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Carbonboy's Blog has moved to our homepage: www.carbonboy.com Please bookmark the new page when you arrive. December 31, 2008 2008 - Good Riddance
Well, thanks to Boeing's delays in getting the 787 off the ground, it was a record year for me in terms of income - outrageously overpaid! But my net worth plummeted in 2008, as it did for most all of us. I don't know - I'm sick to death of working and not really getting anywhere. Perhaps the key is not to work anymore. The rich don't work after all. So I have a New Plan for 2009, although I won't be able to implement it fully until my contract with Boeing ends this summer. I lost an old love at the start of the year, but may have a new one at the start of the new year. That keeps me going! December 28, 2008 Holiday Advisory II It was a mad rush week over Christmas and I am not going to do it anymore - just visit during non-holiday time when the weather is civil. Four trips to the airport in eight days is too much. I left Sheboygan in a dense fog on December 27 and the rain just got worse. Go figure, as a few days ago it was 7 degrees F with three feet of snow! Finally crossing into Illinois, the fog and rain disappear and I got to O'Hara with time to spare. This time I know I have my first class seat to Baltimore. Seated and ready for departure, the captain announces there may be delays due to thunderstorms, and incoming flights have priority (thunderstorms in December?). There are 14+ planes ahead of us! Luck is with us and we depart only one hour late. I get to BWI and make the two hour drive to Piney Point with a stop at Woodburn's to pick up a real big live lobster and fresh veggies to be later grilled on my back porch. I get home, turn on the heat and soak in my Jacuzzi tub. My pet lobster fairs less well, as I grill him at a bit higher temperature. All is well for a time. The next morning I pack, rush to Dulles and get stuck in an aisle seat in coach that does not recline (exit row 9) sitting next to a couple from Camarillo returning from a visit to kids and grandkids in Leonardtown (a hop away from Piney Point). They were nice enough, but both picked up colds from the grandkids. Worse trip to LA ever. So I finally get to LAX, wait an hour for my bag, get to National Car Rental and there are only a half dozens "premium" cars to pick from. I get some sort of Buick and drive 10 minute to the newly renovated Residence Inn in El Segundo. There is nothing around the hotel but aerospace firms, but I get a fourth floor corner suite with new everything. It is nice. I sleep, wake up, and start a 12-hour work day until Wednesday. Too bad it was so warm in Piney Point that I forgot to bring a jacket. Oh well, I'll pick one up on sale somewhere. Four weeks here and I will recover from the holidays without too much trouble. December 24, 2008 Holiday Advisory
Baby it's cold outside! Here's Carbonboy advise for holiday travel: If you are planning to travel in the Northwest, don't; if you are planning to travel in the Northeast, don't; and if you are planning to travel in the Midwest, don't. But what do I know. I got the last flight out of BWI to Chicago yesterday and had a miserable drive to Wisconsin. Luckily, I rented a Volvo S60 which handled impeccably well.
December 14, 2008 Hollywood Boulevard - Little has Changed Except the Shopping
View from the massive somewhat new Hollywood & Highland Entertainment Complex of the very old El Capitan After another day of hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains I took a drive through Hollywood Boulevard and easily found free parking on Grower Street east of the heart of Hollywood about where things go from seedy to seedier. Little has changed, except that many of the stars on that walk of fame are cracking and there is a pocket of newness in the Hollywood & Highland Complex connected to the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. That is all a hop away from the famous Chinese Theater and pretty much anything else worth seeing if you are a tourist. It's off-season and it is also fun to visit here, so I guess I'll come back again and try and get some real photos (a new goal of mine).
Santa Monica Boulevard entering Century City - too late to make it to the Pier My plans did not call for a stop in Hollywood today but I'm glad I did as when I go back I will have my bearings back after two decades away. I really had planned to spend the sunset on or near the Santa Monica Pier, and boy did I screw that up. This was one of the most awesome California sunsets that I ever saw, and I was miles from the beach. Oh well. Tomorrow I return to that thing we call work. December 13, 2008 Vincent Park - Cold War Payoff
The old cold war radar platform now makes for a great observation tower with views of the valley and basin My second free weekend in LA brought me back to Mulholland Drive, but this time instead of going East from the 405 Freeway, I went West. Amazing, as I thought one could take Mulholland all the way to Topanga Canyon, but it dead-ends at Vincent Park (funny the map show it going through). Vincent Park is another hiking and biking park with awesome views of the San Fernando Valley, Encino Reservoir and hazy glimpses of the LA Basin. It used to be a radar and computer station of the NIKE Missiles which were suppose to protect LA against incoming Soviet bombers. The concept became obsolete when intercontinental missiles came about, so they made this place into a park preserving the remnants of the radar site for those to ponder the absurdity of the cold war. It worked for me!
Encino Reservoir and the hazy San Fernando Valley from a desolate Vincent Park in the Santa Monica Mountains This hike to Vincent Park was less strenuous than last week's through Runyon Canyon, but it was yet another eye-opener as to how desolate some areas of LA are given there are twenty plus million people here. I love these areas about as much as I love those populated with actual people. December 7, 2008 Runyon Canyon Park - the Place for Hollywood Hard Bodies and Dog Owners
Challenging trails, rugged terrain, rattlesnakes (so warned) and the most beautiful girls and dogs one could imagine! Runyon Canyon Park is accessible from both Mulholland Drive and Hollywood below and offers a great hike if you can avoid all the dog crap on the trails. It is a dog and dog lovers haven (no pooper scoopers required). It must be the locals secret park as everyone on the trails seem like they belong in Hollywood and look like they are auditioning for the next blockbuster movie. It also offer some of the greatest views of Hollywood and downtown LA (on a clear day anyway) that one can have without buying a property in the Hollywood Hills. It's a great hike and I only managed about half of the trails.
The hard life in the primitive Hollywood Hills To the east of the park one can view how the locals live in the Hollywood Hills. It is a hard life, but someone must do it. It is amazing, however, how many for sale signs can be seen on Mulholland Drive between the San Diego and Hollywood Freeways. But, I guess if you have to ask what the selling price of these homes are, you can't afford them! Oh well, nice that LA kept a few parks for those of us that cannot! December 6, 2008 Virgin America - the Best First Class Flying Experience in the US, Period
Enter the 1st Class Cabin with soothing lights and music Flying domestically these days sucks, even in first class. The US Carriers (United, Delta, American el al) first class cabins are antiquated, and the services have been minimized to the point where the only thing worse is flying coach. My client only pays for a coach seat for domestic travel, but I have enough air miles that I can expect to get bumped up for free or for turning in some of those miles. I do that without thinking, as air travel has become so miserable that a coach seat is unbearable for all but the shortest of flights. No I'm not a snob, I just travel too much. So when I booked my last airfare for DC to LA on TRIPS (the internal travel software that I am required to use), I was amazed that the cheapest direct flight was on Virgin America (Richard Branson's relatively new startup). I booked it, knowing if I wanted to fly first class I'd have to pay an outrageous fee to guarantee a seat or hope to get a $250 upgrade the day of the flight. Well the latter worked and the 250 bucks came out of my pocket. Was it worth it? You betcha! First, everyone from the ticket counter to the steward (all male crew) treated every flyer as a real customer. The captain even came out in the cabin and introduced himself to all (before takeoff), and the guy loading the bags into the aircraft came in the cabin and wished us a good flight! There are only eight first class seats and only four were taken - so each of us had a double seat! The aircraft was a spanking new A320 (yes I work for the competition, but the A320 is a good aircraft). The lighting and music were surreal. The safely video adds great touches of humor throughout (like, we know everyone knows how to fasten a seatbelt, but we gotta tell you anyway). The white leather seats are the best in their class for domestic travel - better than United's international business class seats (worst in their class). Even the poor folks in coach had on-demand video and the music section included J-Pop, Korean Pop and both Cantonese and Mandarin Pop (I listened to a little of each). The California red wine was better than anything Air France has in their first class cabin. A three-plate antipasti was better than eating in Roma (well almost) and the entree was like eating actual real food. The flight left Dulles at 4:30 PM, so for this time of year the sunset lasted about twice as long as being on the ground, as we were heading into it, but could not overtake it. I even napped for an hour or so before waking to us in the flight path into the LA basin. The luggage even came just when I arrived at the baggage claim! Within ten minutes I pick out my vehicle (a new Ford Edge) and was on my way to my hotel another ten minutes away. I had a little sushi delivered to the room and after a hot sake I crawled into bed, checked email and slept a solid eight hours. Thus, Virgin America is my new bi-coastal airline, and I can't wait for my return flight in the 20th. Now if only the drudgery of getting to the airport and through security could be remedied! December 1, 2008 Odd Alignment of the Moon and Our Brightest Planets
I took a drive into town to pick up some food as I have the luxury of remaining here until this weekend. The sun had fully set by the time I returned heading South, and I could not help to notice three bright objects in in the sky at an oddly close proximity to each other. As soon as I got home I pulled out the tripod and D300 and started shooting from the front porch. All I had was the Nikon 18-200mm VR lens, when I remembered that I had an old 300mm mirror lens packed away from my film shooting days. Well I couldn't get a clean imagine with that old telephoto so I put the newer zoom back on. I had to compensate -5.0 to get a shot that rendered a clean image of the moon. But funny, in the overexposed shots the full circle of the moon could be seen, craters and all, but the brightness of the crescent blew everything into a blur. Hmmm, I guess I need to shoot the moon and stars more often. ~~~ Pocket Camera - My New Canon
Well, my early adaptor days are long gone since I bought the first high megapixel Canon SD900 way back in 2006. It was a revolutionary camera, but not a great camera, but for its size (it fit in my pocket) it was phenomenal. When I was living in the deep South, every real man had a pocket knife and I was given one as well (which I still cherish). But a real man also needs a pocket camera, thus I paid a premium for the DS900.
But it did not have image
stabilization, like some of its lesser brethren in its day.
And a whopping 10 megapixel resolution was more about marketing hype
then anything else. The SD900 never made it to the hall of
fame for digital cameras. But it did have a titanium body, and
that was cool. Enter the SD990 IS! Black with a plastic body (cool and not cool), but with image stabilization and the new DIGIC 4 image processor, it truly blows away the first generation. I had to have it, and when Amazon reduced the price to a mere $314, I bought it. The price reduction only indicates that Canon has a newer, greater model soon available, but that is OK. My new pocket camera is quantum leaps ahead of the old SD900 - RIP. I don't do camera reviews, or reviews of any sort for that matter, but you will see many photos from my new pocket camera here in the future.
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