I try not to bore you guys with my media mentions too often (if you really care, I put them on this page), but I thought you might like to see my TV debut. I got a call a couple months ago from the guys at Current TV asking if they could do a short profile piece on me. Of course, I said yes, but I had one stipulation - they had to send me a copy because I don’t get Current on my cable system. Fortunately, they put all their programming on their website.

So, here’s the clip. Head down below to read more about the filming experience and let me know what you think.

So, that’s it. It was actually a really fun experience. I started by telling my story to the guys at Current and they found a producer, Dave O’Brien, who came up with a plan. This seemed like it would be easy to set up with one exception. He wanted to do some filming on a plane.

Fortunately, the folks at Southwest were more than happy to help. They were able to arrange a Saturday morning visit to John Wayne/Orange County airport so that we could film on a plane. As you probably know, Southwest planes don’t sit on the ground for long, so if we wanted to do it, it had to be REALLY early in the day.

We met with our friendly Southwest contacts at 530a and went straight to the shiny new 737-700 that still had that new airplane smell. (It was only a couple months old.) We got that filming out of the way as quickly as we could so that they could prepare it for a full day of flying.

Once we finished in there, we filmed in the terminal, by the ticket counter, and just far enough away from security that the TSA wouldn’t hassle us. By 9a, I was already pretty tired, but the day was only half over. The producer and I had talked about some of my favorite planespotting sites, and of course I mentioned the park by the In ‘n Out at LAX. So, we left the OC and headed up the 405 to LAX.

Once there, he had the unique problem of getting me to focus on the camera long enough without looking up at the planes. As you can see in the video, that didn’t go so well because I couldn’t stop turning when I heard a plane go by. He had me talking for a long time over there about everything and anything related to the industry. Finally we finished around 11a and by then I was more than ready for a Double Double (animal style, no tomatoes) to cap the morning.

It was a very tiring day, but it was a lot of fun. Dave was a really nice guy, and though I’d never done anything like this before, he made it easy and time passed really quickly. The only snag? I have transition lenses on my glasses (yes, I’m a huge dork), so they couldn’t film me wearing them outside. I must admit, it’s pretty weird watching myself without my glasses on.

Just a couple notes here. InsideTrip was one of the many websites we discussed throughout the day, but they got some great PR here when the editing was done. In case you were wondering, I’m not affiliated with them in any way, but I did have an email exchange with the founder when I wrote my post about the site.

Also, you may be wondering why I didn’t dress up for the occasion. First of all, I hate dressing up. Seriously. I mean, I wear flip flops to PriceGrabber during the day. But more importantly, they wanted me to dress as I do when I travel. I always wear a sweater, comfortable jeans, and closed-toed shoes, usually tennis shoes.

Anyway, thanks to Current for being interested in putting this together, and thanks to Dave for doing a really great job with it.

Those of you who have been reading Cranky for awhile will remember back in October I asked which airline I should fly to Peru for a trip in the seemingly distant future. Well guess what? It’s time for that trip.

A whopping 59% of you said you’d opt for the LAN nonstop from LAX to Lima, and I have of course decided to listen to you. So, my fiancee and I head out this weekend for a week and a half of relaxation down there.

There’s good news and bad news, of course. The bad news is that I’m not even going to bring a computer with me. That means that when crazy news breaks, I won’t be able to talk about it until I return. Will US Airways buy Aeroflot? Maybe Alitalia will turn around and takeover BA. Could there be a brand new ATC system up and running in the US by the time I return in a couple weeks?. The possibilities are endless, but I won’t write about it while I’m away.

The good news is that I’ve got a full slate of posts ready for you while I’m gone. Some of them are my own, but I’ve also got some guest spots from one or two industry people that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

Now, the other bad news is that comments on this blog are moderated, and I won’t be around to moderate them. I may have some people checking in to approve them, but if not, I promise to approve if I find an internet cafe. At the very least, they’ll be approved when I return.

So, enjoy the next couple weeks. I’ll have a full trip report when I get back.

Raise your hand if you wish you could read more of what I have to say.

For the two of you who actually raised your hand, you might need to seek some professional help. If not, you’ll be happy to know that in addition to Cranky, I’m now going to be writing for BNET as well. What is BNET? Well, take CNET and change the first letter. Still not working for you? BNET is “the go-to place for management,” or at least that’s what the tagline says. It really is trying to be a resource for managers, and for some strange reason the people over there have asked me to help make that happen.

I am now officially the travel blogger for BNET. Basically, you know that as Cranky I try to keep more focused on customer facing issues. Well, now over at BNET I’m going to talk more about topics for either managers in the airline industry or those who think it’s so screwed up that they could learn how NOT to do things. I’ll be posting over there every day Monday through Friday, just as I do here.

So, please come and check it out. You can sign up for RSS and email alerts if you’d like. But please keep coming back to Cranky as well. Nothing will change over here at all. You’ll still get the same frequency, same quality, and same terrible graphics that you know and love.

When I first put up the link to Cranky Gear online, I figured I wouldn’t sell too much of it. Turns out, at least some people are interested. I started asking people to send in pictures wearing their Cranky gear, and sure enough, they have. I’m going to have to create a page of Cranky Gear around the world, or something like that. So, if you purchased Cranky Gear, take pictures and send them in!

As you can see below, we’ve even got some kids in on the act already.

Then a friend sent some pictures of himself posing down the mountain from Christ the Redeemer in Rio.

His wife was not to be left out. Here she is in front of Leblon beach with Ipanema in the distance.

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to US Airways Media Day, so there’s a good chance I won’t post again until Monday. I’ll be back with all kinds of fun US Airways info later on.

I’m heading out to LAX today to see the press conference from a “Major National Low-Cost Airline” expanding service in the LA area, so I’ll have more on that tomorrow. (Hint: It’s JetBlue) But today, I’d like to extend a hearty welcome to a couple of newbies in the blogosphere, BoardingArea and the TSA.

Wait . . . the TSA? Yes, really. They’ve started a blog called the Evolution of Security with the Fox-Newsy tagline of “Terrorists Evolve. Threats Evolve. Security Must Stay Ahead. You Play A Part.” This is a unique blog in that it’s set up to focus on the comments section and basically be a feedback mechanism. They’re soliciting feedback from everyone and anyone, and clearly they’ve seen a response. This post on inconsistencies between airports has received over 350 comments so far. Let’s just hope they haven’t censored too many of them, though I think it’s safe to say they have that as least some have been censored. In fact, they say “In the spirit of transparency, we plan to note how many comments we’ve rejected and tell you why. Mostly the rejected comments include profane language, political rants or abusive posts that we just can’t print, and some are completely off topic. Other than these, every post will go up as written and we will continue to operate this way.”

It may not be the most informative blog around, but clearly, good things can come out of this. In fact, they already have. Apparently, some “local TSA offices” had decided to start requiring all electronics to be removed from carry-ons against TSA rules. Well, people commented on the blog, Washington found out, and now it’s been fixed. Huzzah!

Ok, half-huzzah. I mean, how is it that they need a blog to figure out the major problems that are happening at some of their outstations? It’s a little concerning that they don’t have better oversight to ensure the regulations are being implemented correctly.

Maybe this won’t be too bad after all. I mean, they had the good sense to include my blog in their very short blogroll. I’m in some pretty lofty company there. Actually, I’m downright giddy to be listed right below security deity Bruce Schneier’s blog. Makes me look much cooler than I am.

Enough about the TSA. Let’s also welcome BoardingArea, the latest creation of FlyerTalk founder Randy Petersen. Head on over there to find “voices of the business traveler.” Randy has decided to aggregate blogs that appeal business travelers from around the web. I’m very happy to say that I’ve been included in that group. No need to read my content over there since it’s the same stuff I post here, but you should definitely head over there to discover some other excellent blogs, some of which are brand new and most of which can only be found at BoardingArea.com.

Edited 2/13 @ 131p to change wording on comment censoring (shown in italics)

If you live in one of the 22 states (and yes, American Samoa) voting today, step away from the computer and head to your polling place. My blog will still be here when you get back.

I went first thing this morning, and since we use Inkavote, I don’t have to worry about hanging chads or corruptable electronic voting machines. I just get to enjoy camping out in front of the TV tonight and watching the returns.

For those of you who want Cranky to be a bigger part of your life, you should probably see a shrink. But if that doesn’t work, how about putting Cranky on your chest? Thinking some of the airlines that have received a Cranky Jackass award need more than just a mention in the blog, I went over to Cafe Press and created the t-shirt at left.

Then I started to create more t-shirts, hats, a coffee mug, etc. Eventually, I had a “store” full of gear, and I thought, “hey, somebody may actually want to buy this for some odd reason.” So, I ordered a couple examples to make sure the quality was decent and the images looked good. Sure enough, they do, so now you can head on over and buy Cranky Gear for yourself.

If you’re interested, go to the Cranky Flier Store and you’ll find everything I created over there. If you have ideas of things you’d like to see, let me know and I’ll try to put it together. And if you do buy some gear, take a picture from wherever you are in the world and send it my way.

Thank you to everyone who headed over to Performancing to vote for me. I have now officially been crowned The Best Travel Blog of 2007*!

Why the asterisk, you ask?

Well, the editors over there decided that reader votes aren’t enough. They thought they’d come up with their own winners from the list as well. So I won the reader vote, but the editors voted for Gridskipper. I didn’t even take their runner-up spot - Gadling took that honor.

But hey, who cares what editors think anyway? You guys, my readers, voted for me, and that’s all I care about. Hopefully I can keep writing things that interest you. The good news is that in case I’m unable to fulfill my duties during the upcoming year, it’s very comforting to know that Travel Rants came in second, and they could easily have won this one.

Thanks again for your vote.

I was really hoping to have my monstrous post on Essential Air Service finished today, but it looks like I’m going to need another day. That means I’m postless this morning. Arrrrgh. So, I thought I’d take the time to point out that I received an email over the weekend saying that I’ve been nominated for the Best Travel Blog in the 2007 Performancing Travel Blog Awards.

That means, it’s time to VOTE FOR ME, if you’re so inclined.

It is, of course, a great honor to be recognized. I’m up against some heavyweights in the group for sure. If you’d like to check out the other nominees, here they are with their slogans:

• Gridskipper - The urban travel guide
• Cheapest Destinations - Bargain destinations, vacation values, and international travel adventures
• Gadling - Go there
• Exposed Planet - The world exposed in words and vision
• Travel Rants - No slogan, but you can probably figure out what it’s about from the name

Performancing also lets you vote for write-ins, so go over there and vote for SOMEBODY today. I’ll be back tomorrow with my EAS post.

It didn’t take long for loyal readers to notice that a couple of days ago I made some changes to the comments section. In fact, I had my first feedback within a few hours. I thought it would be a good idea to talk about this in a post so I can get more ideas from you all.

One thing I’ve learned after writing this blog is that I really look forward to reading the comments, good and bad. Even if you roast me for what I say, I still enjoy all the thought (most of) you put into the comments. Disagreement is great, and that’s what makes the blog such a great place for me and hopefully for you as well.

So, I tried to think of ways I could make the comment system work better for everyone. One thing was easy. I just installed a plugin that allows you to sign up to receive an email when followup comments are posted. (You’ll see it right below the comment box.) I know I hate it when I have to keep checking back on comments to see if someone replied. Now you no longer have to worry about that.

The other thing I did was install SezWho. This basically creates a rating system for each commenter. Now you’ll see ratings from 1 to 5 for each person who comments on my blog. If you like the comment, you can vote it up or down to affect the rating for that person in the future. Everyone starts with a 2.5 rating and it goes from there. The ratings also are altered if you comment on another blog that uses SezWho using the same address. So your ratings reputation can follow you around if you want it to (if not, just use a fake email address).

I think the coolest feature here is that if someone sees a comment you write and likes it, they can hover over your profile and see other comments you’ve made on my blog. This will encourage people to discover past posts they may have missed and it will make you the center of it all. All of these things help to build the community on the blog, I think, and I hope you find them valuable.

Of course, the main reason I’m writing this post is because I want your feedback. Do you like the idea of SezWho? If not, please explain why. If so, do you have better ideas about how it could be implemented? What concerns do you have, if any?

Please leave your comments below or email me privately so I can make this blog as interesting as possible for you.