Reckless!

It is really amazing how buses don’t get into accidents everyday. I mean, they drive like maniacs! They swerve into the other lanes and run red lights constantly. If I drove like that I would be either dead or have killed someone already. I was definitely not surprised when a bus driver ran over a high school student a while ago. With their reckless driving skills, I’d expect them to kill at least two people a day. In addition to their reckless driving skills, their attitudes toward passengers are appalling. I’ve seen bus drivers who refuse to stop for passengers and ones that refuse to drive after being insulted for providing bad service. Suck it up you crybabies! It’s not like we’re being unreasonable; even if we were, bus drivers are paid to provide at least decent service to passengers. However, I have never seen a case where a bus driver is insulted for properly doing his or her job.

What I really hate the most is how bus drivers refuse to stop for more than five seconds at a bus stop for parents with children. Parents with children usually take more than five seconds to get to the door because bus drivers make it almost impossible for them to get there since they don’t know how to brake properly. Therefore, the parents have a choice of either risking their child’s safety by attempting to get to the door before the bus stops or to start walking towards the door after the bus stops, hoping the bus driver won’t to drive off.

Evanescent Encounter [Drifter]

Vertiphon - Bola. The bus arrives, finally. Boarding is a chore. And where to today, Johnny? To the drudgery of school? The monotony of mail service? Perhaps. All of them feasible options. But I know you care not, Johnny. For you the destination has already been decided. The path is not yours to walk. For the Drifter, place is moving, and place is fixed. Return to your seat. Return to the hermitage. The only home you will ever know. Return here and wait. And see.

Reprise. Another boarding, another departing. How many of them look as the same to you, Drifter? How many of their faces just like the ones before it? So complacent now in your huddled reverie at the back of this bus. They all appear as dark smudges against a backdrop of upholstery blue and metallic gray. What farce to let pass. The artist surely enraged. His masterpiece made nothing but a cacophony of colors. All screaming to be heard. Given life.

Pfane Pt1 - Bola. It is a sad sight, isn't it, Drifter? Seeing these people as blots on a landscape. How much more beautiful would this scene be in their absence? Without their odorously scented bodies and often crow-like squawkings. No longer a cacophony but a chorus of willful defacement. Each new face acting as the newest graffiti on this otherwise scene of serene. But wait, Johnny. Are you not among their kind as well? No? The Drifter, you say. Ah, what a humbled position to fill, I must say. Here, placed among them, yet so far removed from them. Always the observer, never the actor.

Atomontage - Gridlock. But wait, Drifter. Look! A face, no, a person even! Hair dyed amber, fingernails bright, clothing equal parts chain and fabric. A person unique. Follow with the eyes. Follow quietly. Not alluding to your presence. Allow her naivety. Allow yourself a glimpse at this painting's beauty. Watch the anomaly of her presence. And allow a grin at this defiance. Not allowing herself to be a simple smear, but a form, a texture, a veritable centerpiece! Watch in awe. And forget time.

Pfane Pt2 - Bola. Look now, Drifter. Another approaches, one so like the girl next to you. Watch this form, too. Watch them both. Then watch in horror and disgust as another pure figured is stained, smudged, and smeared once again. Features eroded by uniformity. Textures dulled in association. Left to find her place in the now so benign and banal backdrop of ambiance and function of the bus. Defiance murdered. Wondering. I know you are, Johnny. How this painting will look by time's end. How many pure figures will there be left? Or, just as here, will the individualality become a forgotten plane of existence?

Done Processing - Gridlock. Sigh, once again, and calm. Let the fear of erasure pass and return to your post. You are the drifter. Your presence already removed, your existence secured. Your destination void. Travel with this bus. Step in its walks. Let it carry you to wherever, and remain unaware. Sit and sleep. Watch at whim. Regard the renegades. Enjoy in the endlessness of your task, for it is sure to never end. Perhaps, one day, though, a creature shall come aboard. One of such startling presence and unchallenged uniqueness that they may even be said to be found. And in that state, perhaps, they may even speak to you. Free you from your contemplative seclusion. "Let the other lost sheep go, drifter. Look here, and see the saved."

Ewww

One of the many reasons why I really dislike taking the skytrain is because of the weird stench that diffuses throughout the skytrain from the heat vent. The stench resembles sweaty socks that have not been washed for at least three years. As bad as it may sound now, it gets worst. On a rainy day the stench would increase ten folds and reeks as bad as the sweaty socks put into a room full of rotten bananas and tomatoes. As if it isn’t bad enough, the smell would cling onto your clothes and follow you throughout the day.

After giving some thoughts into this problem, I realized that perhaps we, the users of public transits, are also responsible for the unpleasant smell on the skytrain. The skytrain is covered with old chewed up gums, coffee caps, and newspapers; all are leftovers from irresponsible passengers. Is it that hard to throw your garbage into garbage cans or recycling bins located on the skytrain platforms? I once saw a group of teenagers having a spitting contest on the skytrain. They were standing in a straight line competing on how far they can spit while other passengers were watching quietly; how stupid can people get? Then again, perhaps I’m expecting too much from people in general; if we are too lazy to save the world from serious problems like global warming, who would give a crap about the weird smell on the skytrain?

Transients

I’ve debated on how to approach this issue, or whether to deal with it at all on the blog. I’ve opted to face it head on, grab it by the horns, and put as little sugar coating on it as I can.

Though I feel sympathy and pity for them, homeless people make going downtown suck.

Now, I was relatively naïve and unexposed to downtown until last Spring semester when I had 2 courses at the Harbour Centre campus. Now, at first I was just in awe, looking up at the massive buildings, jaw agape, feeling like a damned tourist (hell a lady in a gastown store thought I was one). When I had change I would give some or all of it to those less fortunate people who asked. However, one persistent, underhanded, conniving cheat, lied straight to my face, twice, trying to convince me to give him money. I understand he is likely very hungry and desperate, but lieing to me, blatantly, straight to my damn face is a load of bull$@^*.

For quite a while this one man’s actions made me incredibly intolerant, not even willing to spare coin when I had it. But I softened recently and began to, especially when I felt they were deserving.

Giving alms to the less fortunate is considered a charitable and compassionate thing to do in almost every religion I can think of, but is validating lieing?

Regardless, it is not just as simple as that, it is a problem of volume. There are many, and I mean MANY people living downtown with no proper residence, hungry and out of work. Some cases it’s drugs, some it’s runaways, others are supposedly those who have been given one-way tickets here from other cities by their governments. The climate here is very temperate, rarely deadly cold or hot (compared to other cities), so it is understandable too that it is an ideal location. But now it is at the point of a MAJOR damn problem. There is no easy way to solve it (obviously, as then it would not be a problem would it?), but it is an issue that needs resolution.

How does any of this have to do with Translink? I can understand how that might be asked about now, and I can tell you. Some people have low hygiene, not all the time, but sometimes, some more than others. Homeless people can often smell of their environments, and when trapped in a tiny itsy bitsy community shuttle, it is nigh unbearable. Also, notice who goes ticketed by Transit police ~%50 of the time nowadays, people who appear to be of low financial circumstances.

I feel a swell of pity to see fellow human beings living like that, I know there are some who choose that life, but I can’t imagine it’s all of them. For me, I intend to show compassion when I may, cast my vote towards fixing the problem when I may, but maybe not wander around downtown so much.