13 February 2010

I'm a Crank


[Ed. note: This post was composed during the ridiculously long flight to California for my mom's 80th birthday. The author was obviously (a) bored and (b) utterly uninspired.]

This won't come as a surprise to The Pants &0150; well, to any of you, I suppose &0150; but I'm discovering (or rather, if we're going to be completely honest with ourselves here, "confirming,") that I'm a little bit of a misanthrope.

Right now I'm winging my way westward, headed for San Diego to celebrate my mom's 80th birthday, and I find myself in a pretty classic situation: I'm directly behind a screeching, howling two year old and his parents. No, seriously, he was peeking over the seat at me a moment ago, during a break in the screeching, howling festivities.

And I'm a little surprised at how little compassion I have for the parents of this toddler and, worse, how angry I am at the child for how ill-behaved he's being, when anyone with any brains is going to understand that a two-year old hasn't quite yet developed a sense of how his behavior affects the people around him.

If I had half the compassion I'd like to think I have, I'd be grateful that the parents jump to hush him every time he shrieks, or the mom's cradling him in her arms, bouncing him up and down the aisle, to lull him to sleep. I'd appreciate how she occasionally makes eye contact and offers a pained smile, as if to say, "Dude, so sorry."

And yet here I sit, tired, cranky, trying to write code for a looming deadline and I'm just pissed off at the world.

Frankly, I'm a bit of a dick.



I'm having one of those moments when I well and truly miss my camera. Just over 2¼ hours left in the flight, and I'm looking west at a pretty spectacular sunset; it's happening under the cloud cover in front of us, so the distant sky gradients from dark to light blue where it meets a gray layer of clouds, but breaks in the clouds are showing the most brilliant oranges bursting through.

I'm surely going to miss my camera the next few days.

Damn you, faceless apartment-robbers!



Not for nothing, but the battery on my work laptop is nothing short of amazing. I think the only thing that's going to kill it before I arrive in San Diego is if I decide to watch one of my movies on iTunes. Video seems to drain it very quickly.

I'm not likely, at this point, to watch a movie, since the only movies I've got on iTunes at present are Star Trek and Milk. I've seen Star Trek recently. Again.

And really, watching Milk is likely leave me sobbing like a nitwit. Definitely a consummation devoutly to be dodged, with a ridiculously hot guy sitting in the aisle seat.

Just saying'.



Also not for nothing, but how is it, do you think, that the hot guy in the aisle seat is watching Sherlock Holmes on his iTunes? Has that been released for download already, or has this guy pirated it somehow? If so, he's stealing from my company. I wonder if I could insist the flight crew help me make a sky-citizen's arrest?

Just wondering.



And now he's watching Fantastic Mr. Fox. Cyber pirate, definitely.

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