February 2006

There were 30 posts published in February 2006 (this is page 2 of 3).

Misery

This doesn’t indicate my present mood at all. It’s just a cool song.

Misery
Soul Asylum

They say misery loves company
We could start a company and make misery

Frustrated, incorporated
Well I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
I know what you’d pay to see

Put me out of my misery
I’d do it for you, would you do it for me
We will always be busy making misery

We could build a factory and make misery
We’ll create the cure; we made the disease

Frustrated, incorporated
Frustrated, incorporated
Well I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
I know what you’d pay to feel

Put me out of my misery
All you suicide kings and you drama queens
Forever after happily, making misery

Did you satisfy your greed, get what you need
Was it only envy, so empty

Frustrated, incorporated
Frustrated, incorporated

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Zip-RDU-Dah, Zippity-ay

During our Christmas travels to Virginia, I flew back to Raleigh via the last of our Independence Air vouchers. Cooking up some jazz in the middle of RDU‘s Terminal A was the Tim Smith Trio. Though they were really grooving, I was one of only a handful of people paying attention.

After a moment a petite brunette sidled up to Tim Smith and whispered for the microphone. She then proceeded to belt out a spirited rendition of the Wilbert Harrison classic “Kansas City.” I thought “wow, she’s damn good for just having wandered off the street.”

Of course, she didn’t exactly wander off the street. After spinning a Zippers CD today, I identified the mystery singer as Katharine Whalen, whose quirky voice (and virtuoso banjo picking) helped vault Chapel Hill’s Squirrel Nut Zippers to worldwide stardom (and unexpectedly spark a renaissance in swing music). Tim and Katharine were bandmates in the Zippers. Their music added a wonderful treat to an otherwise boring wait for my plane.

When not playing holiday gigs at airports, the Tim Smith Trio plays at Raleigh’s Stonewood Grill Wednesday evenings. Check ’em out.

TriLUG Transition

I resigned my position on TriLUG‘s steering committee tonight. My work schedule didn’t allow me to participate to the extent that I would have liked. The other committee members were feeling the pinch, and that isn’t right. It’s a shame it had to happen, but them’s the breaks.

Even so, I’ve had visions of an interesting new special interest group I am thinking of starting. It will be focused on technology and membership will consist of those people paving the way for the others: people who don’t know the meaning of “it can’t be done.” I, of course, will be the cult leader. Being first has its privileges, you know.

Look for more details soon … or not. You may not be kewl enough to get them. 🙂

A Coffeemaker That Brews Water, Too

During the downtime at this week’s tradeshow, I got into a conversation with our booth neighbors about coffee. The other guys were telling me that the secret to Dunkin Donuts‘s famed coffee is the osmosis filtering they do with the water.

That got me wondering if any consumer-level coffeemakers exist which also “brew” the water, too. It might not be as complicated as osmosis, but a coffeemaker which highly filtered the water, or distilled it even, would make great-tasting coffee I would think.

Then again, distilled water often tastes flat, which makes sense since distilling it removes all but the water molecules themselves.

I wonder how a coffeemaker with superior filtering could be built.

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I’ll reenable anonymous posting once I figure out an elegant way to defeat the spambots.

Charting A Course For Home

I’m on my last day at the HIMSS trade show, looking forward to stepping onto an east-bound plane this afternoon. The visit to San Diego has been nice. I was hoping to have explored more but the show scheduling put me in the booth during the useful part of the day. With my eyes popping open at 4AM PST each day, it was difficult finding much to see or do before my lunchtime shift.

I did manage to spend yesterday morning at the Point Loma Lighthouse, enjoying the breathtaking view of the cities and the Pacific. I watched above as the USS Peleliu (LHA-5) and Expeditionary Strike Force 3 deployed for Iraq. I know the feeling all too well of rounding that curve and heading out to sea.

I’ll write more later today.

High Marks For The Day

This is most bizarre. I have met more Marks today than ever in my life. Everywhere I turned I saw “Mark” on a namebadge. After the first 5 or 6 I just had to laugh.

As I returned to my hotel room tonight, the message light was flashing on my phone. When I asked the staffmember what the message was, he told me they were looking for a gentleman named Mark who had earlier dropped off some postcards. Even at this hour I’m discovering other Marks.

Okay, universe, you got my attention. What are you trying to tell me?

Their Escalators Don’t Go To The Top Floor

As I was leaving the San Diego airport yesterday, I watched as two men paused to choose which of two escalators they were going to use.

They chose the one that was less crowded. Because, you know, you get there quicker.

Hotel Del Shakedown

I’m staying at what many consider to be a very fine hotel: the Marriott Coronado Island Resort. The room overlooks a beautifully-landscaped courtyard, the opposite site overlooks Glorietta Bay, and the rates are as high as an F/A-18 from neighboring NAS Coronado. In spite of its pretentiousness, the hotel insists on nickel-and-diming its guests. It drives me crazy!

Marriotts seem to cater to guests who like to spend money for the sake of spending money. For instance, the Internet service in the rooms of most hotels is as free as air. Marriott gives you the privilege (and I do mean privilege) of connecting to it for the low, low price of $10/day (or $3 per 15 minutes, if you prefer. A quarter/min. afterward). The $17/day for hotel parking is also quite steep, even for parking-space-challenged Coronado.

The real kicker is the bottled water in the room. Exquisite bottled water, shipped from Fiji (I kid you not), sits ready to be consumed at the low, low, price of $3 per liter. The label actually says “Why travel to the South Pacific islands of Fiji for a drink of water?” I’ll take a hunch and say its because Fiji is not only far more beautiful than Coronado, it has free water!

Its true some things have changed for me. I have greater financial means than what my former meager salary of an E-5 provided fourteen years ago. Still, that doesn’t keep this hotel from feeling like a shakedown.