Blogging

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A bunch of short stories by Vincent Lauria

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I'm on a NY Airport Service bus right now to head to LGA Airport. I'm typing this into MS Notepad rather then connecting to the internet. There's something more natural about typing only raw text anyway, no sparkle.

Of course I'm running late, very late. It's 2:19 and my plane leaves at 3:30. I probably won't get to my terminal until exactly 3:00pm. But over the past few years, they always have those signs up that you can't check-in w/in 30min to departure. I've actually had it hold me back once. I really hope that doesn't happen this afternoon, so I have that anxious pit in my stomach of will I make the flight or not. Blogging has actually turned out to be quite comforting as it takes me away from starring out the window and calculating as each minute goes by. Check my phone, 2:19, put it away in my pocket, check it again, 2:19, damn the screen must be stuck. Turn it off then back on, still 2:19.

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Although I'm such a always connected to the internet type of geek, I haven't bothered plugging in my cell phone right now.

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The person across the isle from me just snapped his fingers and tilted his head. I know that feeling. Thats the action you take after your brain says, "You forgot to bring your sunglasses," or "You left the sink running with a dirty rag in the drain and a puppy at home that can't swim."

Last night I bought a labeler. It took me around 2 hours to pick out a labeler. Why would one buy a labeler you ask? Well, to adopt the GTD (Get Things Done) methodology by 43 Folders Wiki. GTD gives you ninja like qualities on task management. And who doesn't like ninjas?

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With wiki tags being so much easier then html tags, why not create a new wiki standard?

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Typing (and reading) on a bus makes me car sick. Or should that be bus sick?

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Txt msging rules. I'm on my way to the airport to head down to North Carolina. Tomorrow I'm heading into the IBM lab at Research Triangle Park to meet with some friends. It just occurred to me that other people I work with are down there too. I don't have their number with me though, and I would like to call them. I txt'd my friend Aneel and had him look them up in our directory. He just txt'd them back to me. That's awesome. I owe him a drink.

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Last night I turned on my TV for the first time in over a month. I still left the tape on though. Brian came over and we watched Morgan Spurlock's "30 days." A number of things didn't rub me the right way about this show. Mind you, I did enjoy "Super Size Me" although I did run right out across the street and order me a Big Mac. I don't even like McD's that much, but seeing all those burgers made me hungry.

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I'm at the airport now, it's only 2:39pm. I don't know how long until we get to Delta, but why do I always get so anxious? Why am I always running late?

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Back to "30 Days". First, it made me think that one of the reasons people don't like liberals is that they complain too much without offering a solution. They point their finger a lot without any regard on how to solve the entire problem. Yes, the hospitals maybe charging too much, but that's not the hospitals fault. So then the resort to making comments like (paraphrasing) 'and that's whats the problem with America.....' No, that's not what's wrong with America. There are many countries in this world that don't even have the facilities we have to even support the majority of the population. Damn girl on the show got a UTI (unary track infection.) While I don't know how painful this is, I've know girls who have gone though this and I've never heard of them waking their boyfriend up in the middle of the night to head to the emergency room. They were at least able to wait it out a bit to get to a doc. Alternatively, I guess that damn vegan can't eat yogurt or drink Cranberry juice.

Damn Morgan gets a sprained ankle from doing actually physical labor. He then goes to the emergency room to get it wrapped. Is he kidding me. Is he that much of a city boy?

The girl continues to complain how hard it is to work a full-time job? WTF is this? Brian says she's some sort of Vegan chef. Does she only work like 2-3 nights a week or something? I don't know about her, but I usually work 60+ hours a week. Yes, it might as physically exhausting as her job. But it's damn stressful and puts a toll on me. Do I complain, asking how people live this way?

The end of the episode continues to drive in how bad our health care system is. Why does it never occur to people that we all want different things. Some people want universal healthcare, and some people DON'T. The problem isn't the system, the problem is this misunderstanding. If you want to make some real changes, educate people on the BENEFITS of universal healthcare. Don't sit, complain, and point fingers without offering suggestions. Educate people on the benefits of universal healthcare. Point out the major pain-points of the current system. Suggest changes at all levels. Work to do better, don't work to whine.

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On the plane after a good 1.5 hour delay on the runway, boy was the boring. Good thing I downed a frozen margarita at the airport before boarding. I had a tough choice in front of me at the airport. It was 3:02 and my flight left at 3:30. There was a big sign with red letters that stated the gates close 15min before departure. That meant I had 10min to kill. Should I find a seat and listen to an audiobook, some mp3s? Should I find a power outlet and charge my laptop a bit while continuing to blog? Or should I find a bar and shotgun a frozen margarita in the matter of a few min. Thankfully, I stuck with my roots and grabbed a frosty alcoholic beverage.

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At the security gate, there was a TV with different messages coming across. One actually read: "You are not allowed to talk about or carry the following items" Then it went on to list pictures of explosives (with an animated timer of course) mace, grenades (I shit you not,) and finally a nice shiny picture of a handgun.