Posts in travel
Boeing 787 First Flight
Myself, a few coworkers, and about 2500 other Boeing employees and suppliers stood out on Paine Field this morning to witness the 787 “Dreamliner” take flight for the first time. I’ve been working on this program for the last 3 and a half years, but I know many people who have been at it for more than 5, so for all of us it was very nice to finally see the product of our efforts!
According to my camera, lift-off took place around 10:32am PST. Everything went off without a hitch, it was glorious :-D Their timing really couldn’t have been better because within minutes of take-off it started drizzling and visibility worsened. Fortunately, by then they had flown out towards Port Angeles and away from the rain clouds.
As far as photos and video, we did the best we could as our spot was about 5 rows back from the fence. Thanks to Dougie for snapping the stills and having the smarts to use the rapid multi-shot mode. I posted up some photos here and a YouTube video here. The video unfortunately missed the lift-off part because I was holding the camera up above my head and couldn’t watch the viewfinder but the sound does help place you there in the crowd.
The landing took place about 3 hours later at Boeing Field in Seattle. Here’s a video. Great success!
Atlantic City report
Last week I flew out to the east coast for Jiffy and John’s wedding in picturesque Alexandria, Virginia. The wedding was beautiful and I had such an amazing time. I made fast friends with two of Jiffy’s and one of John’s old schoolmates and after the festivities concluded the four of us cabbed to DC for a crazy night at the clubs! Thankfully I made it back to my hotel in one piece. Saturday was definitely the highlight of my trip but I also had fun visiting Philadelphia for a day on Friday. I bought a cool pair of Zoo York cargo pants and had a delicious cheesesteak on South Street.
Thursday I took the train out to Atlantic City to stay at the Borgata and play some poker. Not having been to AC in three years and Vegas in two I kind of wanted to see what was new. The Borgata is more or less equivalent to an upscale Vegas strip quality hotel/casino. It’s far and above the nicest place there and I would say about close to the Bellagio in overall class. One lame thing about Atlantic City though is that since they have nowhere near the draw that Vegas does the accommodations aren’t nearly as subsidized. A regular room at the Borgata typically goes for $279/night in the summer! They do however offer decent rates for poker players- I stayed there for $149.
Observations:
1. The poker room at the Borgata when I last visited was just slightly larger than the one at the Mirage. Now it’s literally three times bigger. My guess is there were about 50-60 active tables on a Thursday night.
2. It is downright scary how many young people play poker nowadays, and I don’t just mean low limit. I saw many guys (and a few ladies) my age or younger with several hundred dollars in chips. Though many of them were playing $1-$2NL, some were playing $2-$5NL and beyond.
3. It definitely seems like a large contributing factor to the success of poker in AC is its close proximity to so many colleges and universities. I sat down at a $1-$2NL table and 3 of the kids at the table had driven out from Philly just for a six hour session. It was basically just like Rounders, except they weren’t as good. Around 2am one of them mentioned that he had to be back for a 10am class.
4. I decided to play with $300 but most people sitting at the $1-$2NL tables had about $350 or more. However, it seemed as if there were a constant stream of stragglers who would sit down with $60-$100, bust out a short while later and walk away. To be honest I kind of felt bad for these people because there are so many tough players patrolling the low limit tables now that the casual player has only a tiny chance of success! One girl sat down with $60, busted out in like 20 minutes, hit the ATM for $120 more and lost that too. Another young asian kid sat down with $75 and eventually lost it all to me because he just played terribly.
Recap:
act 1, patiently waiting for playable hands
basically blinded off my first $35, saw no post flop worthy hands.
act 2, building up my stack
won a decent pot with JJ in middle position. flopped top set in three way action and beat a flush down the stretch when the board paired on the turn. flopped the nut flush with ATs in late position. this is where i took all that asian kid’s money. the board ended up with 4 diamonds and he thought he had me beat i guess. won a three-way pot with AJo from middle position with top two pair. don’t remember the hand though. at this point i was up to about 480
act 3, bad luck, poor play
AKo in late position. flopped A62. got smoked by a big blind with 66. got AA in early/middle position. still steamed about the previous loss and tried to trap? i don’t know what i was thinking. didn’t raise preflop and ended up in 6 way action for the flop. flop was garbage and someone in front of me led off with a $10 bet so i mucked. a little while later was dealt QQ in early position. a tight asian kid in late position made it 12 and i reraised to 30, he called for a two way pot. flop was T63 or something like that. he checked to me and I didn’t really think about what he was playing. i was definitely a little on tilt because i was loving my queens and just assumed that i was ahead. so i led off with 30, he called. basically the same thing happened on the turn. a jack hit on the river and he led off with a 100 bet. the pot was about 180. i agonized over this and ended up folding. his friends thought he had JJ but he never confirmed or denied. i think he might have made a good read on me though and bluffed me off the pot.
act 4, cooling down
i was back down to just over 300 so i wasn’t in horrible shape but pretty upset about my play. blinded off a bunch and cooled down
act 5, redemption in the form of a suited connector
there was one asian kid at the table i had never played a pot with but knew was pretty solid. i had a 56 diamonds in middle position and called the bb. he was in the cutoff and raised it up to 12. i was interested and wanted to lay the smack down on him because i felt like he was playing a big hand so i called and someone after me called as well. flop comes down A73 with 2 diamonds! checks to him and he bets 20. at this point i started to get excited because i have a ton of outs and great pot odds. i call and so does the other player. turn is a 4. woot, hit my straight. check, check, he bets 100. i don’t know what he was doing here, i think he realized he gave us the turn for too cheap. i had 280 in my stack and he had me covered. i sold it as best as i could without going overboard and pushed it all forward, hoping he’d figure me for a low set or a draw. the other dude folded and the asian kid was in agony. but i guess he thought i was putting a move on him because he called. i flipped over the straight and he flipped over AA. and to further embarass him the river brought me a flush.
just now as i was writing this i realized this is basically the same thing that happened to me with the QQ hand, in reverse. further support to the thought that i was bluffed off my queens is that the kid in that hand was a buddy of the kid i doubled through. so he was probably sure that i was putting a move on because he’s seen it so many times in his home games. regardless, he was pwnt and this muthasucka got paid.
After that I hung around for a bit but I felt done. Cashed out $667. gg.
Oregon Coast
Oswald West State Park looks like a strong contender for best campsite near Cannon Beach. Only negative point is no advance bookings but there are 36 sites. Check out the details.
Shi Shi
Found this detailed report from a guy’s weekend trip to Shi Shi Beach earlier this year. It should help with the planning. Also, see this article for a few tips although it is a bit dated. Important to note that the shorter/easier Makah access trail is now open but we’ll have to make sure we can park overnight near the trailhead.
Hyatt Regency Kauai
Posted by a FlyerTalker, take a look. My god it’s beautiful…
7E7
This is great news for frequent long haul passengers like myself.
When Boeing puts its 7E7 jetliner into service sometime in 2008, passengers will be able to breathe easier, literally. The sleek aircraft, made from corrosion-resistant materials, will have a fuselage that can accommodate much higher cabin humidity — a boon for frequent travelers.
Airsafe.com
Air safety database. The 737-300 and up, wow. 46 MILLION flights, 13 fatal incidents. That’s freakin’ incredible. Too bad for the Concorde though…1 incident in 90,000 successful flights looks a lot worse than it is.
