Wallpaper

Started: 2006-05-13 18:53:03

Submitted: 2006-05-13 19:20:31

Visibility: World-readable

While at LAX a few weeks ago, I spent some quality time while waiting for my plane standing next to a window, trying very hard not to look like a terrorist, taking pictures of planes that went by. (My shiny new Nikon D50 digital SLR made a very satisfying clack immediately when I hit the shutter, and my 55-200 mm lens made it easy to fill the frame with the planes.)

My favorite photo was a Lufthansa A340-300, tail number D-AIFE, a fraction of a second after the left main landing gear hit the runway, leaving a plume of burnt rubber smoke behind. It's now my desktop wallpaper on my work machine (named Darnassus, apparently by the IT guys, which I've been told is a city in World of Warcraft).

(Just in case you needed any further proof that I'm a wannabe plane spotter, while hiking in Hall Ranch this afternoon, I at least a dozen planes overhead; I assume they were running flight operations at DIA to the south, so every flight inbound from anywhere north and west from Denver flew overhead. One plane was especially easy to identify -- it was flying lower than the others, and it had a bright red belly -- obviously Southwest.)

In unrelated news, Civilization IV is officially as addictive as previous incarnations. I acquired it on my way home from work last night and played it for at least six hours straight before going to bed at 0130 this morning.