I have vastly underused this blog. I've been extremely active using twitter and, and blogging at wikibruce.com, while avoiding using twitter-review tools to post summaries here.
Should I start? :)

So once again, my active updates can be found at twitter.com/thebruce0 and Wikibruce.com. Heck, even my Flickr account has been getting more activity than LJ (and thus thebruce.net) :)

Sorry y'all!
I have a lot of catching up to do... and I will do it... soon... sometime... *sigh*


As a quick status update:
* I'm going to see Star Trek tonight in IMAX. heeeeeeeeeeee!
* I've been keeping quite busy lately...
* I'm a little behind in updating my BPOD (pic-a-day) project for '09. gotta get on that!
* ARGFest Portland and Comic-Con San Diego plans are fully booked for July, heeeeeeeeeeee!
* I has a iPhone!
* Cats are annoying and lovable. I hate that dichotomy.
* I finished Halo Wars. Just need to complete it on legendary now, and finish the multiplayer achievements.
* I want to visit the moon.
* Micropups.

Shutterfly
Srsly, sign up for Shutterfly. They have occasional promotions where you can either redeem or earn free prints. 20-40 prints a couple times a year, imo, is a great deal :D Got my next batch of free Shutterfly prints to put up in my little office cubicle.

Cake
Does PC-Cola (basically no-name coke) and microwavable chocolate cake mix sound like a regular (or trendy?) cake recipe?

Volleyball
Yep. Forfeiting so many games put us in last place in the round-robin. First game of the tourney, we played the 1st place team, and the highest score we got was 15 (games to 25). Three up, three down. Lots of fun though, and the best game was the for-fun game we played after. Good times. Until next year. Hopefully we'll get a more full, committed team :)

Subway Eat Fresh
Customer appreciation day at Subway - brilliant! BOGO day, no coupon needed. Suffice to say, the places, around the city, were packed. Got two footlongs at lunch, and headed to another one on my way home after work for two more. Deal was done at 7, but the place went to was out of bread at 6:30. Anyone willing to wait still got their free sub. Others stopped in saying the other stores they visited were out of bread too. Well I hope they got more customers, in the long run maybe, to outweigh the cost :). But all the stores seemed to be in on it, and not bothered by it, so franchise HQ must have really pushed for it, or offered great reimbursements.
mmm subway...

Viewer discretion advised.
Watchmen. First, TSCC (Terminator, for those not in the know). What..on earth..was with showing a guy get his eye stabbed with a needle? Why could that not just have been implied? Rhetorical question.

Which leads to Watchmen. I haven't finished the novel yet - got through the first 25 or so pages before seeing the movie. Probably should have read more.
I did not expect the movie I saw.
I have opinions from multiple perspectives on this one. (minimal spoilers below? discussion of themes, but no detailed plot points)

* Philosophically - wow; deep, questioning, challenging, difficult to swallow, well written.
* Visually/artistically - loved the cinematography, creativity; you can see the comicbook influence in the visuals, though not nearly as blatant as in 300, for instance. I was watching for scenes that looked like comic book illustrations.
* Visually/content - w. t. f. seriously? How much stuff in there was gratuitous? In a nutshell: lots made sense given the theme of 'human nature', the dark human condition.. but there was stuff in there that simply did not need to be in there. I'm of the opinion that they had to match the shock value the comics introduced in the 80's for content, but relative for today. Stuff you see off-frame is on-frmae, in your face, extremity times 10. An R movie it certainly was.
* Christianally(?) - can't recommend it. Not unless the person is really strong and capable of taking in things that one should not be forced to watch, and doesn't feel that seeing it is condoning it. HOWEVER - it poses amazing discussion points, great subject matter that can give rise to deep, thought-provoking explorations of faith and the supernatural. Bring on a censored version and I'll be more willing to recommend it. While I personally truly enjoyed the philosophical content of the movie, the characters and events- I saw parallels, allegories, analogies, and unanswered questions. The movie was very dark and hopeless, really. But with a theme of 'human nature', how else could it be portrayed?
Inevitability. Humanity is all there is, thus we, in a sense, must overcome ourselves. The lone glimmer of hope is the 'good' humanity can bring amidst this darkness. It's an endless, depressing cycle. ...When it's left as that.

Anyway, point being - depending on who asks me, or from what perspective I'm asked, I'll have different answers about how good the movie is and whether to see it. It's not for the faint of heart, nor the weak of stomach. I think it'll skyrocket, from the die-hard fans seeing it the first week or two, but it'll certainly die off. After hearing reports of people leaving the theatre just after seeing the full (computer generated) body of Dr. Manhattan, and seeing newspaper reviews that can't get past the extreme graphic, violent content in the movie, I think it ultimately shot itself in the foot. And we got to see that foot get shot in slow motion, close up, and in excrutiating detail.
(it's a love/hate thing for me :P)

Now, to finish reading the (tame, by comparison) graphic novel.


ETA:
Trailers
Transformers - niiiiice
Terminator Salvation - Oooooooh
Star Trek - IMAX, most definitely.

Ugh. Too many things have come and gone, and I've been letting LJ gather dust.
Ok, point form, then details...

This Is Not A Game
My order for Dave Szulborski's book "This Is Not A Game" arrived last week! Now, I need to find the time to read through it. It's praised as a wonderful, detailed book about Alternate Reality Games and the genre. I don't think I've heard or seen any critical reviews :).

Dave just got out hospital again, and has been the subject of quite a segment of the community's good thoughts and well-wishes. A campaign was even set up for him called Folding The Wish, when he was first admitted a while back. So I made sure to give my own little tribute in my pic-of-the-day :). I was also fortunate enough two Christmases ago to be randomly chosen as Dave's Secret Santa at Unfiction. That was nerve-racking! I set up a little puzzle for him in the book... I still don't know if he solved it ;) Dave was the brains behind the arg for the movie "The Host" called "Monster Hunter's Club", from whom I received a collectible monster toy of the Bionic Bigfoot.

It's been a privilege to meet him in person at ARGfest, and to have so many indirect communications with him :) hehe. It's great to know he's doing ok again, and I wish him the best for a speedy recovery...

ARGFest/ComicCon
Dates are announced! yay! And the dates are perfect... ARGFest July 17-19, followed by ComicCon July 22-26. Now, it's just a matter of organizing transportation for a week and a half, and accomodations...

ARGFest is in Portland, Oregon, and ComicCon is in San Diego. Which means leaving Buffalo or Toronto, to Portland, joining a big group of people for the exodus to ComicCon in San Diego folloing, then returning from San Diego to Buffalo or Toronto. I have vacation enough for the 8 or 9 days I'll need, but money is the other factor... gotta find out what's available, what's possible, and what's required.

Thankfully, writing for ARGN and Wikibruce, I should quality for a press pass entry to ComicCon (and there's plenty of relevant subject matter there!) which means free ComicCon. Getting to both ARGFest and ComicCon should satisfy my geekdom for the year, I'm sure. There were a couple of other events I was interested in, but I think this year it'll just be ComicCon. I would love to get into E3 one year, but that requires a heavier duty press certification. I don't work for a video gaming magazine or media resource. :)

reminder-to-self: take plenty of business cards to both events!

PS Home Mystery
I just picked up a tip from this 'arginsider' twitter, that something was up in Playstation Home - mysterious text messages and video snippets containing the greek letter Xi... I've had a PS3 for months, but had only begun setting up PSHome. I'd never actually booted it up. This gave me the nudge... Home is pretty nifty, and I believe it's got a lot of potential for...interesting content :). It's still in beta stage, but I believe it's getting to the point of Alpha or full release very shortly...

Anyway, I've reviewed the details at wikibruce: http://wikibruce.com/2009/02/home-is-where-the-mystery-is

( Volleyball )

( Retreat weekend @ Miller Lake )

I think that about covers it. I'm sure I missed something. But I always do. Stupid brain.

Surprisingly fun and addictive! A collaborative thought and forecasting experiment from IFTF (a Jane McGonigal project :)
lab.signtific.org

Go check it out! (the profile embed code doesn't work with Livejournal, so here's the link :)

It works like this: there's a situation (#1 is based on the premise that space becomes free and essential to business, much like the internet today), and you respond. Then others respond. Then others respond. You gain points for responding, and for accomplishing achievements (like how much you've contributed, how popular/controversial/active your contributions are, etc).

This turned out (frankly) better - more engaging - than I thought it would be. hehe.
Also, I earned a MacArthur Genius achievement :) - "Micro-forecast most worthy of five-year funding"

By far my favourite "positive imagination" is:

Artificial Intelligence is birthed, utilizing the entire cubesat network. Too powerful to manage, this literal "Skynet" becomes self aware.

:D

I decided once again to undertake a Pic-a-day project again for a year, but actually beginning January 1 this time.
My previous project (which went through a couple of hiccups in its life) is on flickr here or on thebruce.net. I'm calling this one BPOD though (like APOD. Only Bruce.)
At the end of each month I'll post a summary like last time. Let's see how this one turns out :P
Also, I'm attempting to take all photos in Wide mode... I like the format (though it makes it hard to get nice prints, as 4x6 is pretty much standard)

BPOD January 2009
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

It's been a while since I've just typed and shared thoughts and whatnot... it's easy just to go linking to 'cool stuff' on the web, but that gets too impersonal. I've left LJ in the dust for the past while, due to the twitter effect.

Just a recap - I'm not just on LJ, I'm spread out for various purposes on Flickr (photos), Twitter (general updates, networking, social), Wikibruce (ARGish blogging), and Facebook (find me if you know me)... and yeah that pretty much covers my active sites.

Anyway, so I've been thinking much more on ARGs lately, in the general sense (that means, inclusive of all the possible various names people are using now to describe the genre as a whole, if it can even be 'described' per se)... if you take a gander at recent articles I've posted at wikibruce, there's so much variation in the 'games' being produced now, it's nuts. And the moment anyone tries to create a name they feel best describes..whatever it is they're describing... someone else comes along asking "well what about this game, or that ad, or...?"

So I guess the question is - what am I currently personally interested in, or intrigued by?

1) First, I'm not 'playing' these things (games, for lack of a better term) as much as I used to, but I am watching and observing a lot, and moreso learning from those who are heading up these challenges. No small tasks, they are, whatever the medium or their purpose.

2) I'm greatly impressed and encouraged to see the genre taking on positive goals, 'games for good', considering social/societal needs or beneficial outcomes that essentially focus more on helping others than just pure entertainment value.

3) I think given my full time desk job, I'm more inclined though to watch games closely that do have entertainment value... it's better, I think, if they also have some constructive content (see #1), but usually games that are more 'social' centered require more input and time and dedication. But I think with so much going on, I feel sometimes spread thin, so it's hard to focus on one or two campaigns, let alone games that require active or constant input to be engaging. It's great seeing Jane McGonigal going crazy with the social games though :) like the TSDO (top secret dance-off) competition... More intriguing though is her work with IFTF (Institute for the Future); the motivations they have about 'forecast' games, where a situation is presented, and during a short period of time people are asked to respond to the evolving environment taking place over years to decades, effectively predicting and attempting to 'solve' these questions. World Without Oil is a past project that got a lot of attention. Their most recent project is called Signtific - exploring the future of science and technology. The latest game endeavor launching around Feb 18th is Free Space - the idea that in the (near?) future, occupation of space will be as common, cheap and important as owning a website is today for business. I'm very tempted to get involved with this one :)

4) Occasionally some great discussion threads are posted at Unfiction in which some good debates may ensue at times :). Topics such as politics and ARGs, dead-drops and privacy, controversial commentaries about "ARG"s, and more...

5) I was at an event in toronto recently discussing 'Game Theory' - "Game On! Can Game Theory predict reality in politics, economics and dating strategies?" - I recorded the entire enlightening discussion, an event hosted by the Science Center's Cafe Scientifique. I intend to get the contents of that panel discussion with Tony Walsh, Tom Mitchell, and Star Spider online soon... again, time is the problem :P


More recently though I've been contemplating a story for an ARG that would take a closer look at exploration of the arts, appreciation of the creative aspect of our humanity, and how it can help us in a strive for happiness and belonging... I feel out of my league though seeing some of the depth and immense quality of writing that's coming out of some independent minds in the community, let alone what dedicated organizations and teams are producing :)

Now of course the other problem is ... with a growing desire to explore "alternate realities" as it were, one can't lose focus on "reality" :) whether it's from playing games, or creating them, if it's not your primary focus in life (aka: full time job) then it can't be your primary focus in life. Priorities! :)

Anyway, this turned into an ARG/game centric post, so I'll leave it at that for now...

A couple list memes I've been sitting on for a while...

( Did you... in 2008? )

( 100 things... )

Ok. Well, here's one not-so-positive entry for today...

Not. a good. day.
1) I've clearly broken my resolution to get to work by 8:30am and/or to bed by midnight every day - it's been twisted, shattered, hammered, sliced, diced, minced and grilled to a crisp.
2) Jersey in heat makes me want to claw my eyes out. She's louder than Durga, higher pitched than Durga, more constant than Durga, less appeasable than Durga, and fully more annoying than Durga. She would not shut up all night.
3) Every morning, there's something to pick up and clean up. Why do they insist on nudging and pushing things high on shelves? I should glue or nail everything in the house to its place.
4) I want to save for a vacation in July, but the vet would take a chunk of $.
5) A random woman angrily yelled "WHAT?!" at me this morning while she rode by on her bike on my way to work. Randomly. ......yeah, what?
6) My bus was late. Late + late = later + worse.
7) My bus was slow because of snow. later + worse + snow slow = fury!
8) Deep snow. Cold feet. Snow shoes. Snow IN shoes.

Now to look for some positives... *sigh*

(this entry is littered with exagerration; the writer acknowledges he has much to be happy for; sometimes the bad stuff just has to get blurted out)

My last entry for some reason borked the embed code... lemme try this again:

You must watch this video - and keep an eye on the middle seated guy. It'll lighten up your Monday ;) heehee
Enjoy! (oh and turn up the volume, use headphones, whatever - you have to listen! the entertainium truly kicks in around 1:20)

Secret Santa!

It was late, but it rocked! Unfiction held another secret santa exchange for 2008, and a little faery brought me my gift:
* A truck full of chocolates and candies
* a lifesavers storybook package
* the I.Q. Challenge set of trivia cards (seriously, this is going to be a year of trivia, what with Ringorang throughout the week too!)
* a Shock ball (never heard of it until now - I'm afraid to try it ;)
* and last but not least, a pack of Halo trading cards! (hee, I had these on my wishlist for some time; not overly impressive, but I'm a Halo geek - I love it!)
Oh, can't forget, my cats were not forgetten - they got a box with wild paper packing material to ruffle around and nest in. ;)

I haven't told my recipient who I am yet... perhaps I should; it's good form, yes? :)

IIHF World Juniors hockey

2008-09 brought another year of intense hockey with the IIHF hockey tourney. This year, hosted in Ottawa, Canada managed to beat out the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Germany, USA, Russia, and Sweden, to take home the gold medal for the 5th straight year. Next year the tournament will be held in Saskatchewan.

Had parties in a few places - my place in full HD glory, starbusidereus' home of the hockey fanatic, and out with other crazy fanatics at McGinnis Front Row for the gold medal game against Sweden.

That's great hockey. NHL? pssh!

Mmmmovies

Over the holidays, managed to catch Yes Man (hilarious!), Marley & Me (tear-jerker!), and Seven Pounds (powerful). Those are my one word reviews; all three are great movies.

I still haven't done that LOTR marathon I'd planned on my 30-by-30 list, but I sat down and watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail again on the tv... so... enjoyable... :D

Closing

And, well, there's no way I can leave you without demanding you watch this video - and keep an eye on the middle seated guy. It'll lighten up your Monday ;) heehee
Enjoy! (oh and turn up the volume, use headphones, whatever - you have to listen! the entertainium truly kicks in around 1:20)

edit: argh! see next entry

( Dec 23... oldest email )
( Dec 24... wishes, cleaning, dinner )
( Dec 25... potluck, boxing day wait )
( Dec 26... big baby, chaos, big game )
( Dec 27... guess )
( Dec 28 - big game, TDK )
( Dec 29... hungry, work )
( Dec 30... hungry, work )
( Dec 31... hungry, pay day, big game, partay, mad durga )
( Jan 1... celebration, food, tears :( )

Closing thoughts

Loved this holiday. No time with my own family, but that's pretty much how we do it now anyway, living so far apart. We have our family time earlier in the year when the weather's better and it's less busy. So I now traditionally spend it with other close families and friends. I couldn't ask for anything more. :) srsly. I'm happy about the tv, but that's just a bonus. I think this year was one of the best, where I legitimately felt all-around happy, content. I spent time with people I love, no stress, no worries, just joy and fun.

A great way to end 2008. :)

It's been too long... yes, I'll be posting a bit in the next day or two :)

Also, Happy New Year!
(...for those who celebrate the Gregorian calendar new year ;)

Welcome to the now, 2009!

• ...the rest of the weekend happened...
• Decided to go for a sub, return movies, and do some banking
• Freezing, wind chill has got to be -30-35 celcius
• Waitin, and the bus is 10 minutes late
• Got banking done first - the only thing that went without a hitch
• Walked, face first to the wind, taking twice as long as usual, to the movie store (numb legs, face falling off)
• Decided to look around and warm up for a bit; picked up another movie (free w/earned points) but had to pay a $4 late fee
• Walked back to Subway for warm fresh food... to find it closed at 8:30pm (no signs or indications, just closed, WAY early)
• Went to Sobeys to grab some stir fry for later, had 15 minutes to the next bus
• Quickly stopped in at Twice the Deal for some pizza to go
• They were slow. Missed the bus by 30 seconds.
• Ate 4 slices and 2 pop while waiting 40 minutes for the next bus (not gonna walk in that again!)
• Just stepping out the door to the bus stop and it passes - 5 minutes early.
• Enfuriated, I decide to walk home anyway; thankfully, not facing the wind.

2 1/2 hours for a typically 30-40 minute trip. I am now going to curl up on the couch covered in warm blankets and watch a movie.

I can has summer now plz?

Well, the effects of the economy are reaching all the way up here to the great white mostly-north-of-the-northernmost-us-cities...

Amidst an influx of reports from American friends of layoffs and cut backs over the past few weeks, I'll add that my company just had a big 'state of the union' to address the effects on us, working in the trucking finances industry (can we say, effect of the 'big three'?). With automotive places shutting down for three weeks completely, many of our clients are obviously feeling the effect. While we're still doing well, we have to be prepared for the upcoming year, so a few changes are being implemented. Nothing drastic, no layoffs, just primarily staff regulations and whatnot, in an attempt to be more 'efficient'. Consider it a 'brace for impact' session.

We're on the outskirts of your hurricane. Sorry for all those who are in the middle, and wish you the best of luck in dealing with the situation.
Now if only there was a payphone to answer...

( So I guess I should probably update the state of things, eh... )

But, on a positive note...
* Laserquest was Awesome
* The conference busy-ness which overlapped my birthday was not for naught; it was an amazing and encouraging weekend.
* Spending limited random time with a few people including starbursidereus and melody2piano on my actual birthday, sitting and chatting and eating in a relatively new friend's living room, was awesome
* I got an enormous (by my standards) amount of birthday wishes via my facebook wall.
* Accepting that sometimes, things just don't work out
* The few very close personal friends I do have mean very much to me, and even though I'm not perfect, they'll still value our friendship, as I do theirs (but I certainly won't reduce the value of the other friendships I have in spite - they're all valuable)
* I have an absolutely amazing community of friends online who I adore, and always look forward to meeting and spending time with whenever the opportunity arises!
Also:
* I saw Bolt this weekend. It..was..awesome! (and I don't mind seeing movies alone, it's great!)
* Yesterday was TDK day, and we had a mini-TDK party at my place with the new PS3 Blu-Ray player. So. Win.
* My plans for a new TV on boxing day are still in motion. That day taunts me so.
* This Is My Milwaukee is mind-numbing.
* Ringorang is evil!

But just to close, finally - I'm good. I'm happy. There are people, even friends, in far worse states than I - I have much to be thankful for. I can't stress that enough.
(and I think I just knocked an item or two off my 30-by-30 list)

until further notice.

And now an update on my 30-by-30 list... which I didn't expect to complete, obviously, based on some of the items ;)

1. (just do it!) Update my LJ template to my site template (inconsistency bad!)
2. (just do it!) Get in touch with Geoff May (the bike racer; and this isn't me either)
3. (just finish it!) Play through Max Payne again before the movie (forget the movie thing, just finish the game!)
4. (set a date!) Pull another LOTR marathon (all 3, extended)
5. (1/2 done) Review my comic collection from the 90's and check values (goldmine?)
6. (1/2 done) Read my iron man comics again (said I'd do it before the movie; didn't)
7. (decide when) Learn Mediashout 3 to train people at church (about time we upgraded)
8. (decide when) Clean up the basement (boxes, boxes, kittehs, boxes, mess, boxes..)
9. (progressive) Continue documenting my old art series, Pier's Edge (a few more items to go)
10. (start over) Do 100 consecutive pushups (forget 6 weeks, just get it done!)
11. (start over) Do 100 consecutive crunches (burn away that kegger!)
12. (meditative) Make a list of "40 things to do before turning 40" :P (well, maybe just start it)
13. (meditative) Make a list of things I'm happy to have accomplished before turning 30 (need to reflect)
14. ...Count my blessings (dono't stop!)
15. ...Play another good game of laserquest with friends
16. ...POSTPONED: Eat at the 360 Restaurant (the CN Tower revolving restaurant)
17. ...FAIL: Start a jogging plan (been on my mind for a loooong time - wait until spring :P)
18. ...FAIL: Start a family (hahahahaha! well, other than my kittehs!)
19. ...Re-string my guitar (yay for last-minute stringing!)
20. ...FAIL: Complete NaNoWriMo (November!) successfully (failed last year, again this year)
21. ...Fix my kitchen cabinets (no excuse)
22. ...Call about my current outstanding loan amount (gotta do this occasionally)
23. ...Finish Pic-A-Day updates on blog/site
24. ...Buy a blacklight to read invisible text on shirts for an ARG
25. ...Play completely through Halo 1, 2 and 3 watching all cinematics
26. ...Buy Iron Man (on Blu-ray, to encourage #21)
27. ...Budget for a Blu-ray player and new TV (BR is it for HD movies now, and my TV is dying)
28. ...Spend quality time with Greg while he's in town for a week
29. ...Stay overnight in Hamilton for ATF this year
30. ...Watch the Canadian election debates this week (there's more than just US politics!)

A quickie because I told myself I'd start December being far more productive at work ;)

- Generations conference was swell :P it was great, and really everything started to hit and sink in after it was complete. All the speakers, what they said, the inspirations, etc. Didn't plan on doing much more than playing with the band, but ended up being there the entire time. Lots of stuff to digest. Inspiration began kicking in afterwards, during some last minute chatting with melody2piano.

- Away from the computer for most of the weekend (save a couple of quick checks for non-spam important email), so the LJ is backed up again, as is Twitter. Came hom last night to find the most wall comments on Facebook for the birthday that I've ever had :). Very encouraging, even if it is just a quick "happy birthday" on the wall. Still takes time and care for someone to do that. So just sent out a quick thanks to everyone who did.

- yesterday afternoon between rallies, hung out with a few friends (a couple of relatively new ones through melody2piano), and invited starbursidereus to join us. great time! just hung out, chilled, chatted, had wings and caesar as a birthday meal, played simple living room games that ended up being ridiculous and hilarious for no reason. very good times :)

- gotta re-visit my 30-by-30 list, evaluate how far I got... possibly shift some things to the new year :) (would be nice if there'd be 9 left - "9-by-09" ;)

- must attempt to get sleep this week. falling behind on tv shows, but that's ok. I can download'em later :)

- new icon for this entry isn't really relevent, but it's cool, and I nabbed it last night in the car playing with snow and light. teehee

go now! / unfiction / article

After some shuffling around, I managed to go and enjoy Madagascar 2 with melody2piano (who's also now, btw, joined twitter... teehee).
In short: not as good as the first movie, IMO. It had its moments.

So on the way home after, we hit a roadblock.
Literally.
Almost.
More like, a road-be-gone.
Construction workers had conveniently left a large 6-8inch square portion of the right lane lifted out and haphazardly filled with dirt and gravel. Being just where cars' wheels pass, the hole slowly eroded to leave a corner completely exposed, with a sharp 1/2 foot wall for tires to slam into as they drove over. Being in a section of road where cars were traveling at full legal speed, there'd be maybe 1 second, at night, of warning (seeing it visually) before hitting it.

We hit it.
Hard.
And while that's not what she said, I saw it, but didn't have to say anything other than clinching for a hit.

And yup. What a hit.
For the next block, we heard a whistle about in time with the front right tire's rotation. Pulilng in, we found the hub cap dented, the tire seemingly a little flatter (though it hadn't popped, its support was damaged), and a lugnut missing.

A few minutes later, another car pulled into the same parking lot, with a flat tire.
Then we heard of at least 5 or 6 others who had pulled over in the area with similar problems.

So while all this frustrated confusion took place, I walked up to photograph the cause. A guy was standing there now waving oncoming traffic around their impending doom. Others had already taken pics of it. Shortly, a city van came and parked in front of the hole.

Best part was there were traffic pylons just on the other side of the fence by the hole where the apartment complex was being constructed. One pylon would have made the difference.

some people...

In the end, a friend came to help. Tire was changed. Photos were taken (of cars, not of people, as bonding an experience as it was). And we went to Williams for a drink and chat before going our ways.
melody2piano is now driving her family van for a while :P