Andy's Blog

Delayed

So, I was supposed to be on a 7:15 flight from O'Hare to San Francisco, but United has given me (and a whole bunch of other people) the old stinky "once again", and my flight isn't scheduled to leave until 9:10. Of course, this couldn't change, as the gate that I'm at, C25 (in case anybody wants to look me up) is supposed to service a LAX first. Of course, that flight isn't even here yet, so either I'm up for another gate change (2 so far and counting), or even more delays.

I must say, I was shocked when I found that the flight was delayed, because I haven't had a snafu like this in a long time. I've been flying a lot more since I moved out to the Bay Area, and this is the first time that I've encountered a serious delay. I think that since the amount of air travellers has dropped in the post-9/11 world, on-time performance has increased. But of cousre, there is no accounting for mother nature...

I also missed out on an earlier flight by one passenger, all because I "flinched". I was standing in line at gate B5, and they made an announcement saying that the plane was full, and that I should just go to my ticketed gate. So, I made haste over to gate C13 (which is a good walk at O'Hare), and the woman there told me that there was in fact room on the gate B5 flight, and that I should go back over there and get put onto the standby list. So, another brisk walk and line wait later, and I just missed getting on. Dang. That's what I get for listening to people.

-Andy.

NYC gets an enema

Saw "The Day After Tomorrow" with the family on Saturday. My dad and I were all about it, and so the women folk had to suck it up and go along with the flow. But as it turns out, the movie wasn't that bad. I mean, the reviews for it haven't been super positive, but I think that for what it was -- a disaster movie, it certainly delivered, and kept me & mine entertained.

I liked that there was no wacky scheme involving nuclear warheads that could tame mother nature. Instead, the bad weather was coming, and all that could be done is to save as many as possible. I think that's a better way to handle a disaster movie, then the "nuke 'em all" approach favored by NBC's "10.5" (which Anjali and Kevin forced me to watch, ug).

-Andy.

Sometimes, I miss CWRU

So, I'm spending my memorial day weekend in Chicago with my family (mostly -- more on that later). In reclaiming my room, my mom rounded up some stuff that I left behind in the midst of my move to California, and my mission this weekend is to sort through it, and determine what can be donated to charity, tossed, or what I'm going to force them to keep for me. One of the found items is a scrapbook that was given to me, which contains a number of really good pictures.

So, I've been jamming on the scanner and photoshop today, trying to digitize these memories for presentation. Some of them I'm just going to e-mail out, but others I'm going to blog about -- if I can remember the story behind the pictures.

And in order to do this thing right, we've got to start out with a bang:

One year (I think maybe after my Sophomore), my dad and Sara came out to pick me (and my stuff) up from school. I think that they actually stayed a few days, and we did the whole Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thing, as well. Anyways, my dad brought his handtruck with him (which he uses to take out the garbage cans, btw) in order to make the moving process somewhat easier. He brought it over on the first day, and left it in Storrs with me that night, while he and Sara stayed in a hotel.

Well of course, if something like that is left within reach of Chris and Steve -- you know that wackiness is going to ensue. I believe that we all took turns ferrying each other around, but I can't remember if we did stairs or not. At one point though, we did try to determine how many magazines it would take in order to balance Steve on the thing:

(my count: 25)

The point of this post: sometimes, I miss my days at Case. Especially when I come across memories like these.

-Andy.

Why I don't (yet) own an iPod

By this point, those that know me pretty-much know that I'm an Apple fan. But one thing that keeps surprising people who find this out about me is that I'm an Apple fan, but yet, I don't own an iPod. While there is no denying that the iPod is great, there are a couple of reasons why I don't own one:

1. I already have a Sony MiniDisc player, which unfortunately, is still working pretty well. I've had it for about 5 years now, so I've built up a decent library of home-recorded MDs. Also, the battery life of the internal NiMH battery is still surprisingly good -- at least 6 hours per charge.
2. I have the whole music thing covered at work, by plugging headphones into my work PC and running iTunes.
3. I have the car thing covered, with the 10 disc CD changer in the trunk
4. I'm not mobile enough anymore -- back in College, I used to do a lot of solo walking. But now with the whole work/South Bay thing happening, my walking time is kept pretty much to trips to and from the car. Certainly not enough to justify being wired for sound.
5. I don't travel all that often -- probably at most 4 - 5 trips per year.

So, in a nutshell, there you have it. Maybe if just one of those factors were different, I could justify buying an iPod. Or, if the MD solution annoyed me more (I could definitely see that when I travel, the iPod would conserve bag space -- I wouldn't need to carry extra MDs, or the bulky charger). But for the time-being, I'm just going to stick with my MD player. Unelss of course, I crack and buy a mini....

-Andy.

Quasi (a.k.a. The Janet Weiss Showcase)

So, I went to the first of two back-to-back Sleater-Kinney concerts this evening, and Quasi was the opener. Janet Weiss, is pulling double-duty playing drums for both Quasi and Sleater-Kinney -- and simply put, she is amazing. I mean, no offense to Sam Coomes, but he could have just been on stage beating his head with a cowbell and Quasi still would have played a good set -- Janet is just that good.

Unfortunately, the #1 drummer spot in my life is currently taken (Danny Carey, of Tool). But every time I see Janet perform, I am more and more impressed. She is really, truly, gunning for that #1 spot...

-Andy.

lacking

So, how about the lack of updates around here? Well, there are a couple of reasons for that. For starters, last week was a total wash. I (along with pretty much everyone else in my group) was sent to training over at Tibco, for the entire week. The first three days were spent learning their new product, "Business Works". The last two were more technical, learning how the Tibco adapter SDK works.

Anyways, the point being, that it was a really exhausting week. And of course, now that we have all taken a giant gulp from the Tibco kool-aid, we have to immediately launch into a quick-to-market project with an insane deadline.

But not only is work being, well, a bunch of work, but other stuff is happening as well. For starters, Sara moved out about a month ago, deciding that the job thing wasn't happening out here, and that it was time to move back home and give the Chicago thing a try again. So, now I've got a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment to myself, which is really a waste. So, I'm doing the whole "trying to find a roommate" thing. Which, so far, is not going well at all. So much for the fabled craigslist.

So, it's increasingly looking like I'm going to be moving out of here sometime in the next month, into a one bedroom. Since everybody knows how much I don't like moving, you know that I'm excited.

Oh, and I've been buying far too many video games recently (though that doesn't exactly translate to me playing them, but I'm close), and I'm going to get into comics again (damn that Joss Whedon! Plus, Claremont and Davis doing Uncanny!?!? I'm not made of stone here, people!). So, I'm thinking no girlfriend until 2005, Mike's Orkut gesture be damned.

-Andy.

"My Heart Will Always Be The B-Side To My Tongue"

This is the new EP/DVD release from Fall Out Boy. I happened to get mine in the mail today, because I pre-ordered it a couple of weeks ago. According to Sara, it doesn't come out until Monday, but somehow, the upgraded shipping really paid off (I guess the USPS now has time-travel capabilities). And of course, being the swell older brother that I am, I called her up and rubbed it in that I got my copy, while hers has yet to arrive.

Anyways, I checked out the DVD a little bit (while Kev and I were waiting for Anjali to arrive), and it seems okay. But I just spun the EP, and it is great -- all filled with acousticy-Stumphy-greatness. I heartily recommend that you buy it.

-Andy.