0 Assorted knowledge 2: Public transportation edition at 23:47

Public transportation

1. Use Bart.gov and nextmuni.com
 -My tip for coordinating your trip: you can use nextmuni (and nextbus) to see when you'll arrive at a destination by setting the stop to your destination instead of your current destination.
  -I thought google maps' public transportation function was extremely functional for this, but it actually grabs information for bus and Bart times from a schedule, not real time, so it's useless at night. Bart.gov and nextbus gives information in real time.
 
2. If you're not going to campus, it takes about the same time to get to Southside from either downtown Berkeley station or Rockridge station, by walking or bus.
2.a) That said, Rockridge is one stop from MacArthur station, but Downtown Berkley is two.

3. Making a little effort to go to the farther cars (on the ends) when it's busy will get you a better chance of a seat. And a quieter/less crowded car.

4. At night, the 51B at Rockridge will wait for people from Bart.

5. At night, trains from Rockridge and Downtown Berkeley will wait for each other at Macarthur station, so if two are leaving from each station at about about the same time, just go to the closer station.

1 Assorted knowledge from one with a foot on either side of the bay at 14:00

Driving
1. During rush hour, just stay in the same lane on the 80 going east (out of the city), as long as it's not the rightmost lane (the one that people force themselves into after zooming by traffic in the exit lane). Everything gets faster once you get on the bridge, especially after treasure island.

2. Certain streets have timed lights so you never have to stop. Franklin, Fell and Oak: 25mph. Sunset and Great Highway (both directions): 30 mph.

2.a) coming up Sunset at night: if you get caught at the first red light (after the turn), you will also be caught at the immediate next one. But if you accelerate to at least 50 mph between the two, you will make the second and all consequent green lights (coast back down to 30mph!)

3. Going to the outer Sunset, with no traffic, going 280 ->brotherhood -> sunset is faster than 80/101->fell.

3.a) At night, do not speed on 101 south. You can speed on 280 south.

3.b) cops often wait after the turn on the bridge around Treasure Island.

4. Do not ever go up College St during rush hour. Even walking is faster. Instead, continue up Claremont and Piedmont to get to campus.

5. The 24->80 merging section is the worst designed piece of highway ever. As soon as possible after the turn, get to the leftmost lane (if going to the bridge). You can go back to the fastpass lane after it splits to 80 and 580.

6. Going to University is faster via Oxford than Shattuck. (tip from Glenda Tam)

Parking
7. Only "I" parking is free on Saturday. Not D.
5.a) the north (left) side of Dwight st, after college, is I, but the right side is D.

8. Arrive between 5 and 6pm on Friday. It is after people leave for the weekend and before all the people coming for evening stuff arrive.

9. No one ever parks on Dwight and Piedmont/warring, but it's all I up there.

10. There are segments of Ashby near Fulton that you can park forever.

11. You can park on Campus on the weekends (for about $1.50/hr)! Perfect for hitting up grad receptions but not parking super far away.

0 That; This is what I think about at 14:49

Gasps of either laughter or sobs.
Hesitancy, silence before a yes or a no.
Eyes, a window of pained thoughts, but of whose pain?
"I'm sorry." for what?
The thrill, the hope - I want to know you.

0 This is what I think about that: Chillun's at 13:19

This halloween, I finally broke out of my traditional annual introvert shell by going out to Regeneration's Halloween event, Trunk or Treat.

Because Oakland in general is not a safe place to go around the neighborhood at night (much less also knocking on random neighbor's doors), Regeneration hosts an alternative evening in their parking lot and gym. Vehicles replace houses - trunks are filled with candy - and carnival-esque activities are held in the gym.

I was roped into the responsibility of hosting a mask-making table this year. Initially I was stressed about such responsibilty - I have to be artistic and creative and funny the whole evening? what if the kid asks me for a dragon mask? A butterfly? How can I express that in mask medium? - until Erin suggested the kids make the masks themselves. Which is the format Christina had in mind when she asked me, anyway. I'm not sure why I thought otherwise.

Hosting that table was very conducive to interacting with the kids, though initially, interaction did not cross my mind as I raced to keep up production with the demand for mask templates. When I discovered that both the five-to-eleven-year-olds and I were capable of coloring and talking at the same time, I started asking questions and starting conversations.

"What's your favorite candy?"
"What is your costume?"
"Are you gonna share with your parents?"

Speaking my cute/children's voice (which is half an octave higher than normal, and at a slower rate of speech), I started to realize how easily the questions and comments came, and I felt like I was following certain unspoken rules of engagement- compliment their costume no matter how much effort they (their parents) put into it, call every girl's costume cute and every boy's costume awesome, give overwhelmingly positive critiques of their masks (which were random blotches of color, though I'll be the first to day I'm not sure I could have done any better), etc.

I'd like to think being able to hold a conversation with kids, as shallow as it was, is a mark of good children skills. But speaking to them in these governed phrases seems insincere, like as an actor or vocalist and I felt like I was watching myself. I was now repeating the inane, obvious cliches I had heard other people use in their babble to kids. If I had only witnessEd people treat kids more maturely, would I also engage with them differently?

Yes, it makes me happy to see them happy. But the teacher in me constantly asks, "How can I teach them something from this?"

I found the parents easy to talk to as well, since we could talk about their kids. Plus, they were the only ones who got my costume. If an 8-year-old-asked me what I was, I just said, "It'll be funny when you're older."

P.S. My costume was: a formal apology.