Neal Wilson ✅ @neal@social.typica.us

None of the machines at the airport liked my passport. Had to abandon self check in because it scanned my passport to look up the flight then wanted to scan it again to match me against the booking which somehow failed (it was the same passport both times). Later there was another passport scan which I needed help with because machine says no. Despite that I've made it to my gate in plenty of time even with a food break along the way.

Taxi was earlier than I booked. Don't know how long they were waiting for me, but no waiting required after the hotel checkout so that's nice.

Hope ATC will still be on the job in Chicago when my flight is trying to land.

It's the last day of my vacation (though I do have 24 hours of air travel as well) and I woke up with my ears already feeling stuffed up and hearing everything at low volume. Hope that clears up soon. Late check out was available so I won't have to worry about what to do with my luggage in the several hours between normal check out and when the cab picks me up to go to the airport.

Got a new year's promo at the coffee shop I've been having breakfast at. I think it may have been the first one they sold as the manager was showing the rest of the staff how it worked.

There's a sign near the beach with instructions on what to do if you're stung by a jellyfish and while most of the advice seems reasonable, the last is what you should do if you're unconscious and your heart has stopped. That's likely meant for whoever finds the body, but it's written as what the unconscious person should do.

I should really see if there's a setting to turn off my phone's auto-mistake feature.

Woke up to see a nice financial contribution from a long time supporter of my software work. I've been using some of my vacation time to get some good work in toward the next release.

There's a tiny lizard in my hotel room. It's not doing any harm but I hope it finds its way out before it gets hungry.

One of the interesting things about this vacation has been picking out which languages people try to use to talk to me. There's been quite a range.

The place I'm having lunch at today has "space chicken" on the menu. I'm 85% confident that's a translation error.

Today's lunch reminded me of why I almost never order ribs. They were delicious, but entirely too much effort to eat.

Took a look in the cutlery drawer in my hotel room. The spoon selection is certainly a choice. Half of them are a bit too big to eat with and the other half are too small. Not that I'm planning on using any of it.

Also, I'm pretty sure the hotel has dogs. At least I keep seeing the same dogs out front whenever I'm leaving or returning. They're usually asleep.

Found a shop where you buy food and immediately give it to cats.

Saw that it's -9 back home. Picked the right time to vacation (it's been in the 80s here).

Between an early arrival and a longer layover I could take ICN more leisurely than SEA. Enough time to use a bathroom, fix my hair.

Connecting flight 1 wants to leave early. Did fast walking and used the non-moving stairs to get to the gate fast enough to beat the all zones boarding call.

Got the seat with leg room.

I've been informed that my cat calmed down 10 minutes after I left.