morrowlife

As hinted yesterday, here’s a fairly lame picture of this week’s rental car – the old guy’s convertible.

It was a little cooler here today – maybe only up to about 68 degrees, and it’s 57 and windy right now. It was so cool on my way back from work this evening that I had to put the top up! What a waste.

Had Chinese dinner with my colleague Roy this evening. I’ve eaten there several times before, and continue to enjoy it every time I go. I’m pretty full tonight, though.

Work was busy today. I attended two meetings that lasted until about 2:00, ran out and got a hamburger, and then went back to the office to try to get a few things done. Instead, I ended up unpacking and installing four new printers. It needed to be done, but took a lot of time I didn’t have. Still, if I hadn’t done it, somebody even busier would have had to do it. Oh well, I’ll get everything done tomorrow.

Except I probably won’t. The spacecraft arrives tomorrow morning, so it will be another incredibly busy day. This is what happens on launch campaigns – you run from meeting to meeting all day and then spend your evenings doing all your regular work. I need to send out a couple of models and do two expense reports The frustrating thing is that I’m under strict orders to try to not work overtime, so I feel obligated to go home at the end of the day rather than trying to get things done. I’m right back in another situation where pleasing my managers means I have to short-change my customers. Sigh.

I only got one vote on yesterday’s contest. I’m pleased to say, though, that Reader Number One was absolutely correct. It was sushi yesterday, and it was pretty good sushi at that.

I want to get a movie started tonight, but I really need to get to bed. Tomorrow’s moving day, so I’ll have to pack my bags again, and I really ought to get to work pretty early. Maybe I’ll just go to bed right now. Either way, this is done. See you tomorrow.

Today’s picture is an opportunity for my Esteemed Readers to guess what I had for dinner tonight. Sorry, you don’t get three guesses. Two would probably be too many. I’ll be checking the comments later. Be the first to guess!

Landed in Florida a little before noon today. The plane trip was uneventful and relaxing, although I had to ride in – gasp! – coach. It was a US Airways plane, so my frequent flyer status was meaningless. I experienced the usual levels of US Airways service, meaning, of course, that the service was lousy. There was one polite flight attendant and the counter agent who took my bag was very nice. The gate agent was incredibly rude to everyone, so I felt lucky to escape her notice. Two good things, though – my suitcase didn’t get lost and the pilot made an outstandingly soft landing. I congratulated him for it on my way out the door and he seemed pleased that somebody noticed.

I talked the lady at Avis out of a convertible. It’s a Chrysler Sebring – an old guy’s convertible, but I suppose that might be appropriate in my case. The weather today was simply perfect, so I enjoyed some top-down motoring. I took a couple of pictures of the car this evening and might try working one in to the blog soon.

Spent the afternoon at Astrotech. I was the only person there from our team, so it was very quiet in the office. Not a bad thing. Things will get busy tomorrow and then frantic the day after.

I still haven’t finished Where Wizards Stay Up Late (still enjoying it – more later), but Reader Number Four and I went to the library on Saturday and I checked out a couple of books on consulting, which just might be my ticket to fame and fortune, assuming my current plan of entering sweepstakes doesn’t work out. The one I brought on this trip is called How to Start a Freelance Consulting Business, which I think is an admirably descriptive title. I haven’t even started it yet, so I’ll reserve comments until I have something to comment about (yes, I know – that’s never stopped me before; you’re so obvious). I’m adding it to the book club and will let you know how it comes out, although most of my readers will find it doesn’t exactly apply to their circumstances. I predict a happy ending.

Rather than reading on the plane, I listened to actual music on my iPod today. I almost never do that, and there are 172+ songs on it, most of which I like a lot, so I just spent the two and a half hours vegetating. It was quite relaxing. I need to get back to podcasts soon – I have about 48 hours’ worth of material on there, and more coming all the time – but I’m still going through a few songs as I write this. Earth, Wind, and Fire‘s Got to Get You Into My Life (song 121 of 172) is playing right now. Very nice.

I also brought several movies on this trip. I have a mini Cary Grant film festival, consisting of Father Goose, His Girl Friday, and Arsenic and Old Lace. Then there’s Bob Hope‘s The Ghost Breakers, Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in Rear Window, Judy Holliday‘s Born Yesterday, William Powell and Myrna Loy in Song of the Thin Man (the one I couldn’t watch last week because I had forgotten to finalize it on my DVD recorder), and one movie I recorded recently but forgot to write its title on the disk. I’m sure it’s a really good movie, though.

I’m in the Marriott Courtyard hotel for a couple of days, after which I’ll be moving over to the Cape Winds. It’s really tempting to just stay in the Courtyard and accumulate Marriott points, but I sure enjoy staying in the much larger condos with their oceanfront view, living rooms, and kitchens. There’s a Marriott Residence Inn opening in a couple of weeks here. I’ll have to check it out.

Well, I need to post this and get to bed, so I’ll say good night. I already miss Readers One, Two, and Four. Take care.

As mentioned earlier, I didn’t get to actually see the Trier Karneval parade – I got there just a few minutes after it ended. Instead, I got to see (and walk through) a town square full of this stuff. Apparently, part of the tradition is throwing all the trash on the ground. Amazingly, they had it all cleaned up and looking German again within just a few hours.

I’m listening to Haydn’s Symphony Number 94 in G major (out of I don’t know how many, but at least 104 and that’s a lot of symphonies), performed by the Academy of Ancient Music, as I write this. I borrowed it from the library and imported it into iTunes. Very pleasant – not too heavy but sufficiently complex for good listening.

A few words on some recent books. Eniac was truly enjoyable. There’s enough technical depth for a savvy reader to understand how the world’s first digital computer was designed and put together, but not so much that a non-savvy reader’s head would swim. Explanations are clear and concise. More importantly, though, the story isn’t really as much a book about a computer as it is a book about the fascinating people who designed and built the thing, their efforts in getting it built, their frustrations at seeing their invention co-opted by others, and their inability to turn their invention into a viable business. I was fascinated by Eckert‘s and Mauchly‘s faults along with their genius, and really came to feel like I knew them, along with the fascinating people around them. The author’s viewpoint that they were continually ripped off by people with questionable motives comes through, but it’s a useful counterpoint to the many other published accounts of computing’s early days that discount E&M’s contributions. All in all, it’s a good, quick read (228 pages with extensive footnotes and bibliographic references) that should fascinate computer enthusiasts (link alert – I got a 95) and human-interest lovers alike. I recommend it.

A few weeks ago, I started Shut Up, He Explained, by Ring Lardner. It’s a collection of Lardner’s short humor, edited by Babette Rosmond and Henry Morgan. I’m most of the way through the first story, and I must say that I’m not really enjoying it. I worked on it for a few days and then put it down about two weeks ago and haven’t been able to get myself to pick it back up. Maybe I should just skip to the second story and see if it is better than the first.

The other one I’m reading right now is Where Wizards Stay Up Late, by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon. It’s about the development of computer networking in the 70s. As with Eniac, it’s more about personalities than technical content, which is just fine. History is about people, not things, after all. I get more of a feeling with this one, though, that the authors don’t really understand the science. Still, it’s worth a look.

Actually, there are a few electronic books I’ve been reading too. I just finished re-reading My Man Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse. As with all his other work, it’s absolutely brilliant. It’s a riot from the first page to the last. Wodehouse is able to make upper-class English twits not only sympathetic, but positively loveable. Highly recommended – read anything by Wodehouse you can get your hands on. And it’s free! Check out Gutenberg (link alert – scroll way down to find the right guy).

My trip to the Cape has moved up by a day, so I’m now leaving on Monday morning. It’s too bad, but the Paris trip’s delay has given me back six more days this month, so I guess I don’t mind spending one more day in Florida. Our spacecraft couldn’t be shipped on the 8th because of a conflict with another spacecraft, so we moved our shipment up by a day. I’m really looking forward to getting out there and getting the spacecraft launched.

I am absolutely committed to having some lame version of the book club up before the weekend is over. It will probably just be a list of recently-read, currently-in-progress, and future-reading-list books over there on the right, but it will at least be something. Have a great weekend.

Here’s another artsy one. That was sure a productive photography day. Thanks to Readers Number One and Four for their excellent unrehearsed (not to mention unaware) posing work. All the Trier pictures are on my other computer, so look for more of them later.

I’m back from Germany/Luxembourg, one day early. Our meeting went so well that we finished late in the afternoon yesterday. We had a little banquet last night at the Bitburger Wirtshaus in Trier, which is a pretty good informal place. I had an excellent sampler plate with lots of traditional German meats, potatoes, and vegetables (some of which I actually ate).

Came home today in first class, so I can’t complain. I still have two more systemwide upgrades on United, so that wasn’t my last first-class trip. The traffic getting out of Washington and then through Baltimore was pretty heavy, and there was some light rain in Pennsylvania, but it was above freezing all the way home and I heard a lot of podcasts. Watched Shadow of the Thin Man and North by Northwest on my computer on the way home. The Thin Man movies are all major favorites of mine (not just for certain reasons), and North by Northwest goes down with several other Cary Grant movies as some of the classiest filmmaking ever.

I also finished Eniac during the trip. More on that tomorrow.

We delayed our March Paris trip into May. This is a good thing – I had too much travel scheduled this month. Time for bed. Hasta manana.

Today’s picture is pretty lame, but I love the name. I’m staying in Trier, Germany for a few days and meeting in Chateau Betzdorf in Luxembourg. The hotel is nice – I’ve stayed here before – and there are lots of hotels nearby. When we got here yesterday, the Carnival parade was going through town. I got there just after the parade ended, but I got a few pictures of festival-goers. Thankfully, it’s quite a bit calmer than Mardi Gras in New Orleans (at least from the sound of it – I’ve never actually been there). There was some good old oompah music on a giant sound system and a lot of people drinking too much and throwing the bottles on the ground. And a lot of spilled beer – everybody’s shoes were sticking to the pavement. Still, nobody was obnoxious and the mess was amazingly cleaned up within a few hours of the event’s end. I have a few more pictures that I’ll post here in the upcoming days.

No post yesterday. Sorry about that – I was traveling and didn’t get online. Right now, I have just a couple of minutes left before the hour of connection time I bought expires.

This week’s meeting is going well. We hope to end tomorrow – a day early! – and go home on Thursday. We’ll see how it goes.

Went out to dinner with Mike McHone, Bill McMurry, and Terry Jensen. It was Bill’s birthday. We had a nice meal at the Coyote restaurant across the street from the hotel. It’s kind of a German version of TGI Friday’s, but the food was okay and the company was nice.

It’s time for my connection to time out and, coincidentally, it’s time for bed. See you tomorrow, hopefully.