I am currently sitting in seat 12c listening to johnny Cash cut with punk rock.
My vessel sails over a patch of lake scattered wetlands north of Vancouver, unfortunately I cannot access this information first hand but instead must rely on a gps driven mapping program to inform me.
Why Do I Not Look Out A Window?
Simple: on an Airbus A330 the left side of row 12 has no windows. Bit of a downer.
According to the digital map We are passing “Norway House” home of an impressive sand spit.
What Is A Sand Spit?
A sand spit is a product of erosion and deposition, specifically it is caused by what is known as “Longshore Drift”.
Longshore Drift causes sand to be pulled along a beach. This works just fine until the beach gives way (i.e. the rock or other solid that the beach formed on are no longer there) then without a beach to bounce off the drift looses all of its strength and drop its load.
After some time the load forms more beach and the waves rebound off this making more deposited beach after that first stretch, this process continues until the sand source is cut off. (either by the complete erosion of the source or by human interaction in the form of building various barriers to stop the sand from leeching off “their” beach.
I just heard “Grace Kelly” by Mika, and I admit: I'm growing fond of it despite myself.
Now Johnny Cash is singing about his lover being the nearest thing to heaven... Boy oh boy do I miss my girl. Ten hours without the ability to send her some sort of short soppy message is killer.
Ah, that body of water is “Lake Winnipeg”, some more control over this GPS feed would be nice.
It is 11:02 Pacific Coast Time. 7:03pm at home.
That give me about 3 more hours in this accursed contraption.
Redhatt Bootstrap Linux! The in-flight entertainment computer just restarted. It is running RedHat Bootstrap Linux, I wonder if this is automatic or if someone is actually at a console somewhere...
It's taking quite a while to get running.
The stewardesses mentioned earlier that they had not been told how the system worked beforehand.
I wondering if this relates to wht is making the lites turn on and off randomly. Or the mysterious “Computer Problems” that delayed take off.
Interesting: It is again running its gps system for me to look at, but now it has a much more detaled feed, its telling me outside temperatures, wind speeds etc.
How odd.
So, this crate is Penguin Powered, how about that?
Do I Trust a Penguin Powered Plane?
Sure, why not? If you can't trust the nerdiest software around, who can you trust?
“Dreaming Dreams of driving a Zamboni, all over Saskatchewan” - Weird Al Yankovic.
I currently float due south of Saskatchewan. Which puts me probably in Canadian Airspace.
Here comes “Whole Wide World” by Wreckless Eric, a fairly soppy allegedly punk song. I wish this plane was aimed in the opposite direction.
Why Am I Crossing The Rockies When I Only Want To Cross The Irish Sea?
Beats me.
Ah, the child sitting across the aisle from me has woken to find that he is stil on that damned plane. You wouldn't be that excited by the prospect either.
I'm glad there is some punk on, because Mr. Cash would have a hard time drowning out this little fella.
Tell Me About The Airbus A330.
Well its a plane, It has two wings, it runs an in-flight entertainment system based on redhat linux.
It has all the standard trappings of a modern airliner. Big plastic everything. If it were to crash the emergency exit is one row in front of me, and manned by an elderly couple I don't trust.
But I'm just bitter because of the legroom I would have if I was sitting there.
Current status of Rory Glynn:
Tired : True.
Bored: True.
Lonely: True.
Sore: True.
Sleepy: True.
In Need Of A Visit To The Lavatory: True.
In Desperate Need Of A Visit to the Lavatory: False.
Full Of Piss And Vinegar: Always.
Breath Fresh: False
Dragon Breath: Possibly.
This trip marked a new high for me in painful long distance flying:
I ate the whole dinner except the yellow rubber and the cold pasta, twice.
Also I watched two films in their entirety.
Those films were:
The Cleaner
& Music and Lyrics
The Cleaner is a traditional “unlikely espionage” comedy movie. Much in the style of “The Man Who Knew Too Little”.
Music and Lyrics is a modern Hugh Grant movie where he plays his Four weddings and Gossford character, but with an inkling of backbone.
Both films made me feel lonesome for Seāna.
Okay, I think I'll go for that pee now.
-Rory
