I’m currently about 30,000 feet above Georgia on my way to Orlando for the Great Gathering of Lockards, where Jen’s father’s people are reuniting together for the first time in years. I volunteered as the Dutiful Boyfriend to accompany her for moral support (and to prevent her from killing any of her family while she’s there.) The occasion is made all the more interesting by the fact that this is indeed Gay Day at Disneyland, so the arch-conservative Waltons from backwoods Pennsylvania will be surrounded by thousands of happily queer folk. I am bringing camera with fully-charged batteries to document the looks of disgust, incredulity, and finally, resigned acceptance from her father, Captain, USN (Retired.) Oh, kids, this is gonna be great.

I’m also coming up with righteous reasons why I shouldn’t have to wear the Lockard T-Shirt, only rumors of which I have heard. (I have mental images of an ultraviolet XXL shirt with a muddy photo surrounded by some huge bubble lettering.) The occasion is also made great by the fact that we are not staying with The Mouse, but with Jen’s good friends Ty and Lorie, who recently added little Bonnie Rose to the world.

Interesting phenomena: I did a Google search this week on french striped grunts and the sixth or seventh hit was from my own site. Sweet!

Observations on flying three times in the past two months:

• USAir gives you pretzels. I hate pretzels. Southwest gives you Air Crisps and peanuts.
• USAir’s seats are more cramped. But their planes are cleaner. (and not as ugly as Southwest’s.)
• The cattle-call method of seating sucks, unless you’re on a 2/3 full flight.
• You can’t have baggage with all kinds of straps hanging off it or they make you sign a waiver that makes it OK to lose the bag.
• I’ve gotten better at the preflight security check. I can have the laptop out of the bag and in the tray in five seconds flat.
• iTunes is a lifesaver. If I didn’t already have enough reason to buy an iPod, I have a good one now.
• Next flight: more DVD’s.
• Southwest’s customer service rocks. The phone did not ring once when I called to switch flights; when I was immediately connected, I started to stammer like I got caught passing notes in Chemistry class and the CSR had to wait for me to remember why I called.
• USAir’s ticketless baggage system is awesome. I’m hooked.

Media check.

The May issue of Scientific American has a very fascinating article on “scale-free” networks. Researchers have done numerous studies on the Internet and found just how similar it works to things like single-celled microorganisms and viruses. Great writing in this article, by the way. Lots of good information.
(Disclaimer: it was sitting on the toilet in the men’s room at work as bathroom reading. I don’t currently subscribe.)