eugenia

Eugenia Chien has been eavesdropping on the 47, 49, or 1 lines since the mid-90's. She lives by the adage, "Anything can happen on Muni" (and also, "That's not water.")

Muni Mind Reader: The Drunkard

July 31, 2009 eugenia Leave a comment

Muni Mind Reader is back, y’all! After a one-week hiatus (she refuses to disclose her where- and whatabouts, as any true mental maven would), Tiffany is back, and in high fashion. This week, she takes us down, around, over, and through the sloshy synapses of … the drunkard.

Wahoooooooooooo!!! Nothing like a killer happy hour to get things rocking and rolling. Am I right? You! Yes, you right there. Yes! You have got to be able to see me. I’m sitting directly across from you. Helloooo!!!. C’mon buddy, I’m wasted, but I’m certainly not invisible. WE WON’T BE INVISIBLE!! Oh, wait, that’s “invincible.” WE WON’T BE INVINCIBLE. Gimme five if you like Pat Benatar. Anyone? GIVE THE BOY HIS SCOOTER BACK!

Oh man! What a crazy afternoon. Lay-offs suck, but the parties sure are killer. I thought about driving, but then I realized I left my keys in Jackie’s purse, so that’s no good. So then it was like TAXI! And then as if Muni were reading my mind, out of thin air appears a 30-Stockton. Suh-weeeeeeeeeeeet! You can’t get much luckier than that. Well, I guess I could get much luckier, but that’s later tonight, am I right? Heh, geez people, where is your sense of humor?

Category: Funny: Muni LOLs Tags: etiquette

Muni Diaries Wins Best Local Blog — SFBG Best of the Bay Reader’s Poll

July 29, 2009 eugenia Leave a comment

best-of-the-bay

Holy euphoria! Thanks to your votes, Muni Diaries just nabbed San Francisco Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay Reader’s Poll for Best Local Blog! We are breathless with excitement and so thankful to everyone who voted for us, especially those of you who submitted your gross, funny, and poignant Muni stories, reenacted them on stage at our spoken-word party in June, or gave us your two cents in the comments section.

We created Muni Diaries as a place where anyone riding Muni can share stories and talk about our public transit system — one of the few common experiences shared by San Franciscans of all stripes. We created the space, but you made the blog, so thank you, thank you, thank you! Our sanity as bloggers depends on our supportive network of blogger friends such as whatimseeing.com, SFist, SFAppeal, MissionMission (winning editor’s choice for “Best Virtual Mission“), MissionLocal, I Live Here: SF, Eye on Blogs, Tenderblog, and Broke Ass Stuart’s Goddamn Website (which won “Best Local Website” this year!). Our transit blogger friends like Muni Manners, N-Judah Chronicles, and Transbay Blog also keep us in check.

So please keep the stories, photos, and videos coming! We can’t get enough.

xoxo, your Muni Diaries crew:

Eugenia, Jeff, Jenny, Suzanne, and Tara.

Category: News

Is it hard to show courtesy to others these days?

July 29, 2009 eugenia Leave a comment

Photo by Flickr user moppet65535

Originally written on Wednesday, September 10, 2008. From the Muni Diaries submissions inbox:

It seems like every time I am on the bus and it becomes crowded, I notice this one thing: Everyone expects for someone else to do what they’re told to do, rather than being initiators and following suit with orders. Recently, the buses have been installed with “new” bus announcements, telling people to “move to the back of the bus for others’ convenience” and also to “clear the front seats for seniors and disabled persons.” I know the bus drivers are able to press these buttons when they need to, because I hear these announcements only when the situations arise.

But unfortunately, nobody else seems to pay attention to them. People stand in the doorways, in the front of the bus, trying to ignore the announcements about moving to the rear of the bus so others could board. Is it so hard to show courtesy? Does it make THAT much of a difference of where you are standing?

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Category: Funny: Muni LOLs Tags: etiquette

Arguments between the old San Franciscans…

July 24, 2009 eugenia Leave a comment

From the Muni Diaries submissions inbox:

Friday, July 25, 2008

A scene on the bus today after work–

Old man: “People have no right to be cruel to the bus driver. The bus drivers work very hard. You need to show some respect to them.”
Old lady: “Uh huh, okay, okay…” (not really listening)
Old man: “That’s right, people shouldn’t flag down the bus driver and expect for him or her to wait for them; show some respect. Some people are so rude.”
Old lady: “Okay…” (shakes her head “no” and waves the guy down to make him stop talking)
Old man: “Oh yeah? Well same to you! It’s people like you who are not natives to San Francisco that make the city bad!”
Old lady: “Oh, YEAH? Well, I’VE LIVED IN SAN FRANCISCO FOR 50 YEARS NOW, I am not an immigrant!”
Old man: “Well I’ve lived here for 75 years, so you shut your trap. All these immigrants need to just go home.”

Category: Funny: Muni LOLs Tags: 38-Geary

From a West Portal resident: ‘Wrong Solution to Saturday’s Tragedy’

July 21, 2009 eugenia Leave a comment

Photo by Flickr user Jamison Weiser

Media attention has turned to the manual controls of the Muni trains in the West Portal accident. We received the following email from rider and West Portal resident Mark:

Let me first say that my heart goes out to all of those who were injured Saturday afternoon in the Muni accident at West Portal. That said, I feel like it is necessary to speak my mind on what happened because I feel that I have a unique opinion which I have not yet seen expressed by anyone in the media.

As of Monday, the media has finally drawn its attention to the procedure of taking trains off control of the ATC [editor’s note: Automatic Train Control] prior to entering West Portal Station. As a long-time resident of the West Portal area, I know that this has been going on almost ever since the ATC went online; any regular Muni patron knows this as well. If there is no train currently in the station, the ATC brings the train in. If there is already a train in the station, especially if it’s only a one-car train, as it was on Saturday, once the ATC has stopped the train outside of the station, drivers usually switch off the computer and take the train in manually so two trains can load/unload at the same time. This is a very efficient procedure because West Portal is both a bottleneck inbound and outbound, as only one train can enter/exit at a time, so often during commute hours trains will be waiting to enter/exit West Portal Station. By allowing the driver to bring in the train in manual mode, the driver takes full advantage of the three-car length platform and speeds things up a bit, which in my experience makes a big difference.

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Category: News Tags: West Portal Station

Not the good kind of nudity

July 17, 2009 eugenia Leave a comment

Photo submitted by author

In high school, we were broke. So we had to find cheap ways to entertain ourselves, and one of those ways was to take the 38 in from the Richmond and take the now-defunct 42 Downtown Loop to the old Tower Records and the Wharf.

One fateful day, my friend Bob and I were on the 42, sitting in the second-to-back row on the driver’s side. It was fairly crowded, but not uncomfortably so. We were minding our own business, talking about Man of La Mancha or whatever the hell it is we talked about in high school.

Eventually, we noticed some kind of commotion near the front of the bus, and a handful of people getting off. We tried to see what was going on, but there were too many people. Eventually, more people got off and we saw a totally naked middle-aged woman ambling around the front of the bus.