SEPTA

One of the biggest local news stories this week is the SEPTA (www.septa.org) strike. I know very little about the details of the labor dispute so I can’t really say if the Unions or if SEPTA is more at fault. However, I do feel bad for all the people that depend on SEPTA to get to work. I feel lucky that I have a reliable car and don't depend on public transportation to get to work.

What I do know is that in my opinion Philly has one of the worst mass transit systems of cities in the country, especially considering that it is one of the biggest cities. I haven’t taken mass transit in that many cities, but the few that I have all seem to have a better system than here.
First downside is that there aren’t that many places in the city where you can get on a subway or regional rail. By comparion, in NYC at pretty much every point in Manhattan you are within 5 blocks of a subway station. Another down side is that regional rail stops running here around midnight (although I know that the subway lines run later than that) while in other large northeast cities like Boston, NYC and DC their systems run later. Another downside is the cleaness of the system. The metro in DC look very clean, sleek and modern while our subway lines seem old and dirty, they look worst than what I saw in NYC and Boston. Another downside is price. Last year I took Atlanta’s light rail/subway from well north of the city to the Airport south of the city and I think it cost like $2. Then this year, when I was in Portand OR I took a 40 minute train/subway ride to the airport and it also cost around $2. Yet in Philly taking a septa train from the airport to center city costs $5.50. Not only that, but in Portland and Atlanta I had friends that lived at least 10 miles from the airport yet they could drop me off at a train station only a couple miles from where the live and I could take a train/subway directly to the airport while in Philly I have to go downtown and then switch trains to go to the airport. So in summary from personal experiences Philly mass transit sucks compared to other cities in different ways. Obviously I don't ride any of these systems often but here are the overall grades I give mass transit in the 6 cities that I have used it based on my impressions.

Atlanta B (easy and cheap access to airport, overall clean, doesn't reach all suburbs)
Boston B (runs late at night, nice looking trolley, somewhat dirty)
New York A (basically go anywhere with subway, runs late at night, relatively a good bargain compared to everything else in NYC)
Washington DC metro A (clean and modern, easy access to main tourist areas)
Portland A (very clean and modern, easy and cheap access to airport)
Philly D (subways dirty, regional rail doesn’t run late at night, seems expensive considering quality)

guilty pleasures (Laguna Beach)

Everybody has a guilty pleasure that they may be embarassed of telling other people. Well, my guilty pleasure is a show on MTV called 'Laguna Beach'. http://www.mtv.com/onair/laguna_beach/season2/main.jhtml/

I usually don’t watch reality shows especially based on teenagers. (Although I guess I've watched the Real World here and there over the years, however that is more on 20 somethings.) I never really watched Beverly Hill 90210 or the O.C. However, there is something about that show that I like. Yes, 2 of the hottest girls I have ever seen are on that show (Kristin and LC) and that is a very small part of the reason, but I just like the silly immature drama. I don't know why. I like the opening song by Hillary Duff 'Come Clean' That song fits in perfectly with the opening of that show. "Let's go back Back to the beginningBack to when the earth, the sun, the stars all aligned 'Cause perfect didn't feel so perfect Trying to fit a square into a circle Was no lieI defy. Let the rain fall down and wake my dreams, Let it wash away my sanity, Cause I wanna feel the thunderI wanna scream Let the rain fall downI'm comimg clean, I'm coming clean"

Basically my TV viewing habits now days are mostly news, sports, occasional random channel flipping and Laguna Beach.

NBA dress code

One of the bigger news stories in the world of sports this week was the NBA starting a dress code http://cbs.sportsline.com/nba/story/8977030. This will mean that players will have to wear business casual attire when they participate in team or league activities. Now, the first player I have in mind when I heard about this rule is Allen Iverson. I don't think I've ever seen AI wear anything close to resembling proffesional or business casual dress. (Maybe draft day in 1996 was the only time I can remember ever seeing him in a suit) Not sure if AI will make a big fuss over the rule, but the way I see it, it's really only an issue of clothes and I personally don't consider it to be a newsworthy item. Whether AI sucks it up and dresses nicer or dresses in his usual attire and gets fined is is not really a big deal. Just like AI said a few years ago when discussing practice "Practice! we talking about Practice!" I say "Clothes! we talking about clothes!"

lottery

I heard everybody at work and friends talking about the big lottery jackpot. Did I buy any lotterly tickets? Of course not. The way I see it is that for every ticket I buy I'll just be giving more money to some extremely rich person (the eventual winner of the jackpot) and the odds are at least 99.9999% that I'll be giving money to a millionare and .00001% that I'll win the jackpot. I honestly have a better chance of marrying my favorite female celebrity than I do of winning that jackpot.

world travel

One thing that is kind of cool (at least I think it’s cool) is that you can fly to basically every major city on the planet within 24 hours and often only 1 layover from Philly's airport. Pretty much every major US city and western European cities you can fly to directly from Philly. Some cities like Miami have flights to most major cities in the Caribean and South America. West Coast cities like LA and San Fran have flights to most major cities in Asia, and western European cities have flights to major cities in eastern Europe, the middle east and Africa. I know a lot of people my age may not appreciate this but for people who are much older I'm sure they are impressed that you can go pretty much anywhere often for around $1000 in less than 24 hrs and having only 1 layover. I checked on a travel website (I was a little bored and curious) and you can fly from Philadelphia to Tehran, Shanghai, Rio De Janerio, or Istanbul with one layover and get to all those cities in 12-18 hrs. It's a small world after all.

PSU Ohio St weekend

I was up at PSU this past weekend to partake in festivities surrounding the Ohio St. vs PSU game, and some things seem to be changing just from a few years ago. Maybe it's just me, but the cops seem more lenient than they were in years past. People could easily cross the street between tailgates with can/bottles of beer in their hand. I saw people actually drinking at the HUB lawn, and carrying open containers through east halls. I don’t know if people just have more balls or if the cops are more lenient or a mix of both, but I definitely didn't see that a few years ago.

I didn’t go to any bars at all (other than to watch the game at sportscafe) this weekend since pretty much every bar had lines at least 30-50 people out the door. However, I went to lots of apartment parties. (It's good to have a sibling still at PSU) One party I went to I did feel a little old because I think pretty much everyone was under 21. However, other parties you had alumni who were parents of college kids, you had older friends, siblings, cousins, uncles etc. where I didn’t feel old at all. Of course at these parties people seem to leave based on age. The 50+ crowd leaves around midnight. The late 30’s 40’s crowd leaves around 1-2. People in the late 20's (including myself) leave after 2 and the college age kids go strong to 5 am.

It’s interesting how much more energy I had up there this weekend then I do at home. Usually here I’m tired by midnight on a Friday but I remember it was about 2 am on Friday and I still didn’t feel tired at all. Must be something in the air. Maybe the feeling of a big football game the next day, or being back at your alma matter, or maybe just be the presence of thousands of girls between 18 and 25 in downtown State College that makes it hard to be tired :-)

PSU football is back

Penn State Football is 5-0 for the first time since 1999 and they have one of the biggest games in years this coming weekend vs. Ohio State. I’m going up to Penn State this weekend, and I can already tell that the atmosphere will probably be similar to many of the big home games they had in the late 90’s. I heard that ESPN Gameday is going to be in State College for the game, which I’m sure hasn’t happened in a long time. The last big game night game I remember at PSU was in 2002 when Penn State beat Nebraska. It was the first big game Michael Robinson had as a freshman, and I remember he scored a couple of touchdowns that game. It will be nice to see him have another big game at a nationally televised night game as a senior. Win or lose against Ohio State, I think PSU is doing a lot better than most people thought, and it's good to seem some excitement about the PSU football team again.