Delivery boys gone bad?

There's an article over at c|net about a Volvo/Ericsson program in which deliveries would be made straight to the trunk of your car.

I think this is a brilliant program that combines existing technologies. Delivery services are meant to be convenient and GPS and remote car access have been around for awhile (think OnStar). So it frustrates me to see the fearful comments on the c|net article, as if this were a new and untested technology.

Moreover, the comments sadden me, as the protagonist clearly trusts no human, and especially not strangers of a young age, working for minimum wage. He is suspicious of the demographic, and seems to assume primarily bad will come from this.

Is this a case of believing it into existence? The delivery boy has done nothing to earn the disrespect. It would seem to me that a complete lack of basic respect for another human being can only ensure an increase is wrongdoings.

Instead, I say we let the delivery boy rise to the challenge, embrace the work he has been given, take the chance that he won't rob you blind, and allow him to take pride in his work.

How does it make you feel when others believe in you?

Belittled

I had one of those days where the world seems to be saying, "F-you for trying to do the right thing."

I drove to the gym today. The weather was fair, the traffic was light, and the other vehicles around us were moving efficiently.

Ahead of me was a car, and ahead of that car was a minivan. As we approached 17th Street, a vehicle traveling the opposite direction turned in front of the van. At first it looked like a cut-corner turn, perhaps into a driveway, and the van quickly slowed as not to collide.

But the oncoming car didn't pull into a driveway.

It drove onto the sidewalk and continued - almost purposefully - across a couple of lawns, before pulling back into oncoming traffic, zigzagging through a couple of cars, and "merging" back into its stream of traffic.

I could see in my rearview mirror that the woman driving the car behind me was just as shocked, and I carefully avoided slamming on my brakes for fear of her diverted attention as her jaw remained in dropped position.

I pulled to the curb to park, and scrambled for the phone in the purse next to me. I suppose we all assume "someone else" will call in observations such as ours, but I would assume the safety authorities appreciate corroboration on such events.

Or not?

I called 911. I told the operator my location. I told him the car was traveling in the direction of smaller-numbered streets (I don't know my navigational directions). I told him it was a sedan. I told him I didn't know the type or color (I was overcome with surprise at the event). I answered that I didn't know the license plate number.

His response: "So, what am I supposed to tell the officers so they can tell this vehicle from the other thousands of sedans on the road?"

F*ing snot. Thanks for belittling me and making me feel like I'm wasting your time.

Our "safety" force continues to disappoint me. (See "Neighbor gets nose broken by drunk hoodlum" on neighborhood blog.)

Lost camera and photos reunited with owners

A friend just posted a link to ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com on Facebook. If you a find a camera or random photos (on the side of the road, in a box of stuff from the thrift shop, etc.), you can email them to the blog editor who posts them every Thursday. Several have been rematched with their owners! What a good feeling this gives me!

(The New York Times had an article on this earlier this month.)