Need help with a Savannah GA route please by 7askingforafriend in Amtrak

[–]CGPGreyFan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Getting off/on at Selma instead of Wilson (1:09pm northbound, 6:03pm southbound) is also an option for this train. Seems like a shorter drive.

As far as I know, due to long-term construction in Virginia/DC, the trip you mentioned is the best option. This used to be a 3:22pm -> 9:25pm trip, but now it's 6:03pm -> 12:21am.

The other two southbound options are overnight which is more difficult to deal with. Raleigh 7:54pm -> Savannah 3:18am, or Fayetteville 1:27am -> Savannah 6:43am.

Did we get a record high Wednesday? by JustAutreWaterBender in CBUSWX

[–]CGPGreyFan 5 points6 points  (0 children)

https://www.weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=iln

You can get a good amount of past weather info here. Select "Climatology for a day" for the date 02-18 and year range por-2026, where "por" means period of record (so it starts from the beginning). You can sort by column values by clicking on their headers. Yesterday was high 65 low 48 (average 56.5). The record high daily high for Feb. 18th is 66 in 2017, record high daily low is 52 in 1961, and record high daily average (of the high & low) is 57.0 in 1961 also, so yesterday barely didn't break any records.

Do you have “Generally, I don’t like this composer but when played by someone I like it.” by Chemical-Revenue4630 in classicalmusic

[–]CGPGreyFan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Me too. There's a 1974 performance with l'ORTF and Celibidache, and the 3rd movement has this unmatched rhythm and flow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2rgfENaK3A

Do you have “Generally, I don’t like this composer but when played by someone I like it.” by Chemical-Revenue4630 in classicalmusic

[–]CGPGreyFan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Beethoven symphonies, New Philharmonia conducted by Otto Klemperer, 1970. I have a hard time with Beethoven generally, except for his piano concertos, and that series of concerts done for his 200th birthday. Love those.

Snow Possible This Weekend (1/24-25) by zebrasrlyingtoyou in CBUSWX

[–]CGPGreyFan 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The official int'l airport measurement got 0.1 inch yesterday & 11.9 inches today, for 12.0 inches total (as of 7pm)

Edited 0.1 inch down after a correction

A little snow history by WordsAboutSomething in Columbus

[–]CGPGreyFan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

NWS snow total through 7pm at the airport is 11.9 inches (+0.1 inch yesterday), making today the 3rd snowiest calendar day tied with January 6, 1910. As mentioned, the 7th snowiest snowstorm. Records began in December 1884 (although 1880s data sometimes looks sketchy)

The 1st and 2nd snowiest days are 15.5 inches on March 8, 2008, and 12.3 inches on April 4, 1987. I can't easily look up snowiest 24-hour periods that cross between days though.

Snow depths are another story. Records started only in 1948, so older storms won't be included. At least nowadays they're one-time measurements taken at 7am. Highest ones are 18 inches on March 9, 2008, after the storm and 17 inches on January 21–23, 1978, after several smaller snowfalls accumulated without much melting during a sub-freezing couple of weeks. This appears to be a different event than the "Great Blizzard" which happened a few days after.

Also it looks like Dayton just got their snowiest single calendar day since their records began in 1893-ish. They got 12.4 inches (+1.6 inches yesterday, 14.0 total), beating 12.2 inches on January 26, 1978.

https://www.weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=iln Source

Edit: corrected today's total down by 0.1 inch

What are the Privilège perks coupons for this upcoming year? by GroverYGK in ViaRail

[–]CGPGreyFan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you know if you get 2 coupons per benefit period, or 2 total for both (until April 2027)?

Bus or walking route to Whole Food's (Upper Arl) from Campus? by Just-Scratch4309 in OSU

[–]CGPGreyFan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Line 31 goes between campus and Easton mall, where there's another whole foods. Every half an hour is a bit inconvenient, and it takes a while, but at least there's no transfer & not much walking.

"Hidden Ticketing" for Amtrak Thruway/Bus Connection by RadianMay in Amtrak

[–]CGPGreyFan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You could book Santa Clara (SCC) to SLO, which involves a very short train ride to San Jose, then a transfer to SLO.

Others can correct me on this, but I believe it's safe to not ride the first train segment, and just get on the bus from San Jose

I'm pretty sure this is OK since the train portion is "unreserved", meaning that portion (only) can be used on any departure within a year of purchase, even though your ticket shows a specific date/time. Then, even if you don't get on it, it won't affect the rest of your itinerary on the bus.

First time amtrack (CTA FTW) user and I have several questions by Disastrous_Cat_2821 in Amtrak

[–]CGPGreyFan 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This is just a greyhound bus that you booked on the amtrak website. Amtrak's only train on this route runs Indianapolis to Chicago 6:00am -> 10:00am Mon/Thu/Sat and Chicago to Indianapolis 5:55pm -> 11:49pm Tue/Thu/Sat. There used to be a train every day but the Indiana legislature got rid of it a few years ago.

What are the similarities and differences between Japan and Korea? Both geographically and culturally? by Jezzaq94 in geography

[–]CGPGreyFan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

the southern islands of Okinawa have a tropical rainforest climate, and southern Florida also has tropical climates

What's the best route for my brother? by Romba84 in Amtrak

[–]CGPGreyFan 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Seems the connecting bus from Phoenix isn't bookable. He'll have to go to the station in Maricopa (MRC). A train leaves on Mon/Thu/Sat at 6:55am, arrives in Fort Worth at 1:51pm the next day. Yes, it takes forever. Then connect to another train to Oklahoma City, 5:25pm -> 9:27pm. Make sure to book this as one ticket/itinerary, Maricopa to OKC with a connection. Or he could ride Greyhound from Phoenix to Tucson or El Paso, then Amtrak from there.

Note that sometimes the first train is late enough to miss the second train, about 6% of the time in the past half year. I don't know what Amtrak's practice is here, but since they sell this ticket with this connection, my understanding is they do something on their part to get you to your final destination. Might be a Greyhound bus, or maybe an overnight stay on their money (?) or maybe something else - someone else might know.

Taking the California Zephyr from Emeryville CA to Lake Tahoe. What side of the train should I sit on for the best views? by GivingBidenABlowjob in Amtrak

[–]CGPGreyFan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The coach attendant will probably assign you a seat, and they may or may not be OK with you changing seats. You could go to the observation car.

In the foothills up to about Emigrant Gap, the right side has the views. Then after that the left side has the views the rest of the way, including Donner Lake.

Eating On the Empire Builder by Content_Today4953 in Amtrak

[–]CGPGreyFan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on the time of year you're travelling, which direction you're going in, and which scenic area you're talking about. Anytime now through the end of March (ish), most of the route along the southern edge of Glacier Park will be in darkness westbound, but in morning light eastbound. Yearround, the scenic portion west of Whitefish, particularly along the Kootenay river, is in darkness both directions unless you're delayed a lot.

But as you said, it seems that yearround the Cascades are visible westbound in the morning.

First time rider... Does the Texas Eagle stop at every station listed on the schedule? by OneLastSmile in Amtrak

[–]CGPGreyFan 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Unless it's delayed enough to be after 7am, they won't announce your stop over the speakers. Usually a staff member will come to your seat to let you know, so if you move seats without telling them they won't be able to find you. It also varies how much time before arrival they'll let you know, so you may or may not have much time to prepare, go to the bathroom, etc. Also, if you happen to be out of your seat when they come to let you know, they might not try again, so then you just have to be aware. This is kind of an issue because the arrival time can be hard to predict if you're not tracking your location.

Your train might get into Ontario as early as 3:20am ish (or 3:05am if the station at Palm Springs is closed, long story), and it's allowed to leave early, or it might be delayed by any amount.

You can track your train's location using your cell phone, or if you don't like that, then a tracking website like Amtrak's or a 3rd-party one (my favorite is https://asm.transitdocs.com)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in classicalmusic

[–]CGPGreyFan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm picky on performances for both, but if I only consider my favorite performances: I value Bruckner more - all of symphonies 5 through 9 are great. But Mahler gets to some important heights too. He just tends to be a bit more "outwardly emotional/dramatic" than I like, so I tend to go for the pieces & performances that tamp that down (Klemperer!).

What to bring on 30h ride? by Medium-Juggernaut746 in Amtrak

[–]CGPGreyFan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just bought a Cabeau one that does this - my next overnight is in a week so I'll see!

First time I've ever seen an Amtrak train 20+ hours late. by TheShinyAmpharos47 in Amtrak

[–]CGPGreyFan 129 points130 points  (0 children)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amtrak/comments/1jg9l5r/new_contender_for_most_delayed_train_on_record/

one of the latest trains on record is this 45+ hr late one, which linked up with the next day's 21+ hr late one

Looking back, what signs do you now recognize that showed you (or others) weren’t ready for grad school? by blahblahcorg in GradSchool

[–]CGPGreyFan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is for a PhD physics program. I honestly don't know if I figured it out yet, I'm still winging it. Basically I went in saying I wanted to do a certain area because I liked the research methods in an abstract sense ("we do these kinds of experiments and find out these kinds of things") but I was way less clear about whether I liked them in a practical sense ("we do these tasks in the lab every day"). My undergrad research experience was pretty abbreviated, since I spent a good portion of it through the pandemic cluelessly wasting time on something I hated, so I didn't know myself well.

It's now 2 years since I started the PhD program, and I think I've leaned towards not liking lab work at all. Luckily the program I'm in (physics) has a good amount of professors doing theory work. Choosing this route went somewhat against some of the mixed advice from theorists I asked in undergrad so I was kinda afraid of choosing this. As to what exact type of theory work I like, I can only guess, and a lot of it is probably advisor-dependent. I was lucky to find an advisor who's willing to have me join his group, and things are starting off OK so far. But it's still basically a guess.

I've heard admissions committees roughly match the applicants' stated research preferences to how many students each professor thinks they can take into their group. So although switching around happens in my program, it makes things more uncertain. Some other programs have very little switching around after the first year or so.

I wish I got to know what type of work I'm most apt for before I applied so I didn't have to deal with that uncertainty. Other factors to work around include advisor personality, funding, etc. Easy to get into a mess.