- ORH to MCO
I’ve talked previously about flying from The Woo to Orlando– it’s a reasonably short 2.5 – 3 hour flight. It’s JetBlue ™ which is what I would best call a “budget” airline. Now let me make something perfectly clear, airline travel has gone from being luxurious to like taking the bus. The seats are uncomfortable, they are too close together and maybe its because everyone is giant now it feels like you’re stuffed into third class steerage on the Titanic.
For the flight down we chose an Exit row for extra room– row 10 to be exact– and despite the flight being filled with so many Toddlers I expected the Muppets to work the drink cart it was a reasonably pleasant experience. We left about a half hour late with a storm coming in but arrived at almost our exact estimated arrival time.
Orlando Airport is huge– we walked to baggage claim and still waited a bit for them to be off loaded. Outside it was warm and humid. We called our Uber and got zipped over to the hotel.
UBER/LYFT How To
I know I have a few readers who have asked me if I can explain how these ride shares work– it can be a little confusing, especially at airports where they designate the pickup area. It’s a lot easier for other rides.
Okay- so first you download the app- I’ve used UBER in the past, I prefer LYFT for no particular reason. As you set the details up make sure you allow location to be shared at the very least while you’re using the app. That’s important.
You connect some manner of payment to the app. I connect to Apple Pay.
Now when you want a ride (not at an airport) you simply pull up the app it asks you where to go- put in that info– it will show where you are. Confirm you’re where you’re currently standing.
Choose your ride- you can take a bargain car that might take up to 20 mins to save a few bucks or you can upgrade to a nicer car and faster pickup– you can guess which I choose.
It will give you the details of your driver name, their pic, a pic of their car and most importantly the license plate. I take a look at the first two digits of the plate and I double check as the car pulls up. The driver will also ask your name– you want to make sure you get in the right car– recently a guy heading to Orlando Airport almost got driven to my resort because he jumped in my Lyft. Spoiler alert– a lot of the drivers don’t speak a ton of English so this can happen. Just make sure you’re getting in the right car and you’ll be okay.
NOW at the airport it works the same but you need to get yourself over to where they corral their Ride Share services, once you’ve found that you just use it the same way.
Full disclosure at O’Hare last year the ride share area was so far away I just gave up and jumped in a cab sitting right outside the door.
- Is It Spring Yet?
Soon we welcome March– the most decietful month of the year– just ask Julius Caesar how he feels about it. March we think “Spring!” but often we get snow, the sun is in such a higher spot than the rest of the winter that it usually is quick to melt, and I’m all for snow that melts within a day, but March can be cruel and judging by how this winter has been, and I would rate this past winter as “BAD” I don’t have high hopes for this most untrustworthy of months.
Come on in March, take a seat, just behave yourself.
- Valentine’s Date Night
The cynic in me thinks Valentines Day is a holiday made up by the greeting card companies (and the origin is actually here in the WOO), but the more touchy feely guy in the gooey middle thinks it’s yet another way we try to occupy ourselves with ANYTHING other than facing the fact that we are in fact in the middle of the most brutal season of the year with little end in sight.
Normally we go back and forth on whether we want to do something for the day- Veronica is sometimes as much a cynic as I am– this year I found a Mechanics Hall event– an Evening of Italian Opera – in which for $150 we would get our own private table on the venu floor, a light meal consisting of meats and cheeses and cocktails– I thought it seemed like a nice idea and with her Italian heritage (she’s also British) and my love of Opera it seemed like a good pairing so I brought it to her.
“I was hoping we could go to a hockey game.” She countered.
Quickly noticing the gender roles flipped from one of my favorite Woody Allen movies- MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY in which Woody agrees to go to the Opera with Diane Keaton if she’ll agree to go to a Rangers Hockey game — I agreed and our decision was made.
We started the evening at OFF THE RAILS a sports pub type of place right next door to the DCU Center (which will forever be The Centrum to me) and had a nice quick meal at 5pm– a little early for dinner but the puck drop was at 605pm– She had brisket tacos and I had a chicken melt sandwich with Teriyaki sauce and fries.
We started with warm cornbread as an appetizer which came with two different kinds of butter– they were very good.
She liked the tacos although she thought the meat was a little fatty and I liked the chicken but there was far too much bread– I really couldn’t tell where the bread ended and the chicken and cheeses started– but it seemed like there were two pieces of bread on each side of the sandwich. The fries were those shoestring type – overall I’d give the place a solid 8 and I’ll be back to try another meal there in April when we go to see Nate Bargatze.
We found our seats and the puck dropped, one of the things I like about these minor league teams is the effort put in by the production staff to keep things lively and fun for the audience, even when nothing is happening (like the refs reviewing a call)- there’s a lot of crazy things that happen like wandering blimps dropping Chic Fil A ™ coupons that you think were worth millions, the standard t-shirt guns and various things the camera would be used for to focus on the audience– but everything is pointed towards fun.
The crowd was mostly families and overall it was a very good time which I would do again.
From there we drove over to FREEPLAY which is a Retro Video Game Club where for $12 admission you are able to play as many games as you’d like. They’ve got some modern consoles but most of them are a throwback to even when I was a teenager playing them- nice to see SPY HUNTER, BURGER TIME and FROGGER getting some attention. The crowd was also well behaved and this time mostly college kids. One young man complimented me on my shooting ability as I faced off hordes of ALIEN invaders from the film series.
Around 11 we wrapped things up and headed home, the night itself was warmer than it has been– and that’s to say it wasn’t skin crackingly frigid as it has been and we had a good time.
- THE AI WITCH HUNT is DESERVED
I recently got into an online discussion about AI– here’s how the conversation started from the OG author (edited for space here);
“A female writer friend of mind recently created the PERFECT cover for her book. It was cute, told the story and most importantly of all, it clearly signalled the genre to the reader.
But she couldn’t use it. Not for copyright issues, not because it would breach any retailer’s terms… She couldn’t post it because she was scared of her fellow authors.
The image was created with AI. Of course it was, how else in late 2025 are you going to get the absolutely perfect image for one particular story?
Unlike me, she writes in romance, a genre I love, full of people I admire, but one that’s also known for its online drama. A small but aggressive contingent has made pile-ons and blacklisting almost routine.
A small group of romance writers, possibly in conjunction with some readers, but I haven’t seen much evidence this comes from readers, have formed themselves into a secret police outfit. They scour Amazon for what they see as the tell-tale signs of AI in any aspect of a book and then they mobilise their army to destroy it, and the author.
Why? Good question.
Maybe they’re still bitter about the car’s devastating impact on the horse and cart industry? That is, after all what’s going on here. And it happens, predictably every time there is a transformational technological development. Most of us embrace it whole heartedly, adapt our working processes, even if that threatens our old way of life, and make the most of the change.
But for some, there is a false belief that new transformative technology can be suppressed. That the genie can be put back in the bottle and that it’s the right thing to do, so that we continue to work in the way we always used to. In this case, ‘protecting’ the jobs of cover designers.”
And my response:
Absolutely not. Where do you think the images come from? It’s not the creative genius of a computer, it’s the outright thievery of thousands of artists whose work is on the web, tweaked and borrowed and STOLEN. Stealing is OK as long as they aren’t stealing from you– that’s the tone of this article. Maybe when AI pilfers one of your novels you’ll start to feel a bit differently but anyone who uses AI to generate their cover deserves to be outed and shamed.
Yes I am aware I occasionally use AI here as part of WordPress’s Image Option– I’m always quick to point out that it is AI and the images are put up more to ridicule than to admire.
AI is likely to continue to get better and better, but keep this in mind; when you use it to generate your story idea, your image, whatever creative project it is that belongs to you– you are now that idea into a barrel which is spun and spun and shared with millions of others, just asking for your work to be stolen.
Think about it.
- Simple Rules for Being a Grown Man
1- Get up at a reasonable hour– take a shower, brush your teeth and shave. Be ready for the day when you leave the bathroom. Why? Because if you stumble downstairs inkempt and in tatters there’s a good chance someone is going to stop by or you’re going to get called somewhere and showing up looking like Columbo worked for Peter Falk but he could only see out of one eye so he can be excused.
2- Dress for the day. I don’t wear printed/graphic t-shirts– in fact I don’t wear t-shirts at all– unless they are under another shirt, and even then they are plain.
3- Pay attention to fabric. My huge collection of linen pants and 7oz jeans are great for those hot sticky days but winter? Useless.
4- Shorts are okay for tennis, the beach or sleeping. Anywhere else? Nope. If you are past the age of 12 you should be wearing pants. Too hot for pants? See #3 linen pants (quality linen) will solve that problem.
5- Eat a proper damn breakfast. I like Ron Swanson would choose for endless bacon and eggs, but I tend to limit it to one or two eggs and some manner of toast– I don’t eat bread that comes out of a processed package– so if there’s a mascot or a slogan on it I pass– bakery bread for me.
6- I don’t like windbreakers or jackets– I either wear a coat (in the winter it’s a long black cashmere coat–in the warmer weather it’s a long black cotton trench coat), if it’s a little bit cool I’ll wear a blazer like a coat. A windbreaker makes me feel like I should be coaching little league.
7- Always sunglasses. UV is as bad for your eyes as it is for your skin. I wear sunglasses even if the day is cloudy– because you never know when that big evil globe is going to come out and I need my eyes to keep working.
8- Make promises and then remember them. Don’t agree to everything– don’t put people off with your answer– just make a decision and then stick to it. Don’t be that guy who isn’t reliable.
9- Goes with the above– be on time even if it means being early. Sit in the car and check your email, or make a phone call but if you say you’ll be somewhere at 11am be there at 11am.
10- If you’re invited to dinner, never arrive empty handed. A bottle of wine, a bouquet of flowers, you need to have something to hand to the host or hostess for taking the time to invite (and more importantly) or even think of you.
Welcome to the new Blog– this whole thing is a work in progress, but you’ll get the latest updates here (just click the links above). It was a longtime coming but a short-time putting it together.
More soon and regularly like the old blog.
Thanks for stopping by.
Andy
It's Andy Fish! 