Archive for the 'On the bus' Category

So earlier this week I noticed they had added an LED array display inside every bus. Reason I noticed this is because one of them was randomly displaying some info. Most of it was debugging stuff. What’s the version number of this unit, how much memory does it have, what time/day is it (which was totally wrong), etc. You get the idea. Occasionally, it would scroll street intersection info across the screen (like “PROSPECT AND KIRBY”). Thing is, it seemed to be displaying this info pretty randomly (not every intersection, but not just the major ones or where there are busstops). Very clearly still in testing because unless the bus was just sitting there when it decided to display street info (and even sometimes when it would be just sitting there), it would only display this info very briefly and quickly revert to showing system info. What made this particularly annoying is the fact that they scrolled the street names in such a way that you’d only get to see the first street and the “AND” before it would cut off. With any luck, they’ll actually get this up and running reliably and perhaps even provide some bus location info at the fancier bus hutches or on the web like in Seattle. Who really knows? I haven’t seen the display on since then.

While this entry is not as entertaining as those concerning the David Ho experience, I still find it amusing. I saw an interesting bicycle while riding the bus today. It was one of those bicycles built for two. While those are unusual, I have never seen one quite like this. The front half of the bike was clearly designed for an adult rider, but the back half appeared to be intended for someone much shorter. I’m not sure if the back half is intended for a child or just someone of shorter than usual stature since it only had a full-sized rider up front when I saw it. Certainly haven’t seen anything like that before, although I guess it doesn’t surprise me too much considering the assortment of other bicycle-like contraptions I’ve seen in this town.

So I was getting on the bus last week and noticed an odd bike strapped to the front. I guess it wasn’t that the bike itself was odd, more the fact that it looked like an adult bike, but had some stuffed animals in the basket. Seemed a little unusual until I got on the bus and discovered the owner… none other than the infamous David Ho.^*

I was quite certain it was him, seeing as he was wearing his bike helmet, was carrying some sort of Harry Potter book (one of the Harry Potter journals or something like that, I don’t think it was one of the actual novels), had a giant garbage bag, and overall looked a little odd. I’m not exactly sure what he was carrying around in the garbage bag, but he had wrapped some heavy duty insulated wire around it that was serving as a handle.

Anyway, there isn’t much more to say since he simply got off at a stop on campus without any further excitement. But I can now say that I’ve seen the David Ho up close on my bus.

^* For those of you who haven’t heard of David Ho, I’ll try to clue you in. I’ve heard an assortment of stories from Amanda and her sisters about him that paint a colorful picture. Apparently, David Ho used to attend Central High School in Champaign, IL. This poor fellow apparently also had a run-in with a bus, and has never been quite the same since. This isn’t to say he was exactly normal before, but getting hit by a bus tends to enhance a person’s previously unusual demeanor. He is still a HUGE Central fan and attends a large number of their games. He’s also a big fan of all things Harry Potter and has been known to dress-up like him on many occassions. He was even featured in some sort of local parade in his Harry Potter outfit (although I can’t remember whether he was supposed to be, or if he just jumped out there and started walking with the rest of the parade folk).