Hi, I'm Alex.

About me

My name is Alex, and I spend a great deal of time in my vehicle. It's an easily-identifiable 2003 Ford Explorer with the entire exterior painted in a reflective white coating for energy savings during the summer.

I graduated from A-TECH in 2017 and have since been using various vehicles to make money that I can save for any future endeavours. The progress has been slow until recently, but I was eventually able to get my own vehicle for work purposes. It was the only vehicle I could get, and one of the things I wish to do is upgrade to a more fuel-efficient vehicle when I have the chance to do so. Despite this aspiration, as strange as it sounds, I feel a connection to my car, however non-ideal it is in terms of make & model, and I intend on keeping it in good condition for as long as I own it.

If you can't tell, I do like driving despite the cautious reactions I get from those who ask me why I drive so much (over 100 miles in a single day, on average). I think Google Maps is the best thing ever because it is able to use live information about the speeds vehicles are moving on the various roads in the valley in its model for determining the ideal route to take. Plus, whenever you use Google Maps, you are contributing to the data it uses to help you and everyone else decide how to get to wherever they're going. The more people who use it, the better the experience is for those who do use it.

The niche thing I regard with the most solemn mentality is driving safety. Given my age, you would be correct to assume that I am obligated to pay high amounts in insurance premiums for the privilege of driving. I've considered the question of who anyone would believe is at fault should I be involved in a traffic collision, and I doubt it would be me. My response has been to install multiple recording points throughout my vehicle. Currently, I have three dashcams (one front-facing, one back-facing, and one facing the right), as well as a laptop placed near the passenger seat (which is recording me). My intention is to be able to use these recordings in the plausible event of an eventual traffic collision, as I drive so much each day, almost every day. Am I crazy? So far, the answer would be yes, as I have yet to require any recordings as I have yet to be involved in a collision. However, I still find value in having all these cameras because I could use them to help anyone I witness in a collision not be blamed for anything they didn't do (this has occurred once). I am also able to upload any footage I find worthy of review, including the one I've linked below of a driver getting pulled over on the 215 for undertaking me in an illegal place, as well as as much footage as I can of my own driving around the city (mainly for posterity for those interested viewers in a few decades, as well as review on anything I could have done better in a traffic situation). Those videos can be found on the same channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzSRfhKfMEQ

Going to an even more solemn note, as an observer, I attended the 2018 March 9 vigil at the building of the Nevada Highway Patrol Southern Command near Sunset Rd and Decatur Blvd, in response to the near five dozen lives that were lost on highways in Nevada in 2017. People like the one showcased in my video are the reason we haven't reached zero fatalities. Although I do acknowledge that driving is inherently dangerous, there are still a lot of correctable reasons why that is the case.

Although I am fortunate enough to have never been affected by a road crash (either directly or indirectly), I want to attend for two main reasons:

— I do not anticipate the previous sentence being true forever, given both my occupation and young age (I have many years of driving ahead of me).

— I have seen the effects of road crashes, including raw video of the aftermath from the 2017 December one caused by someone on their fourth DUI who killed three pedestrians at Flamingo & Eastern, one of whom was my exact age.

I drive all around our city almost every day, between journeys involving a rural two-lane highway (one in each direction) with no protection from opposing traffic other than some paint in the middle of the pavement. This might still be preferable to driving in the city, especially considering that I've been honked at for stopping at red lights before turning right by people I assume to be considered fit to drive by the state.

I realize my reasons for coming might not be as emotional as those of others; I state again that I will likely be more of an observer. Nonetheless, attending will give me solace (especially if there are many others) in that there are plenty of people who are incredibly dissatisfied with the current state of driving safety. The more "protection" electronic features we implement into cars, the more complacent we become. Traffic fatalities have begun increasing again, and that is unacceptable.

If anyone actually read all of this rambling, I must say that was pretty cool. To everyone, I wish you well (including peace, stability, and happiness), and I hope to get to know you a bit as well. :) 

Write me

You can email me using this link, send me a DM on Discord to Alex#1891, or send snail mail to the following address, which is my PO box and not where I actually live:

340 W Rockwood St #273 

Rockwood, TN 37854