March 2009

Oklahoma City, Okla.

So today is my second day in Oklahoma. My class is complete, I feel I am armed with a great deal more knowledge than I arrived with and I’m ready to take on the project that lies ahead at work. Working one on one with the instructor was an excellent experience. Today we went to a local BBQ place (Van’s Pig Stand in Norman) for lunch and I just loved it. Terry, the instructor, and I talked about all sorts of geeky stuff. We shared stories of our first computers and discovered that we both have an interest in the older technology that we grew up with. We both have a basement or garage full of stuff others would consider junk, we consider them treasure. I feel inspired to find some more legacy equipment, the groan you heard was Earl thinking of more stuff going into the cellar.

After class I freshened up a bit and went out exploring again. Earl and I were first here in 2004 and I distinctly recall a conversation that we had as we approached Oklahoma City from the east on I-40 as we approached Tinker AFB. I had just had a crazy blowup at work (when I worked at the radio station) with one of my co-workers and was not feeling the job at all. I was quickly feeling out of place at the station and was not enjoying what my job responsibilities had morphed into. Earl and I discussed this that day as we drove along I-40 with the top down on the Jeep and the sun shining in on us. I remember him asking me, “What are you going to do about it?” I threw my hands up in the air, palms toward the sky and yelled, “I’m going to find a new job!” as we moved along I-40 at 70 MPH or so. I told Earl of the telephone company I had been working with (on behalf of the radio station) and how they seemed to be a good company. They were a smaller company but they seemed to have a heart and I was interested in working in their internet division.

Two months later I was working in the job I have today.

Tonight I drove along that stretch of I-40 again. I smiled as I remembered the conversation and thought about how excited and happy I was when I was told that I got the job. The same company that brought me back to Oklahoma City this week for training because they felt that I had something to contribute and/or they believe in what I bring to the party and want to invest in me as an employee. On top of the training I had yesterday and today, I honestly feel more excited about my career than I have in a while. I intend on enjoying my little vacation this weekend in Oklahoma, but I have to admit I’m a little more excited than usual about returning to work on Monday.

Tonight I’m going to go out to the gayborhood and explore a little bit and probably meet up with Olivier for a drink. We’ve chatted a bit on the phone and over text message. Our friend Dave speaks volumes about him, I look forward to meeting him in person.

13 March 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Norman, Oklahoma.



040.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

I arrived in Oklahoma City last night around 11:25. The flight between Dallas and Oklahoma City was a little comical as it was only 25 minutes and we leveled off at our cruising altitude of 27,500 feet for a total of two minutes. The flight attendants stayed in their jump seats the entire trip, though I did have a very friendly conversation with flight attendant Sherri before we took off. She saw me using my iPhone and chatted me up about her iPod Touch. We compared apps and talked for about the 15 minutes before pushing away from the gate. I sat in the aisle next to the back emergency exit on the MD-80 so the flight attendant’s jump seat was right next to me – Sherri sat in the back seat so the hunky bear with the perfect haircut sat next to me. He wasn’t chatty though. Funny, AA flight attendants usually like me.

Anyways, once I figured out where I was going (by the way, printed Google directions suck when it comes to exit numbers in Oklahoma, stick to GPS), I got settled into my room at 12:30 CDT which translated to very late according to my own clock. So I hit the hay and was up bright and early this morning for the first day of my training class.

The class is designed for six students and one teacher. (It’s a good thing they remembered the teacher part!) They had five students confirmed, two sets of two and me. The other two sets didn’t make it due to canceled flights. They took a rain check.

Which leaves me one-on-one with the teacher for this training class for two days.

And it is truly an AWESOME experience.

Not to get too technical but I am learning about the latest incarnation of the software we use to monitor all the telephone, internet and network connections we manage at the telecommunications company I work for. When all is said and done, I will be the focus point for the project I now think of as The Big Upgrade. I absolutely crave the challenge and this one-on-one time allows the teacher to focus specifically on our setup. I think the company is getting a really good bargain with these circumstances. In the first half of the day I already had about 16 ways we could improve the way we do take care of these things at work.

The training company usually has the lunch catered but because it was just me, the teacher and I went to a local restaurant together for BBQ. He is a really good guy and we have a lot of similar geeky interests (plus, he really loves his Linux!) I am really enjoying the experience.

After class I did some roaming around a bit and did some exploring. Earl and I have been here twice in the past so I have a rough idea of how to get around. The Chrysler 300 I have for a rental car feels like a Land Yacht but it fits in with the general vibe I find on the freeways. I’m still pretty beat from last night’s late arrival, so I roamed a local mall, picked up a few goodies for the hotel room (I’m staying at a Residence Inn which makes my room actually an apartment) and am now calling it a night early.

The class ends tomorrow afternoon, though I am here until Sunday simply because I had the opportunity to do so. I’m going to meet up with our friend dave’s friend Oliver tomorrow night, something I am really looking forward to and on Saturday I’m going to be a geek and just explore the area. Hopefully the weather will cooperate as it has been in the mid 30s all day today.

12 March 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 2

Psychotic.

I wanted to try a little video FX. It’s been a while since I’ve played around with Final Cut Express.

[media id=78]
12 March 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Still the Friendly Skies

I was going to get out the MacBook and type a blog entry on there, but the woman next to me is so comfy spread out that I don’t want to infringe on her space. She is very nice and I’ve made her laugh a few times with my observations of other passengers.

The two holy terrors and their young kids on the last flight followed me onto this one. They are screaming and kicking my seat everytime they see a cloud. I think one of them is trying to open the window for some fresh air.

The flight attendant on this flight is Mary. She is very charming and let me have two snacks. I enjoyed my biscotti and peanuts. Mary smiles and talks slowly on the intercom. She offered to top off my drink. I think it’s important to know the names of people that are helpful and/or here for my safety. It makes everyone involved feel more relaxed and we would have an easier time communicating in a time of crisis. I like her, she seems good at her job.

This is the second of three flights today. The next flight is short as it’s from Dallas to Oklahoma City. It also the biggest plane I’ll be on for this trip and on AA instead of Delta. I have a soft spot for AA. Delta was out of control with chaos at the ticket counter in Syracuse and that whole ghost terminal concourse C thing they have going on in Cincinnati is a bit spooky but other than that they’re doing ok. I still have a soft spot for AA though.

Here’s a random shot up the aisle.

11 March 2009 by Ponderings and Musings 1

The Friendly Skies.

It’s been a very long time since I’ve flown alone. Not since my radio days have I been without Earl on a commercial flight. I’m in bachelor mode in a different place.

Sitting I’m front of me are two young women. One of them has never flown before. She has a very appreciable innocence about her that is refreshing.

I’ve been flying for as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories is flying with my grandfather and father in a Cessna 172. It was way before kindergarten. I recall puking all over the place and my mother later yelling holy hell because my father had cleaned up the plane but not me. That was the last time I was sick in an airplane.

Most of my favourite memories from growing up are aviation related. Whether it was dropping sandbags from a Piper J5A at the local airport in an effort to hit a target or just flying to another airport for Sunday breakfast with my dad, I have always been a pretty happy guy in the sky.

I often follow the forums on airliners.net and contribute photos to the plane database. I enjoy looking up the tailnumbers of planes in the public knowledgebase. I think my next career will be aviation related. Probably waving the big glow sticks. I wouldn’t want to be a commercial pilot, I’m more
interested in sticking to a Cessna. I’m thinking a Cessna 182.

There is one woman who tried to use the bathroom during takeoff now roaming the cabin despite the lights that say the contrary. Meagan, the flight attendant, is giving her the evil eye. I’d just giver her a stern warning and offer her the chance to get outside and push if she didn’t do as she as told.

Below is a picture of one of the Finger Lakes. I’m not sure which one it is.

11 March 2009 by Ponderings and Musings 1

Murphy’s Irish Pub.

Saturday night whilst in Virginia Beach Earl and I were walking the resort area looking for a place to eat. The last time we were there we ate at the Abbey Road something or other so we decided not to try that again. I’m not a big seafood person and being on the ocean and all, Virginia Beach has a lot to offer in the way of seafood. I was about to cave in and eat some scrod or whatever when we found Murphy’s Irish Pub. They used that celtic looking font and everything on the sign. We decided to give it a try.

We went entered Murphy’s the first thing we noticed was that Virginia still allows smoking in restaurants. I chuckle at the idea of “smoking” and “non-smoking” areas of buildings because if you really think about it, it’s like trying to have a “piss” and “no piss” section of a swimming pool. We kindly asked the hostess for a seat in the non-smoking section where she promptly took us to a different room and seated us at a very nice booth.

In the corner.

Next to a birthday party.

Where there were 30 people gathered around a very long table.

Said people were drunk.

And loud.

The party was apparently for an older gentleman, I assuming grandfather or father, it was hard to gauge which due to the huge amount of makeup on the party attendees. I had the feeling that the guest of honour had no idea where he was, who he was or what was going on because he had a vacant, bewildered look on his face the entire time.

A little annoyed but somewhat amused by the activity around our table, (the hot waiter climbed over a woman to get to our table to ask us what we wanted to drink), I asked Earl if he saw anything good on the menu. He yelled “WHAT?” as he couldn’t hear a word I said. It was then that we just started talking really loudly. People didn’t care.

We finally got the dinner ordered and whatnot and were enjoying the loud atmosphere when a band came in. They announced that they were an Irish band and after a few announcements and a chorus of “Happy Birthday” for the bewildered man, they promptly started singing “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. Now I don’t know if this is a requirement on the other side of the Mason-Dixon Line or what, but this is where the entire restaurant took on this really weird vibe and everyone started singing along with the band with the same fervor, warmth and intensity that is usually reserved for “Ava Maria” or “God Bless America”. One of the smattering of drunk women at the table screamed out “I love the south” and started weeping.

I think I said “Sweet Jesus” and went back to eating my supper.

It was then that Earl and I decided to have a political discussion. As a child I was trained to NEVER discuss politics at the supper table so this was treading into some unfamiliar territory for me. I’m not the best debater in the room, mostly because my brain doesn’t properly communicate to my mouth the words I want to say and that’s why I usually resort to writing my feelings down. To have this political discussion amongst the yelling, squealing and weeping at the recognition of Country Roads, Earl and I had to yell at the top of our voice at each other. Even before we started disagreeing.

There seems to be a rumour that I am anti-American. This is not true. I am not anti-American. Not at all. I love the United States of America and I think it’s a beautiful place and I think that we have freedoms and liberties that I take for granted but would nonetheless find nowhere else. It’s the people that drive me insane lately as it seems the American People have gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs over the past decade or so. Yes, I believe that the government has become entirely too intrusive in our lives, that there is an unreasonable amount of mingling of church and state in progress and that for the most part politicians can’t be trusted because they’re no longer in it for the greater good. However, I think the foundation of our country is solid and is a brilliant piece of fluid work. I don’t convey my arguments well, I’m the first to admit that, so when Earl and I were screaming at each other about gay rights, war prisoners, universal health care and the economy, the discussion got a little heated.

But the party around us never missed a beat. The bewildered man posed for pictures with a lot of floppy breasted women that were screaming and throwing beer and crawling over chairs to get to one another. Somewhere there is a MySpace page with a lot of photos of this event.

And one particular photo with a set of bunny ears being held up behind one of the women by the Yankee in the corner.

When all was said and done, it was an amusing, intense and somewhat enjoyable dinner.

9 March 2009 by Food. Fun and Games Dept Ponderings and Musings 2

Virginia Beach, Va.



Virginia Beach., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Earl knew that we were going somewhere after work last night but he didn’t know where. I gave him a basic idea of what types of clothes to pack and what he needed to bring. The cat was watered, fed and instructed not to have any wild parties over the weekend and before you know it we were in the Jeep and off on another “ride”.

I’ve been contemplating this trip all week. I had a few promises I made myself before embarking: the weather must be sunny and over 70 degrees at our destination and it had to be no more than a ten hour drive (one way).

As I type this blog entry, Earl is busy watching Family Guy on his MacBook Pro where someone was apparently injected with the “gay gene” and he sung the word “guilty” for a very long time.

But I digress.

Anyway, Earl and I are currently in Virginia Beach. We are only here for the afternoon and evening, as we need to leave tomorrow morning so we make it back home at a decent hour tomorrow night. We had no hotel reservations or plans on what we were doing, we let the Universe decide that for us.

We ended up at the Sheraton on the top floor with a “partial ocean view”. I didn’t think we would be able to see the entire ocean from the 11th floor of a hotel in Virginia Beach so we are not disappointed. We have a beautiful view up the beach and with windows on two sides of our suite I can also watch the airlines land at the nearby airport pretty up close and personal.

An Airbus A320 just flew over. I’m going to have to get a picture before it gets dark.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, last night Earl and I drove five hours and made it to Christiana, Del. (between Wilmington and Newark) where we left I-95 and headed down Route 1 towards “Beaches”. From there we jumped onto US 13 and headed down the Delmarva Peninsula and across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel before getting into Virginia Beach a half an hour later.

It has been in the high 70s, sunny and quite pleasant this afternoon. Tonight we are going to do some more strolling and the tourist thing a bit. We might possibly go out for a drink but since I don’t drink anymore I’ll stick to bottled water.

By the way, tots at Sonic whilst quite unhealthy is an excellent breakfast food.

7 March 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Christiana, Del.

Earl and I are on the road tonight. I’ve been hinting at a weekend-long road trip all week and right after work we packed up some bags and loaded up the Jeep and hit the road.

I think we’ll end up in Virginia Beach around lunchtime tomorrow. I’ll have more to write then.

For now, it’s time to sleep.

6 March 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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