seen itchy?

close quartered job fair notes

I'm not hungry, but not in a position to eat so I'll eat a handful of altoids. I used to be funny about altoids, you know, because of the whole gelatin thing. Gelatin still skeeves me out, don't get me wrong, but there comes a point when you are just plain hungry.

I'm at this job fair where it's the closest-quartered fair I've even been too. No room to stand, no room to bring my big fortress display. Just my cups and flyers.

The elevator in this building is so slow, I swear there was guy with a hand crank somewhere responsible for transporting people throughout the different levels of the building. And once inside the elevator, I felt like a stranger in a strange land, the buttons in the elevator were labeled "M" and "L" and "U." There wasn't any "1" "2" or "3", or anything else that made sense and helped me completely feel comfortable about my selection.

All of the vendors here, as usual, have a bunch of shit they've brought to give away. We are all contributing to this landfill earth. At least this job fair is only three hours long, and 1 of which has just passed. I brought coffee mugs, so at least my contribution to the decline of the planet will be a slow drawn out death, unlike the swift demise of the stress squeezy toys, fuzzy highlighters, magnets that don't really stick, and tons of glassy marketing material that can only hope to be glanced at after someone has picked it up.

A lunch is provided for vendors, and I hope it's good. The altoids I have been eating aren't cutting it. I brought a case of cups, and I want to get rid of them so I don't have to carry it back to the car, but many people are apprehensive about taking one. I don't know why; at the other job fairs the slobs walk away with two and three.

My pen is running out of ink. That sucks because it was such a good pen, good writing quality and comfortable feel. Goodbye faithful pen, enjoy the landfill!

So I traded the fed-ex lady next to me a cup for 2 pens and a squeezy stress airplane. I'm sure I'll be using that soon. She joked and said that you could hold 2 squeezy airplanes and squeeze them while you were in traffic.

company BBQ yesterday

mmmm...burgers!

freak hail storm

The week before last we received a freak hail storm, that dropped so much hail on us that it piled up like snow drifts. When I got into my car to go home, I was sliding all over the parking lot. The hail was smaller then the size of a pea, so there weren't any dents or otherwise lasting effects of the hailstorm.

And in the last picture, after the end of the storm, I notieced that my place of employment is at the end of the rainbow.

death, in general but specifically speaking...

I work in the office with a woman named Katherine, who happened to start work the same day as me. She’s beautiful, a mother, wife, dynamic strong individual, has many ideas, understands workplace urgency, but even in the most stressful of situations is very upbeat. I started noticing about a month ago that she had been missing a lot of work; mentioned to me times she wouldn’t be available due to medical appointments (I coordinate a lot of activities with her). Recently I found out she has cancer; a particularly aggressive and quick cancer and I feel stunned. She’s still working, looking a little more tired and not as upbeat, but it’s a real effort on my part not to feel or show sadness when I see her. I did a little on-line research, and it seems there will be a time when she can’t keep the façade up and continue to work. I’m not too close with her, so I can’t strike up a conversation with her, “Hey, how’s the cancer thing going?” but I feel really sad and try my best to put it out of my mind, maybe she’ll be one of the 3% that successfully goes into remission.

I guess the symptoms for this type of cancer aren’t’ really distinct; they could be interpreted as anything mild and easily over looked. I went to lunch today with a friend of mine named Lynn, and I was telling her about Katherine and how I felt about the whole thing. Lynn was explaining how her mother died from the same type of cancer, and she and all of her family were in the hospice during her mother’s final days, and they were all really upset, but trying to keep the strong upper lip for their mother’s sake. Then Lynn went on to explain that she had a kooky ex-boyfriend hippy new age guy there, who, despite all of his pot smoking and general weirdness, had this great philosophy about death, and about how it was a stage of life, and it’s just a transition into another plane of being, weather you’re Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, whatever, you are basically transcending this life onto the next ------- [insert next thing here]. The calm rationalization of this often overlooked hippy made everyone feel at ease, and helped her family through that painful transition.

So, yes, I agree with that statement, and I think part of the pain and sadness of dying is suffering, and the other part is sudden death. Last month my friend Arland died, suddenly, 2 days before his death he sat next to me at a meeting and we were bullshitting about the nice weather and some of the great things we had done over the summer. I was telling him about when I visited Mt. St. Helens, and he was telling me how he lived near there when it erupted, and had so much ash covering his property and car it was like a thick blizzard. Arland was older then I thought he was; I didn’t find out until his eulogy that he was 59, but I swear he was like 49. I usually can’t go to funerals, but went to Arland’s, and I stayed a total of 32 minutes before I had to leave. Arland had a massive heart attack, with no warning; he never complained and seemed relatively healthy, especially compared to the rest of the country. I think I was more upset that so many people around me were upset, rather then being upset that Arland had died. When I arrived at the funeral home where the wake was being held, my first thought was, “I hope this many people show up when I die.” I didn’t go up to the front and look at his body or anything.

I think I’ll just remember him sitting next to me at the meeting, shooting the shit and eating cookies with me.

On this day...

On this day...

September 17: Constitution Day and Citizenship Day in the United States.

• 1787 - The text of the United States Constitution was finalized in Philadelphia.
• 1809 - The Treaty of Hamina concluded the Finnish War between Russia and Sweden, with Finland becoming an autonomous Grand Duchy under Tsar Alexander I.
• 1894 - The Imperial Japanese Navy and the Beiyang Fleet of Qing China clashed in the Battle of Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
• 1916 - World War I: "The Red Baron", a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, won his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
• 1978 - President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel signed the Camp David Accords after twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David (pictured with President Jimmy Carter of the United States).

Events

• 1176 - The Battle of Myriokephalon is fought.
• 1394 - King Charles VI of France orders all Jews expelled from France.
• 1462 - The Battle of Świecino (or Battle of Żarnowiec) is fought during Thirteen Years' War.
• 1577 - Peace of Bergerac signed between Henry III of France and the Huguenots.
• 1630 - The city of Boston, Massachusetts, is founded.
• 1776 - The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.
• 1778 - Treaty of Fort Pitt signed, the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware).
• 1787 - The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1809 - Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War. The territory to become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
• 1859 - Joshua A. Norton declares himself Emperor Norton I of the United States.
• 1862 - American Civil War: George McClellan halts the northward drive of Robert E. Lee's Confederate army in the single-day Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day of the war, and in American history. Over 23,000 Casualties in under twelve hours of combat marks this as a day as a prime example supreme savagery and brutality in warfare.
• 1894 - Battle of Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
• 1900 - Philippine-American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.
• 1908 - The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes; killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality.
• 1914 - Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
• 1916 - World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, won his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
• 1920 - National Football League is organized in Canton, Ohio, United States.
• 1924 - The Border Defence Corps was established in the Second Polish Republic for the defence of the eastern border against armed Soviet raids and local bandits.
• 1928 - The Okeechobee Hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing upwards of 2,500 people. It is the third deadliest natural disaster in US history, behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The Soviet Union joined Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.

• 1939 - The Soviet Union joined Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.
• 1943 - Russian city of Bryansk liberated from Nazis.
• 1944 - Allied Airborne troops parachute into Holland as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden.
• 1947 - James V. Forrestal was sworn in as the first Secretary of Defense of United States.
• 1948 - Lehi (also know as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the UN to mediate between the Arabs and Jews.
• 1949 - The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbor with the loss of over 118 lives.
• 1951 - Robert A. Lovett was sworn in as the 4th Secretary of Defense of United States.
• 1956 - Television was first broadcast in Australia.
• 1961 - The Minnesota Vikings play their first NFL game, defeating the Chicago Bears 37-13, with Fran Tarkenton throwing 4 touchdowns and running for 1 touchdown.
• 1967 - Jim Morrison and The Doors defy CBS censors on The Ed Sullivan Show. Morrison sang the lyrics, "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" from the song, Light My Fire when asked not to.
• 1970 - Fighting breaks out along the Syrio-Jordanian border between Jordanian troops and the fedayeen.
• 1972 - The first episode of M*A*S*H premieres on CBS.
• 1976 - The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, was unveiled by NASA. In keeping with its namesake, the cast of Star Trek came to see Enterprise's unveiling.

Enterprise rolls out of the Palmdale manufacturing facilities with Star Trek television cast members.

• 1978 - The Camp David Accords were signed by Israel and Egypt.
• 1983 - Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America.
• 1984 - Brian Mulroney is sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1984 - Baseball: Reggie Jackson becomes the 13th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, California.
• 1988 - Opening ceremony of the Games of the XXIV Olympiad in Seoul, South Korea.
• 1988 - Reliever Jeff Reardon of the Minnesota Twins picks up his 40th save of the season by pitching the ninth inning of a 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox, becoming the first pitcher to save 40 games in both the American League and the National League. Reardon had previously saved 41 games while pitching with the Montreal Expos in 1985.
• 1991 - North Korea, South Korea, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations.
• 1991 - The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.
• 2001 - The Late Show with David Letterman is the first TV talk show to return to the airwaves six days after terrorists attack the United States in New York City and Washington D.C.
• 2001 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average opens for the first time after the September 11 attacks. The stocks plummet throughout the trading session and posts its biggest point drop in its history closing down 684.81 points to 8920.70.
• 2004 - Tamil is declared first classical language in India.
• 2006 - The WB Television Network goes off-the-air after eleven and a half years. The CW Television Network launches the following day.
• 2006 - Trish Stratus wrestles her final match for World Wrestling Entertainment before starting her retirement/indefinite hiatus in Toronto for at Unforgiven in Toronto Ontario.

Births

• 64 - Julia Flavia, daughter of Roman Emperor Titus; lover of Domitian.
• 879 - King Charles III of France (d. 929)
• 1192 - Minamoto no Sanetomo Japanese shogun (d. 1219)
• 1271 - Wenceslas II of Bohemia and Poland (d. 1305)
• 1550 - Pope Paul V (d. 1621)
• 1580 - Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish writer (d. 1645)
• 1630 - Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma (d. 1694)
• 1639 - Hans Herr, Mennonite bishop (d. 1725)
• 1657 - Sophia Alekseyevna, regent of Russia (d. 1704)
• 1677 - Stephen Hales, English physiologist, chemist, and inventor (d. 1761)
• 1687 - Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (d. 1772)
• 1730 - Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian army officer (d. 1794)
• 1739 - John Rutledge, 2nd (appointed) Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1800)
• 1743 - Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician (d. 1794)
• 1820 - Émile Augier, French dramatist (d. 1889)
• 1826 - Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician (d. 1866)
• 1854 - David Dunbar Buick, American automobile pioneer (d.1929)
• 1857 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian rocket scientist (d. 1935)
• 1869 - Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize recipient (d. 1938)
• 1879 - Rube Foster, American baseball player, manager and executive (d. 1930)
• 1881 - Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, English soldier (d. 1955)
• 1883 - William Carlos Williams, American writer (d. 1963)
• 1884 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (d. 1920)
• 1890 - Gabriel Heatter, American radio commentator (d. 1972)
• 1897 - Earl Webb, baseball player (d. 1965)
• 1900 - John Willard Marriott, American hotelier (d. 1985)
• 1900 - Hughie Critz, baseball player (d. 1980)
• 1903 - Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984)
• 1906 - Edgar Wayburn, American Environmentalist
• 1907 - Warren Burger, 15th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1995)
• 1912 - Irena Kwiatkowska, Polish actress, comiedienne
• 1918 - Chaim Herzog, President of Israel (d. 1997)
• 1922 - Agostinho Neto, Angolan politician (d. 1979)
• 1923 - Hank Williams, American musician (d. 1953)
• 1926 - Bill Black, American musician (d. 1965)
• 1927 - George Blanda, American football player
• 1928 - Roddy McDowall, English actor (d. 1998)
• 1929 - Sir Stirling Moss, English race car driver
• 1929 - Pat Crowley, American actress
• 1930 - Edgar Mitchell, American astronaut
• 1930 - Thomas Stafford, American astronaut
• 1931 - Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
• 1933 - Dorothy Loudon, American actress (d. 2003)
• 1933 - Claude Provost, National Hockey League player (d. 1984)
• 1934 - Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (d. 1969)
• 1935 - Ken Kesey, American author (d. 2001)
• 1937 - Orlando Cepeda, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player
• 1938 - Bobby Wine, American Major League Baseball player
• 1939 - David Souter, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• 1941 - Bob Matsui, U.S. Congressman (d. 2005)
• 1942 - Des Lynam, English television presenter
• 1944 - Reinhold Messner, Austrian mountain climber
• 1945 - David Emerson, Canadian politician
• 1946 - Billy Bonds, English footballer
• 1947 - Tessa Jowell, British politician
• 1948 - Jeff MacNelly, American political cartoonist (d. 2000)
• 1948 - John Ritter, American actor (d. 2003)
• 1950 - Narendra Modi, Indian politician
• 1951 - Cassandra Peterson, American actress
• 1953 - Altaf Hussain, Pakistani politician and founder of MQM
• 1954 - Joël-François Durand, French composer
• 1955 - Charles Martinet, American actor
• 1956 - Rita Rudner, American comedian
• 1959 - Charles Lawson, Northern Irish actor
• 1960 - Damon Hill, English race car driver
• 1960 - John Franco, American baseball player
• 1961 - Ty Tabor, American guitarist and singer (King's X)
• 1962 - Baz Luhrmann, Australian film director
• 1965 - Bryan Singer, American director
• 1965 - Yuji Naka, Japanese video game programmer
• 1966 - Doug E. Fresh, American rapper, record producer, and beatboxer
• 1968 - Anastacia, American singer
• 1969 - Ken Doherty, Irish snooker player
• 1971 - Adriana Sklenaříková, Slovak supermodel
• 1974 - Rasheed Wallace, American basketball player
• 1974 - Mirah, American musician
• 1975 - Jimmie Johnson, American race car driver
• 1975 - Austin St. John, American actor
• 1975 - Constantine Maroulis, American Idol Finalist
• 1976 - Daniella Rush, Czech pornographic actress
• 1977 - Simone Perrotta, Italian football player
• 1978 - Shawn Horcoff, Canadian Ice Hockey player
• 1979 - Akin Ayodele, American football player
• 1979 - Chuck Comeau, Canadian musician (Simple Plan)
• 1980 - Danny Haren, baseball player
• 1980 - Farid Tabaian, Cartographer
• 1981 - Bakari Koné, Ivory Coast Footballer
• 1983 - Jennifer Peña, American singer
• 1984 - Eugenia Volodina, Russian supermodel
• 1985 - Alexander Ovechkin, Russian hockey player
• 1986 - Ace, Member of Antilogia Hiphop Crew
• 1991 - Jordan McCoy, American Juniors Finalist

Deaths

• 1179 - Hildegard of Bingen, German abbess and composer (b. 1098)
• 1322 - Robert III of Flanders (b. 1249)
• 1422 - Constantine II of Bulgaria.
• 1563 - Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, English soldier
• 1574 - Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, first Spanish Governor of Florida (b. 1519)
• 1575 - Heinrich Bullinger, Swiss religious reformer (b. 1504)
• 1621 - Robert Bellarmine, Italian saint (b. 1542)
• 1630 - Thomas Lake, English statesman (b. 1567)
• 1665 - King Philip IV of Spain (b. 1605)
• 1679 - John of Austria the Younger, Spanish general (b. 1629)
• 1727 - Glückel of Hameln, German businesswoman and diarist (b. 1647)
• 1762 - Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1687)
• 1771 - Tobias Smollett, Scottish novelist (b. 1721)
• 1803 - Franz Xaver Süssmayr, Austrian composer (b. 1766)
• 1808 - Benjamin Bourne, American politician (b. 1755)
• 1836 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (b. 1748)
• 1863 - Alfred de Vigny, French author (b. 1797)
• 1873 - Alexander Berry, Scottish adventurer (b. 1781)
• 1879 - Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, French architect (b. 1814)
• 1894 - Deng Shichang, Chinese admiral (b. 1849)
• 1907 - Ignaz Brüll, Austrian pianist (b. 1846)
• 1933 - Joseph De Piro, Maltese missionary (b. 1877)
• 1936 - Ettie Rout, New Zealand activist (b. 1877)
• 1938 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)
• 1966 - Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor (b. 1930)
• 1972 - Akim Tamiroff, Georgian actor (b. 1899)
• 1973 - Hugo Winterhalter, American bandleader (b. 1909)
• 1980 - Anastasio Somoza Debayle, President of Nicaragua (b. 1925)
• 1984 - Richard Basehart, American actor (b. 1914)
• 1987 - Harry Locke, British character actor (b. 1913)
• 1991 - Zino Francescatti, French violinist (b. 1902)
• 1993 - Christian Nyby, American film and television director (b. 1913)
• 1996 - Spiro Agnew, Vice President of the United States (b. 1918)
• 1997 - Red Skelton, American actor and comedian (b. 1913)
• 2000 - Nicole Reinhart, American cyclist (b. 1976)
• 2000 - Paula Yates, English reporter (b. 1960)
• 2003 - Erich Hallhuber, German actor (b. 1951)
• 2005 - Alfred Reed, American composer (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances

• The fourth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Greek mythology, when the initiates sacrificed a pig.
• RC Saints - Feasts of Saint Lambert (martyr), Hildegard of Bingen.
• Also see September 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics).
• Angola - National Heroes' Day.
• Netherlands - Operation Market Garden is still remembered with parachuting and dedications on this day.
• United States - Constitution Day (observed on the previous Friday if it falls Saturday, the following Monday if on a Sunday), Citizenship Day, Von Steuben Day.

It's also my birthday. Happy birthday to me, I'm 33! My father told me that I was born early in the morning.

Belmont Street Fair

Last Saturday I participated in the Belmont Street Fair as a vendor. The fair was all up and down SE Belmont Street, but the craft fair was on the corner of SE 34th and Belmont. It was open from 10 AM to 5 PM, and it was a beautiful day. Ric helped me set up, scouted out the competition, and watched the booth while I ran and peed about 6 times (in a bathroom, or course, I would rather hold it then use a port-o-pottie). Many friends of mine attended the fair, and dropped by my booth. Some of the guys I worked with at the sheltered workshop showed up, and my booth became a central meeting hub for many charachters.

mmm...fair food

Some of my artwork, set up in my booth...

View from behind my booth...

The trolley that would deposit a bunch of people at my booth every 1/2 hour

This dog was pretty cute, I think the perfect friend for Marcus...

our friend Greg

Ric and Larry

Another Larry

It was a great day! I hope to participate again next year. I live in the neatest neighborhood.

life changing incidents happen in quick moment

I particpated in the Belmont Street Fair last week as a vendor, selling fused glass art. It was alot of fun, I was in a great spot, and I made back my booth cost + about $107 extra so it was a great day. My goal was just to make the booth cost back, and I always hope for a little extra to get something to eat. Anyway, I plan to blog more about the Belmont Street Fair in a different entry, but that evening, as we were walking around town, we walked past the same intersection where my booth was, and moments before we got there, a car had hit a cyclist, knocked her off her bike and she cracked her head on the asphalt. She wasn't wearing a helmet. From what the other onlookers said, she was alright but just bleeding alot, which is always better then the worst. Of couse nobodies talking about brain injury at this point; it's probably just a releif that she's breathing and ambulatory. Below are pictures I took with my camera-phone of the rescue personnel at work:

approcaching the scene...

The policeman in the center of the picture is standing by the mangeled bike; the woman who had been hit had been taken away by the ambulence at this point.

I hope she's okay. The driver didn't leave the scene, which is always good. I'm not sure who's a fault; it could have been nobody's fault. You never know when your number is called by the great deli counter serviced by a higher power.

wheat-free failure

I've noticed that on a daily basis I get an overwhelming tired feeling around 2:30-3 PM. I'm often so tired that I could put my head down and easily sleep in an instant, and have gotten into a bad habit of taking 15 minute power naps between work and martial arts practice in the evening. I've tried getting more sleep, getting less sleep, drinking more coffee, eating apples, and all of these control variations didn't really change how tired I felt. After talking to a friend who has a wheat allergy, I thought I'd try to cut wheat products temporarily out of my life to see if it made a difference. And this is a difficult change to make for me; I live a few blocks from a great bakery and happen to love all things made of wheat. It's been a challenge coming up with alternative breakfasts and avoiding wheat that has been incorporated into other foods.

I didn't realize the degree of success I've achieved until I overdosed on wheat this weekend. I am also lactose intolerant, and against the will of my physiology, I ended up gorging on pizza, went to a free sample pepper festival at the New Season's Market, had lots of things that included wheat and cheese, went to the bakery two days in a row, and by Sunday I was very blown out and almost drunk toxic, practically hallucinating...my tongue felt thick in my mouth and all my thoughts were disconnected. I actually had started feeling better from limiting the amount of wheat products I ate, but didn't realize it because it my system was slowly adjusting.

I'm doing my best to re-adjust. My boss and I went out to lunch once, and she mentioned if she could only eat two foods for the rest of her life, as if she were shipwrecked on a desert island and could only bring two types of food with her, she said it would be fruit and cheese. I thought about this, but the only thing I could come up with was bread.

Smoke and enjoy the flight

I don't smoke, but I used to, and I know several people who smoke and would appreciate this article:

Smoke and enjoy the flight

By Nicola Clark International Herald Tribune

Published: September 3, 2006

PARIS If Alexander Schoppmann is right, then where there's smoke, there's a flier.

As more countries ban smoking in public places, his idea might seem malapropos. But Schoppmann, a German entrepreneur, is hoping to turn smokers' umbrage at ever-expanding efforts to stub out their habit into a highflying business proposal: Smoker's International Airways.

As the name suggests, the airline, known as Smintair for short, will probably not be for the faint of lung. The carrier, expected to begin luxury service with only business and first-class seats early next year, plans daily flights between Schoppmann's hometown of Düsseldorf and Tokyo - a 12-hour journey that, for some inveterate smokers, is simply not worth the nicotine-withdrawal headache.

"Many people simply don't travel long distances anymore because they can't smoke," said Schoppmann, 55, who admits to a 30-a-day cigarette habit as well as the occasional cigar. "That has to be why they invented videoconferencing."

It is also about comfort, he insists. "Air travel used to be a luxury experience," Schoppmann said. "Today the prices are exploding, and the service is going down to zilch. We want to bring back the joy of flying."

On-board smoking has been prohibited on most major airlines for years: Since 2000, all of the world's busiest international routes have been essentially smoke-free. Within the United States, the government has banned in-flight smoking for almost two decades. Most European carriers are not required by law to ban smoking but have voluntarily introduced no-smoking policies. In Japan, carriers stopped allowing smoking on most flights in the late 1990s.

Smoking bans on long-haul flights, though, are not just cruel and unusual as far as Schoppmann is concerned - they are downright repressive.

"Considering the amount of money I put on the table for the ticket, I don't understand why somebody should be able to tell me I can't do what I like," he said.

By starting with service between Germany and Japan, two of the world's most smoker-filled countries, Schoppmann said he expected Smintair to profit from the steady flow of business travel between the two. While it might seem a bit out of the way, Düsseldorf - sometimes referred to as Tokyo on the Rhine - is home to a Japanese population of more than 15,000, the third-largest in Europe, after those in London and Paris. Roughly 300 Japanese companies have European headquarters in or around Düsseldorf.

According to the International Air Transport Association, more than a million passengers traveled between Japan and Germany in 2004, a figure that is expected to increase by an average of 3.6 percent a year through 2009. While the majority of Japanese visitors to Germany are tourists, fully half of the Germans traveling to Japan are there on business.

What's more, about one-quarter of Germans smoke, while government surveys say 49 percent of men and 14 percent of women in Japan smoke.

"We expect all of our flights to be overbooked," Schoppmann said.

Despite his deep empathy with smoking travelers, Schoppmann said Smintair's raison d'être was not simply to create a haven for nicotine addicts. Smintair is also promoting its exclusivity, offering only business and first- class seats. Its two 747s - normally configured to seat around 415 people - will be fitted with just 138 seats.

In some ways, Schoppmann's business plan is directed at the same type of clientele that used to fly the Concorde until Air France and British Airways canceled the supersonic service in 2003. Smoking was always allowed on Concorde flights, where passengers paid upward of $9,000 for a seat.

On Smintair, Schoppmann said, ticket prices will be in line with those of the German flag carrier Lufthansa, whose Web site recently offered a nonstop business-class ticket from Frankfurt to Tokyo for €4,298, or $5,500, and €6,452 for first class.

Even with smoking statistics in its favor, some experts say Smintair is a gamble. Past attempts to create smokers' airlines in the United States have come to naught. In 1988, when Congress banned smoking on all flights of less than two hours, a group of Texas-based investors sought to set up the Great American Smokers' Club, a members- only charter service between Dallas and Houston. Despite signing up more than 6,000 members, the venture failed after regulators refused to grant it a license.

Five years later, after the U.S. ban was extended to include long-haul flights, a similar venture in Florida, Smokers Express, failed to raise enough money from investors.

"These specialized things frequently come to grief," Daniel Solon, an analyst at Avmark, a commercial aviation consultancy, said of Smintair.

Moreover, there is the question of whether smokers would take the trouble to make their way to Düsseldorf just to take a 12-hour smoking flight.

"If I'm in London making a lot of money in the City and I decide that I want to go to Japan, I'm not sure it's worth my while," Solon said. "Unless you've really got a heavy habit, most smokers should be able to handle 12 hours on the plane without lighting up."

Schoppmann said he had lined up nearly €300 million since May from private investors in Europe and the Middle East. The company expects to apply for an operating license with German regulators by late September and hopes to eventually hire about 275 people.

Germany and Japan permit smoking in workplaces, so the argument that many European countries and the United States have used to ban smoking - the health hazard to employees - would not be relevant there.

Smintair's safety prohibitions will bar smoking during takeoff and landing, nor will it be permitted in the toilets.

Michael Lamberty, a spokesman for Lufthansa, declined to comment on Smintair's prospects. "Let's wait for the smoke to clear," he said. All Lufthansa flights have been nonsmoking since 1989, he said, adding, "Passengers and we as an airline have been happy with it."

Meanwhile, the anti-smoking movement appears to be gaining ground in Germany. The country's consumer affairs minister, Horst Seehofer, said in July that the government planned after the summer break to propose a nationwide ban on smoking in public places beginning next year.

"I would love that," Schoppmann said. "They are playing into our hands."

Original article can be viewed at: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/03/business/smoke.php

all hail free wi-fi

Well, the good news is that I can pick up on free wi-fi from inside my apartment. Prior to this moment in time, I had to glom off of free wi-fi picked up from inside my art studio, or from work, or from one of the nearby coffee shops (believe me, no shortage of coffee shops in Portland).

The not-so-good news is that out of every possible place inside my small 1-bedroom apartment I could pick up wi-fi, it seems to work the best from my bathroom. Juxtaposed between the sink and tub, cat box and toilet, I can freely surf the internet and update my blog. I could be 10 feet to my right and in my kitchen, even on the small square patio-ette area outside of my side door and not pick up any wireless networks. But the magic spot happens to be right here, in the bathroom.

Which is good, I guess, that I can at least get wireless and have all the comforts of home close by; my studio is a good place to use the interent, but the signal is intermittent, and lately more often then not I have been in the middle of working on something unsaved when I lose the connection. It makes downloading music a real pain in the ass. There's so much that's happened that I have to update and post pictures of: the neighborhood BBQ, a lot of glass being produced, martial arts fun, marcus updates, and other disconnected and random thoughts and opinions on things.

I feel back on track now that the season change is nearing. I've been really feeling the increased speed of the earth's rotation...it seems just yesterday it was 1999. I can't believe 2006 is more then half way over. It's been a fun and jam packed summer, and I'm eeking a few more things in before the rain returns.

I've missed the rain. It seems a good portion of the state has been on fire lately. The air quality has been very poor, almost Los Angeles like in haze. The almost-full moon seems like a large orange orb, a displaced sun hanging in the navy-black sky.

guilty

I'm a big Days Of Our Lives fan. I admit it, and encourage all other DOOL fans to untie!

Of course, unlike most that watch soap operas, i work during the day, every week day and miss watching DOOL, which comes on channel 8 out here, at 3 PM PST. To keep up with what's been going on, I read a well put together and informative blog , The Early Edition.

This is a great blog because not only does it cover the basics of plot development, but the synopsis writers make comedic light of some of the very unrealistic elements going on. Some examples of these are the fact that nobody in the fictious town "Salem" really works, there's one doctor who can cure everything and do everything, everyone's related in some way and eventually sleeping with each other, at least once a year someone is murdered but comes back from the dead, or is buried alive in a coffin for weeks, is possessed by the devil, and whatever evil force is active at any particular time employs the latest in high-tech technology. As of today, there is an embryo-switcing plot with surrogate mothers, a long lost dead husband has appeared, but brainwashed and has no recollection of his former wife or life (wishful thinking on the writer's part?) and a mysterious gloved person has been delivering blackmail notes to many different people in town.

Since today is Labor Day, I had off from work and took a break from my personal pursuits to watch the soap play out. I came to the conclusion that there is probably only 15 minutes of actual plot material happening through the hour the soap is on; the rest of the time is commercials or re-caps, to probably benefit people who have been under a rock for a while and are just tuning in at that moment in time.

I really enjoy DOOL, and despite (in spite of) all my goofing, I would love to meet some of the cast memebers, or watch a taping. I have been a fan since I was 11, only because my friend's mother was a fan, and while we were on summer vacation my friend was instructed to tape the soap while her mother was at work. The VCR's back then didn't have programmable recording, so we would turn it on promptly at 1 PM (when it came on in Florida, way back in 1984), and after taping a few episodes we became familiar with the charachters and plots, and the rest is history.

Currently my step mother is a big fan, and really partial to the "John Black" charachter, who was formerly brainwashed into thinking he was the "Roman Brady" charachter. Whenever I see her we end up bullshitting about the latest developements, our theories behind the mystery in the plots, and the hiring and firings of the actors.

whew I've been busy...

I've got some releif my life coming up, more of a routiene established, allowing more time for me to get other things done.

More updates coming sooner this time!

Lots to update. Many things happening.