Smart Congestion Pricing

I got an email from the Sierra Club today about congestion pricing.

Now, congestion pricing combines my hatred of driving with my love of Pigovian taxes to create a warm, Downy-soft fuzzy in my belly. So when I read the email about attending forums to discuss the glorious idea of tolling th 520 bridge, I started to get pretty excited.

But then I remembered something else I'd read recently. Colin, the guy who owns the Banana Azul hotel that we stayed in over spring break, just wrote this post about a proposal to build a new marina in Puerto Viejo. He points out that many of the people who are most strongly opposed to the idea are ex-pats. They love the idyllic quiet of Puerto Viejo, and don't want it spoiled by the marina. But they aren't even citizens of Costa Rica, and they aren't the ones in desperate need of the jobs that that marina would provide.

So this makes me think.... is it right for me to get all up in arms about tolling on the 520? Or anywhere really? I barely drive. I don't have a need to drive to work or school every day. My needs are almost completely met by the buses. I know it's not the same situation as the one that Colin is describing but I can't help but notice how easy it is to condemn others to pay tolls from the armless arm chair that is my bus seat. My jury is still out on this....

Car-free Sundays

Ooh ooh ohh! I love this!

I was just reading about something like this in Portland ( Sunday Parkways) actually, and wondering to myself, "why don't we do that in Seattle?"

By the way, I'd like to point out that Wallingford Ave. effectively closes every 4th of July. It's like a rising up of the masses. We run around, drink 40s, (in a responsible manner), and put couches in the street to watch the fireworks.

Kickin' It 1912 Style

So, last week I got a tiny taste of what life would be like in a Kunstlerian-post-peak-oil world, as both my cell phone and laptop had some major health issues last week.

The lappie had a battery replacement a little over a week ago, and it turns out that you're supposed to put thermal paste on your heat sink when you do stuff to it. Eeewps! ;)

Around the same time as the battery was getting replaced, I dropped my cell phone into a glass of water. It's sort of like.... remember when I got an 800 on the math portion of the GRE? It was the opposite of that.

Long story short, Saturday morning (5 days after the water-drop incident) comes around, and my phone speakers decide to die. I have a friend in town, a wedding to go to, and a work trip to leave for in less than 24 hours. It has been the longest couple of days of my life. All I could do was send/receive text messages (and I could hear most voice mails). It was like having a d*mn telegraph machine.

"Phone spkr broken. Pls bring food. Snow has blocked pony express."

Imagine trying to coordinate with someone to drop you off at the airport, pick you up at the airport, take you to the Gilroy Garlic festival, etc, with a freaking telegraph machine! I ended up having to use a payphone at the airport at one point. I couldn't look up directions, nor could I call a laptop repair shop (as if they'd be open on Sunday anyway.) The one pay phone call cost over a dollar.

You end up spending a lot more time sitting around. When you talk to someone, you make a meeting plan and stick to it. No wandering around assuming, "oh they'll just call if they can't find me."

Lappie is back up and running, so I can resume my ranting insightful, fun blog posting! :)

Dot in my Path

Well, I resisted for a long time, but finally I was convinced to take dot out of my path. I spent half a day thinking I was insane because I somehow ran a script that didn't exist (it wasn't in that folder, but of course you unix people realize right away that it obviously just existed somewhere else in my path). So that was the final impetus to make me remove the dot.

I hope all you unix jerks are happy! Everything is broken. I'm going to get a repetitive stress injury from adding ./ to hundreds of lines of code today. :(

(Actually I took dot out a few days ago but it didn't go into effect until today when I finally logged out and then logged back in. Unix still baffles me.)

Paper Update

Sigh. In between riding the bus, blogging, taking a Spanish class, and drinking beer/malt liquor, I actually have to do some work.

There are a couple quick updates about my paper that I thought I'd share:

1. It got accepted to Interspeech 08! Since I am graduating soon, I thought that Brian should be the one to go to the conference (it will be a good networking experience for him and all that). But he declined, as he will be busy planning his wedding and studying for quals. So, I'm going to Brisbane! There I can dazzle people with our lovely new duration features, and also hopefully do a bit of surfing on the Gold Coast.

2. Someone cited my paper! It's someone in my lab but still. A real citation. Someday perhaps I will show up on google scholar.

3. Brian & I put together a talk on the paper. If you were seriously thinking about reading my paper but thought it looked a little boring, you can check out the slides, which are much more fun and easier to follow.

I Love You

The 174 Report

Now that I'm volunteering at the IRC, I'm taking the bus down to Tukwila twice a week. The 174 bus probably deserves its own blog, if it doesn't already have one, but I'll try to do it justice in the occasional post.

Let me try to set the scene on the 174. Imagine your favorite Where's Waldo picture. If you can't remember it that well, here is a snippet of one. Now take all of the people in that picture and put them on a bus. It's only a very slight exaggeration. Just yesterday I saw a man-woman who seemed to be about halfway through a sexual transformation. (He was clearly a man, yet had fairly large boobs and I'd assume was transitioning from male to female because he was wearing a lot of makeup.)

Yesterday, I had one of those delightful bus drivers who announces the attractions at every stop. (Pike's Place Market, etc.) I like when the drivers do that - it makes the bus ride seem more fun, plus sometimes I learn a thing or two. The awesome thing about our driver yesterday was that he sounded just like Wesley Willis. I am not kidding! He listed places in that same staccato bark that Mr. Willis used when he 'sang'. "Westlake center! Monorail! Pacific Place!" Also, I'm proud to say that I now know which stop to disembark at if I need the INS.

But the star of the 174 road show yesterday was a very smartly-dressed, well-coiffed African American lady. She was sitting across from me, and I couldn't help but overhear her (very loud) conversation. Er, monologue. She seemed to be joking around with someone, and I'm not sure what prompted this line of conversation but let me try to paraphrase what she said:

"Y'all better not be mean to me, cause I work at the airport, in security, and I'll take your picture and show it to all the security guys. They'll be giving you a cavity search! *laughs* I ain't kidding, I'll be like, 'This one's got cocaine on 'em. Give them a full cavity search! You think just cause they white they ain't got drugs on them?' Black people do crack, and white people do cocaine!"

She proceeded to outline a hypothetical scenario in which a white person with a large nose, who was clearly Jewish, would get searched in the airport. "Them Jews, they be hidin' diamonds and dope!" She then decided to move seats. Just as two girls were about to sit on one of the bench seats, she informed them that she needed to sit there because her foot was swollen. So she sprawled out across the 3 seats (while several people were standing in the aisle). Later she seemed to doze off for awhile. In her defense, maybe she was on painkillers.

On the way home, the funniest part of my bus ride actually occured before I got on. Two men were waiting at the stop - a black man and another, ligher-skinned man. The black man asked the other man, "Are you white?" (Not sure what, if anything, had led up to that question since I'd just arrived.) The other man answered, "I'm Native American."

"Ohhh, first nations. That's great," the black man said. Glad he approves. He started to say something else but the Native American said, "oh my bus is here." Now I feel obliged to point out that at the stop I was at, there is only 1 bus that comes - the 174. Yet the black man said, "ok see you later man," and did not board the bus. Apparently he was just resting? Not sure if I would engage in any activity at a 174 bus stop other than wait for the bus. *shrug*.

Peak Oil: Slightly Less Scared.....

I'm still in the early stages of "peak oil syndrome" but I'm starting to calm down. Here's the outline of the emotional roller coaster I've been on so far:

1. Panic. This can be further broken down into a few sub-steps.

a) Skip almost an entire day of work because I am too busy reading The Long Emergency and hyperventilating.

b) Annoy the crap out of everyone around me (mostly Sean - sorry dear) with incessant talk of anarchy, food shortages, and whether or not I could kill a dog. (Still not sure about that one.)

c) Get mad at everyone for thinking that I'm joking or talking about this because I think it's "interesting". I have never been interested in survival skills. I'd much rather watch MTV than that man vs. wild show.

d) Start mentally saying good bye to all of my modern conveniences. It's truly amazing how cool the world just became to me. You know, after 27 years I just noticed that when you're riding in a car, it feels like you're flying on a magic carpet. (Ok, what I *imagine* it would feel like to fly on a magic carpet.)

2. Retrieve more information

I am in this phase right now. I must say, it's a bit more relaxing than phase 1. Yesterday/today I read the Hirsch report, which is quite fascinating. It's a report for the government written by SAIC - I found it via wikipedia's article on peak oil. It's slightly outdated already, since it was published in '05 when gas was quite a bit cheaper. But it's very informative and less fear-mongering than Kunstler's Long Emergency.

I'm also starting to check out some websites which are dedicated to Peak Oil, and I will probably buy a survival book or two soon.

3. Take Action

I have a few ideas for what I can do to prepare myself, but I need to learn a little more first before I do anything too involved. Full disclosure: I did start stocking up on Cliff Bars. What can I say? They have a lot of calories and nutrients and they keep well. The next thing I want to do is start growing potatoes on Sean's balcony. But I need to make sure the HOA won't have anny issues with that first. This site has a great section on how to grow potatoes without a garden, using a few old tires.

I am still trying to process a lot of information. I do think that the Long Emergency is overly pessimistic... however, at least one other guy seems to be equally concerned. (If you don't have a lot of time, skip to about minute 4 of that video. Matt Simmons talks about the possibility of a run on gas.)

Now - off to enjoy a hot shower, complete with loofah sponge, shampoo, soap, shaving cream, and the soothing sounds of internet radio. Ahhhhh.

Peak Oil: I am scared

I just started reading the book "Long Emergency" the other day and I am most of the way through it already. It is by far the most terrifying thing I have ever read. I can't sleep right now because I have so many thoughts running through my head.

What should I do first? Learn to make butter? Learn to sew? Buy a gun? Who will I be able to trust if society starts breaking down? Even if I do learn to make butter, how will I get myself a cow?

I keep trying to convince myself that I'm just being paranoid after reading one little 'doomsday' book. People have been crying wolf since ... well, Aesop's time, at least. (Although if I recall correctly, the wolf actually does come eventually in that story.) But unfortunately, I don't see any fallacies in the author's reasoning. We do depend on oil to move cars, trucks, airplanes, ships, etc. We need oil for fertilizer, for plastic, for operating heavy machinery that does important things for us like drilling/mining/pumping... who knows what else.

Everyone else definitely thinks I'm crazy. They don't use the word 'crackpot' but they use the word 'survivalist' which I'm pretty sure is synonymous. My roommate laughed today when I told him about peak oil. He said, "So what? We can't drive? We'll just have to walk to the grocery store." Too bad the grocery store is going to be empty.

I had no idea how much I liked our current way of life until yesterday. I don't want a future with no caramel macchiatos, no pomegranate apple sauce, no sushi. We won't be able to drive 2 hours to go skiing, and even if we could, there would be no fuel to run the ski lifts. Obviously vacations to Costa Rica or Hawaii would be right out.

I really hope that my handy ADD allows me to forget about this nonsense soon. At least in the meantime there is one bright side to all of my stressing. I am looking around at this world with wide-eyed wonder. I am staring at my box of tissues in complete disbelief. Tissues are disposable pieces of paper used for blowing your nose. The box is decorated with pink flowers. They must have been designed on a computer, because they look so perfect.

Today for dinner we went to Kidd Valley and I had a mushroom and swiss cheeseburger and a diet coke. It was so delicious. I love diet coke so much.

My new foe - C++

Computers make me cry. I've been trying to compile a tool called YASMET for several days (on and off). Here's what it is doing to me:

1. I run the g++ compiler. It complains about not finding a file called hash_map. So I locate hash_map and now run again, forcing the compiler to include the path to hash_map, as shown here:

bash-3.00$ g++ -I /usr/include/c++/3.3.4/ext YASMET1.cc
In file included from YASMET1.cc:18:
/usr/include/c++/3.3.4/ext/hash_map:65:31: error: ext/stl_hashtable.h: No such file or directory

.... many more errors ensue....

2. I say to myself, 'ok let's locate this little stl_hashtable.h file'. Watch:

bash-3.00$ locate stl_hashtable
/usr/include/c++/3.3.4/ext/stl_hashtable.h
/usr/include/c++/3.2.3/ext/stl_hashtable.h

3. I start crying.

100 What?

Obviously I love the number 100. I recently did a "100 Things" post - and in fact I loved it so much that I wrote Sean an email with 100 things that I love about him. (aw). I also love the word challenge, so when you put those two words together, it creates an unstoppable marketing force that beats its way into my brain. I haven't done the 100 Thing Challenge yet, but I am seriously thinking about it.

So, it was only a matter of time before I gave in to the mystical allure of the 100 Pushups . Thanks a lot Alex for putting this ridiculous idea into my head.

If you quickly peruse the 100 pushups site, you'll see that you are supposed to give yourself an 'initial test' where you see how many pushups you can do when you max out. I can do 10, so I put myself into the 6-10 category. If you click on week 1, you'll see that the first day of training for someone in that category is the following 5 sets: 7,7,5,4,max.

Well, guess what happened. Last Wednesday I tried to do these 5 sets and made it through 7,7, and 5. Then after 2 more pushups I collapsed onto the floor. Friday I was so sore that when I tried to repeat day 1, I did even less pushups. Yesterday I tried for the 3rd time. I actually made it through the first 4 sets. For the 'max' set you're supposed to do 'at least 5', and I managed to do 1. So I am almost, almost there. I think the 4th time will be the charm.

Sean also decided to start the program with me yesterday. He can do about 35 pushups so he put himself in the 31-35 category, which meant he should start in Week 5 of the program. But guess what? He couldn't do his 5 sets either.

My conclusion: this program is insane. It's a fine idea but has a major flaw: if your max is N pushups, it's unlikely that you'll be able to do 5 sets of approximately N-2. Now that I'm so close to being able to complete my first day of my program, I think I'll try to stick with that level. But my recommendation for anyone who also falls victim to the "100 * Phenomenon" is to take your actual max, cut it in half, and then start at that level. Good luck!

My Prision Idea

I was reading the book Natural Capitalism recently, and one major theme in that book is how if a problem is solved in isolation, rather than looking at the whole system, it can create other problems. One example they gave was the prison system. As crime grows, the solution to that immediate problem is to incarcerate more people. But prisons can actually breed more hardened criminals which adds to the original problem.

I thought about this and here's my solution to the problem:

Have a homestay program where someone convicted of a non-violent crime gets put under house arrest in the home of a 'volunteer'. I put volunteer in quotes because the volunteer would get paid for this service. They would provide shelter and meals and the state would reimburse them for the saved costs of keeping someone out of jail. (The state would still provide health care.)

There are a couple rules that I envision to make this scheme work.

1. The guardians must be in a different zip code than the criminal is from. This is important, because as I understand it, one of the problems for prisoners is that when they return from prison, they go back to their same life, same problems, same bad influences. And while they are in jail, they are probably networking with people of similar backgrounds. So in this plan, during the house arrest they would be networking with people who they have nothing in common with.

I love this idea because it would bring people from different socio-economic strata together. If you live in Seattle, do you know a single person who lives on MLK Way? I don't, and I doubt any of my friends do. But with this plan, kids from 'the street' would meet people from suburbia, and vice versa. I think it does everyone some good to see how other people's lives are for a while.

2. The responsibility would be on the prisoner to behave themselves and follow whatever rules are set down. If they screw up, the guardians can call the police and have the prisoner taken back to jail. I think it should probably work the other way too - if the guardians are super mean, the prisoner should be able to request to be transferred to jail.

I know it might sound a tad crazy, but I think it would make our society a better place. If I ever have a place with an extra room again (probably won't happen anytime soon) I'll volunteer myself to be the guinea pig. And if somebody really wanted to make a lot of money off of this idea, they could turn it into a reality show.