Last night I attended the University of Minnesota Alumni Association’s annual gala, held on campus at Mariucci Arena. The speakers were Stan Freese ‘67 and Tony Dungy ‘78.

While Mr. Freese has had a distinguished musical career with Disney, most of the people were there to hear the coach. While some of his past comments have caused controversy, last night’s talk was completely free of anything remotely controversial (almost to the point of being boring). There were some protesters outside beforehand, but there turned out to be little to protest in his public speech.

I am an alumni of the University, but I’m not currently a member of the alumni association. That mostly has to do with my belief that I shouldn’t have to donate money to the school until my mountains of student loans are paid off. I felt a little bit of school pride at the event, but mostly it just seemed hokey–like some bizarre club that makes you feel awkward for being a member.

I’d much rather be in that arena for a Gophers hockey game than an alumni event. Which I guess goes to show that I shouldn’t be opposed to the vast amounts of money spent on athletics. President Bruininks did say he wants the U to be one of the top three public research universities in the world also, so I guess it’s all good…

Screw Spiderman, here’s what I want:

More Keira! More Keira!

About a week ago, my oldest child received a mailing from the Minnesota Wild Kids Club. One sheet was an ad for an upcoming ice show, while the other had a trivia contest promising prizes for the first 50 kids to respond with the correct answers. We went through the ten questions right away (with the help of wild.com) and mailed it in the next day.

Today a package arrived with an autographed copy of the 2006-07 Wild Yearbook! We hadn’t purchased one of those this year, so it was a double treat. Brent Burns and Manny Fernandez hand-signed the cover…too cool!

Today I wrote my state representatives after a particularly stressful commuting week:

Representative Masin and Senator Carlson,

…

I am writing today about some thoughts I had on my commute home last week. I work in St. Paul (where I grew up) and drive I-35E to and from work. Traffic levels have been getting worse and worse all the time and I support increased funding through whatever means are fair and equitable to those who use the roads.

Other factors seem to contribute to traffic levels aside from money and construction, though. Driver skill and etiquette seem to be on the decline, leading to slower traffic and more accidents. Here are some suggestions for future legislation:

* Require more frequent re-testing to retain your drivers license. I took a drivers test once a million years ago, but aside from very infrequent vision tests, I never have to prove I know the rules ever again. Build an online test website that must be passed every time a license is renewed and add a testing fee to pay for it. Make sure the definition of a yield sign and the meaning of “slower traffic keep right” is on the test.

* Driving with cell phone restrictions. I’m not a big supporter of more restrictions on individual behavior, but the worst drivers are inevitably talking on their phones. If you really need to talk, pull over and park it.

* Increase penalties on smokers who use the roads as their personal ashtray. I realize the car is one of the last bastions of freedom for smokers in the state, but aside from the safety issues with being distracted by your cigarette (see above), it annoys me to no end to see smokers ignore the ashtray in their car and fling their butts everywhere else. Increase the fine and include mandatory community service picking up trash from the roadside.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

On the way home today, I thought maybe the law should just be “pay attention to driving and keep two hands on the wheel,” but I guess that’s implied (but rarely followed).

I’ll post any responses I get here as an update…

UPDATE (5/20): Heard from my state senator today:

Mr. Kingsbury,

Thank you for your note. I can’t agree with you more.

I am on the Transportation Conference Committee which has the duty to work out the compromise bill that contains the initiatives heard in both the House and Senate and passed from both houses. We worked to arrive at a convincing bill which the Governor will sign. The Governor said he would veto any and all tax increases, even those which have wide support from cities, counties and state transportation working groups. We finished the bill, passed it overwhelmingly in the Senate and sent it to the House where it passed 90 to 43. A few days later, the Governor vetoed it. We are still one or two votes short of a veto override in the House so it may not come back to the Senate for override.

The lack of adequate transportation funding has become a critical issue in Minnesota. We are losing billions in Federal funding for major projects because we can’t put up matching funding. By the DOT’s own information, about 30% of the state highways roadways are in “poor” driving condition. If the Governor’s veto cannot be overridden our property taxes will rise to pick up critical costs to cities and counties.

I also agree on the need for better driving skills and rule compliance. Cell phone usage and resulting “inattentive driving” is the cause of more and more accidents and logged accident information is showing that some policies need changing. I co-sponsored a bill to enhance penalties for inattentive driving as a result of the young woman killed on Pilot Knob Road last summer. She was cleaning up the ditches when she was hit by a woman who said she fell asleep.

Thank you for your letter and stay tuned for the final outcome.

Best regards,
Senator Jim Carlson

Hey, look at me! I actually finished reading a book today. I think I got this one for Christmas two years ago, so that might make me the slowest reader on Earth.

I have two stacks in my home office right now: a stack of magazines about a foot and a half tall and a pile of about ten books. I need to prioritize reducing that pile over the summer.

The Daily Show is one program I record every night, so this book was a lot of fun for me. If only all textbooks were written with such insight and cleverness.

One of my favorites:

104.3 = The Frequency*

* Source: Kenneth

Awesome.

Up next: Candy Girl, A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper, by Diablo Cody.

That tall tree on the left could survive thunderstorms and lightning, but couldn’t take the windstorm we had here last night. It snapped right off and thankfully fell away from the yard and into the wetland area.

Very disappointed to see it gone…

Just like last year, I went to see Hanz Erik and the Hims last night at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, this is likely the last time I get to see them there, as lead singer Hans Erickson is moving to New York City in August (no word on future plans for Stein Malvey and Erik Naslund or either drummer).

I missed the start of the 11pm set by a few minutes (when has an act ever started on time?), but the rest of the one hour set was very enjoyable. A Hollies cover, two new songs, some old HanzSolo tracks and most of my favorite songs from Copay (including the wonderful Potential Energy as a closer) made for an entertaining, but short, evening.

The downtown Minneapolis nightclub scene was very vibrant last night. I know I’m getting old, but that’s just not my thing any longer (not that it ever was, really). Fun to see all the energy, though.