Mountain View

On my return flight from Orlando, we came closer to Mt. Rainier than I can recall in a lot of flying. The pilot called the sight to our attention, but he didn't need to; it was amazing and everyone was looking and taking pictures. The mountain was right there. I was on the correct side of the plane for optimum view.

I appreciated the captain's initial description of Washington's signature peak as Mt. Tahoma (the natives' name). He also noted that GPS technology recently determined a more precise measurement of its majestic height: Rainier is 14,411 feet.

My shot does not do this justice, but here it is anyway.

Birthday Festivities, Celtic Style

This quick trip to Florida was to help my sister-in-law, Lynnette, celebrate her 40th birthday. She appreciated our joining her, but she didn't really need much assistance -- this was a thoroughly planned and very successful event with a ton of friends and family members.

Lynnette is very proud of her Irish heritage and so the party was at her favorite Irish pub (or one of them . . . ) in Winter Park. Hagan O'Reilly's reserved the outside deck for the birthday festivities. Activities included hoisting a few, some singing, eating, a juggling performance, music by Lynnette's favorite band (more on that later) and more drinking.

The performers brought Lynnette on stage several times. I shot this video of her between the jugglers (I can't edit it on this system, so it's a bit choppy; I'll fix it later). She was also called up to join the band for one number -- a tune that is actually not a favorite, but it was all in good-natured teasing.

The band, Off Kilter, performs regularly at Epcot and Lynnette catches their shows regularly as well as their performances in other events. They can do some serious rockin' even with bagpipes. Their repertoire includes some decidedly nontraditional takes on such traditional tunes as "Danny Boy" and this set included music by Steppenwolf. Now, that's flexibility.

Greetings from 36,000 Feet

I just couldn't resist blogging from the flight simply because I can. I still find it amusing that, after years of warning us to turn off our "electronic devices" to avoid interfering with navigation, many flights now have Wi-Fi. And I used to worry about whether my auto-connection to any nearby wireless LAN was turned off while flying.

In fact, apparently one in three U.S. flights now offers Wi-Fi. I've IM'd with writers on flights, querying them as I posted their stories. Sure beats waiting for hours for them to land and find a pay phone (how quaint!). However, I haven't had many opportunities to check e-mail or post in flight myself.


Alaska alerts travelers to the availability of GoGo Wi-Fi with a giant Wi-Fi symbol at the entrance to the plane. Access is currently free, as part of a promotion for the Alaska Air credit card (you get an ad first).

This image shows where we are (or at least where Alaska Airlines says we are). It amuses me that I can log on from the air and check the flight-tracker for the plane I'm on.

Also, my weather bug tells me it is 78 degrees in our destination, Orlando, right now -- which is one degree warmer than the forecast high for Bellingham in the next few days.

A beautiful almost-full moon was visible upon takeoff.

That's it from the flight deck.

Swimming Turtles

These turtles were happily swimming in the Gulf of Mexico in Florida in December 2008.

Sunset in Bellingham

Yesterday's smattering of summer rain (well, OK, it was more than a smattering for awhile) brought a stunning double rainbow and then the clouds cleared enough to allow one of those patented fabulous Bellingham sunsets.

A WWU alumnus friend who is a Maui native says Bellingham has better sunsets than Maui, and that's saying something.

These are the shots I have handy. More later.

On Adapting

I have a new laptop! I've needed one for a couple years, even stretching a bit the usual turnover that corporations typically assume (technology gets outdated about every other year, but realistically one can keep using the same system for at least another year). I'd sunk some serious cash into my IBM ThinkPad X40, with extra battery, docking station and other extras, so I was reluctant to make the investment.

The new system is another ThinkPad: an x100e, which my friends at PC World dub a "netbook" but it has sufficient space to store local applications and data, so I won't be relying on the cloud in the way that I think one does with a netbook. Here's the PCW review but I didn't get the red model (kind of wish I had, in retrospect!). Specs for the geeks: 1.6GHz AMD Athlon; Windows 7, 4GB of RAM and 160GB hard drive, integrated Wi-Fi. I know, it's not a powerhouse and certainly not a gaming system, but it weighs three pounds and it's fast. PCW's only gripe was "anemic" battery life of about five hours, but that suits me fine in my current usage habits; it's sufficient for a cross-continental flight and I bought an extra battery anyway. The batteries for the X40 being replaced have aged to the point that they last little more than an hour, so five hours is awesome.

So I am in that strange transition period when I need to set up apps and subdirectories and settings on the new system, transfer all the necessary data and generally get used to the new system. The keyboard is a little different (still nice, a hallmark of ThinkPads) and so I am occasionally reaching for the wrong key; and the screen is great. It's much faster, which is the big change, and it has a much larger hard drive, which I needed. So I'm still working on some projects on my old laptop while using the new one as much as possible.

Yes, I back up my data files regularly (especially after a nasty episode last summer when the X40 suffered a software injury necessitating a reinstall; I did not lose data but I became even more diligent about backups, particularly any school-related files). But I'm also taking this opportunity to "reorganize" a bit, such as finally sorting out the content of that folder labeled "file me."

I ran into a few of the usual glitches finding and configuring software, but the hassles have been minimal and several can be chalked up to trying to do something when I am too tired.

Generally, though, everything went great, and I am wondering why I didn't order this new laptop sooner.

Historical Fact & Fiction

As a journalist, I may be boringly fact-oriented. "Never spoil a good story with too much truth" seems to me best left to tales around the campfire.

So I grimace when I get e-mail from a few well-meaning but rather careless friends who enjoy passing along some gem of unsubstantiated origin they found on some random website or (more likely) received from another person who was more interested in an amusing tale than the truth.

So on the eve of the U.S. Independence Day, a friend forwarded a well-meaning but less-than-authentic tale of the fate of the signers of the Declaration of Independence; perhaps you've seen it? It tells of the dire fates that befell these men who dared to defy the King of England by signing the document.

One could research each of these, name by name, to fact-check. I've done so for some of them. However, I also have come to appreciate Snopes, which fact-checks urban legends like these. The link -- and the likelier story, which is no less interesting -- appears below.

One aside: Sometimes I'd succumb to the temptation to reply to such messages and gently tell my friends, "You know, this isn't exactly correct . . . here's some information on that topic." I quit after one replied that he knew it probably wasn't true, but he really likes the story, so he was going to spread it anyway.

So here's the Snopes reply to "The Price They Paid" -- the story of the fates of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

The only part I'll reproduce here is the closing, which really addresses the core issue of sacrifice and patriotism:

What should we take from all of this? The signers of the Declaration of Independence did take a huge risk in daring to put their names on a document that repudiated their government, and they had every reason to believe at the time that they might well be hanged for having done so. that was a courageous act we should indeed remember and honor on the Fourth of July amidst our "beer, picnics, and baseball games." But we should also not lose sight of the fact that many men (and women) other than the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence -- some famous and most not -- risked and sacrificed much (including their lives) to support the revolutionary cause. The hardships and losses endured by many Americans during the struggle for independence were not visited upon the signers alone, nor were they any less ruinous for having befallen people whose names are not immortalized on a piece of parchment. (credit: Barbara and David Mikkelson, Urban Legends Reference Pages)

Happy Independence Day!