When I discovered that 3 bus routes are within reasonable walking distance from my home, I began to explore the transit system further. If you’re using Firefox, you can just type “BCT” in the address bar and it will take you straight to the Broward County Transit homepage. Here you can download a map of the entire transit system and find maps and schedules for all routes. The maps and timetables are also available as printer-friendly PDFs. You can even find the maps and timetables for the community buses run by various municipalities in Broward County.

Use Google Transit and Google Street View

Google recently introduced Google Transit. It started with a handful of metro areas, and the list is growing. You enter a starting point and a destination. But unlike driving directions, you have to input either a departure time or a desired arrival time. Another tip: you can enter the time in 24-hour format. Instead of typing “7:00pm” you can simply enter “1900.”

After you click on “Get Directions” you get a page that looks a lot like the driving directions you are accustomed to seeing. You also get:

• How far you’ll need to walk to and from the bus stop
• Which buses to take
• How much money you save vs. driving
• The total time it will take to make your trip
• Alternate routes (if available)

You can also go to Google Maps to get driving directions. In addition to driving directions, Google Maps will tell you if public transit options are available for your trip.

Most of Broward County is covered by Google Street View. Google Transit and Google Street View can be used together to help you plan your trip. If you are going to an unfamiliar destination, this will ease your mind. The resolution of the images is good enough to see if there is a bus stop.

Buying the Right Bus Pass

For casual users of BCT, the 10 Ride Pass is the best value. As of July 2008, regular fare is $1.25, but a 10 Ride Pass is $10. You save $2.50. There are no transfers issued between BCT buses, so you’ll pay full fare or get ticked for another ride on your 10 Ride Pass when changing buses.

The All Day Pass is only $3. You can purchase these on the bus. Just tell the bus driver you want an All Day Pass. If you are taking 2 buses to get to your destination, you will need 2 buses to get back. Full fare, that trip is $5. On the 10 Ride Pass, that’s 4 rides, or $4. Are you a math genius? Neither am I, but we can both see why this makes sense.

I used an All Day Pass one day to run some errands. I rode 6 buses and brought my bike. Yes, you can get around South Florida quite easily without a car! This was also on a Sunday when the buses don’t run as frequently.

Other Bus Passes

31 Day Adult Pass – $40

7-Day Pass – $11

College Student Pass – $20

All Day Reduced Pass – $2 (seniors, youth, disabled, Medicare)

31 Day Reduced Pass – $20 (seniors, youth, disabled, Medicare)

These prices are current as of July 2008. Some bus passes will go up in price in October 2008. All bus fares will get an increase in October 2009. Click here for more information.

More Tips

The buses are pretty good about running on schedule. If the bus is running ahead of schedule, it will make an extended stop at one of the time points along the route. However, plan to arrive at your bus stop 5-10 minutes before the time posted on the schedule. Based on my observations, the clock used by BCT is most likely synchronized to the atomic clock servers operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Your computer and your cell phone are synchronized to this clock too.

If your destination is in Miami-Dade County, Google Transit seamlessly integrates the two systems. Google Transit is not yet integrated with Tri-Rail, Metro Rail, or Metro Mover.

All the buses are equipped with bike racks. Most accommodate 2 bikes while some of the newer buses have a different design that can carry 3 bikes. If the bike rack is full, you’re generally out of luck. Sometimes, a bike-riding passenger will opt to get off and ride a little further or inform the bus driver that his/her stop is just a few blocks away. In this case, the bus driver may let you bring your bike on board. When the bike rack is free, you must move your bike to the rack.

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We learned a lot about ourselves in 2007. Renee and Elliott are both enjoying life as the parents of a new baby girl. Elliott is totally wrapped up in his role as daddy, and Renée provides the “been there, done that” wisdom that has eased the transition.

There has been a surge in advertising for health clubs and weight loss products. If one of your resolutions is to start exercising, avoid crowds at the gym by starting your regimen in February. We don’t wait until January to make resolutions and evaluate our goals. There’s an audience and an occasion for this in January, so here goes.

Our Evolution and Rebirth

Yes, we are the same core people, but part of that core is the work we continue to do on ourselves. In the personal ad that snagged Renée, Elliott wrote that he wanted a partner in personal development. They’ve supported each other in their personal and professional goals over the past two and a half years. “Renée” means “rebirth.” How apropos.

Vision Boards

We gathered up a stack of magazines and invited our friend Nicole over. She and Renee worked on their vision boards all afternoon. Elliott has yet to do his, so the B&H Photo catalog remains intact.

Renée and Nicole took different approaches to their vision boards.

Renée’s board is more visual with a few key words and phrases for emphasis. A contemporary interior is depicted in one clip. Renee overlayed a row of chairs onto that image. The chairs are in scale with the interior depicted in the first clipping. She’s such a designer!

Nicole’s vision board is all about words. She is a writer, so this was a more comfortable approach for her. The words she chose were the changes she wanted to effect moving forward. Both of us think the words she chose are affirming who she really is today.

Like us, Nicole continues to work on herself despite the sincere praises sent her way. Renée once wrote in her diary, “Darn! I only got a 98!” after receiving her grade on a recent test. It was Benjamin Franklin who once said, “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”

If you want to know more about vision boards, there’s the almighty Google.

What is a Dominant Paradigm, and Where Can I Get One?

The business has been through its share of ups and downs. We’re moving away from doing graphic design and web design, and shifting our focus to the blogosphere and those interests we’ve yet to nurture. We will continue to serve our old web design clients and be picky when taking on new ones. Elliott will be pushing the photography more with stock sales, portrait sessions, and events. Renée is committed to finally coming out of the closet as an artist. She is also exploring the idea of becoming a yoga instructor for mothers and their babies. Yes, babies can do yoga too! Ultimately, we are interested in branching out into the vast realm of real estate. With a family base, many friends and a quickly growing market, Knoxville, Tennessee is on our radar for investment property. Renée’s intuition is just too good. All we need is some capital and the real estate listings.

State of the Blog

ReneeAndElliott.com started as a domain name grab. Elliott used to make fun of husbands and wives that have a “we-mail” account. Renée stuck it to him and got an entire website and domain name.

Elliott has really embraced blogging. It ties his interests and his abilities together nicely. He’s doing very well over at 21st Century Dad, having garnered a small but loyal readership in such a short time. Renée’s baby homework has brought her into the world of attachment parenting, baby wearing, and championing breastfeeding. Her writings on those topics are now featured on 21st Century Parenting. We hope to develop the site a resource for parents in the community.

ReneeAndElliott.com started its life as the playground of the “monkey mind” swinging from tree to tree in the forest of thoughts. As we write more, some direction is starting to emerge. However, that is subject to change without notice. Void where prohibited by law. Certain restrictions apply.

We will continue to tweak on the design and the features, like the RSS Feed.

Photo of the Week is in hibernation right now. Elliott is getting a foothold in the Flickr community. We will be sharing more photos soon.

They Call Me the Working Man

Austin celebrated the magical 13th birthday last year, but we suspect he cares more about his 14th birthday. The much-lamented “child labor laws” relax for him. He will be eligible for limited part-time work.

The march of time takes care of one requirement. It’s up to him to keep his grades satisfactory to fulfill the more pressing need. We will support him in this since both our agendas can be served. Austin sees this as a better means to the ends he desires. It closes the gap between wanting and having. There will be valuable lessons better learned through work experience than through his parents. Now we have some real leverage when we assert our desire for him to do better in school.

Baby’s First Year

Ariana’s arrival was in the latter half of 2007, so 2008 will bring many of those cherished milestones. We will see her first teeth, witness her first steps, hear her first words, and so much more.

We knew it would change our lives forever. Some changes can be expected, anticipated, and planned for, while others cannot. This is a time of discovery and surprises for the parents too. We are amazed everyday about the joy and fulfillment of sharing life with this new little human.

Now that the Korean population has increased by 0.5 people, Elliott started to explore his own Korean heritage. He has assimilated into American culture so well, other Koreans call him “whitewashed.” We know Twilli will have questions about her own background. She may wonder why she doesn’t look like the other kids at school or why her mommy and daddy look different from each other. She won’t be capable of articulating any of this for a few years, but it’s never too soon.

We are excited to live the blessings that this year shall bring! Please share your expectations for 2008 by leaving a comment.

Email

Email is often vilified as the enemy of effective time management. We get caught up in the immediacy of it and feel compelled to answer it right away. We got it right away. Why not answer it right away? It doesn’t have to be that way. Some people think of email as a substitute for a telephone call. Others think of it as a business letter.

Understanding the email habitsof the people you communicate with regularly will help tremendously. If you’re a crackberry addict, don’t get upset when your email isn’t responded to immediately. The person you are writing to may have a different mentality about email.

Instant Messenger

Renee and I do not use this often. We both feel it’s sensory overload. This is the means we choose to limit or abstain from. There’s an immediacy to it, but it’s also a huge distraction and time-sucker.

Others limit their telephone time or email time.

Telephone and Voice Mail

I use the telephone when I need real-time interaction when a face-to-face meeting is impractical. I reach for the phone when I want an immediate answer. I don’t always get it, but the possibility exists.

One must also pay attention to how a voice mail is crafted. You had a specific objective in mind when you made the call. Why do people fall apart and leave rambling voice mails? Speak clearly and be concise. Say your name, leave your number, state the purpose of your call, make any relevant disclosures about times you may be unavailable, state phone number once again, and a succinct pleasantry.

Text Messaging

Text messaging or SMS has exploded over the past few years. In 1998, I changed cell phone carriers for the first time. AT&T (which became Cingular, and it’s now AT&T again) offered text messaging. I could immediately see its potential. However, I grew frustrated as an isolated early-adopter. I used it sparingly until I met Renée.

One of my friends recently told me that it never occurred to him to send a text message until I sent him one for the first time. He thought it was just as good to make the phone call. Can you tell I hang out with people of all ages, from babies to the chronologically enhanced?

Some information is more effectively relayed via text message. A message that doesn’t require a reply would be a logical choice. It’s also great during downtime. Random “I love you,” messages to your significant other works wonders. You’ll never be bored at meetings and lectures again.

Meetings

Meetings incur costs in time and money. They are valuable for certain agendas, while others can be fulfilled by other means. If the agenda is important enough or if a high level of interaction is necessary, a face-to-face meeting is the best choice. Messages of high profundity also warrant a face-to-face meeting. It’s considered a low-blow to get dumped by a significant other via telephone, email or instant messenger. In one episode of Sex And The City, Carrie is upset that a man dumped her via Post-It™ Note.

Conclusion

That’s it? Far from it. There are entire books written on communication. This article covers the technological and logistical means. Each method described above warrants further discussion in future articles. Stay tuned.

If you found this article informative or entertaining, please consider making a donation.

I’ve been online since 1992. If you count dialup BBSs, that pushes the provenance back another 6 years. I saw personal computing in an early and raw state. It’s a glorious time to be a computer user today.

The e-book has some basic concepts that I’ve digested before most MySpace users were born. However, I don’t mind reviewing stuff I already know. A fresh perspective can be gained, and I might learn of an easier way to explain it to others. It also preps my mind for the new information that’s coming my way.

Download it.

Special thanks to David Hobby at Strobist for calling this to my attention.

If you found this article helpful or if we saved you a bunch of money on more than just car insurance, please consider making a donation.

~e

Blogs are usually written by one person on a specific topic. It can be any topic of interest to the author and/or personal experiences of the author. The articles, entries, or posts are presented in reverse chronological order. Archives of older articles organized by date and topic. A key feature of blogs is the ability granted to the reader. Readers can leave comments on each post, creating a dialogue between bloggers and their readers.

Blogs can be published through different methods. Google’s Blogger service allows you to have a blog up and running as fast as you can type your first entry. There are other blog hosts like LiveJournal, and TypePad. Social networking sites like MySpace also have a blogging component to them. Renee and Elliott endorse self-hosted blogs using WordPress as the blogging platform. WordPress is a highly-customizable open-source (a techie way to say “free”) platform and gives ultimate control over the appearance and functionality of the blog. It’s a trade-off. Blogger makes it easy, but is very limited in its capabilities. WordPress can be tweaked to meet your specific needs, but requires some technical knowledge or outside assistance.

Blogging may seem like an innocuous online diary, but it can be so much more. It is the ultimate manifestation of the First Amendment. You’re speaking your mind, and the entire world has access to it. You can get up on your cyber-soapbox and champion the causes you believe in, talk about your favorite hobbies, or promote your business. When a blog is focused on a niche topic, it can be monetized. With enough traffic, a blog can provide a sustainable income.

How do you monetize your blog? You can think of it like broadcast media, like television or radio. The content is provided for free, but supported by advertisers. Our monetization strategy includes:

• Google AdSense – These are the pay-per-click and pay-per-impression ads that you see throughout the site.
• Amazon Associates – This is an affiliate program. We get a small commission on products you buy when you click through to Amazon from our site.
• Donations – This is like a tip jar. Sometimes I think of it as PBS or NPR plus commercials. We use PayPal to process these payments.

This is not an exhaustive list. There are myriad advertising and affiliate programs available. Many bloggers have had great success selling ad space privately.

If the content you write is worthwhile and you have a monetization strategy in place, it becomes a numbers game. Earning money through blogging becomes a function of traffic. The more traffic you get, the more money you earn. That’s the basic idea.

Further reading:

• How To Make Money From Your Blog
• ProBlogger.net
• The Wikipedia entry on “blog”

~e

We met in June of 2005 through an online dating site called Webdate™. We had both grown discouraged with online dating. Renee was ready to move back to Tennessee and start her life over… again.

I had first heard about Webdate™ in 2003 at my high school reunion. One of my classmates was Abe Smilowitz,  president and COO of Webdate™. Abe, if you happen to reading, thanks! I met the woman of my dreams through your site.

Photo of the Week will return next week, or whenever I feel like making it return.

Yesterday was his birthday. He has been so patient and kind to me… even during the tough times, when most people would’ve thrown in the towel.

He told me that he stopped caring about his own birthday after 21. But since Twilli (our new nickname for Ariana) was born, I suspect he may find more significance in his own birthday.

Yet, despite his relative bday indifference, he ended up 2 tickets to tonight’s NHL Panthers hockey game (thanks, Scott!), a yummy dinner at Scruby’s BBQ, and big smiles from Twilli.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOVE! :-*
renee

*Please leave a comment if your attitude toward your own birthday changed when you had a child.*

Public transit gets a bad rap in South Florida. Many people I talk to dismiss it as inconvenient and inadequate. This perception is understandable. The infrastructure was not built with public transit in mind. There are so many good reasons to use public transit. I use it as often as possible. Many of the people who dismiss public transit in South Florida have never taken the bus or the Tri-Rail. I sometimes hear a hint of snobbery when these comments are made:

1. It’s inconvenient
2. The bus doesn’t go where I need to go
3. The buses never run on time

I have taken the bus several times, and have found the above statements to be mostly false, except for number 2. Here is how someone who has actually taken several bus rides will address the above mentioned assertions:

1. “It’s inconvenient.” – Public transit doesn’t run on your schedule, but it has to run on a schedule. This complaint is often rooted in the poor planning skills of the person making the remark.
2. “The bus doesn’t go where I need to go.” – This is partially true. Some areas of Broward County aren’t serviced very well due to suburban sprawl. Generally, the routes thin out as you go farther west. However, the local municipalities here run their own FREE buses to fill in the gaps as best as they can.
3. “The buses never run on time.” – It is remarkable how well they do run on time. The routes and timetables are planned with traffic patterns in mind. When the bus is running ahead of schedule, the driver will make an extended stop to synchronize with the published timetable.

Read more after the jump…

The Limitations of Public Transit

For the sake of thoroughness, I will give some validation to the nay-sayer, albeit with real life experience behind my words. The public transit system here isn’t as robust as it is in other major metropolitan areas. Limitations exist in the timetables and the routes. In many cases, it isn’t a viable solution. Transferring to a different route can leave you waiting for up to 40 minutes for your connecting bus. Some parts of Broward County are not accessible at all.

Why Do People Resist?

Aside from the reasons stated above, most people in South Florida default to their automobiles. It’s just too easy to get in your car. You don’t have to think. God knows too little thinking goes on in Flori-DUH! The suburban landscape is not on a pedestrian scale. It’s designed for cars. We invent many excuses for not using public transit.

There seems to be a perception that “bad” people ride the bus. Most users of public transit simply cannot afford an automobile. A minority are just choosing to ride. None of the above reasons makes a person “bad.”

Public Transit Works For Me

Fortunately, two routes have stops within walking distance of my house, and a third is just over a mile away. Here are the destinations served by those routes:

• Central Terminal and connection to Tri-Rail
• Young Circle in Hollywood
• West Regional Terminal
• The beach!
• Stops along University Drive
• Connection to Miami-Dade’s transit system

The terminals and Young Circle offer connections to several routes. Central terminal is in downtown Fort Lauderdale. If a bus route near your home goes to any of the destinations named above, you’re very well covered.

Your reach is extended even further if you have a bicycle. All Broward County Transit buses are equipped with bicycle racks. Many of the community buses run by each city have them too. As an added bonus, those community buses are free! To take your bike on the Tri-Rail, you will however need to purchase a bicycle permit.

Back in my single days, I would go out to the bars on weekends. There have been times I was not fit to drive. I did the responsible thing and called a cab. The following morning, I took the bus to retrieve my car. Cab fare, a parking ticket, and bus fare sure beats a DUI, risking my life, and the lives of others.

The Benefits of Using Public Transit

For short trips, the cost savings is a wash. For a longer trip, the bus wins. $1.25 can take you up to 20 miles. The last time you got that out of your car, Lyndon B. Johnson was President. Every time we fill up, we think of it as one big recurring expense. Gas is an incremental expense. You burn fuel (and money) while driving, idling your engine, and when starting your car. Every time you take the bus is one more day you can put off filling up your tank. There are many benefits to using public transit:

• Reduce fossil fuel consumption and emissions
• Reduce congestion on the roads
• Create and sustain economic opportunities

Here are the benefits that directly affect you:

• Reduce wear and tear on your vehicle
• Eliminate your own risk as a vehicle operator
• You don’t have to pay for parking
• You can read a book or write in your journal
• You can take a catnap
• You can chat with people
• Your older children don’t have to mooch off you as much for transportation
• You don’t have to endure the stress of driving during rush hour
• Some walking is necessary, so you’ll get exercise
• Save money

In many cases, taking the bus does take more time than if you had driven yourself. Also consider the activities that aren’t available to you while you drive. You certainly can’t read a book, write in your journal, or take a catnap while driving. Ironically, you don’t see people talking on cell phones, putting on makeup, or fumbling with fast food while riding the bus.

Using mass transit takes a little effort and planning, but it’s well worth it.

~elliott

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