Thursday, January 15
The three biggest lessons learned from my latest train journey:
1. There is one hell of a lot of Upstate New York. Obvious, I know, but I don't think the whole thing is really properly expressed on maps. It's only driving or riding across it that you finally realize, my God, there's a lot of this place. And not much in it. It was simply hour after hour after hour of riding across what looked suspiciously like snow-swept tundra, only with more trees in, with the occasional stop in places with names like Rensselaer and Syracuse and Schenectady, the last of which I thought was just a name Harlan Ellison made up. But mostly it was empty. Empty and big.
2. No train ever gets in on time. I took two trains, one from Toronto to New York City and one from NYC to Greensburo, NC, where my parents picked me up, and both were over two hours late. This meant I spent 17 hours on the first train (see? I told you there was a lot of upstate New York) and 14 on the second, for a grand total of 31 hours sitting on my ass wondering nervously if I dared buy something else from the cafe car. I'll say this for BritRail, they might not be any more timely than Amtrak, but at least they didn't actively try to poison me and then overcharge me ridiculously for the priviledge. Many many Walkman batteries gave their lives in preservation of my sanity.
3. New York is just like any other city, only bigger. Admittedly, I did not see much of New York, only those bits that lay between Penn Station and the hostel where I snuck my measily four and a half hours of sleep. And when I say any other city, I don't mean any in Canada or New Zealand, because it wasn't clean enough. And all the potential thieves, muggers, rapists, beggars, drug dealers, and crazies that I was warned to expect might well have been scared off by the sheer amount of luggage they would have had to peel off in order to rape, mug, or beg money from the actual human being underneath (I was carrying Clute's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, which I will hold up to the old trustworthy Bible for a bullet-stopper any day, assuming you'd want to walk around with the thing strapped to your chest, or that you could without, you know, falling over)... but still. As usual, the hyperbole of danger has failed to manifest itself in reality. Someday I will go back and explore that city further, and hopefully with less luggage.
And, in a final point (oh, come on, you didn't think I was going to stick with that three thing, did you?): People who sing along to songs they are listening to on headphones should be shot. Especially on trains. Thank you.
But I am home, safe, sound, and relatively sane, back to my chore-ridden, central-heat-less, 28.8-modem-connection existance, returning to my house of limited indoor plumbing and, courtesy my brother's departure two weeks ago, no food or toilet paper.
On the bright side, my dog was happy to see me, and I have my Mac back. No offense to all the lovely computers that have lent themselves to me on my journey, of course, but to have a computer with decent graphics which isn't forcing me to use Microsoft Word is bliss, bliss, bliss.
Really it's only the loneliness I mind.
Well, I suppose I shall round off the post with some linkage. First off, Making Light has posted a really nifty review of anti-Bush advertisments online. I'd add my two cents, but, well, 28.8 connection. Bah humbug.
And I feel in an obscure way that I should link to this. We've been friends of the family for 16 years now, and I even knew the father (the artist described in the article) somewhat, although generally he was only ever in the house because it happened to be on the way to his studio, and he died when I was still quite young. Both boys, however, are longtime friends, and the artwork is... strange. Makes you look at the world sideways.
The RSS feed, by the way, would appear to be broken. Sigh. It's on the list, right after unpacking and getting rid of the moldy oranges in the fridge.
Right now, I need to do some shopping - because sooner or later, I'm going to need to eat. And use the bathroom.
1. There is one hell of a lot of Upstate New York. Obvious, I know, but I don't think the whole thing is really properly expressed on maps. It's only driving or riding across it that you finally realize, my God, there's a lot of this place. And not much in it. It was simply hour after hour after hour of riding across what looked suspiciously like snow-swept tundra, only with more trees in, with the occasional stop in places with names like Rensselaer and Syracuse and Schenectady, the last of which I thought was just a name Harlan Ellison made up. But mostly it was empty. Empty and big.
2. No train ever gets in on time. I took two trains, one from Toronto to New York City and one from NYC to Greensburo, NC, where my parents picked me up, and both were over two hours late. This meant I spent 17 hours on the first train (see? I told you there was a lot of upstate New York) and 14 on the second, for a grand total of 31 hours sitting on my ass wondering nervously if I dared buy something else from the cafe car. I'll say this for BritRail, they might not be any more timely than Amtrak, but at least they didn't actively try to poison me and then overcharge me ridiculously for the priviledge. Many many Walkman batteries gave their lives in preservation of my sanity.
3. New York is just like any other city, only bigger. Admittedly, I did not see much of New York, only those bits that lay between Penn Station and the hostel where I snuck my measily four and a half hours of sleep. And when I say any other city, I don't mean any in Canada or New Zealand, because it wasn't clean enough. And all the potential thieves, muggers, rapists, beggars, drug dealers, and crazies that I was warned to expect might well have been scared off by the sheer amount of luggage they would have had to peel off in order to rape, mug, or beg money from the actual human being underneath (I was carrying Clute's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, which I will hold up to the old trustworthy Bible for a bullet-stopper any day, assuming you'd want to walk around with the thing strapped to your chest, or that you could without, you know, falling over)... but still. As usual, the hyperbole of danger has failed to manifest itself in reality. Someday I will go back and explore that city further, and hopefully with less luggage.
And, in a final point (oh, come on, you didn't think I was going to stick with that three thing, did you?): People who sing along to songs they are listening to on headphones should be shot. Especially on trains. Thank you.
But I am home, safe, sound, and relatively sane, back to my chore-ridden, central-heat-less, 28.8-modem-connection existance, returning to my house of limited indoor plumbing and, courtesy my brother's departure two weeks ago, no food or toilet paper.
On the bright side, my dog was happy to see me, and I have my Mac back. No offense to all the lovely computers that have lent themselves to me on my journey, of course, but to have a computer with decent graphics which isn't forcing me to use Microsoft Word is bliss, bliss, bliss.
Really it's only the loneliness I mind.
Well, I suppose I shall round off the post with some linkage. First off, Making Light has posted a really nifty review of anti-Bush advertisments online. I'd add my two cents, but, well, 28.8 connection. Bah humbug.
And I feel in an obscure way that I should link to this. We've been friends of the family for 16 years now, and I even knew the father (the artist described in the article) somewhat, although generally he was only ever in the house because it happened to be on the way to his studio, and he died when I was still quite young. Both boys, however, are longtime friends, and the artwork is... strange. Makes you look at the world sideways.
The RSS feed, by the way, would appear to be broken. Sigh. It's on the list, right after unpacking and getting rid of the moldy oranges in the fridge.
Right now, I need to do some shopping - because sooner or later, I'm going to need to eat. And use the bathroom.
Wednesday, January 07
Okay, so I'm in Canada, and there's it's FUCKING COLD.
This should probably not come as such an immense shock.
The country snuck up on me, that's what. Okay, so New Year's Eve was a bit chilly, but other than that it's been quite bearable, in the twenties and thirties, and I was thinking, "Hey, this Canada stuff, this isn't half bad." And then on Monday I woke up and there was, like, snow, but when I hiked to U of Waterloo to catch up with Dan it still wasn't half bad. There was a distinct bite to the air, but unbearable it was not. In fact, the walk was rather pleasant. Then we met people....
(I should add, at this point, that I am fairly antisocial in my quiet way and that, moreover, I live in the middle of nowhere. Dan appears to know every other human being in Waterloo. I'm starting to go into meeting-people overload, where the days and the faces and most of all the names meld into one big overstimulated blur. Not that I'm complaining. However, I'm not even going to try to list all of these people on this blog, nifty as they are, because I think that would make my brain implode....)
... so there were people. They were good people. There were couches. There was some yowling when we went back outside at five pm or whatever, because DEAR GOD had it gotten cold, and I started feeling put upon.
And then there was yesterday, when even Dan agreed that maybe it was time to travel via cab, it being -3F, not counting the windchill.
YOW.
Anyway, aside from that it was a good day, with entertainment for all, but with particular entertainment for those around me, considering that I used chopsticks for the first time and got somewhat drunk, although fortunately this happened at separate meals. I should add, at this point, that getting me drunk is not much of an accomplishment. In spite of my valiant attempts to develop an alcohol tolerance I still get tipsy if I have any more than one drink. This generally involves me talking a lot (though the last time I explained this to a friend he tried to take my wineglass away) and going into fits of giggling for no real reason. And talking a lot. Most of the night is quietly and pleasantly fuzzy, although I do remember Dan ordering the all-you-can-eat schnitzel and then eating a second helping - which pleased the waitress - and then a third helping - which made the waitress gape a bit - and then a fourth helping - by which point he'd apparently broken the record, and was causing the wait staff and the cook to giggle a lot, particularly when he dropped in on the kitchen to thank the cook. He was also trying to convince the waitress she needed to wear an anti-circumcision ribbon. I am not entirely sure why he did this. It wasn't like he was carrying anti-circumcision ribbons around or anything, he just seemed to think it was a nifty idea.
Left very large tip for waitress.
Today is slightly less toe-curlingly cold than yesterday, but I am still wondering what the hell I'm doing up here in the frozen north visiting a mad Russian with a bottomless stomach and way, way too many friends. On the other hand, he keeps buying me chocolate and ice cream. Maybe the weather's not so bad.
This should probably not come as such an immense shock.
The country snuck up on me, that's what. Okay, so New Year's Eve was a bit chilly, but other than that it's been quite bearable, in the twenties and thirties, and I was thinking, "Hey, this Canada stuff, this isn't half bad." And then on Monday I woke up and there was, like, snow, but when I hiked to U of Waterloo to catch up with Dan it still wasn't half bad. There was a distinct bite to the air, but unbearable it was not. In fact, the walk was rather pleasant. Then we met people....
(I should add, at this point, that I am fairly antisocial in my quiet way and that, moreover, I live in the middle of nowhere. Dan appears to know every other human being in Waterloo. I'm starting to go into meeting-people overload, where the days and the faces and most of all the names meld into one big overstimulated blur. Not that I'm complaining. However, I'm not even going to try to list all of these people on this blog, nifty as they are, because I think that would make my brain implode....)
... so there were people. They were good people. There were couches. There was some yowling when we went back outside at five pm or whatever, because DEAR GOD had it gotten cold, and I started feeling put upon.
And then there was yesterday, when even Dan agreed that maybe it was time to travel via cab, it being -3F, not counting the windchill.
YOW.
Anyway, aside from that it was a good day, with entertainment for all, but with particular entertainment for those around me, considering that I used chopsticks for the first time and got somewhat drunk, although fortunately this happened at separate meals. I should add, at this point, that getting me drunk is not much of an accomplishment. In spite of my valiant attempts to develop an alcohol tolerance I still get tipsy if I have any more than one drink. This generally involves me talking a lot (though the last time I explained this to a friend he tried to take my wineglass away) and going into fits of giggling for no real reason. And talking a lot. Most of the night is quietly and pleasantly fuzzy, although I do remember Dan ordering the all-you-can-eat schnitzel and then eating a second helping - which pleased the waitress - and then a third helping - which made the waitress gape a bit - and then a fourth helping - by which point he'd apparently broken the record, and was causing the wait staff and the cook to giggle a lot, particularly when he dropped in on the kitchen to thank the cook. He was also trying to convince the waitress she needed to wear an anti-circumcision ribbon. I am not entirely sure why he did this. It wasn't like he was carrying anti-circumcision ribbons around or anything, he just seemed to think it was a nifty idea.
Left very large tip for waitress.
Today is slightly less toe-curlingly cold than yesterday, but I am still wondering what the hell I'm doing up here in the frozen north visiting a mad Russian with a bottomless stomach and way, way too many friends. On the other hand, he keeps buying me chocolate and ice cream. Maybe the weather's not so bad.
Saturday, January 03
It feels that I should have news, but I don't, really. I'm on vacation. I've gone a few places and met some really cool people, but in general I'm just laying around, reading, laying around some more... hey, what can I say? It's nice to be lazy for a little while, and the company is excellent.
Oh, and an interesting little tidbit: the FBI's latest burst of paranoia has been drawing satiric commentary from all over the web; now, as A Violently Executed Blog points out, people have started leaving satiric comments on the
Farmer's Almanac's Amazon.com page. And they are very, very funny, with headers like "Don't forget to make suspicious markings in this book," and "6/2, plant lettuce; 6/3, bomb municipal courthouse." God, it's reassuring to see other people making fun of the government....
I've also been writing a bit, and have finally finished day two... the novel, in its current please-God-let-this-work incarnation, covers about eleven days. So I am something like a fifth of the way through now. That's nice. The second part of my article on artificial intelligence is up at Vision, which is pretty nice too. It's the first thing I've ever written that I recieved payment for. A grand total of eight dollars, admittedly, but I'm still obscurely proud of myself.
All and all it's an unusually promising start to the New Year. Cheers, all. I hope your New Years were equally promising.
Oh, and an interesting little tidbit: the FBI's latest burst of paranoia has been drawing satiric commentary from all over the web; now, as A Violently Executed Blog points out, people have started leaving satiric comments on the
Farmer's Almanac's Amazon.com page. And they are very, very funny, with headers like "Don't forget to make suspicious markings in this book," and "6/2, plant lettuce; 6/3, bomb municipal courthouse." God, it's reassuring to see other people making fun of the government....
I've also been writing a bit, and have finally finished day two... the novel, in its current please-God-let-this-work incarnation, covers about eleven days. So I am something like a fifth of the way through now. That's nice. The second part of my article on artificial intelligence is up at Vision, which is pretty nice too. It's the first thing I've ever written that I recieved payment for. A grand total of eight dollars, admittedly, but I'm still obscurely proud of myself.
All and all it's an unusually promising start to the New Year. Cheers, all. I hope your New Years were equally promising.
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