{"id":38,"date":"2008-02-23T15:13:41","date_gmt":"2008-02-23T20:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=38"},"modified":"2018-10-31T15:05:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T19:05:29","slug":"marc-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=38","title":{"rendered":"MARC Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MARC train. <\/span>I\u2019ve lived on the <\/st1>Maryland<\/st1> side of suburban DC my whole life, and I have no idea what MARC stands for. <\/span>(Nor do I care.) It used to be the \u201cMaryland Rail Commuter Service\u201d when I was a kid, and then it became the MARC system. <\/span>I think it\u2019s \u201cMaryland Area Rapid Commute.\u201d <\/span>Part of that is conjecture, and the other part is things that I seem to remember reading about. <\/span>It\u2019s the local light rail system that only runs on weekdays and brings all the slobs who live in the boonies down to Union Station, so they can go work at their silly DC jobs and drink DC tap water and get knifed by DC bums.<\/p>\n

I catch the Metro at Silver Spring<\/st1>, and a MARC station is just next door. <\/span>So as the aged yet still strangely clean Metro rattles past the MARC station, I stare out at all the sad people waiting for their sad little train and, for the last couple months, I\u2019ve noticed some weird messages coming up on the display screens that glow happily day and night, and all weekend long, whether trains are running or not. <\/span>They very much bring to mind the crazed ATM machine (and others) in Maximum Overdrive<\/span>.<\/p>\n

<\/o><\/p>\n

In the AM, I look out at the DC-bound display board. <\/span>In the PM, of course, I find that the north-bound board is equally insane. <\/span>This last week, with Monday as a holiday, I decided to track what they said. <\/span>These are digital displays, big enough for a couple of words or a scrolling message. <\/span>However, while the message may be animated on occasion, it tends to be just one word. <\/span>And a different one each day. <\/span>So my record of those messages follows. <\/span>And that\u2019s all you get for a blog entry on this chilly, overcast Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Though I do plan to get twisted later tonight and watch the latest Van Damme movie. <\/span>Last Saturday, I got hopelessly drunk and watched Cannonball Run and decided to test the GS forums bandwidth.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Okay, on to the record of messages from MARC: <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the message I saw Tuesday morning that inspired me to keep a record. <\/span>What the fuck? <\/span>The PM message is equally eccentric:<\/p>\n

Tuesday 2\/19<\/p>\n

AM \u2013 Pingpong<\/p>\n

PM \u2013 Fade In<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s PM message certainly calls to mind Maximum Overdrive<\/span>. <\/span>Kill the humans! <\/span>Go ahead and jump in front of the train.<\/p>\n

Wednesday 2\/20\/08<\/p>\n

AM \u2013 Wipe<\/p>\n

PM \u2013 Jump!<\/p>\n

Thursday AM seems to helpfully tell you where the door is. <\/span>Or maybe it was just stating that the MARC was opening\u2026 Even though it had been open for four hours.<\/p>\n

Thursday 2\/21\/08<\/p>\n

AM \u2013 Opening<\/p>\n

PM \u2013 Left<\/p>\n

A playful Friday for Skynet:<\/p>\n

Friday 2\/22\/08<\/p>\n

AM \u2013 Sign Me<\/p>\n

PM — Spin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The MARC train. I\u2019ve lived on the Maryland side of suburban DC my whole life, and I have no idea what MARC stands for. (Nor do I care.) It used to be the \u201cMaryland Rail Commuter Service\u201d when I was …<\/p>\n

MARC Mystery<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[36,245,399],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dc","tag-commute","tag-marc","tag-dc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1214,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/1214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}