philly

Heading Home

I'm headed out of work in about thirty minutes to go home, pack up my final things and head over to Market East to catch the 4.45p or 5.06p trains back to NY via NJT. I'm bringing home my headphones in hopes that I'll have an .mp3 player for my trip back. Ooooh wouldn't that be nice.

The office is just about empty.

Mind the Strike

First Philly, then NYC and next week, London's subways will go on strike. After a quick read, it seems that this strike is about the staffing levels in the Tube.

More info from The Guardian.

Strike's Over!

Woo hoo! Now I won't have to hoof it with all my crap from Penn Station to Grand Central!

24 Hour Transit

I just realized why the photo above looked odd to me after reading this Chicago Tribune article on the NYC transit strike: NYC has a 24-hour transit system. Aside from station closures for complete architectual overhauls, the entrances to the subways are always open. Not necessarily with a toll booth operator, but open and accessible to use via your MetroCard.

Since the subways are 24-hours, there is no gates/doors at the entrances. Which is why they're being chained off like this all across the City.

Photo: Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency

Christmas Presents

Did a nice chunk of Christmas shopping last night. Lady and I had our early Christmas together last night. We went out to La Fourno [South/6th] to cash in the free entrees we got for my referral of her's to join 12th St Gym. Deeee-licious. A review will come sooner than later for La Fourno. We exchanged gifts too. I got her a photo album and an 8" x 10" frame. She's been wanting an album to file her piles and piles of photos. Now, she can have 150 of them organized. For the 8" x 10", she picked this shot, which is also one of my favorite shots. She got me what felt like a tiny pillow. It was rectangular and soft. I opened it up and to my delight, it was a 365-day calendar of America: The Book, the book The Daily Show put out about a year and a half ago. Awesome. I was actually thinking of getting her a similar gift of Bush-isms. That would've been reminiscent of the Christmas where we got each other THE SAME EXACT GIFT of Naked Pictures of Famous People by Jon Stewart. Now that was funny. We were both cracking up for a good long while.

I've decided to give photos as presents to most of the fam. For my Mom & Dad, I printed an 8" x 10" of them at my sister's wedding and a nice Umbra box frame with a floating triple mat I picked up at Matthew Izzo [Pine/9th]. For my sister and brother in law, I picked up Fahrenheit 9/11 on DVD from TLA Video [Spruce/16th]. I also prepared a wedding photo album for them with eight 8" x 10" shots and about twenty 4" x 6" shots. Still finalizing the layout for that one. And I gotta spray mount them to the pages tonight.

For my nephew, I got him a Gameboy Advance game. Apparently, he's all into Star Wars and his Gameboy. They're also going on a trip to Disney World on Christmas Day so I figured a game would kill three birds with one stone. I got him the Revenge of the Sith game which will hopefully occupy him on the planeride and any boring parts of the trip. I still don't know what to get my neice, arg. For my brother and sis in law, I printed out an 8" x 10" of their family from my sister's wedding, I'll be getting another frame from Matthew Izzo tonight after work [they're having a sale!].

For my cousin Jee Young, she sent out a wishlist of books. I'm headed over to Robin's to see what they have in stock from her list. I also got her a 5" x 7" of her and her younger twin brothers at my sister's wedding. For the twins, they get 5" x 7" framed photos of that same photo to bring back to their fan-cay Ivy League schools. I dunno what to get their parents though. My mom's asked me to get a mock turtleneck sweater for my grandma, but I have no idea what/where to get one of those. I don't pay attention to sweaters in stores, I don't wear them. Maybe I'll pick one up on my mom's recommendation back in NY.

And it just hit me that I'll have to hoof it from Penn Station over to Grand Central on Friday night when I get into NYC on the train. With all these presents, plus a bag of luggage, plus my laptop, plus my photo gear. Hrmph. Maybe I'll cab it. Maybe the transit strike will be over and I'll be able to take the 7/S.

NYC Transit Strike

More people rely on mass transit in NYC than here in Philly. I can't imagine what it's like up there now with the strike. I used to take Metro-North in from the 'burbs into Grand Central Station. From there, it was several stops down on the 6 Train to Spring St. That's one hell of a hike on foot. I used to work by 33/Lexington and every once in awhile, I'd walk the ten blocks from GCT to the office, that's a nice walk in the summer. But in the winter, the main streets turn into wind tunnels. Oh the cold.

I wonder what my sister and brother in law are doing now out in Queens. They both work in midtown.

I remember the blackout three summers ago in NYC. I walked like ninety blocks uptown to my sister's place and then up nine flights of stairs in the pitch black dark. I lost track of the floors at some point. Walking in a pitch black stairwell is quite humbling. Not knowing how many steps there are, where the stairs turn the corner, where the next set of stairs starts, where the door is OUT of the stairwell. That sucked.

Tons of people are walking to work I guess as reported in this NY Times story. And allegedly, Mayor Bloomberg. Odd though, I thought he lived upwotn in his gigantic mansion. I guess he took a warm and toasty limo ride over to Brooklyn and then got out and walked back across the bridge with the hoi polloi. When multi-billionaires walk.

Snowing!

The white stuff is coming down now pretty good. It's sticking too. Which means that Philly drivers will be all over the place. I will be underground away from the craziness only to pop up to walk a short distance here and there as I do a few errands before heading home.

NYC Transit Workers Strike?

Peeped over at Gothamist that a transit workers' strike looms. The transit workers may by slowing down the trains and buses as a sign of displeasure reports the NY Times.

I hope that NYCers don't have to go through a strike in the cold of winter. We were spared by an unusually warm week during our strike.

Showing ID

Wired News consistently has great information on a daily basis. Today is no different with this story on EFF co-founder John Gilmore's pending lawsuit against the W administration.

On Thursday [tomorrow, the 8th], Gilmore and his lawyers will get 20 minutes in front of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to make their argument against identification requirements and government secrecy, in a case that time and shifting public opinion has transformed from a quirky millionaire's indignant protest into a closely watched test of the limitations of executive branch power.

"The nexus of the case has always been the right to travel," Gilmore said. "Can the government prevent Americans from moving around in their own country by slapping any silly rules on them -- you have to show ID, you have to submit to searches, you have to wear a yarmulke?"

Gilmore hasn't taken a bus, train or domestic flight since July 4, 2002. He has, however, flown internationally as he doesn't see a problem with showing his passport when travelling to another country.

Interestingly, he first started thinking of filing suit back in 2002. Several civil liberties groups encouraged him not to do so fearing a high profile case and set precedent with a loss, the article reports. But things are different now and there's a wide anti-W sentiment in the U.S. with W's approval ratings in the shitter [and by "shitter" I mean hovering around 35%].

On Thursday, Gilmore will argue that the government's secret identification rules -- no federal law compels travelers to show ID -- and no-fly list infringe on his First Amendment rights, but don't make the country safer.

In addition, government lawyers long denied the existence of the rule -- which predates the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- even though there are signs in airports cautioning passengers that they are required to show identification.

The government recently switched tactics, acknowledging the rule exists but arguing that the identification requirement is a law-enforcement technique.

And nobody has ever seen this "show your ID" rule because since 9/11, the TSA is allowed to withhold sensitive information like this from the public.

I've heard of the same policies here in Philly in regards to taking photographs on SEPTA and on the Ben Franklin Bridge among other places. I've been told, firsthand, of people who were told to stop taking photos of such-and-such place by an officer and when asked to come up with the documentation to back up the request, the officers started to get tough and become more threatening. One photog recounted a story of having his film confiscated. SEPTA does not have any written rules about photography on the trains or in the stations from what I'm told. NYC went through a similar debacle ending with photographers retaining the right[s] to photograph at will on the trains and in stations.

Holiday Parking in Philadelphia

A holiday gift from The Philadelpiha Parking Authority...

On Saturdays, after 11a, through New Year's Day, there will be free parking at all meters in Philadelphia.