Long Day

Posted on February 21, 2006 by Carson

We’re finally here in Jamaica, but the trip here wasn’t exactly smooth. After waking up at 3:30 to head to the airport, our flight finally left Chicago around 7AM. So in just over 3 hours we should have been landing in Montego Bay.

As we came close to cruising altitude, the flight attendants started running around attending to something. It wasn’t long before I realized something was going on with a passenger across the aisle from us. Pretty soon they got on the PA and said, “If there is a medical doctor onboard, please identify yourself by pushing the call button above your seat.” Crap.

They moved this guy to the back of the plane and continued to run around. He didn’t really look sick or anything so I couldn’t figure out what was going on. The next thing I Know I felt the plane tilt slightly in the way that can only mean we’ve started a descent. Since they hadn’t announced anything I wondered if maybe we were just changing altitude for some reason, but at the same time I started to get kinda pissed off because I was pretty sure it meant we would be making an emergency landing.

Sure enough, a few minutes later they told everyone that there was a medical emergency onboard and in the interest of the passenger’s safety we were diverting to Atlanta. Double crap.

Keep in mind, we were supposed to be getting breakfast on this flight, and though we’d been in the air about an hour, nothing was served (except first class) because all the attendants were trying to figure out what to do about this guy.

So we finally landed in Atlanta. They told us the passenger needed to deplane and the plane needed to be refueled. So we sit and wait. And wait some more. The passenger gets back on (!) and we wait some more. A refueling truck finally found the plane and around 9:30 we get off the ground.

Around 10AM we finally got our breakfast – 3 hours after we should have been eating and almost 7 hours after we got up. The delay was due to the “health” concerns of one passenger, but after he got back on the plane he seemed to be fine and explained to a few people that he just started to feel really weird and was having trouble moving part of his face. What?

So basically, this guy freaked out at 30,000 feet (was this his first time in the air?) and decided to delay 100 people’s trip to Jamaica for a few hours.

Anyway, after all the waiting, we finally landed in Montego Bay, figured out how to find our transfer flight and made it to Sandal’s Dunn’s River. Still, I’m not really sure we saved anything by spending another $200 to fly closer to the resort rather than take a 2 hour bus ride.

Now it’s Tuesday morning, and we’ve slept for 11 hours and just finished our room service breakfast. We’re about to head down to orientation and figure out what to do with the rest of our day.

Finally!

Posted on February 18, 2006 by Carson

Parts I and II done, just III to go. (That’s photos, ceremony and reception.) See you after Jamaica!

Brrr!

Posted on February 17, 2006 by Carson

The low last night in Albion was -7°; now it’s just after 10AM and it’s still 0°. We’re headed for a forecasted high of 10° tomorrow. So in the spirit of the cold weather, I thought I’d post some pics from the Calvin and Hobbes Snowmen tribute. Then I realized that all the pics I had are on my desktop at home which is shut off because we’re gone for two weeks. So that link will have to do. (I’ll try to post the full set another time.) Enjoy!

Edit: No, I’m not nervous. Just tired of waiting around.

On the Road

Posted on February 15, 2006 by Carson

Writing from Des Moines. Three days ’til the wedding and five ’til Jamaica!

Surprise

Posted on February 1, 2006 by Carson

After we clenched a playoff spot last week, we came back again with a sub for a different one of our regulars. He helped us jump out to an early lead in our division. He’s a better bowler than all of us, so I was joking around with Chris that I was going to try to beat him in the third game. And suddenly I started hitting the pocket every time. Before I knew it, we were in the 8th frame and I hadn’t missed a pin yet (5 strikes and 3 spares). I left the 9th open, but managed to spare in the tenth to finish with a 204 – my first ever game over 200 and one pin over Chad. As a team we were only 6 pins under a scratch win. Rock on!

Jon Stewart on TWiT

Posted on January 26, 2006 by Carson

Even the TWiTs loves this guy; they all agree he should be getting as much money as Leno or Letterman. They even invited him to be on the podcast. How sweet would that be?

We Rock

Posted on January 25, 2006 by Carson

Despite our best efforts, my bowling team held out to stay in second in our division and clinch a spot in the playoffs. I also had a pretty good night with an average just over 150 (throwing a hook for the second week in a row!). That oughta add another pin to my overall average.

It’s getting hard to concentrate at work. I’ve been working on the same project for almost 2 months now and I really don’t know what I’m doing. Unfortunately it’s priority one, so I can’t really distract myself with much else unless my customers have problems. As you might have guessed, they’ve been strangely quiet now that I’d welcome something to do. Add to all this the fact that there’s less than three weeks now before Amber and I head for Nebraska then later onto Jamaica, I’m not getting much done.

Oh, and Lost was good, although a little strange. I’m probably in the minority here, but I felt sorry for Charlie and thought Locke was an ass for one of the first times in the show. Was it really necessary to punch Charlie in the face at all, let alone 3 times?

Lies

Posted on January 25, 2006 by Carson

I really enjoyed this article about DRM:

Here is the problem, every DRM infection is unique, patented, copyrighted, copywronged, and DMCAd ad nauseum, They protect their code in every way possible, and make it so you have to get their approval to use it. This is all done under the guise of protecting content, but that is a lie. If you are going to steal content, do you think violating another copyright on the DRM mechanism will make you lose more sleep? Not a chance.

If you are a rival company though, you can’t really violate such things and get away with it for long, Sony, MS and most people swiping GPLd code are proof of that. So, you have to license it to play ball, or at least play music and movies. That is the true nature of DRM infections, to keep other big greedy companies out.

This guy gets it. It’s not about the content and it’s not about consumers. It’s about competition, and in this case more competition is not better for us.

Trilogy

Posted on January 24, 2006 by Carson

At work we’ve got some discussion folders that give lots of a people a chance to waste time when they should be working. I’m kind of surprised they still exist with over 2000 employees, but you won’t hear me complaining. Today I was reminded why the Back to the Future movies are some of my most favorite ever.

Marty went into the past the first time accidentally when he was being chased by the Libyans, and he was sent back to 1985 by Doc from 1955. Then he and doc and Jennifer went into the future to fix the future (because apparently they couldn’t just put it on a to do list), then they went back to 1985, but it was altered, so they figured out that they had to go back to 1955 to fix the evil 1985 that future Biff made when he gave young Biff the Gray’s sports almanac, then Doc accidentally got struck by lightning and went to 1885, then Marty found the time machine in a cave and went back to 1885 to get Doc, then Marty and Jennifer went back to the regular (more or less) 1985 and the Delorean was crushed by a train, then Doc came to 1985 after he had apparently converted a steam engine into a time machine with the 1885 equivalent of today’s technology.

If ever there were an airtight plot, that’s it.

I love how he fit that all into two sentences. Seriously though, the DVD trilogy with special features is awesome. And who doesn’t love Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly?

Lights and Sounds