It's easy, what with the lack of jet-packs, flying cars, laser beams, and hoverboards, to be a little cynical about the state of things today. However, sitting here, 10,000 meters above the ground, having lost track of the amount of times I've actually been to America, a country that seemed so far away to me when I was, being told fabulous stories of television channels full of cartoons and Toys R Us shops that spanned multiple floors, watching Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on a box smaller than a pack of cigarettes that also happens to hold my entire music collection (and how we laughed at the Going Live April Fool of Chippy, all those years ago), well, we got some of the future, I think. Also, the SkyMall has adverts for an automatic margarita maker, a giant remote control the size of a kilogram bar of Daily Milk, and spring-loaded shoes that promise to make you two inches taller and feel like you're 'defying gravity'. Tom Cruise has probably ordered dozens.

(As an aside, A fun game to play while watching Tinker, Tailor is to wonder what you'd be forced to change if you were making it today. By my reckoning, the entire first episode would be compressed into five minutes, ten at the most.)

I have three hours left Time for some The Power of Nightmares (it restores my faith in William Kristol's punchabilty after all. Jarvis on the iPod. Coming over Halifax, Nova Scotia. Did the future contemplate INDIE KARAOKE? I think not. And that, my friends, is where Blade Runner failed. Along with thinking that everybody would simply forget to clean things for a decade or so.

Sadly, I have to report that change comes to everything eventually. Yes, the mid-afternoon snack on AA173, the long-cherished pizza with its dense dough, is no more. In its place? A vegetable cheese panini. Not quite as good, I think.

RDU: As cheerfully inept as ever.

Amusingly, Stacie and I went to Weaver Street Market to say hello to Collin before heading out to get something to eat with Laura. In the space of five minutes, I bumped into Janet Jones (who was in charge of looking after the CS grad students while I was at UNC), and Julia Grace, who took a class I was TA for back in 2002. She's now a grad student there herself. I can see why I like this place!