Gotta point you to a very cool site: Kiddie Records. There you’ll find a lot of old-time children’s records, ripped from the original 78s. Sorry, Mom – no Bubble and Squeak…yet!

I drove to work today.

The problem is the final leg of the trip home. It’s a very close connection to make, and if I miss it (which would be the norm, it seems), it’s a half hour until the next one. And this just a couple of miles from home. I finally got home almost two hours after I got off work.

This morning, getting up at 6:45, leaving at 7:20, and getting to work about 35 minutes later, I caught up to the bus I would have had to gotten up at 6 to catch.

I’ll try again when the Orange Line starts up in the fall.

I was twenty minutes late to work today. The missed ride mentioned below was the main reason, and there were significant delays to pick up and drop off a wheelchair passenger. Since the return trip doesn’t leave until close to 5, I was able to make up the time by leaving a little later.

The ride home was much better – door to door in about an hour and ten minutes. I was a little concerned about seating; I had no problems grabbing a seat for both morning rides, and I was worried that the opposite would be true on the return trip, but that went swimmingly as well. I must say that the seats are the most UNcomfortable I’ve sat in since my last trip to Oakland Coliseum some years ago.

First day under the belt! Hooray!

First bus, right on time.

Second bus, right on time. However…

Two bus lines service this particular stop. The alternative line showed up first, followed immediately by my ride. I noted that the destination sign read NOT IN SERVICE. I asked the first bus driver if his route took him where I wanted to go; no. By that time, my bus (which was carrying passengers, by the way) was long gone.

So the next bus came about 15 minutes later, so I’ll be a few minutes late (I’m posting by phone aboard the bus, by the way). Better luck next time.

I’m considering switching my daily commute to mass transit and leaving my car at home. There are pluses and minuses to consider:

Pluses

• Lower gas costs: Gas is approaching $3 per gallon, even for regular. My monthly gas bill is between $150 and $200, and a monthly bus pass is $54.
• Lower insurance rates: Since I’m not using my vehicle for commuting, my premium should go down some.
• Fewer vehicle maintenance costs: Oil, tires, repairs, etc.
• Less mental wear and tear: Driving takes up to 45 minutes each way to go about 15 miles through stop and go traffic (a lot of people have it a lot worse)
• Mental rejuvination: More time for reading, watching movies, etc. The commute would take approximately one hour each way, which is a lot of time to dig into a book or watch a movie on my PSP.
• Terminal stops are nearby: Less than a five-minute walk to the front door of both home and work, with one bus change, plus a new express line (the Orange) will be opening up later in the fall which may make the commute a little shorter.
• Safer: Less of a chance of getting in the way of a freeway shooting (Thanks, Steve!).

Minuses

• Longer commute: Trip will be a bit over an hour each way.
• Less time at home: Leave earlier, get home later (like I have anything to come home to anyway)
• Inclement weather: Gotta get some rain gear to keep me dry at the bus stops.
• Less flexibility: A slave to the bus timetable (I’d have to wait close to a half hour for the first bus home after work) and unable to run errands on the way to and coming home from work.
• Out of my control: I’ll be counting on the reliability of the system – and will more than likely be late to work from time to time when it lets me down.
• Environment: Buses are always such a pleasure in which to ride.

Am I forgetting anything? Anyway, I’m gonna give it a shot for the rest of the week and see how it goes…watch this space for updates!

OMG, I haven’t updated in, like, forEVER!

That is soooo grody.

Well, anyway, I guess that says something about my lifestyle currently – livin’ for the weekend, which is generally spent in front of the TV. I did manage to go to the fair a couple of weeks ago, which was a modicum of fun times, but it was a long way away, and it’s always more fun when you go with someone.

I did finish a project I’ve been working on since May, and that is digitizing (or ‘ripping’) every single one of my >1200 CDs for storage in lossless format on my computer’s hard drives. It’s consumed over 330 gigabytes of space, and approaches 20,000 music tracks which, if played nonstop, would take over two months to listen to. I have it all stored on a couple of 250 gigabyte drives connected via Firewire and configured for RAID 0, which nets me about 480 GB of space. Now I have to figure out how to back it up in case of drive failure. Guess I’ll have to get one of those huge 400 GB drives that are just coming out, copy all the files to it, and ship it off to someone for safekeeping. You never want to keep long-term backups in the same physical place as the original data; otherwise your backup may suffer the same fate as the working data in case of a fire, flood or earthquake. Something to think about.

Nancy has shipped me an unannounced box of sweaters she’s come across. I thought it might be the divorce papers she’s been promising, but at nearly ten pounds, it seemed overkill for legal documents. She claims that her attorney has been trying to serve me and so far has been unsuccessful. In my humble opinion, I think she is being misled, as I have detected no attempt at service. I’m not that hard of a guy to find: I’m generally either at home, at work, or traveling from one place to the other. And it’s not like I would avoid service anyway; this is supposed to be an amicable process. I still don’t understand why I couldn’t be served by certified mail. I’m going to stop worrying about it.

I’m approaching a full year in Los Angeles – a little over a month to go. And it looks like I’ll be here for the foreseeable future. I had intended on getting back to the Bay Area as soon as the lease on my apartment was up, but there’s really nothing for me there now, so I’ll stay put for the time being. I’m intent on saving pennies and vacation time for a trip to Europe next year – I think I’d like to do London and environs for a week or so this time; we were only there for a couple of days last trip.

I’ll get around to editing some video of the fair one of these days and posting it for your enjoyment, Dear Reader.