monkey nonsense

i’m looking to rent out rooms in my new house so i’ve been reading posts on craigslist to see what the prices are like out there… and i gotta say, if you don’t know the area very well, it’s dangerous to believe some of these posts!!!

example 1:

The location is great, just minutes from Tyson’s Corner and even closer to the Vienna metro station…. The townhouse backs up to Nottoway Park, which is huge and has all types of facilities available.

So Nottoway Park is ~5 miles away from Tysons Corner… so this post seemingly is accurate. but that 5 miles is on 123/Chain Bridge Road which is ridiculously traffic-y. Once, I had to get down to Beulah Road (closer than this apartment) and it took me nearly half a hour from Tysons!!

example 2:

3 bedroom/4 bath end unit townhouse… a 10 min walk to Dun Lorning Metro…. Knollside Ln at Andiron Ln

So googlemapping this address says that the Dunn Loring metro station is 1.3 miles away, approximately 27 minutes walking… maybe if you RAN, you could get to the metro station in 10 minutes!!

When I googlemap my new address to the metro, it’s about 1.1 miles away from the metro (22 minutes walking according to google maps)… should I claim to be walkable to the metro? i feel like that’s ghetto…

i’ve always complained about metro. i think i’ve ranted before that i think they should implode the system and start over again so that it can be better designed to handle all the riders of the system.

yesterday, there was a collision involving 2 trains on the red line. many people were injured and at least 9 people were killed. very sad

i just read a washingtonpost blog post about the lack of information about what was going on that day. i’ve always complained about this. the metro alerts are so vague and uninformative (and often times estimate the amount of delay completely wrong! yesterday, i think it told me a 30 minutes delay on the red line…) that i’ve begun to ignore them as spam. i agree with many of the commenters of that blog post… with more information, commuters would be able to make better decisions on how they can get home from work… there would be less crowding on the stopped train lines (if people switched to alternate transportation) and most importantly, people would be less likely to bitch and complain about the delays. if people realized the seriousness of the delay, i’m sure they wouldn’t have been as upset as they might’ve been… sitting on a stopped train for over a hour thinking “mechanical failure” was stopping them! there were some commenters who were like “stop complaining about the alerts! the first priority should be to save the people stuck in the collision!” and i wholeheartedly agree! but it’s not like ALL metro employees converged on the accident! the DC metro system is quite large and involves a lot of people. and the best way for some of the other metro employees (maybe those not close to the Fort Totten station or those who work in the corporate offices) to be helpful in an emergency like this is to help maintain the remaining lines from being overwhelmed and out of control!

metro has all sorts of problems. their alert system obviously isn’t their biggest concern right now. early investigation is saying that signals to prevent collisions have begun to malfunction and could be part of the cause of the collision… so yeah, definitely need to fix that. but improving their alert system would be nice too. and while they’re at it… MORE tracks!!

i’m living the american dream!

i’ll finish off one debt this month… while picking up another (bigger!) debt! woohoo. yippee.

time flies! it’s already june!

not much going on in my life but attending weddings. i think this year might be my last year of massive wedding attending. most of my friends are married now so it’ll probably die down. though baby showers will probably pick up!!

i found a $5 lot at work! so it’s now cheaper for me to drive in than metro.

people think i’m obsessed with flag football and some people seem surprised that i’m so into it. but really, it’s just another game and i’ve always been obsessed with games (spades, dr. mario, conflict, etc). tho i have to admit, usually i find myself uber competitive in non-traditional competitive things (who can drink a slurpee faster, who’s more annoying, who’s changed their address more times in the past 5 years, etc.) and for once, my competitiveness seems to be not as ridiculous and directed towards a more traditional competitive interest. i’m not sure what to make of it… usually people are just dismissive of my competitive trash talking, but now i’m a little afraid to trash talk because people seem to actually take it seriously!

i need to move again. i’m going to be homeless for at least a month…