Javier Figueroa's words.toBlog()

I’ve been thinking about the future of parking garages…

I know what you are about to read is not that futuristic at all and probably a lot of people have thought of the same. I’m writing it down, just for the record, and hopefully in the future if this does occur, me or someone can have fun with it.

The future parking garage will work in the following way:

A person driving a vehicle (it could fly for all I care) goes into the garage through the lower level. This lower level is the only level where humans are allowed, meaning that there won’t be a need to be driving all over the parking garage looking for an open spot, therefore there won’t be any wasted petrol (assuming the vehicle runs in petrol) or battery, etc., you get the idea. Right at the entrance the person retrieves a ticket with a number which will point him/her to the numbered parking spot in this level, this spot is obviously available. Here I thought it would be necessary to have either a GPS-like navigation engraved in the ticket, guiding you to the parking spot or some sort of lighting system that would “light” you to your parking spot… neat.

Now, the person has arrived to the parking spot, and will step out of the vehicle and go to the store, restaurant, mall, etc.. As he/she walks away from the vehicle, the parking garage will pick up the vehicle from the parking spot. By picking up I mean the vehicle is parked on top of a platform that will rise from the ground. The vehicle is then transported to a higher level inside the parking garage and will be stored there probably in an alphabetical way, I’m thinking index by tag. This right here, would avoid almost 90% of the hussle that it is to find parking in a parking garage. Not to mention it would be safer for your vehicle (dings and dents) and for people because it avoids people getting ran over, people getting mugged, etc..

For those out there that are thinking what about the way out? I thought about it too . Well, assuming that the parking garage has assigned stores (e.g. nearby restaurants), one way this could work is that when the person is leaving that place your ticket signals a proximity alert to the garage (maybe the person will have to press a button on the ticket to avoid false proximity alerts), letting it know that the person’s vehicle is up for departure. Back in the garage the machine will probably use some fancy search algorithm and find the car based on the information of the signal. Once the person is physically in the garage he or she can find a way to the vehicle again using the ticket for navigation or something similar within the garage.

That’s it. This would be so awesome I can’t even explain how much. Hopefully I’m still around to see this happen, and I don’t mean some crappy-state-fair-like-carusel-powered parking garage. I mean really efficient type and not noisy .

Cheers!

So I’m back in my apartment after a long weekend in Seattle. I refer to it as long not because I thought it was long but because flying from coast to coast 9 hours and a stop in Dallas, is a long trip. I’m thinking through the options that are now open and the ones that are closed. The ones that are closed are simply gone from now and maybe will open next year or somewhere in the near future, the ones that are open can’t close on me, at least I will keep trying to leave them open. I know that this does not make any sense what so ever but maybe one day you’ll find yourself in my current situation and then this will all make sense.

If you do happen to be in my shoes one day, DO NOT give up, giving up should not even be in your head. Pretend you are fighting in a cage with about 3 to 4 monsters (make them look mean and sick). And POW! you just received a blow to your face by all of them at once… you are laying on the floor looking at their blurry image and your mind is blank. At this point you can only have one thought in your mind, ONLY ONE. That is: GET UP!

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” — Mark Twain

I’m riding the purple bus again down the road 100187 and I found myself talking to the monkey driving the bus. I don’t know why I keep seeing this monkey… I looked out the right window from where I’m seating and I saw nothing, dark. I looked to the back and saw the figure of a creature seating in the last row. I asked the monkey for this creature he said: – don’t worry, I said: – I’m worried. Inside, the purple turned red of curiosity and I started walking down the the spine of the long bus. The closer I walked to the figure I felt the shaking of the bus and the breathing of the monkey. I started running and the benches seem longer and longer like if the bus was an elastic one or like if I was walking in a twenty century airport terminal. I felt like starting a revolution and letting people know that this bus is nonstop and that killing for the crude is stupid. I ran and ran. Tired of not reaching the back of the bus I gave up to the shadows of my feelings. Suddenly, I realized I was no one and that there were probably different color buses out there, filled with different people but probably with the same man in the back. I decided to sit down facing backwards on the left side of the bus, my right side. Almost falling asleep I waited for the creature in the back to come to me, I waited for the monkey to stop the bus. I waited…

Finally, the shadow started moving towards me… It was a blurry vision I could not see the creature’s face, it sat down by my side. It told me that it would not reveal its name it told me that I was a wimp that I did not have the courage,

I asked:

courage for what?

it said:

to stop the killing

I asked:

I can’t do anything

it said:

yes you can

I asked:

what killing?

it said:

the one they do because of me

I asked:

I don’t know you

it said:

you do

I was not ready to realize, just like the rest of the people in every other bus. It told me that people need to leave the bus, the bus is filled with emptiness and a monkey driver which most of the times wears a suit an a tie, and that us passengers need to get rid of the monkey and change the bus for something else. I screamed that nothing was going to change my world…it told me that I should think more radical.

Rocko