!

The following information was submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office at 17:35 on 11/3/05. Please print this page for your records.

[I have read the notice of inquiry and acknowledge that my attached submission will be posted on the Copyright Office website.]: Acknowledged

[Name]: Noel Weichbrodt

[Title]: Application Developer

[Organization]:

[Street Address]: The Volunteer Building

[Address Line 2]:

[City]: Chattanooga

[State]: TN

[ZIP]: 37402

[Phone]: 4237858262

[Fax]:

[Submitter's email]: nweichbrodt millermartin com

[Proposed class or classes of copyrighted work(s) to be exempted]: Motion Pictures, Software, Audio Recordings, and Digital Text.

[Brief summary of the argument(s) in support of the exemption proposed above]: These classes of works (Motion Pictures, Software, Audio Recordings, and Digital Text) have traditionally been granted copyrights for the purpose of encouraging the public dissemination of the works for the benefit and use of the public by providing a property incentive to the originator for a short period of time. The DMCA ignores this traditional cause of granting a copyright, and moreover establishes crippling restrictions on the aforementioned “benefit and use of the public”. As such, the DMCA’s use should be restricted to the text of the DMCA itself, with the consequence being that any private party which attempts to discern the workings of the DCMA with the intent to apply it in any broader fashion outside of the text of the Act itself would be committing a punishable, criminal action under the DMCA.

[Attached file]: ExceptionProposal.doc

Basically I want three things from all the pipes and waves coming into and emanating from my house. First, I want internet access at a reasonable-for-2005 speed. Second, I want to watch red-blooded American sports: football and basketball, at the college and professional levels. Third, I want to watch my blue-blood European sport: soccer, at the league and international levels. That’s it.

In exchange for those services, I am prepared to pay, quite handsomely I think, the sum of $65 dollars. Near as I can figure, you could probably offer me a 256kbs internet connection, ESPN, and Fox Soccer, and meet the floor of my criteria for aforementioned cash. You could offer more (say Cox Sports channel, or NBA Season Ticket channels), or better (HDTV, faster ‘net connection), and I could probably be convinced to pay a bit more, or just earn a good name.

Simple, right? A small bit of IP pipe, two TV channels, good service, and you’ve got me hooked for the rest of my foreseeable life. And hey, I’m flexible. You want to offer me Wi-Fi instead of landline broadband? I’m game. You want to deliver those two channels over copper instead of cable? Cool with me.

Sadly, this is not how the world works.

Instead of accepting the transaction terms outlined above, you, Mr. Cable Monopoly, are currently trying to offer me everything except what I want. So I am forced to enumerate what I do not want.

I don’t care about The Disney Channel, or most other channels. I’ve had 300-channel cable, and all I got out of it was a profound depression. At those moments where I had time and inclination to sit down with the remote and the all-scrolling program guide, I would flip through the next 1.5 hours of programming for all of those 300 channels, bright-eyed with expectation and excitement at exploring the offerings of the largest, most well-funded entertainment industry the sum total of the entire Earth’s efforts has produced, and inevitably conclude, “meh, there’s nothing good on TV.”

This is after flipping through screenful upon screenful of TVGuide listings, for fifteen minutes.

I don’t care about landline phone service. I have a perfectly good cell phone that comes with many, many minutes that I pay dearly for. There is no reason for me to accommodate another ten digit number in my life.

I don’t care about most TV shows. The ones I watch, I can download anyways, and watch it (as Ryan pointed out) when I want, without commercial interruption.

Basically, I’m saying this: I know what I like, I find out what I like through means other than the TV, and I don’t care that you, Mr. Cable Monopoly, offer me these 300-odd other channels that carry exactly nothing that I wish to watch.

My last point is that my demands could easily be met. I am basically asking for TV-on-demand, or at least a la carte cable, which is a death toll for many obtuse media business models and agreements. I am also asking to decouple TV from internet from phone, but still to offer all three. These are not new ideas. They are also eminently possible using technology that is at least five years old. But near as I can figure, these companies do not actually care about giving me what I want. I’m not even a selfish, crying baby to them. I’m just nameless, noiseless krill that gets sucked up and digested in their bloated primitive corporate entity.

So, in summary, I know what I want, neither Comcast nor Bellsouth nor Verizon give it to me, and in fact instead of giving me what I would like they instead give me exactly what I do no want, and this is all when they are fully capable of delivering what I want.

Bellsouth, and Comcast.

I’ve tried over-the-air TV with Bellsouth for the internet connection. That sucked because the ‘net connection was slow (torrent files averaged about 40kps), and the TV reception was horrible. We made Casselberry stand in the middle of the room with one arm at a 45-degree angle one Saturday afternoon so that we could see the OU players in color. Plus, I had to pay for a landline phone in order to get the DSL. I didn’t use the landline phone. Not once. I didn’t even have a phone to plug into the jack. $25 a month, just for the phone that I never used. The DSL? $45 for a 256kps connection.

Bellsouth, you suck.

Comcast had a special so I switched to them. I got the Digital Plus package and the broadband cable. The net connection is speedy. The channels are nice. But when the trial period was up, I couldn’t figure why I should pay $130 a month for 300+ channels that I didn’t really have time to watch. Entourage Season 2 was over, and Lost was on network TV. So I downgraded to Limited Ghetto cable, and kept the cable modem. We’re still talking $60 a month. So I figure hey, why not add HDTV and Fox Sports World. That just adds another $12, and I get my football and soccer. So I call. The Comcast “Customer Care Representatives” lady pretty much thought I was an idiot, and had never heard of Fox Sports World. Nor could she be bothered to look it up to see if it was available, or explain why I couldn’t order it, or care that I was asking for a package that Comcast offers on its web site. But I’m a savvy consumer, and would not give up. So I look up some more packages, and find Cable Latino. That way I can get ESPN and Fox Sports Espanol. And brush up on my romance language. Comcast gets ringed again, and a different “Customer Care Representatives” lady accepts my order.

The wife just called. The cable guy came by, and couldn’t hook up the Fox Sports World Espanol channel because we don’t have the right plan. This despite three different, ahem, “Customer Care Representatives” assuring me that, “no, no problem, you can order that Cable Latino package with your current plan. Yeah, you can also get the HDTV channels too with the plan. Yep.”

No soccer, no football, and no HDTV for me. Not even in Spanish. Argh. Of course, I could pay $120 a month, upgrade to “Preferred Basic”, and grab the Cable Latino plan. But that’s $120 a month for two channels and a ‘net connection. Sorry kids, I’m still middle class. That’s 1/4th of my monthly rent.

Comcast, you suck. And I have two more blog entries that explain why.

Man, these blog entries are therapeutic. I’m still disappointed, though.