Not off to PDC - but in LA anyway

It only took me 14 hours from the moment I left home to arrive at my hotel here in LA. I am probably the only geek who flew to LA today who is not headed to the LA Convention Center. I saw plenty of developers hanging out in the airports. Quite a few had TabletPCs on my flight.

I come to earthquake central for a different geeky reason. I am here to spend time with Fox developers in LA, Orange County, and San Diego. I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time.

Naturally the moment I land I get a call from my wife who is all worried because the stinkin' news media had falsely reported the power outage suffered in downtown LA was under suspicious circumstances. Could be terrorists. No, it was caused by human error. Someone cut the wrong wires and made another mistake when they reconnected them. A mistake any of us could have made, but this one happens to affect a half million people and puts geeks in the dark at the PDC.

Another media gaff. I am really considering swearing off listen to old-fashion media outlets. To put it politely, they really have their heads in a dark channel. They will point out every little thing someone else screws up, every one of the littlest mistakes normal humans make, point out failures big and small, but don't even question their inability to get the facts straight. There will not be any screaming for someone's job. They will not holler for an instant investigation on this. They will continue to editorialize stories and present it as fact. Total nonsense, and I am really sick of it. Sorry for the rant, it must be all this smog and the sleep depravation.

To top things off, there was a suspicious package in downtown Ann Arbor where I was earlier in the morning to drop off a care package for my son on my way to the airport. The radio folks in the Detroit area were chatting up 9/11 and how extremists made threats the day before. More hateful FUD. Never fails. When ever I travel there is something going on.

Oh, one more thing. Where is this expensive California gasoline?? The stations at home are still hovering close to $3.00 and here in California I have seen it as cheap as $2.75.

Maybe I will crash the PDC on my way down to San Diego Thursday. {g}