Product 22: Megabus

So I took my first Megabus trip. It was definitely an interesting experience but one I would gladly do again. In fact I already have a trip planned out in my head that will take advantage of the Megabus for the near future.

As I said the trip was an interesting one. I wasn’t expecting for such a plainly marked stop by the convention center. I showed up early since I knew that the Convention Center was having an NRA convention that was tying up traffic left and right throughout the city. I actually found the stop itself rather European. It was something that if you knew to go there, it’s great. If you didn’t know about it, you didn’t. It’s kind of a weird thing to describe. But I actually felt safe and it didn’t seem sketchy at all.

Now my wait for the bus turned out to much longer than I anticipated and I saw the irony of my surroundings. As I said there was an NRA Convention that was occurring in the same area. I was also being picketed by the Judgment Day is May 21 People. Add in the people in the bus stop line (mainly upper middle class by dress and college students). It was quite a group of people.

The timing to the bus wasn’t very good. It ran about an hour and half late. There was some sort of problem with the driver and we had to get a new one. That part was crazy since the three Megabus guys kept saying the bus will be here in 10/15 minutes and it wasn’t coming. But they didn’t seem to know much more then us. I will have to say the moment the bus arrived, we boarded the bus and quickly got on our way.

I loved the fact that the bus had some WI-Fi access. It was great since for part of the Lightening v. Capitals game, I could get ESPN gamecast to follow the game. But midway through the state and about midway through the second period, the bus lost the WI-FI connection. So that was a bummer especially given the events that were happening in the world that day (Osama Bin Laden being killed- thankfully my good friend gave me a text and kept me up to speed about the Osama news and the game).

I was so glad that the bus stopped mid-turnpike and we could get off for a bit. I hate to say it, but that little stop was the only food I ate all day (and it was late in the evening by that point). So it was a relief to know that we could just get off the stop for a little bit and grab a bite to eat. Now I actually didn’t really eat after stopping at the pit stop but at least I had the food in my lap so I could if I got motivated to do so.

Megabus also has two things that really go for it. First it has nearly direct routes. I had two stops between Pittsburgh and Philly. That includes that pit stop. It moved so fast through the stops and everything. Plus the bus stops are in good sections of town. I am comfortable being by the Pittsburgh Convention Center and Philly’s 30th Sttreet Station. Two, the seats are comfortable. I had some leg room and I could get comfy even with seating next to someone. I didn’t have same level of comfort using the Greyhound a little over a day later.

While adhering to the schedule was bad and I would have liked to use the WI-FI the entire bus ride, I really liked using Megabus. I plan to use it soon.

Book 38: Next Man Up

The Next Man Up by John Feinstein is one of those great indepth looks into football. It was a nostalgic book for me and I highly enjoyed that even though it wasn’t a team that I follow at the obsessive level I follow the Philadelphia Eagles and the rest of the NFC East teams.

So the cover of the book is both ingenious and very deceptive all at the same time. The cover of the book neglects to mention this book is about the Baltimore Ravens. It just says it’s a behind the scene looks at a football team during one season. I thought great. So that totally pulled me in. By not naming a team, he also was able to pull in the football fan rather then the biased fan.

Now the first thought of the book after realizing this book was about the Ravens was about my dad. He would have mocked me for reading about the Ravens and quickly follow that up with a request to borrow the book when I’m done. He would have mocked the topic since it’s the Ravens and he was a Browns fan. But more then that, he was a football fan. He did something I haven’t seen many other parents raise their kids, he raised us on football with a slight Browns bias but he wanted his girls to like the sport and pick their own team when they were ready (which is why his daughters are Steelers and Eagles fans). He would have loved the inside look at a team regardless of which team it was but with it being a team he knew pretty well, he would have enjoyed. He knew the Ravens for two reasons: 1 Know thy enemy and 2 he lived in Baltimore for years and would go to several games a year.

The book provided a good look at a team. How it dealt with loses, players attitudes, injuries and etc. There are some things that I felt like I knew already. The Philadelphia Media is relentless and some of the things weren’t evolutionary.

But it was fun to see the Baltimore side to the TO debacle of the trade/free agency sign with Philadelphia. I knew all the facts and the whole problem. But you didn’t get to see Newson’s or Billick’s response up in Philly. We were just happy to have Terrell Owens for that season. That love was short lived on both sides.

But one of the things I really liked was seeing a different side to Ray Lewis. I didn’t realize he was so spiritual. I always see him as the play maker, the it guy on the field, and the guy who was involved in a murder investigation/lied to the police. So to see that other side to him. Plus I thought it was great how he helped to bring in Deion Sanders.

Plus the look at the team was great. This was a team that was riding so high with great hopes for a SuperBowl and you saw how at the end of the season. Problems happened, as did injuries and loses. So they ended up mathematically eliminated. No one know that would be the outcome to the season when Feinstein decided to profile this team. He just knew they were a local team (DC based), they had high hopes and were media friendly.

I laughed so hard with Matt Stover’s one reaction to a fight that happened. He said that the use of the term Motherfucker was used by Brown in that situation was used more then once and probably less than a hundred times. Now for so many athletes and their fans, that could explain the use of swearing during a game. But it was a laughable to see that range in print.

You could tell that Feinstein’s time at the Washington Post had led to a Redskins bias. So there was extra focus on the Skin’s moves, the issues by Synder with personnel. There were times when there was a focus on the Eagles too but it was more this is a team to beat. But that was in part due to the TO thing and well the Eagles were a dominate NFC team and they were matched up that year (2004). But I was susprised there was less focus on the Steelers and the Colts. I would have thought they would have more chapter focuses but editing didn’t’ turn out that way. You could tell things were cut since well it’s a long season and highlighting some weeks still lead to a 500 page plus book.

All in all I recommend this book for any football fan. I already told my one friend who is a Raven’s fan that he had to add this book to his reading list. It’s just a good book.

Book 37: Geisha, A Life

Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki was a fantastic book by a former Geisha in the Kyoto area. I almost can’t put into words how much I learned from her memoir and how fascinated I was by her story.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in the life of geisha’s (although after reading Iwasaki’s book I now know they are called Geikos) yet at the same time didn’t really know a whole lot since so much of the life is rather secretive. So when I saw this book at Borders, I knew I had to have it. I was hoping it would be deeper and feel more real to me then the novel, Memoirs of a Geisha. Fortunately for me, my instincts were right. This book was the real deal and yet you could see how her life was echoed in Memoirs of a Geisha (she was one of the people he consulted when he wrote the novel but changed many details).

I loved how much time Iwasaki put into explaining the Japanese culture and terms. It just gave the book so much more depth to it. But I’ve always loved learning the meaning of Japanese words (which is why when I went to Otakon I wanted to know about the term meant and learned about otaku) so I really liked seeing how carefully terms were explained and the proper names to ceremonies, hair styles and etc were given. The only disappointment I had was when Rande Brown (the translator) chose to put the names in the English format rather than the traditional Japanese format. So I started to automatically flip the names back into the traditional way (for example Iwasaki Mineko).

I liked how you could tell by the way Mineko wrote there were times she was truly naïve about life and was a child growing up in a world. It gave the book a real sense of truth and innocent to it, yet at the same time Mineko added her adult reflections to the same situation when it was warranted. This was a child who lived a privileged life and yet at the same time worked really hard. It’s funny to read how she cared more about the damage fan then the fact it was signed by the Prince Charles.

There are so many tales about what it was like to be a Maiko and Geiko that you can truly see how they are entertainers and not prostitutes in any sense of the word (although there are some events that carry the same name as the ones from the courtesan lifestyle). It’s great to see her reflections on what it was like to perform for Prince Charles, Mr. Gucci, Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, President Ford, Harry Kissinger and other dignitaries. She got to interact with so many interesting people during her relatively short career. It became clear how every ozashiki had a different vibe to it since every patron had different expectations and interests.

I absolutely loved this book. I would recommend this to many of my friends if they are looking for a good memoir or to learn about the Geiko lifestyle. Although I know my mom will be one of the next people that I know will read this book since I will pass it off to her next. I can’t wait to hear her opinions on it since she also has an interest in Geiko.

Letters 32, 33, 34, 35

Letter 31 Wishing a friend well





















Letter 33:Saying Hello



















Letter 34: Saying Hello



















Letter 35: Some fun

Book 36: The Waiting

The Waiting was a let down by Suzanne Woods Fischer. I thoroughly enjoyed The Choice, that I might have had too high of expectations for The Waiting. It seemed like everything that I loved in the first book didn’t exist in the second book.

One of the biggest things that threw me in The Waiting was how it was placed 40 years in the past from the first book. It just throws you. There was almost no warning about the shift to the past. It just seems weird to have one book take place in current time and then the following book take place in the past. It would have made more sense to order the books in reverse.

Plus there is only character that links book one and book two in the series that is Esther. The family names are the same but they are completely different. Just seems weird to have a background character continue to be a background character. It would have been a great opportunity to make Ester really shine or to make them into two separate characters.

But overall the characters didn’t feel Amish to me. They seemed quite frankly English. I just didn’t feel the book read true. I didn’t get that sense of peace and trust in God. In fact the idea of God was so far in the background, it was almost easy to forget that the main character Cal/Caleb was a pastor.

Plus one of the things that would just take me out of the narrative was how characters would just disappear/appear and there were seemly characters with more then two hands. It seemed like in this book, I was constantly looking to see if I missed something when I read a phrase but usually the character did just go missing. But it takes away from the novel to reread something just to try and make a scene make sense.

The only good thing I really liked about the book was the idea of the Amish and the conscious observer during the Vietnam War. There are different types of observers in the war and you saw the two. One who goes to the front as a non-combatant and the one who stays outside of the war. That was an interesting divide I wouldn’t have thought of if wasn’t for the Waiting.

Book 35: The Choice

The Choice by Suzanne Woods Fisher was a rather enjoyable book about Amish life. It was an easy read that gave great incite about Amish life in the Lancaster area.

Throughout my life, I’ve been fascinated by Amish life. I can contribute this to the fact I used to travel to Lancaster on a regular basis and the fact my mom has a similar interest. For a long time my mom and I have been trading books about Amish life especially those by Beverly Lewis. But fictional books about Amish life start to get repetitive. This became especially true with Beverly Lewis. So I while I love the subject, I was a wee bit skeptical about reading The Choice. I didn’t feel like getting a lecture about Plain/English that I’ve seen a dozen times before.

I was pleasantly surprised by Suzanne Woods Fisher’s approach. She just wrote an engaging book about Amish life but didn’t harp on the differences between Plain/English. It was just there and you could pick up on things but it didn’t scream out that she just researched a specific thing and wanted to share it. I also like how she included a lot of adages and sayings. I haven’t seen some of them before and it was just a nice touch.

I will admit the title is a little misleading. The Choice isn’t the protagonist’s choice to make. Carrie’s mind was set. She was going to live an Amish lifestyle. It was more the people around Carrie that were making heavy life choices when it came to faith and how to handle life.

One of the things I really liked was how the characters and the situations in the book felt real. You could just dive in and think ‘yes that fits my view of Amish life’. I could understand the pull of love that Carrie felt and the delving into feelings as she was dealing with daily life.

The book just gave me a sense of peace and reminded me of the power of faith.

One of the things that did throw me was the massive use of Deitsch (the PA form of Deutsch spoken by the Amish). I took several years of German so there is a part of me that wanted to pick apart the use/misuse of the German phrases but I had to remind myself it’s a dialect. There are times words were approximated from the German but the author was really good at giving translations.

This book was so well written, that I was looking forward to reading the second book in the Secrets of Lancaster County The Waiting.

Book 34: Dark and Stormy Knights

Dark and Stormy Knights edited by P. N. Elrod was a decent short story collection that takes a look at the different knights who pop up in urban vampire/werewolf/occult books. Some of the stories are amazing while others are okay.

This time around, I didn't try to have any preconcieved notions about which stories I would like best. Even though, I was looking forward to reading the Carrie Vaughn story.

In the end, I liked the Carrie Vaughn story probably best. I liked it since I knew Cormac from her Kitty books but it gave so much more depth to his character. You could see how he thought rather then through Kitty's eyes.

The philosopher in me really loved 'Even A Rabbit Will Bite' by Rachel Caine. This story is about an old dragon slayer teaching a young dragon slayer the tricks of the trade. I can't say too much about the story since it will spoil the ending. But it has a really good debate about war and understanding the causes of war.

There was a Jim Butcher story that was kinda related to the Dresden files. I've heard both good and bad things about Dresden so I was glad to read a tale for myself. I find myself agreeing with the pharmacist I work with, it could be good but there is something that I can't fully get into. But I'm glad that I read the story.

This collection is different from the other collections I've read lately. It didn't arrange things in according to content. Instead it was arranged by the author's aphabetically. That meant stories didn't always blend well together since a fairy story would be next to a dragon slayer to a vampire story to another monster slayer. While it seemed to be equal to the writer's talents, for the reader, I think I would have liked the grouping to be a little better like the other collections that I read.

So in the end, this is a good book to read. There are some stories that were only okay while others were amazing.