Driving to school - 1 hour and 2 minutes

Traffic in New Jersey is absolutely ridiculous. There was an accident somewhere in the vicinity of my house on Rt 33. Traffic backed up all over the area, it took me 27 minutes to drive the 8 miles to my daughter's school. When returning home I could not go the way that I wanted due to the accident and was re-routed all the way around the neighborhood. 1 hour and 2 minutes I finally arrived back at home. So much for a nice relaxing day off. RIDICULOUS.

Dover 400

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Well I'm now sitting here in the grandstands waiting for the Dover 400 to start. . Green flag is supposed to fly at 1:10PM. Currently 11:10AM and we have drizzling rain - which will not be good if it continues. We'll be here all day and night.

Travel here was a bit of a nightmare - the first 120 miles used up the first 110 minutes. The next five miles used up the next 90 minutes. What a royal disaster - we spent 40 minutes on the shoulder waiting to exit then they closed the exit ramps closest to the track were closed - lots full I guess. Finally went and parked at a commercial park with shuttle to track. We should have just gone directly to the outer lot. Would have saved at least 40-50 minutes maybe even more.

12:30PM - The sun is out. Hard shadows are evident. The sun has been playing peek-a-boo with the clouds all morning. Now with the race only 40 minutes away it makes a shining appearance. If it stays like this we'll go green on time. That's one thing I have to say about F1. Unless it is a monsoon they run.

Speaking of F1 - I'm going to have to change teams. No longer can I route for BMW-Sauber. It will have to be West McLaren Mercedes. Well at least Juan Pablo is gone (I never liked him even when he was at Williams BMW), of course Kimi will be gone soon too - no idea who the team will be next year. Pedro De La Rosa (sp?) looks to be a good driver in Montoya's spot not sure who will be riding #1 and who will be #2, or more accurately #5 and #6, as McLaren looks like a lock for P3 in constructors. It will be interesting to see how this season pans out if Michael can get his last championship or not. I've been anti-Michael since his 'world tour' in 2004 - but as much as I like Alonso I think seeing Michael go out with a world championship. I didn't like the way Ferrari handled the press for Michael's retirement at all.

Back to NASCAR - 1:45PM - 50 laps complete. 3 Yellows so far. The sun has stayed mostly out. Good racing so far. #99 made a good pass and really extended his lead before most recent yellow. Almost caught up with end of field to put them a lap down but not quite. Tony Stewart is out already - out in wreck.

4:45 - Great pass right at the end Jeff Burton passed Matt Kenseth for the win. Exciting finish. Now waiting for the bus in the pouring down rain. What a joy! Into each life a little diversity must fall. All in all a fun day.

The Dark Side

That's the word uttered by a few of my friends already in response to my new car - Mercedes C280.
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The old BMW 528i is gone! No longer am I tied to the brand. It has been 12 years and 3 models - '92 750il, '95 318i, '00 528i. The behaviour of the dealers and several other factors drove me away. The BMW had given me more than its fair share of fun and heartache, but now its gone. For those interested - I came very close to a Nissan Maxima - which was a very interesting car. This CVT thing seemed very cool - it pulled hard off the line and just kept going and going - no shifting - unsure of the reliability factor of a belt-driven transmission. However, at the second instantiation of negotiations wherein they were giving me less than 1/2 blue book for my car they came back to me and stated that the Car Fax showed that I was not the original owner of the car. This quite honestly infuriated me, as I am and the problem is I had to change the registration from PA to NJ when I moved here. I demanded my keys and stormed out.
I went to Mercedes, essentially dragged a salesman up from his desk to sell me a car - took a test drive and bought it. The C230 didn't have enough guts, and although the C280 is a Luxury Sedan instead of a Sport Sedan, it handles well enough - as I am not actually taking the thing to the track. After purchasing the car I went back to the Nissan dealer and spoke to the salesman. "I told you I was buying a car today, and I bought a car today!" It isn't totally tricked out - only a few options above base. One cool thing is the 6-CD changer in the glove box. It plays MP3s from CD-RWs. Since I don't have a huge music collection - I can essentially put everything I have in the car with me. Kind of cool. No satellite radio - I need to determine if I will mount my old unit, or get a new unit. Its definitely faster than my 5, handles a little crisper in the slower turns, but is a little more floaty on lane changes over 70 or so. And so a new adventure begins.

The Fantastic Four - Finally a decent movie on HBO - Almost

Imagine my delight when I clicked on HBO this evening, and actually saw a fairly recent movie that had the potential to be good, on at a reasonable hour. No more "Three Men and a Baby" or other 20 year old movies. I was always a Marvel comics fan, big on Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four. Unfortunately in one of the first action sequences there was a flaw. When "The Thing" was trying to rescue the man who was about to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, he stepped into the highway to protect him. One of the key scenes was when he lowered his shoulder into an oncoming truck. Well unfortunately there is no commercial traffic allowed on the Brooklyn Bridge, so this truck should have never been on the bridge to need to be stopped. Just saw the nice cameo from Stan Lee delivering the mail.

Another dank dark dreary day in Detroit

Man this place can get depressing. Woke up at 6:00 went and ran 1.5 miles. Came back to my room and tried to watch TV - too overcast killed thwe satellite signal. I threw open the curtains to see another dreary day here in Detroit. Went in to work and now getting coffee. Looked outside - I think the sun is above the horizon, but you'd never know it. What a miserable day. Well at least I am in the climate controlled biosphere. Until we moved to NJ I didn't realize how nice it was to see the sun regularly.

Hollywood Stupidity

So this evening we turned on ABC's 9/11 introspective. This rant isn't about what you'd think. In the first 10 minutes, I watched several people walking into and out of various aiports. They had playing in the background (ala Airplane) "The white zone is for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers, there is no parking in the white zone". I don't know what airport this was supposed to be as I wasn't paying strict attention to the screen, however those who know me know that I have done quite a lot of travel in the past 10 years, and I for one have never heard these words over a PA system at any airport through which I have transitted. Has anyone out there actually heard this announcement? I think it shows a lack of thinking, and a strong dose of "well everyone else has it in there it must be right" attitude.

SUV Backovers

So now Paula Zahn, along with our favorite NY Senator Clinton, has a cause - parents and grandparents backing over their children in SUVs. Now this is undeniably a tragedy, however they (CNN and Paula) are attempting to force auto makers into installing back up cameras as standard equipment on 'large SUV' type vehicles.

The story focused on one child that was killed when his grandmother dropped him off and then he ran behind the SUV and she backed over him. The child was in the 4-5 age bracket. What sense did this grandmother have allowing a small child out of the car to 'run' behind the car. Did she ever hear of holding a childs hand and making sure they were being watched by an adult who could supervise this child. Would she allow this child to cross the street alone - probably not.

Most of the kids involved in these kinds of accidents were reportedly of similar age range - i.e. SHOULD BE SUPERVISED'!!! Again - according to the report - most of these accidents involved parents.

When I am driving in a car anywhere near where any kids are located - mine included who are old enough to know better - I am very cautious that I know precisely where they are and can visually see them all or have some adult verify they are all standing clear before I move backward or forward in my car.

Let's not delve further into being a nanny state. Have parents and grandparents take responsibility for guarding these young children. Let's not blame the "evil auto manufacturers" for making killer vehicles simply because the owners were too anxious to do *whatever*, that overseeing their child's safety was a secondary issue.

Airport Security

Notice - The Transportation Security Administration has determined that the airport at Port au Prince, Haiti does not maintain adequate airline security screening measures.

This requires no comment.

Ditto Bandara Ngurah Rai in Bali Indonesia.

Early Morning Airport Adventures

Yet another exciting trip to LaGuardia. Arose at 4:40a and left the house at 5:15a for a 7:21a flight. rain was quite heavy so I knew it would be a challenging drive. Go up to and on the Driscoll Bridge on the Garden State when there was a Jeep Cherokee or whatever facing the wrong direction in the right lane, silly SUV driver. They do seem to forget that physics does still apply to them, and the ability to "go" doesn't always equate with the ability to turn and stop. Well at least they have taken away the title of arrogant overly aggressive driver from us BMW owners. Anyway, I migrated left to avoid the pretty lights, and got so tied up in traffic I missed the offramp for the outerbridge crossing. No worries, jump on NJ Turnpike up to the Goethals. Zipped across as traffic wasn't too bad over to Staten Island or onto Verrazzano into Brooklyn, then I heard the traffic report - overturned garbage truck on BQE by the Brooklyn Bridge - aaaahhhhhh. In fact it was quite bad, and I'm not too sure about othe routes so I stuck it out, fortunately the truck was going the other way so we mostly had rubber necking and residual back-ups from people exiting and finding other routes. At about 6:40 I called home to say I was likely going to miss my plane. Then once we cleared the accident traffic which subsided shortly after passing the scene - the Koskiosko Bridge (aka the vortex of driving retardation) was clear sailing and there was virtually no more traffic the rest of the way to LaGuardia. I pulled into the parking lot according to the time stamp on the parking ticket at 6:55am - 26 minutes before flight time - still an outside chance. I made a mad dash for the security line expecting the worst and hoping I could ask to be moved to the front. Not necessary - due to the no fluids, gels, pastes or other such substance rule, the lines at security are quite reduced as people are now checking more luggage. My wait time (unlike last week in Philadelphia) was zero - only the time it took to show my "papers" and clear security. I walked onto the plane at 7:02 according to my phone, seven minutes from car to plane, that has to be a record at LaGuardia. Again thanks to more luggage in the belly of the plane, I easily found overhead space for both my laptop bag and suitcase. I normally would not place both in the overhead but the plane was nearly full, and I doubted anyone else would be seeking space so I took the opportunity to have a bit more leg room.

This is about the 5th or 6th time I've flown out of LaGuardia and been seriously doubting my ability to catch my plane midway through my drive, only to have things turn around in the end and make it. Add to it the fact that I even squeezed in a bit of excercise - I'd say it was at least a 400 yard run from parking to security carrying 2x25lb bags, that had my heart pumping. All in all an interesting morning.

New Computer - A Mac Mini

Last weekend I finally went out and made the move. The home computer was a P3-900 HP. It worked but it was very slow. As with many Windows machines, quite a lot of cruft had snuck in over the years, it didn't have USB 2.0, and it just needed to go. It may ultimately turn into a linux machine but then again, maybe not.

Now to the Mac. Much like the ads it just works. We picked it up on Saturday evening, and plugged it in. Plugged in my wireless mouse and keyboard, monitor and external 160GB drive off of the PC and fired it up. Worked great, and the USB2.0 external drive was smoking fast when connected to a USB2.0 capable machine. Her iPod needed to be re-initialized and updated to work with the Mac, but after that was done, the movement of files between the iPod and the Mac was smoking fast, again USB2.0 wins. I moved all of our pictures and music over in rather short order. My younger daughter pulled in the video from her first gym meet, picked out only the pieces she wanted and burned it to DVD. It took a while to actually render and create the DVD but it worked just fine. She also took a batch of pictures of the dog and created a video of his various stages of hair.

Yesterday I burned all my old data to DVD for safe keeping. There was a slight problem copying data direct from the external drive and burning it to DVD, so I had to copy it to the internal drive before going to DVD. I didn't investigate the problem very much since when I copied to internal and burned it worked just fine. The interesting thing that surprised me a little bit was that I was able to snap the DVD into my office laptop and it worked just fine, not sure why I thought it wouldn't work but I was a bit suspicious.

One other problem it has was in setting up quicken the setup just didn't want to import the data from my old PC, and instead insisted on breaking my link to the bank for synchronization. Ultimately I had to call the bank and have them mail me a new pin. I did some reading about the Mac version of Quicken, so downloaded the PC version onto my laptop and migrated to that. Still need to wait until the new pin comes in to synchronize, but I think that will ultimately be a better solution anyway.

I took all of my mp3 files, converted them to m4a files and saved about 50MB of space. The ripping of CDs through iTunes could not be simpler. I was always a MusicMatch user, until I started using iTunes - far superior interface. I followed the directions for creating a shared folder for keeping all of the iTunes data so that I don't end up with multiple copies of the same thing and needlessly waste disk space.

As for iPhoto - (Apple likes the i) - I've done a bit of reading and the sharing of photos between users doesn't seem to be quite seemless, but that will be the next thing that I tackle.

Network file sharing seems to just work. I turned it on so that I could move files between the two machines and was again impressed that I didn't need to do anything fancy to make it work. Somewhere along the line, some security patch or somethign prevented me from mounting drives from my home machine on my laptop. Happily, I can once again save my personal files from my laptop, quickly and easily to my home machine. I need to investigate encryption, but haven't had the chance to do so yet.

A few times I've clicked the terminal application to get a window into the underlying Unix type OS. Seems to look like the real deal, but I haven't really investigated all of the details yet. All in all I am quite pleased - I'd give it 8 out of 10, the shared iPhoto, and problems with Quicken knock it down a few pegs.

New York Mets - Hope I don't jinx it

Well it is starting to look like it just might be a reality. 14 Games ahead with 41 to play. MLB Standings show the Magic Number as 28 vs. the Phillies. With all of that a comparison to the cross town rivals would put them only 1/2 game ahead. Mets @ 73-48, dreaded Yankess @ 72-48. As most who know me know I've been travelling extensively to Detroit. It would certainly be interesting if it turned out to be a Mets-Tigers series. I haven't been watching closely following the personnel movements or which facets of the team are working or not, I'm just enjoying catching the results and watching the highlights. It's been 20 years since we won the big one. The season feels a lot like 1986 - commanding lead for most of the season. Everybody talking about the team, etc. In 1986 I was in Pittsburgh and didn't get to fully enjoy it, except for the playoffs and series. This is a lot more fun this time. Let's just hope they keep it up and stay on track and keep the key guys healthy.

Spyware and other malware

I was speaking with the team this weak and once again I'm puzzled. Why is it that spyware is such an ongoing problem, and to quote some, "why do we have to load additional software simply to protect us from the inability of operating system developers to create decent software." I had to guide my mom into removing 20+ high impact nasty bits from her system. This was identified by Microsoft's Defender. Point One - To me it seems that spyware should be as simple to alleviate from our systems as viruses. Symantec, CA and McAfee along with some other niche players all do a very good job at protecting us from viruses - including from mail and web sites. There continue to be new viruses, trojans and such, and in general they respond to these fairly quickly. Much of the Spyware that I have encountered does load files onto my system, it should be rather easy to develop signatures that detect this spyware, tag it and alert when it attempts to save. If there is a financial reason for buying new elements of protection, that I can at least understand, then simply charge a fee for enabling the spyware protection, it shouldn't require different software. Point Two - There seems to be an explosion of this nasty stuff and the load that it places on the system is rather high. I am still curious as to what this software 'spies' upon, what information it collects and what is the value to the producers. Many of the warnings about this stuff warn of personal information being stolen and abused, but I for one have never read or heard of a report of this happening. All are accused to collect marketing information - what they are collecting is obviously what web sites are browsed and such which I suppose could be used by marketeers, but I don't see reputable companies looking to the likes of comet cursor for marketing data. Then again sleaze associates with sleaze and I suppose all of them simply share data amongst themselves.

Diagnosis

Turns out I have a Distal Radius Fracture. I now have a bright blue half cast as they call it. I have finger motion although limited. I can type at about 60% of normal pace. Mousing is a bit tougher. All in all not too bad an outcome. I return to the Dr. on 6/23. I've kept all of my travel arrangements and schedule, I only missed a day of work. It sometimes hurts a bit in the morning, but not enough to cause me to use anything stronger than tylenol.

Injured

Well I guess I need to learn to slow down a bit. Yesterday we went into Manhattan to walk around buy some knock-offs and basically hang out. While walking in the area of city hall my daughter started walking on some posts. She does gymnastics so she was going pretty well. I decided to try as well. I've done it before so figured it would be easy. I started to go along and Kellie decided to pause for a moment. I told her to go to the next one as I stepped, but she didn't. In an effort to not knock her down I lost my balance and fell (I am not a gymnast). I managed to not hit my head but did land rather hard on my hands and both of my wrists hurt. We walked towards Chinatown and my right wrist started hurting more and more. I started to get flushed and our neighbor went in to get some ice at McD's. Putting ice on it really helped.

After applying ice we noticed we were standing outside the Chinatown Health Clinic. Great we'll go in, get an ace bandage and I'll be fine. We went into the first floor, and this was the women's section so they sent us up to floor 2. We'd tried to explain the situation to the woman behind the counter and explained that we wanted an Ace bandage, and would be happy to pay for it. She went into the back and returned with a handful of band-aids. I guess all she heard was bandage, my daughter and her friend almost laughed out loud. We tried to explain wrapping my arm, she said they didn't have anything. We walked until we found a pharmacy. I purchased an Ace bandage, and an instant ice pak. Wrapped my wrist, popped a few advils and it felt much better.

We walked around a bit more and my arm started to hurt some more. I unwrapped and checked and there was a good sized knot on my wrist. We determined an x-ray may be in order so we headed for the ferry. On the way to the ferry we (meaning my wife and neighbor) purchased two more purses. We caught the 5:00 ferry and my arm was really starting to hurt. We drove to the emergency room, hung out for a bit, got an x-ray. Diagnosis: broken! I now have a splint, and bandage and will likely need a cast, I'm going to an orthopaedist on Tuesday. I hope no pins or anything.

More Tuesday!!

Our new dog Peanut

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Yes that's a dog. Our new dog. He is a long haired Chihuahua - very small, very cute. Click the link to see the slides. The picture with my foot also contains the plastic page divider from my Franklin Planner - he is that small. 2 Lbs, and no more than a foot long - fully extended. He is yippy, bouncy and energetic - everything you'd expect from a miniature puppy.

Charlie Sheen

Listening to commercials on HBO there was a tidbit from the upcoming Bill Mahr episode: "Don't be surprised if you marry Charlie Sheen and he turns out to be Charlie Sheen! Come on the guy paid for hookers with personal checks". Interesting that I made a similar point a few weeks ago: 9/11 Government Conspiracies

Nancy Grace

She has entered the list of people that annoy me quite a lot. I don't even really watch her all that much. When I am sitting in the hotel I click around the dial looking for stuff - and in a 'full service' Marriott this is quite limiting. Invariably I wander into her blather. All she does is scream at the screen trying to appear what annoyed, upset, sad, I can't tell what she's trying to project, her emotions all appear the same on the screen. I'm also convinced that without her war paint she would have to sneak up on a glass of water to get a drink. I think I need to find out what brand she uses and invest in this company - they have to be making a ton of money.

Take our sons and daughters to work day

I just received an email about this from my employer. I want to go on record as questioning the value of this on a few fronts.

#1 - this originally started as a way for young girls to see what opportunities are out there for women in the workplace. It has transformed into a bring any boy or girl which is admirable but I think loses some of the intent.

#2 - this is the more important point. I have 2 daughters neither of which have had the opportunity to do this due to my travel achedule and school policy that it was not an excused absence. I can not for the life if me understand why this needs to occur during the school year. Mid July or August would allow more to participate and also not be as intrusive on work as there is always less stuff happening in the summer.

Yet another fun flying day

Part I
I arrive a little early for my flight from DTW - EWR hoping to catch a standby. Good news the standby is late so I have a good chance to catch it. Bad news it is sold out. I decide to wait to see what might happen so find a seat and wait. Delay changes from 6:15 to 5:45 - it was originally scheduled for 5:00. At 5:20 they start boarding. At 5:40 they start calling names. A group of Japanese folks start hollaring into cell phones trying to get people. The gate agent starts calling an entire gaggle of names many Japanese many others. At least 5 times the gate agent asks the Japanese group if their entire group is with them. It is clear they speak no english as they do not even acknowledge that she is asking them questions. Ultimately the group of 8 finally all get to the gate from being scattered to the four corners of the airport and board the plane. After another several minutes two heavy set ladies come running and panting to the gate: "We thought it was 6:15. We were getting food, pant, pant, cough, cough". They finally catch their breath and board the plane. The calls for people continue, by name and by group. Two more stragglers wander to the gate at a leisurely pace - "Oh look its boarding", "I thought it was 6:15 its only ten to six." After several more calls the final couple meander to the gate and board. The gate agent states: "attention all standy by passengers the flight has checked in full". Now I was dissappointed but I was just completeley amazed that people would walk so far away from a delayed flight that they could not keep an eye on the time. Flights frequently change times and possibly even gates. How incredibly silly.

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Part II
I go down to my gate and plop into a chair. After about 30 minutes they start to board. I have no status so I am forced to wait for my row. They call first class, elites, exits and finally start row calling. 18-22 go on, a few minutes later 15-18 go. Then nothing. One gate agent leaves the area to go do something. The remaining gate agent starts dealing with standby passengers and time continues to tick away. Fifteen minutes later the lone gate agent is joined by the original plus another plus a pilot trying to catch a ride. The three gate agents now start to type furiously into the computer (I am truly amazed at the number of keystrokes it takes to do seemingly simple things on these computers). They call some row, in fact the same rows they've already called but 19-22, then 15 and higher. Of course nobody goes up so they return to typing their epic adventure novel on the small gate computer. After a few more minutes they finally call my row and I board the plane. I work my way to my seat and watch three people load their bags sideways so as to use up the most amount of overhead space (leaving none near my seat) and sit down. I then proceed to turn them all the correct way with roller wheel towards the back of the bin and lo and behold there's room for my bag. I slam my bag in and sit.

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Part III
I started typing this in anticipation of not being able to post before we pushed off. How naïve I was. We now have a 'minor' mechanical problem. Who knows when and if this plane will take off.

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Part IV
Well its been one hour and five minutes since Part III.

We're still here. They've swapped a few computer components and even went so far as to completely reboot the plane. They actually did a full power down - ten count - restart. No dice we're still here. No communication for the last 15 minutes. I feel like a trapped rat. Not sure what the rules are for false imprisonment. Maybe I can sue them. That might be fun. The interesting part is that people are standing in the aisles walking up and down throughout the plane. Talking and yapping, general muddling around. For goodness sake we are at Northwest's hub. Just wheel another airplane out of the damned hangar, and put us on it. It really doesn't seem like that hard of a process.

On one small note - perhaps I would have been better off not getting on the plane so soon. Had the novelists taken a bit longer I'd be sitting in my cramped little seat slightly less.

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Part V
Changing planes. Well we've finally tried everything there is to try on the first plane. Now we're finally off to plane number two. I'm typing this piece from the new gate. Which by the way - even though this is a crappy way to spend an evening - the new Midfield Terminal in Detroit - actually is a very nice facility. Very clean - nice wide open aisles - comfortable chairs and a lot of power outlets to plug in laptops and other various devices. The walkway between A, B and C concourses is underground under the runways and has a very cool soothing art display with cool music playing. It gives you a very underwater kind of feeling.

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Part VI
Well they're starting to call rows again - let's see if this process goes any better the second time around.

Newark Airport

Yet another fun travel day at Newark airport. I get to parking, no problem, for once the garage isn't full. I go up to level 5 grab a spot and head for the elevator. Go across to the AirTrain and the escalators are broken. Wait for the elevator and head up. Catch the AirTrain and shuttle off to terminal B. Yet another broken escalator. Now I realize that things break, but they really should try to have this stuff working for Monday rush.