Thinking about travel...

June 1 2025

Recently, I’ve been thinking about traveling somewhere. Not somewhere too distant, just a day trip to somewhere maybe a 2-3 hour drive away from where I live.

This used to be something I did at least once a week during my time driving for Uber as a full-time job. At least once a week, I would get a ride request from a truck driver from a local trucking depot. The ride requests involved a different trucker every time, and they would either just need an hour-long ride to get to the Transportation Center in Harrisburg, or they would need to be driven directly to their destination.

Often, this would involve me going some very distant places. One week, I could be giving someone a two-hour ride to one of the suburbs surrounding DC. Another week, I could be driving four-hours straight to Southern New Jersey.

An Uber Driver app trip log, with the heading Trip Details at the top of the screen. Below the heading, a map is shown. The map appears to show a line being drawn from a green start point in Southern Pennsylvania to a red end point in Southern New Jersey. The trip log states that the duration of the trip was four hours twenty two minutes, and the distance of the trip was 196.86 miles. The bottom of the screen shows a heavily censored pick up and drop off address section, with the acronyms PA and NJ being the only details visible.

Imagine doing that drive for four hours with no stops. I think my favorite part about that ride was that I got to drive through Center City in Philadelphia.

A screenshot of dashcam footage of the Center City Expressway in Philadelphia. Several tall buildings can be seen in the background. A billboard to the right shows text on a white background, with the phrase Philly Baby written in large red print. There are two highway exit signs in the center of the screenshot. One sign is for East Interstate 676 US Route 30 East Central Philadelphia. The second exit sign is for the Ben Franklin Parkway and twenty third Street. Several cars are seen in front of the camera's view. The date marker January thirty first 2024 slash four fourty one fifty seven PM is shown in the bottom-left.

A screenshot of dashcam footage of the Philadelphia skyline taken from the perspective of a car on a highway ramp. Several skyscrapers are shown prominently in the center and right of the photo. Several cars can also be seen on the highway. The date marker January thirty first 2024 slash four fourty one oh seven PM is shown in the bottom-left.

These are screenshots from dash cam footage I took during this trip. It was an interesting experience to get to drive through Center City during rush hour. Thankfully, my passenger gave me tips on how to navigate the traffic.

Memories of past trips aside, I’ve been thinking recently about traveling somewhere new and doing something new. I don’t drive for Uber full-time anymore, and it’s been a while since I’ve traveled somewhere for non-work related purposes.

I have a few ideas and a few plans actually set in place for places I could travel to this month. I’m planning on traveling to Eastern Ohio in mid-June, and staying there for a couple days to check out an arcade I found online and to meet up with an online friend that I’ve been talking with since late 2023. I’m really excited for that one.

Also, I’m thinking about maybe attending the TooManyGames convention in Eastern PA, though that will probably just be for one day, since the passes for that event cost way more than the previous conventions I’ve attended.

Finally, I want to do at least one thing this month that involves taking a train someplace. I’ve been watching too many videos from creators like Miles In Transit on YouTube recently, and I would like to ride a train to see what it’s actually like. Also, the fact that I used to drive truckers to an AmTrak station for a living has had me curious about the passenger rail experience for a while.

All of Scott Pilgrim? In Color? For HOW MUCH!?!?

May 22 2025

"This morning while I was working on schoolwork, my mom called me into the living room because she saw something in the Ollie's Bargain Outlet eMail Sales Circular she thought I'd like and..."

An advertisement from the Ollie's Bargain Outlet sales circular. It says Scott Pilgrim 7 Book Box Set, 20th Anniversary, Choose from Color or B and W editions. Their price $129.99, Our price $49.99. An image of an open box set of Scott Pilgrim books is shown to the left.

"oh my god, and with that price!?!? I had to get it."

"I've watched both the Scott Pilgrim movie and anime, but I've never really gotten around to reading the entire graphic novel series. I've checked out the first book from the public library before and thought it was good, but now was my chance to snag the whole freaking series at what I felt like was a more than reasonable price. So anyways, I decided to hop in the car, drive to my nearest Ollie's, and sure enough..."

A Scott Pilgrim 20th Anniversary, Color Edition box set in a plastic bag on a car seat. The box set is secured to the seat using a seat belt.

"they had it."

"They were selling both the Black and White and Color versions of the 20th Anniversary set, and I ended up getting the Color version because I though it'd be the best value."

A Scott Pilgrim 20th Anniversary Color Edition box set. The box is red, wrapped in plastic shrink wrap, and has several characters pictured on the top of the box. The character Knives Chau is pictured on the bottom-right. On the top right of the box is an orange price tag. The tag has a QR code and says Ollies, Their Price: $249.99, Our Price: $49.99.

"So yeah, I guess I'll take some time and read the entirety of Scott Pilgrim now. Thanks Ollie's Bargain Outlet, very cool."

BONUS PHOTO:

A life-sized bobble head statue of the Ollie's Bargain Outlet mascot.

"A photo of Ollie Bargain Outlet himself. Well actually, it's a life-sized bobble head figurine of him. Snapped this photo on another trip I made to Ollie's, I love shopping here sometimes."

I guess we're doing microblogs now

May 17 2025

"Decided to make a microblog page, for some unknown reason. This will mainly be a page where I post random thoughts and stuff. Hello to all who are visiting it!!"

thus concludes, the microblog.