Wednesday - October 20, 1999
Okay. So just because everyone in the known world seems to be doing one is not a good reason to start my own day-notes type diary. But then, WTF not?
Consequently, this will be an ongoing experiment. I may like doing this or just chuck it and do something more interesting with my (and your) time.
I don't pretend to be a professional writer. As such, expect to see all kinds of grammatical errors. If you let me know what they are, I will gladly throw your email into the circular file.
Everything set forth herein are my own Miscellaneous Ramblings (R&T or Car and Driver, I can never remember which).
And so, on with it then.
My wife and I (She Who Can Not Be Disobeyed - henceforth known as SWCNBD) returned from our two-week vacation in San Francisco and Las Vegas last week. The weather in EssEff was anything but an Indian Summer. Day temps. in the mid 60s. Mostly clear in the city but sometimes light fog.
Stayed at the SF Hilton. Passable as a seminar barn ("Now you too can make big bucks by over charging companies like Sun to come to motivational meetings 99!"). But the darned noisy, vibrating A/C in the room would obviate the need for magic fingers in the bed if it were not for the fact that your back was sore due to sleeping on a lumpy mattress. Then there was the slight problem that the room was just down from the elevators...
We had dinner atop the main tower in a restaurant called CityScapes or some such. 46 floors above this city by the bay ("Live Nude Girls!"). Other than the fact that all of the food was sauted in wine (is there a winery near SF or something?) it was a pretty good place to eat. And the view wasn't bad either (did I mention "Live Nude Girls" already?).
Oh, I almost forgot. We flew United Airlines on all legs of our trip - HNL to SFO to LAS to LAX back to HNL (see here for those not in the know). And therein lies a story best told by others. Suffice it to say that United deserves everything that is signified by it's ranking (number 5 out of the worst 10) on the U.S. Dept. of Transportation Consumer Complaints listing. Hawaiian Airlines here we come.
Vegas was less than overwhelming. I had not been there in over 10 years and I guess the reality is much less than the hype. Yes, the Venetian, Bellagio, and Paris hotels show you where every one of the billions of dollars were spent in their construction. But still, it's Vegas. A one or two mile strip of sun baked dust in the middle of a desert. Here it is October and the temperatures were still in the mid-90s.
By the way. We stayed at the Luxor hotel. The East Wing. You know, take the underground service tunnel heading in a northerly direction to the hotel tower that looks like any other tinted glass building in Anytown, USA. I guess the rooms in the pyramid are for "high rollers" only. The rest of us hovel in rooms with a view of the next hotel down the road. Actually, all was not bad, the bathroom was very spacious. It had a separate shower big enough for two large sized Hawaiians (or five regular sized Egyptians). The tub, while large, loses marks for not having the equivalent of magic fingers. And polished brass everywhere...But the towels were thread-worn and had holes in them!
I was glad to get back home. Even if its now raining something awful (damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!)...
More when I feel like saying more...
I haven't checked yet, but I doubt that anyone has hit this page yet. And that is probably just as well as I get used to doing this and try to find what is sometimes referred to as a "voice." So far, of the people I read often, Brian comes closest to what I would want this place to be. So, if this looks reeeealy like one of Brian's pages, it's because it is! Thanks Brian. Hope it's OK with you.
On the other hand, I find that Bob's place becomes a bit too polemic for me. Talk about theological discussions. On the other hand, he has great experience in computers and therefore is definetly worth a look see. But you have been warned. [OK. I was wrong. He doesn't usually argue just to argue (usually). But sometimes he does. So be prepared. And I'll say it again, I was wrong - updated 12/20/99].
Of course, my hero is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. Chaos Manor indeed. He does all these strange and wonderful things so we won't have to. Recommended.
And then there is Dr. Keyboard. How does one describe the smell of freshly baked bread? Or the sound of paws impatiently scraping the door in the hopes of a walk through the vines? His diary is what writing is all about. Check it out not only for his knowledge of computers, but also of wine, automobiles, and food (not necessarily in that order).
Vacation Part II. While in SF, we visited the Exploratorium (is that how it's spelled?). I had been there once before at least 10 years ago when visiting a cousin of mine who works for, as the Register calls it, Chipzilla (aka Intel). I was not impressed with it (the Exploratorium, not Intel) then, and I'm not much impressed with it now. Maybe you have to be about 10 years old to appreciate what they have. But I think they need to update some of their exhibits and make sure all of the ones they have on display are working (many had signs saying they were in need of repairs). If you are ever in SF, and you have children, by all means go.
Otherwise, perhaps a trip to the SF Museum of Modern Art would be in order. I think the first Tuesday of each month is when they let everyone in for free and by chance, that was the day we visited. Its multi-leveled and full of the regular, and some not so regular artists that one expects to see in a museum of this size. The main exhibit while we were there was photographs from the NASA Apollo missions to the moon. Terrific stuff that. Makes you wonder why we haven't gone back to the moon since.
The bus can take you to most places in SF and I encourage you to use it. They have day passes that you can use to take any bus anywhere all day. Otherwise parking is expensive when you can find it. Recommended. 'nuf for now.
Aloha Friday - October 22, 1999
It's Aloha Friday and the weather is clearing. The roof of our garage, which also acts as a second floor deck, has been leaking for the last six months. I almost got up enough energy, not to mention money, to buy enough roofing sealers and deck top-coats to re-do the roof after getting back from vacation. I say almost because sanity prevailed and I figured the rain would stop. And sure 'nuf, it did!
Vacation Part III This is starting to look like a Bruce Willis series, "Vacation Part XVII, the Vengeance Returns!" See Bruce and his trusty aide Will Smith, kick the butts of Asians/Latinos/Germans/midgets who are bent on stealing all of the money held in the casinos. But I digress. The Las Vegas Hilton has an attraction called "Star Trek, The Experience." As far as I can see, its one of those flight simulators in which you don't actually go anywhere, but due to visual and other special effects, you think you are flying though space. On the advice of the cab driver that took us over there, I decided not to go on the ride but to only check out the "Star Trek, The Experience Shops." There you can purchase everything from communicators to leather jackets with the United Federation of Planets logos on them (I lusted after one of those but $270US was a bit much). I did get a polo shirt, three baseball caps, a key chain, and pin. All for the low, low price of $75US. Such a bargain.
Rumors of a shipping strike continue to circulate here. Voting by longshoremen (as opposed to shortshorewomen?) ends today. So at any point thereafter there could be a shortage of just about everything. There are disadvantages of living on an island two thousand miles from any large land mass. Namely, everything from toilet paper to building materials comes by ship. And since only union members can unload those ships, when they stop work, everyone else eventually stops working.
On the other hand, Hawaii was the first state to have a TV station broadcasting a digital signal. Part of this signal will soon be broadcasting directly to your PC. Welcome to the information age.
More on Monday. Aloha!