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 I’ve been missing the monthly Critical Mass event. The last time I went to one, I was one of 3 guys who showed up. Sure, it was cold and there was snow on the ground, but it was also a lot of fun.
It’s been a couple of months since then, and the weather is much nicer, so I’m stepping up and trying to get this rolling again. I’ve posted the same thing in a number of places (MySpace, CraigsList, Tribe.net, the Yahoo group for a local bike riding group).
My e-flyer looks something like this:

Reno Critical Mass
Details, details!

When: Friday, Feb 29th, 2008. 6pm.
Where: Downtown Reno. 1st Street, right next to Java Jungle.
Why: Critical Mass is a celebration of cycling, not a war against motorists. Critical Mass is about asserting our right to the road, not denying others their right to the road. In other words, we’re not riding to disrupt traffic, we’re riding to encourage bicycle traffic.
How: Bring your bike. Meet with us. Make a friend. Go ride for about 1 hour.
So, see you there! :) The weather is supposed to be night, but it’ll be getting dark, so dress warm and don’t forget some sort of light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7-MxK8AvHI

So, that’s it. I guess I’ll find out on Friday how well it all goes. If you’re able (as in, you have legs and a bike, and a beating heart), show up too! :)

There’s a lot of commotion going on around town about the Brianna Denison case. The turmoil will reach one of its peaks this coming Saturday, when a memorial service will be held downtown for the late Brianna.
What’s so crazy about a memorial service? Well, nothing in itself. But if you throw in the Westboro Baptist Church members (who also like to be known as the "God Hates Fags" group), and you’ve got yourself a confrontation.

But wait a minute, this is getting confusing. What does this Baptist Church have to do with anything? Well, let’s just quote their schedule (emphasis is mine, except for the all caps part… that’s all WBC):

"This is for the memorial service for Brianna Denison. She was the "victim" of a serial rapist’s strangulation. We call it the Wrath of God being poured out on a nation of rebels without a cause. You brought this Wrath on your own head, Reno, NV because you (1st) raised your chidren to be dashed to pieces as rebellious, arrogant soldiers of a Doomed nation of perverts and (2nd) when we warned you to not go to Hell like the dead soldiers and OBEY YOUR MAKER, you lawless brutes did not obey your own laws; instead, you allowed criminal, disorderly conduct to take place betwixt our humble, peaceful preachers and your arrogant, filthy-mouthed and violent counter-demonstraters. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QufIrF9-b9E for an excellent view of Doomed Americans breaking their own laws. You taught your daughters to be whores ? God sent the pervert to rape and murder your daughters. You taught your people to be lawless ? when your police do NOT obey the law and the oath they took ? you teach rebellion to the people. When you call God a liar and say his standards are on the table to dispose of, you teach the pervert that HE is entitled to disobey the law!! America is Doomed, and Reno, Nevada is Doomed. Amen."

 

:monocle: That’s right. So, they’ll be there, demonstrating at the funeral… and everyone who is at the funeral/memorial to honor Brianna, will be offended by the Westboro people. And that, my friends, is a recipe for confrontation.

Hopefully there’ll be no violence, and everyone will try to act maturely.

But honestly, if you think your God is punishing the city with such things, and you need to throw this into other people’s face, maturity is far from reach.

Disclaimer: I don’t have boobs.

It turns out that my workplace (Reno Diagnostic Centers) is encouraging all employees to sign up for the Race for the Cure. I’m already signed up for the 5k run, so now I just need to make sure I can run that long. Heh. It should be fun!

If you’re signing up, and don’t have a team, join my team! Let me know if you’re interested :)

Today, a big bus from United Blood Services was hanging out at the parking lot at work. So I went, and donated a bit of my tasty, fresh, warm Latin blood.  It was probably a bad idea.

The questionnaire at the beginning was stretched because of my south-American origins (oh no, he comes from the jungle!). I was asked several uncomfortable questions, to which the answers were of course no. Ten minutes later, it’s time to check my blood pressure and pulse, and I was starting to dread being there.
It turns they only draw blood if your pulse is at least 50, and I was only showing 42. We tried again, and it went up to 43. The guy was confused, so we tried my other arm, but nothing changed. He told me that I might not get to donate blood, and went to talk to his supervisor. I explained that I’m a fairly active person, and they decided to ask me about 10 more questions about my lifestyle and let me donate.

You’d think that it would have been frustrating enough there, but there’s more. I ask them to poke my left arm, so the girl/nurse does, and there’s almost no blood coming out. She moves the needle around (a pretty thick one, mind you) to see if she can get some more flow out of it, but it’s barely dripping. This is not a good thing, because the extraction needs to be at a certain speed, to avoid coagulation of the already drawn blood, so they aborted the operation, and asked me if I wanted to try the other arm. I said yes.
Luckily, my other arm doesn’t suck as much as my left (pun intended), so it all went pretty well. A few minutes later, I was sipping on some apple juice and munching on some cookies.

I’m now sitting here, feeling a bit wheezy, with both arms bandaged. It’s fun.

I probably won’t donate blood ever again, because it was such an inconvenience; not only for me, but for them too. I wish it hadn’t been that bad, because donating blood is a nice little gesture. I don’t want to discourage anyone from donating blood, but I just want to make you aware that if your pulse is low, and you’re from South America, you’re in for a treat.