A Capitol Hill bus map

I’ve been trying to think of something useful to post over at the Capitol Hill Seattle blog, and finally came up with a few ideas. I figure most people don’t know about the cool MyBus.org text-message schedule thing, so I should write a little intro about it. But to really make it useful, I figured I should add a map. And the more I thought about that, the more I realized that Capitol Hill buses are a tangled mess; I’ve been living here on and off for a decade, and I’m still puzzled by where they all go. Metro’s maps are functional, but don’t look very nice.

So, inspired by the Helvetica movie and all my chats with my designer buddies, I set out to draw up a little map of the buses that run through my ‘hood. I don’t have a lot of experience with Photoshop Illustrator, but I figured this would be a good time to expand my skills a little.

I’m actually pleased with the result, given that I don’t know what I’m doing. If I start over again for the MyBus.org map, it will probably look a little cleaner.

Capitol Hill Buses

Color choices were kind of tricky. I’m red-green-brown color blind, so I’m always complaining that people use colors that I can’t distinguish between. Now that I had the power to set my own colors, I’m not sure if I’m completely happy with them. I think I should have ditched the 49-orange for something else… but what?

(A condensed version of this is cross-posted over at CapitolHillSeattle.)

If I was going to blog…

…I would blog about something on this list:

• Barack vs Hillary — How much hostility is there, really, between the typical supporters? Lively debate, sure. Anger? Not that much, I’d say.
• The Melodians — it occurred to me this weekend that they are like ska crossed with doo-wop. How come there isn’t more reggae like Sweet Sensation and Rivers of Babylon?

• Robert Wright’s The Moral Animal, which I just finished. Holy crap, it blew my mind. I could write an interminable blog post that would please no one, especially not me. The short answer: Free will is almost certainly an illusion, and although we have little knowledge on a day-to-day basis what deep-brain processes drive our behavior, evolutionary psychology can help us unravel some elements of it and make us better (more moral!) people in the end.
• A cool documentary called Helvetica, which had a really funny part midway through. I would love to learn to rip DVDs just so I could put this hilarious segment on YouTube. “It’s the Real Thing, PERIOD. Coke, PERIOD. Any questions? OF COURSE NOT.” Ohhhh, how I laughed!
• Caucuses. They are an amusing fun-filled Saturday… but should we encourage or discourage them? They are guaranteed to exclude a big chunk of the electorate: people who have to work (ER doctors, police, bus drivers, on and on and on), people who are home sick or in nursing homes, shy people, enochlophobics, etc.
• Rose gardens — did I ever promise you one? I thought not.
• El Greco — Sweet shrieking Molly but I love this place for breakfast! I had the most delicious piece of raspberry coffee cake for brunch there on Sunday; I’m usually pretty neutral on coffee cake, but this was light, fluffy, crispy, gooey, sweet and roaringly awesome in every way.
• Singles parties for the over-40 set — Picture a house where the walls are lined with sad-sack gents too afraid or depressed to strike up conversations with the dozens of single women milling about, and dwell for a moment on the visceral Darwinian awfulness of it all. These guys made me feel like a rock star. Thanks guys!
• The Stranger crossword: Is it really in jeopardy? It better not be; it’s a perfect size and difficulty level.
• Waking up at 7am after a year of sleeping in: IT SUCKS.
• Condense-O-Blogging — not as painful as I was dreading, and got a few things off my chest. But who will read it?!