Well, the time has come to put my old-school, Greymatter-powered blog to sleep, and kick off 2007 with a brand new blog on Livejournal. Greymatter just wasn't cutting it anymore, was getting flooded with spam, and doesn't offer any of the neat new features that Livejournal does (such as posting via email, cellphone, or even telephone!). These archives will live on for the forseeable future, but won't be maintained...
I will shortly be adding a new mailing list feature, and will migrate the existing mailing list over to it. If you are sick about seeing all those "New Blog" messages, now is the time to let me know...
For those of you whose blog-servers I am hosting, don't worry, your servers will also keep running for the foreseeable future. However, I suggest you think about migrating to Livejournal or Typepad at some stage - I am more than happy to help out with the transition.
I was out with Jenny doing my final grocery-shop for the year today, at my local Supermarket, Nob Hill. I tend to be a "binge-shopper" - its just so much more fun shopping once a month rather than once a week - and the Engineer in me finds it more efficient as well - its win-win all around!
Anyway, I was wandering around the fruit'n'veggie section, basically buying random stuff that looked interesting. A lady, who must have been in her 60's, walked over to me, and said something so nice - I really wish I had jotted down the exact words, but here is a paraphrase:
"I just wanted to say that you have made me so happy today. You've really bought joy into this store, and the little girl in me wants to ask - are you an Elf?".
I must point out here that, although I was dressed "normally" (at least, as normal as I ever get), my head does look a little - interesting. I dyed my hair whote-blonde, and my beard, which is also blond, is tied in two braids. This is ostensibly for playing Riff-Raff in "The Rocky Horror Show" - but, it is also for fun. I'm used to children staring at me because I look like something from a fairy-story, but there are few adults that will come out and say something like that. It just made my day! I didn't quite know what to say, so admitted that it was for a role in a play. But I couldn't help thinking afterwards...
There was an article in the newspaper today about an agreement for the VTA (The Valley Transit Authority, which is the body responsible for all public transport in Silicon Valley) to spend more money on the "BART project". BART is a high-speed commuter train that operates throughout most of the Bay Area - aside from the "Bay Area Capital", San Jose!
Instead, San Jose has the "Light Rail" - which indeed should be considered "Raile-Lite". While it is clean, cheap and punctual, it is sloooooooooow. Any hobbyist who builds model trains will tell you that 90 degree bends in your rail lines is a bad idea! The Light Rail actually runs from quite near my house (about 3/4 of a mile away), through Downtown San Jose, and on to not far from where I work (about another 1/2 mile). Now out here in "the sticks", the Light Rail trains fly along - at somewhere around 50 mph. With only one 90 degree bend to negotiate, it only takes the train about 20 minutes to get from my place to downtown (about double what it takes by car).
But there the speed drops "a tad". Once the train arrives in San Jose, it has to navigate numerous right angle turns, traffic lights, and many stops within a shirt distance. To cross San Jose on the train takes another 30 minutes. Then, I would need to change trains, and ride for another 20 minutes to my work stop - so an hour and ten minutes journey, plus waiting time, plus getting too and from the station at either end - for a 17 mile journey that takes about 40 minutes by car even in the heaviest of traffic, and only about 25 minutes when I drive.
Excuses aside, I simply don't have the extra two hours a day that it would take me if I were to commute via rail.
Anyway, enouch complaining about what is, lets look at what could be. While I know little of BART, it seems to connect large portions of the Bay area, and being a "real train" seems to run reasonably fast. There is a short stretch missing between San Jose and the rest of the network - a little over 16 miles. The current plan by VTA is to spend 185 million dollars, doing "further studies".
Thats $10 Million per mile folks.
The estimated cost for the whole project is in the region of $5Billion - or around $350 Million per mile.
That seems like a heck of a lot to me. At those prices, I don't see how anything gets done around here. I would be interested to hear what cost-per-mile for similar networks cost in other countries. I have a feeling that most places can build brand new Underground train networks at less than that price. Anyone?
In my previous blog entry, I mentioned a story about a couple who spent five days stuck in the wilderness, a mere 1/2 mile from a relatively well travelled road. About the same time they disappeared, another local family also got lost in the wilderness - but with more tragic results. A simple road-trip from Oregon to San Francisco, a few missed turns, a change in the weather - and suddenly the family is stuck in a snowdrift, miles from anywhere.
I gave the French guy and his wife kudos for having survived, and was very sad to hear that in this case, James Kim was discovered dead, although his wife and two children were rescued.
Several of us discussed the first story, and none of us could really understand how they could have spent 5 days in one spot, close to civilization, in relatively warm (daytime) weather. Whenever I hear a story such as this, I always try and picture myself in the same situation, and imagine what I would have done.
That was what made me even sadder about James Kim. In most cases, especially with the luxury of hindsight, my imagination comes up with brilliant ideas that would have saved the day. But in this case, James Kim already seems to have done just about everything right, and for the most part, I think I would have done exactly the same things. He stayed with his car, he kept his family huddled for warmth, he even burned tyres to signal for help (one of the tricks Australians are taught if they are lost in the bush). All to no avail. After almost a week, he desperately set out to try and find help, leaving a trail of items so that rescuers would be able to follow his trail back to his family.
I put myself in the same situation - and I come up with the same, sad results. Kudos that he kept his wife and children alive, and kudos to his bravery in attempting to go for help when it seemes that there was no other option. A sad, but somehow inspiring, end to the story.
In my previous blog entry, I mentioned a story about a couple who spent five days stuck in the wilderness, a mere 1/2 mile from a relatively well travelled road. About the same time they disappeared, another local family also got lost in the wilderness - but with more tragic results. A simple road-trip from Oregon to San Francisco, a few missed turns, a change in the weather - and suddenly the family is stuck in a snowdrift, miles from anywhere.
I gave the French guy and his wife kudos for having survived, and was very sad to hear that in this case, James Kim was discovered dead, although his wife and two children were rescued.
Several of us discussed the first story, and none of us could really understand how they could have spent 5 days in one spot, close to civilization, in relatively warm (daytime) weather. Whenever I hear a story such as this, I always try and picture myself in the same situation, and imagine what I would have done.
That was what made me even sadder about James Kim. In most cases, especially with the luxury of hindsight, my imagination comes up with brilliant ideas that would have saved the day. But in this case, James Kim already seems to have done just about everything right, and for the most part, I think I would have done exactly the same things. He stayed with his car, he kept his family huddled for warmth, he even burned tyres to signal for help (one of the tricks Australians are taught if they are lost in the bush). All to no avail. After almost a week, he desperately set out to try and find help, leaving a trail of items so that rescuers would be able to follow his trail back to his family.
I put myself in the same situation - and I come up with the same, sad results. Kudos that he kept his wife and children alive, and kudos to his bravery in attempting to go for help when it seemes that there was no other option. A sad, but somehow inspiring, end to the story.
The weather has been a tad chilly here in Northern California the last few days - though after our trip to Russia, it does seem a bit silly to have "Severe weather alerts" just because the temperature may dip below freezing! But I have been toasty-warm on my motorcycle thanks to my new purchases - a pair of black glove liners, and a black thermal balaclava. Now I have to shop for some black thermal underwear, and my new ninja costume will be complete!
I haven't been as toasty warm as some nearby neighbours though... this was about a block away from my house.
Speaking of staying toasty warm, here is an interesting story about a French guy and his wife who spent five days huddled in a tree. I actually rode right past Castle Rock park on Saturday. The area is pretty rugged - but not exactly wilderness. I still don't see how you could spend five days there without finding your way out... still, kudos to them for staying alive, thats the number one goal when lost in the wild!
No, don't panic, I am not talking about our upcoming production of The Rocky Horror Show. Thanks to Glenn Goffin who sent me a link to this fantastic video. Absolutely amazing, I can't figure out if this is an old parody, or if they seriously thought that those costumes and that choreography were "art"!
