The view

Headed down to San Diego today for a meeting. On the flight out of Seattle we flew west of the Cascades and just west of Mt. Rainier. This is the closest I've been to the mountain (and seen it) since a backpacking trip years ago. Our altitude was just a little higher than the ~14500 foot summit. Beautiful with the winter snow in the surrounding foothills. From there it doesn’t take more than a few minutes (I'm still on the same song on my iPod) to see Mt. Adams come into view. This is another of the chain of volcanoes that make up the Pacific “Ring of Fire”. Adams looks like a miniature Rainier although it’s summit is still over 12000 feet.

This is my second opportunity to use my new iPod Photo and Bose Acoustic Noise canceling headphones on an airline flight. These headphones really do what they claim. The noise from the engines is attenuated by at least 50-75%, allowing one to hear music (or a DVD, etc) without turning up the volume so loud it hurts. Of course, as expected the bass is lost a bit since it’s still in the same frequency range as the plane noise. Turning the EQ to bass booster on the iPod helps here. Plus just now the pilot throttled back the engines as we reach cruising altitude (37000 feet). I’m happy, I have the whold row to myself (that doesn’t happen often), but I better get back to the work I need to do.

Can't make up my mind

OK, contrary to what I wrote here back in December, I guess I will maintain separate blogs for different "essays" (I use that term loosely). If the subject is about computers, it'll go in Mostly Mac, if it's strictly science-related, it'll go in Science or Fiction, and if it's just about me, it'll go in the Attic. The Garage is left for those "weighty" discussions.

Geez, how pretentious can I get? Lucky I'm the only one seeing these!