jforsythe.com : weblog

Holyshithavent postedinlike twoweeks

JRF — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:31:19 GMT

Quick catchup, then I am off to do more stuff:

1. Sister and brother-in-law were in town to pick up the SUV. It was very good to see them. Highlights of the visit: karaoke at a undisclosed Chinese restaurant, visit to Muir and Stinson beach and grilling on the new back yard.

2. I went to a bad-ass thing on Thursday. Also, the company I was with was great. Fired up!

3. Saw Mandi and Mike at the bad-ass thing on Thursday. We had some great Thai for dinner, along with some good drinks. We needed more time to catch up fully.

4. I haven't done any of the pro bono programming that I promised everyone over the past week or three. Sorry. But, when I do work on your stuff, it is pure gold. I might have to charge you if you want it any faster.

5. Primary employment work is coming along okay. I had the team out for a BBQ last week (big boss paid, r0xx0rs), and this week we have free run of a local amusement park for a day as a department perk. Bonus!

6. No progress on my personal projects for the last three weeks either! :(. I have been using my free-time in a very selfish, real-world manner instead of creating software. I know I am missing out on first-round iPhone widgets, working on new Chumby stuff or building more startup stuff, but I only have so many useful hours per day.

7. In other news, I have been using my free-time to round and polish our rental backyard into an amazing oasis of greenery. I got the fescue and blue grass installed. No pictures yet because we were going to put up a before:progress:finished set. I am leaving this to Ashley.

8. Big party to host this weekend. About 6-times as large as the one we hosted last weekend, holy$hit. I need to get some lights put up, find the PA system for the band and get some of the food prepped for Saturday.

9. Still fishing. Aaron is going with us now. Lindsey joined us for one. Man, that was GREAT! We did catch some small fry, I will post pictures when I can.

10. The Low Car Diet continues. I have been using my personal vehicle virtually none of the time. I did take it to work one day when I needed to get it serviced at the shop and again one other day so I could get it to the car wash detailing service (which was awesome!). Other than that, carpools, BART and Muni as per the first week. I hope to have some additional daily logs as I can put them online.

Peace out suckas! Don't stop reading, just go back a year or two and see what I was up to then :). Kinda like reruns for blogging.

Remember that this is a personal web blog. With that in mind, rest assured that its content does not reflect the position or opinion of my respective employers or academic institutions. However, it might represent the opinions of my cat.

Delirium Tremens

JRF — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:04:40 GMT

I finally got around to enjoying the contents of my Delirium Tremens last week. Far more golden and fruity when compared to the Delirium Nocturnum. I was satisfied with the Tremens, but I definitly preferred the Nocturnum.

Still fishin

JRF — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:31:48 GMT

How many worms must die before I catch a fish this season?

You hearing me fish? The worm-floggings will continue until morale improves.

Low Car Diet : Day 4

JRF — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:55:13 GMT

Thursday marked day four of the Low Car Diet. Wednesday was hectic, so it will probably be no surprise to you that I slept through my alarm and woke up around 8 AM.

About midway through my morning shower I remembered I had agreed to a 9 AM meeting today. In person. In the office... Aww *#$%.

By the time I was ready to go, it was nearly 8:45 AM; no chance of making a meeting at the office by 9 AM unless I drove or someone drove me. Carpooling wasn't going to happen any faster than taking the BART.

I logged into zipcar.com and was surprised to find that a Honda Civic was available from 9 to noon and it was only a block and a half away from me. I had been saving the $100 in ZipCar credit I got as part of the Low Car Diet to take the girlfriend out in a nice car over one of the weekends.

I was quoted $8.00/hr for the ZipCar, and I figured being at the meeting means I stay gainfully employed. I'll make up the difference out of pocket when I rent a car over that future weekend.

Reserving the Civic was a sinch, 4 clicks I think. I sent off a quick e-mail to my meeting coworkers that I was running late, grabbed my house keys and full-speed ran to the ZipCar parking spot on Jersey street.

The ZipCar was parked in a private garage. I had just barely noticed a message on the ZipCar confirmation screen that gave me the code to access the garage. I used the digits which opened the door, swiped my ZipCar card on the Civic windshield, threw in my backpack, started the car, and proceeded to back up only to find out that someone had double-parked in front of the garage, blocking me in! Argh. I popped my head into the kiddo day-care next to the garage and one of the women there moved her SUV so I could exit the garage. This was the worst sort of patience test.

By 9:25 AM I was at the office. We all pushed the meeting an extra 30 minutes so that we could get accomplished all we needed to, and wrapped up at 10:30 AM. I ran out to the car and drove it back to the city in order to repark it in the parking spot by 11 AM. I received a text message during that last hour letting me know I could have an extra hour if I wanted before I needed to return it. Nope. ZipCar charges billed to my account for that transaction: $16.00 ($8.00 an hour).

I then walked from the ZipCar garage down to the 24th St. / Mission BART and took the train to San Bruno for $3.45. Walked into the office, grabbing some pizza-by-the-slice from somewhere I have been wanting to try since I started working in San Bruno.

Smiley Banana Face

At the end of the day, I walked back to the San Bruno BART station and for some reason most of the security gates were down outside of the station. Not sure what that was about but I was able to get in and ride back to the Mission stop without a problem. Another $3.45 deducted from my $20 BART card.

The car I ended up getting on to go home in was warm so I walked to another car where it was a better temperature. I wonder if they use outside ambient air to cool the BART of if they condition the air using coolant like they must on Caltrain and VTA?

Once home, I noticed that the NextBus digital sign in the bus stop shelter showed 8 minutes until the next Muni bus came up 24th street so I started walking up 24th intending to catch it higher up the hill. I waited a while at the 24th and Valencia St. stop for about 5 minutes but there was no sign of a bus and you can see nearly to Potrero from there.

I walked home the rest of the way and almost beat the 8-minutes-to-mission bus to the stop near my home in Noe. I had considered running to beat it but the only time I like running UP that hill is after I eat one of the cupcakes at Kookez or a scoop of Mitchell's ice cream and I need to burn off the caloric guilt :). I was mostly surprised by the inaccuracy of the NextBus estimate in this instance.

Played Rock Band at a friends house tonight. I think drumming was most fun, followed by guitar and then vocals. I slaughtered some Bowie.

Total Spent in Fares: $22.90

Low Car Diet : Day 3

JRF — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:15:44 GMT

Day three was crazy. I ended up using 6 different modes of transportation this day: Walking, BART, Muni Bus, Carpool, VTA, and Caltrain.

I woke up around 4:10 AM in order to make the 4:45 BART train out towards Pleasanton where my friend Deano lives. The Castro Valley stop is nearest where we fish, Lake Chabot. I didn't get out of the house until 4:30, so I had to run the 8 blocks to make the train that would get me to Castro Valley by 5:30. Sometime between when I left the house and when I got to BART, I had lost my BART card that I had been using so I had to buy another $20 dollar card at the machine.

I just barely made the 4:45, I think the doors were about to close when I jumped on. I was sure I would be the only one on the train at that hour but as it turns out, there were lots of folks heading home from what looked like dock work or construction jobs. $4.40 later, I arrived at Castro Valley at 5:25 AM, walked the 10 minutes over to Pete's Coffee on Redwood Road, called my friend Deano and ordered a coffee.

Such as hatboxes or bowling bags

He picked me up about 10 minutes later and we carpooled the 10 minutes over to the lake and fished for a few hours. I didn't catch squat. It was a beautiful sunrise. I had meant to bring my camera, but I had forgot it in the rush out of the house.

He drove me back to the Castro Valley station to catch the 8:10 AM train to 24th St. / Mission. The train was PACKED. Lots of people were heading all the way to San Francisco from Pleasanton. Also, there were lots of toothless, itchy looking folks. Not a crowd I would really want to wake up and spend an hour with in a regular commute.

Hopped off at my stop, paid my $4.40 and I caught a $1.50 Muni bus up to the house to make it home by 9:00 AM. Took a quick shower and was ready for the NY Times photographer for the photo-shoot at 10 AM.

After the photos were taken, I checked nextbus.com from the office computer, had a few minutes to spend sending off a few e-mails, and then caught the next Muni bus down to 24th St. / Mission BART to head into the office. $3.45 to BART my way to San Bruno, and then that same one mile walk to get into the office and I was just on time for a noon meeting.

At HQ

I ate a catered lunch during the noon meeting, then carpooled down to San Jose for a 2:30 PM meeting at the Cisco HQ Campus. After that two hour meeting, I managed to catch a quick 20 minute break waiting for a very late VTA Light Rail that was supposed to take me from Cisco HQ over to downtown Mountain View. Finally the train showed, I paid my $1.75 fare and arrived in mountain view around 5:15 PM. The VTA was nice, but very crowded, standing room only. Lots of baby strollers on the train. Many of folks took the train all they way to Mountain View, same as me.

Waiting for the VTA train

Once in Mountain View, I walked over to the Caltrain station, bought a Zone 3 to 1 one-way ticket for $5.75 and caught the next train to the 22nd St. / Pennsylvania Ave. station. Lucky for me, there was a Muni bus waiting for passengers, I dropped my last $1.50 in quarters into the fare counter, and took the bus back to the neighborhood bar where I met friends for a much needed beer.

Ash and I enjoying a beer

To top the day off, when I got home there were two pug dogs waiting for me that I had agreed to babysit for a couple of hours for the neighbor. She finally made it home around 11 PM at which point I finally got some much needed sleep.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have achieved pugly

Total Spent in Fares: $22.75

Low Car Diet : Day 2

JRF — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:32:30 GMT

Second day of Zip Car Low Car Diet. I knew I would be using the trains and walking more today so I wore more comfortable walking shoes than I had on Day 1.

I decided to grab some breakfast on the way to work so I skipped riding the Muni bus down to the 24th St. / Mission BART and walked it instead. I guess it is about 8 full blocks away from the house, and downhill, so walking towards work is easy.

I had just stopped into the neighborhood bakery when I received a call from a journalist working at the NY Times. She wanted to interview me for an upcoming story! I hopped out of line, and started talking with her.

Fourty-five minutes later, I was still talking, had left the bakery I had slowly made my way down towoards the BART station. I have figured out that the BART runs in the direction of my office at least once every 15 minutes, so I wasn't really in a hurry. Plus I was giving an interview to the NY Times, how cool is that.

We talked about my decision to sell my SUV and how I was going to live without a personal vehicle. You can read about it when/if the story goes to print.

After we hung up, I grabbed the next BART heading to San Bruno. Once there, I paid my $3.45 and walked the mile to my office. I think I finally made it in sometime around 10 AM.

For lunch, I joined a carpool to and from from the tasty Thai restaurant, White Elephant in San Bruno.

Sometime during the day, I received a call from the NY Times local photographer asking what time I would like to meet on Wednesday to have a photo taken! Tomorrow, 10 AM. Sure. Sounds great.

End of the day, I walked back to the San Bruno BART, returned home to the 24th St. / Mission station, paid my return $3.45 and was lucky and caught a Muni bus up 24th street to my house for $1.50.

Heading back to the BART from the office

That evening I remembered that I was going fishing with my friend Deano first thing in the morning. Going fishing and getting back in time for a photo shoot would be interesting.

Total spent in fares: $8.40

Low Car Diet : Day 1

JRF — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:54:26 GMT

First day of the ZipCar Low Car Diet. Time to hit the streets instead of hopping in the car.

Walked down to the bus stop and caught a Muni bus from Noe over to the Muni Castro light rail station. Took the light rail all the way down to the Embaradero, downtown. I do this all the time, no problem. I did notice that the light rail was way more crowded than it is on the weekends.

Met with Austin of ZipCar and the other participants for the ZipCar Low Car Diet kickoff. Dropped my SUV keys into the "pledge bucket", picked up a bag full of schwag and took a picture with everyone.

Downtown San Francisco at the ZipCar Low Car Diet event

Rinse, repeat. Hopped a Muni light rail back to Castro, and a Muni bus back to Noe. My Muni transfer was still good so $1.50 so far. Parking would have been at least $5 plus a walk. No walk before coffee, even better.

Waiting for the next Muni Bus

Caught a carpool into the office in San Bruno. 15 minutes from home to work at 11 AM by car. Gotta love that commute.

Dog powered walking

Lunch was stuff assimilated from the office leftovers (since I was so late getting in).

Walking to the office in the morning

To get home I walked from the office to the San Bruno BART station, about a mile away. It was pretty late at night and I wanted to get home so I walked the mile pretty quickly. Used the first of my $20 BART card that Austin provided us. $3.45 to get back to 24th St. / Mission station and a 20 minute walk home from there.

Total spent in fares: $4.95

Timber...

JRF — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:52:37 GMT

After all our hard work on our backyard, the neighbors are working on their backyard now. Today, they are having two HUGE 100 year old pine trees cut down today. The trees are rooted in the neighbors yard, but the majority of the trees hang over our house and yard. Man, I hope they don't fisk up the fresh sod or the patio we just worked on.

ZipCar Low Car Diet : Start

JRF — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:38:23 GMT

I was accepted to be a part of the ZipCar Low Car Diet! Woo hoo!

The Low Car Diet Objective: For 18 people in San Francisco, in exchange for the keys to their car for one month, ZipCar will provide them with $100 in ZipCar driving credit and $20+ dollars in Muni bus passes. The ultimate goal is to stop using personal vehicles during the month.

What am I giving up?
A 2005 Toyota 4Runner. Instead of just giving it up for the month, I took my factory special-ordered dream car, and I sold it.

But why would I want to give up this vehicle?
You might think it is to be part of the green moment. Partly I suppose, but I have fantasized about living car-free for the two years that I have lived in San Francisco. If you live here, you know the hassle of moving your car constantly in the street parking spot disco, the 100$ fine if you forget. All of course if you can even find a parking spot to begin with.

Additionally, the costs for my dream vehicle are pretty staggering. By my estimates, it costs me roughly $1000 a month to own and operate my SUV.

How will this change my life over the coming month?
The decision I made was to remove my SUV from my conveyance choices. That means instead of a 15 minute drive to work, I need to find a more sustainable, environmentally conscious means of getting to the office. I expect that effective time-management will become an important part of making this a success.

How will I do it?
I live right in the heart of San Francisco. A city chock full of active people, mass transit providers and shops and services just a brisk walk away from the house. The only problem is that my office is in San Bruno, and visit Tahoe often, which is roughly 200 miles from my house.

I am curious how I will make this work myself. I suppose BART, Muni and Caltrain will play a big part in this. And of course, now I have access to Zipcar for the times when these other systems don't work for my plans.

As I discover ways of making this work, I will be blogging them.

Do I use public transit today?
Absolutely! I love nothing more than walking down to the neighborhood restaurants on the evenings or weekends. I often will take the BART or Muni to a ballgame, down to the park or across the bay to go fishing with a friend. San Francisco weather is a perfect walking temperature to me.

What do hope to accomplish?
Change, on a personal level. Also, some degree of validation to confirm if mass transit really is a viable option for me.

As far as I can tell, San Francisco seems clued in to the transit needs of the people in the city. Why build a highway through an already congested area of the city when you can just add some light rail to expand the mass-transit system? It doesn't make sense to keep paving over the ever-decreasing green spaces the city already has. And the carbon footprint of a fully loaded train has got to be far lower than if everyone drove a gasoline powered vehicle.

Mass transit just makes sense for the Earth and for the ever increasing number of people in the city. Even as I write this, I know that for two years I have made the effort to avoid the BART/walking commute to my office and instead, drove my SUV. It is a habit for another place and time that I must stop if I am to be part of any type of solution.

As far as validation, I will continue to do everything I would normally do using my SUV, and instead replace it with some type of environmentally conscious conveyance. I will keep as accurate a cost log/comparison as I can, for the full month.