5 Thoughts for April 26, 2015

1. Someone really needs to do something about Trimet's Max schedule. Coming back from Hawaii, I took the Red Line into town. At the Gateway Transit Center, the line suddenly changed to a Blue Line. I reached the Rose Quarter Transit Center and got off to transfer to the Green Line -- as the announcement over the PA system on the train said. I got out, and damn, after 10 minutes of trying to figure out when the next Green Line is coming -- and mind you this is before midnight -- I suddenly realized that the reason why there was no listing for the Green Line, is because there were no more Green Lines coming. Having an automated PA announcement telling you to get off to transfer onto another Max train that isn't actually available, is dumb. I walked about 20 minutes home, in light rain, past midnight. Gee, thanks Trimet.
2. A long time ago, I used to wear a variety of Swatch watches (I'm so late-80's / early-90's). Before then, I'd worn a stainless steel, self-powered watch, and Casio stainless steel digital watches. The thing most people who buy smart watches -- including the iWatch -- seem to be clueless about, is that stuff on your arms will get dinged around like crazy. By the time I'd stopped wearing my Swatch watches, the faces and edges were all scratched up, and in once case, cracked. The glass on my stainless steel watches had been scratched, too. If you're going to wear a watch, it's going to get damaged over time. 
3. Life is like jazz -- you can either improvise and go with the flow, or keep playing the same old tune, the same way, while some who enjoy playing the same tune over and over again, will find a desire to mix it up just a little, and then start using this new tune to play over and over again. Not knowing what comes next, can be scary for most people; stability is highly coveted. People will say that they love unexpected surprises, but what they really mean to say is that they love the predictable, pleasant surprises, only.
4. So, the parents have this oldish Mac which needed a new mouse. I can positively report, that using a Logitech wireless mouse with the two buttons and scroll, makes your experience a little bit closer to that of Windows, with the right-click. And it cost half the price of an Apple wired mouse, too. The problem with the oldish Mac, is that it has just 1GB of RAM, so you pretty much can't use most modern browsers with multiple tabs open. I saw the "spinning pinwheel of death" about once every five minutes, making it about as laggy as my old netbook from 2009. I'm going to place more effort into securing a Chromebook for them, for this year.
5. Got a FedEx package coming, but you're going to be out of town? When you're tracking the package on FedEx's website, you can do what I did, and have the delivery changed to the closest FedEx location, and then call that location to request that they hold onto your package until you get back. This way, your package won't be stolen by unscrupulous folks in your apartment / condo.