RIP David Carradine

EDIT: (June, 10, 2009) As it turns out, this appears to be a case of autoerotic asphyxiation gone bad – as it usually does. Still, my sentiment below on suicide still stands. In this case, however, it seems that instead of the idiocy of ending one’s life, we have the idiocy of repeatedly attempting suicide and, usually, failing for the purpose of erotic gratification.

It has been reported today that David Carradine was found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand. The linked CNN article does not mention this but other sources have described the scene to be a likely suicide.

I really don’t understand that. I mean, I realize that David Carradine is not a young man by any means – he was 72 at the time of his death – but I could never imagine any reason to take my own life. Perhaps he felt that he had done everything that he wanted to do in his life and, who knows, when I’m 72 maybe I will feel the same. However, I’ve such a passion for new and innovative things and ideas that I really can’t see a point when I won’t be looking forward to the next cool thing.

I am saddened by the loss of such an iconic individual and I hope that his family can find solace in all of his accomplishments rather than dwell on his unfortunate demise.

Technorati Tags: suicide,David Carrradine,Bangkok,Thailand,death

There And Back Again

The vacation was really nice. I know I posted before that I was all set to post on the trip. Obviously, that didn't happen. But that's ok, I was too busy having a good time.

Our flight out was early on Saturday the 23rd. The plane left at 7:30 am and so we left the house at 6:00 am to get to the airport in time. We went through the standard security procedures of the modern airport sans shoes and all, fortunately, without incident.

I took a few photos out of the tiny view port on the plane with my iPhone, so if you are curious about the quality, consider the equipment and conditions. Unless my memory fails me, which is entirely possible, this shot to the left is an aerial view of Chattanooga. 
 
Below you will see some nice fluffy clouds. As you may recall, this was my first flight, so this is the first view I have had of clouds from this side outside of recorded images. It was really rather beautiful. 

Overall both the flights out and the flights back (yes, flights, each leg of the trip had 2 layovers) were very nice and quite uneventful. I did learn some things that I will definitely put to practice on any future trips that will require any air travel. I will book the flight directly with the airlines, rather than any third party. In this case, we booked through Priceline.com and though the flights were very nice, had we booked directly through the airline we could have chosen who we flew with and more importantly, where we were sitting during the flight.

For the first leg of the trip, we were flying US Airways and the flight was overbooked. We were given seats that were not even close to being together and we were actually treated with a standby status rather than the full (well, discounted, but still) price customers. It definitely had us worried, but we were able to make all of our flights without much more hassle than that one initial issue. It was Memorial Day weekend after all, so some strained travel was expected.

That was Saturday. Pretty much the entire day was given to flying. We made it into Sacramento around 4:00 or 5:00 pm Pacific time. We’re on Eastern, so that was like 7:00 or 8:00 pm for us. We grabbed our rental car (a neat little Toyota Matrix – apparently we didn’t take a photo of it) and checked into our hotel. We decided to visit a couple of Erin’s friends that evening before crashing.

On Sunday, we planned on heading out early to visit San Francisco. It’s about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Sacramento so the earlier we started the more time we could spend there. The previously mentioned friends were able to get a sitter for the day and travel with us. Unfortunately, they took quite some time to get ready in the morning, so we didn’t leave Sacramento until around 12:00. As it turns out, this was more than enough time for San Francisco, but I didn’t realize it at the time, so the delay was kind of irking me.

San Francisco was cold. I had seen the weather report and the temperature was going to be in the sixties. Great, I though, it will be cool but not cold. I was severely mistaken. San Francisco was really cold. It may have been in the sixties, but the 20mph winds off of the Pacific made it feel like 40’s or 30’s. It was almost miserable. This, of course, was why it was not an issue that we showed up much later than planned. If we had been there earlier, it would have been that much colder and since it was so cold, none of us wanted to stay very long. I was there long enough to see some sights,  do some shopping, and go to a beach long enough to at least experience the Pacific Ocean. (Certainly not swim in it, but at least say I had been there. I’ve only the Indian and Arctic left…not that I think I will experience the Arctic – brrr.)

We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and went on to a beach on the actual ocean, rather than on the bay. Oddly enough, I think the water was warmer than the air that day. I think if we had gone swimming it would have been fairly nice. We would have died of hypothermia about 20 seconds after leaving the water in that frigid wind.

We were there pretty late, so much so that it was around 1:00 or 2:00 am by the time we got back to the hotel. We were exhausted by then but had a busy morning the next day. I’ll continue with our adventure in California in a later post. Feel free to let me know what you think of mine and my wife’s ‘awesome’ photography.

Technorati Tags: vacation,Sacramento,San Francisco,Golden Gate Bridge,California

Vacation!

Saturday the family leaves for a vacation to California. It will be the first time I have been to California and the first time I have ever flown. Yeah, I know, if you do the math, I'm 32 and haven't ever flown before in my life. It's not for lack of a desire to fly, but rather a lack of opportunity. In fact, I'm really excited about finally getting to take a flight.

We are traveling to visit my wife's family, mostly, but also plan to do some typical sightseeing, as well. After all, how could I travel across the country without at least doing some touristy things. We are going to Sacramento for the family (and probably some sightseeing there, too) but also San Francisco. Admittedly, I'm more excited about San Francisco than Sacramento.

I have everything set up, I believe, to be able to blog while on the trip. So, with any luck, I'll be able to post updates throughout the trip. I look forward to sharing some cool pictures and tales of my journey.

Technorati Tags: Vacation,California