#even with other legacy airlines

[thesoundofsnowfallingfromeaves]

i got up at 2am (less than 4h of sleep RIP), its currently 8pm in my own timezone (10 where I'm now) and I still just did my russian homework AND yoga, I am truly god. and now, SLEEEEEEEP.

[bigairplaneblog]

Antonov An-225: The Biggest Airplane in the World

When it comes to airline airplane models, there's one that towers above the rest—quite literally. The Antonov An-225, known affectionately as "Mriya" (which means "Dream" in Ukrainian), holds the title of the biggest airplane in the world. This massive aircraft is not just a large airplane model in the figurative sense; it's the largest in every conceivable dimension.

The Antonov An-225 was originally designed in the 1980s to transport the Buran spaceplane, the Soviet Union's answer to NASA's Space Shuttle. But its capabilities far exceeded its original mission.

With its maiden flight in December 1988, the An-225 quickly became a symbol of Soviet engineering prowess, and later, an indispensable asset in global heavy-lift cargo transportation.

So, what makes the Antonov An-225 the biggest airplane in the world? Let’s delve into the details.

A Giant Among Giants

The sheer size of the Antonov An-225 is mind-boggling. This large airplane model has a measure of 84 meters (275 feet) in length, with wingspan size of 88.4 meters (290 feet). To put that into perspective, it's longer than an American football field and has a wingspan wider than a Boeing 747. The An-225 stands at 18.1 meters (59.3 feet) tall, nearly as tall as a six-story building.

This airline airplane model is equipped with six turbofan engines, each capable of producing 51,600 pounds of thrust. These engines, combined with its enormous wings, allow the An-225 to carry a maximum takeoff weight of 640,000 kg (1,410,958 pounds). This includes the cargo it carries, which can be up to 250,000 kg (550,000 pounds). This impressive lifting capability makes it the go-to choice for transporting oversized cargo, such as wind turbine blades, military tanks, and even other aircraft.

The Unique Capabilities of the An-225

The Antonov An-225's cargo bay is so large that it could fit 50 cars. The interior is 43.32 meters (142 feet) long, 6.4 meters (21 feet) wide, and 4.4 meters (14.5 feet) high, making it spacious enough to accommodate a wide range of oversized items. Unlike many other cargo aircraft, which load through a rear cargo door, the An-225 is loaded through the nose. The aircraft's nose lifts up, allowing direct access to the cavernous interior. This feature is crucial for loading extremely large and heavy objects that cannot be easily maneuvered.

Another notable feature of this large airplane model is its 32-wheel landing gear system. This complex system allows the An-225 to land on runways that would be unsuitable for other aircraft of its size, providing flexibility in the types of airports it can access.

The An-225 also has a range of 15,400 km (9,569 miles) when carrying a smaller load, but this decreases as the payload increases. Despite this, its range and payload capacity make it ideal for long-distance heavy-lift missions, and it remains a vital tool in global logistics.

A Record-Breaking Aircraft

Throughout its operational life, the Antonov An-225 has set numerous world records. In 2001, it carried the heaviest single cargo item ever transported by air—a 189-ton generator for a power plant. In another instance, it transported a 130-ton piece of machinery from Germany to Kazakhstan, marking the largest payload ever carried by an aircraft.

The An-225 has also been used in humanitarian missions, delivering supplies to disaster-stricken areas around the world. Its ability to transport large quantities of aid quickly and efficiently has made it an invaluable resource in times of crisis.

The Legacy of the Antonov An-225

The Antonov An-225 is not just a marvel of engineering; it's a symbol of what human ingenuity can achieve. Despite being over three decades old, this airline airplane model remains unmatched in terms of size and lifting capacity. Its continued operation is a testament to the foresight of its designers and the enduring need for such a massive aircraft in today’s world.

However, the An-225's future is uncertain. The only existing model has been in and out of service due to the high costs of operation and maintenance. There's also been speculation about building a second An-225, but financial and logistical challenges have stalled those plans.

Despite these uncertainties, the Antonov An-225’s legacy is secure. It continues to capture the imagination of aviation enthusiasts and the general public alike, reminding us of the heights—both literal and figurative—that human technology can reach.

In conclusion, the Antonov An-225 is not just the biggest airplane in the world; it’s a symbol of human achievement. From its origins as a Soviet space transporter to its current role in global cargo transportation, this large airplane model has set records and exceeded expectations. Whether or not it continues to fly for years to come, the An-225 will always be remembered as a giant among giants in the world of aviation.

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

somewhere only we know

—or, herc visits captain fairbairn’s new office.

They walk through the terminal, the same way they once did all those years ago, though now Herc can sometimes be a little unsteady on his feet. It should be difficult to reconcile with the robust captain Linda remembers from the beginning of her career, who had been a bit of a health-nut even before it had been overly trendy, but—everyone who has loved Linda, and she has loved in return, is getting older. Such, she reckons, goes the arc of life.

“All right?” she asks him, who has a hand looped through her arm. He sends her a positively sappy look, and she rolls her eyes. Beside them, a respectful distance away, walk the two other pilots on this long-haul flight. The first officer operating out tows Linda’s flight kit along with hers.

“You’ve come such a long way, my dear,” Herc tells her as they continue down the terminal to their gate. He hasn’t been flying for a little over two years now—he had seen his last student to a multi-engine certification before hanging up his hat and bowing from the flight-school enterprise that Carolyn’s airline had metamorphosed into, the one Arthur had inherited and was currently managing back in Fitton. “You’ve worked so hard.”

“But you are to thank for…a lot of it,” she returns, focusing on guiding him onto the moving walkway ahead of her first officer and relief pilot.

“I’m honored to have been part of your journey, in that case.” He pauses, and Linda looks aside and sees the twinkle in his eye. “Captain Fairbairn.”

She feels her ears grow a little warm, and she ducks her head with a shy smile. It has taken some getting used to, but after moving from short-haul legacy A320 to long-haul A330 and subsequently bidding into one of the inaugural A350 captain positions, she finds that it’s less of a foreign title than when she began at Swiss. It’s just that when Herc calls her Captain, or her dad…those are the only times it makes her blush.

They approach the gate; a gate agent comes up to them. “Good morning, captain. You requested a non-rev seat for a guest today?”

“Yes,” Linda nods aside at the man on her arm, who’s now staring outside the terminal windows at the glistening A350 on stand at the apron, its fuselage narrowing into a daintily pointed nose and its wings gracefully curving up at the tips. She doesn’t blame him—the A350 is objectively a beautiful aircraft. “Hercules Shipwright,” she tells the gate agent, and Herc tears his gaze away from the airplane to acknowledge the agent with a nod.

She can’t wait for him to see inside of her aircraft.

“Wonderful,” the gate agent says. “Welcome, sir,” she says to Herc. “We’ll give you priority boarding, as requested.”

“Thank you.” Herc disengages himself from Linda, and she misses the comforting presence of her friend at her side. “Linda, I’ll find a seat by the window. I’ll see you out there, yeah?”

“See you,” Linda tells him, and leads her flight crew down the jetbridge.

The previous crew has left the plane turned around and ready for them; Linda pops her head into the galleys while her first officer starts preflight checks, greets the flight attendants, and reminds the purser about her guest.

As preboarding approaches, the first officer excuses herself to do the walk-around, and Linda is left alone with her thoughts in the flightdeck.

She peers out of the wide windows, past the six touch-screen LED displays. Though kitted out with more technology than she could ever have dreamed of, the family resemblance is clear in the design philosophy of the flightdeck—it’s very clearly an Airbus, from the fold-out tray tables to the blatant absence of a yoke. There had been a time when she’d thought she might make the switch to Boeing, but when Swiss had decided that the A320s it had taken in the merger with Cal would stay in the fleet, Linda’s future as a true-blue Airbus pilot was cemented.

Not that she’s complaining about it, when some of her happiest memories are framed by an Airbus-designed flightdeck.

Herc, true to his word, has taken a seat by the window of the terminal and is staring out at her with a smile.

Linda gets up, leans over the displays, and holds a hand up to the window in greeting; in return, Herc languidly waves at her. She grinned as he holds up a finger, one minute, and gingerly takes his phone from his pocket to snap a picture. Once finished, he lowers his phone, checks the photograph, and flashes a thumbs-up at her through the terminal window.

A knock at the doorway, and Linda turns to see the redcap peeking inside. “Captain?”

“Yes,” Linda acknowledges, and rises from her seat.

Before long, her first officer has returned, and the boarding time is flashing on the chronometer. Linda feels strangely nervous.

“You okay?” the first officer asks. “You look a little…” she trails off.

Linda shakes her head. “I’m fine, it’s just…” she casts a look out the flightdeck windows. Herc is no longer at his post by the terminal window. Her heart begins to pound.

“He’s…” The first officer ponders a little. “He’s not your dad, right? I forgot. I know you told me earlier.”

“He’s my best friend,” Linda replies automatically. “We haven’t been in a flightdeck together in—years.”

“I see. Well, I’ll just greet passengers outside,” her first officer tells her sympathetically, squeezes outside, then Linda hears her say, “Oh! Welcome onboard, sir.”

“Thank you,” says a voice she would know on any frequency, anywhere in the world, and Linda is immediately at ease. A second later, Herc pokes his head through the door, bracing a hand on the doorway. “Hello there, Captain. May I enter?”

She rises from her seat. “I’m coming, Herc.”

Linda stands at his side once more in the doorway, and he stares all around the A350 flightdeck with an expression of wonder on his face. “Good Lord, Linda, so many screens. How do you manage?”

“You pull the stick for up and push the stick for down,” she replies dead-pan, and Herc lets out a laugh so loud that several flight attendants and boarding passengers look in their direction. “Herc!” she hisses reproachfully.

Still grinning from ear-to-ear, Herc loops an arm around her shoulder and pulls her close to him. “Yes, Linda?” he asks, maddeningly innocent, and she rolls her eyes.

“Come on, let’s sit,” she says, and begins to lead him further into the flightdeck.

“You’re on the wrong side,” he points out, and Linda realizes she’s automatically drifted to the right seat and her first officer’s already-configured chair.

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are, Captain Fairbairn,” Herc returns with the patience of a primary school teacher.

“I want you on my left.” She knows she sounds like a child insisting it, though she’s got several strands of silver running through her hair and glasses on her nose, but—she knows also that having Herc on her right in a flightdeck like this is not what she had envisioned when dreaming of bringing him up here. “Please,” she adds, as an afterthought.

He cracks a smile. “How very silly,” he says, and it doesn’t sound patronizing from him—it’s got all the affection she remembers. Yet he sits anyway, situates himself in the captain’s seat next to her, and—

The technology is so different from the ancient A320s of Caledonian, and yet—the flightdeck is so familiar.

Like they never left it.

Herc looks across the console at her with a breathtaking smile, and it’s like he’s de-aged about twenty years—maybe more.

“We should have done this,” he says softly, and despite the smile on his face, his eyes are suspiciously bright. “Even if it had been just once.”

“Done what?”

“Long-haul.” He casts a glance over the screens, the evolution of the same instruments that must have guided him for longer than Linda has existed. “Linda, I’ve half a mind to steal this plane,” he changes the subject.

She laughs at him, knowing that regret and Herc are two things that she’s careful not to let mix too much, and goes along with it. “I’m sure you could figure it out if I set it up on the ground,” she says lightly. “If I weren’t concerned about such things as, you know, keeping my job.”

“True, that is of slight importance.” Herc looks behind him, then curls his left hand around the sidestick lightly. The sight sends a wave of nostalgia through Linda—he could very well have been preparing to lift the nose at V1 on Bristol’s runway. “In any case…” He lets go of the sidestick, turns to Linda, and smiles gently at her. A single tear is tracing the groove of a smile line. “I wouldn’t steal an A350 with anyone else in the flightdeck but you.”

Linda reaches across the flightdeck, brushes the tear away with her thumb, and rests her hand on his face.

He leans into it, still smiling.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

CrowdStruck

By Edward Zitron • 19 Jul 2024 View in browser

Soundtrack: EL-P - Tasmanian Pain Coaster (feat. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Cedric Bixler-Zavala)

When I first began writing this newsletter, I didn't really have a goal, or a "theme," or anything that could neatly characterize what I was going to write about other than that I was on the computer and that I was typing words.

As it grew, I wrote the Rot Economy, and the Shareholder Supremacy, and many other pieces that speak to a larger problem in the tech industry — a complete misalignment in the incentives of most of the major tech companies, which have become less about building new technologies and selling them to people and more about capturing monopolies and gearing organizations to extract things through them.

Every problem you see is a result of a tech industry — from the people funding the earliest startups to the trillion-dollar juggernauts that dominate our lives — that is no longer focused on the creation of technology with a purpose, and organizations driven toward a purpose. Everything is about expressing growth, about showing how you will dominate an industry rather than serve it, about providing metrics that speak to the paradoxical notion that you'll grow forever without any consideration of how you'll live forever. Legacies are now subordinate to monopolies, current customers are subordinate to new customers, and "products" are considered a means to introduce a customer to a form of parasite designed to punish the user for even considering moving to competitor.

What's happened today with Crowdstrike is completely unprecedented (and I'll get to why shortly), and on the scale of the much-feared Y2K bug that threatened to ground the entirety of the world's computer-based infrastructure once the Year 2000 began.

You'll note that I didn't write "over-hyped" or anything dismissive of Y2K's scale, because Y2K was a huge, society-threatening calamity waiting to happen, and said calamity was averted through a remarkable, $500 billion industrial effort that took a decade to manifest because the seriousness of such a significant single point of failure would have likely crippled governments, banks and airlines. 

People laughed when nothing happened on January 1 2000, assuming that all that money and time had been wasted, rather than being grateful that an infrastructural weakness was taken seriously, that a single point of failure was identified, and that a crisis was averted by investing in stopping bad stuff happening before it does.

As we speak, millions — or even hundreds of millions — of different Windows-based computers are now stuck in a doom-loop, repeatedly showing users the famed "Blue Screen of Death" thanks to a single point of failure in a company called Crowdstrike, the developer of a globally-adopted cyber-security product designed, ironically, to prevent the kinds of disruption that we’ve witnessed today. And for reasons we’ll get to shortly, this nightmare is going to drag on for several days (if not weeks) to come.

The product — called Crowdstrike Falcon Sensor — is an EDR system (which stands for Endpoint Detection and Response). If you aren’t a security professional and your eyes have glazed over, I’ll keep this brief. An EDR system is designed to identify hacking attempts, remediate them, and prevent them. They’re big, sophisticated, and complicated products, and they do a lot of things that’s hard to build with the standard tools available to Windows developers.

And so, to make Falcon Sensor work, Crowdstrike had to build its own kernel driver. Now, kernel drivers operate at the lowest level of the computer. They have the highest possible permissions, but they operate with the fewest amount of guardrails. If you’ve ever built your own computer — or you remember what computers were like in the dark days of Windows 98 — you know that a single faulty kernel driver can wreak havoc on the stability of your system. 

The problem here is that Crowdstrike pushed out an evidently broken kernel driver that locked whatever system that installed it in a permanent boot loop. The system would start loading Windows, encounter a fatal error, and reboot. And reboot. Again and again. It, in essence, rendered those machines useless. 

It's convenient to blame Crowdstrike here, and perhaps that's fair. This should not have happened. On a basic level, whenever you write (or update) a kernel driver, you need to know it’s actually robust and won’t shit the bed immediately. Regrettably, Crowdstrike seemingly borrowed Boeing’s approach to quality control, except instead of building planes where the doors fly off at the most inopportune times (specifically, when you’re cruising at 35,000ft), it released a piece of software that blew up the transportation and banking sectors, to name just a few.  

It created a global IT outage that has grounded flights and broken banking services. It took down the BBC’s flagship kids TV channel, infuriating parents across the British Isles, as well as Sky News, which, when it was able to resume live broadcasts, was forced to do so without graphics. In essence, it was forced back to the 1950s — giving it an aesthetic that matches the politics of its owner, Rupert Murdoch. By no means is this an exhaustive list of those affected, either. 

The scale and disruption caused by this incident is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Previous incidents — particularly rival ransomware outbreaks, like Wannacry — simply can’t compare to this, especially when we’re looking at the disruption and the sheer scale of the problem. 

Still, if your day was ruined by this outage, at least spare a thought for those who’ll have to actually fix it. Because those machines affected are now locked in a perpetual boot loop, it’s not like Crowdstrike can release a software patch and call it a day. Undoing this update requires some users to have to individually go to each computer, loading up safe mode (a limited version of Windows with most non-essential software and drivers disabled), and manually removing the faulty code. And if you’ve encrypted your computer, that process gets a lot harder. Servers running on cloud services like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure — you know, the way most of the internet's infrastructure works — require an entirely separate series of actions.

If you’re on a small IT team and you’re supporting hundreds of workstations across several far-flung locations — which isn’t unusual, especially in sectors like retail and social care — you’re especially fucked. Say goodbye to your weekend. Your evenings. Say goodbye to your spouse and kids. You won’t be seeing them for a while. Your life will be driving from site to site, applying the fix and moving on. Forget about sleeping in your own bed, or eating a meal that wasn’t bought from a fast food restaurant. Good luck, godspeed, and God bless. I do not envy you. 

The significance of this failure — which isn't a breach, by the way, and in many respects is far worse, at least in the disruption caused — is not in its damage to individual users, but to the amount of technical infrastructure that runs on Windows, and that so much of our global infrastructure relies on automated enterprise software that, when it goes wrong, breaks everything. 

It isn't about the number of computers, but the amount of them that underpin things like the security checkpoints or systems that run airlines, or at banks, or hospitals, all running as much automated software as possible so that costs can be kept down.

The problem here is systemic — that there is a company that the majority of people affected by this outage had no idea existed until today that Microsoft trusted to the extent that they were able to push an update that broke the back of a huge chunk of the world's digital infrastructure. 

Microsoft, as a company, instead of building the kind of rigorous security protocols that would, say, rigorously test something that connects to what seems to be a huge proportion of Windows computers. Microsoft, in particular, really screwed up here. As pointed out by Wired, the company vets and cryptographically signs all kernel drivers — which is sensible and good, because kernel drivers have an incredible amount of access, and thus can be used to inflict serious harm — with this testing process usually taking several weeks. 

How then did this slip through its fingers? For this to have happened, two companies needed to screw up epically. And boy, they did. 

What we're seeing today isn't just a major fuckup, but the first of what will be many systematic failures — some small, some potentially larger — that are the natural byproduct of the growth-at-all-costs ecosystem where any attempt to save money by outsourcing major systems is one that simply must be taken to please the shareholder.

The problem with the digitization of society — or, more specifically, the automation of once-manual tasks — is that it introduces a single point of failure. Or, rather, multiple single points of failure. Our world, our lifestyle and our economy, is dependent on automation and computerization, with these systems, in turn, dependent on other systems to work. And if one of those systems breaks, the effects ricochet outwards, like ripples when you cast a rock into a lake. 

Today’s Crowdstrike cock-up is just the latest example of this, but it isn’t the only one. Remember the SolarWinds hack in 2020, when Russian state-linked hackers gained access to an estimated 18,000 companies and public sector organizations — including NATO, the European Parliament, the US Treasury Department, and the UK’s National Health Service — by compromising just one service — SolarWinds Orion? 

Remember when Okta — a company that makes software that handles authentication for a bunch of websites, governments, and businesses — got hacked in 2023, and then lied about the scale of the breach? And then do you remember how those hackers leapfrogged from Okta to a bunch of other companies, most notably Cloudflare, which provides CDN and DDOS protection services for pretty much the entire internet?

That whole John Donne quote — “No man is an island” — is especially true when we’re talking about tech, because when you scratch beneath the surface, every system that looks like it’s independent is actually heavily, heavily dependent on services and software provided by a very small number of companies, many of whom are not particularly good.     

This is as much a cultural failing as it is a technological one, the result of management geared toward value extraction — building systems that build monopolies by attaching themselves to other monopolies. Crowdstrike went public in 2019, and immediately popped on its first day of trading thanks to Wall Street's appreciation of Crowdstrike moving away from a focused approach to serving large enterprise clients, building products for small and medium-sized businesses by selling through channel partners — in effect outsourcing both product sales and the relationship with a client that would tailor a business' solution to a particular need.

Crowdstrike's culture also appears to fucking suck. A recent Glassdoor entry referred to Crowdstrike as "great tech [with] terrible culture" with no work life balance, with "leadership that does not care about employee well being." Another from June claimed that Crowdstrike was "changing culture for the street,” with KPIs (as in metrics related to your “success” at the company) “driving behavior more than building relationships” with a serious lack of experience in the public sector in senior management. Others complain of micromanagement, with one claiming that “management is the biggest issue,” with managers “ask[ing] way too much of you…and it doesn’t matter if you do what they ask since they’re not even around to check on you,” and another saying that “management are arrogant” and need to “stop lying to the market on product capability.”

While I can’t say for sure, I’d imagine an organization with such powerful signs of growth-at-all-costs thinking — a place where you “have to get used to the pressure” that’s a “clique that you’re not in”  — likely isn’t giving its quality assurance teams the time and space to make sure that there aren’t any Kaiju-level security threats baked into an update. And that assumes it actually has a significant QA team in-house, and hasn’t just (as with many companies) outsourced the work to a “bodyshop” like Wipro or Infosys or Tata. 

And don’t think I’m letting Microsoft off the hook, either. Assuming the kernel driver testing roles are still being done in-house, do you think that these testers — who have likely seen their friends laid off at a time when the company was highly profitable, and denied raises when their well-fed CEO took home hundreds of millions of dollars for doing a job he’s eminenly bad at — are motivated to do their best work? 

And this is the culture that’s poisoned almost the entirety of Silicon Valley. What we’re seeing is the societal cost of moving fast and breaking things, of Marc Andreessen considering “risk management the enemy,” of hiring and firing tens of thousands of people to please Wall Street, of seeking as many possible ways to make as much money as possible to show shareholders that you’ll grow, even if doing so means growing at a pace that makes it impossible to sustain organizational and cultural stability. When you aren’t intentional in the people you hire, the people you fire, the things you build and the way that they’re deployed, you’re going to lose the people that understand the problems they’re solving, and thus lack the organizational ability to understand the ways that they might be solved in the future. 

This is dangerous, and also a dark warning for the future. Do you think that Facebook, or Microsoft, or Google — all of whom have laid off over 10,000 people in the last year — have done so in a conscientious way that means that the people left understand how their systems run and their inherent issues? Do you think that the management-types obsessed with the unsustainable AI boom are investing heavily in making sure their organizations are rigorously protected against, say, one bad line of code? Do they even know who wrote the code of their current systems? Is that person still there? If not, is that person at least contracted to make sure that something nuanced about the system in question isn’t mistakenly removed? 

They’re not. They’re not there anymore. Only a few months ago Google laid off 200 employees from the core of its organization, outsourcing their roles to Mexico and India in a cost-cutting measure the quarter after the company made over $23 billion in profit. Silicon Valley — and big tech writ large — is not built to protect against situations like the one we’re seeing today,because their culture is cancerous. It valuesrowth at all costs, with no respect for the human capital that empowers organizations or the value of building rigorous, quality-focused products.

This is just the beginning. Big tech is in the throes of perdition, teetering over the edge of the abyss, finally paying the harsh cost of building systems as fast as possible. This isn’t simply moving fast or breaking things, but doing so without any regard for the speed at which you’re doing so and firing the people that broke them, the people who know what’s broken, and possibly the people that know how to fix them.

And it’s not just tech! Boeing — a company I’ve already shat on in this post, and one I’ll likely return to in future newsletters, largely because it exemplifies the short-sightedness of today’s managerial class — has, over the past 20 years or so, span off huge parts of the company (parts that, at one point, were vitally important) into separate companies, laid off thousands of employees at a time, and outsourced software dev work to $9-an-hour bodyshop engineers. It hollowed itself out until there was nothing left. 

And tell me, knowing what you know about Boeing today, would you rather get into a 737 Max or an Airbus A320neo? Enough said. 

As these organizations push their engineers harder, said engineers will turn to AI-generated code, poisoning codebases with insecure and buggy code as companies shed staff to keep up with Wall Street’s demands in ways that I’m not sure people are capable of understanding. The companies that run the critical parts of our digital lives do not invest in maintenance or infrastructure with the intentionality that’s required to prevent the kinds of massive systemic failures you see today, and I need you all to be ready for this to happen again.

This is the cost of the Rot Economy — systems used by billions of people held up by flimsy cultures and brittle infrastructure maintained with the diligence of an absentee parent. This is the cost of arrogance, of rewarding managerial malpractice, of promoting speed over safety and profit over people. 

Every single major tech organization should see today as a wakeup call — a time to reevaluate the fundamental infrastructure behind every single tech stack. 

What I fear is that they’ll simply see it as someone else’s problem - which is exactly how we got here in the first place. 

[runwayrunway]

No. 53 - Hawaiian Airlines

I've spent basically a week and a half posting exclusively about Alaska Airlines, and I don't regret a second of that, but it's time to move on to something a little bit different. It's time to shift our focus south, from the icy coasts of Alaska to the sunny shores of the other non-contiguous United State. Thank you to @sirigorn for the request!

I'd had in mind for a while that I would cover Alaska and Hawai'i's home carriers right after one another. Despite the vast difference in climate their airlines have a startling amount in common. They are two of the five remaining US legacy carriers, standing proud with Delta, American, and United amidst the carnage of countless mergers and bankruptcies. They are both very well regarded - Hawaiian has a reputation for punctuality and professionalism, and is the only legacy carrier to have never had a fatality or hull loss despite being the thirteenth-oldest airline in the world still operating. But none of that is why I paired them up.

I paired them up because they both have faces. There is no reason to suspect that this was coordinated, but I think that Oliver and Pualani - the face on Hawaiian Airlines' tailfins - should be friends. If you take nothing else away from this post, let it be that. But I do have more to say, so let's look past the tail at the rest of the plane it's attached to.

(I have to say this upfront before I get into the review: no matter how pretty their airline's planes are, please choose somewhere other than Hawai'i for your next vacation. The islands were already strained by tourism and that's even before Maui was lit on fire. Now, when the people of Hawai'i are trying to rebuild, is not the time to divert their resources to anything other than supporting those affected by the deadliest wildfires in the past century. If you are able, however, I recommend donating to funds like Maui Nui Strong.)

Hawaiian Airlines has endeared themselves to me by creating a webpage discussing their brand refresh, which I always appreciate. I'm going to be discussing their modern livery today, which was introduced, with this webpage, in 2017, but it's worth noting that their 2001-2017 livery is very easy to mistake for the modern one. It's quite similar, so I'm going to quickly explain how they differ. For what it's worth, they're similar enough that I sort of consider the modern look a revision rather than an outright replacement.

This is the 2001-2017 livery. As you can see it has large flowers in varied shades of vivid purple which bloom out from around Pualani, who is on a solid red backdrop. They wrap around the tail of the plane, creating that sort of curved shape classic SASlikes try to have, and the same purple blooms are present on the winglets. I love this livery, personally - the colors and the shapes of the petals are both fantastic - I just wish there were more of them on more of the plane, instead of it just being boring and rear-heavy like everything else out there.

The 2017 revision is similar, but nonetheless visibly different. The color balance in general has shifted and Pualani has been slightly updated, but it's the flowers around her which have changed the most, and I'm going to be honest - I prefer the old one.

A large portion of Hawaiian's fleet is composed of Airbus A330s. (Each of them is named for a Polynesian constellation, historically a huge part of navigation for traditionally seafaring peoples!) The A330 is a very common plane but a very tricky one to work with. The Airbus roundness doesn't just stop at the nose, and A330s probably are the most vulnerable to this, the ratio of length to fuselage making them look a bit puffy in the front, while the taper of the tail remains about as sharp as with any other model of plane. The wings are located quite forward, and the tail is not especially large or visually interesting, which means that it ends up feeling almost small. None of this is to say that the A330 is an ugly plane; it is not. There is no such thing as an ugly plane (well, there is, but they're still cute and the A330 isn't one), but there are features of different airframes which can make them susceptible to certain visual effects. The A330, due to its specific shape, can easily struggle with an issue very opposite to many other planes - it is very easy to make it look forward-heavy, with the tail coming off sparse.

Unfortunately, this is what happens with the new flower pattern. And yet, somehow, once it's in flight it feels tail-heavy again, because all the color is concentrated there. This weighting of detail and color manages to solve no problems at all, while somehow making two seemingly paradoxical problems worse. And Hawaiian is by far not the worst offender in either camp, but it's my job to be nitpicky and harsh, so nitpick I will - the A330 is a big puffy white tube and you need more fuselage coverage, on both ends, to make it not look like a poorly weighted puffy white tube tumbling its way through the air dealing with just the strangest aerodynamic loads imaginable.

I think if I had never seen the old design I would still notice it, but knowing that they had fixed this very problem and then created it again makes it sting a bit more. I don't mind the flowers as they are now, to be clear - I just wish that there were more of them. They take up so little space that they're easy to miss if you aren't looking closely, and that's a shame, seeing as they've added so much detail!

Looking at the two tailfin designs directly next to each other, I think I actually prefer the old one. And that's not because I think the new one is bad or anything - to the contrary, I love the extra detail in the foliage, and I'll touch on another thing I like later, but there are just a few details that make me sad here, like the way the wordmark got a bit smaller and the removal of the color from the winglets.

The color in general, I think, is a step back. Some things I love, like the vivid, saturated flower they've given Pualani. In general, though, I miss the high contrast between the warm red and cool lavender of the old livery. The website says this regarding the changes to the tailfins:

Pualani, with her welcoming smile and proud gaze, embodies our culture even more clearly. Known as the “flower of the sky,” Pualani is now framed by the rising sun, watching over our guests and crew along their journey. To celebrate her regal status, we are featuring purple more prominently in our color palette, complemented by an updated graphical style that reflects our reputation as a premium, global brand.

So, I might be insane, but I actually think the new livery is less purple and more red, right? Am I insane for thinking this? And that's not bad - the color palette of a shelf of homemade jams is absolutely an appealing one - but I loved the contrast between dark, warm, rich tones and light, crisp, clear ones with the old purple, which had really been a new direction for Hawaiian's primarily-red historical branding. Like I said, I don't hate the new livery at all, but it feels like it's missing a bit compared to the old one. There's a part of me that feels like the ideal Hawaiian Airlines livery would have the tailfin of the 2017 livery with the 2001 livery's flower unfolding beneath it, fully wrapping up the tail the way it used to and providing that blueish lavender pop to really clearly contrast itself from the rest of the plane. That could be stunning, I think, and while it would be a lot of detail that's generally something you want with florals - you either go minimal, like the Vietnam Airlines lotus, or you take advantage of the potential depth of color and shape which layering can give you.

Seriously, though...it's less purple. I haven't totally lost it, right? Please tell me I haven't totally lost it. I like purple. I want purple! This feels less purple!

Having insulted the new livery a bit, I'm now going to tell you all what I really like about it.

A maile lei—one we use for important occasions—wraps around the body of the aircraft to symbolize the warm welcome we extend to our guests, and the ways that our traditions bind us together as an ‘ohana (family).

I don't think I need to explain why I love this idea, but I will anyway, because that's what you follow this blog for.

This is a lovely idea that, in addition to portraying Hawai'ian culture, is a great way to keep interest going throughout the fuselage. I love the way it's placed, with that natural-feeling flow to it which feels like it continues on from the placement of the colored flowers before assuming a flowing pattern like that of a lei held up into the wind.

It works well with the shape of the A330, curling elegantly around the ventral fairing and over the wing. It takes advantage of the large canvas provided by the giant tube of a fuselage to present an elegant pattern of twists which keeps the fall of the lei feeling natural and means that you get a different view of it from every angle. I like this a lot.

I also like the fact that they stuck with a shape that's more-or-less the Lufthansa-SAS-line archetype, but then added something else to the fuselage, less because of how it works for this specific livery and more because it proves that you don't have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to colorblocking...you just need to add something else. There is nothing wrong with the basic shapes, but everything wrong with the fact that they stop there.

...but I have to keep on nitpicking.

First: why is it grey? Why not a light purple? Grey is difficult to see on the white fuselage, and just feels at odds with the rest of the color scheme. It would feel so much more integrated, be more visible, do a lot to fix the rear-weighted color balance, and just look better if it were a light lavender or pink. I mean, fuchsia flowers lead directly into...grey ones? What kind of decision is that?

Second: why does it stop where it does? Surely with this sort of anfractuous winding pattern you could avoid covering the wordmark, or you could integrate it into the wordmark if you so wanted - I just don't understand why it cuts off behind it! This feels...

Oh no. Oh no, it's giving condor. Not literally as ugly, of course. It's not ugly at all. And it wasn't beginning with a never-before-done dynamite concept, it was iterating on something they already had that was nice but had room to grow. But it has potential dense enough that a spoonful weighs the same as an A330 and they've diluted it until most of the fuselage is just white. I don't get it. I just don't get it. They've been put one foot before the finish line of a footrace and immediately begun running in elaborate spirals. Like, you got there, but this was just a bad way to do what could have been so guaranteed.

Well, that's just one part of it. I've been talking about A330s this whole time. Hawaiian doesn't have an all-A330 fleet. I'm sure some airline out there does, but it's not them. (I had actually thought Aircalin did but I'm glad I checked to make sure because they have an A321 and a Twin Otter.) The reason I've been talking on and on about A330s is that I judge liveries which are consistent across models by their weakest points, and the A330 is easily the weakest for Hawaiian. On the reverse is the backbone of their inter-island fleet: a flock of Boeing 717s which are all named after indigenous birds, and apparently come with little plaques inside to dispense bird facts!

This livery actually looks phenomenal on the 717. This isn't a surprise to me. 717s are just fancy DC-9s, and DC-9s are one of the hardest planes to make a livery look bad on. I think the ceiling for a really great DC-9 livery is probably not the highest, but the floor for a bad DC-9 livery is in contrast quite high. Some planes are just hard to design liveries for - like A330s. Other planes are forthcoming with visual interest of their own in a way that accommodates liveries that look painfully minimal on larger, more conventionally laid-out planes.

The 717 has a very short (vertically) fuselage, limiting the blank space, and it seems like something about how they transferred the lei pattern unchanged onto it meant that it ended up reaching nearly to the nose. The small amount of overall real estate on planes like this means that detailed liveries shine their brightest, with every little bit fully blown up where on a larger, whiter canvas they could be lost in the dense shuffle and surrounding howling expanse. The rear part of the engines look a bit funky (which could be remedied somewhat if the flowers extended farther, like they did with the old livery) but this is otherwise just fantastic and would be exalted in my eyes if they just had made the lei an actual color.

Look, see how much better the shape of the old livery worked with the engines! It's so frustrated when airlines keep making half of a really great livery but never really merging them together into the absolute stunner of a livery that they could have - it reminds me of JAL, sort of, though again, Hawaiian just has nicer-looking planes at base by quite a margin.

The last type of plane they fly is the A321neo (each of which is named after local plants and forests). The relative stature, shape, and layout of this handsome girl are a compromise between the 717 and the A330, and accordingly I think this livery looks totally solid on her. The issues with the grey that I mentioned earlier remain, fuselage coverage is better than the A330 but not perfect, it's pretty but I can nitpick about it. Still, when I see this plane the nitpicks aren't the first thing that come to mind - they come after. The impression upfront is of a very pretty floral design in a lovely palette of homemade jams with a bit going on in the fuselage and Pualani's striking silhouette. There is a lot to like here and it's the details that just aren't keeping pace with the general design.

image: Hawaiian Airlines

Worth mentioning, though, is that this is the last type of plane they operate for now. Beginning in January of 2024 they will be taking delivery of 12 Boeing 787s, a plane which I love so much that it's one of the airframe features I've actually gotten around to doing. (I've been meaning to do more, but my life is hectic and posts kept getting long.) I only have this one picture to go off of, but I'm worried about the fact that the lei seems to stop even earlier on the airframe. The 787 is a beautiful plane, but it's a long plane, and this makes me worry that the rear-heaviness is going to be exacerbated on it. Maybe from a different angle the heavy wing sweep and the location of the engines could counteract this somewhat, but for now all I have to say is that I hope this very pretty livery and this very pretty plane can unite to create something very pretty, and I hope that it looks better when we get more pictures of it. (I do not yet know what their 787s will be named for.)

As I wind down my picking-apart of this livery, I keep stumbling on the glaring absence of winglet and nacelle detail. This is one of the simplest things you can do to avoid the rear-heavy look, and basically every livery benefits from it. The floral motif would be easy to translate, and the old livery even had some colored detail on the winglets, so I really don't get it. This doesn't just feel like a misstep, this feels like walking an hour to work every day and then learning on your very last day at that job that the whole time there was a bus you could have been taking.

And that's just...overall how I feel about Hawaiian Airlines. Beautiful graphics, fantastic idea, but it's like if a designer has ordered the building of a beautiful sculpture and the head of the company has ordered his employees to comply, but each one of them hates the designer and is doing all they can to sabotage him while never technically going counter to his instructions and vision. It's...it's really strange. It's hard to classify. I've kind of figured out how I give verdicts for things I think are really great executions of fundamentally insufficient concepts, but the reverse - 'great idea, generally pretty, so many bad choices' - is harder to nail down.

B-, I think.

Is this provisional or permanent? I couldn't tell you. But my reasoning is thus: this livery is one that I like, but which I think is poorly executed. A like-minus, if you will.

These grades ultimately really are something that can only mean something within the context of its own post - comparing one airline to another along their lines is going to be futile and this is not a tier list. I had intended it to function like that, but it just probably doesn't. Sorry, grading scales are difficult. I get so neurotic about grading scales. That's why I never used a numeric scale.

I mean, even these posts can be a bit misleading. This has been mostly critical despite the fact that I generally like this livery. It's the granular nature of my problems which makes up the bulk of the length. 'It's pretty' is maybe one paragraph at best. 'The details are mind-bogglingly suboptimal' is a full essay.

Their liveries are pretty. Their liveries have lovely colors and a fantastic logo in Pualani, reference their heritage, and incorporate features I've specifically pointed to before as being the sort of thing that can save liveries, but they managed to stumble so elaborately when sticking the landing that you wonder how they managed to do it - just landing on your feet would have been so much easier than doing that many ungainly tap-dancing maneuvers on your way down. None of it ruins what is still a very pretty livery, but all of it makes me look off at the horizon and faintly wonder 'why...' under my breath. I hope that in the future they wake up, take a deep breath, and realize they've built the perfect livery piecemeal all along and now all they have to do is put it together from their two most recent attempts, both of which were beautiful but far from perfect. I would even say that, with the inclusion of the lei, they have grown objectively - but they have so much further to grow.

And, to finish, I'm going to address what I know some people are probably wondering - no, I am not doing a deep dive into Pualani's identity, because Hawaiian Airlines is very upfront about what and who she is. Pualani is not exactly a real person, per se - she is a mascot, the 'flower of the sky' - but her image is based on a real person, and that real person unfortunately died mere weeks ago, as I was preparing to research this.

It was startling receiving this news as I was searching for information on the history of the Pualani logo - seeing 'is' turn to 'was' in real time. It was strange having to go back and edit my own writing to say 'was'. But maybe my timing isn't as bad as it could have been. One more tribute amid tributes - nothing special - but another voice among those celebrating the iconic face on the purple tailfins.

image: Miss Hawaii Organization

Leina’ala Ann Teruya Drummond, an indigenous Hawai'ian, was 1964's Miss Hawai'i and a top ten placer in 1965's Miss America competition. She had also worked for Hawaiian Airlines as a cabin crew member when she was younger, and was later chosen to be the model for the airline's new Pualani logo, which debuted in 1973. Coincidentally right after Oliver, but I do think it's just that - a coincidence - especially since the 1973 livery, including Pualani, was designed by Landor Associates, an incredibly prolific firm. She's evolved a lot since then, but she started out as Leina’ala Drummond and this has been public knowledge since the start.

Unfortunately, on 18th September 2023 Drummond succumbed to cancer, aged 77. She lived a full and exciting life, and I can't think of any better way to put it than the Miss Hawaii Organization did - her “iconic smile, elegance and grace will always be remembered”. Some of that elegance still lives on through the image on every Hawaiian Airlines plane's tailfin, which has evolved over the years but never changed at its core. May her memory be blessed, and my condolences to her loved ones.

image: Hawaiian Airlines

Even as she changes you can still see Drummond in Pualani's calm, graceful dignity. Hawaiian Airlines' branding would be a husk of itself without her, and I hope her image will grace their planes for decades to come.

[reasonandempathy]

What to do with 10 trillion dollars

I spent way too much time actually answering a reddit question of "How would you spend 10 trillion dollars if you needed to in 20 years. You will die after 20 years." So, I figured I'd share it here.

With only $10 trillion dollars you can't stabilize greenhouse gases or get rid of fossil fuels, which are 13t and 44t respectively. I'm using a variety of sources, so don't expect citations.

I did slightly overpay for things, strategically, partially because I can only imagine doing the things I would do would make it more expensive than it would otherwise be. You'll see.

I'm presuming I don't get assassinated.

What you can do (I did the math) figures are in Billions:

Personal (2.44/10000):

1.44 on remaking 8 games as mid-line AAA games (I chose Legend of Dragoon, FF8, Witcher 1, and the Legacy of Kain series).

.214 on 50 years of housing and buying yourself a $130,000,000 home in NYC. Includes taxes, maintenance, and furniture.

.15 on household staff for 50 years, with at double the normal pay

.000327 to put 3 kids through the best pre-k and best college in the country

.664 setting up each of those 3 kids with their own equivalent home and staff setup

Public Service (4303/10000):

Big one out of the way. 2500bn in lobbying/buying up American politicians to enact structural reforms I want to see. You would think this would be way too much, since the presidential election in 2020 only had 14.4 in it. This amounts to averaging 250 in spending every election cycle, even off-year. I counter with the global commercial banking market having a market cap of 2800 in 2023. The defense industry is almost 480. Health insurance in the US is 1600. This is an expensive, long-drawn fight. This is likely the single most important thing on the list. Anti-corruption measures, labor rights, pro-democracy reforms, including ultimately making it illegal for other people to buy more elections.

a cumulative total of 1803 spent on:

curing the most common cause of blindness worldwide

eradicating polio, rabies, elephantitis, malaria, world hunger, COVID19 issues, Water + Sanitation access, extreme poverty, homelessness in USA, Canada, and UK (I looked for China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Egypt, and Pakistan but couldn't find real numbers),

protecting the Amazon rainforest

Corporate Fixing (5692/10000):

Buying up and changing (converting to Co-Ops, converting to non-profits, dissolving, or something in line with those:

Meta

Amazon

Disney

JP Morgan Chase

Lockheed Martin

Delta

Alphabet

Asda

Tesco

Nike

The Weinstein Company

United Airlines

Shein

EA

BP

Bayer (side-note: they own/are Monsanto now)

De Beers

Vonovia Real Estate Developers

DLE

Ubisoft

Ikea

Shueisha

and Viz Media

It leaves me with 1.4bn left over. I'm comfortable with saying an additional billion would likely be used up administratively as things get a bit more expensive than I thought they would.

Honestly, I could likely blow it on close friends and family who need it. If you have an issue with the house spending being for 50 years instead of 30, that can just be shuffled around a bit to include more people in my personal life to meet the same number.

Leaving me with 470 million to spend elsewhere in the next 20 years. Expensive vacations, nice cars, donating to "smaller" issues as I see worthwhile, giving family and friends money for their ventures/dreams, etc. make me think it wouldn't actually be hard to lose track of that much money in those many years.

Hell, if I want to I can probably spend a million bucks on food a year just for my family. Probably more, if I actively try to do so.

[freehawaii]

KE AUPUNI UPDATE - FEBRUARY 2024

Pacific Way and the Future One of the regular features on our program, Free Hawaiʻi News on ʻŌlelo TV is a discussion between Kumu Hina Wong and me, called “the Pacific Way”. It’s about looking at topics of concern from a Pacific islander perspective and it’s influence on how we do things and how we live. In contrast is the “Western Way” which has come to dominate the economic, political and social systems around the world. Some call it the legacy of colonialism. A recent United Nations resolution calls it, the negative legacy of colonialism. But now, the colonial system is beginning to implode. Careless, reckless and relentless commercial pursuits of the Western Way has brought the world to the brink of a catastrophic collapse. This is where the Pacific Way comes in. There is a rising awareness that the profound value of ancient knowledge and traditional practices could provide the answers to the grave issues facing the world today. What if we were to apply the “Pacific Way”, or more specifically, “the Hawaiʻi Way”, to issues such as caring for the people (mālama i ka poʻe); for our land (mālama I ka ʻāina), and caring for our ocean (mālama i ke kai); and caring for the planet (mālama honua). It prioritizes food resources, housing, sustainability, relationships, caring for our earth, sky and sea.  Pacific islanders have a way of relating to our surroundings that has sustained, nurtured and helped us to thrive on tiny specs of land scattered over a vast ocean covering a third of the globe. For many years the people of Hawaiʻi have been suffering from a severe housing crisis. In the previous Ke Aupuni News we spoke of the diaspora of Hawaiians having to live not only in the U.S., but all over the globe. In a conversation I had with the Kiribati ambassador to the UN a few years ago, he said, what if our goal as leaders is not to just provide a way for people to afford to live, but to provide the conditions to make people happy, and at peace with one another? To thrive and to see life pursuits not as a series of win/lose encounters or even win/win events, but as, happy/happy opportunities. Think about it. By engaging with a “win-lose” or even a “win-win” mindset, the parties operate in a competitive and even adversarial mode. But in working for a happy-happy outcome, the parties operate in a collaborative mode of considering and caring for the welfare of the other party as well as their own. The platform becomes, sharing with aloha. Happily, the conversation in our islands is beginning to shift toward the Pacific/Hawaiʻi Way of thinking… encouraging & supporting local residents to step forward into roles of responsibility of any size, small, medium or large, to let the U.S. occupiers of Hawai`i, especially the real estate developers and government agencies, know that, going forward, decisions must be made from the ground up, and local residents in their local areas must be the ones to decide their own futures.

“Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.” — Queen Liliʻuokalani ---------- Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. ------ For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53. ------ "And remember, for the latest updates and information about the Hawaiian Kingdom check out the twice-a-month Ke Aupuni Updates published online on Facebook and other social media." PLEASE KŌKUA… Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort... To contribute, go to:   • GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII • PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net • Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers, volunteer services, etc...) email us at: info@HawaiianKingdom.net All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO! Malama Pono,

Leon Siu

Hawaiian National

[iistardust-and-sprinklesii]

I’m about halfway through SDRA2 and my love for the Satsuki-Haru-Teruya polycule is growing even more,,, Clown Airlines is top-tier on its own, but add Teruya and you’ve got yourself the perfect ship!

I already loved these three during the first game (especially with Teruya clearly having such a close bond with them to the point of keeping Haru’s goggles and promising to honor their legacy) but seeing Teruya getting so emotional at the sight of their statues??? Clutching Haru’s goggles and reacting so differently to them than any of his other classmates??? Linuj you fucker why did you break them up 😭💔

[eucalyprhodes]

Eulogy

Yesterday, I went to a memorial service of a close friend’s late father who passed away this week. Normally, a memorial service doesn’t really evoke any emotions in me, but there was something so profoundly different about this one. This memorial service made me feel that I missed out on knowing my friend’s father because of how wonderful of a person he was! He was described as quietly funny, dedicated, and as someone who goes above and beyond when helping others. He touched so many lives, his impact is so visibly seen in the families that he left behind, and he had a life full of love. 

In his eulogy, I learned that he was in the airline industry and when he moved to the US, he had a cleaning business before finally reunited with his love of airplanes by working for a major airline company at 67 years old! The eulogy said he HAPPILY drove in the traffic every day to LAX until his retirement from the company. If that doesn’t scream commitment to you, I don’t know what else will! 

Every person’s testimony about him left me laughing out loud because even though he is known to be a man of so very little words, his kindness overcomes his quietness. Hearing everyone’s story makes me wished i got to know my friend much much earlier in my life because then, I would’ve been able to know her father too. 

But then there’s another thing that got me thinking. Reading that eulogy and hearing everyone’s testimony made me think of my own eulogy, and the testimony that my loved ones will say. Will my eulogy focused on my career, or what I do for others, or my interests and hobbies? Most importantly, will my legacy be one of kindness, commitment to loyalty to God and to others? 

Here’s how I picture my eulogy will be:

Kezia was born in Jakarta, April 15 1991 to Jimmy Baten and Erlinda Sianturi Baten. She grew up in Jatiwaringin where she started her education in SD Tunas Kasih before transferring to SDK 4 Penabur and SMPK 5 Penabur. In 20015, at the age of 14, Kezia along with her parents and older brother immigrated to the United States where the family lived in La Mirada before settling their roots in Buena Park, California. 

Kezia obtained a bachelors degree in child development and family studies from CSU Long Beach. She initially wanted to pursue social work for social services agency before changing her dream to become an academic advisor for her alma mater. After a grueling 6 years, she finally obtained her dream and became an academic counselor at CSU Fullerton only to learn that she completely hated this job and there was no such thing as a dream job. After only 3 months at CSUF, she quits her job and returned to HR as talent acquisition specialist for a learning and development company. In 2023, she was unfortunately laid off but quickly accepted an offer in HR where she continued consistently for the next 25 years. She started working as HR Specialist at (insert super great company here), and worked her way up to HR Generalist, HR Manager, and finally Director of People & Culture until the day she retires. 

Kezia married Julian in the midst of Covid pandemic on October 4, 2020. Surrounded by their closest friends and families out in nature, they exchanged vows and settled in Fullerton, CA. In 2023, they celebrated their wedding by having a wedding reception in Jakarta, Indonesia. The following year in 2024, they welcomed their first children: twins (JJ and EZ). The family moved to North Richland Hills, TX in spring 2025 and have been living there ever since. 

Kezia loves Jesus and has served in various churches throughout her life. She served as a seating host and admin assistant at The Father’s House of Orange County from 2022 until 2032. She served at her local church (insert church name) and eventually launched a ministry where she served (insert population). Serving God has been a priority for Kezia as well as Julian and they made it a priority to always serve the Kingdom. 

In her spare time, Kezia loves being in the outdoors. She and Julian have gone to every single national parks in the United States, often bringing the twins together with them which inspires the twins’ own love and appreciation for nature. Every long weekend was an opportunity for them to take the twins camping, sleep under the stars, learning about all the plants and animals, and appreciate what God has created for them. After their retirement, Kezia and Julian spent most of their time traveling both for the ministry as well as their own enjoyment. Kezia also loves coffee and hosting dinner parties at her home. Her love language is food and she loves creating a safe space for her loved ones to feel safe and welcomed at her home. 

And that is all I can think about. Will my life really turn out like that? Obviously I don’t know. I do hope the twins thing really happened though :) But if yesterday taught me anything, it’s that our legacy matters. What do I want to be remembered of? Will my various HR titles matter? will my love for the outdoors matter? Maybe not so much. I truly hope i will be remembered as someone who loves the Lord, the Kingdom and has done everything I can to contribute to God’s Kingdom. 

Have you ever thought of your eulogy?

[oliviajames1122]

Thomas Cook

The New Thomas Cook New Business, Same Sunny Heart

After the original business collapsed in September 2019, a few committed former employees were determined the legacy of Thomas Cook would find a new life.

Two months later, Osun Tourism Group, the owners of Club Med, bought the Thomas Cook brand along with the inimitable Sunny Heart logo - a symbol of joy and happiness, and an important part of the business’ identity.

Those former employees created a new venture - one that embodies the essence of the man himself but brings it to bang up to date with the latest technology many business listings.

Our website lets you package your own holiday. You go away when you want, for as long as you want. And with thousands of hotels to choose from and more flight routes and airlines than ever before, your well-deserved getaway can be whatever you want it to be.

You can contact us by phone or Live Chat every day, 12 hours a day - and if you’re on holiday, you can reach us 24/7. You can even ask us to find your holiday for you. 

Thomas Cook's History

The Inventor of Package Holidays

The original package holiday was a train journey from Leicester to Loughborough in 1841. There were 500 passengers on board that day. And for most of them, it was the first time they’d ever ridden a steam train. 

People crowded the streets, filled the windows, and packed onto bridges end route just to get a glimpse of the carriage as it hurtled along the tracks at breakneck speed. And when the train pulled into Loughborough, the intrepid travelers were greeted by a brass band and throngs of cheering crowds.

The trip was organised by Thomas Cook, who later wrote of the journey: “And thus was struck the keynote of my excursions, and the social idea grew upon me.”

The 22-mile package holiday cost a shilling and sixpence - about a day’s wages back then. But financially, there was nothing in it for Mr Cook. Although he organised repeat trips each summer for the next three years, he wouldn’t turn a profit until 1845. 

This initial foray into tourism was a time of discovery. It proved that if travel was convenient and accessible, more people would, in Mr Cook's own words, “go beyond”. And “go beyond” they most certainly did.

For the next 33 years, he shuttled tourists up, down and around the country. He later shipped travelers as far as Japan, India and the United States on a 222-day world tour he called 'China via Egypt'. 

After Mr Cook’s retirement, the company was passed on from son to grandsons, and in 1928 it ceased to be a family business. From that point on, it changed hands five times, counting among its owners a Belgian train operator, a German bank and even the British government business listings.

Like the man himself, Thomas Cook moved with the times. Mr Cook’s lifetime saw the rise of train travel and steamships. And he embraced both with enthusiasm. As time went on, the business traded rail journeys for motor car tours and steamers for flights, always finding new ways to help more people discover the world. 

Thomas Cook was the pioneer of trouble-free travelling. He was also the inventor of convenient package holidays. And for us who work under his name in the new business, his life was a legacy we hope to live up to.

An "internationally significant" archive from one of the most famous names in travel has begun to go online.

The Thomas Cook collection features travel brochures from as early as 1858, a selection of staff uniforms, and some 60,000 photographs.

Leicestershire County Council said if all the boxes of diaries, letters, and other records were laid out, it would make a line 250m (820ft) long.

The project, funded by a £40,000 grant, will continue until April.

The entire Thomas Cook archive was acquired by the county council in 2019, following a nationwide bidding process to find a new permanent home for the collection.

The earliest holidays were around the UK, with foreign holidays coming later

Thanks to the project funded by the National Archives, items that can already be searched online include staff magazines, volumes of contracts and agreements, and historic travel brochures free business listings.

The oldest brochure dates back to 1858 with the first continental brochures appearing in 1865.

Most of the collection dates from around 1890, with samples from nearly every year being kept.

[slyth3rinbab3]

Friday The 13th: A Bad Luck?

When we hear the phrase, Friday the 13th, we already automatically think of it as a bad luck or a taboo.. But , should it really be considered as such? or is it just a common superstitous belief among us?

Why Friday The 13th Is Considered Bad Luck

Friday the 13th has always been associated with superstition, especially by Westerners and Easterners, either with the day itself or historic events that happened during that specific date which gave it its ominous reputation.

For most people, Friday the 13th often symbolizes bad luck and this belief combines two elements of misfortune: the day Friday itself which people from various cultures perceive as unlucky in historical terms and the number “13” which people believe to be ill-fated – both for Western and Eastern traditions – hence, this day is always considered to be dreadful by some people for potential mishaps. (Source: “Why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky across the world” by Kristina Moy from Fox 13 Seattle” ; https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/friday-13th-myths-origins-legacy)

This superstition has been circulating around the world for the past 100 years. Experts can only guess and find it hard to pinpoint why Friday the 13th is always perceive as an “unlucky” day. According to Stephen Winick, a folklore specialist at the American Folklore Center of the Library of Congress, people start making references to Friday the 13th being unlucky without being able to say as to why they consider it to be as such – which leads to others gathering wild theories about the said date. (Source: “The possible origins of Friday the 13th and other unlucky days” by Kaity Kline from NPR; https://www.npr.org/2024/09/13/nx-s1-5103766/beware-its-friday-the-13th-dont-say-we-didnt-warn-you)

“Fridays were considered unlucky days, and that’s been true since the Middle Ages in the English speaking world and probably through most of Europe, because Friday was the day of crucifixion. And in the old Catholic tradition, every Friday was a day of penance. And that idea has persisted,” – Marsh

One of the references gathered by Winick about Friday the 13th being unlucky is from both French writing and plays – where the character from the play Les Finesses des Gribouilles once said, “I was born on a Friday, December 13th, 1813 from which come all of my misfortunes.” and where the father killed his daughter on Friday the 13th (from a French literary magazine Revue de Paris as written by Marquis de Salvo). According to him, it is always Fridays and 13 that bring bad luck.

People have started approaching this said occasion with caution – avoiding significant decisions or events, avoiding travel, delaying surgeries or so and so. There are even airlines who dropped bookings on this date and buildings omit 13th floor entirely. (There are even some estate properties who dont have the number “13” on their unit.)

Friday the 13th is also associated with black cats which people also consider to be bad luck , especially when they cross paths with one on Halloween or on Friday the 13th. In history.com , written records associate black cats to the occult way back in the 13th century – black cats are considered to be or declared as Satan’s incarnate if not being inextricably linked to witches in medieval Europe.

Still curious? Read more from these links I’ve mentioned here in this blog:

Sources:

Why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky across the world” by Kristina Moy from Fox 13 Seattle” ; https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/friday-13th-myths-origins-legacy

“The possible origins of Friday the 13th and other unlucky days” by Kaity Kline from NPR; https://www.npr.org/2024/09/13/nx-s1-5103766/beware-its-friday-the-13th-dont-say-we-didnt-warn-you

[ramrodd]

How likely is Delta to win its case against cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike after the software update it provided crashed over 8 million computers, according to CNBC?

COMMENTARY:

Hard to say, Back in the 60s and 70s, Delta had a reputation for using obsolete IBM main frame data processing for its reservation system. It worked perfectly well and represented IT as brute force. They were actually cocky about it because, as I recall, it performed as good as if not better than all the other carriers.

I don’t know what happened after 1980 and PATCO. A primary issue of the Air Traffic Controllers in 1981 was that the entire system was dependent upon 1955 IBM hardware that worked just fine with lots of human resources to cover the gaps in the system, but Nixon’s design for airline deregulation assumed that robotics was the future for ATC because of the aging workforce in 1981.

At that time, NASA was doing crop dusting with bi-wing drones and the expectation that a huge capital investmetn in electronics, avionics and robotics in the ground system and on the flight deck would replace the dwinding human factors. If Nixon’s capital budget had been fulfilled over time in the ATC and commercial carriers, throughput would have exceeded a 30% increase and virtually everthing would be fly-by-wire in anticipation of the mobilization necessary for civil air support in a general war.

Well, that didn’t happen and one of the consequences is that, everytime a sprinkler system goes off during the day in Phoenix, O’Hara gets backed up, All the capital that was supposed to go into system upgrade and optimization has gone into the bloated executive compensation of airline CEO’s, including Delta’s.

In addition, the airline CEOs shifted their fleet mix to wide body aircraft and their scheduled services to ensure as close to a 100% load factor as possible,, If a certain section isn’t full, they cancel the section in order to fill the remaining equipment. One consequence is the plethora of cancellations even in perfect flight conditions. Episodes of 1200 and 1500 clacellations is a direct consequence of the Project 2025 economic legacy of PATCO. Everytime your flight is delayed or cancelled, you are helping to capitalize the bloated executive compensation of commercial airline executives

For all I know, Delta is still depending on a massive deployment of IBM maif frame computers and I do know that the ATC is dependent upon similar obsolete systems. The fact is, the hardware isn’t the problem: Microsoft is hopelessly obsolete and CrowdStrike is an attempt to retrofit the software equivalent of the Ford Tri Motor with 757 turbofans. For all I know, Delta is running MIcrosoft suites on IBM 350 mainframs and the IBN;s are probably the most stable part of their system, but they will probably hold up CrowdStrike for paybacks.

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Dallas Stars

Based in Dallas, Texas, the Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team. They play in the National Hockey League's (NHL) Central Division of the Western Conference. The Stars have made a name for themselves in the NHL thanks to their fervent fan base and spirit of competition.

Past Events and Accomplishments: Establishment: Originally named the Minnesota North Stars, the team was created in 1967 and moved to Dallas in 1993. The team's relocation opened up a new chapter, and they soon established themselves as essential members of the Dallas sports scene.

Stanley Cup Win: The Stars' first Stanley Cup victory in the 1998–1999 season was the apex of their achievements. With goalie Ed Belfour, MVP Joe Nieuwendyk, and captain Derian Hatcher leading the way, the Stars won the championship in an exciting six-game series against the Buffalo Sabres.

Regular Contenders: The Stars have consistently competed strongly against some of the top clubs in the league and made multiple appearances in the playoffs. They have developed a reputation as a strong opponent due to their consistent performance.

Important Players: Mike Modano Modano spent most of his playing career with the Stars and is regarded as the best player in franchise history. He is the NHL's all-time top scorer among players of American descent and played a key role in the team's Stanley Cup triumph.

Jamie Benn Benn has been a vital component of the Stars' recent success, leading the squad as captain since 2013. Benn, who is renowned for his tough play and scoring prowess, was named the league's top scorer in 2014–2015 and was awarded the Art Ross Trophy.

Miro Heiskanen: Heiskanen is a rising star in the NHL who has emerged as one of the best defensemen in the conference. He is an essential player for the future of the Stars because of his superb skating, vision, and defensive ability.

Home Arena: American Airlines Center: Situated in Dallas' Victory Park district, the American Airlines Center serves as the home arena for the Stars. The arena offers fans a cutting-edge setting in which to take in thrilling hockey play and other activities all year long. Competitions: Intense Rivals: The Stars have a number of noteworthy rivalries, namely those with the Nashville Predators, Colorado Avalanche, and St. Louis Blues. Fans are captivated by the heated competition and exciting games that these matches frequently offer. Community Involvement: Dallas Stars Foundation: The team supports numerous philanthropic causes and youth activities as part of its active involvement in the community. The Dallas-Fort Worth region benefits from the foundation's initiatives, which are centered on wellness, health, and education. Latest Achievement: Playoff Runs: The Stars have made deep playoff runs in the past few years, culminating in a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals during the 2019–2020 season, further solidifying their legacy. Their effort showed the team's resiliency and potential even though they were unable to win the championship. In conclusion, the Dallas Stars in the NHL have a great past and a promising future. They remain a formidable force in the league, combining youthful, exciting potential with the experience of seasoned veterans. They are a well-liked and esteemed franchise because of their dedication to greatness on the ice and their involvement in the community off the ice.

The Dallas Stars provide an entertaining and thrilling hockey experience that epitomizes the spirit of community and competitiveness, whether you're a seasoned fan or just getting started.

ALSO READ-

Investigate the Golden Triangle: Tour By Tour Por la India Enterprise The Golden Triangle Tour, provided by Tour Por la India Company, will take you on an amazing tour of some of the most famous locations in India. This well planned tour takes you to the energetic cities of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, highlighting each place's remarkable architecture, rich cultural legacy, and historical significance.

The Tour Por la India Company: Why Choose It? Experienced Guides: Take advantage of the skills and knowledge of knowledgeable guides who guarantee an enjoyable trip and offer perceptive comments.

Comfortable Transportation: Enjoy a hassle-free, pleasurable trip with contemporary, air-conditioned cars.

Customized Itineraries: You can design a tour that meets your needs and interests, letting you take your time discovering the main sights of the Golden Triangle.

The Golden Triangle Tour's highlights include: Day 1: Delhi, the vibrant capital; Historic Landmarks: Start your adventure in India's crowded metropolis, Delhi. Discover historical sites including the striking Qutub Minar, the imposing Red Fort, and the famous India Gate.

Cultural Immersion: Take in Delhi's rich history and culture by visiting its vibrant bazaars, historic temples, and busy marketplaces. Take in the vibrant ambiance of the city while shopping for gifts and sampling delectable street cuisine.

Day 2: Agra, the Taj Mahal's home The Taj Mahal Visit: See the magnificent Taj Mahal, one of the Seven Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, when you visit the enchanted city of Agra. Find all about the architectural significance and its intriguing history.

Agra Fort: Discover this additional UNESCO World Heritage Site, the famous Agra Fort. Explore its exquisite gardens, courtyards, and palaces. From the ramparts of the fort, take in sweeping vistas of the Taj Mahal.

Day 3: The Pink City of Jaipur Explore Amber Fort, the vibrant city of Jaipur, popularly referred to as the "Pink City." See the magnificent Amber Fort, renowned for its exquisite carvings, breathtaking architecture, and expansive vistas of the hillsides around it.

Discover the elaborate City Palace and be amazed by the Hawa Mahal's (Palace of Winds) exquisite designs. Explore Jaipur's lively markets and rich cultural legacy.

Day 4: Go back to Delhi Last-Minute Explorations: Use your last day to explore new hidden treasures in Delhi or to return to some of your favorite places. Before you depart, enjoy some shopping, dining, or just lounging around. Available Tour Packages 1. Standard Golden Triangle Tour: All-encompassing Exploration: A comprehensive tour that covers the main sights in Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur and offers a well-balanced blend of historical, cultural, and architectural experiences. 2. Luxury Golden Triangle trip Enhanced Comfort: For a more luxurious travel experience, take advantage of the Golden Triangle trip with opulent lodging, exclusive transportation, and individualized services. 3. Adventure Golden Triangle Tour Exciting Activities: Incorporate thrilling excursions like hot air balloon rides, elephant rides, and guided treks with the cultural exploration of the Golden Triangle. In summary Travelers may discover the rich history, vibrant culture, and stunning architecture of Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur with the Golden Triangle Tour from Tour Por la India Company. Whether you're looking for an exciting getaway, a luxurious retreat, or a cultural tour, our packages are made to ensure that you have an unforgettable time visiting some of India's most well-known locations.

With Tour Por la India Company, you may start an amazing adventure by scheduling your Golden Triangle tour right now.

[dankusner]

Cremians

Traveling with cremated remains:

Handling them takes planning

While it is not illegal to transport cremains, a lot of companies get nervous about it.

So everything is going along fine and then – bam! – your Aunt Agatha dies and you find out that she had named you as her agent to transport her cremated remains to Hawaii and have them thrown into the ocean.

Or, hypothetically, your destination could be to Disney World, a golf course in Scotland or another ash-worthy site.

Your journey is going to require a bit of planning.

You will be transporting a noticeable amount of ashes. Cremains for an average adult woman weigh 4 pounds; you can add another 2 pounds for a man.

And, while it is not illegal to transport cremains, a lot of companies get nervous about it.

If you plan to take the cremains on a plane, it makes a difference if you are traveling internationally or domestically.

The United States allows you to transport cremains domestically, but you should bring a copy of the death certificate.

Some states also require a disposition permit.

If you are traveling internationally, then be aware that most countries impose restrictions.

At a minimum, you will have to bring certain documents with you, and those must be translated into the foreign country’s language.

If you plan to travel by air, then you need to review the restrictions imposed by your airline.

Some will only allow you to take the cremains in a carry-on, while others require that you check them.

Most have explicit procedures that you have to follow for disclosing that you have cremains and requiring that they be labeled.

You should also check TSA rules.

The current rules recommend that you purchase a temporary or permanent crematory container made of a lighter weight material, such as wood or plastic, to carry the cremains.

You cannot bring them in a container that is made of a material that generates an opaque image, because the TSA officers will not be able to clearly determine what is inside the container.

You might think that you can handle this by not sealing the container, but TSA officers will not open a container, even if you request it.

If, instead of traveling with the cremains, you plan to mail them, your choices are limited.

UPS, Fed Ex and DHL will not knowingly transport cremains.

The United States Postal Service will, but only if you follow their instructions. USPS just posted new regulations: See Publication 139, issued September 2019, at

https://about.usps.com/publications/pub139.pdf.

A possible alternative is to have your funeral home arrange for the transport of the cremains.

As for scattering the ashes once you arrive – you need to do a bit of research on that, too.

Most national parks require a permit. The EPA requires that you be more than 3 nautical miles from the coast to scatter at sea.

Many states have requirements about scattering over private and public land.

As for Disney World – scattering ashes is strictly forbidden. If you are caught, you will be escorted out of the park and Aunt Agatha’s remains will end up at the bottom of a vacuum cleaner bag.

Keepsakes as a legacy:

Treasure or trash?

If you want a memory to survive you, then you have some work to do.

Keepsakes are important. So why do so few of them make it to the next generation?

In the context of legacies, keepsakes are significant because they bring back our memories of the departed.

Let’s face it: Memories do not transfer easily.

Your favorite keepsake may, for example, be a dried starfish that you and your mother discovered during a family vacation at the beach.

Your starfish brings back the memory of that day: the sound of the ocean, the warmth of the sand underneath your bare feet, the look on your mother’s face, your feelings of delight. The starfish means something to you.

It will probably not, however, mean anything to your son who cleans out your apartment after your death, meaning your starfish will probably end up in the municipal garbage dump along with the soured milk carton from your refrigerator.

That is not to say your son is an ignorant oaf (although he may well be); it just means that the significance of the starfish died when you did.

If you want a keepsake to survive you, then you have some work to do.

The goal is to give your recipient his or her own association and memory regarding the keepsake.

Some suggestions: Tell your children/grandchildren/beneficiaries the story while reverently passing around the starfish; place the starfish in a special box and enclose a paper, in your handwriting, with the history; or gift the starfish, together with a stirring rendition of the story, during your lifetime.

Silence is never the friend of keepsakes, as I recently learned firsthand.

In September, two weeks after receiving a cancer diagnosis, my 88-year-old father passed away.

The hospice nurse told us that the night before he died, he got up out of bed and poured himself one final drink from a bottle of Dewars (why he chose a blended Scotch instead of a single-malt will remain one of life’s great mysteries).

After his funeral, the family got together and toasted him with a shot of Dewars out of that same bottle.

Afterwards my husband and I tucked the bottle carefully away in the deepest recesses of the liquor cabinet to await a toast on the next anniversary of my father’s passing.

Several months later, my cousin-in-law Ruth and her husband Russ came for a visit.

We gathered for cocktails on the back porch, and my husband started telling the Dewars story.

Russ got very quiet and I noticed that he edged his glass to the back of the table.

He confessed the next day that he had found the bottle and, not knowing the history, poured himself a drink.

So now I have less Scotch but more memories.

I may never be able to part with the bottle.

Be it rope, Scotch or starfish, a keepsake may be worth the trouble of preserving.

Three things to do on the death of a loved one

There are practical and legal matters to attend to immediately.

When a family member or other loved one dies, the natural response is to feel overwhelmed.

However, there are some very practical and legal matters that need to be attended to “immediately, if not sooner.”

Secure the property

Sad as it may seem, when a person dies, his property becomes at risk.

Sometimes friends and family use this as an opportunity to help themselves to what they believe they should get, and will help themselves to personal property.

Who gets a person’s property on death should be determined by his/her will or trust.

Once the toothpaste is out of the tube it is hard to get it back in.

The same is true for a decedent’s tangible personal property.

Once it is gone, it is hard to get it back and into the hands of who is legally entitled to receive it.

Burglars read the obituaries.

While friends and family are at the funeral or otherwise unoccupied, burglars will be happy to break into the house and steal both what is and isn’t nailed down.

It is a good idea to have someone stay at the house to protect the property.

At a minimum, consider changing the locks.

Credit cards, debit cards and checks need to be protected.

Mail needs to be collected. Automobiles and other motor vehicles should be locked up or otherwise protected.

Plan the funeral

If you are fortunate, the newly departed left a written Appointment of Burial Agent with specific instructions.

That will make your job incredibly easy.

Texas law allows a person to appoint an agent to be in charge of funeral arrangements and to describe the arrangements.

A lot of estate planning attorneys draw up this document as part of general estate planning.

Take a look through the papers to see if this document was included.

If you are the agent, then present the paper to the funeral home and follow the instructions.

You have the final say, within reason.

You also get to front the costs, unless the funeral was prepaid or you go to court to get an emergency order for funds.

If there are no written instructions, then the law determines who has authority to make arrangements for the disposition of the body and plan the funeral.

They are, in this order: the surviving spouse; any one of the surviving adult children; either one of the surviving parents; any one of the surviving adult siblings; any one or more of the duly qualified executors or administrators of the decedent’s estate; and finally the next of kin in the order named by law to inherit the estate.

There is a time period for the designated person to act.

Note who is not included in this list: the decedent’s domestic partner; best friend; or the person to whom the decedent gave verbal instructions.

See your lawyer

When a person dies, there is an awkward lapse in authority.

The decedent’s power of attorney is no longer operative, and the executor named in the will does not have any authority to act until the will is admitted to probate and the executor is appointed by the probate judge and qualifies by taking the oath of office and filing a bond, if required.

You will need some direction, earlier rather than later, on what you are permitted to do.

Probate of a will takes time.

It is best to get started promptly so that there is an executor in place with power to handle the affairs of the decedent.

If there is a trust, there is usually a successor trustee named in the trust.

However, remember a trust only operates on property that is owned by the trust.

Many financial accounts pass to a named beneficiary.

Retirement plans such as IRAs and 401(k) accounts usually have a named beneficiary and the account passes to that person, not under the will.

There is more than one way to have another person “on a bank account.”

If the account holders are joint tenants with right of survivorship, then the other holders become the owners of the account.

If the other person on the account is a convenience signer, or an agent under a power of attorney, then the account doesn’t pass that way.

Documents the lawyer will want to see include: the original will (not a copy); the death certificate (if available); the decedent’s driver’s license number and Social Security number; any trust documents; any “lady bird deeds” or transfer on death deeds; account agreements with rights of survivorship; beneficiary designations and the like.

But don’t wait.

At a minimum, there is going to be a two-week delay between filing a will for probate and going to court.

A more realistic estimate is four to six weeks and even longer in some counties.

Recently there have been unexpected delays in getting death certificates.

In this case, if you can obtain a copy of the application for the death certificate, that information will be helpful to your lawyer.

[flightticket120]

How to book a cheap flight to Rajahmundry?

How to book a cheap flight to Rajahmundry? Do you know what? booking a cheap flight to Rajahmundry, a quaint city tucked away in Andhra Pradesh requires advance planning. Rajahmundry's serene scenery and extensive cultural legacy entice visitors seeking a genuine Indian experience. In order to find a cheap flight, savvy travelers employ a number of techniques, such as flexible vacation dates, fare comparison websites, and advance booking. Additionally, you can receive special deals by signing up for reward programs and airline newsletters. If adventurers understand these tricks and watch out for deals on Rajahmundry flight tickets, they can visit Rajahmundry in style and at a reasonable price with Eazyfares without going broke. But the one who is unaware of the process can take the assistance of the below-mentioned steps. ● You must either log in or register for an account on www.eazyfares.com. ● Fill out the form with the information that best suits your needs. ● On that choose the desired route, the number of visitors, the destinations, and the dates of arrival and departure. ● There will be a selection of flights that fit your needs once you click the "Search" button. ● Select the most affordable flight that works best for you. ● Then provide the personal information listed in your official documents in the following step. ● If you qualify, use coupons or vouchers to reduce the cost of your tickets even further. ● An email confirmation will be sent to the address you registered as soon as the payment is completed. This will make it very simple for you to arrange your Flight to Rajahmundry. Thus, proceed immediately without concern. Furthermore, in the event that you need assistance, you must coordinate with our experts, who are available to support our passengers around the clock. What is the cheapest day to visit Rajahmundry? Prior to knowing the cheapest day you must have to be aware that you need to plan your travel to arrive and depart during the week rather than on the weekends. And in that Thursdays are typically the least expensive days to travel with Rajahmundry cheap flight ticket. Travelers can save approximately 10% by scheduling their foreign trip approximately 60 days in advance. What is the Best time to visit Rajahmundry? In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh the bustling city of Rajahmundry is best visited between October and March. These times represent the winter and post- monsoon seasons, when travelers can expect the nicest weather. The pleasant

temperatures of 15°C to 30°C are experienced throughout these months, making them ideal for touring. What is Rajahmundry weather? Basically in Rajahmundry, there are three distinct seasons: summer, monsoon, and winter. Summers are scorching, the winters are wonderful, and the monsoon season brings copious rains. As a result, the best months to visit the city are October through March, when winter is at its height. Let's talk about Rajahmundry's weather in greater detail. ● Summer The summer months of March through June are the hottest in Rajahmundry. In contrast, March isn't extremely hot, so both visitors and locals can enjoy the sightseeing. ● Monsoon In India, the summer season ends, and the monsoon season begins. This season can start as late as June, but it usually does so by the start of July. Rajahmundry has a humid but not very hot climate like other places. ● Winter Rajahmundry is one of the best places in India to spend the winter. The winter months are also the best times to go. The season normally begins in late October or early November. The low humidity levels in the city and the fresh breezes from the River Godavari make for the nice weather. Tourists can take advantage of the luxuries of sightseeing, riverboat excursions, and cultural festivals.