Living in the Scoot Utopia

Today I went to go see the new National World War 1 Museum that opened here in Kansas City this weekend.

Those who think that Kansas City can't do anything right need to go see this museum. The experience was amazing, this was one of the best museums I have ever been to. The exhibits consist not only of photos an artiifacts, but also the actual machines of war, life-size recreations of trenches and a bomb crater, and amazing multimedia presentations.

Two rooms feature interactive exhibits that look like something out of the movie Minority Report yet blend seamlessly into the overall experience. Two of the interactive exhibits allow you to create your own "souvenier" art that you can instantly e-mail anywhere -- one allows you to design a memorial frescoe and the other allows you to design a propaganda poster.

The museum was packed, I've never seen so many cars at Liberty Memorial before outside of a special event. When you think "World War 1 Museum" you'd probably think "boring", but not only were the adults mezmerized, the kids and teens I saw were too. I was genuinely impressed seeing teenagers, by themselves, getting completely taken in by the experience.

Kansas City needs to be proud, this was done right and is something to be VERY proud of. Liberty Memorial is now going to become a major tourist attraction.

Click the thubmnail below to see a few pictures I took today...

Posted by ScooterJ at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday afternoon I took a walk around midtown. The teardrop-shaped route was 13.8 miles long and took me into a few areas I haven't walked through before. The route ran south roughly along Walnut and then Gilham, then west mainly along 43rd, north along Bell, northeast along Karnes, and then back north along Baltimore. The walk was slightly over 4 hours long. I took 19,031 steps and burned 1,357 calories.

I took several photos along the way, this time with a bonus section inside Union Cemetery. I also took a couple of pictures by request. Click on the route map below to launch the photo gallery.

Posted by ScooterJ at 07:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Though I'm currently doing 2-3 mile walks a few times a week, I'm only posting the longer ones on my blog.

This afternoon I took a walk to the Plaza and back. The loop was 11.4 miles and took about 3-1/2 hours to complete. I took 16,296 steps and burned 1,147 calories.

As I was walking along I could not help but notice what a truly beautiful city Kansas City is. Both natural and architectural beauty. And there are so many details -- tiny little quirky shops, overlooked stonework, and fascinating architecture. Much of this can only really be noticed by touring the city on foot. If you have only experienced Kansas City by car, you are truly missing out.

As usual I took several photos along the way. Click on the route map below to launch the photo gallery.

Posted by ScooterJ at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Voters wanting to send a message that KC needs a workable light rail system accidently passed Clay Chastain's latest ballot measure yesterday.

I'm all for light rail and I really hope it goes through, but first we need to now take a look at what we have done and fix one embarassing glitch in that election's outcome: we need to repeal section 3.

Section 3:
Implement an aerial gondola tram system providing passenger service between Union Station, Liberty Memorial, and Penn Valley Park; remove all thru vehicular roads, including Broadway, in the park and re-route traffic around the park; replace roads with landscaped transportation corridors for new bicycle & walking pathways, the gondola, and a wooden light rail truss bridge; with the funds also to be used to retire bond indebtedness related to the projects, and to help secure additional federal, state, and regional transportation funds?

Closing Broadway from 27th to 31st would be a disaster. More traffic would be forced onto Southwest Trafficway, a thoroughfare that many are trying to reduce traffic on. It would eliminate the only direct route that connects The Plaza, Westport, and Downtown. Businesses along Broadway in Midtown would face a drop in customers due to no longer being on a through-street. Left turns would have to be legalized on Southwest Trafficway in order to provide access, which would create total gridlock and increase accidents, injuries, and deaths.

Plus, we just spent millions of dollars replacing a bridge that would now suddenly no longer be used.

And a gondola to so that fat, lazy people can get across Pershing without walking? Well, here's what that would do to Kansas City's most famous postcard view:

Question 2 passed, that's terrific. But now we must get on the bandwagon and make sure Section 3 is repealed.

Looks like Seth was thinking along the same lines as me.

Posted by ScooterJ at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I'm looking forward to getting out and voting tomorrow morning. Here's how I intend to vote on all the items on my ballot. If you want to try to sway me, here's your chance!

MO STATE SENATE: Though I'd prefer a better candidate, I have to go with Claire McCaskill on this one. The important thing here is to get rid of Bush's sniveling, weasly little yes-boy Jim Talent, and a vote for Claire is the only way to do that. This election is too important to waste votes on third-party candidates. (No offense intended to Frank Gilmour or Lydia Lewis.)

MO STATE AUDITOR: I don't give a rat's ass, but since the last few years have shown us how terrible Republican rule is, I'm going for the Democrat, Susan Montee.

U.S.REPRESENTATIVE, 5TH DISTRICT: Unlike many I have no beef with Emmanuel Cleaver, so he'd have my vote regardless of party affiliation.

STATE LEGISLATURE ELECTIONS: Gotta go with the DEMs in these, too. Sorry, REPs, you had your chance and you blew it.

JACKSON COUNTY ELECTIONS: This one is actually a tough call. Because of the whole stadiums lease/tax fiasco I am torn between my hatred of Republicans and my desire to vote out any incumbent I can. These will be game-time decisions. (undecided)

JUDICIAL ELECTIONS: I have not heard of any controversial rulings that I disagree with so I see no reason not to keep them all.

MO AMENDMENT 2 (STEM CELLS): Part of me wants to vote no, only because I find its restrictions a little too restricting. (I don't understand why "clone" is a 4-letter word.) But I will vote YES, because even though it's too restrictive, a "no" vote for that reason would send entirely the wrong message. (If only ballots had a "Please indicate why" text box next to each item.)

MO AMENDMENT 3 (TOBACCO TAX): This gets a hearty NO from me. I am not a smoker but I do not like sin taxes. They are a cop-out, an easy way for politicians to increase revenue without pissing off the majority. The revenue streams from sin taxes make the government addicted to people's addictions. This tax would actually make it in the government's best interest to promote smoking rather than to try to curb smoking.

And yes, I voted for the arena tax (an easy cop-out) and for casino gambling (feeding off addictions). Does that make me a hycocrite? Sure, probably. Deal with it. :)

MO AMENDMENT 6 (TAX EXEMPTION FOR VETERANS ORGANIZATIONS): This amendment is a complicated read and I'm not entirely sure what its purpose is. However I'm going to go with NO on this one. I have nothing against veterans, I just don't think we should be creating new categories of tax exemptions at a time when the state is slashing all of its services.

MO AMENDMENT 7 (PENSIONS, SALARIES FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS): I only just heard of this one today and I have no idea which answer is best, so I will probably leave this one blank unless I learn more before tomorrow morning. (undecided)

MO PROPOSITION B (MINIMUM WAGE): Now matter how I vote on this someone will be mad at me, since I am friends both with winimum-wage workers and people who pay the salaries of minimum-wage workers. However I have seen more anectodal evidence that higher minimum wages help the economy than hurt it. And I really like the part where the minimum wage will automatically increase each year to match the inflation rate -- that's just good common sense. So I give this one a cautious YES.

KC QUESTION 1 (FIRE INSPECTIONS): I don't know how much these cost currently or who pays for them, so I have no idea what this question would be changing. Therefore I plan for now to leave this one blank. (undecided)

KC QUESTION 2 (LIGHT RAIL): I want so badly to vote yes for this, I really do. Had this item just consisted of section 1 and section 2 I'd be all over it with a 'yes' vote. But Clay Chastain just had to throw in that nutty section 3 and screw it all up. So a noble ballot initiative to get a useful light rail line going (section 1) and to use environmentally-friend buses elsewhere (section 2) gets ruined by section 3. What does section 3 call for? Closing all the roads in Penn Valley Park (yes, this includes BROADWAY, an essential north-south corridor), and then building a gondola system to ferry people between Union Station and Liberty Memorial. Yes, a gondola, disrupting the breathtaking views and carrying passengers the whopping distance of..... across the street. (As if we aren't fat and lazy enough already.) Therefore this gets a disappointed NO vote from me.

Posted by ScooterJ at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I walked to La Bodega for dinner tonight, and along the way took several pictures of the Fall colors around Downtown. Click the picture below to view the full gallery.

Posted by ScooterJ at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I didn't go to the American Royal street part this year because, <nerd alert>it was the same night as the season 3 premiere of Battlestar Galactica</nerd alert> and a few of us went to David Codding's house up north to watch it. As I headed back home I did manage to see the finale of Friday's fireworks show as I crossed the Broadway Bridge.

I knew that they repeat the fireworks show again on Saturday, so on Saturday night at 10:00 I went up on my roof to watch the show. Since there is a hill and some buildings in the way I didn't have the best view but I was able to see about 3/4 of each blast. I took several photos of the display, click the thumbnail below to see the gallery.

Posted by ScooterJ at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night, thanks to the alert find and quick actions of Brandon, I was able to attend a sneak preview of Friday's season 3 premiere of Battlestar Galactica. It was a nice event, held at the Sprint IMAX theater at the Zoo, and while naturally the nerd contingient was well-represented, there was also a surprising cross section of the general population as well.

I do have a couple of suggestions for the organizers:

• If you are going to give away video games and ipods based upon asking trivia questions to 300+ sci-fi geeks crammed into a room, have a better plan in mind than "whoever shouts out the right answer first wins". :)
• If you're using the IMAX screen but the show itself is not actually in IMAX format, make sure people know that before they go in so that they won't be disappointed.

As for the season premiere itself, I will say absolutely nothing that will spoil it for fans of the show. However if you don't want to even know so much as my reactions, stop reading now.

• Battlestar Galactica has perhaps the best, smartest writing of any show currently on television, and this seaon's premiere is no exception. This is possibly the best season premiere episode I have ever seen of any television show, period. This episode could work equally well as a season finale.

• Certain aspects of this episode are going to make a lot of people very uncomfortable. Political overtones present in the first two seasons are now suddenly and dramatically reversed and it makes for some intense uneasiness that is sure to generate a lot of discussion.

• While most fans are anxiously awaiting this Friday's episode, I am now even more anxiously awaiting next Friday's episode.
  

If you are a fan of the show, you will not be disappointed. If you are not yet a fan, there's still time to grab the DVDs and get caught up. It's worth the effort.

Thanks again, Brandon, for the ticket!

Posted by ScooterJ at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Sunday I wanted to meet my friend Brandon for lunch in Waldo, so I left my place at 8:30am and started walking.

Because the days are getting shorter, I've decided to start taking short walks more frequently rather than killer walks that then leave my feet beat for a couple of weeks. This is the first of the walks in this series.

Originally I had covered 10 miles exactly, but when I got to Waldo I was unable to get a hold of Brandon due to his ringer being off. So I got in another 2 miles as I wandered around the area in hopes he'd get my message. In the end he did, and we had a relaxing lunch before I boarded the MAX to head back home.

Total number of steps taken: 22,601
Calories burned: 1,510
Miles walked: 12.1

Click the picture below to view the photo gallery from the walk...

Posted by ScooterJ at 05:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last night after bowling several of us saw some sort of shootout near Grand Slam Liquors at 6th & Grand. We heard a shot and looked in the direction it came from, then after a pause came several more shots in rapid succession.

We saw a black SUV then speed off eastbound on 6th, while a blue SUV or minivan came towards us on Grand and then sped west on Independence Ave. One of us called 911 but they already had a call in and a few minutes later police were talking to the guys at Grand Slam. No idea yet what happened.

I tried to get some pictures that we could give to the police but it all happened so fast and I have a new camera (see the next post) that I'm not used to the controls on yet. The only thing I really got was this red streak of taillight of one of the two vehicles speeding away.

   

Posted by ScooterJ at 07:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)