About time my brother is blogging. Although, it does make me realize that somewhere along the way, he became a much better writer than I did!
Archive for December, 2007
Jarsenal of Democracy
December 29, 2007Jarsenal of Democracy
December 29, 2007About time my brother is blogging. Although, it does make me realize that somewhere along the way, he became a much better writer than I did!
FreeCell
December 11, 2007(this post was written while I was flying and will be posted once I get online later- actual written time, 7:25 PM, Dec 11)
I am no good at FreeCell. Never have been. My goal for the rest of the flight (or as long as the battery lasts) is to get better.
Solitaire, I can win that (on the PC) often enough. FreeCell – not at all. Is it even possible?
Frustrating. (Then again, I haven’t played it in years; just remembered it even existed).
Things that annoy me about flying these days
December 11, 2007(this post was written while I was flying and will be posted once I get online later- actual written time, 7:06 PM, Dec 11)
Sitting in the middle seat on my flight back (we got to the airport early so we took middle seats through standby in exchange for getting home an hour early), I realized quite a few things bother me about flying these days, so might as well enumerate them:
- Coach seats (at least on Alaska Airlines) has absolutely zero room for laptops. Seriously, it is so crowded to be typing on these things – the keyboard area is pushing into my stomach, the screen is folded over to be even able to fit, and the tray is at a very unergonomic height, so my arms don’t feel so comfortable. If I were a common business traveler, perhaps a smaller laptop would help – I’ll have to try bringing the work mac-book with me next time, as it’s much smaller.
- Whatever happened to dinner on planes? Especially when they fly from that key 6-9 pm hours. When exactly are you supposed to eat dinner if you need to board at 5:15 or so?
- No two TSA people say the same thing – one says to put your boarding pass away, the other says "reminder: we need to see your boarding pass", the video playing says both at the same time! Plus, people take way, way too long taking their shoes on and off.
- Middle seats suck!
- Why don’t all planes have that movable headrest so you can make your own personal sleeping area? It can’t cost the airline more than 50 cents extra per seat once at airplane purchase time to put those in. Makes me want to fly Continental, the only airline I know of that has those.
- The food in airports is just not good. Granted they have a captive audience, but couldn’t someone come up with a decent, ubiquitous eating venue? Especially for vegetarians. McDonald’s and/or an awful caesar’s salad just don’t cut it.
- Finally, airlines – stop seating me next to talkers. Really. I am all about striking up random conversations with people in most situations. But there are two I want people to just shut up – airplanes and barbers (cut my hair, in and out, no need to find out my or your lifestory).
On a random note, I did run into the condo upstair’s neighbor randomly at the airport. It has been a good week for my goal of running into people I know at places – 3 or 4 different people at the Seahawks game on Sunday (including Pure‘s CEO), and now this. Also found out 2 or 3 more people from high school have moved to Seattle, and I didn’t even know about it – weird; I usually know these things.
Hitting the Sweet Spot
December 11, 2007(this post was written while I was flying and will be posted once I get online later- actual written time, 8:33 AM, Dec 11)
(And yes, this is a safe-for-work story even though it may not seem like it as it progresses)
After the last car-magical-starting experience, I thought I should drive the car around for a bit just to rebuild the battery up since I had probably drained the battery a bit by trying to start and stop it so much.
So driving up Highway 99, I made my way up to Shoreline, where I turned around, and decided to grab a latte before heading home.
I pull over into one of those drive-through stands, where you have the person in the booth serving you coffee.
As I pullup, but before I could place my order, I hear the barista-lady say to me: "Oh sorry!" as she pulls off her sweater, and leaves herself wearing a see-through white T-shirt and a flowery bra. I say: "No problem", but am not really sure what the apology is for yet.
The next comment from her is one that I will remember forever: "Sorry – normally I am not wearing much of anything, but I’ve worked 6 straight days and was just tired today." I’ll be honest – that’s not something I’ve ever had a coffee barista apologize to me for.
Highly confused, I look around the rest of the booth, and notice pictures of scantilly clad women on the roof of the booth, and all of their specials have suggestive names. I order a generic latte, which Kate, as she informs me her name is, decorates with a sticker of lips on the opening in the cup, along with a sticker advertising the coffee shop on the side. I drive away, highly confused, but determined to lookup the store when I get home.
Turns out the http://www.thesweetspotcafe.com is part of a growing trend in Seattle of barista-babe coffee shops where they use sexual suggestion to sell coffee. Apparently, it does very well in repeat business (i.e. men coming by every morning), and pulling people away from Starbucks, getting press recognition from USA Today, Northwest Cable News, MSNBC, and Fox News. They also get a ton of inquisitive (men, I assume) people stopping by "just to check it out."
Fascinating (albeit strange) branding strategy – I wonder what the long term success rate will be. That said, the brand is highly, highly confusing when you are just an accidental drive-by customer. I somehow suspect I won’t get too many waitresses apologizing for wearing too much clothing elsewhere in the future!
Aaron Automobile Accumen (AAA)
December 11, 2007(this post was written while I was flying and will be posted once I get online later- actual written time, 8:03 AM, Dec 11)
Two stories about my car recently and interactions with AAA. They must think I am crazy.
- My car is about 5 years old, and a few weeks ago, the car wouldn’t start, though it was sitting at home. As neither Joelle nor I had jumper cables (we do now), I called AAA over. An hour later they show up, and car still wouldn’t start. We waited another minute, and tried again – boom, it started. WHAAAT? Oh well, the AAA guy left on his merry way. (he did run a test and tell me I should probably replace the battery at some point soon, as it was at the end of it’s lifetime, and CCA or something like that was getting very low).
- So I replace the battery (myself even, though I did have the Parts Plus guy standing over my shoulder telling me what to do
), and all was fine until late last week, when the car wouldn’t start again. Waiting until the weekend when I had time, Joelle and I couldn’t get the car started ourselves, so off I go to call AAA over. He gets there, and tries quite a few diagnostic attempts, failing each time (though the lights did turn on, as did the air, there was no starting). Finally, he decides we’ll need to tow it to the nearest service station. As he pulls out the towing gear, the guy gets in the car to get the car ready to push forward manually.
He immediately is able to start the car, as he yells – "Your car was still in drive. It won’t start unless it’s in park!" AAAHHH! – a) Why does my car let me pull the key out while it’s in drive? I feel like that is just a little dangerous… and b) I feel really stupid.
Probably the same reason caused the magical healing for #1. Oh well. At least I know what the issue is. And I am sure AAA thinks I am crazy!
Reading on the Aeroplane
December 11, 2007(this post was written while I was flying and will be posted once I get online later – actual written time, 7:35 AM, Dec 11)
Taking another business trip this morning (I am writing this at about 40,000 feet, but will upload later), and failing to fall asleep on the ride down, I spent some time looking around at how and what people read while sitting on the plane (and trying not to be invasive).
It’s fairly interesting; there are some sleepers, lots of fiction books (though none I have ever heard of, save the ubiquitius Harry Potter readers – I mean seriously, haven’t you read them all yet?), a few people on their PCs, and surprisingly, no magazine or newspaper readers. I wonder how this would change for a flight at a different time of day - our flight did take off at 6:40 AM, after all. I’ll have to look around again later this evening when we return back (and yes, this makes a very, very long day).
That last fact shocks me; especially, as I love to utilize flights as a good opportunitiy to catch up on periodicals that I then leave behind in the airport in hopes that it gives someone else to read.
What I’ve read so far on the plane (and granted we’ve only been flying for an hour or so – I do read fast, after all):
- Alaska Airlines In-Flight Magazine
- Finished my copy of the Economist from this week (I usually read this as a back-and-forth over a couple of bus rides to and from work, but still had 15 or so pages to go)
- A few sections of the Seattle Times (that someone had left on their seat on the airport – THANKS!)
- Article that makes me happiest: Yeah for Northwest Airlines starting Seattle-London service; more traffic on the straight to Europe route should make us booking flights for going to Israel next year easier.
- Money Magazine (just came yesterday – it’s part of a series of magazines that Joelle and I signed up for since she had a pretty small amount of Delta Airlines miles that were going to expire unless we used them – not enough to get a flight, might as well get something for them)
- Hints to self – they mention looking at the Treasury Departments website to see if there are outstanding savings bonds in your name; I have never done this – I wonder if there are some that have been lost along the way.
- Hint #2 – look up charity’s and their financial statements online. I’ve never spent time investigating these, since I usually just go with organizations I am involved with.
- Seattle Jewish Transcript (and the Happy Hannukah insert) – By the way, the last issue and this one have had the first 2 of a 3-part series on Christian Evangelical movements and Jews (mostly focused on the so-called "Jews for Jesus") – a couple of thoughts:
- It is sort of surprising there hasn’t been a letters to the editor backlash against the newspaper giving these organizations any press.
- I find it hilarious (and scary) to the effort that these groups go through to try and woo just one Jew. Seriously – why do they care so much?
- The articles are, in the end, quite fascinating. It’s probably the most interesting read they’ve had in there in a long time, so I, for one, am glad they are printing them.
My other reading material for the ride back (though I may need to pick up another reading material as well) is a book the President of Kavana recommended, but I haven’t gotten around to… hopefully it will take up the time it states, and thus, half of the flight: "The Ultimate Board Member’s Book: A 1-hour Guide"
I wonder what my reading list says about me?
FreeCell
December 11, 2007(this post was written while I was flying and will be posted once I get online later- actual written time, 7:25 PM, Dec 11)
I am no good at FreeCell. Never have been. My goal for the rest of the flight (or as long as the battery lasts) is to get better.
Solitaire, I can win that (on the PC) often enough. FreeCell – not at all. Is it even possible?
Frustrating. (Then again, I haven’t played it in years; just remembered it even existed).
Things that annoy me about flying these days
December 11, 2007(this post was written while I was flying and will be posted once I get online later- actual written time, 7:06 PM, Dec 11)
Sitting in the middle seat on my flight back (we got to the airport early so we took middle seats through standby in exchange for getting home an hour early), I realized quite a few things bother me about flying these days, so might as well enumerate them:
- Coach seats (at least on Alaska Airlines) has absolutely zero room for laptops. Seriously, it is so crowded to be typing on these things – the keyboard area is pushing into my stomach, the screen is folded over to be even able to fit, and the tray is at a very unergonomic height, so my arms don’t feel so comfortable. If I were a common business traveler, perhaps a smaller laptop would help – I’ll have to try bringing the work mac-book with me next time, as it’s much smaller.
- Whatever happened to dinner on planes? Especially when they fly from that key 6-9 pm hours. When exactly are you supposed to eat dinner if you need to board at 5:15 or so?
- No two TSA people say the same thing – one says to put your boarding pass away, the other says “reminder: we need to see your boarding pass”, the video playing says both at the same time! Plus, people take way, way too long taking their shoes on and off.
- Middle seats suck!
- Why don’t all planes have that movable headrest so you can make your own personal sleeping area? It can’t cost the airline more than 50 cents extra per seat once at airplane purchase time to put those in. Makes me want to fly Continental, the only airline I know of that has those.
- The food in airports is just not good. Granted they have a captive audience, but couldn’t someone come up with a decent, ubiquitous eating venue? Especially for vegetarians. McDonald’s and/or an awful caesar’s salad just don’t cut it.
- Finally, airlines – stop seating me next to talkers. Really. I am all about striking up random conversations with people in most situations. But there are two I want people to just shut up – airplanes and barbers (cut my hair, in and out, no need to find out my or your lifestory).
On a random note, I did run into the condo upstair’s neighbor randomly at the airport. It has been a good week for my goal of running into people I know at places – 3 or 4 different people at the Seahawks game on Sunday (including Pure‘s CEO), and now this. Also found out 2 or 3 more people from high school have moved to Seattle, and I didn’t even know about it – weird; I usually know these things.
Hitting the Sweet Spot
December 11, 2007(this post was written while I was flying and will be posted once I get online later- actual written time, 8:33 AM, Dec 11)
(And yes, this is a safe-for-work story even though it may not seem like it as it progresses)
After the last car-magical-starting experience, I thought I should drive the car around for a bit just to rebuild the battery up since I had probably drained the battery a bit by trying to start and stop it so much.
So driving up Highway 99, I made my way up to Shoreline, where I turned around, and decided to grab a latte before heading home.
I pull over into one of those drive-through stands, where you have the person in the booth serving you coffee.
As I pullup, but before I could place my order, I hear the barista-lady say to me: “Oh sorry!” as she pulls off her sweater, and leaves herself wearing a see-through white T-shirt and a flowery bra. I say: “No problem”, but am not really sure what the apology is for yet.
The next comment from her is one that I will remember forever: “Sorry – normally I am not wearing much of anything, but I’ve worked 6 straight days and was just tired today.” I’ll be honest – that’s not something I’ve ever had a coffee barista apologize to me for.
Highly confused, I look around the rest of the booth, and notice pictures of scantilly clad women on the roof of the booth, and all of their specials have suggestive names. I order a generic latte, which Kate, as she informs me her name is, decorates with a sticker of lips on the opening in the cup, along with a sticker advertising the coffee shop on the side. I drive away, highly confused, but determined to lookup the store when I get home.
Turns out the http://www.thesweetspotcafe.com is part of a growing trend in Seattle of barista-babe coffee shops where they use sexual suggestion to sell coffee. Apparently, it does very well in repeat business (i.e. men coming by every morning), and pulling people away from Starbucks, getting press recognition from USA Today, Northwest Cable News, MSNBC, and Fox News. They also get a ton of inquisitive (men, I assume) people stopping by “just to check it out.”
Fascinating (albeit strange) branding strategy – I wonder what the long term success rate will be. That said, the brand is highly, highly confusing when you are just an accidental drive-by customer. I somehow suspect I won’t get too many waitresses apologizing for wearing too much clothing elsewhere in the future!
