Here is some local coverage of the Utah State University van crash. The accident is getting a bit of national coverage right now, because apparently people are tired of looking at pictures of floods.

Significant details:

1) Nobody was wearing a seatbelt.
2) The van was probably going at least 85. The posted speed limit there is 75, and the van was passing traffic. It could easily have been going 90 or even 95, though.
3) All eleven occupants were thrown from the vehicle during its high-speed, 4x rollover. Nine of them are now dead.

If you drive in the United States, the odds are about 600:1* that you will NOT be involved in a car accident this year. If you drive or ride without your seatbelt, you are playing russian roulette with a 600-chamber revolver and a single bullet. If you wear your seatbelt, you’re still playing russian roulette, but you don’t have to point the gun at your head each time you pull the trigger.

–Howard
*SOURCE: Extrapolation based on research into the number of fatal car accidents in the U.S., plus my wet finger in the air. There are between 30,000 and 40,000 car accident fatalities per year in the U.S., and more than 10 times that many accidents. If we assume that 250,000,000 Americans drive or ride in automobiles each year, each of them has one chance in about 6000 of dying in an auto accident, and one chance in about 600 of being in an accident at all.

Sandra and I are waiting to see Serenity until we can see it TOGETHER. That means Monday, because I’m gone all weekend at Linucon (where I’m sure people will be itching to spoil it for me, but there in person I can just punch them in the nose.)

If you must talk about the movie in your journals, please put your comments behind cut tags.

No, there have been no violations yet. This is a pre-emptive message only.

–Howard

http://www.partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1364

Yes, that’s my artwork there. Rob Balder provided the text a full year after I drew the picture — I had no idea what the dialog was going to be.

Nice work, Rob!

–Howard

There’s a lot I didn’t say in the Open Letter (which I cross-posted here for your commenting pleasure) about the year I’ve spent working out of my home as a cartoonist.

At the top of the list is how much more I appreciate my family. I’m with them all the time, these days. As I write this I can hear Patches and Gleek (2-year-old son, 4-year-old daughter) playing together in the family room. Patches keeps saying something about the “Daddy Car,” which is one of the two green “new beetle” toy cars we have. I think he’s playing a game where Daddy drives very, very dangerously. I’m afraid to go look.

Speaking of driving dangerously, I totally and completely do NOT miss commuting. The pleasure I get from my automobile is now unmitigated by hundreds of hours of my life spent wasted on the freeway. Driving is more fun these days — especially when I take care to not hit certain roads between 4:30pm and 6:30pm.

Another pleasure is cooking. We can’t afford some of the really fancy ingredients I used to love (it’s hard to go wrong with fresh tiger prawns, for instance), but with the money we save not buying pre-packaged crap (you know, that stuff YOU are eating, RIGHT NOW IN FRONT OF YOUR COMPUTER) we can still afford things like olive oil, rice vinegar, and coconut milk — key ingredients in some of the fun things I’ve learned to cook since leaving Novell. Often my “lunch break” here at home is 90 minutes long, and involves cooking something complex, aromatic, and delicious. Equally often I do something simple, like grill burgers on the back deck. Sandra and I get to eat together a lot.

There are things I’m not doing right. I waste a lot of time in front of the computer. I don’t get enough sleep. I’ve not gotten decent exercise in several months. But these are all things over which I have complete control. My schedule is my own, and if I want to create better sleep and exercise habits, I don’t have to clear it with the VP of Product Marketing first.

And now, I need a shower. It’s almost 9:00am, and I’m still in my underwear.