Not Flying High

Random thoughts while cramped in the back of an airplane…

… I’m not really a fan of in-flight Wi-Fi.  First of all, I never did like the name Wi-Fi, but it seemed to be catchy.  I used to travel a lot, and airplanes were, for me, blessed radio silence where I could either catch up on work or even — gasp — read a book.  Now the lure of wireless is too great.  Yes, i still get work finished, but it’s not the same…

… Beyond that, I really did enjoy a few years of not being on the road constantly, and that appears to be threatened.  After being off for a bit, I’ve lost a lot of the status that I used to hate having, but geez it was nice to have.  A friend of a friend commented that he wrote a blog post called “26E,” and I’m down with that (24A if you’re wondering)…

…That said, there’s little that reminds me of God’s glory more than a sunrise over the clouds and mountains from 30k+ feet.  Sure, there are better places to watch the sun rise, but most don’t have the contrast of a crowded seat as compared to the vast expanse of Earthly creation.  It makes me remember that all bad comes for with good… (geez, I really did need coffee)

… They could hurry up with the coffee, though…

… It’s still a bit too early to be surfing for content on the Web.  I’m traditionally an early riser for work, and it still sometimes surprises me when the world isn’t moving at 9AM Eastern…

… I’ll note that someone might have finally figured out that airport security needed a couple efficiency experts to look at it and make the pain a little less.  Maybe it’s just the airports I’ve been hitting, but even busy security is starting to figure out how to keep moving.  All this is said without me having set foot in SFO or LGA anytime recently, and that could make me change my mind…

(adding one) … Speaking of the Bay, I see that their respected scientists are resorting to ethically questionable subterfuge to ensure that any voices against their opinions are discredited.  Yep, that’s science.  Oh, wait, it’s supposed to be the opposite of science.  As an engineer I view ethics as one of the more important aspects of my job (closing an elevator door and taking off an arm would be bad, test that unit!).  What’s the impact on all science when someone so “respected” turns out to have lapses of judgment that make him indistinguishable from some random hack?…

… When DSK first got busted in NY, I was generally in the camp of, “innocent until proven guilty,” and I avoided the somewhat general railing against the rich and entitled.  Well, now he’s in trouble for not being able to, “tell a naked prostitute from a naked worldly woman” (his lawyer’s quote).  First, I (very thankfully) don’t go to parties like that.  Second, I’m beyond innocence and guilt… he’s got someone trying to ruin his political ambitions.  At this point, he appears to mostly be French…

… The sad part is that DSK was probably someone who could have made more sense out of the European Crisis, and now he’s mostly just fiddling while Greece burns…

… Flying Alaska Airlines, by the way.  Not that I got to see the little prayer cards they used to hand out much lately, but it’s still sad that they felt the need to back off the practice.  I was going through a desk drawer yesterday, and I found about 20 of them in a pile from the old days.  I think there’s still one in my bag somewhere, too…

… Coffee’s here.  Time to wake up.