On Recursion

As I have mentioned before, a friend of mine, Tomas Benda actually (he's the guy who drew the fancy covers for mathNEWS) used to say definition of loop: see loop. It occurs to me that unpacking is more of a recursive thing than a looping thing. You unpack something big and discover inside that big thing, eight or ten little things, all need to be unpacked and inside each of those things are eight or ten smaller things and inside those, etc.

I am at war with my material possessions, and frankly, I'm loosing! (Little wonder I want to burn my house down sometimes.)

I was reading Sigrid Ziegler's column (see what I'm reading on the right) from May 8, Get a License. I have lost count of the number of drivers (and on occasion pedestrians) who have cursed at me or worse while skating and frankly the situation as a cyclist is only marginally better. To be fair I think most motorists are actually rather impressed that someone is skating to their office job to be a... wait for it... systems analyst, yes that's right kids, by day (Monday to Friday) Michael works in an office with a shirt and and a B. Math and a M. Eng, by night Michael is a skater! (Or cyclist.) The sad fact is though, for every compliment there is a slam, and when it is me with a 200g helmet or the driver with a two ton SUV, if they get pissed at me, I get scared.

I want a big sign on my skate bag that says: "I get better gas mileage than you, so piss off! Besides, you're fat and I'm exercising!"

In the Saturday Globe and Mail there was mention of a possible cyclist union for Toronto, sounds great, where do I sign up? I heard a story that some time ago there was talk of adding a bike lane to some road in the East End, but then some West End Councillor objected and that was that. I think the fundamental problem is one of philosophy, we live in a car crazy culture, but if we were willing to toss the gas guzzlers and get out and ride - or skate - besides cleaner air and less money to those filthy oil barons we would all be healthier and probably a lot less stressed from the commute to work. I sure hate riding (or worse, skating) in the rain, but my worst ride in the rain was still a bajillion times better than driving in rush hour Toronto traffic.

Here's a random thought, the Ontario Highway Traffic Act does not, at least not anywhere that I could find, define a bike as an equivalent to a car. My bad, found it (section 1.1):

“vehicle” includes a motor vehicle, trailer, traction engine, farm tractor, road-building machine, bicycle and any vehicle drawn, propelled or driven by any kind of power, including muscular power, but does not include a motorized snow vehicle or a street car; (“véhicule”)

Well there you have it, ladies and gentleman, children of all ages, inline skates are vehicles, just like bicycles, farm tractors, and motor vehicles. How so? Well they are a 'vehicle propelled by muscular power'. Oh, and irate motorists who curse me for taking up an entire lane, just an FYI, I am obeying the law, when you cut me off and come dangerously close to hitting me, you are driving carelessly, which is an offence:

Every person is guilty of the offence of driving carelessly who drives a vehicle or street car on a highway without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the highway and on conviction is liable to a fine of not less than $200 and not more than $1,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not more than six months, or to both, and in addition his or her licence or permit may be suspended for a period of not more than two years. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 130.

I had been planning to talk more about much of my experiences on bike or skate are like the weekend warrior (read: tamed) version of Sigrid's, but instead I find myself going into a tirade against car drivers. But then car drivers need a good tirade, or ten directed at them, so many of them are just so bad at it.