Wayyyy too much time and technology on my hands

Since I'm not in school right now, I volunteered to take my friend Jamie to the airport this morning. Everyone should have a friend who's a bum if they need a lift at 5am. She's taking a flight to Taipei, 19 hours of flying with a short layover in San Francisco. After I dropped her off, she called me on my cellphone since there was no one else to talk to at that hour of the morning, and she was unable to read, physically move or otherwise entertain herself, due to getting up early enough to be at Hartsfield at 5:30am. Unlike me, Jamie has a job, and can't just sleep whenever she wants. So via the internet, computer, and cellphone I managed to:

• Keep her updated on her flight status. At one point I told her her flight would be landing 10 minutes later than scheduled in San Francisco, even before that information was posted at the gate. I am such a smartypants!
  
• Give her directions to a spa located in the San Francisco airport. (Not that she asked. Just more smartypants behavior on my part.) I also informed her that only the Christian Scientists have their own space in the airport, everyone else (including Jewish folk like her tribe) have to get along and share the same room which is supposed to be for "quiet reflection and meditation". By the way, the map icon--a little kneeling person--- for the "reflection and meditation" room cracked me up. Maybe it was the fact that I'd gotten up too early. Come to think of it the icon for the shower room was funny too. I must get Photoshop and start making my own icons. Places like Fark.com are just screaming my name.
  
• Find the flight numbers and numerous details on her other flights, like what type of aircraft, the inflight movies, what meals to be served, where the video screens were located, if the plane would be crowded, and if her seat was over a wing.
• Play a clip over the cellphone of "Airplane", the Indigo Girls song about white-knuckle flying. I don't think Jamie found it as funny as I did. At least it kept her awake so she wouldn't be snoozing in the gate area as her plane departed.
• Find out how to literally track the plane in flight, via google earth and fboweb. I can now see why air traffic controllers eat a lot of Rolaids. There are dozens of little airplane markers around every major city, all of them representing flights taking off and landing. My most likely reaction to directing all those damn things would be to s&%t my pants. I may do so next time I'm flying in or out of a major airport, and recall those airplane markers that could collide at any moment if the air traffic controller is thinking about his fishing trip or unpaidVisa bill.
  
• Completely blow off breakfast and my morning hike in favor of all this cyberspace stuff.

It amazes me what information we have at our fingertips, and how we can communicate it so easily, compared to even twenty years ago. The downside is that we spend (okay, I spend) more time with our gadgets, to the detriment of things like nutrition and exercise. The upside is that we are more connected and informed in some ways. It's hard to remember that when I want to smack the dude in the grocery store who is talking loudly about his ingrown toenail on a cellphone. And holding up the checkout line while he does so.

Well, at least I have a post for my blog. Now I'm going to go follow random flights out of Hartsfield International until I get bored enough to go hiking. The thought of being trapped on a plane for 14 hours makes me want to get up and move around. Violently.