Category: daily tedium

I’ve got an airline cold… one of those horrible colds you get from breathing recycled air for hours on end. So, no pics yet, but they’re coming. Not only is my hosting provider having database availability problems, iPhoto decided to truncate my photo library again. Why does this happen, Steve Jobs, why? I didn’t do anything to it, half my pictures just disappeared. The files are still there, but they don’t show up in the application. And don’t even think about importing them. That’ll never work. It just sits there with no status messages and churns.

I don’t think I want to go on any more trips for a while.

I’m not going to talk about my full day of meetings until later, when/if other folks start talking about it. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

I do want to talk about the other stuff that happened today. We split up today to tackle different stuff, so some of went to the day-long meetings, and some of us went and did something else. I had fish tacos for lunch, and that made me happy. Tonight, I’m all alone. Everyone’s either in the city staying at a different hotel, or they’re going home tonight. So, I’m here tonight all alone with no car until tomorrow morning when my brother comes and picks me up.

I walked down the street to Satsuma Sushi and had a lovely scallops and mushroom appetizer,and then a combo with teriyaki salmon and nigiri (tuna and yellowtail). I sat there by myself reading the copy of The Smithsonian Magazine I brought with me on the trip and longed for some form of conversation. After dinner, I went off looking for a movie theater. I walked about a mile down El Camino Real, aaaa-aaall the way to Sunnyvale and no luck. So I walked through an audio/video store, and then walked the mile back to the hotel. Here I am, mail checked, blogs read, sitemeter glanced at and listening to CNN in the background. I am officially bored.

To display the depths of my boredom, I bring you a pet peeve. Why are hotel glasses so freaking small? It’s only slightly bigger than a shot glass, and is a pretty crappy way to try to rehydrate. I might as well drink from the sink or from the ice bucket (now there’s an idea…). Listen up, hotels of America, we demand bigger drinking glasses! 12 ounces or nothing!

This switching time zones thing sucks. I woke up at 6:30 local time and was unable to get back to sleep. Thank goodness for in-room (and free) broadband. Good job, Hilton! Ok, it’s not really high-speed, but it’s faster than my modem and that’s good enough for me. It was weird staying in a hotel room all by myself. I had such a hard time getting to sleep, that I got X2 on pay-per-view and fell asleep about the time Logan/Mystique made his way down the causeway (that’s the last thing I remember anyway) about 11pm local time (2pm EST – which means I was awake for almost 20 hours… I’m too old for this). Last night, we went to dinner with a bunch of folks who worked on the Journals product at The Tied House, a local prew pub. I got to mark off one of my goals of the trip – real fresh Pacific King Salmon. If you’re used to the Atlantic stuff… you’re missing out. It was perfect.

Yesterday also marked the loss of my In-and-Out Burger virginity. Their fries suck, but their burgers are fast-food-greasy-artery-clogging splendor. Now I know what I’m missing, and couldn’t be more upset that we don’t have one in VA. We went to Google yesterday for a meeting I can’t talk about because I signed an NDA, which is pretty cool. When you go to Google and sign in as a visitor on their groovy little setup, you sign an NDA before it prints out your visitors badge. I want one for work! I’d be a different visitor every day.

Today is a full day of meetings that I might be able to talk about later, but I’m not sure. If I talk about them later, you’ll know.

Since I was up so early, I couldn’t resist posting a couple Sidekick mirror shots on my mopho album.

I’m in California, and after a two hour delay waiting for a new plane, we made it here, and we’ve already had two cool meetings. It’s 9pm EST and I’m all airplane-slimey. I need dinner, a shower, a massage and a nap.

And tomorrow is another day full of meetings. I have a great job!!

I was going to go to bed early, but I decided instead to start packing. Other than things I needed this morning, and will need tomorrow morning, I’m all packed! I have snacks and reading material for the plane, clothes for most contingencies (jeans, shorts, t-shirt, hawaiian shirt, respectable dress shirt) and all in a carry-on and my laptop backpack. Can you tell I’m a little excited about this trip?

I’m going to the Bay Area this week, leaving bright and early Wednesday morning, and coming back on the Red Eye Saturday night. I’m stoked to be able to spend some time with my brother and his pregnant wife, hopefully my old pal Daws and do some siteseeing. Oh yeah, I’ll be there for work, but that’s really only Wednesday and Thursday (maybe some of Friday). I started a list of things to make sure I pack:

• clothes:
  • jeans

  • hawaiian shirts

  • t-shirts

  • underpants

  • socks

  • pj’s

  • shorts

• batteries for camera and cd player

• digital camera

• MP3 CD Player for the plane

• MP3 CD for the plane

• The Orange Book

• Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets

• Sidekick and recharging cord

• Powerbook

• Atom docs (if I can find some to print out)

• Mom’s box o’ stuff for Tim impending daughter

I think that’s it. I went out this weekend and bought a laptop backpack, because I realized that lugging my bulky old laptop case around NYC was a royal pain in my back. The backpack is light, has lots of cool pockets and should hold all my digital and analog entertainment for the plane-ride.

Sick, I am. Sick like a dog who’s sick. Sick like a joke that’s sick. I’m feverish, fatigued and unfortunately at work. I took Tuesday off, went home early yesterday to sleep, but here I am today, like a trooper. I’m sure I’m infecting everyone. I read an article in this month’s Smithsonian about the West Nile Virus, and now I’ve got all the symptoms. Am I a hypochondriac? Was I just in line to get sick? What’s wrong with me?

My goodness, is it hot in here? I wish I had a thermometer…

I have an admission to make. I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I’ve read the four other books too. I enjoyed all of them. I am no ashamed. I’m a little by all the rancor over adults liking the books. They’re books. Yes, they’re written simply, but the story is a lot of fun, and the characters are very engaging. What’s wrong with enjoying that? Simple stories well told are nothing to be ashamed of enjoying. Why do you think people like Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz? There’s nothing terribly complex or hard to understand in either story, yet they’re considered classics.

Now that I’m done defending my appreciation for the series… let’s talk about the latest one. It’s dark. It’s pretty depressing, especially for a “children’s book”. One of my favorite things about the books is that they’re written for the age group equivalent to Harry’s age in the book. The author did a great job capturing the failings of fifteen year-old boys perfectly. Harry was uncouth, akward and everything else boys are at that age – trying to be manly while still being childish, exploring their limits and rebelling against authority (although that’s been a theme throughout the series). As I was reading this one, I kept thinking to myself that Ms. Rowling should just leave the poor kid alone for a chapter. Let something good happen to him. This book is obviously the ominous third act in the series.

I enjoyed it though. Even though I kind of got tired in the third quarter of the book with all the things that happened to Harry, I kept going because the pace of the writing demanded it. It was a great ride… and better written than most “thrillers in paperback” on the market. It’s nothing to be ashamed of if you liked the books. They’re good stories. I wish there were more good stories out there.

I can only run on anger for so long. Being angry wears me out. I’m going to listen to True Dreams of Wichita and Screenwriter’s Blues before I go get my hair cut at 6:30 at night after an eleven hour day at work. Why am I getting my hair cut? I’m going on my first real business trip tomorrow. It’s a short trip, leaving Dulles at 8:45am and leaving LaGuardia at 4:30pm. I don’t expect to even have time to get a NY street pretzel or an authentic piece of NY Pizza. I’ll hopefully be able to tell you all about it after it’s over. And if I can’t, you’re welcome to guess.

Did you know it’s 5am and you are listening to Los Angeles?