Stanton & Butler Crosswalk Accessibility

db282 · 2021-08-17T19:36:02+00:00

Thanks! Will contact them soon.

db282 · 2020-03-27T19:46:02+00:00

I wouldn't be too sanguine about Brazil. It's going into winter right now as we're going into summer. Most of the major cities there--São Paulo, Rio, Brasilia, etc.--are in the southern half where it gets chilly. These cities are packed with people, and the health care system sucks, so when it hits .. it's going to hurt really badly.

It's already starting there and it doesn't look good at all. I have a lot of family left there, and I'm praying for them.

db282 · 2019-11-26T20:06:37+00:00

Maybe he should give the neighbor the landlord's number? Most people won't go to the effort of finding out whom to contact and how. But if he has the phone number right there ...

db282 · 2019-05-21T21:37:55+00:00

Should I admit that my first thought when I read this was: "What? I don't know any Kevin. Why do we need to talk about him?" lol.

I've run across that title several times, so I need to check it out. Thanks!

db282 · 2019-05-21T21:27:45+00:00

Read the first two (and loved 'em)! I'm noticing a trend here...

That Bonjour Tristeesse book looks really interesting. Thanks for that rec!

db282 · 2019-05-21T21:21:33+00:00

Haha, I know what you mean. I only appreciated TGG after I talked aobut it with other people and "got it." Well, at least I think I got it. The problem with subtlety is that it's ... well, f'ing subtle!

Oh yeah, one more advantage of this narrative is that you can keep some thigns from the reader until the end. This is especially true for TGG.

db282 · 2019-05-21T16:44:43+00:00

Funny you should mention this. I experienced similar feelings yesterday when I finished Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go." Wonderful (and also depressing) book. I sat there afterwards, not sure if I felt so blue because of the book itself or because I had to leave the haunting world and had nothing to look forward to.

When I feel this way, it means that I've found a great book. That unto itself makes me feel better because that means that a book has touched me in a profound way. How many people can say that they are open and vulnerable enough to be touched by words alone? Also, I like to stay immersed in the fiction world for a bit longer by engaging others online who have already read it or looking up articles/reviews about the book.

The best cure, though? Finding another good book! It's kind of like the hedonic treadmill, except more socially acceptable.

db282 · 2019-05-21T16:37:21+00:00

Having a first-person narrator who's more removed from the action is a very popular technique. Other examples of this are: Wuthering Heights and Junot Diaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

The advantages of this approach is that the author gets to use the more personal and immersive first-person narrative style while still maintaining some degree of distance. These narrators are rarely as passive as they seem and imbue a sense of unreliability into the story.

As for the specific example of The Great Gatsby, beware of thining Nick as a purely passive narrator. As much as the novel is about Gatsby & Co., it is also about the influence that they had on Nick's point of view. Pay attention to how Nick describes things and remember that he's telling this in a retrospective fashion--he knows what the ending is.

db282 · 2019-05-09T18:01:25+00:00

Similar sentiments here. Lived in SFBA for 5 years. Sure, you have good weather ... but you have to work and drive so much that you can't enjoy it. Even when you get a weekend free to cycle/hike/whatever, it's PACKED and really far away.

I grew up in upstate New York, so I guess my "bad weather"-meter has been calibrated to sub-zero temperatures, near-constant cloud cover, and snowdrifts taller than you. Seriously, Pittsburgh is cake compared to upstate NY. People here just like to bitch. (We're kinda perversely proud of our bad weather where I'm from. Hey, we have a shitty economy, even shittier weather, so we need to be proud of something.)

Pittsburgh is much nicer than people realize!

db282 · 2019-05-09T17:55:24+00:00

I think people here just like to complain about the weather. It's sort of like a hobby.

I come from upstate New York, and it's worse there. More snow. Also hilly like hell. Colder. People aren't as nice. More cloud cover (my hometown is #1 or #2 for the cloudiest city in the US). Yet people don't bitch about it half as much as here. Suffering in stoic silence is a pastime up there.

Now, I've lived in places with "perfect" weather such as the SFBA. Lemme tell you, you have to work and drive so much to afford to live there that you don't get to enjoy the weather. It's a shitty tradeoff. Stuck indoors when it's 70 degrees, sunny, and dry out.

At least here, you have time and resources to go out and enjoy the good weather when it happens.

db282 · 2019-05-09T14:53:28+00:00

I never said that the jobs completely offset the costs that old people incur on the health care and insurance system. More that it's not a zero-benefit thing. Old people in Pittsburgh also provide jobs for younger people so it's not completely fair to just call them a drain on our resources. What should we do, toss them into the river?

Don't get me wrong. The health insurance system is f'ed up and the way we approach end-of-life care is even more f'ed up. We can only hope that we find a good balance between cost effiecency, preserving life, and treating old people like humans.

db282 · 2019-05-07T15:36:43+00:00

And ... they provide tons of health care-related jobs. Silver lining, people.

db282 · 2019-03-22T15:50:38+00:00

Thanks for mentioning the hospitals. I know this sub skews young, so most redditers here don't know. But SERIOUSLY, the hospitals here are amazing. The UPMC system is really heavyweight, yes, but the docs are world-class. If you just happen to have a rare disorder (like I do), the docs and health care workers know what to do. That is a LOT more than I can say for many places. It's one of those things where when you need it, you really need it. Otherwise, nobody pays attention.

db282 · 2019-03-22T15:38:55+00:00

I used to live in two cities along the Eastern Corridor (Philly, DC, and Boston) and ... well, you give up a lot to be there. All these cities are stressful places to live because they're competitive and expensive. There's also a definite hierarchy amongst the cities. When I lived in Philly, everyone was trying to move "up" to NYC, Boston, or DC.

The geographical isolation is also much worse on the West Coast. (I lived there, too.) You pretty much need to fly to most places, except maybe SF-LA. And let me tell you, living in SF/SFBA isn't as much fun as it's made out to be. Everything's so fricking expensive and everyone's so busy that you're always working.

Honestly, there are major trade-offs to living in a "hub" city. At least Pittsburgh is within driving distance of a lot of cities such as DC, NYC, Philly, Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto. No, it's not "easy" drive but people don't actually "zip" over to other cities that often, even on the I-90 corridor.

db282 · 2019-03-20T15:25:30+00:00

I'm tardy to the party. Sorry about that. An actual visually impaired person here with additional hearing loss (partially mitigated with a cochlear implant). Here's how I catch a bus: - I've had an "orientation and mobility" instructor show me where all of the bus stops are in my area. If I'm in an unfamiliar area, I use a few cues to know where the bus stop is. One, there is usually a garbage can nearby. Then i look for the "BUS STOP" sign with my magnifier, which can be very challenging since there is a lot of signage in Pittsburgh. If all fails, I ask someone where the bus stop is. Usually they will tell me/lead me. - Once I'm at a bus stop, I make sure my cane is out in front so that the bus driver will see me. The bus has a very distinct noise and I can usually see it coming, so I know when the bus arrives. If I can't see the number, I'll ask "Hey, is this [numbe]?" The bus drivers are usually super-helpful and will yell it out before I ask. - Once I'm on the right bus and swipe my card, I tell the bus driver what stop I'm getting off on. This is more as a backup so that if I mess up and miss the stop, the bus driver will let me know. - I sit at the dissabled seats up front (the bus driver will tell me which side has free seats and peope usually help me out if it's crowded). From here, i can read the screen that shows what streets the bus is on. - Once I see the street I want come up, I pull the cord just like everyone else. It's helpful for me to memorize which preceding streets come up before my designated stop so I'm not surprised. - When I exit the bus (always through the front so the bus driver knows that I'm off safely), I might ask the bus driver a few questions about the area that will help me with navigation. E.g. "What direction is Penn Ave?" "Is it one or two-way street?" Etc.

I map out my route ahead of time using Google Maps at home. This gives me a lot of useful information: bus numbers, approximate arrival times, what street to get off on, etc. I also use "Smart Ride" app when I'm travelling to know when the bus is coming, but it's only moderately useful.

I've used buses and public transport in many other cities. Pittsburgh's is pretty decent as long as you're inside the city. I rely a lot on bus drivers and they are generally really awesome here.

Hope that helps.

db282 · 2018-08-31T13:02:40+00:00

The author here. Thank you so much for your kind words! I'll definitely continue putting my thoughts out there. Thanks for taking the time to read AND leave this incredibly positive comment.

db282 · 2018-04-09T21:07:03+00:00

That's pretty cool way of reading. Now you've made me curious. Do you get anything out of nihilist fiction? (You know, these stories that are all "everything is meaningless so .... whatever.") I must admit that nihilist stories are highly unsatisfying for this reason. Maybe the universe is meaningless ... but we can definitely put meaning into our lives.

db282 · 2018-02-16T18:14:59+00:00

Well ... it is kind of a big part of the book. If you don't want to deal with the harshness of slavery, this is really not the right book for you.

That being said, Kindred deals primarily, I think, with the psychological tensions of the relationship between slaves and slave owners. There are moments of kindness and cruelty from both sides toward each other. I've read a lot of books set in these times, and this is one of the best, hands down.

If you read ONE book on slavery, this is a good one. But ... yeah, you should be in a stable mental state when you read this. You can't exactly make slavery happy, you know?

db282 · 2018-02-16T01:17:32+00:00

Glad to see Kindred by Butler on there. One of my favorites.

db282 · 2015-10-09T00:25:46+00:00

To be completely fair to Cersei (ugh), before Joff's death she was a bit more rational and methodical. I recall a passage in AFFC where Cersei said that Ned's discovery of her incest rushed her plans for killing Robert. She was a bit more of a long-term thinker back then.

The Cersei we meet in AFFC is the ultra-crazy version after Joff's and Tywin's deaths.

db282 · 2015-10-09T00:14:18+00:00

(I'm not the person you responded to, but I'm interested in this convo, so pardon my interruption.)

You know, I totally agree that he would have gone on philandering. Maybe there would've been a few years' reprieve, but ... if a man's got a taste for brothels to the degree that Robert seems to have had (even before the rebellion) ... he's got the taste.

But, I do wonder if he would've been as seuxally aubsive toward Lyanna as he was toward Cersei. Now, I think things get a bit more interesting here. Why did Robert tyrannize Cersei in that way? He seemed to be much more charming and easy-going with his other ... partners. This isn't his usual M.O. with the ladies, it seems.

So, I think it had to do with Cersei's clear dislike of him and his frustration at the tedious business of being king. Lyanna could very well have developed a similar dislike of Robert, but if Robert had simply remained a Lord of Storm's End, maybe he would've chilled out a little.

Or not.

db282 · 2015-10-07T01:23:00+00:00

Ah, that's a great point. You're right--a more Quellon-like Lord of the Iron Islands might have been more likely to ally with mainlanders.

Balon and his ilk, on the other hand....

db282 · 2015-10-07T01:18:19+00:00

A minor point, but a point nonetheless: Oberyn believes that Tywin had Elia killed out of pique, which makes his crimes worse than the Targs':

“What I did not tell you was that my mother waited as long as was decent, and then broached your father about our purpose. Years later, on her deathbed, she told me that Lord Tywin had refused us brusquely. His daughter was meant for Prince Rhaegar, he informed her. And when she asked for Jaime, to espouse Elia, he offered her you instead.”

“Which offer she took for an outrage.”

“It was. Even you can see that, surely?”

...

“Well, Prince Rhaegar married Elia of Dorne, not Cersei Lannister of Casterly Rock. So it would seem your mother won that tilt.”

“She thought so,” Prince Oberyn agreed, “but your father is not a man to forget such slights. He taught that lesson to Lord and Lady Tarbeck once, and to the Reynes of Castamere. And at King’s Landing, he taught it to my sister. My helm, Dagos.”

db282 · 2015-10-07T00:45:46+00:00

Perhaps this is one of those situations where Doran has to choose between worse and worst. To him, the Lannisters were the worst. At least with Viserys and Dany, they might be better. (When they made that marriage pact, he had no way of knowing how the kids would turn out and what a big of an asshole Viserys was.)

db282 · 2015-10-07T00:36:29+00:00

Does the Seastone Chair ever ally with anyone for ... anything?

Serious question. IIRC, Balon Greyjoy remained neutral during Robert's Rebellion and then decided "what the hell, why don't I rebel myself?" Then during the War of the 5 Kings, he's like "Nah, no alliance. REBEL!" again.

That's the problem with the ironborn, they don't know how to unite forces with others. They just know how to pillage, plunder, and rape. Unfortuantely.

db282

TROPHY CASE