I used the extra night to rest and change, and the next day I went so see Elvis’ mansion - Graceland. Later I arrived at the airport and got my passport at the gate.

The flight from Memphis to Amsterdam was on a brand new A330 which included a VOD entertainment system for all passengers. The system also allowed sending text messages from the plane for only $2.50 per message. I sent two.

The next flight was a short flight to Lisbon ok KLM. The scheduled arrival time of this flight left little time between arrival and the time I should present my poster.
As Murphy would have it, this was the only flight that did not arrive early. We had a 5 min delay on departure and then during final approach, after the crew was ordered to sit down, the pilot had to abort the landing and perform a “go around”, which means take off again, circle the airport and re-attempt. The reason given: the runway was “occupied”. KLM had their share of problems using occupied runways, the most spectacular at Tenerife.

That, however, was not the end of my problems. My luggage did not show up at Lisbon. A quick check recovered my luggage which has been mistakenly labeled “RUSH”, which means it does not show up at the belt.

After retrieving my luggage. I had to wait in line for a taxi. The driver then took me to the wrong hotel and had to correct himself (I think he did it on purpose to make more money). I ended up paying €55, but arrived on time.

Later I took a taxi to my hotel, used the very small shower and reasonably priced restaurant and went to sleep.

Tomorrow: I fly to Germany on AirBerlin, seat 1-A. Stay Tuned.

Some people (ahem, ahem) have commented on the lack of personal perspective in this blog, and it being just a dry collection of facts. Hopefully this post will be an improvement in that regard.

I know I haven’t posted in a while. This is a result of a combination of two seemingly contradicting things: there ws nothing to write about, and I was too busy. Well, now, from my first class seat on NW272 SFO-MEM, I can tell you all the news.

So, I’ll spill it out: I have a new girlfriend. She’s jewish and she lives in Sacramento (about 150km from my home). I met her online on OKCupid (aka the best free dating site, period). Interstingly enough she has messaged me first. After we had an amazing weekend together, I can say this will probably last for long.

We have many things in common personalit-wise, such as our both being the worrying type and both geeks…

BREAKING NEWS: I was just notified by a flight attendant that I have left my passport in SFO. This is very bad since my next flight is international. I will check with the staff at Memphis about how to get it back.

Until we land, I’ll tell you about our planned German family reuinion. It seems that 4 out of my 5 immediate family members will be at Saabrücken with me the coming weekend touring around and playing boardgames.

I’m now really worried about the passport issue and hope I could board the SFO-AMS flight without it and also pass the passport control at AMS, since my I-94 has already been affixed to my boarding pass.

However, KLM thought this was a serious discomfort and offered all passengers compensation vouchers for 2000 miles and a 50 EUR discount on a future KL/AF/NW flight of 150 EUR or more. I already cashed in the miles voucher, and will try to sell the discount voucher on eBay.

In between the flight I had a long layover (about 11 hours). I started my layover by visiting the  KLM lounge and checking my e-mails and stuff. Then, I left my bag behind and took the train to Amsterdam, where I started to walk aimlessly among the canals. At that point I decided I have to actually go somewhere, and looked up the address of the ILLC using an open wifi hotspot, and using Google Maps mobile, I got directions on how to get there.

After about half an hour of walking I arrived, uninvited, at the ILLC. I walked among the corridors looking for recognizable names, and found a former colleague and co-author of mine, Khalil Sima’an, who was meeting with an Israeli student of his. After they concluded their meeting, they came over to talk to me. We talked about my whereabouts and my current academic direction, and concluded when they both had to leave.  I finished my visit by walking towards the general direction of the train station, and then back to the airport.

In the airport, I rested at the lounge and went (too early, as usual) to the gate. After a small delay, the plane was boarded and took off. However, as the plane was almost full and lots of people were religious jews, it took forever for the cabin crew to hand out all the special (mostly Kosher) meals. The problem was, that they would not start beverage service, or even give water until this was over, which means I was basically dehydrated for more than two hours. I have written a complaint to KLM.

In the flight itself, I was seated next to two young women who were flying alone. One was connecting from New York to visit family for passover, while the other was a dutch citizen coming to visit her long-distance Israeli boyfriend. The nice conversations and sleep compensated for the lack on an entertainment system on this flight (which is standard for KLM 737s).

Now I’m in my brother’s house in Hertzeliya, and will come home for the “Seder” tomorrow afternoon.

For my detailed travel plans and locations, see my travel calendar.

So, today I’m flying to Israel to visit family and friends. I’m bringing two suitcases, one huge and one small. The huge suitcase is full of boardgames, while the other includes some clothes. I’m also carrying a backpack full of electronic equipment (laptop, hard drive, two phones, three iPods, etc.).

On the Internet, I was assigned a really bad seat on the back of the plane, but I could change it to an aisle seat somewhere in the middle of the plane. However, at the airport I asked the check-in agent for a better seat (given my Platinum status) and was reassigned to seat 11B. Though not as good as my favorite 11E seat, it’s not that bad. It’s a center seat in the smaller front cabin.

After recycling, I went to the Toyota dealership where I bought my car for a 6-month service. Because I only drove 2,900 miles, the service included only an oil change and general inspection. However, they took a long time to perform the service, so instead of paying $28, I got the service and materials completely free.

Now I’m back the office. Later today I’ll go to another boardgaming session in San Jose (30min drive from here).

So I browsed the ordering site, and found that tickets for the early screening cost $7.50. Not expensive, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go, so I browsed out of the ordering screen. That popped up a message saying I could get the ticket for free. After a short signup on some other site I got my free ticket cupon (I’m a big sucker for free stuff). After going through all that work, I decided I might as well pay $1 for my “free” ticket and go see the move.

I went off directly from work to the theater in Redwood City: 20 auditoriums  and  lots of space, cheap and plentiful parking, and generally a nice place to be. As usual, I was about 15 minutes early, so I went into the theater and watched trailers before the movie. The movie itself was funny and enjoyable, and I didn’t feel weird watching it alone.

After the movie I felt like I wanted more, and wanted to see a more serious movie I heard good things about, so I went out to the cashier and bought a ticket for “Juno.” It was one of the best dramas I’ve seen in a while and I could really identify with the main character, even though my situation does not resemble hers.

That concluded that night out, but not my excursions for the week. Coming back to Google’s movies site, I noticed that an Israeli film called “The Band’s Visit” is showing in a small arthouse theater in literally on my way from work home. So I decided and go see the movie the next day. Even though I read very positive reviews about it on FishEye, I still think that Juno was much more moving. That said, I don’t think it was a bad movie.

Today is Saturday, and  the day before Easter. I decided to finally do something I’ve been thinking of almost since I got here, and went to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, about a 5 minute drive from my home in Palo Alto. Admission is free and we got a nice tour of the exhibits. The docent has also shown us some of the exhibits in storage that are not usually accessible to the general public.

After visiting the museum I visited the museum website, and found out that they do not have a Dragon-32 computer and are seeking donations. The Dragon-32 was  the first computer I’ve ever used (The 32 stands for 32 Kilobytes of RAM it has). We should still have a working Dragon-32 at home in Israel, and I would like to ask my parents if they are willing to donate it.

When I arrived in Israel two weeks ago, I immediately felt at home, even though I haven’t been there for half a year. My house, my room, all stayed the same as if I have never left. I was surprised how quickly I have adjusted to the 10-hour jet lag and to being at home. The first weekend was spent mostly playing my suitcase-full of board games. The weekdays were mostly spent at the Technion, meeting old friends and research colleagues, though I didn’t do any new research. In the second Friday, we hosted a mini boardgame party in our house, and the next day I went to my brother’s house in the center.

In between all that, I managed to review 12 papers, do some family tech support, and realize that my backup HD is officially dead (I’ve placed an order for a new one).

Some information about my flights: On the EWR-TLV (Newark - Tel Aviv) leg, I was in a fully booked brand new 777-200, with personal touch-screens and on-demand video, much better than the channel-based entertainment personal system on the 767. Therefore, I was surprised to see that channel-based system on the 777-200 on the way back. Luckily, I had an encapsulated entertainment system called “a book”, that’s even allowed during takeoff and landing. The next leg (EWR-SFO) was on a brand new 737-800. The plane was so new that they didn’t install the entertainment system yet — not even audio or public TVs. On the plus side, the plane was almost empty and I took over a whole row in the back of the plane, and lied does while using my paper-based entertainment system.

Now I’m back at Stanford, trying to do some new research.

Later, I placed some orders for people who wanted me to bring them stuff, and went to buy a thermos (so I can have some tea) and then to the Tuesday games group. In the games group, we played my copy of Container. Then it started raining. So, someone with an umbrella helped me walk to the car without getting my game wet, and I put it in the trunk, and closed the trunk…. with my keys inside. Luckily, someone else from the game group was generous enough to drive me home and back so I can get my spare keys and open the car.

When I finally reached home again, I found a pleasant surprise. My laptop was back from repair. I did not expect it to return so soon. It was picked up on Saturday, repaired on Monday, shipped the same day, and arrived back on Tuesday. Not bad, especially given the fact that it was flown to Memphis for the repair.

So, now I’m home, with a working laptop, and a cold…

The news in short: I have missed submitting papers to two major conferences, had some medical trouble (more on the US medical system in a separate post), and my postdoc was extended for a second year.

The title of this post does not refer to a mistake by an admirer, but rather to the message my laptop displays shortly after starting up. I have to send it in for repair, and remain laptop-less for 7 business days or more. I’m writing this post from my green OLPC laptop, after I made it work with the encrypted network at home.

Speaking of home. my next visit to Israel is in two months from now. I can’t wait to be back and meet my family and friends.

However, some Americans on the forum were really excited about this fare (since it give 100% miles in some frequent flyer programs). This led to discussions about the cheapest way to go to HEL. It’s even funnier since this fare requires a connection in Amsterdam. So now you know it: The best way from HEL to SIN is via Amsterdam, but you must first find a way to go to HEL.

Now, you should understand that a miniSD card is only 2cm x 2cm large, about the size of a SIM card. Looking for the card on a sidewalk in the darkness, when I did not know where exactly it fell was not an easy task, and indeed I did not find my card.

As time was running out, I decided to head for dinner, without a functioning GPS. It shouldn’t have been hard since it was basically one right turn in a major intersection. I missed the turn. If I had GPS, I would have known exactly where to go. Being GPSless, I decided to take the next right turn. Unbeknown to me, that road did not intersect with my destination road. Anyway I had to turn several times until I finally reached my destination. Google map of my path.

Today, I looked for my card in daylight and I couldn’t find anything, so I restored my backup into my old 1GB card, which am using now.

Lesson: Always look for your memory card if you drop your phone.

As everyone is with family, most of the boardgame events were canceled, and Stanford is almost empty.

The only ones still around are the Jewish community. A person I met in a conference invited me to meet some of his friends at an Israeli restaurant on the Sunday before Xmas. It turns out that the person who operates the largest Jewish site in the bay has the same name as my brother - Tomer Altman.

They have invited me to join them to a Chinese restaurant on Xmas day. They forgot to mention that the meal is strictly veggie. Luckily, I got some veg-less noodles so I could eat. The whole occasion was long and boring. I left as soon as the meal was over.

Earlier that day I realized that most restaurants are closed on Xmas day. After trying two “24 hr” McDonald’s branches which were closed, I settled for Mediterranean food in a Greek restaurant I found open on University Ave.

That concludes my Xmas tales. This weekend will be boardgames again.

I ordered it a few weeks ago when they announced the program because ever since Zvi Devir’s Haifux talk I wanted to have one. It’s small, relatively lightweight and runs Linux.

Yes, I have completed 70,000 qualifying miles on a single alliance, and earned Platinum status for 2009. Here is a complete list of all flights this year:

Mission accomplished!