I’m off for a weekend in Los Angeles for a conference called the Southern California Linux Expo. I’ve been here before and always had a good time, so I”m looking forward it.

My business partner, David, has a son who lives out here, so he came with me, and we have Jay from Massachusetts and Bill from Oregon coming down as well.

David and I took the same flights out. Due to my Executive Platinum Status I got upgraded to first class the whole way. The trip was pretty uneventful. David was upgraded on the DFW to LAX leg and we were able to sit together. That flight was delayed as one of the engines wouldn’t start, but they replaced the starter motor and things went smoothly from there. It helps to have mechanical trouble in Dallas since you don’t have to wait for them to flight parts in from another airport.

I tend to watch TV shows on my iPhone when I fly, and I started watching the first season of Dollhouse. This included the unaired pilot, which really did help me understand the scope of the series and got me through the weak first couple of episodes. It stands alone (as they incorporate scenes from it into later programs) but you get more of a hint as to where the show is going.

The premise is that a company has figured out a way to imprint personalities into people. They recruit attractive, young people for a five year stint in which they are rented out to the extremely wealthy in sort of a Fantasy Island fashion. The whole operation is very quasi-legal, and some of the assignments involve blatantly illegal activity such as helping with large drug deals.

Between engagements the “actives” exist in a child-like “doll” state.

It’s an enjoyable way to pass the time on a long flight, but I have to agree with Ben that the weak link in all of this is the main actress, Eliza Dushku. She just doesn’t have the range to cover the different people she is being asked to play, and how she ended up with a producer credit is beyond me.

I managed to get through six episodes before we landed.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I got to see David’s son Jason again, but I was so tired I let them go out on their own that evening and I went back to the room to sleep.

I woke up about 5am and stayed in bed until about 7am, when I got up and checked my mail. Andrea wrote that there was a strong “chemical” smell around the house, but she couldn’t determine what the source of it was. I did some investigation and no one else in the area was smelling it, so it seemed to be localized to our place. Our neighbor Jake went over and determined it was skunk.

Luckily, none of the dogs were hit, but the heat pump might have been – hence the oder in the house.

Too bad I’m not home to enjoy this. (grin)