Media-crity

What a mess that all was.

I spent a good deal of time hanging around directing people to alternate stations, since many of the MBTA cops I saw couldn’t be bothered to do it. It’s great to direct people to Haymarket and all, but not when you’re not telling them where it is. So there’s my good karma. Hopefully I helped some people get home/wherever they were going. I know how bewildering it can be to wander helplessly in a strange city looking for the subway.

As for me, I managed to get on a fairly empty train at State. I also finally got the answer to the #1 asked question: “What if I want the orange line inbound? Do I still get on at State/Haymarket?” The answer was apparently yes, as I saw a train go through when I was heading for the outbound platform. It just, obviously, wasn’t stopping at downtown. Oh well, Chinatown isn’t that much of a walk and that’s where I was sending people.

WTF media?
Originally uploaded by Flannfry.

DTX is entirely shut down at rush hour and this isn’t breaking news? Wish i could get uhub to load on my phone

Old Filene’s site
Originally uploaded by Flannfry.

Maybe something collapsed?

WTF did i miss?
Originally uploaded by Flannfry.

Red line outbound from DTX shut down for another half hour at least

I took the red line yesterday from work to a little get together in Davis. I dozed off soon after getting on and woke up around Park Street just in time to hear “Next stop: Shawmut!”

I jumped and looked around, wondering how long I had been asleep (for those not aware of the layout, I was heading toward Alewife, Shawmut would be in the complete opposite direction on an Ashmont-bound train). I looked around, realized it was just a miscue in the system like the train I was on last week that was going from North Quincy to Quincy Adams on the inbound track. ANYWAY.

Every stop thereafter is was “Next stop: Shawmut!” and I swear to god the automated voice had different inflections based on its changing emotions. It REALLY wanted to go to Shawmut. At Kendall, he was depressed when he realized he probably wasn’t going to Shawmut, like “Next stop: Shawmut? Please?” By Central, he had taken on a more determined air: “Next. Stop. Shawmut. If I have to take over and drive this train using my onboard computer and the help of some friendly rats.”

I really shouldn’t be surprised, the red line does have the most expressive voice of all the trains. Have you heard how excited it is to go to Braintree? Listen sometime. “The destination of this train is: Braintree!!!!111!!!111!!” I mean, this might be colored by my excitement over the arrival of a Braintree train since I took them so often to get to Quincy but I’ve pointed it out to other people and they hear it too. Braintree! HOORAY!!!

And finally, speaking of Quincy and the guy on the Shawmut Express reading the latest issues of the Journal of Infectious Diseases … I got a B+ in Micro! I’m done with it! WOOOOOO!! Thanks for all the well-wishes and thoughts for my exam, they seem to have worked!

We were at the game tonight. It was called around 8:45 or 9 so we instead went to the new Apple store to play.

We came away with this, which was so worth the price of admission:

It was taken with the on-board iSight webcam and Photobooth. Apparently this means everything is backwards. Whatever, it’s an awesome animated GIF and you know you love it.

Rain rain go away
Originally uploaded by Flannfry.

boooooo.

Who wants to come over for dinner?
Originally uploaded by Flannfry.

Mmm spice pilgrimage

Quickly resolved with a new bus with free fare
Originally uploaded by Flannfry.

Thanks MBTA! (picpost because i’m not equipped to blog from phone without using flickr)

Busted 104 strands commuters at Malden station
Originally uploaded by Flannfry.

This is fun. At least it’s not raining i guess

South Station fruit stand guy
Originally uploaded by Flannfry.

This guy has several matching coat-hat-canopy ensembles but this fabric is my favorite

Sayonara most hated t station
Originally uploaded by Flannfry.

See you in the fall if bunker hill doesn’t work out.