Sowrey.org

Be it ever so humble … and a little messy … there’s no place like home.

I missed yesterday’s log. Oops. Basically, the testing went well — the changes I made held and so far, things are looking good. That meant I could finally come home. I had to make some near last-minute changes (extending my stay at the Westin, and telling Northwest that I’d be leaving the following day), but otherwise all was fine.

Actually, the last-minute changes were a little more in my favour — I had to book an earlier flight because the one I wanted was full. That was fine with me — I was more interested in coming home.

This morning was mostly involved with updating the testing pages on the staging server, letting the team know which files were “approved” and which ones still needed work, and letting them know how to find me. Then it was off to the airport.

If you ever go to Cincinnati Airport, make sure you bring a book. There’s nothing to look at there, the airport’s rather dull, and there’s no store once you pass security. Kinda annoying, if you ask me. Of course, I could have gone back through, but I really couldn’t be bothered.

I was writing. Not this, but a report that I have to file for what I did. Our client’s still a little edgy with this so-called solution, so I need to prove it with a nice lengthy document that no-one will read. Fortunately, I’m good at being verbose. These logs are a testament to that, if nothing else.

I love first class, although I have to admit I feel a little guilty taking it. I know what it’s like to be peering from steerage into the plushly-furnished curtained area. Unlimited drinks (which admittedly, I didn’t take advantage of), nicer meals, and big, comfy seats. Very nice.

The flight from Cincinnati to Minneapolis was about an hour and a half, before I got dumped there to catch a connecting flight. During that time I took the opportunity to recharge my laptop’s battery. It’s a long life battery, but I wanted it to last the remaining leg of the journey. Northwest doesn’t show in-flight movies on such “short haul” flights, and I had nothing to read. I figured I’d entertain myself with a report.

It’s hard to explain how much I enjoyed seeing the Prairies again. Land that stretches out forever, where it’s rare that cloud covers everything, where the buffalo used to roam, and the deer and the antelope are hunted for fun.

We passed over Drumheller on our way in (I was amazed that I could recognize it from the air), and sailed smoothly into Calgary. Being the second from the front of the plane, I was the second one off. However, I was the first into Customs, which I blitzed right through. I completely bypassed baggage claim (carry-ons — it’s the only way to fly), and tore out the front door. I grabbed the first taxi, and was on my way home.

I’ve realized that I’m much more adjusted to the western climate — it’s drier here, and I’m not a big fan of the oppressive humidity of the east. I was very happy not to be sweltering in the heat, and feeling a cool breeze for the first time in over a week.

So if you’re ever living on the air in Cincinnati, don’t look for WKRP. It doesn’t exist. However, there is a WKRC.

No kidding…

Today was a good day. Finally.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of finally overcoming a problem that’s kept you up a night, sent you to perhaps the dullest city in mid-eastern America, had you eating mediocre food for a week, and put massive (albeit temporary) dents in your credit cards.

It’s also good to know that I didn’t waste my weekend. The problems, not quite all, but most of them, are gone. All the work that I poured into this handy little laptop, not to mention some great backup from Calgary, solved our quandaries. The site’s working (mostly), and after tomorrow, we’ll be able to say that the site is solid, and I can finally go home.

I met with John today. He’s our (Critical Mass’) account manager for our client. He’s not much older than me — I figure 30, tops. Probably from a business school. But he’s good with clients, and seems pretty good at fighting fires. He was here for his bi-monthly meeting with the client. He knows this city well.

We had an interesting chat after work, over dinner at the Fifth and Vine, an eatery in the corner of the hotel. I gotta tell ya — he’s a great guy. He saw the client in pretty much the same way I do. Not to mention the contractors. I got a lot of positive feedback — he was glad I came. Although not the best candidate, I was good enough to convince some of the contractors that Critical Mass isn’t all pretty front-ends, and that we do know how to solve hard problems.

Whether or not that keeps going is anyone’s guess…

Tomorrow is coding and testing, and then I’m outta here on Thursday. With luck, I’ll be at work Friday morning.

If I’m not, I might start looking for an apartment down here. It’ll certainly be cheaper than these hotels…

I hate this city. And Memorial Day. The two of them combined? Well, let me tell you…

I figured I’d stay in today and get some work done. Fine, no problem. Or so I thought. I got up later than I’d planned (probably because I’d stayed up so late), and so skipped breakfast (which I’ve done almost every day since I got here). I figured that I’d make it up with a nice sub.

So I thought.

In Canada, whenever we have a holiday, it’s a good excuse to go shopping. I’m not kidding — nearly everything that can be open is usually open. There are exceptions, but more often than not, you can at least find a restaurant, or a Subway, to get a meal.

Not in Cincinnati.

It’s locked down tighter than a drum. Even the bars are closed. What’s with that? Since when don’t Americans want to get drunk on a National Holiday? I thought that was a stereotype, for crying out loud!

Yes, I’m annoyed.

After wandering around downtown for about an hour, I found ONE open store or restaurant. Arby’s. I won’t touch Arby’s for all the roast beef in England. Can’t do it. Won’t do it. I hate Arby’s. I’ve eaten there twice, and hated it both times.

So I figured I’d eat at one of the hotel’s restaurants. They closed at 1:50pm. They don’t open again until 5pm. What the heck kind of service is that??

Oh yeah, there’s room service … if you want to pay US$15 for a lousy hamburger. For US$15, I can get a bottomless soft drink, a beer (a wheat beer, not some mega-swill), a huge gourmet hamburger (made to order) with cheese and bacon, fries, and a caesar salad. That’s at the Rock Bottom. I’d just as soon go there … but it’s closed.

So I’m eating a Snickers bar and holding out until 6pm.

I can’t wait to go home.

Today was my day off. It didn’t start that way — I was figuring on getting a lot of work in, but as I went out to scout for lunch, I decided that the day was nice enough that I would take a little walk. My logic says that if I take today off, I can work my keister off for the next 36 hours and still get the job done and get a good night’s sleep.

In theory, at least.

My goal was the Cincinnati Museum Center. It sounded like a really neat place to check out, and it was about the only thing in walking distance that I wanted to see.

I walked up to 9th Street before heading west. Along the way, I passed examples of architecture from just about every period since the mid-to-late 1800s. Gerry would love this city.

The weather was threatening rain, amidst bursts of sunshine. The forecast was for thunderstorms, but I never heard even so much as a slight rumble. Heck, it barely rained in the entire time I was walking about. Which was good, because I had neither an umbrella or a raincoat. Luckily, I didn’t have to go anywhere where I would be horribly out of place showing up soaked.

According to the maps I’d read, all I had to do was cross I-75 on 9th Street, turn onto Gest Road, and walk up to Western Road. Unfortunately, maps seldom match reality. For starters, 9th Street doesn’t actually cross I-75 — 8th Street does. Although 8th Street doesn’t actually connect with the road that crosses I-75. Doesn’t make sense, does it? Well, considering the city has no movie theatres downtown and no stores open past 9pm (the Subway closes at 5pm on weekends!), it fits the pattern.

When you get to the other side of the I-75, you’ll find that Gest doesn’t actually intersect with the road you’re walking on. It’s pseudo-parallel. And Western? I don’t think it meets Gest, either … although I could have just missed it without realizing.

You can see the Cincinnati Museum Center even before you’ve reached the other side of the bridge. It’s that big. It took me about ten minutes to get there from the bridge, and when I got there, I realized that I had another five minutes of having to walk around so I could actually get in. (I came down towards the side, which has a road that goes under the parking lot.)

The Cincinnati Museum Center is also known as Cincinnati Union Station. It was built in 1931 to handle the massive passenger rail traffic that used to run through the city. The station was huge. Its centre is a huge quarter sphere, with the flat side facing the front. The curved portion forms the massive rotunda of the complex. It’s a very dramatic art deco style. Gerry would love this building. So would Stuart, I think.

I like the art deco style. I’d even go so far as to say I’m an art deco revivalist. Maybe it’s because I think the style is elegant, maybe it’s because it’s not concrete. Sometimes I think I long for the era that spawned art deco — the days when rail travel was king, when technology was the newest radio.

Then again, I wouldn’t be able to write these logs as easily…

The museum has four exhibits: The Cincinnati Museum in the south wing, the Natural History Museum in the north wing, the Children’s Museum in the “basement”, and an OmnIMAX theatre. Okay, “exhibits” is the wrong word — but museums sounds a little strange.

Actually, there’s a fifth exhibit — the building itself. If you go on a weekend, you can get a free tour of Cincinnati Union Station — when it was railway station. They take you through the various sections that are still in the semi-original state. I caught a part of it when I was waiting in line for the OmnIMAX movie. More on that later.

After purchasing my ticket, I went into the Cincinnati Museum. I figured that I could get through that before the movie at 4:00. The two wings used to be where vehicular traffic came through. It was a place for taxis and “motor coaches” (buses) to drop people off and pick people up. They arrived at the north wing (now the Natural History wing), drove under the main structure and picked people up on the south wing (now the Cincinnati Museum exhibit). The driveways are still visible, although now covered in grass.

The first thing you notice when entering the Cincinnati Museum is a massive model of 1940s downtown Cincinnati. Some of the buildings are familiar — they still stand today. But many are gone, replaced by more modern (although not necessarily more attractive) buildings. One thing that’s very noticeable is the streetcars (taken out in the 1950s), and the railyard and warehousing district on the waterfront. Today, there are no rails down there, and the only buildings (aside from the highways) are Cinergy Field (home of the Cincinnati Reds) and a new stadium, currently under construction (the future home of the Cincinnati Reds).

I spent about 15 minutes at the model, going through the interactive video, learning more about the city keeping my prisoner. It grew from the copious river traffic that flowed up and down the Ohio River. River travel was so important that the river boat captains wielded strong power over many decisions facing early Cincinnati.

One of those decision was to build a bridge to neighbouring Newport, Kentucky. The captains didn’t like that idea — it would hinder their ability to monopolize freight and passenger traffic. But eventually it was built, although Cincinnati took three more years than its neighbour to grant permission. (Their excuse was potential loss of Cincinnati jobs and an increase in runaway slaves.)

The bridge was designed by John A. Roebling, the same person who designed the Brooklyn Bridge. The John A. Roebling bridge, as it’s now known, is in fact the forefather of the Brooklyn Bridge. The design was later improved for its much more famous descendant.

From there, I walked through a rather large exhibit about Cincinnati’s wartime efforts. They seem really proud of that. A little too proud, if you ask me. Of course, it might just be part of the Memorial Day festivities (there were vets all over the place).

Then it was into ancient Cincinnati, starting from the arrival of Native Americans. One thing I learned early on was that Cincinnati, the order of officers for whom the city obtained its name, comes from Cincinnatus. Cincinnatus was a Roman general, who came from commoner stock. The officers of the Revolutionary War thought it was an appropriate name to give themselves (”Cincinnati” is Latin plural for “Cincinnatus”). So I guess in theory, a person from Cincinnati is a Cincinnatus. Hmm, I wonder…

The exhibit was really quite fascinating. They covered the period of western encroachment into Ohio, from the first explorers, to the founding of Losantiville, the founding of Fort Washington, the Miami Purchase (don’t ask me what that was — the Americans seem obsessed with “purchases”, and the rising of the modern city that I can’t seem to escape.

One of the neater parts of the exhibit was a 3/4 scale model of a steamboat, complete with part of original downtown Cincinnati. The exhibit stopped around the turn of the 20th century.

By that time, I thought I should head up, so I wouldn’t miss the movie. I was about 40 minutes early, so I just camped out around the door. Soon, the tour of Cincinnati Union Station came by. At first, I didn’t know what it was, but I was offered to join. So I did.

The first stop (for me, and also the last) was at the Amtrak station. Yes, there is an actual operating Amtrak station in this museum. Apparently, the rail travel still has to go through here. Kinda neat, eh?

Once upon a time, it used to be the Men’s Waiting Room. (There was also a Women’s Waiting Room.) It featured a lounge, showers (baths for women), smoking room — everything you needed to freshen up (or wait) for your train. Today, the women’s room is gone — it’s now storage, the showers have been taken out and the door removed, and the decor is plastic overlay instead of wood. But it still features the original flooring and art deco lights.

When we exited the room, the line-up for the movie had grown considerably. I opted to not follow the rest, as I wanted a good seat (this is crucial in an IMAX film).

The movie was “Amazon”, and is perhaps one of the better IMAX movies I’ve seen. It tells the story of how two completely different civilizations (Western, and of the many that live in and around the Amazon basin) look to the Amazon with the same purpose in mind — saving lives. It didn’t preach heavily, but it didn’t really have to — the need to preserve the Amazon was quite clear. It was the first IMAX movie I’ve seen that made me queasy. Of course, that might have been due to lack of food.

After lunch, I caved in a bought a disposable camera. I wanted a pictures of the building — it’s too nice not to take pictures. Besides, I want to scan them and put them up for all to see.

Afterwards, I went through the Natural History wing. Not nearly as interesting as the Cincinnati Museum, but then again, I knew most of this. They had a few things that I didn’t expect to see — a mock-up of a cave (similar to Mammoth Cave, about three hours from here), and a mock-up of a glacier (which according to the museum, stopped just short of here during the last ice age).

The animals that lived here during that time were fascinating. I had never seen a skeleton, let alone a recreation, of a giant beaver. About three times the size of a normal beaver, this beastie could probably have taken down entire trees with a single bite. Big, sharp, pointy teeth.

I left around 5:45, heading back towards downtown. This time I went down Ezzard Charles Drive to Central Parkway, before heading south. I went all the way down to 3rd Street, where I walked over to the John A. Roebling bridge. (One of the weird conditions about building the bridge was that it was not allowed to be in line with any existing Cincinnati streets).

I walked towards the bridge until I got to a staircase that allowed me to get down to the Ohio River. From there, I got a good enough angle to take pictures of the bridge. I returned to the bridge to take a picture from its deck.

Returning to Fountain Square, I partook in a late dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery again. I was relieved to finally get off my feet — I’d been walking for hours, and was quite tired at that point.

Then it was back to my room, and back to work. But at least I got part of a day off.

Ugh.

It never fails. I get a long weekend, I get lousy weather. I had hoped to go to the Cincinnati Museum today, but the weather kept me indoors. Okay, that sounds like a really stupid statement — if I’m going to a museum, why would I care what the weather’s like?

I want to walk there — I’m a little tired of taxis, and I could use the exercise. But it rained for most of the day. It didn’t clear up until later in the afternoon. A good thing, since I wanted to go out for dinner tonight.

I spent the day working, fixing our client’s website. I watched movies and coded. I’m amazed at how much work I got done watching “Meet Joe Black”. You really can work for huge periods of time and not miss much in that movie. On the opposite view, I didn’t get much done during “The Highlander”.

Importantly, though, I had breakthroughs. I only wish I were actually in the office to put my theories to the test. But I have to wait until Tuesday. Our client doesn’t like having strangers run amok in the offices unescorted.

My first meal in Cincinnati that wasn’t a sub was at the Rock Bottom Brewery, a brew pub in Fountain Square, pretty much right across the street from the Westin. I don’t much like going to places like that on my own, but I didn’t have a lot of choice. Besides, Nancy (my project manager) more or less ordered me to get out for dinner at least one night this weekend.

Tomorrow — more rain. Hence, more work. But Monday’s supposed to be nice. If I get enough done, I’ll make an effort to get out and see what I can find. Besides, I’ll need the air by that point…

Another day, another hotel. Owing to some strange reason, there seem to be a lot of people coming to Cincinnati. Can’t really figure out why.

The Omni was completely booked for today when my room was booked on Tuesday. So I moved the next block over to the Westin. Larger room, better bed. Lousier TV selection, though. Oh well, I guess there are trade offs…

I’m definitely here for the long run. Probably won’t be escaping this place until Wednesday at the earliest. We’ve got problems that really have no explanation. Rather annoying, if you ask me. Today was about as effective as Wednesday and Thursday. This weekend is all mine, though. I’m going to rebuild parts of the site that the contractors did a number on. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame them — completely, anyway — they did what they had to do. Unfortunately, they aren’t the best coders in the world when it comes to HTML.

My task this weekend is to correct all the mistakes. Not just theirs, but ours. We (Critical Mass) sent a few files that had a few discrepancies in style. Not a good thing. So I’m going to spend a lot of time going through every file in the site. There’s a few, but luckily, not a lot. If I had to do this for, say, the Mercedes Benz site, I’d be spending the better part of a month doing that.

After work, I took the time to wander through part of downtown Cincinnati. It’s an interesting city, if only for its idiosyncracities. Its architecture is … well … interesting. (Seeing as the city’s “interesting”, I guess that goes hand-in-hand.) The buildings in downtown Cincinnati have more variance in styles than any city I’ve lived in. This is probably because Cincinnati’s been around a while, and gone through a lot of changes.

The town of Losantisville was founded in 1788 on the shores of the Ohio River. Two years later, Northwest Territory Commander General Arthur St. Clair renamed the town Cincinnati, in honour of the Society of Cincinnati, an officers’ organization from the Revolutionary War.

Cincinnati’s location is the nexus of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. This made it a central location for commerce, which naturally attracted people. The mid-1800s saw Cincinnati’s population grow by 40 percent as a flood newcomers, mostly German immigrants. Steamboat trade and the explosion of the pork-packing industry led to Cincinnati’s role as the “Queen City of the West”. For a time, it was the nation’s sixth largest city and third-largest manufacturing centre.

Today, the industry that built Cincinnati is gone. In its place are Fortune 500 companies and a lot of smaller companies. The massive factories are gone, or subdivided by smaller companies. The downtown core is completely commercial, which explains its death in the evenings (and my boredom).

Because of Cincinnati’s past, it has a very interesting present … at least from an architectural perspective. Most of the buildings downtown are either modern (built within the past 20 years), or from the 1920s to 1940s. There are a few edifices from the 50s, 60s, and 70s — they’re not too hard to spot. (Although the Federal Reserve, built in 1972, is quite nice.) Old buildings are well preserved, and easy to find.

Not easy to find are Cincinnati’s mistakes, and they’ve made a couple biggies. One of the more interesting ones is Cincinnati’s attempt at a subway system. The City made the attempt, starting in the 1920s using leftovers from a canal system. A large portion of the system was completed before the Depression brought the project to a screeching halt. Lack of funds and a general trend towards automobile traffic eventually led the subway into abandonment. The tunnels are used for storage, the half-built stations boarded up. Today, hardly anything exists.

Tomorrow, I intend to check out the Cincinnati Museum, an old art deco railway station converted into a museum. But that’s just part of the day — the rest will be work.

I’m trapped. Metaphorically speaking, that is.

Today, I effectively did nothing. I spent the day trying to solve problems, but not really accomplishing anything. I started off with a conference call with Critical Mass and a few representatives of our client. We were reviewing the situation I’ve been dealing with since I arrived.

The meeting wasn’t too long, and afterwards I felt that those involved had a clearer picture of the situation. This was important from my perspective, since I wasn’t too sure whether my superiors were wholly confident on sending me down in the first place. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not trying to blow smoke. But considering my lack of progress, I had to make sure that the others understood that I know what I’m doing … sort of.

My major problem is that there’s nothing I can do directly — I have to ask others to do it. And if those others aren’t interested in helping me, well, then I look like a bit of a putz. Not much I can do about it, I’m afraid.

I struggled through the day, doing what I can, until conference call #2 in the afternoon. Same client, different project. This is the one I started on my second day at Critical Mass. It just so happened that I happened to be in Cincinnati when they needed someone. Convenient, non?

Tomorrow’s the start of the long weekend here. It basically means that not much work will be done. And considering the past two days of relative inactivity, there’s no way I’m making it out on Sunday. Not unless all the problems disappear tomorrow, and there’s a chance I can get in on the weekend. I know snowballs that have better chances than that…

After work here is dull without something to do. I’ve spent the past couple of hours watching TV. Luckily for me, I get TBS — I’ve never seen Enter The Dragon all the way through. First time for everything, I guess. After this is Rumble In The Bronx with Jackie Chan. I suppose Cincinnati isn’t so bad.

If you can stay in your hotel room all the time, that is.