I've now spent two hours on this thread, and I haven't yet made it to the areas that I'd really like to deal with. I have maybe anothet thirty minutes today, and that 2 1/2 hours is a lot of available time. Usually, I'm lucky to find 15 minutes. I posted this same question elsewhere, but I'll repeat it here: How do you guys find the time? Rudi says "Delegate". That says, to me, that Rudi isn't Rudi, but some "delegatee." Is that the way you're staying on line? Catman: You apparently write about this stuff. Where?

Enjoy your reading, PhilForest... and I answered your question for me to you directly. (with a name like CATMAN I have to
have some sense of mystery.)

NOW I will go to sleep! CATMAN

Catman please be my witness: you have seen me life.

As I like doing this here I don't delegate it (this).

Catman, perhaps we should call you Napman *L*

philforest, why are you so concerned with how we have time to read/reply to posts? You should see how long I spend in the chat rooms! Speaking of chat...here is my homepage with a picture of me:
http://members.wbs.net/homepages/a/u/b/aubie34.html

thank you Justin - and greetings to Melissa.

For the record, there is one and only Rudi
Martel... who's a tall and friendly man
with a great sense of humor and who's among
the most helpful people on this site.

SOrry I could not come ot your defense earlier Rudi but I was earning frequent
sleeping points!

I was honored to meet you Rudi in NYC last
month and hope to see you LIVE again.

And yes folks, despite the large quantity
of postings... there is one and only CATMAN.

Justin: Napman *L* is a nice nickname, thanks
for suggestion but I'll stick with CATMAN.
(my Cats would scratch me for changing!)

Greeting from Anchorage! Alaska MD-80 flight this morning was uneventful and the breakfast was forgettable. Darn, no upgrades to first today for me. It's only 48 degrees right now but it is supposed to get all the way up to 56 today.

Since we are all getting personal here, feel free to visit my personal website at:

http://www.geocities.com/heartland/pointe/4220

Warning...you better like baby pictures!

Justin and MileageAddict--- nice to see that yall are real and not just "delegatees" (I know Catman, that is not a word).

I know Rudi is real. I've been corresponding with him and will hopefully meet him in person sometime. Catman-- I sent you e-mail once (when we were wondering where Rudi was) but never got a response. Are you real? Just kidding.

Catman, How about Catnapman? *L* My nickname in my chat room is Aubie...that is the name of my cat.

Here is a site I like to visit:

www.ntsb.gov - it contains all aircraft incidents, both commercial and private, in the U.S. - 41,000 incidents since 1985. Lately, it seems that a lot of engines have been going bad...recently on an Airbus an engine departed during flight...but the plane arrived ok. Don't forget it is .gov, not .com; if you go to ntsb.com by mistake, you'll be in for a surprise!

Catman: Thanks for your personal response. To all, though, I still can't figure out how you manage to find the time.

let's face it folks, philforest is probably more than right, we don't know it either: but we enjoy it and have fun.

Aristoteles: "I know that I know nothing".

Rudi and Catman let's see if we can get together.I will be NYC end of December.I know Rudi goes to S.F.I was there yesterday.Maybe we can all use our frequent flyer miles amd have a in person flyer talk.St Louis is about the half way point.

I probably have (timewise) some advantages compared to you:

I can "book" some of my invested online-time as "learning/trying to improve my english": today I learned the following words (I had to look them up in my diccionary and a write them down to memorize): "JERK" (that was heavy ...), "discretionary", "loopholes", "timely-ness"; and the folling sayings: "tipp off", "let the dogs out of the kennel", "reinforce the barbed-wire", "doomed to failure", "sneaking them in").

And from my own experience I "learned to learn" by practicing with stuff I am interested in.

The Web can be an extremely powerful information resource - if you know what you're looking for and which directories/search engines to use. Since most of the people involved in this chat group spend a lot of time travelling & in & around airports, the time spent here finding out the most efficient way of doing things is well spent.
I often arrived at work in the morning to be told that I was going somewhere far away that night/the following day. Our travel agent was swamped as she kept getting last minute requests from a large team (advance planning was virtually impossible) So I'd visit http://www.itn.net/ which allowed me to plot my itinerary, check availability, choose airlines & price ranges etc. Once I'd found something I liked with seats available I'd send the details through to our travel manager who'd book it for me. She liked me a lot better than the people who phoned up with impossible last minute demands. And this way I had control over which airports I ended up waiting in - I managed to stop in obscure parts of the world for dinner with friends, & she always booked me into the best hotels... (Once again, being nice to support staff does you good)
Think of the time that could be 'wasted' hanging about airports when you really don't need to, or the discomfort of getting a business class seat only to discover that it's in the last row & won't recline at all. Half an hour spent online a day is a small price to pay to reduce the discomfort & maximise the airmiles.