Carmageddon: The Aftermath

Dear Los Angeles,

So I see you that have survived the feared inferno of “Carmageddon”. You rocked the happy hour specials. You steered your four wheeled vessels clear of the freeways in fear of losing your ever so precious time sitting parked on the freeway for hours upon hours.

You chose to not clutter the streets with aggravation. For a few glorious days, there was a silent peace decorated on asphalt. People were drawn in droves to the otherwise bickered about public transportation. There wasn’t arguing with the hurried commuter in the other car, bike, or motorcycle trying to get to x function. There were no stretched necks as accident after accident piled up to make the drive home from work, play, or errands a little longer. There was less noise and pollution.

The 405 is opening as I type this. It bids one to wonder if the community has learned anything from this exercise. How will the Los Angeles community change? How have you changed for the greater good?

Los Angeles once had the greatest public transit system in the world. Nowadays, people dread the thought of taking a bus, a train, or a bike in lieu of a car. This weekend proved that the community here is so ambivalent to change that, rather than embrace the possibilities of other alternatives, would rather just not participate at all.

This weekend Los Angeles biker community advocates Wolfpack Hustle embarked on a 40 mile race against an airline proved the power of the human versus the machine. In a race won by pedal pushers that generated substantial buzz, why are the Los Angeles bike paths lacking in comparison to other major metropolitan cities?

Now that Carmageddon has come and gone, as a business person, are you going to take heart the relief and production capabilities of a happier worker that has not had to “deal” with traffic for one day? Are you going to provide more of an incentive to take public transit?

As a regular commuter are you going to make a more proactive attempt to take public transit when you can? Will you take an extra few minutes to walk down the street to that cafe for brunch or the extra few blocks to the grocery store?

It’s time the community took a big look at the bigger picture. We have the power to carve this city into something greater if we unify ourselves. Time is a precious commodity but so is a calmer, healthier way of life. Instead of putting one in front of the other, perhaps both are capable of happening. Dare to be a part of the change.

A most awesome non comment

Saturday night’s response to the shenanigans was followed up by an email, in which the correspondence I felt deserving of an entry in itself. It’s awesome in that whole “puke a rainbow” sense of the way.

Enjoy:

Well-written.
But I was one of two white knights at the party?! I feel like such a number. 🙂
Your adventures and thoughts are both amusing and touching. You live out things I completely imagine. So no, I would say your life is not all fantasy. At least from this box seat.

It’s good to know you, and I look forward to getting to know you more.

For the record-Being a number of being awesome is still a line I’d like to be in.
Just saying.

And INDEED it was sooo appreciated. Sincerely.
I’m glad that you enjoyed my post. I am midst another right now. This one involving a lot of breasts. ha.

I like to think of myself as a full sensory experience, because that’s how I go about my life.
Babies aren’t always happy just because they can poop their pants at will.
They view everything as fresh because they don’t know any different.
Everytime I do something it is a new adventure. I don’t care if I’m going to that same gas station to get gas or I’m on a first date. It’s the same thing in my mind.

Life was made for living.
I know.
I died when I was married.

It’s good to be alive again. Perhaps someday I’ll meet my prince charming. Whomever that may be. But kissing frogs is kind of fun too.

And now I have to write an email to someone from ::redacted:: to tell them sure they can give me a job, but no i will not sleep with them to get it.
Don’t you love adulthood sometimes?

~j.

—

Ps the breasts post will come. Be patient. Read that anyway you want to =)

Evolving to the meta response

These days, if you don’t send it via text format, I most likely don’t know about it.  Sure I do online research on things that fascinate me.. and watch television and go outside.  But if you really want me to notice what you’re doing- send it meta, and you will get a faster response.

The most recent blog was a response to another blog.. not listed for my own reasons, and, once again to provide some anonomity.

I got a message on my myspace referencing a comment that was made to this blog.  I wanted to respond via email- however will be doing so in yet another blog.

I’m noticing that is actually very common.  Are we that busy that we don’t pick up the phone anymore?  That digital transmissions have nearly replaced other forms of direct communication?

Have a fight? Resolve it in instant messages.  Email back and forth.

Want to get out your frustrations?  Start a forum war.  Cause drama online.  Why even bother leaving the privacy of your own home?  Do it the safer, quicker way.

How many of you would go nuts without your cell phones? The ability to get online?  The ability to digitally transcribe “I was here” in the sand?

Some days I think most of us just need to walk away and unplug for a bit.  Here’s to dedicating a few more hours a day towards weaning off the crack.  I’m going on a Jenny Craig of the meta proportion.  If you need me, you know where to find me…  yes, that means this weekend I plan on being at the beach again.  Home. Zen.

Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to poof

Someone asked me how many social networks I belong to. I said, way too many. I have a circuit that I go on daily. It’s becoming a shorter list, minus blogs (which that is getting bigger by the day.)

There’s little difference between networks out out there. There were some innovative little ideas here and there, but those niche sites only seem to garner enough attention to substantiate for an ADD child.

I am forever thankful for the people that I have met though. There is no way possible I would have come in contact with such a base spread out as even the tiny portion of what I have.

Friendfeed’s condensed RSS has been a godsent for weeding through the junk sites. I can see the majority of interesting content from my peers and through my peers peers. I learn. I grow. I develop new ideas and am inspired.

What’d I’d really like to see is something actually different come out of the social sphere. Many of the applications are essentially the same derivative package, reformatted and choked back up again. Aggregated RSS’ers, clones, a mess of additional applications to clutter and take away from the basic functionality.

I thought that the principle of social networking was to mainstream more effective means of communication. I think we are getting there. But it’s still a lot of tape and airport signals.. go this way, go that way.

And, although social media is becoming more and more mainstream, there are still many left out. Quite frankly, as user friendly as it seems, it really isn’t. I can’t even begin to tell you how many people have turned their heads and went “Um what’s a twitter?” “What’s social capital?” It’s why sites like myspace still thrive.

For many immersed in it, some of these sites really are laughable. We go to the new ones and gladly hunt invites not necessarily for what’s on there, but to be trendy and one up that schmuck who doesn’t have an “in” on the newest party favor. (I have some brightkite invites left btw, if you want one just message me)

I love social media. I am admittedly an addict. Like a true “drug addict” though, I want more.

• I’d like to see some modern (minimal, yet functional) design.
• Leave the spam for the can.  If your sn is good enough, you will get free advertising from me without having to force it down my throat.
• I could do without as much customization looks wise as I would like actually useful applications.  ie- I like when you give me the option to send a message to multiple people in private.  I do not care for x dumb “what are my friends worth.”  And even if I do, I don’t want my friends to have to see that.  See point 2 above.
• I want to see a UI dumb enough that I run into my computer illiterate relatives and friends. (Hi Mom)
• I want to do fun things from my mobile without having to have a data package.
• I want to see some sleeker, less smoke and mirrors interfaces.
• I’d like to see some of these social networks die already.
• I’d like to see some actually worthwhile ones pop up.
• And most importantly, I want to listen. Because it’s the stories more than anything and the exchange of ideas that really appeals most about this to me.

And that’s all I’ve got to say.. bout that. (for now)