TrickJarrett.com

SEA -> IAD -> CDG -> SEA

Last week, on my third week on the job, I headed back to the airport and flew to Houston for the first Riftbound Regional Qualifier. It was fantastic. There are definite learnings and opportunities to improve, but it exceeded expectations nearly across the board.

My role was primarily support, though I fell into a role helping drive and coordinate coverage for the show. I worked closely with our contracted social agency for the show, and we delivered some of the best social content I've seen come out of a TCG tournament.

But my work trip doesn't end there.

I'm now in Paris for another work event, the TFT Paris Open. We flew out of IAH at 4pm yesterday, and overall the flight was fine. I was warm the entire time, which I expected. I had brought a pair of basketball shorts to change into for the overnight flight in hopes of combatting the temperature - it did not work.

However, that wasn't even the worst part of the flight. The worst was just as we came in for our final approach, my nose began to bleed. I had one cocktail napkin and I did my best to staunch the flow as we landed at CDG. As soon as we touched down I hit the call crew button, knowing they weren't going to get up while we were taxiing.

As soon as we got to the gate everyone began standing up to disembark, but I waited until I could flag a flight attendant and she brought me a box of tissues. Thankfully while a few blood droplets did fall on my shirt, it could have been much worse and I was able to clean myself up and disembark the flight to meet up with some of my coworkers.

I've always been prone to nose bleeds, having had them randomly for much of my life. And I used to be much better about making sure I had extra tissues on me for just such an occasion, but I got overly confident. I haven't had an issue with a nose bleed in months, if not more than a year. And my hubris paid the price.

I have had my nostrils chemically cauterized, and I've had multiple ENTs take a look and they don't have any advice other than to just deal with them when they come up.

C'est la vie.

That said, my little incident, had a cosmic karma pay off as we went through customs here in France. As we approached the lanes, there was one marked Sky Priority, which was also on my ticket. I showed it to the guy directing people into lanes and he let me and one of my coworkers go down the lane, which was by far the shortest of them all. Once we got to the front we realized something had gone awry as we were in an EU-only passport lane.

The woman at the front was kind; rather than send us back out she had us step aside for a few minutes. Then we were directed to the end of the row of agents and were able to pass through for passport check and getting our stamp. Where as another of our group took an hour to get processed, it took us less than ten minutes.

So, I think that balances out the frustration of the nosebleed.

Joy and Thankfulness

MagicCons are always special and a good time. This one was no different.

A lot of work goes into these events by a lot of smart and incredibly talented people.

As we celebrated the end of the show, a group of us in the show office went around and shared a one-word answer to represent this show and weekend.

My word was 'joy' - working for a game company can feel sometimes like a silly job but there is no more important sensation or feeling to people these days than that one. And everywhere I looked, everyone I spoke with, and even what I felt inside as I walked the event... It was joy.

Unfiltered. Pure. Social joy.

This evening, after a great dinner with coworkers and now back in my hotel room with my feet up and resting my poor aching lower back - that joy was bloomed into thankfulness.

Thankful for the road I'm on. Thankful to call so many of those smart and incredibly talented people my friends. Thankful that I get to be home with Katie and our dogs tomorrow. Just thankful.

What a magical weekend. Pun fully fucking intended.

Time for a quick trip and adventure.

Welcome Home

The passport control agents say it every time, but this one feels more special after the forty-eight hour ordeal. Glad to be home.

The most beautiful plane on the planet. The one that is taking me home.

Homeward Bound

I am simultaneously 3 hours early for my flight and 21 hours late for it. Originally, I was going to fly out yesterday but unfortunately that didn't happen.

Around 1:30 in the morning, I woke up to void my bladder and I glanced at my phone (as I always do) to see notice that my flight out of Amsterdam was delayed. I immediately knew this was a problem as I had a short layover in Dallas, one I was already concerned about. Sure enough as soon as I got the notice of the flight delay, I was told I would need to book my flight on a new itinerary. Long story short, after two hours of being on hold and communicating with low wage frontline customer support workers I finally managed to get on a flight for Tuesday.

An extra day in Amsterdam is normally a fantastic thing but the truth is that I was drained and just ready to get home to my wife and dog and bed. I didn't venture out on this extra day, instead I stayed in, did some very small amount of work, read, and napped.

Humorously, as I was sitting here in the airport at the gate, well early of today's rebooked flight – I got notice it also has been delayed. Now, when I booked the new ticket, I purposefully picked a later connector for just this reason – so long as we don't get delayed more than another hour… I should be okay. Famous last words, but sometimes I need to tempt fate.

Overall, as far as work trips go, it was excellent. The MagicCon event went well and largely without issue. Sure, there were some things, but in the grand scheme of things it went very smooth.

Good morning from SeaTac airport

I got up even earlier than I had planned because I was within an hour of my alarm and at that point my body won't let me go back to sleep. So here I am, mildly caffeinated, and sitting at a power outlet for a few hours before my flight.

On Psychology & a Rewrite

Last night, as I was tweaking Glowbug code, I began thinking I might just need to start new on the backend. The current system is five years old at this point and while it is still quite serviceable, there are also quality of life things I need to work on which I keep putting off because I just don't want to wade into the code.

The irony, of course, being that a complete rewrite would be magnitudes more work.

Brains are funny that way.

Flight Entertainment

As mentioned, I am at the airport with a day of travel ahead of me. I've loaded up on entertainment so expect some reviews once I land:

Movies & TV

• MAX's Chernobyl - I didn't watch it when it came out, but I've finally relented and have it downloaded
• Dropout's recent episodes - I watch most Dropout shows and I'm behind from this past week

Podcast

• Worlds Beyond Number - I listen to this amazing podcast on and off, mostly off. But I've got ten episodes downloaded in case I decide to binge it while I fly.

Books

Too many. I'll list some, but I checked last night and I carry nearly 3 gigs of ebooks on my reader.

• The Shortest History of Economics by Andrew Leigh [currently reading and enjoying]
• How to Clone a Mammoth by Beth Shapiro
• Reality is Not What it Seems by Carlo Rovelli
• The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte
• This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud
• Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
• A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
• The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science by Seb Falk
• Bear: Myth, Animal, Icon by Wolf Storl

Really, the list goes on. I am an eclectic reader and I have an addiction to acquiring ebooks for my virtual library.

And now I must go in search of more caffeine.

Back from Barcelona

Yesterday, I left Barcelona around noon local time (Central European Summer Time, UTC +7) and at 7:37 pm Pacific, I messaged Katie that I had touched down in Seattle. That is nearly fifteen hours, with a two hour layover in Chicago. And it brought to an end my first international trip since COVID.

I was in Spain for work, Wizards ran their first European MagicCon event. It was a fantastic event and a lot of fun. But man am I glad to be home and sleeping in my own bed.

I took today off work to re-acclimate to the timezone, and I'll be back at work tomorrow.

The photo above is a snap from my hotel. It's a fascinating building with a vertical garden for half of the building, which is also open air. They air condition the bedrooms and the elevator shafts aside from the lobby and the hotel restaurant.

With the summer heat, I had actually packed two desk fans in hopes of helping ensure I slept well, but thankfully they weren't needed. I'm thankful the AC worked very well in our rooms, but also I'm thankful because these are American fans and I hadn't considered the differences between American and European voltages. When I plugged one of the fans in, it immediately spun up faster than normal such that I immediately understood my mistake.

Oops.

All that said, I loved traveling overseas and look forward to my next trip overseas for work. This year though I've only got one more trip on the books: Las Vegas in September.

Thoughts from a day of travel

So, I am traveling for work. My first time overseas for work in probably 5 years, and it feels great. I missed getting to travel overseas.

I will admit the trip itself was exhausting. I took an overnight from Seattle to Heathrow, and then had a four-hour layover before taking the 2 hour hop to Spain. But now that I'm here and have a night of sleep, I feel great.

I think traveling truly is one of the most beneficial things people can do. I recognize finances are hard, and as I flew I was considering the moral ethics of it in light of the climate crisis, which I recognize are big things to be considered. And I didn't come to a resolution one way or the other.

But I truly believe much of the issue with people's shrinking views of the world, where it's just their bubble and everything outside their bubble isn't important, doesn't matter, or is even the enemy - being able to expand their bubble, or pop it altogether through travel is a wonderful thing.

If I had the money, part of my gifts for nieces and nephews would be money for college, and money for an overseas trip. I've added that to my list for when I eventually win the powerball. 🙄

One thing which made the travel to Barcelona much better was that I had a story idea before getting on the plane, and I was able to spend a great deal of my time in the area thinking about it and developing it. We'll see what becomes of it, but I think I've got a really fun and interesting concept.

Need to overnight in an airport, this is a great resource

The bed looked, to me, like a scene of a crime last night. I had the worst night of sleep I've had in a very long time. Partially due to my own body's aches and pains keeping me tossing and turning. And secondly because of the soft bodyless pillows which hotels insist on using. I much prefer pillows with more substance. Between these two things I tossed and turned and woke endlessly through the night.

Needless to say, I am eager to sleep in my own bed tonight.

In LA

I'm down in LA this weekend for Summer GameFest. I'm helping out at the Magic booth, just a small area for Press to come and learn about the game, learn the game itself, etc. It's going to be a nice change of pace for me.

I was looking out the window of my hotel room when a very obvious fact struck me - how little grass there is in LA. There are a few trees I can see, planed along property or next to roads, but they don't have grass they have dirt and mulch. I literally cannot see any grass as I look out around me.

I hate it. Cities need more nature.

Covid Negative - so far

So the reason for my expectation of decreased posting over the weekend was because I was traveling and spending time with family. As it turns out, only Sunday and Monday were really affected. Sunday was the final day with family and also I was just feeling exhausted from the go-go-go of it. Monday we had an early flight home and then I just vegged out and enjoyed my last day off of work.

Since I got Covid last time I traveled, I'm taking precautions and staying home and not going into the office right away. We took a test as soon as we got home and then I just took another today. Both are still showing negative. Which is what I expect and hope for, I don't feel any symptoms. But, want to be sure and not cause any sort of office outbreak. So, I will continue to be patient.

"The Longest Route You Can Sail in a Straight Line Without Hitting Land"

Back in 2012, a Reddit user by the name of kepleronlyknows posted an interesting map of the world, showing a line from Pakistan to Russia across the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans. The poster claimed that this was the longest straight-line path anyone could take without touching land. The problem was that such a claim was extremely difficult to prove mathematically.

[...]

According to the researchers, the path from Pakistan to Russia is indeed the longest straight path possible without hitting land. It measures 19,939.6 miles, just about 5,000 miles short of the planet's circumference. The researchers also found the longest straight-line path across land, from Jinjiang in China to Sagres in Portugal, measuring 6,984.9 miles.

It's been six years since I was last in Japan. I dearly want to go back. There is so much yet to see. I've only really made it to Tokyo.

Harbor Air (known here in Seattle as they operate regional flights out of Lake Washington) is resuming tests on all electric seaplane