http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/ thoughts from a quirkyalone en-us 2009-11-13T09:50:35-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/204120.html All sorts of interesting things happen on the Metro Transit #16 bus. In a previous post I noted that a guy was trying to get signatures on a petition. Earlier in this week three young boys got on and tried... Culture wrjacobs 2009-11-13T09:50:35-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/202118.html So it's been a month since I turned in my car at the end of its lease and decided not to get a new one. Riding the bus every day has been OK, especially since zipcars are easy to get... Culture wrjacobs 2009-11-04T12:36:02-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/202114.html The other day a young White guy was asking riders of Metro Transit's #16 bus to sign a petition. I did not know what it was about until I was exiting; he was collecting signatures to try to save the... Culture wrjacobs 2009-11-04T12:27:25-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/199522.html For years the Sunday edition of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper included the USA Weekend magazine insert. Recently they also started inserting the Parade Sunday magazine. I can see them replacing one supplement with another, but using both? Weird.... Media wrjacobs 2009-10-22T21:30:24-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/198758.html One of my favorite periodicals is American Legacy Magazine. Today I called subscription customer service to see why my Summer 2009 issue never showed up. The answer: the publisher did not print enough copies so they extended subscriptions by one... Media wrjacobs 2009-10-20T15:07:23-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/198179.html So the other day I received mail about my rewards credit card: "earn up to 4500 Points!" The first two items (for a total of 500 points) were easy: take a 5-question quiz, and test drive the rewards search engine.... Other wrjacobs 2009-10-17T20:01:31-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/195278.html For the first time since I finished graduate school in June 1999 I do not own a car. When the lease on the latest car expired on Wednesday we decided to experiment with riding the bus for the daily commute... Space/Place wrjacobs 2009-10-02T18:29:09-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/193304.html Yesterday I almost got suckered by a predatory sales call to me at my University of Minnesota office. The caller said that he had a deal on printer cartridges available since another department cancelled at the last minute. He said... Other wrjacobs 2009-09-25T17:13:16-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/192012.html Amazon.com now has author pages, so of course I had to create one. Check it out!... Media wrjacobs 2009-09-20T17:51:44-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/190299.html I recently received a bill from Qwest about a collect call: $10.31 for a 1-minute call (!). Actually, it was more like 15 seconds, as a transcipt would read like this: "Hello." "Hey, I left my cell phone at home.... Other wrjacobs 2009-09-09T14:26:11-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/190219.html Today I had an 8:00-12:00 window for service on my kitchen range. I was shocked when the repair person showed up at 9:30, as they almost always show up in either the first or last 30 minutes of the window.... Other wrjacobs 2009-09-09T10:38:58-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/189908.html Today is Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer (Memorial Day-Labor Day). I think that the summer of 2009 saw me visit movie theaters only 7 or 8 times; normally I'm well into double digits. In 1999, for instance, I... Media wrjacobs 2009-09-07T10:11:10-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/189877.html The ghost who lives in my house pulled another prank last night: she pushed a glass to the edge of a shelf inside a cabinet, so that when I opened the door this morning the glass fell out and shattered... Space/Place wrjacobs 2009-09-05T13:32:18-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/189172.html In the surprise event of the month, today I received a new iPhone after taking the old one in for service (!). I went to the Mall of America's Apple Genius Bar after my old phone refused to accept the... Media wrjacobs 2009-08-29T16:39:18-06:00 http://blog.lib.umn.edu/wrjacobs/planetwalt/189171.html It was a day for unusual events on Metro Transit today: (1) the White driver of the #16 bus scolded a couple of college-aged Asian women for not standing close enough to the bus stop when he pulled up ("I... Space/Place wrjacobs 2009-08-29T16:27:54-06:00