Logan Airport, Boston, MA, USA
Gate C-21
I'm here waiting for my 6:30AM boarding of a flight from Boston to Chicago. I'm early. Very early. Lets walk back through the last half day that got me here.
11:45pm 3/15/2007
I've got to get to sleep. Its getting late. But as always, facing an early wake up, I cannot fall asleep. Okay, so I'll read about the subprime lending market in the Boston Globe. A beautiful quota (paraphrased here), "Surprise, there's gambling at the Casino!" The alarm is set for 4:45AM, and the cab is set to arrive at 5AM. Should be fine. No worries. Well, yes, what if I oversleep? I feel like Dani. The later it gets, the more over tired I get, and the more likely I'll oversleep. It of course then follows, that the later it gets the more nervous I get, and the harder it is to fall asleep. What am I going to do? I guess I am a nervous traveller. Maybe its all the tea I had at the Ta'am China dinner? A little curious to have chinese food before going to China, but it was kosher, and it will make a nice contrast between American Chinese food, and real Chinese food.
12:45am 3/16/2007
Well, it is today that I'm flying. If only I could get a little sleep. Dena says to look on the bright side, I'm getting adjusted to the Chinese timezone already. Argh. Dena says she'll turn on her alarm too. Finally, I can relax.
4:45am
RING RING RING RING. I reach for the snooze. "Jason, time to get up". Dena, no she doesn't have a snooze button. I'd better get up.
4:50am
Now what? I'm ready early. I set out the lunch boxes, wash and slice the apples. Set out the girl scout cookies and some extra tupperware.
4:55am
The cab is here early. I guess that good.
5:15am
I am at login airport. Wow. That was fast. There's nothing like traveling early to avoid the traffic.
5:45am
I'm at the gate!!! Yes, that's 45 minutes early. Way too early. I bought myself a "Mango Tango" odwalla smoothie. As far as I can tell it is 100% fruit juice. Lots of sugar and carbohydrates, but only 10mg of sodium. I've got an apple and a banana too. I'm working hard at having my 9 servings a day of fruits and vegetables. Its hard.
My computer laptop is all freshly configured with Linux. I did a new install last week after I got tired of Microsoft windows always hanging and crashing on me. So I loaded Linux on my laptop, and just last night I installed Skype, OpenOffice, and made sure that I had the latest updates from RedHat. SKype initially didn't work, but before dinner I ran to RadioShack and purchased a USB headset with microphone. This is what my friend Dominique had recommended. It worked fabulously. I just plugged it in, told skype to use the USB headset, and bingo. Did I tell you the deal I got? $29.95 marked off 66% to $9.99! I tried Skype by calling Uncle Barry. One of my fears was that I wouldn't be able to use Skype in Shanghai, or that the connection quality would be horrible. Uncle Barry, having been there before told me not to worry. Skype works great, and he says he uses it all the time from China. Free calls. Now isn't that great.
Now a few thoughts on what is missing on my laptop.
- I need to install GAIM so I can do internet chat with the office people.
- I can't figure out how to play a DVD. That's too bad, because I was planning on watching a few during the flight.
- I cannot use my wireless card. I think I'm missing a driver for it. Perhaps Dell has a driver at their website for Linux? Doubtful. I've got the most up-to-date 2.6.9 kernel. Maybe I need a newer kernel, like the RHEL5 variety. It's funny because at work we use RHEL3 all the time which is a 2.4.21 kernel, and I feel like it is fine. When I work on RHEL4 I feel like I'm on the cutting edge. In reality, RHEL4 is "so yesterday." I ought to get with the program and install SuSE 10, or RHEL5.
- There is no indication of battery charge. What's with that?
- I cannot tell the machine to sleep. I can only turn it off. Although booting is quick, sleep or hibernate would be a great feature. Some should read Joel Spolsky's post on this subject. Sleep? Hibernate? Shutdown? How about just one button, "turn it off", and make sure it boots in 2 seconds later.
Arrived in Chicago without Incident. Brian had a first class seat (1C), but somehow, I got stuck in 20E. Middle seat next to a processor of Arabic Language and Literature at none other than Yale University. Beatrice Gruendler from Germany, lives in Boston, commutes to Yale. We had a very nice chat, and she highly recommended that we stop in New Haven sometime to see the newly renovated art museum. She was on her way to a conference in San Antonio, and this summer, if the visa comes through, she will go to Iran to look at ancient manuscripts. I slept for awhile too.
Since we are traveling business class we get to go to the Red Carpet Club. Its great. What a different experience. Free fruit drinks, comfortable chairs, Internet, and fabulous views of the airplanes. In fact we are sitting about 20 feet away from the nose of our plane. I've taken some pictures.
I just found out that the application that plays DVDs in GNOME is called totem. It seems like I don't have it installed though. Bummer.
11:40PM EST
It has been a log trip so far. Travelling business class though is great. I have tons of space to spread out. At the risk of sounding ridiculous, it almost seems too spacious, because the seat back in front of me is so far that it is inconvenient to store things there. I've passed the time by talking to the guy next to me. He's an
anti-tax republican who once worked on the Romney campaign. He'd like to see all people pay taxes once a year so that they really feel the pain. Hmmm. Maybe we should all pay our mortgages one a year so we
feel the pain of interest? Better yet, why not just after 30 years when it all comes due? I then read a few chapters of my book on Alan Greenspan. Although I agree philosophically with the basic premise
that Alan Greenspan was a fraud, I don't like to the tone of the book. It is too combattive and reads too much into Alan Greenspan's behavior. I don't think we can really know what motivates him. I'll
finish it later.
More playing around with Linux. For some reason the redhat kernel does not seem to come with "APM" (advanced power management) support. I don't get it. The user space programs are part of the distribution,
so why not the kernel driver?
I've also put together all the framework for all my slide decks. I have not filled in the content, but at least I've started. I still have until Tuesday before my first presentation.
