| iCal |
[Jul. 6th, 2009|08:30 am] |
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If I just make my iCal full screen (2560x1600), it doesn't seem like I have nearly as much to do. |
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| i'll buy you a drink if you know |
[Jun. 29th, 2009|07:25 pm] |
Why do airlines talk about if you're seated in "the row of seats marked no children this row" rather than the row of seats marked "emergency exit" ? I recognize that the seat backs say "NO CHILDREN THIS ROW," but that is a small label compared to the huge "SALIDA / EXIT" (or "非常口 / EXIT" on CoMike).
They might as well "begin boarding through the door marked BADGES ONLY / NO PIGGYBACKING" rather than "through the door marked E7" |
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| text messages |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|10:10 am] |
bchang (10:08am): iPhone OS 3.0 is so much less annoy
bchang (10:12am): Ing with the SMS status message
dbaker (10:13am): The fact that it took two messages for that is pretty annoying.
and I have no idea what he's talking about. |
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| if it ain't boeing, i ain't going |
[Jun. 19th, 2009|11:36 am] |
I've been dreaming a lot overnight lately, probably for the first time in months. I try to remember my dreams by thinking about them in the morning if I can. Last night's was particularly thrilling to experience.
I was flying in the last row of a Delta MD80 and on the takeoff roll, I realized we were on a road rather than a runway, and we were having to turn with the road and whatnot. Ultimately, we took off and then had a double engine failure a few moments later. I suspected it was due to foreign object damage (the engine sucking on debris on a non-sterile environment) and we ended up gliding to a crash landing. In retrospect, that is rather dubious since the MD80 has tail mounted engines that are so high. But anyway, I opened the back tailcone exit although I was the only one going out that way (everyone used the forward exits).
So, we get on the ground and it turns out that it was all some big conspiracy to try to assassinate this senator that was on board. I was trying to get the truth out about the accident and it was a classic trust no-one type movie plot. And believe me, when you can't trust anyone, it is a logistical nightmare. Especially in a dream.
But the most ridiculous part is that I would never fly on an MD80. |
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| breaking |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|08:17 am] |
I remember in ~2000 when I had CNN's breaking news go directly to my Blackberry so that it could wake me up if they sent an alert out.
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| we're just going to need you to fill out these forms |
[Apr. 9th, 2009|07:59 am] |
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I'm at a doctor's office and, naturally, was presented with multiple forms with lists of ridiculous questions. I neglected to fill out the "age" question that immediately followed the "date of birth" question. They actually bothered to come out and follow-up on my apparent oversight. I gave an age that didn't match the date of birth at all and it was happily accepted. |
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| time flies |
[Apr. 3rd, 2009|05:17 pm] |
It seems like a year or so ago when a busy week at FlightAware would have been 40 phone calls, 50 emails, and 2 million page views.
Wrapping things up today, I glanced at our stats for the week -- the phone system said it did shy of 700 phone calls, corporate mail system passed 800 emails, and page views are close to 20M.
I think my recollection may have been from more than a year ago. |
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| classic |
[Mar. 19th, 2009|11:23 am] |
Pure gold. Somehow it's funnier than if they were just next door.
Photo credit: Christine Sullivan |
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| drive-by proselytizing |
[Mar. 17th, 2009|09:24 am] |
At a stoplight last night, some guy in a car next to me asked me what I was listening to.
"A CD I made," I replied.
"You've got a radio in there, right," he asked?
"Yeah."
"Tune it to 89.3."
"Why?""
"It's just a really good station, man," he said as the light turned green and he drove off.
Sure enough, I flip to 89.3 and it's some kind of christian rock (easy listening according to Jennifer) station. I listened for probably 7 minutes before I'd had enough of it.
I thought whatever happened was impressive. He actually got me to take some action that resulted in me listening to propaganda or whatever it was I was listening to. Jennifer thought it was totally ineffective since the ultimate (perceived) goal was ineffective.
I wonder if he does that at every light. Or was I special? Oh, if you're wondering -- driving with the top down apparently says to every other driver, street corner peddler, and person walking on the sidewalk that you're open to any arbitrary conversation whenever possible. And apparently it's true. |
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| no offense, but . . . |
[Mar. 17th, 2009|09:19 am] |
I like the expression, "I know you're not trying to hear this, but . . ."
It's the exact same thing as, "I know you don't want to hear this, but . . ." with one critical exception -- the blame is now on the listener rather than the speaker.
In the traditional case (don't want to hear this), the speaker is apologizing for saying something the listener doesn't want to hear.
In the crafty and more ridiculous case (not trying to hear this), it's the listener's fault that the speaker is saying something that will probably be offensive or annoying.
Why am I writing about this? Some guy said it to my friend Shonali at a bar about three years ago and it's never ceased to amuse me. |
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| trip report |
[Mar. 6th, 2009|01:38 pm] |
90 minutes into the vacation.
1) jennifer's diet coke blew up in the car
2) minor road rage alteraction
3) terminal C parking closed
4) forgot camera in car, went back and got it
5) jennifer forgot her blackberry
6) security lady bitched at me
now at the p club, off to socal in ten! |
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| dude, how does half of .7 equal 1.4? |
[Feb. 23rd, 2009|09:10 am] |
| jl | OK,what's the most important rule for burning candles during dinner? |
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| db | Don't burn the house down. |
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| jl | No. |
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| db | OK, tell me. |
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| jl | It's that you don't want to smell them. |
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| db | Oh. |
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| db | I really think it should be -- don't burn the house down. |
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| jl | OK, that can be number one. |
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| One thing is certain: true visionaries will continue to fly |
[Feb. 12th, 2009|08:16 am] |
Orders for business jets nose-dived after lawmakers pilloried leaders of Detroit's Big Three auto makers for flying corporate planes to Washington to seek a government bailout. Now, one jet maker is striking back.
In a campaign to begin Wednesday, Cessna Aircraft Co. will run an ad that says, "Pity the poor executive who blinks," and gets rid of the company jet. "One thing is certain: true visionaries will continue to fly."
. . .
Companies have long argued that it makes no sense to pay CEOs millions of dollars only to have them waste time in airport lounges while flying commercial. "Do you really want a major executive to show up three hours late to a big meeting because of flight delays?" said Robert Baugniet, director of corporate communications for General Dynamics Corp.'s Gulfstream Aerospace, which makes some of the higher-end jets.
The Big Three executives blinked, and disbanded their jet fleets. By the time the Super Bowl rolled around on Feb. 1, the private-jet stigma had become so intense that some companies chose to fly their jets to Orlando, Fla. and drive to Tampa, rather than face scrutiny for living large, even if they could argue that executives were entertaining clients who might be worth millions of dollars in business.
The jet makers were unprepared for the backlash from Middle America. The irony, they say, is that many of the blue-collar layoffs at Cessna, Gulfstream and Hawker Beechcraft Corp. have been in places like Wichita, Kan., and Dallas.
In its ad, scheduled to run in national publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Cessna says "Timidity didn't get you this far. Why put it in your business plan now?" Instead of retreating, the company argues, companies should adjust and make sure they are flying the right type of aircraft. (Full Article) |
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| non-sequiturs |
[Dec. 22nd, 2008|09:09 am] |
Jennifer and I were at the Houston Galleria yesterday and although it was busy, the whole place was running well. All the retailers definitely were prepared for the rush and had it all under control with one exception -- Radio Shack's computers were down. Seriously. Of all places, it's really no surprise. I needed an optical cable. It took three or four different employees to point us in the right place. One explained he couldn't help because he was, "busy getting the system back up." Either way, I expected to pay about $5 but they were charging $35. I asked if they had any ones that weren't a scam, but the girl working there said they were out of those.
For the first time ever, I made it to work without getting a single red light. Previously, the light to get out of my neighborhood was timed so that I'd never make the next light, but I guess it's a Christmas miracle!
The alarm in my car for "flat tire" is basically the same as the "it's approaching freezing outside, drive carefully" alarm. It reminds me of how in Garmin G1000 equipped aircraft, there's an aural alarm for a potentially imminent collision with another aircraft -- it yells "Traffic! Traffic!" into the pilots' headsets. This is a critically important alert. However, when the traffic information service is unavailable, it tells you that traffic is unavailable. Unfortunately, they use the same recording of the woman saying "Traffic!" for that word in "Traffic! not available." My heart rate doubles when I hear "Traffic!" and jerk my head to the traffic display before hearing the voice continue calmly with, "not available." Karl says it'd be like screaming "Death! Not imminent."
The power went out for a few hours last night. It was reminiscent of Hurricane Ike, but this time I was prepared with a hand crank LED flashlight and knew where to find all the UPSes that were beeping constantly. |
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| flightaware online support |
[Dec. 18th, 2008|02:03 pm] |
Sara shared one of her chats with me:
The user ended the chat ended immediately. |
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dbaker's journal
