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I’m sitting at Terminal 6 of LAX waiting for my flight. My sister and I are wrapping up our weekend trip to Los Angeles and we are both pretty tired and ready to enjoy the comforts of home.

It was one of those whirlwind trips where you don’t get much time to think about what had happened earlier in the day, let alone write a blog entry. That said, I’ve got some time while sitting here — here are some highlights from the trip:

Virgin America: The hype was well-deserved as flying with this low-cost carrier was a great experience flying over to LA from Dulles. The price of our tickets were also very competitive, as we used the Digg buy-one get-one offer to get two tickets for $360. Purple mood-lighting is a nice touch.

Enterprise Rent-a-Car: Again, we saved a lot of money with the rental on this trip, using a travelzoo deal that gave us a full-size car for $9.50 a day. Other than that though, we got a Pontiac G6 (another clunky American car) that was the base model and didn’t really impress me as I was last year when I rented cars from Budget (more clunky American cars). So much so that I forgot to take a reasonable photo of the car we’ve been driving around in for the last four days.

Lunar New Year in Los Angeles: They definitely do a big celebration here in LA compared to DC or Baltimore, though I’m sure NYC does a lot too. Lots of lion dances and traditional stuff that I usually miss out on.

LA Roads & Traffic: Not bad. With its grid street system and my Google Maps Mobile, we found most of our destinations without getting too lost. However, old deteriorating highways, high volume of traffic at all hours, and at least one example of the “Dallas Merge” — when two highways merge together with a lane from each of the highways merge into one without an auxiliary lane — made things interesting.

Flight’s boarding. More later.

The fifth and final season of The Wire began last night, with much anticipation. This has been the best show on television in recent years, but the ongoing writer’s strike magnifies the quality of the series, compared to the horrid shows the networks are airing now. The Wire isn’t just a cop show, it’s a show about the institutions that operate in the urban landscape of our City of Baltimore and the unflinching reality of it all.

This season, the show focuses its lens on the role of the media in the city — namely, the Baltimore Sun. Last year, I caught a glimpse of some filming on the roof of my office building. The scene is actually in the second episode of the new season. Check it out:

Ever since Labor Day, the number of cars on the road in the morning rush has become unbearable. I started leaving for work earlier to beat the rush — around 6:30 instead of 7:30. The effect of standard time and the earlier start makes for a completely dark commute, but at least we were all moving at speeds over 65 mph. I had wondered about the relative risk of this new change: getting into my car was probably the most dangerous thing I do during the day, except for the off-chance of a shark attacking me in my cubicle.

What kind of dangers are there when driving to work at 6 instead of 7? Decreased visibility due to lack of sunlight, higher speeds due to lack of congestion, and less attentive drivers because its just too damn early in the morning and people are still waking up.

National traffic statistics from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety confirmed my theory. During the 6AM hour, there were an estimated 17.35 fatalities per 100 million trips in the years 1999 to 2005. For the 7AM hour, there were approximately 7.21 fatalities per 100 million trips. That means if you drive at 6AM instead of 7AM, you are more than twice as likely to get into a fatal accident.

Oh well, the potential for a shorter and less-stressful commute is just too much to ignore.

Today, I went with Dennis to play in the CCCB Turkey Bowl at Loch Raven HS. This was the third year I played at this annual game. In between some playing time I took a few photos. There was this one guy that seemed to be in all my photos (red shirt, silver shorts). Hah, he should be paying for those pics. My minimum rate for sporting events is $40 an hour plus setup/editing. Click on the photo above to see a short gallery.

Black Friday 2007 seemed to be bigger than last year, with the longest lines in recent memory. The photo above shows the scene at CompUSA in Columbia, MD on Thanksgiving night. The line went all the way past three other stores, with over a hundred more people in line behind where I was standing at the time the store opened. Crazy.

This post may be a little late, with the reopening of Calvert Street downtown (which had caused a lot of disruption with multiple lanes closed), but there’s still room for plenty of discussion. What is the best route to Baltimore from south of town?

First, let’s talk about the major bottlenecks. For those driving up MD 295, you’ll encounter some slowing as the highway ends enters a construction zone at Russell Street. At I-95, there’s recurring congestion at the weaving section for Russell Street and the two-lane off-ramp to I-395.

Alright, now to our first candidate, up the gauntlet via Conway Street and Calvert Street, shown below. The completion of Calvert Street repaving has made this option much more viable than even one week ago. Before, the pavement on this road was one of the worst in Baltimore, but now, its great. Drive past the courthouse and the scene of the traffic signal malfunctions in Live Free or Die Hard and you may run into delays near the demolition/construction around Mercy Hospital.

Center of map

What do rush hour traffic, changing your clocks to standard time, the writer’s strike, and the return of high gasoline prices have in common? They are all things that I’d rather not have to deal with.

Ever since Labor Day, the rush hour traffic for my morning commute has been a nightmare. Yes, I’ve always been complaining, but this time, I actually did something about it. I’ve switched to a new route into downtown (more about that in another post) and even started waking up earlier to beat the rush (crazy, isn’t it?). The only concern with that is that I feel there is a higher risk for deadlier accidents on the highway — faster speeds, its still pitch dark outside, people still groggy, and perhaps, still sleeping at the wheel.

Which goes on to my next item: the change to standard time. Not only do I get to drive to work in the morning in total darkness, but by the time I finish work I get to drive home in complete darkness as well. When am I going to be able to enjoy the sun around here? Be careful for Seasonal Affective Disorder, its the silent killer.

At least when I get home I’ll be able to enjoy my Tivo’d episodes of The Office and Scrubs, right? Nope. The writers are on strike and the final season of Scrubs is in jeopardy!! Don’t get me wrong, I feel the WGA has a very good point about getting a fair contract, but I hope it’ll all be over soon. I need my Scrubs.

And finally, gas prices are on the rise again, and this time, theres no hurricanes. Another prediction of an above-average hurricane season has been a flop (two years in a row the NHC has been wrong), but still no relief for gas prices. Blame it on increased international demand and the weakening dollar — which, by the way, is now worth less than the Canadian dollar. Remember when there were two prices on the back of books (one for US$ and second for CAN$)… that was when the one US dollar = roughly 1.5 Canadian dollars. Now, a buck gets you 90 cents in Canadian coin, which is just insane.

Ah well. The holidays are coming.

Went to Great Falls last weekend, when the weather was nice. Great Falls is a hiking and biking trail in Potomac, Maryland, along the Potomac River and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. My favorite hiking trail at Great Falls is the “Billy Goat Trail A”, which is the closest to the visitor’s center. It’s a little under two miles long and requires a little bit of scrambling over rocks and boulders and a short section of climbing. Still, it was busy with lots of people last Sunday, especially with families and kids.

I keep taking photos of the same spot on the trail, every time I go:

At the overlook of the trail, a kayaker gathered some attention from the Sunday crowd as he made his way through the rapids:

Today, HSBC Direct announced that it had dropped its rates on its online savings account from 5.05% to 4.50%. It’s a big move, considering that ING Direct had recently reduced its rates from just 4.50% to 4.30% when the Federal Reserve announced its cuts last week.

With such a big reduction, I’m not sure if HSBC can stay competitive with ING, which offers better customer service and faster bank-to-bank transfer times.

I think I’ll start investing in Prosper.

There is a recall on Nokia cell phone batteries. Apparently, the BL-5C model of batteries, manufactured in 2005 & 2006, have a tendency to short-circuit and overheat. Luckily, the problem only happens while charging, so you won’t be walking around with a burning sensation in your pocket or maybe the phone would combine with some makeup in your purse and make for some nice pyrotechnics and a really cool youtube video. Future stunt ideas aside, faulty batteries are a serious problem, but so far, the issue with cell phone batteries isn’t as prevalent or catastrophic as the current problems with laptop batteries.

That said, it’s good to see Nokia taking the right step and acting quickly to get consumers to stop using these potentially dangerous batteries. A couple of weeks ago, I used their web site, batteryreplacement.nokia.com, to request a replacement. I typed in my battery’s identification number and personal information and forgot about it. Today, I got a package, shipped by DHL. Inside was a brand new battery and a letter, noting, “within due course Nokia will provide instructions for the return process of the old battery”.

That’s what I like to hear. Overall, a good experience from Nokia.