A couple of weeks ago, I started online classes at Foothill College. I figured I'd start taking the Amtrak again to get to work since it afforded me time to read and not have to deal with traffic. Boy was that a bad idea: cbs5.com - Student Hit And Killed By Amtrak Train In Hayward. Yup, I was on that train. Now, I feel bad for the victim's family, but the kid was 16 years old and had no business being near the train tracks especially when a train was passing by. Amtrak seriously needs to erect a 20 foot high brick wall to block kids from getting bad ideas and acting on them.

Then a couple days later, the same train derailed. Luckily, no one was injured.

This past week, we saw another mishap where numerous trains were delayed because of a car accident and downed power lines.

While I know that things happen and accidents are usually just freak of nature sorts of things, but I've come to the conclusion that Amtrak is no longer a viable means of transportation for me since it is rather accident prone and is habitually delayed.

There are generally two sorts of things that occur on Amtrak trains: 1) mechanical failure and 2) accidents. Mechanical failures are generally Amtrak's fault. They're just not keeping the trains up like they should be and that leads to failures. Generally these are not very severe, but they do lead to major delays. Accidents are another issue altogether. There seem to be corridors where the Capitol Corridor train runs into trouble. I've been on two trains that have had accidents. This is in the course of about six months or so total ridership. Both accidents occurred in almost the same spot in Hayward. The first time, kids had put an old bike on the tracks to watch it get pummeled as the train sped through. The second time was a couple of weeks ago where a kid decided it would be a good idea to jump in front of a speeding train. The other area seems to be in Dixon, a little north of where I get on/off of the train.

I've come to the realization that perhaps the reason train travel is dismal in this country is that we have loud, awful trains. You see, since trains are loud and polluting, the areas around tracks are usually reserved for industrial business and sites that generally could care less about noise and whatnot. Now, in Hayward, the city has grown to the point where they PUT A HIGH SCHOOL right next to the train tracks and only put up a low fence (easily hoppable) on one side of the school. On the other side of the fence is the train tracks where the TRAIN SPEEDS AT 80MPH. Next to that is a small RESIDENTIAL STREET where low-income families reside in apartments. Wait, what? You mean people live across the street from a train track where trains do 80mph on an hourly basis? And there's no fence? Well, where else are poor folks going to live? By the train tracks, of course. Now, if Amtrak were to switch to an electric system, you'd see that trains would not be as detrimental and land values near the tracks would not be as low. Middle income people would flock to live near trains since they are convenient and they'd demand proper safety equipment (like barriers, warning signals, etc) be installed. Don't think it would happen? Go to Europe...those people know about trains.

Seas of Change
Originally uploaded by titaniumtommy.

It started with some news at work. Our team was expanding our charter to now cover MSN Mobile work as well (and that I would be part of that team). Sounds exciting and after all, I LOVE my Windows Mobile 5.0 phone. I knew about the switch the day before as some guys on my team told me of the change and that they'd be going over to MSN Mobile (so I figured I would be as well). After the meeting, I took off for Berkeley.


Hongyun and I had received information the day before that she may be able to get a townhouse instead of an apartment at Berkeley's University Village, but only if we acted quickly. We decided to take the afternoon to go up and see the place that was being offered. Well it was pretty nice. It was in a very quiet corner of the university's apartment village. Also, it was right across from the bus stop that would take Hongyun to school so it was ideal. We were also offered a brand spanking new apartment that was going to open on July 8th, but when we walked over to see it, we were not impressed. I mean it looked nice, but it was an apartment. The townhouse had only one neighbor (the other side was a walkway) whereas in an apartment, you would have a minimum of 3 shared walls. Also the apartment would be closer to the continuing construction of new apartments and we just didn't want to be near the dust and noise of it all.


We called over to the office (which was 3 miles away, at the Berkeley campus) around 4:15pm and decided to make a mad dash to get over there before 5pm. Who knew it would take half an hour to get over to the campus? I mean it's just 3 measly miles. Anyway, we dash into the building, sign our lives away, and hand over the deposit. Boom, we move in on July 8th (actually that's the first day to move in, but we're going to wait until July 15th to move in so as to give us ample time for packing).


Right after signing the rental agreement, we decided to walk over to the campus and look for food. As we were walking, we saw one of those sidewalk elevators open up through metal plates. It was filled with flattened boxes. We asked the girl who was removing them if we could have them and she said it was no problem. She also told us the white boxes were better than the grey ones since they had thicker cardboard. Score! We nabbed a SUV load of boxes. We decided to drive down to the Rockridge area in Oakland. This is a rather swanky neighborhood. We took a stroll and settled on a very busy pizzeria called Zachary's. We waited about 40 minutes for a deep dish hot links pizza and man was it good. No wonder this place had posters all over proclaiming them as the top pizzeria for 17 years running. I mean they were even Zagat rated. Remember, order ahead and take it to go (the place is nice too, but it's hectic).


The drive home was uneventful although traffic filled. I'm not sure what's up with the East Bay, but folks over there sure like to stare at blinking lights. I mean we sit in traffic for about 40 minutes to find out the source of the slowage was an off ramp that was closed with a couple of CHP cars blinking their orange lights.


When we get home, I find out that Bill Gates is quitting Microsoft. Man, first Scoble, now BillG. I'm not sure what to make of it as the company is in such a state of flux recently. I mean the major reorg into 3 silos last year, my personal movement from MSNTV2 to our secret Media Center project and now to MSN Mobile within the last 10 months, Scoble leaving for a Silicon Valley news podcasting startup, and now the big cheese BillG "transitioning" to a part time roll...these are all pretty significant goings on. Coupled with my own personal issues with my dad and Hongyun's family , this has been one crazy quarter. The good news is that the beginning of the 2nd half of the year is upon us. Hongyun has a mere 14 days to get through (albeit with 2 major essays to write) and then we take off for the 4th of July in Los Angeles, Berkeley's orientation on the 6th and 7th, packing the 8th-14th, and finally the big move on the 15th. Away we go.