Delta Engine Failure
I flew back from Philadelphia late Sunday night. I can usually say “the trip was uneventful, blah blah blah” but that wasn’t the case this time. It started off uneventful enough. We left Philly a little late, but no big deal because I had like a three or four hour layover anyway and I was just going to watch the Eagles in the Atlanta airport (btw, go Eagles). So I did that and then I got onto my Atlanta to San Jose plane. We took off a bit late, but still nothing out of the ordinary. But then about 10 minutes into the flight, we were climbing out of the Atlanta area and we were at like 15,000 feet when I heard a loud “clunk” on the right side of the plane. It was not a sound I’d heard before on an airplane, especially considering that the landing gear was already up (lowering and raising the landing gear can make some weird noise sometimes). I was seated very close to some of the stewardesses (they were still seated) and they let out some short shrieks, so I knew something was up. I don’t think there’s too much that can faze an airplane employee on a flight. So I was a little freaked out.
However, even after the clunk, the only thing that happened was a noticeable drop in velocity. For a second or two, it felt like someone had tapped the breaks a little too hard in a car. But we were still flying along pretty normally and about five seconds later, you would have had no idea anything happened. So three or four minutes after the sound, a flight attendant got on the loud speaker and made an announcement that went something like this (paraphrasing): Hi, this is Kyle, you made have heard a noise on the right side of a plane. It was an engine failure. The pilots are currently busy running checks and tests, but we will make an announcement as soon as we can about what’s going to happen. Thank you. I was, surprisingly, not very freaked out. Neither was anyone else around me from what I could see. I was somewhat comforted by the fact that I knew that these jets can fly around on one engine so, as long as we had one engine, we’d be okay. A few minutes later they updated us and said that we were running on one engine and that we’d be heading back to Atlanta. It took them about 25 minutes to get us back to Atlanta because I guess they needed to find a spot in the busy runway schedule. So we landed on the ground and some fire trucks came over to check out the plane — supposedly it’s part of a SOP for this situation because there wasn’t an ongoing fire in the engine as far as I know. Anyway, we got off the plane and a few hours later we got back on a new plane and flew down to Costa Rica.
So today I did a little research. I wanted to see how often these things happen, how dangerous it really is, etc. I found something VERY interesting from a few months ago:
An Aug. 6 Delta flight from Las Vegas on a Boeing 757-232 jet with Pratt & Whitney PW2037 engines had a problem at the start of its takeoff, according to the NTSB. The pilots heard a loud bang and saw that the right engine had lost power. The flight returned to the gate. There was no fire and no injuries, the NTSB said.
and…
The FAA believes the problem is a “manufacturing quality” issue, said spokeswoman Laura Brown. “We’re working aggressively on an appropriate response,” Brown said.
Okay, so, here’s the thing: Atlanta to San Jose flights are, normally, a 757. The one last night definitely was a 757. I have no idea how to find out if it was a 757-232, but in my research related to the Boeing 757, I found the following on Wikipedia:
Prior to July 2007, American Airlines was the largest operator, operating a total of 141 757s. American Airlines has retired their 757 fleet that was inherited via American’s buyout of TWA, due to the fact that they use Pratt & Whitney engines rather than Rolls-Royce like most of American’s 757s.
If Delta was using a Pratt & Whitney-powered 757-232 against the recommendation of the NTSB, I will seriously question ever flying on Delta again. It would be utterly absurd for them to put their customers in harms way in such a reckless manner. I’m not sure of the best way to figure out what happened, but I am going to ask around and see what the deal is. However, the bottom line is that it was good to get home.
In other news, I know of an interesting opportunity for the writers out there. I’ve made appeals to writers from my blog before and I’ve gotten a high response rate, so I figure this is a good place to make this announcement. Randy Ray is running a writing contest in which first place is $1000 — not bad for writing a single article. There’s another $1000 up for grabs split among other prizes. The details are laid out in the link above, so you can check those out there. You have until the end of January to enter. Also, the articles will be published on Randy’s website Bonus Internet Poker which is an online poker bonus guide.
In case you don’t know who Randy is, he’s a poker SEO who used to consult for PokerStars. If you’re wondering how PokerStars got to the #1 ranking for the keyword “online poker”, Randy is one of the reasons why. He’s a very smart online marketer, especially in the gaming space. Make no mistake about it — the writing contest is a marketing move. And a very smart one at that. He get articles, writers get a shot at a decent prize (much more than a typical per article fee) and he also gets links from places like my blog. It’s a win-win for everyone. So, if you’re a writer or if you think you can write a good poker strategy article, give it a go.
Disclosure: I may steal this idea at some point for one of the sites I run. Seems like a good idea to me.
PokerSourceOnline
If you are signing up for an online poker room I recommend checking out Poker Source Online. They were established in early 2004 and have given way over $6,000,000 in free gifts, free poker money, and rakeback. They support all the major poker rooms including Party Poker, Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, etc.
Later 2008
I have sat here reflecting on 2008 while simultaneously browsing facebook in a nostalgic manner. I am going through my friends list checking up only on people who I haven’t seen in 3+ years. Tons of college people. As I think about, I don’t think I’ve even been back on my college campus since I graduated in May of 2004. If you asked me then, I never would have predicted I would have gone 4.5 years without going back.
I attended Franklin & Marshall College (website: http://www.fandm.edu/) and I did it the standard way… Start in August 2000, finish in May 2004, etc. I never joined a frat because I just couldn’t see myself being someone’s bitch for a whole semester. My freshman roommate (a guy named Kevin — according to his facebook, he lives in St Louis — I don’t know anything beyond that) pledged a frat called Delta Sigma Phi and, let me tell you, he got put through absolute hell. That whole second semester freshman year was insanity. He’d come back completely covered in mud after being out all night doing who knows what. I just never saw the benefit to the whole thing. I mean, sure, you get a place to hang out and some forced “friends” who you may or may not keep in touch with, but is that worth it? I think the only real benefit I ever saw from it was the future networking potential. After all, you gain a connection with a lot of other people doing it and you have a bond which might get you in the door at a job you might not be able to get otherwise. I see the point in that case. But I still don’t think it was worth it for someone like me (I kind of had a feeling I’d end up doing my own thing in some way, I just didn’t know how it would happen). I was very focused on academic results and doing the stuff they did would have totally screwed me over in that respect.
Anyway, I still had a great time at college. There was something about it that really brought out the competitive streak in me. I just felt like I HAD to get As in classes. Not in the way that I’d screw people over or spend 18 billion hours in the library — quite the opposite. I was a tutor in the Business dept (ie, I actually helped classmates!) and I rarely spent time in the library except in between some classes (if the break was short enough that it wasn’t worth going back to my apt) and during finals when I needed to bear down. I just found ways to work smarter and ways to grind out As. And I loved it. For whatever reason, it was incredibly rewarding to find a way to get an A and then see it online at the end of the semester. I am the type of person who loves defined and timely feedback on my efforts — which is possibly one reason I was drawn to poker. Just to make it clear, I didn’t do class stuff all the time. I did a lot of non-academic stuff and I definitely had my fun.
Now, looking through facebook, I am shocked by how many of my college classmates are married, engaged, working in “respected” professions or whatever. It’s so weird to think of the person I knew as a drunk to be a married doctor living in New York City. Also, lots of people from my school actually married their college bf/gf. So tons of people who I remember when they started hooking up are now married (and some of them have kids!!). Holy crap. Really crazy. Oh and, somewhat predictably, a lot of my classmates are really fat now. I can sympathize with where they’re coming from re: controlling weight in the real world, but some of them have put on a TON of weight to the point where it’s a little gross. Hopefully they come to their senses before it’s too late and they have a heart attack in <10 years.
Anyway, I guess it takes the end of the year to get me to reflect a little. Well, and that I needed to message an old college friend on facebook about our 5 year reunion this summer. I guess this is the next step for most people though. College, date, get married, have kids, kids grow up, kids go to college, retire from their job, kids have grandchildren, live out their life with their spouse, etc. It’s very weird to go through this marriage phase because you only hear about it from a distance from most of your former classmates. For the vast majority, I am either not good enough friends with them to be at their wedding or I simply can’t attend for some other reason. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s a weird feeling. I guess the next major stage for me to hear about all of my friends having kids (most don’t have them yet). One thing I can say for sure is that I’m happy with my life path. I plan to be about 10 years behind most of my friends with the whole married/kids thing — I have too many things I want to do in my youth (not too many years left!) to get tied down to a single spot and kids. I think I would regret it if I gave up my freedom this early. One day though (maybe).
New York and Tech Gifts
I’m currently in NYC staying the night at stevesbets’ apartment. He lives pretty close to Columbus Circle (because he’s in the Fordham MBA program) … pretty nice area. I always have mixed feelings on NYC when I visit. On the one hand, it’s awesome because there are so many friends around, so many girls to meet, so many things to do, etc. You can basically do almost anything. Not to mention the 24-hour Apple Store (great for night owls like myself) and tons of other conveniences. I can’t imagine a better place for me to live on certain levels.
On the other hand, I really dislike a lot of things. First, the weather is pretty miserable. There are so many far superior climates to live in — and weather is really important to me. Second, it’s so absurdly expensive. I don’t know if this info is private so I won’t mention details, but the amount of money that Steve pays for this place is absolutely ridiculous. It’s like people are packed into this city like sardines and they all pay a massive premium for the privilege of living as closely as possible with millions of others. I don’t really like the idea of being so close to everyone. Third, the lack of ability to drive comfortably is not something I like. I really like driving on open roads (assuming the car is up to it). Steve has a brand new M3 convertible and he has to leave it in a super cramped garage all day (don’t even get me started on the parking spot, it’s utterly ridiculous that he somehow manages to fit in that). I would want to be driving that thing on country backroads all day, not to mention testing out the speed potential. In NYC, you have to deal with short blocks, ton of cops, bumpy roads and a general lack of ability to safely go fast anywhere if you don’t want to drive 30+ minutes out of the city.
Anyway, long story short, I don’t know if I would enjoy living in NY. Sometimes I think yes, sometimes I think no. I guess I won’t know until I try (or, if I try).
Moving on, I recently read this post on Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5119165/dad-wheres-the-digital-photo-frame. The post itself isn’t anything all that special, but some of the comments are terrific. It really reminds me a ton of my own family, although my family isn’t nearly as bad in a number of ways.
For instance, I recently bought my mom an iPod Touch as a holiday present (I don’t celebrate religious holidays, but I’m happy to jump into the gift-buying part of things). She has been using this archaic Palm device for her calendar needs. Also, she’s a doctor, so she uses this program called “Epocrates” which somehow helps in the process of prescribing drugs (I’ve never really asked for the details on how it helps). I noticed that Epocrates had an Apple App, so I figured it would be the perfect gift. I also installed about 10 apps on it which I thought she might like and gave her a brief run-down on how to use it. She isn’t NEARLY as bad as some of the parents described in the Gizmodo post, but she still has a “show me how to use this” attitude instead of a “I’ll figure this out” attitude. Not saying I blame her for it because, 99% of the time, it’s much faster if I just show her. But what I really see from my family is a general lack of early adoption or branching out without some pushing on my part. I don’t think they even got HDTV until sometime last year. And I also gave them a Logitech Harmony universal remote (I think a year ago), but it’s back sitting in my room completely unused because they have no interest in setting it up themselves. This is despite the fact that I still see like 4-5 remotes on the couch by the TV when I go home and, in well under 1 hour, they could replace all of them and have a much easier overall media-controlling experience. I think it’s just a general ambivalence about the benefits of a new technology, even when it’s being presented directly to them. Not saying I blame them, just an observation. Now, on the other hand, my grandparents are a totally different story… I shouldn’t even get started.
What about your families? Do you have experience giving “tech” gifts to the tech n00bs of the world?
