Hampton Comes Alive

I just finished a two night stay at the Hampton Inn in Woodbridge, NJ. This is enough, in theory, to bring me up to 36 nights and Gold VIP status. I say "in theory" because there is some debate on FlyerTalk about whether free nights count. But I'll make it next week either way.

I originally had a stay at an Embassy Suites, but when the new hotel per diem rates came out, the allowable rate had dropped by around $35, and I had to switch hotels.

The Hampton I ended up with is the first one I've stayed at that has implemented the brand's new "Make It Hampton" enhancements. So, how do the enhancements measure up? Let's take a look.

• Complimentary High Speed Wireless Internet Access will be available in the hotel public areas. I don't spend time in the hotel public areas, so this wasn't too useful.
  
• Complimentary High Speed Internet Access in all guestrooms. This was great, although I wish it were wireless instead of wired.
  
• Enjoy our new complimentary hot breakfast items on rotating menus, so you're sure to enjoy a variety of flavorful meals, including sausage patties and scrambled eggs. The scrambled eggs were pretty good this morning.
  
• A new blend of robust coffee awaits you in a unique presentation guaranteed to make you smile. I hate coffee. I didn't smile; do I get my money back?
  
• If you are in a hurry, ask the breakfast hostess for the new On the Go Breakfast Bag™, complete with water, fruit, a muffin, and a breakfast bar. This was very useful yesterday morning, when I was in a hurry to get to the conference. I didn't even have to ask; they had the bag ready.
  
• Curved shower rods for extended shower space. I didn't notice this, which probably means it's a plus.
  
• A one-of-a-kind alarm clock making it easier to set your alarm time in three simple steps, as well as find your favorite music. I liked the feature on the alarm clock where it told you both the time and the time the alarm was set for. Three "simple" steps? I guess holding down one button for a long time because an hour button is too complicated is "simple". I was disappointed there was no indicator whether or not you had pressed the snooze button.
  
• A portable lap desk that allows you to work in comfort from anywhere in the room. This is a neat idea that would be more useful if the Internet access were wireless.
  
• Our new Hampton alarm clock and lap desk are also available for purchase! If you would like to enjoy these new products each retail for $29 plus tax, shipping and handling. Please call 1-888-224-7730 for more information. I won't be calling.
  

All in all, I enjoyed the experience. There were other nice little touches -- the plastic utensils were actually labeled at breakfast -- no more digging around to find out if you had spoons or forks. I just hope they don't raise prices past the per diem to pay for all these improvements...

Primary Inversion

As I mentioned in a recent post, I am continuing to read Nebula-award winning novels. As I also mentioned, I will only read books in series order.

That caused me to read Catherine Asaro's Primary Inversion, which is the first book in the "Saga of the Skolian Empire." (The author corrected Michael Dirda at the National Book Festival when he referred to it as a series. Since she is not here to correct me, I will continue to refer to it as a series.)

Primary Inversion is what I'd call "Space Opera", which is unusual in "serious" science fiction these days. By "serious" I suppose I mean "award-winning". I think "faster than light" travel has gotten less popular because people finally got it in their heads that it's impossible, and thus more suited to fantasy than science fiction. Fortunately for the genre, Asaro's a physicist, so she's more than qualified to imagine an FTL drive that's just as plausible as most things found in SF books these days.

"Primary Inversion" was enjoyable, but I'd characterize it as a relatively light, fun read. I suppose I will have to wait until Book Six to get to the Nebula, so it's not fair to compare it to other such award winners. I found out during Asaro's talk that The Quantum Rose, which won the Nebula, is an allegory for quantum field theory. That sounded pretty cool, and I told her so when I went to get a book signed. I mentioned that my background was in mathematics, and she said that I should read Spherical Harmonic, which was about the spherical harmonic. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was a number theorist, and thus had no clue what the spherical harmonic was.

I've started Catch the Lightning, the second book. It's set in an alternate history 1987, which is weird in and of itself. Most of the book so far has to do with a poor girl meeting a space pilot from the future. The "Are you really from space?" dynamic recalls almost every Star Trek time travel episode ever. I'm only mildly enthused, and have put the book aside for another book, which I thought would be more promising. But that's another post...

Fun With Gmail

So I'm reading my Michigan Sports News e-mail when I notice the ads that Gmail is displaying for me. "Eliminate Ground Moles"? "Effective Pest Control"? Where is this coming from?

Then I see the final link. "Get rid of those Gophers". Ah, yes, Michigan did that.

FlyerTalk

I mentioned FlyerTalk in my previous post. It's frequent flyer discussion site. If anyone would be particularly amused by looking at my posts, you can see them here.

Flying the Ted Skies

For last week's trip to Arizona, we, as is our wont, flew United. For the BWI to Denver segments, I upgraded us into first class, which was a nice perk. For the Denver to Phoenix segments, we were on Ted, United's discount carrier. This was our first experience with Ted, but I thought it would be OK, especially since I didn't have enough upgrades for those segments anyway.

The Denver to Phoenix Ted flight was just like a regular United flight, without a first class cabin (which made getting on and off the plane easier), with orange headphones, where they would only give you half a can of soda (probably more than I need anyway), and where the overhead vent didn't really work. The last was annoying, but I'm not sure we can blame that on Ted.

The return trip was a different story. Apparently the original Ted aircraft wasn't available, so our plane was replaced by a non-Ted plane. And we got a complimentary upgrade! It was just like being in first class on a regular flight, except they would only give you half a can of soda...

Anyway, to prove I've actually flown in first class on Ted to the folks at FlyerTalk, here's my boarding pass... (Name and frequent flier number removed to protect my secret identity...)

Parables

As part of my Nebula reading project, I read Darwin's Radio in June. I also read the sequel, Darwin's Children. Not as good.

The latest (15th) book I've read in that project is Parable of the Talents. But first, I had to read Parable of the Sower, the first book in the series.

Yep, had to read it. I can't stand to pick up the middle book in a series and start there. When I was a kid, I read all of the Hardy Boys books in order, up until, I think, Number 33. I read them in order, even though the only connection each book had with others in the series was in the beginning, where the book would say something like, "The young detectives had recently broken a car theft ring...", or at the end, with, "The young detectives did not know that events were already occurring which would soon involve them in another challenging case, The Great Airport Mystery."

(I stopped reading when I thought I had lost Book 33. It turned out, I think, that I had forgotten returning the book to the library. Still, the experience spooked me enough to stop reading the series. Yes, I was the kind of child who was spooked by overdue library books.)

Where was I? Ah, yes, the Parable of the Sower. The book is set in a dystopian near-future in the US where climate change and...er, something or other...fuel shortages, I think...have plunged the United States into something approaching Third World status. I found the whole scenario fairly implausible, but then I noticed the word "parable" in the title. Well, why was I taking things so literally? But then, after finishing the book, I read the author interview that was included with the "reading group" edition. Apparently, this book reflects the path that she feels the country is headed down if things continue as they are.

Huh. I sort of recognize this point of view from my days on college campuses --- it's a particular kind of leftist "things are doomed" worldview. I say this, please understand, as a registered Democrat who thinks we aren't taking climate change and alternate fuels seriously enough. But America doesn't rely on a good climate and oil supplies for its position in the world economy. If anything, Third World economies are more dependent on raw materials (oil, food) than the US. So I found the premise of the book (well, both books) hard to swallow.

That said, I found the narrative fairly compelling, if bleak. The characters were extremely nuanced and human --- unfortunately a rarer occurrence than it should be in science fiction. They were books I had a hard time putting down, but I was also happy to be done with them and to move onto lighter fare.

Monday Night Football

OK, I think I'm finally done clearing off the digital camera. Behold, the pictures of Monday Night Football.

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When you start tailgating 5 hours before the game, you'd better bring cards. And beer.

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On our way to the stadium, we had to dodge a guy burning a Dallas jersey.

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On the way to our gate, there was a contest where you could win a cap by throwing a football through a hole. Christina walked away with one.

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And then there was the game. Sigh.

Visiting My Cousin

A couple of weeks ago, since I was in the UK on business, I went up to Sheffield (that's in South Yorkshire, which is in northern England) to see my cousin Diane. She had married Mark, an Englishman, in August, so I went to visit them.

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They have a very nice house.

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Isn't this a great window?

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Here are Mark, me and Diane.

Visit to the Boneyard

Today my parents, Christina and I went to visit the Boneyard, where the Air Force mothballs planes. According to our guide, there are $27 billion worth of planes there. Pretty cool.

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OK, here's my "picture of a stealth fighter" gag picture.

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Here's an A-10 "Warthog".

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After the tour, we went to the Pima Air & Space Museum. Here's Christina looking cute in a cockpit.

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The museum had Kennedy and Johnson's Air Force One available for touring. This, of course, is the Presidential Potty.

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Here are my parents in front of an SR-71 Blackbird. What a plane. Coast to coast in 68 minutes.

No Ad

Some of you may have noticed ads on the side of this weblog recently. I signed up with Google AdSense to put ads on the side of the page. When people clicked on the ads, I would get a commission. When my total reached $100, I would get paid. I decided to see what rate I was earning money, and judge how soon I'd get the first check. If it was in the far, far future, I would give up. If not, I'd hang in there and wait to collect the money.

I should mention that one of the terms of signing up is that you're not allowed to publicize how much money you're making. I'm going to break that condition right now. Why? According to their stats, nobody ever clicked on an ad. That's right, I earned $0.00. At this rate, it would take an infinite amount of time to earn $1, let alone $100.

So I'm taking the ads off. It was amusing to see what it thought was related, but I'm declaring this experiment a failure and moving on. The ads will gradually disappear as I get around to re-publishing pages without them.

How Few Remain

I recently started listening to books on CD in my car. The second one I worked through is How Few Remain, which is an alternate history novel based on the assumption that the South won the Civil War. First of all, I have a problem with the plausibility of the premise. I don't think one minor event (as in the book) could have changed the course of the war -- I think the industrial might of the North pre-determined the outcome. I was glad to see an essay in the book Alternate Gettysburgs from a professional historian which supported this point of view. Still, it's interesting to think "What If?" (Warning, spoilers follow.)

This book is set in 1881, just after the USA has finally elected another Republican president. The Confederate States of America decide to purchase two Mexican provinces from the "Empire of Mexico." (Lack of a strong USA has let French interference in Mexico persist.) The USA, fearful of a stronger CSA stretching to the Pacific, declares war. The book is the story of the war told by looks at various famous people (Abraham Lincoln, George Custer, Samuel Clemens, Stonewall Jackson, Jeb Stuart, Teddy Roosevelt and a few more).

It was definitely well-researched, and I found it all very plausible, except for the whole idea that the North wouldn't wipe the floor with the South. Then again, with the CSA having English and French allies, the balance is tipped against the USA. One thing I noticed is that the author takes a lot of care only to include things that would follow from the premise --- nothing too unexpected ever happens. This is good for the believability, but takes something away from the excitement in the novel. Also, some of the details can be a little bit mind-numbing. Yes, Germans would be puzzled by American idioms. No, that doesn't need to be mentioned every time it happens. These flaws, however, are less of an issue for a book-on-CD, when I also have my fellow motorists to entertain me.

In my view, the major flaw was the sex scenes. Having a guy affecting a 19th century way of talking read you descriptions of Sam Clemens, George Custer and Teddy Roosevelt doing the wild thing is not an experience I recommend to you. Thankfully, that only occurred three times in the entire 21-CD book.

I did worry a little bit about potential pro-South bias in the book. (They were the ones with slaves, which in my mind makes them the bad guys.) I don't think there was any --- the author (also, I must admit, a professional historian) was following the original idea to its logical conclusion. The book did end with the CSA "winning" --- they got to keep part of Mexico, and the Brits annexed part of Maine. But that just made me want to read the next book so I could hear the USA get revenge (I hope). "Remember...Maine!"

Opening Day

Well, hopefully this week of vacation will allow me to catch up on my weblog, including posting pictures I took earlier.

Here are some pictures from the Redskins' opening day victory over the Buccaneers. We had a good time getting ready, tailgating, and watching the game before I headed off to England.

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We managed to find an open seat next to us for Ben, who couldn't find anybody to take his other ticket. What happened to the traditional demand for Redskins tickets?

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This picture gives you a good idea of the view from our seats.

Casa Grande Again

Greetings from Arizona. We flew in last night and stayed with my Aunt Pam. Today, Christina and I drove to my parents, passing by Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. I had visited there in 2001, but Christina had never been there, so we stopped and looked around.

With my new digital camera, I can now upload pictures wherever I am (yeah, I know, welcome to the 21st century). So here's our visit in pictures.

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Sheffield Marriott

After my stay at the Hilton Puckrup Hall, I headed north to Sheffield, to visit my cousin and her husband. (They got married last month.) More on that later. Here are a couple of pictures of the hotel.



As you can see, it's another converted manor. The walk down the hallway was even longer. At one point, I had to drag my suitcase up the stairs and push past an oblivious wedding guest. The hotel was hosting two weddings that night, and I believe the next night, too. My cousin and her husband looked at this place, but it wasn't really the sort of intimate setting they were looking for.



My gold status with Marriott did me some good, as it got me upgraded to this "executive room" which was nice and big.

John's Adventures

My friend, John "George" Grayson, now has a weblog of his own.

Having a Blast

My father and his golfing partner took "low gross" at the MountainView Men’s Golf Association "5th Annual Member-Member Blast". Congratulations!

Hilton Puckrup Hall

The first hotel I stayed in last week was the Hilton Puckrup Hall in, or, well, near, Tewksbury. It's on a golf course, which would be nicer for me if I played golf. Still, it got me up to 34 Hilton nights for the year (36=gold). And it was a nice place to stay, though I still haven't found the ultimate place to stay in the area.

My room was towards the end of a very, very long corridor. A colleague who was even closer to the end would hum the "Get Smart" theme on the way to his room. I guess that's what you get when you build a hotel out of an old manor.

I used my new digital camera to take pictures of the view from the room.

This is a neat window:


And this is the golf hole I could see from the window:


And this is the room: