Virgin America, a review written during flight. I'd live-blog it, but I don't live-blog, and there's no internet.

Upon entering the plane, I'm struck by the soft violet lights. It's got this very new, very futuristic feeling. They're piping in music which I can only describe as soft techno. It's slightly upbeat and engaging without being invasive.

Seats are all leather and recline nicely. Foot room isn't the best, but doesn't seem too far out of line from other airlines. The flashing of the seats is hard plastic and seems comparable to the covering of a MacBook. It's currently nice and white, but I wonder if it will hold up over time. Even so, the atmosphere is comforting. The brochure area in the seats are hard plastic pockets (with the standard elastic netting). I won't say they spared no expense, but for a coach class fare, this is among the best I've had the pleasure of experiencing.

The amenities include power and USB, so I'm not running off my laptop battery at the moment, instead getting the full functioning POWER of the plug. There's one for every seat, so I don't even need to share. Compare that to my Amtrak trip back in November, where I think there were two plugs in total for the lounge car, which basically had to serve everyone in coach class. It doesn't have internet, though, which is a bit of a shame. I'd like to see an airline provide wi-fi on all flights so people can get connected while they're travelling. For longer flights, it'd be awesome. I could even get work done.

Most impressive are the entertainment options, which are provided by the Red Interactive Environment. This is varied and comprehensive, if a bit rough around the edges. It is listed as beta, so that's to be expected. There's a selection of movies for sale, music to listen to, games to play, and various TV channels to watch. That much is expected, however there's also a rather interesting chat function which allows seat-to-seat, open chat-rooms, and chat rooms based on TV channel viewing.

Red runs on Linux, which seems neat and geeky. Given that the environment isn't the most responsive, it might not be the best choice, but at the moment I'm going to chalk that up to the beta nature rather than the underlying architecture.

The games reflect the environment, though, with a selection of clones of extremely old (i.e. Atari era) games, free standbys (like mahjong), flash variants, and (somewhat surprisingly) Doom.

My personal favored feature is the map, which runs on the increasingly ubiquitous Google Maps. Currently it shows that we are about 150 miles from Seattle, passing over Portland at a speed of 525 MPH. We're flying at 38000 feet and it's a balmy -67 farenheit. Well, I wouldn't want to be outside, but it is nicely sunny up here.

For services, they provide the standard drink fare, but snacks of any sort require a small fee. There's also a selection of alcoholic drinks and meals. Nothing there is spectacular, but the interactive environment has the food ordering system built in, along with credit card readers. Want something, you just order it to add to a shopping cart and then just scan to pay. Cash is not accepted, but it all seems very straightforward and easy to use.

The presentation for the airline really shines. The standard introduction was provided by a well-done and entertaining animated movie. It's not quite as good as the best attendant presentations I've had while flying Southwest, but it's still fresh. I hope they update it on occasion to make sure it doesn't get stale.

Check-in was a quick and easy endeavor, and I believe I got the nicest boarding pass ever done. The information on it is clear and it had a very bright red graphic, as if to declare 'Here is a person who is flying Virgin America, today. He is both hip and intelligent for making such a choice."

With that said, it's not quite got the entrenched position of other airlines. The check-in area (at least in San Francisco) could have been any fly-by-night airline. It's a new player, though, so I don't expect it to have all the built-in set-up that I've experienced otherwise.

The big question is whether it's worth it. As a low-cost airline, Virgin's good. It doesn't beat Southwest for price, except in the case of a sale, which is a tossup. At the lowest, I could get a Virgin flight between the Bay Area and Seattle for $69 and for $73 on Southwest. That's a Virgin SALE though. Standard flights are about $130 one-way. Still good, but about $50 more than the standard Southwest flights.

And for comfort, it doesn't quite match Horizon Air, which has free alcohol on all flights. (The one time I flew Horizon, I felt WONDERFUL by the time I landed.)

But it seems to be an airline that has very level flight prices even close to the date (I picked my ticket up less than two weeks ago.) At $130, that's not a bad deal.

I wrote most of this on the flight, just adding a bit at the end now.

My early summer travel plans are pretty much in place.

On May 23rd, I fly up to Washington.

I expect that on the 24th I'll go climbing with Chris.

May 25th is Pirates Day. I'd really like to go to a Midnight showing with everyone. I'm not sure if it'll be playing on IMAX in Seattle, but if so, I'd be up for that even more.

Also on May 25th, Paprika plays at SIFF. I'd like to see that.

May 26th is currently unscheduled. I may be able to rush around and say hi to various folks.

On May 27th my dad and I start the drive out east. I expect (hope) that we arrive in South Bend by the 29th.

Chicagoland area people, if you want to meet up, the first two weeks of June are good ones.

On June 14th or so, I'm going to make my way up to Duluth somehow to spend some time with Eric and Samy.

On June 21st the various wedding things for my brother starts in Madison.

On June 25th or so, I'm going to try to fly home.

Got a haircut. Which is to say, I bought some electric clippers last week and Aya gave me a buzz cut today after climbing. So now my hair is wonderfully short again and I don't need to worry about it for a few months.


I've had a bit of a reality check on the bass situation. I sat down and did a bit of thinking about the cost of getting one and starting up and realized that while I -can- afford one now, I have a few other large financial things to worry about beforehand. For one, the year's starting to gear up and before I take my first trip (in late March/early April), I need to buy a laptop. I've got enough set aside for it, but I realize that it's going to be a big purchase to get something adequate and good. And secondly, I need to get my taxes done soon. With the trip coming up, I probably need to do it in the next few weeks so I can figure out exactly how much that's going to be so it can be paid before I leave. Combined, that's not really condusive to plunking down a few hundred for a new possible hobby which (realistically) might not stick.

I'm a bit more concerned than I normally would be since I'm going to be missing a week of work in early March since I'm volunteering for the GDC. On the upside, my monthly expenses should drop a bit around then as we'll be (finally) getting our (approved) fourth roommate.

That said, I found a mention for a bass on Craigslist for $100. Used and not in the best shape, but a great price for the model. It's down in Santa Cruz, though, which is difficult to get to for me. I've pinged the guy and told him it might be a problem, but if it's still available in a few days, I may go for it. If it doesn't work out, I'll shrug and wait a few months until I'm more financially sure I can take the hit. Probably after the trip.


The trip will be back to Washington and likely last 2-3 weeks. I'm not entirely sure how it's going to work out. I want to be up there for the con, but I'd like some time to hang out with my friends and enjoy the early spring. How the trip starts will probably depend on when I hold my birthday party.

My current plan is to have the party happen on March 17. The troops from Washington will come down for the weekend and much fun will be had by all. Then they'd leave. However, since I'd be heading up there a couple weeks later anyway, I realized if I held the party on the 24th, I could ride back up with them, hang out for the 2-3 weeks, then fly back down to SF once I wore out my welcome. I suppose just for the coolness of a road trip with friends, I'm leaning towards that, instead.


My leg was better after a weekend of rest, and I've started trying to do at least a bit of working out and stretching each day when I wake up.

My trip back to Tacoma was characterized by rain, at least for the first five or so days. Things started to clear up over the weekend... and Monday actually looked rather nice. Of course, Monday evening the snow started, and it's apparently the worst winter storm to hit the area in quite some time. The trip from my grandparents' place to the airport Tuesday morning took longer than the commute I had to make to UW on 9/11/01. It was something like two hours, for a drive that, even in traffic, rarely takes more than one.

Needless to say, I missed my flight. I got rebooked onto a flight three hours later. And even that was delayed almost an hour. Instead of my expected 10:30 arrival, I landed right around 2 and got home at 4. In a lot of ways, it was the getting home from the airport that took the most out of me. I needed to take two busses and a BART to do it, and then walk five blocks. All this with my backpack, shoulder bag, duffel, and a suitcase I borrowed from my grandparents to carry everything. Four bags while standing on a bus across SF is not fun. It was a very crowded bus, as well.

But I'm back home, safe and sound, if a bit annoyed that the weather here in SF seems to have taken a turn for the colder. I suppose this means I'll be sleeping more. I'd imagine if I can't face the cold unconscious, I'd do it by killing my sobriety. Not really preferrable and certainly more expensive.

Despite weather and travel, the trip back was rather nice and welcome. I got to catch up with a number of people, especially a few I'd missed just prior to the actual move, like Max. Hanging out with him Saturday was a blast, and I quite enjoyed observing a group of people rather outside my normal crowd.

The two climbing sessions at Edgeworks were spectacular. Unfortunately, they also reinforced my thoughts that Edgeworks is a better gym than Mission Cliffs in most ways. The route balance, personal traffic, and atmosphere more than make up for the disparity in sizes. Even so, the two sessions did help me jump myself back into shape, so in my climbing session earlier today, I started hitting the V1s down here. I'm noticing that route rating varies wildly. I did a V0 that's got some really tricky, grippy bits and that I'd consider more difficult than some of the V1s.

A downside to the two heavy sessions at Edgeworks, though, was how much I wore my arms out. I had to quit rather early today. But I suppose that's just as well, since MC closes earlier on MWF.

I think, because I left my car behind, the trip back down here carried a stronger sense of finality. In the previous month and a bit, it never really felt like I'd moved. Now I'm down here and fully into the bus and BART mode so I suppose I must live here. The added inconvenience is worth dropping $400 or so off my insurance premium because I'm just storing my car, now.


Must get tickets for my Christmas trip. Looks like I'm going to spend both Christmas and New Years in South Bend because of cost.