Observation Deck

Notes from some recent travel over the Thanksgiving holidays:

Dear airline: changing my non-stop 4-hour direct flight into a three-legged route lasting over eight hours is totally not cool.

The express security lane at most airports is improperly utilized. Most people will opt out of the lane because they travel so infrequently that they assume they are not "expert" travelers. They give you the criteria for expert travel on the poster. The result is that no one uses the lane, and when the regular lane backs up, the TSA folks start routing everyone into the empty expert lane, effectively negating the purpose of the expert travel lane.

I finally experienced one of the cuisinart-style full body scanners, in Tulsa of all places - there was no such scanner on my outbound from Newark. They are no big deal. What is odd is that apparently, my double-timed trouser waist appeared as a belt, so I got a light putdown anyway.

My biggest complaints about how ridiculous airport security has become are based on what's already transpired. I normally carry a laptop bag, a purse, and a carry-on bag. In the winter, I have a coat. To pass through security I need no fewer than three trays, and sometimes more depending on the agent: laptop, shoes and coat, laptop bag and purse. If I'm lucky, my carry-on liquids can share a ride with my purse. The degree to which I have to completely disassemble my ensemble is ridiculous, especially if you multiply it out over the thousands of other travelers every day. At some point, we'll all be shipping our luggage priority mail and wearing sweatsuits and Crocs, modern-day monks with no real possessions.

The TSA needs to be consistent on whether or not we need our boarding passes out to pass through the security checkpoint.

My main complaints about security are not the security level required, it's that it is implemented so badly.

Jacksonvile Airport: you're supposed to put sinks in the bathroom. You know, for washing hands. It's all the rage at other airports.

Contrast

Two items in the NYT this morning stand in sharp relief to one another. First, there is a review of the latest Call of Duty video game, a first-person shooter in which the player takes part in any number of fictional yet historically-framed gunfights during the Cold War. In the other, Bob Herbert writes elegeically about Restrepo, a documentary released earlier this Fall about a USMC platoon holding a tiny outpost in Afghanistan.

Together, these two pieces touch on strong feelings, sometimes conflicted, that I have about the military.

For those who don't know already, I was an army brat. My dad was in the US Army band, but also trained to fight as a solider like everyone else. We lived on or near army bases, and I don't bat an eye at the sight of tanks, personnel carriers, artillery, or even a simple fighting man in uniform. That last one, of course, is the most deadly.

I also play shooting games, wandering through three-dimensional palaces of pop-up targets, throwing switches, dropping virtual grenades while carrying an arsenal of assault rifles, pistols, and the occassional target designator with which I can call in orbital bombardment.

I tend towards the more science fictional and fantastical games because they are far enough removed from reality that I can discuss them with friends as a diversion, like any other, as if I were watching a fantasy film or a Z-grade zombie masterpiece. When I try to play the Call of Duty games, I can't help but feel the tug of empathy, knowing that actual soldiers, guys the age of my baby brother, are in actual wars actually shooting and being shot at by other people.

I wouldn't go so far as to say there's a danger that I, a woman in her thirties, will fail to distinguish between fantasy and reality. It's not like I'm going to pick up a gun in real life and set out, bullets blazing. It's more like, I have trouble squaring my knowledge that the fantasy sets out to be realistic yet entertaining, and the reality is much more terrible than could ever be entertaining.

Then again, I know a lot of soliders play these games. They play to practice squad work, the play for fun, they play to get psyched up. the US Army happily provides Xboxes and a variety of games. Even my brother, a Coast Guard reservist, has told me his team plays a certain Call of Duty level to practice their vessel boarding procedures.

I decided a while ago I'd no longer delve into Manhattanite intellecual hand-wriging over the effect and interplays these games have on our culture and political direction. I'm also less concerned about being an outlier demographic - I play because Iam pertty good at these games and it's an outlet for my competitive side.

That said, I still feel a jar, a disconnect, something, when I see games that position themselves as realistic in tone if not outcome, and think about the thousands of people, men and women alike, serving overseas, whose perspective would provide the ultimately objective distinction between fantasy and reality.

The Frisco

Stashing a link here: the Frisco, a nice little drink:

http://nyti.ms/8ZAEIW

Variations of rye, lemon juice, and Benedictine.

In the News

US midterm elections are next week. Lots in thew news about that. A conversation with our resident conservative ("to the right of Atilla the Hun") reveals near pity for Obama's campaign efforts. For myself, from what I've read, things won't be too bad for the Democrats. What I'm concerned about is some of the reasoning I've heard for Tea Party candidates: "they're not Democrats." That's as bas as a Democrat who votes for a bad Democrat because "They're not Republicans". I'm really unhappy with how polarized politics has become - though to be fair, I can remember back to Reagan's first campaign for President, and it wasn't much better then than now, or at any point along the way.

Apple is apparently not going to sell their white iPhone 4G, ever, which is a shame because I was thinking I would buy one. Apparently there are problems with light leaking through the white material to the camera lens, so photos and videos are blown out. Guess I'll go back to my original plan of waiting for iPhone 5 . . .and getting an Android device.

Will someone please debunk this video clip of a "cel phone in Charlie Chaplin film" clip that is going around? Does anyone realize that for someone to use the phone, they would also have to time travel back a cellular network . . .which you'd think someone would have noticed when the modern network was rolled out?

Speed

September went by fast. October is going even faster.

Weird to realize that I was actually finishing up a summer class the week before Labor Day. I had to write a long paper (apparently, not long enough). And then fall classes started up at the end of September, which was just two weeks ago, but already feels like a lifetime.

I'm taking three courses, two of which dovetail nicely: Corporate Governance and Bankruptcy. The first focuses on how boards of firms and non-profits make decisions and do their job; recently we have focused on CEO compensation. The Bankruptcy class is taught by Ed Altman, something of a father in the field, and focuses on measuring risk and identifying firms that can be invested in during a distressed state. Several guess speakers from either class may as well have addressed the other. Where was Lehman's board in the run-up to it bankruptcy? How do boards manage their managers in a turnaround situation? It's all very, very interesting.

Alas, it goes by very quickly. Both of these courses are six weeks long, and we are already three weeks in to the semester. I have papers due in each next week.

In the meantime, the weather has turned from warm to mild to downright chilly; the Indian Summer evening of Fashion Night Out has been replaced by a snap that requires layers in the morning. In just over a month it will be Thanksgiving, and then sure enough Christmas. My life is planned out at work as projects underway should hopefully be resolved by then.

Then, there is also the Big Project, which will have to be detailed in another post.

Space Cowboy

Just for fun I've been watching an old Gene Autry serial, "The Phantom Empire". Twelve episodes in total, it follows the adventures of Gene and his myriad sidekicks as they tangle with the forces of a secret, high-tech empire located miles below the surface of the earth.

It has all the hallmarks of a prewar serial: impossible escapes, revealed to be possible in the next reel; a dashing hero; plot holes the size of Texas, and repetitive, expository dialog, along the lines of, "we must get to the control room", for those who missed the previous reel. The sets are silly by modern standards, but made with love - there's a sense that this was done on the cheap, but with a sincerity that more elaborate effects in the modern era rarely muster.

The main plot goes something like this: A group of industrialists seek to develop the area for its radium deposits (radium being something akin to Avatar's uobtainium - that is, a miracle material). While riding out and about, Gene Autry's kid sidekicks, Frankie and Betsy, spot a group of "Thunder Riders" who disappear into a cave. Framed for murder, Gene Autry is on the run and stumbles across the cave and into the secret kingdom of Maurania, where he is captured and sentenced to death. Meantime, an opposing faction within the empire rescues Gene (shades of Flash Gordon) and the serial plays out as Gene and company dodge the law, the industrialists, and the Mauranians. Eventually, the Queen redeemed, Maurania is destroyed, and the surface dwellers return and clear Gene's name.

So far, this is pretty standard science fiction: a hero, a couple of kids, some comic relief, derring-do, and a mysterious, advanced, fantastic setting contrasting with everyday life. What's bizarre is that the film retains Gene Autry's identity as a singing cowboy. A repeated plot element has him rushing to get back to "radio ranch", where his band apparently gathers and patiently awaits for him to show up for each broadcast. Apparently if he misses even one broadcast, his backers will cancel the show and they'll lose the ranch - to the industrialists, no less. There are not less than three points where Gene either rides in at the last minute or radios in a performance, narrowly averting a cash flow crisis.

Home Hunting

The best conversations start out with, "DId your lawyer put you up to this?"

I exaggerate, but not by much. Phrased a bit more politely, that was what the realtor asked me on the phone today in response to my counter-counter offer. I had indicated I might accept the seller's counter-offer but wanted to confirm with my lawyer first. As I explained to the realtor, what also happened was that some other properties I have had my eye on came down in price.

Here is the place I am looking at. The brochure is conveniently in PDF form at Columbia:

The unit is in the top building, lower row, middle column, to the left, like an upside-down L.

What I really like is the jet-age artist's rendering. I'm not sure where you're supposed to see that view from. That said, it is nice to be right next to the river. If I had more money I'd get a west-facaing apartment.

http://nyre.cul.columbia.edu/projects/view/17329

Explained

Well this explains the CSU vans in front of the precinct building and the news vans in front of the hospital.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/after-some-40-shots-in-harlem-one-dead-and-5-hurt-including-2-officers/?ref=nyregion