The other day I was on the laptop which has Yahoo Messenger installed on it and if you have Messenger, then you know that it pops up a news window with top stories on it. I will usually go through the stories to see what they are and if any interest me, I will read them. Well one caught my attention and it was about train rides that I thought was cool.
I've always been interested in trains, not the wearing an Engineers cap and collecting model trains but in riding them. I was able to ride on one here locally when I was a kid around Christmas time and it was quite fun. These were just old restored cars, but it was an experience that you keep for a lifetime.
And I want to do it more now that I read that particular story on Yahoo.
The closest scenic train ride is in Georgia. Quite a ride from the panhandle of Florida just to take a train ride if you ask me. Then I got to thinking if there was anything local and remembered AmTrak used to have a station in Chipley but has been closed awhile back for lack of passengers. So, I got on AmTrak.com to see the nearest station was and it's FREAKING NEW ORLEANS!
Then I started to do some research on tickets, which are fairly inexpensive. 69.00 bucks from New Orleans to Atlanta. Not too bad minus the drive from here to New Orleans which would eat up 5 plus hours for a 10 hour train ride. You could get there faster by driving then taking a train.
Then I did more research and the Sunset Limited service was discontinued after hurricane Katrina in '05 with damage to the lines that serviced the Gulf Coast. Those lines have since been repaired but service has yet to resume.
The Sunset Limited ran coast to coast starting in Orlando, Fl to Los Angeles, CA. Now the train only runs from New Orleans, LA to Los Angeles, CA. I may not be interested in running to California but a trip to Orlando or from Chipley or Crestview to anywhere would be fun and would be cheaper than flying without the pre-requisite pat down by the TSA.
I have a friend that would like to see snow in Tennessee and I am thinking a train ride would be great seeing as neither of us are familiar with driving in snow but I doubt she would be interested in driving to New Orleans to catch a train to Tennessee.
So help me make it possible for the Sunset Limited to be restored back to its full route pre-Katrina. Follow this link to contact AmTrak and mention interest in having the Sunset Limited restored beyond New Orleans into the Florida panhandle.
UPDATE:
Also please, contact your State Representatives as well. It is more up to the states to help in this matter as the train stations are owned by state or local municipalities and it will require their help on this as well.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Zombie Apocalypse
There are many sources out there that tell of the Zombie Apocalypse, how it begins, how to survive and how to prepare. Most, if not all, movies, stories and video games depict the Apocalypse beginning via some sort of government or corporate lab accident that sends the virus out into the world to re-animate the dead. That version is the most popular as seen in 28 Days, Resident Evil, and so many others to numerous to list.
Those are mostly examples of accidents. Someone being careless and causing the world to become infected.
What if someone wasn't careless? What if someone didn't break open a vial of T-virus to infect an underground lab facility for the shits and giggles? But left without anyone ever knowing or being caught?
Let's stop there with what their motivation would be to want to do something such as that and go ahead and paint them as the type that would unleash the virus for the hell of it outside of the safety of a confined lab.
Where would they do it?
If it was I who was to pick the spot, it would begin in a big city. Lots of people that could potentially be infected before anyone would know what has happened. If it was meant to go globally quickly, it would be a big city with an international airport. Someplace like New York City, Atlanta, or Los Angeles.
The next question, who would be infected first? The homeless and poor. These groups of people are not generally cared for or have the means to seek medical care once they begin to show signs of sickness. They tend to have to tough it out and let whatever it is pass till they get better. With the homeless, there really isn't much for them except for maybe a travelling clinic that may come by to check up on them from time to time. The poor might go to a clinic but mostly will just get some over the counter medication, take it and stay home for the duration.
The homeless, once infected and turned will start to easily turn the other homeless they become in contact with. The general shuffling of a zombie could easily be mistaken as that of a normal homeless person and would go without notice or remark amongst the uninfected who would think it is just another homeless person moving about. This would be crucial for the infection to spread as no quarantines or aggressive eradication would be begin in the meantime.
The poor would have the greater chance of discovery but also the greater chance of infecting others as they tend to continue to work in their jobs even when sick. If one was to turn while working at their job, then they could at that point begin to infect those that are around them.
Once the infection begins and is spotted by authorities, it is already too late. Those that would be bitten would seek medical treatment considering all of the non-zombie diseases out there but many people would not go for a simple scratch. Most people in big cities if confronted with a homeless person would generally push them away and then leave quickly but in that instance of pushing the homeless person away, the non-infected would greatly increase the risk of walking away with their undoing.
Those are mostly examples of accidents. Someone being careless and causing the world to become infected.
What if someone wasn't careless? What if someone didn't break open a vial of T-virus to infect an underground lab facility for the shits and giggles? But left without anyone ever knowing or being caught?
Let's stop there with what their motivation would be to want to do something such as that and go ahead and paint them as the type that would unleash the virus for the hell of it outside of the safety of a confined lab.
Where would they do it?
If it was I who was to pick the spot, it would begin in a big city. Lots of people that could potentially be infected before anyone would know what has happened. If it was meant to go globally quickly, it would be a big city with an international airport. Someplace like New York City, Atlanta, or Los Angeles.
The next question, who would be infected first? The homeless and poor. These groups of people are not generally cared for or have the means to seek medical care once they begin to show signs of sickness. They tend to have to tough it out and let whatever it is pass till they get better. With the homeless, there really isn't much for them except for maybe a travelling clinic that may come by to check up on them from time to time. The poor might go to a clinic but mostly will just get some over the counter medication, take it and stay home for the duration.
The homeless, once infected and turned will start to easily turn the other homeless they become in contact with. The general shuffling of a zombie could easily be mistaken as that of a normal homeless person and would go without notice or remark amongst the uninfected who would think it is just another homeless person moving about. This would be crucial for the infection to spread as no quarantines or aggressive eradication would be begin in the meantime.
The poor would have the greater chance of discovery but also the greater chance of infecting others as they tend to continue to work in their jobs even when sick. If one was to turn while working at their job, then they could at that point begin to infect those that are around them.
Once the infection begins and is spotted by authorities, it is already too late. Those that would be bitten would seek medical treatment considering all of the non-zombie diseases out there but many people would not go for a simple scratch. Most people in big cities if confronted with a homeless person would generally push them away and then leave quickly but in that instance of pushing the homeless person away, the non-infected would greatly increase the risk of walking away with their undoing.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Feeling Out
Remember when you first meet someone and there is that connection that is felt enough for the two of you to continue dating to relationship status? Every time that we meet someone new that we are interested in, we are always on our best behavior. We are polite, cordial, use our manners and such but why? I know best foot forward and all but unless you are trying to change yourself from being what you always are, why change yourself at the beginnings of a relationship just to entice the person over for some tea and crumpets?
Why not just be yourself in the beginning from the beginning? Most relationships end because the people involved revert back to who they really are once they become comfortable in the relationship. They then realize the person they are with, is not the person that they were attracted to in the first place and things fall apart.
This is probably one of the main reasons that people cheat. The person they cheat with is attracted to them because they are probably tired of this 'new' person they have been dating and are letting their real personality out in frustration. They may not be meaning to cheat but it happens.
I am quite comfortable where I am at in this point. I am not going to try to re-invent myself for the purpose of keeping someone at my side or attracting someone just so that when I get comfortable, they find themselves dating an asshole that doesn't give a rat's ass. I'm just gonna be that asshole that doesn't gives a rat's ass from the beginning.
Take me warts and all.
Why not just be yourself in the beginning from the beginning? Most relationships end because the people involved revert back to who they really are once they become comfortable in the relationship. They then realize the person they are with, is not the person that they were attracted to in the first place and things fall apart.
This is probably one of the main reasons that people cheat. The person they cheat with is attracted to them because they are probably tired of this 'new' person they have been dating and are letting their real personality out in frustration. They may not be meaning to cheat but it happens.
I am quite comfortable where I am at in this point. I am not going to try to re-invent myself for the purpose of keeping someone at my side or attracting someone just so that when I get comfortable, they find themselves dating an asshole that doesn't give a rat's ass. I'm just gonna be that asshole that doesn't gives a rat's ass from the beginning.
Take me warts and all.
DVD/BluRay
I don't own a Blu-ray player; never saw the need for one but after watching a movie last night (Bad Teacher), the lack of extras got me thinking.
Remember when DVD first came out, it was the replacement of the long standing VHS tape. A wonder of technology and black magic that would allow movies that were 3+ hours long, (Titanic) that took three tapes to show the entire movie, could now be placed on just one disc that would hold the entire movie plus extras. Those extras consisted of interviews, deleted scenes, alternate endings and whatever the studio felt to throw on there.
This was mostly done to get the techies over to the new medium and for them to drag everyone else over with them.
Now with Blu-ray, you have even more room to put stuff on the disc. So when Blu-ray came out, it had all of the aforementioned DVD extras, but Blu-ray offered multiple angles for scenes, true HD, digital 7.1 sound, advanced options during movie playback and 3DTV support.
All of this is wonderful to get people to convert over from DVD to Blu-ray but I wonder if Blu-ray has started doing what DVD has been doing for awhile now? That is not packing the 50 GB of disc space available with all that is possible.
Seems that only certain movies will get the extra attention with DVD releases, others just get shipped with just the movies. DVD has for the most part become only movies, some extra content but nothing like before. DVD movies used to have scene selections in them. Which was great if you had a favorite part of a movie you wanted to go right to without all of other stuff before it without having to forward through it all. Not any more, very few movies have that option on the menus.
Since I don't own a Blu-ray player or movies, I wonder how long they will keep up adding all the extra stuff in the discs or if they have abandoned it already?
Remember when DVD first came out, it was the replacement of the long standing VHS tape. A wonder of technology and black magic that would allow movies that were 3+ hours long, (Titanic) that took three tapes to show the entire movie, could now be placed on just one disc that would hold the entire movie plus extras. Those extras consisted of interviews, deleted scenes, alternate endings and whatever the studio felt to throw on there.
This was mostly done to get the techies over to the new medium and for them to drag everyone else over with them.
Now with Blu-ray, you have even more room to put stuff on the disc. So when Blu-ray came out, it had all of the aforementioned DVD extras, but Blu-ray offered multiple angles for scenes, true HD, digital 7.1 sound, advanced options during movie playback and 3DTV support.
All of this is wonderful to get people to convert over from DVD to Blu-ray but I wonder if Blu-ray has started doing what DVD has been doing for awhile now? That is not packing the 50 GB of disc space available with all that is possible.
Seems that only certain movies will get the extra attention with DVD releases, others just get shipped with just the movies. DVD has for the most part become only movies, some extra content but nothing like before. DVD movies used to have scene selections in them. Which was great if you had a favorite part of a movie you wanted to go right to without all of other stuff before it without having to forward through it all. Not any more, very few movies have that option on the menus.
Since I don't own a Blu-ray player or movies, I wonder how long they will keep up adding all the extra stuff in the discs or if they have abandoned it already?
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