BlogRush, Twitter and trelijah and some little icons

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I just got approved to add the little Blog Rush Widget on my 3'rd column.  It's pretty cool the way that it works because it sends me hits from all over from other people's blogs that have had it approved on their site as well.  I just thought that adding it should provide a little bit of fun for others on my site.  Click on someone else's and check it out.  I'm not necessarily trying to drive traffic to my website, but more hits would be nice. 

I also just installed the Twitter Tools Wordpress Plug-in from Alex King.  I'm trying it out just for a little bit to see how well it works because it just seemed easier than adding the whole twitter thing to my sidebar.  I definitely don't want too many things there, but if you can't find it already, its on top, next to the title.  I decided that I would rather have a rolling type subject / blog title than just some random one that wasn't creative.  So, read away and refresh.  I'm able to update my 'status' from my mobile phone so I'll get back to doing that. 

I hate that every time I change my links, my photos stop working or whatever, but I'm going to trash the entire trelijah blog and just recreate it under the same name.  All the archives don't work and I think that it's about time that I get it going again.  Blogger seems to have it best so that I can upload pictures straight up from my phone to the blog.  I haven't found a suitable WordPress deal yet and I'll try looking once again so that maybe I could just add it to the top of my webpage rahter than juts making it a link.  But, stay tuned.  I'll have it up shortly.  It is already available at http://www.elijahnicolas.com/trelijah but nothing is there really. 

I also thought that I could had some little widget for some neat icons on the bottom of each of my posts.  It just looks nice, but it also serves as a portal so that you can easily "socially bookmark" my website (link it to other websites, etc. like digg, de.lirio.us, technorati, stumbleupon, etc.  I was bored, and it looks cool so just leave it alone!  It's call Share This! and it works seamlessly so far. 

I know that I have a lot of junk now, but it still loads quicker and I like it better than "the battle" layout.  I'm still making adjustments and stuff, but just have some patience.

Flying on the Day After Thanksgiving

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The flight to Montgomery, AL was pretty packed but for a change, it was nice to walk in a terminal without physically running into people left and right.  I definitely understand that a full terminal is a good one, but sometimes it just gets too ridiculous!  You have to wonder if fire marshals approve of some of the airport terminals with all the record breaking passenger traveling that is being these days.

It was also particularly pleasant because I got the chance to grab dinner without having to wait in a line for more than 10 minutes at one of the busiest restaurants.  I got to eat it my chicken salad, french roll and banana nut muffin top from Atlanta Bread Company (all for just under $4.00 --> a trade secret of regional pilots) right next to my gate and just relax.

I only had two legs today and the last one from Atlanta to Montgomery was quick being only a 27 minute flight.  Taking off to the west and landing to the west, it all just makes for a nice way to end the work day.  Why couldn't this ever be on the 4th day of my trip!?

It's my 5th year anniversary with Adelle!  Happy Anniversary babe!  Time definitely has gone by fast huh!?  Sorry I couldn't be there, but Christmas and New Year's this year will top last years for sure!

2002halloweenHere's a picture of us on Halloween 2002!  We weren't actually going out yet, but this was the beginning of it all! Who knew back then that I would end up a pilot?

 

 

Oh yeah...there's a really cool website too that is a basic dictionary but it serves the words in record lightning speed!  Check it out at http://definr.com/ and try typing in anything!  It's awesome!

December Final Schedule

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The schedules were released yesterday and I updated the link to the right to reflect my latest flight schedule.  Take a peek and if you happen to be in the same city as me, give me a ring. 

I'm not sure what happened to my website last night, but it seems like the additions were erased and a couple of other things were made unavailable.  I think that its back up, but you tell me if there are some missing links. 

I'm in Providence, Rhode Island for Thanksgiving just sitting in a hotel room.  My captain bought us lunch during our 2 hour layover in Columbia, SC and we called it an early night because we all woke up around 4:00AM!  What an awesome holiday!!!

The Greatest Place on Earth

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disney1 I really enjoyed hanging out yesterday at Disneyland with Adelle and just exploring all the new things at California Adventure.  Seeing the Christmas Parade and listening to carolers  really gave me the feeling of Christmas!  It's definitely something that I needed.  Looks like I'll be headed to Providence on Thursday for a Thanksgiving there due to my flying schedule this month.  I do have Christmas and New Year's off this year which is great! 

I've been lagging in my studies for the advancement of my airline employability status, but because I've been slacking in my scheduling, I won't be able to break the nice round number of 1000 flight hours until January or February of 2008.  It's all good really, but if I set my sights on it earlier, I could have definitely reached that goal no problem.  I had a few months with only 50 hours of flight time, so once I get to 2nd year pay, I'm going to try flying my butt off!  On more ASA news, I just read online that the Tentative Agreement was voted in.  We should see the changed shortly at the company.  Hopefully and I'm sure that it'll be for the best!

I'm still writing for phonenews.com and I'm happy that my articles are becoming a little more un-blog like and more journalistic, but I still have a lot of growing to do.  Everytime I come back here to update this blog, it kind of brings me back to the comfortable style that I'm use to.  You can call it talking to the keyboard.  That's mainly why you can probably tell that I don't even proof reading.  Oh well, make sure that you leave comments on my articles and everyone else's on phonenews.com 

December Schedule and Vacation 2008

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Looks like the preliminary bids are in and I have Christmas and New Year's Eve.  It's pretty awesome being a 1st year at my first commercial airline to actually get these holidays off.  I did make Christmas Eve and Christmas Day my first priority in my bidding and being #226 out of 462 pilots helped quite a bit.  The line that I was awarded was actually my 38th pick so I think that I faired pretty well.  Some of my other friends got their first choice and I'm really happy for them. 

I got the first two bids for my vacation!  My two 1 week vacation periods in 2008 are from 17MAR - 23MAR (Holy Week / Spring Break) / 19MAY - 25MAY (Beginning of USD Summer Vacation).  Kind of stinks that I'll be expiring both my vacations in the 1st half of the year, but I'm sure that my schedules next summer will be pretty good. 

Flying around lately around the east has been really cold.  Every pre flight has me hurting behind the ears because of the wind chill and every place that we flew to today (started out in Nashville, Cincinnati, Columbia SC, Cincinnati then Toronto were all just around freezing temperatures with flurries in Toronto.  It's about 35 degrees F with a windchill bringing it down to 25F.  I'm glad that I brought my pilot sweater but now I'm just missing some gloves.  I met an FO with some neat gloves from REI but the reviews weren't that great online.  Anyone know of a pair to check out.  It would be great if they were waterproof, wind resistant, etc. 

I've become really picky in what I write for phonenews.com and now I'm more resistant to just writing about anything phone related.  Stay tune for my next article as I'll be working on one for the next hour or so.  CYA!

Back to Work

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Well, as I'm slowly getting to bed, I realized that I haven't done much since being out for the last week except play video games, clean, and sleep.  I have been a little constructive, to say the least, with writing for PhoneNews.com and learning how to be more professional in the way that author my articles.  I'm so use to the basics of blogging and writing what I feel like, its a lot different to just "report."  I like it but its definitely harder for me because it's all about being exact and concise.  I'm learning fast and look forward to getting a lot better.

I start a 4 day tomorrow and end up in Nashville, then Toronto the next day, followed by an overnight in Roanoke.  I should be able to make it back to San Diego on Sunday, but we'll see what happens.

Heffalump

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Well, because of me throwing out my back on the way to my aircraft on Thursday morning, I ended up calling in sick and went to the Urgent Care center to see what's going on.  I had acupuncture for the first time and I can't say that I was totally thrilled with it at all.  More or less, a proper nights rest with some drugs prescribed from the doctor helped me out.  I got some muscle relaxors, pain killers and anti-inflammatory meds.  So, since then, I'm back to about 60%, still not all good because I'm starting to feel the pains again since I'm laying off the meds, but its fun playing Call of Duty 4 as much as I have been.  I'm about to beat and I think that I'll do tonight.  I can't believe that Medal of Honor: Airborne is coming out in a couple of weeks.  What a waste of more money on First Person Shooters.  I don't think that I have any other types of games besides FPS.  I need Final Fantasy XIII to come out already.

I still haven't finished my website changes, but so far I'm feeling content with the way that it has been looking and moving.  I'm still wondering how to get Windows Live Writer to publish instantly onto my WordPress blog because it usually makes it so that it becomes a future posting (5 hours later).  Anyone have any ideas? 

How Convenient is the Title

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I woke up early feeling rested and headed out noticing that frost was covering my entire car and that I was going to be pushing my duty in time.  I had to call scheduling twice today, one to check me in because since the shuttle was 5 minutes late, I was late 1 minute and then two is where the story of how my day went begins.  To sum it up, I had 6 needles poked into me which ended up costing me $80.00, I'm taking Ibuprofen 600mg, NorFlex and Hydrocodine which totaled $45.00 at Rite-Aid and now I'm trying to sit up straight and just concentrate on killing noobs on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.  Minus the last bit, I've been in pain all day long.  Not only did I have to cancel my 4 day so that I could rest up at home, but I collapsed in front of a few fellow employees in operations hallway.  I was barely able to hang onto my luggage bag where another pilot helped me up.  I wasn't really embarrassed at all, but it just sucks that my back spasmed like a piece of cold bacon on a hot frying pan.  This left me a little handicap for the rest of the day (I still am).  I've been walking like an old China man, hunched over, and can barely get around without anyone helping me. 

I ended up waiting for a Chief Pilot to show up to work where I had him call scheduling because they wanted verification.  I was sweating so bad that the Chief Pilot knew that I wasn't joking.  He gave scheduling confirmation that my pain was real and that was it.  It still hurts and it doesn't seem like the meds are helping that much.  I'm sure they are in some way, but the pain is definitely still there.  Matty P and Manoj picked me up at the airport and Manoj basically stuck with me the entire day throughout the doctor ordeal, grabbing the Rx, and going to Everybody's for some pizza sandwiches.  Good stuff!

I made some changes in the way that my two sidebars are organized and I've also re-inserted my Google Reader's Shard items.  I still have yet to include a link to my schedule, but I will soon if not in the 10 minutes.  Be sure to check it out!