Category Archives: portable

Things to make portable computing, photography, anything really, easier to do.

The Laundry Internet Bar (sort of)

Posted on May 24, 2006 | Leave a comment

So Dearborn isn’t really the kind of town to have a bar and laundromat all-in-one. But my around-the-corner bar is right across the street from a laundromat and the bar just added WiFi so it works for me. It was time to wash the comforter for my bed, I’ve got a pretty big washer but it’s just too big to fit, hence the laundromat. Plus it’s one of the days they’ve got happy hour food, so I’ve got pizza and wings to go with my Long Island and it’s not too smokey. I’ve got all this and laundry cooking across the street, it couldn’t be much better unless they had outside seating :)

Leave a comment

Posted in me + myself + i

Tagged , , ,

So Delta completely failed us.

Posted on April 30, 2006 | Leave a comment

It took them over three hours to decide to finally cancel our flight. That’s three hours after it was scheduled to depart, that’s not even factoring in that they had to have some idea there would be problems before the flight was even supposed to leave . We had a plane but no pilots, you’d think that wouldn’t be so hard to keep track of and keep us informed. I know I’m a little crabby from traveling but I’ve definitely been treated better than I was with the way the system worked tonight. If they would have canceled it hours before that I’d have been fine with it but I should have been home two hours ago and I’m just finally in a hotel. They’ve got free WiFi in the lobbys/resturants which is a bonus, but I’d rather have the A/C working…

Please let me clarify: I understand things can be beyond their control, but at 7:30 when they are telling us at when the pilots land at LaGuadia around 7:45 they’ll taxi over and it takes until 10 PM to tell us they can’t get pilots they don’t really care about the customers. All they have to do was keep us informed. If they would have told me at 8 I would have gladly went over to the hotel, ate and gone to bed. They just dragged it out and the story they gave us doesn’t make sense.

We didn’t get anything but a hotel room and a $7.00 voucher for dinner (that’s about 1/2 a burger at the hotel, everything at the airport was closed). Anyone have a good number or address at Delta for me to complain to? Please let me know. (Delta, if I misheard and there’s a free round-trip ticket in the mail for me, I’ll gladly correct this post…)

Leave a comment

Posted in Egypt 2006, general, holidays + events

Tagged , ,

Free WiFi at the Cairo Airport

Posted on April 30, 2006 | 2 comments

So I’m at the Cairo Airport ready to head to JFK and they’ve got FREE WiFi! In case you haven’t noticed while things are cheap here, nothing is free. So we’re very early for our flight but I’m ready, two weeks was long enough to be away from home. Egypt was wonderful, but I’m ready for my own bed and to have the ability to drink tap water and not be afraid to accidentally rinse after I brush my teeth.

2 Comments

Posted in Egypt 2006, holidays + events

Tagged , ,

Luxor Ruins

Posted on April 20, 2006 | Leave a comment

In Luxor we’re staying at the Sofitel Pavilion Winter Palace it’s pretty grand (but our rooms need a refurbish) and I’ve got a great view (see photos).

We’ve been to Karnak (I just posted a few more pictures some with people in it go give a sense of scale) and the Luxor Temple (shots also posted, the night shots are from here) and the temple and more. I’ve got so many more photos (and stories) but not enough time…

We did a sunset boat ride. And tomorrow we’re crossing the nile to see the sun rise. I’ve got to be up and ready to leave at 4:30 am, plus I’ve got to be packed because we go the ship right after and we’ll be on the Nile for 4 days!

I’m so excited to not have to pack again for 3 nights! And it’s the boat, so it doesn’t have to be “airplane neat” just so I can carry it all!

I’m assuming that the Internet will be sparse for a while since I was told that ATM machines probably won’t be at most of our stops (I’m assuming WiFi is more sparse than ATMs are).

As a reminder here are my flickr Egypt photos .

Leave a comment

Posted in Egypt 2006, holidays + events

Tagged , , ,

Yes, I’m a total geek.

Posted on March 28, 2006 | 2 comments

BamboozlesSo my local around the corner bar, JB Bamboozles in Dearborn, has just added WiFi and so here I am having a drink, eating, checking my mail and (of course) I’m blogging about it.

The other bonus of being here today is that I’ve been here on Friday’s and having the fish during lent and I miss my hot wings. So I’m having the hot wings that I’d normally get during Friday happy hour (although the perch has been excellent!).

In case you were wondering I am the only person here with a laptop. Heck I’m the only here not smoking. The rest of the crew here is regulars (way more regular than me) and people from the Ford plant(?). And of course the bartender, Jane is here too (sigh).

2 Comments

Posted in me + myself + i

Tagged , ,

My Tickets!

Posted on March 20, 2006 | Leave a comment

So I got an envelope from the travel agency today. This is the one that’s supposed to have the tickets for my flights in it. Did you see that, I said supposed to? Yes, there were no tickets in my envelope. Nor was there a receipt for an eTicket of any sort in there either. How annoying was that?!? And of course I didn’t see it until after they closed for the day. I see this as being one of those crisises that make me crazy until a few days before the trip leaves.

Of course they’ll tell me this is normal that they don’t have them yet, but the confusion is easy enough to solve: just don’t include the memo that says they are in the envelope! At least include my flight info (I see that’s on-line, but that’s another story). I didn’t see a name badge in there either which is listed as mailed (but it might have been mixed in with the luggage tags, although they weren’t pre-printed, I’d assume the name badge would be).

And in the envelope there was this carrying case for your ticket (but no ticket) that just screamed “I’m a tourist”, I don’t know if I’ll actually use it. They sent me some other little gift thing like that before (I want to say some kind of wallet). Send me something useful, like a plastic power adaptor and a list of WiFi hot spots!

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Posted in Egypt 2006, holidays + events

Tagged ,

Why waste time and resources?!?

Posted on February 21, 2006 | 1 comment

So Panera (which in my opinion is the fastest restaurant ever) has implemented using those little pagers they give you at restaurants when you have to wait to get a table. Usually they are calling my name before I even get to the pickup area so this seems like a total waste. It’s something else to handle while getting change and your drink and napkins and stuff. Plus these pagers are the ones shaped like coasters, you don’t really have anything to “coast”…

This post brought to you via free Wifi at Panera :)

1 Comment

Posted in general, reviews

Tagged , ,

Aimee didn’t disappoint!

Posted on February 21, 2006 | 1 comment

So Aimee Mann was in Ann Arbor tonight. It was in the Michigan Theater, I kept thinking Hill Auditorium and then I realized it was somewhere else. Obviously I figured it out, it was right around the corner, a really nice small venue and I was in the front row. It was a great seat, no one could even really be in front of you. I’ve been there before but I can’t remember for what (maybe something jazzy with Lou?). I got a Philly Steak sandwich and then a Long Island at the place that used to be Dooley’s. And the whole town appears to have WiFi (blogging and booze, now that’s just a bad idea).

Aimee was great!!! She was excellent to listen to and interesting to watch. It was the last show of the tour so she kinda blamed the technical glitches on that. This would be the guitar (from hell) that wouldn’t tune, she thought it sounded so bad she stopped in the middle of the song and then apologized about a gazillion times. I didn’t get any pictures (that’ll come in Audra’s review) and he didn’t play some of her classics: Red Vines, Voices Carry and the 3rd one I had in my head when I started typing this sentence.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in reviews

Tagged , , , ,