Aug 23 2008
Thanks to everyone who remembered my milestone yesterday. My sushi guy informs me that there is “a lot of responsibility” in your 30’s… Looking forward to it!Oh, and thanks for all of those that remembered our anniversary, 2 years on August 20th!This week I’ll post more pictures and info from our trip to Australia and New Zealand. Been too busy getting back to work. Cheers!
Aug 21 2008
So, with our recent trip, it was my first chance to try new airlines… I usually stick to Continental so I miss out on all the fun new stuff. But with 8 flights in 1 month on 5 different carriers, I got to try all the latest toys!
The BEST: Emirates
Emirates had an awesome system for entertainment. It had a front view and downwards view camera, airshow, and something like 500 channels of entertainment. We only had a 3 hour short haul with them, but they also gave us a full meal (lamb!) and, I must say, the seats have more legroom than any other economy I’ve tried and when they recline, they adjust position. When you takeoff and land, they show the front view - very neat. The staff on our flight spoke about 20 different languages and the plane was a brand new 777-300. The only problem: I crashed the IFE and they had to reboot it. I suspect that these things are very finicky. I would also suspect they are running on some sorta hybrid Linux platform. All in all, the experience has me wanting to visit Dubai. Maybe on the new 380 service out of JFK!
Crashed IFE!
Rebooting…Best Domestic: Virgin America
I have to say, I’ll still stick with Continental because of the upgrades and mileage bonuses. Oh, and the INTL network. But Virgin America was great. We hit them up SFO to LAX and it was great, with a 35$ first class upgrade. Beautiful new A320’s, with a full on-demand system featuring live sat TV and yes, navigation powered by Google Maps. Yeehaw!
Always wanted to try: Qantas
I was a bit disappointed. Its just another huge organization. We had a a 747-300 down to AKL and a -400 coming back to SFO. The 400 had a full on-demand system, but not as impressive as Emirates or Virgin America. Overall, Qantas is a decent international carrier, but for a plane that only does long haul, I expected more room. I did show up early for both our flights, and scored exit rows each time, but if I was in a normal seat it would have been a long ride. Food was ok, cabin staff were very nice on all three of our flights with Qantas. I’d take them again but since CO is joining the *A, next time maybe I’ll try United and hit up an upgrade instead.
Eh: Virgin Pacific Blue
We hit this up for a NZ Domestic leg from CHC to AKL. It was nothing special. I would expect more from Richard Branson! A pretty new 737-800, we had to deplane by stairs in AKL. That was cool.
Aug 20 2008
We are back from a summer trip which took us from Las Vegas to Huntington Beach, CA to the South Island of New Zealand, to the North Island, to Sydney, Australia, then to San Francisco and back home!
I’ll post some observations about various things soon and surely there are lots of pictures to share. Stand by while I gather it all together!
Jun 24 2008
Read this great story w/ video about the LEGO vault. Every set ever made is here. I assume this is at their Danish HQ:
http://gizmodo.com/5018990/lego-secret-vault-contains-all-sets-in-history