why Bubba can't analyze

Once again, an article in the local newspaper proves to me that the disparaging name "Dallas Managed News" is wholly appropriate.

Today, they printed an article titled "Plane, train, car or bus: What's the best way to go on your summer trip?". The premise sounded like an interesting experiment: send four people from Dallas to Austin (about 200 miles) in time to attend an 11am meeting, then return. Had they not proceeded to compare apples-to-kumquats, they might have succeeded. Once done with their inadequate comparison, they proclaimed that even though gasoline is ~$4/gallon, it's cheaper to drive than to plane, train or bus your way to Austin. I'm half-betting this article was funded by the Texas Oil Producers Federation (or whatever name they're hiding behind), because their conclusion was dead wrong - by a factor of two.

Honestly, where do these people get their education - a Texas Home School? Anyone who has ever taken a class in costing (I did that in 1982 or so) would understand this easily. Rather than make a fair comparison, The Managed News went out of their way to avoid defining their methodology, and the hurdles they faced (example: trains run only once every 3 days; buses run twice/day; airlines have 8 flights/day). Had they done their job, they would have easily reached the correct (and obvious) conclusion: the bus is the cheapest way to get around.

	car	bus	train	air	conclusion
paper's total	$60	$96	$432	$223	train is most expensive
round trip time	7:39	7:00	17:00	6:55
transportation only	$60	$64	$62	$160	reality: air is most expensive, all others about the same
assumptions	you own a car	free transportation to the bus station	free transportation to the train station; you must spend two nights at a downtown hotel	free transportation to the airport (although they did stipulate $10 to park)	they assume everyone owns a car, or has free transportation to the choice of conveyance
what they should have done	factor the IRS' 2008 Standard Mileage Rates - 50.5¢/mile for business
changed outcome	$202	$111	$97 (due to infrequent train schedule, hotel is needed)	$238	bus is cheapest
I assumed an equidistant 30 mile commute to the alternate transportation, which added about $15 to each mode.

Bottom line: the article left me with more questions than answers:

• Did they get the best deals on public transportation by buying 21 days in advance?
• Why did they choose a "downtown hotel" for the train - was that cheaper than alternatives?
• Was there a way to optimize the meeting time so that only one hotel night was needed for the train option?
• What about mixing modes? (e.g. taking the train but returning on the bus. Since the three alternates already included taxi fares, this shouldn't have been a stretch).
• What was the Carbon Footprint for the various modes? (to their credit, they touched on this by showing that the train was least efficient with fuel and the bus was most efficient)
• Why did four people travel in the car, and only one in the other modes?
• Why the variation in lobby wait times for air travel; train; bus?
• What was the price of the "free car" they used for the automobile mode?
• Did they consider renting a car?
• Was there free parking at the meeting site?

Many of the problems I had with the article relate to normalizing the data. Certainly, there are issues of scale .. you can't hire a train for one person, and demand that only one car be used to reduce fuel usage. Ditto for the air travel - why didn't they compare a regional jet versus the (Southwest Airlines) 737? You get the idea.

And yes, let's talk about issues such as personal safety at the bus station; the risk of terrorism at the airport; the impact on societal isolation when travelling by car .. there are a host of things left unconsidered. Maybe they were just trying to save on newspaper ink - that's the only success I spotted.

DFW thanks NYC and ORD

There's a lovely article in Forbes magazine: "America's Most Time-Draining Airports" .. which ranks 100 US airports on delays. Apparently it's based on 2007 Bureau of Transportation statistics.

Good news: DFW is less delay-prone than the three (3) NYC* airports (LGA JFK EWR) and the country's worst: Chicago O'Hare. After that, it's all downhill for the local "big airport", beaten handily by six other airports in Texas. There's a direct correlation with the amount of traffic, so none of this surprises me:

12. ELP - El Paso
46. DAL - Dallas Love Field
58. HOU - Houston Hobby
59. AUS - Austin Bergstrom
61. SAT - San Antonio
80. IAH - Houston Bush Intercontinental
96. DFW - Dallas/Ft. Worth

The lower the number, the less likely you were to encounter delays in 2007, so says Forbes.

* multisearch is a truly wonderful thing. Pity there are only a handful (5) of these in the USA (CHI; NYC; QDF; QHO; WAS)

Forbes used seven (7) criteria to achieve their rankings:

• Security-related delays
• Late-aircraft-related delays
• National-Aviation-System-related delays
• Cancellation-related delay
• Carrier-related delay
• Weather-related delay
• Percentage of flights arriving on time
• Percentage of flights departing on time

To be sure, there are other airports in Texas, but they're smaller than any of those listed above. No offense intended: AMA; CRP; GLS; HRL; LBB and MAF.

Go ahead, regulate my day

After reading Geoff's narrative "Heathrow works, Chicago sucks, Edam isn’t" I'm prone to muse about a conversation I had with Judy-Bob recently, regarding the possible return of regulation to the US airline business. I don't recall flying (much?) before the Airline Deregulation Act became law in 1978. Apparently it was implemented in stages.

What would regulation entail? Simply, the airlines would be told what routes to fly, and at what price. Given existing passenger demand, the airlines would have to accommodate the traffic, rather than creating it via incentives (long gone are the $99 LAX-NYC flights, with free-flowing champagne and gourmet meals).

Southwest wouldn't have more of a price advantage than American Airlines, but the former would probably be less profitable since they'd have to deviate from their short hop mantra (locally .. who wants to endure the grief of DFW airport when you can enjoy yourself at DAL (Love Field)? Then again, American still finds it impossible to turn a plane in less than an hour, while Southwest has the twenty (20) minute turn down to a science.

Regulation/deregulation isn't something that can be turned on or off like a switch, but I suspect that's due to incompetence more so than feasibility. Let's assume the FAA mandates the return to regulation on 1.1.2010 .. this would give everyone more than enough time to plan the routes, sell the tickets, staff the facilities, etc.

One comment J-B made astounded me: "there are seldom more than 28 different fares on any given flight". Twenty eight?? In the regulated days, there were apparently four ticket prices on a given flight: First Class, Full-Fare Coach and two (2) discounted coach fares. Why the airlines have so many different fares has been written about ad nauseum, but I still find the number 28 absurdly high .. complexity leading to increased cost and all that rot. Certainly, there's a subset of the public who takes great glee in excavating the lowest possible fare between points (using the airline's own silly rules* against them) but I suspect they're truly in the obscure minority.

* hidden city fares come to mind as one example

Honestly, I can't see the return to regulation in my lifetime. The US air travel system is so horribly broken (with enough politics to make even Karl Christian Rove go batty) that it cannot be fixed. Ever.

PS to Geoff: regulation would most certainly not fix ORD (Chicago O'Hare). Suggest you hub through CVG (Cincinnati) in the future, when making the LHR-SEA run.

fail to plan = plan to fail

Tomorrow is the last day of the USA Film Festival 2008 at the Angelika. A few nights ago, I went there to see the documentary America Unchained (2007) and was pleasantly amused at this quirky effort.

The film dealt with a pair of Brits who wanted to cross the continental USA without using any of the chains - restaurants, motels and gas stations. Without spoiling too much of the plot, suffice it to say that although I found it repetitive and woefully uneven, I still gave it a solid B for the effort. Most of the audience seemed to agree, as there were plenty of laughs to be had during their American Walkabout (so to speak).

This leads me to a word of advise for anyone planning their summer vacation around such an attempt: your lives will be much happier if you do advance planning, especially when it comes to the locations of independent gas stations.

Heck, I don't even know if I could pull this off here in The Big City .. non-chain restaurants are easy to find, and non-affiliated motels aren't scarce .. but independent gas stations? I'm not sure where to look (although now I'll probably notice them as I drive around). The same thing happened many years ago when a friend asked where any Nail Salons are located, and I professed ignorance. Soon thereafter, it became obvious that there are far more of them than Starbucks locations .. and that's saying a lot.

if it ain't the rain, it's the lack of children

It rained upwards of four inches here yesterday, so my evening meeting was canceled mostly due to concerns that others wouldn't be able to attend. Now, tomorrow night's meeting is also in jeopardy but for another reason: it's Spring Break Week and many people are out of town. Guess it's time for me to gather all my tax stuff and schlep it to my CPA.

Ever notice how many illiterate people work at airports? During the television coverage of DFW's shutdown (they effectively canceled their entire schedule and decided to Mulligan today), the TV monitors showed row-after-row where the flight was "CANCELLED" (there's no such word in the USA, but okay in Britain where they still spell [color] with a U, among other peculiarities).

Huzzah spot of the day (kudos, 23/6): When Fox "News" sees a black man, they cross the street and file a report on gang violence

Sherman Day Trip

Over the weekend, Judy-Bob and Janice-Bob and I moseyed up to Sherman, Texas. It seems that there's a chance that Judy-Bob may relocate in that direction, so .. after a sumptuous breakfast at the Driver's Travel Mart (Anna, Texas) we kept on going, almost (but not quite) reaching the Oklahoma state line.

Sherman residents are probably proud of their town (in Grayson County), but it's not a place I could live in without going blind .. it's just too far off the beaten track for my taste.

One of my theories about Texas (and Dallas) is that Dallas isn't really in Texas - it's a bubble of pseudo-civilization surrounding by thousands of miles of nothing.

While in Sherman, Janice-Bob and I wandered through the "Touch of Class Antique Mall" (former 3-story furniture store) on the downtown city square, across from the county courthouse. Antique malls are not among the places I frequent: the sellers all seem to think their possessions are worth a whole heckuva lot more than I do (although who doesn't have enough Elvis lamps in their double-wide?).

On the way back to civilization, we stopped in McKinney to sample a QSR that's rare in Texas: Culver's (there are now nine locations of this Wisconsin chain in Texas, three of which are within a half-hour drive). Their specialties are frozen custard and "ButterBurgers" .. I stuck with the Beef Pot Roast Sandwich, same as last time. Not half bad.

rechargeable AA and AAA batteries

I've had mixed success with rechargeable batteries, but that's due to my early use (and ignorance) of low-capacity cells. I assumed that all 1.5V batteries were the same - not even.

I've been trying to use rechargeable batteries whenever possible and am experimenting with different brands. AAAs max out at ~900 mAh .. some are only rated at 500 mAh and drain at 2%/day! I have some (Sanyo) Eneloops en route and have higher hopes for their shelf life, although they're only rated at 800 mAh - Rayovac's Hybrid brand also promise better shelf life, too.

AA rechargeables can be had in 2500+ mAh flavors but they're not yet commonly available that way in retail - I spotted mostly low capacities when visiting the nearby MicroCenter and had much better luck (2500 mAh Nuon brand) at the (chain) Batteries+ location.

I took my Digital Audio Recorder (an Olympus DS-2300) out for a single 5 hour session a few weeks ago, and the batteries held up nicely. Odds are I'll always keep a spare set handy, though -- lesson learned with digicams, which tend to powerfail on me at The Most Inopportune Moment.

I'm using LaCrosse Technology's BC-900 (AA/AAA charger, NiCd/NiMH) which provides real insight into the charging process, although there are web reports of overheating (to the point of melting!) so I won't leave it unattended (those reports are dated early 2006 -- so it's possible mine has better firmware).

My preferred travel charger is the Energizer (NiMH) CHDC-CA although I'm not thrilled with its performance .. only the size (not all chargers can charge both AA and AAA). They have a new USB model which has onscreen monitoring, and hence shows promise (assuming I'm packing my laptop).

History lesson: my first battery charger was the (Radio Shack) Archer 23-122, which belongs in a museum somewhere. It charged NiCad AA, C and D cells. Years later, I favored Olympus' BU-100 which charged Ni-MH AA cells, but the required power cord is unwieldy for travel (it's since been upgraded - the latest model appears to be the BU-500 and there's no cord).

If you travel internationally, you'll need a power converter for the models with integrated US power prongs (115 VAC), but .. that goes without saying.

A pleasant experience at the DMV? Really?

<-- Can you spot the DMV in this shopping center?

A few days before my driver's license expired (and this was an "odd" renewal so I couldn't do it online) I called the local(*) Texas Department of Public Safety office and asked, simply "which days are the least busy?" and was told "Wednesday and Thursday". Armed with that information, I proceeded to the DMV at 10am this morning - a Thursday - and saw a line snaking out the door. Not a good sign, I thought. They opened at 7am - I should've come then, I thought - but that would've conflicted with my 8am dentist appointment (another joy in life).

(*)Perhaps doing my homework helped - I determined that the nearest office was [Dallas East] so I Google-Earth'd it and reckoned that I knew the intersection: Northwest/Jupiter. My plan involved not driving downtown to face The Main DMV Office (queue scary music).

So, I whipped out my iPod and proceeded to listen to Yet Another Podcast. However, the line was moving. Quickly. Once inside the door, I could see the signs - in both Spanish and English - advising me not to mean against the walls. As if! It was also entertaining to see the ethnic mix: I was one of only two whiteys in a 15-person line. I soon found myself in front of the Triage Clerk (my term) and I explained that I was there for a renewal. She handed me a number and a 12-question (?) form, and waved me toward a counter. No pens were anywhere to be found, but a Latino gent sensed my plight and let me borrow his. I finished in about 60 seconds and returned his pen - he seemed surprised for two reasons: (1) I returned his pen and (2) I completed the task in less than 10 minutes.

The questions were simple - basically asking if I had any condition that would keep me from getting a renewal - it was very transparent. Once done, I sat down and waited for my number to be called. The paper slip said "WAITING TIME 5min." and it was right, more or less. So much for listening to my podcast - there wouldn't be time! My number soon flashed on The Big Board and I proceeded to the designated clerk, who asked me to (a) read 3 lines of numbers-in-a-box; (b) submit my left+right thumbprint; (c) pay the $24 renewal in cash; (d) sign my name; (e) smile for the photo; and (f) don't let the door hit you on the way out. My license will arrive in 4-6 weeks from Austin TX and meanwhile-hang-onto-this-document-it-shows-you've-renewed.

Fast and easy? Surprisingly (shockingly) YES. The hardest part was just finding the place - it was listed on the DMV's website, but I wasn't expecting a hole-in-the-wall in a strip shopping center. I guess at my next renewal - in 2012, I think - they'll have valet parking.

taking public transit? make sure your iPod's full of podcasts

I was dinking around with Google Transit tonight (mass transit planner) and made a few trip estimates. The total times are in minutes:

	public (walking)	car
friend's home (Plano)	65 (21)	23
Dallas City Hall	72 (7)	20
DFW airport	153 (5)	25
Love Field airport	122 (21)	21

The numbers in (parenthesis) are the walking components; the rest is via bus and/or (light rail) train. Naturally, this also assumes that all trains/buses are on time and (conversely?) there are no delays via car. Add the joys of public transportation: exposure to the elements (40C heat, rain), not to mention Air Guitarists. Still, the (subsidized) cost will be much less than buying /maintaining a car.

passport renewal - arrived!

My renewed passport arrived in today's snail mail. I applied for the renewal in June. Total time required, door-to-door: 9 weeks and 1 day.

passport renewal, step 2

Today, this arrived in the snail mail:



What I found most amusing about this are the ten (10) questions on that web page. I wonder if you have to "get them all perfect" before it tells you the status of your application? What if I don't remember the exact date I mailed the application? (or does it want the date I signed the application?)

One of the questions they did not ask:

"Are you going to blog about our incompetence?"

It would seem to make more sense to assign a tracking number to my request, and snailmail THAT to me along with a password, so I could "fetch the status" via a secure web browser. But no ... we're dealing with The Bush Regime, where common sense is not part of the equation.

For those of you keeping score, this is Day 16 since I mailed my renewal application.

passport renewal

I noticed that my passport is due to expire in September, and after hearing the Horror Stories of lengthy delays, I decided to apply for the renewal now - in June - rather than wait until the last minute like I usually do.

I downloaded the renewal form from their website (it creates a PDF with your info, so all you have to do is sign it and attach a recent photo). The local drugstore advertised -- on their marquee -- that they'd do passport photos for $8 (actually $7.99 but I still think that's nonsense pricing) I did that last week, then mailed it.

$67.00 renewal fee
  5.38 postage (certified, return receipt)
  8.65 photo + tax
$81.03 total

12 June - mailed to Philadelphia Passport Processing
21 June - return receipt postcard arrived

Wow .. nine (9) days to even get the receipt postcard! Normally, I'd expect that (roundtrip to Philadelphia) in 5 days - maybe even 4. I'll update this blog entry again when the renewed passport arrives - probably in September.

GPS? Jeepers!

Last weekend, Judy-Bob was driving around, showing off her new TomTom. While not without its faults, it wasn't a bad GPS. I was able to figure it out without a manual, which is always a plus, and it didn't make any egregious mistakes as we tested locations.

I suspect that Garmin has the market share lead for portable GPS, but I haven't seen the numbers so this is little more than a SWAG. I haven't chanced across one of their units yet, although I suspect they're all using the same basic technology.

Today I knew that we'd be in need of directions to Janice-Bob, so I decided to give the GPS in my cellphone a whirl. Rather than spend a few hundred dollars for a TomTom or a Garmin, why not try the VZ Navigator [VZN] to see if it would meet my needs (at $3/day or $10/month plus some airtime as explained in the FAQ) especially since all I had to do was download a BREW applet to my phone?

Aside: don't know how much airtime I consumed today (at weekend rates) since Verizon appears to have a 48-hour delay in statistics, when accessed from the phone.

The verdict? I got mixed results. VZN found the first place (Poor Richard's Cafe in Plano) without breaking a sweat. Then, I gave it a specific street address (on Preston Road) in Plano and it found a different address in Frisco (inexplicably, a different location of the same automotive service chain). Since the locations were 5+ miles apart, this was less than inspiring.

When I tried to search by business name, it found many other locations, but not the one I sought. Is the Achilles' Heel the typical GIGO problem (Garbage In, Garbage Out)? Trying to maintain an updated database of retailers - who come and go as the wind changes - is a difficult task.

At our next stop - a clothing store chain - we found an empty store* (I suspect there was a location of this retailer at one time, but the location had long-since closed). Fortunately, there was another one a few miles away, so by then we'd turned off the VZ Navigator (rapidly sucking the battery) and were locating by sight.

After JB dropped me off, I had an errand of my own to run .. only about 3 miles away. I thought I'd amuse myself and see how well it performed this task .. and the results weren't stellar. First, it had a lot of trouble figuring out my location, having to reorient itself a dozen or more times. I suspect it's trying to use cellphone towers to triangulate my location rather than a GPS satellite (!) so I may have been at the mercy of the cellphone network. It seemed to do okay on the freeways, but bogged down when there were lots of small streets nearby. Pre-trip planning seems to be an appropriate part of using this service.

Part of VZ Navigator involves displaying only a local map, and it did a credible job (given the small screen on my cellphone). The voice prompts were nice, although it'd be nice to shut the speaker off when desired - there's no obvious way).

Also, the [Recent Searches] menu doesn't allow individual entries to be cleared, which is annoying .. mine rapidly piled up with bad locations.

Bottom line: VZ Navigator's handy, but not trustworthy .. I'd grade it a C+/B- overall. I'd rather have access to Yahoo! Maps, which gives step-by-step directions. Yet, VZN downloads maps as needed, so any wrong turns could be corrected quickly. And certainly, in a unfamiliar city, it's more useful than stopping at a gas station every mile to ask directions, fer sher. I'd also compare it favorably to the Hertz NeverWorks NeverLost which I last used about 8 years ago, IIRC.

Details, if anyone's interested:
phone: Motorola V325 (software R9.1_X_05.28.09P)
BREW 3.1.2
VZ Navigator 2.8.1 Build 40

* if this has been a trip with Jill Wazabob, finding an empty location would be the expectation, not a surprise.

vacancy

Today was a good day not to travel. For once, I found myself being The Local Guy while everyone else was sweating the Joy which is Travel during a Texas Weather Event.

By 10am today, everything looked normal outside, but the weather radar painted a bleak picture .. freezing rain turning to snow. Several of them were watching the various airline websites, and watching their flights switch from [ON TIME] to [DELAYED] to [CANCELED]. It's no fun spending the night at an airport, so I advised anyone who couldn't get out of town to call me, and I'd supply lodging for the evening. By the time the evening arrived, there were no calls so the Gene Bob Motel went unused. Too bad - Beta was looking forward to someone to play with.

It could've been worse .. looks like this storm's gonna dump a load on Chicago, Detroit, and places northeast. At least they'll get it in the form of snow, and not our local delicacy: ice.

---

Speaking of delicacies, I discovered Cracker Nuts at a local Asian grocery, and fear I may be hooked. Nagaraya makes several flavors of this "crispy peanut" treat; I've already sampled the garlic and plan to fetch a pack of butter flavored next. Yumm.

They also have a flavor called "Adobo" but I'm not sure what that is - probably different than its mud-inspired namesake "Adobe".

remembering The Q

There is ONE photo on the Q Center's website which shows the type room I was in (The Q Tower) and I'm not sure how they got such a wide-angle lens (the facility is said to have been a former Catholic Girls School dormitory, before Accenture bought-then-sold it). While not palatial amenities, it's nice to have a room to yourself, not having to share with someone you barely know.


(some participants at The Q Center on a coffee break)

It was good to see so many colleagues .. many new faces and some from years gone by. There are enough of us (1300) that it was split into two waves (the second arriving within hours of our departure). The "memo on the pillow" said we had to vacate our rooms (roughly the size of the sleeper on a train) by 7:45.

The Q's food wasn't bad .. I pigged out on breakfast Tuesday and didn't even want to think about PseudoDinner (hors' de oeuvres at The Partner Pavilion) that night!

Worth noting: one of the buildings - 4 stories - has inverted the floor numbers, such that [1] is on top and [4] is at ground level. I suspect there's a logical explanation, although I had to resort to the elevator to figure out where my 2nd meeting was on Monday.

176 minutes late

(de-icers at ORD as seen from my seat on AA 2325)

Travel is glamorous.
Travel is glamorous.
Travel is glamorous.

If I repeat that to myself another 436 times, maybe I'll believe it.

The conference at the Q Center (about 45 minutes west of Chicago O'Hare Airport) ended at 10am yesterday, but I didn't get home until after 7pm. Even then, yesterday's travel could've been much worse.

When I boarded the bus, one of my colleagues said that some of the flights to Dallas had been canceled due to the high winds (25-40mph, with 50 mph gusts) .. great. So I quickly called the airline and they confirmed that mine had been canceled, but offered to put me on an earlier flight; I agreed. Once at the airport (after checking in and navigating security) I spotted 3 colleagues and grabbed a bite with them (Chili's Too). Three of us were en route Dallas, and one had to go through Austin* because all the Dallas flights were overbooked.

* Although his flight left Chicago on time, he was still in Austin waiting for a flight to Dallas, after we landed at DFW, nearly 3 hours late.

When it came time to board the flight, Brad-Bob and I wandered over to the monitors and saw our flight was now showing a 3-hour delay: splendid. So, we proceeded to try to find a WiFi hotspot and get some work done while we waited.

Although several networks appeared, only the SSID named [concourse] worked for me (banners confirmed that this was "official"). After too many (40?) minutes experimenting, I found a working signal next to gate H4 and was able to access email and a web browser (to keep an eye on my flight status). Maybe I should get a new WiFi detector which shows where the signal's originating. Mine can tell signal strength, but no more (even so, it was better than the guy walking around the K concourse with his laptop, searching for a usable signal). I've seen some detectors that claim to detect open WiFi networks, as well as cameras (which use a signal for their auto-focus).

Boingo AsYouGo is $7 at ORD (and Midway). It's cheaper ($5) at ATL and higher ($8) elsewhere. They also have a monthly plan ("Boingo Monthly Unlimited Subscription") for $22, but I'm not travelling enough to justify that.

I suspect the other SSIDs were there just to taunt me. Names like "Free WiFi" and "Public Access" were appealing, but I couldn't make a connection. There were also numerous other SSIDs being broadcast, which appeared to be individual laptops. Oh well .. there will be other flights, and more glamorous travel.

Fine! Just Fine!

On the way to the airport a few days ago, I stopped at the Subway near 635-LBJ to grab a bite before the flight (airline food .. never haute cuisine .. has become mostly non-existant).

While there, I watched one of the CAUSS volunteers rip down several signs placed illegally on a telephone pole. He did it quickly and efficiently - I watched as his car rapidly pulled up next to the sign, the occupant exited with a special tool-on-a-pole designed to reach those signs placed high off the ground, and promptly slashed one into pieces and gathered the remnants into his trunk. Just as quickly as he arrived, he was gone.

I thought about this after reading an article in today's New York Times about how states are clamping down on campaign signs - often placed by volunteers who don't return to remove them after the election. Dallas has a 70-day window: signs can't be up more than 60 days before an election, and have to be down no more than 10 days after it's over. That said, the law appears to be seldom enforced (at least, I've never heard of candidates being fined).

Kim's got a brand new toy

Well, I'll bet Daddy Bush is a Happy Camper today. Following his son's provocative speech in January 2002, North Korea now has a nuclear nucular bomb. You can bet they've sent a messenger (FNJ - OIIE) to Tehran with the detailed plans, so they can fast-track their own program.

I wonder which country will be the first target of Kim Jong-il's new toy?

Deep Thought: I've heard estimates of the blast as anywhere from 1/60 our [1945] Hiroshima bomb, to 1/2 as large. Others say they suspect it was a plutonium bomb (i.e. "atomic", not hydrogen). Those low yields make me wonder if they faked the explosion using a large conventional weapon (ala the USA's "Daisy Cutter"). Probably not, since it generated something akin to 4.0 on the Richter scale, and atmospheric tests will detect any residue of radioactivity, but still ...

Ref: Divine Strake

DAL-IAH-AEX (then reverse)

Yesterday was a 4-flight day. I do enjoy the regional jets (ERJ-145) that Continental flies, even if it does mean enduring the joy of a layover at the Houston Bushport (IAH). The good news is that I didn't have to deal with DFW airport, and could just mosey over to Dallas Love Field (Continental has 2 gates; American has 3 and Southwest has the rest).

The only airlines that serve AEX (Alexandria England International) are Continental, Northwest and Delta; there's no direct service to Dallas anymore. In the past, I flew DFW-AEX on American Eagle but that route's inactive. Continental flies regional jets into AEX via IAH and Northwest is still using props .. the only Delta service is to ATL so not sure what equipment that entails. So, I went to Love Field and flew Continental (using my Delta FF#). Each segment was about 40 minutes airtime.

Travel Is Glamorous, Part 3

It's amazing how easy it is to fall back into a routine.

Doing something like flying 250 miles to another city, working for a few hours, then coming back the same day in time for dinner with Beta the Wonder Dog .. it's just so .. routine. I popped down to Houston yesterday; it was mostly uneventful.

The alarm went off at 5:30am, but I was already awake. Insomnia comes and goes with me, lately it just means that I'm operating on less sleep than usual. Not that I'm up for a few hours, sleep for a few. No, I've had those in the past. Now, if I can get 5 or 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I've done good.

I let Beta outside to play (or whatever dogs do in the backyard), fetched the paper, and proceeded to Take The Pills then Feed My Face. I'd already stuffed my rucksack (the night before) with the toys I needed, so it was off to the shower, dress and go. I reached Love Field in about 15 minutes, parked Jack in The Parking Spot, and was on the shuttle. I noticed a TV news crew filming a stand-up shot (is today The Day that they'll settle The Love Field Controversy?).

I used Southwest's self-checkin machine (there are a lot more of them than the last time I flew from here, maybe 5 years ago) and was handed two boarding passes. Then, it was Off With The Shoes and the obligatory cursory TSA check. Onto gate #3, and since I was early I hopped on the 7am flight, which would land at Houston Hobby at 8am. Flights to Houston are every 30 minutes, so this shaved 30 minutes off my day.

I sat in a window seat near the back; the plane appeared about 2/3 full. I remembered to power down my cellphone. Only a few stragglers had to suffer The Middle Seat. I was offered coffee or juice, read one of my fellow travelers' USA Today ..

Deep Thought: why are passengers on Southwest friendlier than American's passengers? I suspect it's due to the formality of American's assigned seating, which is a joke since I don't get to choose my seatmates either way.

.. and then re-read some of the technical stuff I'd need at the customer, in downtown Houston.

Upon landing, I headed directly to Budget's van and found myself in their Fastbreak Shelter a few minutes later. The sales rep in Dallas had called me while I was on the shuttle, just checking in. Budget's "rapid rental" allows you to select your car from a few others (probably within a class) and then I just showed my license to the Nice Man At The Gate and was on my way.

Mostly ignoring Yahoo Maps' directions,

"Travel on First Street for 0.2 miles. Proceed onto First Street for 1.2 miles. Proceed onto First Street for 0.4 miles."

I moseyed over to I-45 and proceeded north to downtown. Exit at the Theatre District, locate the visitor parking area, go find the customer, get down to work.

At lunchtime, I was escorted downstairs to The Food Court, composed of a dozen-or-more mostly familiar names. I chose The Philly Connection, all the way at the end .. there was no line at 1pm. Several World Cup fans were there watching a game on the plasma TVs. For me, watching soccer football is like watching baseball: you know that there's an end a few hours away. The goal, as a spectator, is to simply stay awake until it's over.

As the ball was kicked from one end of the stadium to another, I couldn't help but be reminded of leisurely flicking a beachball from one person to another. My theory about Soccer and the lack of enthusiasm in the USA is because soccer lacks the thing Americans crave in their sports: the possibility that somebody's gonna die, or be maimed for life. Think Fiery Crash at NASCAR, or a man's knee going The Opposite Direction in American Football. When's the last time a soccer player was killed during a game (except by one of his own crazed fans)? Soccer's a lot like watching golf. Zzzzz.

Anyway, back upstairs to work a few more hours, then .. back in the car (they want $25 for parking??) and a return to the airport. If I drive less than 75 miles, there's a $9.50 refueling charge, so I stopped at a gas station and spent 60 seconds pouring $3.51 worth into the tank before locating Car Return. Then back on the shuttle, back to the terminal, Off With The Shoes, onto the gate, onto the plane (nearly full for the return leg) and back to Love Field. We landed at gate 5.

Onto the shuttle, back in my car, pay my $7.50 and receive a complimentary half-liter of water (Nestle's Pure Life), and aim for home. Since I was able to see (from the plane) that The Dallas North Tollway was stacked up, I took surface streets instead. Home again, let Beta outside to Do What Dogs Do in the backyard, and sit back to watch last night's TiVo offerings.

I wonder if I'll have to do this again tomorrow?