Back To Work.

Break's over, and I'm "home" after a day in the airline system. Since stale air and pressure changes wreak havoc on my system, don't expect any brilliant witticisms from me for a while.

I found the "We are on a Homeland Security Alert of Orange, please be extra vigilant" announcements to be very frustrating. I'd really love to do something to help out, you know. Have a firm plan of steps I should take when I hear the word Orange. I actually do want the Homeland to be secure, much as I dislike the term. But of course, I have no idea what to do. I realize that the feds can't tell us exactly what to do, but I just think there's gotta be something better than "watch your luggage." I mean, you should watch your luggage anyway--so it doesn't get stolen. Unfortunately, I can no longer even think of a wild suggestion for what the government should be asking us to do. How many more years are we going to be living in this weird keyed up state of anxiety?

On the plane, I sort of watched (and didn't listen to) Runaway Jury through half-closed eyes in brief flutters between unsatisfying naps. Yesterday I saw Paycheck. They both reminded me of the way developers and users of sophisticated technology are always portrayed using very sophisticated technology for everything else. The true duct-tape- and-shoestring natures of most science and engineerings labs is not often splayed out on the big screen. I used to think this was a bad thing--that it lead to a misunderstanding of what science and engineering are really like, and how they work. But as I grow older I'm able to appreciate action movies more for their eye-candy aesthetics, and have to wonder if it was a little patronizing of me to assume that "regular people" actually think giant plasma screens are the norm in the average laboratory.

I had a great evening yesterday playing boardgames (though technically two of them were card games) and may have to reacquire them. I never liked computer games or videogames, and rarely played regular cards, but there's something about the human element in board games which makes them totally different. I was also taught how to play a child's precursor game to Go, and will have to investigate that some more. It's probably good to keep some of the nonverbal aspects of my mind sharp. (Well, keep them from getting any duller.)