The Idiocy of Air Travel in America

Today's SFO events:

-> A United counter agent calls the SFPD on an international business class traveller
-> TSA takes my last screwdriver

There was a long line for the Premier Executives (and everyone else) in SFO this morning and people were getting frustrated. There was only 3 (up from the usual 2) agents to handle this long line of self-important frequent fliers (myself included). This obviously foreign fellow gets up to the counter (you could tell he was flying on a paid fare business class ticket from somewhere abroad, $$$$) and he says "I've been waiting for 30 minutes, why are there not more people working? What is the hold up?". The snotty agent promptly says, "you should tell management to hire more people, it's not my fault." The guy says, "I'm the customer, I'm the reason you are in business, you should smile and say I'm sorry." The snotty united counter agent calls the SFPD. Can you believe it!? I was shocked. 3 SFPD show up and take the guy aside and talk to him. You think he'll ever fly United again? I guess not.

I've had this screwdriver in my laptop bag for 4 years. Yes, you read it right, 4 years. It's been through more airports than I can count, always coming away unscathed, until it's 2nd visit to SFO. It's not a big screwdriver, about 3 inches long in the shaft, which is metal, and that slips into a plastic handle of about another 2 inches. They searched the bag and took it. I was so sad. It was my last Baypoint Innovations screwdriver. That's the company that was bought and sold and I have fond memories. sniffle, sniffle

Whacky Tourists...

This is Arlene and Dena dressed in their "wacky tourist" outfits. Scary aren't they. This is the first year since, well I cannot remember when, since Dena has dressed up. I have to admit she was very into it and completely in character. Matter of fact she drove us nuts she was in character for so long. Her moniker was Myrtle, sounds like turtle and she was from Miami but originally hailing from NYC. A little scary she had an entire history and life for this character. The shoes certainly make the outfit.

Captcha - What is it?

You've seen it before, probably when buying tickets or what have you. This technology is for preventing automated ticket buying agents or "bots" from buying up all the good tickets from Ticketmaster. The technology is called CAPTCHA and stands for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart". It is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human. A common type of captcha requires that the user type the letters of a distorted and/or obscured sequence of letters or digits that appears on the screen. Because the test is administered by a computer, in contrast to the standard Turing test that is administered by a human, a captcha is sometimes described as a reverse Turing test.

So this technology is being used to prevent a new type of spam, called Splogging. A splog is where an automated program creates a useless spam type blog or website and puts code on it so that google and other search programs will "index" it and think, oh, good web site, make it available to people when they are searching. Splogs have become a major problem on free blog hosts such as Google's Blogspot service. These fake blogs waste valuable disk space and bandwidth as well as pollute search engine results.

Google's Blogspot has provided me with the opportunity to use Captcha to prevent spammers from putting comments on my blog (spam comments). So, if any of you leave comments you'll be asked to enter in the captcha phrase, like on ticketmaster. And thanks for your comments....

Views from the air

I was flying home from Seattle the other day, my home away from home, and a pretty spectacular thing happened. We failed to climb very quickly after take off, but I just ignore anomalies in the air now. The pilot soon came on the intercom & said that we were @ 13,000' and were going to stay there while we flew by Mount Rainier. Well, Mt. Rainier is 14,000' high. So, we'd be just below it. It was on the left side of the plane and the view was stunning. I was so sorry I didn't have my digital camera. The view to the left here in the Blog is sort of what we saw, but in no way captures the image. If there had been a hiker up there, I could have waved at him and him at me & we would have had a moment.

So we're flying along all chatting excitedly on the plane about what we've just witnessed and the pilot comes back on and says he's feeling sorry for the people on the right hand side of the plane. He says he's going to do a flyby on Mount St. Helens. He had climbed to around 20,000' and Mount St. Helens was just below and to the right. Normally when flying over this area of Washington State, Mt St. Helens crater is shrouded in clouds. The pilot literally tipped the plane on it's side and we got a view right inside the crater. We could see the steam coming out of the volcanic vents and the moon like landscape inside the crater, amazing. Then, he did it again. Did you read that? He DID IT AGAIN! What a rare opportunity that United pilot had afforded me. Thanks.

The lives of the rich and not so famous

Dena & I had the marvelous good fortune to end up with dugout club seats. We were in those mysterious blue seats directly behind home plate. What you don't see beneath there is an entire restaurant, catered by Wolfgang Puck. For Sept. 5 they were serving a lovely Honey glazed turkey with a cranberry/apricot sauce, Thyme infused flank steak, a plethora of grilled vegetables, unlimited Dodger dogs, a freezer full of Hagen Daas and much, much more! Too much to list, I don't want any drool on your keyboards.

With Derek Lowe (Dodgers) and Hennessey (SF Giants) on the mound and yummy peanuts in our hands we left the air conditioned comfort of the club and sat in our seats. What a different view and different feeling. You are almost not part of the crowd, but part of the field. The sound is different, you can hear the umpire call the strikes, see the smirks, frowns or smiles on players faces as a ball or strike is called and you can talk trash to the visiting players as they stand in the on deck circle. They can hear every word because you are no more than 5 feet from them. We watched a rookie whose first major league at bat be belittled by several fellows in the blue seats and could almost see him visibly squirm in his uniform.

This was an experience we will never forget. What an amazing view. We still like our seats though! We like to be part of the crowd.

The Falcon

Flickr is an amazing photo web site that you should check out. Spectacular and breathtaking will be words you'll need when you view it.

**** PODing *****

The world of iPods turn me on. I just like the name, the look and the technology of it all. Podcasting, there’s another cool term. Doesn’t it just roll off your tongue like you’re an in the know Gen Xer? Don’t you want to podcast just to say you do it? I’ll bet some of you are wondering what the hell podcasting is? Well the definition is here

Will iPods take over the world? Well probably not that far but they’ll certainly replace your stereo soon enough. Soon we'll just have iPod docking stations around the house and just dock as we go, or, better yet, have speakers around the house and dock when we come in the door. Did you ever imagine 5 years ago that Apple would be saved by what is essentially a MP3 device? Have you seen the iPod Nano? OMG! It’s so cool, why would you buy any other music device? This is not just for the hip or in the knows, this is for everyone that listens to something in their cars or in their ears. You can upload podcasts, ebooks (aka books on tape), music and who knows, probably soon, TV. It’s all right there at your fingertips, literally.

We've come a long way baby

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when opening my hotel room door I saw a picture of Melissa Etheridge on the cover of the USA Today. She had a teaser spot on the front page for a story in the Life section. I quickly flipped to the LIFE section, careful not to let anyone see me in the hall.......and there she was, on the cover of USA Today's Life section. I thought how enjoyable, I'll read that later. You can read it now at this link.

I had thought this would be an article about her breast cancer and perhaps a new album; what I was surprised about when I did read the article was that it was mostly about her wife (self described by Melissa) and her family and her breakup and her new outlook since the cancer. Her lesbian relationship and her family were prominent story features.

If you happen to pick up the USA Today you should also note that the article below it, "stop if you've read this before" is an article by a fellow about reading glasses and getting older. The surprise in the article is the male author's casual mention of his partner as if it was normal. Don't you love being normal. It's been a long time since gays and lesbians were normal, ok, never...... I've always wanted to be just another person in the scheme of things and not someone who has to fight for rights. Hopefully this mainstreaming trend will allow people (the normal ones) to think of us as just like them with lives, loves and sorrows.

You ever wonder.....

I wonder why my urine smells after I eat Asparagus. Don't you? Well, I've found out why and thought I'd share it with all of you. Asparagus is considered one of the most nutritionally balanced foods out there. It's filled with sulfur-containing amino acids that break down during digestion into six sulfur-containing compounds. These can impart a unique smell to urine as they are excreted. "It's the same sulfur group that makes skunks smell," said Barbara Hodges, a dietician with Boston University's nutrition clinic, the Evans Nutrition Group.

Why don't I smell it you ask? Scientists remain divided on why people have different urinary responses to eating asparagus. One camp thinks only about half of the population have a gene enabling us to break down the sulfurous amino acids in asparagus into their smellier components. Others think that everyone digests asparagus the same way, but only about half of us have a gene that enables us to smell the specific compounds formed in the digestion of asparagus.

The unusual smells are nothing to worry about, though. According to the Dictionary of Medical Syndromes, which includes an entry on the urinary excretion of odoriferous components of asparagus: "The syndrome does not have any pathological significance

Johnny Carson memories

Tonight's Emmy award's tribute to Johnny Carson brought back many memories for me. I remember in the late 80's taking my gramma to see him. We stood in line at NBC and it wasn't really that hard to get in unless he had someone really quite famous as a guest star on. I really wanted to take gram there because she watched him every night. It was a lot of fun seeing Johnny even if we were in the cheap seats....

Then I remember taking my sister, mom and brother-in-law Ian to see Jay Leno. We were not early enough to get a good place in line. Jay Leno was very popular and we were pretty near the cut off for what the studio could hold. Krystal really wanted to sit in the coveted "woody's". These are/were seats that Jay puts all the good looking girls in and they are at the front of the studio. You see, Jay wants good looking women in the front row seats for him to look at. As they were letting people in and the flood was turning to a trickle, they started counting empty seats, we were next.

The seat filler took one look at Krystal and put her in the woody's. She later said they were quite uncomfortable. Ian and my mom got a seat and they said I could have a seat later in the show after the gorilla vacated mine. Isnt' that wierd, "oh me, well I have to sit in the green room because a gorilla is in my seat". Yeah, there's a wierd statement. However, how many people can say they have sat in the green room of the Jay Leno show? For those of you not in the know, the green room was made famous by Carson and is traditionally where guests wait before being called to the stage.

Pony Rides.....

Off we went to Griffith Park to try out hand at the Pony rides. Mom decided to put Grace on the Pony that goes around in circles because Krystal could walk beside her. She thought Grace would be nervous. No way! After that little ride Grace wanted to go on the other horses, the ones where Mom couldn't walk beside her. As you can see by the picture here Grace did perfectly fine and seemed to completely enjoy herself. A well spent $2 investment.

Building a bear with Love

Gramma, Auntie Dawn and Grace went off to Build-a-bear while Mom shopped. Here is Grace warming & kissing a heart to go in her new bear. The bear is called Beach Bear Bob. He has a nice red hawaiian shirt and matching red hat and some stylish Californian sandals. Hang loose baby! It's hard to believe Grace is only two.

Grace our little Hollywood Star

Our little Hollywood star is here in her new Barney shirt and hat that Auntie Dawn and Dena bought her. Mom is a little mad cause she won't take it off! I love being an Aunt!

Landscaping the Backyard - AFTER

After a long series of small but significant project in the backyard, it's finally finished. I highly recommend 4sod.com as a source of extremely reasonably priced Marathon sod. We purchased the IIe variety as it is specially bred for Southern California. The backyard now has a richer feel and inviting alure to it. When's the next party you ask??

Landscaping the Backyard - BEFORE

After we put in cedar chips around the flower beds, added lights & the scalloped edging, we were ready for the sod. And there it was, 5:30a it was delivered. How exciting. I can't wait for the after pictures!

Repo Man Road Rally

I dragged Dena & Arlene to an outdoor showing of the cult classic Repo Man sponsored by the Alamo Roadshow. None of us had ever done a road rally and though there were a few testy moments we did have fun. We were first to the first clue, which was a tire/muffler place on Mission Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Highlights to the day include going down a tunnel to the LA River and meeting the neighborhood homeless speed freak who was extensively tattooed; Dawn doing a face plant while running across the 4th Street Bridge/street, probably the highlight there is that I didn't get run over by a semi truck while sprawled across the white lines.

We had a major breakdown following my kareoke stint at the Japanese Village. I suppose I should explain that. One of us had to sing "punk rock style" to Little deuce Coupe. I was elected, now I have to tell you, it's not fair that she made me start the song in the middle. Arlene said I totally didn't do it punk rock style, I did it with my hips swaying 50's style. What can I tell you. Anyways, the clue was "if G Money and Les Nessman owned a convenience store, what would it be called? The store is East of one of the bridges." Well you could say we got off on a wrong tangent thinking WKRP in Cincinnati, I took the van up to Mission when all along the store was off the 4th street bridge. There's no bridge on Mission. This is where things got testy. It was hot, we were tired and ready for a cold one. We had to call in and get a clue, which was basically that the damn store was called "GLess Meat Market" Who was going to guess that??

Grocery Store frequent shopper cards

Your PRIVACY IS AT STAKE!

When you signed up for your frequent shoppers card at Ralphs, Albertsons or Safeway did you use your real name, address, phone #, birthdate, etc? What information do you think they are collecting on you? You do realize that they are collecting all your shopping habits, what you buy, when you buy it, how many Entemann's Key Lime pies you eat, how many cartons of cigarettes you smoke, etc. I wonder if my shopping habits could be used against me in a lawsuit, let's say I sued a tobacco company for my spouse's death from lung cancer. The grocery store possibly could be served a subpoena as to what brand of cigarettes we bought and when or even if we bought them.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to use a fake name, address, etc., when filling out the application form for the grocery card? Unless you cash checks at the store the information you put on the application is only of use to the store and those marketing firms they sell it to. Do you ever wonder if they could tell after let's say 100 shopping trips if you would vote liberal or conservative? I would think that whether you bought organic produce or not, ketchup or deli mustard, or salmon vs. Hamburger helper could be used to profile you.

A couple of interesting web sites are below detailing out some recent developments or events regarding grocery cards and their impact to privacy on the citizens of the world:

Firefighter charged with arson
Seattle Presstake on grocery cards and the bigger picture

Finished Walkway

Yes, 4 weeks later (or was it more?) the flagstone front walkway is finally finished. Amazing how long small items like this take. Contractors are so busy nowadays spending people's home equity loans that they have no time for small time jobs like this.

Where would you move if you sold your recently doubled in price home? Well, unless you moved out of California, probably nowhere for the same or less $. So, why not just fix up your house with all your newfound equity? That's what most people are doing, hence the shortage of contractors and their attention.....

Are we really free?

I'm reading this book called the Traveler by John Twelve Hawks. It freaks me out to be quite honest with you. It's set about 10 years from now, modern day, and normal citizens (like me and you) are being quietly and covertly manipulated by fear, terror and diversions. Does this sound familiar? I've been reading it for about a week. The book mentions passports with RFID chips. The day after I read that section the USA Today ran an article about the US Government issuing RFID passports. I discuss RFID's and the possible privacy implications of them in a downline blog.

The book then goes on to talk about implanted PLID's in the human body. Well these are also being trialed in kids and adults alike. A PLID is a personal locating ID, implanted under the skin and your exact location can be tracked. Do you really want that? Do you not think that your habits could be catalogued and "subversive" activities stopped? The GPS in your car could be used to automatically ticket you if you were driving in the carpool lane because they know you are single, surveillancelaince camera to determine you are the only occupant and BAM! you have a ticket in the mail. Just something to think about.

What about privacy? Do we need more video surveillance cameras all over the place? Did you know that face scanning and recognition software is available? Yes, as you pass by a video camera your face can be scanned, tied to your passport photo and your whereabouts pinpointed exactly. Kind of freaky, eh?

Some interesting articles to note on the security and privacy of upcoming technologies:

Passports

Implant Trends

RFID's What are they really?

Radio frequency identification (RFID) and Electronic Product Code (EPC) technologies are being implemented to improve supply chain efficiency and reduce shrinkage by providing more accurate tracking of goods and assets. RFID are being used to replace the bar codes now used to identify products. Many large retailers, including Wal-Mart, have recently announced their intentions to move over to RFID technology in the near future. RFID allows these companies to track their products using radio-frequency identification tags that can be scanned by radio waves at any time.

An RFID tag is a chip that can contain information such as a product's expiration date and temperature, and it can be scanned from a distance of up to 30 feet. This makes it a lot easier for a retailer to find products in a warehouse and keep track of what condition they're in -- big advantages when it comes to managing inventory. (Hmmm you think, 30'. Will they use it for other things? What about when I buy it?)

If used effectively RFID could have a massive impact on many industries with deliveries telling you what's inside before you open the box or a supermarket trolley being wheeled through a checkout with an instant total, the issues as always surround privacy. Who is to say that the RFID tag meant to help a store track its inventory will stop being used when it leaves their premises? All the trials to date have gone to great lengths to show that the tag information is not being sought after it leaves the store but the tag is not deactivated so there is an opportunity for it to be interrogated by 3rd parties be they connected or unconnected to the retailer the standard allows for enough power so that tags can be read from a distance of 20 meters.
The giant retailer Wal-Mart has been very cagey about its use of RFID only confirming trials and trying to allay consumer fears, but to date no retailer has deployed the technology that would kill RFID tags at the store exit, unnecessary the retailers claim, big brother claim the civil liberties groups. Which ever way you see the technology there is no doubting that it could have the largest impact on commerce since the rollout of barcode scanning.

Something to think about......