Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Boy am I glad I work near my house...

It's summertime and that means MARC Penn Line equipment is crapping out and people are getting stuck on trains.

This happens EVERY year on the Penn Line. And there's a pretty simple culprit:

MARC bought the wrong type of locomotives for the climate.

To my knowledge, nowhere else on earth are the HHP-8s exposed to high humidity and high temperatures like they are here.

If you have to work in DC and take MARC, all I can suggest is to take the Camden Line in during the summer.

Sunday, June 06, 2010

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Reading an economic history...

So, I've been reading the new Pulitzer Price winner for History, "Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World." And I must say I am of two minds on this book.

First, the topic covered is very interesting. There's a great deal of international and inter-agency action going on that is going to lead to the Great Depression.

BUT

Second, it's written in a rather dense style.

I don't mean it's a dense book in the sense that it's dumb-ed down, but rather it reads more like a scholarly history or an annual report than other "popular" history books.

My problem right now is, I'm not sure if I like this book or not. I don't DISLIKE it, but I'm not reading right through it like other history books I own. This is a very frustrating position for me to be in. If I disliked the book, I'd stop and give up on it. (Note to authors, if you don't hook me by chapter 1, look for your work to show up at the used book sale at the local library.) But I'm having trouble getting through this. I'm reading bit by bit each night. But as other books show up, like the latest Clive Cussler novel, they go to the top of the pile and Lords of Finance goes down a spot.

Has anyone else had this issue with a book. It's not bad enough to stop reading, but you just don't have the drive to burn right through it?