She Was Tweaked But She Was Not There

I have often said that if you are a writer you need to ride public transit.  You will never lack for ideas.

Daisy got on the bus. She had no purse. She had no wallet and very few coins.

She was clean but kept holding on to herself and rubbing her skin as if ants were on it.

"I'm trying to get to downtown."

Metro buses pass through a number of cities with downtown areas.

"Where do you want to go?" the drive asked.

"The Valley."

The Valley is not downtown.
She fake fumbles for looking for change as she puts one or two coins in the box.

The driver, seeing this type of behavior before has to make some quick decisions.

He could throw her off the bus.
He could let her beg for a fare donation.
He could tell her to sit down.

He tells her to sit down.

Daisy goes to sit down but she doesn't stay down for long.

Three stops later, asked the driver how to get to 6th and Broadway.

The driver says he doesn't know.
Cuz, there are more than one.
It is that city thing.

Daisy gets upset with him.

"How do you not know? You are a bus driver. Why don't you know all of the routes of Metro?"

For those of you that drive, do you know each and every street in Los Angeles County?
What is on each street? How many Broadways there are in which city?

The driver asked again, "Where do you want to go?"

"6th and Broadway but I don't see why you don't know how to get there! That is ridiculous."

He opens the doors and she exits the bus to a city street that is not near 6th and Broadway or the Valley.

Still holding herself.
Still scratching.
Still lost.

Los Angeles Bach in the Subway Day 2015

Yes I was a gal about town and it just so happens that I found myself at Union Station.

Bach in Union Station 2015 from Gena Haskett on Vimeo.

My other cameras were on life support and I had my trusty old Samsung Android 2.3  MP3 player to help share the magic. I have to say I'm really glad I had my selfie pole also know as a monopod.

Communities form and dissolve quickly here. There was a quiet joining of history and music that touched people enough to stop and be a part of the experience.

My First Time at L.A. Auto Show

I have known that there is such a thing as an automobile show. Apparently it is a big thing. But seeing as I don't drive and have limited interest in automobiles (unless they are painted in an artist way or are creatively off the mainstream) then I had no need to go spend money traipsing over the L.A. Convention center.

Until this year. See, I really want a self driving car.  Hell, I want the majority of Los Angeles to have a self driving car. Why? Because most Angelenos can't drive. They cut right in front of city buses. They have the phone in their face slurping something as they turn the corner and almost hit me.

I have witness bone stupidity from people behind the wheel. It is time, long past time for these people to be placed in a controlled vehicle.

So, I got to thinking. I think a lot and most times nothing comes from it. But this time I was thinking harder than usual. Maybe Google and the other autonomous car vendors will be at the show. And I could get a gander at what I think could be functional available by 2017 in California.

So I take a bus, another bus and a train to the Convention Center. Big honking place.

I get my ticket and turn a corner and bam, there it was. This model is from Volvo and the person, who is not a booth bunny, told me that in Sweden they are just about good to go.

I'll put Sweden in the summer on the bucket list of travel possibilities. It doesn't bother me I would travel half way around the world to test out the car. I'm impatient.

So I found one car I was sure that I'd find more. I spent three hours in that joint. Verily I looked at just about every car in the place. There were plenty of hybrids. Electrics. Diesels. A ton of red cars; pretty, shiny things that will guarantee you will be pulled over every night for the next 15 years.

I almost bought food at the event until I understood that $11.00 was the starting point for most meals. That frugal bone started to twitch and I made do with a $5 frozen drink.

Back to hoofing. I saw high toned low end cars and beep-beeps that where encased in plastic walls so that no mere mortal could touch them.

I'm still hoofing for another autonomous car. I'm about to give up when I found one at the Honda area. More on that later.

Lessons Learned

I have to say I had per-conceived notions about who goes to an auto show. Now, some of those notions were correct. There were T-shirt wearing offenders like "I (heart) rim jobs. 

But really there were families, married people and not always the husband as the car junkie. There were dad's introducing sons to the car life. There were women who knew what the lingo was and comparing gears to wheel base ratio something or other.

It was Greek to me but god bless 'em. Oh, one more thing.

I was in the rest area. This married couple sat beside me. Dude was telling his wife/partner/significant other that the Ford trucks will be converted from a steel base to a composite one because of up coming EPA regulations.  He also said that the steel industry was busy trying to kill or alter the requirements so that steel would be in the trucks.

From the way he was talking, it sounded like the word environmental was a pejorative. 

Anyway, it was an experience I'm still processing. On account it took three hours to get home. 

Yeah. Another reason why I want the car.

Waiting on The High Speed Train of the Future

An old school friend, Mike and I were talking about rail transportation. He likes to make videos about the trains he uses to commute to various cities. I like to watch them because I remember siting in those seats with the view of an industrial skyline.

It was a living metaphors of wanting to go somewhere. I was on trains all of the time.


Train videos connect me with my past and present time.

I hope that I will live to see hi-speed rail lines in California. I think it would be great for the environment and economy. It is a big state and no they will not carve it up into six islands of confusion.

They need to go buy an island and set up their Ayn Randian paradise.

Don't get me wrong, I like taking slow trains to San Diego. Those trips can mellow you out and drain the anger from you. But a two hour train to San Francisco could mean that I could go to a San Francisco event in the morning and make it home by night fall.

Very attractive. And probably not affordable but I like the idea of it. Maybe that is the point.

Having ideas. Having the vision to see what isn't and making it real.

Once upon a time a tricorder, a computer and scanners were the stuff of 1960's television shows.

I own computers, tablets and a smartphone,

I wish people would get busy and create the future while I still have time to enjoy it.

Jaming It In Anyway I Can for Day 13

Today is Sunday. A day of rest. Trying to catch up on my videos and it it almost but not quiet a lost cause. This is a video of me looking out at trouble from the Metro Pico Station. We are suppost to have our Santa Ana winds that cause warm air to lovinging caress the body.

Not these rain clouds.



What rest?

I have cleaned the bathroom, Uploaded 15 videos to the Vlomo Gallery, throwing out trash, trying to finish a blog post and start another and did I mention the kitchen is a wreck?

There is laundry. There is purging of things I haven't used or read in 15 years.

No. I am not complaining. I am stating facts. The fact is this is a good day. Well, except for damn near choking myself because I took too strong of a sniff of PineSol.

Ventilation should never be compromised. 

Being 52 - Writing A Post to A Stranger

Life was a bit simpler being a six-year old person. You could write a letter to someone you did not know. You thought about the letters that made up the words you wanted to say.

As you age up a bit you become more self conscious and hopefully a bit more reflective. I did type hopefully. Anyway this video is an answer video to Frank Carver's Vlomo10 post on the A14.



Hi Frank.

This is the California state highway 134. It is normally jammed up with folks going and coming from work or trying to get to the Rose Bowl. Lord help you if you are on it the same day as the UCLA vs USC football game.

The scenery is kinda cool. There are palm trees, oak trees, wild flowers, bougainvillea and whatever the wind blew into the land this week.

Lemme see, anything else. Oh, yes. The sound you hear is the on-board television called TransitTV. There are day old news stories from the Associated Press, PowerPoint type puzzles and commercials to ride the bus to people that have no choice but to ride the bus.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Gena

The Being 52 lesson of the day is go for it.

VloMo08 - Day 19 Cheese on Ubuntu Remix

This is a short clip of Cheese, and some of the features of the program. The truce is holding so far with my Toshi running Vista. It let me install Ulead VideoStudio Pro and I was able to edit a video with a larger file size than I like.

I need to see this through. I'm kind fixated on finishing. There are reasons.

I will say that some of the programs are loading faster than in XP with less memory. Still can only open no more than 3 at a time. I have to tilt the laptop keyboard to type and the cursor goes where it wants or I'm hitting an ancient key combination.

Some of the software works but there are missing features like sound in QuickTime that I can't waste time fighting with. I have to hold off until Monday to see if I can ask a friend to take me to an electronics store.

I wish I could do mail order but it is what it is. I'm a desktop girl when it comes to knocking stuff out. The other reason I have to get a desktop is that the laptop doesn't have a firewire port. I can't get to my stuff. In hindsight, not such a bad problem to have.

This World - How To Wean America Off Of Fossil Fuels

There are those of that know the world has a finite supply of dinosaur grease a.k.a. oil. After you drain Alaska, Africa, Antarctica, and the methane pool that is under Southern California there is not going to be enough of anything left to run a scooter.

It does not have to be that way. Now some folks promote wind, solar and nuclear power but I’m talking vegetable oil. This is a fuel source I understand! With the low carbohydrate craze raging on, it could not have come at a better time. Have to do something with all that unused grease.

Dig it, you can run cars on used (hopefully filtered) vegetable oil. I suppose you could also do it with rendered animal fat but I don’t want to complicate the issue. I need everybody on the same page and I strive to be inclusive.

The basic premise is that you modify a car to accept the used cooking oil. The technical term for this is Bio-Diesel. The State of California’s Energy Commission has a kid’s version explanation, which is perfect for an automotive impaired person like myself to understand - http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/transportation/biodiesel.html or to get an overall alternative fuel primer visit http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/transportation/index.html

This is not new fangled stuff. The technology has been around for 100+ years. The willingness to actively promote veggie oil or bio-diesel fuel is just kicking into consciousness in America.

The Biotta Family bought a $400 Dasher off of eBay. The car was converted into a veggie-mobile. They drove to Argentina in that car. You can read more about their trip - http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=15508

Even some companies are doing its part to promote alternative fuel transportation. Clif Bar – the makers of nature/healthy snack food is also doing its part to promote alternative fuels transportation. Two drivers are taking a tour of the east coast to promote natural energy mobility - http://www.clifbar.com/play/natural_energy_more.cfm?location=teamclif
The Veggie Van has made the commitment to convert Americans over to veggie-powered cars. Part of their mission is to help educate and motivate change. It is a non-profit organization that is supported by the sale of books and technology to show how easy it is to make the switch from petroleum. They will be busy moving up and down the California coastline, so be on the look out for the van - http://www.veggievan.org