Things I've Learned on the Train

I am now a commuter. I always swore I'd never be a commuter, but look at me now! I take a bus and a train to work every single morning. I often get to stare beyond someone's shoulder to see the advertisements, and some of the stations have huge ads that cover the floor or the walls. Here's a list of some things I've learned during my commute.

News.com.au wants you to remind you that getting coffee out every day will cost you $100s of dollars.

The Bank Wants You to Drink Coffee
Having to do my banking sometimes leads me to drink. Argh, seeing how much money I don't have can be frustrating, but banks think that folks should be hopped up on caffeine, instead. Capital One has created "cafe locations" where you can go to sit and check your email. Wifi is free, and if you pay for your coffee with a Capital One credit card, your coffee is half off. That's actually a lot of money. Coffee is expensive, and drinking coffee in a cafe every day, or stopping at a coffee shop for a cup on your way to work adds up. It can cost hundreds of dollars. So Capital One wants you to know that they'll give you half price coffee in exchange for you getting a credit card, over using it, and having to constantly pay interest as you attempt to pay off the balance.  So the next time you want to go out with your friends, hop on the bus and stop at the bank! Bonus: some sell Peet's coffee. I do love me some Peet's!

The MBTA Aims to Provide Boston Commuters with Sore Feet

We don't need no stinking seats!

The MBTA has a new scheme for making more room for folks. No, they're not adding trains. They are getting rid of seats so that more people can stand up crowded and pressed against each other. This makes sense; it's a lot cheaper than buying more trains.

I'm not looking forward to seeing it on more trains because I hate standing on public transport. On February 2, I got to read the Wagamama ad shown in the picture on the left. I love Wagamama, and I almost stopped to eat when I got to Harvard Square. I guess that's why they advertise on the train!

I wish they'd change switch to plastic seats during this transition so I can stop worrying about whether or not sitting on a smelly chair will make me smell when I arrive at my destination.


A Diamonds Is Forever
DeBeers has trademarked the slogan, "A Diamond Is Forever." When I noticed that on a huge advertisement, I looked it up. I mean, trademarking a phrase means that you own it forever and ever. Copyrights expire. Trademarks never end. This actually does make sense. A trademark is something that is used to define a company. It could be a slogan they created or the name of a model that they researched and formed the evidence based practice of. Trademarking these items forever allows that phrase to become a part of their culture. Copyrights are for specific periods of time because we believe as a culture that art should generate the money for the creator yet should also be something everybody can enjoy.

In 1947 DeBeers trademarked the slogan and was actually a large part of the move towards diamond rings becoming "the" engagement ring.

There Are Polite People on the Train
This doesn't seem like a huge thing, but it is. We have a stereotype that folks only care about themselves and that we are all self-centered on our way to and from work. NYC is even fining folks for manspreading (when a guy spreads his legs and puts his backpack next to him so he takes up two to three seats on the train). We complain that kids these days will take a seat while someone who is pregnant, older, or unable to stand for whatever reason is forced to hang onto the post and hope they survive their commute. The thing is that we sometimes forget that some people are honestly polite. Sometimes polite and friendly people have had a bad day. Sometimes someone who appears to be perfectly healthy and capable of standing has an unknown reason for needing a seat. I have problems with my wrist and thumb, and because of it, I can't grip the pole with my left hand. I don't try and take a seat when the bus is full. However, when I get a seat, I only stand up and give my seat away if someone is obviously in worse shape than me. After all, I can easily hold a pole with my right hand, and standing is not a problem for me.

One day I was on a problematic bus. I don't know if there was a problem with the bus or the driver or the traffic, but there were constant hard stops from higher speeds, the turns were being taken more abruptly than normal, and all people who stand were using both hands. Everybody's phones had been put away. Nobody had a book out. It was a wild ride, and with only one hand holding on I was knocking into people, kept almost falling over, etc. I heard at least one person mutter to their friend that I should stop trying to be cool and hang on with both hands. I didn't bother addressing the person because it wasn't worth the hassle.

Then a seat became available. I started to sink into the seat when I realized that an incredibly large pregnant woman and an older woman with a cane had both boarded the bus. I started to stand back up, but a couple who had been behind me for one stop told me to stay down and gave up their seats. They said they were about to offer me a seat anyway, and they wanted to make sure I was ok after my last fall into the edge of a seat (I was actually bruised heavily from that particular bang). So while most people were angry with me, two people had realized that looks can be deceiving and that I wasn't just a lazy fat person (which someone had been muttering about when they noticed I wasn't using both hands). There are good people in this world, and I believe that most people aren't being rude. They are just caught up in their lives. I just hadn't thought about it before. Yeah, I'm slow to realize anything about someone's social behaviors.


Advertisements Are Lazier Nowadays
I use a T stop that a lot of college students go through. The advertisements are often for companies and organizations that tell us nothing. They are a big poster with a phone on them and the name of a company or website. No pictures, or at least no pictures that hint at what is being advertised. Marketing folks assume that means we'll look it up.

Well, I won't. I'm sure some people do google what the company is advertising, but I won't do it. If they want to market to me, they can do it the old fashioned way. I don't have a tv because I hate commercials. Having an ad that won't get stuck in my brain and make me want to buy a sandwich is actually good for me. I like this trend!

Julie Bindel from The Guardian wants you to know it's rude to read over someone's shoulder while on the tube.

My Friends Can be Wrong
In December 2015 I jokingly told a friend that when a sex scene occurs in a book I'm reading on the train, I skip ahead because I don't want anyone to look at my kindle screen with its huge print and know that I'm reading werewolf smut. My friend assured me that I was being self-conscious for no reason because nobody cares what I'm reading and they wouldn't be reading my screen.

Well, my friend was wrong. I was reading The Trainer (book two in The Marketplace series) on my Kindle. This book is nothing but NSFW text. Then I realized that the person sitting next to me was reading over my shoulder. It was creepy because this book is about folks in Master/Slave relationships, and the guy was making me super uncomfortable. I turned off my Kindle and switched to my phone as many women do when being made uncomfortable in public space. I could have called the guy on it, but I was reading smut in large print while sitting next to someone on the train. It isn't a surprise that someone else noticed. However, I've gone back to skipping through any sex scenes that come up in my urban supernatural books when I'm on public transport. FYI, urban supernatural sounds so much classier than vampire porn.