Have you ever had one of those days? You know which ones I'm talking about: the ones where you would be have been better off not getting out of bed at all? I had such a day yesterday.
I was flying to San Francisco and I really didn't want to go. That's not entirely true - I was looking forward to seeing my coworkers again and re-energizing myself by being in geek-mecca but it's hard to fly again after being home for such a long time. The longer I stay at home the harder it is to get back out on the road. The day started off well enough until I got to the airport. The lineup at the ticket counter was horrendously long and what is normally a 5 minute process took me almost an hour. Things were going well until we were in the air and then the roller coaster ride started. The turbulence was quite bad and I almost had to make use of the paper bag in the seat pocket. The bumpiness calmed down and they started serving drinks. I was watching a movie on my laptop when the flight attendant was serving our row. She had poured a cup of water and started handing it to the person next to me when, while she was reaching over my seat, the turbulence started up again. We hit a bump so sudden and violent that it threw the attendant backwards, making her spill the cup she was handling. Half of the water landed on my chest and the other half landed right on top of my open laptop. My screen went dead and my baby shut down. Shit. I quickly pulled out the battery and started soaking up the water from the keyboard and screen. The attendant was extremely apologetic and felt bad for what had happened. I asked her what the airline's policy was in such a situation and she told me that they had no responsibility for it and that there was nothing I could do but make a home insurance claim. Understandable but still disappointing.
I got to my hotel to find that they had no record of my reservation. I gave them the confirmation number and showed them the on-line confirmation I printed but to no avail. They were booked solid so that pretty much left me stranded at 10:30 on a Sunday night looking for a place to sleep. I was able to find a hotel near by so I wasn't totally screwed. When I got into my room I placed my opened laptop face down over the vents of the air-conditioner and let it run for a while as I went out to pick up some groceries for the week. When I came back after an hour or so I checked my laptop for water and it seemed to have dried out nicely. I put the battery back in, said a small prayer, and pushed the power button. It light up like a charm and I was back in action. Yay!
I unpacked my suitcase and started doing some ironing. I slid my hand into the pocket of my dress pants and ended up slicing the top of two of my fingers on an open staple that was used to hold a dry cleaning tag. I finished my ironing but managed to burn my forearm on the edge of the iron while putting it away.
I'm hoping that since my week started off so poorly that the rest of it will be smooth. Here's knocking on wood.
It looks like we are not immune in Canada against the same types of psychos who feel the need to open fire on helpless students. The reports are still a bit sketchy but it looks like at least 2 kids armed with automatic guns walked into Dawson College in Montreal this afternoon and killed 4 and wounded 20. The details are still coming out and there seems to be contradicting information between the CBC website and CBC News World. Hopefully once the chaos calms down more accurate information will come out.
Nickel to a doughnut that the Liberals bring up gun registration again.
Edit: The story has been updated and it appears that there was only one gunman who killed 1 person before turning the gun on himself. 19 were wounded. More details here.
I watched the DVD of a documentary on Firefly last night called Done the Impossible and I strongly recommend this for anyone who is a fan. It's a collection of interviews with the cast, crew and fans of the series and is very similar in feeling to that of the "Trekkie" movies.
Sep. 6th, 2006 @ 12:43 pm
I woke up this morning to the news that Steve Irwin, the beloved "Crocodile Hunter" died this morning after being stung in the chest by a stingray. I always enjoyed watching him and even though his enthusiasm was, at times comical, it always nice to see someone have such a passion about life. He was a great conservationist and animal activist. It is always sad when the world loses someone as incredible as Steve.
Sep. 4th, 2006 @ 02:08 pm
Based on new guidelines put forth by the International Astronomical Union, Pluto no longer fits the definition of a planet. The runt of the solar-system has been bitch-slapped by "the man" because of its elliptical orbit and reclassified as a "dwarf planet". *sniff* I will miss you, dear planet.
Aug. 24th, 2006 @ 12:02 pm
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