techniQal support

We made it back from the US Virgin Islands despite all of the hard work from American Airlines. If anyone ever questions why the airline industry has problems, simply get on an American Airlines flight( or 4 like we had to do). They were consistent in only 3 areas:

1. Poor Customer Service. Some family who was traveling with us were bumped from their flight with no warning, and had to fight to get on another flight.
2. Rude, Rude, Rude. Each time any of the flight attendants was confronted with their bad customer service, they went on the attack. Really unprofessional. It’s not the customers fault you hate your job, or had a bad day.
3. No Water. My wife was told to get water from the tap in the bathroom(she opted for club soda). I also heard other people asking for water, and the answer was “we ran out” . This was the 3rd of 4 flights where I heard them say customers couldn’t have water because they ran out. How hard is it to stock a plane with the right supplies. They fly thousands of flights a month, and couldn’t figure this out?

I know it sounds like I’m bitching, but I have never had such a bad experience with an airline(and I traveled for work for for 3 years).

In the end, it was nice to get a few days rest, and get used to traveling with a newborn. We also got to try out our new camera, and loved it.

We made it to the other island late in the evening, and I was greeted with a lot of family, and a glass of scotch. Not a bad way to end a long day of traveling.
Day 2 involved getting our bearings in the daylight, and looking for the basics (beer and food). The condo we are in is very nice, but the nearest store is a 20 minute walk, so we had to get a taxi to transport our food and booze.
The Condo has high speed wireless, and Sprint has full voice and data service here, so it is kind of nice to be on “vacation” but not totally disconnected from my day to day life.

Here are a few pics from our morning/afternoon thus far. Time to rest and look for a good beach.

Lucas and I at the Red Hook Ferry station – Carib in hand:

View of St Thomas from St john:

Lucas and I and his first swim:

Lucas by the Pool:

Mary, Lucas and I just started a short vacation to the US Virgin Islands for my brother-in-law’s wedding.
This was Lucas’s first time on an airplane, and he did great.
I will blog more pics once we get there depending on the internet access.
Miami airport has no free Wi-Fi (wtf), so I am using the data connection on my crackberry.

Mary and I on Plane:
(That lady behind us wore a cool mask through the whole flight. She probably didn’t want to get any baby germs on her.)

Lucas at the airport:

mex 083

Originally uploaded by djjhouse

I’m sharing this because it makes me think of the vacation I am about to take.

Tara recently wrote about how she was tagged by someone else in a blog post, which is apparently the equivalent of poking someone with a stick via the internet. Normally I don’t fall in for the “chain letter / poking / link love/ tagging” behavior. This time though, Tara used the correct method to goad a response out of me… She dared me. And I am no chicken. So below, you will see my 4×4 response. Sit back, relax, and enjoy learning a little bit more about me. Don’t worry, I won’t tag anyone else, as I don’t want to condone Tara’s behavior, but Leslie, Derek, and Walter should step up.

4 Things I Love:

• My 3 month old son Lucas: He wakes up with a smile every day, and reminds me to do the same.



• My wife: She keeps me grounded and constantly reminds me of what is most important in life.
• My dogs: They were our first “kids” and we will always love them, even though they don’t get quite as much attention as they used to.



• My Job: As cheesy as it sounds, I enjoy my job, and the people I work with. We have some of the most talented and funny people I have ever met working here at Lijit. Every day is fun(nearly).

4 Video Games I Love:

• Katamari (all of them): The funky music, and addictive game play make up one of the most original series of games ever made. Replay value is HIGH.
• Grand Theft Auto (all of them): The sandbox style changed the way everyone views video games, and continues to push other publishers to innovate.
• Halo (all of them): Single player – meh, kinda fun. Multiplayer – f*cking awesome.
• Bejeweled: Oh crack of the internet, how many productive work hours have you stolen from me. From the little web game that stole my heart and wasted many, many hours of my time at work, to the mobile version on my old Treo 650 that I used to play when I would go outside for cigarette breaks. Don’t worry, I got rid of the cigarette habit and the Treo.
• Honorable mention: Rockband is awesome.

4 Programming Languages I Couldn’t Live Without:

• Python: I learned more and got more done with this flexible language than with any other language.
• PHP: If it weren’t for php, I wouldn’t be able to show this post to you. This is also the language that re-opened my eyes, and got me into web programming, and consequently pushed me towards python, and saved me from perl. Watch out for perl zealots attacking. Just by bashing perl ,I am pretty sure I can triple the readership of this post. Ooh, and Java, it sucks too.
• Javascript: Yeah, I know, not a “real” programming language in the classic sense. But the things it allows you do in modern browsers is nothing short of spectacular. A lot of us wouldn’t have jobs if it weren’t for javascript.
• Basic: If not for this language, and the fact that my dad taught some of it to me on our Timex Sinclair, I may not be working with computers at all.

4 Online Tools I Like:
Twitter: You satisfy both my voyeuristic and egotistical urges. Does anyone really care what I am doing…
gMail: All other online mail truly sucks in comparison. Plus your pop3 and your imap is sweet.
del.icio.us: The most practical of all online tools. It started out before Web 2.0 was cool and will be around long after it’s gone.
Lijit: I cannot in good conscience omit the source of my livelihood and the reason my baby has shoes. Plus our search is pretty damn good too.

That is all. I don’t know how to finish this blog post. So I will leave you with one my favorite quotes that will only confuse you more as I am a vegetarian.
Mark Twain – Sacred cows make the best hamburger .

Seems my review of Army of Two has been echoed by the always hilarious Yahtzee Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame. Not that it makes me cool because I can identify suck as well as someone else. I mean the suck was pretty obvious… Smack you in the face obvious.