Author: cheerfulchaotic

Dearest CTA,

We all know you’re a little worn down, and, well slow. We’re kind of used to it, actually. But could you at least pretend to not actively hate your customers?

Imagine for a moment train A arrives a second or two before train B on opposing platforms. Imagine further that trains A and B carry passengers who may well want to transfer to the other line. What is the appropriate response? Hint, the correct answer is not “drop your passengers as quickly as possible and pull away from the station seconds before a reasonably athletic passenger, optimally placed, can sprint between the two lines so you can proceed to wait 3 minutes with your final car still overlapping the platform (doors closed, of course) so no passenger can board and no train can pull in behind you.

Fuck you very much.

Hugs & kisses

-scu

Jane: Hey stephen how was the trip to Ca
Me: Yo
Me: CA was very nice.
Jane: 🙂
Jane: What all did you do that was fun?
Me: Out to dinner with tom and pliny and saw halfblood prince on wed, biked over the oakland hills and saw a play about hookers and drug dealers on thu, crepes with pliny before work and lunch with simon, lili, tom and pliny on friday before hitting a desserty bake shop, saturday was boardgame day, sunday we went to the dore alley street fair (not suitable for minors!) a house party, then dinner with josh followed by: drinks with josh and pliny
Jane: Nice sounds like quite an event
Me: Monday, we had lunch with nathaniel at google (I want to work there for the lunch alone, and the tube slide between floors) then we went hiking in berkeley (shoulders still burned), and dinner with simon, lili, tom, nathaniel and krista at a neat cambodian place. Tuesday we flew back and tried to play a board game together on our laptops, which sorta worked.

(Partial photo documentation available on facebook)

So, when asked very recently about raising kids in the burbs v the city, I talked about my experience growing up in the burbs (hated it, especially the dependency for transportation.)

And then I proceeded to make a series of almost totally unsupported, kneejerk, anti-suburban statements, peppered with admissions of ignorance.

Is there any research on this? What about you parents, rural, suburban and urban? What do you think?

Paul Krugman’s Monday column claimed that climate change denial struck him as a form of treason against the planet. I mostly agree with what he has to say in the column, but something about that strikes me as not quite right.

The planet is a giant chunk of rock which developed the atmosphere and oceans that spawned life as we know it. This life has gone through an evolutionary process which has produced our species among many others. Our species through arguably comparable processes produced civilization. All on this one speck in the universe which is so hospitable to life, and human life in particular, in comparison to every other planet we know anything about.

But it’s not the giant chunk of rock we’re betraying. We’re betraying one another, ourselves and our children. We’re betraying our fellow life forms. Whether it’s our fellow species we’re eradicating, our fellow civilization’s farm lands we’re desertifying, our own coastal cities we’re submerging, or our own water supply that we’re all but eliminating, we’re committing treason against [ETA: the future of] life, humanity, civilization and ourselves. But the planet simply is. It’ll be here whether we destroy ourselves or not.

Looks like I’ll be in sf from 7/17-7/31 or so. If’n you’ll be around during that time, lemme know and we’ll make plans.

Anyone wishing to offer crash space for any part of it would be especially appreciated. Much more fun to stay with friends than in hotels.

Catch you later.

“Please forgive me for e-mailing you unannounced. I saw your information on LinkedIn, and I was hoping you might be able to help me out. My name is [redacted], and I am a recruiter with [big box retail store of doom]. We are currently engaged in a nationwide search for a Senior Manager, Healthcare Policy Communications for our Corporate Benefits Division

This is a full-time positions located in beautiful Northwest Arkansas where our schools have most recently been nationally ranked by Newsweek. Northwest Arkansas is perennially ranked in the Top 10 metropolitan areas in the United States by the prestigious Milken Institute and Forbes has called our region one of the nation’s best 10 places for business and careers.”

Should I send a “no thank you” or just ignore it. =)