Angie Trigg's Site Featured Content

Adventures in Urban Biking

Angela Trigg angela@angietrigg.com — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 21:20:48 PST

Day two of my return to a bicycle seat since I was a kid and I learn I haven't grown up yet. Our office has moved to the neighborhood, and so all of us live within a short bike ride/walk and it has so simplified our lives and narrowed our playing field to just the intown neighborhoods around I-20. It's been great, especially with the soaring gas prices!

In the spirit of things and since it's one of the few types of exercise that I enjoy I bought a good-old Schwinn at Target and rode it to work yesterday. Tonight my brother and I decided to ride up to the new Target complex to go to B&N etc. and man, those hills were tough! By the time we got there my face was beet red and I had to sit down inside the bookstore (which tells you something there, with my love for books!)

On the way back was when I learned my first lesson in urban biking, which is probably a no-brainer to some, so as my brother said "that was a total Angie". Don't answer your cell phone! John had already panicked as he saw me whip my brand new Treo from my back-pack by the antenna and deftly answer it. Problem was hanging up. I had just reached the top of a hill and panicked - cell phone was in my right hand so I pulled the brake on my left side which is the front break. Yep, I went soaring over the top of my handle bars, with a flash back to the same experience as a kid, minus the cell phone of course. The bike completely flipped as the scrapes on the tops of the handlebars can attest to. It was my sister-in-law who'd called, and I wondered if she'd heard the whole thing because I heard a voice from my phone as I lay curled up in the street. Then I distinctly heard, "If you'd like to make a call, please hang up".

The amazing thing is - nothing bad happened, though at first I couldn't move. Just scrapes on the handlebars, a teeny scratch on my Treo, a busted reflector, and multiple scrapes on my elbows, stomach and hands. Good thing I'd bought a helmet as I must have hit it, since the visor popped off.

I wonder how much elbow pads cost?

Disgusting

Angela Trigg angela@angietrigg.com — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 12:09:09 PST

"My first thought when I heard - just on a personal basis, when I heard there had been this attack and I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought, 'Hmmm, time to buy.'"
-- Fox News's top anchorman, Brit Hume, 7/7/05. Watch the clip at http://mediamatters.org/

Doors Locked on the People

Angela Trigg angela@angietrigg.com — Sun, 13 Mar 2005 11:27:14 PST

Yesterday at Family Day the Fire Marshall claimed that the inside of the capitol was too crowded and had the doors locked. Most of GfD were already inside when we learned of this from Melanie, who was able to slip in with a legislative aide. She reported that the Labor groups were still outside as their program had not ended and now would be barred entry. I'd wondered how they were going to be able to distribute free food to everyone, and now that was answered as we glanced around and saw the tables set up for the food inside.

As we walked around and talked to others who are here on a regular basis, we learned that there were 10 times as many people here on opening day, and that yesterday the place had way more people. As labor swung into action outside by calling the media, we grabbed yellow slips and wrote to our senators on the floor to let them know what happened. My senator is Sam Zamarippa, who, to my surprise, came out to talk to me. I let him know what was going on and he and the others we alerted also swung into action. As another senator we talked to joked "I wished they'd done this during Tort Reform!" They also verified that the amount of people in the halls was nothing compared to other times.

Food had already run out by this time, but the lobbyists sprung for pizza and eventually the doors were opened back up, but how many people were still outside, I'm not sure.

Equality is a Controversial Value in the Georgia Senate

Angela Trigg angela@angietrigg.com — Sun, 13 Mar 2005 11:26:00 PST

Wow, what a day yesterday was Family Day. We learned many things, one of which is that Equality is controversial. As different ones of our group (Georgia for Democracy) filed into the Senate Gallery to watch the proceedings we were stopped by the Door Monitor Lady, who asked us to cover up our red "You Have the Power - Vote" t-shirts. Buttons with slogans were also censured. We have a new series of buttons called the "I Value" series which proved very popular yesterday among attendees. One of them says "I Value Equality". The person wearing this button was asked to remove it. When Susan said that these were not political statements (t-shirt and buttons), the Lady said "Well, it's iffy".

Another of our group came in shortly after already wearing her sweatshirt over her Vote t-shirt, not knowing what had transpired. When she removed her sweatshirt, the Lady swooped down hawk-like and told her to put her sweatshirt back on. For those of you unfamiliar with our t-shirts, the back says in huge type VOTE. However, just above in small type it says "take back your country". I guess that was what sent it spinning crazily into "iffy" land.

Later downstairs we learned from a legislative aide that this rule, if true, was spottily enforced as he said that the Christian Coalition is allowed to sport their slogans all the time in the gallery.

How's that for democracy?

Polls, Schmols

Angela Trigg angela@angietrigg.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 19:50:22 PST

Is it just me, or is everyone else getting tired of listening to all the polls? I know, normally they're a pretty good guide to how things will turn out in a normal year, but this is no normal year folks! People are signing up to vote for the first time in droves and none of these people qualify as "likely voters".

Add to that the recent discovery posted on DailyKos of Gallup's Republican bias, I've decided not to listen to polls any more.

I've been pounding the pavement almost every weekend for the last couple of months to register voters, and the refrain I keep hearing whenever I ask "Would you like us to call you to remind you to vote" is a chuckle and a "I don't need reminding this year!"

This canvassing has become addictive for me as a great boost, and I fear I will go in withdrawal this weekend now that the voter registration push is no longer possible. No matter how discouraged I felt before heading out, I always finished with a very upbeat attitude-- the folks I talk to are very vocal and determined to get Bush out of office. Our next challenge is to keep this momentum going and translating it into people at the polls on election day!

I think Georgia's winnable folks!! People laughed at me back in the spring when I said that, but am getting less of them now, but am still getting laughs when I say I think Kerry will win in a land slide, oh well! One can dream right?

Now off to Manuel's too see Edwards vs. Darth Cheney

For more info see: "As Deadlines Hit, Rolls of Voters Show Big Surge" (10/4), New York Times "Rush to register on last day" (10/4), AJC "Blacks poised to pack polls" (10/2), AJC