Flying, an activity I used to enjoy, is becoming miserable. The interminable lines, the ridiculous security, the half assed cost cutting measures really add up to a degraded expirence. I flew Southwest for the first time in a while, as opposed to making the trek down to New York to fly Jetblue. It cost a bit more (~$80), but the hassle of getting to the airport was significantly reduced.

A Few Thoughts

I am not impressed with the new heightened security. I was wandering around in my stocking feet, demostrating that yes my laptop turned on, and no I didn’t have a bomb in my coffee cup, and well on my way to inflitrating the American skies before anyone noticed that when I checked in Southwest gave me the wrong ticket, a ticket for one “John Kenner”, easy to see how that might be confused with the “Kellan Elliott-McCrea”. (then they tried to convince me I didn’t have a reservation because Sabre can’t deal with hyphens in names) I hate the open seating policy. Its a smug piece of social engineering to get people to show up early, and board the place quickly, but it brings out the worst in people. Feeding frenzy/mob at the boarding gate is ugly.

After the ongoing cold gray in Providence, and a brief exposure to the blistering 110 degree heat in Phoenix (you couldn’t pay me to live there) it is wonderful to be in Santa Cruz where the weather is perfect.

Being in the house of Mac, I’m going to try to steal away some time to finish a redesign of this site I’ve been playing with, something slightly less generic, don’t expect wonders, but at least it won’t look quite so generic. (though it will probably damage my search ratings, not using MT’s well optimized layout, ah well)