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William Matheson's Journal
May. 11th, 2012
10:57 pm - What I Did During My Winter Semester
Part of a series: Fall 2011 - Winter 2012
| Class | Description | Grade |
| APPD 1001 | User Interface Design and Development | 100 |
| DBAS 1100 | Database Development I | 100 |
| HDWR 1000 | Hardware I | 100 |
| INFT 1300 | Human Relations for the IT Professional | 97 |
| OSYS 1000 | Operating Systems - Unix | 100 |
| PROG 1400 | Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming | 98 |
| SAAD 1001 | Introduction to Systems Analysis and Design | 92 |
(The “portfolio page” links go to the course’s page in my e-portfolio.)
APPD 1001 :: User Interface Design and Development :: 0.5 credits (portfolio page)
This was a new class and the instructor was enthusiastic about the subject. Given that, I was surprised how random and arbitrary the delivery was, and I was disappointed in how much the instructor chose to motivate by fear.
Students should be aware that this instructor tends to negotiate final grades rather than follow a set outline (eg: Assignments 15%, Tests 30%, etc..). If you're ever in this situation and you've done everything that was assigned and gotten full marks on the things that were evaluated, you should ask, point-blank, "Why not 100?" It's not that I was perfect (audio recording level on my instructional video was too low, one of my "poor user interface" examples was a bit of a stretch, my paper airplane didn't fly the farthest (I actually asked about that one since the instructor left us with the impression that day that we were being graded on the distance), etc..), but there wasn't any concrete evaluation to justify taking marks away, and I think I'm justified in my justification. Also recursion is recursive. I think the only thing I got back with marks the whole term was the in-class Flash assignment, which was an exercise in learning to follow hastily-written directions for a completely foreign (to me) UI creation environment. Oh, also in battling your classmates for the instructor's attention. I'm a champ at that. ;-p
Grade: 100
DBAS 1100 :: Database Development I :: 1 credit (portfolio page)
I enjoyed this course; it was just challenging enough to be interesting but not so overwhelming as to feel hopeless.
We learned about fundamental database design principles and learned to work with SQL. (As with most things like this, it helps if you've seen the original.) We learned basic data definition language and data manipulation language, and we learned constraints, joins, and set operations and used them to solve a variety of interesting problems, given a pre-existing Oracle database. There were bonus point opportunities here and there that were critical to my getting full marks. :-)
Finally, I can say from personal experience that this course helps you to get the jokes in XKCD.
Grade: 100
HDWR 1000 :: Hardware I :: 1 credit (portfolio page)
The framework for this course was chapters 1, 2, and 4-11 of Jean Andrews' CompTIA A+ 2009 In Depth. The book appears to be designed to generate students capable of passing the A+ certification test, which qualifies you to work at Staples and, while maintaining a straight face, ask customers for $70 to configure their router.
Fortunately, we had lectures that delivered content not in the book, and we had plenty of lab exercises. Yes, some of them were taking A+ practice questions, and the "correct" answers were sometimes wrong in the system, and yes, it did count a little bit towards our lab grade, but no, I am not the least bit bitter no sir why do you ask.
I didn't do perfectly in this course, but I did get full marks because there were all kinds of bonus points available and I took advantage of every opportunity to get them. It was exhausting, and I even ended up doing the major final project by myself. I have trust issues.
Grade: 100
INFT 1300 :: Human Relations for the IT Professional :: 0.5 credits (portfolio page)
Most of this course was reading Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour published by Pearson Education Canada.
I found the book to be personally enriching and the information helpful. But I cannot condone the awful, arbitrary, and sometimes just-plain-wrong "MyOBLab" textbook quizzes, which were a required component of this course. I think it is also immoral to essentially outsource student grading to a textbook publisher, under any circumstances. There's not only a boy-you'd-better-have-the-late$t-edition conflict-of-interest, but also the remoteness and inaccessibility of the people responsible for administering your grades. If you are faced with a situation like this, I reccomend digging in your heels. I know I certainly will if I ever come across something like this again.
Outside of the readings, we put our knowledge to use by developing a fantasy high-tech product in teams of four. We didn't need to worry about reality and resource constraints - that way, we could focus on group mechanics. It also allowed our creativity to shine through. While I did most of the writing, the writing only came out as well as it did because there were so many good ideas. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience.
Grade: 97
OSYS 1000 :: Operating Systems - Unix :: 1 credit (portfolio page)
In this course we installed, maintained, configured services on, and created scripts in Solaris 10 and openSUSE 11.3. We also maintained a changelog as part of our weekly assignments. Well, I did. At the end of the course when it came time to submit proof, everybody wanted to copy mine. j/k
For our final project, we were asked to choose a Unix or Linux distribution and document its installation and the configuration of important network services. I did mine with Xubuntu 11.10, and got a few bonus points for sumbitting it early which got me up to full marks for the course.
Grade: 100
PROG 1400 :: Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming :: 1 credit (portfolio page)
This class was kind of haphazard - you were never really sure what you were going to get most days. Also, there's something to be said for making your own teaching resources (e.g.: assignment definitions and rubrics), since writing them yourself at least ensures that you've read them. ;-p I really think this was a problem in the beginning, but the second half was better.
The other problem is that we had a huge open-ended project that really killed the momentum of the course. It would have been better to go in bite-sized chunks while we were learning the concepts, then go for the big one. We basically had 1) a project to demonstrate understanding of OOP, then, when this failed for most people, we 2) redid it and then we had 3) small assignments that teach OOP. At least most of us got out understanding OOP and a teensy bit of Java.
Another problem was that people were coming out of PROG 1100 with vastly different levels of understanding. There was an assignment in my section that required us to create a class and instantiate an array of objects of that class. I didn't completely understand what I was doing and I relied heavily on the textbook examples.
This was the first time this course was taught in the first year, and it was a learning experience for all involved.
Grade: 98
SAAD 1001 :: Introduction to Systems Analysis and Design :: 1 credit (portfolio page)
This course is the most popular and universally beloved in the school - it's so good that once isn't enough for many students.
As far as I can tell, the aim of this course is to sufficiently obfuscate the principles of effective software design so that “software engineers” and “project managers” can justify their higher pay and social status compared to mere computer programmers.
We did a lot of UML modelling (frustrating), we made project proposals (bottomless pits), and we wrote a few reports. As part of the final round of reports, we got into groups (oh no! :-) and wrote and presented on various software development methodologies. My team presented on Extreme Programming, and my job was to go over its strengths and weaknesses (especially relative to sequential development).
Grade: 92
sickApr. 5th, 2012
07:52 am - NS Skills Competition
7:43am - Am in the assigned room at Waterfront Campus. The Waterfront Campus buildings are gorgeous. The whole place feels a bit like an airport, though that might not be to your tastes. They had a guy in the parking lot telling people to go to the nearby Aviation Institute parking lot and get the shuttle bus from there to here. Wish I'd known that because I'd had my Breakfast of Champions™ at the Tim Hortons next door.
Huh. Apparently all students except for authorized carpool groups and mothers with children in the day care here must park in that Aviation Institute lot, every day, and take the shuttle. So I'm happy to be an IT Campus student. :-)
I have no idea how this is going to go. The competition category is "IT Software Solutions for Business". Here's the list of possible things that could be tested. It's probably going to be a bit of a gong show for me because the focus of my education has been programming and systems much more so than Microsoft Office minutiae. (This is kind of germane since my school is paying my registration fee for me.) Someone who's taking a pure business program will probably clean up with me. This is also a really really bad time for me to have to do this, as I'm juggling the ends of six courses (out of seven - one mercifully ended on Monday this past week) and am burning the candle at both ends and sticking it a frying pan. But I'll try my best. I joke that they'll probably ask me to prove Fermat's Last Theorem in real-time using an Excel PivotTable. If I'm not able to, hopefully they won't exclaim "How dare you not be able to do this?"
The instructors / judges seem pretty caz, though. They want people to have fun, so I'm not going to cry about this.
I guess I'd better put on my t-shirt!
Noon - Now lunchtime! Have now finished the Word and Excel portions of the competition. Word was ridunculous - not so much that it was hard, but there was a lot. Excel was much shorter, but the things that needed to be done were more complicated. Both were fun, though - I learned about a lot of features I didn't know existed while I was poking around. Generally, there's always something to do, so you won't waste a lot of time being stuck.
During the short break between Word and Excel, I was running for the toilets when I noticed a series of booths along the corridor. I half-thought they were port-a-johns, and was tempted to open a door and see! Kidding. Kind of. Anyway, it turns out they are portable soundproof chambers meant for imprisoning unruly captives practicing music. Remind me to get one if I ever take up an instrument or get a kid who does. Heck, they might even be good to sing in.
I didn't blog on the break because there wasn't really time (only 20 minutes) and we were chatting with each other in the hall anyway. I'm probably being a little antisocial by writing this.
As for the nuts-and-bolts of the competition, we have special logins (so, no, you can't load up your network drive with cheat sheets and other stuff! :-) and the assignments are copied from the network and delivered back to the network to a designated drop folder.
Lunch was delivered to the room on a cart - you grab a bag with a sandwich (different kinds), juice, fruit, and cookie. Pretty cool. Should be like that every day. j/k Apparently we'll have a full-blown pizza party at 4:00. But every time I think of "pizza party", I think of this. :-)
3:30pm - It's all over. At 5:00 we'll find out who won. I'll give you a hint - it ain't gonna be me. What was really funny was how I'm presently pulling above 100 in my database course and yet I can barely do anything really useful in Access. I thought about writing my queries in SQL, but I'm not used to Access' quirks and the stuff that they wanted me to do in Access might be beyond the stuff I'm doing manually with Oracle through SQL. Worst of all, they didn't leave enough time for a coffee break between "OK, PowerPoint's over" and "Start Access now". So I was dog-tired all through Access and I just wanted the day to be over.
The PowerPoint portion was kind of fun - I hadn't done animations before, so that slowed me down, but with another half-hour or so, I probably could have scored close to 100%. But the same could be said for the other participants, too. :-)
The folks I've met today are pretty cool. You probably couldn't go wrong by taking a businessy IT program here. You'd learn all kinds of mad skillz. It's kind of lame, actually, when I say my program is "IT" - it doesn't sound very specific at all. Maybe that's the point?
Anyway, this is a good time to explore for a little bit before pizza time. Though I see some guys coming in with them right now, carrying 7 or 8 boxes per person. Good time to logoff. Probably won't update again until I get home. And it'll be happening with a tall, frosty can of Sapporo, I can guarantee you that.
7:40pm - True to my word.
A few comments about the Waterfront Campus: The height between floors is astonishing. When you climb some stairs, signs speak of half levels. The ones that go directly from floor to floor without a turnaround landing rival in scope the escalators of Kyiv's deep-tube subway stations.
Also, the washrooms seem to be such a long way away from anything that popping out to use the washroom might be a 2-minute endeavour at the Institute but at Waterfront it might take you closer to 10. j/k
Pizza party: Didn't really merit or need the "party" appellation. "Pizza in the cafeteria" would have been sufficient and accurate.
Around 5 we had the medal ceremonies in the theatre. The MC announced at the beginning that, you guessed it, the "IT Software Solutions for Business" results weren't in yet. But we understood and we didn't envy the judges the tedium of clicking into each and every one of our file to see and test the work we completed. Anyway, I assume they were rushing to complete the evaluations* while the early medals were being presented because they did have the results ready.
* Allowing for some shortcuts - for instance, if I come out of the third part of the evaluation with only 40 possible points ahead of me to get and the current potential bronze is 41 or more points ahead of me, there's no point in even looking at my fourth part.
There was a new IT category this year, "Web Site Development" (ugh... c'mon guys, it's "website" already). My classmate Iman got a gold medal, overcoming the most fearsome and dogged competition imaginable - himself. Yes, I could have and probably should have done Web and given Iman a run for his money (he's talented, and so am I) rather than competing against a dozen people who've to a person taken advanced courses in the Office components I struggled with all day! Now Iman's going to go to Skills Canada, and I'm left wondering what could have been. But I'm happy for Iman because he likes web development more than I do, and if I get an Explore bursary that schedule-conflicts anyway it'll all have worked out. :-)
I told Iman I'd give him a ride home and so I listened to the nuts-and-bolts talk a coordinator gave to the gold medal winners. I was bemused to hear that they wouldn't be letting participants check a bag unless it was a toolbox, since they needed all the checked baggage allowance for skills with a lot of overhead (e.g. hairdressing). The coordinator even handed out Skills Canada carry-on bags... and said that she'd chase after people to get them back if they decided they weren't going to go! :-)
Finally, Iman and I ended up walking back to the Aviation Institute parking lot because they naturally stopped the parking shuttle before the event was completely over. But it was a pleasant walk in the sunshine, and I had the opportunity to point out the "NS", an important part of Nova Scotian culture.
Man, I hope I get that Explore bursary. :-) I got an e-mail today saying my status had changed, but it was just a false alarm - it was a delayed notification. I'd already signed on and seen that I was waitlisted, and nothing had actually changed.
chipperMar. 19th, 2012
01:52 am - 7. Home
Newark. After a not-brief-enough wait on the runway, and a very slow opening-up and deplaning, we emerged into Terminal C running about an hour behind. I wasn’t fearful of missing my connection, and so I headed over to the gate where United maintains a shuttle to Terminal A, where my flight to Halifax was to be flying from.
I waited about 5 minutes in a special waiting room, and finally a stream of passengers emerged indicating the bus had arrived. They cleared and we boarded. And then we were off to Terminal A.
At Terminal A, I discovered three things:
1. None of the departure gates were saying “HALIFAX”.
2. My flight was going to be delayed by 70 minutes.
3. The flight changed gates – to a gate in Terminal C.
And so there I was riding the shuttle bus again. (If I had a smartphone with US data access, I might have gotten United’s e-mails, although as it pertains to the Halifax flight right now I only have a notice of the delay and not the gate change. But the website reflects the gate change, so I’m pretty confident I wasn’t just seeing things.)
I reached my assigned concourse in Terminal C, searched hither and yon for a free power outlet, and set up shop when I found one. Then I discovered that I probably left my $30 fit-over sunglasses on my first flight today. So I’ll be buying my third pair of those. Grumble grumble.
* * *
Ahh... nothing like a late night flight to keep people nice and quiet. We’re now aboard an Embraer EMB-145. It’s small but civilized. Bin space is at a premium because there are only bins on one side (starboard). On the other hand, I’m one of the lucky ones who sits on the port side, where there’s only one seat per row that’s a window and an aisle seat at the same time. It’s pretty sweet.
I’ve been thinking lately that it seems like it’s always the in-between services that are the worst. Short hauls on small planes usually go well and the crowds are manageable. The huge widebody jets that carry hundreds of people across the oceans are fit for their task. It’s the 2-6 hour domestic flights on narrow-body airliners that grind my gears. I don’t fly enough to have a weighty opinion, though.
Ha-ha, now I’m drinking a can of spicy “Bloody Mary mix” with no vodka in it and snacking on mini pretzels (free!). With class tomorrow morning at 8:30, I can’t justify the expense of buying drinks. I almost went into a bar at Newark, but I decided against it when I saw there weren’t any power outlets.
When I feel like I’ve done enough blogging and schoolwork, I’m playing a free console-style RPG called KQ. A package may already be available for your favourite Linux distro. It’s pretty good. The music is superb and the enemies are merciless.
Wait, I forgot – customs form. Hope the customs folks are friendly this time. :-)
* * *
Finally home. Exhausted. Here’s how ParkN’Ride works when you leave. You pick up their phone in the arrivals area and it plays a recording that says “By picking up this phone, you are stating that you are ready to be picked up.” They tell you to wait inside until you see it pull up. Then the bus driver takes you to your car according to the card the driver gave you way back when you first parked. Then you drive yourself out to the gate, where you’ll pay an attendant. (That part is kind of low-tech.) And then you’re back on your way again, probably wondering when there’ll be affordable transit options that serve the airport.
Mar. 18th, 2012
06:52 pm - 6. Homeward
I am now flying from San Diego to Houston. There’s an airport there named after the second greatest President of the United States (his son was the greatest).
This 737 is marginally better than the one I flew into San Diego on. There are actual entertainment devices in the seatbacks. Unfortunately, they are pay-for-play, unless you just want to watch Lincoln infomercials. So it’s a good excuse for me to catch up on blogging and schoolwork for free, I suppose. There are no power outlets on board this aircraft, though – good thing it’s a short flight to Houston. And the aisle still isn’t wide enough - “Cart coming through, cart coming through!”
It being the end of March Break, a lot of flights are jam-packed. They were calling for volunteers to give up their seats on this flight, and the compensation was generous: Hotel if necessary (if you were going to Houston, all the flights were booked), and first class seats and a $300 travel voucher that’s transferrable and usable anywhere in Star Alliance. Pretty sweet, but I need to get home for school. I have a huge scholarship application due the day after tomorrow, so I need to have my ducks in a row for that.
But percieving that I could still get back to Halifax tonight by taking a non-stop to Newark and skipping Houston, I “selflessly” volunteered to be switched to the Newark flight. It was just wrapping up boarding when I asked, but I had no checked bags, and they were desparate to free up seats on the Houston flight. Unfortunately, the Newark flight was full, too. The friendly gate agent thanked me profusely for volunteering. I also got my little rolling suitcase checked at the gate all the way to Halifax. At least United’s checked baggage scam makes me feel fortunate to have something checked.
I also want to compliment United on their print-at-home boarding passes. They are pretty slick. When you click the “Print Boarding Passes” button on the webpage displaing your passes, it automatically separates them into individual letter-size pages, and they utilize the space on each page very well. (Though I seriously think they should put IATA codes next to the city and airport names.) Anyway, among other things, you get a map of the airport(s) you’re arriving at and you get the weather at your final destination. For SAN -> IAH, I got a map of Jorge Ehch Dubya. For IAH -> EWR, I got a map of Newhat Liverpee. For EWR -> YHZ, I got... a Sudoku.
On the other hand United, the dumb video messages from your CEO about how you can’t manage an airline from a corner office would be easier to swallow (and the part about open, honest communication actually believable) if it weren’t for your ridunculous checked baggage scheme, absurdly long customer service phone call waits, dysfunctional rebooking, and abysmal on-time performance. Thank you for thaking me for flying United, Mr. Smisek, but overall I’d have to say, “You’re not welcome.” Like I’ve been saying, there are a lot of bright stars at United, and as a coprorate culture I see evidence that they want to make their employees feel appreciated. I am all for that, but the airline is currently being hobbled by some assinine policies and hurried technological transitions brought on by the merger. The fault for these must be placed solely on management.
Security at San Diego Terminal 2 was seriously backlogged. They have a snaking ribbon for their queue, and it moves painfully slow. While you wait, you can see videos on overhead screens that explain how much better and faster the improved terminal will be (“Coming soon: More security!”) on some sweet day in 2013. Meanwhile, you’re standing in line wishing you’d driven to LAX and flown out of there instead. But let’s give SAN credit for having free wi-fi like YHZ and the rest of the civilized world.
So there’s lots to talk about. Yesterday was a wet day, but the rain and cloud cast a pleasant mellow feeling on the day. Jim rang my phone sometime after 11 and said we’d all be going out. I should have showered instead of just blogging all morning, and I felt a little bit icky all day. But we all got pretty icky in one way or another because even though it was raining off and on, someone thought that we probably should see Balboa Park after brunch anyway. One good thing about it – there are lots of archways and alcoves, so you can duck in and out and wait out the worst of the downpours. I’m glad we went, even though I wouldn’t have gone were it up to me. In Balboa Park we saw a beautiful couple getting married – even though it rained, I think they were in good spirits. The archways and openings were making for dramatic photographs, and I don’t think they’ll be sorry when their photos come back.
Before Balboa Park, we had brunch at a Panera in La Jolla. That was fun – you order at the counter and take a number, and later they find your number and deliver your food. They bus, too. And you don’t tip! Just like every restauraunt in Japan! I am sorry to have to admit this to service industry employees, but I hate (the usual all-but-mandatory) tipping. I’d be happy to pay a little more and not have to deal with it. With a tipping system, I feel like I’m being judged every goshdarned time I eat or use other commonly tipped services. Anyway, at Panera I had an Italian sandwhich with chips and with that they let me add any pastry I wanted for 99 cents. The very friendly fellow at the counter (who let me keep 7 cents extra change because the order came to n.93) must have known I’d be reasonably stuffed after the sandwhich and chips, and so the pastry came in its own container, and that came in a bag. So I ate the pastry this morning at the airport while I was waiting to board. It was still good!
After Balboa Park, we went to Old Town San Diego and ate at a small Mexican restauraunt. I didn’t get to Mexico on this trip, but I’ve sure eaten a lot of Mexican food! Not that I’m complaining. Anyway, we all piled into this restaurant and ordered guacamole and strawberry margaritas by the liter. Mmmm! These margaritas were frozen and much more like the taste I would ordinarily expect. The guacamole was heavenly; almost the consecrated kind that people swear by all the time. Because we all know the answer to “What do you do with a rainy day?” is “Split it up among restauaunts”, we had been talking in terms of staying there for an extra few hours (keeping the drinks coming) and having evening dinner there, but I loudly came out against it because I for one was still full from brunch, and waiting around in a restauraunt for hour after hour isn’t much fun. I was still finding room for guacamole and margaritas, though. :-) Anyway, we decided we’d have supper elsewhere. It was all very confusing and wires were crossed many times. I wished for a smartphone, but my not having one absolved me of any responsiblity for research and planning.
We went back to the hotel and I basically had time to check my e-mail and change my clothes before we went out again, this time to (you guessed it) a Mexican restauraunt in La Jolla. (It had free on-site parking!) Barbara kindly treated us. I finally got to try fish tacos (breaded, with soft flour tortillas – just as good as fish and chips!) We had our last great conversational moments there. All good things must come to an end, but it was a slightly bitter pill nonetheless. We knew we had a time chock-full of activity and memories, because it seemed so long ago when we first got together and moved the liquor to the venue.
That night, we hung out in Mary and Brian’s hotel room and Brian shared some good craft beer while we talked about different things. We talked a lot about PEI and who would be going and what a good time to go would be. Brian minds the moquitoes – I think they aren’t as bad in August as they are in July, but they’re probably still going to be bad around dusk / in the woods no matter where you are. June and September are pretty good months to visit, though there aren’t as many obvious beach days.
I went back to my room and got a few hours sleep. When I got up at 4:30am, there was a slip under my door with the itemized charges from Marriott as of 2am. I was a little freaked out when I picked up the slip – I thought it would be a notice that they found me in violation of something or other! No, I’m not paranoid. Anyway, there was nothing but the standard room rate and fees and taxes, so the offer of complimentary internet was legit. But why can’t they have that all the time? I hate it when airlines and hotels decide to use value-added-but-critical services to fleece their customers. It betrays the fact that they hold their customers in contempt, despite what Jeff would have you believe. In situations where I have a realistic choice, I’ll pick a hotel that at least has free internet (I can live without free breakfast and I don’t really miss that), and an airline that doesn’t charge checked baggage fees.
Derek was catching a flight, for business reasons, at the same time I was, so I met him in the lobby at 6am and rode with him to the airport. It was in an extended wheelbase Lincoln Town Car (an L) but the driver didn’t seem to like my calling it that because I asked him, “Is this an extended-wheelbase Town Car?” and he said “It’s a limo, but not a strech limo.” I would have been happy to discuss the merits of a body-on-frame rear-wheel-drive car with tons of rear seat legroom and a silky-smooth V8, but his avoidance of my question kind of killed the potential conversation. After he dropped Derek off at the Commuter Terminal (he was going to LAX, then from there to the Great Blue Yonder), I said I was flying United from Terminal 2, but the driver just said, “Sure, United” and proceeded to take the lanes going to Terminal 1.
“I need to go to Terminal 2.”
“United is at Terminal 1.”
“Yes, but United flights to Houston and Newark depart from Terminal 2. If you look at the sign for Terminal 2, you’ll see ‘United’ and then ‘Houston’ and ‘Newark’ in fine print.”
“Oh! I didn’t know that. Sorry.”
Pleasant enough fellow, but if he’d said right away “I thought United was at Terminal 1” we could have saved the mortification and embarassment.
Anyway, this flight to Houston has been reasonably plesant – two cups of coffee were an excellent diuretic but other than that I’m astonished by how much writing I’ve gotten finished. Now I just need to deal with the San Diego / wedding venue photos. Visualize a glacier. :-)
* * *
At Houston now. This place is like an exurban shopping mall but without the charm. There’s a Bass Pro Shops and even a Fox News Channel store. (I doubt we’ll see an Al Jazeera English souvenir shop across the corridor anytime soon.) And there’s a huge shortage of free power outlets, but of course there are plenty of $3-for-30-minutes chargers and, as always, your major credit cards are more than welcome.
Impressions: Hot, overcrowded, lots of fruit flies. Free wi-fi? Ha-ha! But they use the same cartel as Newark, so I would have been able to surf teh interwebs had I had time.
Transferring from terminal E (where we arrived) to C (where I’ll depart) was just a short walk. I’m gnoshing on Wendy’s, but there weren’t a lot of value mainstays like Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers on the menu. They had plenty of power outlets in there along benches with bar stools, but it was too far away from my gate to hear boarding calls. As it is, I may yet be too far away, but I stopped as soon as I saw an outlet!
Anyway, I’d better hike up there now...
* * *
On the flight from Houston to Newark, we had a 757-200 that had power outlets and a much better (and mostly free) video entertainment system. I never did use my netbook because I ended up watching The Muppets (probably the only movie not hacked and slashed to death so as to neuter the wrath of the sensitive souls in the unfriendly skies), and then I played an interesting Berlitz “word traveler” game. You can select both your native language and the target language and off you go. It’s not going to make you a communicative speaker overnight, but it’s a helpful first step and kind of fun. I did reasonably well with the German and Spanish exercises, but Mandarin was a bit of an uphill climb! :-)
It must be mentioned that, as far as I know, non-Latin-alphabet languages are transliterated, so you can’t use the software to learn other alphabets. Also, some lanuages might not ordinarily use distinct words for, say, “afternoon” and “evening” (see Spanish ‘tarde’) but the software isn’t sophisticated enough to allow two pictures to be the right answers in these situations, and the “right” answer is completely random. I should probably file a bug report with Berlitz. :-p
Anyway, it was a pleasant diversion and I’m glad that I couldn’t get the Big Bang Theory reruns I really wanted to watch to play. As for The Muppets, I’d give them three stars. I think it needed much, much more in the way of funny sketches. Or funny in how they aren’t funny, like most of Fozzie’s routines.
We were delayed by yet another computer issue and I probably ended up watching half the movie on the tarmac as we waited 25 minutes for a takeoff opportunity. That’s one really nice thing about video-on-demand... the not-so-nice thing is that the playback controls are sluggish and don’t work intuitively. If you press “rewind”, the picture might go to fast-advance, even though your playback point is in fact going backwards. You press play while it’s flashing through two minutes ahead from where you pressed rewind, and then you end up watching from two minutes back. You have to count Mississippis to get back to where you want to be – needless to say, it’s really aggravating. I think, though, that this is a wide problem with VoD services as I’ve seen Rogers and Eastlink VoD have similar problems.
I also had an aisle seat but of course a mother and two children had gotten stuck with three consecutive middle seats instead of half a row, and she asked me to give up my aisle seat for a middle seat. D’oh! Anyway, it was alright – I was between two reasonably humorable guys, and it wasn’t as cramped as I feared it would be.
Almost home...
rushedMar. 17th, 2012
11:27 am - 5. San Diego: Thursday, Friday
Thursday
Met up with Jim and Derek and one thing we did was pick up the alcohol and get it to the venue. I was under the impression that we’d be stuffing their rented Mitsubishi Lancer with so much booze that it would noticeably lower its ground clearance. I was prepared to carry a two-four on my lap at the very least. But it turned out to be five boxes of wine bottles and it all fit easily. Anyway, there were other vehicles involved in the operation.
We had the rehearsal at the venue, and I picked up a few jobs – walking in Art’s mom (Barbara), and co-ushering with Derek, Monique’s younger brother. So that’s cool. I’m not part of the wedding party but it’s almost kinda sorta close. j/k
The rehearsal dinner was at a Mexican restaurant – a really authentic one. Their margaritas are a generous pour. I needed to chase mine with a beer. I had chicken tacos but one thing my cousin Maria and her husband Chris say I should try are fish tacos. They didn’t have them there, but you can get battered haddock tacos elsewhere in San Diego. Almost like good old fish and chips! Except it’s corn chips, not potato fries. It was a good experience and we had a great time – the company and atmosphere were superb – but for food that I (personally) would like to eat, I would probably go to a place like Sombreros back in Tokushima – oh darn, they’re closed! Man, good thing we went when we did.
From what I’ve seen, this is a beautiful city. Even the suburbs are ornate. The roads are awesome, too. I’m loving the single-digit Interstate action. If I were on my own I’d probably try to go to Tijuana, although getting back into the United States is reportedly not much fun. If I went across on foot, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? Anyway, it probably won’t happen this time around.
Friday
Jim and Derek slept in a bit, so I had a chance to catch up on the e-side of things. We went out for brunch. Random thoughts:
1. If the bus guy instinctively says "Good job!" when he picks up your empty plate, maybe the serving sizes are just a tad big. Food was really good, though.
2. It seems like every restaurant urinal in San Diego is one foot off the floor. There must be an epidemic of dwarfism here.
3. One of us saw a Hispanic guy wearing a "I am not a second class citizen" t-shirt and mused going up to him and saying "I'm gay, too!"
(We were laughing about the ambiguity of the t-shirt, not the plight of Hispanic Americans.)
4. Diesel busses made to look like ye olde trolleys should immediately be banned in every jurisdiction in North America. (Charlottetown, I’m lookin’ at you too.)
5. I’ll be riding to the wedding with Barbara and her close friends Chih-Mei and Kathy. The sun’s out a bit now, so it might be a really good afternoon to walk on the beach a bit before everything starts. I wonder if I should go so far as to bring swim trunks and a towel and when the time comes, just stand around dripping wet in my trunks and help usher people as if it’s normal. Nah.
6. I’ve lost at least four Facebook friends in the past few days, so you can tell my views and opinions must be pretty good. j/k
* * *
(Writing this stuff Saturday morning.)
I wore a new pair of pants which fit reasonably well and have an elastic waistband. I bought them so I wouldn’t be ACK GACK I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS. They were more or less effective in this regard. I also spilled champagne on myself while I was filming something and it beaded and was really easy to wipe off. Anyway, I mention them because as I was walking down the hall to the hotel elevator, a maid stopped me and asked me to turn around. I thought I was in trouble. She then nonchalantly yanked a sticker off the back of my leg. Thank you!
When we arrived at the wedding venue, the weather was sunny and warm and the place was gorgeous. It was also easy to find – there were professional signs right on the road pointing the way to parking for the “T./H. Wedding”.
I became the video-go-to-person and shot the proceedings with Monique’s father’s camera. That was pretty easy to do; I think I’d rather do that than be tasked with taking photos, all things being equal.
The skies were overcast by the time the ceremony took place, but it was still a nice spot and a good moment and at least it wasn’t raining.
Afterwards, they had lots of different kinds of family photos, and there was one I belonged in, and they took that, but then they did another one and Maria and I got pulled away from conversations again and called up – but unnecessarily, since the second one was just siblings, not cousins. :-p The wedding crew were fuzzy on the distinction. It was kind of funny, really. When I was a kid, I was fuzzy on the distinctions myself.
The reception and dinner were a lot of fun and a great chance to meet a lot of new people. Monique has a lot of smart and powerful Ivy League-calibre friends and it again brought back the idea “What’s she doing with him?” j/k But Art is incredibly creative and funny, although there’s not a lot else I can say about him. Rob, a lawyer from Stanford, asked me “So what kind of stories can you tell about Art?” I replied, “Well, all the stories I have about Art are about Art telling stories. Kind of meta.”
At our table the following interaction generated enough laughter to grab Art’s attention:
E.: “My roommates’ boyfriend was a Navy SEAL.”
A.: “In my previous life, I was a Navy SEAL. But not in this life!”
Me: “In my previous life, I was a seal. Until I was clubbed by a Canadian fur trader.”
I also met G., a software engineer, to whom I complained fruitlessly about Java. j/k Also, she loved Extreme Programming. I should have told her I just contributed part of a small-time “paper” on it, in which I basically tore a strip off of it, thanks in part to Matt Stephen’s insightful and droll commentary. :-) But she’s had experience in the field, and I haven’t. If she’s a 10, I’m a .2.
When it came time to leave the wedding venue, we were stopped at an interminably long red light – I hopped out of the car to press the walk button and then we had a green. There was construction at that intersection earlier that day, and perhaps something they did disrupted the connection between the lights and a sensory pad in the pavement.
We finished off the evening with drinks in the hotel lobby. At first we were seated around a fireplace. Some of us were still wearing suits. We looked like a caricature of power brokers, so I opened with, “So, gentlemen, which Southeast Asian country should we invade tomorrow?” Jim soon jocularly retorted with, “We’re losing Afghanistan, no thanks to Canada!” Hah. It seems like we were there for the better part of a decade. Then I ventured some opinions on Afghanistan, including the absurdity of centralized government on a tribal system and that we won’t let them grow poppies since our value system is drugs = bad. It’s a big mess by any objective measure.
Anyway, sensing perhaps that I was prepared to go on an alcohol-influenced roll, one of our companions stated loudly and firmly, “I am from Israel, so I do not talk politics.”
Well, that killed that conversation.
But we had lots of other great conversations (well, they got better after one particular person retired for the evening), and we kept it going past 2 in the morning, up until the cleaner started vacuuming between our legs. I made the acquaintance of two of Monique’s friends that I hadn’t spoken to at the wedding or reception, and somehow I ended up speaking French with one of them. I think it was because Jim asked me to just start speaking French, so I did, and it turns out she studied French extensively. It was like opening a velvet box and seeing a huge diamond where you expect to see only a small one. I’m going to miss her – she was quite something.
And given how much I had to drink, I am in much better shape than I could have been. I pretty much stuck to beer the whole night, which was probably a wise decision. Beer tends to make me a little sleepy, which slows me down before I get into too much trouble.
Now it’s time to get cleaned up and dressed and find my cousins and/or something to do!
awakeMar. 15th, 2012
10:47 am - 4. Morning in San Diego
Free internet in the room*! So now I’ve wasted about two and a half hours of my first morning in San Diego! :-) Most of the time I’m just playing Whack-A-Mole with notifications, though I am writing a fair number of new messages.
I don’t have an ocean view from my hotel room, but the condo where my cousin (Art) and his soon-to-be wife (Monique) are staying for a few days sure does – holy crap! Panoramic windows, waves crashing on the rocks below, a lovely night, lights along the coast, the limitless expanse of the dark Pacific – wow! I’d forgotten that I’d ever seen the Pacific before. I have – just from the other side. :-)
Art and Monique treated me to my first In-N-Out last night. I had a Double-Double. The burger is distinctive and worth being crowed about. The fries are distinctive too, but for my tastes they are a little too intense. I had a strawberry milkshake too, and that was pretty good. If I went again I’d just get the burger and a shake, though I’m intrigued about the “animal fries” on the secret menu. Speaking of the menu, that’s what I was struck by most – it was so small! But it’s sufficient and efficent. Good kind of small.
Jim and Derek (Art’s brother and Jim’s husband respectively) plan to be by around noon and we’ll go hang out for a bit. The rehearsal dinner will be tonight.
While we were at the condo, Art gave me some ideas for a story that I’ll see if I can put together soon. It’s delightful to talk with him because he can think of things that are completely off-the-wall absurd but yet somehow internally consistent and very funny.
Now I’ll have a shower and then I’ll go out in search of toothpaste. Hopefully in a 100mL (shoot, how many ounces is that? - OK, TSA says 3 ounces, but they consider the international standard “100mL” to be 3 even though it’s more like 3.38) container or smaller, so I can take it home with me. :-p
* - To "celebrate" wi-fi installation. :-) This is just for the month of March. Lucky me, though.
chipper10:24 am - 3. To San Diego
We’re now en route to San Diego. It is kind of lamesauce. It’s this fancy Boeing 737-800 but this configuration has no entertainment system at all. Fortunately, it does have power outlets, and if you are persistent and daring with your fingers, you will eventually find them. So at least I have my netbook for the whole trip.
Really, I don’t know why anyone would fly this airline. Why did I? Good question. I bit on the price. Next time I want to go to the US, I’ll try US Airways, though I have no reason to believe they’re any better. As for United, there’s no reason to fly it instead of a low cost carrier. Take WestJet. You have checked bags and seatback video all there for you. Yeah, the seatback video is just free TV, but here United proposes to charge for something similar. But they don’t even have the units installed on this aircraft, even though my flight itinerary said this aircraft would have it. There isn’t even radio. Lamesauce, lamesauce. And did I mention the on-time performance of this airline is abysmal?
United has lots of bright stars on their team, but I feel like they, as an institution, hold their Average Joe customers in contempt. Every goddamn thing is an upsell. Every employee robotically recites their upsell scripts. It’s idiotic. After this trip is over I’m going to go out of my way to avoid this airline.
Okay, that’s enough. I’ve been using United as a whipping post for three days now.
I was talking to a woman at the departure gate about various San Diego things and I brought up the subject of the Chargers. She mentioned that the owners aren’t happy with their stadium, but the fans still turn out for the games. What is it with stadiums and arenas – they cost so much to build, yet depreciate so quickly. Multipurpose stadiums were an unfortunate experiment that we’ve gotten away from. The NHL underwent a spate of stadium renewal not so long ago and they missed an opportunity to introduce a larger ice surface. I’m not really forming a coherent argument here. All I’ll say is that I think pro sports is an expensive toy, and there shouldn’t be public subsidies near it.
I’m looking forward to getting out of the air travel system. The whole thing has a certain unreality to it that kind of bugs me. But sometimes I wish I were wealthy enough to purchase a business-class round-the-world ticket and just fly to random places one after the other.
A fellow beside me on the plane said, “From Halifax, you’re really close to London. You could get there in 5 hours.” True. I’ve never thought much about going there because I don’t know anybody. It would be a big money pit. But it would probably be a lot of fun.
Where else? I’d definitely like to go back to Japan again. I still have to finish the Shikoku Pilgrimage! I think I would like to complete a formal Japanese language course or two first, though.
More than almost anything else, though, I wish my hands didn’t hurt typing this!
Man, this has been a long, tiring trip. We’re really squeezed for space on this 737-800. The aisle is really, really narrow, and it makes going back and forth to the lavatories troublesome. Multi-aisle wide-body airliners can be much more comfortable. I liked in Japan how they’d fly special short-range 747s on domestic routes, since they had the passengers to warrant it.
soreMar. 14th, 2012
02:06 pm - 2. Warking
Newark:
Wi-Fi is $8 for the day, $10 for a month, or $15 for three months. Bah. Not really worth it. I might as well do something productive instead, like read my Hardware chapter.
(OK, I caved. I didn’t want to miss anything. I checked my e-mail and Art mentioned there’s a possibility of my being picked up at the airport! Super! However, I’m prepared to take a shuttle van to the hotel in La Jolla, especially since they think I’m coming in at noon when it’s going to be (ugh) 7pm. Deets below.)
I can’t believe it’s not yet half past seven where I’m going. I feel like I’ve been on the move all day already.
I was put on a 5pm ish flight to SD. But the gate agent said they were putting me on the 4pm ish flight! I found out from a gate agent that I was really on the later one, but he got me on the earlier one after all.
So it was going to be that I’d arrive in SD around noon but now it’ll be ten after seven.
As airports go, Newark looks kind of dumpy. They had an airside transfer bus to get us from Terminal A to Terminal C but it is probably a temporary implementation by the looks of things. You have to climb up and down steel stairs to get to it – stairs probably never intended for the general public. Better than not having a transfer bus at all, though.
So now it’s 10:30 and we board at 3:32. 5 hours! So this has taken about 6 hours off my vacation as I see it. Not worth crying about, though. But I left so early so I could have the maximum amount of day in San Diego. That’s really not going to happen now. But I do have all day Saturday to play with, and the wedding’s on Friday. Whine wine cheese.
I think all the cool airlines fly out of JFK. Air Canada and WestJet are stuck at Newark. So is Porter. Oh, but it looks like Air Canada has a few flights out of LaGuardia, too. I’ve never been there.
K, maybe now I'll try to read that Hardware chapter. "Installing and Supporting I/O (input, output) Devices". Sounds like a real page-turner.
sleepy01:38 pm - 1. Halifax to Newark
So, we are sitting here, delayed, on the tarmac. “Prepare doors for arrival.” We haven’t moved an inch, so that can’t be good.
They had a slight “technical issue” and in an attempt to solve it they shut down the entire aircraft for two minutes. I mean completely shut down – all the lights and everything. You could see the glow-in-the-dark aisle strips glow green.
The plane’s been here all night, so it’s covered with a thin layer of ice. Speaking of, driving here was kind of white knuckle. There was a bit of freezing rain last night, and that stuff terrifies me!
The United attendants are being nice about it all and paying extra attention to the children.
* * *
Park-'n-Fly operates a 3,200-vehicle parking lot a little ways away from the airport on Barnes Drive. It’s still on the east side of the highway, but it’s too far to walk, so they provide a friendly shuttle service.
I missed getting on one bus because it was full but there was another in just a few minutes. I wouldn’t do this if it’s a last-minute thing and you have to catch a plane.
(OK, they’re putting luggage ON to the plane. That’s good news.)
Being March Break, the lot was into overflow – something I realized might be a problem while I was in the shower. Would I park the car on the road and ask someone to come pick it up? Or would I open a line of credit and park near the terminal? Fortunately, the lot wasn’t full – the attendant told me what bus to take after I pulled in, and I headed in that direction and then took a side swing and found a parking space.
“OK, the ground crew has an update.” Silence. “Stand by for the update.” Silence. “Update not necessary. We should be good to go.”
* * *
Apparently de-icing a plane is a bit more complicated than a car wash. Whatever happens, it seems to take ~25 minutes per plane. And there was a plane ahead of us. This morning has been delay stacked up on top of delay. At least I’ll know to expect the worst the next time there’s freezing rain in my departure city.
If I remember correctly, they sprayed us with clear stuff, then orange stuff, then green stuff. The green stuff made interesting patterns on the wing as we were taking off.
I’m very tired. I didn’t sleep last night. The night before, I didn’t get to bed until after 4. Why? Well, there was a slight problem with my reservation – after United finished absorbing Continental, they changed some flights around and left me negative twelve minutes to connect in Newark. (Though I suppose that’s better than the negative hour-or-so I’m getting today.). The webpage advised me to contact United to have the ticket reissued. Problem: Getting through to United these days is like searching for a golden needle in a haystack underwater. I got on the phone sometime after 9 pm and I got an agent after 3 am. It is probably my longest phone call ever. The agent was very polite and helpful but oh wow the wait.
Ahh... coffee time. Anyway, so that business kind of helped throw off my sleep schedule. Even though I’m heading off to do something fun, I kind of envy the folks who are staying home all week to play video games. One of my classmates was pulling an all-nighter on Final Fantasy VIII while I was packing.
The attendants are saying that, after we deplane, a United rep will meet with everybody who missed their connections. Super. They had me freaked out earlier when they were saying, “Those of you with cell phones might want to call United at 1-800-UNITED-1... that's 1-800-864-8331." Like really? Just the thought of that kind of off-loading of responsibility is odious. If they’d prefaced it with, “Don’t worry, you’ll be automatically moved to the following flight, but if you want to get the details, phone the contact centre while we’re de-icing.” I'd be more supportive.
* * *
So I locked the car and raced over to where the bus was idling. Then another fellow told me, “Sorry, we have to wait.” “Bus full?” “Yep. They’re going to send another one.” And they did, lickety-split. I told you this already, didn’t I?
The driver was like, “OK, have you heard the speech?” He explained how there was a paystation ticket and a shuttle ticket. One will determine how much you owe, the other will tell the bus driver roughly where your car is so that you don’t have to mount a Corps of Discovery Expedition. The driver was also keen to ask if we were CAA, government, or military. Gotta get all the discounts we can! It was a good vibe riding the shuttle, too. I thought parking was going to be a real hassle, but the folks at Park-'n-Fly made it smooth and kind of fun.
However, I feel for the folks who are returning to their cars today to find them covered with ice. Somehow I don’t think folks returning from Cuba packed their ice scraper in their carry-ons. Also, whenever we get MetroLink service to the airport, the business will probably take a bit of a hit.
Anyway, so I’m in the terminal. I check-in, confirming all the “where I’m staying in the US”, “passport number”, that sort of stuff. And then it’s time for security.
100mL is small. Anything you have that you’d want to take with you is probably more than 100mL. I needlessly wasted a can of sunscreen and a tube of toothpaste because they were 173 mL and 135 mL respectively. Yeah, shame on me for not looking this stuff up, but it’s ridunculous all the same. So now I need to get toothpaste and possibly sunscreen if it’s hot in San Diego. It might not be. I brought layers.
So I wasted time with that, even putting my things in bags and wondering if I could get away with it. Then I envisioned myself spending the rest of March Break in a cell, and I thought the better of it.
The US-departure security area at Halifax isn’t laid out very conveniently – there isn’t enough space for people to deshoe and get all their things into bins. You have people reaching over each other and jockeying over a very small amount of counter space. It’s lousy. And on the back end it’s only slightly better. A sign saying “please move back!” might be helpful. I have also said before that I am in favour of a slow lane through screening, because I’d like to be able to tie my shoes and such without having to be in a stressed-out breathless hurry about it. Screening sucks!
And then there’s US Customs pre-clearance. I think we should set up some kind of customs union or common travel area with the United States akin to what exists between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It’s ridiculous that we’ve been parked next to each other and at peace for almost 200 years and generally on the same side of most things, and yet we do so much to mutually inhibit comings and goings. ANYWAY. Pre-clearance makes the imposition almost tolerable, and I’ve never had a problem with the US folks so far. It’s the Canadian ones that ask rude things like “What’s a Bedford boy doing in Portland?” Just ask what the purpose of my visit was, OK?
But this time, with the US folks, I forgot to fill out my customs form. Now wait a second. Virtually all the information on my customs form, I already had to submit to the airline just to check in. So why couldn’t they just key this up? I understand having a separate form for monetary instruments and things like that, but the data about where I’m staying and what my passport number is has already been stored somewhere. Why do I have to fill it out again? Anyway, I ended up going through the line twice.
The customs officer asked me what I did for work. I said I was a student and answered where. It was pleasant and I spoke carefully in neutral tones.
“What do you hope to do?”
“Programming.”
“Oh, you can go anywhere with that.”
“Yes, as long as I don’t have ‘immigrant intent’.”
She laughed. “Have a good trip.”
That’s another rant: shouldn’t you like your country enough that you figure people would WANT to stay in it? The fact that they screen NAFTA visas for immigrant intent is an abomination and we should demand, starting now, that this part be reopened. If you just want someone to come work and then leave, it’s all take and no give. I’d settle for just being able to prove that you can support yourself. Set up a system with checks and audits. However, I also kind of understand how countries don’t want to open themselves up to unnecessary liability. And someone who can support themselves on Tuesday might be out of work on Wednesday. So I kind of get it. But I’m having to hold my nose.
I get to the departure lounge and sit down and call my mother. And as I’m wrapping up that conversation, I hear, “This is the final boarding call for United flight 5152 to Newark. Passengers must board now or will be subject to seat loss.” So up I get! I would have been there in plenty of time were it not for the questionable roads, full Park-'n-Fly bus, and my consecutive brain farts with screening and customs. :-)
I go through the departure desk. My gate is Gate 26. But the signs are suddenly in the 50s! What gives? Oh, it looks like Gate 26 is also Gate 56 and a bunch of others are like that, too. Boy, I’ll bet that never confuses anybody. :-p My guess is that they switch them up so that sometimes it’s a domestic / other-international gate and sometimes a transborder gate and they change the numbers accordingly. I dunno – I don’t think I would have done that. Maybe I’d do it with a suffix. Like have a Gate 26-U and Gate 26-R. And for now it’s the same departure bridge. Anyway, I was seriously freaking out for a second – I thought I’d get lost between the desk and the plane and that they’d shut the doors and say to hell with me.
And then I’m on the plane. The usual foolishness ensues with me being in somebody’s way, somebody being in my seat but I’ll sit over here, then my stuff getting scattered all over the place. I love those 1+2 regional jets that have one seat up and down the left side of the plane. Book early and you’ve got a super seat. Bin space isn’t so hot on those ones, though. Anyway, this is a 2+2 regional jet, which is better than being stuck in a middle seat but there’s not much else really going for it.
And we had our technical difficulties. And the de-icing proceeded at glacial speed. But we did at last take off and the captain said as much that, “We’re going to fly this plane like we stole it.”
When I first got on, I had a nice chat with a lady (probably in her 50s or 60s) who then later volunteered to go up to the front to help balance the plane. Heh. I don’t think I annoyed her... In my defense, she was moving to a first class seat. This is a tail-heavy kind of plane so they apparently routinely have to shuffle people.
One thing we talked about is teaching (English) overseas – she has friends and relatives galore that did it – and when she asked me how I found my job, I told her that it was kind of rough and that I thought that my workplace valued appearance over substance. (Not that I was the world’s greatest teacher with beaucoup substance to offer, but it was disheartening nonetheless.) Also I was a little cheesed when I found out later that Saint Mary’s was operating a de facto employment agency under the guise that the purpose was to arrange international employment opportunities for their students - well, I thought it was for free, dammit, if only because I'd spent on the order of 20 large there on my academic program. (I should have probed deeper, but I was a trusting soul in those days.)
So what adventures await in Newark? As I write this we’re juuust starting our approach and my flight to San Jose should have flown about ten minutes ago. I’m excited to hear what the gate agent has to say. I don’t really have any great big song and dance planned for today in San Jose and the rehearsal dinner is tomorrow night, so I’m pretty flexible. 80 miles to Newark, 20-30 minutes, says the captain.
tiredFeb. 18th, 2012
06:25 pm - This Isn't Really Working For Me - 4: Highway 102 (and sequential exit numbering)
Most of these images are screen captures from Google Maps in Street View. You can go amazingly far in Street View and it's easy to waste spend hours tracking down unique interchanges and remote border crossings.
( Highway 102 )
I'm passionate about this subject, so I've gone on at length. If I can only leave you with one takeaway, let it be that sequential exit numbering (at least on roads more than a few kilometres in length) is a bad idea. A much better alternative is to number the exits according to the kilometre posts. British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, and New Brunswick are already doing this. The only significant holdouts are 1) Nova Scotia and 2) Newfoundland and Labrador (surprising, as their implementation of exit numbering occurred fairly recently).
Numbering according to kilometre posts has at least two big advantages:
1. Expandability – If you should ever build a new interchange, there’s no need to worry about an appropriate number to assign. You also avoid most A-B-C-D messes and can save the letters for compass directions at the same interchange and certain other situations.
2. Understandability – If you just drove past Exit 14 and your destination is off Exit 28, you know that you have 14 kilometres to go until your exit is reached. Better yet, with the kilometre posts that we have, you can easily track the distance while you’re between distant exits.
I admit at least one disadvantage: it’s going to mess you up if you’re accustomed to counting the junctions as you go by them (does anyone do this?), but even then that system is already broken by our haphazard implementation of sequential exit numbering.
Please Nova Scotia, let’s do something, before we face a tragedy like an Exit 5½.
Finally, if Nova Scotia’s Highway 102 isn’t enough to convince you of the folly of sequence-based numbering, let’s take a quick <ahem> gander at Newfoundland and Labrador Route 1:
Off the boat in Port aux Basques, you come to a sign that looks like an exit gore – you know, it has the word “EXIT” in it – but it’s really just pointing the way to Highway 470. But anyone who doesn’t know Newfoundland roads (including many of the people driving their RVs off the MV Sleepy Tucker) is going to think that’s an exit number. Anyway, this has nothing to do with sequence except that you should pretend this is signed “Exit 1”.
Now, 144 kilometres later, outside Stephenville, we come to Exit 2. Yes, they have sequential numbering on a 900+km road. I’m sorry, Newfoundland, that we in Nova Scotia were such a bad influence in this case. Sorry.
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