Reliable Transportation = Discrimination?

I have two part time jobs currently, but I still keep my eye out for work. Lately I've been encountering more job descriptions that sound good until I get to the Minimum Requirements section: "must have access to reliable transportation"; "must have access to a reliable vehicle"; or the blunt "must have a car."

I ride the Metro and have ever since I moved to Seattle in 2001. Is it reliable? Well, most of the time it actually is. There are delays, breakdowns, inclement weather, belligerent riders and all the other myriad reasons why it might not get you where you hoped to be when you planned to be there. But any form of transportation will include some degree of uncertainty.

Part of my beef is semantic: If these ads said "must have FAST transportation" instead of "reliable," I would not only be more understanding, I might even be amused. I often have to budget an hour for a bus trip across town - a distance that a car will usually be able to traverse in, oh, 15 to 30 minutes.

But my biggest problem is money-related. Like I said in an earlier post, a lot of people, including me, ride Metro because it's less expensive than driving. Through one of my jobs, I pay just $55 every three months for an Orca card. Collectively, these reliable transportation caveats feel like an additional societal kick in the shin during a recession that's already hurting already vulnerable people. Don't have a job? Can't afford a car? Well too bad!

Do some jobs require cars? Yes. For example, for some of the nanny and babysitting jobs posted in The Daily, the University of Washington's paper, this "must have a car" language makes sense - families who want multiple children to be picked up after school and driven multiple places in the span of two hours, for instance.

But a message to the other families: your kids can ride the bus too.

I've Lost that Lovin' Listening

Sometime in the last 2 years I have stopped needing music. I still crave specific songs occasionally, and when I'm borrowing a car and driving around, I do tend to scan the channels. But 98% of the time now when I want sound, I turn on NPR.

Combine this change with my past accumulation of obsolescent technology and a recent move, and you have...the great CD give away! See something you like? Contact me and I will send it to you (or, for Seattleites, bring it by the next time we hang). See something you gave me? Please don't take it personally that your musical offering did not make the cut and the soundtrack to "Follow that Bird" did. See something that I borrowed from you and forgot about? Sorry! Let me know.

In no order and spanning levels of time, space, fame, and quality:
Broken Social Scene, Bee Hives
The Turn-Ons, East
Drexel, Catch em while they're still alive
Rajini, Speak Truth '07
Beth Orton, Trailer Park and Daybreaker
Adam Sandler, What the hell happened to me?
The Gene Harris/Scott Hamilton Quintet, At Last
St. Germain, Tourist
Coldplay, Parachutes
Ridin' High (?)
Jay Jay Johanson, Antenna
Better than Ezra, Best Of
Henry Hanks, untitled?
Japanese HeepHop (?)
Bob Dylan, Greatest Hits Volume II
Mask Phantoms, The Spang Nut God Banner
Louis Armstrong, Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy
Danny Massure, What it Is
The Get Up Kids, Something to Write Home About
The Magnetic Fields, The Charm of the Highway Strip
Ms. Led, Afternoon in Central Park
Carole King, Tapestry
The Smashing Pumpkins, Tarantula
OK Go, Oh No
James Taylor, Greatest Hits
Nate Newcomer, Edgewater Alienation (featuring bonus "Freddie Got Fingered" DVD! Actually if you want this you can have it independently too).
Sarah McLachlan, Mirrorball
Band of Horses, Everything All the Time
M. Ward, Transfiguration of Vincent
MIA, Diplo Piracy Funds Terrorism 1611
Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism and You Can Play These Songs With Chords
Morcheba, Sampler
Goo Goo Dolls, Before It's Too Late
The Beatles, White Album
Eagle-Eye Cherry, Feels so Right
Whit Press Presents: City to City, Seattle Reads New York
Buttersprites, Buttersprites
Reef Encounter, untitled?
Cowboy Junkies, Black Eyed Man
Can You Read this Boston?
Lou-Lou, Bad Puppy
Martin Sexton, Wonder Bar
My So-Called Life soundtrack (I know, I know, but it doesn't actually have the featured Buffalo Tom song...it has a different one)
Brown Bird and Justin Kennedy, untitled?
Cornershop, Handcream for a Generation
Marc Bolan and T. Rex, 20th Century Boy
Femi Kuti, Sampler
Moby, Play
Dateless, Demo
Kevin Barker, Currituck County

AM or PM?

My friend Sasha would like to know if there is a name for:

"the feeling of sheer terror one experiences on waking from a deep sleep and having no idea if it's AM or PM and thus having no idea if you are incredibly late for work. This moment usually occurs, in my experience, if you are in the middle of a disrupted sleep schedule for some reason."

Would you like to appear in this blog? Send me your ideas! (And answer Sasha's question :)