Have I mentioned that I take a **LOT** of pictures? (Hint — I have)
As proof that if you do that, eventually you’ll take one that just pops, where you look at it and say, “Damn! I took that picture and it’s just about perfect!”
Here’s one of those that I took.
August, 2009 – Stowe, Vermont
Filed under Photography, Travel
On the one hand, it’s sort of impressive (in a Big Brother’s watching, creepy sort of way, but I completely understand how it’s done and there’s potentially as much good as evil, so I’ll let it stand) how Twitter is able to track where you are and insert ads based on that.
For example, when I went to visit the Norfolk / Virginia Beach area at the beginning of June I started to immediately get ads in my Twitter feed for businesses in the northeast Virginia area. (The Twitter app saw what network I was connected to, communicated that back to the mother ship, and Mother started feeding ads for that area – simple.)
At risk of giving them ideas though, I have to wonder at the TYPE of ads I got. Almost all of them were for things like car dealerships, utilities, industrial consultants, and so on. With all of the data they have, why aren’t they about 99.9% sure that I live in Southern California? (I mean, simply based on where I’m always connected from, down to the cell tower(s) nearest my home and office.) And if that’s the case and I suddenly vanish for five hours and then show up in Virginia, how hard is it to figure out that I’m travelling? It’s probably irrelevant for a first cut analysis to know if I’m travelling for business or pleasure.
If you know I’m travelling, why would I want a utility company? Or a car dealership? Or a light industrial park real estate ad? How about restaurants? Tourist traps? Theaters?
As invasive and even more creepy as that might be, it might actually be useful.
But then, here I am back at home, well over a month later, and I’m still getting ads like this:
DelMarVa Power?!
Sure, I would love to save energy and money. But for this ad to have anything to do with my reality I would have to have be spending at least $0.01 on power or gas or water or some sort of utility in the Delaware – Maryland – Virginia area.
To repeat, I’ve been back in Los Angeles for over a month.
For an app that has functions that can be really clever, this one can be pretty freakin’ stupid at the same time!
Boston, MA
Near the end of the Freedom Trail, after you cross the Charles River but before the walk up to Breed’s Hill and the Bunker Hill monument, you’ll find the USS Constitution.
If you ever get a chance to get to Boston, it is MOST HIGHLY recommended that you set aside the better part of a full day to walk the Freedom Trail in its entirety. It’s only a couple of miles, you could do it in an hour or less if you were just walking, but you can easily spend all day looking at everything along the way.
Do it.
Filed under Photography, Travel
Taken on the beach in Virginia Beach two weeks ago.
Looks like fun!
Probably a skill level here that I’m not at.
Of course, my first thought went to how warm the water might be. (No clue.)
And in my case, fun and excitement need to balance with all of those potential drowning issues.
This guy just had MAD skills, cruised on the breezes like it was in his DNA. (Plus, his mouth can hold more than his belly can!)
Filed under Critters, Photography, Travel
How…industrial. With a touch of something biological down in that hinge, something that I’m just as glad that I didn’t touch.
As I was taught by Kevin MacNamara in high school, “Don’t sweat the petty things, and don’t pet the sweaty things.”
Kevin had a great deal of wisdom.
Filed under Flying, Photography, Travel
I got nothing. Four of them, pretty much identical.
Except the three of them say “Rimrock” as the location and one says “Happy Jack.”
The cell phone is possessed, I tell you!
(But to be honest, possession’s gotten a bad rap ever since Linda Blair’s projectile pea soup thing. If I could just get the possessed cell phone to give me winning Lotto numbers the day BEFORE they win, I would be more than happy to accept it as a valued member of the household. And probably put it into law school, since possession is 9/10ths of the law…)
Filed under Photography, Travel
The weekend with the in-laws done, it’s back home for me.
As much as I might love watching thunderstorms, I was just as happy to detour around this one, even though we were already late.
This time I was connecting through Charlotte – it looks lovely in the ten minutes I was hustling through from Concourse E to Concourse B in a last minute run to catch my connecting flight. (I made it.)
Over North Carolina and Georgia there was more convective activity, big thunderheads building up.
All the way through Tennessee, looking south into Alabama and Mississippi, more of the same. Lovely – but dangerous, so there was some bobbing and weaving to get around it all.
We crossed the Mississippi this time at Memphis.
Oklahoma gets flat – this is Norman. I hear they play some football here.
Texas gets flat – and BORING.
New Mexico, with Albuquerque just underneath us, the Rio Grande valley is hard to miss.
Finally we cross the Colorado, here over the Colorado River between Parker Dam (the bottleneck at the top) and Lake Havasu City (beneath and behind us). California, here we are!
Tomorrow, it’s back to work. And unpacking. And catching up on my CAF duties at the hangar. And all of those other adulting things.
Adulting sucks. But it does allow one to take transcontinental plane flights and see all of the neat stuff out the windows!
Filed under Photography, Travel
It’s always nice to see family – it’s especially nice when said family has a gorgeous old Model A that they let me drive!
(Photo by Melanie Kordis)
My dad had a 1929 Model A – this is (I think) a 1931 Deluxe Model A. The long-suffering-sister-in-law was kind enough to let me take it out for a while with her and she didn’t have a nervous breakdown or raise her voice or nothing!
(Photo by Melanie Kordis)
She did at one point very calmly and politely point out that we were passing the local courthouse and that coincidentally this is where the local speed limit was 25 mph and she had managed to not yet ever get a speeding ticket there despite the fact that it was heavily enforced… It seemed an odd point at first, but then again, I’ve often been accused of being a slow learner. (I slowed down, we did not get a ticket.)
Driving the Model A requires a delicate touch, even for those who are used to driving a stick shift. After doing my best to take 20,000 miles off the life of the transmission, I was catching on much better at the end. It was fun!
Thanks, Melanie!!
Filed under Family, Paul, Photography, Travel
Getting up before sunrise sucks.
As travel goes, I’ve had a lot worse. Being old and white means I get TSA Pre status a lot (let’s get real, it’s not because of either my charm or my good looks) which helps a lot in the early hours.
Climbing out of LAX into the June gloom (coastal marine layer) means it’s very pretty on top, watching that wave of clouds break upon the mountains inland.
Around the Colorado/Arizona line there are a couple of these long, dirty, brown clouds stretching out downwind from what appear to be coal-fired power plants that are still running, despite the fact that they’re probably costing more per kilowatt hour to run than a large solar farm. Thanks corrupt and evil government officials!
On the other hand, over Telluride there was still snow on the peaks.
We crossed the Mississippi just north of Quincy, IL.
We stopped in Philadelphia just long enough to get from the far end of Terminal A to the far end of Terminal F and grab a quick lunch along the way.
At Terminal F we got on a much smaller aircraft and scooted down the coast to Norfolk.
Let the family festivities begin!!
Filed under Flying, Photography, Travel
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