Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

15 minutes if there's no traffic, an hour if there is.

I'm finding traffic in NorCal to be even weirder than LA. Could be worse, though. I could be in Quincy, IL right now.

(Wait, I AM in Quincy, IL right now! Oh, the horror.)

DaveC

I like the light rail when I visit, provided it goes someplace I want to go. Not sure about public transportation in Quincy.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Yeah, but aren't there a dozen different transit systems in the Bay area which are all non-interconnected? That's one thing I really love about the NYC Metro area. MTA, PATH, LIRR, NJTrans, etc are all technically separate systems, but they work and play well together.

Public transportation in Quincy consists of the sidewalk.

Five days left, then off to Manhattan. (The real one, not the one in Kansas.)

DaveC

I did say "provided it goes someplace I want to go." I find it refreshing compared to the public transportation that I'm used to in places like Rochester NY. (I always feel sad by the time I get off.) But you're right, it doesn't seem very useful for getting where you really want to go.

You're not just living the dream, you're writing it! I hope Manhattan knows you're coming. I'm sure they'll bake a cake or something.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Hehe.

I do enjoy exploring the public transit systems of the cities I visit. One which really surprised me was St. Louis. It's not extremely comprehensive, but if you need to get downtown from the airport, MetroLink will get 'er done. What I find really interesting is that while they do have ticket-vending machines at every stop, there is no fare-control (eg: turnstiles) anywhere; payment is on the honor system. I'm used to this in Germany, but I've never seen it anywhere else in the US.

Actually, that's one thing that really annoys me about commuter rail in San Diego. We have the Coaster train, which (as the name implies) runs along the coast from downtown all the way to north county. The Carlsbad station is near my home, and would be an extremely convenient way to get to the airport, if it actually stopped there.

That's right. San Diego has the only commuter rail system in the world in which the tracks actually pass directly adjacent to the airport, and yet the train DOES NOT ACTUALLY STOP THERE.

(WTF?)



Nah. I do a lot of work in the city, this is just a quick in-n-out job; loading some new firmware onto the consoles and router at WCBS 880. This is the weird part of my job- fly all the way across the country, do 2 hours of actual work, bill for two full days expenses.

TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

Benny go home!

2ndGearRubber

949 actually hired Joe to build a flux-capacitor for Crusher...... imagine winning, before the race starts....... Sorry, Emilio, had to share the exciting news!

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

FYI I bought my 5th miata. This is the one bros. After owning like every type of Miata I know what I want, and I got pretty much exactly that. It was almost too perfect. So excited. I'm a little sad I wasn't able to fly out and drive it back. So it's being shipped, which is a little scary. But hopefully everything works out well, and it makes in here okay.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

?


Serious question:

I normally fly in and out of JFK.

This time, my departing flight is out of EWR, which I have never flown through. Does anybody know WHERE in NY Penn Station one would go to catch the NJTrans train to the Newark Airtrain? I'm assuming that ticketing is vaguely in the same area as LIRR, but for the life of me I can't recall ever actually noting precisely where it was.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

If I get a new job can I buy a $3300 bicycle? That's a good-enough reason to celebrate with dollars, right?

y8s

iTrader: (8)

Oh **** Joe. Guess where y8s grew up and lived for the first 18 years of his life?

Where in Santa Clara?

PS you're going to want to go here: http://www.halted.com/

PPS Let me know when you want a hookup to visit the computer history museum in Mountain View. I know a curator.

PPS this is post #17171.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Uhm, I dunno... Topeka, Kansas?


SCU.


Looks like an interesting place. I'm envisioning a sort of surplus shop in an old warehouse / factory building?


This will definitely be on my list of things to do.

And this is post # 41424 (in octal.)

TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

The San Diego train not stopping at the air port would be like the Garden State Parkway not having exit ramps for the barrier islands. i.e. a good thing for the locals. Benny. Go. Home.

The NE Corridor and the Coast line both stop at EWR. But as to where exactly in NY Penn station to pick up that train...well I don't know how to answer that one specifically. I go down what seems like 1 level from the street and there you are, with the big board listing trains/times/tracks in the middle. Normally the NE Corridor trans are on the far end tracks, opposite the bathrooms and the bar.

If I arrive inside Penn Station via some random subway, then I follow the arrows pointing to NJ transit.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

By "The Bar," I assume you mean Tracks?

And by "Big Board," I assume this is the big board which is in the central atrium near the K-Mart entrance?

If so, then I know exactly where you mean, and that's the same area as the LIRR trains.

TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

There's a Kmart down there?!!? Never noticed that. I recollect only an Amtrak waiting area on one side and stairwells down to the tracks on 2 adjacent walls, on on the 4th wall, the bathrooms, eateries, and the bar, where you can purchase an insanely expensive 8oz beverage while waiting for your train.

NJ Transit conductors (or whatever you call the guys who take your tickets nowadays) don't seem to care if you hang out in between the cars on the late night return trips. There are not insignificant sized gaps in the floor that you can easily aim for when you need to pee.

y8s

iTrader: (8)

I grew up in Santa Clara, CA. Your guess was poor based on implied context.

Are you going to be learning, teaching, or stalking vaguely jesuit-educated young ladies?

Yes, warehouse. concrete floors, steel shelf racks, old school nerds like this guy Morris:

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Yeah, a pretty big one. Three stories.

The uppermost floor of the K-Mart is at street level, with an entrance on 34th between 6th and 7th, just west of the main LIRR entrance. The middle floor is landlocked, and the lowermost floor exits into Penn Station towards the end of Restaurant Row, near the stairs to tracks 20-21.

I use this to my advantage when packing for long trips into the city. Rather than taking up space in my luggage with socks and underwear, I simply stop at the K-Mart on my way in; I always have to connect in Penn Station anyway, since I take the LIRR in from JFK and then transfer to the 7th ave line (the 1 train) to get to wherever I'm staying.

On my way out of town, I collect the socks and underwear in the plastic bag that they came in, and give them to a bum who looks to be about my size as I'm on my way to the airport.

It's a win-win situation.


Hmm.

I've done some Googling, and apparently there is a whole section of Penn Station that I have never been to.

This is the Big Board which I'm familiar with, which is LIRR-only:



(In this image, the entrance to the K-mart is in the background, just out of frame to the left.)

And this is the bar I'm thinking of, called Tracks. They actually have pretty good oysters:





But some searching has revealed this concourse, which I'm completely unfamiliar with:




And this Big Board, which I suspect may be the one you mean:




Seems like no matter how many times I visit the city, I always learn something new.

Want to know how to get into the penthouse suite at the Time Hotel (49th between 7th & 8th)? Take the glass elevator to the second floor (this bypasses the concierge desk where you have to show your room key), then the rear elevator to the second-to-top floor, then the stairs to the top floor. Exit the stairwell and turn right (this avoids the cameras.) Go into the sky lounge, and exit onto the roof (the door is behind the bar.) Walk around until you pass the picnic table where the employees go to smoke, and find a rickety metal staircase set into the wall which leads up to a utility room. Take it past the chiller, and make your way through the potted shrubberies. You are now standing outside the lower level of the penthouse. The sliding glass doors are almost always unlocked. There is no alarm on the door, and no motion sensor inside.




I think conductors is probably the right term still.

Never ridden NJTrans, but the LIRR trains have bathrooms onboard. (And nice ones, at that. Very spacious, like the lower-level middle lavatories in a 747.)

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Objection, calls for speculation.


My intention is to attend the law school, sign a paper that says I acknowledge the university's Jesuit mission and agree to abide by its religion-based code of conduct, enroll in the university-sponsored student health insurance program, and then sue the university and testify before congress when they refuse to pay for my gender-reassignment surgery. If everything goes according to plan, I'll be a featured speaker at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.



Sounds like a place in Dayton, OH I used to go to. Mendelson's, I think?

Pinky

iTrader: (1)

If bitchin' surplus places are your thing, and you ever find yourself in the greater Orlando FL area, then a trip to Skycraft is a must. Skycraft Parts & Surplus, Inc.

It's like Mecca for inventors and makers. I mean, this place has everything. I make a pilgrimage at least once a year to stock up on Milspec switches and relays and heat-shrink and such and never walk out of there without having found hundreds of dollars worth of crap that I didn't even know I needed. Their website only covers 1/100th of what they have in stock at any given time.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

I am familiar with Skycraft- I grew up on the gulf coast of FL, and have made the trip out to the store with the UFO in the parking lot many times.