Saturday, November 05, 2005

Flying out to SFO

9:15 AM (EST)
While waiting to board the flight, I noticed a rather large guy in his twenties or thirties gleefully coming over to my direction. He walks past me, and I hear him say, "I thought I recognized you. I'm a big fan of yours, and just wanted to say 'Hi'." The two people that he was talking to, and who's very presence turned this guy into the equivalent of a 12-year girl old meeting Brittney Spears, were none other than the Mythbusters themselves.

Yes, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman were traveling together on my flight from Detroit to San Francisco. I wonder if they're going to try to reproduce the "large person got stuck to airplane toilet due to suction" myth on this flight... Hopefully, it won't be the "stewardess survived when the aircraft broke up in air" myth...

Surprisingly, I'm pretty sure that they flew coach and not first class. There's a myth that was just busted for me (celebrities fly coach, too).


10:45 AM (EST)
Purchased a snack box for $3.00. In it were some Ritz Chips (never heard of them), a mini summer sausage, cheese dip, chocolate giant Goldfish Grahams, a mint, and a wet-wipe. I'm assuming that the cheese dip was for the Ritz Chips.

The complementary Diet Pepsi was also consumed.


11:24 AM (EST)
Had to go pee-pee. It was certainly an interesting experience doing so while encountering minor turbulence. For what it's worth, this was my first trip inside of an airline bathroom, despite having flown a dozen times before.

While doing my business, I kept thinking of the crash scene in LOST where the guy in the bathroom flies up and hits the ceiling.

I still haven't seen the Mythbusters go into the bathroom with a large person yet. I'm in the back of the plane, so I'm keeping my eye on who uses the W.C…


11:45 AM (EST)
Hi, me again. I'm reading Bill Wagner's book Effective C# - 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your C#. Bill does a pretty good job of taking all of my C# skills and telling me that I suck at coding.

Actually, it's not that bad. He just explores some best practices, and jumps into MSIL at times to show why one method of doing something is far better than another (after the code is compiled). If you don't walk away with at least one bad habit corrected, then you must be Anders Hejlsberg.

Though, I think Bill needs to watch out. I mean, he only put 50 specific ways into his book. What if someone comes along and makes a book with 51 specific ways, and gives away that extra way for free? You would get 51 ways for the same price as 50, and which book do you think people would buy?

51 chimpmunks, twirling on a branch, eating sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea….



11:33 AM (PST)
Wheels down in SFO. I'm a traveller, here from the future!


1:30 PM (PST)
After wandering through the SFO airport parking garages, finding the AirTrain, and then being lucky enough to get off at the right stop in order to board the BART, I somehow made it to downtown San Francisco. A quick couple of blocks away from the train station is my hotel, and now I'm all checked in and paying $15/day for internet access from my room. I do see a Google Wi-Fi access point in my network list, but the signal is too weak to connect.

Well, time to explore the city for a little bit...