München

I've been in Munich (München) for about two davs now and I keep typing z's when I want to type y's because the keyboard is a little different, but that aside my time in Munich has been very pleasant. Munich is a pleasant city with charming narrow winding streets, attractive architecture, and plenty of big green trees. On the first day here we went to a huge museum featuring all sorts of technology including lots of old and different kinds of engines, planes, mining equipment, computers, lasers, and the list goes on and on. Someone told us that if you were to spend 1 minute at each display, you could be there for 33 days (and I believe it). I started feeling jetlagged pretty early in the day, but I soldiered on and we decided to go to another museum which was pretty strange and quirky (but not really in the interesting way). The whole time I kept thinking that it was the sort of museum my uncle Dwight would probably enjoy; I don't know why. Lots of people ride bikes here and Dad and I took a bicycle tour today through part of town into a huge park with a beer garden in the middle. Beer doesn't grow from trees in a beer garden, but it is served in humungous mugs. I have yet to buy a really big mug of beer, but I have certainly had plenty of beer today. When we aren't seeing the sites, we've been riding around town semi-aimlessly on the plethora of trams, buses, and subways, or sitting at outdoor cafe's drinking beer and eating sausage. I am still having a hard time with the whole not being able to speak German thing since I am more accustomed to being able to speak the language when I go places, but despite that we've been able to get around fine and stuff (although we've certainlz had our fair share of confusions). We will be taking a sleeper train to Budapest tomorrow night. I'm sure Budapest will be cool, but I could almost imagine myself living here in Munich someday if I had to; it's that cool.

Singin' In The Rain

Maybe it is too cliché to say this, but I love the rain. I love the smell. I love how it makes everything look shiny and clean. I even love how it feels to hydroplane through it on the road. It is raining right now and I think the sound of the rain on the roof of the house is probably one of the best sounds to go to sleep to. Someday in another life when I am wealthy and can build my own house I think I will build some sort of rain machine that will shower water onto my roof whenever I want for an on-demand rainy sound. But then maybe I would become too desensitized to it if I could just turn it on and off whenever I wanted to. Or maybe instead of building an artificial rain device, I could just move to Seattle (since I want to anyway). Allegedly they get lots of rain there (It has always been beautiful and sunny when I've been there). I wonder how much is "a lot" and how long would it take for me to get tired and annoyed by it. Being from Colorado I bet that my idea of "a lot of rain" isn't even CLOSE to "a lot" of Seattle rain. In Colorado it doesn't usually rain for more than a few hours straight, and then it often clears up and the sun comes out and makes everything nice again and so rain is sort of refreshing and cleansing, but I bet that in Seattle it can get to feeling kind of stifling. I guess I wouldn't know unless I lived there...

Anyway, in other news, the bus driving gig is nearing its end (sort of) and I'll be going to Europe for a month in just a few weeks (is it that soon already?!). As for summer plans, the only two suggestions I got on the previous post could be combined into one road trip to the East Coast; bring my uncle Dwight his stuff from his college days, and help my Aunt and her hubby with remodeling their house. Lately I've also been thinking that maybe I would like to try to go to Rio de Janeiro to study Portuguese for a month or two, but that is probably the most expensive thing I could do this summer. I have also been told that I can get as much work as I want driving the bus, which pays pretty well. I should probably also try to take the GRE this summer. Then, I am going to try to get a job in Antarctica for next season. So maybe I'll drive the bus to rack up enough money for a trip to Rio, go to the East Coast for a couple weeks, go to Rio, and then hopefully go to Antarctica... Yeah, that kind of sounds like a plan.

Today's video is a kind of F-ed up Antarctica-related video by Of Montreal called "Wraith Pinned to the Mist."

Haha, Oops!

The other day I was driving the Intown bus through the pedestrian area in Vail. I was going about 10 mph (maybe 12, max) and a skateboarder was approaching me from ahead coming the opposite direction. Just as we were about to pass each other, he suddenly looses control of his skateboard and it whips out from underneath him and flies directly under the bus. I slam on the brakes hoping to avoid running it over. After I stop he runs behind the bus, presumably to try to recover his board. Then I see him come around the other side where he discovers that the board is lodged securely under the rear tires and so he motions for me to keep going, so I do. As I start pulling away I hear the crunch of cracking wood, he picks up his board and starts running the other way and I continued on my merry way. I felt a little bit bad that I had probably ruined his board, but at the same time I had done my best and it wasn't my fault at all. But really it wasn't entirely his fault either. I mean, people fall sometimes, it happens. It was just bad luck for him that his board chose that particular trajectory...

Anyway, that evening after I got off work instead of going straight home like I usually do, my gimpy sister and my mom and I decided to go have dinner at a nice place in Vail right by the creek (we rarely go out to dinner together, and almost never to nice places in Vail by the creek). I told them this story about the broken skateboard while we were at dinner. Then towards the end of dinner, Mom looks out the window of the restaurant towards the creek and sees a skateboard sticking out of this strangely-placed trashcan. As we left we went to investigate this skateboard, and we determined that it was almost surely the same broken skateboard. This was kind of Twilight-Zone-y because the incident happened about two blocks away from this trashcan, and because the chances of us ever seeing this trashcan located in such a strange place is almost zero. It was strange. But I sure did get some satisfaction out of seeing my handiwork. That guy must have been pretty pissed, but really he could only be mad at himself.

In other news, for some reason I didn't get that Middlebury scholarship that I had applied for, and I haven't made any contingency summer plans, so if anyone has any good ideas for how I should spend my summer, I'd love to hear them. I AM going to Europe with my dad (Germany, Czech Republic, and Hungary most likely) from April 23 to May 23, but from May 23 until around Octoberish I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe I'll just stay here in Edwards and drive the bus sort of pseudo-full-time and ride my bike a lot and go camping and hiking and stuff (you know, try not to be a lazy turd). The biking and camping and hiking sound fun, but honestly I think that I have had enough of living in Edwards already (again), and another four friendless months here doesn't sound that appealing. I've also thought about going back to Chinese Summer Camp in Minnesota again, but I'm pretty sure that job doesn't even pay minimum wage (but I do get all the rice porridge I can stomach every single morning!).

Today's video is "Princesa" by Sacha Nairobi. She doesn't even have a page about her on Wikipedia (not even on Spanish Wikipedia), so she must be kind of a nobody, but I think she's from Venezuela. This song is basically about how she used to be a rich princess with no love, but now she's poor and in love and she prefers it that way and such. It's a strange video though that provoked some questions in my mind. Why does she have a white dove on her head? Why is she riding a large pink wooden horse on wheels? Why is she rolling in the mud with pigs? Why is she milking goats? I get that she's poor and all, but even poor people don't go roll around in the mud with pigs just because they are poor. I suspect she's kind of into bestiality.


I'm also adding a bonus video because I feel like it. This Starburst commercial makes me laugh every time I see it:

The Rules

So here are some rules to follow when using public transportation.

1. Use Body Language Wisely - This rule has many applications. The bus driver is a visual creature that uses primarily the sense of sight to determine when people wish to get on/off the bus, etc. If you are standing near a bus stop and wish to get on an approaching bus, then you need to stand up and look expectantly at the bus driver and make it look like you want to get on the bus, because if you don't look like you want to get on the bus then the bus driver might assume that you don't want to get on the bus and might decide not to stop for you. Do not, however wave at the bus in an attempt to wave the bus down to stop for you unless you are absolutely sure that the following three criteria are met: A) you are actually standing at a designated bus stop, B) you are absolutely sure that the bus you are waving at is SUPPOSED to stop at the bus stop at which you are standing, AND C) you are fairly confident that the bus isn't stopping because the bus driver has for some reason forgotten that he/she needs to stop there. If any of the three previous conditions are not met, then you should not, under any circumstances try to wave a bus down because the bus driver will hate you until the very moment that you get off the bus.
   
   If you happen to be standing at a bus stop and do NOT wish to board the approaching bus, then you need to make it clear to the bus driver through your body language that you do not wish to board that bus. The best way to do this is with a simple "no" shake of the head. If for some reason this does not seem to be enough body language, then a large, exaggerated "keep going" motion of the arms is appropriate. You should NOT, however, try to wave at the bus driver in a manner that might be confused with the "stop, I want to get on" wave which was previously discussed and which should only be used under very strict conditions. You must also realize, however, that many times the bus driver will still have to stop at the bus stop to let people off and so you should not be offended if despite your attempts to wave him/her past he/she still stops anyway. Know in our heart that the bus driver still appreciates your valiant effort to save him/her from the agony of making an unwarranted stop.
   
   If you are already ON the bus, your body language is still very important. First of all, you should never stand near either of the exit doors (ESPECIALLY not in the rear stairwell) unless you wish to de-board at the following stop because the driver may assume that people standing by the door wish to get off the bus and will stop and be severely annoyed if after bringing the bus to a stop those people do not get off the bus. If you DO wish to get off the bus at the following stop, you should always pull the Stop Request cord. If you have some aversion to the cord, then you should stand up and walk towards the exit door approximately 10 seconds before the bus arrives at the stop. If you move there too early, the bus driver will think you are an idiot who doesn't know where the stop is located. If you go there too late, the driver will think you are an idiot who doesn't know where the stop is located AND he might just pass up your stop completely and feel no remorse for you. If you fail to pull the cord AND fail to get up and make it obvious that you would like to get off the bus and the driver drives past your stop, he/she will be laughing on the inside at your incompetence as a user of public transportation.
   
   
2. Be On Time - First of all, know when the bus arrives at the bus stop and be there EARLY. Nothing gives a bus driver greater joy than seeing someone running to a bus stop, arms flailing in exacerbation, as the driver pulls away slowly from the stop already a minute or two late. If you happen to find yourself trying to catch a bus at the last possible second, follow these rules to increase your chances of catching said bus. A) Run, don't saunter. Bus drivers don't like waiting for people running late to catch a bus, but they REALLY HATE waiting for people who are sauntering slowly to catch a waiting bus. If the bus is already at the stop and is stopped waiting for you, RUN! If the bus is already pulling away, but you think you have a chance of running and maybe catching it, don't ever flip it off because the driver might see you just at that second and decide that instead of waiting for your late ass to catch up that he/she will just keep going instead and ponder joyfully how much trouble you will be in when you get to work 30 minutes late. Also, if you happen to be running/walking directly in the path of the bus that you are trying to catch, don't wave at it to wait for you because it can't go anywhere with you standing in it's way anyway and the bus driver will automatically know then that you are an idiot and he/she will hate you for the duration of your ride. This brings me to the next rule.
   
   
3. Get Out of the Way - Basically, if a 25000 lb. bus is moving in your general direction, get out of the way. If it is pulling into a stop, stand back from the curb because the driver probably wants to get as close to the curb as possible to facilitate easy loading and unloading, but when people are standing too close to the edge of the curb there is a risk of hitting them with the mirror or the corner of the bus and so he/she can't get as close and he/she is annoyed. If you are in the direct path of a bus, stop and/or move in the other direction. It's really pretty simple. The driver obviously doesn't want to run people over, but in the battle of bus v. human, bus wins.
   
   
4. Don't Be Annoying - Firstly, don't make small-talk with the driver unless A) you are abnormally good-looking, B) you have something genuinely interesting or funny to say, C) the driver initiates the conversation, or D) you know the bus driver and it would be socially awkward and uncomfortable to sit there in silence. The bus driver has to keep track of a lot of things when he/she is driving (like not running over people, missing stops, staying on schedule, etc), so small-talk can be really distracting and unsafe.
   
   Also, don't ask stupid questions if you can avoid it. If your question can be answered by simply looking at the bus schedule for a few minutes, then don't ask the driver.
   
   If you are drunk and on a bus, the same rules apply. Don't ask stupid questions. Don't be a jerk. Don't be an asshole. Don't be loud/obnoxious or sing stupid songs. Don't ask to honk the horn. Don't ask to turn up the music. Don't ask where to find easy women. Don't ask where to find marijuana. Don't bring your preferred substance onto the bus. Don't miss your stop. Don't vomit. Don't pound on any of the windows or doors. When the bus stops, either get on or get off, but don't stand in the door trying to get girls to come home with you. And finally, MOST IMPORTANTLY (whether you are drunk or not), never ask the driver to take you to anywhere that is not a designated stop on the designated route. If you wanted to go there, you should have taken a taxi instead. This includes asking the driver to drop you off somewhere that isn't really a stop. It is against the law for them to do so and they risk getting in big trouble if they let you off there, so don't even ask them to.
   
   
5. Learn the System - Know where the bus stops and where it does not stop. Know which direction the bus goes in (also, if you have to guess, the direction that the bus is facing is also often the same direction that the bus will be traveling in). Read the signs on the bus. If a bus says "Out of Service," then that does not mean that it is some other bus that you wish it is. If a bus has gone to the same place at the same time the past 3 weeks that you have ridden it, then you don't need to keep asking.

So basically, the best bus riders are the ones who can figure out a schedule by themselves, are on time to the stops, have good overall body language, and know when and where and how to appropriately get off the bus. Unfortunately these are also the riders that the drivers are least likely to notice and so they never get the praise that they deserve because the drivers are busy hating the riders who suck. But from a real-life bus driver I commend all those who follow these rules and do their part to ensure a smooth public transportation experience for all the others. And for those who break these rules, shame on you, and please read and follow these rules carefully in the future for the sake of all humanity. I might have missed a few rules, but I think these are at least the most important ones. If anyone else would like to contribute some rules that I may have overlooked, please do so.

Don't be like this guy:

Mini Fleet

My Franken-MINI obsession is well documented (part I, II, III, IV, V). It all started when I got the idea, "Hey, what if I got an old MINI Cooper and put a sweet Honda engine in it?" Then after digging around on the internet I found that several other people got this idea long before I did and that there are actually a few companies that specialize in doing just that. They put one of Honda's more potent four-cylinder engines in the diminutive MINI and turn it into a real road-ripping monster. I want one.

But then I got to thinking that the high-performance potent version is just one possible type of FrankenMINI. I found a company that is developing a retro-fit hybrid system; essentially an electric motor that replaces the alternator. This system combined with any of Honda's many powerful, innovative, and efficient four-cylinder engines could theoretically be installed into the diminutive MINI to make for some real clean, green, lean, mean, machines. So in addition to the balls-out fast version, I will also need these other versions:

• Biodiesel Hybrid - Diesel engines are not very popular here in the States because they are seen as noisy, dirty, and stinky. That's too bad because diesel engines are quite a bit more efficient than their gasoline counterparts, producing significantly less CO2 per distance. When fueled with biodiesel, which is produced from crops rather than fossil fuels, the CO2 emissions are virtually erased because the crops grown to produce the fuel re-absorb that CO2 from the atmosphere through osmosis. Pretty much any diesel engine can burn biodiesel, and just as easily switch back to regular diesel. I could even convert it to run on straight waste vegetable oil from restaurant fryers. I thought that the only way I could make a biodiesel MINI would be to use Volkswagen's ubiquitous 2.0 liter turbo-diesel engine found in the Golf and Jetta, but this would have been difficult because the MINIs are designed to take Honda 4-cylinder engines, not VW ones. But then I discovered that Honda actually produces and sells a 4-cylinder diesel Civic in the UK. After reading as much as I could about it, it sounds like quite a marvelous little engine. Although diesel engines are more efficient, they have (until recently) produced a lot more nitrous oxide than gasoline engines. Honda has developed an emissions control system for this engine that reduces Nitrous Oxide emissions down to stringent new European standards. It sounds like it's also a pretty smooth and quiet little machine. In the UK Civic, which weighs almost twice as much as the MINI that I would put it in, it gets about 54 miles-per-gallon. Putting it in the much smaller car and adding the hybrid system, 60 or maybe even 70 mpg don't seem too far out of reach. And with over 250 lb/ft of torque, this little monster would still have plenty of scoot. This car would be difficult to build though because as far as I can tell, this particular engine is only sold in the UK, and has only been on sale for about a year, so finding a used engine (like from a wrecked car) would be difficult. Even if I did find one, this engine has not been approved by the EPA for sale in the USA, so I don't know if it would even be possible to import it here. I read somewhere that rumor has it Honda is planning to sell cars with this engine in the US starting in 2009 though, so maybe in a few years this will be a more feasible option.

• Natural Gas Hybrid - Honda sells a natural gas version of the Civic in California and New York (Civic GX). Natural gas is about as efficient as regular gasoline, but burns cleaner, emitting fewer greenhouse gases. I could also attach the retrofit hybrid system to this. In the civic, this natural gas engine returns the equivalent of about 39 mpg on the highway. This would also be a relatively difficult engine to find just because of its limited sales area and volume. Another challenge would be finding natural gas for it, but I could buy one of these nifty appliances which fills your cars tank using the natural gas supplied to your home. Because of the refueling difficulty, this car wouldn't be able to stray very far from home. This drivetrain doesn't make a lot of power either, but it would be a lot cleaner and more efficient than the balls-out fast one, and in the tiny mini, even the meager power would probably be plenty.

• Gasoline Hybrid - Honda also makes a four-cylinder gasoline hybrid Civic and Insight. At first I didn't even bother looking into this option because I thought it would be way too complex and convoluted to be installed in the MINI. But after doing some more research, it seems that Honda's hybrid system is much simpler than that of the Toyota Prius. So much simpler, in fact, that I think it would actually be entirely possible to just take the engine right out of a hybrid Civic and put it in the MINI. In the Civic, this drivetrain gets about 45 mpg. I would probably try to find a way to convert the engine to run on Ethanol blend fuels like E85. If I already had a biodiesel hybrid, however, that got better fuel economy, had more power, and emitted fewer greenhouse gases, then I would probably never want to drive this gasoline hybrid anyway.

• Plug-in Battery Electric - This one would have no engine at all, just batteries and electric motors. According to Wikipedia (a.k.a. the disinformation dissemination machine) battery electric vehicles are much more efficient and cleaner than gasoline vehicles. Like the natural gas car, though, this one would also have a limited driving range.

So it looks like I would need 5 MINIs then. If I had to settle for just two though, I would have to go with the potent fast one and the biodiesel hybrid. Hydrogen cars have been getting a lot of press and attention lately, but hydrogen is still a pipe-dream with no infrastructure, and it still takes fossil fuels to produce it. So I think that biodiesel is really the best thing we have going for us and it's unfortunate that it doesn't enjoy more widespread support. In fact, it is interesting that the original diesel engine actually ran on biodiesel, not "dino diesel." While the biodiesel is my favorite, these other ones aren't too bad either, and so I want all 5 of them, preferably in 5 different colors.

I can't find any relevant videos, so I'm just putting up another Muse video because they are still awesome. This one is apparently called New Born.

Calling All Units

Tonight, for the first time in my short career as a bus driver, I had to call the cops to take some people off of my bus. I've been lucky to have almost zero passenger-related problems that required police assistance. Really tonight wasn't even that bad. On Wednesday nights I drive the last bus home for a bunch of people who are out in West Vail at the Sandbar for White Trash Wednesdays. It tends to be a pretty rowdy bunch at 2:00 AM, but luckily most of them get off the bus after only a few stops. The rest of them usually ride all the way back to the transportation center where I leave to do the last run of a different route. I don't mind when they are all rowdy and rambunctious for the few stops from the bar to where most of them get off, but tonight the really rowdy ones stayed on. I tried turning the lights back on to quiet them down, but it didn't work. I tried asking them to turn it down a notch because they were really distracting me, but it didn't work. They started getting belligerent and I asked more firmly for them to be quiet. They were very rude and instead got louder. I threatened to kick them off the bus which seemed to help a little. By this time I had already left for the last run and so I figured they weren't much more than a few minutes away from home. I mean I usually have obnoxious drunks on this last run, it's no big deal, just that these guys were ruder than usual. But then from what they started saying to each other, I got the vibe that maybe they were on the wrong bus and would possibly not be getting off the bus at the last stop. Great, here I was faced with the possibility of arriving at my last stop and having three drunk lost jerks. So I decided to call for some police backup. It turned out my hunch was right. When everyone else got off two stops before the end and it was just them left, they asked me about the stop that they were looking for, which wasn't anywhere near where we were or where we were going. At this point one of them knew that I had called the cops and they suddenly became much more quiet. I arrived at the last stop before the cops did and it was pretty uncomfortable just sitting there with these three jerks waiting for the cops to come deal with them. They kept offering to pay me cash to take them to their destination (some 5 miles away in the wrong direction). I was pretty irked and not very polite with them and I told them there was no way that I would do that, especially not after they were such jerks earlier. I also told them that this wasn't a taxi and that it's not my fault they didn't get on the right bus. I had no sympathy for them whatsoever. Heck, it wasn't even very cold out, I told them they could just walk home from there for all I cared.

When the cops came they just took them off the bus, asked what was going on and I told them that the three guys were being rude and that they need to get a cab to where they were going. That was it, and then I was free to drive back to the barn and finish my shift. It wasn't really a huge deal, but I'm really glad the cops were around and got there so quickly to deal with them so I could get back to the barn and finish my shift.

This reminded me of another police/bus incident a few weeks ago. I was not really involved in this incident, but I wish I had been. The dispatch guy comes on the radio addressing all of the bus drivers asking us to keep an eye out for the Sandbar Bus which had allegedly been stolen from the parking lot. Unfortunately I was on the Intown route at the time which is nowhere near the Sandbar, so I knew that my chances of spotting the joyriders was slim. I started thinking about kicking all of my passengers off the bus and leaving the route to go drive around Vail like a vigilante in my bus looking for the stolen Sandbar Bus. I imagined how it must feel to be the lucky bus driver who spots the target and calls in its coordinates to dispatch, saving the day and watching the Vail Police swoop in for the arrest, sirens blazing. In the end I think it was Ed driving the West Vail route who spotted the bus and called it in, but I'm not sure because I was busy answering some dumb tourist question when he came on the radio and I only caught the tail end of it. That darn Ed, he has all the fun. Every week I hope for more drama like that. Hopefully some week I will actually get to play a central role in some unfolding drama.

Sometimes when I see a near-accident or a close-call, I think to myself, "dang, I wish they had actually hit each other so I could call it in to dispatch." I would be like the star witness. Surely the cops would lend more credibility to my version of the events; after all I am practically a professional driver. Anyway, I'll keep hoping that I eventually see some carnage or something. Nothing too bloody, but just a nice little accident that does some decent damage would be nice.

The other day a woman almost got hit by a car after she got off my bus. She was talking on her cell phone and crossed in front of the bus and didn't look to see the car coming from behind on the side of the bus. I don't really want any carnage like THAT.

That's really the extent of the excitement I've had in this job; lots of close-calls, near-misses, missed opportunities, and a few drunk jerks. I think chances are pretty good that I'll get some real excitement before the season is over though. Keep your fingers crossed.

For today's YouTube video, Message In A Bottle by The Police seemed appropriate. This song was released in 1979 according to Wikipedia. That's practically the 1980s, and I generally dislike most things that came out of the 1980s, but I actually really like this song, still.

Centenarity

I saw this little blurb in the Denver Post a few weeks ago about how the first-born children of young mothers are much more likely to live past 100 years old. Being the first-born increased the probability of becoming a centenarian by 1.7 times, while being the child of a young mother (Less than 25) means you are twice as likely to live to 100. I fall into both of those categories, so I guess I should be planning a big birthday bash for 2084 (You are all invited).

Then, last week, I watched a show on the Discovery channel about what life is supposed to be like in 2057. They made it sound like medical advances will make it possible to live much longer by then. The host said something about living to be 200. What if I end up living way past 100? 120? 140? Maybe in 2084 being 100 will be more like being 80 today; certainly old, but there's still the possibility of a squeezing out few more years...

I'm not sure how I feel about this news. Old age doesn't really seem that appealing to me, so I don't know why I should be excited about having more of it. It just sounds like more years of bad knees, weak hips, expensive medicine, senility, and boring old-man cars.

But then I guess that just because I AM old doesn't mean I have to ACT old. Maybe I could still be doing fun and interesting things well into my 100s. I would want to be the kind of guy who still rides his bike on the weekends when he's 88 years old. I want to be the kind of guy who still travels around the world into his 90s. I want to be the 98 year old ripping up the bumps at Vail. I want to be the 100 year old guy who goes to race-driving school for his birthday.

I wonder how many languages I could learn by my 100th birthday. If my goal is to learn 10 by 50, then learning 20 or even 25 by my 100th shouldn't be too much of a reach. The hard part would be picking which languages to study because the first 10 are easy to pick because 10 covers almost all of the world's major languages, so beyond 10 would be smaller, less important languages and dialects like, Romanian, Dutch, Cantonese, Greek, etc.

Yeah, that's the kind of 100-year old I want to be; a biking, skiing, traveling, speeding, 100-year old that can say crazy/offensive things in 20 languages.

According to an article I saw in BBC awhile ago, to reach my full centenarian potential, I need to follow the advice of some of Cuba's many centenarians. The study found that many Cuban centenarians attribute their long life to plenty of coffee, cigars, and sex.

The little blurb also talks about how obesity contributes to global warming, but that's a topic for another day.

Speaking of cool old Cubans, today's video is Chan Chan by the Buena Vista Social Club.

The Wave

There are many aspects to being a good bus driver, but perhaps one of the more important of those is the bus-driver wave. You've all seen it; when two bus drivers pass each other on the road they almost invariably wave at each other. Back in my pre-bus-driver days I always wondered about all the intricacies of this mysterious part of bus-driver sub-culture. How many times a day do they wave at each other? Do they wave every time they pass each other or just the first one or two times? Do they all wave at all the others, or is the wave reserved only for specific co-drivers? How much effort should go into waving at another driver and how much is too much? I had a suspicion that there was more than met the eye with these bus-driver waves, and now after being a bus driver myself for about a month and a half I have gained some insight on them.

Before I started this bus driving gig I wasn't sure if I was going to become a waver or if I would instead become one of those stoic non-wavers. It turns out that I'm a waver. Yup, I wave at every other bus driver I pass. Not only do I wave at all the other bus drivers that I work with, but I even wave at some of the guys that drive other buses and shuttles that I see around the valley a lot. In fact, I've found that the "bus-driver wave" is not limited to just bus drivers but can be extended to lots of other people including all other people driving Town of Vail vehicles, cops, trash truck drivers, snowplow drivers, shuttle drivers, etc. There are also some people who are not privy to the wave though. These include taxi drivers, CME drivers, and certain shuttle drivers. These people don't get the wave because they are discourteous drivers and we don't like them.

As for some of the other questions I had, I wave at the other drivers no matter how many times I see them. Sometimes I will see and wave at the same person probably 20 times in a day, but I wave every time. It's kind of like Pringles, once you start you can't stop. What kind of mixed messages would I send people if I was waving in the morning and then not waving in the afternoon? So I always wave.

Not all waves are created equal though. Some guys try to act all nonchalant about waving, like they are too cool to really be waving but they know that they have to anyway. Some give a nice firm, confident sort of "hey, what's up?" two finger salute. A few give a simple forward-facing up and down palm. Some are a little more creative though. There's one guy who sort of flashes gang signs, often with both hands. One guy seems to have a new crazy motion every time I drive past him. Today his repertoire included a "whipping" motion, a "mummy" gesture, a "chopper bike rider" one, and a "woman with nice curves" signal. Some give peace signs, and some salute military style. Then there are a few guys who are so focused on the task at hand that they just can't be bothered with waving. Sometimes they just give a blank stare. Almost every driver has their own distinct wave, but I personally prefer to just copy the wave of whoever it is I am waving to. When I'm passing the creative guy, I try to think of something creative myself. To the gang sign flasher, I try to respond similarly. To the stoic starer, I just stare back.

If I had to describe my own wave though, I would call it a flick of a peace sign plus the thumb, usually with the right hand. I think one of my favorites, though, is when it's dark out and the drivers can't see each other most of us either flick on one of the interior lights, or click the left-hand turn signal one time. Some drivers go a little overboard with the light flicking though...


Today's video is another 1997 video, "How Bizarre" by OMC. My fondest memory of this video was one day in the summer when I was at the Berthoud pool and I ran into my former best friend's former "girlfriend" and she was wondering where I had disappeared to (because that was after I started homeschooling). Then this song came on and she said, "Oh, like, this is so, like, my song!" I bet this guy would have a pretty good wave if he were a bus driver.

Bus Chronicles

I've really been slacking on this blog thing. I know that at least one person has been particularly anxious to hear about my life as a bus driver, and I have been anxious to write about it too, but I just haven't had the time/energy. Then after I was already a few weeks into it I felt like I had so much to summarize that I felt overwhelmed and just haven't written about it.

Basically bus driving has been going well. Driving a bus is as fun as I had always imagined it would be. The first few days were the hardest because before that point I had always driven with a trainer, but now I was out on my own. If I made a mistake there was no one else to blame. I was constantly and nervously checking my schedule sheets making sure I was on time and in the right place. No matter how many times I checked the schedule and my watch I still had this uneasy feeling that somehow I was still doing something wrong.

As far as I know, however, I didn't really mess anything up. Actually, my first day was the roughest. After picking a bus out of the barn in the morning to take out on my route, I realized that the radio wasn't working and so I had to go get a new bus which caused be to be 15 minutes late on my very first loop of my very first route of my very first day. Luckily it wasn't really my fault but rather a simple mechanical mishap. Then on that same day, on my very last loop before clocking out, the bus I was driving broke down. I was able to get it started back up and get it back to the transportation center, and again, it wasn't my fault.

After that first day things went pretty smoothly. I work Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in the morning/day, and then on Wednesday I have a night shift that goes to 3:00 AM, so I get lots of drunks on that shift. I drive several different routes. I drive the "Intown" route that goes between Golden Peak and Lionshead for about half of each of my shifts, and then the other half is either West Vail, or the Golf Course/Lionsridge Loop/Ford Park. The only route that I never drive is East Vail. I'm guessing that East Vail must be the best one to drive because it seems like all of the more seasoned drivers who get first pick of their shifts drive East Vail while a lot of the drivers that I tend to see driving Intown and West Vail are the newer drivers like me who got the dregs shifts. I don't mind though. I like my shifts and I get a lot of diversity with my routes. There are some drivers who drive the same route all day every day, but I can't imagine how boring that would be. I would much prefer the mixture of my shifts.

Just physically driving the bus is pretty fun, and really that's the whole reason I wanted to be a bus driver. While it took a little bit of getting used to driving something that big, I'm already pretty used to it. I love using that big steering wheel to steer the thing around curves and stuff. I love all the sounds like the air brakes and the diesel engine and stuff. I even enjoy opening and closing the doors.

There's more to being a bus driver than simply being able to operate the thing. You have to know the routes and the stop names and be able to answer the myriad of dumb questions that people ask you about how to get here there or the other place. You have to pay close attention to the time to make sure you are on schedule. This is the hardest part, I think. Even almost a month in I still have to be careful not to get ahead of schedule. When I do get ahead of schedule I just have to stop and wait at a stop for a few minutes to get back on schedule, but I think that's probably just as annoying for all the people on the bus as it is for me. I wish they would just adjust the schedule so that I had to speed around everywhere really fast to stay on schedule, but as it is I have to poke along below the speed limit sometimes just to eat up some time. Now I realize that busses don't always drive slow just because the are big and cumbersome, but rather because they are just trying to stay on schedule!

I don't really have any good stories yet, but I do have lots of thoughts and impressions about bus driving that I hope to write about in the coming months, but for now I need to go to bed. It's almost 8:00 and I had to get up at 4:00 this morning, and I need to get up almost that early again tomorrow morning. Maybe on Wednesday I'll sleep in really late, 'til like 6 or something, haha.

The next Circa 1997 video is Macarena. Maybe this was more like 1996, I don't remember, but it was probably still kicking around in 1997 too. When this song was popular I didn't know that those two guys were speaking Spanish. I thought it was just some strange made up jibberish or something.

Obligatory New Years Post

Ok, I know, I haven't posted in awhile. I've been wanting to, and trying to, but for some reason I just haven't been able to. I know that an Obligatory New Years Post has nearly passed its expiration date at this point, but here it is anyway. Thanks to those of you who sent emails prodding me to write a new entry. I mean it.

I think the reason it has taken me so long to write this post is because I've been having a really hard time thinking of anything good to say about 2006. That's not to say that 2006 was a bad year, because it wasn't. It just means that it wasn't a particularly fabulous year. I didn't really do anything very cool/exciting/interesting. I was mostly just busy with working or going to school all year. To sum-up 2006, I was busy with school into May, then I was busy at Chinese Summer Camp in Minnesota until July, then I was busy with my linguistics transcription job at Infoture for the rest of the summer, then my last semester of college started and I was busy with that AND the Infoture job for awhile until I quit the job and was still just busy with school, and then I graduated and moved to Vail to drive a bus. In May (I think, or was it June?) I went to Phoenix (Tempe) to visit a friend of mine from study abroad in Nanjing. It was a lot of fun. Then in the fall I went to Baltimore for my uncle's wedding. So I didn't even go very many places in 2006.

As for last years resolutions, I think I did a pretty good job:

• Learn some Arabic - Well, I didn't learn any Arabic, but I did learn some Russian and Portuguese, so I think I succeeded.
  
• Graduate with at least a 3.5 GPA - I'm pretty frustrated with this one. It appears that I have missed this goal by the slimmest possible margin. Had only one single grade over the course of my entire college career been one single notch higher, I would have made it, but as it is I am graduating with a 3.495. Oooooh man, sooo frustrating.
  
• Bike more - Being in Minnesota for the summer put a damper on this goal, but I did do a good job of riding my bike to school almost every day this past fall semester. I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have ridden as much if I hadn't got that awesome fixed-gear bike.
  
• Waste less time on the internet - This is the only goal on this list that I completely failed to reach. In fact, I'm wasting time on the internet this very minute! Except for my stint in Minnesota with limited internet access, I spent just as much time on the internet as ever (perhaps even MORE?).
  
• Work harder to be more financially independent - I definitely worked harder, and I haven't had to ask Dad for extra money in awhile... so I guess I achieved this one too. I still feel as poor as ever though.

So how about some goals for 2007:

• Save Money - I'm working full-time and making relatively decent money (compared to 'almost nothing'). Also, because I'm living at home my expenses are pretty low, so I should be able to save up a good chunk of change... and then spend it on booze, (haha, just kidding).
• Keep Up with the Languages - I'm worried that being out of school it will be too easy to lapse into a lazy rut and not only stop learning new languages, but also let the ones I already know go soft and rusty. So my goal for 2007 is to not allow this to happen, and make sure that my net language ability continues to increase rather than plateau.
  
• Be Healthier - At first I was just going to put "Eat Healthier," but really eating healthy is just one aspect of overall health. So I want to BE healthy, including eating healthier (more fresh fruits and veggies, more fish, less sugars and highly processed foods), exercising more(skiing, biking, swimming, hiking, and lifting mostly), getting enough sleep (this has never really been a problem for me though).
  
• Go somewhere outside of the USA - I haven't been abroad for awhile now and I'm starting to feel the itch again. I don't have any plans in place yet, but there are lots of places I would probably like to go.
  
• Take the GRE - I don't think that this is a very lofty goal, but I do think it's important that I take the GRE sooner rather than later when I have forgotten everything. Also, I think having taken the GRE will help to keep me motivated about going to grad school... eventually...
• Get a Girlfriend - I still don't really know how people generally go about getting themselves girlfriends, so this one will really be a challenge for me. Even if I only have one for a few months, that will be sufficient I think.
• Do Something Interesting/Don't Get Stuck in any Ruts - This one is pretty self-explanatory. Basically I just don't want to sit down to my computer a year from now and think, "Well, 2007 was a dud!"
  

Ok, I think that's a pretty good list of goals. Hopefully 2007 will be a good year. Hopefully I will do some fun things, some interesting things, and hopefully some worthwhile things.

Okay, that's all I can write for now. Updates on bus-driving soon to follow, hopefully. Happy New Years Y'all!

In honor of 2007, for the next couple of blog posts I am going to put up Youtube videos of songs that I remember from 10 years ago, 1997. That was the year when Mom finally got fed up with my supposed failing grades in 7th grade and decided to take me out of school and homeschool me (I still don't ever remember getting anything worse than a D, but she says I was failing...). Of course it's hard for me to remember with much clarity 1997 versus, say, 1996, so some of these songs might not actually technically be from 1997, but to me they will always be 1997.

Today's song is one that I remember being popular while I was in middle school. At the time it seemed like a cool song, but listening to it now it just sounds stupid. It is "Peaches" by The Presidents of the United States of America. This song reminds me particularly of one day at Turner Middle school in the locker room after gym class and one of my classmates, Joey Schuetz, was singing this song in a stupid voice. At the time I didn't realize that it was a song and I was pretty confused why he was singing a song about peaches. It wasn't until a few weeks later that I heard the song and it all made sense to me.