I'm walking, here! I'm walking here!

Three times this morning I had to walk around somebody because the person in front of me just randomly walked diagonally across my path, as if I wasn't there.  What's the story with that?  I see this happening and I look ahead to see if there is a turn or staircase or something that the person is trying to get to.  If so, I adjust my gait accordingly to let them pass.  But when there's no reason for them to just be staggering to and fro across the sidewalk, I keep walking.  None of them were even on the phone or otherwise engaged in something distracting.  They just don't know how to walk.

Hey -- there's people on the sidewalk with you.  They're trying to get to work too.  Have enough awareness to know that you're about to walk into somebody.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Work

In the morning I have a choice of trains.  The 8:10 makes its last stop at my station and then runs express into the city.  The 8:15 on the other hand starts at my stop (so it is typically there waiting) and runs local into the city, making about 4 extra stops.  The problem with the express is that by the time it gets to us it's usually full and you have to crowd in to find a seat.  Personally I like to break out the laptop and feel like I'm getting some work done, even if that work is catching up on newsfeeds and posting to the blog :).  So I tend to take the 8:15, which is always empty, and get that extra 5-10 minutes to sit down.

Anyway, I get to the station and there's no trains at all.  That's not good, since I know I haven't missed it.  Lots of people waiting for the 8:10.  The status sign is scrolling "The next inbound train will be 10-15 minutes late."  That's not cool.  The number of people grows.

About 8:20 or so a train rolls in, from the other direction, on the other track.  This would be odd, since it appears to be an outgoing train, unless you know the secret that the local comes directly out from the station.  In other words, this is the local train.  So, slowly, people figure that this surely must be the inbound train and start getting on it.  Maybe 3/4 of the people that were waiting start boarding, while the remainder hang out on the platform, either unsure of which direction that train is going or, more likely, just being smarter about it.  Cell phones start coming out as people check in with work to say the trains are running late.

Just then we see a train pull up on the other track, going in the right direction.  Aha!  That's the8:10 express running late, and we've all just boarded the 8:15 local.  Then the stampede begins as all of these people who are so uber-important to their jobs run off of this train to stand in line to get onto that train.  Most of them never even get off their cellphone. Meanwhile the people who never left the platform are first in line when the train stops.  I keep my seat, since I probably would have taken the local anyway.

Then, and this is the best part, the conductor for the express announces that this express is full, and to get back on the local.  I love it!  I get to watch everybody, still on their cell phones, file back onto my train.

The moral of the story?  Don't be in such a fool hurry.  You're already 10 minutes late, and you've already checked in at work, is it really that crucial that you save another 3 minutes by fighting for your place on the express instead of sitting down and relaxing? 

If you're really and truly in a job where you're going to get in trouble if you don't punch in at exactly 9:00, get a new job.  Life's too short to try controlling every minute of your day.  You can't do it, so stop trying.

 

Technorati tags: life, work, commute, story

Never buy books on CD again!

Tell me if this sounds familiar.  You've got an iPod or other MP3 player.  You ripped all of your CDs to it, and that was fun for awhile.  But then it got boring.  So you bought some music from iTunes, and that was interesting too, but didn't keep you occupied for long.  So, to occupy yourself on the long drive into work in the morning, you decided to look into books on CD.  Why not listen to Harry Potter or The Da Vinci Code on your iPod?

Because the average cost of books on CD is about $50, that's why!

Books on CD are a giant ripoff.  As the cost of the book itself goes down, the price of the audiobook never does.  When you can get Harry Potter in paperback for $7, the CD version is still going to cost you close to $50.  (Harry Potter #1, right now as I write this, is $39.96 at Barnes and Noble.  That's the first book - how many years ago was that written?)

That's an expensive habit.  Maybe an unabridged audiobook gets you somewhere between 8 and 20 hours of content.  Given my 3 hour commute every day that would take me less than a week and a half to finish.  Now what, another book?  I'm not interested in a $100/month habit just to get content to listen to in the mornings.

Instead, you need to get yourself over to Podiobooks.com and start subscribing.  Podiobooks offers full length audio novels on a podcast subscription basis.  That means that you can decide how frequently to update - you want a new chapter every day?  Or maybe once a week?  It's a great way to juggle several books at once.  All free, of course. 

These are not any sort of pirated ripoff of "regular" books.  All the works on Podiobooks are original works, typically read by the authors themselves.   There are plenty of finished works (for those who don't want to start something that they'll have to wait for the end), works in progress, and new works coming out every day.

Go get!

 

Technorati tags: podcast, review, podiobooks, mp3, ipod

The Shortest Distance

There's not a commuter train in my town, but there is one town over.  Logic would dictate that I drive to that train and then take the train to work.  It's a good 55 minute train ride so I could relax, bust out the laptop, get some work done.  (Some people like to read the paper or sleep.  That's not my comfort zone :)).

Here's the thing, though.  Takes 15 minutes to get across town.  And the monthly pass for the train is upwards of like $170.  And there's a very tiny parking lot, worse when it's been snowing.  So if I drive across town and can't find a space, now what?

However, if I get on the highway and drive a few towns down (maybe a 25 minute ride instead of 15) then I can catch the train at a station with a major parking lot (we're talking over 10x as many spaces).  The monthly pass is only $118, and the train ride is about 20 minutes into town. 

Here's the kicker -- once you factor in the amount of traffic on the side roads during night time rush hour, it turns out that I actually get home faster by taking this other train!  So by looking around I end up with a train station that's cheaper, where I always get a space, and I'm home for dinner.  Sure, with the shorter ride in the train and the longer ride in the car there's not much time to sit and open the laptop, but that's what podcasting and FM transmitters are for.

How about you?  Are you taking the best route to work?