Keep Calm and Ride On
When I was sixteen, I would have laughed in the face of anyone who said to me that I should just forego driving and ride my bike. I remember wanting to drive so badly, because having that license and having my keys and my four wheels represented the freedom to go anywhere that I wanted. I was fully on my own on the open road (Or, at least, I could drive myself to school and back).
Now, though, after finally having settled in to my new apartment, and figuring out where all the TRAX stops and bus stops are to take me where I need to go, I actually don’t feel much of a compulsion to drive anywhere. I’m more than happy to just let my car sit in the parking lot, only starting it up when I need to go pick up a piece of furniture, or when I need to go drive down south to visit people. (Which I should definitely do more often, but that’s the subject of a completely different post.)
The thing is, in a city with a decent public transportation system, having a car seems like even more than a hassle than a benefit. When I ride my bike, I feel better just cruising around, I slow down my pace a little, and I force myself to plan for the extra time, which lets me keep from getting stressed out, racing to make it to an appointment because “I can make it in fifteen minutes.”
Ever since I parked the car and hopped on the bike, things have just felt better, and it’s a difficult thing to describe. I’m less stressed out, and I even feel like I’m more productive because I have to legitimately plan out what I’m going to be doing every day. Plus, I get to see the city in a much more interesting way instead of blurring it all as I cruise by places at 40 MPH. If I want to stop in at a place that I think looks interesting, I do, and I don’t really have to look for a parking spot. Instead, I just lock my bike to a tree or something.
I guess what I’m saying is this – If you can figure out a way to park the car for a while, then do so. There may be a whole big interesting world just a couple of blocks away, that you’re completely missing because you’re not taking the time to look around and see what’s out there. I know that’s not for everyone, and a lot of people need to drive to get to where they’re going, or else their two-hour commute will turn into seven.
But if you can, I’d wholly recommend it.
Working On-Call
Working on-call is really interesting. Basically, you aren’t really an employee of the company, but instead you get paid for whatever time that you apply to a certain project. For example, if I spend two hours on DVD authoring, but then a half-hour on a bit of research, and then an hour on a transcription job… That’s three different projects. I get paid the same per hour to work on each, but they all require different skillsets. In addition, each requires a different project tracking number, so I have to get a signature from a different person for each one before I can turn it in to the finance department and get paid.
The good side to this is that I don’t have any set schedule. I’m welcome to take time off whenever I like, because I’m not exactly an employee. Unfortunately, this also means that I have to go looking for “projects” every day, because I only rarely have a steady stream of things to do. This becomes a little annoying, because if no one has a job for me to do, then I came all the way to work for nothing. This wouldn’t be such a big deal, but I work about an hour’s commute from my home, so I usually bus in. That means I can’t just pick up and leave when things get slow, but I just have to hang around work for the however-many-hours until the bus comes.
I’ll say right now that this is one of the best, but worse ways of working a job. There are definite benefits in not having to worry about “being on-time”, and this would be an amazing work system if I always had a steady stream of projects, but you have no idea how many days I’ve gone in thinking I’d be getting a full day of work, only to find no projects available, and therefore, wasting an entire day, and getting no money for anything.
I know that this was just something of a complaint, but I need to tell somebody. Maybe I’ll have to talk with my job, too. We’ll see.
- Kyle
The Turn Signal
Just a little FYI right of the bat, but this is completely a rant.
Alright, was there some kind of new law passed that I’m not aware of? Where it says that using your turn signal is a completely optional act, alongside stopping at stop signs and the speed limit? I drive on the freeway every day, and every day there’s some moron who thinks that the world revolves around him, and therefore, he doesn’t need to let people know that he’s merging into your lane.
Just today, in fact, on the way to work, I was going along, stumming my fingers on my steering wheel as I was listening to Huey Lewis, and this woman in a minivan decides that she wants to get into my lane. She doesn’t check her rear-view mirror, and she doesn’t signal. She just starts to move over. I have to slam on my brakes to avoid an accident, and she doesn’t even notice that she almost ran me off the road!
But what am I supposed to do? Pull out a pistol and shoot out a tire? Yeah, that’ll be the day. But really! I mean, I can speed around her and cut her off, but what good is that going to do? She doesn’t even know what she just did!
I think there should be a minimum IQ requirement for anyone wishing to drive a vehicle. A multiple-choice driving exam, and then a common sense exam. Anyone can pass the driving exam. I’ve seen some of the worst drivers in the world brandishing a license, but they don’t watch the road, instead they’re talking on cell phones or putting on make-up, or who knows what else.
I live in this fast-paced world. I get it. There are times when you’ve got to be able to do more than one thing at a time. But every time that I get cut off, or get stuck behind a driver going fifteen under the limit, I speed around them and notice that they’re usually either talking on a phone, or eating, or doing something that’s taking their mind off of their driving.
Idiots. We live in a world of idiots, my friends. I guess we just have to learn to cope.
- Kyle
College Parking, and the Price of School
Here’s a scenario for you: You’re a school with over 23,000 undergraduates. Your terrain is not quite ideal for parking, and you don’t have the best parking spaces anyway. You’re already charging admission costs, and tuition, and you only provide scholarships to high school students. How can you make more money? Well, you can charge $80 for a yearly parking pass.
To me, it seems kind of ridiculous to have to pay for a parking pass for a college that I’m already paying tuition to attend. While eighty dollars for a year-long pass may not seem like a whole lot, it’s still annoying that you actually have to pay for it. Why can’t we just subsidise it into the tuition payment?
Oi. It’s just something that’s been bothering me. I mean honestly, who else is going to park at a college? Just students, right? Therefore, why do we have to have parking passes? It just doesn’t make any sense to me. Alright, now I’m out of steam. I’m done.
- Kyle
The Call of the Open Road
Driving, to me, is one of the most euphoric experiences in life. But I’m not just talking about your daily chugging around town. I’m talking about hitting the open road, really letting loose and feeling your tires spin under your feet. A few years back, as a teenager, I remember taking off for a weekend once, just me and my Honda, driving up to Oregon to visit a friend. It was all on a whim, and I didn’t even have a map, but I remember having this juvinile idea that I could just go.
I had about $200, with no real plans for anything else, and off I went. It was apparent that I didn’t know where I was going, especially when I arrived in California. Now, leaving Vegas, I’d planned to head up the Interstate through California, along the coast. (This was before I actually knew the California highways, you understand.) I made the mistake of heading for, not San Fernando, but San Bernadino. It wasn’t until I actually had driven an hour in unfamiliar roads that I realized my mistake, and so I turned around, and had to make up for time.
The thing was, though, that because I didn’t really have any time constraints, it didn’t really affect me as much as it normally would. I just counted it as part of the drive, and loved it. I was seeing new sights, travelling new roads, and learning new things. I slept in the car, not having enough money for a hotel, and actually not old enough to rent a room for the night by myself. (I was 17 at the time.)
I ate at fast food restaraunts, especially In-N-Out™, and just kept on driving. Now, as I look at it, it was one of my more reckless stages in life, but before, it was really an exciting adventure. I had nothing holding me down, and I was just one with my vehicle, and one with the road.
A few years later, I purchased a Honda CBR 600, (a bullet bike), and it was those same euphoric feelings, but in a different way. With no windows or frame around me, I felt a little vulnerable, but free. It was a feeling of absolute freedom, as the flick of my wrist would ignite my engine, and send me speeding down the road.
Several times, I would take a trip to another town, just so I could really feel the wind whipping at my jacket, the headphones in my helmet blasting tunes as I put road behind me. It was all the same feelings of discovery all over again.
Now, a few years older and hopefully a little bit wiser, I nevertheless still have many of those feelings. I feel the longing to just drive, to not have a destination or a goal in mind, and just make the journey my goal. But now I have responsibilities, and so I must fulfill them before I can again pursue that whimsical dream.
But the road is still calling. And someday, maybe not soon, but someday, I’m going to answer.
- Kyle
Driving a Honda
I drive a 1997 Honda Civic, with over 230,000 miles on it. My girl’s been places, I’ll tell you what. She’s painted white with a bunch of my custom stickers, and she’s pretty much my main mode of transportation. (But, you might also see me around the campus riding my silver mountain bike, which I carry on top of my car with a handy bike rack.) In any case, my Civic is sporty, stylish, but still modest enough for me, and has lasted for year after year of daily driving without hardly a problem.
There’s just something about Hondas that make them amazing vehicles. They’re usually not the most beefy of vehicles, and are generally found near the bottom of the scale as far as horsepower goes. But they drive well, are relatively inexpensive, and last forever with proper maintainance. If you take care of them, they’ll last for decades with little concern, hardly complaining as you wear out tire after tire before your transmission even notices.
I have friends who own other makes, especially American-built cars like Fords and Chevys, and it amazes me how often they seem to have problems. Either there’s a weird noise, or something’s driving funny, or who knows what. But the biggest problem my car ever had was when I accidentally smacked the exhaust on a high curb and kicked the pipes forward. (But I don’t really count that cause, after all, it was my fault, not the car’s.)
I don’t really have a whole lot to say beyond that. I keep my girl clean and tidy, and though she might be getting a little older as far as imports go, she’ll still get a look or two. It’s just that Honda deserves a heavy amount of praise for putting together an automobile that’s fun to drive, can last forever, and doesn’t guzzle fuel like so many other vehicles.
But I’m pretty sure they were just satisfied that I bought their car.
- Kyle
The Octopus Card
Alright, just about nobody carries cash anymore. It’s way more useful to just carry a debit card, and its certainly a lot safer, considering the safety features available. If you lose your debit card, you can usually call in and cancel it, and often get most if not all of your money back. If cash is gone, it’s gone. There’s no retrieval, and nobody can help you with it. The green has left the scene.
However, the problem with not carrying cash is that, as a college student, I spend a lot of my time in the school. Now, there’s a food court, but that’s a good ten or fifteen minute walk from where most of my classes are, and I usually can’t spare that kind of time just for a Sobe or a candy bar (if I feel so inclined.) So, I go without, the vending machine doesn’t get used, and I go thirsty.
Thing is, while I was in Hong Kong, there were this awesome little cards that you could use like cash just about anywhere. They were called Octopus Cards, and worked pretty simply. You’d slip the card into your wallet, or even in a little card-holder or a backpack, (a friend of mine told me he used his tie sometimes!), and then you’d hand money to the guy at the 7-11 or Circle-K. You put the card on the scanner, and BEEP! The money was transferred onto your card. You were then free to use it on just about anything. You could use it for the train, the bus, a taxi, groceries, or even back at the 7-11. It wasn’t a swipe and back account check like a debit card, instead, the money was on a little chip inside of the Octopus Card itself.
Sure, if you got it stolen, it was the same as cash, you couldn’t get it back, but that didn’t happen hardly ever. I remember one time, I lost my wallet, and had to go backtracking until I found it. When I finally tracked it down at a mall lost-and-found, all the cash I’d had (about $200HK) was gone, but my card was safe behind my ID Card, with a good $350HK still on it.
I know it might be difficult at first, but since no one likes to carry cash anymore, why not implement the same system here in the US? You could just put them on vending machines and buses, or even subways, and could do away with tickets for the most part. While I don’t quite know about the feasability of using such a system nationwide, I certainly believe it would be useful for a city such as New York or Los Angeles to have such a system available.
In any case, it would sure make things a whole lot more convenient.
BEEP! Thanks for the Sobe.
- Kyle
Am I Willing to Sacrifice?
I love to drive. The sound of an engine roaring accompanied by the rushing wind, and the welcome melodies of the stereo all come together with me as the conductor, directing where this moving composition should travel. In my everyday life, it’d be hard to imagine myself walking into my garage to warm up my electric or hydrogen-powered car, getting the water started so that I could bubble my way down the highway. What would I do without my good old car? Riding my bike from Salt Lake to Los Angeles doesn’t sound all that appealing, but neither does driving in a four-wheeled coffee pot.
However, I do understand that there’s a point to trying something else. Instead of treating these new fuel choices as “potential” energy sources, it’d be better for me to embrace them, instead of questioning them. If so many gave so much, including property, loved ones, and even their own lives in some cases, all throughout history for the freedoms and choices that we now enjoy, I should be willing to give up a little bit of personal comfort and pleasure for the betterment of mankind.
But then again, I’m still stuck with the practicality of a new fuel source. Gas prices are already getting higher, and I’m not sure I can afford a brand new hydrogen automobile. When and if these new sources become commonly available price wise, will it be efficient to get me quickly where I want to go? Or am I going to be chugging along, lost to the fast-paced modern lifestyle of people with not enough time to make Minute Rice? As much as we try to deny it, however, our oil isn’t going to last us forever.
With the increase in use of oil all the time, and the fact that America uses more of it than anyone else, we need to find another option. We need to find a new way to transport ourselves and our culture. If it’s to be electric, fine. If it’s to be solar powered or even hydrogen powered, then fine. But am I ever going to get used to driving along in a bubble car?
- Kyle
