Its been one of those twenty-four hour periods. Last night, just before I went to bed, QUARTZ developed the same problem that killed SAPPHIRE -- the right-side hinge seized, and now the case won't close without trying to rip apart the display casing. I'm trying to determine if the machine (9 months old) is under warranty still. At work, I got an email yelling at me for not implementing a new policy I hadn't been told about, and then the actual project we were working on insisted on dying in every possible, creative way it could. Then rows began magically disappearing out of a system database. The DBA group insists they did nothing. I think they lie.

When I got back, I went over my credit card statements to find that Verizon had overbilled me nearly $800 for some purchases last month, so I called up their store. They were nice enough, and asked only that I provide PDF's of the statements so that they could verify the double-billing. Since they asked for that, I can get nothing but "our systems cannot access your accounts at this time" from the Bank of America website.

Oh, and there's apparently not a pizza place on the face of the planet that delivers to this hotel.

EDIT: So it turns out that our esteemed colleagues at Domino's will not deliver to 3815 US Route 1, however, if I call it 3815 Brunswick Pike, its 30 minutes or the pizza's free. Ordering pizza is now truly like computing; you need just the right incantation to get it to do what you want.

This weekend kelizra flew up for a visit. We had a good time, although she was effectively only here for Saturday. We did breakfast at Joseph II's, then went to see Up in the Air, which I had been wanting to see for a while. We hit the Randolph Showcase for two reasons: One, relatively few cinemas were still showing the film and two, they had something I have never heard of before call "Lux", which was apparently a second class of seating for the movie. The tickets were about twice the price of the regular seats, but I figured I'd pay the premium to see what they were offering. I was amazed. The seating was elevated above the regular seats, and was only three to four rows of stadiumed leather chairs, with a wait staff and liquor license. To boot, over a quarter of the price of each ticket was returned in food and drink vouchers. We ended up getting drinks and an incredibly delicious brownie sundae served during the movie for a grand total of sixty-two cents over the movie price. I can only presume that National Amusements is experimenting with the concept of turning movie-going in theatres into a luxury rather than a mass-media experience, which if they can maintain their service and price-point where they are now, they seem to be doing a good job of. Also, the movie was fantastic. I may start stealing people to go see once I'm back home for more than a few days(starting 23 Dec, I hope.)

kelizra Also introduced me to Dollhouse, which I had been previously avoiding, because I know how the Joss Whedon/Fox story ends. I came in mid-season, so I found the premise a bit confusing, but it seemed coherent enough once I got a hand on it. I may pick up the first season to see that.

So I got to the Marriott across from the Indianapolis Convention Center (i.e., the GenCon Center), and to my considerable surprise the lobby was packed full of major league baseball players. Apparently there's some conference for MLB here this week, and I walked right into the middle of cocktail hour. Alas, I am exhausted, but perhaps tomorrow night I'll have the opportunity to meet some of them at the restaurant or in the lounge.

So its been 2 weeks since I watched Atlantis lift off, and we know know it returned safely to Earth on schedule. The trip was very much worth the extraordinary amount of effort it required, and I was very glad I invested in a good pair of binoculars before I went. There were a number of things you notice when present for the launch that aren't immediately obvious when watching film of the event. For instance, when the clock reached zero, Atlantis was engulfed in a gray cloud. It was several seconds later that the shuttle came streaking out of haze, atop an extremely, almost painfully, bright exhaust trail. I was 7 miles away from the launch, meaning the dull roar of the engines was drown out by the cheers of the crowd around me, and it was nearly 15 seconds before the wind reached us -- something of a breeze by the time it made it that far. It was a truly remarkable event.

Its Sunday afternoon, and I finally have a few minutes to update my LJ. I flew into Orlando with my father on Wednesday. We checked into the hotel, which was very nice, and then went a block and a half to spend the afternoon at SeaWorld. We had a lot of fun there, although the shows definitely made it worth the trip. After that we crashed for the night, as it had already been a long day at 2000.

The next morning we went to the Kennedy Space Center for the day. It was well-suited to a day's visit, although the skies were overcast and the wind was a bit nippy at times. I should add to that that we were still in short-sleeve shirts -- the temperature never dropped below 65. Its more in relation to the 80+ we had been experiencing up to that point. We went on a bus tour for the afternoon, saw the shuttle stack on the launch pad, saw a Saturn V, and got to watch actual modules of the ISS being assembled in the Space Station Processing Facility. We also got a number of good tips for the trip in on Monday morning.

On Friday we dashed off to Epcot, which I have been to before but never actually visited while it was open to the public. There was a lot of fun material there, as well as "Mission: SPACE", the first ride I've been on that really made me motion sick. The ride puts you in an enclosed simulator that then proceeds to do full rolls on all three axes while you're watching a simulation of what the world looks like out the "front" of your spaceship. My inner ear was not a happy camper for that one. The GM Test Track was fun, though, as was Soarin', a hang-gliding ride.

Friday night was the scheduled launch of the Intelsat 14, a rocket we had seen on the pad at KSC. Since my Dad wasn't going to make it to the shuttle launch, we went out onto the golf course at the hotel at 1230 to watch it lift off. Unfortunately, the launch was scrubbed at 1233. Figures. Fortunately, I had my computer with me on the hotel internet, so I was able to get this information not too long after 0100, and we were able to pack it in. Fortunately for me, the problems seemed to be extensive enough that they didn't try the next day, which would've meant the STS-129 launch getting bumped to Tuesday, out of my ability to see it.

A few hours later, I drove my father to the airport, and a few hours after that, I went back to MCO to pick up kelizra. We got some Thai for lunch and went to SeaWorld (I got a year pass when we visited earlier that week -- they were the same price as the 1-Day.) Amusingly, when I went back to see the Whale & Dolphin show with kelizra, one of the animals didn't want to cooperate, so mid-show (in a show with no dialog), he had to come out and explain what was going on. Profoundly uncomfortable, that had to be, but he handled it well. We caught the Shamu show, got a stuffed orca for her dog, and packed it in for the night.

Today kelizra is off visiting another friend in the Orlando area, so I have an afternoon to do whatever I want. I haven't quite decided what yet, but I better get cracking -- daylight's burning, and I need to be to bed pretty early. My bus to the STS-129 launch leaves at 0600, and I need to get to the pickup point.

Its coming up on that time of year again where relatives start asking me what I want or need for the Holiday season, and then proceed to buy me clothes. So to align their behavior with my desires, I thought it would be a good time to adjust my wardrobe. Knowing what I look good in doing anything besides staring in a mirror is not something I really know, so let me ask those of you who regularly see me for your opinion on what I look good in, and what I really don't. Am I wearing too many slacks, and not enough jeans? Should I invest in a few sweaters? Is a londo look more up my alley? Or should I start wearing cuff-links and vests every time I leave the house?

So I got to ORD 4 hours before my flight to make sure I had plenty of time for a nice, long security interview before I had to leave. I picked up my boarding pass, and made my way to the relatively unknown security checkpoint off between Terminals 1 & 2 at the airport, in hopes I would not be holding up much of a line. There was nobody in the security line. I walked up to the inspector, handed her my boarding pass, and explained I lost my license while in Chicago. She called over another fellow to interview me, to together we started going through all the documentation of my identity I had with me. He checked my credit cards, my debit card, my old WPI ID I still carry with me (I knew there was a reason!), my Marriott rewards card, my Red Carpet Club membership, my Amtrak Guest Rewards, even some old expired Red Cross first-responder certifications that had long since lapsed. As I digging out my AAA card, from a breach in the structure of my wallet emerged my long-lost driver's license! Apparently when I put my license back after checking into my client site, I didn't slip it into the pocket I thought I did, but rather through a tear that lead to the "interior" of the wallet, and there my license remained entombed as I ripped apart everything but my wallet looking for it.

On the upside, my interview came to a very abrupt end, my pass was signed, and I got on the concourse. Now I'm just killing time in the airport club until I get to go home.

Sometime between 0915 and 1140 local today, my driver's license decided to go on a wondrous excursion. I wish it the best of luck in its new life. I, however, am finding new and interesting ways to do without my primary photo ID (the fact that my passport isn't with me either is bonus fun!) Tomorrow I get to take the TSA's new No-ID flight regulations for a test drive (the regulations changed back in June 2008, after the last time I needed to pull this particular stunt.) Amusingly, the last time I lost my license was also in Chicago, although that time I left it at a security checkpoint at O'Hare, rather than the apparently mysterious vanishing act my current ID has pulled.

On the up side, I ordered a new license today, and it will come printed with my current address on it. Take that, "do-it-yourself sticker" policy! Amusingly, before you apply for a replacement license on the RMV website, it advises you to have a valid email address, appropriate documentation, and your driver's license. My faith that the process was not that broken lead me to proceed anyways, and I was gratified to discover you are not actually expected to have your missing license when applying for a duplicate.

Trimmed today's trip to the airport a little closer than I normally do, but still made it with time to get a Coolatta, and it was in a very good cause. I find myself back in Chicago, and this time, actually staying on West Madison. Downtown Chicago is architecturally very beautiful, and its a very nice area to walk to work in.

Oh, and amusingly, I got one of the classic but great lines during the safety briefing aboard our plane today:

"Your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device. In the event of a water landing, please take it with our compliments."

I don't know why I find that so funny.

This morning at 0900 tickets for the launch of STS-129 went on sale. Unsurprisingly, the website lagged when I hit refresh at 09:00:00. By the time I got to Causeway ticket sales page at 09:01:26, the tickets I wanted had sold out. A call to the reservation center only met with busy signals, but it seems that actually buying a ticket to see the launch from the Causeway as a private citizen is only a theory -- some quick research shows that in practice the entire block of available transportation is sold to third-party tour groups. I thought about getting tickets to watch from the KSC Visitor's Complex, but due to interruption between the Complex and the Launch Pad, you can't actually see the shuttle sitting on the pad from there. So I grudgingly signed up with one of the many groups that sell these tickets post-market. On the upside, they provide transport from very close to MCO, so I won't have to worry about the actual navigation and dealing with the automotive checkpoints on my way in.

So this morning I was in my hotel room until a bit past 1100, when I walked up to the local Subways to get lunch. Walking out the hotel door,though, I was surprised by what I found. There was snow on the ground. Not a little, either. It was 60-someodd degrees outside, and there was a rapidly melting blanket of snow, still about 2 inches deep, everywhere. For me, it was one of those "What the...oh. Huh, I guess that makes sense." moments. I knew the temperate was falling to the mid-30's overnight, I just didn't expect there to be much precipitation. The roads and other open areas are covered with the thick, low fog we sometimes get in New England when there's a sudden warm-up after a heavy snowfall. I took a few pictures for the visual edification of my audience.

( Pictures under cut )

I just watched the Stargate:Universe premiere on SyFy.com. I think it hits the Stargate Universe at a funny right angle, and there are a few apparent plot and mechanics inconsistencies that bother me a bit, but I'm waiting a few episodes to see it they get resolved.

Also, David Blue reminds me of rickie_d to a distracting degree.

ELO just came down. Tomorrow at 0355 I lift for Nevada, and stay there for 8 days. Figures this happens the day before my winter Battleforce campaign is supposed to start. Fortunately, I have compotent and well-versed players, and not much should happen the first week. Anybody going to be in Reno this weekend?

My new Eee T91 arrived today. It makes an exceptionally good Skype video phone. It is named OBSIDIAN.

One of the things I've always wanted to do is see a space shuttle launch. Now there are only six missions left. Its difficult to see, because the launches are so prone to delay, that one can't just go to NASA for a day and realistically expect to see the ship go up. But this is kinda important to me. Manned spaceflight is going away for a while, and while we wait for the Ares to come online, there's this niggling worry in the back of my head that somebody will find a reason to kill NASA before that happens.

So STS-129. I'm going to see it. Its awkwardly placed just before Thanksgivings, and I don't think many people would be able to get the time off, but I have 11 days of PTO left this year and a dream to fulfill.

I spent a good chunk of today with noble_resonance fleshing out a mini-campaign to run at Gaming Weekend on Saturday. I'm fairly happy with how its turned out, but there is still much work to be done. It ended up far more on the tactical end of the tactical/logistic curve than I originally planned, but I think that's fine. Logistical play is well and good, but without the "test", the engagements between bouts of repairs, there's only so much decision-making. Really digging into the campaign rules would require, well, a campaign.

Back on June first, like a good little Massachusite, I registered my change of address with the RMV. I never got a stick mailed to me, which has required me to deliver an explanation on a few occasions (not the least of which was getting fingerprinted at the Waltham police station), so two days ago when I got my registration renewal application at my new address, I knew my change of address had gone through, and I just hadn't gotten my sticker. I went back to my confirmation email, and I found the following passage:



Really? Seriously? I pay $50 a whack for registration every two years and another $50 a whack for my license every five years, and you can't be bothered to mail me a sticker when I move?

Kismet, CA, 0551 PDT, 14 June 2006



The FRA Incident Report

Today is a good day. Last night, for the first time since May, I went to sleep without setting an alarm or monitoring software, and slept until I woke up naturally. A marvelous day, indeed.

I also went and got brunch with Bernie and Marissa. Joesph's II has good food and is cheap, but it is small and crowded. Wilson's food quality varies wildly every time I go there. I really need to find a place in Waltham to do brunch that has good food and isn't too busy on Sunday mornings. Is that so much to ask?

Now I'm waiting for my flight in the Red Carpet Club at BOS, seeing as my flight has been delayed over an hour. I'm working on the third book of Weber's Honor Harrington series, which I've greatly enjoyed so far. Perhaps one day I'll continue of Song of Ice and Fire, but right now this series is so much easier to feel like I'm making progress in.

Who's planning on going to Pendragon at RPI in August September?