A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

Today was a transition. After eating breakfast I started correcting the final examinations which my students took yesterday. I finished up at around noon. I was then able to turn in the course marks, failure reports, and attendance online. How wonderful that is!

After that, I had the whole afternoon to start thinking about getting stuff into a bag. We're off tomorrow morning on the first part of our a short, week long journey to a little of the southwest desert. First, we put things into the truck and head for the closest border. Although we don't depart from the Bellingham airport until 3:00 in the afternoon, we want to go early. Crossing the border in this day and age can take up to an hour even during non-rush parts of the day. I am seriously considering picking up a new camcorder as the model I want is around $200 cheaper in the US. We also might be able to fill up on food at the Old Country Buffet so we won't be hungry when we land in Phoenix, Arizona at around 6:00 pm. The rental car should be waiting at the Mesa airport. We'll jump in it and head towards the Grand Canyon that evening. I don't know how far north we'll get before deciding to get a room. It doesn't really matter as we'll be on vacation. I am so looking forward to a one-week, road-trip. On the highway, it's very easy to play it by ear. ' Gotta burn up some gas while there's still some to consume.

Labels: Desert Southwest, flying, road trip, travel planning

How old is one during the summer between Grade 5 and 6? I think that was the last time I saw the Grand Canyon. I do remember the family crossing the country on that trip with an old Chevy pickup and camper. My mother always took lots of images in the form of Kodachrome slides. I wish I had those to scan but I guess they no longer exist as my father doesn't know their whereabouts.

I will be sure we get lots of digital shots of me standing at the edge of the canyon when Jay and I head to Arizona next month. We're taking vacation after I complete my current course, so from May 10th to 17th we'll be away.

The airfare we found to Phoenix seems so cheap! To travel one way is just $77 including taxes and fees. It'd certainly cost more than $154 each to drive there and back. Of course, we do have to go to Bellingham, WA in order to get the deal. I hope there are no surprises. We've never been on Allegiant Air before but service on every plane is non-existent nowadays, right? We now make it a habit to bring our own snacks as one is lucky to get a free pretzel to suck on from a flight attendant.

Labels: Desert Southwest, Eurotrip 2005, flying, Paris, travel planning

I grew up in a working-class home but we had all we needed and much more. It was back in the days when one income was enough and my mother was a stay-at-home mom. Wasn't the term, housewife? It's a little sad that's a choice no longer possible for most families today.

The inspiration for today's entry occurred when we were flying back from California earlier in the month. The Alaska Air plane was packed with every seat occupied. Jay and I sat across the isle as the two seats closer to the 737's windows were filled to each side of us. A mom and dad sat next to Jay. I sat near the kids who obviously wanted to sit near the windows (and away from their folks). There was a boy who I'd estimate being about 13 and his sister was younger by a year or two. The family was obviously returning from a trip that included Disneyland as they were wearing the clothes and carrying the swag.

I also saw Mickey, the rather scary walk-around one, on the screens of both their digital cameras. These youngsters were gadgeted up with devices galore. As well as the means to take photos, they also each had iPods. The boy was playing with a PSP and the girl some other sort of specific electronic game. I'm sure all these toys plug into their own computers at home. There's certainly a whole lot more than simply buying clothes and paying the dental bills for these parents.

I have been following Sony Playstation 3 news on the Internet. I'm trying to figure out when the time is right to buy into the product lineup. Apparently, there is no new, upgraded version due out in the next few months. It was announced today that the 80 GB model bundle will seemingly be replaced with a different game and replacement controllers but the price will remain at $499. I've seen that the average prices for new games for the device are in the neighbourhood of $50 to $60. It seems like providing what's necessary for children in this day and age must break the bank.

It must cost a lot to raise kids. When I was small in the 60's, there were far fewer products to own. No wonder why moms have to work nowadays!

Labels: flying, opinions, PS3, technology

It was a rather leisurely day back from Long Beach, CA. We walked off the cruise ship before 9:00 am and were home by 5:00 pm. So, we were on boat, bus, LRT, plane, bus, and SkyTrain. It was necessary to go uptown to buy vegetables just to get pickup truck on the list too.

You can expect me to upload photos and comments from the week during the upcoming one. One surprise is my usual afternoon classes were switched to the mornings. So, I will be up to see the sun rise tomorrow.

Labels: cruise, flying, Mexican cruise

This afternoon we're off again, this time to Central Europe. I can't think of a better entry than the addition of a cover of an in-flight magazine. After cleaning the closet, I have a box of old paperwork to throw away. I wanted to scan a thing or two before tossing some of it into the recycling. A bit of it has come quite a ways to be here and deserves a little respect before becoming garbage. Although I try to avoid my pack-rat tendencies, too many items stay with me much longer than necessary.

The scan below is a case in point. It shows the cover of the March/April 1991 cover of Serendib. That was the magazine back when Sri Lankan Airlines was called Air Lanka. It is a bit interesting to see how air travel has changed during the last sixteen and a half years.

First, the inside cover relays lots of important information after the Ayubowan. The page tells where the washrooms were in the Tristar aircraft. I also says how smoking was prohibited when the "No Smoking" sign was on. It warns that passengers weren't allowed to operate portable radios or television sets; however, thankfully, calculators and heart pacemakers were permissible. On the other end of the articles, Rocky V, Lethal Weapon II, and Gene Wilder in Funny about Love were among the inflight movies mentioned. (It depended on the whether inbound or outbound as everybody on the flight watched the same one which was projected onto hide-away screens.)

No wonder why I keep such things! After a while, there's fascination in anything.

Labels: flying, world

There's a lot of chance in having this photo here today.

Firstly, I noticed that my scanner wasn't working and then it dawned on me I'd not successfully used it since upgrading to Vista. I checked the Canon site and, sure enough, there were new drivers available. After installing, I ran to the photo suitcase. I pulled out a drugstore envelope that had photos from our early years in Canada. As I got a digital camera in 2002, there are six years captured on film. Of course, we took fewer photos in those days. A snap is generally one or both of us standing in front of something while on vacation. I happened across this one taken in front of Montreal's 1976 Summer Olympics Stadium. This was our first visit east in November, 1998. We were gone for a week and visited Quebec City and Ottawa too. We love Montreal and would probably visit more frequently if it were cheaper.

Nine or ten years ago it was possible to find cheaper domestic fares in Canada. I think we flew on a now-defunct, charter airline called Canada 3000. This country has a small aviation market so I do look positively to more liberal open sky policies. If an airline can make market sense out of stopping across the border and then continuing back to a city north of the 49th parallel, then they should be encouraged. Let me give you a quick example why.

Seconds ago, I logged onto Expedia.ca and did a test. I chose to hypothetically leave Vancouver on August 25 and return on September 1. Undoubtedly these are peak times but I simply wanted a comparison. I chose the cheapest return fares offered for the following two itineraries. Both include all taxes and are priced in Canadian dollars.

Vancouver --> Montreal ($903)

Seattle --> New York City ($489)

A little more competition couldn't hurt the consumer, could it?

Labels: Canada, flying, opinions, places

We left Vermont and Santa Monica at 2:00 pm to head to LAX. It took 1.5 hours to get to the airport but only a bit more than 2.5 to fly up the coast. We didn't get in the apartment in New Westminster until 10:15 pm.

Labels: flying, Los Angeles

Ah ... there's no bed like home's.

Flying back was nothing out of the ordinary. United managed to screw up bags in Chicago by changing gates at the last minute, and we spent an extra hour in the plane as a result of it. That meant we got into Vancouver after public transit had ended. We took an airport taxi to New Westminster to the tune of $40. We didn't get to the apartment until 1:15 am.

The weather at 10C seems warm. (Indeed it is 20C warmer than we experienced for a week.) Fish and hamster are fine. I had checked the fish regularly from here while in New Hampshire.

Lots of catch up on with the computer, food, housecleaning, and getting ready for a brand-new batch of students tomorrow.


The rental car we turned in at the aiport didn't look quite
as good as when we rented it due to running on New Hampshire
roads in the winter.

Labels: flying, New Hampshire

EFFICIENT USE OF TIME
It seems as if I just got stated with my present students. This Thursday, however, we will have the midterm exam. Then, on February 9th, we'll complete the final. I've said it before, I'm sure, but I'm very impressed with the students in our program. They can make a vast improvement in their writing skills in a mere 84 hours. Maybe all this progress shouldn't be so hard to believe. After all, I am their teacher!

SAME FLIGHTS, DIFFERENT WEBSITE
The free week which follows means Jay and I will have just enough time to scoot to New Hampshire. My father's stroke was three weeks ago and I am anxious to see how he's doing in person. Today, he is being moved to Manchester into a rehabilitation program. I've already bought air tickets on www.expedia.com. Interestingly, the prices, after taking the exchange rates into consideration, were about CA $90 more on the Canadian site for the same flights. I'd never run into this before, but I was able to quickly complete my transaction on the U.S. site.

The only online picture I have of Manchester NH, is an old, self-developed B&W image that accompanied a college report on New England textile mills in the 1880's. It shows company row housing.

AIRPORT ALPHABET SOUP
In order to give me time to correct the final exams and turn in the official marks, we will leave Vancouver (YVR) in the evening on Saturday, February 10th. The cheapest flights mean we get to see the airports in Seattle (SEA) and Washington, DC (IAD) before touching down at the regional airport in Manchester (MHT). A mere six nights later, we'll be heading back here but with just one stopover in Chicago (ORD).

Labels: flying, New Hampshire, travel planning

Yes! We came back through YVR!

Although CX 888 left Hong Kong at 3:00 pm, we were walking through the airport here at 11:20 am. It's a bit like magic but we were just making up for the lost day back at the beginning of September.



It's nice to be home. I'm exhausted. I got zero sleep on the twelve hours of the flight last night. My body's also still on HK time.

Oh, surely my blog will start to show some of the dozens of text files that are sitting on the Gateway notebook. I will backfill the missing data later in the week. It'll be worth it to look about but right now I can only yawn.

Labels: flying

Due to a cramped airplane seat and the International Date Line, I didn’t really have a day today. We got on the airplane yesterday in Vancouver and off at 3:10 pm in Hong Kong. The actual flight time was something over thirteen hours. It was a leisurely connection, so we had three hours to walk around the airport. The connecting flight went to Bangkok first. There was a whole group of well-behaved, Chinese youth on that three-hour sector. They were oodles easier than the previous screaming toddler on the previous flight.

We stayed in the plane, on the ground. The cleaning staff between flights is very efficient. Usually their work goes unseen by passengers.

The final flight was only two hours in the air. Few passengers got on in Bangkok, meaning that our section of the plane was about 5% full. Jay and I each moved to window seats. I was able to stretch out a bit.

Cathay Pacific had good food, I have to admit. And lots. Of course, I only have North American domestics as recent comparisons. When we went from Seattle to San Diego in the spring, I got a packet of pretzels and a half glass of 7-Up. Yet on these sectors, the airline offered good meals. When leaving Vancouver, the first meal ended with a nice Saskatoon-berry mousse. Everything went smoothly aboard. Of course, it should as I estimate that this was the most expensive ticket I have ever paid for in my life. I've done quite a bit of flying over the years.

A bit before the day ended, we finally landed. The airport expansion is very nice with beautiful white tiles and a long, long section of new gates. One pops right out of immigration into duty free. We each got two bottles of whiskey as gifts. The bags arrived quickly and we just walked through the green line declaring nothing. I'm sure that as visitors we were probably not supposed to have our bags full of gifts. How many tourists bring along a new DVD player?

Out into the main hall and to the banks. I went to Bank of Ceylon. Jay cashed some old Euro traveller's cheques from last year. Then, we went to the airport taxi service. Minuwangoda is only about twenty minutes away. I am sure that when our driver received his ticket, he must have been a bit disappointed. Some arrivals want to take a more costly, long-distance trip.

Labels: flying, Sri Lanka 2006

I go and meet someone at a bank once a year. It only happens then because one of my banks requires face-to-face interaction in order that I coax the best GIC rate. Other than that brief encounter I do everything online.

Likewise, the majority of my recent flights have been with e-tickets. That's how people zip around North America. Yet, I did pick up this yesterday:

THE TICKET.

Labels: flying, money

In the picture below is a mother seagull and one of her chicks.



We watch a gull family as an annual summer event. It's easy to view the roof of the Met Hotel from the balcony. Yearly, parents raise young ones there. We see the entire process from readying the nest area, to keeping the eggs safe, through flying lessons. We watch 'em leave one by one until they're all out on their own.

It's a process that's plays out with regularity. There are three chicks this year. They have grown a great deal in the last week.

Labels: balcony, flying

My switch over to a new hosting company is complete. On my part, this change will make completing blog entries a bit easier. Blogger.com easily connects to the new server whereas before I had to publish to a temporary domain and FTP to the proper place. What will this mean to my readers? Nothing, really.



I am pleased to have more storage too. I won't shy away from making sure that every entry has an image of some sort. I have already been doing this for a while, actually. Today, I searched my collection for a colourful photo to upload. The image above was taken at the annual Kite Festival in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This was in September of 2004.

VIEW BLOGGED TRIP TEXT & PICS:
Week: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09.

Maybe it's time to return to Sri Lanka, for a month or so, this fall. Although quite far, it makes for an excellent trip.

Labels: flying, Sri Lanka 2004, travel planning

It's nearing the end of October but more than pumpkins are ready. I was flipping through channels and stopped at the Scream TV. Boy, are they happy this time of year!

There was classic Twilight Zone on. I immediately recognized the young John Lithgow. He's the passenger on an airplane when he notices out the rain-soaked window a gremlin is on the wing ripping pieces off the engine. I though I could remember this episode from my youth. After a little searching on the Internet, I discovered it was a 1983 re-make. Originally in 1962, William Shatner played the starring role in the Twilight Zone's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". Shatner is another one of those in the Hollywood set who originally hailed from Canada.

There's a nice write up at Wikipedia on the history of the concept of Gremlins being responsible for sabotaging aircraft.

Labels: flying, stars, television

Although we left YVR (Vancouver) at the scheduled time last Monday, the distance and dateline means that this is the first entry. We had no Tuesday. Last night (local time) we arrived in Singapore. The airline efficiently and effectively shuttled us to a free room for the night. At around 9:00 am we were up and walked around Arab Street first as The Golden Landmark is right there. We also walked over to Little India and had a lunch in a Sri Lankan restaurant. We had to get to shuttle back to the airport at approximately 7:00 pm to get on our flight. This was a very nice way of ensuring we'll not arrive in Colombo totally exhausted. The flight will get in after midnight but at least it's only 3.5 hours from here!

Labels: flying, Singapore, world

In all our years of flying, I don't think we've ever booked more than a month in advance. Yet today, we pulled out some plastic for air tickets to Sri Lanka in the autumn. The departure date is not until August 30th. It's possible to fly either direction -- through the Middle East -- or Asia to get to Colombo. As it's so far, we figure on staying for a couple of months. We're taking Singapore Airlines and we'll do a stopover on our return at the end of October.

Labels: flying, travel planning

There was a time when I used an orange-hued, monochrome monitor. In those days, an unmoving image, if left on for many hours, would burn the tube's phosphors. To prevent this, screensavers were born.

Today, there is absolutely no reason for a screensaver on my LCD. I haven't really collected that type of program since the days of Windows 3.0 and Berkley System's Afterdark with Flying Toasters.



Yet I just downloaded this! I'd been checking to see if my Air Canada airmiles would be accepted on Singapore Airlines. They are, in fact, both Star Alliance Partner members. The screenshot above is a screen saver which tracks the one-thousand partner flights that are in the air at any moment. It shows the earth and parts currently in light and in darkness. Little swarms of aircraft flow across the globe. I'll probably never actually keep it running, but it is interesting.

Labels: flying, software

Uneventful trip on Alaska Air. (I guess plane travel SHOULD be uneventful.) After fighting with the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) machine, we managed to buy tickets directly to downtown. How convenient! We walked right to the hotel which was just a few blocks from Union Square. We even managed to see quite a bit of the city in the afternoon.

Labels: flying