poofygoof

so here we are almost six years since my last journal post.

I heard dA got sold... came back wondering if anybody I knew from the early days (hi mccann ) was still around or active.

and I find myself once again sitting at my workstation in the basement, this time with kid #3 on my lap. I took a bunch of hard drives to the local recycler last week.  more iterations, but a lot of the same.

it's been so long since I've shot film, it took me over a year to realize that my local store doesn't even have a developer on-site anymore.  I have a romantic notion of shooting B&W again, developing in my basement, and scanning the negatives, but it's not going to happen unless one of the kids shows an interest.  The patience required for the delay between image capture and view is not something I am expecting them to have.  They do like polaroids, but there are only a finite number of packfilm shots left.

the guy who did the bulk of my C-41 developing noted that he liked running my photos since "most people take photos of their kids or pets."  and now I am one of those people.  

What a hectic time since my last post.

* my brother got married
* my wife and I found out we were expecting a child
* I got a new job (as a contractor)
* our son, Desmond, was born
* our second cat (Felix) passed away
* I got hired as a full-time employee

Desmond is asleep now, and my wife and a friend are watching Glee from the never-ending netflix / roku font. I'm guessing I have another hour or so until Desmond wakes up and I'm summoned to head to bed.

I'm in my basement going through old hard drives, identifying the dead ones for recycling, reformatting, doing some limited benchmarking, doing some updates, and generally trying to figure out how to move my basement datacentre forward from its current static and dusty state. I realize how much I miss the sounds some of these make, and am setting them aside to make some recordings before they are passed on.

I figured I had to start somewhere.  knock the dust off and clear the kipple.

dA is still around.  hopefully it's thriving.  it's been long enough that I don't know if I'd recognize $mccann if I ran into him on the street.  $pinguino is apparently a friend of a guy I went to high school with.  $sylderon seems to have disappeared.  (I only knew him through his photos.)

I started visiting dA a bit over five years ago when $dv8it was doing some consulting for them.  I still have a whiteboard with his plan for reorganizing dA's network here in my basement.  I've taken photos of it, but I don't know if I could bring myself to erase it.   there are still some things of his that I still haven't completely integrated into my life and should probably get rid of, but it just hurts.  all that's left are shadows now, background whispers of shared experiences.  his hacked xbox, which we watched rally videos on.  some DV tapes, one of which appears to be a video postcard from an australian girl who he never spoke of.  the powermac he co-located in my basement was one of the first machines to join him.  it just seemed to give up the will to run stably.  I'm just now getting his hacked satellite receivers to the recycler.  his dual-proc PIII motherboard succumbed to bad caps, and is awaiting recycling, but his VIA C3 continues to chug along as my backup server.  I still have all his hard drives, even though they aren't all online.  I'm typing this message on a machine built from a cast-off athlon system he gave me in 2004.  I used his soldering iron for some contract work tonight.

I never knew Ben as well as I wanted to, and I knew it was going to be a lifelong process to get to really know him.  five years ago that process was cut short.  it still hurts, and although the initial shock has worn off, there's still a deep weight of loss I carry around that I'm reminded of about this time every year.

one of my two cats that Ben was taking care of when he died joined him a couple weeks ago.  I'm more aware of the grieving process this iteration, and while I'm more aware of what's happening, I can't say it's any easier.  I used to joke with my local 1hr photo guy that the most common photos are of children and pets, yet here I find myself regretting that I didn't take more photos of my cat.

what awful birthday presents.

maybe the next five years I can re-context dA into something more positive.  I still have one cat left who I have taken a lot of photos of, and have a child on the way.  that's got to shift things to the + side...

nicked from without his permission, inspired by .  I hope neither one minds...

How did your train addiction begin? What made you interest in this kind of transport?

I was born in Chicago, and until the age of three, lived in St. Charles, just outside Chicago.  my old man was a big fan of the crab orchard & egyptian (COER), which ran steam on their shortline in Illinois until the mid 80s.  a couple great uncles on my father's side were railfans.  I think a bit of it rubbed off on me, and I vaguely recall dressing up as an engineer, complete with cardboard-box steam train for halloween when I was four or five.  I had a small 8'x4' HO layout with a red/yellow rock island F7 and later a southern pacific GP40.

trains lay dormant at the back of my mind until a few years ago, when Portland & Western (PNWR) tore up the siding (as seen in poofygoof.deviantart.com/art/r…) near work, and I started asking questions like "where does this go?" and "how does this network connect to the rest of the continent?"  the answers led me to start playing freight yard manager www.freightyardmanager.net/ , reading books about regional players in the pacific northwest, and tracking a few mailing lists.

I found out a few of my old friends from college were also railfans, one of whom is on the crew of the SPS700, and it went from there.

Ok. So how does your interest in trains manifest itself?

I look forward to getting stopped at crossings, get antsy when I hear train horns and whistles, and have been known to spend time tracing out ROW with google earth.  I also wear a hickory-striped cap, even though the reason I started wearing it had nothing to do with trains.

What is your all-time favorite locomotive(s)/train(s) of your country's railways?

I like cowl units.  I think the baldwin sharknoses look really badass.  the krauss-maffei hydraulic cab units have a nice bezel to the body, which (perhaps not intentionally) is echoed in the GE P42s that amtrak presently uses.  I completely understand why they aren't suitable for freight, but I think they're very stylish.

Do you have an all-time favorite foreign engine?

the imported Chinese steam locomotives based on Soviet design are pretty amusing.

Do you ride a train often or at least regularly?

unfortunately not.  in order for me to ride a train to work, I would have to take the bus to light rail (MAX), take that to the 'burbs, then transfer to commuter rail (WES).  it would take an hour and a half.  I can drive to work in 20 minutes.

When was the last time you went somewhere by train? What kind of train was it?

I rode on a test run of the portland west-side express (WES) earlier this year.

This is where the harder part begins. Is your train addiction just at admiration level or you're also deeply interested in technical details and stuff?

the technical details are interesting, but realistically I'll never be a diesel mechanic, conductor, or even an embedded developer doing firmware for locomotive systems.  what interests me about trains is the infrastructure necessary to support them, the rail network itself, and the logistics involved in moving such massive quantities of matter around.  trains are the most efficient method of surface transportation, and I believe increased transport by rail is in this country's future.

I see a lot of parallels between rail networks and packet-switched networks.  heck, a lot of internet links literally run right next to rail lines.

What do you find the most interesting/knowledge-enriching fact you've learned about trains?

it's been very interesting to read various histories about how the american rail network came to be.  the current heavily regulated patchwork of private regional monopolies is much like the baby bells, or even the highway system before the interstate system was built.  I can't help but think our country would be kicking more economic ass if the rail system were nationalized.

Do you think you know enough about railways to consider yourself a "train expert" now?

hardly.

Now that you look back at the times you didn't know as much as now do you feel you made a train-knowledge progress?

it's a constant process, and I feel like there's still a lot for me to learn.

Enough with the philosophy stuff. Do you have a train related dream that you want to come true although you don't find it probable?

I'd like to build a steam-powered brewery into a boxcar, workcar, or galley that could be pulled around by steam locomotives (or steam-equipped diesels), although it would probably be impossible to get licensed.

I'd also settle for a fixed location brewery that was large enough to receive ingredients by rail: hops via boxcar from hopmere in oregon, or yakima in washington; yeast from wyeast, who is only blocks away from mt hood railroad (MHRR) in odell; grain from great western maltings in vancouver WA, one of the maltsters in canada, or from europe via an east-coast port.

Have you ever thought about your hobby becoming your job? (being a train driver or so..) Did you do something for it? Confess..

my logistics hobby?  sure.  I just don't know how to get there from where I am now.

Oh... How do you feel about it now?

I feel like I'm a bit late to the party.

Now is there something about your country's railways that annoys the hell out of you?

the US rail network is a bunch of regional fiefdoms and a lot of bass-ackwards logistics handling.  UPS can move and track my 2lb box across the country in a matter of days, but some class Is can't even manage this for a complete boxcar or unit of rolling stock.  why can FedEx and UPS handle LTL, but railroad companies can't?  I should be able to hire an engine and crew to run my train coast-to-coast across a national network just like I can hire a trucking crew to do the same.  amtrak is an embarrassment.  wtf america?

Something more about what do you like? Are you more into older and classic trains or do you like the modern ones better?

the trains themselves are secondary... for me it's running the infrastructure and managing the logistics that are interesting.  I'm always looking to learn more about how railroads have managed these through history.

Steam engines are a particular category. How much attention do you pay to them?

seeing a fully steamed locomotive in person is awe-inspiring.  these are some of the largest land vehicles on earth, and I can't help get an itching to watch SPS700 or SP4449 when they're on excursion.  however, from an economic standpoint, steam is a complete loser, and while the idea of computer-controlled wood-burning steam engines in an apocalyptic post-industrial agrarian society tickles me, I'm not holding my breath.

Are there some trains/engines you changed your opinion about?

reading the technical descriptions of the GE U-series made me think they were technically advanced, but anecdotal evidence from engineers who actually worked on them makes me think perhaps the technologies weren't ready for prime time.  obviously GE was able to get things together, because they're now out-selling EMD.

It hurts me to ask this but are there some trains/engines you don't like??

I think UP's continued use of armour yellow is uninteresting, perhaps a bit gaudy, and reminds me of giant twinkies.  I miss the forest green BNSF paint scheme.

as far as industrial design goes, I think the classic EMD units are fairly unimaginative, but make up for it in utility -- iconically so.

Do you think there is some train stuff other trainiacs should definitely see/hear?

I think a lot of railfans get distracted by counting rivets and forget that locomotives are just one piece of an immense business process.  railroads wouldn't exist without a context.

How do you get along with train drivers. Do you use to talk to them if an opportunity shows up?

of course I would.  but I'd really love to do is talk to a dispatcher, manager, or yard master.

Oh yeah .. now that I mentioned it ... have you ever rode in a train cab?

nope.  maybe someday I'll learn to be a fireman.

Are there some special railway events in your country? Do you go on those?

when SPS700 or SP4449 runs on OPR, I try to be there.  I keep an eye out for "interesting" movements on PNWR and UP in my area, but I can't justify the time to camp out for hours for trainspotting.

What's your most treasured train experience?

riding the shay at sugar pine and big tree railroad near Yosemite in my early teens.

What train station have you seen the most interesting trains at?

brooklyn yard, portland, OR.

Is there some train-related website(s) you visit regularly or find some useful information at?

I do a lot of lookups on www.rrpicturearchives.net/ .  BNSF actually has rate sheets through their website.  the maps from www.freightyardmanager.net/ have also been helpful, even if they are incomplete.

The meme is almost over. Any last comments you want to say before it ends?

have you ever seen a squonk's tears?  well, look at mine.