Where Is Hawkins?Where travel is cheaper than psychotherapy.

So, being a guy who tries to help people out sometimes hurts, mainly because there’s a lot that I can’t help with. So, the Let’s Bring ‘Em Home project is close to my heart. Donate some money to bring enlisted soldiers home for the holidays.

You can’t beat the Effing Pot’s guide to British English. It’s very good and a required read.

This is posted just for fun, mainly because other than my friends, I don’t know how people show up at this blog.

“miss philly girl” (yahoo.com)

whereishawkins.blogspot.com (google.com)

cnn business traveller:richard quest (cnn.com)

Terry Schiavo Obituary (yahoo.com)

nick hawkins (google.com)

executive platinum aa (yahoo.com)

“cards as weapons” ebook (yahoo.com)

hawkins rifles (yahoo.com)

american airlines “we know why you fly” (google.com)

Ian Robinson Calgary Sun maggots (msn.com)

Well, I made it back from Orlando and the emotional scaring that normally follows a family visit. Glad to be back in the cold of Chicago instead of the vast urban sprawl that is Florida. I’m also done with flying for the year, I think. 43 segments, 20 airports, 8 countries, 7 states, 27 passport stamps and 101,946 miles (EQM). I got to fly in premium cabins for over half of those miles, so it’s not a bad deal. Show loyalty, work the system and everything will turn out splendid.

I got an email about pre-planning my 10 year reunion from high school. Oh boy!

It’s hard for me to get excited about a reunion. For some people, it’s an excuse to see friends, to swap memories and for some kids who hated high school because they were picked on for being smarter, etc. like me – a chance to take revenge by showing off what you’ve achieved in life. I was out a while ago with some classmates (the handful I talk to now) and they were all excited about attending the reunion for the same reason – an act of revenge. I could care less about attending. Those who wanted to talk to me could have easily found me within 30 seconds on Google, or called my old house and asked for my address and number. But yet I’m still being goaded into going because it’s a way for those who were picked on and made to feel little to show up and rub it in the faces of the cool kids. But I don’t want that because I’ve grown out of that stage of my life. I’ve accepted the role I played back then and am ok with it. The whole notion of “revenge” in this case is bizarre: it’s like me taking a poison and hoping it kills you.

Trump’s Casinos file for Bankruptcy. There’s something inherently funny about people wanting to be “The Apprentice” now.

Booked my first mile run for 2005: ORD-STL-LAX-SJC-ORD with an overnight in LAX. I figure sleep, read, stay out in the sun, and go get dinner at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. I guess my plan is to be at the 35-40k mark by the end of March so I’m not scrambling like I was this year and fly 58,755 miles from September 1 to December 1 to make up for it.

Seriously, something needs to be done. I know that we need to have a “strong US Dollar” policy but for serious, exchange rates are killing me. Let’s look at what currencies I’ve used this year:

1 USD = 1.16 Swiss Francs (1 CHF = $0.86). I believe that I got 100 CHF in January for $73 or so.

1 USD = 0.768 Euro (1 Euro = $1.30). Holy shit. Last January in Brussels it was $1.03 = 1 Euro. In France it was obscene at $1.27 = 1 Euro.

1 USD = 0.538 Pounds Sterling (1 Pound = $1.86). Thirty months ago, it was 1 quid for $1.45. For the last 18 months, it’s been above $1.80.

1 USD = $1.19 Canadian Dollars (1 CDN = $0.84). This should never be above 1 CDN = $0.70.

1 USD = $1.27 Australian Dollars (1 AUD = $0.78). This was 1 AUD roughly equaling $0.70 when I was there in September.

1 USD = 103.12 Japanese Yen. It was not cool to watch it drop 3% in the span of two days when I was in Osaka.

The good news is that excess currency that I’ve got in my “box of money” is now gaining value.

On Friday before I left the office, someone from AA Corporate called me and explained what went down with the AA HNL-ORD snafu on Sunday. He was nice enough to explain what happened and it was nice to get a call. I figure, whiny Executive Platinum threatening to go to United was worth a few minute phone call. I think I got what I wanted out of it, and I’m ok about it. My upgrade streak had to end sometime.

Tuesday in the morning I get to go to Orlando, which will be the shortest flight I’ve had since Toronto (which didn’t see like a flight since Tim and I just talked the entire way – the beauty of short flights). The first class upgrade came this morning, so at least I’m guaranteed 4B. I’m also guaranteed screaming kids from coach too. I should find out about the return flights on Monday or Tuesday before I go.

After Orlando, that’s it. I know London for Febuary is coming up with my mom, but that’s about it. It’s really weird to not have anything within the pipeline. Oh well. Time to plan something else out.

Making the Brita filtration work for you by using it to take cheap alcohol and filter out the crap to make it bearable.

Ouch.