A Tale of Three Cities

Earlier this week, I was sent out on assignment to San Mateo, CA to cover an event hosted by Capcom to show off the multiplayer component of their upcoming title Lost Planet 2.

This is not about that event.

This is something of a "behind the scenes" look at what a roving (or even raving) reporter goes through when their editor hands them an assignment that takes them out of town.  I spent a good chunk of two days sitting in airports or up in the air trying to get to San Mateo and back home.  I know there are some folks who went to the same event who had their own trials and tribulations getting there.  This is not meant to belittle or diminish their suffering.  Just as every family is unhappy in its own unique way, every traveler is inconvenienced in their own unique way.

For those of you that have never flown into or through Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport, it's not a bad experience by any stretch of the imagination.  For a town that gets disparaging looks and upturned noses from folks in Tucson, Sky Harbor could very nicely serve as an art gallery, if not for the fact that you'd have to hop from terminal to terminal to see all the pieces collected there.  I felt particularly fortunate on this trip that one of the gallery sections in Terminal 4 had an exhibition of artwork from legendary animator Chuck Jones.  While there were some animation cells and sketches from various Warner Brothers cartoons, there were some original pieces of his work that were completely unrelated to his animation career but were still quite impressive.  Once I was through the TSA checkpoint, I found my gate and hunkered down with my laptop to while away a couple hours.  Sky Harbor is particularly nice for the Wi-Fi equipped traveler because the only thing between you and the Internet is a brief warning message about all the myriad dangers the Internet poses and a disclaimer of liability if you get hacked or infected with a virus.  I had considered writing a blog post from Sky Harbor but decided I didn't really have the material yet.  In retrospect, that was probably a mistake.

The booking of my tickets for the event was not handled by myself, or even by Armchair Empire, but rather through a PR firm.  Even PR firms can't guarantee direct flights.  Which is how I found myself in Las Vegas' McCarran Airport early Monday afternoon.  I haven't been in Vegas since I was a year and a half old and was inhaling the prime rib from the plates of various family members.  Part of me would have liked to be able to bum around for a day or so, maybe even check out Konami and see what they were cooking up.  Alas, it wasn't meant to be.  Originally, I was projected to have a one hour layover.  This was pushed back to almost two hours.  I didn't get a chance to hop on the Internet at McCarran.  The gate area had a marked lack of free outlets, and the ones that it did have were taken up.  I should also point out that the presence of slot machines, and such a considerable number of them, was decidedly different than what I've seen in other airports, though it is by no means totally unexpected.

San Francisco International had something of the inverse problem from McCarran.  There were plenty of places to plug in, but their Wi-Fi was provided by T-Mobile, which meant that you weren't going to be getting on unless you were willing to shell out $8 for a "day pass" or $50 to start a monthly subscription.  Given the hippie nature of the city, you'd think they'd be all about peace, love, and free Wi-Fi.  Apparently, it is not to be.  Admittedly, getting a chance to get on when I arrived at SFO was not in the cards, but with a two hour delay on my return flight, finding a socket and a comfy chair was definitely a priority.  So, no Facebook, no email, no chat.  Good thing I had those Baen e-books saved to my hard drive.  It would have been a long time sitting around otherwise.

But  I am now home, back from the event, and hopefully back on a quasi-regular writing schedule again.