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July 28, 2003
July 26, 2003
and yet...
Dooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmed!!
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July 25, 2003
still looking
The job I interviewed for last week at the Student Press Law Center went
to someone else. Oh well. It sucks, but at least I got a face-to-face
interview, which is more than I can say about 99% of the jobs I have
applied for so far. Progress? Hopefully.
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July 24, 2003
cuban junkyard wars
Familiar with the TLC show
href="http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/junkyard/junkyard.html">Junkyard
Wars? Apparently some Cubans have seen enough episodes to know how it
works.
On Junkyard Wars, two teams have 10 hours to each build a machine capable
of meeting a specific challenge. On one episode, the teams had to build
speedboats capable of reaching an island in a small lake and returning
each team member one-by-one to the mainland. One team used old metal
drums, welded together, as pontoons for bouyancy.
align="left" style="margin-right: 5px;" />Today, twelve Cubans were
escorted back to their island nation after they were spotted by a U.S.
Customs aircraft as they attempted to travel across the Florida straight
in a modified 1951 Chevy truck, the
href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&ncid=514&e=7&u=/ap/20030725/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_truck_boat">AP
and the Miami
Herald report.
The Cubans similarly used old 55-gallon drums as pontoons to support the
truck and attached a propeller to the drive shaft for propulsion. Top
speed in the water? 8 MPH.
"We arrived at the coast in the same truck and assembled everything in six
hours," Eduardo Perez Gras, one of the would-be immigrants, told the AP.
"If they had let us get to Key West, we would have been able to drive it
right onto the sand."
Amazing.
Instead, the U.S. Coast Guard picked up the junkyard dozen and sent them
back to, possibly, try again. Unfotunately, the truck/boat was sunk as a
hazard to navigation. Maybe next time, they will work on a submarine, like
those that were built in another Junkyard Wars episode.
Cubans, you have TWO hours remaining!
--------
the evil will continue
July 22, 2003
launching new site
I spent most of the day working on the web site for my own consulting
business. It's not quite as difficult as the West of the Lake site, and it
has only three pages so far.
You can see it for yourself at: http://www.411net.com/
Right now, only the Mac consulting link works. The web consulting page is
more complex, since I want to put a portfolio there. The images are stock
photos that I bought earlier this Spring from Corbis. Also, the pages may
not look so hot in Internet Explorer, because, as we all know, Microsoft
sucks. (As does their CSS implimentation.)
Enjoy!
--------
earnings season
I hate "earnings season." Never heard of it? Good for you!
Basically, earnings season happens after every financial quarter (e.g.
three months). At PlaneBusiness, this means our regular pace becomes a
frenzy as we cover around 35 airline or airline-related companies and how
they did for the quarter.
Often times, this means Tuesdays are much longer than they would be
normally, while I await the copy from Holly (the editor/founder/CEO of
PlaneBusiness), clean it up, and put it in to HTML from Word.
And, for the past six or seven quarters, it's been even worse as there
have been next to no good news in the airline industry. About the only
good thing, from my perspective, is that US Airways and United went
bankrupt. "Good thing??" you ask. Yep. It means that, while they do still
have earnings to report, they often have a lot less to say about it
because of the bankruptcy proceedings are ongoing in court.
But, besides that, it's a lot of red. Red, red and more red.
One earnings that I did want to see was today's report by the Midwest Air
Group (n¿
ï
¿
½e Midwest Expres Holdings) of Milwaukee. As a former stock holder and a
fairly frequent flier, I still have a special place in my heart, and list
of airlines I prefer to fly on, for Midwest despite all of their troubles
and changes of the past two years.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, they have cut in-flight service (no more of their
excellent free meals, though the $10 buy-on-board variety are actually
quite good), sold planes (34 jets a year ago, 29 today), cut cities (good
bye Raleigh, N.C.), cut frequencies (fewer filghts to destinations like
Philly), and created a ton of ill will with their employees (furloughs,
layoffs, benefits cut, longer working hours, and more).
The company said it nearly avoided Ch. 11 bankruptcy itself last week by
getting unionized employees (pilots and flight attendants) to agree to new
contracts that contain significant concessions, renegotiated lease rates
on older airplanes, slowed delivery on the new Boeing 717, and deferred
delivery of new Embraer regional jets for two years.
Then, today, they annouced a near-profitable quarter. The loss was just $1
million, before unusual items (like $11.4 million in U.S. government funds
to help cover the war-related downturn in airline traffic). So, actually,
they made a nice profit for the quarter, but fuel prices were up -- again
-- and the airline still reports fairly high costs and low yields (the
amount of money they make on a flight).
What does the future hold? Well, more crowded seating on a few routes for
one. Midwest's "Saver Service" launches on Aug. 1. Saver Service is
planned for Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix and several Florida
markets in the coming months. The airline will replace it's customary
two-by-two seating (now called "Select Service") on these routes with
three-by-two, a much more customary seating arrangement for coach
passengers on the MD-80 series aircraft that Midwest flies. Warm,
baked-on-board chocolate chip cookies will still be served.
The only thing that will truly help this airline, under its current
business model, is an upturn in the economy and a return of high-paying
business traveler. That is extremely unlikely. So, what Midwest really
needs is a new business model. One that includes significant changes to
its strategy. Whether that means becoming a low-fare airline and going all
"Saver Service" across its route system, or putting in a two-class seating
arrangement (i.e. two-by-two business and three-by-two coach), or what
else, is totally unknown to me. I don't have an MBA.
But, if changes aren't made, and soon, the airline will likely fade before
the economy picks back up. And that will be a real shame.
--------
yes, but did he wet 'em?
Usually I don't laugh when I'm reading Aviation Week. (Yes, I'm a dork.
Yes, I have a subscription.) However, this week, there was a quote from
the new chief of Central Command, which I found quite amusing.
Central Command are the folks who oversee central Asia (among other
areas) for the U.S. military. (Now, the fact that we have different areas
of command for regions outside of our own country is a little werid, I
don't think any other nation does that. But we have a European commander,
a Pacific commander, and a North American commander, if not more.)
Gen. Tommy Franks commanded the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq as
commander of Central Command. He recently retired.
The new guy, Army Gen. John Abizaid was aboard a C-130 cargo transport
aircraft in Iraq recently. This plane was one of two that was recently
fired upon by, presumably, Iraqis on the ground with "man-portable" (aka
shoulder-fired) missles.
When the flight crew got warnings of the incoming missles, "The guys made
a hard right bank, and we fired off all of our flares," Gen. Abizaid
said. Flares are commonly used to fool heat-seaking missles.
"These guys were from the Oklahoma [Air] National Guard, and they
actually thought it was fun. I was terrified," he told Aviation Week
(July 21, 2003, page 21).
Yep. Terrified. But the OK ANG pilots were enjoying it. I wonder how
often the boys at ANG get to actually use their missle-avoidance
training...
--------
July 20, 2003
eye twitch
Ever find your eyelid twitching, kind of like in that freaky eye glasses
commerical where the eye is talking? It happens to me...
Like right now. I've been staring at the computer display for most of the
last five hours trying to figure out why the CSS thing I was working on
last night doesn't work properly.
It seems that in CSS (that's Casscading Style Sheets, by the way), you
can't just plop down a footer at the bottom of your page like you might
do in regular HTML. Nope. CSS doesn't understand that in the page flow
when you have a multi-column
href="http://www.westofthelake.org/index-new.shtml">layout, as I am
working on.
So, now I'm basically looking at CSS
href="http://www.alistapart.com/stories/flexiblelayouts/">hacks
(great, now I've gone from one CBS prime-time drama to another) and
trying to get them to work the way that I need them to in order to put
the copyright footer at the bottom of the page, below both columns.
Very, very, very frustrating. That particular hack doesn't quite cut it
because it assumes that the same column is always longer than the others.
On the West of the Lake site, that won't be true since the photo on the
left makes that longer on pages where there is less text than on the
right. I guess I could drop the photo, but I kind of like it there.
I'm kind of glad that I don't actually do this stuff for a living (well,
you know, like in a full-time job... I'd gladly try to do it for a
living, if I thought anyone would hire me) because it's eternally
frustrating.
Perhaps I should just go back to HTML. No, never!
But, I should do something else now for a while, just for the sake of my
eyelid twitching...
--------
July 19, 2003
css: bethesda
I spent more than three hours trying to re-acquaint myself with the
inner-workings of CSS tonight. I had forgotten how intrinsically
different the code is from plain ol' HTML. Frustratingly different.
Why?
Why else? Money! I'm doing the web site for
href="http://www.westofthelake.org/">West of the Lake, a six-acre
garden run by a non-profit in my hometown. (A shout out to
href="http://www.manitowoc.org/">Manitowoc!)
Anyway, I have... well, um... certain connections with the organization.
Not to mention that I worked at the gardens for a couple years, and I was
good friends with the original owners before they passed on.
And now the site is finally getting somewhere. The new design, as
href="http://www.westofthelake.org/csstest.shtml">seen here looks
essentially the same as the original (my intention) but there are NO
BLOODY HTML TABLES in the entire thing!
That, my friends, family, ex-coworkers, and strange people who have
nothing better to do but read a random blog entry from me, is nothing
short of a miracle. OK, it's not a miracle. But, basically, I can now do
the same thing on every page without having to have a couple hundred
lines of code in each file. SSI cuts down on having the links and
copyright in each file too. Woo hoo.
Now all I need to do is get some of the additional photos I took earlier
this month up, update the content, create a map for directions, and put
it all together and it'll be a real web site... just in time for the fall
and the closing of the gardens for the season. And it'll need some
tweaking before next summer, no doubt.
Oh well.
Another project I'm working on is the redesign (finally, yay!) of the
PlaneBusiness home page. I did the subscriber design quite a long time
ago, but we're now finally getting to the public site, which had not been
a big priority. Unfortunately, you can't see the mockups yet. Hopefully,
it'll be done soon and I'll post a new link.
Oh. Yes, I am billing $40 an hour for those three hours of design.
Cha-ching.
July 14, 2003
romney's sausage
I know, I know. Enough of the sausage-scandal (n
ï
½e sausagegate). I just have one last thought.
Back during the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial (heh heh, I said
"guber"), now-in-office Governor Mitt Romney had a TV ad where he did
jobs around Boston. One (we'll dismiss the idiocy of his "cleaning up
Beacon Hill" while working as a trash hauler) was selling sausages
outside Fenway Park.
His line in this scene of the ad: "SAUSAGES!"
I guess the whole goofiness last week at Miller Park reminded me of this
ad, and of how silly it was for Mitt to be out picking up trash and
selling (clearly less superior than those in 'Sconsin) sausages at a ball
park.
If you can get it to work, there's a streaming video of this ad on his
campaign web site: http://www.romney2002.com/multimedia/ Look for the
"Work Day TV Ad" about half-way down.
I'm pretty sure even I could be govenor of Massachusetts...
SAUSAGES!
--------
another day...
Another silly blog entry.
Why do I keep finding holes my everyday shirts? Why is this happening? I
found one yesterday in a t-shirt I had just taken out of the dryer.
Another one, this one long sleeve, has had a little pin hole in it for
months (appeared when it was basically new), a polo shirt was similarly
disfigured.
I think there are tiny elves invading my drawers and punching holes in my
shirt. They don't pick on my pants or shorts (thank goodness, that's not
something anyone wants to see).
Then there was that shirt that
href="http://homepage.mac.com/i411/amber/">Amber got a hold of in the
back yard (admittedly, I threw it at her trying to get back something else
she was prancing around playing keep-away with) and tore when I grabbed it
away from her.
And that other one that got caught on... well, I've totally forgotten what
it was, but it happened at the DP and the shirt was ruined. Hooray!
I think, basically, what I need is an entirely new wardrobe. Who wants to
contribute to the clothe me fund?
July 11, 2003
interview outerview
I've got just my third (or is it fourth?) interview in 4 1/2 months on
Monday. Cool... I guess. I really was hoping for a few more opportunities,
out of the hundreds of jobs I've applied for, but I will definitely take
what I can get in this economy. So, Monday at 3, I'll be there in my
nicest suit with my bestest attitude and game face on. ;)
July 10, 2003
the sausage speaks
hspace=5>As quoted on SportsCenter, 18-year-old Italian Sausage Mandy
Block had this to say about getting hit by a Pirates baseball bat-wielding
player:
"It's crazy... I'm just a sausage running a race. So, I never expected all
this hoopla."
"I do kind of feel bad that all this is happening to him (Simon), like
he's this big crazy guy. I'm sure he's not. And he's supposed to call and
apologize and give me a bat. So I'm really excited and... I hope
everything ends soon and all this will be forgot then. It's not that big a
deal."
"All my friends called me. They're like, 'Mandy that was you,' because
they know I'm the Italian Sausage. 'Those were your little legs trying to
get up.' Yep, that was me guys."
"They all thought I was in the hospital. They all thought I was like
severely hurt. And like, I'm not, I was in a huge stuffed sausage.
(giggle) I'm fine! (giggle)"
"I would definitely run the race again, just not next to the visitors' dug
out, of course."
Oy. Like, great Mandy. Like maybe you could, like, speak normally?
Actually, for a Wisconsinite, she was speaking very intelligently. Nice
job, Mandy. :D
--------
humanity at its worst
So I was talking to Shazar by IM and, somehow, I remembered some photos I
took at DP barbecue hosted by one Rod Kurtz. I went looking for the
photos, but remembered that they were on an Apple .Mac account that's now
no longer free. So, I resurrected two photos from the originals, for your
amusement... and two examples of humanity at its worst.
Isn't this just about the gayest
pose you've ever seen? And no, I'm not talking about Paul in the
background smoking his cigarette.
Secondly is a photo of a man who will probably be gunned down by school
kids in L.A. shortly. Still, look at those horrible
href="/images/watchyourhead.jpg">legs... I feel ill.
Yep. I have a lot of extra time on my hands these days. But apparently,
there are actually people who read this thing too.
--------
SAAAAUUUSSAAAGGGESSS
So you've probably heard all about the Sausage Scandal arising from the
Brewers-Pirates game last night. What you might not have read was this
quote, from the AP:
Josee Meehan of the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council was pleased by
all the attention.
"I think it probably raised awareness that there are all types of sausages
out there. But I had no idea you could race them," Meehan said. "We were
talking about it in the office today, about which one would win. We
thought it probably would be the hot dog, because it's leaner than the
other ones."