Video #38: Shut Up and Let Me Go

Top Photos of the Summer of 2008

Random Thoughts, Written With an iPhone

So I've been using my new iPhone for over a week now, and I've already made a few photo posts to my other blog. So now, it's this blog's turn.

• I like how it sometimes corrects my spelling.

• I don't like it when I notice a typo before it does.

• I find that I walk and type simultaneously a lot more than I used to. Maybe that's not such a good thing...

• I think some women use Halloween as an excuse to release their inner sex kitten.

• I took a road trip up to Bear Mountain the other day. The fall foliage is nice.

• Finally, I now have to go home and recharge my iPhone. The battery is low... Yet again. But I don't mind. It's like charging an iPod.

• Yes, I did use the word sex again in a blog post. Not the first time.

Sent from my iPhone

Guess Who's Got an iPhone?

That's right. I have an iPhone now. I'm using it to make this blog post! Yeah, I could have used my computer to write this, but it's not quite the same.

Anyways, carry on.

Pushing Daisies is on iTunes!

Last year, I made a post that talked about a show called Pushing Daisies.

Well, fans of the show should be pleased to note that all nine episodes of the first season (truncated due to that writers strike) are now available on the iTunes Store.

This wouldn't be a big thing, if it weren't for the fact that it didn't appear on the Store until this week. If it had appeared during the season (much like my other favorite from that season, The Big Bang Theory), I wouldn't be making this post at all.

Don't know why it was held back for so long, but glad to see it's here.
And in case you're wondering, yes, I bought the whole season.

For All You YouTubers out there…

I just want to note an update to my YouTube Channel. I've organized all my videos into playlists. There are 3 playlists to choose from.

1. My Montages. All the montage videos I've posted to the Blog will be in this playlist.

2. Transit. All the transit-related clips will be posted in this playlist.

3. Et Cetera. The other random things I happen to take videos of. For example, hovering seagulls, or a vending machine selling drinks for a nickel shy of $100.

Check it out!

Video #37 – Here It Goes Again

Well, here it is. Enjoy.

It's absurd, really.

It's called the Gallery of Absurd Stuff, and my own little spin-off blog to showcase things I find to be funny, strange, or just plain weird. For example, if Staten Island is part of New York City, why are there references aboard the Staten Island Ferry which indicate the contrary? Or why does this banner say "Building coming soon" when there's already a building there?

It's the Gallery of Absurd Stuff Blog. You can find a link to it in the Links section on the right.

This game of Scrabble is for adults only.

The title for this post is the text of a sign that should have been posted after a move I made in a game of Scrabble I was playing a few months ago. Here's the situation. This is what the board looked like when it came to my turn.

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It should also be noted that there were no tiles remaining to draw, and my rack had these seven tiles.

Z10

X8

C3

S1

D2

N1

N1

It kinda resembled the bottom row of a QWERTY keyboard (except for the D, the S, and the extra N of course). I pondered over it for a while, and then, I found a word I could use. I put it on the board.

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I explained that I put it there just to get rid of the X, and play continued from there. Of course, the mention of sex in the church in the context of being used in a game was so funny (especially with words like nun and amen already on the board), that the four of us playing (all but myself being adults who had children) couldn't help but laugh. A lot. One of the other players even suggested using the word, "HEYSEXY" to get rid of his tiles, which resulted in even more laughter. What's worse was that their kids were in the room, hence the desire for the sign with the post's title. One boy asked his father, "What's so funny?" I replied, "We'll tell you when you're older." Play continued, each of us putting down words where we could, sometimes without regard to what other non-words were being formed, and here's the board at the finish.

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So there you have it. You just saw "sex" in church. Now get your mind out of the gutter before I march in there and kick it out!

Ketchup Bombed!

I went over to the neighborhood McDonald's this morning, in an attempt to "Eat & Go"™ to arrive on campus early for my first day of classes. After placing my order, I felt as if something had splattered all over me. I looked down, and there it was. Ketchup was all over my shirt and my face. After getting my food, I spent about 20 minutes cleaning that ketchup off my shirt, and using the air dryer to dry it.

So much for being on time!

My Cat is Going!

For those of you who know me, please note that no, I did not suddenly go out and get a cat. Besides, where would it be going if I had said this about my hypothetical cat?

The name of this post is what it is for a simple reason.

Listen to the video below which appears further down this post.

Today, Elvis Duran and the Z Morning Zoo played a very old "Phone Tap." Actually, it wasn't originally called a Phone Tap when it first aired back in 1999. It was called a Nutcracker.

They played it today, and as with other Phone Taps which debuted in the Z100 era, they removed any and all references to anything that pre-syndication. They even deleted Christine Nagy (who was with the Zoo at the time).

The transcript:
Elvis: …Obviously,
Danielle: Oh, boy.
Elvis: the mother Anita, loves Twinkie the cat.
Christine: Oh, absolutely!
Elvis: We had Dave Brody call her…

Yeah. They eliminated that part as well.


Now, thanks to the good folks on YouTube, you can hear this Nutcracker in close to its original form.

I'll post what I commented on the YouTube page.

This Nutcracker is almost 10 years old! I know. I don't believe it either.

They played it (rebranded as a "Morning Show Phone Tap") this morning (30th July 2008). You cannot believe how much mutilation they have done to this. Of course, everything Anita Townsend says is exactly as it was originally, but all references to "Z100," "Z Morning Zoo," and "Nutcracker" have been eliminated. They even mix the "Spybreak!" Phone Tap intro (which sounds worse than before) as Elvis is reading the e-mail.

Instead of downloading the mutilated version of "My Cat is Going" from the Morning Show Phone Tap podcast, listen to the video below.

 

If you want to torture someone…

Just give them a link to http://tinyurl.com/3yy54t and force them to keep their eyes and ears open all the way through.

Especially with that TinyURL bit, they won't know what they're clicking on until the page loads.

What is the page? The page is on YouTube, and it contains the most annoying 60-second commercial in television history. You guessed it. It's the Optimum Triple Play commercial in reggaeton.

It's back. When I say "it's back," I mean that it's back on TV. The most annoying commercial on TV is making a comeback.

I always thought this one was a much better, and less annoying, commercial.


However, to bring back the reggaeton version is too much.

While I, being Hispanic, am technically a part of "tu gente," I do not subscribe to the various stereotypes portrayed in this turd of a commercial. I do not spend my summer days sitting in a seaside house on a tropical island, watching some brand of cable TV, while surrounded by scantily-clad women (or mermaids, for that matter).

All in all, the reggaeton version should be canned and buried in a hole a mile deep.

Here it goes, here it goes, here it goes again.

So recently, I've been into a song called "Here It Goes Again" by a band called OK Go.

Here's the video for the song. You can buy it at the iTunes Store.



Of course, the popularity of this video has sparked some imitators.

First, some high school students in American Fork, Utah.


Here's another rendition.


And yet another.


They even had to do it on Big Brother in the UK.


But the best rendition other than that performed by the band OK Go has to be from Granbury High School in Texas. The reaction of the crowd says it all.


OK Go vs. Granbury HS.


♪ It could be ten, but then again I can't remember half an hour since a quarter to four… ♪

EDIT: The next video I post to this blog will be one I made which uses the song, but mine won't involve treadmills.

Post #74, Video #36, and Some Box Talk

I am using Post #74 to post Video #36.



It pays tribute to a TV channel I used to watch back in my high school days, The Box. It worked like a jukebox, but you used a 1-900 number to request a video. Of course, I had to use fake phone numbers for the whole thing, but you kinda get the idea of it. I used to get The Box on 3 channels. Channel 17 (only between midnight and 7 AM. Outside of that, the channel had Korean programming), channel 39, and channel 23. The latter was a bit fuzzy at times, since it was based in Cranford. One of my main reasons for getting a VCR was to do what I basically did with my tape recorder. Record videos off the TV.

Speaking of TV, and The Box, I just got myself a Box of a different type: one of those digital TV converter boxes. I like the fact that I can watch shows like The Price is Right and The Big Bang Theory without all the distortion on Channel 2 like I did with the analog receiver. I also like some of the extra channels on digital. For example Channel 4.2 is an NBC-based weather channel, and Channel 25.2 is one that shows you live traffic cameras across the city. (Although every time I've tuned into it recently, it shows the camera at Columbus Circle.)

Then there are the weird things. For example, Channel 5 and Channel 9 are practically sister stations. But Channel 5.2 is basically a simulcast of Channel 9.1, and 9.2 is a simulcast of 5.1. Weird! I guess it's useful if you live outside the range of either one, but since I'm in the range of both, it's kinda redundant.

Anyway, happy channel surfing!

The Chicago post

Well, since I'm starting this post in Chicago, I might as well use the font named for it.

Anyway. Where do I begin? I suppose that I should begin at the beginning.

Mom and I flew into Chicago Monday morning. Rode the "L" to the hotel. The Blue line has some slow spots, but some quick spots as well. There was a bit around the Chicago Avenue stop that was LOUD!

After dropping off our luggage at the hotel, we went over to the Navy Pier to kill some time, as check-in time wasn't until 15:00, and it was only 10:00. After walking to the end of the pier, and eating a "Cheeseborger" with chips at Billy Goat Tavern, and then a Dazzler at Häagen-Dazs. By this time, it was just after 12:00. We then went to see Speed Racer at the IMAX theater. Now that it was 15:00, we went to the hotel and checked in. We then walked up Michigan Avenue (and the "Magnificent Mile" and went up to the observation deck of the John Hancock Center and looked around there. After dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, we went back to the hotel to conclude the day.

Day 2 was a bit stressful in terms of getting to the places we wanted to go. We started out by going to the Museum of Science and Industry. We started by waiting for the #10 bus…and waiting… and waiting… After a long time of it not showing up, we gave in and took the 146 bus, and then took the 6 bus to the Museum. Afterward, we went to the Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium. It was a windy day! Afterward, we went to dinner at Pizzeria Uno. Interesting thing about Pizzeria Uno. The guy who founded the place, Ike Sewell, also founded Pizzeria Due and a Mexican restaurant in the same area.

The next day, we went to the Field Museum, and then went up to Millennium Park. From there, we took a ride around the Loop. Then after a bit of shopping on Michigan Avenue, we went back to the hotel for a couple of hours. Then, back to Navy Pier for dinner, and then a fireworks display.

On Thursday, we flew back home.

This post contains various links to Wikipedia for places we went to. Check 'em out!

Musical Confusions

If you have a sizable music library like I do, you may notice that certain songs sound like each other. Such that when you hear them on your iPod, you hear the start of the song, think it's a certain song, and then realize a few seconds later that it's not the song you thought it was, but something completely different.

Take this example: "Stop and Stare" by OneRepublic sounds almost exactly identical to "Speed of Sound" by Coldplay. Weird, right? Get this, now. I have four songs which open with sound effects that make it feel like you're listening to a record. I keep them all in a playlist called "Record Open." They are: "Where It's At" by Beck, "Say You'll Be There" by the Spice Girls, "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" by “Weird Al” Yankovic, and "I Don't Wanna Wait" by the Veronicas. However, each record open has a distinctive sound to it. The Spice Girls song has a distinct pop in it which none of the others has. The other three sond more similar. It gets somewhat confusing if all four of these are in the same general playlist.

Then there are songs that sound like each other. A recent example involves The Veronicas and P!nk. The song from the Veronicas is "4ever," and P!nk's song is "U + Ur Hand" I'm not sure if it's the chord progression, the general meter of the song, or what, but those two songs sound very similar to be a coincidence. Just do a YouTube search with the names of those two songs, and you'll see what I mean. Whenever I hear one, I kinda sing along to the other, especially during the last chorus. Like I said, I don't know what it is about these two songs.

The obligatory Earth Day post

Go hug the earth today.

Don't waste paper.

On that particular track, why do some stores give you a receipt that's a mile long when you buy just ONE item?

The Colour and the Shape

Well, actually more about the colour (or "color" in the standard American spelling) than the shape. I just wanted to use the title of a Foo Fighters album in the post title.

Anyway, here's a list of random thoughts.

A. I added a link to my Links section. It's actually a pretty cool link. Have you ever looked up at the Empire State Building and wondered why it was showing a certain color combination? Sometimes, it's obvious (like red and green around Christmas, all red for Valentine's Day, or red, white, and blue for Independence Day), but other times, it isn't. That's how What Color is the Empire State Building came to be. It takes the information from the ESB's official site and presents it in a graphical form.

B. I had a similar idea, but I probably would have used only a graphic of the top of the ESB instead of the whole thing, and made it a Konfabulator Yahoo! Widget Engine widget instead of a Dashboard widget, which is only available on the Mac. However, I googled a bit and found another blog with a link to the site, so there it is. They stole my idea before I even thought of it. But they did a good job.

C. One of the biggest things that irks me is when people refer to lines in the New York City Subway by color. What's worse is when the colors are used in giving directions. If someone were to walk up to me and ask, "Could you tell me how to get to the Red line?" I'd direct them to go to Penn Station and get on the next Amtrak train to Washington, DC or Boston. That's because to me, there is no Red line in New York. In fact, a lot of long-time New Yorkers would agree with that statement. Colors on subway maps first appeared with Hagstrom's 1936 map, which showed lines in each division (at this point seperate operating companies) as a distinct color. The lines of the IRT were in blue, those of the BMT were yellow, and those of the IND were red. Subway maps of the 1950's followed this scheme, but used black and green in place of blue and yellow respectively. Individual routes were well established, and had letter or number identifiers, but each line was under one of three color groups. It wasn't until 1967 when each line was represented by its own color. In that map, each line, including shuttles, was one of eight colors: Red, Orange, Light Blue, Magenta, Green, Black, Blue, and Yellow. In 1979, the color scheme changed yet again to the familiar color scheme that's still in use today, according to the trunk route it used in Manhattan. For the IRT lines, the colors ran as follows: 7th Avenue: Red, Lexington Avenue: Green, Flushing: Purple. For the IND lines, 8th Avenue: Blue, 6th Avenue: Orange, Crosstown: Lime, JFK Express (Discontinued in 1990): Light Blue. For the BMT lines, Broadway subway: Yellow, Nassau Street: Brown, Canarsie: Gray. All shuttles are represented by black on the maps, and dark gray on station and car signs. Many subway lines had letters and numbers before they had colors. Even in Brooklyn, the four BMT lines to Coney Island are still referred to on signs on even the newest of equipment. Example: the new R160 cars on the N say, "SEA BEACH EXP" to refer to the portion of the line in Brooklyn, though technically, "Sea Beach Express" would not match the service provided, since it makes all stops on the Sea Beach line, but it does run express along 4th Avenue in Brooklyn.

Anyway, my point is this: If you continue to refer to New York subway lines by color, you should be shipped to a city where it's acceptible to call that city's subway lines by color, because New York is certainly not such a city. The acceptible substitutes have existed long before colors were put to lines on a subway map. Another acceptible substitute is stating each line of the trunk route you wish to travel to. A word of caution with this one. Each line should be stated as an individual, not as a group (CORRECT: "Four, Five, and Six"; "B, D, F, and V" WRONG: "Four Five Six"; "BDFV"). In other words, the proper conjunction ("and" or "or") must be used when specifying the group.

Further examples:

WRONG: "I was riding on the R/W train last night…"
CORRECT: "I was riding the R train last night…
OR: "I was riding the W train last night…"
You were riding on either the R or the W train, not on both the R and the W simultaneously.

WRONG: "Take the BDFV to 34th Street…"
CORRECT: "Take the B, D, F, or V train to 34th Street…"
You have a choice of trains to take, any one of those will stop at 34th Street, and all of them will be (or are supposed to be) carrying EXACTLY ONE of those letters. Usually the first train to arrive will be the first train to arrive at 34th Street.

WRONG: "Take the One-Nine train…"
CORRECT: "Take the 1 train…"
The 9 train was eliminated over 2 years ago, and some people STILL refer to it, despite the fact that waiting for the 9 train now will result in an eternal wait… until you give up and take the 1.

D. While referring to lines by color in New York is frowned upon, apparently in Philadelphia, it's becoming accepted. The Broad Street subway (Orange), the Market-Frankford line (Blue), and the Subway-Surface trolley lines (Green) all have their respective colors.

Well, that's about it.

Tuesday's Gone: The A210 Video

My latest video, #35.



It's been a year since my A210 crapped out on me for the last time, which resulted in me getting a μ750 to replace it.

Interesting bit about the song. With the exception of "Take the A Train" and "Crazy Train," I haven't used songs from before the 1990's. "Crazy Train" was used twice (#5, MoD Trip 6/17-19/2004; and #10, the Museum Train Video). "Take the A Train" was used once (#29, 75th Anniversary of the A Line). Interestingly, I made another video about museum trains running on the A line, but I elected to use a different song, and got razzed by it (as I didn't have a version of "Take the A Train" at the time), so I decided to make up for it that time.

Anyway, about the song in Video #35. The song is "Tuesday's Gone" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, from the album (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd). It's quite interesting how I came across it. Last year, I was flipping channels on the FM dial, and I paused at the classic rock station, Q104.3 (while I was about a block away from the nearest Q104 bus stop). I heard the "train" lyric, and thought, "Wow! This would be good for a video!" So, here it is. A year later (I started work on it as soon as I could), a few days late (but not as many as I would have had I worked continuously on it through the original goal of one month after the A210 crapped out on me).

Anyway, enjoy the video.

Who Am I?

I received an e-mail about if you Google your name, you can see information about yourself.

Here's what I discovered by doing this.

According to Google, I am:

• An attorney in New Orleans
• An actor who played a part in an episode of Miami Vice
• A Telecom Engineer at Accenture, who attended DeVry between 1992 and 1995
• Author of Dracula: The Vampire Legend on Film, and other books about horror movies that involve monsters and vampires.
• A sexual predator living in Florida (By far, this is the most disturbing one for me)
• A plaintiff who, in 1974, sued Victory Carriers for damages sustained when I was burned by scalding water from a hose I was operating on board one of defendant's vessels.
• A dentist in Chicago

Well, I can say that I am NONE of those things (I wasn't even born in 1974, and DeVry wasn't the school I was going to between 1992 and 1995, unless at that time it was located in Glendale, NY), but one thing I found as I perused through Google's results IS something I am:

• Some guy whose photos are posted on nycsubway.org, and uploaded some videos to archive.org.

That's why I think it's important to identify myself with the middle initial. Just like how Mark L. Walberg (whose most recent gig is hosting Fox's The Moment of Truth) uses the L. to distinguish him from the similarly pronounced Mark Wahlberg, of Marky Mark fame.

So, that's that. That's me. Do a Google search with your own name, while you're at it. See what it says about yourself.

So I listened to “Last Night” last night…

The new album from Moby, Last Night, was released yesterday. Since the album is supposed to be a condensed version of a night out in New York City, I listened to it, most appropriately, during a night out in Manhattan.

I started at the beginning, which is a fine place to start, [Ooh Yeah] and I just couldn't help but move to the beat as I was walking down 14th Street to the Union Square subway station. [I Love to Move In Here] As I passed the Virgin Megastore, I looked through the windows to see if I could see if the place was still a madhouse (Moby was to make an appearance there). It was well past 21:00, so I figured that he must have moved on, so I moved on, [257.zero] and went into the subway. My intent was to take a Broadway Line train to 34th Street and then a 6th Avenue train to Rockefeller Center. [Everyday It's 1989] However, a northbound Q was in the station, with another Q stopped just outside the north end of the station, [Live for Tomorrow] and another train just outside of the south end of the station. [Alice] So I switched to the Lexington Line [Hyenas] and got to Rockefeller Center [I'm In Love] via Grand Central. [Disco Lies] Once in Rockefeller Center [The Stars], I took a few pictures of the electric fountain. [Degenerates] It was raining lightly, light enough that I didn't need an umbrella… or so I thought. The sky soon opened up, so I took shelter in the entrance to 30 Rock [Sweet Apocalypse] along with a few other people. Once the rain slowed up enough, [Mothers of the Night] I made my way back to the subway, taking the V to the 7, [Last Night] which I took home. [Sweetest] [Land Of]

As you probably guessed, I listed the names of the tracks among the events that took place last night. Also, you could deduce that not only did I download this album from iTunes, but also I pre-ordered it (the obvious giveaway is the presence of "Land Of," which was only available via pre-order). There was a bit of a hiccup when I downloaded it yesterday. The tracks downloaded, but it was in what I call iTunes Minus (the DRM'd tracks of an album that's available in iTunes Plus, which is DRM-free). After an unnecessary upgrade (and $3 later), I had the iTunes Plus versions of the tracks. After listening to the album though, I'd say it was worth it.

Other Music Stuff

The Veronicas finally put a new single out, after releasing their sophomore album Hook Me Up in Australia this past November. The song is called Untouched. After having listened to it numerous times (140 as of this post), I'd recommend it.

That got me to thinking that if I owned a record label, I would implement a “One Planet, One Album” policy. The policy would mean that any recording to be released would automatically be released worldwide within one week of the target release date. None of this garbage about an album being available in certain countries or similar junk. At least YouTube is international enough to not restrict viewers in another country from viewing content.

In fact, here's a rundown of music videos from their 2007 release, Hook Me Up

First is the song of the same name.


Next is the previously mentioned, Untouched


And finally, their latest video, This Love

NOTE: Once YouTube user ThEvErOnIcAs (The official YouTube account for The Veronicas) has this video posted under their account, I'll replace the above video with that one. The other two videos have been posted under that account.

Anyway, that's enough of my rant. I'll get back to listening to Moby… or The Veronicas… or somebody. Just watch the Last.FM ticker on the right.

Some Thoughts on the Fare Increase

With the fare hike coming up on Sunday, I thought I would share some thoughts about it.

First, for Unlimited ride MetroCards. Nowhere on the MTA web site did it say anything about cards purchased before the fare increase. I sent off an e-mail the other day to the MTA to ask about MetroCards purchased before March 2, and I finally got a response this morning.

Thank you for your email concerning information on how the MetroCard fare increase will impact you.

Unlimited Ride MetroCards currently being used for travel purchased prior to March 2nd will be valid for the full 7 or 30 days, even if some of those days are after the fare change. In addition, customers who purchase an Unlimited Ride MetroCard prior to the fare change can take advantage of a “grace period”, allowing these cards to be used after March 2nd.

MTA New York City Transit will monitor the number of cards in circulation and will announce at a later date the exact duration of the grace period. The MTA and MTA New York City Transit assures its customers that, at a minimum, cards bought for normal, personal use will be valid for their full duration (1, 7 or 30days) as long as the first day of travel is March 10 or earlier.

Sincerely,

Douglas R. Sussman
Director
Community Affairs

That means I can buy next month's MetroCard tomorrow and not have to worry about losing anything extra.

Now, for the pay-per-ride MetroCards. A 15% bonus kicks in starting at $7, which means that if you buy a $7 MetroCard, you get one with $8.05. That's good for four rides, but what about that extra nickel? Don't worry. I know just the place that can help you. The MetroCard Bonus Calculator can help. Just enter the current balance on your card, and the maximum amount you want to add. It spits out every possible combination between zero and your maximum, which results in a whole number of exact fares.

If you want to spare the trip, remember the following amounts:

$15.65 (9 rides)
$24.35 (14 rides)
$31.30 (18 rides)
$40.00 (23 rides)
$55.65 (32 rides)
$64.35 (37 rides)
$71.30 (41 rides)
$80.00 (46 rides)

These amounts will yield a total balance that's a multiple of $2, for the number of rides indicated, given that the card you're adding value to already has a balance that's evenly divisible by $2.

Here's how you do it.

1. Follow the normal steps to add value to a MetroCard or get a new Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard.
2. When you reach the screen where it asks how much you want (to add), touch the Other Amounts button.
3. You are then presented with a keypad where you may enter the desired amount.
4. Proceed as usual.

They will also be selling cards for $17.39 and $52.17 at merchants, which yield $20 and $60, respectively.

It'll be fine as long as you remember the above list and the MetroCard Bonus Calculator link. I suggest you bookmark it for future reference.

Then again, If your MetroCard's balance has $1.75 after using all the rides, you could take a ride on PATH.

Two New iPod Games… It's Strange…

The other day, I was playing chess on my Palm Pilot, and I think to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool if they make a chess game for the iPod?"

A moment later, I think, "You know what, I haven't played Backgammon in a while."

Tuesday morning, I check out the iTunes Store, where lo and behold, there's a new iPod game: Chess & Backgammon Classics. This was like wishful thinking realized. I instantly bought and downloaded it. The controls are a bit weird on the iPod, but given the limitations of the iPod's click wheel, they try to make moving the chess and backgammon pieces as simple as possible by limiting your actions to legal moves. That can be said for both games.

The other game that was released is called Naval Battle: Mission Commander. It's like Milton Bradley's Battleship, but different.

Chess and Backgammon for iPod. They must have been reading my mind.

Speaking of which, sometimes, it seems like you can influence your iPod to play a certain song while shuffling so that it plays sooner than it would otherwise play. Here's what I did.

1. Began playing a song from a playlist, making sure that under Settings, Shuffle Songs was selected.
2. Go back to the playlist that's playing and highlight another song in the playlist.
3. Set the hold switch.

After one other song, the iPod played the highlighted song.

Then again, I tried this again with no success.

Either it only works some of the time, or I have such an intimate knowledge of my iPod that I know what it will play before it plays it.

Winter Break 2008: A Video

Enjoy.

Philly Week Wrap-Up

Well, with the close of Philly Week here on the B24 Blog, I've decided to post some videos of my past experiences.

This first video is a montage featuring my first where I took advantage of NJT to go to Philly.

Click the link to see it!


Next, the winter break video of 2007 has a few.


Finally, one that was posted to the blog a while back, from September 2007.

A Railfan's List of Points of Interest: New Jersey North of Trenton

In this post, I will list various points of interest for railfans in the portion of New Jersey north of Trenton. Like in my previous post, I've been to (or through) many of these places, so I know a little bit about them.

Princeton Junction & the "Dinky"

Princeton Junction at West Windsor is an interesting station. Aside from the two platforms on the main line, there's another platform adjacent which is served by the "Dinky," a one-car (and on occasion, two-car) shuttle to Princeton station, located on the campus of Princeton University.

Jersey Avenue (New Brunswick)

Jersey Avenue has got to be the strangest station on the whole Northeast Corridor line. Trains to Trenton can stop there, but trains from Trenton can't. That's because only the southbound platform is on the main line. It's also a low platform station, the only such station until you get into SEPTA territory. The northbound platform is on the other side of a parking lot. Northbound trains leave from this platform and cross THREE tracks to get to the northbound track which platforms at New Brunswick station.

Elizabeth (Broad Street)

While this station is officially called Elizabeth on platform signage and published timetables, it is quite common for conductors to announce this station as "Broad Street, Elizabeth." This so that it's abundantly clear that the station is not North (Avenue) Elizabeth, the next station to the north and rather close to the Broad Street, Elizabeth station. There are two interesting features to this station. First, at the south end of the station, there's a walkway on each side of the tracks, which follow the curve of the right of way. This is actually the old low-level platform which existed before the current high-level platform was built. And, for the interest of railfans, the walkway adjacent to the southbound platform is a great spot for taking photos! From what I understand, so is the adjacent parking lot. The second interesting feature of this station is that there appears to be another railroad station and line which crosses beneath it. This is the former Central Railroad of New Jersey line. The tracks have been abandoned for a while, but it may be just enough to spark a railfan's interest.

Newark's Railroad Stations

Newark Broad Street, while going under extensive renevations, is a good spot to catch a train. Then again, so is Newark's Pennsylvania Station. Lots to see and do, and the PATH train's here, too.

SPOTLIGHT: Newark City Subway and Light Rail

While the PCC's have been withdrawn from service, Newark's subway is still going on strong. The station at Newark Penn is as loop track. If wish to transfer from Subway to Light Rail and vice versa, you're allowed to ride the train around the loop. Newark Light Rail is an extension of the Newark City Subway and connects Newark's two rail stations. While the service is nice, the route is walkable if you have the time and energy to do so. Just follow McCarter Highway until the tracks come out of the tunnel, and then follow the tracks. The Subway has been extended northward recently, and a new maintenance facility is near the northern terminal (with a few PCC cars sitting around, too). If you want to see what the line was like in the time when PCC's ran on the line, check out this YouTube video.

Secaucus Transfer Junction

Secaucus Junction (though the latter word should be "Transfer" because "Junction" implies that trains can change lines here, but actually, only people can. The only problem is that you need a ticket to actually make the transfer, but otherwise, it's pretty good.

Hoboken Terminal

Whenever I get around Hoboken, I think about Bugs Bunny's line in 8 Ball Bunny, when after the penguin revealed that he's not from the South Pole, Bugs replies, "HOBOKEN?!? Ooh, I'm Dyin' again!" Anyway, this is a major hub. You have buses, trains, the PATH system, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail.

SPOTLIGHT: Hudson-Bergen Light Rail

New Jersey Transit's other light rail system runs through the waterfront area of Jersey City and down to Bayonne. It also runs up to the northern terminal of Tonnelle Avenue. Starting from the north, here are some points of interest. Tonnelle Avenue has an interesting loop terminal. Bergenline Avenue is the only underground station on the line. Lincoln Harbor is near the Loncoln Tunnel helix. Hoboken Terminal, previously mentioned, is in dire need of some new ticket vending machines, but has a nice view of Lower Manhattan. The line from Pavonia-Newport to Luis Muñoz Marín Boulevard is walkable, and has pedestrian walkways that follow the line. Exchange Place has two platforms on either side of the northbound track, and also offers a nice view of Lower Manhattan. Essex Street features an interesting street-running portion. South of Liberty State Park, the line divides. A branch to West Side Avenue seperates from the line to Bayonne. From a Bayonne line train, you can see other PCC's being stored in the HBLR maintenance facility. Between Liberty State Park and 34th Street is the fastest running portion of the system. The station at 34th Street offers a connection to the S89, which runs to Staten Island. 22nd Street is the current end of the line.

Well, that's about it. Enjoy.

A Railfan's List of Points of Interest: Southwest New Jersey and Philadelphia

In this post, I will list various points of interest for railfans in the southwest New Jersey/Philadelphia area. I've been to (or through) many of these places, so I know a little bit about them.

Trenton Rail Station

At the top of the list is the NJT/SEPTA/Amtrak station in Trenton. This serves as the dividing line between New Jersey Transit and SEPTA on the Northeast Corridor. Many trains pass through here, and if you're lucky, you might even see a Norfolk Southern freight move as well. Good luck trying to catch an Acela Express here in anything but a movie or a photograph. They don't stop here, but they do make for a good photo op if your camera is equipped with some kind of burst mode.

Burlington Town Centre

Further down the RiverLINE is a station called Burlington Town Centre. It's a single track station in the middle of Broad Street in the town of Burlington (hence the name). Burlington has the appearance of a quaint little town, and the RiverLINE cars make for an interesting juxtaposition.

36th Street

In the area of this station, there is a large freight yard, with numerous freight cars and locomotives on the sidings. A good place for your freight shots. Just north of the station is the main RiverLINE maintenance facility (where southbound trains change drivers). Further north is the point where New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line trains cross the RiverLINE. If you look at the RiverLINE's schedule, you'll notice that there's generally no RiverLINE service between Midnight and 5:30 AM. That's when the freight trains shine the rails. For some reason, you can't have freight trains running on the same tracks as light rail trains. Heads are scratching on that one…

SEPTA Headquarters

The address is 1234 Market Street in Center City Philadelphia. The street level and the lower level are of particular interest because part of that area serves as a transit museum of sorts, including a vintage PCC trolley car. There is also a transit museum gift shop, and a SEPTA sales office, where you can buy all sorts of maps and passes. They don't sell train tickets, but Market East station is nearby, and you can get them there. The SEPTA sales office is a good place to plunk down six bucks for your Inconvenience Pass. It's also a good place to pick up schedules for your SEPTA trips. Schedules for every bus and rail line are available here, but you have to buy the maps.

Girard Avenue

The trolley line that runs down Girard Avenue is different from the others in one particular way. It uses rebuilt and modernized PCC trolley cars in its service. At least, they are when the line is not being attacked by oversized trucks that inadvertently rip down the overhead wire the trolleys use to collect power. If that does happen, say it with me. BUSTITUTION!

Broad Street Subway

No list of Philadelphia area railfan points of interest is complete without the Broad Street subway. The BSS runs from the sports complex at Pattison Avenue all the way up to Fern Rock, basically echoing a large part of bus route C. However, the BSS has something the C bus rarely has: speed. The BSS has an express service which features trains that could make New York City's subway cars eat their proverbial dust. I rode one train on the BSS Express between Girard Avenue and North Philadelphia (Cumberland/Lehigh), which topped out at 61 Miles per hour. While that doesn't beat the 62 mile per hour record of the 60th Street Tunnel, the BSS doesn't need a 4,000 foot long downgrade exceeding 4% to achieve 61 MPH. The northern terminal is also interesting. It's a cross between Coney Island Yard and South Ferry. As you approach the Fern Rock Terminal, you get to see the whole BSS yard. The station itself is built on a loop, but unlike South Ferry, the platform is straight. No gap fillers necessary.

The Darby CSX Crossing.

Take a Route 11 trolley out to Darby and get off near the intersection of 6th and Main Streets, or take an R2 Newark/Wilmington train to Darby station, and walk north for about 10 minutes. You will see something interesting. The two-track trolley line crosses an active CSX freight line at grade here. What makes this even more interesting is that the recent rehabilitation to the crossing (apparently performed by CSX) causes the wheels on the Route 11 cars to ride on their flanges as they cross over the CSX rails. Though it's been worked out so that only one flange is on a CSX rail at any given time. Recent photos of the crossing show the CSX rails marred with flange grooves from all the trolley cars that have crossed them. (About 770 trips per track each week!)

Route 100

The Norristown high speed line from the 69th Street terminal in Upper Darby to the Norristown Transit Center in Norristown is one that shold be done by any railfan at least once.

There you go. It's not an exhaustive list, but it'll do for now. More spots can be found at Railfans Welcome and clicking on the links for NJ and PA.

What's Wrong with the SEPTA Convenience Pass?

The SEPTA Convenience Pass is definitely not worthy of its name. It's a pass issued by SEPTA for rides on SEPTA services, but it is hardly convenient. Many in the transit circle call it, more appropriately, the Inconvenience Pass (I will refer to it by either term during the remainder of the post). Here's how it came to be.

Before last year, SEPTA had a nice little pass called the Day Pass. It cost $5.50, and was good for travel on any SEPTA rail, bus, or trolley service. It was also good for one ride on SEPTA's regional rail system (of which the R7 I mentioned previously is a part, though it could not be applied to trips to or from Trenton). The way it works is somewhat simple. You buy the pass, and it comes in a little folder, with a sticker inside it. When you present it to a bus/trolley operator or booth clerk, (s)he would place the sticker on a dated transfer ticket. You could then show the transfer ticket to subsequent booth clerks or bus/trolley operators, and get an unlimited number of rides for the rest of the day. If the pass was used on the regional rail system, the conductor would punch a hole in a designated section of the sticker. Because of the nature of the day pass, requiring a dated transfer ticket to show validity for a given day, you could use the regional rail portion on one day, and use the rest on another day. It was truly remarkable.

During the middle of last year, SEPTA implemented a fare hike, which not only eliminated the Day Pass, it introduced the (In)Convenience Pass, and eliminated transfers. A court order forced transfers to be reinstated, but it was too late to save the Day Pass. The Convenience Pass was already being sold, and Day Passes were officially discontinued.

Why is the Convenience Pass so inconvenient? First, what it offers is somewhat less than the Day Pass that preceeded it. It is only valid for eight rides in a single day. It is not valid for travel on regional rail. At $6, it costs 50¢ more than the Day Pass. In the restrictive nature of the Convenience Pass compared to the Day Pass, there are already three negative points, which can be summed up by saying that you're paying more to recieve less.

The next thing that's wrong with the Inconvenience Pass is the size of the thing. At 4⅛ × 2⅞", it's larger than a credit card, so it won't fit in most wallets. That means you would have to carry it loose in your pocket while not in use, making it a bit easier to lose.

Next item on the Convenience Pass's naughty list, the way transactions involving the pass are carried out. It requires every bus/trolley operator and booth clerk to have a hole puncher readily available. And Heaven forbid having the pass being first used on a bus in a crowded street, or worse, a group of people who have all bought Inconvenience Passes and have walked from 1234 Market Street to catch the C bus for a ride up Broad Street. On the first use, the operator has to punch out four holes: The current month, the current day of the month (tens digit and ones digit), and the "1" indicating that this is the first trip using the pass. It's very cumbersome. Sometimes, the operator you show it to will just give it a look and wave you through to take a seat. He must have left his hole puncher at home or something. And judging from the size of the holes in each of the subsequent trips I've made with an Inconvenience Pass dated September 18, 2007, it doesn't appear to be a SEPTA-issued hole puncher, either. Apparently, any operator could simply walk into any office supply store and pick up a hole puncher for use on the job. (I took 6 SEPTA trips that day, but only had holes 1 through 5 punched out, because apparently, the trolley operator on an inbound trip from 40th Street didn't have his puncher. He just gave it a look and let me take a seat.) In an experiment, I simulated punching holes into an Inconvenience Pass. It took me about 40 seconds to look at the pass, reach for the puncher, and punch holes in the designated spots. Though with the right sized hole puncher, it could take about 20. But still, the whole ordeal of the first use takes longer than it should.

Finally, if you look at the back of the pass, there's a magnetic strip. What's the big idea of even having a magnetic strip if it's never used? Ideally, it could be used to keep track of the day in which it was used, and the number of trips taken so far, but since it's never swiped through a magnetic card reader, what's the point of having it?

That's what I don't like about the Inconvenience Pass. Other than that, it's a decent thing, but New York's $7 1-day unlimited pwns it.

Intro to Philly Week

It's that time of year again. New Jersey Transit is offering free rides to university students next week (Feb 4 - Feb 10). In preparation for this, I will make a series of blog posts about many things to see and do, from a railfan's perspective, taking advantage of New Jersey Transit's offer. I have entitled this week "Philly Week" after one of the many things that some up here in New York do to take advantage: Ride from New York to Philadelphia for free. Sure, the days are not as long as they are in September, which is the other time of year that NJT does this, but that doesn't mean you still can't take advantage of free rides into and through the Garden State.

Some of the things I have done in the past include complete exploration of the close-to-home light rail systems, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and the Newark City Subway. The more extravagant, of course, is traveling from the Big Apple to the City of Brotherly Love without spending a dime. Take that, Greyhound!

To travel to Philadelphia, you must travel to Trenton. There, you have two options, one of which costing significantly more. The costlier option is taking the SEPTA R7 line, which connects with New Jersey Transit trains in an across-the-platform transfer which makes that a bit more convenient, but like I said, it'll cost you. Buying your ticket on the train (the only sane way to do it if you ride free to Trenton) will set you back $9. If you're fortunate enough to buy a ticket in advance, you save *drumroll* one dollar. However, if you exit the station and go across the street, you'll find an option that'll make you spend those nine bucks on something you'll enjoy more…like a philly cheese steak.

The RiverLINE is South Jersey's light rail system, connecting Trenton with Camden, which is to Philadelphia like Jersey City is to New York…except there's bridges connecting the two cities down there, and tunnels up here. Take the RiverLINE to Walter Rand Transportation Center. (Yeah. I don't know who he is, either, but they named the place after him anyway.) Right across from the RiverLINE station is, shock, an entrance to another transit agency's rail station. This time, it's PATCO, a high speed rail line that runs from Lindenwold all the way to Philadelphia. Fortunately, the fare for the ride to Philly on PATCO is significantly less than that of the R7, so you can spend the $1.15 here, and save the rest for a slightly smaller Philly cheese steak.

Then again, if that $9 you have has to last you the whole day, Walk across the street into the Walter Rand Transportation Center, and proceed to Gate Eight. Enough with the Rhyme Time. Just take any bus that pulls up to Gate Eight, where there's a 99.9% chance that it'll pull in and say that it's headed to Philadelphia. Show your "credentials" to the bus driver, take a seat, sit back, and relax as the bus takes you across the Ben Franklin Bridge into Center City Philadelphia. Who knows? You might even see a PATCO train or two.

There you go. How to get to Philadelphia without spending a dime.
1. Be a college student with a valid student ID card.
2. Board a New Jersey Transit train on the Northeast Corridor Line. Take it to Trenton
3. Take RiverLINE to Walter Rand Transportation Center.
4. Board any bus that stops at Gate 8
5. Welcome to Philadelphia! What you do there is none of my business!

Enjoy!

Express Bus Services from The Bronx & Westchester

My latest creation is not a video, but rather, a diagrammatic map of express routes serving The Bronx and Westchester. It's a large PNG file, but if you know anyone who's been wondering about express routes in The Bronx (especially that elusive X32), check this out.

Original image: PNG, 637K, 5760×3600
Linked image: 1600×1000. I'll post the bigger one as soon as I find a way to do so.

EDIT
I've made a little something to fill the white space on the right side of the map.

To attest to the fact people actually read this blog…

Someone told me last night that they read something about my blog.

A real post coming soon.

Happy New Year!

I know it's 11 days late, but happy new year, anyway.

Here's my latest video, featuring the top 74 photos of the year.