One more cup of coffee

Denver

I'm writing this from Denver, where I just arrived with Dany, a co-worker of mine. Tomorrow we're in a business meeting with another company, and then we fly back and get home in time for dinner.

This was the first time I had been at the San Jose airport since the Transportation Security Administration had completely taken over airport screening duties. Where the screeners used to be almost entirely Filipino, they are all now very white. It's an interesting issue -- much has been written about the unfairness of kicking all the former employees out of jobs that now require US citizenship. The problem is that the former employees mostly sucked. I'm sure there were some that were good, but the fact is that I almost always got through security at San Jose with distressing ease. I don't think it necessarily makes sense that workers have to be US citizens -- I've known many, many smart immigrants, and even more stupid Americans -- but I do think it makes sense to change the previous staff.

The flight was virtually deserted. We flew on a Boeing 757 that had maybe ten rows worth of people. So we moved up to the deserted exit row. It is incredible the difference that makes in leg room.

Over the weekend, while Meredith was at her 23 hour concert, I bought a new pair of $50 noise-canceling headphones from Panasonic. Mostly I bought them because the cheapo headphones I was using to play Counter-Strike were starting to really annoy me, but I spent the extra money to get the noise-canceling model mostly out of curiosity about how well it would work. And, they work pretty well. It's not like it gets rid of the noise from the jet engines, but it does substantially cut back on it. It made listening to music far, far more pleasant. I'm sure that Bose's $300 model works much better, but I couldn't really justify $300 on headphones.

I'm staying at a Marriot Residence Inn, on "The Garden Level". It's called that because "Subterranean Level" didn't sound appealing. Right outside my window is the retaining wall. Lovely view. Very nice concrete.

So, all this so I can go to a two hour meeting. It sounds a little insane, really. But here I am.

Home soon...

Posted by Mike at October 7, 2002 11:16 PM