I am forced to slip back into quiet anonymity, awaiting the time my courage rebuilds.

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aloha!
www.hotshirts.com

A reminder:

NJDavid has a Rogue's Gallery of some of our FlyerTalk Community. He welcomes contributions via email or snail mail -- and we love to see new faces to put with the names...

HTTP://members.aol.com/flyerpics/wanted.htm
http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Thanks for reminding everyone....

I have a bunch of pictures I received over the last week including one or two "mugshots" and some new candids of the DC get together and BlondeBomber's visit with Rudi. I've just been swampped with work lately, so It may take a while to do.

Please feel free to e-mail submissions to me, or E-mail me to get a snail mail address if you need me to scan and return your pictures.

If I can, I'll do some of the updates by Tuesday, and the rest the following week.

Thank you NJDavid... We have to make the OMNI Award winning FlyerTalk gallery even better.

Wanderlust: if you are shy then you can start by adding your mug shot to NJDavid's gallery.

And don't be afraid to post YOUR STORY on Baobab's OMNI Award winning "Who We All Are" forum. HECK! Even my cats YAZ & EDDIE put their bios.

There is nothing to fear but fear itself.



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MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!!!

Wanderlust: And if you're REALLY shy, you can make that first photo in NJDavid's gallery a shot of the back of your head - or your feet - or your. . .

And I thought it was he who dies with the most miles wins!

MileKing, I think it's, "He who dies HAVING USED the most miles, wins".

Ok Rudi, it can be "S/he who dies HAVING USED the most miles, wins". Having been a feminist for longer that most feminists have been alive, I have evolved to the point where I assume that "He" is an all-inclusive word, like "mankind" and that "she" is reserved specific references to the fairer (finer) sex.



[This message has been edited by Punki (edited 06-06-99).]

only HE, and SHE?

As an interim (before David gets more pics up on Tuesday), I have created a page (probably too large and slow loading--it's about 200K!) but for those who really want to see the Swiss Flyer Talk get together, here it is.

http://members.home.net/deercroft/switzer.html

http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Beautiful pictures, Rudi and Blondebomber.
Switzerland is a beautiful country and now has moved to number 1 on where the Cat will go next (As soon as he can figure out how he can work it out in his schedule!)

FYI: There are a few pictures of my visit to the nation's capital made better by Phil and Sally Forest, Geo1004 and TribeFlyer. They are coming soon to NJDavid's FlyerTalk gallery.

There are four great looking people in these pix... even with me in it! It's not Switzerland but it shows how F-T has brought us all together.


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MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!!!

Great page and great pictures. I wanna go! I wanna go! http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Thanks for the sites!!

As I've been seeing some new names lately, I thought it might be time to bring the "Who we all are" threads forward again.

Please use this one for posting and the other just to read. Here's an open request to Bryan/Michael at Webflyer to lock the other one with a link to this.

So tell us something about yourselves. (Itineraries not needed).

Please do not post here. Instead please use:
http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/001305.html

to continue this discussion. Thanks.

31 - (32 in two weeks!!!!!!) - attorney turned consultant for a large insurance company. Newly transplanted to Illinois, so I like to travel home to the East Coast (Philly-town) as often as possible. My "region" includes NC, VA, MD, DE and the D.of C. - so those are my major destinations. I also have had the great pleasure to travel to some awesome destinations recently for pleasure (New Orleans for Mardi Gras, Key West)

Love NW (I know, I know, I'm the only one on the planet who does) and am trying to gather enough miles to take my 9 year old niece to China to visit relatives before she's 11.

Love this forum - for the uninitiated - it really is a friendly and funny group of people who just happen to have this crazy hobby.

So what's the story with everyone else?

Happy Trails -
EMD

Okay, I guess it's about time I tell everyone who Flyaway is.

I am 26 years old and own my own business in downtown Toronto, Canada. I do enough traveling to trade shows around the world (New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, Vancouver, Paris, London and Kingston (Jamaica)) to qualify for Elite status with Air Canada Aeroplan.

I 'discovered' frequent flyer programs when I studied in Leysin, Switzerland and Paris, France and used to fly between Europe, North America and the Caribbean to see family and friends.

I speak fluent French and English (I went to secondary school in French in Montreal) and really love to travel.

Bon, voila!

Flyaway

Hi, everyone.

My name is David and I'm a San Francisco-based independent consultant in the computer software field. My clients are large companies that hire lots of computer programmers, and I train and mentor them. I have done a lot of software development and project management in the past, and at one time was a founding partner in a multimedia company that developed screen savers and CD-ROMs.

Like many others who do systems work, I have no academic training in computer science whatsoever. My college work was in Russian and abstract mathematics.

I have an office at home, but virtually all my billable work is out of town. I travel about thirty weeks a year, all of it in North America. I am trying to get some time off the road this summer to develop some new training materials that I hope to begin marketing in fall of this year.

This is my third travel job - the first was as a tech support rep in my early 20's, the second as a consultant in my mid 30's, and now this. I guess I have spent about 7 of my 20 professional years on the road.

I grew up in Coral Gables, FL (near Miami), went to college in Nashville, lived in Washington, DC and on a commune of sorts in West Virgina (well, it was the 70's...) after college, and finally moved to California where I have lived happily for the last 18 years. I spent the first year in Laguna Niguel in Southern California, and moved to San Francisco after that.

My favorite hobbies are eating out, cooking, going to the movies, theatre (especially trips up to Ashland, Oregon), skiing, travel, computers, and most of all, sitting on 24th Street in San Francisco having a good cup of coffee and watching the world go by.

I have enjoyed getting to "meet" many FT'ers in the last few months and greatly appreciated your help in several instances.

[This message has been edited by dgolds (edited 11-29-1999).]

Thank you Celestar.

Punki, congrats on 1000. We do know you are Seattle person, married and not much more.
flyguy is south florida guy who is aero engineer designing jet engines. Ask my what airplanes to fly! I also model for department store cataloges. Flying is my primary means of earning miles/points. Where is auturo's info? Thanks B2 for new post.

The fact that this topic continues to generate attention leads me to introduce myself as well.

My name is Ronald, and I am the founder of an Internet start-up in San Francisco. That basically means that I am joining every second person in the U.S. who it seems is starting an Internet company. However, I can claim that this is my second Internet start-up - the previous one (called Ironlight Digital, and after a merger is called Novo Interactive...don't ask how we evolved to have a horrible name from such an awesome name as "Ironlight" :-)) I grew from 1 employee (yours truly) to about 60 people. I then left to start the new company. BORING...

Flying-wise, most of my clients in my previous companies were in the eastern half of the US, Europe and Asia, so I amassed miles to take my wife on our honeymoon to South Africa (LH First Class from Frankfurt in the wonderful sleeper seats...even *I* slept!). I am a dedicated United flyer (only because of the mileage golden handcuffs) and typically come out at the top end of Premier Executive (only one year as a 1K...meaning I flew a thousand miles, right? - just joking, 100,100 or thereabouts thanks to a same day turnaround shuttle to LA to make the cut on December 30 after returning from a trip to Chicago...real smart!).

I enjoy tremendously learning from some of the more well-traveled among you FT'ers, and especially enjoy finding new places to stay and dining (sleeping and eating are, by my sumo-like figure, among my favorite activities. I have lived in Japan, Finland, Chicago (getting my MBA), Portland, OR (undergrad.) and New York. San Francisco is the best, and if anyone traveling this way needs anything, please give me a call/email! :-)

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--Ronald
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

Yes, flyguy, I am a Seattle person and married (for almost 30 years). You can learn more than you'll ever want to know about me and my company from our website (AND see a picture of me during my 1st trip to Hawaii). http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif www.exhibitd.com

I travelled over 100 business trip segments last year and never even began to get tired of it. I am AK-MVP Gold, UAL-Premex and NWA-Silver Elite. If I fly any other airline, it is almost always Alaska Award Travel and always for fun.

We live in a old house on Queen Anne and have two mostly grown children (22 & 24). Our children and business have both now matured to the point where we are finally able to really enjoy ourselves. We love to go to the theater, ballet, symphony and opera, and bike, travel, explore, garden, ski, sail, cook and eat, but most of all we love to DANCE! Swing, waltz, foxtrot, salsa, tango, hustle, even zydeco.

Oh yes, I (but not Joe) love to shop. My sisters and I run off on a few trips a year to check out the stores in various parts of the country.

I am Really looking forward to meeting everybody at the PARTY IN PARADISE and will be so happy if all of you can come. (It would especially fantastic if baobab were there and could inspect my newly acquire light-traveller packing skills. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif )

Aloha!

[This message has been edited by Punki (edited 06-30-1999).]

You're planning to pack for two weeks using only one of those toiletry bags that the Better Airlines hand out?
- hmmm... could be worth witnessing (but alas, no seats left upstairs on UA57...)

If I don't make it I expect at least a photograph!

Madame Tree:

If you don't make it, we shall dispatch a tree surgeon to search the world to find you (and the gardener) to bring you to the tropics.

Hard to believe you wouldn't be there.

Totally unacceptable.

.

[This message has been edited by Empress (edited 02-10-2001).]

onefreeman - some unfortunate souls must need work for a living, and, worse than that, not only for themselves...

Life is difficult indeed, but with the usual fluidity I imagine that I shan't know whether or not I'll be at the PiP until I'm there. Four months is so far in the future, and the crystal ball is murky.

Punki, A profession with a LOT of travel. I have a friend in Dayton, Ohio who does the same. My company does some at major airshows around the world, but we contract out the setup.

Yes, flyguy, it is true, some people in my industry travel way more than they would like to, especially people involved in sales and show services. Fortnately, for me, there are only a few shows which I absolutely must attend no matter what, so that gives me a lot more freedom. That's probably why I haven't burnt out on travel after all these years.

Trade shows are really exciting and it is a very diverse and interesting profession.

Well, it's been such a long time ago that I posted my profile (actually the first one to do so) that things have changed since then.

Well, I'm still a brazilian born chinese who grew up in South America and got educated in the US- Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda Maryland and The American University in Washington D.C.

But now I am working for an IT consulting firm (Cotelligent) in Irvine as an IT recruiter. My flying patterns have changed and I will probably lose my AA Platinum and my UA Premier Executive this year. Oh, well, I still have my First Card VISA and my AA Citibank card. They won't give me status but will keep adding miles to my account.

Anyway, just wanted to update the "veterans" who have seen my name on and off for a while.

Tim Chen

Since I'm beginning to get to know some of the folks who post on this board, I'd like to introduce myself.....

I'm a frustrated airline pilot. I wanted to fly those "big boys" since my mom took me on my first trip to Los Angeles at age 7 (44 years ago). But it was never to be. Allergies and asthma squashed any hopes of becoming a pilot, and I returned to Wisconsin in tears after "interviewing" (visiting) United Air Lines headquarters in Chicago at age 19. I still wish to this day someone at United had advised me to come to work there in a non-flying capacity, but no one did, and I was not mature enough at the time to figure this out myself. So I finished bachelor's and master's degrees in child psychology, and now work as a school psychologist in San Diego! I'm an employee of a public school system, so I do not travel on business at all. Frequent flyer programs are my hobby, and I'm green with envy of folks who accrue 80,000 or 100,000 miles per year on business. I toil along, mounting up VISA card miles, and only travel to visit wife's kissy-face family in Wisconsin once per year (God, they're smothering). I'm married to a teacher, and our kids are 17 and 13, both girls. I'd give anything to be at the Party in Paradise, but if I took off in November, the superintendent of schools would probably tell me not to come back. They give me summers and all holidays off, so they expect me there when school's in session! I absolutely love this board, and visit it nearly every day on one of the school computers at lunch. I've learned a lot, and have been able to earn extra miles through MCI and other promotions listed here. I continue to be embarrassed about digging through the school trash all last spring to retrieve Healthy Choice codes, having been spotted doing this by several school principals. With all the "health conscious" women I work with, it was like mining gold. Wife and I are also into timeshares, and we are going on an Alaskan cruise next month for free with some clever timeshare trading I did (it's our 25th wedding anniversary, and I'd like to publicly thank Punki for sending us upgrades on Alaska Air Lines for this trip).

That's about it. Perhaps I'll really be "Captain Mike", flying a Boeing 777, in my next lifetime!

Welcome Captain Mike! A very interesting lie story you have. One of the career options I am considering is to enter business school after a few more years of work and then go work for the airlines. It may mean a pay cut from the more glamorous fields of consulting or i-banking, but I want to see/do/run airline and yield management hands on!

I also only fly for leisure and am green with envy with some of the more travelled friends here on FT.

And for an update since I first posted my profile, I used to be on the east coast (Cambridge, MA) but now on the west coast (Pasadena, CA). No more BOS-LAX-BOS. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I concur with Kyklin (welcoem to the other coast!) and while you can't amke the PIP you could always offer your own get together where you live. Or if you travel. Or of course you and your wife are welcome to come to one of the F-T get togethers.

The older I get, the more I want to pilot a 777 (used to be 7-47.) There is alwasy the flight simulator thing they have at United in Denver (My FlyerTalk friends... please clarify me on this and explain better!)
But you have done well with your life. Hope to meet you someday soon.

I also hope to meet you Flyaway in Toronto. Don't know if you've beenr eading the posts but I'm planning a mini get together related to the Red Green Show in Sept. Maybe you can stop by or give us a sightseeing tip or two
(Love Toronto! And CANADA TOO!)


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MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!!!

I count myself so lucky to have found this board. I've learned so much from all the experts here and had so many good laughs.
I'm a stay at home Mom living on the south shore of Long Island with my husband, Bill and three teenage boys. Bill is the frequent flyer (grounded recently- they need him in the office) and I am the "keeper of the miles and frequent spender." Almost everything from cable bill charges to college tuition goes on the AA Mastercard.

We're very lucky that when we do pay for a flight,our neighbor who is a gate supervisor at LGA for American has gotten us upgraded to first everytime. So when we fly, we fly American!

I'm glad to know there are others on the board who are earning their miles while on the ground. Thanks to all of you, I've been able to earn over 40,000 miles since February. That's a big deal in this house!
Regards to everyone,
Debbie

kyklin (and others, perhaps)... time to update not only the "who we are" listing for yourself, but the profile we see when we hit "info" for you.

Or are you just in denial about moving away from the lovely People's Republic of Cambridge??
(only comrades allowed... no Matt Wald!)

Reluctantly, I changeth. But once a comrade, always a comrade in the Peopole's Republic of Cambridge. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

it is nice (for me) to see, looking at baobab's profile, that 50% of the tree (her soul?) is still located in Zurich!

My mind, Rudi... I'm reviewing a proposal for another Zurich-based project: we may be dining together again sooner than you expect...

Reality and Cyberspace Collide!!

One of the things I am SUPPOSED to be doing when I am hanging out on the internet with you guys, is preparing for an exhibit design seminar I will be giving in Chicago in two weeks. One of the exhibits which was submitted by a design firm in SanDiego for presentation was IRONLIGHT. It was created for and spearheaded by non other than rhw88 (see post above).

It is a cool looking exhibit and my friends from SanDiego say that rhw88, Ronald, is a primo guy!! Welcom to the boards Ronald!!

Incidentally, AnnaS. I would love to get together with you while I am in Chicago. If you don't mind crazy people, we can drag you along to a party at the Pier on Monday the 19th, or if you prefer sanity, we could go out to dinner on the 20th. Let me know if you are interested. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Be crazy, Anna, be crazy....

Since I'm not traveling this weekend, I thought I'd send in a short infosheet as I spend alot of time lurking.

My name is Mark, I presently live in Maryland after moving here after my recent divorce. I work for a Software firm and presently spend 49-50 weeks traveling and installing computer networks and software in automotive dealerships in the US. About three quarter of the Mon-Fri trips involve flying, the other quarter are driven. On top of that, I also drive from Maryland to Michigan and back every three weeks to visit my three children. As you can see, most of my time is spent in hotel rooms. In my spare time (what?!) I'm a scout leader, and I love to camp, hike, scuba, rock climb, explore new places. I also collect antiques, Scouting memorabilia and United Airlines memorabilia.

If it wasn't for my love of traveling (my father was in the army for 22 years, so I have lived in Germany, Japan, Italy, Hawaii) I think the airport/hotel/car hassles and grind would have driven me crazeeeeee.

Thanks for listening,

Mark