Have you ever walked into a conversation where you were immediately pulled into it with a question seemingly from out of the blue? That happened to me today. I was walking into the breakroom at my client site when two of the employees there asked me a question.

“Did you ever have a dream where your teeth fell out?”

“Well, yeah,” I answered. “A few years ago. But, yeah.”

“See, there must be some kind of support group for people,” they agreed as they walked out.

I have no idea what led up to that question, but I kind of like it that way. The mystery and all, you know.

Today is the 6th anniversary of Hurricane Fran. It was 1996 when it rolled in and rocked my world.

I will pull out all my pictures of the devastation and remember it all. Maybe even post a few when I can.

I have decided to keep my writing on my emotions private. Writing it did me a world of good. It could not possibly have that effect on anyone else.

Airlines make me sick. Not flying on them, just their attitude.

Recent headlines show they’re finally getting what they deserve. U.S. Airways files for bankruptcy. Midway goes under. United threatens to file for Chapter 11. And they all hold out their hats for a federal bailout. Why?

Why should the government subsidize such an arrogant, greedy industry?

They are incredibly anti-competitive. If they “own” a hub, they jack prices up. Charlotte, home of U.S. Airways, is one of the most expensive airports as a result. If a newcomer shows up with lower fares, they collude to undercut the until they wither and die.

They agree to collectively raise fares. They play a shell game with fares, too. What other form of transportation makes one person pay four times the rate of the person next to them? Or one that can have such disparate fares, hidden in a byzantine fare system, where the cost of getting to a destination can depend on bizarre criteria?

They treat their passengers like so much cattle. Before they cram you into an overstuffed plane, you have to run a security gauntlet that is sure to humiliate you. Smile at the other passengers as the guard paws through your suitcase in front of them.

They adopt rules for their own convenience, get the FAA to rubber-stamp them and then hide behind that ubiquitous “federal regulations require” term, even though the rule was their own doing (the cellphone ban and two-carryon-limit are two that come to mind).

Service is a thing of the past. You’re lucky to get a small bag of pretzels and a bathroom break. I’ve seen some surly flight attendants that would have been fired on the spot had I been their boss.

After all this, they have the nerve to beg for a bailout from the federal government.

Here’s a clue for the airlines: Terrorism didn’t kill your business. You did it yourselves.

Thank you. Buh-bye.

North Carolina is having its first Sales Tax Holiday today. The rules and stipulations are mind-numbingly complex, however.

For example, computer parts are exempt if sold with a CPU. It doesn’t say what constitutes a CPU. I assume you could buy a force-feedback joystick and an ancient 486 processor chip and that would count.

Or, you could make the argument that most computer peripherials have CPU’s built-in, and thus would be sold with a CPU. Albeit, these are custom CPU’s, but would meet the legal definition.

Anyway, the whole thing is a big nightmare for retailers, especially small retailers such as Siteseers. If I’m selling things around the time of next year’s “holiday,” I might just close up shop those days to avoid the headaches.

This is what happens when politicians are left unsupervised.

I have been checking into wireless networks lately. Things like NoCat and others.

Yesterday, I found a very cool linux application called Splat! It lets you map transmitter characteristics across terrain.

Such an app is very useful when building a wireless network. Or any network where line of sight is very important.

I also made a call on the ham radio to another PC-savvy ham, John, N1GMV. He sounded very excited about getting an 802.11 network going in Raleigh.

Hopefully, we’re not alone and can get a group together to make it reality. We’ll see.

My idea is to organize it as a cooperative. We can’t make it free because of the costs involved with tower space rental, bandwidth, and other expenses. But a coop could keep the overhead low and allow for some room to grow the network as the membership increases.

This is by far the most ambitious idea I’ve had. I haven’t a clue about 90% of the important stuff, too. But every grand scheme starts as a dream.

And that’s what I’m good at: dreaming.

The other day I went to the local warehouse club to buy some diapers and to send some film off for developing. The warehouse’s checkout lines are notoriously slow, so I decided to use my time in line to fill out my film envelope.

The cashier, an ebullent, middle-aged black woman, was kidding with her customers as well as proving my slow-line theory wrong.

Suddenly, it was my turn to pay. I didn’t want to slow her down, so I punched in my debit card pin number in a frenzy.

As I was sorting through the keypad’s prompts, she asked “no pictures today?”

I had to pull my head out of prompts and pin numbers to decode what she said.

“Pictures? Ah! She thinks I’m pretty hip,” I thought. “She can tell I’m down with the brotherhood.” After all, any street-smart homeboy knows that “pictures” is slang for cash. I smiled a knowing smile and answered “no.”

A few beats later, I realized I had gone through her line carrying my empty film envelope. She wasn’t talking cash, she was talking photographs.

I hung my head and drove my lily-white-feeling self home.

Also, I’ve been keeping busy updating Hallie’s Baby Blog. It’s an ongoing diary of her progress at the hospital.

I will probably keep it going even after she comes home with us. It’s nice to keep a record of events, isn’t it?

I was going to register “SiliconHallie.com” for her page, but Kelly shot me down. 🙁