Muni Diaries

Fast Best Friends on Muni

August 15, 2011 jeff One comment

Mike’s story was originally published on his website, MikeLee.org. Here’s an excerpt:

Girl #1 looked at Girl #2. She smiled. The other girl looked away. Then back. Then away. Then back.

Girl #1 said, “Hi.”

Girl #2 looked at her for a moment. Then, “Hi.”

Girl #1 said a few more things. I didn’t catch them, but it looked like quite an animated message. Her little hands flailed about excitedly.

Girl #2 smiled. Her arms stayed at her sides while she answered. She gripped her mother as the bus rocked and lurched.

…

Then came Girl #2′s stop. Her mother got up and took her arm. The little girl frowned. “I don’t want to go,” she told her mother.

“But this is our stop.”

“I don’t want to go,” Girl #2 repeated as she dutifully stood up.

The two girls exchanged sad glances. The mothers smiled. “How cute,” said Mother #1. “In just thirty minutes, they’ve become the best of friends.”

Read the whole story on Mike’s website.

Category: diaries, reflection

Video Diary: Cool Kids on BART

August 15, 2011 eugenia Leave a comment

A really small thing made my trip on the Pittsburgh-Baypoint train on Saturday memorable. I got on the train at Civic Center station and saw two guys in their 40s sitting together eating their lunch. An old lady with a cane got on the train, and one of the guys got up to give her his seat, but she didn’t want to sit next to his friend, which made me sad.

I looked away for a little while, then I noticed that everyone was looking over in my direction. I turned around and saw that three young teenagers had got on the train, and they were playing with yoyo-like toys that I hadn’t seen before. It was a ball on a string with a handle, and they were balancing the ball on the handle to showing off their skills on the moving train. The two guys who were eating their lunch were amused and asked the kids to show them how to play with it. And everyone in that corner of the train was smiling.

As the guys left, they gave the kids a fist pump and said good bye. I asked Willem, one of the kids, what the toy was. He told me that it’s a Japanese toy called kendama. You can see Willem showing off his best move on BART in the video I took above.

Thanks, Willem and friends, who brought a smile to our BART ride on Saturday.

Category: BART Tags: video

Anonymous Hacks myBART.org

August 14, 2011 eugenia 7 comments

The online hacker group Anonymous has hacked into myBART.org and released thousands of names, email and home addresses, and phone numbers, reports TheNextWeb. They’ve also defaced myBART.org, an independent website, with the hacker group’s logo, reports CNET.

The hacker group had threatened to take BART.gov off line today and also proposed a protest on Monday at 5 p.m. As of 3:15 p.m., the BART.gov website is still live.

All of this came from BART’s decision to cut cell service last Thursday in anticipation of a protest about the July 3 shooting.

Read more about it at the SFAppeal and the Bay Citizen.

What do you think: is this an effective way to protest BART’s cell disruption?

Category: BART, News

Photo Diary: Dude, Open a Window

August 14, 2011 eugenia Leave a comment

This gem was from Bob at All City, where we found other great Muni photos like this snapshot of urban travel and this city night scene. Check ’em out.

What can you possibly smell on Muni? Hot dog juice or fresh strawberries? You decide.

And if you have photos on and around public transit in San Francisco, our Muni Flickr pool is wide open!

Category: diaries, Funny: Muni LOLs, Photos Tags: N-Judah

Your Two Cents: BART Defends Decision to Cut Cell Service

August 13, 2011 eugenia 10 comments

Photo by Black Hour

By now you know that BART temporarily shut down cell service on Thursday to interfere with a proposed protest over the shooting of Charles Hill. And now the agency is under a lot of heat.

According to CNET:

Hackers were calling for action against BART in retaliation for the cell service disruption. The Anonymous group of online activists started promoting Operation BART on Twitter, with one profile saying: “We are going to show BART (@SFBART) how to prevent a riot #OpBART.” … Meanwhile, they also released a digital flyer with the headline “muBARTek,” a reference to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted after demonstrations earlier this year. “

The SFAppeal reports that BART didn’t violate specific FCC rules. And once you’re on the BART platform, “free speech isn’t so free,” says the SF Appeal report (read the Appeal’s excellent coverage of the cell jam).

What do you think of BART’s decision to cut cell service Thursday?

Category: BART, News

Weekend Photos: Passing the Time

August 12, 2011 jeff One comment

Photo by sarahwulfeck

Though Eugenia will be spending a lot of time at WordPress’s WordCamp 2011 (see how devoted we all are to bringing you the best internet experience possible?), here are some other things to do around town over the weekend:

Tonight, Fabric8 is hosting an art show called, “Back Door!” You guessed it: It’s Muni-themed. Artist Andy Stattmiller will be showing off his latest works. Fabric8 is at 3318 22nd Street in the Mission. Take the 14-Mission, 49-Van Ness, J-Church, 24-Divisadero, 48-Quintara, or 67-Bernal Heights.
Outside Lands is going on all weekend in Golden Gate Park, if that’s your thing. Take the N-Judah, 71-Haight/Noriega, 33-Stanyan, 5-Fulton, or 21-Hayes.
Yeah, it’s in Oakland, but we couldn’t not promote the three-day (starting tonight) Bay Area Derby Girls Roller Derby. Our area girls will do battle with Chicago, Austin, and Detroit to determine who takes home the Golden Bowl trophy. Take whatever Muni route gets you to a BART station.

Feel free to share other rad things going down this weekend with your fellow Muni riders.

If you haven’t already, take a moment to let SF Weekly editors know which website you think deserves to win Best Transit Blog and maybe Best Twitter account (write-in). We wouldn’t try to influence your vote or anything.

And don’t forget to follow Muni Diaries on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

Whew! Enjoy these Muni photos and your weekend …

Photo by sirgious