On Friday DragonBlogger will be in transit to the City Of Sin to attend CA World which is a big deal in the Information Technology Industry. I will be attending pre-conference education classes on Saturday and Sunday as well as speaking with Computer Associates executives, architects, software engineers and marketing guys. I am going to give my advice and opinions on the CA SiteMinder Web Access Manager product which I have specialized in for the last three years.

So as I write this I still have a bunch of luggage to pack and get ready for the trip. My work laptop is shut down and I am doing some final tweeting and blog posting to keep my blog up to date as much as possible. I will not have any “skipped” days and I will make time to check and do some blogging each night while I am in Las Vegas if I can.

In the meantime I will be checking Twitter quite often as I have my TwitterBerry software, so feel free to hit me up @dragonblogger is my twitter ID. If you are also attending CA World and want to chat or something feel free to tweet me.

-Dragon Blogger aka. Justin Germino

I am taking some time off of work today to go to the valley and get my hair done.  I talk about that more on my Justin Germino personal blog, but I also wanted to talk about driving to the valley.  Unfortunately there is not very many routes from Casa Grande, Arizona to Tempe, Arizona.  There is one freeway the I-10, and if you are on this freeway and there is an accident that closes the freeway ahead of you.  You are stuck in traffic for hours, literally this one freeway you take for about 50 miles between the two cities and there is an alternate route, but once you pass the first 3 exits on the freeway, you have a gap of like 10 miles with no exits.  This is because the freeway passes through Indian Reservation.  If there is any accidents in this ten mile stretch, then you are just hosed.

I was stuck one night from 7pm until almost 11pm because of a crash on the I-10, and on another incident we travelled 1 hour in traffic just for the policy to force everyone to turn around and drive another 45 minutes back to valley for a detour.

The Cities really need to build another freeway alternative or something.

-Dragon Blogger

The family decided to go on a spur of the moment camping trip on Friday September 5th and we returned this afternoon on Sunday September 7th.  We decided to try renting a cabin from a place we haven’t stayed before in Lakeside Arizona.  This is an almost four hour drive from Casa Grande, Arizona along the Highway 87 and US 60 East past Superior and Globe until you enter Showlow and PineTop/Lakeside.  The name of the establishment is called Lazy Oaks Resort.  We chose this place because it has one of the best rates for a cabin that sits within 4 minutes walk of a private lake, this means you can fish without purchasing a fishing license which can quickly add up additional costs.  Lazy Oaks Resort also has one of the best pet friendly policies, requiring no extra pet deposit and allowing you to bring your canine companion with you.  We did bring our Boston Terrier who is 7 years old and he had the time of his life playing frisbee in the woods.  He even jumped in the lake and attempted to swim out and catch ducks.

Here is a picture of our Boston Terrier with Frisbee in mouth.

The cabin we stayed at was a 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom cabinet and cost us $159.00 per night, the private lake that the cabins rest near is called “Rainbow Lake”.  The cabin itself was called the “Tamarack” which at 880 square feet was a very large cabin.  This cabin could easily accomodate six to eight guests as it has 1 bedroom with two queen beds, and another bedroom with a single queen bed, plus a sleeper sofa in the living room with a queen bed.  The wood fireplace was also very nice and received alot of use while we stayed at this establishment.

The cabin’s only major flaw was the beds themselves.  They are plastic and very noisy, like trying to sleep on bubble wrap.  They were also very uncomfortable, so much in fact that I elected to sleep on the floor in the living room while my spouse slept on the couch in the living room.  The lake itself is fairly small and covered in green algae, there didn’t appear to be too many fish but after fishing on and off for about five hours my spouse had caught 3 bluegill which were between 3 and 4 inches long.  There is rumored to be catfish and trout of some size in the lake but we didn’t have the right bait or luck to procure either species.

One of the cabin renters who was near the lake showed us this large dead beetle they had found outside of their cabin.  This is a very strange beetle, grey with black spots and large mandibles.  It almost looks like a stag beetle except it isn’t black.  Does anyone know what type of beetle this is?

Though the lake on the cabin wasn’t terribly impressive, it was still fun to fish with the family.  Also there are numerous other lakes within a few minutes drive so it is still a decent place to have a weekend retreat.  The rates were pretty good, the cabin’s were very clean and very large and the pet friendly policy is unbeatable.  I would recomment the Lazy Oaks Resort to anyone who wants to spend a weekend or a week at a cabin in Arizona’s Rim Country.

Oh, one other thing for a cabin, they also have wireless internet access available to most cabins.  This is a rarity for cabins, and I didn’t bring my laptop because I was supposed to be vacationing, but for those of you who can’t live without the internet even for a weekend, this is a very neat touch as most cabins don’t offer this luxury.

Here is a picture of the Tamarack Cabin:

• UPDATE

The owner of the Lazy Oaks Resort contacted me after reading my post and expressed how concerned they were about our sleeping arrangements (disappointment with the mattresses).  They explained that as they replaced the mattresses they were removing the plastic covering and that had we mentioned them they would have taken care of it right away.  So realistically we dealt with uncomfortable mattresses only because we didn’t speak up and mention something about it, if the owner’s weren’t aware, they really didn’t know.   So let this be a lesson to anyone, always let the business know right away if anything isn’t up to par, many businesses will do whatever they can to make it right.

Thank you Lazy Oaks Cabin for being so easy to work with.

I arrive at the airport around 12:40pm and hail a SuperShuttle which takes about 15 minutes to arrive.  I know it saves money to ride in a SuperShuttle, but I was squeezed in a small van with 6 other people.  It was the most uncomfortable 30 minute ride I have had in a long time.  In the bench in front of me was a geriatric woman squeezed between two people who looked like ex-convicts and she looked fearful of her life.  In my row I was squeezed between a very heavy set and sweaty man, and an indian fellow who was using his iPhone the whole time and laughing to himself.  There was an Asian man behind me and another Caucasian fellow typing on his blackberry.  The van was loaded with 7 people not including the driver, the air conditioning was very low.  The smell of sweat and body odor was thick in the air, I was literally almost gagging within ten minutes because the smell of human body odor mingling with people who wear too much cologne wafting through the van was making me sick.

Of course my hotel wasn’t the first stop, the van dropped off four people before depositing me on the street corner of my hotel.  I was thoroughly nauseated and paid my SuperShuttle bill, grabbed my one laptop briefcase and proceeded to gulp in what passes as fresh air in a downtown city as quickly as possible.  It is worth paying the extra 20 dollars to get a taxi or cab ride next time, it was almost unbearable.

So I arrive at The Galleria Park Hotel on Sutton street in Downtown San Fransisco, where the hotel has the sidewalk chopped up due to construction right in front of it.  The Hotel itself is modest, but right away disappointing.  There is no continental breakfast which I wish I had known that prior.  The room itself is just fair, bed is fairly comfortable and passable.  The had a hot water maker in the room which allowed me to make fresh brewed hot tea which was decent though.  They had a fitness center but I never had a chance to try it because I only packed work clothes and didn’t have workout attire.

So, I checked into my hotel and proceeded to walk to my co-worker’s office.  Remember, I traveled to San Fransisco on a business trip to meet some co-workers who I have worked with for 2 years and never met in person.  I arrive at their office which is just six blocks away from the hotel on Market street.  I end up very confused, it turns out that the address listed for my co-workers in the company system was 2 years out dated.  My coworkers actually work in a different building, so I had mapped the nearest hotel to the wrong building and now was standing outside a company building where my co-workers do not work.

This embarrassing oversight cost me another hour as I had to find their correct building and walk from the Market Street building to the correct building about 10 minutes away.  (At least it was in the vicinity).  I arrive at the building and have a meeting with my co-worker and then my co-worker’s take me out to dinner to one of their favorite Italian restaurants in San Fransisco.  The Place is called “Caffe Sport”  The restaurant was pretty good probably a seven on a scale of one to ten in my book.  The sliced bread came out with a mild marinara dipping sauce which was nice, though some olive oil or seasoning would have been preferable.  The restaurant serves dishes “Family Style” where the entree’s come out in big plates that everyone shares.  We ordered three entree’s, the Lobster with garlic cream sauce, the Pesto Penne, and the Calamari.  All three were good, but the penne in pesto sauce was my favorite of the three dishes by far.

After dinner we hung out at a nearby tavern for about an hour discussing work and getting to know each other outside of work.  I am an unofficial supervisor of my co-worker for about two years, and I learned that my co-worker was actually nervous for the last two months about me visiting him.  He thought he was in trouble and had the impression that I was this strict militaristic type of boss (shows how much he didn’t know me).  It was really good to break the ice with these people, both of them were extremely gracious and treated me to dinner out of their own generous pockets.  It was nice to finally get to know some people outside of the office, thought I regret doing most of the talking (as usual).

Here’s to Randy and Pipes, it was great meeting you guys in person and I always enjoy working with you over the past 2 1/2 years.  These are two hard working people who know what its like to balance work and family life.

Today I am meeting some more co-workers for lunch and then my flight leaves at around 4:15pm to head back toward Phoenix, Arizona.  I will probably have a post tonight about how the flight and arrival home went.

-Dragon Blogger

Writing this blog on a Southwest flight from Phoenix to San Fransisco today.  I have a business trip to meet some co-workers that I have worked with for over two years but have never met in person.  Don’t you love this modern day an age, globalization is a reality and people need to realize it won’t go away.  Now my closest co-workers are actually located in Minneapolis, San Fransisco and I only have a handful that work with me in person in Tempe, Arizona.  I have actually only been to San Fransisco once before for a work related purpose where I worked 24 hours straight in a downtown office working on an infrastructure release.  I only used my hotel room for a few hours and flew back the next day.  This time I am in town for 2 days, and will try to hit a few downtown restaurants, I love tasting various cuisine from different cities.  So this blog is to discuss my impressions and opinions with Southwest Airlines, as well as discuss flights in general.

Southwest Airlines is one of the only profitable airlines in this economy due to their very creative and efficient marketing strategy and operations.  They do employ this very well, and their “Wanna Get Away” fares are unbeatable by any stretch of the imagination.  Seriously, where can you get fares for $64 dollars one way anymore?  It is actually cheaper to fly than to drive between Arizona and California now with gas prices high, if you are traveling alone.  If you are traveling with four people, then one vehicle and gas are cheaper than 4 round trip tickets + a rental when you arrive.  Southwest has good rates, a very fast online check in.  I was able to check in 24 hours ahead of my flight and actually print out my boarding pass at home.

Phoenix actually has a really good airport despite what people say, compared to Denver, LAX, Orlando, JFK it is very fast and easy to get in through security and to your terminal.  The boarding with Southwest is a little bit of a pain, they give you a Group (A, B or C) and a number (1 - 60) and you stand in line with your group and board in order.  This is a little chaotic, but I still miss reserved specific seating.  I don’t like having to scour for a seat, and when you are unlucky enough to travel with a family and be late to get your boarding passes, you get a C boarding group and there are no seats together, you are stuck to sit in one row, while your family sits in other rows.  You always get an A class if you check in online 24 hours ahead, but you are most likely going to be B or C group if you check in within 2 hours before the flight.

Southwest is friendly, they always give drinks and snacks.  They do provide some 100 calorie pack products by Kraft, which are a nice change from the generic peanuts and pretzels.  They are fast and attentive to getting drinks, but I nodded off when I got on board and they didn’t wake me for my beverage, so I had to call the hostess and ask if it was too late.  Fortunately they still brought me a beverage and I was able to quench my thirst.

In general I like Southwest Airlines as long as one thing is true:
You do not have any checked baggage.

Woe be to the traveler who checks baggage at Southwest Airlines, because I have checked baggage on five of the last seven flights and have had problems with baggage every single time.  Though fortunately the worst incident was when my friend’s bag never arrived and had been shipped on a later flight.  Fortunately the bag wasn’t lost though, it just didn’t make it through inspection in time to make the flight.  Southwest is late getting bags out of the plane and onto the terminal often, and bags are often haphazardly treated, most of my luggage has collected damage including fabric rips, tears and scuffs from being man handled through the Southwest baggage area’s.

For airplanes in general the most common is true,

1. This day an age it is a myth that electronic equipment interferes with the airplane equipment.  Let people work on their laptops and listen to their ipod’s right after everyone is boarded and the plane takes off.  Don’t wait until ascent is completed, this wastes time.
2. Seats that tilt back are designed to annoy the hell out of anyone using a laptop, my screen is being forced to be shut a little by someone in front of me leaning back, now my screen is at a bad viewing angle and I can barely read what I am typing.
3. For people who don’t have ipods, or music devices, I liked when some airlines offer headsets and have jacks for you to listen to default music stations inside the plane.  Or even television sets embedded in the back of each seat so someone can watch some generic TV, CNN or anything just to pass the time.  I bore easily and like to keep myself busy with something to do, I listen to audiobooks on the plane as I am doing now while typing this blog for publication later.

I am listening to Duma Key by Stephen King and 39 Chapters into the book, and I don’t need to keep saying over and over again how incredible he is as an author and how I like just about every book he has ever published.

I will write a post later about the restaurant I eat at for dinner.

In summary for this post if you take anything away, come away with this information:

Southwest Airlines has the cheapest plane tickets out of anyone that I have ever seen.

Check In online the day before if you are able to, even if you are checking bags you can get an A group ticket so you don’t have to wait to board with B or C groups.

If you have to have a carry on, make sure your luggage is sturdy (hard case, or thick fabric) because it will suffer wear and tear.

Insure your luggage, and keep it well closed and possible with an approved lock.  Make sure you leave plenty of time on arrival, as your bags will take a while to get unloaded from the plane, and may not show up on your flight if you checked in within 1 1/2 hours of your flight.

Fly safe everyone and get the best deals possible

-Dragon Blogger