Category Archives: Personal

My Life With Apple

By Posted in Innovation, Personal, Web/Tech Tagged , 3 Comments
Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs

Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs, 2011 by Lea Suzuki

In 1984, I convinced my about-to-be (then) husband not to buy a Macintosh ($2,495/$5,440 in 2011 $). It wasn’t just because it was expensive. It wasn’t interoperable, you see, and the dairy cooperative we worked for was an IBM shop. Mainframes and IBM PCs (not clones) didn’t talk to Macs. Heck, Microsoft Word wasn’t around yet!

Instead, we bought an Epson cp/m machine with 5 1/4″ floppies, a green screen and a great software bundle (Peachtree). And a dot-matrix printer, of course. I can’t imagine that it was interoperable either, but it was less expensive. And it was the gateway drug to the life I lead today. Continue reading →

Pets and Airlines : Not So Friendly Skies

By Posted in Economics, Personal 2 Comments

Pet owners, according to most American airlines, have deep pockets. How else to explain the exorbitant fees they charge so that you can substitute your one carry-on bag for a bag that contains your small dog or cat? And the oligopolistic nature of the business comes through loud and clear when you examine the variance (or lack thereof) in the in-cabin pet fees.

It was not that long ago (say a couple of years) that pet fees were $50 to $75. Now they are almost universally $125. Each way. Notable exceptions: regional airlines AirTran, Frontier and Southwest. And in-cabin pets get no frequent flier points!

Read on for pet and baggage fees (domestic flights) for the major U.S. airlines: AA, AirTran, Alaska, Continental, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, United and US Air.

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Failure Is A Not Four-Letter Word

By Posted in Personal Tagged , , 4 Comments

This is my inaugural Carnival of Journalism post; this month’s topic is “failure” — professional or personal. I chose personal but the lessons are, I believe, universal.

The Carnival of Journalism is a collection of folks who think about journalism and who periodically post a reflection on a given subject. Learn how to join us. Added: Dave posts a round-up.

Ducati - Pony Express

Kathy's Ducati Monster - Pony Express Day 1

My Ducati was less than two months old, I had been riding almost two years, and I was a newly-minted Motorcycle Safety Foundation accredited instructor. With more excitement than trepidation, I set off on what would be a 6,000 mile fundraiser (over two weeks) for Susan G. Komen. I had prepped for the trip by putting in long weekend days, but those were one-offs, so to speak. How would I do when these long days were daisy-chained?

The first day I overslept, under-dressed (I misjudged the weather: it was cold, I needed my electric vest) and discovered that I had failed to pack my motorcycle registration. Not an auspicious beginning!

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