Marta Marta Marta

Image
MARTA is the mass transit train system in Atlanta. They just upgraded the ticketing system. It was totally free for about 6 weeks, no ticket kiosks, or need for tickets, just walk through the turnstiles ... crazy stupid. I have sworn off using Marta several times and I still find myself back on it... We have been ridiculed, and been made very uncomfortable and worried about our safety a number of times. But it continues to be the best option getting to and from the ATL airport. I take the train from Doraville to the Airport. The entire length of the Gold Line. The city (I guess) is trying to get MARTA a bit more orderly before the FIFA events in Atlanta this year. They have a lot of work to do. Although I saw a few more security/MARTA Police and quasi security foilks, the same crazy bullshit is still happening. It is home to people who want to stay cool or get warm during the operaing hours. It's not a place to be... its a place to travel. The unmedicated mentally ill folks se...

The weather this week in SoCal has been pretty much as it has been for months, 75 Degrees F and 50% RH. The rest of the US is having a heat wave.

I remember the first "man-on-the-moon" as we called it. I was 8 years old. Some of the memories I have was that it took soooo long for each phase of the mission. The decompression of the LEM after they landed seemed like eternity. I complained and my OLDER sister said something like "You don't want the astronauts to open the door early and get sucked out of the lunar module"... followed by the typical "DUH." I remember the video simulations (not real video) of the events when there was not video available (lots). I remember the actual video as well with "live from moon" I think it was blinking. It was analog B&W. It absolutely sucked compared to today, but it seemed a lot better than what I am seeing on youtube today. Maybe because my Dad probably put fresh vacuum tubes in the TV just before the event. I also remember going outside and seeing and hearing no one. In those days we spent a lot of time outside, especially kids and especially on a nice Summer day. There was no one playing, no one washing their cars.

The other thing that strikes me is everything else going on in that era, in the span of about 1 year, we had:

  • Woodstock
  • Kent State shooting
  • Vietnam war at its peak-- neighbors not returning home
  • Martin Luther King assassination
  • Another Kennedy assassination
  • The 1968 election-- even for a kid it was big deal

I like this podcast/youtube. We lived the context of what was going on. It was definitely real. It was science. We didn't talk about STEM we lived it.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Business Trip

Marta Marta Marta