The clock on my computer says it’s 5:45 am, which means that I’ve been on the plane something like eight and a half hours, and there are eight more hours to go. I managed to sleep, off and on, for at least six of those hours. The seats on Singapore Airlines, though less cramped than the economy-class seats of domestic airlines, are still not what I’d call comfortable. Jennifer said that the seats lie nearly flat, which either means that she flew out first class, or she is extraordinarily bad at geometry for a mechanical engineer. They tip back about 30 degrees from vertical in my estimation.

Seat angles notwithstanding, the plane is quite nice. Each seat has its own video screen with a great selection of movies and music to choose, and it seems to have some sort of PVR functionality that lets you pause and rewind what you’ve already seen. There are power outlets between each seat, but they don’t appear to have enough juice for my giant honking laptop. I have a second battery charged, so I should be ok if start coding in a little bit and manage to get into a groove.

It seems like most people take sleeping pills on these flights, and consequently, most people around me are passed out. Thankfully, the plane is only about half full, so everyone has an empty seat next to them. I’m on a aisle, so I can tip my seat back and lean up against the un-tipped seat next to me. I really meant to try out the sleeping pill in advance of this trip, but since I’ve never taken one, I don’t want the first time to be an transoceanic flight.

I’ll arrive at something like five in the morning, and have enough time to shower, charge my laptop, buy a SIM card, and take a nap if necessary before going to the factory where I’ll be working for the next week. At this point I don’t know quite what to expect. Several of my co-workers from different discplines are traveling to the factory where we will help a company manufacture our product. Things could go well or they could go very badly. In my case, I’ll be there in case anyone needs help operating the tremendously complex software that controls all the various parts of the machine. There’s probably more than 50 million lines of code if you add everything up, so I’m not there for my knowledge of it all so much as for my ability to navigate and decipher it. Hopefully things go well and I’ll have some free time to see the sights and try the food. Everyone else traveling with me has been there before–some for months at a time–so I should have tour guides aplenty.

The service on the flight has been great so far; there are several lovely flight attendants patrolling the aisles in traditional-looking Chinese dresses. One just stopped to offer me a snack, which I suspect may be a Hot Pocket. When I asked what the choices were, she waved at half of her tray and said “these are curry–you probably wouldn’t like them.” For half a second I thought of pointing out that I like curry–in fact I have quite a cosmopolitan palate–but seriously, it’s airline food. This is no place for a foodie.

…

It’s now 6:30am and I’ve just finished my Hot Pocket. Actually it reminded me of the pasties (PAST-eez) we used to get in the Upper Peninsula. They were basically stew wrapped in pastry dough and baked, and there were large and dense enough that you could pack them hot in the morning and head out for a day of fishing and they’d still be warm at lunchtime. Of course, by then your hands were full of scales and you smelled like fish and you didn’t feel much like eating.

I decided to bring Jennifer’s point-and-shoot rather than my big camera. It’s just too much to lug around. I have made an effort to pack light, but the truth is that I just haven’t been able to get up much enthusiasm for this trip. When I signed up to go a couple months ago, I was pretty excited about the idea, but between then and now there has been so much going on that I’m really just looking forward to an extended stretch of “normal”. By the time Jennifer got back from her trip, I was exhausted, and the last thing I wanted as to put Jennifer in the same position, to get further worn out on this trip, and then come home to an exhausted wife and needy kids; but it was too late, and the commitment was made and here I am, halfway across the Pacific. Jennifer has said more than once that this whole “We’re So Tired” thing is self-fulfilling. On the matter of whether or not we bring about our own suffering, I am fairly sure the defense can rest. Somebody ought to.

Jennifer just got back from a business trip to the midwest, and tomorrow I leave for a week in Singapore, where the temperature is 79 degrees at 94% humidity, at six in the morning. I wonder what happens if I just cover my entire body with antiperspirant.

Lately the weeks have just been flying by at a furious place, with so many little things coming one after the other that it’s really hard to keep track. Jennifer and I are both home only on weeknights; one of us always have something going on. Between the volleyball/hockey/softball games, photo shoots, mom’s/dad’s nights out, and all the little random events here and there, our schedules are quite packed.

The girls have been taking swim classes twice a week. Anna started around June, and Tara a month or so ago. The progress by both continues to amaze. Anna recently has started doing the crawl, and she moves through the water so quickly that I wonder if competitive swimming might be in her future. It sure would be a great way to exercise. Tara is very comfortable in the water, but she’s also very headstrong, so she and the instructor don’t always agree on the proper technique for swimming.

My trip to Singapore is coming up in a few weeks, and I haven’t really begun to make arrangements, but I suppose I should start soon. After a couple hot weeks here I decided that I really don’t like hot humid weather, so hopefully they have a cold snap. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, hopefully I can at least avoid tsunamis and dengue fever.

The shoot at Hawaiian Tropic turned out great, all things considering. I started out with a busted softbox and an uncooperative model, but eventually everything turned out ok and I walked away with about 300 usable photos. I borrowed a second flash unit and liked it well enough that I’m going to buy my own so that I can use it for fill on such events in the future. Currently there are a couple opportunities on the calendar, but having a couple days of “normal” is getting harder to find, so we’ll see what happens.

I’ve been that guy who can walk into a roomful of misbehaving kids and get them to act nice in front of the camera. I’ve been the guy who can orchestrate a large family to all look at the camera, looking mostly like they don’t mind being there. I’ve even been that guy who can make a cake or a taco salad stand up and look appetizing. Last week I was the guy who could talk a table full of volleyball players into posing on a Harley in the bar parking lot. Tomorrow I’ll be the guy walking into a room full of Hawaiian Tropic models and running the studio start to finish. Being that guy can be pretty intimidating, but I have to admit, That Guy is doing all right.

Update: That Guy doesn’t sleep much. I got in from the gig at midnight, went to bed at 1:00 am, and woke up at 5:40 am to start cull and post. I still have to put in a day of work, print proofs from last week, and play in a volleyball tournament today.