from 35,000 feet

This entry involves a couple of firsts for me. It is my first time blogging at 35,000 feet, first time flying business class, and first time heading to Asia. As I am writing, I am over Canadian airspace in the middle of a 6500 mile, 13-hour flight. I am already starting to feel out of sync with time. It's 4:00 PM east coast time and bright as anything outside the window, but it feels like 4:00 AM in my head right now. Then again, it could be all the wine I've had to enjoy. This business class thing is really a treat. A seat that reclines to 170-something degrees, enough food for a king, maybe this is how they keep people quiet—by feeding them and by keeping the alcohol flowing. Even so, there are still a couple of jerks up here who seem like they’ve never been nice to anyone in their life—classless people flying in class. Oh, and people upstairs pass gas just as much as the folks downstairs. (To the guy sitting in front of me, don’t think I don’t know that it’s you...) I really don't get those sorts of people, they have it so nice in business but yet they find a way to be grouchy and pushy about everything. Heck, I’m just happy that I get a meal and some drinks with my flight. Just to give you an idea of how ridiculously stuffed I am, since takeoff I’ve had: a cup of mixed nuts (no peanuts, plenty of pistachios), a baby potato topped with creme fraiche and caviar, a teriyaki chicken skewer, mixed greens salad, bread, sesame glazed steelhead salmon with basmati rice and sautéed spinach, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in a chocolate bowl, cookies, and a skewer of fresh fruit, all washed down with some wine, amaretto, and green tea. I’m pretty full right now. Still yet to come on the menu: a mid-flight snack of ramen noodles and pizza, and a breakfast of salmon and beef tenderloin before landing at 4:00 PM local time. I just came back from a walk downstairs in the main cabin as well. Next time I fly economy, I’ll be missing the spoiled treatment I’ve been receiving in business.

On a techie note, my in-flight entertainment system and seat controls are an aberration in user interface design. I consider myself a pretty tech-savvy person, but there are 17 buttons that control my seat, 21 buttons to control the television and lights, and a slew of menus on the monitor—I’m thoroughly confused. Why do I need 17 buttons to do what a lay-z-boy recliner and do with one wooden lever? To me, the user interface design is bad when I have to look up the help page to understand what all the buttons do. I just checked, my company doesn’t make the in-flight entertainment system in this airplane. I hope whoever made the in-flight entertainment system didn’t make the cockpit avionics either—my entertainment system crashed halfway through a movie and had to reboot. Turns out the thing runs on Linux.

Finally, is a Boeing 747 normally supposed to use the entire length of the runway to take off?

january 2007 photography meetup events

This is a listing of and invitation to some photography-related events that Washington Photography Meetup is organizing this month of January. Click on the event links for the full details and to RSVP.

January Monthly Meetup
Wednesday 10 January, 7:30 pm
Foster Brothers Coffee in Cleveland Park
Bring some recent photos you've taken to share. Grab a cup of coffee and have a chat with your fellow DC photography enthusiasts. Bring your ideas for 2007 meetup events as well :)

National Geographic Wildlife Photography Exhibit
Sunday 14 January, 3:00 pm
National Geographic Museum (Explorers Hall)
An easy-going Sunday meetup to check out the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2006 exhibit, a collection of about 100 photographs (amateur and professional) on display until 4 Feb. There's a Caribou Coffee down the street -- chances are we'll duck over there afterwards.

Adams Morgan Morning with the Montgomery County Photography Meetup
Monday 15 January, 8:00 am
Dupont Circle Metro Station
The Montgomery County Photography Meetup group is having a morning photography outing in Adams Morgan on Martin Luther King Day. They are meeting at 8:00 am at Dupont Circle then walking to Adams Morgan. Details and RSVP info are on their Adams Morgan event description.

Photography Assignment #2
due Saturday 20 January
This is an easy one -- pick one to three of your favorite photos you took over the holidays or these first few weeks of 2007 to share. You are welcome to submit photographs that capture the essence of the holidays, the holidays in your hometown/travel destination, or photos that you took for fun during the holidays that you want to to share with everyone else. The resulting collection should be an interesting mix of photos that show how us DC folk spread out, geographically and perspective-wise, during a typical holiday season :)

Photography Assignment #3
due Tuesday 30 January
The abstract topic of the month is "winter." What does winter mean to you? Black and white scenes? Black overcoats all around? Cold rain? The bread, milk, and toilet paper frenzy at the grocery store before a snowstorm? The interpretation is open-ended and left up to you, the photographer.

Monuments and Memorials in the Snow
On the first day it snows with accumulation of at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch.
RSVP Yes to this event if you want to receive a "go / no go" email to meet up at the Vietnam Veterans / Korean War / WWII memorial when snowy conditions are pending. Be sure to click the event description for details as to how this event will work since we don't really know when it will snow and accumulate at least a quarter to a half inch.

U.S. Botanic Garden (Capitol Grounds)
Late January / Early February
Stay tuned for the announcement with the details... we're still making plans, but we wanted to let you know what's coming up.

Hope everyone's 2007 is off to a great start!

best indian food ever

Sorting through mountains of paper I've accumulated over the years, I came across an orange tri-fold takeout menu for the best Indian restaurant I've ever eaten at, Priya Indian Cuisine in Hokitika, New Zealand (tourist info, wikipedia entry). Hokitika is a small town on the west coast of NZ, mainly consisting just a small set of jade shops for travelers that are passing through right off a black sand beach. (All beaches on NZ's west coast have black sand, while beaches on NZ's east coast have white sand.)

I've had plenty of good Indian food before and since then, but there's something about the food at Priya that stood out. It wasn't even a fancy restaurant or anything, I remember it being the only restaurant that was open at the time, after 9pm. I can only dream of finding a Chicken Tikka Masala that can match up here in the US.

Back to sorting and cleaning… I think I have between 10–20 pounds of paper destined for recycling tomorrow.