WebXealot 29

[Ross Macintosh]

Geodd - There is a java applet. Works fine in Internet Explorer 5.5 - not just works fine: it looks good!

Good to have you back Gary. I'm sure your whole trip will one you'll never forget. It's been quite the week...

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[gwpriester]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Gary when I try to load the latest Xealot using either Opera 5.12 or Netscape 6.1 it freezes the program so bad that I have to reboot the computer. I do not know about Internet Explorer as I no longer have it on my machine. What is on that first page, some sort of javascript or what. I would be curious to know. Thanks. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmmm. Yes, it is a JavaScript, and it is from Xara Modules. It is a series of disolving images.

I'll pass this along to Xara as it is something they should be aware of.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
Be it ever so humble...</a>

[gwpriester]

Thanks for all your concern and best wishes.

Here is a brief chronical of my trip from Boston to Albuquerque.

I was about to enter the room to present my Tuesday morning session at the CorelWorld Conference, in Boston, when Beverly Altman, Rick Altman's mom, and conference administrator, told me she had just heard that two planes had flown into the side of the World Trade Center building in New York City.

I understood the words she spoke, but because I was so focused on what I was about to cover in the next hour, the horrendous significance of these words failed to register in my brain. It all seemed to unreal and I was sure there was some mistake. Things like this just did not happen.

Only after I finished my session, and returned to the main assembly room and saw what was happening on the TV they had installed in the room, did I realize the collosal importance of what Beverly had said. Along with most of the conference goers, and people around the world, we watched in stunned silence as the horrendous images were shown over and over and over again to be permanently etched in everyone's minds and hearts for as long as we shall live. Even as we watched in silence, with many shedding tears, or openly sobbing at this senseless act of violence, I was having trouble comprehending what it was I was seeing.

I was handed a note that told me to call Mary, my wife, ASAP who was crying and told me to come home immediately.

I said I wanted to stay where I was for a day or two to see what was going to happen next. I was fairly certain my Thursday return flight from Boston's Logan Airport was not going to happen even though the Delta representative assured me it would be leaving at 11:45 Thursday morning.

Being a person who is not particulary adept at dealing with these things, I realized that no one was going to get me out of Boston and home but me.

Steve Spriggs, a volunteer at the conference, and resident of Albuquerque was scheduled to leave Tuesday evening. I asked if he was interested in finding a way to get home. Our options were: rent a car and drive the 2,000 miles, take the train, or take the bus.

Steve's mom, who is "an Internet Whiz" to quote Steve, got online and got us bus schedules and even contacted the Greyhound terminal in Boston and got us two seats on the Wednesday bus. (I had tried to buy seats using the telephone number in the phone book and was told I could only buy my tickets at the terminal!)

To further complicate matters, about the time we were to check out and go to the bus station, one of the downtown hotels was closed because of a suspected connection to the New York attack and all events in Boston were cancelled. People were told not to go into the city. Further, I was informed by the hotel personnel the shuttle driver who was going to take us downtown to the bus station most likely would not come and the trip would be cancelled.

Deciding we would wait until Thursday to go to the bus terminal, I was about to step into a round table discussion, when the driver of the shuttle appeared and said, let's go! He said knew a way to get around the hotel and closed off sections of the city, and to the bus terminal.

So I grabbed Steve and we were on our way.

We got to the terminal about 3 hours before the bus was scheduled to depart and got in line for the bus. This proved to be a wise plan because ultimately enough people arrived for three busses by the time we got on the bus. These people were going to have to wait another 3 hours for the next bus.

For those who are not familiar with Greyhound Bus, this is a large bus company with terminals in most cities and serivice to most of the Americas north and south, and is one way to get almost anywhere in the country. The buses are new, and clean, as comfortable as a bus can be, and resonably effecient and reliable. The fares are affordable as well.

Our inteneray was as follows: We departed Boston on Wednesday at about 4:50 PM (16:50 hours) to Albany, New York, to Buffalo, New York, to Syracuse, New York. We cut across the top of Pennsylvania to Erie, Pennsylvania, to Cleveland, Ohio, to Akron, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio, to Springfield, Ohio and to Dayton, Ohio. With 10 to 60 minute stops in each of these cities.

We proceeded to Indianopolis, Indiana, to St. Louis Missouri, to Springfield, Missouri, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Clinton, Oklahoma. We crossed though the Texas panhandle into Amarillo, Texas, crossed the border into New Mexico, through Tucumcari, New Mexico, and arrived, on schedule, in Albuquerque, New Mexico at 2:45 AM (02:45 hours) Saturday morning.

The trip spanned four days and took approximately 57 and 1/2 hours.

The last time I drove across the country was in December 1969 when I just got out of the US Army and drove coast-to-coast from Maryland to my home town of Los Angeles, California, about 1/3 again farther. Much of the country we drove through, with the exception of Wall-Marts and big high-rise buildings, looked much the same as it did then. Having little else to do, I spent most of the time looking out the window of the bus and admiring the country, or chatting with Steve Spriggs.

An amusing side-light. Steve Spriggs, a young man whom I had just met at this conference, and was now sharing the trip home, knew of me from my Makeover Maven articles I used to write for Corel Magazine. He told me he had told his wife, "I'm travelling with the Maven!". His wife Cary, must have thought he was crazy!

In Columbus, three young students from Poland boarded the bus along with a young American student who was returning to Cal Tech University in Pasadena, California. The three Polish students had been in Washington, DC when the Pentagon was attacked and had their visit cut short. I could only imagine the confusion they must have felt being in a very foreign country at such a momentous time with only a marginal command of English. I mentioned the young student from Cal Tech because it would appear a bus-based love affair was beginning between this young fellow and one of the Polish students, a young lady who was in her last year of med school in Poland. Who knows what might come from this on-bus romance? Being a romantic myself, it brought a bit of happiness and expectation as the journey unrolled.

After what amounted to a little more than a work week (time-wise) on the bus, with no showers, and only a mimimal toilet on the bus, and after eating at many McDonalds and Greyhound terminals, it was a tremendous relief to get home, take a hot shower, and climb under clean sheets.

It's good to be home, once again.

As the WebXealot 29 was written before I left for Boston, all that remained was to upload it yesterday. Posting it, was about the only thing in the last 7 days that I could have predicted.

My thanks to all of you who e-mailed me (most messages I'm afraid were bounced back because my e-mail box was full of SIRCAM infected messages and exceeding my 10MB limit) and for those posts in this thread.

And special thanks to Joel for starting the memorial thread.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
Be it ever so humble...</a>

[Clements]

I believe its been noted that SP2 has some "disruptive" elements. I am not sure, however, if this is the case in your situation.

[Ross Macintosh]

Gary - Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

Here in Nova Scotia practically everything stopped cold after the first plane crashed into the first tower. Given our time zone it was an hour later here so I was at work. In my office we huddled around a radio listened in amazement.

My office is in the "Historic Properties" part of our downtown. Outside my window is where all the tourists depart on sightseeing double-decker busses and the like to see our city. Most of those tourists are Americans. A significant number were cruise ship passengers from the New York area. It was very surreal to be listening to the radio whilst watching these tourists out the window. They seemed oblivious to what had happened.

There were moments of great fear here. When it was reported that USA airports were being closed and that all international flights in the air were being diverted to Canada it was worrisome. We feared a flight would run out of fuel trying to reach us and safety. (Thankfully that didn't happen although two Korean jumbos that were to refuel in Alaska put out distress signals that were misinterpreted as possible jackings and were forced [safely] down by military interceptors). At the time the US airports were closed, there were hundreds of cross-atlanic flights in the air. About 1/2 were able to turn back to Europe. The rest came to Atlantic Canada. I'm happy to report that apparently the unexpected 'visitors' who arrived in Halifax were treated to the best Maritime hospitality our city could muster. Eventually the flights got away. Unfortunately some of the visitors decided to try their chances at driving to their US destinations in rental cars. The closest border crossing to us here had 12 mile long lineups - I find that hard to fathom.

Gary - your report on bus travel reminded me of the time years ago that my wife and I took a bus to and from Calgary, Alberta. Each lag of our trip was about as long as yours. It was on that trip that we decided to get married - a month later we were. Gary, I imagine that your bus trip gave you some valuable perspectives on "America".

Good to have you back. I hope your wife coped well while you were away and your return was delayed. Then, as now, really is the time to be with loved ones. Our hearts are thinking of those who have loved ones that haven't returned.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[geodd]

I installed the latest JaveRuntimeEnvironment from Sun which also refreshed my plug-ins and the page is now loading correctly.
Graham

[Bob C.]

Thanks Gary and Ross!