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.

Messiah Has Come

No, I don't mean that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ has taken place (though it wouldn't be that far in the future anyway), but the Church in Manhattan had its annual Messiah sing-along this past Sunday, and I have a few things to say about it.

First off, the soloists and musicians in the orchestra were great. The chorus parts (filled in by the "audience") were a bit lacking at times, but filled in at most places where it was needed.

For example, at the beginning of And He Shall Purify, the sopranos were supposed to come in right at the beginning. However, there was some dead air for a second (at least until they all thought, "Oh crap, we're supposed to be singing now?" and then started singing.

I also have the recurring gripe about how we don't sing the whole thing. Here's the listing of the pieces, striking out everything that wasn't on the program.

1. 1. Overture
   2. Comfort Ye
   3. Every Valley shall be exalted
   4. And the Glory of the Lord
   5. Thus saith the Lord
   6. But who may abide
   7. And He shall purify
   8. Behold A Virgin Shall Conceive
   9. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion
   10. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth
   11. The people that walked in darkness
   12. For unto Us a Child is born
   13. Pastoral Symphony
   14. There were shepherds
   15. And the Angel said unto them
   16. And suddenly there was with the Angel
   17. Glory to God
   18. Rejoice greatly
   19. Then shall the eyes of the blind
   20. He shall feed
   21. His yoke is easy
2. 22. Behold the lamb of God
   23. He was despised
   24. Surely He hath borne our griefs
   25. And with His stripes
   26. All we like sheep have gone astray
   27. All they that see him laugh him to scorn
   28. He trusted in God
   29. Thy rebuke hath broken His heart
   30. Behold, and see
   31. He was cut off out of the land of the living
   32. But Thou didst not leave
   33. Lift up your heads
   34. Unto which of the angels
   35. Let all the angels
   36. Thou art gone up on high
   37. The Lord gave the word
   38. How beautiful are the feet
   39. Their sound is gone out
   40. Why do the nations rage?
   41. Let us break their bonds
   42. He that dwelleth
   43. Thou shalt break them
   44. Hallelujah
3. 45. I know that my redeemer liveth
   46. Since by man
   47. Behold I tell you
   48. The trumpet shall sound
   49. Then shall be brought to pass
   50. O death
   51. But thanks be to God
   52. If God be for us
   53. Worthy is the Lamb

As you can see by the strikethroughs, much of the second and third parts were omitted. The two arias in the third part (45 and 48) were cut short. Also, He was despised was also cut short. (I don't blame them for that though. The whole thing is 10 minutes long, anyway.) I was informed that we would be singing "the whole Messiah" by the one conducting a sacrament meeting for one of the singles wards. Obviously, this was not so. Fortunately, I have the whole "whole Messiah" on my iPod, so I listened to the omitted sections on my way home, and was completed before I walked in the door. And before that, they did an encore of the Hallelujah chorus. Personally, I think Worthy is the Lamb is the most powerful chorus of the whole thing.

Also included in the program was an intermission between His yoke is easy and Behold the Lamb of God. Hot chocolate was served, but it was the water-based kind. I prefer the milk-based kind. Anyway, it was a good time had by all.

Keyword: Video

A few things:

1. On that search box in the top-left of the page, if you type "video" and click "search blog," you'll get a list of posts with all the past videos I've posted to the blog.

2. If you have Firefox, you may notice an orange icon on the right side of the address bar. Click on it, and you'll be able to subscribe to this blog, so that you can keep track of my latest posts.

3. Wow! Three blog posts in one day! That must be a record or something!

DOUBLE FEATURE!!!

As promised, here is the so-called "Unseen Video," and how it came to gain Unseen status.

It started on Friday the 23rd of November, after finishing up my video, The Rest of NYC, I sent an e-mail to the guy who was the e-mail receiver for submissions. I also uploaded it to YouTube, as was directed. I traveled to the Apple store in SoHo to make the upload, as the relatively slow 160kbps upload speed of my DSL connection would not handle the 17MB file as an e-mail attachment. After doing that, I went to gather material for my next project.

Anyway, long story short, I received no e-mail notification as to do anything else, and I assumed that all was well. Not so. When Lingo day came, I was disappointed when my creation was not shown (I should have brought my flash drive ! I still had it on there!). I then advertised it at the conclusion of the event that it would be part of a double feature at 5:30 PM Monday, which is right about now. So, without further ado, here's the "Unseen Video" Transfer Point Video #31, The Rest of NYC



And here's some new stuff, Transfer Point Video #32, (B) Movie.



Feel free to comment and read my reviews of the other Lingo films further down the main page, and PLEASE let me know what you think!

Lingo Reviews

In this post, I play the role of film critic and will write my reviews of the several films that were shown at the Lingos. I'll rate each film using a Cow system. Eight Cows is an excellent movie, One Cow is a poor film. Ten Cows is the most a film could earn. A Moo is equivalent to half a cow. Moos will be issued only to ratings with fewer than Five Cows. With that, we begin.

Movement #153

One of the shortest of the short films is Movement #153. When a bunch of balloons falls from an apartment window, children in the courtyard below have fun. There's nothing more aesthetically pleasing than children playing with balloons. The music choice for this film is "Open up Your Heart (and Let the Sunshine in)," performed by Australian pop/rock group Frente!, which makes it even more adorable.

My Rating: 6 Cows.

Swiss Days

Let me start with the description that's on the YouTube page for this film.

Jason is photographing the annual Swiss Days Festival when his girlfriend, Sarah, surprises him by showing up. She asks him to spend the day with her. He turns her down. A man overhears their conversation and suggests she goes with him. Jane leaves with the man. by Mark Finch Hedengren

Apparently, the film is about a photographer shooting some scenes of a parade in Midway, Utah.

While there are some slightly amusing things (like the guy in a motorized wheelchair following a kiddie train down the street), Swiss Days spends too much time focusing on the fact that the lead character is a photographer, and little on the alleged relationship mentioned in the description. Most of it looks more like a home video of some festival, with the "lead character" looking more like an extra at some places. If there were more focus on the boyfriend/girlfriend relationship between the two, this would have been a better film. In the climax scene (where we first meet the girlfriend), the dialogue between the two is barely audible. Had they gone and re-done that part, it would have been more understandable. The barely audible dialogue, the setting in Utah, and the fact that it looks more like a home movie more than anything else are all setbacks which turned a movie with a lot of potential into a dull yawnfest.

My Rating: 3 Cows

Inwood Good Basketball

While I'm not a big fan of basketball, Inwood Good Basketball provides a soundtrack that's barely palatable (While one song does include the F bomb in its lyrics, it's barely audible unless you're listening for it). Filmed mostly on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, this film does some good moves, and a Jamba Juice run.

Overall, this film is a basketball movie that's more basketball than anything else.

My Rating: 4 Cows and a Moo

Primary Progress

Take the TV show Kids Say the Darnedest Things and LDS gospel topics, mix them together, and you have Primary Progress. Adorable kids giving "cute" answers to basic gospel topics, like who Jesus Christ is, about His birth, the Holy Ghost, Joseph Smith, tithing, and the Book of Mormon, among others. The sad part was that the Lingo people, when they were playing this at the festival, cut off the ending, which told you who these kids were, but it's on YouTube, and you can see the whole thing there.

Seriously, this is a funny film, but that's what kids are sometimes.

My Rating: 7 Cows

Smackdown

Women and arm wrestling. Two worlds which some believe don't go together. However, the lovely ladies in this film, destroy that stereotypical mindset, which is the only high attribute of this film. The music sometimes overtakes the dialogue in this film, and that's the only big downside. The background music is supposed to be in the background! That's why it's called background music! If there is no dialogue, go ahead and put it at full volume. Otherwise, let the foreground sounds take their proper place in the foreground!

My Rating: 6 Cows for the film, 9 Cows for each of the ladies in the film. Good going, girls!

The Adventures of Mr. Salad-Tong Arm Man

The genre of the silent film may be long dead in today's cinema scene, but the Bontorno Brothers make an attempt to revive it with Salad-Tong Arm Man. While it has a storyline as awkward and inconsistent as the titles of this film are, Salad-Tong more than makes up for it in the comedy department, despite the fact that the intertitles had as much action as the actors did (which gets quite annoying if someone's actually trying to read them). Even the blatant misspellings of words like e-mail and en garde were minor points. The combining of the Western genre with modern-day technology makes it a bit more humorous.

This film was a great mix of Western, Silent, and Modern in what can only be described as a great mix of Western, Silent, and Modern.

My Rating: 7 Cows

Love to Read Part Ⅱ

While literacy awareness is not one of my favorite genres of film, Love to Read Ⅱ provides a glimpse into a few people's favorite books. Dr. Seuss makes a surprising appearance in this film, which is the only real funny point, especially when he's referred to as a "prophet of another faith." The film is basically a book review of four different books, with the Dr. Seuss book thrown in there for a laugh.

My Rating: 5 Cows

HireASaint.org

This movie starts off as a film trailer for movie you'll never see, then confuses us as it turns out to be an advert for a web site. The hopping scenes were remotely funny, but turning a web site into a movie is more difficult than the reverse.

My Rating: 5 Cows

NY NY Underground

One of the three transit-related films submitted for the Lingos, NY NY Underground is the story of a sister missionary who serves in the fictitious New York New York Underground mission, based in the subway. Despite the fact that the film allegedly takes place in the subway, there are some obviously non-underground scenes here. However, this heart-warming tale about people who are not mole-people is a touching tale, and is well-deserving of my rating.

My Rating: 7 Cows

The Rest of NYC

Internally known as Transfer Point Video #31, The Rest of NYC is my video. I don't want to sound biased or anything, but this is a great film, with a masterminds of Daft Punk providing the soundtrack. A rather funny "faux commercial" is played alongside the credits.

No link, as my previous post says it will be shown on the B24 Blog as part of a double feature at 5:30 PM today.

No rating either. As I said, I don't want to sound biased.

Now, here are some that weren't posted on YouTube.

Vincent

This movie was basically a montage of paintings, many of them from artist Vincent van Gogh. There isn't much to say about this one. After about two minutes of watching this, I continued to think to myself, "Is it over yet?" Two words can best describe this movie: Totally Boring! Even more than Swiss Days!

My Rating: 1 Cow and a Moo… And I'm being generous with that Moo there.

Riding the Bus with Phyllis

This video documents a day in the life of Phyllis, a bus driver for Utah State University. While the campus shuttle bus theme was right on the edge of being interesting, there was a good cameo by the UTA's TRAX light rail system. And you can't go wrong with being pro-transit. Near the end, Phyllis was all like, "Don't drive to class, take the bus. You may show up a few minutes late, you may be a few minutes early, but at least you'll get there!" The second of three transit-related movies that were in the running, not bad at all.

My Rating: 6 Cows

Group Date

After a planned date to a Hannah Montana concert didn't go as planned, a group of friends get together and try to recoup the loss. Selling cupcakes on the street, doing drawings in Central Park, selling MetroCard swipes in the subway, or rapping elsewhere in Manhattan, each of the couples has their own obstacles to overcome, For example, Jen can't really rap that well, but Oscar teaches her a couple of things. This film was one of the highlights of Lingos, and there was a great effort put on by the cast, to make this film a hit.

My Rating: 8 Cows

Challenges

Walking through the projects in Manhattan's Alphabet City can be tough, especially when confronted with a couple of street thugs, one of which being armed with a knife. Don't worry, because the hero of the story has a little Western in him and gives is friend some advice he received from an Indian chief. Little does he know that the friend had some advice of his own.

This film was voted the best film of the night. I agree that it was good, but I don't think it's worth any more than my rating of 8 Cows, which is still excellent.

My Rating: 8 Cows

TAFT

The surprise hit of the evening (and my personal favorite) is a short film called TAFT. William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States, but that factoid has nothing to do with this film.

Picture this, an oil field with numerous "nodding donkey" pumpjacks dotting the desert landscape. At the start, everything is still and silent, with the pumpjacks motionless. Then suddenly, things liven up as the song Rock Around the Clock starts up, and the pumpjacks start movin' and groovin' to the music. A hilarious and totally unexpected film which deservedly gets my highest rating for the night.

My Rating: 10 Cows


There you go, those were all the movies, and thank you for reading my reviews.

Johnny Lingo Had a Cow, Traded for an Ugly Wife…

On Saturday, the Lingos Film Festival took place in Manhattan. In preparation, I submitted a video entitled, The Rest of NYC. I put a great deal of time and effort into making that video, and was satisfied to submit it via e-mail, and post it on YouTube.

At the start of Saturday night's event, I was excited in anticipation to see my creation presented before the large crowd that showed up there. There were several films that had me laughing, and then there were some that made me want to do my best impression of Homer Simpson shouting, "Boring!" Out of respect for the creators of those videos, I kept my mouth shut when such feelings came upon me.

The biggest surprise was not what was shown, but what was not shown. Even though there were many good videos, mine was not shown! At all! Not even a reference to it! The worst part is that nobody said anything to me about whether it could or could not be shown there. If I had received an e-mail a day or two before saying something like, "Hey, Robert. Could you bring a copy of your video on CD or DVD [or even on a flash drive] to the event? I can't seem to play it on my computer." I would have done so. I had produced it in 3 different formats: AVI DivX, WMV (which I sent via e-mail), and iPod-compatible MP4. However, nobody said anything to me about getting it in another format.

These videos, they're like my children. I have made 31 of them (with a 32nd on the way), and if someone doesn't give the video the respect it deserves, or the respect which I expect it to receive, it offends me. Nobody has given me a clear and proper explanation as to why it was not shown. I have worked my butt off to get this out before the submission deadline, and having done so, I expect nothing but the best treatment. (I'm not saying that it deserves to win an award, I'm saying that at the very least, it should have been shown to the audience.)

To not show a video which was submitted according to the directions I had received, and presuming that others had done the same, and not give an explanation as to why the video is not being shown, demonstrates a lack of respect toward the video and its creator. It's as if someone had come out of nowhere and slapped me in the face, for no other reason than to slap me in the face.

I had planned a release of this video on my blog during the week following the Lingos, so I promoted it to all I could get to listen to me for a moment. I am posting the video I submitted for Lingos as part of a double feature at 17:30 EST (That's 5:30 PM for those who don't understand the 24-hour clock), on Monday, December 3, 2007. It'll be right here on this blog. I've already mentioned it to many, and hopefully, they'll be watching.

For those who may wonder where the title of this post is from, it is from the film Johnny Lingo, where the name of the film festival comes from as well. A basic synopsis of the film can be found here. At the wedding party for Johnny and Mahana, some of the island kids began taunting him, saying, "Johnny Lingo Had a Cow, Traded for an Ugly Wife. Johnny Lingo's married now, He'll be sorry all his life!" That's how I felt when I discovered the faux pas of not seeing my video at the LFF.

Anagram Maps

Sometime last year, I was inspired by the London Underground anagram map to make a few of some of my region's transit network.

Here's the first of that series: The Long Island Rail Road. I used the official fare zone map as a base.



Next came anagram maps for New Jersey Transit and Metro-North. There were a few bugs and other things that made me take them back into the shop to re-work them.

I also did one of the Washington Metro.



Now, if you've ever seen the official WMATA map, you'll notice immediately that the style on my map is completely different from theirs. Also, notice that some stations (like "Neon Quorum Servant" [Mount Vernon Square]), I've taken a few liberties.

1. Generally speaking, anagrams on this map are based on WMATA maps published in the early 1990's. Since this time, it seems that WMATA has been tacking on ancillary points of interest to the official station names. Take a look at the name of the station two stops up from Neon Quorum Servant. ("Zero Date Courts"). This is derived from the string, "U Street-Cardozo." The latest map labels it, "U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo." Too many letters!

2. Street names are fully spelled out.

3. University abbreviations in station names are omitted, unless the abbreviation is ridiculously obvious.

It wasn't long before I discovered someone else had done a different version of the same system, modifying the official map. Cords Loosing. I guess because the station names are so short, or there are very few anagrams for certain stations, both anagram maps have the same name on both maps.

Franconia-Springfield	Frangipani-Cornfields Mine omits the hyphen
Crystal City	Catty Lyrics
Pentagon City	Giant Potency
Smithsonian	This Mansion
L'Enfant Plaza	Fatal Zen Plan
Morgan Boulevard	Vanguard Bloomer
Takoma	Oak Mat
Landover	Old Raven

Enjoy! More soon.

Randomoneum #2

I've been pretty bored recently, but I found a good way to entertain myself (at least for a little bit). I use Microsoft Train Simulator to pull a mixed consist down the Northeast Corridor. The train consists of three supercharged Dash 9's a few Tropicana cars, a few other assorted cars, and four passenger cars at the end. Now, the "Super-Dashes" have an insane top speed, and I can drive one from Philadelphia to Washington in a few minutes, reaching a top speed of something like 5,000 MPH. With three of them pulling the mixed consist, I can get the train to 1,000 MPH quite easily. I get the train to a certain speed, uncouple the locomotives from the train (which causes the locos to accelerate even quicker), and then drive them to a certain point out of the way of the "runaway cars." If I pull off the "Get the locos out of the way" bit successfully, the cars pass by and I chase them on an adjacent track to see where they stop. I got the train to 1,000 MPH south of Wilmington and uncoupled. The "runaway cars" stopped… 76 miles later, south of Baltimore. They were doing at least 200 by the time they passed the locos. Yesterday, I did this with 5 Super-Dashes, and let the train go at 1,400 MPH. They passed by going about 300 MPH, and they ran all the way to Washington Union Station. What happened? It's something like the GG1 wreck of 1953. I'll probably do it again and make a video of it and post it on YouTube or something.

Speaking of videos, I've made another one, and uploaded it to YouTube, in preparation for the Lingo Film Festival. The LFF is basically a thing where you have to make a short film, and it gets shown there. Hopefully, mine gets shown. The last I checked, there were only four videos (including mine) on the YouTube page. I was stressing about it on Friday, worrying that the e-mail wouldn't be received. Then I found that the deadline (which was that Friday) was extended to this coming Wednesday. I'll post it to the blog after this coming weekend, and will probably be as a double feature with another project I'm working on.

Of Pushing Daisies and Stuck Elevators

Of the new shows of the fall television season, the one I'm hooked on now is Pushing Daisies. It's about this guy (Ned the pie maker) who has the power to bring dead things back to life, and… well, I'll spare the details at this point, but the interested reader can check out the Pushing Daisies article on Wikipedia.

Anyway, when I watched the first episode, I was amazed at how everything was put together. The extra details of a person's age (i.e. "36 years, 3 months, 9 days, 12 hours, 17 minutes"), the place names (A pie shop named "The Pie Hole." Could there ever be a better name?), and the interesting relationship between the main characters (Ned's childhood sweetheart, Charlotte, who everyone calls Chuck. She was revived by his power, and as a result, cannot be touched by him again, or she would die again.) There's just something about this show that draws me to it again and again, over what else is on at that particular time slot.

There is something else of interest for that show. I first noticed it in the first episode. Ned had to encounter a man named Wilfred Woodruff. Wilfred Woodruff was of Asian descent, and his ancestor took on the Woodruff name during the U.S. Civil War. Notice that name, Wilfred Woodruff. Change the vowel in the second syllable of the first name, and change its position, and you get Wilford Woodruff, the name of the 4th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I'm not the only member of this church who has noticed this. About as soon as the episode was over, a thread about the show was posted on LDS Linkup, which basically asked if there were any Mormons involved in the writing of the show. One claimed that one guy was actually an anti-Mormon (using the statement that Wilfred Woodruff was commonly used on anti-Mormon web sites to refer to Wilford Woodruff). I thought this was interesting.

Another link between the writers and producers of the show and aspects of LDS history was established in the episode that aired this past Wednesday. In this episode, a man was murdered, and Ned was brought in to ask the deceased who it was that killed him. His response, "My wife did it." It turns out that his reply was more complicated than it first appeared, because the man had four wives. He was a polygamist. The practice of polygamy, officially discontinued by the Church in 1890, is still practiced by some groups known as Fundamentalists, who are not associated with the Church. (Church policy says that anyone practicing polygamy is excommunicated, so none of these people are members of the Church.)

Anyway, all of the stuff I've seen so far has been well-written, and changed just enough to eliminate any relation to the Church, whether it be pro- or anti-Mormon (and the word "Mormon" has yet to be uttered by the characters). As long as that continues, I have no problem with it.

---

Have you ever been stuck in an elevator with an attractive member of the opposite sex, and it was just the two of you in there? Well, I was, except for that last bit. Here's what happened. After an institute class, a bunch of us went to one guy's apartment for a pizza party. A few people, including myself, went to get the pizza, It turns out that the apartment we were going to is on the thirtieth floor of the building. We get on the elevator (there were six of us in there, including the A.M.O.S.) and begin to go up to the 30th floor. After starting up, there's a sudden jolt, and the elevator stops. None of the buttons respond, and we're just stopped there in a tiny elevator (at least we're the ones with the pizza). After a few minutes, the elevator creeps up and opens on the 4th floor, and the rest was an uneventful trip up to the 30th floor.

This brings to mind a conversation I heard on a radio show a few weeks ago. Two people from the show, a singly guy and an attractive single woman, were on an elevator when they got stuck. It was just the two of them in the elevator, but the other guys on the show (and a few guys who called the radio station) were ripping on the guy for not "taking advantage of the situation." I remember that after Blackout of 2003, there were stories about couples getting together, after being stuck in an elevator during the blackout. This talk of two people from this radio show being stuck in an elevator lead me to think about what I would do if I were in that situation. I'd say that it would depend on how well I know the person, and the status of the current relationship with that person. I don't think I'd need to say any more than that. Such details are not to be posted about on the Internet, especially if people actually read this thing.

Randomoneum

I got this game yesterday for my iPod called Phase. If you've ever played Dance Dance Revolution, StepMania, or Guitar Hero, you'll catch on quickly to Phase. The goal is to catch as many "notes" as possible as the song plays. One of the interesting things is that one of the background "journeys" you can take is an urban "landscape," with various buildings, yellow taxis, bridges, subway entrances, and even buses passing by you as you play. One such graphic is of a bus, either an Orion 5 or a Gillig Phantom, with a destination sign reading, "M5 LIMITED." (EDIT: Here's a screenshot!) I found that to be quite interesting. I'm pretty much hooked on the game, too. In my first day of having it, I've caught almost 2,000 notes.

Another new record on the 60th Street Tunnel run. 2:58.07, on an N with another set of R160's. However, it was spoiled by a missed connection with a 7 local train at Queensboro Plaza.

Here are a few nuggets I wrote, and posted at LDS LinkUp recently.

1. It isn't about homophobia. It's about protecting and defending the standards and values that God has set forth for His children.

2. Sure, there may be some who claim that God does not exist. However, there are many things in this world that could instantly disprove that claim, tearing it down like the winds of a tornado to a house of cards.

3. The creations of God are all around you. You needn't go far, just look out a window.

Look up at the sky. Notice the clouds, the sun, the moon, the stars. They didn't show up there all by themselves. Read the first chapter of Genesis. <link> It says that it was God that made all of those things. If you don't believe that, look at the Big Bang theory. It didn't happen all by itself. Someone or something had to start it all. Guess what? It was God.

Look at any buildings that may be in your view. Sure, they were constructed out of steel, or wood, or stone, but where is the source of those materials? If your answer is a business that sells building materials, ask yourself where did they get their supplies from. Follow this chain all the way to the source. Eventually, you'll realize that the source is something that was created by God, either directly or through a process which He gave power to exercise.

Finally, look in a mirror. You see that person staring back at you? That marvelous creation known as the human body. It is one of the greatest of God's creations. Both male and female were created after His image. In other words, the body which we all possess is designed after the body which God has. There is not one human being on this earth that was not created by a man and a woman, or at least the key components from each which make babies possible.

The creations of God are all around you. You needn't go far, just look at yourself!

I just came home from the Apple Store…

And all I got was this cool-looking T-shirt!



OS X Leopard (10.5) came out today, so I went over to the Apple Store in SoHo to check it out. I tell ya, it looks FREAKIN' AWESOME!

LOL. This shirt will be SO out of style when Mac OS 10.6 comes out!

The Price Is Right: Another Reason to Hate the President

I have been watching The Price is Right for many, many years now. Of all my years of watching Price, the thing that bugs me most is when it's preempted by a CBS "Special Report," which usually involves somebody speaking about something I have completely no interest in. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but that's what most of these unnecessary interruptions are. With Bob Barker retiring a few months ago, I've been watching the reruns of his Season 35 episodes, including his final sign-off (which originally aired on June 15th). Now that the Drew Carey era (read: Season 36) is upon us, I've been taping the episodes so I can watch them later. I have Monday's "season premiere," and I saw Tuesday's episode, where a contestant named Marie won her way out of Contestant's Row.

Now having seen this clip before on YouTube, I already knew it was her the second she arrived (she was one of the First Four). When I saw her again on the TV, I was laughing and smiling so hard, it made my face hurt. More discussion about Tuesday's game can be found on Golden-Road.net. Long story short, she won her way into the showcase round and overbid on hers by $612. Anyway, I had to go to school, so I set my VCR to tape Wednesday's episode. I come home, cue up the tape, and hit "play," and what do I see? It's Ol' Shrubbery yakkin' it up in some stupid press conference! I hit the "fast forward" button. After he shuts his pie hole, some other dude (probably an "analyst" of some sort), He speaks for a bit, and we FINALLY get to see some Price action. All that's left are Act 6, Showcase Showdown #2, and the Showcase round.

Now, this isn't the first time my favorite daytime TV show (and the only one I'll ever watch) has been preempted by something I don't care too much about. CBS Sports usually preempts it with a tennis match or an equally boring golf tournament. CBS News shows coverage of a guy I didn't even vote for spewing hot air out of his mouth for 45 minutes, etc. It totally ticks me off. I feel like asking him what his favorite TV show is, so that when I'm President, I can preempt that with some of my boring and completely worthless drivel. Well, it may not all be worthless drivel, most of it might, but not all of it.

Now, he's not the only one to blame. With everyone now getting their news from CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc. and the Internet, you would think that if someone wanted to hear the crap he has to spew, they would just turn there, right? NO!!!!!! The Networks have to preempt TV shows that people would be actually watching! Know how'd I'd react. I'd turn off the TV and find some way to watch what I wanted to watch via some other means. For example, CBS has InnerTube, where you can watch recently-aired episodes of their shows. I tried to watch Wednesday's episode of TPiR, but it took two minutes to play 19 seconds of video! ARGH!!!

Remember Speak & Spell?

As a child of the 1980's, I grew up with things like the Speak & Spell. A device made by Texas Instruments used to teach spelling to kids. Well, I've found something that causes me to think about the Speak & Spell. It's a song. The song is 4 Bit by Überzone Besides the catchy beat, the only vocals in the track seem to have been made by a Speak & Spell, which is made to say the words "FOUR BIT," and the letters which spell it. The song is definitely worth a listen!


Speak & Spell image © Bill Bertram 2006. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License. Found on The WikiMedia Commons

My Latest Video

My 30th video montage features some of everything. Planes, trains, buses, and boats.



I took a trip to Philadelphia last week on Tuesday. I also did an S89 trip on Thursday, and a trip to Elizabeth & Newark on Friday. Because I haven't much time right now to do the ol' copy and paste routine, I've simply posted the links on the respective SubChat threads I posted the trip reports on.

iTunes Bugs

Well, in case you haven't read the story on iLounge yet, iTunes users (including myself) have been having issues downloading content from the iTunes Store. I made a couple of purchases on Wednesday and they were stuck in download limbo for over 24 hours. It wasn't until yesterday I was able to download them, even though the receipt for my purchase showed up in my e-mail inbox almost immediately after buying it. I also received credit for 5 song downloads from the Store. I wonder how many of these credits they were giving out after this episode. During this fiasco, my opinion on Apple dipped into the red, but it's now back in the black… just barely.

Note in the image (click on it for a larger view), that this credit doesn't expire until 31 December 2099.

I have inserted this countdown timer to tell everyone how much time is left for this credit.

EDIT: I've used up the credit already, but I think it would be fun just to leave it up here.

Take the A Train

With the 75th anniversary of the first running of the A train today, I made a video featuring nothing but the A train. Enjoy.

My Latest Video, and My Latest Trip

Where can you find a trip to Utah, a 12 train, footage of the South Brooklyn Railway, and a few pics of a train called the Cannonball, and an R train above ground, with footage set to the music of Daft Punk, all in one place? In my latest video, of course.



On Friday, I took a little trip. Here's my trip report as it appeared on SubChat (Or rather, as I intended it to appear on SubChat, since there was a word that was way out of place on the post, and since you can't edit your posts on SubChat, you need to make a new post to make any corrections. Anyway, here goes).

Yesterday, I took a little trip, with three phases.

Phase 1: Broadway Junction.
I had heard something about an interesting G/O where L trains from Canarsie would terminate at the Eastern Parkway J platform. I missed a southbound Q39 and eventually caught a northbound Q39 which I took to the G train. After sprinting to catch an L train of R160 cars, I discovered that the G/O must have finished early since it was after 11 AM, and the train was going to Canarsie. So Phase 1 was abandoned, and I immediately moved on to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Coney Island.
Having not visited Coney Island all summer, I decided to take a trip down there and take a few pics of the 'hood before the summer ends. On the journey, I took the C to the FAS, and transferred to a southbound Brighton Line train.

Was it an N or a B?

As part of my trip yesterday, I made a transfer from the Franklin Avenue Shuttle to the southbound Brighton Line. As I'm crossing over the tracks, I notice a train of R68 cars pulling in on the southbound express track and immediately proceed to board the train. A quick glance of the signs told me that this train was either lost, confused, or rerouted. The signs in the car I boarded showed (N)|Astoria|Coney Island. "An N on the Brighton? Weird," I thought, but since I was going to Coney Island anyway, I figured I'd go along for the ride. It continued down the express tracks and called at Church Avenue. That's when I moved into the next car forward, and to my surprise, one sign showed (N)|Astoria|Coney Island, but exhibited a case of Upside-down Letter Syndrome, since an upside-down <Q> was peeking through on the exterior side of the sign. The other sign showed (B)|Astoria|Coney Island. The train continued on to Newkirk Avenue. I moved to the next car and discovered another car that appeared to be confused. This time, both signs were showing (B)|Bedford Park Bl|Brighton Beach, but the sign nearest the corner cab was showing 6th Avenue B, and the sign nearest the full-width cab was showing Broadway B! The train called next at Kings Highway, where I had to bypass the next car forward due to the fact that all its doors were closed, and go into the next car forward of the closed car. This car was properly signed for N service as well. Now, I'm thinking, "This train is either going to Coney Island, or Brighton Beach. If the train doesn't know where it's going, how should I?" Since we didn't pass any Q trains going southbound, they probably should fill the gap by sending this BeN down to Coney. We get to Sheepshead Bay and I go to the front car, which is properly signed for B service. Then came the moment of truth: the interlocking north of Brighton Beach. If we go to the local track, we're going to Coney. If not, our best bet is this being a Brighton Beach B. Sure enough, we pull in on 3 track at Brighton Beach, and get the last stop call. Since there wasn't a Q in sight, I went through the train, taking some pics and taking notes on this confused consist.

From the north end:
Car 2814 was properly signed for B service.
Car 2815 had both signs reading (B)|Astoria|Coney Island.
Car 2813 was properly signed for N service.
Car 2812's 1 sign was set (B)|Astoria|Coney Island, while the 2 sign's ULS notwithstanding, was properly signed for (N) service.
Car 2856 was almost properly signed for B service. The only deviation being the route sign on the 1 side was showing Broadway (yellow) B.
Car 2857 was properly signed for N service.
Car 2859 also.
Car 2858 was properly signed for B service.

When my Q train finally arrived, I got on and looked at this confused train as we left. The front sign (which I never saw until this point, since the front of the train had already entered the station as I crossed over the tracks) said B. I guess it was a B train after all.

After taking the pics and grabbing some lunch at Popeye's, I headed over to the N train and boarded car 8850 (W00T! the Siemens set). Another interesting thing, it was signed up as an N via the West End line. For a moment the FIND went blank, and came back up, showing Bay Parkway was the next stop, and the local stations were Will Not Stop'd (W00T²! West End Express). I got off at 9th Avenue and photographed the next two N trains as they went around the curve. The second N train was an R160 set, and a moment later, a D train showed up. The C/R of the N announced that the D would leave first, so I got on the D. I went from 9th Avenue to 7th Avenue, and it took 30 minutes. At 7th Avenue, I hopped on the E train to proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3: Cannonball East of Jamaica.
Up until yesterday, all of my photos of the Cannonball (The Long Island Rail Road's special express train to Montauk, which leaves from Hunterspoint Avenue at 4:06 PM, then stops at the following stations: Jamaica, Westhampton, Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, Montauk) were at locations west of Jamaica (HPA, Woodside, 60th Road). I wanted to take a stab of getting one pic of it from a location east of Jamaica. I had taken trains to Freeport before, and as I pass by the Laurelton and Rosedale stations, I was interested in the fact the latter has a TTTPT track/platform configuration, so I figure that would be the optimum choice for the purpose. Before the trip, I had planned to take either the Q5 or Q85 to the Rosedale station to get there just about when the Cannonball was scheduled to leave Jamaica. I got to the surface just in time to see the Q5 (which was the later of my two target buses) pulling away. All was not lost, though. I walked a bit past the other bus stops along Archer Avenue, when I see something on the ground that saved the trip. An unused Long Island Rail Road ticket which was printed almost two hours before I found it. I went over to the Jamaica station to get a refund (which I may not have needed, since the ticket as printed was Jamaica to Nostrand Avenue, but since I wanted to go Rosedale to Woodside, I didn't want any conductors telling me that I was on the wrong train). I photgraphed the Cannonball as well as a few other trains, and got on the train that would take me back to Jamaica, where I would catch the train to Woodside. The latter train had come from Ronkonkoma, so it was über-crowded. It was making all stops between Jamaica and Penn Station. Apparently one guy didn't get the clue that at Forest Hills, you need to be in one of the first 4 cars (I was in the 5th). The train stopped at FH just off the platform, and I told him that he needed to be in the next car forward, and he rushed out. I got to Woodside and took the 7 train home.

Pics have been uploaded, and have been posted on SubChat and OTChat.

Here are the links to what I posted on SubChat and OTChat:
Was it an N or a B?
West 8th Street
Coney Island
(N) West End Express
This station is… Rosedale.
Other Stuff