Month: August 2008

Preventing Pens from Leaking on Airplanes

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

One of my coworkers, T.Scott, had his pen start leaking on him after a recent flight. And, in case it might help anyone else, I thought I’d write a short post about a strategy that has worked pretty well for me. In short, you can generally prevent pens from leaking if you keep them upright (tip pointed-up) during flight.

That way, if the air expands within the chamber (due to a change in air pressure), the air can harmlessly escape through the tip (rather than pushing the ink through it). Typically, I’ll use the pen’s clip to attach it to one of the in-flight safety cards in the seatback in front of me just before takeoff (while keeping the tip pointed up, of course).

PS Some pages that address this topic also recommend removing the cap during flight (while keeping them pen upright) to allow further airflow through the tip of the pen. I’ve had good results without having to remove the cap, myself, but that option is there if you had wanted to take extra precautions.

Seattle Sightseeing Photos

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Dad at the Bow of the Ferry

I’ve been in Seattle on a project for a client here in the area and my dad came to visit over the weekend. We went on many of the classic sightseeing spots and I thought I’d give a couple thoughts in case you might ever find yourself in the Seattle area:

  • Museum of Flight — If you like planes and flight, I can recommend this — they have a Concorde and it’s probably worth going for their SR-71 alone.

  • Seattle Aquarium — One of my coworkers who visited the aquarium didn’t like it very much, but I thought it was a hoot. Their exhibit on tropical fish (the coral reef kind) was particularly good. (And, I gotta give props to the staff — they were very knowledgeable and were happy to answer all of our questions.)

  • Seattle Underground Tour — As you may be aware, much of Seattle was decimated by a fire in 1889. In the aftermath, the city planners decided to regrade the streets one or two stories higher than they were originally; this tour visits some of those formerly-first-floor areas of town. When my dad and went, our tour guide was very lively, but still informative at the same time.

  • Space Needle — In many ways, the Space Needle is Seattle’s icon. The architecture is novel, of course, and the view really is fantastic; it probably helps, also, that even though the Space Needle is no longer Seattle’s tallest structure, most of the buildings anywhere close to the Space Needle aren’t exactly of the skyscraper variety.

Photos from the Seattle Mariners Game

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Wide View of Safeco Field

I’ve been working on a project for a client in Seattle since early June and a bunch of us recently headed out to Safeco Field to catch a Seattle Mariners game. It was good fun — and any ballpark that has Pyramid Hefeweizen on top is a-ok with me.

I had also been pining to purchase Canon's 10-22mm lens and this outing provided just the excuse I had needed. (Besides, it had been months since my last lens purchase, I tells ya.) After getting the lens, I didn’t actually have many opportunities to play around with it; if you look over the photo set, though, you’ll see a few Seattle cityscape-type shots, but even those were taken with my 50mm lens (before the 10-22mm had arrived).

In all though, I’ve had great deal of fun with the lens. In months prior, I can’t even count how many times I had said to myself, “Hey this viewpoint would be great for a wide-angle shot… now if only I had a wide-angle lens :(.” (And, yes the unhappy face was included in my mental notes at the time.) And, since getting ahold of the lens, I’ve been nothing but pleased when those scenarios have come along.