diff --git a/content/blog/2023-09-25-business-travel-on-amtrak/backpack.jpg b/content/blog/2023-09-25-business-travel-on-amtrak/backpack.jpg new file mode 100755 index 0000000..2a72b64 Binary files /dev/null and b/content/blog/2023-09-25-business-travel-on-amtrak/backpack.jpg differ diff --git a/content/blog/2023-09-25-business-travel-on-amtrak/index.md b/content/blog/2023-09-25-business-travel-on-amtrak/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2334a4a --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/2023-09-25-business-travel-on-amtrak/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,98 @@ +--- +title: Business Travel on Amtrak +date: 2023-09-25 +tags: + - climate +--- + +My new year's resolution for 2023 was to avoid airplanes whenever possible. Let's see how I'm doing! + +| Dates | Transport | Trip Description | Comment | +| --- | --- | --- | --- | +| Sep 29 - Oct 8 | Rail | Business trip to Washington | | +| Oct 30 - Nov 18 | Car | Business trip to Colorado | | +| Oct 20 - 30 | Rail | Business trip to Washington | 1st rail trip with a bicycle | +| Jul 30 - Aug 18 | Air| Three back-to-back trips | Only possible with air travel | +| Jul 22 - 23 | Car | Vacation to Colorado | | +| Jun 5 - 16 | Car | Vacation with my father to Montana | | +| Jun 1 - 4 | Car | Dance trip to Arizona | | +| May 21 - 23 | Car | Freshman college orientation | | +| May 5 - 14 | Rail | Business trip to Minneapolis | | +| Apr 21 - 23 | Air | Dance performance in Chicago | Everyone else on this trip was flying | +| Mar 26 - 28 | Air | Job interview in Washington | I had almost no input into how this was booked | +| Feb 9 - 13 | Car | Dance trip to San Diego | I don't remember if I went on this trip or not! | +| Dec 19 - Jan 3 | Air | Vacation to Iceland | This trip convinced me to try rail | + +Not bad for year 1. It took a few months for me to get into it, and there are still things I cannot do +any other way, but overall I'm happy with how this is going. + +People seem to be a combination of amused and curious about taking Amtrak to get somewhere. +Most folks think of Amtrak as a quirky but impractical curiosity, or maybe like an amusement park ride. +A lot of people are under the impression that rail is more expensive than air (rail is almost always cheaper), +or that one must get "a sleeper car" (coach on rail is like first class on air). + +I will say that this is not practical. There is one train per day on the routes I take, and they are frequently +delayed, which can cause a full day layover if I miss a connection. Amtrak's web site won't let you reserve a +multi-leg trip that involves an overnight stay. There's no WiFi, and cell coverage is spotty. If you are the sort +of person who's in a hurry, rail travel will drive you up the wall. Rude passengers are rude for *two days*, +not just a couple hours until you land. Getting your company to let you go by rail might range from frustrating to +impossible. + +However, I am now in a life situation where I can do this: I don't have children at home, I have a fully +remote job that lets me work wherever, and I have an employer who can wrap their head around rail travel. +Maybe if I do this enough, I can convince a couple other people to do this. +And eventually we'll have more ridership, and maybe Amtrak will get better. + +I wish I were capable of Great Feats in order to help deal with climate change. +It allows me to continue to be employed, while pretty drastically reducing the carbon emissions I am +personally responsible for. +Maybe undergoing this pain in the rear, +and documenting it, will pave the way for others. +So it's going to have to be my small role to play here. + + +Booking / Expensing business trips +------------- + +LANL let me take whatever means of travel I wanted, I just had to demonstrate it was equal to, or below, the cost +of going by air. It always is. + +PNNL makes it even easier: I just tell them I want to get to city X by date D by rail, and a travel agent figures +it all out for me, including overnight stays. I'm still figuring out the itinerary beforehand, because I'm that way, +but so far their bookings have been fine. + +LANL would reimburse me for the trip, but I had to add "personal days" onto the trip for the extra time spent +en route. I only took two rail trips at LANL, and both ate weekends. There is a process for obtaining approval +for working someplace other than my house that I never had to attempt. LANL would not reimburse an overnight +hotel stay on a personal day, even when I demonstrated that the train fare + hotel was still cheaper than air. +I was preparing for a years-long fight to try to move the needle on this one, but then I switched jobs. + +PNNL has yet to reimburse me for a rail trip, but I think it's going to be similar to LANL. They may allow me to +consider the airfare against the rail+hotel--I'll try--but it seems more likely that they will also make me pay +the hotel myself. However, because I have a remote work position, I don't need to request permission to work +on a train: I can just tell my manager I'm doing it. + + +What to take +------------ + +{{< figure src="backpack.jpg" alt="Contents of my backpack: only a few articles of clothing, some wires, food, and the things I list below" >}} + +Here are some essentials for a train trip that air travelers might not have considered: + +* A long extension cord provides power to the aisle seat without needing to drape USB cables over the window + seat's lap. +* A travel washcloth and towel can help you clean up in the restroom on long trips. +* A blanket is pretty handy. I like being under a blanked when I sleep. +* An eye mask is also nice. I made one out of some left-over Batman print fabric. It's cool. +* Earplugs are pretty important for me, a light sleeper. I just got some fancypants bluetooth sleep buds that + can play music/audiobooks and generate white noise to mask outside noise. I've slept with wired earbuds, too. + These bluetooth things are even smaller, which so far has been nice for sleeping on my side. +* You absolutely, positively, must download all your TV shows and movies before you go to the train station. + You're going to lose Internet almost right away on the Southwest Chief, so you can forget about downloading + new episodes en route. +* I use my phone for watching movies and whatnot. I printed a + [flat phone stand](https://www.printables.com/model/175598-phone-stand) to hold it up on the tray. + The seat in front of you is about 5 feet away, so attaching your phone to the seat back doesn't really work. +* Book / work / video game. You are going to get bored. Bring something to do. + diff --git a/content/blog/new b/content/blog/new new file mode 100755 index 0000000..4a1136c --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/new @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +#! /bin/sh + +cd $(dirname $0) + +case "$1" in + ""|-*) + cat <&2; exit 1 +Usage: $0 SLUG [TITLE] + +Makes a new blog page with the slug SLUG. +Also uses SLUG for the page title, +unless you provide TITLE. +You can, of course, change this later. +EOD +esac + +SLUG="$1" +TITLE="${2:-$SLUG}" +DATE="$(date +%Y-%m-%d)" + +slug=$(echo "$SLUG" | tr 'A-Z ' 'a-z-') +dir="$DATE-$slug" +index=$dir/index.md + +mkdir $dir +cat <$index +--- +title: $TITLE +date: $DATE +tags: + - untagged +--- + +EOD + +echo $index +vim + $index diff --git a/content/misc/baud/baud b/content/misc/baud/baud new file mode 100755 index 0000000..510d491 Binary files /dev/null and b/content/misc/baud/baud differ diff --git a/content/misc/baud.c b/content/misc/baud/baud.c similarity index 91% rename from content/misc/baud.c rename to content/misc/baud/baud.c index e90e31b..4b02987 100644 --- a/content/misc/baud.c +++ b/content/misc/baud/baud.c @@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[]) { noiselen = atoi(argv[3]); } - int cps = baud / 8; + int cps = baud / 10; // 8N1 has 10 bits per octet: 8 data, 1 start, 1 parity int delay = SECOND / cps; int noisybits = 0; int c; @@ -68,11 +68,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[]) { } if (noisybits) { - if (rand() < RAND_MAX/2) { - c &= ~(1<