realization comes late

really really late.

currently on-board a northwest plane. flight got delayed for a good hour-and-half, and that's after two hours of wait because i stupidly made the decision to check in two hours before departure.

when you're panic, you can't think right. but when you're too calm, you can't think right either, and then even eighteen could look like eight.

that's right. i waited two hours at the wrong gate.

i guess i should thank the almighty creator that i still somewhat possess a common sense, as insensitive as it may be. my common sense (or lack thereof) told me that if fifteen minutes before departure, one or more of these situations apply:

1. there are only less than five people, yourself included, sitting around waiting at the gate.
2. the podium guy has gone AWOL and no one is replacing him to call in for departure.
3. there is no aircraft parked at that gate
4. the big TV behind the podium shows a destination city that is not yours, destination country that is not yours, and departure time over three hours later.

then you're most likely sitting at the wrong gate.

if all of them apply, then you are definitely sitting at the wrong gate. and then you switch into panic mode, and start running past toward your gate, which happens to be at the other side of the terminal.

fortunately, of course, your plane was then delayed for 30 minutes, which made that whole running and panicking completely and entirely pointless, and made you wish you're able to foresee the damn future.

that happened today. that, plus another extra hour of wait because apparently they couldn't start the damn plane. something about ACP or APU or even ACPU that they couldn't spark or start or something like that. and yes, i could never hear them darn announcement correctly because i had my ipod on. i figured it's much easier to just use my instinct and do whatever other people do. if they start boarding, that means it's my time to start boarding as well. if they stay sitting where they are, that means i don't have to worry about anything, yet.

if they start packing their stuff and leave, then you go into panic mode again, start wondering what the hell is going on, and wish you had paid more attention.

apparently after an hour of fiddling with the APU or ACP or ACPU or whatever the hell it was, they gave up and decided to go grab another aircraft from the hangar bay. this means i had to switch gate, and so i did.

everything went smoothly until i get on board. by murphy's law, of course something else went bad. this time it's the take-off permission: the plane had to wait for four other planes to take off. i put on my ipod and looked out the window, hoping for the moment the ground would move. this is, of course, entirely an illusion by the theory of relativity because the ground would never move. what moves is actually the plane but because the initial acceleration is so small you don't feel like moving at all, and when you look out the window, it seems to be that the ground is the one that moves. my visual sensory system is definitely at the top of the hierarchy. this can also be said for other things, such as checking out cute girls.

i've been sitting on my ass for two-and-a-half hours now, gone over a playlist twice, read five volumes of homunculus, and managed to deplete half of my powerbook battery. yes, my powerbook can live for five hours.

by the way, read homunculus. it's sickeningly good. makes you think. i'm not gonna say anything more than that. hint: don't ever let a goth doctor drill a hole on hour forehead, no matter the money.

i was thinking about doodling to kill time, but i don't really have a big enough space to draw comfortably, and i know that i will definitely snap if i decide to put up with that.

guess i'll go read some more manga.