transit

Try to make sense of the announcement on the SkyTrain when only every third word is intelligible on the crappy speakers.

"Zzzt! ...attention... Zzzzt ... *cracle* ...delays... *crackle* ... Zzzz! ...problem... Chzchzchz ...thank you for your patientence."

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/689393.html

When I was about 12 or so I read a series of thirteen short stories. The stories themselves didn't stick with me, but the prologue to them did.

The author explained that he had been on a flight from Capetown to Cairo in the 1970's and the plane had stopped for refuelling in Uganda (which was under Idi Amin at the time). On the tarmack, in the hottest part of the afternoon, was a white woman and boy of about twelve. The woman was wearing an elegant evening dress and the boy was wearing a tuxedo.

Give names to the people you see every day but won't talk to lest you then end up feeling obligated to talk to them every day. For example, I have "The Lunchbox Tard" (a mentally handicapped man that carries one of those huge 1930's steelworker-type lunch boxes big enough to double as a cat-carrier), "Other Tie Guy" (a man about ten years older than me that so far is the only other person I've seen wearing a tie to work), "EMO girl" (a high school kid in PoMo that looks like every single girl on MySpace), etc.. Someone else has probably dubbed me "Blackberry Guy".

Guess where people are going to get off based on what they are wearing and carrying. For example: brown hiking boots, faded blue jeans and faded blue dreads, and a backpack large enough to sleep six = Commercial/Broadway Station.

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/685572.html

Try and get some extra rest — but not to much. You can't drool on yourself or miss your stop.

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/682048.html

Try and predict, based on the breeze coming out of the subway tunnel, whether you should walk faster to make the train or bag it and saunter down for the next one.

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/680759.html

In three seconds or less, assess the personalities of 27 people based on their clothes, facial expressions, and body language and pick the least annoying one to sit next to.

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/679757.html

1. "Identify the smell"

This morning's winner was old tires with engine grease, with just a hint of urine.

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/677455.html

Nostalgia is bad. I have this plan of putting most of my old photographs up on my website and was going to scan a bunch in last night. I pulled out my old photo albums and that's when I started to get bummed. My big mistake was looking through my wedding album. It just so happens I got an overdue notice from my lawyer yesterday for the money I still owe on the divorce (fortunately the due date is 3 days after I get paid so I will manage).