Aug 10, 2007
6:55 Closing in on Madrid
I couldn’t find a comfortable position to sleep in on the plane. It was pure hell. The best I could do was w/my forehead on the seat in front. At least it kept me cool. Airbus doesn’t have a fan so it was warm and cold all night.
This day we got into Madrid. Got the rental car. I felt all smart with my iPhone mapping out directions to Villa Ellicott. Sadly, It wasn’t long before driving in another country made me feel stupid.
Aug 9, 2007
2:00 Dulles
Waiting. Around early to beat the rush, but way too early that we’re sitting around. There’s not even an Iberia counter open.3:15 Eating @ Nelson’s Food and Spirits
Why? I got the blue cheeseburger and Walt got fish and chips. Again, why?8:20 Somewhere over the Atlantic
Beef or chicken? Beef. I should ask this girl sitting next to me for some help w/Spanish. Only six more hours to go. There goes the lights.
We left from Dulles International on a Thursday, because it was the only airport close with a direct flight to Madrid. Taking off from BWI would’ve meant a stop at JFK. We should’ve done Iceland Air: Baltimore, Reykyavik, Madrid.
We get there way early and sit and wait. And sit and wait some more.
Before 9/11, it would’ve been cool exploring the airport. Now not so much. Plus, Dulles has those buses which are weird and it’s architectural design which is moderne.
The younger me would’ve loved it. Now not so much.
One travel tip: ordering fish and chips at the airport is a big mistake.
July 9, 2005
10:00 Final day. I am already tired of the same old same old routine. When are we landing at home? I am done.Final day at sea.
12:00 Really bored. Where to eat that we have not been to? Let’s see. Nowhere!
A recap since I didn’t maintain this journal too much. Thursday was St. Maartens where we rode horses through a chemical plant. Cute guide. Friday was a day @ sea. Just swam.
July 7, 2007
7:10 Ready for horses. Yesterday rode a bike on Water Island. Stacey was a guide and Jim was a hippy. Short ride about 3 miles. Ended up on Honeymoon beach. Swam in a thunderstorm.
July 6, 2005
7:37 Bought a piece of art at the auction yesterday. How am I going to bring it home? I am getting heavier with all the eating. Well, we’re in the St. Thomas US V.I. Will be biking today.1:15 Toured St. Thomas. Perry was our guide. Megan’s Bay public beach. Blacknbeard and Bluebeard. Not too much pirates.
July 5, 2005
Ran again. 17 laps (2+2). Good to see things in the morning. What is there to do on this day at sea?
July 4, 2005
7:51 Breakfast. Again. Wakeup early and ran (or ran/walked) 15 laps at 6:00 am. The sign says 9 laps is a mile.Breakfasted at 7:00 and was seated with Jerry and Lorraine from Boston. Coming alone meaans you will be seated w/others.
Nassau. Going to another Blue Lagoon
9:45 Missed the boat again! Confusion on getting off the boat. Forgot my ID. How do we get off this ship!
Waiting now for the boats to the Blue Lagoon. Should be any moment.
8:43 Formal dinner and I am full. Blue Lagoon supremely disappointing. No food. No drink until the end. What a ripoff of $40. A luke warm stream
Because everyone seems to be out on vacation, going to vacation, or coming back. Here’s my journal from the cruise the family took to the Eastern Caribbean Islands. Like my last travel log for the European Cruise, I’ll post an entry at least once a day. Then after that I may go on vacation myself.
July 3, 2005
9:25 Reagan National. Waiting for boarding. We’ve been delayed. Hopefully we won’t miss the boat. Security is a hassle. Take my shoes off? I knew I should’ve stuck with the slippers.10:13 Super late. Just barely made it onto the ship. Literally, the last ones to board. Except we did not miss the lifeboat drill.
Watched Miami recede into the distance before having a pre-dinner snack. Eating has started. Off to dinner.
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Here’s a photo of the nerd herd at The Big Nerd Ranch. The tall one in the middle is our instructor, Aaron Hillegass. I am trying to write a review about the class (outside my experience), so expect one coming soon. I haven’t written any Cocoa code since then, but plan to as soon as I get a better schedule.
Final day is just half a day. What can be crammed in too my brain in this last 4 hours. It seems plenty already, but we have barely scratched the surface. We learn about NSTextView. The class I really need to get familiar with in order to get my program out and running.
We get a quick overview of some advanced Objective-C. It’s a little bit too much to know about. It seems that the reference count is not handled by the root NSObject but shuttled off into a data structure that holds only those of retained by 2 or more objects. We also learn about the mysterious way key-value observing works. It seems that at runtime Objective-C creates a proxy object to handle the object observing. This is rather scary, but it works. And we also learn that even though your instance variables are supposedely protected, they can be accessed through key-value coding. Bye-bye protected. Hello globally available.
We also built a framework and a palette. Things that may not be useful now but in the future when I become a Cocoa master. It will be a long road. I must get started.
Anyway, we finished the class with lunch, put on the bus to the airport, and are ready to bring our new skills to our daily tasks. I still have to wait several hours before my flight. I am sitting in the atrium of the ATL airport. It is now 4:00PM, five hours before my flight. I am watching young christian missionaries gather to go spread the word of God wherever. They are like us pilgrims to Aaron’s class. Cocoa addicts who must now evangelize the greatest that is Apple. Let me tell you about it when I ship my software.
