Archive for March, 2007
The Phoenix Trip, the flight out
It’s late. It was a long day. About all I can do is prune through the 80-some digital pics and come up with a smattering of marginally good ones. Pretty much the only one I really like is the one entitled “My Next Wallpaper.” And maybe the one labeled “Contrails.”
More photos.
The flight
The flight was pleasant and even though it claimed to be a direct flight, I did have a stop in Baltimore. I didn’t have to get up though… just sat and read while a new crowd of cattle people herded into their seats for Phoenix. After Phoenix, the plane continued to Burbank, CA.
I stashed several bags of crunchy snacks and trail mix in my carry on bag. That kept me going until I got to the destination whereupon I had… more crunchy snacks.
The rental car fiasco
Ok. My bad. I should have reserved one a couple days ago. I didn’t, so I walked from rental agency to rental agency looking in vain for one that wasn’t sold out. Another businessman was in my predicament and we were hunting together. Finally Advantage had some cars still in the lot and I picked one up there. Then there was another flyer I recognized, a friendly army brat, he was almost in the same situation. Even though he reserved a car, they were going to charge him $300 MORE on top of what he was quoted when he checked online! He was pretty pissed and left that rental agency–ended up behind me in line at Advantage. He was driving to Tucson, much further than I would be driving. When I got to the counter, the lady said they had such and such, and blah de blah, and also a Dodge Charger. I looked over my shoulder and said “You want the Charger?” He said, “At this point I’d take a Geo Metro, but sure!” So I took a Dodge Caliber (yay) and let him have the Charger.
The hotel
Pretty nice digs. Separate living room, separate kitchen, king size pilllow-top bed. Free wireless internet in each room… excellent. I could get used to this.
Huh, I thought I was tired. I guess not enough to drone on about day one of the big business trip. Tomorrow starts the process of testing what we’ll be doing over the weekend. Dismantling Novell from our corporate network. Stuff will break. People will get upset. It’s all good, he said sarcastically.
Weekend at Dad’s
** Photos added **
Just got home after a weekend at Dad’s up north in Groovy Gouvy. (Gouverneur, NY). Had a very nice time–beautiful drive through the Adirondacks. I was shocked to see raindrops on my windshield. It got up to 43° on Saturday! Almost hit four deer. Well, not almost, I saw them in plenty of time…
Anyway… more details later. Right now I have to work on the big project…
Here’s a collection of (remotely) interesting photos from my weekend. There are notes on some of the photos, so hover your cursor over them.
Image-inations
Miles run: 5k (3.12 miiles)
Time: 38:28
Pace: 12:19 (This definitely isn’t right. I noticed the Nike+ case had slipped and come undone, so I lost a big chunk of data mid-run.)
Temp: 10°, feels like 0°
HR: 162/179
Perceived effort: 6
On the iPod: Never Let Me Down Again by Depeche Mode
Bitterly cold this evening. A light wind from the North provided the bitter. A clear sky provided the cold. Ran right after work and had daylight up until the last five minutes so that helped. Three more days and then we’ll all get another hour of daylight (at least at the END of the day).
The lower part of the shins and calves were tight, probably from the cold. Everything else felt good. I think I was burning off extra energy from an unusual day at work.
The Day
It was a bit of a chaotic, if not unusual, day. First, I took my department out to lunch and had some delicious Indian food (only the two of us plus our new intern, AND it was on the company tab).
Second, we lost power in the office for about half an hour–at just the WRONG time. ‘Course, is there really any RIGHT time to lose power? Still, I was right in the middle of something, when… slam! No power. Groan. Scratch that. EXTRA groan since I lost what I was working on–had all sorts of windows open–tried but failed to finish an email just before my battery backup died. It’s supposed to last several minutes… I only got several seconds. Time to buy replacement cells, huh? Apparently many, many blocks in Saratoga were out for the duration as well. Not sure why.
So power comes back on. I put out a couple little fires and go back to what I was working on. Then I get a message, a big ol’ fire starts and I have to focus all my energy on it. Something about image quality in the Design department. Luckily it was something I’m good at (I think) and had things well in hand. Applied my tech support mojo and everything came out OK.
Third, a wine tasting! Forgot all about it. My office had a local vendor come in and give a half hour wine tasting seminar at 4pm. I forgot all about it but wanted to try it out–so there goes another half hour of my day. But it was worth it. The two guys were very nice and informative and explained many of the things I learned while watching Sideways recently. I think I could get into wine a little more than I am now. Which is to say, I could start drinking it and appreciating it instead of avoiding it in unknowing ambivalence.
Then home. Then a run. Short one. 5k. (Three miles for you metrically challenged.)
The Image-inations
I got to thinking about images after my tech support issues of the afternoon and, as my mind is wont to do while out on the pavement, wrangled a couple thoughts together and made them sit down and have a chat.
Thought #1 said “I think images you develop in your head from reading or listening or just plain imagining are always better than an actual image or movie or play.”
Thought #2 said, “That’s a load of dingo’s kidneys. The real thing is always better.” He said in a huff.
Whereupon the first thought retorted with “But why do people always say that the movie never lived up to what they had imagined when reading the book?”
Could Thought #1 be right? Is the imagined image always better than the real one? Is the beautiful landscape we paint in our minds forever destined to be sweeter than the one down the road? Is the creativity of the individual’s imagination a factor in this equation? Is the subjectiveness of this whole argument to great to make a generalized statement one way or the other?
What about the vehicle for delivery of the image’s description? Can that be a factor? Meaning, would a vocal description create a more vivid image in the mind’s eye than the written word? Would pure thought, unhampered by language, provide even that much better a method of creating the image in mind?
Seems like deep stuff, and I may be over thinking it, but I don’t think I am really. Basically, what I’m asking is… Is what we IMAGINE a beautiful landscape to be better than how we actually SEE it in real life?
I thought about answering my own question here, but I won’t for fear of muddying the waters of responses from you readers… Let’s hear what you think…
