Tube Drivers Reciting Shakespeare

http://www.thedailydust.co.uk/2009/06/30/tube-drivers-to-read-out-shakespeare/

A new initiative will see tube drivers reading out classical quotes with their announcements.

The drivers are to be given a book of quotations that will include Shakespeare, Goethe and Friedrich Engels and are expected to read out quotes with their daily announcements to passengers.

I like it.  The closest I ever saw to this in Boston was the overhead speaker guy in South Station who’d actually say “Good morning everyone … and have a nice day.”  Hey, it’s Boston, sometimes it’s harder than Shakespaere to get good manners out of people! :)

[ I particularly like this story because I can post it on my other blog, too. ]

Hybrid Spotting

Had my first “ninja hybrid” experience yesterday.  I’m crossing the street to get the mail, and I can see that there is a car coming.  However, I cannot *hear* that there is a car coming.  It is, indeed, a very weird experience the first time you become aware of it.  You get none of the Doppler effect that tells you the rate of approach (like you notice most when a fire engine passes by).  It’s like that moment while you’re watching television, and you immediately sense the difference between “no one is speaking at the moment” and “Hey, the sound just went out.”

I can understand now why this is so upsetting to bicyclists.  I do not spend my entire ride looking behind me, nor do I have mirrors set up like in a car so I can always see behind me out of the corner of my eye.  Instead I have to rely on my hearing to have at least some idea that there is *something* behind me.  When I can’t hear it until the last second, I can imagine that as a scary experience.

(Strangely enough while listening to a Dane Cook special last night there was this strangely prescient joke:

“I heard a car!”
    “Of course you did, they cover half the planet!  If you hear a humpback whale, then you can warn me.”

Master The Art Of Web Commuting

http://lifehacker.com/5292782/master-the-art-of-web-commuting

Good article on Lifehacker about doing the telecommuting thing for real.

Personally I have trouble with the discipline of separating work and home.  I can spend the morning on the phone or the laptop downstairs in my basement office, but it’s only a matter of time before I’m wandering up to the kitchen for a snack, and before you know it I’m playing with the kids, which means my wife will say “Oh, are you free?” and then she’s got chores for me….

Gas Prices Climbing … Are You Panicking?

In case you missed it, gas prices jumped drastically over the last week or two.  Locally I’m looking at $2.64 a gallon, which I think is right in line with the national average (although by definition that means that half of you out there have got it worse).

Knowing now what we saw last year, are you changing your summer plans?  Are you expecting it to be better or worse than it was last year?  Will you drive less?  Car pool, take the train?

The good news, at least from what I heard this morning, is that the current prices are still no way near what they were at this time last year (though I haven’t found a comparison chart yet).  I was afraid the exact opposite would happen, that this would become a regular thing and go up even higher.

The bad news is that there’s *no* reason for it.  Prices are up entirely because investors are bidding up oil prices.  There is no shortage.

For me personally, I’m starting to take the bike as much as I can.  The first couple weeks I would pedal it home over lunch, for three reasons:  not wanting to fight the going home traffic in the evening, not wanting to be exhausted at the end of the day, and wanting a healthy at-home lunch instead of takeout.  The problem with this is that it totally wiped out any gains in the gas department, as I’d then have to drive my car to work at lunch (and home again, thus still having 1 complete round trip).

Well, I can bring lunch, that’s easy.  And when I get out of work it’s still light out, so the traffic issue (where I was mostly worried about getting sideswiped in the dark) is a non-issue.  As I ride more my tolerance for the ride increases, and I’ve even got enough energy to handle it at 5pm instead of noon.  So now, at least on the good days, I don’t use the car at all.

Cars That Last Forever

http://www.abcactionnews.com/content/financialsurvival/tampabaystories/story/10-cars-that-seem-to-last-forever/IqburppgwEi1zTrczbjFVA.cspx

Personally, I was raised on the “buy something gently used at a good price and then drive it until it becomes too expensive to keep it running” school.  Then I married a girl who was raised on “I want a shiny new leased one every 3 years.” :)

But with the economy these days, my argument may be winning out.  ABC here lists some of those cars that you just know you’re going to keep seeing on the roads forever.  Is your car on there?  I had a couple of Honda Accords (#6).  Toyota wins, though,  with most models on the list – 3 out of the 10.

Get The Car Washed

If spend any meaningful commute time in the car (even if, like me, you just take it to the train station), chances are it’s getting filthier than you realize, both inside and out.  It’s hard for you to see it because you’re in the automatic zone of driving it back and forth every day.  You stop seeing it the way somebody would who walks up to it with a fresh set of eyes.

Take some time out, maybe this weekend, to get (or give) it a good cleaning, inside and out.  Vacuum those crumbs, collect all that spare change that’s fallen out of your pockets and go put it in a jar in the house.  Get rid of the food wrappers you threw in the back seat.  Bring the kids’ toys in the house, they’re probably looking for them.

Trust me, your ride to work the next day will feel shorter.  It’s like wearing new clothes.  You can’t help but start the day on a better foot when you feel new.

How Will GM Bankruptcy Affect You?

http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/29/news/companies/gm_fuzzy.fortune/index.htm

It seems a logical conclusion – if a car company is going bankrupt in a very public way, you don’t want to buy one of their cars.  After all, you expect a certain level of warranty and service, new parts, that sort of thing.  All of which would be up in the air if the company disappeared 6 months after you make your purchase.

Retiring vice-chairman Bob Lutz, always as proponent of emotional cars, sees hope. For evidence, he points to the interest shown by members of the government's auto task force in the new Cadillac CTS coupe.

"It got an amazing amount of attention," Lutz said. "Which shows, it doesn't matter where you're employed or what you do, normal people get turned on by great cars."

Support for Lutz's argument comes from the sales analysts at Edmunds.com, who believe the effect of the bankruptcy stigma has been overstated. The analysts cited improved Chrysler sales figures for the month of May. "The Chrysler experience should be cause for some optimism that GM's experience will be similarly efficient," Edmunds.com said in a statement.

That may be true if GM dealers decide to sell off their inventory at fire-sale prices. Chrysler had been stuffing its channel for months, and dealers were desperate to rid themselves of unsold cars, some of which had been gathering dust for nearly a year.

Do you see any hope for GM?