Paul T Cottey's blog

Look here for a few pictures from our India trip.

I thought you might like to see where the Dashboard app on the iPhone said we were last week:

I received the following note from our neighborhood association:

“Street Closures This Sunday, August 8th Due to Transformers 3 Filming.

Tranformers 3 will be filming in the Lakeshore East neighborhood this Sunday, August 8th. Due to the filming Lower and Middle Level Wacker will be intermittently closed between 4:00am – NOON.”

Well, the good news is that when I left at 1130am, Transformers did NOT get in the way! So, no new pictures, but no more delays.

Whew!

I’ll get through the other pictures from India in the next few days, but thought both my avid readers might enjoy seeing the Taj Mahal.

My third, and presumably final, encounter with Transformers 3 occurred today in front of the building in which I work.  (I don’t imagine I will see Transformers 3 since I didn’t see Transformers 1 and didn’t know there even WAS a Transformers 2!  Maybe they’ll show it on an airplane…)  I initially thought it was just another case of “road under construction” season, but it turns out it is Transformers 3 again.

In any case, here is the picture:

Tribune Plaza

There are also a few dozen Chicago policemen hanging around behind the University of Chicago and dozens of prop bulletproof vests hanging on racks.

They did film parachute jumpers in the park north of me this morning.

Here are a few action shots:

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Wherever I turn, I seem to be running into the filming of Transformers 3 in Chicago!  The park to the north of my house was closed this morning and will be closed tomorrow morning.  (They are parachuting people in, apparently.)  The street in front of my office will be closed this coming weekend (That “street” being Michigan Avenue, of course!).  Today, Transformers 3 held me captive in a CVS on LaSalle Street since they were going to be doing some sort of a “weapons test.”  They wouldn’t let me leave, so I took a picture from the CVS.

I thought you might like to see the view from the CVS:

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This week, I tried to get in the line without the new scanner and the TSA employee up front told me I could just go through the magnetometer from either line if I chose.  He lied.  The line I was in was being put through the new scanner.  When I said, “No thanks, I’ll go through the magnetometer” they declared that I had “opted out.”  That triggered three of the TSA employees to close that part of the line, stop the luggage belt, give me a full-body pat down, have me take off my belt and take everything out of my pockets, and generally to give me the once over, twice.  By my watch it took five minutes with no one going through the line, even though I offered to go through the magnetometer instead.

Apparently, “opting out” is a big deal and it required three of them (one to avoid letting anyone through the line and to tell the X-ray operator not to work, a second to stand there with her hands on her hips looking and acting pissy, and a third to do the pat-down).  I spoke to a supervisor afterward who, to put it most succinctly, said to get over it and do what they want by going through the new scanners.

My advice is different:  If you want to go through the new scanners, do.  If you don’t, or if you feel like watching TSA people trip over themselves trying to remember their “opt out” procedure, then opt out, take a step back from yourself, and watch the Keystone Kops routine!  I’m sure the 40 or 50 people who will build up behind you in line will just blame the TSA.  I do.

Oh, and have a nice day.

I went through one of the new scanners at O’Hare (ORD) again this week, and I have to say they slow the security process down materially.  It is now not enough to remove shoes and metal from pockets, they now require that you remove shoes, metal, belts, anything from your pockets (including your ID or boarding pass or hankie or chapstick or lint) that you stand like a angry west coast rapper with your hands over your head and then wait in a chute until someone radios down to let you go.  Although they may work out the process a little better, the bottom line is these new scanners seem to criminalize flying in a way that the metal detectors and x-ray machines never could.

The airports where I have seen these new devices are currently giving you a choice of lines with the new machines or the old ones.  If you get a chance, do yourself a favor and skip the new machine line as it will be faster, more respectful, and less annoying to use the old way.

Interesting behavior from Google.  After cheesing me off last week by cluttering up what used to be a clean, fast-loading home page and then faster than a Chicago politician reverting to the old way, now I have discovered something that probably works as designed, but surprised me.

I typed in “google.com” and it redirected me to “google.ca”.  Now, that is not entirely surprising since I am currently in Canada, however, “google.us” still went to “google.ca” as did any other permutation of “just give me google dammit” that I tried.  Then, hidden in plain sight below and to the right of  the “we can speak French if you want to, eh?” button was a “Go to google.com” link.  I clicked it, and it took me to google.com and it seems to persist.  When I go in now, the button is “Go to google.ca”.

So, it surprised me, caused me some confus