BoltBus : NY to DC for $1

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/BusinessTravel/story?id=4538562&page=1

Not technically commuting, I suppose, as I don't know anybody making that run every day.  But the idea is one taken from airlines where they start out with a certain number of seats at the minimum price (here, 1 seat at $1), and then as the bus fills up, the price goes up.  The idea is to get rid of the Greyhound statistic where 90% of the seats are booked at the terminal that day, and get people into booking early, over the net.

How Do You Call That In?

So the other day there was a horrible commuter train crash in my neighborhood that injured 150 people out of 300.  Mostly minor injuries, luckily, but still.

How do you spend the rest of your day, if you were on that train?  What do you tell your boss?  If you weren't one of the injured, do you still try to make it in to work?  The delays are obvious - not only is the whole train option out the window, but there'll be police to speak to, medical attention, and so on.   Is this the sort of thing that costs you a vacation day? 

Do Train Seats Follow Restroom Etiquette?

You've walked onto a train that is less than half full.  How do you decide where to sit?  There is an understood rule in restrooms, at least among men, that you don't take the spot immediately next to one that is occupied.   More accurately, some guys would say you take the spot the farthest distance away, and then only begin taking the ones in the middle in a sort of binary "keep splitting the distance so you're equal distance away" sort of way.

That's a little excessive when it comes to a train with 50 rows of seats, but I did notice that the spread comes out relatively similar.  There's someone in a row, and then three empty rows, and then someone in the next row.  I don't know about you, but I gravitate toward the one in the middle.  I realize that all the empty rows are probably going to get filled up anyway, but when it's my pick, I like space on both sides.  Since I work on the laptop I tend to prop my knees up, normally against the seat in front of me.  If I sit right behind somebody I'd find it rude to shove against their seat like that.  I don't sit directly in front of people, if I can help it, for the same reason - I don't want to be the one crunching the other guy's legs out from under him.

Why is it that the person who always sits down behind me seems like they need to bang on my seat for 10 minutes before they get comfortable?  What in the world are they doing?

E-Book : Survive The Layoff

A long time ago I got laid off.  I wrote a book about it.  Well, I like to call it a "survival guide."  A few publishers had it for awhile but never got anywhere, so it's been sitting on the shelf (figuratively, it's an e-book) ever since.

Well it looks like recession time might be coming around again.  I'm seeing more stories about getting your resume in order and "recession-proofing your career."  So I'm putting my guide out there on Scribd.  No charge.  I hope folks find some value in it.  Feel free to share it with others.

 UPDATE : It's been pointed out to me that the embedded player offers no download link, so here you go:  download as PDF

Read this doc on Scribd: Survive The Layoff