Airport Incident: So I arrive at the San Jose Airport one evening. My car is parked in the Yellow long-term parking lot, so I first go to the bus stop where shuttles come. I then consider whether I should take the shuttle or walk. I believe I have a good idea of where the lot is, and I think its a little over a mile away. I have only a backpack for luggage, its neither a particularly nice day nor nasty one, but since there are very few people waiting, I decide I'll take the bus. I wait for about 20 minutes, and the line grows longer as buses to the Green lot come but not any for the Yellow lot. A large crowd of people has formed, whining, complaining, smoking, and generally being american. Having not tried to maintain my position, I am now in the back. I am displeased, but for a very different reason than everyone else. They are unhappy because they see themselves as the victims of cruel fate. The transportation system is being unfair to them, it ain't their fault, someone should do something about it, goddamnit. They are completely unable to perceive alternative solutions (like walking). I am unhappy because my strategic decision, based mainly on how long it would take for a bus to arrive, was incorrect, but at least I made a conscious choice and saw an alternative.

Its amazing how people are unable to see past the abstraction of being transported from place to place in these boxes on wheels. They have no concept of the geographic relationship between the origin and destination, seeing them as only connected via the bus. The idea of taking transportation into their own hands (well, feet) is foreign. Weird. Since I now have to wait for three busses to come before I will get on, I now decide to walk (wishing I had done so at first). It takes me about 20 minutes, and the lot is where I expected and about the right distance. As I walk, lots of cars pass me, but I don't see anyone else walking. Buses occasionally pass, and I keep track of them, and the one I think I would have been on passes me just as I get to the entrance of my lot. I get in my car, and as I drive back towards the freeway, I finally see another pedestrian, carrying only a backpack, following the same path I did. Phew - another sentient being does exists.

In Geek Vanity news, while patri.com/net/org are taken, the fools (i'll destroy them all) left patrissimo & patrifriedman (com/net/org) open, and they are now mine. They don't point to anything yet, but once we get moved into the house and have DSL and all that, perhaps they will.

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