All posts by cs

smoke and mirrors

flying

Midway Airlines shut down today. Again. Their Sept. 11 government bailout money has been spent. What’s next?

They want to hook up with US Airways and operate as an express regional for them. US Airways is some alliance partner. They just applied for and looks like they will get a government loan for 900 million. All they gotta do is stay out of Chapter 11 until the money arrives. Meanwhile they are bleeding 1 million per day. They recognize and publicly admit that something has to change and they can’t keep going like this.

Keeping this in mind, Midway has to find (re)startup capital and secure long term leases for a fleet of expensive regional jets and (re)convince a workforce that has been *had* twice already to stick around and of course promise any customers that their tickets will be good on travel day and line up the usual vendors who have been burned already and… If I was a lender I would have to say to this opportunity: don’t walk but RUN away!

monk

social

Searching for calories to replace what I burned at the end of my jog, I find them (and then some) at a Sonic Drive In. Perfect. I didn’t even have to put my t shirt on. The car hop brought it outside to my steel mesh table. This was in need of a good steam clean and I felt a tinge of O.C.D. (ala Tony Shalhoubis) as I considered putting a napkin down for each elbow to rest upon. Instead, I left behind my own sweaty schmutz added to the layers.

your papers please!

social

I survived the wait-in-line ordeal at the DMV. They’ve got the processing of license renewals down to an exact science and it was a reasonably streamlined operation. This age of innocence is passing. I read in the paper about the Bush proposal to upgrade homeland security. Included therein, is the suggestion for the adoption of uniform laws for the issuance of driver’s licenses. This has nothing to do with automobile usage or driver safety. I fear that the next time I have to go in for the road sign test, I’ll be getting a background check as well.

crashpad

flying

Nothing to do with and not the same as the ‘doghouse’, I’m in the bunkhouse tonight. I keep a bedroll there and usually find a space to claim. There are 14 others that share (lucky not all at the sametime). If the pattern is full I will end up downstairs with the laundry machines and those who snore.

gratitude

computers

sheeezzz. I just burned up a Sunday afternoon constucting a relatively complex SQL database query that was really trick calling images to display the output and my collaborator emails me back ‘…never mind’.

It was most cool. His idea was to post a spreadsheet and I went overboard and decided to make it dynamic realtime from the db and self-tending to boot. He says, ‘maybe we just need the notes that are printed at the bottom — and not the spreadsheet’. Sounds like a copy|paste operation. Too boring.

eddie bauer

cars

The salesman doesn’t have an answer so he makes something up. We just wanted to know what the yellow dangling connector thing was doing loose under the passenger seat. The test drive went pretty well until salesman brought up the subject of wrecked cars. This causes the buyer to start looking around and scratching his noggin about fenders that look straight enough but what story could they tell? Bad topic.

What’s my role in this? I live across the street from buyer and I’m just making sure that he doesn’t come home with a wreck or a particularly insulting color choice…

nirvana

social

house repair.jpg

Capillary action has drawn moisture to the backside of the rain gutter. The shingles were a bit short over the edge. Over time the wood rotted and hence the repair in progress that you see here. Pesky wasps are using this slot as their gateway into the biggest, finest hive they ever dreamed for.

close

flying

Tattoo dude, wearing a sleeveless-collarless top (the better to show off the shoulder to elbow body art), is on a ‘health kick’. This was made painfully known to everyone at close range as he unsealed a tunafish pouch within the confines of an airline cabin. Ouuweee! That is rasty stuff. Upscale cat food. The smell rates right there with over-ripe banana peels left in a closed up car. Once I had a guy sitting next to me on a plane pop the top off a can of Dinty Moores beef hash, and then ate it raw and at room temp. The ultimate selfishness is a passenger within the close confines who feels that now is as good a time as any to whip out the nail polish remover and go at it. To add injury to insult, Tattoo dude decides to chase his stinky mayonnaise batch with a red apple. A squirt of fluid hit me at first juicy bite. I could have been disgusted but was more impressed by the fact that jaws met apple from across the aisle and one row forward. Now that was a good shot!

car talk

cars

Daimler-Chrysler has reached a business decision to invigorate the Chrysler side by promoting the inference of German engineering. We will see if they choose hollow hype and advertising or whether the Germans actually share their expertise. Either way, The image cachet of the Mercedes brand will suffer for it. There is, of course, a line between the two divisions that must not be crossed and even the big wigs recognize this when they admit that ‘you’ll never hear the name Mercedes mentioned in a Chrysler ad’. It’s a delicate bit of PR, because high end makes don’t blend well with the cheaper cars. Daimler-Chrysler has barely hatched their plan and already they are back peddling it. Packard, LaSalle, Cadillac, and others have tried. Honda with the Acura division and Toyota with Lexus are hugely successful however. But Honda and Toyota are not trying to sell their low end models at the expense of their upscale brethren. Daimler-Chrysler will have to show exceptional talent to pull this off.

Don’t know if Porsche is on the right track with the Dr. Evil advertising theme introducing its new Cayenne SUV. The ads are medieval, devilish, and all about Halloween or vampires. While the Posrsche sport cars enjoy inspired copy, to what or to whom are they trying to appeal?

poor-ness

social

Climbing aboard a 5 a.m. hotel shuttle I observed a wee little one riding shotgun. It’s great that children are able to spend a day with a parent at their job description but I don’t think that this was it. Unfair the disparity. Unfair that working parents in the affluent technology corridor where this hotel is situated have quality day care furnished as a career benefit while our driver hack has no such perk. No doubt he is an immigrant working all hours of the night to make ends meet. The child trying to catch Zsss in between dad’s 30 minute airport runs was quiet and unaware of her unfortunate caste. Let’s hope that when she’s old enough that she will do well in school and rise above it all.