Random Thoughts on a Plane, etc.

my mind wanders on plane rides so i write down notes - no need to fool with "approved electronic devices" because i would just have to turn them off and sit for 10 - 20 minutes while we get ready to unload.

I had the tomato juice again :-) The conference was in Austin but they flew me way out of the way (to get a good ticket price? because I asked for "American"? who knows?)

Literally as I was boarding the plane Tuesday morning, the headline "Terror in the Air" was flashed on the TV screen - what perfect timing. I never found out what the news story was.

While I was waiting in an airport Friday afternoon a story was playing on TV of a plane that had to make an emergency landing because of an "unruly passenger". I didn't get to hear the whole story so, naturally, I made one up for myself.
Passenger #1 starts getting loud and won't listen to flight attendants. Passenger #2 (a muscular man, but scared of flying nonetheless) gets nervous that Passenger #1 is "trying to do something" (other than just being a jerk) and Passenger 2 punches Passenger 1 to shut him up (b/c #2 is really getting to be a Nervous Nellie by now). #1 is a bleeder & the plane has to make an emergency landing.

Who needs CNN when you have an overactive imagination? At least I amuse myself.

Every time we go to these educational conferences we come back with tons of promotional crap. This time was no different. I went prepared with a second carry-on bag stashed in my suitcase. I'm glad I took it. I was able to bring back the two-inch binder with the conference materials and another 2 inch binder & 1 inch binder that another conference attendee decided they didn't have room to take. I was also given a wall clock, a desk clock, a coffee mug (with arrows that I think are supposed to change colors when you add hot coffee), a costume jewelry necklace (the central registry was celebrating hitting "gold standard"), 2 "puzzle" desk clocks, a coffee mug with my company's logo, a personal fan (also with my company's logo), several assorted tote bags, a nice star-shaped paper weight (for chairing a committee), a nice Quill pen (as a thank you from my boss), and a pink "Cancer Sucks" hat that I won in a vendor drawing.

For wifey I bought: a special tote bag, a cookbook (she is an awesome cook) and a shirt from "Chuy's". For daughter I bought a notepad and cool pencil and a "Chuy's" t-shirt with a Dr. Suess-ish look to it. I also gave daughter the costume jewelry necklace. For me I bought two [bright yellow] luggage tags, a "Cancer Sucks" vinyl stick on for my car, several humorous buttons and a "Chuy's" t-shirt. I got the one that says "Our Gas Is Cheaper" for me.

My boss is a big fan of Chuy's so anytime we're in Austin, its a given that we'll be at Chuy's one night for dinner. At least the food is good.

It was easy to stay awake during the conference because it was a good conference. But as an added "perk", during some of the breaks "Starbucks" coffee was available (it was free but it was self-serve so don't be too envious ;-)

Thursday was too long because of a roundtable discussion (and an interesting story...)

During a layover Friday evening I stopped at T G I Fridays and split an appetizer with my good buddy from work. (He has moved his wedding from October 2006 to February 2007 so thats one less thing I'll be worrying about this year.) After the appetizer we each ordered some fudge dessert and I was too tired to eat! I spent most of Saturday and part of today just sacked out.

Super Long Week

Its been a L-O-N-G week. Stressful. Pictures and details later.

Austin

First of all - Tuesday's presentation went great (long, but great) and this afternoon went great, too. I want to send a HUGE Thank You to all my friends and family that were praying for me.

The powerpoint presentation that I gave this afternoon had 88 slides !!! Last night, after the first presentation, my boss asked me to include some other info that I had in today's presentation. So 4 powerpoint presentations (that had been distributed to a few people months ago) were combined into one HUGE presentation. Before I started we were 30 minutes ahead of schedule. My presentation took so long that it got us back on schedule.

The hotel is Super!

We are right next to the bridge where over a million Mexican free tail bats live - watching them come out in the evening is really neat. Pictures will be posted soon. According to the information plaques at the bat watching park, these flying rodents eat 10,000 - 30,000 pounds of insects every night !

More later...

Time Travel and Tomato Juice

A clock on the top of a high mountain ticks slower than a clock at sea level. Therefore, when I am in a plane at 37,000 feet I am aging slower than I do on the ground. However, I believe that, between the security checks and the added "G" forces of takeoff (etc, etc...); in the end it probably all works itself out and air travel is not actually causing me to age more slowly.

Shucks.

So is time travel possible? That depends on what you mean by "time travel".
We are all traveling through time at a rate of one second per second. Therefore, the assumption is that "time travel" would have to be something other than being irresistably dragged through linear time. I already know how to do that.

Is the Star Trek slingshot past the sun type "time travel" possible?... maybe.
Is the Superman spinning the planet backwards type "time travel" possible?...not a chance.

Why one and not the other? Simply this - the difference is in what is being moved and the speeds. The first is playing with the idea that once a body (the Starship Enterprise in this case) reaches light speed nobody really knows for certain what will happen. Since the regular "engines" on Enterprise exceed this speed on a regular basis, the gravity of a star (Sol) was thrown in to the mix to give "plausibility" (smile) to this unusual effect.

The second scenario has Superman flying around Earth at such ferocious speeds (but not near light speed, mind you) that his velocity causes the rotation of the planet to reverse and by doing so he reverses time, undoing Lois Lane's death. If Superman were to accomplish the spinning the planet part it would - at best - cause several dozen catastrophes and - at worst - liquefy the planet. The essential flaw of the Superman scenario is it's assumption that time is "caused" by the rotation of a planet, when in fact, time operates with or without planetary bodies. But of course, gravity does have some effect on it - ergo the different clock speeds.

While flying here I realized that every time I fly I ask for tomato juice AND almost the only time that I drink tomato juice is when I am flying. How weird is that?

(i'm just visiting this planet)

Public Speaking

Tuesday afternoon I will be giving a presentation to my state professional organization's Board of Directors. Then Wednesday afternoon I will be giving a similiar presentation at my state professional organization's Annual Educational Conference. Guesstimates are that there will be in the neighborhood of a couple hundred people at the second presentation.

Weird thing is, I'm not nervous. Not any more than any other time I travel for business. I am always a little apprehensive until I am physically on the plane. Then, after that, if I'm late its not my fault. :-)

My Trip to Paris, etc.

Well, first of all, the date on this post is a little deceptive. I started working on this as a draft on Aug 12 and then I got a little busy and wasn't able to finish it for posting until Aug 17. (not to mention that sometimes I am kinda OCD)

I told you on July 25 that I was "away from home". The entire truth is that I was traveling for work. What I didn't say on the blog was where I went. My employer sent me on a business trip to (insert fanfare) world famous Paris!!

Thats right, folks. I spent 5 days and 4 nights practically in the shadow of that world famous tower. I even took pictures with my cellphone to prove it!


(Thats a piece of one of my digits there in the bottom right of the photograph. I had to get in the picture somehow :-)
I realize that some of you have probably only seen the famed tower in movies but now you can say that you have a friend that has walked right underneath that most famous edifice of all - "The Tower in Paris Texas".

(I'll give you a minute to recover from the "celebrity shock" )

On the afternoon of Friday, July 28, I told you that my mom contacted me earlier that morning to tell me of the death of my Uncle.
This sad news also necessitated travel, as the funeral was several hundred miles from my home.

My parents left Saturday morning and my wife and daughter and I set out Sunday morning after church. On the advice of a good friend, instead of taking the big interstate highways we stuck to a smaller, older road that wound through small towns. This turned out to be really good advice because by missing the traffic in the larger metropolitan areas, we saved a good bit of time on the trip. Not to mention the fact that the scenery was nicer and we got to see some cool places that none of us had ever seen before.

I even saw this guy while I was waiting in line at a gas station.

When we arrived at our destination, pop already had a nice room for us.

The funeral was scheduled for Monday afternoon so we did some "family tree" sightseeing Monday morning during these few hours that we had so far away from home.

We went back to the house where my dad grew up - because of its "out of the way" location it hasn't been torn down and now it sits completely empty and unused. But don't get the picture in your head of some 'storybook cottage' tucked away just waiting to be swooped up. The house was being used as a storage barn in the mid eighties and the only thing that remains "structurally sound" is the chimney. That chimney will probably be standing long after I'm gone.

Anyway, pop took us to see his old school, too. Actually, he took us to see where his old school used to be.

Now all thats left is a pasture, a marker and the steps into the "schoolyard".

Daughter with marker. (Pasture in background)







Steps.
Pop grew up here because my grandfather was a "yard boss" for Total.

Total Pipeline Corporation has named one of their pumping stations for him.

Here is pop, daughter and me. (I can't remember if mom or wife took the picture but they were both there)

If you count the sign as proxy for grandpa then this would be a picture of four generations of Bivens.

I "painted out" the emergency contact number before posting the picture. (my friends are such comedians that I don't want to give them any ideas) The actual sign is in great shape.

Wife and I came back alone, (leaving daughter with granny and abuelo for a day or two) and, after seeing all the remaining family in the area, we started our return trip Monday evening.

South of Fort Worth, Texas I was excited to see a sign that said "Glen Rose". I didn't have any idea that we were gonna be that close to Glen Rose. I have wanted to visit the Creation Evidence Museum ever since I first heard of it (many) years ago. It was worth the admission fee for wife and I ($2 each).
Here I am sporting my "Young Life February Fling" t-shirt.

This intriguied me. It says
The Petrified Rose
Description: This is a man-made rose manufactured out of paper. The rose was then immersed in natural water from the hot-springs in Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic) for about 14 days. As a result, a layer of "rock", called aragonite, has built up on the rose. True petrification results when all of the original material of a once living organism has been replaced with minerals. Petrified wood is true petrification. This rose, however, demonstrates that rock formation can happen rapidly. The next time someone says it takes millions of years for rocks and fossils to form, show them your "petrified" rose.

hm.... who do I know that believes in old rocks....

Two Brave Men

You just have to see this video for yourself. Long live Free Speech! Even though:
1) their signs are on their chests [not waving around in the air on sticks] and
2) the men are not chanting or shouting,
the large crowd [mostly men between 18-45] finds it impossible to ignore them!

I originally thought that this was video of a couple brave Frenchmen. But, according to the English text under the video, one is Danish-American and (while it is possible that the other man might be French) he too has a Nordic surname.

The two bravest men in France aren't French - go figure :-)

Long Week

Saturday, after traveling last week for work, I turned on the laptop and got the dreaded "Blue Screen" and going through setup to the "Return to last known good configuration" (or something like that) did not help.

Sunday, my family traveled roughly 12 hours to attend my uncle´s funeral. I was able to see my brother for about a half hour on the way up. He wasn´t able to go to the funeral - he was really bummed out that he couldn´t go. The funeral was Monday. We took two days to make the drive back and on the way back I stopped at a museum that I have always wanted to see.

I will return to work tomorrow and I´ll also try to get the laptop fixed tomorrow - today I am accessing the net from my brother-in-law´s cyber cafe.
That reminds me, I´m hungry - more later...