The flight to Minneapolis was delayed, and switched to some recent model Airbus. Ah look at that sink. Someone at Airbus Put a lot of effort into that lighting scheme, and the faucet’s controls.
After i’d finished admiring the facilities and had stitched together my first airplane bathroom panoramic photo, I attempted to return to my seat. I say attempted, because the mother and cute toddler seated next to me had fallen sound asleep in my absence. It took 5 tries to wake her enough for me to get past so that I could become wedged once again between her and the wide-shouldered teen on the other side. This guy was not exceptionally large, he just happened to be slightly edging into football player range. His shoulder was constantly pressed against me.
I understand the need to fit large numbers of people onto planes in order to increase capacity and control costs, but I don’t think that this particular plane is large enough to have 8 seats across (2 on each side, 4 in the center).
I think it’s time for airlines to explore new options. I’d be happier to lie down for the course of a flight. Think how many passengers could be packed in more comfortably if everyone was horizontal, and there were several layers of ‘em stored within the same space that now supports one layer of people; masses cramped and folded into indeterminately seated positions –unable to recline enough to relax. If such an option were ever adopted, it’d be best to make sure the illustrations on the safety card didn’t resemble certain 18th century engravings of certain types of human cargo vessels.
During the flight I watched ‘Adventureland’, which was a reasonably mature comedy. I was a little put off by the fact that the lead female character was supposed to be extremely great and cool but this was expressed as a function of her appreciation of the lead male character’s qualities rather than that it be due to her own intrinsic merits. Then again, that’s the virginal boy to studly man heartfelt comedy genre for ya. I appreciated this one’s ambition. It could’ve use a few less montages, set to 80’s rock ballads, of somber teens staring out windows; But that problem didn’t start with Adventureland. To address the issue one would have to send a terminator back through time to disrupt production of a few Cameron Crowe films and maybe Lost in Translation.
Arrived late to MSP, but my next flight was delayed, so there was no rush. I walked around the Nazi Supporter Terminal
and took a panorama of a line of shops. At right can be seen a downsized version of The Mall of America. Why would anyone build a tiny store themed after a mall that is famous only for being extremely large?
The clouds outside the airport’s windows were fantastic. Its rare to see dramatic stormy skies in LA.
The image above is a stitched image composed of several photos I shot while traveling along a conveyor belt, one of those flat escalator things. They probably have an official name. Stitched panoramas are typically made from one nodal point around which the camera is rotated between shots. To do otherwise introduces all sorts of errors in the result. I was hoping these errors would be interesting.
I ate airport Chinese food and charged my iPhone at the same time. The boost in battery power made the food taste better.
My cousin Andy was all set to drop by the airport for a brief visit, but I figured with his travel time and my time going back through security, we’d barely have time to say hello. So I talked him out of it. With any luck I’ll have a longer stopover on the way back.
