Akit Helps to Make Changes in Las Vegas Transit

It's been a few weeks since my trip to Las Vegas where gambling kicked my butt, but the shows are totally worth the money.

During my time off (thanks furloughs), I decided to try out the Regional Transportation Commission's public transit service in the city so I can go around the Las Vegas Strip and to Downtown without the need for a taxicab... boy was I in a world of hell.

Fast? How fast? Pretty damn slow is a better way to say it.

On the day I arrived, they just added new bus service making limited stops along the strip and cutting through some side streets for a quicker ride to the Strip, but it was an absolute horror. The brand new buses were packed like sardines with very narrow aisle space for standees, minimal air conditioning (some buses had NONE with NO SLIDING WINDOWS!), and infrequent service. I was lucky I was walking around with crutches and was given a seat all the time.

They also run double decker buses along the strip and make every stop about a quarter mile. That was a hell hole too. I thought it would be worse than Muni, and I was right. Ever waited at a bus stop for 45 minutes, at the 35 minute mark, one bus arrives so packed the driver can't even allow others to get aboard, and everyone is forced to wait for the next one that never shows up. Everyone waiting at the stop was hailing cabs and I was asking people if they wanted to share a cab too. I finally gave up after their customer service folks took forever to give some answers and just walked it to the monorail.

Just to insult the paragraph above: Over two dozen buses were going the other direction, and in the same direction I'm waiting at, about six limited stop buses passed by AND NOT FULL!

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When I came back to my home here in SF, I decided to write the RTC a nice message about my experiences. I even told them they could save some time if their drivers didn't keep punching the emergency brake and curbing their wheels before opening their doors (Muni doesn't do it).

They finally wrote back to me just a couple days ago and apologized like crazy. They also mentioned that "based on popular demand" the double decker buses will not serve just a short portion of the Strip, but will also restore service to Downtown (PDF document).

I call it a victory for all Las Vegas visitors who suffered. The "Akit effect" spreads beyond the Bay Area!

Akit's Furlough Adventure #8 - All Around San Francisco

Today was another day on furlough, and what better way to spend my morning and afternoon but walking all around the city. Let's take a tour, shall we?

First stop was at the Folsom platform for the N-Judah/T-Third line for a walk along the public shore towards AT&T Park. Here's a great view facing Northwest from the platform.


The legendary Herb Caen, oh how he is missed around our great city. I hope the city fixes this sign. How does it get bent like that when it's up so high?


It's off to the legendary Coit Tower where the views are outstanding and you hear the wild parrots of Nob Hill. You can pay to head to the top, or just get your camera and just walk around the surrounding area for wonderful shots.


With at least a 10X optical zoom, taking photos from Coit Tower is wonderful. This shot is of the Alcatraz Cruises terminal. I've never been to Alcatraz (sad, ain't it?).


This is what happens when Muni is piss poor and people fare evade... they can't afford the push bars!


Off to the California Academy of Sciences! Ever been in the Osher Rainforest? It's really humid in there, but the butterflies and birds makes it really special. Here's a great shot of a butterfly.


Here's another great photo of a butterfly!

To view the entire album, watch this slideshow:

Akit's Furlough Adventure #7: Japantown

Being on furlough this week is sort-of boring and I'm trying to find things to kill time. I thought it would be fun to go to one of my favorite neighborhoods, Japantown!

San Francisco's Japantown is home to a lot of great Japanese restaurants, non-profit community organizations, great hotels, and a heck of a shopping experience.

I know if you have gone to J-Town, you have been to Ichi Ban Kan, a place full of housewares, food products, personal grooming supplies, and ice cold beverages for a low price. They even carry unique items from Japan like Hi-Chews in a larger pack than the ones made for the United States distributors. They even carry unique flavors including peach.

Daiso recently opened-up in Japantown as well, and they are a huge Japan based worldwide chain store famous for items at a low price. Around the stores in the United States, they sell 95% of their products for only $1.50. One of their popular items are the keychain lights (in photograph) that retail at places like Brookstone for about $15, but it's only $1.50 at Daiso. The store in Japantown is SMALL and the one in Serramonte is huge with a big variety of items.

Between the two places, I like Ichi Ban Kan better with the large food variety. But I will admit that I like Daiso for the affordable plastic containers and such, and I prefer the one in Serramonte over the Japantown location because they accept credit cards.

As for lunch, a hearty meal for under $10 at Mifune includes cold soba (buckwheat) and udon (rice) noodles with tempura and their famous dipping sauce.

Have a happy Thanksgiving! If you are going out for Black Friday shopping, get there early and dress warmly.

Akit's Furlough Adventures 5 & 6

Courtesy of a furlough program by my employer at SF State, everyone got a four-day weekend covering Friday to Monday. Too bad I have to return to work tomorrow, otherwise I'd lose more than 10% of my paycheck that's already been cut.

As promised, I'm keeping up with documenting my furlough days with "adventures" to various Bay Area locations. I'm combining both furlough days in one blog posting.

Friday, October 23, 2009: I went in at 9:30AM to the California Academy of Sciences. Since I'm a member, admission was relatively quick and I was able to secure a ticket for the new planetarium show that is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg.

This photo is of the Philippine coral reef tank at the lowest level of the Academy. This tank is one of the most popular spots of the aquarium due to its large size, seating, and a scheduled talk with a person in scuba gear. Since I got in at the earliest time, there was no crowds and I had the entire space for myself for at least 10 minutes. No screaming kids and it was absolutely quiet; something we adults need badly at museums and exhibitions.


The African penguins is popular exhibit at the Academy. While some stay on the rocks, many dive into the water and are playful with the people when they run their fingers over the glass. I was trying to kill time before I had to line-up to gain entry to the planetarium.


After the planetarium, I ate lunch down at Kiki's on 9th Avenue between Lincoln and Irving, a sister restaurant to Kitaro's on Geary. Cheaply priced sushi and their cooked lunches are tasty. After eating a good meal, it was a hop on the N-Judah where the ride was "free" thanks to a broken fare box. I was planning to visit Chinatown, but it was getting too late and I eventually turned back for the long bus ride journey home.

Monday, October 26, 2009: After seeing an ad in the Chronicle about the Star Trek Exhibition at the San Jose Tech Museum, I thought I'd give it a try. It took a lot of planning, especially that I didn't want to drive down there. Instead, I planned out to park my car at Daly City BART and take the Caltrain Baby Bullet Express from Millbrae.

Parking at Daly City BART wasn't that bad, the lot wasn't even 1/4 full at 7:30AM. I actually found a great parking spot after I reserved a space on BART's website and paid a $4.50 fee. The thing I hate about BART south of Daly City is the not so frequent service; direct Millbrae trains run on 15 minute frequencies, so timing was important to not miss the Caltrain express.


Hey, look... TransLink! It's a little beat-up, but it worked perfectly fine.


Here's a northbound train heading towards San Francisco. It was one of a few trains passing by while I was waiting for the express. It turned out that the express train I was riding was the original Caltrain cars and it was a heck of a bumpy ride.

Unfortunately, the Tech Museum banned photography at the Star Trek exhibit. The $25 cost is totally not worth it. I'm only a mild Trekkie fan, but I remember most of the TV shows and films. There's a ton of props (some replicas and actual), many costumes, and some opportunities to take photos with official designated photographers who want to rip your butt off. Some things didn't even look right, including there was parts of the exhibits showing their wear and tear, holes in some of the displays (from a previous show?), lighting was poor, and the exhibit route was really odd.

The best traveling exhibition at the Tech Museum was the human bodies about a year or two ago, and that was amazing to view. For the Star Trek exhibit, I was expecting more interactive exhibits. When Star Trek was at the old California Academy of Sciences, it was very interactive, you can touch the screens, and play interactive games while learning about the world of Star Trek. The only "interactive" thing they offered was a $5 simulator ride that was below par.

If you were to compare the Tech Museum's Star Trek exhibit to the one at the Las Vegas Hilton, the Hilton kicks this traveling show to the ground and keeps on stomping hard.

Just to make matters worse, you also get admission to the Tech Museum and there was hundreds of kids playing with everything there. Tons of them are very disrespectful, including ones who thinks it's fun to play around escalators.

So after all this bullshit and spending less than 90 minutes in San Jose, I left on the next local Caltrain back home.

Akit's Furlough Adventure #4 - SF Giants Game

Sorry for the delay in posting this furlough adventure, it's been quite busy at work.

Furlough Adventure #4 is the SF Giants game on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. I went with one of my co-workers since the tickets I purchased came in a pair.

This night was for the local firefighters and people who bought special tickets got a really interesting mug shaped like a firefighter's boot.


This night was also Madison Bumgarner's first Major League baseball game because just a few hours before the game, Tim Lincecum was experiencing back spasms.


Here's a photo of his first Major League pitch.

Want to see more photos? Look below for the slideshow:

Akit's Furlough Adventure #3: Oakland's Rockridge District

Other than someone rigging the poll at the last minute, the winner for "furlough adventure" #3 is Oakland's Rockridge District.

Rockridge is a popular commercial district with independently owned restaurants and shops and is easily accessible by BART. It is also easily accessible from Cal Berkeley because AC Transit's 51 bus line passes right through there.

Let's take a little photo tour, shall we?

Before my journey out to that area, I stopped at Powell BART for an unhealthy breakfast. My doctor is going to kill me. I wonder why the Burger King restaurants I visit doesn't serve "turbo" coffee?


Since the public was suffering during the Bay Bridge closure, I was one of the lucky ones to get a free chocolate square as part of a promo.


It took about 30 minutes to get there and I got there way too early. Not everything was open.


Yep... way too early. Zachary's was not even open yet. Zachary's is one of the best pizza places in the entire Bay Area and is famous for their super deep dish pizzas, known to take up to 30 minutes to bake. If you eat it there and there's no open tables, you place your pizza order and when your name is called for a table, your pizza will be there in no time. You can also order to-go deep dish pizzas, including ones that are half-baked so you can cook it later.


Hey! It's the controversial Oakland parking meters! You remember them in the news, right? Oakland parking meter maids are running around giving tickets to anyone whose meter has no time left, even if you are just paying for your meter voucher. It's profitable and pisses a ton of people off.


After touring around Rockridge district, I killed some time at the Cal Academy of Sciences. Amazingly, it was not even crowded! I got a nice seat to view the Philippine coral reef tank, and there was even planetarium tickets available.

See the entire slideshow:

Akit's Furlough Adventure #2 - Twin Peaks & Cal Academy of Sciences

Just one vote made the difference between going to the Rockridge district of Oakland and Twin Peaks. This furlough adventure winner is Twin Peaks.

Unfortunately, today was a terrible day at Twin Peaks, the fog ruined the view. After a few minutes of snapping photos, I scrapped this trip.

After bailing on Twin Peaks, I decided to go visit the Cal Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, and got sort-of lucky at the parking garage with a parking space of this complicated and expensive parking lot. $2.75 an hour... damn!

Since I have membership to the Academy, it was quite easy to get in, but as usual, it's tourist season and the damn place was packed. I arrived at about 11AM and the planetarium show tickets were given out for the 3PM showing. Take my advice, don't go to the 3D Bugs movie, the screen is small, and they allow screaming babies and kids who likes to kick your seat.

One of my favorite exhibits is the African Penguins. They are so cute! And when they swim in the water, they always go against the glass to play around with the visitors.

One of the best features of the Cal Academy is the aquarium, and especially the Philippine Coral Reef exhibits, including the one where a diver enters the aquarium and talks to the host of the program. One item of note, every time they do one of those diver showings, it's a fire hazard because people are spilling out in the aisles and folks are sitting all over the floor.

If haven't had the chance, go to the rainforest exhibit in the big glass dome. It's quite humid inside, but you get to see all kinds of birds, butterflies, odd looking fish, and plenty more. The wait is 15 minutes to get in, but it's well worth the wait.

And don't forget the site of the former 74X CultureBus! Rest in peace... but Muni forgot to paint over the damn yellow signage.

As for lunch... thanks to Oprah's failed KFC bit, I finally was able to claim my free meal. The chicken pieces are so small! I've never seen a drumstick that small... EVER.

See the entire slideshow here:

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Furlough adventures #3 and #4 is scheduled for Friday, September 4th, and Tuesday September 8th (it's a five day weekend). You can post a comment here at Akit's Complaint Department to give suggestions on what I should do or visit next. You can also e-mail me at complaints@NOSPAMakit.org (take-out the "nospam" notation).

All suggestions will be reviewed and a poll will be posted in the next week or two. Two items from the previous poll will return: Cable Car Museum and Rockridge district.

BART Strike Called-Off

Phew... BART's management and the ATU worked-out their problems and have made a deal. This deal means there will be NO BART strike starting on Monday at 12:01PM and your commute won't be a world of hell.

But be aware that this "deal" made between the union and BART management is not 100% official until the union votes and passes the new contract. If the vote fails, the threat of another strike could happen again.

One big factor about why the ATU rejected the first contract offer by BART is that the union wrote (in a letter to members) to not support the contract. Let's hope they won't say anything negative in their next letter regarding this modified contract on the table.

So... what does this mean for Akit's Furlough Adventures? Based on the active poll right now, it looks like I'm going to Twin Peaks, unless if you can sway the vote to send my butt to the Rockridge district of Oakland. Voting officially ends at 11:00PM tonight!

Akit's Furlough Adventure #1 - Sausalito

You voted for it, and you get it folks... I went out to Sausalito today on my first furlough day, Friday, August 14, 2009.

Let's go on the furlough adventure!

I arrived at the Ferry Building too early, so I sat down and consumed some Peets coffee while waiting for the right time to walk down to the Golden Gate Ferry terminal.

I boarded the Golden Gate Ferry using my Translink card and saving a bundle, while those other folks were paying nearly double for the 30 minute ride to Sausalito. Suckers...

The ride on the M.V. Marin is very comfortable, especially since Golden Gate Transit refurbished the ferry boat with cushioned seats, tons of room for bicycles, and a special area that disallows cell phone use.

With the weather just right, clear skies, and the sun bright, this furlough day was going to go well. There's a lot of shopping in Sausalito, very nice art galleries, and very cozy places to eat with great views. Here's a few highlights of where I visited:

Munchie's Candies... the salt water taffy is so soft! I got about $4.75 worth of mostly salt water taffy, and a small bag of sour apple gummy rings.

For lunch, I ate a "San Francisco Club" sandwich at the Venice deli. The sandwich had roast beef, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and mayo on a locally baked sourdough roll. I had a nice chat with the guy who made my sandwich and rung it up. I mentioned about my mandatory furlough at my SF State job, and he mentioned his daughter is going to SF State to major in Ethnic Studies and was disappointed about the library construction on the campus. Luckily, I graduated at the right time, just before the library closed.

(I already ate half of this really tasty sandwich)

So after spending a few hours baking in the sun, looking at all the shops, and eating a tasty sandwich, it was time to return to the city. I hopped back on the Golden Gate Ferry to the Ferry Terminal with my Translink card and took BART with my Translink card home.

Want to view all 54 photos? See the slideshow below:

Akit's next furlough adventure #2 is coming this Monday, August 17th. The Rockridge district in Oakland is the popular choice right now, but if BART's unions go on strike on that day, I can't go to that destination. You can still vote for Rockridge on the left side of Akit's Complaint Department, but there's no guarantee. I may also take a suggestion from a previous commenter to counter picket the BART strike to "get those union folks' butts back to work!"

Update: Akit's Furlough Adventures being consolidated

Some good (and kinda bad) news: I have received word on my furlough calendar for the next 10 months, this means about 20 or so days of mandatory furloughs for me to take.

I've decided to consolidate Akit's Furlough Adventures to be part of the Complaint Department blog postings, this makes it easier for me to manage on just one blog.

To go over some details about this consolidation:

• To vote for Akit's first furlough day on Friday, August 14th, please vote on the right side of the page at: http://furloughtrips.blogspot.com You have until this Thursday at 6PM to vote, then I'm shutting down the Furlough Adventures blog for consolidation.
  
• To vote for Akit's second furlough day on Monday, August 17th, please vote on the left side of Akit's Complaint Department at: http://www.akit.org
• For all future furlough events, please keep visiting the Complaint Department to vote.

Just to remind you of what's going to happen: You can e-mail me suggestions or post them in the comments section, I'll gather your ideas and post them in a poll, and you vote for them! When the day comes, I'll take the popular vote and blog all about my "furlough adventures" and you'll see it here at Akit's Complaint Department.

Akit's Furlough Adventures - A New Blog!

I'm starting a new blog called "Akit's Furlough Adventures" and it will chronicle the days when I'm forced to take furlough days. I thought about this idea when I posted a recent entry by listing places I would go do on furlough days.

Here's the idea, you can e-mail me or post a comment on the most recent blog entry about where I should go visit during my furlough days. I may choose one specific one or I may post a poll on the blog to let you pick the one I should go visit.

During my day-off, I will go out with my camera and take photos of my journey and write about it.

As always, pick anywhere within the SF Bay Area! But remember, I'm taking a 10% pay cut for these forced unpaid days off, so be kind by not making me pay a high admission fee or paying an expensive Caltrain ticket.

The big benefit for me is that I won't be bored spending my time at home watching daytime soaps on TV or playing video games. Plus, there are many areas around the Bay Area I haven't visited or been to in a long time; your suggestions helps me explore our unique Bay Area!

Drop by, suggest, and vote! http://furloughtrips.blogspot.com

What would you do if you were furloughed?

It's not a great time in the State of California. Everyone is getting furloughed, including myself, a CSU employee.

While everyone under the governor's rule is now furloughed three times a week, the UC system has an odd furlough system where depending on your salary, you are forced to take a certain amount of furlough time, and CSUs are planning for 24 days for the next ten months for everyone.

One ironic thing about furloughs is that while the government is saving money, for the individual, they are not making money, and actually spending money. In the end, you are losing out on more of your income, but at least your tax dollars are feeding the budget hellhole.

What would you do if you were furloughed?

Here's what I would do and spend very little:

• Use my membership at the California Academy of Sciences.
• Go to Costco and get some free samples and a $1.50 hot dog.
• Ride Muni to somewhere scenic (I'm getting a Translink Fast Pass this September!)
  
• Go for a matinee at the movies.
• I've got some DVDs I haven't even opened.
• Go to the King Tut exhibit since I have vouchers from Costco (they are still available).
• Venture out and do some amateur photography and why not piss-off Muni fare inspector #32?
• Alcatraz? That's too expensive.
• Get a free mocha at McDonald's on Mondays.
  
• Cheap seats at the Giants game.
• Stare at Bushman on the Wharf.
• Go complain at the Board of Supervisors or the SFMTA meeting.
• Attend some oddball protest.
• More blogging at Akit's Complaint Department.
• Where's the next county fair? San Mateo?
  
• Sign-up to be a poll worker for the city on election day (not a bad deal to make some money).
  
• Visit "Oak Land."
  

Here's what some of my colleagues said:

• Go fishing.
• Go snowboarding in the winter.
• Play video games.
• Visit friends.
• Go to Dublin.
• Ice skating.

Got any suggestions? Post them in the comments section.