Saturday, March 30, 2013

Transit card art

I'm a huge fan of all things transit. I love subways, trains, schedules, stations, tokens, and transit cards. I dream of someday having a subway car in my house. What? It can serve as a hallway or maybe it can be a small den. I do a lot of my reading during my commute, why not read in a stationary subway car at home? One can dream...

I created some "art" out of my transit passes - I wish I had enough to cover an entire wall! What's the most interesting transit pass you have?


San Francisco Muni passes, 2009

Transit passes from all over the world. From L-R, top to bottom: Pompeii Circumvesuviana, London Oyster Card, Bay Area BART pass, Hong Kong MTR, New York MetroCard, Paris subway, Chicago CTA pass, Washington DC SmarTrip, Rome City Pass, Las Vegas Monorail, Boston CharlieCard, London airport pass

Friday, March 29, 2013

For better or worse

There have been so many advances in technology in just the last 20 years... It's hard to imagine the world before the Internet or smartphones. I was just thinking about all the ways technology has changed our lives - for better or worse. Remember the good ole days when...
  1. If you made plans with someone, you showed up.
  2. You had to rewind rented VHS tapes before you returned them.
  3. You actually knew people's phone numbers by heart.
  4. If you needed to make a phone call when you were out you used a pay phone.
  5. You had to look at an actual map to figure out directions before you drove to a new destination.
  6. You recorded your favorite songs off the radio and had to live with DJs talking over the song intro.
  7. If you missed your favorite TV show... well, you missed it.
  8. You took your bathroom breaks during TV commercials.
  9. You had to line up to buy concert tickets.
  10. You had to call or fax a hotel to make reservations.
  11. You didn't know what to expect when you showed up at the hotel - you hoped the description in the AAA guidebook was accurate.
  12. You passed notes in class or in the hallway.
  13. You had one pair of contact lenses that were supposed to last you all year.
  14. You typed your school papers on a typewriter.
  15. Your first printer was dot matrix.
  16. Jelly bracelets were merely decorative and weren't a badge of your sexual exploits or desires.
  17. If you were on the phone, no one else could call you.
  18. You had to dial the operator to dial an international number.
  19. You had to go to an actual record store if you wanted to buy your favorite song. And you hoped they had it in stock.
  20. You got to take drafting, home ec, driver's ed, and woodworking in high school.
  21. You were your parents' remote control as in you changed the channel for them.
  22. Exciting video games involved controlling one of two lines on a screen. The other line was controlled by your opponent.
  23. It was an Olympics year once every four years.
  24. You had pen pals from whom you would receive actual snail mail.
Do you have others you'd like to add to the list?

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Life hack for leftover chicken broth


Here's my life hack for the "too much leftover chicken broth" problem. I make chicken broth ice cubes! I'll pop a cube into dishes as needed - perfect when you need a little extra flavor or liquid.