Angus == beefy
I'm quickly getting to the point where there's not going to be a whole lot more to say about progress on Angus. He's in pretty good shape now - all my byte-swapping issues appear to be behind me and the game seems to be running nearly bug-free. Of course, "seems to be" and "is" are two very different things when it comes to programming, and I hope to spend a lot more time playing it in the near future to ensure that there aren't any bugs lurking and get it prepped for QA. So call it mid-alpha if you will. :)
And in the realm of things that give me night terrors, I'll be flying out to Austin this afternoon for a quick "orientation" meeting at Aspyr, and flying back to Phoenix tomorrow afternoon. Going to Aspyr isn't the terror part...
I'll be blunt - I hate flying, and I'm a big baby about it. Glenda was nice enough to schedule me on a non-stop flight (which isn't too hard from Phoenix since it's a major hub for Southwest and America West). What I didn't notice until today is that both legs of the trip are on a "regional" jet. Maybe you know the type - 19 rows, 2 seats on each side, and your head can almost touch the ceiling when standing in the aisle. What makes flying uncomfortable for me (aside from the notion of plummeting to earth at supersonic speeds in a ball of fire) is all the "stuff" that happens in mid air: turbulence, the sensation of turning, being up high, and the whine of engines as they rev up and down, up and down throughout the flight.
To me, these things are amplified considerably on these smaller jets. One thing I hate in particular is the engine revving noise - it makes me wonder just what's going on out there, if the engine is getting ready to stall, why is it getting louder, those kinds of things. I like flying on Boeing 737 planes because the engines are out on the wings and it's harder to hear the engine noise (plus, that seems to be a good place for them - away from me!) I don't like the MD-80 class planes or these small regional jets for that same reason.
But the biggest concern I have is air turbulence, or "chop" as the pilots like to call it. This causes in me what you could charitably call discomfort, and while I have no scientific evidence to back it up, it always seems worse to me in a small plane. I've found that if I do word-search puzzles (particularly 'number' word searches) and drink red wine in-flight, I can mostly distract myself. The wine helps the most, but I'm not sure I want my co-workers to pick me up from the airport in a drunken state. :)
I've done the drive from Phoenix to Austin three times now, and it's 1000 miles and 14 hours of the most desolate landscape you can imagine. It's OK from Arizona to just south of Tucson ("The Thing? What is it?") but El Paso is a complete dump and there must be 500 miles of nothing between El Paso and Austin, with barely a truck stop to line the way. So perhaps 2 hours of extreme discomfort beats 14 hours of absolute boredom. Now if there were a train that ran between the two, I could take my laptop and get some work done... :)
Comments
The Jack Ryan's syndrom.
Posted by: Anonymous & Coward | October 27, 2003 11:34 AM
I've always enjoyed flying. This still remains the case even having lost a relative in a plane crash in 1998 (Swissair flight 111). I could start rattling off some statistics but I'll spare you the boredom of that.
On the other hand, I semi agree with you regarding turbulence. I've a fairly high threshold for turbulence (I've flown in a four seater Cessna more than once) but severe turbulence still upsets my stomach after a while. Having said that, give me turbulence any day over a sea crossing on the "vomit comet" in a force eight gale.
http://www.photo-transport.co.uk/ferries/hss/hss.htm
Posted by: Richard Bannister | October 27, 2003 03:59 PM
I have a friend who hates flying. Before or right after getting on the plane, he takes some Nyquil and is usualy out before the plane takes off.
Posted by: Dale McLaughlin | October 27, 2003 06:34 PM
Try 16 hours non-stop from Chicago O'Hare to Tokyo, Japan this summer. That flight SUCKED like something fierce. The only upshot was on the way back we were able to get loaded because Tokyo's airport is like a resort and has everything, including beer vending machines and two or three 7-11's spread out throughout the place with cheap beer :)
Posted by: Alex Lawrence-Richards | October 27, 2003 11:51 PM
16 hours? I can beat that - 24 hours in the plane from Vancouver, Canada to Pune, near Mumbai (Bombay), India, last Christmas. Add to that a four hour stopover in Frankfurt and a six hour wait in Dehli, plus a four hour delay in Mumbay due to fog/smog.
On the way back, the trip actually took three days from Pune to Vancouver. Got to Delhi only to get grounded by fog. Stayed the night without access to our luggage (ie no toothbrush, toothpaste, or fresh socks or undies). We were finally cleared for takeoff the next afternoon, but landed in Frankfurt after midnight - no planes leave after midnight, so spent an additional night in Frankfurt with no toothbrush, toothpaste, or fresh socks or undies. Needless to say, things were getting a little ripe by the time I got home.
Posted by: Jean-Luc Dinsdale | October 28, 2003 11:32 PM