Concepts in the Paradox

Furious with the last time I had to ride on the 38, I decided to write an email complaint to Muni. I doubt it will be read, but my hope is that it’ll add to a complaint pile somewhere that will add more buses to the route.

The tipping point was last night after my late night workout. From Montgomery street, I boarded a mostly empty 38 bus. I got the infamous driver 556, who checks every pass, counts every coin, and makes sure everyone gets in the front. About Powell the bus got packed, but since I got in so early I was able to sit way in the back.

When my stop on Divisadero came around, I did my normal squeezing to rear door to make my escape. The green light didn’t come on, so I figured what ever magical Muni button hadn’t been pressed. It was then that the bus driver annouced, “You have to exit through the front door this stop.”

Why? I had to push through a bunch of very unhappy people all the way through the front. It isn’t like that stop at 10pm is very dangerous or busy.

The next day, I decided to walk one block up and take the 2 home. It is a little out of my way, but it was hardly packed. I climbed on to an electric bus where the driver was very cheery and greeted everyone on the bus. For the entire trip he made random jokes and tried to start random conversation.

“So, who here is from San Francisco?”

The few people on the bus looked confused, frightened, and weirded out, so I piped up.

“San Francisco!” I exclaimed.

A little surprised someone took the bait, he answered, “I hear it is nice this time of the year. You know where I was last week it was raining all the time. Do you know where that was?”

“Uhh.. Seattle?” I answered.

“San Francisco!”

He then looked at his watch and pointed to it.

“Welcome to the new Muni! We’re on time now!”

I couldn’t help myself from having a laughing attack where I sat. It was like an alternative Muni-land. He pulled up to a stop where an attractive young lady was obviously waiting for another bus. He then tried to coax her on to his line.

“So, where are you headed young lady? Oh, you don’t want to go there, I’m driving up to Leavenworth, you should get on!”

Later, he ran a red light, “I’m practicing stopping. You know where practice gets you? Carnage Hall!”

I don’t know if I’d want all my Muni drivers to be that conversive and flamboyant, but it made my day.

Coming up in December is LISA ‘05 in San Diego. I will be attending the tutorial sessions mainly (S4, M7,M12, T8, T12, F4). If anyone is attending or in the area, let me know and we can get coffee.

Immediately following LISA is FAST in San Franciso. I’ll be balancing work at the con at the same time, but if anyone is going to the NFSv4 internals talk, be sure to say hello.

In January is MacWorld in SF. I don’t work at a Mac shop, so I’ll be “sneaking” off with all the other closet Mac users to see what warez the vendors have.

February is CodeCon in SF, which isn’t exactly a work sancioned event either. Anyone who I’ve forgotten about having stay over at my place to go to this, please speak up. I don’t know if I have room for one more or not (if you are female, there is always room ;).

Finally, I’ve already started to plan for the notorious DefCon in the hot August Las Vegas heat, this time at a new hotel! $123/night, and the room is already paid and reserved. I know it is far in advance, but the rooms always get booked early, so why take chances?