Tag: vacation

Categories
Audio/Video Personal

St. Maartin

Took some photos and video of my trip to Saint Martin. The videos in particular aren’t the best quality, but quite fun to watch.

Photos

View from the room
View from room #2
Plant life on the island
Plant life on the island
Random Hilly View
Climbing to lookout
A View #1
A View #2
A View #3
Not terrible ;)
Beach 2
PJ-RIW coming in to PJIA
How you know you're in the hood
Looks like the cows only graze on one side of the hill.
Again, not a terrible view
Last one
Again, not a terrible view, provided you don't mind squinting for a half hour.
Not quite the same
The famous PJIA Airport
Danger Sign At PJIA
Thinking this is an American Eagle Saab 340.
DHL N910HL Coming in
Nice overhead shot
Spent lots of time looking out over this piece of sky
Reasonably Close
Another one coming in

Also managed to shoot some video with my cell phone

Categories
In The News

Top 10 Airports

Here’s an article on the Top 10 Airports in the World. They are billed as great places to pass time while waiting. And boy is this article a load of manure.

I’ve flown out of John F. Kennedy International Airport (though not the mentioned Terminal 6), connected at Los Angeles International Airport (with a layover), and spend 12 hrs delayed at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

First of all, their description of Schiphol is borderline fraudulent. Believe me, all airports are boring after about 1hr. Everything they mention is a bit smaller than the description implies. To give you an idea, take the size of the country and compare the scale to that of the United States. Got that ratio handy? Then take a small Atlantic City Casino, Museum, etc. from the US and shrink it down by that same ratio. That’s about accurate.

I never saw any celebrities at LAX, but perhaps that’s because I was there before the sun came up on a layover, and that was in July as I recall. Any celebrity with money, and some without were somewhere else but LA.

Categories
General Personal

Vacation

I’m back from vacation. Like two years ago, I spent some time in Holland visiting family, and then some vacation time in Spain (Mallorca to be exact), then back to Holland for a day and a half. Just starting to catch up on things, so be patient if your expecting a reply from me. I’m tired after an a long day with a flight at 9:30 (GMT +1) that landed 12:00 (GMT -5). So here are some random thoughts in bullet form:

  • Security wasn’t to bad considering all that has been happening. The only thing encountered was no liquids or gels in hand luggage… Interestingly every hour, or less a flight attendant came around with cups of water. I guess they are afraid someone could become dehydrated and sue. An obvious change from procedures prior (on the way over that happened no more than 2x as I recall).
  • Constantly check that that your flight isn’t delayed, so you don’t spend 11hrs in Schiphol Shithole (after 11hrs that’s an appropriate name for any airport). Definitely not a great way to spend a day. Teletext, Phone, Internet, Smoke signals. Whatever it takes. Check and check again.
  • Just because a hotel advertises that it has air conditioning doesn’t mean that it works, works well, or works constantly. Hotels that only let it run when your in the room (usually activated by room key) only can work if it’s very powerful and can cool off a room quickly. Yet another thing to be aware of
  • When traveling trans-Atlantic, wide body aircraft, such as a Boeing 767, 777, 747 are preferable to a Boeing 757. Because it’s seated 3 and 3 with 1 isle, and bathrooms in front and back of coach, that’s a lot of traffic in 1 isle. Wide body aircraft such as the 767 seem much more capable of handling a long haul without feeling so tiny. Just a personal preference.
  • I had this notion that most old stone structures remained semi-cool in hot weather, but the Cathedral in Palma completely ruinied that.
  • There should be First Class, Business Class, Kid-Free Class, and Family Class. For those who want to sleep on the plane, you options.
  • I ate way to much… and enjoyed it all.
  • Beautiful beaches
  • Did I mention the food?
Categories
General In The News Mozilla Personal

Back from Aruba

Back from a week away in sunny Aruba [CIA Factbook | Wikipedia]. Beautiful sunny weather, resort, beaches, food. Saw Geraldo Revera [perhaps better link], (apparently staying in the same hotel on our floor, or the one above) and Greta Van Susteren (not sure if she was staying there or another hotel in the area). ABCNews also appeared to have some people there. Obviously in regard to the Natalee Holloway situation.

In other news the hard drive in my laptop is failing, and CDW failed to ship the new drive I attempted to purchase. Tomorrow is the 4th of July, so likely won’t get to call them and speak to a human being until Tuesday, and I’m sure it will take a few days to arrive (sigh). So I’m down to 1.25 computers (my laptop is at about 25%, and my Mac is at 100%).

I’ve got quite a bit of catching up to do as well, reading, bugmail, etc. etc. I’ll be taking care of all that relatively soon.

So that’s why things have been quiet, and will continue to be somewhat erratic (until I get my new Hard Drive, since my email mainly resides on my laptop for mobility reasons).

Oh yea, congrats to Daniel Glazman on NVU 1.0!

Categories
Personal

What did I miss?

Well, I did watch a little TV (mostly CNN Int.), but what happened?

About a bazillion emails, and over 1000 blog spam.

Needless to say I’ll need a few days to get things back in order, so be patient.

Categories
Personal

Back from Vacation

I’m back from 2 weeks abroad. Where did my travels take me:

Amsterdam, Holland
Mas Palomas, Spain

Beach

Some general notes:

Flying

  • Male flight attendants dress like pilots while female’s look like nurses.
  • Flew over Paris France (oh no, I violated the boycott… yawn) late at night, said hello, no reply. I guess you were all sleeping.
  • 50% of all in-flight movies are ‘chick flicks’.
  • Airline food is consistently getting worse (why can’t they just get a more tasty fast food resturaunt to cater? would be cheaper and taste better).

Beach

  • Nude beaches are like Coney Island except the weeners are in the water.
  • Germans love speedo’s way too much
  • Ugly people love to be naked
  • Those who ‘have it’ should show it off on the beach. Those who don’t should cover what they have.
  • There should be legal limits on sizes for 2 piece bathing suits.
  • There’s ‘good naked’ and ‘bad naked’. There’s more ‘bad naked’ than ‘good naked’ in this world.
Categories
Personal

I’m back

I’m back from a week in Florida. Good relaxation, no computers, no code, no internet, no server issues, no geeky stuff, just fun in the sun (and occasional rain).

But I did do one thing quite geeky… got to ride a Segway. Takes a few minutes to learn to trust it (it’s more powerful at climbing hills than you’d think). But it’s a pretty cool thing to do if you get a chance. Pretty fast, powerful, easy to use, and just amazing fun. So if you ever get a chance, check one out. Lots of fun. Segway’s may be the way of the future.

Anyway, will take a day or so to catch up, so much (2700+ emails, 700 of which are not spam). Also got a few other little things to take care of.

More later.

Categories
Personal

I’m Back

Weekend across the pond… but I’m back in the States (well, I was yesterday… but now I’m posting again)

Categories
Personal

Down in Baltimore

Down in Baltimore Inner Harbor yesterday. Boston Red Sox got the asses handed to them by the Orioles. The Red Sox were staying in the same Hotel as I was. Feel dirty. Need a shower.

There were tons of sox fans there. So loud in the beginning…. surprising how quiet they were after the 7th inning. Guess they couldn’t figure out how to get their heads out from between their legs.

Categories
Personal

Back from Bahamas

No Smoking

I’m back. Alive, and relaxed. Pretty cool place to visit and stay. Saw this amusing signage:

No Smoking