We saddle up and head for Destin tomorrow for a week in the sun with friends and family. (Thanks to Vince and Mike with the JCPD SWAT Team for sitting with the dogs.) Not sure what the wifi situation will be at Amberjack Landing but it won’t hurt me (much) to be off the grid for a few days. I plan to spend some of the time dancing the with Mac Book.
Category Archives: Travel
Mac on the road
I can’t remember who made the first “portable” computer I owned but the bastard must have weighed 15 pounds. Connecting to the web wasn’t an issue in those days because it didn’t exist (in any way that mattered to me). I can’t even remember what I did with the laptop on the road.
This is my first outing with a Mac and I couldn’t be happier. The hotel charged me $10 a day for cable access but I just plugged it in and was up and running. Wifi was very slow at the conference but the Mac found the signal with no fiddling or port futzing.
I’m posting this from the Seattle airport where $8 buys 24 hours of really fast net access. Nobody needs 24 hours but what a great way to pass the time (or do bidness). And, again, so easy. This is the way mobile computing was meant to be.
Gnomedex 2006
Five days. 120 hours. And then I’m on vacation. Sort of. On Wednesday Roger Gardner and I head for Seattle and three days (for me…RG will probably get geek toxic after a day or so) of Gnomedex. I’ll get back just in time for the long 4th of July weekend. I’ll rest up a few days after that and then it’s off to Destin with the lovely Barb where we gather with her clan for a week. While I won’t be completely off the grid, I will be away from the office and I’m really looking forward to it.
Hope to see my pal Jim Mathies, who lives in Destin. Search for some open wi-fi. And try to get better acquainted with the Mac Book. I feel like the guy that’s due to be released from prison in three or four days and is afraid to leave his cell for fear of getting shanked so close to freedom.
The Notorious J.E.F. (Jeff McVey)
Jeff McVey is the son of long-time friends Terry and Nancy McVey. Like many young men his age, Jeff has kicked around and tried a few things. His latest is studying martial arts in China. From his MySpace page:
Deborah and I got into China on May 12. … We’ve found our new home at a martial arts academy in a remote mountain village. I’m pretty sure it used to be some sort of industrial complex, and to call our accomidations meager would be a huge understatement. However, we do have a place to live and good food to eat. We live here with about a dozen other students from all over the world. There are people from America, England, Germany, Indonesia, Scotland, New Zealand, and other countries (I haven’t quite met everyone). Fortunately, all the students I have met speak English, which makes a nice little oasis in a land where I can’t comunicate with anyone. So, we’ve been treated quite well, and we start our training tomorrow. Everything seems a little daunting right now, but at the same time more than a little exciting.
His mom says this is something he has always wanted to do…and he’s doing it. Now, the person I want to meet is his wife, Deborah.
Jeff: “You know, I’ve always wanted to study martial arts in a remote mountain village in China. Whadya say?”
Deborah: “Cool. I’ll go pack.”
Living Healthy (19) – Travel
Road trip (2005)
Not sure if you can call 30 hours in the car a vacation but Barb and I are heading down to Destin for a long weekend (next week). There’s some kind of home-owners meeting at Gulfside Cottages and I’m tagging along because I desperately need to get off the grid for a couple of days. Uh, yeah, I’ll probably take the Thinkpad. But I’m pretty sure I won’t be online for the 14 hour drive down and back. I’m eager to see how Destin is recovering.
Plane pix
Scored an early flight home and got an aisle seat (in the exit row no less). I try never to sit by the window but that’s where the beautiful views were this morning. Had to toss the Casio to a couple of other passengers (one on the left side of the plane, one on the right) to get these shots of mountain tops above the clouds (outside Seattle).
The captain told us the names of the peaks but I didn’t get them.
Gnomedex 5 wrap-up
We’re standing here on the upper deck, sailing away from Gnomedex 5.0, and tossing our lei into the digital ocean. If it floats back to Gnomedex, we will one day return. I’ve been attending assorted conferences (most of them broadcasting related) for 30 years and I have *never* been to one that I found more interesting…more relevant…more important. That might just be the geek wannabe in me but I don’t think so. A new Web is bubbling out of the magma and it’s molten mix of syndication/subscription and podcasting and personal media. And I believe it is becoming a digital tsunami. And the first waves have already started to come ashore here on Radio Island. And I think the waves will get bigger.
I wish I could tell you everything I heard or saw at Gnomedex and why I think it’s so important. But it’s like… like “trying to tell stranger about rock and roll.” If you’re really interested, all or most of the sessions will be online (audio for sure, maybe video). I urge you to listen. I’ll post links and assorted “after-thoughts” as they become available.
Or wherever your final destination may be
I really hate flying. I hate everything about it. The short list includes:
* The shitty little bags of pretzels
* The chemical smell of the toilets
* The morons that refuse to check the baggage and slow the boarding process to a crawl as the park their fat asses in the aisle trying to shove stuff into the overheads. These same dumb-asses can’t grasp the concept of “wait until we reach the gate before standing up and pulling your shit back out.”
Air travel makes me resent people in wheelchairs…and old women on walkers…and children. Funerals and weddings of loved ones will get me on a plane again but it will be an act of duty and obligation. If I don’t look like I’m having fun when I get where I’m going it’s probably because I’m not.
Yes, Key West was warm and beautiful. And only a real party-pooper would complain about getting there and back. But the math doesn’t work for me. I need 100 hours of fun for every hour of travel time, and I never get it. And I never will. Let’s try this. I’ll spend a weekend on the beach with you for every weekend you spend sitting next to me while I surf the web. Come on, it’ll be fun.
Rolla sunset
Eight hours in the car was rewarded with the image above, taken just North of Rolla with. I never realized sunsets were so fleeting. Lunch with my old friend Bob Fox and his beautiful wife Connie and oldest son, Steve (my namesake, I’m told). I don’t see Bob and Connie often enough. I took the scenic route back with XM Radio providing the soundtrack. Richie Havens doing “Just Like a Woman”…and a really pretty version of “Fragile” by Cassandra Wilson. If you’re still relying on “KISS 103-whatever” for your music, you just just don’t know what you’re missing.