The longest trip I’ve taken was the best and worst. I happened to take a flight where the airliner never got to the runway.. The plane spent over 3 hours on the tarmac and delayed getting to the next leg of the flight to Philadelphia. When I got to philly I missed my connection, this is where things go from aggravating to bad.
US airways redirected me from a direct flight to CDG airport in France. The problem was they could not find pilots for the flight. so after hours of delay they finally find some pilots. The pilots got on the plane after a delay and as we were taxiing the pilot announces that they are returning to the gate because they had too many flight hours. Back to the gate we go, Defeated and hungry.
I did not know US airways screwed up my itinerary while they did redirect me towards Europe they made a mistake on the computers, They had my paper routing set to Orlando rather than Arlanda somehow the US airways employee fat fingered my location. So if we review my flight plan, It was supposed to be BOS to PHI to ARN , Somehow US airways had me from BOS to PHI to CDG to MCO to ARN?
To this point I had spent 1.5 – 2 hours – Logan Airport ,5 hours – broken plane out of gate – philidelphia airport inside of plane, 45 minutes – 1 hour – attempt #2 at taking off Philadelphia airport illegal flight crew., 5 hours – inside gate 22(?) at airport finding new crew.
to this point we’d been past the gates, with most amenities closed, me starving and other passengers in the same state we had asked for food, the flight attendants gave us a lavish meal of a Soda and a package of pretzels to which I still have to this day.
After getting off the flight and entering paris airport. from all the delays from the start of the flight I tried to find any help possible for my next flight because the connection time was only less 15 minutes(or passed by 15 mins) or so to Stockholm , so finding that the plane leaves from gate 7(?) again across an entire airport.
While I headed across this airport I realized that the setup of the airport is a horrible horrible setup. The airport was very hard to navigate your way through to get to your next location . figuring that I am already 24 hours overdue to my receiving friends I figured that I should reach out to them, I grabbed my phone out of the carry on and Tried to dial *dead* tried again *dead*. I did not know at that the time but T-mobile messed up and set another phone on the account for international travel and my phone to receive international calls. I put the phone away and hoped i would catch the flight and figured worst case I would figure out what to do in Stockholm. I ran to the gate across the cavernous airport with the people mover treadmills and got to my gate and to my dismay the flight was not listed. I found an english speaking person and asked about the flight and it had left an hour beforehand.
Defeated, I decided to make my way to the US airways ticket booth.. and there I realised I won my next prize, they were closed and would not be open till monday a full 24 hours till the booth opened. I managed to spend all of my time in the airport with a few excursions into france because I was bored out of my mind. Given I had not slept, I knew if I sat down I would pass out and I was still analyzing the situation to figure out what to do . I did eventually sit down and my carry-on with on me but not attached to me. There is nothing like waking up with guns in your face asking about your luggage. Given I was scared, Lost, Exhausted I kept trying to do my best not to piss off another country. The problem was every time I fell asleep I would wake up with some very attentive military types. Given it was their third visit and me not having a cigarette in over 2 days I noticed one of them had a pack on them, I gave them a short explanation to my plight and they seemed to take compassion in it. They said hold on and actually brought me out a door that I was not supposed to be out and let me smoke one of their cigarettes.
The Charles De Gaulle Airport security guys were amped but actually very nice. I joked with them where I might end up next. Due to having my bag strapped to my shoulder so long it had actually caused it to bleed fairly bad and I was starting to look like Bruce Willis in die hard. The next twenty four hours had me in a haze. The next morning I was actually able to have the breakfast of champions which was two Heinekens and a basket of rolls .
My next discovery in the airport was the internet kiosk, after my breakfast of the gods, I had some euro coin and it was enough to get on the computer for 10 minutes and cost 15 euros. I loaded up every session possible of Connected messengers, and at the time offline messages were not a thing. And I watched the time count down in desperation for ANYONE to log in. As I watched the time remaining drop into the sub two minute range, A good friend logged in and my typing WPM was likely 400 because I typed an entire book to my friend which was something like “Hey I am at the wrong airport , my flights were diverted my phone doesnt work my card locked up when trying to get money , Call my mother tell her i am fine . tell my mother to call my father and tell him that i am stuck in CDG airport. Contact US embassy please help, US Airways trying to divert me to MCO ” at the 30 second mark my friend said “ok” and I watched my connection die.
Happy I had made a hello world from the wrong part of the world gave me a bit of reserve. I went back to my area I was sitting and listening and hoping someone would find me. Not realizing the whole time over the PA they were calling my name and I was not paying attention to local dialect. My name is pronounced differently in france and suddenly my gun toting friends found me in the airport and they brought me to US airways booth. Now that part of things I had people I had hope and the first thing that the US airways desk agent says is “do you realize that you have a flight to MCO Orlando, at that point I said why on earth would I come to france and divert to orlando when my destination was Arlanda !” The desk agent made a call and what I could see in his hurried voice over the phone turning to abject terror realizing what exactly was happening.
The Desk agent suddenly was a flurry of calls, they routed a call to the US to my parents to say I was alive. My mother was freaking out, I told them to call my father instead, I gave him the story and he said he’d call back. They gave him the number to the desk. after a short bit Mr Gate agent’s phone rang, I knew he was talking about me and looking at me. Little did I realize that US officials got involved, I was shifted to the Pilots lounge. I had a celebratory rum and coke and just marvelled how fucked up US airways was. My Cell phone rang, it was my father saying he straightened things out and had help from US gov. Sipping away at my rum and coke and finally relaxing, Mr Gate agent comes in and says I cant stay in the lounge, I finish my Rum and coke and they finally have me routed to ARN through germany, I tested my debit card on mcdonalds and to say the least it was a completely different experience than USA. When they called me on the plane , they set me up in first class, which is an experience in itself.
The flight attendants treated me like royalty and honestly at the point I did not care, because I was getting closer to my destination. After another switch and window seats to which I love I saw my first glimpse of Sweden and realized the beginning of the beginning of my Journey was nearing its end.
Landing in ARN Stockholm.. getting off the plane and going to the belt to get my luggage I watched everyone’s luggage go around the belt. Ten pieces turned into 8 pieces that drew down to nothing left on the belt. I left the belt area to go to the US airways booth to be told my luggage was not there so I was left with a month to go no clothing to go through my trip , my stuff in my luggage was somewhere else. The irony here, My luggage took a different journey, BOS -PHI- CDG- NYC – MCO – PHI – ARN it came three weeks into my trip to which point I welcomed my luggage like an old friend and laughed that someone from ARN drove 3 hours to bring it to me.
Honestly, The trip was the best in my life, I had Friends, food , Surströmming(yes that one, No it was not bad, It was prepared by a chef), Beer, Swedish Culture, Walking around sweden give you an idea of how big and small the world is all at the same time and how Sweden’s Culture of Lagom is something to aspire to..
Dunkin Donuts is at it again with a new advertising campaign but, I can’t help but laugh every time I’ve seen the commercials. “You kin do it!” But, Seeing the words makes me think of another thing besides brand recognition.
Dunkin Donuts has appearently spent $100million on this new campaign which i find funny. The Waterboy movie on the otherhand spent $23 million making the movie and by any figure the 18 seconds of time Rob Shneider spent saying that line in the movie cost $76662. Dunkin spent $100,000,000 on this so far in three 30 second TV spots. So really it would be just cheaper to hire Rob Shneider for 90 Seconds at $383,310 vs $100 million. And people wonder why businesses are crying for a bailout?
well today is thanksgiving and Peter, Anna and Andreas have travelled back to Sweden on Monday, the Morning after they left i woke up sort of confused as to what to do rather than having something to do. The time they have spent here i had alot of fun, From our trip to New York , Boston than Lincoln. Also I cant forget Donny
One of the weirder things i did while on this trip was pay attention to what coffee was around, generally in boston it was carpet bombed with dunkin donuts and Starbucks. but there was a silver lining to the coffee side of things if you are in boston. Honey Dew Donuts DOES EXIST there, on the morning we went to salem, at the South station i spotted Honey dew donuts and thought i died. After 2 days of dunkin donuts seeing a honey dew was like finding a diamond. Dunkin donuts has Literally clusterfucked boston with shops.
Or are they kidnapping them and forcing them to forms of torture that they wouldn’t even do in Guantanamo bay? Dunkin Donuts has been known for serving coffee that taste like burnt ass or as bluesteel would say my old cesspool. Apparently they have a special going on which i find kind of funny since this article states that dunkin donuts is looking out for the java loving joe…
From the article,
When times are tough and money’s tight – don’t despair, Dunkin’ Donuts has your back.
For a moment i thought to myself Interesting but, I read further..
Today the coffee giant ushers in an era of cheap lattes to get you through the afternoon energy slump. Starting this afternoon, DD will offer 99-cent small lattes between the hours of 2 p.m. – 5 p.m., available in caramel, mocha or pumpkin. It’s apparently available for a “limited time only.
Look closely at that… somethings wrong… Oh yeah No normal person can get a coffee in those hours unless they work 2nd or 3rd shift, I can see that fly at an office “hey boss I’m going to get myself a cheap coffee at dunkin, ok?” as the boss glares at you and says sit down asshat and drink the office coffee. Although I think the final comment was the kicker..
And check this out to read about other ways New Yorkers are cutting costs as the economy crumbles
Just what we need, people tweaked out on coffee as the stock market goes in the toilet or is that goes to the toilet after having cheap dunkin donuts latte? My thought on this is Ditch the dunkin and either make your own coffee or find a local mom and pop coffee shop, often times there cheaper and will apprecaite your money alot more than dunkin donuts or starbucks would.
This month is comming up on me having the Wii console for 1 year.. How has the Wii stood up as time has progressed? After owning the wii this long, there have been a few thoughts i’ve had as far as how the system has matured, Honestly the system is still good but still needs to grow up a bit.
I Do Still pay with the wii, but Not nearly as often as I used to due to the fact of a lack of games with depth to them, Some games do come out with depth but, the issue is quantity. The fact that developers have shunned the Wii kind of makes for an interesting senario. Sure its taken the market by storm but, im seeing where the Wii’s weakness is, theres just not the title market out there. Forevery good game for the system theres a SHITLOAD of vomitware for the system and it shows, Goto gamestop and look on there used shelves and you will see TONS of craptastic games.
As far as price has gone, The wii is not the lowest man on the ladder due to the x-box 360’s agressive pricecuts but in the long run the Wii is cheaper due to the online component being cheaper (Free). The Wii’s online component severely is lacking still due to lack of interaction in games, If you play Mario Kart Wii , Theres just no feeling to it due to the lack of interaction between players. Sure you can see the asshat that just knocked you off the track as you swear your brains out at the screen but, does the person on the other side of the connection know your mad …. NO. They did add keyboard support awhile back but, its so unused the most it maybe used for is to put in a creditcard number for more Wii Points, Nintendo could highly benifit from at least adding chatroom or some other way to talk to players while using the system.
The system has been pretty faithful to me with one exception of having the send in the wii to Nintendo for service. But The repairs were extremely quick and had the system back within the span of one week.
While the Wii’s gaming library has some good games that come out every few months, I’ve never really been stuck in a situation of a choice to make over one game to another. Nintendo’s first party titles are pretty much unmatched in terms of gaming on the system theres a few noted exceptions such as Raving Rabbids, No More Heroes, Final Fantasy Fables, and Starwars the force unleashed but, The lack of quality 3rd party titles I think is my biggest mark against the system.
Given that fall us upon us maybe we will see the Wii mature a bit or maybe we will see the Wii not Mature. I said wii huh-huh-huh…
Back from California, the wedding was a blast, it was a crazy week overall. I’ve seen more of californias roads than Ill see in my next lifetime but all in all it was fun. the first day was just getting settled and just seeing around. we ate at a burger place that was interesting, basically you get a list and pick out what you want on the burger , well me not sure about anything I followed the lead of keith and ordered the 2/3 pound burger not knowing what to expect. Little did i relize it was his first time ordering from there as well so we both got surprized by this monsterous burger. Its a good thing 1 pound burger was not ordered.
Well as of today I am off to california, I do not know what to expect but it should be fun . Ill update this as the days i am there . Since i’ce been up all night i ended up getting one of those coffees that could Jumpstart a nuclear reactor. Ill sleep on the plane =p . Anyways i could use a break from the 10+ inches of rain we have had in the last 2 weeks here.
