educating eric

With a name like "Vahid Sedaghat"... well, it stands out when you see that in the paper. Twice in the past week I've come across it. And the very first time, I thought, "Ummmm.... I think I know who that is..." Back in my pre-blog days, I wrote up a response to a KMSP-TV news story on Vahid. My basic premise, which I still stand by, is that this guy was no angel but the news story wasn't very fair or informative. To repeat, I also stand by my "this guy was no angel" assessment.... Used-car salesman charged with fraud A Little Canada businessman also has been charged with receiving stolen property, in addition to theft. By PAT PHEIFER, Star Tribune Last update: February 13, 2008 - 9:53 PM A used-car salesman from Little Canada who allegedly sold defective vehicles to unwitting customers -- often immigrants with limited English proficiency -- has been charged with five counts of theft by swindle and one of receiving stolen property. Vahid Sedaghat, 5...

This made my day! According to a story yesterday in the Minneapolis Star Tribune , Trooper Carrie Rindal was reprimanded and Sam Salter will be given the $9,500 settlement that he proposed for what the Strib terms a "bungled traffic stop". The State Patrol on Wednesday announced that it had reprimanded trooper Carrie Rindal after a review board found that she had made several errors while stopping and arresting Salter along Interstate 94 in St. Paul. Kudos to Salter for proposing a reasonable settlement and moving on; while it would be entertaining to watch the typical "I'm going to sue for hundreds of millions of dollars!" court case unfold, that doesn't help anything and isn't the way that grown-ups ought to behave. Ironically, the settlement sounds a lot like what I originally suggested on this blog . Sam Salter continues to demonstrate that he was in the right and continues to handle himself well. And has proven that, sometimes, you can fight ci...

Okay, I walked in to Barnes & Noble the other day while I had a few minutes to kill... and was stopped dead in my tracks by the display in front of me. I don't usually think things are "creepy"... but this was... "creepy". Correct me if I'm wrong; people do realize that these are the same, right? Or am I the only one old enough to "remember the past" and make the comparison? Does Miley Cyrus really want to be Britney Spears? Really?

Came across the article " Minnesota Aims to be Model for Wind Transport " and when I saw the photo of the nacelle (don't ask me how to pronounce that) on the flatbed semi I realized, "That's what we saw coming down the freeway!" On at least two separate trips, Ruth and I spotted these coming the opposite direction, and had no idea what they are. They look like a missile cone, except that no missile would have things jutting off the side of it...

UPDATE: 03.20.2009 Carrie Rindal has been reprimanded! The KARE-11 story disabled comments after at least 62 came in (according to the homepage), so let's see if we can get a conversation going here. Longtime readers of my blog know that I have a passion for pointing out police incompetence, arrogance and abuse of power -- not because I hate police, but because I have so much respect for them and their jobs (having both friends and relatives on the force) and I can't stand it when a few bad apples freak out and do something stupid that gives their uniform a bad name. Carrie Rindal is one such "peace" officer. When driving his kids home on New Year's Eve (as I was doing with Ruth and our girls a month ago), Sam Salter made one mistake: He followed the same instructions I've read dozens of places. If you're hit with lights and sirens from a squad car, you to find a safe place to pull off the road and should get off on the nearest exit if you can. (And, a...

For those of you who keep up with my Twitter feed , you already know that I'm lamenting the loss of one of our young guys from our church congregation. (Details of his suicide are at his school's site .) I didn't know Eric Harms well. When I was doing video work at our church , he was occasionally singing on worship team or performing in a drama. Everything that people have said in his Facebook group seems true -- he was nice and funny and talented. So, a whole bunch of various thoughts come to mind, all jumbled together: Suicide is really, really hurtful for the people left behind. Are we "glamorizing suicide" by the outpouring of love for Eric and support for his family? Was Eric's happiness a "shell" or an act? Or did something change recently? Is suicide prevention really possible? I'd bet money that suicidal people thing something like, "It was a poor choice for him, but it's the only option for me." And a mor...

Image by Tea, two sugars via Flickr I don't usually pay much attention the the Sunday circulars, but the one from Office Max caught my attention: They're offering 24"x36" prints, which are usually about $40, for $9.99. Being the fan of infrared photography that I am, part of me wonders if I should risk hyper-vanity and print some of my photos that size. The resolution of my photos really can't handle something that size, but then again, what can? Note, by the way, that the photo here isn't one of mine; it's one that was recommended by Zemanta , which is a Firefox plug-in that goes out and finds content that's related to whatever you're writing about. I wanted to play with it, and had to write about something that made enough sense that it had a chance of finding some content. So far, so good. :) Related articles by Zemanta 7 Inspiring Infrared and HDR Photographers (lightbulbs.org) The Strange Realm of Infra-Red: 4 (boingboing....