Playing Catch Up

So Sports Fans,

When we last talked, I was about to fly all around the globe in a week.  I did that.  It was done.  I actually was a guest blogger about the experience for a travel site.  You can read that here.  Basically it was a ton of fun, though expensive fun.  The best parts of the trip were easily, the people, the 787 and meeting the folks from LiveStrong.

So the people.  This wasn't my first time meeting real humans that I met on a web site.  I had been to the Chicago Seminars and also had been to a bunch of Yelp functions.  And my theory of "Online Thirds" was correct here as well.  When you meet people you only know as avatars and posts in real life, a third of them will be exactly as you imagined them.  Gregarious, funny, loud, what have you.  A third of them are super quiet online, but in person are really amazing and outgoing people.  And the final third are people that should only exist and interact in a virtual environment.  They're either creepy, close talkers, or incredibly socially awkward.  Like the guy who kept "shushing" people at a party in someone's room.  Dude, this isn't 5th grade.  And there's no point in preserving a party where you can't talk.  Or you're getting shushed at.

The 787 is an amazing plane.  Really.  More evolutionary than revolutionary, it just seemed more comfortable.  A lot has been made of the window shades, which are electronic and darken through electrical current.  I think the coolest thing was actually the size of the windows.  33% larger than regular windows.  Also, the seats even back in steerage seemed much more comfortable.  I look forward to flying to NRT on the inaugural flight from Denver in March.  Also, flying in a plane that only a few days old is pretty cool.

Finally, I met three wonderful folks from LiveStrong, the charity most known for the yellow bracelets that everyone and their brother wore a years ago.  They have taken a hit with the whole Lance Armstrong thing exploding. And admittedly I didn't really know what they did, besides fighting cancer.  Well, Jen, Renee and Colleen joined the trip in San Fran and stayed until Chicago.  I learned that Livestrong does really cool stuff like assign mentors to cancer victims to help them through their recovery.  And with Armstrong stepping down from the group that defined him as much as his yellow jerseys (Now confiscated), it helps to have some incredibly bright and caring people to share the organization and its mission.  I will totally support this charity, having cancer affect my family.  It's nice to be able to give back, even while drinking at 30,000 feet.

I will leave you with this video of my attempt at a safety demo at the United Flight Attendant Training Center outside Chicago. I'd like to thank the very lovely and patient Lauren Cyr, my flight attendant instructor who can be seen helping me with my life vest.  Stay tuned through the whole thing for the surprise ending.  Well, it was a surprise to me.

Wait, You're Doing What Next Week?

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have a thing for traveling.  Well, not just traveling per se, but collecting miles or points and then using them to travel to cool places.  I'm one of the few people who likes air travel.

However, today I'm embarking on a trip that's weird even for me.  Weirder still, I'm going with about 200 other people who share the same hobby.  Here is my flight path for the next seven days.

I'm participating on this thing called the Star MegaDo 4.  Star because it's for the Star Alliance.  MegaDo, because it's a large Do (duh). And 4, well I'll let you figure that one out.  The International Portion which is only about 50 of us heads to Frankfurt to meet with Lufthansa for a few hours and then to Zurich to meet with Swiss Airlines for a day.  And then we're joining United on the three domestic cities.

Airlines love this because they get access to the most rabid travelers they have.  Literally a super-user group that knows more about the ins and out of their airline than many executives.  And flyers like it because they get to meet other people like them from all over the world and they get to do cool stuff like be on the tarmac at airports which still makes the kid in them smile. 

So I'll be blogging while on the trip.  Also, the trip itself has an actual blog, written by Randy Petersen who is well known for founding the two major frequent flyer blogs.  You can follow that here, if you're so inclined. 

Some might wonder why I'm doing this when I have no real income stream.  Well the tickets were paid for, so asides from food and the hotels I'm splitting and the money for charity, it was worth it to me.  I don't buy clothes, ask Allyson.  My main purchases are travel and video games.  Which while nerdy, is better than hookers and blow.