Planned LAX Rail Misses the Point Entirely

So I'm looking through the measure R documents to see the future rail projects. There's the Expo Line coming soon (near my neighborhood). Some other lines that look interesting. And now my eyes rest on the LAX extension. The Green Line, opened in the 90's, has a stop called "Aviation / LAX". It's not within walking distance of the Airport, so there's a shuttle bus from the station to the terminals. The train line curves south instead of heading to the Airport. So, there is a plan contained in Measure R to extend the line to the Airport; or so I thought. Apparently the plan is to extend the line from Aviation station to Lot C -- a parking lot that *still requires a shuttle bus* to get to the terminals. Why can't the MTA figure out how to build the train to the *TERMINALS*. Building a line from one parking lot to another where they both require shuttle buses to get to the Airport *anyway* misses the point of direct Airport service and is a waste of money. $330,000,000 according to the report.

Quit Complaining

If you moved into a house by the railroad tracks, don't complain when trains come by. You knew where you were moving to. Seriously.

Metrolink continues to be stupid

Message to Keith Millhouse: No one wants to ride a service where they'll have to wait four hours when they miss a train, even if it was free. Cutting the number of train services in a day will discourage more and more riders and you won't have anybody to pay the fares.

Writing Scams

Now I have only started learning the logistics of professional writing, so I've only heard a couple of stories of scams here and there, but as I perused the classifieds for jobs that would require a writer I noticed a scam right away. A person who claims to be a producer asked for a *COMPLETE SCRIPT*, and he says he'll pay later, *IF* he decides to make a movie with it. So he wants a writer's service for free. Nice. And, he says if he makes the movie, he'll *split* the writing fee with you. So when he does decide to pay you, you're only getting paid half. My favorite line of the whole ad, "This is not a scam!" That disclaimer saves you every time!

Good Luck

My blank-verse poem for a friend that's moving away:

Tia guiding light;
binding creatures together;
luck on northward journey;
and travels beyond;
bringing wisdoms to the peoples of the Earth;
spirit burning within all forever.

Current Shows

For some reason was thinking about the current television shows I like to watch so thought I'd just list them:

House: looking forward to the new season; looks like the show has been twisted around to a whole new direction; hopefully lasts past tonight's episode! House in a mental hospital.

Nurse Jackie: watched the whole first season. Awesome. like watching a disaster and not being able to stop it. Jackie pretty much destroyed everything here. I don't know where this is going next year.

Making Fiends: this cartoon is just too cute not to watch. Little girl creates monsters. Other girl just wants to be her friend and is never bothered by anything.

The Mentalist: had a great first season. Fake hypnotist becomes a criminal investigator. Pretty good murder mystery stories. Refreshing after being burned out on Monk (though Monk is really good I must say)

Amazing Race: Can't help it, i love this show; watch it every year.

Chopped: a fun food competition where chefs must use 3 or 4 ingredients that really shouldn't go together in each dish. though I will admit I liked last season's format where it was new people every single week so you didn't have to keep up with every single episode. Now the winner moves on to the next episode.

Community: Joel McHale in a comedy about community college! How can you go wrong?

Hm, those are the main ones I am watching right now, though there are some other regulars. Will post others later if I think of some good ones.

Barnes & Noble (short version)

(There was a long rant here; you can ask me if you're interested in the original, but here is the much shorter to the point version):

Barens & Noble's new management now hires security guards. These security guards apparently patrol the store to make sure all the invisible rules are being followed. Why have a book store with security guards? I am not aware of any security guards at Borders. Anyway, one of the invisible rules is "no sitting on the floor", apparently because it messes with their aesthetics and they don't like to look at people in their store enjoying themselves. So the question is, why does Barnes & Noble continue to shelf books 1/4" above the floor if they expect everyone to stay off of it?

New York City

Going to New York City in September!

Writing

Just a quick note -- I am going to try and write much more on this blog, so expect more frequent entries starting this weekend or so.

Can we stop with the light rail and build some real trains?

So, I'm reading the article that plans are now under way to extend the light rail to Santa Monica from the line already being built to Culver City. As I read the article, I get a sense of the board thinking "let's do the easiest thing possible." They don't want to build an elevated station because this is 'earthquake country.' Perhaps they have never been to Japan, but they get a hell of a lot more earthquakes in Tokyo and they have elevated trains all over the place! Next, they don't want the train to run high speeds through Santa Monica, and they want it to *obey the same traffic signals* as the traffic on Coloardo Blvd. Have you driven on this street? It's S-L-O-W. "It won't run at 55 mph" they say. 55? Urban trains can go over 80 mph these days. How about just separating the structure a little bit and allowing a high speed trip to Santa Monica? The Gold Line that runs on Marmion now at least gets priority through the traffic lights, even if it's only going 30. Who the hell wants to take a 45 minute trip from Culver City to Santa Monica? You'd be faster on the bus that goes through Venice first. I wish the MTA board actually cared about proper transit solutions instead of looking for the cheapest and easiest way out. Take a little bit longer to design a system and improve it so that it will stay around for many years, instead of trying to copy the old streetcar system exactly. Los Angeles is BIG, and it needs high-speed-trains, not slow moving light rail. However, Zev has never really been about providing proper transit solutions, has he? If you don't remember he's the one who screwed Los Angeles over by not allowing the voter-approved sales-tax to go to the subway, when that's where it was supposed to go. It's long past time for him to go.

Goodbye Old Bank and Good Riddance

So, my bank (WaMu --> which is so inept at it's own money management skills that they don't exist any more) decided to remove my overdraft protection -- a protection I signed up for when I opened the account 7 years ago! The teller says "oh, that's just a courtesy, sometimes we take it away." Bullshit teller, that's a specific thing I am PAYING for, and have had *every single month for seven years* so what use is this account if you don't even give me what I pay for? So I said "I don't need this useless account then" so that's the end of my horrible horrible journey with WaMu. They didn't even bother to check and find out how much money I usually have in my account. So if they don't need my money then I don't need an account there. My advice to anyone -- do not open an account at Chase! They are USELESS, and their tellers are even less helpful than the WaMu tellers of the past.

I'm Back!

Wow, I haven't posted a new blog in a long time. I will try to update this thing much more often! I still don't have internet at the new place :(, but that should hopefully be fixed this weekend. I'm also getting A/C put in at the new place, which I am excited about, and I'm sure my dog will appreciate too.

So, I registered my car a little late, so I don't have a new sticker yet, but it's only one month late at this point. However, I have seen at least three cop cars take a 2nd look at my car. At first I thought it was because of the damage, but I've had damage on the right side for several months now and this is recent. 2nd I thought it was because of the registration, but I don't think they would care if it was 15 days late, since they can't impound a car until six months, and if they look up my plate they will see the DMV has my registration. Also, the cops usually drive away after a quick glance at my plate so I am thinking that there is another RX-8 the cops have been searching for!

The three cops were this -- an LA County Sheriff followed me into a parking lot when I was stopping to use my cell phone. He drove by, but I saw him parked on the side of the road when I left the lot. After I drove by his stopped car, he left in another direction. 2nd, an LAPD car stopped in the lane next to me behind my car at a traffic light near my house, with about three car lengths in front of him, so I know he was checking the plate. Third today, a CHP officer passed me on the freeway, and as I took my exit he slowed down and changed four (4) lanes to get a look at my car!! He didn't follow me off the exit.

So, I don't think it was the registration; I think they must be looking for a similar car.