Follow Ups

Last Wednesday’s post about grammatical errors and the humorous ways they played out in the comment stream illustrated one “problem” with blogging. I put problem in quotes, because it doesn’t even rise to the level where it would get tagged as a “first world problem” let alone, a real problem. Still, I always like people to see my best work when they come here. Unless, of course they come here on a Saturday when I’m participating in the #SoCS challenge. In that case, they see what they see because Linda says “no” to making it better than what fell out on the first attempt.

Since I just reread that paragraph and realized that I didn’t explain the problem, let me be clear. The problem is two-fold. Either I am unable to correct an error, or it is unlikely that anyone who has read the post will ever know that I did correct it. Of course, it’s always possible that the reader didn’t notice the error.

There’s also a problem with blogging about somewhat current events. Not current events like the subject in school, but events in my life that just happen to be, you know, current. That problem is that events often turn out differently than I assume they will, or differently than they were planned, or additional information becomes available after publication. Timing is critical in dealing with these things, as shown below:

Earlier this year, I created a notebook in Evernote called “Follow-Ups” where I put links, photos and reminders about things that happened to things I wrote about. I’m not ready to revisit most of these, but I think I can give you an update on a few.

In a post I wrote about the way we work and the things we don’t do well, I wanted to include a section on multi-tasking. It was going to be the 4^th thing of a three-thing post, but there were two problems: 1) I already had too many words with three things, and 2) I didn’t have any reliable resource to back me up. I’m OK with sources such as: “I’ve heard” and “I read somewhere” but since lots of people think that they do multi-task, I wanted something official.

See, the thing is, you don’t multi-task. You can’t, your brain isn’t wired that way. Oh sure, you can talk on the phone and still breath, but you’re really not good at talking on the phone and writing down notes of that conversation. Especially if you’re the one doing the talking. You know, when you’re explaining something to someone and you have that “this is a good explanation, I should write this down” thought – but you can’t. That’s because you need the same part of your brain to do both tasks.

If you still contend that you can and do multi-task, you might want to consider if you’re not simply confusing task-switching with multi-tasking. Finally, an article in the Boston Globe, kinda-sorta supports those thoughts.

On a topic near and dear to me, I’ve written several times about trains and AMTRAK and how I wish our government would improve the state of rail travel in the US. Shortly after National Train Day, AMTRAK announced plans for a new generation of Acela trains. Shortly after that, AMTRAK announced that they favored a plan to realign rail service through Connecticut and other northeast states to improve travel between Boston and Washington, DC and even bring back the Montrealer.

The train I take from Washington, DC to my home, The Vermonter, used to be called the Montrealer and, it used to go to Montreal. Now it stops at the top of Vermont. AMTRAK still has service to Montreal, but it’s through New York’s Penn Station so it’s not a good option for me.

Of course, AMTRAK has been working on this plan since 2012, has received very little of the more than $300 Billion-With-A-B dollars necessary to complete it and probably won’t even complete a badly compromised version until 2050, by which time, I won’t care.

Alternative-3 – This would be sweet – but it will never get funded

Alternative-2 – I like this as I could take a train to Boston

Alternative-1 Just a small tweak that is causing gref for the folks in that bump-out

Two quick photo updates are also in order. First, in some old post, I had a picture of a basketball that was stuck in a tree. That ball finally fell out, and was discovered by Maddie on one of our walks. Second, when I did the Thursday Doors post about The End of Shade Tobacco, somebody asked if they really wrap those huge barns in plastic. They do, and they have done so.

Tobacco barn wrapped in plastic

I had a picture of her claiming it as her ball, but it was blurry

Finally, just recently I wrote about how I don’t like the way retailers have ruined Thanksgiving by turning it into nothing more than an anchor for Black Friday sales. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, J.C. Penny has decided to start Black Friday BEFORE Thanksgiving.

Remember: Things can always get worse. Below are a few photos from the ongoing construction of the light-rail line from Springfield, MA to New Haven, CT.

This is the train “station” in our town. It’s moving to accommodate the double-tracking project.

As they prepare for a light-rail line between Springfield, MA and New Haven, CT, they have to make the entire length two tracks. These are the new concrete ties.

Part of the double-tracking of the NE Corridor to New Haven

Meriden station. Part of the double-tracking of the NE Corridor to New Haven

My train approaches the “station”

The light rail solution needs two rails and longer platforms

The second track needs to be replaced

I can’t resist a crane

Laying new track and improving power

I included this ‘cuz, construction and clouds

The light rail solution needs two rails and longer platforms

Also along the New Haven line to Hartford