Some Crap Averted
More still remains.
I found someone to take my Vegas tickets, should be rid of them by the end of the week, money paid by the New Years Day.
The personal stuff going on... well, who knows?
In other news, the Christmas Season has begun with two big individual traditional purchases: The Advent Calendar and the Pop Culture Ornament. Not my first choice in either case, but they're both decent, and, of course, tradition must be upheld.
I picked the both up in the evening during my also-ritual trip to the Mall of America. Having probably avoided the afternoon rush, it wasn't THAT bad. But it was still pretty damn crowded. I took the light rail, too, and I must tell ya, with the exception of the Airport terminal, it's an absolutely piss-poorly designed system. Having gone from one end of the line to the other I discovered that only one of the stops out of, oh, 20, are completely indoors.
Some stops are mind-numbingly inconvenient. The stop at the VA Hospital that's on the opposite side of the huge parking lot stands out. Since, you know, people who need to go to the hospital can DEFINITELY stand to walk across a huge parking lot in the middle of the winter. Builds character.
Others are just odd. The Mall of America stop, the End Of The Line, involves the train literally pulling into the parking ramp like a car, dropping you off in an area where you 1) cross another set of tracks, 2) cross a street made for buses, 3) enter a building and go up a flight of escalators 4) cross ANOTHER street, and 5) enter the Mall. With all the hoopla surrounding this stop, the final destination of the Much Touted and Much Paid For Light Rail, you would have at least thought they'd build a station that, you know, was ATTACHED TO THE MALL.
The light rail, as an idea, is a good idea. Execution, however, is another matter. If they had built a completely elevated or underground system, if they had built a system between Minneapolis & St Paul, or between the Twin Cities & St Cloud, then hear hear. This thing should be used for commuting purposes before anything. But the fact that they made it to get back and forth to tourist spots, despite the fact that the rail system in itself doesn't exactly draw people to the town.
Build a baseball stadium for half of the cost of the light rail and I guarantee tourism and tax revenues would increase more than from any lightrail to the Mall of America. But that's just me.
Wow, that got ranty.
Each year I seem to have fewer and fewer people to shop for, so money's not going to be that great of a concern. Especially since I'll have, you know, 800 dollars more than I had originally planned since the trip's off. So right now I'm shopping for five family members, two or three friends, and no significant other. But, meh, I'll still have a good time.
And now I stop.
I found someone to take my Vegas tickets, should be rid of them by the end of the week, money paid by the New Years Day.
The personal stuff going on... well, who knows?
In other news, the Christmas Season has begun with two big individual traditional purchases: The Advent Calendar and the Pop Culture Ornament. Not my first choice in either case, but they're both decent, and, of course, tradition must be upheld.
I picked the both up in the evening during my also-ritual trip to the Mall of America. Having probably avoided the afternoon rush, it wasn't THAT bad. But it was still pretty damn crowded. I took the light rail, too, and I must tell ya, with the exception of the Airport terminal, it's an absolutely piss-poorly designed system. Having gone from one end of the line to the other I discovered that only one of the stops out of, oh, 20, are completely indoors.
Some stops are mind-numbingly inconvenient. The stop at the VA Hospital that's on the opposite side of the huge parking lot stands out. Since, you know, people who need to go to the hospital can DEFINITELY stand to walk across a huge parking lot in the middle of the winter. Builds character.
Others are just odd. The Mall of America stop, the End Of The Line, involves the train literally pulling into the parking ramp like a car, dropping you off in an area where you 1) cross another set of tracks, 2) cross a street made for buses, 3) enter a building and go up a flight of escalators 4) cross ANOTHER street, and 5) enter the Mall. With all the hoopla surrounding this stop, the final destination of the Much Touted and Much Paid For Light Rail, you would have at least thought they'd build a station that, you know, was ATTACHED TO THE MALL.
The light rail, as an idea, is a good idea. Execution, however, is another matter. If they had built a completely elevated or underground system, if they had built a system between Minneapolis & St Paul, or between the Twin Cities & St Cloud, then hear hear. This thing should be used for commuting purposes before anything. But the fact that they made it to get back and forth to tourist spots, despite the fact that the rail system in itself doesn't exactly draw people to the town.
Build a baseball stadium for half of the cost of the light rail and I guarantee tourism and tax revenues would increase more than from any lightrail to the Mall of America. But that's just me.
Wow, that got ranty.
Each year I seem to have fewer and fewer people to shop for, so money's not going to be that great of a concern. Especially since I'll have, you know, 800 dollars more than I had originally planned since the trip's off. So right now I'm shopping for five family members, two or three friends, and no significant other. But, meh, I'll still have a good time.
And now I stop.
posted by Bill at 9:57 AM
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