redheadfred

Why traveling is not all it is cracked up to be

2008-08-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

When I talk to some people they become quite jealous that I “get” to travel all the time. Well, there are occasions when I disagree. Sure it’s nice building up the frequent [flyer/hotel/car] [miles/points/points], but the crap that one must go through sometimes outweighs the benefits. Take yesterday for example. Keep in mind this is 100% true:

Flying Seattle to Boston via Chicago, in First but that didn’t help very much. Security insisted on scanning my bag for traces of bomb ingredients. The last time this happened, I had a chat with the TSA screener about why my bag was suspect. Apparently, the handle looks strangely bomb-like on the x-ray, which makes me wonder why I don’t get stopped more often. In the past year of flying that bag has only been pulled aside twice. You’re not making me feel safe TSA! Be consistent and I’ll get a new bag!

The SEA-ORD flight was actually very smooth, which gave me false hope of an uneventful transcontinental trip. I was even given the opportunity to mock more gate lice (see Flickr feed)! En route, the food wasn’t terrible (no moldy fruit), I got a lot of work done, only had to get up once for the person sitting next to me, channel 9 was on, etc. Even my connecting flight in Chicago was on time and at the gate directly across from the one we were arriving to. Everything was looking good.

Then we landed.

I stroll off the jetway calmly, ready to find a seat near a power outlet to charge my laptop for the next 30mins before my ORD-BOS flight started boarding. I looked at the gate that was supposed to be mine, and it was blank. Not a good sign. I walked over to the monitors to see my flight is delayed 50 minutes and in the other terminal. Walking from terminal B to terminal C in ORD is not fun, but at least I had some time to waste. So, I began the trek over to my new gate, contemplating what drink I would have on the next flight.

I arrived at the new gate and find a power outlet, but no seat available nearby. Not a problem, I just sat on my bag and waited the hour or so until boarding (Note: Priority Pass does not have any arrangements with the ORD RCC. They need to get on that. Although they did just add the two RCCs in DEN.). I caught up on some email and did some people watching for a bit. Then the boarding process started. Awesome, I jumped up to be 3rd on the plane craving some sort of alcohol to be determined very shortly. As soon as we reached the aircraft door, the pilot steps out telling us that we have just been given another ATC (air traffic control) delay due to weather in Boston. For another 2 hours. None of us First/1Ks/GS were surprised, so we sauntered back up the jetway to the miserable terminal with no free booze. I made some calls, charged my computer some more, and continued people watching.

Finally, we were allowed to board again. I got on, got my drink, and hoped for no further complications so I could make it to Boston. My serenity was intruded upon by some wretched little youngling in the row in front of me, traveling with his father. He kept hitting the flight attendant call button to get more water before we took off. Fine, whatever, he’s an annoying little brat who feels he is special and whose father agrees with him. I go back into my zone with my ipod on.

After all the cattle in the back figure out how to match up the strange symbols on their boarding passes telling them where to park themselves, we somehow made our determined take-off window and proceeded to Boston. Not 5 minutes into the flight, little annoying boy rang the call button. We were still in our initial climb at this point. The flight attendant came over and told the brat “you can’t get up to use the bathroom, maybe you should have thought about that before you drank 4 glasses of water you pest”. OK, so I added that last bit, but you could tell she was thinking it. After moaning something, the FA allowed him to use the facilities, which of course caused his father (in the aisle seat) to get up and flail around in the turbulence. After narrowly escaping a popped bladder, the child returned to the window seat and fully reclined into the woman next to me, with the help of his father of course. I didn’t laugh, cautious of karma, but that did little to prevent annoying father to fully recline as well. Fine, whatever, still had the ipod on.

More drinks and a dinner order came next. Some sort of ravioli is my choice, whatever I’m hungry. The wonder twins in front of me get three glasses of water for some reason, I had no idea why. Subsequently, one of these glasses was elbowed too hard and spills straight back over the armrest emptying its contents all over my laptop bag. Senior idiot lept up and ran to the galley to grab some napkins, all the while leaving his seat fully reclined. I grabbed my bag, wiped it off with his pillow and blanket, and turned it upside down to drain. Senior idiot returned and starts mopping up the few drops of water that actually got on his seat, never even noticing he had drenched my bag. No apologizing, no concern for others, nothing. Luckily for him, my laptop didn’t get wet, just some cables.

The rest of the way into Boston was somewhat bearable, so after landing I made it out to the street and jumped on the Avis bus to get my car. After arriving at Avis, I see that they had given me some huge SUV. Not really wanting an enormous car to drive around a city I go back and request a change to a smaller sedan. I got some Chevy, but at least it’s not a behemoth. Just as I’m about to get going, some elderly couple waddled out in front of my car and the gentlemen knocked on my window. Apparently Avis had given both of us the same car. Judging by the collective IQ of the Avis staff, it’s understandable. So with me being Preferred, I keep the car and head on my way.

When I got to the exit, I was told that the license number on my contract does not match my drivers license. Bear in mind I had to show my license three times to the other Avis monkeys to get the car. I was told to go back and have them change my profile to match. I laid a good deal of front-wheel drive rubber in their parking lot as I made my way back to the agents. I got my profile updated and finally got out of the Avis parking lot and head to my hotel.

The only bright spot of the journey is once I arrive at my hotel, I got upgraded to a suite. A small conciliation prize for such an annoying day.

So, does that sound like fun to anyone?

One year down

2008-06-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it has been over a year since I graduated college. I'm finding it difficult to recap everything in one post, but I'll try to put it into a few bullet points:

Graduated
Started at Deloitte in San Francisco
Moved to Seattle
Work and travel like crazy

That's the summary of my life the past year. I swear it's more exciting than it sounds. At least I hope so.

I was reminded of this little blog thing by my parents, who are starting on a round-the-world trip and are documenting their travels. I figure that while my travels will be mostly domestic, they are still a little entertaining. Case in point: I flew from Seattle to Washington DC this week, and my fruit had expired:

Thankfully I noticed before it was too late. It was amusing to see the flight attendants freak out, but it sort of ruined my appetite for more fruit on that flight. After a short 27 hours in DC, I got on a flight to LA, which was delayed for quite some time. After getting in 4 hours late, I was rewarded with a slight upgrade on my room:

Sadly, I was only there for two nights, so it could have been better. So there's a quick peek into a somewhat typical week for me. Scary, huh?

Graduation?

2007-06-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Yeah, the big day is coming up. Family in town, everyone getting ready to move on to the next phase of life...a pretty big change coming up...and I'm not looking forward to moving...

It has been an interesting 4 years, this whole college thing. I think if I could do it all over again I would for sure. As fun as it was, the fun is by no means over. I hope not anyways. It will be interesting to see what paths everyone ends up taking. Unlike high school, this change will be much greater, but the bonds formed in the last 4 years feel like they are stronger.

So, in order to put off packing up my stuff for moving , I decided to take some quizzes. Anyways, here are my results...quite interesting...

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far)

Northern

You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.

What Combat Weaponry Are You?

Ak-47 Assault Rifle

A well seasoned fighter and capable in any situation. Extremely dependable you got your buddies back regardless of circumstance. You can take a beating and give it back just as easily. Though it may not be what you want, you stand out as a well rounded fighter.

What military aircraft are you?

EA-6B Prowler

You are an EA-6B. You are sinister, preferring not to get into confrontations, but extract revenge through mind games and technological interference. You also love to make noise and couldn't care less about pollution.

What kind of drinker are you?

Heavy Drinker

You regularly drink but are often seen sober.

What Ancient Warrior are you?

Cavalry

were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback in combat. A man fighting from horseback also had the advantages of greater height, speed, and inertial mass over an opponent on foot.

What`s your ideal DREAM house?

A Mansion.

The biggest house on the block is the house for you! Having the pool, the tennis court and the bowling alley appeal to you, but so does living close to the city. You like the high life and taking life in its stride, as well as making sure to flaunt what you have. For this reason a Mansion in the suburbs is where you belong.

Where is your spirit craving to take you to?

Everywhere

Right now you are craving to go everywhere and meet everyone because you just can't get enough of this life. You have ambitions and dreams that you are determined to accomplish no matter what. You find the world beautiful and mysterious and you have an adventurous spirit. You are going to feel fulfilled when you have experienced and seen as much as possible.

Immersion

2007-04-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

Well, as it was so nicely pointed out to me by one of my three avid readers (thanks landypoo...) it has been a while since I updated this thing.

Now that I've finished my undergraduate career, I had some time before starting work so I decided to go to Mexico on an immersion trip to build homes. I went through the same group that I went with a few years ago, only this time I went without anyone from SCU, and for two weeks. I was there as sort of a representative for Amor Ministries, helping out other groups.

These trips never cease to amaze me, on multiple levels. Flocks of people go down to Mexico for a week of camping and to change the lives of so many people. It's great to see that even in todays busy world, people can open their hearts to complete strangers and make such sacrifices. The way these volunteers are received by the families they work with always show the true nature of humanity. These families who have so little give so much. It really does give one pause.

Why I hate the iPhone

2007-01-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

After taking a few days to digest all the new information about the newly announced iPhone, I have decided that I hate it. I shall discuss.

First of all, it’s not out yet, and won’t be for some time. I know they wanted to announce the phone themselves and not have it show up on Engadgets’ FCC Fridays or something. But still, how very mean of Apple.

Also, as everyone has pointed out, the lack of some newer wireless standards is somewhat disappointing. No 3G, it sucks but I’m sure they will expand the capabilities of the phone as newer versions are released.

The most disappointing feature or aspect to me is the closed standard. No third party apps? How ridiculous is that. I know I shouldn’t be surprised because it is Apple, but still. People get smart phones so that they can be expanded and adapted to each individual users preference.

Next on the list, memory. They have 80GB iPods out there that have drives that should have been put in the iPhone. Why stop at 8GB? Ugh…this is not looking good for Apple.

Then there are other various hardware features that are somewhat annoying. No removable battery? No front facing camera? A touch screen that is just waiting to get scratched to hell? The list goes on…

Yet even with all of these shortcomings, people will still buy the phone by the boatload. As fast as Apple can make them, I’m sure the average consumer will buy them up in a second.

Why do I hate the iPhone? Because I will still get one…

new day, new year

2007-01-01T20:32:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been quite some time since I've written anything here, but oh well.

It's looking like 2007 should be an interesting year. Graduation from college will be good, starting work will be good, and who knows what else...I'm excited for whatever is coming.

I guess 2006 was a pretty good year all in all. Many things changed, but that's how it should be. It's the change and uncertainty that keeps life interesting.

I'd do one of those year-end survey things but I have no reason to procrastinate, so it seems pointless.

who killed the electric car

2006-10-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5599073542041338932

So I just finished watching this documentary, and it is very very good. After watching it, I know why my friend was mad after he finished watching it in theaters. The fact that all of this actually happened is what is so crazy. If you haven't seen it yet I would suggest downloading it while it's still up on google video.

To sum it up in a paragraph or two, electric cars are not new by any means. However, all of the new cars that came out in the 1900s were based off the internal combustion engine. GM tried a fully electric car that they sold in California called the EV1. I seem to remember hearing about it on the news maybe once or twice back in Michigan, but nothing major. California had a law passed saying that any car manufacturer that wanted to sell cars within their state had to offer a zero-emissions car. The auto manufacturers didn't like the idea and sued the state of California. Soon, big oil companies and later the present Bush administration backed the car makers.

California then buckled under the pressure from the auto manufacturers and changed the law to say that auto manufacturers could sell zero-emission cars based on consumer demand. The problem with the change was that it left the judgment up to the automobile makers. As the leases ended on GMs EV1 car, GM proceeded to reclaim all of the automobile and eventually destroy them even while there were people on waiting lists for new EV1s. This happened with all of the other totally electric vehicles from Toyota and Honda as well.

Some people would rather have us look at other alternative energies rather than just electricity, like hydrogen fuel cells. However, the technology for an excellent electric alternative is here today. With fuel cells, each car costs up to $1,000,000 and there are no hydrogen refueling stations. Additionally, if there were fueling stations, the fuel would be 2 to 3 times more expensive as current oil, where as with a fully electric car we would be paying something around $0.60 per gallon.

Why would car companies and our own government keep us from driving a better more efficient more environmentally friendly car? Money. There is around 1 trillion barrels of oil left in the Earths crust, meaning that there is $70 trillion left to be made for big oil companies. Additionally, a large amount of profits for car makers is service and new parts that are crucial for combustion engines. Without any moving parts, oil, or combustion, this market is essentially destroyed. This would of course save the consumer too much money, so the car makers wouldn't allow that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as American as the next dude about having a car that goes fast. But I'd rather forget about our dependence on foreign oil and all that nonsense. Plus, electric motors produce maximum torque right off the line! That means potentially very fast cars. With battery technology improving, especially with the application of nanotechnology, distances these electric cars will be able to go will improve. Finally with all the new ways we're finding out how to create electricity with wind, solar, and nuclear power, it only looks better for an electric car.

Dam these money hungry old people...

week 4?

2006-10-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

Kinda hard to believe it's already week 4 of this quarter. Of course this means stuff will actually start happening soon. My crazy CISA review class is starting up this Saturday morning, which I'm SUPER excited for...not really...

Oh, in case you missed it, the South Park that was on last week was about MMORPGs, and I thought it was hilarious. Some people didn't, but that's because they couldn't relate, which is fine. But, as I was going through some news sites I browse, I got linked to the wikipedia entry about the episode and discovered something quite amusing. Apparently a bunch of World of Warcraft addicts went through and analyzed every single bit of the episode. Someone said what all of us normal people were thinking:

The last line made me laugh. Although it looks like the addicts have gotten mad and taken it down! Goooo photographic evidence.

Aaaaand last week I sent in my signed offer letter to Deloitte. So, I have a job. Yay. Now I have to pretend to pay attention in classes for another quarter and a half.

Oh, and here's a fun way to stop smoking:

Amazing

2006-09-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

I just have to share this. Quite possibly the best song of the year:

no more summer

2006-09-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

The time has finally come when I must leave the working world and return to classes, and textbooks, and professors...

With the end of my fourth internship and the beginning of my senior year, I actually have to start thinking about what to do after school. It's strange having your life presented to you in a folder. OK, well maybe that's a little extreme, but I'm pretty sure that if I start at Deloitte full time, I'll be there for a while. Not that it's a bad thing.

Anywho, enough about that. Today, walking to the gym was more interesting than before because it's freshman move in time. Seeing all the new youngsters walking around looking lost with their parents is just adorable. After having the whole campus be empty for most of the summer it's weird to see so many people around. Oh well, last year!

almost over

2006-09-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Well, as my summer internship comes to a close, it's weird to think about being a senior in college. Not that I'll dwell on it too much, I need to get some more sleep before another potentially long day at the office tomorrow.

But one thing that has people apparently up in arms this week outside of my working life is the new news feed on facebook. Holy crap, chill out people. Yes, they should have made it default to not putting every single little thing you do on your feed, but it's not that hard to click the little 'X' to get rid of stuff you don't want people to see. Really, this does make a ton of sense for facebook from a bandwidth perspective. As they grow, more and more users are hitting their servers, and causing quite a load. This makes it easier for us as the user to go check out something new one of our friends is up to rather than hunting through our huge recently updated friends list and then clicking on the friend only to search around for what changed.

< /rant >

Anywho, I'm off to bed. Cool pic of the post:

My DNA and more

2006-08-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

So I saw the personal DNA thing on my brothers blog, and I thought I'd get around to taking it sometime. My results were quite interesting. Try it, and you'll be surprised at the results.

Also, almost all of the other interns are done with the program as of yesterday. Me and two others extended our internships, which is good for me. I don't know what I would do with four weeks off. Go home? Bah...

More work. Yay...

My DNA

2006-08-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

Dynamic Leader

movies

2006-07-15T00:18:00.000-07:00

Alright, well another week of summer has gone by. Work is still cool, and this group is quite fun to work with. Two baseball games coming up, so that'll be fun as well.

I was going to write something intelligent about movies, but I figure I'll leave that for when I'm more awake. I'll just leave you with this fun little quiz I found. I quite like my outcome...

Take the quiz:
What r u gonna be rollin in in 10 years?

McLaren F1
Expensive cars with speed is ur game...this McLaren F1 is ur car

Summer 1

2006-07-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

...soooo, after 7 flights and 4 states in the last 8 days, I'm finally back in my apartment. Work starts back up tomorrow, but that's fine with me. It'll be nice to be on a client for more than a day.

On one of my flights today, I got an awesome idea for a product that would be really useful to people. But, stupid reality hit and even though I had already nearly completed the business plan outline in my head, I knew it would never come to fruition. Kinda annoying...

Anyways, here's a quick snap from my phone of Durango. Nice views:

Summer!

2006-06-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

Whew, alot has happened this week. After moving out of the dorms and into a friends house for a few days (while my apartment was repainted) work started. The new group of interns is acceptable. We shall find out more about them in the next three days down in Scottsdale.

So, after an amazing ikea run yesterday, we actually have some furniture in the apartment! We managed to fit a queen bed frame, queen matress, dresser, side table, kitchen table and four chairs, a tv table, a full bed frame and matress, a desk, a desk chair, a cabinet, and four passengers without taking out any of the seats. Thank you Dad for your master packing abilities.

There's the quick and dirty update. Now it's just getting the last of my stuff over here, and settling in. Of course I'm leaving for three days tomorrow, but oh well...I have an apartment to come back to!

SCU on MSNBC!!

2006-06-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

Oh man...the fact that we're on the front page for this is a little depressing...

I've had friends from across the country messaging me today making fun of our school for this. I'm not sure SCU wanted this kind of publicity. We had a story about this in our school newspaper a while ago, but it had to come out sometime...

In other news, I'm done with school! Work starts on Monday, aaaaand I'm excited.

...it's june...

2006-06-03T00:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's June already. It's awesome. School is wrapping up, I just have 4 projects left and two tests. Not terrible...but I should probably get going on them.

I can't believe I'm almost a senior. Sorta strange to think about...the whole not having to go to class anymore. Sure, I still have two quarters left, but that's not too bad. It'll be interesting to see how graduation goes this year, with more people I know graduating.

Oh, I actually know where I'll be living for the next year, which is always good. Turns out I'll be at Park Central, the first apartment I stayed at out here in Cali the summer I worked at eBay. Domicilio is being a bunch of ass hats by opening at least a month later than what they originally said. The d-baggery continues with them raising rents, so we decided to screw that and go to the other side of campus. Whatev, we got a third floor place, so we'll have vaulted ceilings and all that shiznit. It'll be a partay fo sho.

Work starts soon too. I can't wait. Senior Intern. Mwahahhaa....

caaaaarrrr

2006-05-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

Ack, it has been a while...not that a whole lot has changed, cause apparently I have a very boring life. But things have been moving along. Progressing ever so slowly to summer. I'm looking forward to working again, soooo much better than this whole school thing.

Speaking of which I should be able to finish a quarter early! Take that stupid OMIS department. AND all my loser friends back east who get out in APRIL! MWahaha...vengence is sweet...

My girl is doing pretty well. I finally got her waxed up so she's all pretty:

Ah. Beautiful.

This week shouldn't be too bad, but projects are coming up so that'll hurt. And I have a midterm. And meetings. Goodness...

stupid school

2006-04-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

Alright, so no DISCOVER group really happened this week, but don't you worry I have other stuff to talk about.

So we had to meet with our advisor to talk about class schedules. Now, I have 4 classes left before I'm done. Not too hard to figure out what to take. The problem is, the OMIS department is sooooo STUPID that they don't offer REQUIRED classes every quarter. I can't believe it. Soooo dumb...

Then, get this. OMIS students are not given credit for internships. I tried to get credit for my first one and was shot-down by the "then" head of the department. Now we have a new head, but he's keeping the policy due to tradition. Does this make any sense?? I really want OMIS to be a good department at this school, but when it's run by these people I don't know if that's possible...

Ugh...

The future

2006-04-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time again. Time for my weekly DISCOVER group recap. This week we watched a clip from "Beautiful Girls" dealing with someone who's deciding what to do in the future. So, the discussion went on to us talking about where we see ourselves 10 years out of high school, or 7 years from now for me.

I took three paths with this. First, there was the "I wish" path. This was me being an F1 driver livin it up racing around the world. Yeah. Right. That'll happen. The slightly more realistic yet still dreamy side of me wants to be a serial entrepreneur. Again, this probably won't work out. Unfortunately, the practical calculating side of me thinks that I'll be at Deloitte. This is by no means a bad thing, I'm actually quite excited about it. But it's just interesting to see the different paths one can take.

It was brought up that the seemingly smallest decisions can shape the rest of your life without you even knowing it. Lets say you take the stairs rather than taking the elevator and you run into someone who you end up marrying. Crazy.

All in all, I'm excited for the future. Right now I wish it would get here sooner, but I know that I should be enjoying the time that I have right now to the fullest.

half way there

2006-04-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

Now in my possession include a new MacBook Pro and a Subaru. I got to bond with the car on the drive from LA to Santa Clara yesterday. It was quite enjoyable.

Pictures will come after my drooling has subsided.

lots

2006-04-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

There seems to be alot going on for me right now. I'm back in Cali, classes have started, last quarter of my junior year, and very fun things coming up. These fun things include a new laptop, a new cell phone, a new car, and a new place of residence. Crazaaaay.

I'm ready for it all though. Now that the weather is turning nice again (hope it stays) being back in Cali is awesome as usual. My classes seem very interesting, and I hope that won't change. I felt like kind of a nerd yesterday when we got our topics in my OMIS class and I started getting waaaaay too excited.

This summer should be very interesting, too bad I couldn't swing an international internship. Oh well. Here's a preveiew of the upcoming things in my life:

All in good time...

break so far...

2006-03-30T07:32:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm more than half way through spring break. While it's been nice being home for a bit, it would have been nicer if I could have slept more. Between doctors appointments, and my mom bugging me to help clean out the basement, there hasn't been too much of that. Oh well.

I got a temporary reprive from all that yesterday when I went test driving cars. Having sold my Audi, it's time for a new one. While visiting my good friends at the BMW/Porsche/Audi dealership, I got to drive one of these little devils:

Brand new Cayman S, just came out this year. Not only did they let me take it out all by myself, but I had it for a good half hour. It was amazing...sounded so beautiful...

But back to cars that I'll actually be buying soon, it was nice to test drive a Subaru, as I had never driven one before. So, while the Porsche was amazing, I figure it might be better to start out with something that won't have me paying it off for the next 10 years...

Finally, it was nice getting my taxes done yesterday cause I got another refund coming! It's always nice getting money back from the government...it's like another paycheck!

sky mall

2006-03-26T13:20:00.000-08:00

So flying back home yesterday allowed me to have another look at the sky mall catalogue which is in every seat pocket on the dam plane. Now, I'm guessing most of you have had a look through this excellent piece of plane reading material. I just can’t believe what kind of person would buy the stuff they have for sale! Honestly, who needs a $125 batman ring, or a fake boulder to cover up those unsightly pvc pipes in your back yard? Seriously, the most useless shit ever. However, I think I might have found something that I could see as being useful. Now, I’m sure they have them in other places, but this just reminded me of the necessity of such a device. A heated, mp3 playing shower mirror. I’ve tried shaving in the shower before, it’s awesome, but you always miss spots. Now, having a mirror that won’t fog up AND plays music is awesome. Dam you sky mall!