Travel

The Obligatory Airplane Blog

by

As always (most of the time) when I fly, I like to write. I have time to think, and I really don’t have anything else to do. I am off to LA (California, not Louisiana) for a conference. It was all last minute. I didn’t have the approval to go until last week. I actually got a halfway decent deal with Delta. I have been hesitant to use them after my tour of nowhere 2 years ago with them. So far (and it is only halfway through the first flight) things are ok. The 757 I am on has been upgraded and they have TV’s in all the seats like Jetblue. The channel selection isn’t as good, but at least it is a start.

I got the last Aisle seat on the plane when I booked, so I am happy. There is a baby one row in front of me and thankfully he has been very good. I don’t want to jinx myself since as of this writing I have 2 more hours to go on the flight. I am tired and since it is warm on the plane I feel like I am borderline getting a headache.

Technorati Tags: , ,

My Travels to Date

by

According to my calculations I have been tot he following states in this country (see picture below). I am not sure about ever being in Idaho or West Virginia, but I may have been there. I used to travel extensively through work, and I did a cross country trip with a camp when I was younger so I may have driven through both states. I have been all over this country, but not very many other countries. I am working on that!



create your own visited states map or check out these Google Hacks.

Technorati Tags:

Vegas Baby, Again!

by

I am off to one of my favorate spots right now, Las Vegas. I am on my way to Cisco Networkers. I personally can’t stand conventions but because of what I do and my personal interests Networks is not like other conventions. I had a great time last year so I am going back. This year Jayson is coming with me, and we are meeting our friend Joe there. Right now I am on my Jetblue flight out there. I like jetblue. They have yet to do something to piss me off. I have my 36 channels of TV with nothing on, so I write a bit.

We will get to Vegas and check into the hotel and then meet up with Joe and Karen for dinner. By the time we land we will be able to go straight to the hotel. I don’t know if I will gamble much, but I will try do it a little. I want to work on my tan a bit tomorrow. I am going to Vegas for work, but the reason I am heading out a bit early is to get some recreation in also!

Right now we are over Missouri and I have already set my watch to Vegas time. I am going to sit back and relax a bit.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

No 6 Train

by

Friday I had an interesting morning commute. The 6 train that I use to get to work wasn’t running due to a sick passenger. I thought to myself that I should just wait at the station and eventually the train would start up. I didn’t listen to my inner voice so I did what the MTA people said and I went up to the street and got on a bus. I got on the 3rd bus that came. It was a mad house, but some how I got a seat. it took forever to go anywhere, but I finaly got off at 59th street planning on getting on the N or R to go the rest of the way to work. As I get down to the platform the 6 was running, but it was packed. I went to the N/R and got on no problem. I was only 30 minutes late for work and made the big meeting I had at 9:30 anyway, but I left my apartment early enough that I shouldn’t have been late, but early by like 15 minutes.

This is the second time where it felt like if I just waited for the subway situation to resolve it self I would have been better off than trying an alternate way to the office. I know I feel better if I am moving and making progress getting closer to my destination, but the next time there is an issue I am just going to wait it out and see how that works out.

Technorati Tags: ,

Day Trip

by

Today was a day trip to our other office. Had to meet some contractors and sit through an all day meeting. Man that was fun. Actually we learned allot but I have trouble sitting all day in a meeting. We ate, and had breaks but it does take something extra to do it.

I am glad I took the train up. Dan wanted to be there for 9AM so he left in a rental car really early. Funny thing was as I was getting out of the cab from the train station, he was pulling up in the rental car. Traffic sucks. I am glad I didn’t go with him since I would have needed to get up hours earlier to make it there for the same time as the train!

Jayson was up there doing some work in a computer room, so I rode back with him and nelson on the train. They had the sleeper seat business class so I upgraded. I had a nice little nap.

Jayson and I ended up at Outback for some dinner afterward. We were going to meet up with John, but he was not feeling so well and went home early. Instead we actually meet up with Gus. We both didn’t think he would show, but he did. It was good catching up.

It was all around day. Productive work day, and I got to get out for a bit afterward.

Day Off

by

I took a personal day today. I wasn’t sure if the strike would continue and I didn’t want to deal with the commute so my plan since Tuesday was to take today off. Turns out the strike ended, and my company gave everyone in our office the day off anyway. It was nice. At least I didn’t use up my personal days.

I ended up at the office anyway. I had to ship out my sold powerbook. it is easier to do that from the office than at home. I also got some shopping done. I got cards for everyone that I needed to, and went to the bank.

I meet up with Jayson at night and we went to Compusa to get IDE disk enclosures. We both have internal drives that we can’t use now that we have laptops and use Mac’s. I got a IDE disk enclosure for like $45. It works great so far. USB 2.0. I just plugged in my drive and formatted it. Unlike the other one I got before the summer this one does not have a fan so I don’t have to worry about the bearings burning out like the old one did. I will go back next week and get another of these cases to replace the old broken one. I should say it is not broken. It does work, but when running it makes an awful sound.

Strike Notes

by

Since a friend emailed me and asked how the walking due to the strike was, I decided to write my little story of what happened. On the first day of the “work stoppage” I missed my ride since I worked late the night before. I ended up trying to take a cab down to my office. I got a cab rather quick but 35 minutes later we had moved less than 20 blocks. It was a mess. When people were walking faster than we were driving I decided to get out of the cab and walk. By this time I was in the mid 70’s (or 60’s I forget). It was dam cold. I ended up walking till the mid 30’s and then I broke down and caught another cab and rode the rest of the way to work. Surprisingly the roads cleared up by grand central station so the 2nd cab got me to work really quick.

I ended up at work by 11AM. Almost no one in my group made it in. That sucked since the powers that be wanted as many people in as they could get. I ended up getting a ride home. it took us an hour and forty five minutes to drive uptown. This trip normally takes me 20-30 minutes on a normal day.

Yesterday (Wednesday) it took an hour to get in. The roads all sucked. I got another ride. I got smart and packed a bag so I could crash at a friends who lived 10 blocks or so from work. Good call since the roads sucked last night. Because of my friends bad back we took a cab to his place even-though it was so close to work. I could have gotten there faster by walking. The traffic was horrible. People giving other people rides home from my office didn’t get home till like 9PM.

I slept and my friends and walked to the office this morning. The strike was over by mid afternoon but since nothing was up and running yet I decided to attempt to walk home. 3rd Ave. was packed till 59th street (i should have stayed on park or madison). I tried catching a cab after 59 (before then wasn’t worth it since I could out-walk most traffic). I had my ipod on and it wasn’t that cold (at first). After 59th street I couldn’t catch a cab until somewhere in the 70’s. I could probably have walked the rest of the way home, but by then I was so tired I paid the $10 since I felt like I couldn’t walk another 5 feet.

I am home now resting. I need to go back to work tomorrow (even though I took off and then was given off for the day) and pick up my overnight bag I left there since I didn’t want to carry it back uptown on foot. Lets hope the rest of the holiday weekend is less eventful.

10:35

by

I did a trip to the “other” office today. Due to return trip train delays I didn’t get back into the city until late. The pouring rain didn’t help. As with most of these trips they are productive, but not in the traditional sense. I get allot done with people, but I usually can’t get any of my own projects done. I did allot of talking with people to see how certain things were progressing, and that is as detailed as I can get.

On the plus side I didn’t get a headache. That is a plus since I tend to get them when I do this trip. I also think I napped a bit on the train home. I had my iPod on and I think I dosed off for a while. I fought not to fall completely asleep, but the trip seemed to end allot faster than it does when I am awake.

Since I had the such a long travel day I got nothing else done on a personal level, unless you count watching some TV I had on my DVR from last night.

If you are wondering the 10:35 is the amount of time elapsed from the time I left on the train this morning until the time I returned back at penn tonight. And yes I got bored on the train and kept track.

Overall a good if not wet day, but I for one will be happy to be back in my office tomorrow.

Budget Surplus?

by

OK, I am a bit confused and pissed off. I read now that the MTA has a budget surplus of 1 billion? Thats US dollars people. Aren’t these the same people that said they were going to have a 400 million plus deficit and they needed to raise fares? This was like a year ago. What is going on? Do they truly have no f–king clue?

I have two opinions on this. 1, if they have such a surplus they could have tried to predict this and well maybe not raised the rates. or not raised them so much? Opinion 2, I understand raising rates (to a point) to not be in debt. If you then later on find yourself having a surplus you should (maybe) use the money wisely, instead of cutting prices for a month or so. How about more trains? Speed up renovation of existing stuff, or expand the system? Did I mention more trains? Or how about putting the money away and save it for the next deficit? I would bet you get some nice interest on a billion dollars.

I am so f–king confused. These are the same idiots that say they had to cut back night and weekend service and they now have a ton of cash. I know I am repeating myself. I am just baffled…

And for some of the riders who commented on the article I link to. Are you FREAKIN crazy. You want a quick $1 back on your ride instead of ensuring the dam system runs in 1-10 years? So short sited. And who was the moron who said “there’s already tunnels to brooklyn so they don’t need more”. Call me crazy, but If it takes you an hour to get through the tunnel durring rush hour, maybe a new one would be a good idea?

There are some real rocket scientists living in this city.

Custom Order!

by

Are you a custom order guy? Or gal? You know the person who orders something off the menu, then changes like 5 things about it. Lets say extra crispy this, hold the that, not allot of this, and cut the crusts off. And then you get upset with staff when they mess up your order that NASA scientists would mess up? If so, get over it. Don’t be like my mom, or Danny and get upset about it. What did you expect?

I have a theory, and it is usually accurate. Well usually. It goes like this, you can make ONE change to any order. After that you are asking for it to be messed up. You want no lettuce and no mayo, ask for no mayo because you can pull lettuce off something. if you ask for both removed you will get both. This theory is except if it is Kai going to BK for me at the drive through! Then no matter how small the change is, they will mess it up. But I digress.

Why I am going off about food order changes? Tonight I have learned (well I knew it already but I let myself believe it was not true) change requests no matter what industry you are talking about cause chaos. Why you may ask? It goes to another theory I have. Well make it a law, it is that certain. It goes like this. 95% of the people out there are stupid. They are. I am not pessimistic. Prove me wrong! Really I want you to!

Today I flew home from Portland. I got to the airport really early so I asked to see if I can fly standby on the earlier flight. They (US Airways) said the earlier flight was booked but they would put me on standby. Boarding time comes around for the early flight and I am in luck, there are extra seats. As they give me my boarding card I ask for the second time “will my luggage get on this flight ok”? I am reasured by the gate agent that she is calling the luggage people right now and it will be taken care of. There was 20+ minutes to departure so no issues. Sure enough we waited on the ground for a while. I figure, plenty of time to put my bag on.

I get to NYC and proceed to get my bag. Well it doesn’t come off the carousel. Why you may ask? Well change is the answer. A simple change like modifying someone’s flight to an earlier one caused the system to be messed up. It was a simple change, one that you would think happens all the time, but it got messed up anyway. You may be saying “Scott, it was just one bag. Maybe they made an honest mistake”. That is a good theory. It gets flushed down the toilet when I tell you a lady with 2 missing bags (and a 2 year old) also lost 2 bags on the same flight for the same reason. The US Airways people called it a communication issue in Portland. I laughed and told them I can’t understand that because the gate agent said they were going to call right as I asked. So either one person is retarded or someone didn’t do their job.

The moral of this story. If I is food or flights, change is just a way of asking for your plans to be messed up.

Oh, and on another note. I do technology for a call center. We go to great lengths to make sure the customer always has choices, and can always get to a live person. it is possible to operate a Call Center like that, so NO ONE should tell me it is ok to have an IVR that does not have any way to get to a live agent. US Airways, a bit of a heads up. If I press 0, I better get a f–king live agent. if I press 0 several times I better get an agent, not an automated response telling me to try back later when I have my proper information. I am going to goto sleep tonight knowing that you are in chapter 11 for a good reason!!!

Yes I am pissed. But the agent at LGA was at least halfway decent, and I did get my luggage 7 hours later. I did however miss returning my Tux, and will have to pay the late fee when I return it.