The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Last One Writing
In each account profile, Blogger shows all of the pages to which the account holder has authoring rights. My other one is a blog I created as a small piece for our group’s final project in E-Commerce, last spring. I should really delete it.
This blog, of course, was created for the same class. And I wondered if any of my other classmates were still writing. So I went back to the “Blog Rating” form we were required to submit on each person in the section. Of the fifteen students in my section, I am the only one still writing. Worse than that – I am the only person to post a thing since the class ended. And only one other student has posted since the “blog assignment” deadline. One guy deleted his page altogether.
I took the summer off from school, so I am not in touch with any classmates right now. The blogs would have been a nice way to keep up!
At the Movies: The Balcony is Closed
I read the Tribune, so I missed Roger Ebert’s blog at the Sun Times on the “new direction” of his show, At the Movies (or whatever they call it these days). You can read it here.
I remember when Gene Siskel died, in early 1999, one of the things Ebert said was how sorry Siskel would be to miss the Star Wars prequels. That made me rather teary.
I have been of the opinion that Ebert has gone soft over the last few years. In that he seems to like just about everything. I remember watching a few years back and saying, “When did Roeper become Bad Cop?”
I don’t know what they plan to do with the show, except that Ebert expects to have some role in the development. I don’t imagine they will keep it home-grown.
To sign off, this is the review they did when The Empire Stikes Back was re-released:
What is the Centerpiece of the Bathroom?
Last weekend, I spent Sunday afternoon removing every last thing from the cabinets and shelves. I left for Washington Monday morning, to minimize the number of days I would have to (gasp) share a bathroom with another human being.
When I returned Thursday night, I lamented that I hadn’t taken any “Before” pictures. You know, to show the Internet.My mother, with whom I share this house, replied that she would be too embarrassed to show the “Before” pictures anyway.
By Friday afternoon, the job still wasn’t complete. This is not a complaint, in that I understand that tearing apart an entire bathroom and putting it all back together takes time. But that is also three more days that the birds are boarding, and I don’t like that, either.
However, it did give me the opportunity to take a few bad “In Process” pictures:
The vanity is sort of there:
You can see the lights are there. Kinda:
Where the toilet should be. But where is the toilet?
I am amazed at how disruptive home improvement projects are. My hat is way off for people that can Do it Yourself.
IMDb.com
Most of my friends already know about this website, but for those that don’t use it:
The Internet Movie Database is the official data source for all things Hollywood. It covers television as well as film. Have you ever found yourself watching a movie and thinking, “From where do I know that guy?” IMDb has the answer.
When I first started watching House MD, I couldn’t place Lisa Edelstein, the actress who plays Dr. Cuddy. IMDb had the answer – she played a small role in the early seasons of The West Wing. Eight years ago. I never would have come up with that on my own.
My mother watches tons of old black and white films, and I can’t tell you how often I look at the screen and say something like, “Is that Gerald O’Hara?” Of course, I meant the actor, Thomas Mitchell. IMDb allows me to look up a character name to find the actor!
Every episode of every television show. Every obscure actor. Ever wonder what happened to the kid in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? He is a Hollywood martial artist/stunt coordinator.
The answer to every third question in my house is, “You know where the Internet is..go find out!” And this website is the reason why.
Clothes Dryer
I am back from Washington, but my bathroom project isn’t finished. So I am without my birds, Kiwi the Grey and Manu the Foster-Amazon until Tuesday. More time to fool around on the Internet. From The Chicago Tribune:
But even in real life with a budget, my family and I have scored big with one simple lifestyle change—we hang dry all of our laundry. It has reduced our power bill, and turned us, like converts to a new faith, into proselytizers.
I am, of course, aware that the dryer uses a lot of electricity. And this is a nice idea, in a Laura Ingalls way. But what the article (which you can find here) fails to mention is that after “do not leave your bedroom windows open”, the most common piece of advice given to people that suffer from allergies is, “do not line-dry your clothes outside”. The wet clothes will pick up all of the allergens you are trying to avoid before you even wear them.
So it is a nice thought, but not happening in my house.
Volunteering in the Airport
One last thing about the airports. USA Today had an article about Volunteer Aides helping confused travelers at the airports:
Last year, about 1,600 Travelers Aid volunteers — including many people who retired from the travel industry or love to travel — assisted some 6.5 million people at 25 airports, including Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington Dulles. That’s up from around 4 million a year before 9/11, when travel became more difficult, says Travelers Aid CEO Ray Flynt.
God Bless them, because I just could not take that gig. You can find the rest of the piece here.
They Told Us It Would Get Worse II
After the debacle of trekking to Washington, I spent my few days in town and came home today. I have never seen DCA so crowded in my entire life.
There were weather problems yesterday, but by the time I arrived at 12:30 the drama should have been long past. I checked the Departure board. My flight was all running as scheduled. The next flight was cancelled. And one later in the evening.
It looks to me that United is scheduling the O’Hare/Washington flights every hour, then canceling the ones that do not sell well enough. If that is going to be business as usual, we won’t be able to count on any flight. And I am going to seriously consider driving when I have to do my Tour of the Offices this fall.
Coincidentally, I saw today that MSN Money has an article on the 12 Most Outrageous Fees and the travel industry was highlighted. Here is my favorite bit:
The careful-what-you-ask-for fee. If your Air Canada flight is delayed due to weather or heavy traffic, agents will be happy to help you find a hotel, restaurant or flight — as long as you’ve paid a $25-to-$35 “On My Way” fee. Once this was something airline agents did, you know, just to help out. But in this age of fees in flight, the travel experience has been deconstructed.
For example, check out this list of fees from Delta Air Lines, which will now charge a $3-per-bag “administrative fee” for curbside check-in and a $25 “handling charge” for awards tickets that use another airline.
What do the airlines say? Basically, you asked for it. You wanted cheap flights, and you still demand cheap flights. But with already slim profit margins and rising fuel prices, fees are the only way airlines can remain competitive.
They Told Us It Would Get Worse
I found that my 8am flight had been cancelled and I was automatically rebooked on the 11am. By clicking around a bit, I was able to find the last available seat in coach on the 10am flight. In the middle seat of the last row.
Everyone and their dogs told us that flying was going to become even less pleasant. In fact, the route from O’Hare to West Palm Beach is discontinued, along with the route to Ft. Lauderdale beginning this September. Those are the airports closest to my grandmother. She is going to have to pick me up in Miami – I’m not sure I can afford the cab.
However. The Monday morning 8am flight between O’Hare and Reagan National Airport is sacred. Is sacred too strong a word? No. Rumor has it that after September 11, there were five minutes of discussion involving shutting Reagan Airport down permanently. It is too close to the Capitol, the White House and the National Mall. Why did the discussion last only five minutes? Because it would inconvenience the members of Congress to shut down that airport. They use it.
When it first became apparent that United Airlines was in serious trouble, which I remember to be not long after September 11, we were told that service was being scaled back. I remember thinking, “Damn. Can’t count on flights every hour on the hour (between Reagan and home). Poor me.” That was sarcastic. But the truth is, there wasn’t much change. Maybe they pulled a 2pm sometimes, but overall there was always a flight. And often, if I was at the airport early, standby was still an option. I imagine because every midwestern Member of Congress flies through O’Hare to fly into Reagan.
So the fact that the Monday 8am flight was cancelled the night before a flight worries me. What the heck could be next?
What Does it Cost to Have a Pet?
Liz Pulliam at MSN Money is one of my favorite online writers. She does a lot of work for people that are badly in debt, and also has some practical help. The best piece of advice she gave for me was the idea that people are obsessed by the idea that we need an emergency fund equal to six months salary (or expenses, depending on who you ask). So many people find that unattainable that they don’t even try to save it. A better idea is to try to have $500 saved. A crazy number of urgent, unplanned expenses come in at around that number – transmission leak, radiator stuff, vet bills. And if you have that $500, you are not sticking it on a credit card that you can’t pay and digging yourself a hole. So. True.
This weekend, she has a piece on the cost of pets. The idea is to be aware of the total expenses before adopting a pet. She included a great table, which I can’t seem to publish in Blogger. But the totals show the lifetime cost of a dog is between $8,000 and $9,000. And the cost of a cat, that tends to live longer, is around $10,000.
Northern Illinois Lego Train Club
If you put about eight dining room tables together
, that is how big the display was. They had built an “el” train, a Metra train, Hogwarts Express and several others that went around different themed displays. Including the Jedi Temple. And that black building in the picture is the Sears Tower. I was very impressed and the kids were very excited. I had a hard time getting Alex to leave.The only downer was that I there wasn’t much at his eye level, so I had to carry the kid around the table. A lot. I am looking for some Advil now.
The Next Dark Age 
