Category: Revelation

Decision time

Ok, it’s nearly time to decide if I’m healthy enough to travel to Ottawa this weekend. I’m feeling better than I did yesterday, the sudafed keeps my nose from stuffing up and the cough seems to respond ok to DM-based cough syrup. But I’ve got pressure behind my eyes which isn’t responding to anything.

I really don’t want to cancel this trip – I told Alyssa that I’d take her snow boarding, and I was looking forward to learning how myself. Originally I told her I’d switch weekends with Liane, but when Liane’s weekend came up I had to help me move into a new apartment. And then when Alyssa’s weekend came up, I had to fly to Chicago for the memorial service. Next weekend is Liane’s weekend again, so this weekend had better be it.

I’m not going to be able to snow-board, but at least I can keep my promise to get Alyssa kitted out in rental equipment and in lessons. I really want to do this, but I’m not sure I can.

Cool toy OTD

The new Google Maps service is very nicely interactive. You can drag maps around with the mouse instead of clicking and waiting for a refresh. Plus the directions search works extremely well, as does the “nearby business” search. Unfortunately it only supports Firefox and other Mozilla-based browsers and IE, but then again why would anybody want a browser other than Firefox?

One interesting quirk – if you ask for directions to ROC (it takes airport identifiers as well as addresses), it gives you directions to the general aviation area at the south end of the field off Scottsville Rd, instead of to the passenger terminal at the north end off Brooks Ave. I’m not sure why that would happen, since a web search for the airport’s name finds my flying club’s web page ranked well below the airport’s own web page, and the airport’s official address is on Brooks Ave, not on Scottsville Rd.

In other news, GMail must be about to come out of beta, because I suddenly have 50 invites to give out, instead of the usual 4-5. If you want a gmail invite, email ptomblin at gmail.com.

Weird flight last night

Last night’s commercial flight from Chicago to Rochester, there were a few strange things:

  • When they said we were over Buffalo, I looked out the window and I swear we were only about 8,000 feet up. I didn’t know jets got such gradual descents.
  • A few seconds before landing, we did a fairly abrupt left turn, about 30 degrees. It looked like it was well inside the outer marker, so I don’t think it was a turn to join the ILS. We landed on 4 and it seemed like we got to the 10-28 runway crossing pretty quickly. I wonder if they accidentally lined up on 7 and realized the mistake and turned to 4 as they crossed it? I hope not, because that would lose them about 3,000 feet of landing room.
  • And as I mentioned earlier, our baggage went missing. It showed up about 9:30 this morning. The agent in Rochester mentioned that over 10 bags missed the flight. Since there were two later direct flights, I’m not sure why our bags didn’t arrive later that night though.

I hate flying commercial.

An oldie but a baddie

One of the headlines in today’s Slashdot:

Your Rights Online: US ISP Terminates Iranian News Website

My first thought: “You’re not missing anything, the whole site was pure shite”.

Ba-da-dum.

Ok, it helps me not obsess over the two fucking annoying SUV drivers (but I repeat myself) who double teamed me when I tried to get into a parking space this morning. You know, if every SUV driver were to vanish from the face of the earth, I don’t think we’d miss them. (Steve Cherry doesn’t count, he drives a mini-SUV (an CRX or Rav4 or Suziki or something of that nature).)