OK, it’s my first ever trip on Virgin America and ANA. Too bad there are babies everywhere. I’ve determined to drone out the babies with the excellent selection of TV shows available on Sunday morning. Ugh, who am I kidding? I’ll just read…

We’re landing in LAX now, and the pressurization on this A320 sucks. My sinuses are going ballistic and literally ALL the babies around the world are crying at once.

My co-worker and I had a 60-minute layover in LAX. We grabbed our bags and made it to the ANA check-in counter right as they were closing, and we were able to get to the plane as they were boarding. My original seat had me next to a blanked out sidewall panel; meaning I had no window next to my seat 🙁 Amazingly, the lady next to me asked me to trade seats with her boss! and her boss is 3 rows up! I quickly agreed and now am staring at the sun.

Sucker!

First world problem #28: The airplane headphone adapter I bought doesn’t work with these seats. Good thing ANA provides noise cancelling Sony headphones! Too bad the movie selection on ANA isn’t the best: no Bollywood, HK cop thrillers, or Korean rom-coms…

Well holy crap, it’s roughly 6-hrs into the flight and here’s a list of things that I’ve accomplished:

1. Watched Hangover 2
2. Eat dinner.
3. Napped for a few hours
4. Watched the Planet of the Apes prequel.

AND WE’RE ONLY HALF WAY THERE…

The Hangover Part II was OK. Dinner was amazing:

So on the topic of the new Planet of the Apes flick… How does this chemical gas make chimps smart enough to outflank an armed tactical police force? and knowledgeable enough with the design aspects of the Golden Gate Bridge, to know to swing along on the structural beams under the bridge?! I can comprehend their talking; since they’re around humans all day, but it’s not like these were military research monkeys that hung out at West Point… Also, didn’t James Franco cut his hand off? Did a monkey just take out a helicopter?! AND NOW FRANCO JUST LET’S THEM GO?! What utter nonsense…

On previous trips, I’ve sat next to runway models and pilots. This time around, I’m just next to some dude playing video games on his iPhone. He did comment positively on my Domke camera bag. He also has one for his Canon 5d mk2 to “setup his scenes,” as he’s a videographer. He didn’t go into detail about what he shoots, but he watches his all movies with Japanese subs, so I’ll assume he does Japanese game shows. That, or he’s just really otaku. I mentioned that I was a Sony/Minolta shooter and our convo ended. Effing pretentious Canon-ites… Well, they have the last three Harry Potter films. I’ll watch those now.

So I followed up with my neighbor and he shoots whiskey commercials in Tokyo. He was actually a consultant on Lost in Translation; for their Suntory whiskey ads. Him and Bill Murray did all sorts of crazy stuff and pranked Scarlett a lot at the hotel. The coolest part was Bill’s outtakes from the Suntory ads. He posted a highlight reel here.

LOL.

So my co-worker has a theory that I fully support: The Ginger Ale industry is run by the airline industry. Now take a minute to think about that. Do you drink ginger ale at home?

Of course not!

Now, do you drink it on a plane? or have seen others drink it onboard a flight?

OBVIOUSLY

Don’t believe me? Pay attention next time you fly!

OK, we’re landing now, and of course, Mr. Canon/Apple fanboy is still playing games on his iPhone. I don’t get why you only see Apple users disobeying orders to turn off electronic devices during TTL. Just saying…