BNJMN

So the OC Transpo strike started a year ago. And looking back at it all, I still have these annoyed feelings about the fact that it happened, and they didn't really get anywhere, since the reason for it ending was originally on the table as a way to prevent it. And lately, I've been getting more and more annoyed with the service. I actually called and made a complaint about an issue, but that doesn't go far enough. Maybe I'll write them a letter old-person-style, stamps and all. That first day of the strike wasn't unlike today - blizzardy. It felt like the first true day of winter - just in time for the Christmas season too! And only 9 more days until I'm done school for the year. Then a bit longer. Then what? I do have some ideas, some of which (unfortunately) involve even more school. We'll see what grows to fruition. Speaking of school, here's a sequence I worked on with my teammates for one of our final projects: Dave, our model, is part of an ad cam...

The O-Train is running today. People protested the mayor at the Greenboro stop, where he was PRing it up. In one week, I'll be able to take buses home, but will still need rides to work and be walking to school. Should be exciting. OH AND I'M GOING TO DISNEYWORLD! FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. Just thought I would throw that out there. Because I'm excited ^_^

The bus strike is over. Fifty-One days. To that, add a week to get bare-bonced service back, and between 4 and 12 weeks before full service is restored... That means that I'll still need to find rides to work in the early mornings and walking to school. The one thing thats come from this strike is that I now like walking to school. It's probably the quiet time where I actually get to listen to music that appeals to me the most. It's almost a shame that it took me 40 days to realise that I should use this strike as an opportunity to eat less junk and become more fit, if only so that I can walk to school all that much faster - not that I would trade an opportunity to do so for another 50 days sans bus. I'll keep walking to school (at least once a week) as part of my routine, not that I have much of a choice until local service is restored during rush hour. I mean really? No local service during rush hour? It's kinda useless, no? Funny thing is the whole affair could h...

There was a Friday in November that I considered to be among the worst days of my life. I had bought $100 worth of presents for Christmas, and brought food to work in my Ratatouille bowl. That night, Prashanta picked me up from work, and we went downtown to eat and then meet up with some friends. While at the restaurant, somehow, someone had broken into the car and stolen the gifts and my backpack, and even the spare change ubiquitous to any car. At the time, I thought I had 6 DS games and my mp3 player in by backpack. All I could think about was how rare The World Ends with You is and that I wouldn't want to restart it from scratch. Or how many crosswords I had completed in Crosswords DS, or how I was going to give my mp3 player away whenever I break down and boy an iPod touch. Fortunately, I found my mp3 player while cleaning my room! Suddenly, that day didn't seem so bad. And the other day, I was cleaning out my locker at work where low and behold I found my DS g...

It's been cold walking to school, today in particular. Lauren Stone of Live 885 warned me at 6:45 this morning that it was -39C with the Windchill. Skin can freeze with 10 minutes of exposure at that temperature. As I snuggled the warmth of my bed, I wondered if it was really worth it to walk to school, a trek that could freeze my skin five times over. "Damned bus strike." Reluctantly, I pulled myself out of bed and spent the next half hour deciding exactly how to dress. Before stepping out the door, I had the following: Boxer briefs Long johns Black Pants Socks More socks T-shirt Long sleeve t-shirt (Nightmare Before Christmas, if you were wondering) 2006 (07?) CANADA Olympic Hoodie Headband Scarf Winter Jacket Gloves I learned this morning that I have as much experience wearing scarves effectively as I do tying a Windsor knot, possibly because I never wear the darned things (both ties and scarves). Despite this, the scarf was instrumental in keeping me warm for my 50-m...

Over the years, my wallet and my bus pass have developed a great relationship where they stick together. This help me, since I always know where my bus pass is (unless of course, I don't know where my wallet is, which happens on occasion). It also helps my wallet and bus pass, since the two of them can talk and cuddle in my pocket. I've only recently decided to split the two up, if only to protect the pass from accidental loss or cold-related fracturing. Plus people make fun of me when they see it! Turns out that my leaving it behind wasn't premature - Transit workers voted to reject the city's offer. I've had an inkling since the beginning that this strike would last a while, but I'm really starting to get scared at how long it may be before all is well. To add to my troubles, my laptop needs to be sent away for servicing. Supposedly, my laptop has a fan, and that fan is not spinning at the speed that it's supposed to be. As a result, my computer can becom...

Thursday. Thursday is the day we find out how much longer this transit strike of ours will last. There's a small part of me that is crossing his even littler fingers in hopes that the wonderful drivers, maintenance staff, and others will vote (thanks to some federal intervention), to have their say on the city's most recent offer, in favour of the offer. this means buses, after multiple inspections and revving up, will be back within one and a half weeks from now. The bigger part of me, ever sceptical, knows that the vote will ruin any chances of getting back to travel normalcy and that buses won't be back on the streets until the better part of January - at the earliest. A little Transit Union-run website has this lovely message for its members: BREAKING NEWS - January 4th, 2009 Forced Second Vote On City's Latest Offer Details Known Dear Brothers and Sisters, The vote ordered by Minister of Labour Rona Ambrose and conducted by Canada Industrial Relati...

Just after writing my last blog, I thought about what I would say to the mayor if I bumped into him on the street. What better place to get inspiration that his Web site ? There, he blogged about day seven of the strike, not unlike I did. Only, while my post talks of how I'm surviving not having buses, his post was deeply soaked in the unfortunateness of this whole situation, how reasonable he is being, and how his new plan is all about improving safety. After reading a few of his posts, I decided to write him a letter. And after the letter wouldn't send through the site, I just faxed it to him (yay for that nifty feature I never use on my printer). My letter was strong in its neutrality: Faced with this transit strike, many people have flocked to Web sites and Facebook groups looking to get around town. I am sure there are some great success stories proving that Ottawa is a great place with great people. We have heard extreme stories in the news of how people c...

Day five was fun. I arrived at work an hour and a half early (when rides are offered, you don't really want to push your luck). This allowed me the opportunity to sit down and have breakfast with a coworker. Subway breakfasts have become boring ever since they stopped actually preparing eggs and stopped carrying round 4" buns; they're microwave-ready egg patties leave me with an underwhelming 'meh'. I learned that there was freezing rain going on, so thankfully another coworker offered me a ride home. On Day Six of this wondrous OC Transpo bus strike, I did the inevitable: I walked to work. With a car, there are half a dozen different routes to take to get there, and two buses (that take the same basic route). That said, there's no convenient way to actually walk there, not without having to overshoot and circle back, or walking from point A to point B to point C to the Destination. It's all very awkward, and a lot of it has to do with how poorly planned ou...

I went to Cornwall (city south of Ottawa, on the Ontario-New York border) to make sure a window was installed at my friend's house. Aside from a brief visit to Niagara falls in the early 90s, this is the closest I have ever been to the US. It took about an hour and a half to get there, and all I could think was "in an hour and a half, I could almost get from home to Carleton University, and back by bus and O-Train". Or not, since it was the third day of the strike. While there, my friend's dad and I begun work on a project that we have. A while back, I may have hinted at something cool I was working on. My friend's dad writes lots of articles about Nepal. What I had done for his birthday was edit and compile a number of them and make them into a book, using Blurb software. The end result was very good. We've decided to use it as a starting point to refine the book and make it sellable. We worked a bit on it, changing a few things here and there. We would have ...

The benefit of not having buses is that I won't hear the early morning bus go by if I'm up at 4AM and 5AM. I haven't been up that late in a long time. I had to go to school for a meeting, so I walked. I brought along my newly-acquired snowshoes so that I could take the bike path that cuts through the Centrepointe area. This path is faster than taking any major roads from my house. After the recent blizzard, I figured the path would be travelled, but difficult (hence the snowshoes), but to be surprise, it was completely ploughed! On my way home, I donned the snowshoes and walked around Centrepointe park - at least until the battery in my camera died. Is walking a realistic alternative to public transit? It is in some cases. For instance, the walk to school was a pleasant one, given that the weather was nice. And to be honest, it isn't something I've ever done. The only time I had not taken the bus to get to school was the one time I biked along that same path earlier...

I've decided that I would like to blog everyday. It's not the first time I've said that I'll do that, but now I have a reason. Ottawa is currently in a public transportation work stoppage. In other words, the buses are on strike. OC Transpo is on strike. If you're keeping score, we're two weeks away from Christmas and dead in the middle of exam season. My mom has never been able to drive, so the bus has been my primary means to move about the city for school, work, shopping, socialising, entertainment, and on occasion, sleep. This strike is going to make it extremely difficult for me to make it to work, even though I don't live all that far from where I need to get five days a week. It's not within walking distance, but it doesn't take all that long in a vehicle. If this work strike lasts nearly as long as the last one did - 24 days in 1996 - then I'll be walking to school, which is a decent 40-minute walk, at best when bike paths ar...