Via metafilter, JT Leroy De-Masked. JT Leroy is actually two forty-something women.
07
Jan 06
Strange thing about Pagerank
Pagerank is the proprietary method by which Google determines the relevance of your site to search results. The higher the Pagerank, the more often your site will appear for relevant searches.
I noticed today that the Pagerank of letterneversent.com is 4/10, while the PR of www.letterneversent.com is 5/10. That’s weird, but I guess Google does that because you can’t just assume that the “site.com” is the same as “www.site.com”. Occasionally, this is not the case.
07
Jan 06
Toll tag
One thing about taking the tollway in Dallas is that it helps to use a tolltag. Basically, this is a credit-card shaped plastic transponder you paste to your windshield. When you go through a tollgate it automatically debits funds for the toll from an account you have with the North Texas Tollway Authority. This ends up being quicker for everyone since you don’t have to scramble to find change for the toll. In exchange for using the transponder, you are given a slight discount on the total cost of the toll. So, for example, if the toll starts out at 75 cents when you enter the tollway, you might pay only 60 cents, which ends up being a sizable discount of around 20%. As you use the tollway, the funds in your account are replenished from the credit card you put on file with the tollway authority.
The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) is a self-supporting political sub-division of the State. The NTTA receives no tax funds from any source. Debt service, operations and maintenance are funded entirely from user fees (tolls).
I’m growing to like the tollway. It’s less crowded than the other major highways in Dallas and it is a straight shot to where I work up in Addison. It’s pretty much due north and it saves me about 20-25 minutes every day. Judging from the amount of traffic during the day, the tollways must be a big money maker for someone. If you figure each car is paying anywhere from $.75-1.50 per trip, twice a day you start to get some huge numbers.
Since the NTTA is a quasi-governmental entity you can review the financials on the NTTA website. From there you find some interesting information:
Total operating revenues were $165.3 million and $152.5 million for FY 2004 and FY 2003, respectively. System toll revenues for FY 2004 were $160.7 million, a seven point six percent (7.6%) increase over FY 2003 compared to an eight point two percent (8.2%) increase in FY 2003 over FY 2002. Traffic on the System continues to grow, with approximately 863,100 and 811,000 average daily transactions in FY 2004 and FY 2003, respectively, and almost seventy-one percent (71%) collected electronically. Collection of tolls electronically increased over 2003, which was sixty-eight percent (68%). Actual traffic on the PGBT continues to exceed Traffic & Revenue Engineer estimates.
It’s interesting to see what kind of funds are flowing into the system. Traffic and highway systems are hugely complex and important systems involving millions of people and trillions of dollars. Everything we enjoy about modern life is made possible by the ability to get people, goods, and services in and out of the city.
05
Jan 06
Dryclean me
Second day of work at the new job, I’m in the deli by myself reading an old issue of Time magazine during my lunch break. The meatball sub I ordered is brought out and I take a bite as I read about the “best gadgets of 2005” or some other such nonsense. As I bite down, a thick jet of hot spaghetti sauce spurts onto my lap and chest covering me with tomato gore. It was one of those laugh or cry situations, but being an old hand at embarrassing myself, I did my best to play it off. When the crowd thinned out I snuck out with my jacket in front of me and called the office and told them I’d be working from home for the rest of the afternoon since I wasn’t about to go back to the office looking like an extra from the set of Carrie.
04
Jan 06
Living in the Big D
I’m in Dallas now. Officially. I’m living downtown so the commute isn’t bad at all. I just hop on the tollway and 20 minutes later I’m there. Up here you hear horror stories about people getting up at 4am to drive an hour and a half to work from the burbs. Luckily, I’m able to stay on the tollway going in the opposite direction as everyone else.
29
Dec 05
Channeling Scarlett O’Hara
“As God is my witness,” the line from Gone with the Wind begins, “…as God is my witness they’re not going to lick me. I’m going to live through this and when it’s all over, I’ll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”
As God is my witness, I will never move myself again. Next time, I’m hiring someone.
29
Dec 05
Essential Firefox Extensions: Highlighter and SessionSaver
I’ve just started using two indispensable Firefox extensions:
Highlighter – What it does: select a block of text, right-click and select “highlight”. Very nice when trying to pull out interesting bits. Also has several other useful features like instant highlighting when you select text, tracker icons for jumping back to highlighted sections, and the ability to select different highlight colors.
SessionSaver – This extension saves everything you were viewing when you closed Firefox, so when you come back to the computer you can read where you left off. You can also do cool stuff like sync your session to a previous session over FTP, or even back up a session to a file. Feature list.
29
Dec 05
Diggin’ up bones
I went through and tossed more of my junk tonight in a bid to lighten the move up to Dallas since I’d like to get it done in one trip. The biggest things I own are the washer and dryer, but I have several boxes of stuff I’ve been lugging around for ten plus years: letters and sentimental stuff, a couple boxes of Mad magazines and comic books I used to collect, and piles of old college-era notes and papers. One thing I need to remember: stop buying notebooks and art supplies. I must have about ten pads of nice Bristol paper I’ve barely touched that I bought in one of those moments where I thought I might start drawing again. The little part of me that used to draw is in hiding, but I know he’s still there somewhere down deep.
Going through all that stuff made me feel like crap; old, stupid and nostalgic. It’s ironic in a way that ten years after moving to Austin I’m finally leaving. Something tells me I won’t get off that easy. Austin and the ghosts of Austin will stay with me.
I called Jody because I wanted to feel better, but she’s not one for babying me even though that’s what I was fishing for. We talked for a short while then I told her I was going to “run for the border” to get something to eat. I ended up surfing around for another hour or so until midnight and went to IHOP instead, the same IHOP where I would normally have a TM meeting. Brenda, the waitress I see every Monday morning, didn’t even recognize me although that’s probably because I was out of my context, showing up at night, unshaved and desperate looking. It is strange to expect recognition and then get none. I sat and read “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”, and bolted down a plate of pancakes. IHOP was crowded with high school kids and other people out on the town and their presence just added to my sense of alienation. I ate as fast as I could and split.
28
Dec 05
Endless hall of mirrors with bear totem
Another image from the Carl’s Corner truckstop, which sells Willie Nelson’s biodiesel.