The Mayhem Papers

The flight from LAX was long and started off with an awkwardly heated exchange between the passenger to my left and the stewardess.  She told him that his laptop couldn’t stay on the floor in front of him during takeoff.  He proceeded to inform her that he was a plane mechanic crew chief in the Air Force and that he felt it was perfectly safe.  This young man was 18, maintained dual US/UK citizenship and spoke with a bit of a British accent.  The importance of this will become relevant soon.

He and the stewardess argue back and forth a bit and after he asserts his all encompassing knowledge as a crew chief she says, “well, I’m glad you aren’t a flight attendant”.  As she is walking off he mutters, “well, I’m glad I don’t have an accent”.

…wait, what?  Ok, firstly, he did have an accent.  Well, still does I’m sure.  Secondly, is that some sort of strange point of pride I’m not aware of?  I’m still a little boggled by this.  Luckily, young Sgt Troublemaker decided to go hop a couple rows back to have an empty seat next to him.  I was very happy with that.  Granted, it didn’t help me sleep, but it was nice to have the elbow room.

So, not doing too badly due to lack of sleep.  I’m all:

Well, I guess I need to work on looking a little more chipper.  I was welcomed with a nice bit of British banter by the lady at the customs counter.  I asked her if my hair looked alright in the picture she was taking of me and she had me come around to the other side of the counter to see it and informed me that if I was looking like that after an 11 hour flight, then I’m doing just fine.

Well, I guess I should start the process of adapting to the new time zone (Greenwich Mean IN THE HOUSE!) and grab some lunch.

Next stop: Cork International which happens to have one of the better airport codes: ORK.

Our corporate travel agent gave me a particularly interesting route to Ireland. The first stop from San Jose was the lovely Santa Barbara airport. The departure lounge for said airport was about the size of my living room. I’m only slightly kidding about that.  Here was the brave little plane I flew on:

After a 20 minute stop while we picked up more passengers, we were winging our way on to LAX. That flight took about 25 minutes.

Thrilling development: 2 hipsters have sat down next to me.  The nearest to me is wearing a sweater that I think Zoe actually owns.  His pants look like this:

notice the purple shoes

So now I’m sitting in LAX and was suddenly reminded that it is a dismal airport.  No free wifi, a significant lack of power outlets and furniture from the 70s that has probably not been cleaned in that long.  Only about an hour to sit here before my plane departs, so I imagine I’ll be boarding fairly soon.  Then a quick 11 hour flight over to London, a 2 hour lay over there and then the hour flight to Cork.  While it seems like a lot of hops, it’s really not that bad.  I think I prefer a couple stops here and there to stretch my legs.

Wish me luck on grabbing some shut eye during the flight.

On the eve of my work trip to Ireland and it looks like I have everything packed. I did have to make a quick run over to Target since I didn’t have a suitcase that fit a week’s worth of warm/waterproof clothing. A small tip for those going on a trip. If you use the iGoogle homepage, there is a “To Do List” widget. It is extremely useful for creating a list of things you need to remember to pack.

I should be posting here fairly regularly during the trip.

The Animal bit is my favorite

Surprisingly funny skit from SNL

Nice to see a video on the internet that doesn’t involve someone being humiliated.

Here’s part of an IM conversation we had this morning:

“Nice, entertaining booty dancing”

My co-worker Mike and I have been having an ongoing discussion about cars. He’s looking for something fun to drive, but is too wimpy to handle the live rear-axle of the Mustang GT. Our last conversation ended with me saying that you really can’t handle high torque that well without a live axle. Here’s an email exchange that took place this morning (a couple days after our previous discussion)

From: Mike
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 10:03 AM
To: Bruce
Subject: 425 ft-lbs

That’s what a BMW 335d puts out, and doesn’t have a live axle.  I object to your logic!

From: Bruce
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 10:10 AM
To: Mike
Subject: RE: 425 ft-lbs

Yet it has a slower 0-60 time than my live axle pushing out 320 ft-lbs…hrm

From: Mike
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 10:12 AM
To: Bruce
Subject: RE: 425 ft-lbs

Fair point.  The diesel does in fact only have 260xx bhp.

<curse you>

From: Bruce
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 10:14 AM
To: Mike
Subject: RE: 425 ft-lbs

Does seem to be a pretty nice ride.  I think if I ever gave up, hit a mid life crisis and felt the need to fit in by buying a BMW, I might take a look at it.

From: Mike
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 10:18 AM
To: Bruce
Subject: RE: 425 ft-lbs

Ha!

But, if you ever want a car that will actually make a turn at speed without putting you, or everyone within 20 miles, in grave danger, it would be a good consideration as well.

From: Bruce
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 10:30 AM
To: Mike
Subject: RE: 425 ft-lbs

That’s a big assumption, sir.

I watched this video about 4 times just now. It’s so great to hear his story. I used to listen to him in San Diego when driving around for work. I always liked his show because he tended to be a fairly no nonsense kind of guy. When I found out he was a member of the church, I was honestly floored.

I’ve always felt like something of an outcast at church. It’s not due to any lack of inclusion, but more of a sense that I’m just coming from a different place in my life than almost everyone else. Glenn really seems to have had a similar lead up to joining the church and it makes me feel less like an oddball.

Here’s a clip from some concert he put on that expands on the topics of the first and eerily echos some of my thoughts.