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?
22 April 2008
18 April 2008
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 aKonfabulator 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.
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
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.
09 April 2008
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.
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.
03 April 2008
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:
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.
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
- Some guy whose photos are posted on nycsubway.org, and uploaded some videos to archive.org.
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.
02 April 2008
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.