Driving in Los Angeles, California (Part 2)

Notice in the map below how 101 North becomes 170 North and 134 West becomes 101 North. It makes no sense. 101 should have continued North and 134 should have continued West and there should be no 170. This is one of the strangest highway intersections I have ever seen. Try going from 101 North to 134 East or 134 West to 101 South. It's not possible as I have shown in part 1.

Driving in Los Angeles, California (Part 1)

Most of the time two highways intersect, you have the option of transferring but it's not always the case in Los Angeles, California. Sometimes it feels like the highway planners decided to save money and not make certain connections.

170 North to 5 East?

5 West, Exit, 5 East

101 North to 134 East?

170 North, Exit, 170 South to 134 East.

134 East to 5 North?

Exit before 5, take back rode to 5 North

101 North to 134 East?

Exit before 134, take back road to 134 East

Celebs followers on Twitter

Here is a list of some of the celebs I'm following on Twitter and how many followers they have as of Tuesday 4/28/2009 7:30 pm PST.

3,674 - Sylvester Stallone
5,297 - Steve Wozniak
17,771 - Andy Dick
22,896 - Will Smith
24,183 - JJ Abrams
25,182 - Jessica Alba
30,201 - Steve Buscemi
53,254 - Kristen Stewart
60,079 - William Shatner
92,524 - Richard Branson
151,216 - John Cleese
152,519 - Kevin Spacey
194,048 - Nicole Richie
277,360 - Al Yankovic
307,592 - Brent Spiner
335,350 - Tina Fey
354,917 - Fred Durst
437,703 - Kevin Smith
404,114 - Trent Reznor
470,206 - Penn Jillette
502,782 - Wil Wheaton
516,828 - Dr. Drew
529,721 - Tony Hawk
551,636 - Rainn Wilson
565,506 - Kevin Rose
682,318 - Oprah
688,610 - Al Gore
733,244 - Lance Armstrong
774,296 - Demi Moore
832,050 - Shaq
847,569 - Jimmy Falon
1,014,764 - Barack Obama
1,223,110 - Britney Spears
1,492,967 - Ashton Kutcher

Next

Ever notice how the word "next" is ambiguous?

I signed up for the gym yesterday (April 1) and the woman said "Your next payment will be March 1.  I assumed she meant that my first payment was at the end of month.  Should she have said "your next payment is today"?  I intepretted the word "next" as "first".  So does "next" mean "first" or "the one after"?

Another Example

Today is Monday and I say "I'll see you next Friday".  Do I mean this coming Friday or the one after?

Most people would say it means "this coming Friday".

Today is Thursday and I say "I'll see you next Friday".  Do I mean this coming Friday or the one after?

Most people would say it means "the Friday after this coming Friday".

Aha!  There it is!  Ambiguity based on proximity and a common mis-usage of English.

Dictionary.com defines "next" as "nearest or adjacent in place or position" so it never means the one after.

So if it is Friday and I say "I'll see next Friday", it actually means "I'll see you today" since today is the nearest in time position.

The American Sign Language sign for "next" implies "the one after".

http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/n/next.htm

You leap-frog one hand over the other to indicate you're skipping the up-coming thing for the one after.  That sign gives the wrong idea about the meaning of the word "next".

The sign should actually closer to the sign for "near".

http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/n/near.htm

Your two hands move toward and away but in a close proximity but they don't touch.  So in my mind, the right sign for "next" would be to have the front hand stationary and the back hand move toward the front hand and touch.  Unfortunately that is the sign for "arrive".

http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/a/arrive.htm

So even sign language perpetuates the ambiguity of next.

Idea for banks

I would love the ability to create as many virtual savings accounts as I wanted to. I need to save money for dozens of things so when I get paid, I can transfer small amounts of money into these many small virtual accounts.

Let's say I want to save money for a new PC, a new bicycle and a new couch. I would log into my account on the web and create new V-Savings account with names

PC
bicycle
Couch

I could then transfer money from any account into these accounts and vice-versa.

This way I can easily track how much I have saved for each item. I can delete a V-Savings after I transfer all the money to another account. I would still have a primary savings account.

This would make my life easier. Currently I'm saving money for a dozen different things but all the money goes in one account so I have to keep track of how much I've saved for each item.

Thing-a-holic

This rock station I listen to had these ads for becoming a rock-a-holic. They had a parody of an alcoholic anonymous meeting. Instead of a cure, these meetings supplied their addiction. They implied that cure for a rock-a-holic is more rock.

Next I heard this ad for Carl's Jr. for their new Bourbon Burger. These people talked about how they cannot function without a Bourbon Burger saying the things a typical alcoholic might say. Of course the cure was to eat more Bourbon Burgers for these Bourbon Burger-a-holics.

I'm afraid I'll be hearing more companies advertise their products thinking it's funny to talk about addiction to their product and acting like their the drug dealers encouraging their addiction.

I know it's supposed to be funny but I can't help wonder how all these people feel who are addicted to something or who have been addicted to something.

I just feel these ads are stupid and insulting my intelligence. The cure for addiction is not more of the drug.

$1 Burgers

Thanks to the recession we're seeing great deals in fast food.  It may be good for my wallet but most of it is bad for my health.

Here are the deals I've seen on TV so far

• McDonalds - Dollar Menu: 8 ways to eat like a champ for just a buck
  
• KFC - get a bucket of chicken or 7 for $3.99
  
• Quiznos - over 20 sandwiches for under $5
  
• Wendy's - 3conomics - 3 sandwiches for 99 cents each
• Subway - $5 foot long
• Burger King - choose from 10 items starting at a buck each
• Sonic - Everyday value menu with a variety of food for $1 each
• IHOP - All you can eat pancakes

Random traffic slow downs for no good reason

Yesterday I was driving down the highway at 75 mph then suddenly traffic slowed to 5 mph.  After 5 minutes it sped back up to 75 mph and I could see no reason why it should have slowed.  This page gives a reason why this happens.

http://i40.tinypic.com/ay6d55.png

All it takes is one person to hit their brakes and cause a ripple effect which propagates like a domino effect to the cars behind it.

Real Life Puzzle

Our motel is right next to the highway off exit 14. I need to go one exit west to exit 13 but the west on-ramp is under construction.

The back route options to the next exits are ...

Head East along North side to exit 15 (10 minutes)
Head East along South side to exit 15 (20 minutes)
Head West along South side to exit 13 (30 minutes)
Head West along North side to exit 13 (40 minutes)

The travel time between exits on the highway is 2 minutes.

What is the optimal route?
How long will it take?

See next post for hint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hint to Puzzle

Hint: I can get from my motel to exit 13 in 7 minutes. What is the optimal route?

See next post for answer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer to Puzzle

Answer: Take the on-ramp East to exit 15 then take the on-ramp West to exit 13.

This was a real life puzzle I had to solve. Here is the actual map.


View Larger Map