life, love, stress and setbacks

or “Don’t Fly United”

I’ve had this floating around in my head for a while, but have been to busy to commit it to blog.  If I don’t do it now, I’ll forget it

I was lucky enough to con my way into attending the InTouch Health “Remote Presence Clinical Inovations Forum.”  That sounds fancier that it is - InTouch makes “robots” that we use in our hospitals, and I did a lot of the work getting them connected.  They couldn’t find a doctor to go, so I talked them in to paying for me to go out there.  (Ain’t I a stinker?)

So we left on a Thursday, and were returning the following Sunday.  We were going from Lexington to O’Hare, then LAX and finally Santa Barbara.  The flight from Lexington to Chicago was uneventful.  We got a a little food in Chicago, and got on the plane.

O'Hare

We boarded the flight to LAX and settled in.  While sitting there waiting for the plane to pull back, I swear I saw a baggage hander doing yoga in the empty hold of the plane beside me.  It went on for quite a while and I couldn’t figure out what he was doing - by the time I had my phone out to take a picture, he stood up out of a downward dog and walked out.  Seriously, one of the coolest and strangest things I’ve seen at the same time.

We were told that there was a maintenance issue with the air conditioner that was being fixed.  It was getting pretty damn hot, and we’d probably been sitting there for about 45 minutes.  Eventually we were told that we needed extra fuel because there was a “low cloud ceiling” at LAX.  After about an hour and a half on the plane, we pulled back from the gate.  We rolled around the tarmac a bit, and eventually started heading back towards the gate.  Turns out that the co-pilot had was going to hit his maximum in-flight hours if he stayed on the plane, so they were looking for a new crew.  Needless to say, this didn’t do much for the mood on our plane full of sweaty people.  After a few more moments they told us the flight was canceled.  Thank the Baby Jesus that I had just gotten an iPhone.  I was able to get on the United website to get their reservations number, and I was already booked on a new flight before I got off the plane.

Who knew?

The unfortunate thing is that the only way to get to Santa Barbara was to go to Orange County, then San Francisco, THEN Santa Barbara (and flying over SB between the OC and Frisco).  Los Angeles is one place that I was never interested in visiting, so I wasn’t terribly upset.  I was going to breifly see San Francisco, but it meant being in airports from 10am until 1am.

Clouds

This day of frustration had one really awesome moment (apart from the yoga).  Flying into San Francisco was awesome - an amazing view.  Taking off from San Francisco at sunset was almost religious.  There’s little point in me trying to put it into words.  Watching the planes come in on approach, seeing all the boats and the sun setting over the Pacific.. just beautiful.  It was the one zen moment in a very stressful day.

I’ll refrain from going into detail about the whole weekend and conference.  I’ll just say that it was awesome seeing Jacob, and Santa Barbara is absolutely gorgeous.  If you take one thing away from this post: avoid United (unless you want to sit on a hot plane for two hours).

Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shamsway/sets/72157606878665216/detail/

Ahh, yes...

Technorati Tags: Flying, Travel, United

3g iPhone. Tomorrow.  I’m having trouble containing myself.  I spent about 20 minutes looking through the app store, and I have wphone installed for wordpress. I signed up for a twitter account too. About 15 hours to go..

I COMPLETELY forgot to post about listening to William Gibson speak at Joseph Beth.  I will get an update on that shortly.

Lexie’s 2nd birthday is coming up… craziness.

Technorati Tags: iPhone

http://exopoliticsjournal.com/vol-2/vol-2-1-Salla.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnEyeebZBGc - Ralph Ring interview.  Watch all five parts

Technorati Tags: Weirdness, Conspiracy Theory

I’m back from the beach and I’m tired.  It was a good vacation, but Lexie had us up early every morning.  We did go to The Melting Pot to eat since we were there over our anniversary.  That place is awesome.  If you’ve got some spare cash, go check it out.

Howard is on vacation this week, so I usually fill my ears by listening to lectures/vidoes/whatever on UFO stuff.  Here are the sites I check from time to time…

http://ufoblogger.blogspot.com/ - Good video blog of UFO videos and interesting stuff.
http://exopoliticsjournal.com - Lots of interesting stuff
http://www.ufostalker.com/ - UFO reports/Google map mashup
http://www.openmindsforum.com - Tons of great stuff, but it will take you a while to get through it all

The truth is out there

Check out my swurl page as well: http://shamsway.swurl.com/

Technorati Tags: UFOs

A few months back I sat down at my desk.  There was an email from TicketMaster (usually these go directly into the trash).  For some reason, I opened it, and there was a heads up about Robert Plant/Allison Krauss tickets going on sale at noon.  It was 11:58 when I opened the email.  April had just told me how much she loved Allison Krauss, so quickly tried to call her to see if she wanted me to try to get tickets.  I couldn’t get ahold of her, so I took a gamble and pulled the trigger.  I got seats about 20 rows back from the stage.

Fast forward to 4/20/08.  We had gone out the night before for a mini-Domain reuniton, and ended up eating at EATS Diner down town.  Walked in about 2:30am, and didn’t leave until 4:00 - it was absolutely terrible.  I guess i’ll save that for another blog.  Anyways, sleep deprived, we made it to the Louisville Palace for the show.

HO LEE CRAP.  There aren’t even words that can describe the awesomeness of that show.  They played stuff off their new CD, they played some incredible Zeppelin covers, and they played some bluegrass.  It was like watching two incredible solo artists who just happened to be playing a show at the same time.  I am seriously considering paying to see them at Rupp, which I am sure will be very expensive.

Set list:

Rich Woman
Leave My Woman Alone
Black Dog
Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us
Through the Morning, Through the Night
Fortune Teller
Black Country Woman
Hey Hey What Can I Do
T Bone Burnett  – “The Rat Age” [ed. note: BLEH]
T Bone Burnett - “Bon Temps Rouler”
Trampled Rose
Green Pastures
Down To The River To Pray
Nothin’
Killing the Blues
Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson
When the Levee Breaks
The Battle of Evermore
Please Read The Letter
Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)

ENCORE
Instrumental, featuring Krauss and Stuart Duncan
Stick With Me Baby
One Woman Man
Your Long Journey

PRAY that someone releases a bootleg of one of their shows…

Technorati Tags: Robert Plant, Allison Krauss, Music

We went to the memorial service for Mr. Wildcat last week.  I cried.  It had been a long time for me.. many times I can’t even when I feel like I should.  I felt like I was going to a funeral for my best friend’s grandfather.  That’s the closest analogy I can come up with.  He wasn’t someone that I knew well personally, but I was surrounded by people who loved him.  When you’re surrounded by that much grief, it’s hard to not be moved by it.

When the news came that Mr. Wildcat had died, and the news stories and blog posts followed, many people shared their memories.  April and I are really lucky to have our story, although it’s pretty tame compared to some of the others.  My boss was invited to a customer appreciation day by Windstream at Keeneland, but she couldn’t make it.  April and I got to go in her stead.  We didn’t know a single person there (it was mostly people who were more important than myself), but we did notice Bill Keightly sitting a few tables away from us.  Rumor was that Windstream had tried to get Billy Gillispie, but had ended up with Mr. Wildcat instead.  I’m glad it ended up that way, since we got to sit down and shoot the breeze with him for a little while after most of the other folks had left.  He told some funny stories, and we talked about one of our friends who had been a manager under him.  April made a comment about wishing she had a National Championship ring like his, and he took it off to let her see it without a second thought.

That kindness was echoed over and over at his memorial service.  I didn’t expect it, but the whole thing ended up being pretty inspiring for me.  One of the speakers reflected on how Mr. Keightly “always did he right thing, even when no one was looking.”  I know I am nowhere near living with that kind of character, but I’m going to try to adopt it as a personal motto.

There are good posts about Mr. Wildcat at KSR and ASoB.

Right now Kansas is barely up on Memphis with about 12 minutes left.  Since North Carolina cost be winning $65 in my bracket pool, I’ve got to root against John Calapari and the Memphis Inmates.  Rock Chalk Jayhawks! (I never thought those words would grace this blog…)

Technorati Tags: Kentucky Basketball, Mr. Wildcat

that’s me

and that’s why there has been no blog goodness for some time.  i’ve had the urge, but i’ve been studying my baguettes off.  i’m gonna chillax for a month or two, then start working towards my CCNP.  in the mean time, i will try go get a little more blogviation done.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Cisco, MCSE, CCNP, alphabet soup

Here’s to a great 2007, and hopes for a wonderful 2008.  Cheers!

Technorati Tags: Yay

“Individually wrapped, placed in neat little rows
Becoming a piece, of everything that grows
Some numbers, a name, to indicate you played the game
Came empty handed and left the same
A soul is a soul and a shell is a shell
The border in between is full of everything you felt”
-Atmosphere, “Lovelife”

Walk The Line is on HBO and there is a Sam Adams in my hand, which is a surprisingly pleasant end to the evening.

Oyyyy. I really don’t know what to say. There is a lot to say, since I haven’t written in quite some time. A glance at my Netflix queue (below and to the right) will probably give you a little insight into our lives right now. There is a lot of Doodlebops…

Saturday was probably the first time I have turned off a UK game with more than 30 seconds left. I don’t know what else I can say that hasn’t been said already. I am wearing out the refresh button lurking on KSR, A Sea of Blue and the Cats Pause public forums (steer clear of TCP unless you want some real bloviation. Unfortunately, for UK fans right now, there isn’t much else.) I think everyone knew that this could be a.. forgettable year. I’m fairly certain that I have prevented myself from getting too emotionally invested in this years team.. something i’ve never successfully done before :). Lord knows I’d be in a bad place right now if I had. Will Legion come back? Will Meeks and Jasper recover enough to play? Will Joe and Ramel pull their heads out of their respective asses? BAH. I suppose we will have to settle for a soap opera instead of a team this year. Ah well.. if we can stay sane, it will be entertaining. Probably not satisfying though.

With any luck, the writers will strike for a good long while, and there will be no TV. Hence, time for blogging, studying, and general other not-sitting-aroundedness.

Technorati Tags: Kentucky, Basketball, Malaise