Metro Journal: Welcome Aboard! Next Stop, Your Stop!

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I did, however, move into my permanent (for now) apartment two weeks ago, and have been slowly settling in with the cats.

I've been commuting most mornings for the past week by taking a bus to the Sunnyvale Caltrain station, and then riding the train. For 5 minutes. To the next stop. Yes, it's slightly silly, but it's less irritating than driving, there's a shuttle from the station to the office, and a bus-only plan isn't very viable, because the VTA bus routes here make even less sense than they do for riders not going to downtown LA. Grid? Ha! Let's just pick two random endpoints, draw some squiggles on the map, and call it a bus route. The "most efficient" bus route to the office, which is less than 10 miles away in the car, is to take a bus west, overshooting the cross-street by a couple miles, then take the bus that I had actually taken while I was in temporary housing. The whole thing would take well over an hour with some waiting in between busses. *shrug* I think I will eventually get a bike, and then I can take the bus west to Stevens Creek Nature Trail and ride about 3 miles north to the office on a trail that has no cars on it (unless the driver has gotten terribly lost). I'll have to work myself up for that.

Anyway, back to Caltrain. It's the commuter heavy rail here in the Bay Area. The trains are pretty nice, everything has been efficient so far (a train will be 5 minutes late, but that is as bad as it's been). The Sunnyvale station is about 1.25 miles from my apartment, and since the bus schedule starts getting sparse before I make it back, I've been walking home most evenings. The weather here is so much cooler than it is around Glendale, so it's not too warm, even moving around, at that time.

Bus Journal: Welcome to the VTA

So, I moved up to the Bay Area last month. I've had to do quite a bit of driving, and while drivers up here aren't stupid in quite the same way that Southern California drivers are, they are equally stupid in their own, very special ways. So.... I've been trying out the public transportation here.

I'd taken the VTA (Valley Transit Authority, for Santa Clara County (home of Silicon Valley)) on previous visits. The buses are generally much nicer, with actual cushioning on the seats, as are the riders I've encountered. (As in generally nicer, not with generally more cushioning on their seats.) However, VTA suffers from the same problem as LA County's Metro: whether a bus can get you where you need to go is hit or miss. Partially because of the shape of the inhabited area of the valley, and partly for reasons that may harken back to a history before my time, coverage is not gridded or even or logical-looking.

I've already gotten my "Clipper Card," the reloadable card analogous to TAP in LA so you can load bus passes and fares and so forth for the various transit authorities in the area. (San Francisco ferries and BART, the northern Bay light rail, use it, too.) I got a VTA pass. The problem is that, not only is the card reader not in the same place as it is in LA (on the fare machine thing), it's not even consistently in the same other place on every bus. I'll figure it out eventually, maybe.

I also am getting a Caltrain (heavy commuter rail which runs up into San Francisco, analogous to Metrolink in LA) pass at no cost through work. It turns out that the apartment I seem to be moving to probably won't make the pass quite as useful for the commute, but it will still be useful for going up into San Francisco on the weekends and such. It looks like I'll be just over a mile from the Sunnyvale Caltrain station.

More on transit here as I figure it out myself...

News: Random Stuff

I haven't posted a news montage in well over a month now, so here's a quick list of stuff:

Public transit stuff:

• 
  see more epicfails
  So true, sick of dorks on the bus listening to music over their phone's tinny speaker (dude, it's optimized for speech, not your low-end thumpin' bass or your high-end whiny break-up music. Get earbuds, dumbass!
• And this is from last year, from the now (sadly) defunct Infrastructurist website (although their old content is still available): Are We Drastically Underestimating the ‘Social Cost’ of Carbon Emissions?
• Stupid criminal ON public transit: Man without fare punches bus driver and causes accident. And gets arrested. And since he probably wasn't trying to get to the city jail, also does not reach his intended destination.

Science-ish stuff:

• 
  see more epicfails
• 
  see more epicfails
• And a really useful (and serious) PDF about How to Debunk a Myth is linked in this article.

Oh, and so this post won't be lacking a lolcat:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Other: Date of My Last Tetanus Shot

Sept. 21, 2011

So, Monday morning I was walking to the bus stop and this ninja tree root just came out of nowhere and tripped me and I went flying.  I was in the dirt when my bus went by. But after taking inventory, I realized my right knee was butt-ugly, my left elbow was a little scraped, my left palm had taken some impact, but other all parts seemed to be attached and I managed to get to my feet and walk the block home moderately normally.  I washed everything out with soap and water, liberally applied Bactine, and logged back into work.

Yesterday my right knee was stiff and bruised but didn't look like it was about to fall off.  This morning, though, it didn't look any better, and since I was also pretty sure I hadn't had a tetanus booster in this millennium, I made an appointment with the urgent care center and went this afternoon.

The bad news:

• Yup, it's infected.  The doc gave me a prescription for antibiotics, both oral and topical, in addition to a tetanus booster.

The good news:

• I didn't faint after the tetanus booster, or even come close, even though the other nurse was scrubbing my tender knee at the same time.  (My last few episodes with medical needles had not ended so well.)
• I was out of there in an hour.  That's pretty efficient.
• I took the bus to the pharmacy that's about a mile from home, got my prescriptions, and walked home, stopping at Zankou for a tarna wrap...
• Where they were having a falafel special.  Mmmm, their falafels are yummy.

Metro Journal: Aug 19 That's So Pants!

On the way home, I picked up some beer from the Target at the Glendale Galleria and then caught the 180. The YMD^* sitting next to my beer had his pants belted around the tops of his thighs. He was busy taking pictures of all his pals with his camera phone, so hey, I took a picture of his attire.

---

^*Young Male Dumbass. I should probably just go ahead and make a tag for that.

News: Bus Person Car

IRL:

see more That Will Buff Out

Bus wins!

• Problem Drivers Are Problem People.
• Amazing Rail Lines That Were Never Built. Love the Transatlantic!
• 
  
  see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
• A stitch in time saves nine applies to road repairs, too.
• High gas prices have more of an effect on public transit ridership than lowering fares. Of course, if your transit options suck ass, like they often do in Los Angeles, you're screwed either way.
• Those jay-walking deer!
  
  see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!
• 5 Myths About Americans and Cars
• 
  
  see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!

Metro Journal: NextBus

The LA County MTA has finally added its bus system to NextBus, the online service which gives real-time bus arrival times based on the GPS locations of the buses. Unfortunately, I've found that "real-time" can be +/- 5 minutes, usually 5 minutes behind the actual arrival time, which means it's still possible to miss the bus. Also, there's no separate Android app for it, and the web interface is rather annoying. Still when taking a line that isn't always punctual or when trying to decide which of multiple viable lines looks like the better option, it's nice to have.

They've started putting up these signs with the NextBus stop number and occasionally qor codes to make it easier to use the service. Sometimes the sign placement is more sensible than at others. At one of the stops I take near work, the sign is 7' up the pole. I had to look for it. Dude, I can barely see it, and I'm not super-short.

Metro Journal: May 24 Crosswalk Rage, Part n

(where n is very large)

I came thisclose to getting mowed down in the crosswalk with the crossing light. I got off my bus in the morning. The stop is one crosswalk + ½ a block to the office. How much can go wrong? I hit the crossing light, the light came on, and as I was crossing, this asshole making a left turn onto the street I was crossing almost hit me, having to slam on his brakes, stopping less than a yard from me. His car even stalled. I turned, gave him the "WTF IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM, DUMBASS?" look and gesture and he gave me a very sheepish look and tried to start his car while I just walked to the office. I was already cranky (it had already been a long week and this was... Tuesday!) and in fact, this was not the most annoying part of my day.

A week later, another asshole making a left turn almost hit me in the exact same crosswalk. He stopped further out, but seriously, WTF? In the previous year, I'd crossed that street 100 times without almost getting mowed over.

News: WTF Round-up

• A suitably whacked-looking man, in Florida, of course, spent 3 days in his motorized mobility chair chasing around a woman. Presumably the woman spent 3 days not calling the police.
• An impressive WTF:
  
  see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!
• Ummmm.....
  see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!
• 
  
  see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!
  Ooooh, I can return them without hassle? Why didn't someone tell me? I might have tried having one.
• Infamous Chinese iPhone manufacturing sweat-shop sterling employer Foxconn now requires its workers to sign a pact not to commit suicide.
• A NY Orthodox Jewish newspaper photoshopped out the women present in the now-famous Bin Laden take-down situation room photo, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Dude, WTF?
• 
  
  see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!
  Just... facepalm...
• 
  
  see more TDW Geeks
  I'm giving that thing about a month before it gets banned on city buses everywhere after multiple impalement-of-other-riders-when-the-driver-has-to-slam-on-the-brakes incidents. Seriously, folks, someone's going to get an eye poked out!
• And finally...
  
  see more Monday Through Friday

Air Journal: Bird- and Creeper-Watching

I went to Virginia for several days this past week to visit my aunt and uncle before the oppressive summer heat and humidity kicked in. Trip highlights:

• Because I refuse to pay money to check a bag unless absolutely necessary, I didn't check a bag. No one blinked at the metal knitting needles in my suitcase.
• Because no one wants to pay $25 to check a friggin' bag, the overhead bins fill beyond capacity on most flights these days. While we were boarding, they were again announcing the bit about putting your smaller carry-on item under the seat in front of you, etc., but certain rows didn't have that option, so they would have to put it in the overheads. The guy walking in front of me put both his suitcase and his backpack in the overhead bin. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, like maybe he was seated in one of the mentioned rows, but no, he was just a dick who is Special and Above the Rules. Asshole. Good thing I'm not a flight attendant or I would have taken the thing out of the bin and shoved it under his seat with a very brutal smile.
• I almost didn't recognize my aunt Mary at the airport. Her hair had turned completely white. She was still short, though.
• I was her enabler for visiting yarn shops. On Cary St. in the artsy-fartsy area, we were walking from a yarn shop to a Thai restaurant (she had never had Thai food before), when I saw this chalk drawing on one of the ubiquitous brick walls in Richmond:
  
• We drove out to my grandmother's farm near Charlottesville, where everyone and their Beltway brother is now building their ugly "farm-house style" McMansion where there used to be real, working farmhouses. Outside, I dodged a dragonfly trying to divebomb me. Geez, I hate those things! I forgot how many, well, insects there are there. Here's a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains from the farm:
  
• My aunt and uncle keep bird feeders in their backyard. While the hummingbirds have been absent this year, perhaps victims of the severe winter, there were still more birds than I see here in artificially-green desert. While the red-headed woodpecker we saw last time didn't show (its tree died and was taken out), we did see:
  • House finches -- by far the most common
  • Cowbirds
  • At least two pairs of cardinals
  • Grackles, with their striking light-colored eyes and brilliant iridescence
  • English (house) sparrows
  • A male red-bellied woodpecker, which actually has no red on its belly, but does have a striking neon-orange stripe on its head, which makes it look like a punk rocker
  • I think the other woodpecker was the downy woodpecker, but we only saw a female and only once or twice.
  • Starlings
  • Doves
  • The ubiquitous robin, which I miss out here. They also love splashing around in the birdbath.
• I somehow managed to avoid smacking my head getting into my seat until the last connecting flight home. I have a nice lump on my forehead.
• I was sitting next to a young woman who could not be not touching her MacBook, and what appeared to be her grandfather. As we were landing, she turned to the elderly man and told him she didn't think it would be a problem at the car rental place, but she just remembered both of them have expired drivers licenses. "But we're still licensed drivers." Um, no, you're not. Hence the "expired" bit. I was sorely tempted to follow them to the car rental place and laugh, but instead...
• I went to catch the Flyaway bus to Union Station (I flew out of BUR but flew into LAX for price and scheduling reasons). $7. Free (well, included in my monthly pass) bus ride from Union Station home. Ok, it took about 2 hours, but it would have taken a little less if I hadn't been waiting at the wrong corner for the connecting bus. And it has often taken that long with a shuttle, because you wait 20 minutes for them to come around, then you wait another 30 minutes while they keep circling the damn airport, then you're inevitably the last one off and all the people getting dropped off first all live 15 miles from the freeway, so it takes at least 2 hours to get home anyway. So I feel smug now :P
• Kitties were happy to see me! Yay! They quickly got over the smell of my aunt's two dogs. Or they're plotting their revenge for later, when it is a dish best served cold...

Metro Journal: Mar 7 Highlights and Low-lifes

Highlights of my morning bus ride:

• Me, with the laptop open, tethered to my phone, because I was running late and, yeah, had to start yet another CMR.
• The dude audibly snoring.
• The guy sitting in right behind the driver in that blind spot, holding an open container. And I don't mean an open container of, say, a latte. Unless he had mixed milk in his beer can.
• The guy who got on the bus without pausing his cell phone conversation. The driver had to tell him to step behind the line. Then he lost his connection (it was downtown Burbank and I know my reception gets spotty there), so then he told the driver he needs to get off at San Fernando "Avenue or Street." The driver tried to explain that the bus doesn't intersect with San Fernando (Road, thank you very much), but actually turns onto it for several miles, then gets off it for several miles, then gets back on, etc. The guy had no idea what his cross street was and went back to fiddling with the phone. I went back to fiddling with my CMR, so I can't report on his fate.

Air Journal: Heather'n'Dave'n'Noelle-a-thon

A month ago, I took a very long weekend to visit Heather'n'Dave in the Seattle area. Here's a rundown of the visit:

• I took the bus to the airport. I cut the schedule a little close, and then my first bus was a little late, so I missed the connecting bus. I got there with plenty of time to check in, but apparently my bag didn't. When I got to SeaTac, my bag didn't. Plus, there was additional confusion because there were big snowstorms throughout the Midwest, down into Texas. It was the day American canceled something like 600 flights, and while I wasn't flying American, the delays were affecting all the airlines. So, they didn't know exactly where my bag was or when it would get to the dreary Pacific Northwest.
• I took a bus to Bellevue. Whee! (Some people may be thinking it was about time I ended up in Bellevue, but that's the wrong one.)
• I warned Heather I was really braindead. Because work is perennially crazy these days, and, well, I was braindead.
• I had not quite managed to finish my baby shower gift for H'n'D before getting there, but I managed to finish about an hour after sitting down on their couch:
  
• I officially presented it to them the next day (like they didn't know what was coming), along with a gift for their first-grader, Noelle:
  
  Later I had to impersonate a jellyfish, because apparently that's what sea turtles eat.
• Noelle really liked watching me play Minecraft. She especially liked watching sheep get dyed various colors.
• The second evening, we went to the International District. Heather and Dave and found a promising Chinese restaurant on-line called the Red Lantern. We parked a few blocks away and when we got to the street it was on, Dave said, "There are red lanterns in that restaurant. That must be the place." Then I pointed out that there were also red lanterns in the place two doors down from that one. Turns out that neither one was The Red Lantern, which was on the next block.
• Afterwards, we went to Daiso, which is kind of a Japanese dollar store. I had heard of them before, but there aren't any near LA, so I'd never been. It was awesome. They had yarn, plus cool pill boxes which are great notions carriers, and these adorable little 3"-long pound cake tins.
  
• I now can't walk over a zebra-striped crossing without going, "White line! White line!"
• We reminisced about Pandora, who had delivered herself to H'n'D all those years ago in Glendora so she could then take over my life. I miss that cat.
• They have a big tuxedo cat named Marmaduke. He's about the same temperament as Spoon and about the same weight, but somehow he looks bigger. I think it's because Duke has a big paunch which makes him look like he swallowed a cantelope whole, whereas Spoon's avoir dupois is more evenly distributed along his body.
• It rained a lot.
• Dave showed me their backyard, which is on a hill, so they're having it terraced. Right now, it's mostly a big pile of dirt. Basically, they're playing Minecraft in their backyard.
• I got to hear all about Bellevue infrastructure politics. It sounds dirtier than Dave's backyard.
• Monday morning, I took the bus back to SeaTac.
• At the security checkpoint, the person in front of me and the person behind me were sent through the pornoscanner, but I got waved through the regular X-ray machine. Score!
• When I got to BUR, my bag was once again not at the claim. Ugh. Apparently several people from my flight had the same issue. Lucky for me, my bag had actually beaten me this time and was waiting for me. The others were not so lucky.
• Dipity was insanely happy to see me. Spoon was confused because Dipity was insanely happy to see me and that's usually his job.

All in all, I had an excellent time. It may not have been exciting, but I didn't need excitement. I needed Minecraft spectators and Japanese dollar stores and the like.

And congratulations to Heather and Dave, who welcomed their daughter Lily on Monday.

News: There Will Be Cake!

Transportation stuff:

• A dumbass who (allegedly) killed a man because she just had to update her Facebook page while she was driving (I'd love to see that update) is being sued by the victim's family. The defendant is arguing that she posted the update a few minutes earlier but server lag kept it from getting posted immediately. Seriously, though, the source of truth would be her phone carrier, which knows when the phone is in use. Techno-ignorant lawyers and journalists not asking the right questions once again make me want to smack them.
• Yes, this totally qualifies as transportation. A baby elephant becomes a pedestrian! It's amazing how all the adults are swarming around, helping support the baby.
  
• This one leaves me speechless:
  
  see more funny videos
• I guess there was nothing in the original Oregon Trail game about getting hit by someone (allegedly) updating their Facebook page while driving, so dysentery will have to do!
  
  see more TDW Geeks
• A 2-year-old bus-loving Seattle-area boy got this awesome cake for his birthday:
  

Lolcat break:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Stupid criminals:

• This dumbass (from Florida, of course), kept calling 911 to check up on local deputies. The 16th of these phone calls, when he got drunk and dialed 911 to tell the police to arrest "the media," got him arrested for making false 911 calls. The very same day, a woman in the same county was also arrested for making false 911 calls after she got into a scuffle with her nail technician and kept calling even after a deputy had arrived.
• This moron in Maryland was stealing jewelry from a home when the owner arrived. The burglar fled, but forgot his phone, which he had left plugged into the wall because his own house had lost power in the severe snow storms a month ago.
• YMD (Young Male Dumbass) burglars in the Chicago area killed 3 goldfish because they "didn't want to leave any witnesses."

Those morons could all take a lesson from this cat:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Metro Journal/Whiteboard Jungle/Other: Highlights of My Day

• It started raining during the night. Walking to the bus stop this morning, I forgot about this spot on the sidewalk which always aspires to be the Marianas Trench. Forgot about it until I stepped in it, I mean.
• A guy sleeping on the bus apparently woke up after his stop and started yelling at the driver to stop immediately.
• There was a woman on the bus with two young, loud daughters. At some point I heard the mother say, "How can you be afraid of something you've never seen?" Somehow, this sounded profound. The one girl starts saying, "I'll punch the alien! I'll punch the alien!" Then the other daughter said, "I'll kick the alien! I'll kick the alien!" "I'll punch the alien AND kick the alien!" And so on.
• Because of the rain, my bus was running late, and I had another 10AM deployment. I had to take care of some stuff first, so I pulled out my craptop, turned on wi-fi tethering on my phone, and logged in over the VPN. Further proof that I am an Über Cool Nerd Goddess.
• I actually got all the approvals I needed a whole 12 minutes before the scheduled start time! A miracle!
• So, of course, the deployment craps out and we had to roll back.
• Someone at work sent me the following IM: "I have the dry runs!"
• During the weekly projects meeting, I got asked when I would get a project done. "After they add another day to the week." Today I didn't even have time to eat lunch.
• On the bus home, a guy sitting in the very back was snoring.
• I just saw a recipe for gin-and-tonic cupcakes, but considering that all the gin is in the icing, and even gin-less icing is the best part, I see no reason to make the cake part.

Metro Journal: Feb 15 One of Those Mornings

I was supposed to be at work by 10, well, before then, because I was lead on a deployment. My first bus was fine, but of course, the 94, which is rarely more than 5 minutes late, was 10 minutes late. And full. And proceeded to stop at Every Single Stop, and there are a lot of them. For instance, it stopped at that stop just north of the 134, where it never stops. So I managed to snap this picture of the Verdugo Canyon Wash, close to where it empties into the Los Angeles Drainage Ditch.

With all the stops, I started getting worried. We were getting later and later. I would have gotten there 25 minutes before 10, but my buffer was shrinking. When we were finally getting close to my stop, I noticed this ad: Um, if the best the gnomes can do is to get me to work what ended up being 15 minutes late, gnome power is extremely underwhelming. Which generally means that Congress will decide to subsidize it.

Asshole du Jour: Composting on the Bus

Last night on the Metro 780, I came upon the only empty pair of seats not all the way in the back, and found out why they were empty:

News: Transpo Round-up

• 
  
  see more funny videos
• Most Insane School Drop-off and Pick-up Traffic Rules EVER
• Kitteh sez alternative transportation methods not always as good as they look:
  
  see more Lolcats and funny pictures
• Holy crap:
  
  see more TDW Geeks
• Hating on the California High-Speed Rail Haters: Get with the program. Like it or not, it's coming.

Metro Journal: Fr00t L00ps

In case anyone was wondering, no, I haven't heard back from the LA County MTA since my last missive. Current working theory is now that I have been placed on their "ignore her and maybe she'll go away" list. Aka, the "fruit loops" file.

News:

Ok, most of this really isn't "news" so much as part of the backlog of what my geeky, ailurophilic, somewhat cracked self thinks was kewl.


see more Monday Through Friday
--I'm pretty sure more than one person is willing to eat around the new life-form.

Transit:

• Mass transit encourages exercise. Well, duh, I already could have told people that, although perhaps "requires" would be a better word, as the bus rarely drops you off at the closest parking spot.

Dumbassbook:

• A 17-year-old French sociopath was arrested after bragging on his Facebook page that he had murdered someone. I will once again quote Lenny Briscoe from Law & Order: "I love it when they're stupid."
• China thinks Facebook is some conspiracy to spread political discontent. Really, they should see it as a boon. Americans waste so much time on FB, they're too busy with self-absorption to pose any threat to China.
• More French Facebook stupidity: A woman there found out her husband was a bigamist after finding wedding photos on the page of his other wife.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures


Randomness:

• Beware the cow!
• Clock that knits a scarf! "What time is it, dear?" "It's row 80 o'clock."
• Red shirt action!
• I LOVE these Trouble with Tribble posters.
• Compare the Japanese and American packaging of these video games.
  
  see more Bob's House of Video Games

Metro Journal: Holy Crap

Today I received this reply from the LA County Metro to my previous missive.

Ms. (Me),

Although we can appreciate your concern, currently we have no policy that would prohibit the changing of a child's diaper while traveling on a Metro bus or train.

Thank you,
Metro Customer Relations
213.922.6235

My jaw dropped so fast, it broke the sound barrier.

As soon as I regained any sensibility, I sent this reply:

Dear Metro,

Thank you for your reply. However, I would shudder to think what might happen had the driver had to slam on the brakes while the soiled diaper was freshly removed, but had not yet been secured. I'm sure if it went flying through the air and landed on an unsuspecting passenger, and they learned that you had no policy against diaper changing, they would not be terribly happy.

While that is, of course, a worst case scenario, it is much more likely that the diaper's contents could be spilled onto the seat itself, which would probably prove quite an unwelcome surprise to the seat's next occupant.

Sincerely,
(me again)