The Hobbit Update

I haven't posted an update on here about The Hobbit movie in a long while so I thought I'd post a few comments about it. The movie is apparently progressing well. On December 24th, Peter Jackson released the 5th production video that shows them leaving for their first outside shoot outside Mata Mata where the Bag End set is located. Elijah Wood speaks on the video about his feelings about coming back to the set. It's been 11 years since he went to New Zealand to shoot the Lord of the Rings movies. Jackson himself remarks how unreal it was for him to see the set he never expected to see again. One interesting difference this time is that once shooting is finished on the Bag End set, all the buildings will remain so people can visit for many years to come. I for one would love to see this extraordinarily beautiful set and feel like I visited Hobbiton and Bag End.

Another noteworthy event concerning The Hobbit movie was the release of the first movie trailer on December 21st. The trailer was fascinating and enticing. We got to see a number of the actors playing their Dwarven characters including the one playing Thorin Oakenshield (looks awesome). At the end, we see a familiar creature whose meeting with Bilbo Baggins at an underground lake would have consequences that would change Middle Earth forever.

My only disappointment is that I'll have to wait almost an entire year (the first movie comes out December 13th, 2012) before I get to see the movie. This is one movie I will be very excited about. If you wish to see the production video and trailer I mentioned, you can find them at: http://www.wetanz.com/the-hobbit-movies-latest-updates/ Also, Facebook is a good place to follow the latest news on the movies. Peter Jackson has been awesome about posting updates there. Cheers.

Fisher Space Pen Review

This past Christmas, Pen Boutique offered a Fisher Space Pen and Maglight gift set for $15. If I remember correctly, they claimed that was 50% off. I thought that sounded like a good deal. Whats more, the pen supposedly could write in all kinds of temperatures and, you could write upside down with it. Supposedly, astronauts had used the pen because of that.

While I don't need to write upside down, I do have customers that could use a pen that would write on a piece of paper they were holding against a wall or door. Many times, the cheap Bic pens I carry with me stop writing. Also, the Bic pens I use don't seem to like the cold either. So, I decided to buy a couple of the Fisher Space Pens and see how well they work.

So far, I've been very pleased with the pens. For shits and grins, I did try writing something upside down and, the pen worked fine. Also, I took it outdoors and had customers try it. None of them had any problems. According to the products package advertising, the pen will write in temperatures from -30F to 250F. While I don't expect to encounter any conditions that bad. The pen does seem to work fine in the cold. One drawback I've seen to the pen is the refills are expensive. You can expect to pay $5 a piece for one though Fisher claims the refills will write 2 to 3 times longer than a normal pen. As I've just started using their pens, I have no idea if that claim is true.

My recommendation is that if you need a reliable pen that can handle the weather (supposedly you can write underwater with it too though to me that means I can write in the rain with it) and write any time you need it to, the Fisher Space Pen may be what you're looking for. I think it would definitely be worth a try. Cheers all.

Update February 2, 2014: I continue to use Fisher Space pens at my job. The pens continue to prove their worth. This past week, the temperature got down to 15F. My normal pens were acting up but, my Fisher Space pens kept right on trucking. The only problem I have with the pens is making sure I don't lose them. I've had it where I've accidentally left them with a customer. 

2012 Yamaha TMAX

I've been a big fan of Yamaha's TMAX maxi-scooter since I bought my 2009 TMAX. Each year, I search the internet to find out what changes they'll be making to the bike. For 2012, they made some considerable changes. For starters, it will get a slightly more powerful engine. The size will increase to 530cc vice the previous 499cc. To me, this change is a major disappointment. I was hoping for a TMAX that would have a 750cc engine. There were considerable rumors that such a bike was in the works. Sadly, those rumors proved false. The bike supposedly has a more comfortable seat (someone apparently noticed that the previous seat wasn't very comfortable especially after a long ride on the bike), a redesigned instrument panel, different lights and a different drive chain. Also, the bike has a more rugged look. From what I've seen on the internet, it looks like a nice motorbike but, all the improvements in my opinion aren't enough to get me to trade in my current TMAX. Still, I hope that Yamaha will come out with a more powerful TMAX. That would get me to want to trade in my current TMAX. We'll see what Yamaha ends up doing.

Baltimore Cruise Ship Terminal

I've been seriously looking at Royal Caribbean's cruises out of Baltimore. Royal Caribbean has a really nice cruise on their Enchantment of the Seas that sails to Bermuda and Boston. You get to stay in port overnight in both ports and, you have just 3 days at sea - 1 day to get to Bermuda, 1 day to get to Boston and 1 day getting back to Baltimore. Another plus for me travel wise is that I wouldn't have to fly any where to get to this cruise ship terminal. I live outside Baltimore but, it's a very easy drive to get to. So, I decided I'd ride my Yamaha TMAX down to the cruise ship terminal and find out how easy or hard it is to get to the terminal.

I hopped on the Baltimore Washington Parkway (I-295) heading to Baltimore. Then, when I reached Interstate 95 (I-95), I switched over to I-95 North heading to New York City. At this point, it was a very short drive before I had to take exit 55 (last exit before you have to pay the toll and go through the harbor tunnel). The exit sign said Fort McHenry and something else. The exit will put you on what I believe is East McComas Road. I drove along this not sure how far I'd have to drive though I knew the road would eventually end at Fort McHenry. After Fort McHenry, you hit water.

Before I got to the terminal, I could tell I was going the right way as I saw a Carnival cruise ship (Carnival Pride) in port. Baltimore has only 1 cruise ship terminal so I knew I was going the right way. I drove along and sure enough, I soon spotted the entrance to the terminal. The terminal isn't super big. I read on the internet that it's a converted warehouse. However, as far as I can tell, it should be able to do the job. I don't believe any of the cruise lines send any of their really big ships to Baltimore. The Enchantment of the Seas is a Vision class ship which is Royal Caribbean's 2nd smallest class of ship (only their Sovereign class is smaller).

The terminal has secure parking however, there is a $15 a day charge for it (source: http://www.cruise.maryland.gov). There are hotels that offer stay 1 night and, you can park and leave your car in their lot during your cruise. However, these might not be cheaper than the parking.

Overall, I found the cruise ship terminal very easy to get to. I hope to take cruise out of the terminal in April 2013. If I get to go then, I'll do a blog entry on how good or bad the terminal itself is. Happy travels all!

Delta Airmiles

I have over 54,000 airmiles with Delta Airlines. I found out that Delta has a non-stop from New York JFK Airport to Venice, Italy. I figured that there wouldn't be a huge demand for flights to Venice the beginning of November. I figured wrong apparently. I spoke with a Delta rep to see if I could get a guaranteed upgrade to Venice. To my disappointment, I couldn't. All she could do was put a trailer on it stating I wanted one. No dice. If I can't get the upgrade, I'm going to fly with whoever is CHEAPEST and stay overnight in Venice before the cruise. After the lady said she couldn't guarantee me an upgrade, she tried to sell me Delta's charge card. I could earn 30,000 bonus airmiles with it the first year. If I can't get the upgrades I want, the airmiles are worthless to me. Why spend $95 a year for the charge card for worthless airmiles? This is why I cancelled my British Airways and American Airlines charge cards. The airlines are trying to push a product that they turn around and make impossible to use. If their frequent flier programs aren't worth using, the programs are a joke and definitely won't create any kind of customer loyalty. In my case, price will now be the key factor. I won't care what airline I fly on as long as it's the cheapest to get me where I need to go.

Broken Crown

While on my 2nd of back-to-back cruises with Royal Caribbean this past November, I bit into something that didn't agree with the crown I had put in a year ago. I don't know how I did it but, I managed to crack the thing. It didn't hurt thankfully. It would have been a royal mess trying to find a dentist in one of the Caribbean islands I was visiting as well as get all the work done in the time I had in each port.

So, I made an appointment with Dr. Mitchell Weiner. Dr. Weiner is a general dentist who specializes in various dental procedures like crowns. He was the one who carved the tooth to where it could accept having a crown put over it and then, he placed and sealed it on the tooth. This past September, I saw him again when I started suffering some pain with the tooth. Initially, it looked like I would need a very expensive root canal done. That's where they drill through the crown, remove all the infected root pulp, fill the empty space with some kind of sealant and seal the tooth. I was very hesistant about having this done and, I wanted to see if antibiotics could clear up the infection. Antibiotics would've been a lot cheaper. Also, I wanted to have one of the dentists take the crown off to make sure the tooth root was infected. I wasn't able to get the crown removed but, the antibiotics apparently worked though I did wonder about the tooth in way i.e. was the infection really gone or was I possibly going to have worse trouble down the line with the tooth.

Wednesday of last week, I got to see Dr. Weiner who looked in astonishment at what I'd done. He asked how did I crack the thing. I told him, I honestly don't know. I don't remember what I bit into that cracked the crown. He said I had 2 choices. They could attempt to remove the broken crown and have it repaired or I could get a totally new crown. Repairing the crown was the cheaper option as that would cost approximately $800. A new crown would be twice that i.e. $1,600. Serious ouch!!!!! I said I'd like to get it repaired. The next step was getting the thing off the tooth. That ended up being a serious job. I found out why Dr. Weiner didn't remove the crown before when I was looking at possibly having a root canal done. When they put a crown on your tooth, they don't intend for it to EVER come off.

First, Dr. Weiner attempted to pry the crown off with a pair of dental pliers that they normally use for removing teeth (shivers). That didn't work. Then, we tried using some SUPER sticky gook that I had to bit into so the suction from the gook would cause the crown to come off. That didn't work either. Dr. Weiner isn't a quitter and, he had one last trick up his dental sleeve. He has a device that a dental hammer of sorts. You attach it to the tooth then, he hits a rod real hard with his hand and, it whacks the tooth. Pieces of porcelain from the crown began to break off. After 3 or 4 whacks, Dr. Weiner removed the device and tried to take the broken crown off. It came off.

The broken crown was taken to where ever they had the crowns made and, it was subsequently repaired to where it looked as good as new. Then, I went back a 2nd time where the repaired crown was placed on the tooth root stump and sealed again. As far as I can tell, the repaired crown is working. I'm not experiencing any pain though I do think the teeth on the left side of my mouth had to move some of accomodate the repaired crown.

Next Wednesday, I'll see Dr. Weiner again for a quick check up on the crown. As far as I can tell, it's working fine and, he shouldn't have to do any thing with it. While I wasn't thrilled with cracking the thing and the subsequent cost ($879). However, I was pleased in one regard. As I mentioned previously, I'd wondered if I was making a mistake by not getting the root canal done. To my relief, when the damaged crown came off, Dr. Weiner was able to examine the root stump and, he said it was completely fine. To make sure it stayed that way, he put some medication on the stump before he put the repaired crown on. In that way, this whole fiasco has been worth it.

British Airways and Avios Points

Next November, I'll be taking back-to-back cruises with Royal Caribbean for the 2nd time. I decided to see just which airport I was likely to fly out of: Baltimore Washington International or Washington Dulles. I found out for flights ultimately ending in Venice, Italy which where the 2 cruises will start from, Dulles would be at least $300 cheaper. Another attraction of flying out of Dulles was that I could use the 200,000 plus airmiles now called Avios points. British Airways made a big thing about the change over to the new points. I would find out they didn't change anything when it came to trying to use them.

I figured I should have a good shot at either getting a free Business Class ticket or paying cash and getting a guaranteed upgrade to Business Class since I was going to book the flights 10 months out. Why is Business Class so important to me? Because I know I can get some sleep in those seats. I can't sleep for crap in Economy seats. To my surprise, I couldn't get a free seat on the dates I needed to fly out and, I couldn't get a guaranteed upgrade with cash. This reminded me of the fiasco I had when I tried to get a free seat to Copenhagen and back from Oslo in connection with a Globus tour I was planning to take of Scandanavia (Denmark, Sweden and Norway). I couldn't get a free seat then and, that wasn't the last time I had this problem. I was so pissed off by the experience I cancelled my British Airways Visa charge card. I told the lady at the charge card center there wasn't any point in having the card and paying the yearly charge if I couldn't use the airmiles when I wanted. Keep in mind too that even if you managed to get free seats, British Airways made you pay a stiff fee of supposed taxes. When I did to fly Business Class to Paris in advance of the Globus La France tour I took, I had to pay British Airways over $700 for my supposedly free ticket. British Airways claimed this was a deal. In my opinion, no it wasn't considering what I had to do just to earn the airmiles. By the way, concerning the Paris tickets, I got lucky to get those as it turned out after I booked the ticket British Airways changed their flights making it impossible for me to get back. Luckily for me, I didn't find out till I finished the tour and arrived at Charles de Gaulle ready to leave only to find out I wasn't. Thanks to a great and understanding British Airways ticket rep, I did make it home. However, if I had found out about the change, I might not have been able to use my airmiles AGAIN. grrrrrrr

This latest fiasco over trying to use the new Avios points has guaranteed I won't be flying British Airways when I travel to Venice. Also, to add further fury, I found out that in the new great Avios system British Airways came out, they devalued their airmiles AGAIN. According to Tim Winship at Frequentflier Blog (http://blog.frequentflier.com) on November 17, 2011, the new Avios points will be yet another devaluation i.e. it'll cost even more points/airmiles for many U.S. travellers who want to use them on British Airways. I haven't forgotten when British Airways devalued my airmiles back in 2006. Their reason then was they wanted to get all their U.S. members on par with other members in other countries. Apparently, British Airways wanted to value us as little as they did their other members worldwide. Now, they've put the screws to its U.S. Executive Club members again.

Because of this latest devaluation, I know what I'll be doing. Once I can travel again (sometime in April 2013), I'll book whatever flights I can where I can get a free ticket with British Airways just so I can use up my Avios points. Once I do that, I won't be flying British Airways again. They've stuck it to me too many times. I would advise other U.S. travellers to do the same. Happy travels all.