Passing Through...

Landed back in Seattle around 1pm after 16 some hours of travel.  Slept a couple of hours, then had dinner and watched some TV.  Was happy with the Heroes finale up until the last 5 minutes or so, at which point I was getting annoyed.  I'll post something later, but there were a couple of obvious "easy" ways to handle the situation - or so I thought.

Watched some depression TV (Grey's Anatomy) and something to make me feel happy (Greg the Bunny) and then bed.  Slept like a log for about 90 minutes and woke up at 12.30am ready for the day.  *sigh* Got back to sleep, woke up at 2am and 4am - but that's actually not so bad.

Next trip - Sunday, leaving for Copenhegen via London on BA, then back via Washington and Raliegh.

Friday will be M's dad's funeral.  We're planning on getting up early, around the time it will be taking place in RSA and going for a quiet walk.  I've told work not to expect to hear much from me.

Caught up on a bunch of Podcasts on the plane.

Cult TV is actually not too bad.  The Veronica Mars cancellation stuff is complex.  Part of the problem seems to be a disagreement between all parties on the direction they need to take.  I think I've remarked before that Kristen Bell, cute as she is, is starting to struggle to carry off the student thing, she's 27 now and starting to look like it.  Actually, this is a good thing.  Unlike Peter Hamilton, I don't really find teenage women do all that much for me. 

Anyway, the round up of the new starters sounds weird, especially watching the bionic woman traller on NBC last night.

I also caught up with "Starship Sofa" which is just plain weird.   Do we know these guys?  It was not unlike listening to a pub meet.  Some reasonably good stuff in here, but I'm surprised not to have come across these guys in Fandom.

Also listened to the latest "TWit" (The Week in Tech) where they discussed the Engagdet "email".  One of the points they made was that they couldn't see how anybody could believe that Apple would be delaying the launch that much.  The interesting thing, being on the inside of the phone industry, as I am, we've all been waiting for exactly that annoucement since the original Jobs song and dance.  We just don't think they're going to be able to make it work.  Even with the FCC approval, that's a small part of getting a phone platform ready for live network operation and they've not done it before.

I'm still waiting for the delay to be formally annouced.  If there isn't one, then I'm expecting a lot of moaning and grumbling about the "phone" functionality.  I am quite prepared to believe it is a cool, but slow data enabled PDA.  Dual Band GSM?  Come on guys, this is 2007!

Top Fifty Tourist Destinations

My ones in BOLD.

Looks like I'm a little over half way, although I don't see myself going to any South Korean amusement parks in the near future.

1. Times Square, New York City, NY: 35 million visitors every year
2. National Mall & Memorial Parks, Washington, D.C. (Washington Monument, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials,the war memorials): About 25 million
3. Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, Fla.: 16.6 million
4. Trafalgar Square, London, England: 15 million
5. Disneyland Park, Anaheim, Calif.: 14.7 million
6. Niagara Falls, Ontario and New York: 14 million
7. Fisherman’s Wharf/Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, Calif.: 13 million
8. Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea, Tokyo, Japan: 12.9 million
9. Notre Dame de Paris, Paris, France: 12 million.
10. Disneyland Paris, Marne-La-Vallee, France: 10.6 million
11. The Great Wall of China, Badaling area, China: About 10 million
12. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee/North Carolina: 9.2 million
13. Universal Studios Japan, Osaka, Japan: 8.5 million
14. Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre, Paris, France: 8 million
15. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France: 7.5 million
16. Everland (amusement park), Kyonggi-Do, South Korea: 7.5 million
17. The Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China: At least 7 million
18. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France: 6.7 million
19. Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando, Fla: 6 million
20. Sea World Florida, Orlando, Fla: 5,740,000 Sea World San Diego several times . . .
21. Pleasure Beach (amusement park), Blackpool, England: 5.7 million 
22. Lotte World (amusement park), Seoul, South Korea: 5.5 million
23. Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, Japan: 5.4 million
24. Hong Kong Disneyland, China: 5.2 million
25. Centre Pompidou, Paris, France: 5.1 million
26. Tate Modern, London, England: 4.9 million
27. British Museum, London, England: 4.8 million
28. Universal Studios Los Angeles, Calif.: 4.7 million
29. National Gallery, London, England: 4.6 million
30. Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY: 4.5 million
31. Grand Canyon, Ariz.: 4.4 million both rims
32. Tivoli Gardens (amusement park), Copenhagen, Denmark: 4.4 million
33. Ocean Park (amusement park), Hong Kong, China: 4.38 million
34. Busch Gardens (amusement park), Tampa Bay, Fla.: 4.36 million
35. Sea World California, San Diego, Calif.: 4.26 million
36. Statue of Liberty, New York, NY: 4.24 million - have seen it from afar but not been to the island let alone up to the top.
37. The Vatican and its museums, Rome, Italy: 4.2 million
38. Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia: More than 4 million
39. The Colosseum, Rome, Italy: 4 million
40. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY: 4 million
41. Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Calif.: 4 million
42. Empire State Building, New York, NY: 4 million
43. Natural History Museum, London, England: 3.7 million
44. The London Eye, London, England: 3.5 million.
45. Palace of Versailles, France: 3.45 million
46. Yosemite National Park, Calif.: 3.44 million
47. Pyramids of Giza, Egypt: 3 million
48. Pompeii, Italy: 2.5 million
49. Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia: 2.5 million
50. Taj Mahal, Agra, India: 2.4 million