I’ve been taking the train practically every day this past week to work and am enjoying it very much. I try to avoid the really heavy peak periods for the most part so I have been able to avoid the crazy sardine-like crunch that I hear people complain about so often. And I didn’t have to rush to get to my destination so the 5 or so minutes wait between trains and the travelling time weren’t as long as I’d expected otherwise. I must admit I’ve enjoyed the experience quite a bit compared to my usual drive to work. I don’t have to worry about navigating traffic, get to catch up on some reading (a rediscovered joy) and if I find a seat I might get the opportunity to sketch. It’s also relatively cheap.
I haven’t decided to give up my car at all in case you’re wondering. There are pros and cons for both modes of travel, especially if you have a family in tow. I doubt I’d enjoy taking the public transport with my wife and 3 boys (and the almost mandatory stroller) if I can help it. I have made up my mind to take the train more often to work from now on though. The pros simply outweigh the cons. We’ll see how I feel about it a few weeks after we get into the school semester proper with early morning classes and increased commuters.
Here’s a sketch of some passengers I spotted:

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There are a couple of major CG events happening this year: SIGGRAPH 2008 and SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 - the former being the major conference any CG enthusiast worth his salt should be aware of. SIGGRAPH has been annually attracting large turnouts of international visitors and contributors for a good number of years now, so it’s not such big news really. The topic this year is “Evolve” so I expect some new exciting changes happening. I’ve always wanted to attend the event, but the overall cost and its faraway location means it’s just been a pipe dream for me. Now, in addition to the annual event in USA, there will be another similar conference and exhibition in Asia (the first to be held in Singapore) at the end of the year. I’ll hopefully talk about some exciting developments related to these events in my next post. Exciting to me at least!
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My Icelandic friend Haukur, from the Masters course I took in Bournemouth is getting married late June over in Indonesia and we’re making preparations to fly down. Much as I’d love to spend a few additional days exploring Jakarta with the family, it’ll just have to be a short weekend trip as the semester has started by then. A few ex-classmates have indicated they will be attending too so it’ll be great to meet up with them and catch up on old times.

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