Life: May 2004 Archives

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.

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.

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.