Back in Flight

Well I'm back in Manila's crappy airport waiting for my flight. The same
flight as last time - and similarly late. Dunno why SQ's unable to get this
plane in on time.

The bad news - I'm coming off a touch of the flu over the weekend so the
recirculated cabin air is going to wreak holy havoc on my respiration. Gak.

Also, the film lineup is going to be the same as last time around (ditto for
the food) so I'm going to have to spend my time working. Not so bad,
there're some numbers I'm pretty interested in getting at.

Airport post

I'm standing here in Changi Airport in Singapore at a free internet terminal and making this post. I wish every airport would have something like this. I was able to make my moves on www.boiteajeux.net so my Torres games wouldn't be held up (best PBEM implementation around) and I got to check my webmail. Really nice. And of course I got to make this post.

I'm dead tired fromthis trip, but I'm going to be back here next week for more conferencing work - argh. I like Sing, but not so much that I'd voluntarily fly back here three times in five weeks. Oh well, it comes with the job. So, off to Times Newslink to see if they have anything new.

The Neil Gaiman Signing

The Big Event for fantasy lit fans hereabouts is Neil Gaiman's visit. My
buddy Frog just told me that our buddy Nix stood in line for ten hours
yesterday and didn't get to Neil. Apparently he showed up at Rockwell at
10am and found 500 people in front of him. The organizers capped the line at
700 people. The people Neil didn't get to will have the first shot today in
Greenhills. All reports say that Neil was living up to his rep - tireless,
friendly and attracts hordes of cute girls. I hope someone took pix.

Life in an Airport

The thing I hate most about travelling is the time you have to spend in
airports. In this new world of copious security measures, two to three hours
in an airport per flight is about the minimum you can expect. If your
destination is the United States, expect more time in security lines. So I
suppose I should be happy that I mostly fly around lower-security Southeast
Asia.

The Manila airport is pathetic. The food is awful, there's nowhere to jack
into the internet, and there are no decent bookstores. Even the seats are
uncomfortable. The Simgapore airport is far better. The HK airport is also
pretty nice, except that it's so big you need a rail to get to some parts of
it.

Oops we're doing it again

It's bizarrely appropriate that I'm using the title of a Britney Spears song to title this post about our ludicrous politicians and government. Yet again, this crazy country of morons (presently company sadly included) is thisclose to ejecting a President, threatening to turn our "democratic process" into one big fat joke. You know, with this kind of track record let's forget elections. Let's just agree that we install a President via one of our trademarked "People Power" (blech) movements, let that President keep going until we're tired of him, and then People Power him out of office and install a replacement. It'll save us a bundle of cash that can go to education and fighting corruption.

I'm no fan of Gloria, whose worst traits are that she's an influence peddler and she has a family that rivals Cory's in greed and dirt. However, she was "elected" in the last polls. Did she cheat? Probably. Did anyone else cheat? Probably, but that's irrelevant. Gloria was proclaimed the winner by Congress. That can only be undone by another act of Congress - impeachment. Unless Gloria steps down a-la Nixon, but that's not going to happen.

So, the economy kicks back into the dark ages, we have the specter of Noli freaking de Castro becoming President, and this country is almost all the way to shitsville. Whoopee.

Mobile nirvana?

This is a test post from a Blackberry mobile phone/email device. Remember when I was pining for a mobile electronic writing tool? It may have found its way to me. Now here's hoping that this post publishes correctly. Fingers crossed!