Like a dumbass, I couldn’t just chill when I got home yesterday from Toronto. I had to go tinker with my car. I wound up draining my car battery all night last night and am now stuck at home.

The passenger side door has a seal that has come loose and was simply hanging off the car. It also has a noisy seal around the window. I put the keys in the ignition last night to bring down the power window on the passenger side. Problem is, after fixing the seal, I totally forgot to shut the car off.

Kelly is out of town until midafternoon, and the house is completely empty of food, as we were planning on being out all week. That means I’m down to using my bike to get around until my car battery recharges.

It all brings to mind the post I was going to write about how dependent we are on cars. Guess I’ll have more to say about that very soon!

UPDATE: Got a battery charger which also has enough oomph to crank the car. After lunch I’m gonna give it a try and see if it will get me to work.

Honestly, after traveling so much, all I wanted was just a normal day.

Well, I’m on my way back from Toronto now. Like a clueless traveler, I didn’t know that I had to pass through Customs before boarding my flight. I assumed that I’d head through customs at RDU airport, as I do when I fly back from London. The mistake almost cost me my seat. I was walking up to the gate at “final boarding call.”

The CEO sent an email yesterday that suggested the sales engineer team make frequent trips in order to help close whatever deals we can help close. He suggested a one-a-week frequency. While I’m fine making a trip like this one every two weeks or so, I’m not sure I’m up for doing them more often than that.

And yet as I type this, I have to admit that I do enjoy the travel. I suppose I get as much from being in front of our resellers and customers as they do. I am enjoy learning how to quickly win friends. I can already tell its a salesman’s secret weapon. At one point in yesterday’s training, a crack was made about salespeople. Jeff and I were jokingly asked if we were salespeople, at which point Jeff singled me out as the sales guy. While everyone was chuckling over this, Herb pointed at me and said “see, I could tell! Just look at the way he smiles!” I laughed at the time, but as I think back it seems to be a fantastic compliment. I have finally broken free from Server Room Hell, becoming a talented, technical showman.

The word on the street is that my manager holds the key to the company’s success. That’s comforting to know from the standpoint that what I’m doing is that valuable. It also raises the bar as far as the kind of committment I need to put forth in doing my job. I don’t consider myself a slacker by any stretch (well, sometimes, perhaps), but I can really turn some heads at this point with a little extra effort. I’m at the point in my employment where the “honeymoon” is over and folks are beginning to solidify their impression of me. Now I just need to step up.

Speaking of stepping up, the opening game of N.C. State football is this weekend. MY buddy Scott has graciously offered me his season tickets for the game. I was hoping to bring Kelly and Hallie to the game, but Kelly and I decided that Hallie wouldn’t really enjoy sitting on our laps on a crowded metal bench with thousands of mad, screaming fans around us. Makes sense to me. Plus, we don’t have an appropriate Wolfpack cheerleader outfit for her.

Yesterday’s talk with Herb the Political Canadian really energized me about democracy and the political process. It was nice to find someone who had views similar to mine. EVen better, it was nice to debate the issues with such an informed person when our views differed. At the end of the discussion we were all still smiling. Nice.

I’ve come to subscribe to the belief that you never return from a trip the same person. Though this trip was a short one, that belief holds true. Everytime you leave your day-to-day cushy environment and step into new territory, you’re going to grow. It can’t be helped. Here’s to more growth.

I’m finally settled in my hotel room here in Toronto. I’m staying at the hotel 18R, a nice 10,000 foot concrete-surface hotel with ILS approaches. Actually, it’s the Best Western, but its no lie I can see glide slope lights from my room (11th floor).

The room’s best feature is the gratis high-speed internet, which I’m making use of now. It’s a Bell Canada service called Data Valet. Only way it could rock more is if I got a real IP address to the Internet. But I can’t quibble.

I’ve had a long day, starting it at 4 AM and not yet finishing, as you can see. But I’m psyched just to have some breather time – just to be alone for a moment. I’ll finish a post and then crawl into that bed behind me.

Toronto is an interesting place. I was expecting it to be more beautiful than it actually is – at least, what I’ve seen of it. The weather has been gorgeous – it was 80 degrees F today with a steady breeze, though the breeze added chill around sundown.

What’s really surprising about Toronto is how much it reminds me of Austin, TX. Yes, Austin: that Texas town some-odd hundreds of miles away. I could close my eyes and the clear sky, ever-stretching highways, and funny-talking locals would convince me I was in Austin. The accent is different, though, I will admit.

The insane traffic has been the biggest surprise. I always pictured Canadians as polite and mild-mannered, but it is utter chaos on the roads here. Bumper to bumper traffic moves at breakneck speed, people abruptly change lanes, and absolutely NO ONE lets you in front of them. My rental car is a sweet Ford Mustang in a hideously bright shade of yellow. If I wasn’t already self-conscious about driving in a foreign country, it helps to have a car so visible it washes out the view of Mars. Thanks, Hertz…

The training I was sent here to do went well, all things considered. I was asked early-on if I had any kind of itinerary. Of course I don’t because I’m all about improvising. So that’s what I did. Luckily, I’ve got my coworker Jeff here to pick up the slack when I hit the tough technical parts. Mostly I held my own.

A few hours of being locked in a stuffy conference room and we were done. By that time, the main “combatant” in the company had completely changed his tune. It was to the point that I never would have pegged this guy as the one who gave us the most grief. He was all smiles as we left. For all the high-tech wizardry of the teleconferencing stuff I do, there is still no substitute for face-to-face meetings. No doubt about that at all.

We talked ourselves into going to one of the reseller’s customer sites to see our product in action. Jeff did surgery on the box, applying eight or so patches to the system. Each one took an agonizingly long time to finish, so we whiled away the time talking to our host, Herb.

Herb is a Jamaican-Canadian who immigrated 13 years ago. He was actually on the verge of falling asleep in front of us since he got only 2 hours of sleep last night. To my amazement, Herb lit up when our conversations somehow migrated to American politics.

Herb studied American political science in his college days in Canada. We spent the next two hours swapping views and opinions on the U.S. political climate. I consider myself to be somewhat politically aware, but Herb absolutely shamed me with his knowledge. I never thought Canadians could be more aware of American politics than Americans are, but Herb proved me wrong. He humbled me, plain and simple. And I’m not EVEN going to talk about the average American’s knowledge of our northern neighbor. I’m clueless about what’s going on in Canada.

Oh, and taxes. I heard an earful today about Canadian taxes. Yet Herb tells me that in this city of four million people, there are no ghettos. You won’t find a city like THAT in the States.

In spite of the rather unappealing sprawl around me (and the runway right outside my window), I wish I had more time to explore. The people are really friendly and the weather is nice (at least this time of year). I’ll have to bring Kelly along for the ride the next time around.

I’d like to know why my laptop runs three times as long on battery power when I’m using WinXP (or Win98) than with Linux. To my knowledge, the drive isn’t spinning down in Windows, and the processor is an Intel Celery: not capable of the speed-ratcheting “SpeedStep” feature.

I’ve had this thing powered up in XP for over an hour now, with two hours left on the battery. If I had my beloved Linux booted up, I’d have drained it by now. And this is with the apmd daemon supposedly saving processing time.

If any other Linux gurus have tips to teach Linux to sip battery power, please let me know. I’d like not have to depend on XP for my fun.

I’m on my way to Canada, flying above 30,000 feet now. The flight attendant just announced rough riding is ahead, right before taking a seat for herself. It’s rare that you see flight attendants taking a seat. Must be serious weather below us. As I type this, I can see some towering clouds reaching up near the left of the plane. It seems there’s no way around it so we’re buckling down and flying right through it.

The kid in the row behind me reminded me of Hallie every time he shreiked in the boarding area. I would smile when I heard him. Now that he’s in the seat behind me, shreiking AND kicking the back of my seat, I’m not so fond of him.

This is the first trip I’ve made to Canada in … wow, fourteen years. I bet it’s grown up so much I won’t recognize it. It was in diapers last time I visited, you know. My Canadian experience is limited to a visit to the stunningly beautiful city of Victoria, British Columbia. I was wearing a uniform at the time: a sailor onboard the good ship USS Elliot. We put in for three days or so, a bit of a shakedown cruise right after getting out of the yards.

It was the first foreign port visit of my short naval career. I was still getting to know my shipmates and didn’t entirely trust them yet. I was always alert for them to pull some silly “new guy” stunts on me and my buddy Craig, who joined the crew the same time I did.

I can think of very few sights more beautiful than following a tug along the Strait of Juan De Fuqua in the rising spring sunshine. It was all new to me, and armed with my ever-present camera, I snapped pictures of everything I saw.

Our Canadian hosts, the Royal Canadian Navy, were incredibly friendly and welcoming, though the base was a bit on the quiet side, possibly owing to it distance away from town. We were a busride from town, and as soon as liberty call was announced, those buses were soon full.

A sailor’s first stop in port is usually a bar, preferably one with women. True to form, my shipmates and I soon discovered an inviting strip club in a downtown hotel. Not much of a drinker (and a person who liked to stay in control) I nursed a beer or two while I watched the show. We were all knocked out by the sheer beauty of the women, who turned out to be some of the friendliest dancers you could meet. Honestly. A friend in my division was invited to lunch with one the next day, where they talked and talked. The rest of us were in awe of his social skills.

We rented scooters at a streetside vendor and began to explore the city. I spent most of my time taking photos, since a sailor of my paygrade had very little spending money. Those fancy hotels were the domain of the wealthier officers (and wealth is a relative term here, believe me). The hotels made for nice pictures, with all the surrounding flowers in bloom.

I wound up drinking too much at one bar and took a cab back to the ship, forgetting my camera in the process. Two shipmates brought it back to me, thankfully. When I had the roll developed, however, I discovered the strangest pictures that ever came out of my camera. I expected the usual pranks that drunk sailors might try with a stranger’s camera, but these shots were nothing of the sort. The strange shots all contained streaky, eerie lights, and dim scenes of buildings. To this day, I can’t figure out how these streaks were created.

I consider the Pacific Northwest area to have some kind of magical, mysterious qualities. It’s so easy to feel fantastic surrounded by such beautiful country. No doubt that my experience will be different with Toronto, though it has its own source of mystical energy in the nearby Niagra Falls.

Beautiful clouds stretch as far as the eye can see on the left side of the plane, while the right side is beginning to reveal some woodsy hills. Upstate New York, likely. A place I’ll have to visit some day in its own right.

The work I’ve got to do today is not the most exciting. Once again, I’m going in nearly blind to the work that needs to be done. I suppose I’m getting much more comfortable just “winging it.” Like the con man in the story “Catch Me If You Can,” I can convince everyone I know what I’m doing, including myself. Improvisation for fun and profit.

I’m sitting in the Charlotte airport waiting to board my plane to Toronto. I still can’t get over the fact that I’m able to post from the comfort of my boarding-area chair.

Sprint PCS is kewl. What would be even kewler would be a wireless network signal here. Apparently there isn’t one. Note to self: pitch free 802.11b service to the folks on the RDU Airport Authority board.

I was formulating my own post on the subject of traffic circles (yes, I am a geek) when I noticed today that Fark beat me to it. How fortuitous!

I’ve driven around a few local traffic circles during the past week and have decided they’re a smart idea. First off, they are known as “traffic calmers,” meaning they slow traffic down. While this is certainly true if you are comparing them with a street lit by green lights, they actually speed up traffic that ordinarily would be waiting for red lights. This not only means you’re not kept waiting at the light, it means that your car is not sitting there idling. Thus, not only are you not wasting time, there is less ozone being created by idled engines. Sweet.

Traffic circles are also safer. Instead of having two directions of traffic to avoid (left and right of you as you pass through an intersection), you only have to look one way: your left. Also, the only cars going fast in a circle are on the NASCAR circuit. You don’t have to worry that some jackass is going to appear out of nowhere and sideswipe you. If you do get smacked, you only have yourself to blame for not looking in the ONE direction you have to look. No one can “run” a traffic circle.

Traffic circles are also much more appealing visually. You can actually landscape a traffic circle, or even put a fountain there. Beats having an open, dirty square of pavement any day.

But the best reason to think about traffic circles is that the alternative we’ve got now – traffic lights – just doesn’t work. Traffic lights drive me nuts when I’m the only one waiting at an empty intersection. It’s a waste. And there are scores of intersections in town with faulty traffic lights: lights that provide turn signals to phantom cars.

What really drives me nuts about lights is how many of them aren’t synchronized. You can be stopped at one intersection, and just when the light turns green and just when you’re moving at the speed limit, the light at the next street turns red in front of you. Stop and go. Stop and go. Ridiculous.

When the power goes out, as it did during last winter’s ice storm, intersections with traffic lights become free-for-alls. I was more afraid of driving around town than I was from falling tree limbs. Seriously.

Traffic circles solve all of these problems. They keep your car’s momentum up, making your drive go much smoother. They’re practical and they’re attractive. I’m glad to see them popping up in the area. I really hope they catch on.

On my way back from Chapel Hill tonight I was in awe of that shining bright red orb in the sky known as Mars. Through all the construction lights blazing along I-40, through the stadium lights at Carter-Finley, that mysterious world could be seen, floating above it all.

I’m kicking myself for not taking advantage of Morehead Planetarium’s free observation sessions this week. A lucky few will get to see Mars through a 24-inch telescope. There will be smaller telescopes outside the observatory, so maybe there’s still reason to visit Chapel Hill.

You owe it to yourselves to take a look at Mars. You’ll never see it quite this way again.

I’ve never seen gas prices as high as they’ve been this week. According to Reuters and the Lundberg Survey, an oil research group, these sky-high gas prices are due to the Northeast power outage.

Bah! This is nothing but price gouging. You can’t tell me that just because power was out for 12 hours around New York that the entire U.S. gas supply took a huge hit. The article vaguely mentions some refineries being offline. Doesn’t New Jersey (which never lost power) have more refineries than New York? Come on, Manhattan has no room for refineries. You can’t tell me that this was the problem.

This is nothing but simple price gouging, taking advantage to raise prices before Labor Day. Sure, Arizona has a pipeline problem, but that’s refined gas on the way to retail stations and it affects only the Phoenix area. There’s no reason that should be affecting the rest of us.

Man, oil companies are scum.