as our good city lays still

In Seattle. No Firebirds up here either. I am not real good at the touristy stuff because I hate big cities and mobs of people and stupid one way system roads in a tight grid. Fortunately I am not listed as a driver on the rental so I am barred from driving the stupid SUV. GPS navigator is a fun change.

Got a book about car modifications - kind of interesting because they have to explain how everything works before they start talking about how to screw it all up. Wish I could get a disc brake conversion done on the Malibu's rear wheels but probably doesn't even exist. Might look into doing something with the air intake though - that looks like the easiest thing to do.

Didn't get internet set up before we were out and about for the day, so still pulling down the latest Top Gear. No cables with me so I will probably just watch it myself...the laptop should be able to convert it for iPod though.

2008

2008 has not been kind so far. My computer got bogged down with some nasty malware, my diploma still hasn't come in the mail.

The worst offender by far though is Southwest Airlines, notably their Chicago branch. They caused my flight to be late out of Detroit, then they told me I only had 10 minutes to catch my connection, then the connection sat on the ground for an hour waiting for luggage to be loaded, the plane ended up having some loser with a peanut allergy on board so nobody was allowed to eat anything, and then when I finally got to Portland my luggage was still in Chicago.

The luggage office told me my stuff would be on the first flight to Portland the next morning, but as it turns out they can't find their asses with both hands so my bags were still MIA last night until 11PM when they tried calling me to say they turned up, even though I had gone to bed at 9 because I am still jet lagged. Southwest then tried putting my luggage on a midnight delivery truck so I have a voicemail from some Russian truck driver at 2AM wondering where I was. I appreciate their urgency but that was a little silly.

if all goes as planned

Travel day today. I expected things to be crazy getting to the airport but it was only usual work traffic. Southwest has changed their boarding system and I like it, although I would have gotten even better priority if the network at work had not been in the process of crashing when I was trying to check in. The first leg of my journey was from PDX to Kansas City. For some reason I picked a window seat that had no window, so I got to stare at the wall for three hours. I discovered Kansas City has an inane system where every five gates gets their own security zone, so I had to go back through security. They had some Jags littered about the place, I was hoping to see an XF but they were just XJs. The next flight was a hop to Chicago, which apparently was besieged by advisory-level fog but we got in and out with no issue. I didn't even get off the plane because it continued straight on to Detroit.

contents under pressure

I arrived in Detroit at an ungodly hour this morning in bad shape but still in one piece. Recently I've been suffering a sort of head cold that changes its symptoms every day. Presumably only an illness as polymorphic as this could make it past my robust immune system. On Saturday I had a sore throat, stuffy nose and addled brain, on Sunday this had turned into a runny nose and a lack of energy. And today? Sinus pressure and I lost my voice for a little while. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

The sinus pressure, combined with some ham-fisted cabin pressure control on the behalf of a Northwest Airlines crew, caused me some grief during the final approach to Detroit. I had horrible earaches for the last 15 minutes before touchdown and even a bit of shooting pain in my forehead. And then my ears didn't pop when I got off the plane. In fact they didn't pop until I got home an hour later, sat in the hot tub and set about purposefully trying to mess with the pressures in my head. I got it mostly right and then gradually equilibrated over the rest of the day. Flying on a plane should not require that you recalibrate your head afterwards.

One of the first orders of business once I regain my health and coherence is to reformat my computer, which has gone over a year on one installation of Windows. I broke some stuff quite a few months ago and it's kind of jury-rigged together at the moment.

So yeah, I'm back in Michigan for a few weeks. So if anyone else is around, drop me a line and I'll see when I can swipe some wheels.

2002 Pontiac Solstice Coupe Concept

Llast night I managed to repair my old MP3 player, the one that also acts like a USB drive. So I can hook it up to my PS2 again. Which means I can take pictures of my Gran Turismo 4 cars once again. Of course the first subject is the Pontiac Solstice, which I finally won after I'd broken the USB drive. The only reason I'm not taking pictures of cars all day is that I'm on my way back to Michigan - I'm in Portland's airport right now.

it's the last major festival dance-wise of 1999

Spaghettios have never tasted as good to me as they do now. I have been subsisting on token airplane foods all day. I think my proper lunchtime occured when I was in the air. I fully intended to get a good meal for lunch/dinner in Las Vegas, but their food court was closed! Then I was going to get a good meal in Portland waiting for the shuttle bus, but the plane out of Vegas was over an hour late, so I barely caught the shuttle. Which takes another two hours to get to Corvallis. So now I am eating whatever is left in my cupboards, which is all my canned foods.

I killed time on the planes today by rereading The Cardinal of the Kremlin. It's not Tom Clancy's finest, but it passed the time. Several parts of the book just seem like The Hunt for Red October Part II instead of a new book. I finished the book just as I got on the shuttle, but I had a loaded iPod in reserve.

I went to Fischer's New Year LAN earlier this week. It's been a while since I've been to one of those. I did good in fy_iceworld, my specialty, but not much of that was played. I did like the new mod SourceForts, but it isn't quite polished enough yet. We also played some of Fischer's "Red" mod, which I was awful at because I'd never played it before.

I've also been working my way through Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I have a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, so I'm a happy guy. If I could get a Lamborghini Gallardo I would be set. Freeman doesn't run that game nearly as well as Jim's computer does, which is sad. However my biggest problem was Freeman's keyboard, which has been taking a beating from computer games. So I went out and bought a $10 USB keyboard, and it's definitely much better for gaming. I also have a new USB hub that is much better than the one I had before. I think a wireless keyboard would be even nicer, but I haven't seen any I like yet.

Anyway, travelling sucks, I'm back in Oregon, and I'm going to get some rest.

the seasoned traveller

Yeah, I'm home. Travelling home wasn't too bad, except I finished Snow Crash early in the long and boring flight from Phoenix to Detroit. I did figure out how to get wireless internet in the airports at Portland and Phoenix, and I found out I actually know my way around those airports from previous trips. My flight back in three weeks has a stop in Las Vegas, which I haven't been to yet.

So far haven't had much time to sit and relax since I've been home. I'm still adjusted to West Coast time, so I'm not getting enough sleep. Tomorrow is a family Christmas with my mom's side of the family. I am looking forward to seeing family again, though not the inevitable explanations of what the hell I've been up to in the past few months. I can't quite account for it all myself. Between sleep and being in shock from last term I'm kind of wandering around in a stupor, disconnected from reality. But hey, that's what break is for. Hopefully normal operations will resume next week.

Grad school is just a blur. Being at home is definitely better than being out there. I just want to get my damned degree and come back for good. I am still reading my radar book, and it is in the post-WWII part where basic research resumes and all these graduate students do spectacular things for their theses. Yeah, that's not me. Basically I have to survive the rest of this year, and then next year I start getting classes that actually relate to what I want to do, and then I'm off and running.

Went out shopping a bit today. I'm getting a new cell phone for Christmas because the one I have sucks, but it'll all be worked out so I'll have the same number and whatnot.

preflight

So yeah. I'm flying back to Michigan tomorrow. I am packing now because I put it off until the last minute. I was going to be finished, except by packing my small suitcase inside my larger one (because I don't have a lot to take home) it was more than 50 lb. per bag, which is over their arbitrary limit. Now I have to treat them separately, and I don't have anything to put in the big one. I should fill it with weights. How do you like that, Southwest Airlines? Because of your nonsense limit, you have to do twice as much work.

I am looking forward to being home for the holidays, but not to the travel it requires. Seriously, I have to get up at 5:30 AM tomorrow - a killer for a semi-nocturnal person like me - and I won't get home until midnight. A whole day gone! At least I bought a new book that will keep me distracted - Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, a major cyberpunk novel that I haven't gotten around to reading until now.

I think I forgot and slept through a biodiesel meeting this morning. Oops. I know I still have to do some website work for them, but it'll be easy when I get the time to sit down and do it. I am thinking about moving some of my volunteer time over to Solar Creek though, it's more in line with what I want to be doing.

Concert update: the planets have aligned or something, for The Hard Lessons and The Nice Device will be playing together on Dec. 22 in Ann Arbor. Expect me to be there.

the seasoned traveler

I've had more than enough traveling for a while. I got up at 4:15 AM today. 1 hour drive to the airport. 4 hour flight. 2 hour layover. 3 hour flight. 2 hour drive. And when I pull into my apartment complex, I find that some dumbass has sprawled his huge Ford pickup across my parking space. After all that travel made me cranky, he's lucky I didn't slash his tires or something. Fortunately the owner drove off and I took my rightful place in parking space #5.

So, I'm back in Oregon. I certainly brought a lot of books with me. I think I am going to bed now because I was on something between Eastern time and Pacific time and today's travels have further confused things.

re-strung

I went to the print shop today to talk physics shirts. They told me they'd send details in a day or so. I started looking at colors as well - there won't be blue shirts in this run, but all the other popular colors are making a return. I have been convinced that red shirts would be a good idea (all you, Mikey) and of course green and orange are back. I liked the looks of the yellow and grey shirts last time as well. All of the shirts will be 100% cotton this time - I wasn't happy that last time some of the shirts were 50/50 polyester. This time I'm probably going to replace my 50/50's with full cotton shirts because I like the feel of the cotton shirts better.

I suppose that on today's news I can confirm a third run of Michigan State Physics T-shirts will be made, I don't have specific details yet though. I have to work out a timeline and get the production end running, and Jim has to start working some marketing magic. I'll throw up a website or something when I'm back in Oregon and have details. We're not taking orders just yet, but definitely drop me a line if you're interested.

Tomorrow I'm going over to Ann Arbor to hang out with some friends. I'm going to wear a Michigan State Physics shirt, of course. Tomorrow is also my last full day in Michigan before I fly home. It's very fortunate that I flew Southwest Airlines this time, because Northwest and Delta both went bankrupt this week.

After I return from Ann Arbor I have to pack everything up and get ready for another day on airplanes. I certainly did a good job of raiding my bookshelves - I won't have a shortage of things to read for a while. I'm wondering if I took full advantage of my week back in Michigan, but I think I did all I could for only having one week (especially for only having a car a couple of those days). I kind of want to hang around in Michigan some more, but my five month long summer is over. It was good to hang out with friends at MSU again, but it also felt clear that it's not for me anymore. Time to move on.

I finished watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. I thought the series started off good, then got a little slow in the middle. Then the run up to the climax was pretty awesome, but the final episode was confusing and not quite satisfactory. I enjoyed the series overall though. Now I am trying to find Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. I found out the English version won't be out until November, but I can probably find a Japanese version (subtitled in English) to watch. Penny Arcade claims Advent Children is pure condensed awesomeness. I am inclined to believe it.

I am flying back to Oregon on Saturday morning. Next week is orientation week at Oregon State, and then my classes finally start. It's been a whole five months since I had classes - I am not sure if I am ready, but it's coming anyway. The next time I'll be in Michigan will be December.

home

Well, I'm back in Michigan. My flight from Portland to Chicago was boring (4 hours), and my flight from Chicago to Detroit was stupid. The second flight was tp depart at 2:15 PM local time. They started boarding at 2:00 PM. Surprise surprise, we didn't finish boarding by 2:15, so the flight attendent started getting pushy and telling people to hurry up. (At one point: "We were supposed to pull out of here 23 seconds ago!") So everybody finally gets boarded, when I look out the window and see...the luggage guys pulling up. Yes, they did not get around to loading luggage until after the scheduled departure time.

And yet, we still got into Detroit ahead of schedule. Padding time is fun and easy!

So, for the next week I am bumming around in Michigan. I am going to start by going out to the hot tub.

I got sick of MSU's email crashing so I had Fischer hook me up with some Gmail invites. My new email is shanks.jon@gmail.com. I may or may not start using that as my default account, we'll see how it works.

Edit: I messed up my internal clock so I may well be on Eastern time this week. However, it's hard to remember that everybody is on the same time as I am now, and not three hours ahead.

the oregon trail

the center of the universe

Apparently the center of the universe is in Idaho. Who knew?

Mount Rushmore

the jolly green giant

In Minnesota, someone has gone to the trouble of erecting a 55' statue of the Jolly Green Giant.

tune-up

My car is now all set for the trip to Oregon. I got the oil changed, the brake pads replaced and the air conditioning works again. Add to that the Rain-X and new windshield wipers, and the Malibu is in fine shape for travel. I am leaving for Oregon on July 2nd or 3rd, we are still finalizing the timing and route.

It was grey and rainy again today, but the rain finally brought cooler weather so we turned off the A/C. The fresh air is nice.

I don't officially have plans for tomorrow, but it's getting close to 2 weeks until I leave for Oregon so I really need to work on apartment stuff and start sorting all of my stuff. Especially since Friday I'm going to be up in East Lansing to have lunch with the guys and Saturday I'm meeting another friend for lunch.

I got Dungeon Siege yesterday, but the fun is already starting to wear off. The game isn't outstanding, and EB Games ripped me off by not giving me the expansion pack when I thought I was buying it packaged with the original game.