What if I die and no one remembers me? Does it make my life any less valid? I’ve been asking myself these questions lately as I find myself feeling compelled to share my life online.
When I got a Flickr account in 2006, I felt compelled to publish every good photo I took. In turn, I felt compelled to document my life in photos so I could share those photos — my life — on Flickr. Then I got a Facebook and Twitter account, and I began to feel compelled to share my life there, too. I enjoyed the response, and that drove me to share more. There’s nothing wrong with the impulse to share experiences, but I have to believe that my life is worth living regardless of whether I’m acknowledged for it.
Maybe I’m having a midlife moment. I’m 42 years old. It’s unclear whether I’ve made a mark on the world. And it’s time to decide whether or not I care. I don’t have kids, my parents are getting older, and I don’t have a lot of siblings or cousins. Who is going to remember me? And does it even matter.
On the one hand, I am coming to terms with my nature. I need to communicate with others, to create my own expression and share it with the world. Looking at people’s enthusiastic self-expression in social media outlets, I can see that I am not alone.
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Did you know that APS has partnered with DBG (Desert Botanical Garden) to provide a free shuttle between the Valley Metro Light Rail station at Priest / Washington and the Desert Botanical Garden? I just found out a couple of weeks ago, and I’m riding it to the garden for the first time today.* This is a great convenience that I hope many people will take advantage of.
You can catch the shuttle by the gazebo in the parking lot of the little food court at the NE corner of Priest & Washington. It runs every 15 minutes from 9 AM to 7 PM.
*I sent this to my blog via Flickr in real time, but it didn’t upload. I guess it was interrupted by several incoming phone calls and it timed out. So I’m uploading it now to get the word out about the free shuttle.
Posted in Consumer Reviews
Tagged APS, DBG, Desert Botanical Garden, free, light rail, metro, photo, public, review, shuttle, transit, transportation, travel, Valley Metro
I guess I just had to experience riding when a) it wasn’t Opening Weekend, b) it wasn’t a holiday weekend, and c) people had to pay to ride. Before all three of these conditions were met, the trains were miserably crowded. Now I only see people standing who choose not to sit. I am enjoying riding Metro now. I think riding it is really cool. I feel like such an urbanite living in a cosmopolitan metropolis! I’m so cool you could chill your martini in the palm of my hand!
Just don’t leave it there too long. 
Posted in Consumer Reviews
Tagged crowd, light rail, metro, passengers, photo, public, rail, review, train, transit, transportation, Valley Metro
Well, I decided to go for it and buy a 31-day pass to ride the Metro to work. I’m just going to hope the trains get less crowded. They’re fine in the morning; it’s the afternoon I worry about. But I trust that Valley Metro wants to keep its Light Rail passengers happy and run more trains.
I took this long exposure with my G1 cameraphone. I stabilized my arm on one of the posts at the station. I must say I’m happy with the light streaks and the reflections of the station in the train windows!
I never realized their were multiple copies of this sculpture until I saw in at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. I think the first time I saw the iconography was on a postage stamp. Taking this photo was funny. It seemed that everyone wanted their photo taken with it, and there were several photographers around. I waited patiently as one photographer took a series of shots of a couple in various poses around the sculpture. Just as they were leaving, I got ready to take my shot. Simultaneously, these exuberant little girls came running onto the scene. I snapped this photo figuring I might never get the sculpture alone. When they saw me, they stopped and stared at me like does in headlights, and I said, “I just wanted to get a photo of the sculpture by itself. It’ll just take me a second.” They left and I got my plain photo of the sculpture before they came back to play (or pose for their mother with the camera), but I like this one better.
