Getting a word in edgewise
1) There’s a democratic presidential nominee debate in albuquerque. It’s being tivo’ed.
2) Our house wobbled, I felt it wobble, and I jumped up to get the fuck out before the ceiling fell in on me, but it was a quickly over & done kind of thing. Most extreme earthquake I’ve experienced.
3) Having my second date with Steve this evening.
Speaking of 3, I should probably go tidy up my room. It’s a sty. =)
I sent in a resume to a job listing from the cmu alum mailing list for paypal. Down in mountainview. If I got the job, I could do lunch with
I’m not in favor of absolutely open relationships any more than I’m in favor of absolutely closed ones. In a relationship I’d ideally like to be free to mess around in a no-penetration-even-if-barriers-are-involved (oral included as penetration) sort of way, and do that rarely, and with decreasing frequency, and have it be a very symmetric setup.
The number of people who are exclusively into anal sex disturbs me. I mean, sure, the prostate is a wonderful thing, and everyone should experience the joy, but, uh, major std risks, pain (in my experience pain is typical, though not universal), and smelly messiness. <shrug> To each their own, I suppose. My own is far more in the oral camp. =)
I want to play a game of Starfarers of Catan. It’s fun. You get to settle strange planets in an odd little galaxy, trade with alien races, fight space pirates, play chicken with wormholes, and rescue diplomatic envoys. Recognizable similarities to Settlers of Catan. Hit me up if this interests you. Takes 3 or 4 players.
I see this cute little bumper sticker every day, as I bike up the hill: “Don’t pray in my school and I won’t think in your church”. Ah, berkeley. =)
Didn’t find much of anything on maintenance or operation. These particular pages seem not bad in terms of estimating costs (and are fairly consistent with the bulk of what I’ve read).
A newspaper editorial discussing the future of rail near minneapolis. “Northstar would cost $3.7 million per mile, an exclusive busway, $10 million per mile and adding lanes to Highway 10, $12 million per mile” It also has an interesting bit on return on investment. But it’s very much a pro-rail political statement
http://www.abcnewspapers.com/2003/april/24ed.html
Examines the costs of building a bridge across long island sound, and, for a highway with 6 lanes (3 each way) and shoulders, they estimate $100m/mile (or about $16.6m/mile/lane). Trestle bridge estimates were twice that per mile, and suspension bridge 2.5 times as much per mile. Going back to
http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/LI-sound-3/
Discusses the cost of streetcar programs that were constructed in various places, including the cost of cars. $2m/mile for the no-frills system built in Kenosha Wisconsin with refurbished street cars. $30m/mile in sf, including, apparently, alot of expensive and purely decorative features. But that’s street car stuff, and not light rail. It basically says that projects asking more than $10m/mile for street cars or $20m/mile for light rail ought not be funded. Note this is a pro-rail site.
http://www.heritagetrolley.org/artcileBringBackStreetcars7.htm
PERTS stands for Personal Electric Rapid Transport System. By which it means putting your car on a maglev frame, in essence.
http://www.crts.vt.edu/perts_fs.htm
http://www.crts.vt.edu/benefits.htm
Went out to Axum, and ended up at cafe flore, with this neat guy from Palo Alto (EE undergrad at cal, now does IP law). Met him from gaydar. I biked/barted there, he drove me back, and we were talking about a second date for thursday. Oh, and he’s hot.
The title character is an incredibly hot belly dancing librarian who likes to bake and lives on a houseboat. During the day she fights crime (in a peaceful librarial sort of way with sexy arabesque undertones), and at night she parties til dawn. She will be played by Allyson Hannigan.
Her sidekick will be a nerdy fag, played by Charlie Hunnum or Seth Green, who admins the library servers and designs/constructs/maintains her crime fighting gear. He grew up in the country, and his father left him a pony.
zephyr makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Well, I have some new lj pics. Limited to 3 since I stopped paying. Oh well, catering to my virtual exhibitionist streak is not worth paying for. =)
Pester me if you want to see the originals at full resolution or whatever.
Last week’s stuff was all about why cities are so great. Why do people pay so much to live in them? Especially given the externalities of living crammed in with so many others.
Stuff about external efficiencies of scale (I don’t need a full time copy center, and neither does basically anyone else near here, but we all need one occasionally, and the more of us there are, the more profitable it is for them to stay open full time, with comparable stuff occurring in lots of other categories). Generally these types of services are useful to small dynamic enterprises, with unpredictable demand, and highly variable outputs (such as the fashion industry). Also the need for face to face communication in a variety of fields.
Another topic is the availability of public services and what not in higher density areas. Blah. I think I need to preview what I’m reading to get a better big picture view of the material in question.