Dude! Where's My Rocket?

Sometimes you just have to laugh at the things people say. Take SpaceX for example. They're a company founded/funded by Elon Musk, the creator of PayPal. Their goal is to "reduce the cost and increase the reliability of access to space ultimately by a factor of ten". They launched a rocket the other day with an Air Force research academy satellite on it.

Shortly after launch, the rocket developed a fuel leak and blew up - oopsie. The glass half full side of me wants to say "well, if the rocket truly costs one thenth what current rockets cost, then they can do this up to eight more times before they are no longer the cheaper alternative (for argument's sake, let's pretend that the satellites that are blowing up along with the rockets cost nothing, ok?)."

But that's not me. I just want to make fun of them. And their glass isn't half full, it's blown to bits. After the failure, Mr. Musk was quoted as saying:

The good news is that all vehicle subsystems, including the main engine, thrust vector control, structures, avionics, software, guidance algorithm, etc. were picture perfect.

I'm sorry, I must have missed something. Picture perfect? Sounds like denial to me - I mean, charred remains of his rocket are bobbing ever so gently on the surface of the Pacific Ocean, but as far as he is concerned all vehicle subsystems were picture perfect? He knows the rocket is gone, right?

Or maybe this is his software background shining through - when software crashes, you can restart things and pick up where you left off (more or less anyway). I'm not so sure a quick reboot will recover from this though..

Resistance Is Futile

Well, I give up. I tried, lord I tried to be a good driver, and not give people the finger when they do stupid things, but this week I decided that some people truly deserve it. In partcular, Dirk (not his real name, but it's fitting because it rhymes with "jerk" and is awful close to another d__k word) gets the finger of the week this week.

I was minding my own business, putting along in the slow lane at 65mph, when Dirk came into my life. He was zooming along in his BFT ("big freaking truck"), license place "CLOSETx" (not his actual license plate, but really really close). Dirk realized his exit was coming up, and chose the two to three car lengths between me and the car in front of me to cut over. Alas, it was without a signal light.

Instinct got the better of me, and I gave Dirk the finger. As fate would have it, he was looking in his mirror at the time, and not a happy camper about the gift I bestowed upon him. He started gesturing madly (both hands, neither was on the steering wheel) and then slammed on his brakes (I bet that did nothing for his mileage nor the lifetime of his brakes!).

All in all, I'd say he completely overreacted. Rather than getting so upset, when he received the finger, he should have thought to himself "I just got the finger, I wonder if there was something I did to deserve it" - but then again, perhaps he didn't equate cutting in at the last minute without a signal light as "wrong." Maybe, just maybe, Dirk was one of the respondents to this survey.

Maybe he thought driving was more exciting without a signal light? Then shouldn't I get some credit for giving him the finger and adding just that much more excitement to his ride? Some people are such ingrates!

Etiquette

It's been an interesting week or two on the road - me with the Prius, everyone else driving like idiots. Don't get me wrong, I don't think the people on the road have changed, but I think I have. Toyota says that the Prius gets 60 miles per gallon, so I've been changing my driving habits in hopes of getting somewhere near that (I'm at 46mpg now, which is double what my BMW got; you'd think I'd be happy with that).

By changing my driving habits, I mean things like:

1. Driving between 55 mph and 65 mph in the slow lane (for those who are unsure, the "slow lane" refers to the right lane)
2. Nearly rolling through stop signs - this bothers me. I know it's wrong, and yet, I also know that if I come to a complete stop, I'll potentially have to use valuable (expensive these days) gasoline to get the car moving again - I wonder if that would work with a policeman (policeperson?) if I got pulled over for rolling through a stop sigh - "Sorry officer, I was just trying to save gasoline" - probably not.

Today was different though. On my way home, someone - I'll call him "Family Guy" zipped past me on the freeway entrance ramp. In the old days, I would have pulled up alongside him (I'm not a chauvenist, statistically, it would be man), stared at him, given him the finger and gotten on with my life.

When I got on the freeway, surprise, surprise, there was Family Guy - there was enough traffic that he got nowhere once he passed me. As I pulled along side, finger at the ready, I looked into his car - there he was, my prey - a quick toot of my horn to get his attention, the finger, vindicated. But it was not to be.

I looked into his car, and he wasn't alone!! He had his wife with him, and a couple of kids in the back - who knows, maybe he even had a cat or dog in there. What was he doing passing me on the entrance ramp. Parents aren't supposed to do that, they're supposed to be safe drivers. I don't remember anyone ever giving either of my parents the finger as a result of their driving. Maybe he wasn't the father?

More importantly, what I was I supposed to do - should I beep, should I give him the finger? Will his kids be scarred for life? Or worse, will it be the last straw for his wife - has she repeatedly warned him about driving like an asshole when she's with him? Will she leave him because of this? And what would that do to the kids? Are they going to need therapy?

And, let's not forget, I'm driving a Prius now - does that change things? Is it just completely wrong to give someone the finger from a Prius? Driving a Prius means, in theory, "I'm well balanced, down to earth, calm" - by giving Family Guy the finger, am I messing things up for all of the other Prius drivers?

Thankfully, Family Guy got off the freeway at the next exit (perhaps he knew I was thinking about ruining his life as he knew it) so nothing of significance happened. But next time, who knows. Do I give him the finger? Or stick my tongue out at him?

Or do I just get over it and accept that there are just people out there who can't drive but don't realize it? What would Miss Manners say?