A reminder to myself for 2050

I, unlike most kids my age already have an established 401K plan. Kroger offers a very nice match for these plans, so I have decided to take advantage of this 'free' money. My plan is set for me to retire in the year 2050... crazy eh?

On days like today (see previous post) I feel that I must make notes of such events as retirement. I wrote a reminder and dated it for my birthday in 2050.

if you're still working at kroger... just a note, its time to retire....

I even took a screen scrape for you... don't you feel special ;-)

Some mornings, you just stay in bed

If there was a day to just leave and go home... today is the day.

I was so excited this morning when I got to work! I have a newly acquired basketball hoop that is perfect for my cube. I won it with tickets last night at an arcade (which by the way was a blast). Anyway... there are sticky squares on the back that you have to pull off the paper to use… so let the fun begin. I sat for a good 10 minutes trying to get this paper off. Finally after using a few unnecessary resources, I finally succeeded. I thought I was being a genius and stuck tacks to the sticky paper so it could hang from anywhere on the four sides of my tack friendly cube. This looked great (however deadly when all tacks are standing pointy side up). I stick it to the wall... and it stays! Woohoo! I make my first shot and sink it... maybe it will be a smooth sailing day after all.

A buddy comes over to shoot the breeze a little while before either of us really gets into the day’s work and I proudly show off my new basketball hoop. He takes a shot, makes it, but the hoop nearly falls off the wall... sad :-( I think I might search for some magnet strips and hang it off my filing cabinet if this isn't going to work out.

Eventually the stuff called work starts and I start sifting through the flood of morning emails... then the unthinkable happens... Lotus Notes (what a ... cough cough... wonderful ... cough cough ... software it is ... cough cough...) freezes up... crazy eh? This was actually an issue yesterday. After talking to my favorite support girl, Crystal, on the phone for 20 minutes, and finding that no one at the support center could help me out... I got my call forwarded to their Lvl3. But I still haven't heard back from them... and my email freezes up pretty much every time I try and do anything... no good.

No worries though... I'll just continue working on my shell script I was writing all day yesterday. This script is great, it basically helps keep your archive directories clean. You tell it how old the files you want to keep are, the root directory of the scan, and how many subdirectories deep you want to go, and it cleans it out... great idea, yes?

I was looking into different arguments for the 'ls' command and ran across this thread. I'll save you the trouble of reading... my script already exists (without as many features... but still exists) in the simple command....

find /home/user123 -mtime +30 -exec rm -f {} \;

Needless to say I was a tad bit frustrated... so I decided to write this blog entry.

To top it off, with this being Fourth of July weekend, half the team took the day off, and pretty much the other half are taking half days, leaving at lunch.

On the plus side... we're going bowling tonight...
[HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH]

A little bit about the status quo...

Here me out on this one... let's look at our President, as the 'Dad' of the country...

Today I was reading through my blogs and ran across this article from whitehouse.gov about "Congress's Failure to Act on Comprehensive Immigration Reform". There is a definite somber tone in this article as President Bush puts on his fatherly voice of disappointment to talk about his wayward child, congress.

Ok... so congress doesn't really equate to the President's kid, but we do, don't we?

Think about it, what he (maybe soon to be she?) says goes... he's the commander of the armed forces and can declare war... he has power to veto any bill that comes his way... he is the head guy, big cheese, wearing the pants in our country...

My Dad did (and still does) use the guilt trip ‘punishment’ on me… its worse than anything.

If you think about him as the 'father' of the United States at the moment, many are missing out on the key parental demand of respect. Now I for one don't agree with everything that President Bush says or does, but I do respect the man. If you notice in most (if not all) of my posts regarding the President, I refer to him as President Bush, or some near, respectable title. Yes, you go back and look; it has been a conscious (and sometimes very difficult) effort. You don't hear me calling him names or referring to him as Georgie, or the 'Big W', or anything. He has a lot on his plate, and even though he hasn't made all the right choices in my eyes, he hasn't done a ‘two thumbs down’ job.... maybe only a ‘one-and-a-half’ thumbs down. Of course most negative opinions are from the war on Iraq, but I think positive accolades need to be given for his work on immigration. I really like the plan on the plate... although, apparently congress doesn't.

This post is kind of jumping all over the place... I'm just spouting random thoughts, so if you've made it this far congrats, it probably isn't going to get much better.

I've harped on the immigration reform many times already, but again I feel like I need to get my opinion across.

THE STATUS QUO SUCKS!

Let's hear one person give an argument against that.... seriously.

So the conservatives think that the reform is granting amnesty to those illegal aliens already here? I don't think it is... they have it tough to become a legal citizen... and we can't make it impossible or else no illegal aliens will want to let themselves be found

So the liberals think that the fine is too high for the illegal aliens? They've already broken the law... are you the ones trying to give them amnesty?

We need something right now that is better than the status quo, and that is what President Bush has offered.

Hello Congress, my name is Jason Pawlak… I have a request… Why won't you get off your high horses and learn to compromise...

…or else nothing will ever change.

I personally have a hard time imagining much change in the illegal aliens that are already in our country. Even with the so-called 'amnesty' I doubt many will let themselves be found. Our real plan should be centered on protecting the border. I've already given my plan there for securing the border... check it out here if you haven't seen it. It's a winner :-)

Talking about politicians always gets me frustrated... grr

They’re coming to take me away… I’m a computer killer…

If only I had an Ultra X3 / 1000-Watt / ATX / SATA-Ready / PCI-E Ready / Energy Efficient / ULT40064 Modular Power Supply… this just would not be an issue…

First off, I'm pretty sure I fried my desktop. I had the box in the perfect sized location between my desk, wall, and TV... unfortunately I don't think I was giving it adequate ventilation, and so one night, it quit. It wasn't the first time the computer had turned itself off in the middle of the night, but it was the first time it wouldn't turn back on. I have to remember to bring my multi-meter back down to school next time I go home so I can check to see if any current is coming out of the power supply... keep your fingers crossed.

Yesterday, I was home sick (I blame it on the no sleep from the awesome wedding weekend), but anyway, my roommate and I were in the family room watching some TV, and decided to watch some of 'The Office'. I have all the episodes on my laptop so we hook up the cords to from the TV to the laptop and I push the Function F4 or whatever combination it is to switch screens... my laptop goes crazy. It looked liked it had been tossed down a flight of steps with a pool of water at the bottom. Needless to say I forced the shutdown and rebooted. When it started back up, the touch pad didn't work...

[let it be known that while typing this I think I just realized what was wrong. i tried pushing other Function + F... combinations while it was all static and I might have turned off the touch pad. i'll have to try that when i get back to the house]

I then went to faithful Google and tried searching for an answer to my issue. Being a Linux machine, there are thousands of forums with so many people willing to help. I tried a few edits to some configuration files that seemed to be of similar problem, however, they only resulted in me blue screening the laptop on restart and having to go through the Unix prompts to fix my newly created issues... I soon resorted to an external USB mouse, which of course worked fine.

That's all for now... talk to ya later,
- Your neighborhood computer killer

I can solve the border control issue

I have a solution to our Mexico-United States border control issue.

President Bush has seemingly made our southern border control his number one priority lately. After congress denied his immigration reform bill the first time, our President showed signs of frustration and continued on proclaiming that the bill isn't perfect, but it is better than the status quo. I agree... sometimes change is needed... however, I think our government doesn't look at bills like this in the best manner. Bush himself made notes to the point of some items in the bill will need to be adjusted but we need other points of the bill. So why don't we make these separate pieces of legislation?

So you want to hear my stop-all-illegal-immigration-best-ever-plan (SAIIBEP)?

Some say let's build a fence... I say dogs get around fences... how's this going to stop people...
Some say let's beef up the border patrol... I say there's no chance one man is going to be able to watch miles of darkness and see a thing...
Some say who cares about border control... I say wake up and smell the coffee...

But anyway... here is the end all plan of action.
Let's build on the border...

That's it... seriously. I've been through the Mexican border, there is nothing around in sight. Most cities are built in circular fashions somewhat out from the downtown area. Why don't we start Border City, which spans the nearly 1,951 miles along the Rio Grande (or more than once city). This won't be any old city though. This will be a city for cowboys who like to wrangle. Housing in this city is free... got that? The folks who live here won't have to buy a house, they are assigned one. These border livers would then be able to do as they please, shop at the local markets, go for picnics under the shade of cacti in the local sand park, but they do have a job. Every person that lives in this city has the responsibility of watching the border. Each citizen for an allotted amount of time per day... maybe an hour or two, must sit in a lawn chair under a nice shady umbrella with lemonade in hand, and watch the border.

If these cities populate the entire way down the border, there will be more than enough eyes to watch. You might be thinking that these border watchers would then be paid off in attempt for smugglers to get their 'goods' across. Well that's completely possible, however, there are rewards for illegal immigrants caught. Maybe its cash, maybe its a better house, maybe its a spot on the town council... but you are awarded for you services... and you get a free house. So even if the man watching the border at the time gets paid off, the smuggler still has to watch out for the rest of the town.

These cities would not be for middle to upper class children though. I imagine the crime rate would be high and the types of people that live there would be rough. The demand for folks to fill these houses would be high, and lucrative for the folks that oblige.

Another possibility is a type of draft. Instead of getting drafted to go off into the military and die, you get drafted to move down to a border city and sit around drinking lemonade all day.

Seriously folks... this is the end all plan... it would work. It would take a lot of front-end costs with the government needing to build homes for nearly 2,000 miles of border, and also the funds to keep their word of rewards for illegal immigrants found... but no more than what we spend right now.

Watch the news for SAIIBEP... it'll be huge ;-)

Later days!

Christmas is around the corner...

On my way to work this morning, the radio reminded me that today is the halfway mark to Christmas... only six months to go!

Every year it seems as though stores jump the gun on special shopping periods. You can take any holiday for example. Easter, Valentines Day, Christmas, Fourth of July... every holiday's shopping period always seems to start earlier and earlier every year.

Now that Christmas is only six months away, how long before we start seeing tinsel and lawn angels flourish the stores along with cheery Christmas tunes and the Ring-a-ding Salvation Army Santa Claus? I don't remember the specifics of years past, but my guess is going to be just before Halloween.

Thinking about the Christmas season is already making me cold (or it might have something to do with the air conditioner being at full blast all the time in this office... maybe I should spend my lunch outside thawing instead of writing for my blog...)

I do love Christmas time... it really is the most wonderful time of the year... but that's exactly it, it is just a time of the year. If these market stores keep adding a week prior to the shopping season over their previous year, then in my lifetime, there will be a full year of Christmas... 'time'.

There would be perks to this all year Christmas extravaganza...

- People are generally cheery during the Christmas season, even when temperatures dip below zero
- There is a surge of people wanting to help others less fortunate than themselves
- There are so many 'sites' to see like festivals of lights that you can stay entertained and mystified by the buildings with ornate designs and creativity of not only parks and zoos, but now your neighbors more than ever
**not to mention these make great dates!

So if the Christmas Season lasted all year it wouldn't be a bad thing... but the Christmas season only lasts as long as the Christmas mindset is held. This we would fail.

With all this cheer, we'd be spending too much money on hot cocoa and little chocolate candies. Our wallets would go empty along with our spirits. Everyone would become annoyed and then angry. While tempers flared driving would become dangerous with road rage at every yield sign. Accidents would occur; lives would be taken and loved ones lost. Now the children without any parents would be scared and run. Streets would become overpopulated with kids who have by now become tough as nails with street slang and lollipops instead of cigarettes (cause if there's one thing our school's actually harp upon its anti-drugs). With the kids now running the streets and all the police preoccupied with Christmas present plunderers just trying to keep their Christmas spirit alive, the kids would take charge. Adults would be scared to leave the house with fear of the now unionized children who's only demand is that the jolly fat guy with a white beard is handed over, unharmed... so they can 'take care' of him. Adults wouldn't be able to go to work and whatever money they had left after their spending on Christmas cheer would vanish. Soon wars would break out between child tribes and Lord of the Flies would become a reality.

Dear Mr./Ms. owner of department stores and all markets of Christmas related paraphernalia,

For reasons mentioned above, I ask you to please keep the Christmas season to the two months of November and December. It is in our best interest that Christmas 'Specials' do not start until the day after Thanksgiving and commercials/advertisements not start until November 1st of the given year. Our survival depends on it.

Always looking out for the world, yours truly...
Jason Pawlak

Just another day of commuting

Have you ever needed to replace something that was broken... but you kept putting it off, until you really needed it... but then it is just too late? Let's take windshield wipers for example...

So I was driving to work this morning in a fairly hefty thunderstorm. We haven't had a good rain here in weeks, so it was actually quite strange driving about, avoiding the standing water... cause Cincinnati just loves to hide potholes under those mini-lakes. I had my windshield wipers up as fast as they could go... but I couldn't see. You see, about 2 weeks ago the little rubber wiper blade decided it needed a little excitement in life, so it detached itself from the wiper and now flaps around like a wet Styrofoam noodle in a backyard pool game of chicken... useless... to anyone but a 3 year old in the backseat laughing and giggling at the silly flapping on the windshield (but… I don't have a 3 year old).

So the freely flying wiper blade is of course on the driver side either not clearing the window completely and smearing dirty water, or just plain missing all the little droplets of hydrogen dioxide that are so tightly hydrogen bonded to the silicon dioxide windshield... eh.

The good news of the situation is that only the top is flying freely... the bottom of the blade is still attached, making a small clearing at the very bottom of the windshield... so here are my options:

1.) Roll down the window that doesn't roll back up in the middle of a large thunderstorm, stick my head outside and hope no cars want to pass too closely on my left.
2.) Somehow manipulate my body so I am practically driving from the passenger seat... or at least watching the road from the passenger seat with at least one foot and a hand on the driver side.
3.) Crouch down real low and tilt my head to the side to watch the road from the tiny bit of clearing on the bottom-left of the windshield.

As most would assume... I went with option three.

Option three offered the least amount of visibility, however, the most control over the car. I figured I'd just go a little slower and offer my profound apologizes to all woodland creatures that happened to walk in front of a blind motorist's vehicle.

Have you ever tilted your head completely sideways while driving? …it is very strange. I suggest that if you try, you tilt your head very slowly and only on a straight road. Your perception is very quirky when your eyes are vertical of one another.

I did arrive to work safely... however, when I stepped out of my car I stepped right into a puddle... I think it was God's little joke saying "Sure I'll keep ya safe on the road... but oh well for your socks...” Hah...

I think God has a sense of humor... but that is a post for another time :-)

Later!

PS. This Saturday (tomorrow) is my older brother's (Dan's) wedding! We're all very excited for him and his soon to be wife Katie as they take this huge step of marriage and move to Boston to start the next chapter in their now unified book of life. Congrats to them!

UTube and YouTube - so close but yet so different

I heard about the troubles with UTube a few years back, but hadn't heard anything surface since... until now.

UTube.com is the website for Universal Tube, a tube and pipe manufacturing company found in Toledo, of northern Ohio. Back in 1996 Universal Tube opened its website http://www.utube.com to the public in hopes of driving buyers through an easy online purchase process. It was a success! About 75% of their current business now goes through their website which was getting about 1,000 hits per month... prior to YouTube.com.

After the launch of YouTube.com, Universal Tube's website popularity increased many fold. At first thinking that it was free advertising, Universal Tube did nothing... however, now, with their servers crashing under the weight of 150,000 hits daily raking up hosting costs upwards of $1,700 per month they are giving second thoughts. That's not the end of it though.

As smart as most internet users are... cough cough ...many that find UTube.com are not looking for pipes and tubes... surprise! I myself, an avid domain name checker for the common misspellings or similar words, just to see what sites there are, or to check domain availability, visited UTube.com once the video monster YouTube.com first came to popularity. And apparently users aren’t too happy to find giant green pipe making machines when looking for videos of people eating their own boogers.

Universal Tube is filing suit with Google for Time and Expense charges related to the site mishaps. Some users when finding UTube.com send nasty emails cursing and ridiculing them for not being YouTube.com… the world is full of morons.

I personally can't see much of anything coming from this suit though. As I said in a few posts ago (Read-Only Moderation is Crucial) "According to present day, internet law, website owners are not liable for comments users make on their site". Does this apply to other sites? I would think so. Google, being the company that it is, might decide to help out the little guy a little bit if the suit is dropped, along with a plan to help smooth the uneasy waters.

This is really an unlucky turn of events for Universal Tube.

If I were the owner of Universal Tube here is what I would do:
1.) Email all my clients telling them that we are changing our domain to a less known and less trafficked outlet
2.) Sell the domain UTube.com for tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands or even... millions) of dollars in a domain auction.

This would help the company in saving on server costs as well as putting a pretty penny in the pocket for the domain sale. I am sure Google would be willing to buy the domain for more than a few dollars. Just think of the 11 years spent at UTube.com as an investment towards the end goal of selling the domain.

Another option is to just park the domain and let it sit there raking in dollars through ads...

If only I was the one with 150,000 hits daily... what a day that would be :-D

Flight bag... FOUND

So a maintenance guy at Lunken found my bag out in the parking lot and brought it inside :-) hooray!

here's to hoping for him that some high maintenance woman does want a maintenance man...

Flight Lesson 14

I went up solo today. Flew about 25 miles southeast to Meldahl Lock and Dam, did some maneuvers and toyed around for a little bit. I did one practice stall, but the stall horn wasn't working. So when I started falling out of the sky I corrected fine and decided to head back for a few touch and go's.

It was quite bouncy up there today.

On the way home I think I left my flight bag on the top of my car when I drove away... have you seen it?

I'm now missing...
- flight headset
- log book (filled out with 14 entries) (I just did my 40th landing today... it was the end of a second page)
- Cincinnati Section map
- Airport Directory
- Flight planning tools
- BE77 Checklist booklet

I think that's all that was in there. I just want my log book back... sentimental reasons. I can buy the rest again... it sucks to buy it all again, but i really just want my log book back. The new one won't have 'FIRST SOLO!' in really big letters... or at least it won't be the same.

Post Retraction

I retract the previous post... a few minutes ago...

I started delving into the masses of changes that would be necessary for this procedure, and I decided... eh, its fine the way it is.

I think I'm going to be giving the home page a face lift, but for now I think I will keep as it was.

Thanks,
Jason

We're on the move....

Hello Loyal Readers... We are soon to be on the move!

I have decided that my homepage, which was located at http://www.blarged.com really stunk... or at least I wanted my blog to have a domain of its own... so we're soon to be on the move.

I had already made all the updates and then thought... well what about you folks that use readers instead of visiting the site, you won't know to update your bookmarks! So this is how its going to happen. Before next Monday the change will be official, I will have the blog moved over to the root directory of http://www.blarged.com. I will have a redirect page located in the /blog/ subdirectory to save the Google searchers. But pleeeeease update you bookmarks, I don't want to lose any of you readers during the switch.

Until next Monday, I will be updating both http://www.blarged.com and http://www.blarged.com/blog with recent posts (which isn't much fun but eh... its all for you guys). Eventually I am hoping that this change will lead to more readers being able to find the site.

If you have any problems/questions/comments/concerns... just give me a holler, I myself am working on updating all links everywhere... quite the task.... Later!

Classic Kids TV

Think back to the movies and/or TV shows you watched when you were a kid; they were kind of strange weren't they....

One of my all-time favorite movies while growing up was Sesame Street Presents: Follow that Bird. Coming to us from the great year of 1985, Follow that Bird was labeled as "It's Big Adventure! It's Big Laughs! It's Big Bird on the Big Screen!" I tell you, I loved this movie.

Sitting here I am trying to remember all the little details of the movie (actually just trying to remember the general plot). Great, I just quickly reviewed the movie plot on imdb, I love that site.

So here's how it goes down:

Big Bird has always lived in Sesame Street, but the Feathered Friends Society is not too happy about it. They think Bird should be living with his own kind, not the eclectic backgrounds of those in Sesame Street (hmm... can you see a possible lesson to be taught through this movie... hah) Big Bird meets his new bird family but isn't happy. He sneaks away and so the real movie begins, with Bird flying the coupe back to Sesame Street.

What is it about Sesame Street that attracts young kids? I know I watched that show at least once a day. I loved Big Bird, Snuff... Snuffelu... yeah, Birds big brown friend with the nose, Bert and Ernie were pretty much awesome (and I never wondered while I was young why they lived together... you sickos), and everyone has a place in their heart for Oscar. I think we might have even gone to see Sesame Street Live once or twice when it was in Cincinnati.

Now you turn on kids shows and there are lights flashing everywhere, you have no idea what's going on, and there not speaking real words... what are those characters that have the strange wire things on their heads and make cooing noises for speech? Teletubbies!.... yuck... seriously, what's up with them? I was a big fan of Arthur as well, although that talking aardvark didn't show up until my later kids TV show years.

I also liked Ghostwriter, and thought it was the coolest thing to go everywhere with a backpack that had a pen and notebook in it... just in case :-)

Bill Nye was great...Wishbone was amazing (If it weren’t for that show, my knowledge in classics literature wouldn’t be nearly what it is today… hah)… Mister Rogers was pretty awesome (I have a book title "The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers" that is sitting ready to be read back at home, I'll let you know how that goes)... and remember Reading Rainbow? Great TV definitely.

So what sorts of kid shows did you watch when you were young?

Read-Only Moderation is Crucial

The internet can be an extremely educational playground when used appropriately. However, as in the second grade, there are bullies just waiting to steal your lunch money and walk all over you.

The latest example of this is from a site autoadmit.com which made NPR headlines in this article about the slandering of female law students at Yale. The site labels itself as "The most prestigious college discussion board in the world." which it proudly stamps at the top of its homepage. I had never heard of the site before listening to the story so I decided to check it out. My first reaction to the initial presentation of the site was positive. I liked the layout, it’s not the prettiest and definitely not the easiest to navigate, but that in itself can be a quality for a discussion board such as this.

I figured that since the site wasn't the most user-friendly, the comments might actually be viable and worth my time as a reader... a quick search proved me wrong. Of course being a student at The University of Cincinnati I immediately search Cincinnati to see what results are returned. I find a thread discussing why UC is such a rotten school that is only considered a backup school for local Ohio residents and that no one can understand how UC receives funding when average SAT scores are so low. It is true; UC was considered a backup school for many a few years ago, but not so much anymore, and only in certain fields (this is not going to turn into a post defending my university... but it was rather frustrating getting through that thread).

Back to the original story. Two females from Yale are suing > $200K for comments made about them on the AutoAdmit discussion boards which they fear has influenced possible employers to not pursue them for open positions. There is a board on this site where apparently local students talk about these girls in very derogatory terms, talking about what they wear and what they do before and after class. Comments make up facts about the girls having certain diseases or preferences... and when you search their name on Google, guess what shows up?

AutoAdmit refuses to moderate these comments with concern commenting, “deleting posts is a slippery slope that could lead to broad censorship”. According to present day, internet law, website owners are not liable for comments users make on their site. The poster themselves can be held liable, but herein lies the issue. The site has anonymous posting enabled, which is a serious mistake. With the internet being so open and possibly dangerous in this present day, I am a firm believer that identification is a necessity. I'm not saying Bush needs to be sent daily emails with your cookies and history (which I'm sure he would be very happy to sign a bill putting that into play) but I'm saying that when it comes to your comments, your discussion, only cowards hide their faces... and there are many cowards out there. If this discussion board had a mandatory log in feature, this issue could be dealt with in a professional fashion.

I know people can be more honest when from an anonymous face when dealing with the honest opinions about a university they might attend, but as long as you don't use a self-identifying alias you should have nothing to worry about. If you threaten someone, your information is then compromised through the terms and conditions of the board to the proper authority. No one would have to know who you are just from reading your posts.

I personally have never had a problem with my identification online... however, I see this as a very large issue in the very near future. Web admins need to start taking responsibility for their sites content and the safety of their users. I am against censorship, however, as made evident by AutoAdmit, a level of read-only moderation is crucial.

[edit: yes i am aware i have anonymous comments enabled on my blog... maybe if commenting ever takes off on this blog i'll rethink my security settings, but until then....]

Big Dogs

I can't wait until I can move into a house that has a yard where I can have dogs.

I miss my puppy, Maggie, so much while I'm at school. We have cats down here, but I've never been much of a cat fan. Yes it is nice to have animals around to keep us company, but a dog is so much more a friend than a cat ever will be.

I have always loved big dogs. I grew up with a golden retriever named Kelly. She was pretty much the same age as me (just a little younger) and we got her when we lived in Florida (ages 0.5 to 3 for me) With a big dog you can cuddle and hold onto. I'm always afraid with smaller dogs (as with cats) that I'm not going to see them and step on them (as I do quite often actually).

I know that I want a golden... I actually get Maggie after I move into a place that can be Maggie friendly... and so I'm thinking my second big dog will likely be some sort of Lab. I have always liked Black Labs. I went to animal planet and took a questionnaire thing and this is what types of dogs it told me are good for a person as me.



Yes, you do indeed see a song from Disney's Hercules playing on my laptop :-)

That's about it for now. I'm extremely excited about Dan and Katie's wedding this upcoming weekend. It will be great to see all the family in one place! Later!

Is it time for Vacation?

Have you visited HotelReservations.com?

I know there are a number of sites out there that put together packages and compare prices, but what you have to do is find the one that not only brings the best price, but presents the best package. I have been to some sites that I am sure aren't actually looking at my search criteria, it is quite frustrating at times.

I visited HotelReservations.com and decided that I needed a vacation to Jamaica with my imaginary significant other. I went full blown on the vacation package with plane, hotel, and car rental from today until next Sunday evening. I was happy to see the first package on the list was nice and pretty for just over $3K. That makes the vacation to Jamaica just over $200 a day per person, not too bad eh?

The first bit I noticed about the site was that the GUI seemed a little messy (as most vacation reservation sites do). However, after I had done one search I realized how logical the entire site was set up. Navigation is extremely easy and there isn’t any mystery, I don't know what to put in this box here, dilemmas. HotelReservations.com offers different packages, which involve all combinations of Hotels, Car Rentals, and flights. I did see a picture of a cruise boat, which I clicked on, but was rather unhappy to find that it was an add which sent me to a different site... oh well.

So not knowing in the least how much a typical Jamaican vacation costs, I decided I better see if the prices were comparable for somewhere I have been... I choose Las Vegas!

So let's say I leave July 23 and come back home July 27, business trip for a week no? Of course I'm going to bring my significant other so I am looking for Two plane tickets along with a classy Casino/Hotel Experience. How about Luxor? I'm thinking definitely. So for two plane tickets and a four nights in a Las Vegas Strip hotel, we putting out $1135. Not bad at all. That's just $141 per night, including plane ticket... not bad at all.

I do have to say I'm impressed with my Cheap Hotels findings from HotelReservations.com. If I find myself going to one of the cities they sell for, I will definitely be checking back on their site... you should too!

Bests on your Travels!

[disclosure: this is a paid post]

Looking Back - America's Finest in Green

I would like to start this post off with a note. I have decided to start a new series of posts. As of now the title of the series will be 'Looking Back'. I would like this series to be memories I have of certain places or events from a quick outside perspective. Take the following of this post as an example of hopefully more to come. They are not complete memories or stories, just a glimpse of what I remember.

I hope you enjoy!

==================================

The troops were in position, standing stiff legged, trying to blend in to the dark mesh of the ground. Everything was still.

Squawk... Yes we have Charlie in view... dropping super duper big bomb in three... two... one...

They didn't see anything coming, they couldn't. Staring straight ahead with no emotion and only mission in mind, their fate was imminent. A giant, orange, spherical object hurtled towards the field and struck with such force that nearly every soldier was tossed like a rag doll in a almost certain fatal pattern. Green was all anyone could see.

Squawk... One man left standing... we've done our duty, heading home... over and out

All that was left of the graveyard battle field was one lone soldier. Standing green and proud, only as the army would see fit, with a radio in his left hand. He didn't move, he didn't know how to react, he was all that was left.

Dan and Jason shifted about, thinking about the battle that had just been fought. All the little green army men set up in such a meticulous manner were now strewn about after the super duper big bomb had fallen from three feet above onto the small indoor trampoline. Jason picked up the remaining soldier pulling him close to his face and examined the soldier's etiquette. Quickly bored, the soldier was thrown back onto the trampoline, on his side now, with the rest of his mis fortunate platoon.

Dan was already scooping up the green men as he had done countless times in battles before. The game was over, the green men lost, again. Nothing could stop the super duper big bomb. A few of the men had bounced far enough off the trampoline to be mixed in with some scattered Lincoln Logs over by a VCR littered with tapes of Southern Gospel Singin', full of joy Gaithers.

Something is Seriously Wrong

Guess the percentage of military units coming back from the war in Iraq have some form of post traumatic stress disorder...

40%

FOURTY PERCENT

THAT IS 2 OUT OF EVERY 5 PEOPLE SENT TO IRAQ

Something is seriously wrong. I found this news from NPR very disturbing indeed. Yes, I know NPR tends to be on the way Left, but statistics don't lie.

People may ask, well are all 40% walking around clucking like chickens or what defines post traumatic stress disorder? Research was done by and for the Pentagon, which realized that 20% to 25% of soldiers going to Iraq are coming back with "serious mental health symptoms". The issue that is trying to be solved by the Pentagon now is getting help for these troops that have these mental issues.

When research was being conducted for this study, it was found that it was dangerous to be labeled as mentally unstable. Officers who found out their subordinate was with mental issues would sometimes punish them by making them clean the latrines or other foul tasks. Our nations finest? Apparently the Pentagon has decided they need better training, better instruction and more information telling the soldiers what possibilities there are. And then after the battle we need more specialists.

I disagree.

If a major corporation releases information that 40% of their employees are now labeled with post traumatic stress disorder and 25% of their employees are labeled with "serious mental health symptoms" there would be uproar. What makes our government so different?

War is a nasty, ugly, but a sometimes-necessary evil. We need a new game plan for Iraq (period).

Come on Mr. President, I like your immigration policy, now let's see what you've got for your foreign policy.

IncParadise.com

So how many get rich schemes have you had this week alone? Me... probably at least 2 or 3... and the weekend is yet to come!

I have found IncParadise.com which is a site that helps corporations get started. They make the startup process much easier by answering any questions you might have along with an online filing service. Many of my proposed business ventures are cut short for the sole reason of not knowing and/or not being able to find out how to or where to get a necessary task done for a successful business venture.

At their site they have a page about suggested business structure along with offering incorporation for all 50 states.

And for those like myself who need minimal starting costs, there's good news, they only charge $89 + state fees for all the necessary paperwork to start a corporation in any state.

To find your state, point your browser to http://www.incparadise.com. There is a state directory located there or you can add your state as a subdirectory of the root URL. Say you are starting up your business in Florida... you could then start your Florida Inc. in just one click.

So what do ya think? What sorts of business ventures have you thought about exploring?

[disclosure: this is a paid post]

Flight Lesson 13 - Review of Maneuvers

This lesson last Wednesday was just review. We reviewed flight plans on the ground, then went up and reviewed maneuvers. I forgot how much I liked practicing maneuvers... especially steep turns. When you get all the G's pushing down on you while you're in a 45 degree bank for a 360 turn, its a little more exciting than flying from point A to point B.

During the steep turns I was able to do it perfectly only twice. If you keep constant bank and keep your altitude within +/- 50 feet you feel a burble from the prop wash when you've made your complete turn. Its a satisfying feeling.

Yesterday, Thursday, we didn't fly, but I went in to the airport to work on flight plans more. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. Gary and I chilled in the back room for about 3 hours just shootin' the breeze and working on the flight plan. I brought in a 6-pack of Sam Adams Boston Lager for us, and we each had one over our lengthy chat.

I'll be heading up solo a few times now, practicing maneuvers and such, then I'll be going on my cross country after Dan and Katie’s wedding the weekend after this one.

Later!

How do you succeed?

Here's a quandary that I have always wondered about:
Is a person's success propelled by ambitions for success or fear of failure?

It is really an interesting thought if you take it to everyday life. While at work am I doing my work with worries of what the boss will think or am I doing my work with hopes of what the boss will think?

Some might say that you can tell how a person thinks by their success. The greater successes have been brought on by ambitions of success while people who just 'get by' are most likely fearing failure. I would have to agree, that makes logical sense to me. But overall, how do you tick?

I bet lots of work people do daily could be changed for the better if they question themselves while in the workplace... with the job I am doing, do I fear failure or am I yearning for success? I bet the world would be a better place if we all yearned for a little success.

Whose Pants are These?

Have you heard? A Superior Court Judge from Washington DC is suing a dry cleaners for $54 million of lost pants!

The Chung family who own the dry cleaners and are immigrants from Korea do not speak english and are mortified by this series of events. Apparently the judge went in dropping off four pairs of trousers for alterations, and when he went back to pick them up, only three were there. The dry cleaners had mistakenly put a different pair of pants with the other three which had cuffs. This made the judge furious because he "refuses to wear pants with cuffs".

So apparently the dry cleaner attempted to settle the claim at $10,000 but the judge would hear nothing of it. BTW the Judge is coming from a recent divorce which has left his pocket cash to a minimum.

How silly is this... basically it is someone who knows the system very well trying to take full advantage of the little guy with all the loopholes.

I imagine the court room scene went something like this:

Defendant's Lawyer: So Pearson, you took your pants to the dry cleaner to get alterations, and when you came back someone elses pants were there instead of yours, correct?
Pearson: That is correct.
Defendant's Lawyer: How did you know the pants in question were not actually your pants?
Pearson: They had cuffs, I refuse to wear pants that have cuffs.
Defendant's Lawyer: But you took your pants for alterations... is it possible that one of the alterations was adding cuffs to the pants... and that these are actually your pants?
Pearson: ...... uhhhhh...... These are not my pants
Defendant's Lawyer: Well then who's pants are these?
Pearson: I don't know
Defendant's Lawyer: So since you have someone else's pants does that mean they're going to sue Custom Cleaners for $53 million also? Wouldn't that make Custom Cleaners bankrupt and leave you with nothing?
Pearson: I'M BROKE ALREADY... I'M A GOVERNMENT WORKER THAT DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO NOT SPEND MONEY.... i just want my pants...

OK, so maybe not exactly like that.... but its fun to imagine.

Have a happy Thursday!

Pay Per Post

What's the purpose of this blog?

I started this blog with the purpose of communicating my thoughts and interest to the public world in a medium that I enjoy, writing. I have now found a way to use this blog to help me financially (which is great for these flight lessons).

I have found Pay Per Post which lets me get paid to blog. This service offers to me the chance to help publicize other companies, while at the same time helping me soar the friendly skies in my little skipper.

The thing I love the most about PPP is that it is able to give me offers that are actually relevant to my interests and also hopefully your interests too. I have always used this blog to communicate how I feel about different products and services, and now I am being compensated for my time. So far I have completed one offer worth $5, not too much, but the potential is there to be great.

I encourage you all to help this endeavor of mine and leave comments/feedback and check out the links I post. I promise not to post anything I don't actually believe is worthwhile.

Later all!

[disclosure: this is a paid post]

Part 1: Drama; Part 2: Incompetent Pilot

Apparently I'm too 'churchy' to be friends with some people.

While trying to organize a group of friends to go somewhere I find out that one person already has plans with an old high school friend. I know this person, we were friends growing up, went to the same church, in some of the same classes, worked at Kings Island together... so I suggest, well why don't he come along as well?
No, he doesn't like you.
Huh?
Says you’re too churchy...
Heh... well how bout that.

I've never really been told that someone doesn't like me... and it really shouldn't bother me... I haven't seen or heard from this kid in years, but I'm a people pleaser and makes me wonder where I went wrong.

I know I know... if the only reason he doesn't like me is that I'm too churchy... then well that's pretty stupid and why do I even care? I am finally at a place in my life where I know what I'm doing, I have a sense of security in both my professional, personal, and religious life and I am genuinely happy.

[note: I'm trying to make this as non-high school-drama as possible ;-)]

Eh... onto more important matters of business...

Last night I went home for dinner and my Dad turns to me and says... we heard something in the sermon this past week that made us worry about your flying. He then starts talking about JFK Jr. and his fatal flight to Massachusetts (I believe). He starts talking about the different illusions that Pilots get when they aren't in VFR (visual flight rule) conditions and I interrupt him.

Wait Dad... let me give you a few more details... you're talking about the flight that was piloted into Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) conditions when the pilot only had VFR rating, you're also talking about a man who was flying the plane with one foot in a cast (my opinion is that it would be rather difficult to coordinate the rudder with a foot in a cast).

Needless to say, I think I calmed my parent’s nerves when they realized I already knew many of the details of that fated flight.

I have to make a flight plan real soon. Almost time for a long cross-country with Gary. Apparently there is a nice restaurant at the airport in Morgantown, West Virginia, I think we're going to visit there.

Later all!

Bob Barker gone Political

Have you heard? California is trying to make it illegal to own a cat or dog that isn't spayed or neutered without a permit.

The actual name of the proposed bill is the 'Healthy Pets Act' and it is discrimination to non-pure bred cats and dogs. The bill states that permits could be permitted to pretty much only purebreds... that so called 'muts' are not worthy of kittens and puppies. The supporters of this bill say this will help the stray pet population. I say that it won't.

Somehow, I don't think lots of people who find their dog having puppies are just going to throw them out into the street... the stray population is being supported by the stray population, and they are already spayed or neutered when they are picked up. What this bill seems to be doing is saying that purebred dogs are 'better' than mixed dogs. Now I'm a proponent of spaying and neutering your pets in the first place... I don't see it as a bad thing, but at this point in time I don't think that it is even slightly a bit of the government's business to be telling you whether or not you have to. Apparently Bob Barker after taping his last 'Price is Right' went straight to the phone to start lobbying for this bill to pass.

I don't know if any of my readers are from California. But if you are, please voice a negative opinion on this matter.

Yes, help control the pet population... but don't let the government force you into something that currently is none of their business.

Cheers.

Saving with couponchief.com

Have you ever been to CouponChief.com?

While taking my flight lessons I've been scrounging for every penny. The other day I finally emptied my coin jar and rolled 32 dollars worth of coins to take to the bank... it made me happy.

Coupon Chief is a website that is exactly as the title states, the coupon chief! They have many coupons to many different retailers making it easier on me (and you) to get the needed (and sometimes not so needed) daily items.

One coupon that I really like to use on the site is the Target Coupon. There is a coupon to Target that will let you save 5 dollars on a 50 dollar or more purchase. Since target is the perfect store to find anyone a gift, the 10% makes a big difference.

Check out the website! Do you have any money saving sites that help your pockets?

[disclosure: this is a paid post]

If I were in charge of the dummies

Today on one of my news websites, Digg.com, I found a rather interesting link to a consumer reports video archive. This video archive contains videos of over 150 makes and models of vehicles in their crash test. I checked out the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Chevrolet Cavalier, and the Honda Civic (the cars, or related cars to the ones that my family and I drive). It was pretty interesting watching these cars in slow motion and watching the dummy's head do its thing.... it doesn't look pleasant.

The question that bewilders me with these crash tests though is, aren't the dummies like not doing anything. I'm sure that some engineer of some sort has figured out the perfect crash dummy to mirror the driver and passenger’s physics in the shattering car, but don't we as living breathing humans have something called reaction?

Those poor dummies, they don't even see it coming.

Watching the side hit on the later Honda Civic models it looks pretty much like the driver pulled up and started a picnic on train tracks while a freight train comes barreling and blaring full horn. Does that scenario of one car being still and another other car t-boning it really happen in the majority?

If I were in charge of the crash dummy testing I would program the dummies to be sitting in the car, complaining about the sun being too bright, fighting over the cabin climate, or even over the each dummy's favorite radio station... They would be driving along when all of a sudden a huge.... wall.... is right in front of them. One dummy screams, another spills coffee, and the kid in the backseat pushes 'A' to jump on a walking mushroom (yes, a goomba) and get a coin. The car slams into the wall with the passengers that were aware reaching up to cover their faces and locking their knees on the floor board, because what else would you do when you know you are about to go from 50 to 0 in no time flat?

My dummies would then climb out of the car, picking up whatever pieces they had lost and go plug themselves into a data port to upload all the crash data they received. Then of course they would all go get brooms and do a quick clean up before their next short drive.

I would be a millionaire...

Being an open-minded church goer

I am always too skeptical when I go to new churches.

This morning I met Dan and Katie at Crossroads Community Church up near Norwood. I know a few people that attend this church, and just from looking on the outside I knew it was a big church. I wasn't prepared for when I walked in the doors though. We all literally thought we were in a children's museum, such as COSI. The lobby is a huge open area with coffee stands littered about the room and even a soda machine with 'coffee shmoffee' labeled across the top. It was a very contemporary and comfortable atmosphere.

Walking into the auditorium we were blown away by the size. Not only was there a balcony, but there was also a second balcony... so I guess they have a lodge. The lights were dim in the auditorium giving a (as Dan called it) non-confrontational feel. They must have some pretty awesome concerts at this church.

We were catching the tail-end of a sermon series on 'home'. Our home in the church, our community, and (today's sermon) our earth.

The general message of the sermon was God gave us this amazing custom home that we call earth. At this point in time we are destroying it... and its time to stop waiting for someone else to make the difference, and bring the concept of change on your own. I liked the message, I didn't enjoy the sermon though.

The preacher (Brian I believe) had many statistics and quotes, among those from scientists and the documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth'. I feel like I am knowledgeable enough to have vocal opinions on many political stances including some issues with the environment. Brian told us that our earth, our home, is in danger, and we should take it upon ourselves to make a difference.

He also stated though:
* Every year 5% of all forests in the world are burned. This is bad
- What he failed to mention was how much of those burned forests are replanted. And he also didn't mention that when forests are burned down it can actually be positive for the environment because it revitalizes the soil.
* By the year 2015 (I think is the year he stated) 40% of the world will be plagued with water deficiency.
- This doesn't surprise me, and its not fault entirely of the destruction of our environment. 88% of our world lives in 'third world' nations. Yes, I'm aware megaessays.com probably isn't the most reliable source, but the current true number can't be far off. People in third world nations aren't getting water for reasons well beyond just the weather.

My last complaint is that I didn't feel that the preacher brought the Bible or God into the current equation. He read Bible verses stating that we are in this world and are put in charge of the upkeep of this world. He stated God created the world, but after that I felt almost as if God disappeared and left us to keep his creation healthy. I wanted to hear what the Bible and God have to say about a healthy planet.

I'm being too hard on the service. I am way too skeptical every time I go to a new church. I am always looking for negative aspects.

I will of course be going back to this church to give it more time. I like the atmosphere and I know I like people that go there. So far I don't like the lack of singing and I didn't feel as though it was very personal. All the flashiness and Broadway-esque qualities made the service feel more like a production than a connection with God.

Go in with an open mind Jason and maybe I will find what I'm looking for.

A note of appreciation

Yesterday's lesson was definitely a no go.

First off, we were planning on just working on maneuvers, and winds were at 18 knots, gusting to 26 knots... those would have been rather difficult turns around a point. And on top of that we pushed over 90 degrees yesterday with lots of humidity... which means a high density altitude. I think the DA was at 3,900 feet when I phoned the ATIS before the lesson. We would have been at cruising altitude while on the runway! That little skipper would have been in sorry shape yesterday. So no lesson, no worries though.

Next I would like to say wow and give a huge thanks to everyone who visited my blog and sent comments my way. There's nothing like notes of assurance and confidence when you are in a new endeavor.

For those that don't know, I posted a link to my post yesterday (with other links to my blog) in the AOPA forum yesterday. I figured it was quite the quirky lesson that others would enjoy reading about (I do apologize for the length... but too much to talk about)

Anyway, I just wanted to give a thanks out there and let y'all know I appreciate the support!

Later, have a good weekend!

PS> I just added a new module on the right side bar. I added a list of blog that I keep up with daily (or at least do my best to). If you are in a feed and see no right bar... well visit my blog and check it out. If you want me to check out your blog, send me a note with the address!

Flight Lesson 12 - Is it time to panic yet?

Quite the crazy lesson I had yesterday.

We started out reviewing how to make flight plans and gathering weather information for about an hour and decided it was time to get up in the air.

A slight change to the lesson this time was we went pretty far and I soloed. After leaving Lunken we got up to 3,000 feet with a heading of 047 and went up to Xenia. The ATIS said there was 10 miles visibility, but I really don't think there was, it was quite hazy. On the way up the 53 mile trek we reviewed in cockpit flight planning by watching the map and triangulating our VORs.

Once up in Xenia we landed on a gravel runway. I didn't realize how much I relied on the lights of the VASI to find my proper approach angle and we landed pretty rough. Gary wasn't phased though... "Not bad for your first not-solid ground landing..." This airport is in the middle of nowhere really. We turned around and taxied back up the runway (keeping the nose up as not to flip gravel with the propeller). We got up to a street and looked both ways before crossing... a car had stopped to let us cross. I want to be driving down a street and have to wait for a plane to cross the street... hah.

An old worn out hanger in need of a new coat of paint was on the other side of the street with a few planes sitting around. One of them was Gary's plane. Gary is a big guy, and his plane is tiny... I want to ride in it sometime though, it looks fun.

Gary hopped out carefully (we didn't stop the engine, cause we were in 3729D, the one that always has a rough time getting started) and went over to his plane to do preflight and startup. Once moving, he taxied around me and we crossed the street back onto the runway. I requested that we use the longer grass runway instead of the gravel runway just for my nerves. Gary took off first. As soon as his wheels left the grass I held the brakes, full throttle, then released brakes to get up to rotation speed.


This is panic point #1
======================

I'm up to about 50 knots and the plane starts moving left. I push a little right rudder to straighten out... still going left. More rudder... more rudder... rudder to the ground.... still going left! I'm panicking... The edge of the runway along with its blue bin marking the edge are close to my wing. I look for my speed, I’m about 55 knots... I gotta pull up. Normal rotation is about 65 knots... but I'm about to go straight of this runway, and I figure my 150 lbs will let us pull up early. I pull up and sure enough I can get my wheels a little off the ground. The stall horn blares intermittently as I sweat and look ahead to see if there's an OK place to set this bird down if I can't stay afloat. Keeping the plane about 10 feet off the ground I am able to level off and use ground effect to gain some airspeed.

"A little left there weren't ya....?" Gary jokes over the radio giving me a friendly and sarcastic critique.

We get up to 2500 feet and fly in pattern on the way back south at a heading of about 215. Gary took the lead as I requested and I flew low to his back right. Not too much excitement on the way back to Lunken. I saw a hot air balloon off in the distance which was nice. There was also a rainbow that was only projected on a cloud. I had never seen that before, it was gorgeous!

We are getting clsoe to Lunken so Gary listens to ATIS and calls me telling me we have information Zulu. He then tells me he's switching over to 118.7, the Lunken Tower frequency. I remembered him saying something about me staying on 130.5 and he would call back with instructions. So I stay on the frequency.

This is panic point #2
======================

I don't hear anything for about 5 minutes and we are getting very near Lunken. I don't want to flip to the tower frequency and miss out on Gary calling me back on 130.5, but I soon see Lunken about 5 miles ahead, and I don't know what's going on. Lunken can be a busy airport at times, and I didn't want to be responsible for anything scary. Oh yeah, and about 1 minute before Gary had quickly descended and blended in with the ground... I was all by myself... eh... this is where I really started to get worried. I flip over to the Tower frequency and make a call.

Me: "Lunken Tower, Skipper 3729D North of you about 5 miles, requesting landing" (I couldn't remember what ATIS information I had at the moment)
Tower: "29D you have a group of two in front of you, but you are clear to land on 21L"
Me: "Lunken Tower, 29D, I'm actually the tail of that group of two, I just lost site of the leader... sorry"
Tower: "29D, you are 3 miles north and clear to land on 21L"

I felt like an idiot... but I would have felt more like an idiot if I hadn't known where I was going and landed on the wrong runway, or worse... caused grief for some other plane.

While in my final I heard what I thought was the tower telling other planes they were clear to land on 21L. I then was again concerned. He did say I was clear, no? I decided to sound like an idiot again in the name of caution and confirm with tower my instructions.

Me: "Lunken Tower, Skipper 3729D, just to confirm, clear to land 21L"
Tower: "29D, yes, clear to land on 21L"

Hah... yeah. They know those skippers have students in them... but still. The entire ordeal is actually quite amusing in hindsight.

After tying down the plane and walking over to Gary at his plane, he said it was funny listening to me. He said he had wanted to get on the radio and let out a long "Duuhhhhh..." when I told tower I was indeed the second in the group of two...

Wow... what a lesson. I fly again tonight as long as these winds die down a little.

Later all!

Squirrels in the Road

Have you ever wondered what other animals think about death? They must have some concept of death just due to natural instincts, they avoid danger, no? Or... do you think they know what pain is, don't like it and avoid it? Death is just a result of pain sometimes, animals may have no concept of death.

The reason I bring this up is because of something I saw on the way to work today... it was really quite sad. I had just left the house and was driving down a back road on the way to the highway and saw two squirrels on the road. One was dead, having fallen from the trees above I assume because his body still had shape. The other squirrel was just sitting there no more than an inch away from his lifeless friend. When a car from the opposite direction came and went over the dead squirrel (not running it over, just straddling between the tires) the squirrel that could, did indeed skitter off to the side of the road. I was passing at the same moment and was never able to see if the squirrel that was alive came back to his post, mourning his friend.

Does the squirrel that is still alive know what happened, does he know that his friend isn't going to get back up? I love animals, so of course I have myself convinced that the living squirrel was showing compassion and was out in the street paying his last respects to his friend. But what do you think?

I've been told that when one of my guinea pigs dies, the other will mourn the loss of his companion and be visibly sad. But is it with knowledge that the other animal has passed on, or is it selfish ambitions of just being lonely?

One day we will be able to communicate more efficiently with other animals, and many questions will be answered. I am a religious person, so as much as I don't have a desire to die anytime soon, I know that it is just a stepping-stone to something even greater. Do animals know this? If they don't, death really is something to fear.

You hear stories about dogs saving their owner's lives. An elderly woman falls and Fido runs out to pull the letter carrier inside to call for an ambulance. Animals have attachments; they might even know what it feels like to love... but to what extent do they understand this world? That is a million dollar question and hope that someday I know the answer.

A New 'Magic Kingdom'

So I have never been a huge fan of Harry Potter, but you must check this out... I think it will definitely call for a trip to Florida.

Here's my thoughts on Harry Potter...

I think the story and the concept are brilliant!...(dare I say 'bloody brilliant'?) It is every kid's dream when growing up through younger years to have magical powers, to fly, to face and defeat evil. I as much as every other boy stood on the couch at one point believing that if I thought and believed hard enough that when I jumped off... I would stay aloft.

Now they have this concept that is supposed to be around in just a few years that will bring this fantasy to full size real life.

My roommate is (for lack of more descriptive words) completely and utterly obsessed with Harry Potter. He has read all the books a number of times, owns all the movies and wears them out constantly, and I know he's already heard about this theme park. It is pretty much a guarantee that he will go down as soon as it opens and be jumping over the leagues of munchkins to get through the gate.

In the article they state that the 'thrill seekers' won't be forgotten. The Fox article makes the park sound almost like a sightseeing tour, but I am glad they add in the hint of rides. Me personally? I guess I could take a trip on a flying broomstick... no? Hah... I'm getting excited just thinking about it.

Here's to making every little kids dream come to life!

Flight Lesson 11

So yesterday evening was my first time flying in nine days... it was almost like meeting up with an old friend.

I got to Lunken about 17:30 and talked with Gary for about an hour in ground school sort of deal. We went over writing up a flight plan both on paper and on the computer (which is super easy). We also called the weather-briefing center. The guy I talked to was super nice and helped explain everything to me as we went along, telling me what to listen for, what other options were for the weather briefing and the sort. I have realized that most everyone who deals with your flight (ground control, tower control, weather brief...) are all really friendly and are there to make your life easier. When first starting lessons with Richard, he made comments about how the people in the tower can be jerks sometimes... I am yet to see it though. I have made my fair share of mistakes so far and they have been very kind and friendly about it.

An hour passed and about 18:30 Captain Dave came in and asked if we were going up. He told us that someone had reserved the plane at 19:30... which we weren't aware of. We were going to fly up to Xenia and do some grass field landings and probably be gone for 2ish hours. Well so much for those plans... hah. I decided to go ahead and go up by myself. Gary agreed saying it would be a waste of my money to bring him up since we didn't need to go over anything around the airport. So I went out, did my preflight and taxied for my second solo flight. It felt like I hadn't been in the plane a while (nine whole days!). While doing my run up the engine was running kind of rough when I brought the throttle back to idle, but I figured it wouldn't cut out on me while I was in the air cause the wind would help keep the propeller going. I took off and got up in the pattern.

In the 0.4 hours I was up in the air I did two T&G's along with my full stop final landing. It was a fun time. I really enjoy Gary as my instructor, he is quite the character. I appreciate him thinking of my finances ahead of his own finances, it shows great character.

That's all for now. I fly again next Wednesday and Thursday. The reason I hadn't flown in nine days was because of the visibility being poor. Those fires down in Georgia are giving Cincinnati a haze and smog alerts all day now... no good. And then the other lesson I ended up not having was because we got in the plane and couldn't get it started... yuck (there were fireballs coming out the exhaust pipes :-D) That plane is in the shop now.

Later!