Day 3 - Yamhill Station Ticket Machine

Blurry because it was taken in a hurry as I hopped onto the train.

Crazy Hair Day

Last week Brianna had crazy hair day at her school.  We went with the purple.  It was crazy.

Day 2 - Yamhill Station Ticket Machine

Science Experiment Take 2

First off, I have no status on the Trimet ticket machines at Yamhill station today.  The MAX was pulling up just as I got to the stop so I didn't have the chance to check.  Never fear, the next installment will come tomorrow. I know that I will inevitably hear from my critics that I am straying from my original commitment to post the status of the machines every day until they both work.  To those naysayer I say nay, that's right, nay right back at you.  Nay in your face.

Weekend before last the kids tried the volcano science experiment again, this time using the right kind and amount of vinegar and baking soda.  The kids had a lot of fun with it but the results were definitely mixed.  First off, it takes a TON of baking soda and vinegar to make this thing work.  Secondly, you kind of have to mix it up to get it to work, which caused us to need to take apart and rebuild the volcano a lot.  The kids had a lot of fun with the whole thing though and it's always neat to see them learning.

 

Trimet MAX Machines

Like I've said many times before, I love the public transportation in Portland.  It's great and I'm a devotee.  As I was walking downtown today I was thinking about how much it would suck if I had to go back to driving to the burbs.  I hate traffic and can't imagine being stuck in it every day again when I could be reading.  Not to put too fine a point on it, I <3 Trimet.

BUT

It drives me *crazy* that the Yamhill Station pay machine going east is always broken.  What I've heard from Trimet is that if the machine is broken you're supposed to ride the MAX down one station and buy a ticket there.  The problem with that is if you buy a ticket, you also have to wait for the next MAX to come because you can't get a ticket and get back to the train before the doors close (I've tried).  In my case, if the next train is a yellow line I have to wait for the next one after that too.  So that's about 15 minutes because Trimet can't be bothered to maintain the pay machine.

This is particularly frustrating because while I'm trying to be Johnny Citizen everyone else is getting on the train without paying because they either a) aren't leaving fareless square or b) are just not paying the fare.  Or they could have a pass.  But what gets my goat is that I am a paying customer, and I'm inconvenienced in comparison to everyone else.

According to Trimet officials, they believe that the root of the security problems are caused by fare evaders.  According to Trimet they've really stepped up enforcement over the last few weeks.  I applaud their ability to avoid detection, because I haven't seen a fare checker in months.  That said, if the machines aren't working, what that means is that regular people are getting tickets for fare evasion when they aren't even the real problem.

Admittedly, I have a pass this month, so the situation with the machine doesn't affect me.  It's the lack of logic around this that drives me crazy.  So, being the person I am and attempting to bring order to the world I hereby vow to post every time the machines are broken to just see how many days in a row we go until we have a day on which both machines work.

This'll be fun, like Deal or No Deal, but without the suspense.

DAY 1

Devotion

I love this because it's too true. About a minute in you'll figure out why I totally relate.

I Hope We Do

Goodreads.com

My friend at work told me about this new site that I'm totally digging - goodreads.com.  Of course I did the obnoxious thing and sent invitations to all of my friends so if you were someone I bothered and you didn't appreciate it, know it's coming from a great place.

It's got a lot of cool stuff.  Of course, you start out by adding all of the different books you've read.  Going into it I was expecting the site to be more like a last.fm or netflix where it would take the input of your favorite books and recommend books based on the scoring system, but it doesn't really work that way.  The site is much more about who you have added as friends and it's much more about that kind of community.

They have a lot of features, like the ability to explore the most popular or most read books on the site, follow the reading habits of authors who have signed up for the site and even start or join book groups.  The interesting thing about the site is that the feel of it really does reflect kind of a bookstore, literary vibe.

goodreads.com joins last.fm as my two favorite web 2.0 sites right now.

So I did it...

For probably the first time in my life I've run two miles in a row. The rest of the distance was warm-up or cool-down walking.

Everybody Knows

I guess Ryan Adams is just as prolific a video blogger as he is a musician.  Check out this neat little video... a poem from RA, kind of kerouac or bukowski style followed by "Everybody Knows" and a very clever ending credit.