Author: Gil

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Greetings from Louisiana

Made it into the New Orleans airport around noon today, about an hour late. Because the weather was so bad in NJ, we were stuck waiting for a connecting flight from Boston that had a bunch of our passengers. When they boarded, I saw that they were all FEMA, military, and DHS personnel, so I kinda figured it made sense to hold up the flight for them.

Much to the official VM fiancee’s chagrin, I got another first-class upgrade. I promised to let her sit up front next time they give me one of those. Unless it’s on a long flight or something.

Driving through the outskirts of the city on the way to her parents’ house, I was dumbstruck by the amount of wreckage and debris everywhere. More to come…

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“The Ironies Never Stop Abounding” Dept.

The official VM fiancee & I are supposed to go to New Orleans tomorrow. The weather forecast down there is 86 degrees and sunny every day of our trip. Unfortunately, ridiculous quantities of rain have led to flooding here in NJ/NY, and flights are delayed all over the place.

I’m glad I keep my sense of humor about this stuff.

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Oh, it’s yourSQL all of a sudden?

Sorry to write so intermittently this week. It’s not a sign of depression or that I’ve run out of things to ramble about: I promise!

I’ve just been spending the last few days learning (teaching myself) some programming stuff, so I can do a little more with this blog. You’ll have a pretty clear idea of when VM 2.0 launches, insofar as it’s got a pretty cool look. (I can’t guarantee that my posts will be any more interesting, but hey: you’ve made it this far.) It’s taken some long evenings of trying to figure out SQL and CSS, as well as reinventing some wheels with Photoshop, but I think it’ll have a great new look-and-feel.

In other news: Congrats to my mom for coming over to the dark side! My brother helped her buy a Mac Mini last night. It’s a long way from when she had to deal with her first office word-processor, back in 1989 or so.

Also, the official VM fiancee & I discovered Firefly this weekend. Official VM buddy Tony gave me the complete series DVDs for my birthday last January, but we didn’t get around to watching them till last weekend. We saw the first 3 episodes (out of 15), and were thrilled. Amy’s a big fan of Joss Whedon’s shows (Buffy, Angel), and I’ll always try to give SF a shot. The characters were a hoot, the plot holes weren’t too immense, and the libertarian slant of the crew was pretty enjoyable. Plus, the prostitute character was hot.

We’ll get around to the wrap-up movie later, I guess. Maybe when it comes out on DVD. . .

Also, we’re getting ready to head down to New Orleans this weekend. We’ll be staying with her parents, who live about 25 miles from the city, but we’ll be making a trip or two into New Orleans during our stay. I promise to take plenty of pix and try to give you guys a good description of the place.

I heard Michael Lewis’ piece in the NYTimes magazine this Sunday was great, but I haven’t had time to read it yet.

And I’m reading Number9Dream by David Mitchell right now. Picked it up a week ago, and didn’t even think about the fact that John Lennnon’s birthday was coming up. Freaky to think that he was born 65 years ago, but that calendar sure does wreak havoc.

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Sports Fans

Big rain here in northern NJ tonight, and the official VM fiancee and I found that our street was blacked out by the time we got home tonight. Fortunately, my dad and brother were willing to call my cell periodically to let me know that the Red Sox were just about to be swept by the Chicago White Sox.

We did some grilling on the back patio, in the rain and dark, and had a nice candlelight dinner of steaks & gin (Julia Child’s favorite meal, Amy sez). Power was restored around 9pm, so we were able to page through some of that Calvin & Hobbes collection while watching the Yankees make their comeback.

Most importantly, the Red Sox got swept!

I’ll take some glee in that, and some solace after last year’s humiliating Yankee loss to the Sox. Meanwhile, I’ll share a question that occurred to me earlier this week.

I’m a sports fan. Those of you who’ve read this blog a while know that. And you likely know that my favorite pro sport is basketball. This is partly (or mainly) because I played it for a bunch of years. I can watch just about any two teams play, at any time of year, and find something interesting to focus on.

For the longest time, I’ve said that my sports hierarchy is basketball, baseball and football. Now, though, I’m starting to rethink that.

See, the thing is, I’m a big Yankees fan. But I’m not sure I’m a big baseball fan. If the Yankees are out west, and there are two other teams playing on ESPN on the east coast, I likely won’t tune in to watch that primetime game (and I won’t stay up to watch the Yankees’ west coast game).

On the other hand, even though my fandom of the football Giants is nowhere as large as my support for the Yankees, I can watch just about any two NFL teams play on a Sunday. If the Giants game is boring (or even if it’s in commercial), I’ll jump over to another game on the NFL season pass.

So now I’m starting to think that I’m more of a Yankee fan than a baseball fan, and that I’m more of a football fan than a baseball fan.

Does anyone even think about this crap, or do I have way too much free time on my hands?