More Caltrans Building coverage

September 13, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Kevin Roderick over at the great LA Observed made mention of the new Caltrans Building today. He links to a Daily News story asking how Caltrans can get this building done on-time and on-budget when they're unable to do the same for freeway projects.

Kevin also links to an Archinect thread that has some photos of the building. In addition to just being better photos than my Caltrans Building photos, they also give some shots of the building interior. I don't think they do the exterior justice, however, since they don't back up enough to convey the building's mass, or the intimidating presence it presents to the street-level.

Forget the debate about the building's environmental features or whether Caltrans should have thrown so much money into it (both the green features and the money are good things in my book), let's just get right down to what's important: who really thinks all this Thom Mayne stuff looks good? The only other work of his I'm seen up close is the new LAUSD Science Center school in Exposition Park, and while the interior of the redone Armory building looks very cool, the exterior of the new classroom space just looks like typical Mayne, without really having any regard for all the classic structures the park contains.

once again, blame the drivers

September 13, 2004 by Eric Richardson

While talking about a Blue Line accident two weeks ago, I mentioned that Houston has a lot of similar problems. This misc.transport.urban-transit post quotes from an article showing that the only thing new about these accidents is that they're car/train instead of car/car or car/solid object.

Between 1998 and 2000, nearly 8,000 crashes were recorded along the 7 1/2-mile corridor where Metropolitan Transit Authority light rail trains now travel. Almost 2,000 were on Main and Fannin alone, two streets that make up most of today's rail route. The pre-rail crash total averaged about 51 incidents per week, or roughly 7 1/2 per day. ...

Metro police have kept busy working numerous incidents along the rail corridor that did not involve trains. About 15 cars have driven into the Main Street Square fountain downtown.

Police reports also detail such mayhem as several cars careening off Main Street into adjacent buildings and running into light and utility poles.

One driver ran over pedestrian barricades near Preston Station, and another rolled through flower beds before crashing into the train station at Main Street Square.

I know, I quoted like 75% of the post, but I just couldn't pass it up.

I have a question about some lyrics

September 13, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I absolutly loved hearing Anna Nalick's 'Breath (2am)', By Wreck of the day....but when I was looking for her lyrics I could not find anything about her except this lone site. When I was listening to her I loved how she really put her heart on the paper and I would like to find out more aobut her, and maybe even catch a copy of her CD, but no store that I am around holds it. Could anyone send me information? Thanks, I appricate all of your help. Rachelle

the fun of connectivity

September 13, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Thanks to the generosity of a friend, my server's been colo'ed in various places in the Bay Area for five years now. By the end of the month, though, that's finally going away. Now I get to figure out what I plan to do next. I think my choice is between running my web stuff off my DSL and buying a Linode. I really want full box access, so a shared hosting plan like dreamhost wouldn't quite cut it for me. My usage isn't really all that great -- I maybe push out 40meg of web traffic daily -- so I'm not in a position where I need a ton of outbound bandwidth.

Currently my DSL is 1.5m down, 384k up, but Speakeasy has a 6.0/768 plan for about $100/mon. That's pretty tempting, considering I currently pay about $60. If I'm going to put money into connectivity, why not have it be connectivity that I'll use and enjoy? I could throw two ethernet cards in the webserver and do a little traffic shaping to ensure some bandwidth is reserved for the web site.

I think that's probably the direction I'll head. While making my decision I need to build a box to use as my temp webserver. I have all the components lying around my bedroom, except a case. I don't think that's going to be a problem. I love scrappy computing.

Friday Questions, beating the heat

September 12, 2004 by Eric Richardson

So Friday I wasn't anywhere near a computer, and missed the week's Friday questions at LA Blogs. Since my Friday morning activity was a bit topical to the question, though, I think I deserve a little leeway for my late response.

  • What is your favorite beach to cool off on? When do you go to beat the crowds?

I'm a big fan of just heading down to Manhattan Beach. If I think it'll be crowded I'll head more for the middle ground between Manhattan and Hermosa, but otherwise I'll stick nearer to the Manhattan pier.

  • If not the beach, where is your favorite cooling-off spot outdoors? indoors?

Outdoors? Being out on a lake. Friday the destination was Canyon Lake, a private lake community out in Riverside county (right by Lake Elsinore). We took a trip there as the Waterski Team and Wakeboard Club. The water was absolutely perfect.

Indoors? Wherever there's air-conditioning.

  • Where is your favorite spot for ice cream/sorbet/gelato?

Lickity Split in El Segundo. Amazing frozen custard.

  • What is your favorite flavor?

We had pumpkin once when it was freshly coming out of the machine. That was great. I've gotten the root beer flavor a couple times.

  • Stuck at home? What are you making in your blender?

I'm stuck at home wishing I had a blender.

  • Got any original concoctions you want to share?

Not really.

  • Favorite winter-themed video or book?

My family always had a soft spot for White Christmas. Either that or the Muppets' Christmas special.

  • What was your favorite water-themed activity as a kid?

Waterskiing. I guess I'm still a kid.