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

Someone Wants Me to Defect?!?

The other day, I received this e-mail.

****Calling on all LDS Soccer fans in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut!!! Come and see Real Salt Lake take on Red Bull-NY
When: Saturday September 29, 2007
Where: Giants Stadium
Times: Gather at the stadium at 5:30pm to meet, tailgate, and practice songs and chants.
We will all march as a large group into the stadium by 6:30pm Our Goal is to bring 50 to 100 Real Salt Lake supporters from all over the Tri-State area to Giants Stadium. One important benefit for this game is: -Reduced price in tickets ($18 per ticket for groups of 15 people or more) But you must Act Now!!! Time is Running Short!!! And the Day will be here before we know it!!! We Need a word of commitment and $18 up front by (8/12) in order to participate.

Now, I'm not a big soccer fan. Tell you the truth, I'm not much of a soccer fan at all. But when I saw this e-mail, I was surprised. They want New York people to support a visiting soccer team? What's up with that? It's like telling a bunch of New York Yankees fans to root for the Boston Red Sox!

GO RED BULLS!

Speaking of ads…

It's not even August yet, and there are Back to School ads on the radio! It's still too early for that! These advertisers seem to be advertising these things earlier each year. There should be a law that prevents advertisers from advertising holidays and other events too early.
 

Holiday	Earliest Date Commercials, promotions, store displays, etc. should start
Back to School	August 15
Halloween	October 15
Thanksgiving	November 1
Christmas, Kwanzaa	The day after Thanksgiving
Hanukkah	The day after Thanksgiving, or three weeks before the first night, whichever is earlier.
Valentine's Day	The Monday after Martin Luther King Day
St. Patrick's Day	March 1
Easter	March 18
Mother's Day	April 25
Memorial Day (Start of Summer)	The day after Mother's Day
Father's Day	May 25
Independence Day	June 15

That way, the ads were sensible.

Changes Are Being Made to the Transfer Point Family of Web Sites.

The B24 Blog, a member of the Transfer Point Family of Web Sites, is pleased to announce certain changes which will be taking place among the other family members. The blog itself will not change. I will continue to make posts to the blog as I see fit. However, there are some changes that need to be done on the other web sites. Many of these changes have already taken place.

Here's a summary.

• Transit Sounds Millennium has been discontinued. Its content has been archived into a freely downloadable file hosted on ^zShare.
• The following pages are MOVING from the Bravepages server to the Prohosting server: Gallery of Absurd Stuff, Rollsign Gallery, Subway Bullets 
• The following sections will be DISCONTINUED: Bus Signs, BVE, Download Center, Transit Cow! Pictures, Transit Info, Voting Place.
• There will be some reorganizing on the Bravepages server as the site there is dismantled. The dismantling is expected to be complete some time in August.
• Work will be done on all pages to ensure compatibility on the four major web browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

Now a little explaining as to why this is being done. When I first uploaded my site to Bravepages, I had it good. Advertising was kept to a bare minimum, and I could upload any kind of file I wanted. Then, they put the squeeze on me. There were the very annoying pop-up ads. Then the pop-under ads. Then the file type restrictions. Then came the most annoying thing: Those DHTML ads that pop up and appear directly over my content. Those things are spreading like cockroaches. It got to the point where I had to warn people to turn on any and all ad blocking software before clicking onto my site. Then, I discovered that Wikipedia was linking to my Rollsign Gallery. By this time, the only option I had was to move my files off of Bravepages onto some hosting service that wasn't committing such an atrocity.

The answer came recently. I was reading a thread on some new 6 train announcements, and I posted that I had recordings of older announcements. I later commented, "I should put them online somewhere." That's when I remembered I had a site called Transit Sounds Millennium, which was separate from the Bravepages site, and wasn't updated in several years. I Googled it, and discovered that it was still there. The Java applet at the top of the page was gone, and I discovered that not only were my pages and images still there, the pages were all ad-free! I turned off all my ad blocking software to see if it truly was ad free, and it was. This discovery sparked the movement shown above.

Now, a little bit of explaining as to why I'm discontinuing some sections of my sites.

Bus Signs: There was a big following a few years back when I posted a GIF image of a bus sign with an improper text layout. There was a QuickBASIC program, and even a Visual BASIC app written to simulate bus signs. There's even a project on the back burner (which is currently set to OFF) for a version written in Java. Since that following has diminished significantly, I've decided to pull the plug on it.

BVE: The Japanese train simulator Boso View Express also had a big following. My first route, the G was quite popular, and it was the second New York City Subway line to be released for the program (the first being the 7). I followed it up with the E (which I released either late 2001 or very early 2002 as the "9/11 Tribute Version," which turned out to be the only version), then the L. I released the L as a skeleton version because I was preparing for a mission, and I wouldn't have time to complete it fully before I left in late February 2002. Upon returning, I found the BVE-New York crowd very into making BVE routes, and there were some nice creations. The most notable one is the 2, which, at the time of its release, ran from Flatbush Avenue to Times Square. There was talk of making an extension, but there was no action. The only action done was by me, extending it (as a skeleton) all the way to its northern terminal (Wakefield-241st Street). No other full version of the line was ever released. Later, the developer of BVE, who called himself Mackoy, released more advanced versions of BVE that completely depreciated the file format the route builders were used to making routes in. Additionally, since the G, E, and L are no longer hosted anywhere, and my various standardization efforts seem to have deflated, I'm pulling the plug on BVE.

Download Center is going simply because the hosts won't allow me to put anything available for download.

Transit Cow! Pictures is a weird one. In the summer of 2000 (Yes, seven years ago! I can't believe it either.), a bunch of fiberglass cows were placed throughout the city, and I set out taking pictures of these bovine creations. Nobody seems to remember it anymore, so I'm putting it out to pasture.

Transit Info. Not much of it here, just an outdated subway map and other junk.

Voting Place: When I first put it up, I thought it was cool. Then every few months, I would get some random notice in my e-mail about some random visitor casting a vote for some old question, like "What's your favorite subway car?" Your choices are Redbird, Brightliner, R40 slant, R42, R44, R46, R62/A, R68/A, R110A/B. No mention of the arriving R160 cars. They weren't even a major point of discussion as they are now. Since I'm not going to bother updating the questions, I won't bother keeping it anymore.

As for browser compatibility, I think it's quite obvious. There are browsers out there that are far superior to Internet Explorer. Much of the site was written when I believed the opposite to be true. The four browsers I listed ("The Big Four") are ones that I see being used all the time. Now that Apple has released a version of Safari for Windows, I'll be able to check compatibility on Safari as well as the other browsers which have versions for Windows. Way to go, Apple!

In conclusion, new and (hopefully) exciting changes are in store. Stay tunes, and keep watching the B24 Blog for the latest.

My Latest Video

It's a bit of a departure from my previous videos, but there's not much video in the video. See for yourself.

The Quest for Unknown Songs

Have you ever heard a song on TV or the radio and wondered, "What is that song?" I recently found two such songs after receiving some hints.

First, the song from the Geico commercial were a caveman is on one of those moving walkways in an airport, and he passes a Geico ad with the tagline, "So easy a caveman can do it."


The song here is "Remind Me" by Röyksopp. I found this out by turning on the Closed Captioning feature on my TV, and there it was.

Then, there's this song I first heard on Elvis Duran and the Morning Zoo. Then I heard it in several commercials for shows like "On the Lot." I recently heard it on the Victoria Beckham: Coming to America show on NBC. When Victoria is finally reunited with her husband and children, and they return to Los Angeles as a family. After the show aired, I went over to NBC's Featured Music page and discovered a song that kinda sounded like what I heard, so I Googled it, and found the music video. I then hopped over to the iTunes Store and picked up "The Adventure" by Angels & Airwaves.



I wonder what I'll find next.

It's Survey Time: The #7 Line

The MTA is issuing surveys for subway service. The first is the for the 7 line, which I use most frequently.
The survey featured generalized questions about service, announcements, etc. Here's the list of questions.
 
 

1. Minimal delays during trips
2. Reasonable wait times for trains
3. Adequate room on board at rush hour
4. Sense of security in stations
5. Sense of security on trains
6. Working elevators and escalators in stations
7. Signs in stations that help riders find their way
8. Signs in subway cars that help riders find their way
9. Cleanliness of stations
10. Cleanliness of subway cars
11. Station announcements that are easy to hear
12. Station announcements that are informative
13. Train announcements that are easy to hear
14. Train announcements that are informative
15. Lack of graffiti in stations
16. Lack of graffiti in subway cars
17. Lack of scratchitti in subway cars
18. Courtesy and helpfulness of station personnel
19. Comfortable temperature in subway cars
20. Ease of use of subway turnstiles
21. Availability of Metrocard Vending Machines
22. Overall Performance

Then the survey asks the three areas above that need the most improvement. There was one thing I was hoping would be on there that wasn't: comments. There are several things that are consistently nagging on this line that I wish to acknowledge.

A. Delays

In the morning, some Flushing-bound 7 trains don't even make it to Flushing. They terminate at 111th Street and then proceed into the nearby Corona Yard after leaving passengers on the platform. However, there are two things wrong with this. The first is that usually, it seems that not even the train crew knows the train is terminating at 111th Street. It is an unpleasant surprise for everyone, this causes the second problem. Because the train is stopped there for about 5 minutes, the train behind it usually waits outside the station for 5 minutes. This causes a backup along the line, with train after train being delayed by either discharging its passengers, or taking on passengers that the previous train discharged. Now, these delays have been so bad at times, that trains were backed up all the way to 40th Street! That's when the transfer at 74th Street comes in handy for me.

What should they do?

In the afternoon rush hours, when a train terminates at Willets Point, there's an across-the-platform transfer to an arriving express train to carry passengers to Main Street. My idea follows a similar vein. Instead of terminating at 111th Street, they should terminate on the middle track at Willets Point. Manhattan-bound expresses would platform on the default Manhattan-bound platform to allow this move, and would switch to the express track south of the station.

Graphics to come soon.

Until the graphics are posted, here's a text description.
7 Express Southbound: On C2 or CM track at Main Street. Switch to CM at Main St. Interlocking. Switch to C1 north of Willets Point. Switch back to CM track south of Willets Point. If Local and Express depart Main Street at or near the same time, Express has priority at the merge point.
7 Willets Northbound: On C2 at 111th Street. Switch to CM south of Willets Point. Discharge passengers and reverse direction. Switch to CMc south of Willets Point and relay on CMa or CMb at 111th Street. Reverse direction and proceed into Corona Yard.

This way, trains to Main Street may arrive across the platform from the terrminating train, and nobody (especially the train behind it) would to wait 5 or more minutes for the train crew to make sure the train is empty of passengers.

B. A Certain Station

 The worst thing about the 7 line can be summed up in three words: MAIN STREET STATION. This three-track malady of a station has crowd flow issues. In the afternoon, it's sometimes impossible to determine which track the next train will depart from. Logic dictates the first train in will be the next train out. The mezzanine signs say it will be on another track. The signs on the platform say it will be on another track. And the guy on the platform will tell you it's on yet another track! And when the train does come, it's usually packed, and that means that the crowds will make a mass exodus out of the station. It gets to the point that you have to yell and scream at them to have them get out of your way.
Ugh! I hate that!

What should they do?

Logic should dictate train departures. First in is first out. Stairs closest to the turnstiles are designated Down staircases. Remaining stairs designated as Up staircases. The policy should be tightly enforced. Platform signs, mezzanine signs and all announcements should clearly and unambiguously announce which train is leaving next. If a train leaves from a wall track, the next train to leave must not be on the opposite wall track unless the middle track is occupied with a standing train of revenue service cars with doors open on both sides. If a train arrives on the middle track, doors are to open on the side opposite the track where the next train out is standing. If an arriving train is to be taken out of service, clear and consistent and constant announcements should be made from the time the train enters the station until the train doors close. Such train may not arrive at a platform where signs indicate the next departing train, unless the arriving train is on the middle track, in which case the train doors will open only on the side opposite the next departing train. A departing train should receive the "line-up" (clear departing signal) within 20 seconds of receiving the starting lights (green lights hanging over the platform adjacent to each track).


There. Now that I've vented about Main Street station, a bit on the good things about the 7. The express is fast, you never have to wait long for a train during rush hour, and the views are great. That's about it.

Safari for Windows

The ubiquitous web browser for Mac, Safari, is now available for Windows. It may not replace Firefox as my top browser, but at least my computer can be more

A New Version of iTunes is upon us

With Apple releasing the iPhone on Friday, they also released a new version of iTunes, version 7.3. One of the "features" of the new version of iTunes is an "improved" sorting method. It now takes those songs, albums, artists, etc. which start with a number or punctuation character, and sorts them to the bottom of the list. For example, it would sort "311" after "ZZ Top" instead of before "Ace of Base." Now, I'm very particular with how my library is sorted. I actually like the numbers on top. So when I found The Veronicas' "4ever" somewhere after The Cranberries' "Zombie," I wasn't too pleased with it. I basically spent about 20 minutes changing the sort order back to something I could live with. Otherwise, I'm quite pleased with iTunes 7.3.

My Dream Machine

&tWell, I think I've found my Dream Machine. For some, it's a car. For me, it's a computer. But this is not just any computer.

It's a Mac Pro with 2 GB of RAM, two 500 GB hard drives, Bluetooth and WiFi, with Final Cut pre-installed. It'll cost over $3,000, but oh, man! The things I can do with that!

Though, I'll be waiting for Leopard to come out before getting a Mac.

LION IN THE CITY… Salt Lake City

I posted a thread on LDS LinkUp (Where I'm known as "The Church Avenue Lion") about my recent travels to Salt Lake City. Now, I've finally got a chance to post them here, so here it is.

Day 1, Monday
After a long flight, where I was able to watch Cars, Shrek, and a 10-minute short featuring the Newark, NJ subway, my mom and I arrived in Salt Lake City. We had a bit of confusion upon arriving at the baggage claim. When we arrived at the baggage claim, we were presented with baggage claim carousels 1, 2, 3, and 4. After a much needed restroom break, I went to see where the bags for our flight were. A display indicated that the bags were being displayed on carousel 5. Since we only saw carousels 1 through 4, we had no idea where carousel 5 was, since all that was there was the ticketing and check-in counters, and baggage claim carousels 1 through 4. There was absolutely no indication of where carousel 5 was. After asking a security officer about the location of this mystery baggage claim carousel, we went over to the building next door, where carousel 5 was prominent in our view, showing flights from various cities across the country…except New York. My mother, who had a very distinctive bag, spotted it on carousel 6, which didn't even show our New York flight on its display. After arriving at the hotel, which just happens to be across the street from Temple Square, we went and did some business in Temple Sq. First, an organ recital at the Tabernacle. I can sorta understand all the cracks the GA's have made about the seats in there. Then, we stopped over at the Long John Silver's over at ZCMI (it was about 12:30, and I hadn't eaten any real food (snacks on the plane don't count) 8½ hours!) and then went into Deseret Book. Then, into the JSMB for the distribution center. My mom asked if they had The Testaments on VHS, but they said it's only available on DVD. Looks like we know what to get Grandpa for his birthday.Then, we went back to DesBook after seeing that the metal oil vials are only sold there. We went to the north visitor's center and saw the Christus statue. We rested a bit in the hotel room and went back at about 8 for dinner and another walk through downtown SLC.

Day 2, Tuesday
After a breakfast buffet, mom and I went to the temple for the 9 AM session. It was very interesting how it the temple is laid out. My mom saw it interesting how there were so many marriages going on…on a Tuesday! After we were done in the temple, we went over to the post office, to mail a letter to my dad. Then, we went to the Gateway. After browsing through there and buying some socks, I was hungry for some Carl's Jr, and having searched for one on the Internet the day before, I had to make sure it was where I thought it was. Apple Store to the rescue! The nearest one happens to be at State and 200S, not far from the TRAX station. With that, off we went. When I received my Double Western burger, there was an extra surprise for me. On the tray was not just the burger and fries, but two small containers of fry sauce. Only in Utah, I guess. After that, we went back to the hotel for a little rest. Noticing that the studio for Channel 2's news broadcast was right by the TRAX station we visited earlier. For dinner, we met up with some friends who had moved out of the Astoria Ward and then went over to a park adjacent to the Church Office Building to see a T Minus 5 concert (They're dropping a new album on August 25th, for anyone who's interested). After that, some nighttime photos of the Temple, then dessert, and back up to the room for the night.

Day 3, Wednesday
Everyone who has visited Utah has said, "You've GOT to visit Park City." I was expecting something interesting. We did visit some Olympic venues, including an active ski jump,, and the bobsled/luge/skeleton track. Main Street was more blah than wow, though. There were some nice stores, but like I said, more blah than wow. Later on, we met with some other folks who used to be in the ward, and we went out for dinner at Tucci's. It was nice.

Day 4, Thursday, A.K.A. The Voyage Home
Mom had signed us up for a 2:00 van to take us to the airport from the hotel. However, since check-out time was at 11, that left us with some time to kill before going home. After breakfast, mom and I hung out in the room, taking some last photos of our view from our 8th floor hotel room. Once check-out time came, we went back over to the Gateway for some last minute things. We partook of the services of Auntie Anne's and Ben & Jerry's. That Phish Food shake they sell is de-lish! Mom was looking for an aquarium to kill some time, but I told her that I've been seeing some commercials for this aquarium down in Sandy, and I figure that if there was an aquarium at the Gateway, they've packed up and moved down to Sandy. We spent the last hour watching TV and surfing the Internet in the hotel's library. There was a tour bus operator there. As I was walking over to the men's room, I overheard him say something I thought was very interesting. "This hotel is owned by the LDS Church.…"

Our ride to the airport was delayed a bit because we had another person to take with us, and by the time we were in the van she was still over by the Convention Center! Just as we were about to leave, we saw her. She got on, and we were off.

At the airport, I had a more pleasant experience going through security. This is due to the fact that I was wearing pants that didn't have any metal in them. Afterwards, having some food at the Burger King (Isn't it funny that both pre-flight meals were at a Burger King?) we strolled over to the gate. I noticed that as I looked out the window, I could see downtown Salt Lake City, including the temple, so I got a picture of that. Once aboard the plane, my mom says to me, "Did you notice that lady sitting in First Class with the blond hair?" I said that I didn't. She then says that it was Sheri Dew. I thought that was cool. A prominent member of the Church flying to New York with us. The pilot had said that it was a good day for flying, and he was right. There was a bit of rough air, but not too much. The flight was otherwise uneventful, and I passed the time by watching Over the Hedge and Back to the Future, then some Bugs Bunny cartoons. By the time we were approaching New York, it was dark, and I couldn't identify anything because there weren't any identifiable landmarks. Then, I saw a tower/smokestack thing which I knew was in the vicinity of Westbury, New York. We were flying over Long Island. I watched as Roosevelt Field Mall passed before me, then no other recognizable landmarks until the Green Acres Mall came into view…Then Brookville Boulevard. Then, without me seeing any other signs of airport, we had landed. (I later found out that we had landed on Runway 22L, which is near the eastern edge of JFK Airport.) It was definitely the airport because I saw airport signage passing by, the first of which being a big illuminated 5 on the side of the runway…then a 4…then a 3…By the time we passed the 3, we had lost much of our forward speed, so we taxied over to the gate. The pilot announced a gate change. We were scheduled to arrive at Gate 3 in Terminal 3, but we arrived at Gate 28 in Terminal 2. Our bags would be brought over to Baggage Claim F, and afterwards, we got a taxi to drive us home, where we arrived at 12:20 AM.

OK, so that's it. I'm home now. It's good to be back.

A Word on Manhattanhenge

I went to Gantry Plaza State Park yesterday in the hopes of seeing Manhattanhenge, a phenomenon that happens four times a year when the sun either rises or sets aligned with Manhattan's street grid. Unfortunately, I was a bit late in seeing it, but upon seeing the following information, I came up with a great idea.

Neil deGrasse Tyson's office originally supplied NewYorkology with the wrong dates, (May 31 and July 11) which were originally posted in the headline for this entry and in the text below. The new and improved dates for Manhattanhenge 2007 are May 30 (at 8:10 p.m.) and July 13 (at 8:20 p.m.)

Here's the source.

The July Manhattanhenge will be on a Friday. The second Friday of July. I'm going to see about tying the Manhattanhenge viewing with the stake dance to be held that night.

This Ain’t a Scene, It’s a Transit Video!

My latest transit video. Enjoy.

2:58.25!

Attention faithful blog readers: There is a new record for travel through the 60th Street tunnel between Lexington Avenue-60th Street and Queensboro Plaza. The time is 2 minutes, 58¼ seconds. The record was attained on Wednesday, 09 May 2007, at about 17:04. Lead motor of involved train is 8732, an R160B type car built by Kawasaki in 2006. Top speed during this run was about 58 miles per hour. This new record beats the previous one by about nine seconds.

I like fast trains. I love it when the express train I'm on zips past the local train I'm not on. The problem is that there aren't too many places for trains to go fast in the subway system. However, the East River tunnels make for some speedy spots. Ever since my MiniDisc days, I played “Bodyrock” by Moby as the train made its trek through the tunnel. After the train stopped at Queensboro Plaza, I would check the time, and give a letter grade for the trip. If it was below 3:10, I'd give an A+, 3:10 to 3:20, an A, 3:20 to 3:25, a B, etc. If the song finishes before the train stops at Queensboro Plaza, the ride gets and F, and since I got my first iPod, I made my own playlist which includes Strong Bad saying, “Not good enough, F--” (from for kids), and a recording of Anne Robinson saying, “You are the weakest link…Goodbye!” (from The Weakest Link). After that, I play a song from The Murmurs. More recently, I've been alternating between that song and You’re Pitiful by “Weird Al” Yankovic. When the trip goes well (i.e. “Bodyrock” is still playing while I'm standing on the platform at Queensboro Plaza, I'll play “I Like That” by Houston or “I Like It” by Narcotic Thrust, or both. Take a look at my recently played songs on Last.fm (under "What I've Been Listening To"). If you see Bodyrock followed by any of the songs I've mentioned, then you'll know I've been through the Sixty.

This doesn't mean I don't like slow. I like slow when it's okay to go slow, or unsafe to go too fast. But when your train tops out at 45 MPH in a tunnel designed for trains to go 70, then the trip leaves much to be desired. There's a reason for speed limits, but they don't need to be artificially low. I support putting the rapid in “rapid transit,” so I'll continue to do this.