Today I had to sit at a desk and talk on the radio to some guys flying around the local area. I think the only three pilots on the airfield who had less fun than me were the two guys pulling Top-3 and the Supervisor of Flying.
At least is was something to do that was flying related.
I just took my second exam in my controls class. Somehow, I’ve managed two straight times to convince myself I understood the material well enough to do great on an exam. That, and he allowed us to have a table of integrals, a table of Laplace transforms, and a crib sheet filled with equations (plus a matrix algebra crib sheet).
Somehow, I still managed to find that the determinant of a matrix was zero, so the inverse didn’t exist, and had to hope that I managed to clip that curveball into at least a base hit. Then, from out of left field came hyperbolic sine! What the. . . !? I don’t think I’ve seen one of those since orbital mechanics class back in 1994. By the way, the table of integrals weren’t quite as helpful as a table of derivatives would have been!
As long as there are exams, there will be prayer in school. Or at the testing center on base.
I’m beginning to think only two people read this blog. . . me and my mother!
Is anyone else out there?
Hello?! Hello?! Hello?! Hello?! Hello?! Hello?! Hello?!
I took a break from studying today and watched Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 The Birds. If I were you, I’d wait for the book. Then leave the book at the library.
The only thing about the movie I found interesting was that even though it was fairly archaic, implausible, and slightly ridiculous, I still felt a little tense.
Honestly, the only way to have fun at a "horror" movie is to have a lovely young lass sitting next to you who practically jumps out of her skin at the "frightening" moments. I had one friend a long time ago who would practically jump into my lap (and we weren’t even dating!).
Anyone who knows anything knows that the scary part happens a couple moments after the music fades away. Just cover your ears, because part of the fright is the sudden blaring or screeching music at the scary moment.
Fox brings good things. I caught the end of the World Series on Fox, it was nice to watch the hometown win again.
Then, Megyn Kendall, Kiran Chetry, Alysin Camerota, and Rudi Bakhtiar, all appeared in the space of one hour.
Thanks, Messrs Murdoch and Ailes!
I wrote an essay elsewhere in cyberspace regarding the problems with the modern media. It’s nice to see some other people see things the same way.
I finally turned one of the heaters on in the house. I was having trouble studying (and especially typing) and was wondering why. Turns out it was 46o in the dining room. I just got that fixed, and it’s now a balmy 62o.
Next, I have to find the translated manual on how to run the heater in the bedroom. I sure have been sleeping pretty well, but we’re almost to the point I’ll get hypothermic if I kick the blanket off the bed in my sleep. I probably ought to run the heater in there just a little.
Apparently Anderson Cooper (Host of Anderson Cooper 360o on CNN) has joined the other side in the war on terror. Showing American troops about to get sniped ranks up there with al Jazeera showing Americans getting beheaded on their websites.
If you’re not for us, you’re against us. I’d appreciate it if Cooper would resign now and take up a job where he would be of no further help to anyone’s cause.
I would in fact like fries with that, Mr Cooper, but I’ll be watching to make sure you don’t spit on them.
I’ve got Lou Dobbs’ running in the background. His show tonight is titled The War on the Middle Class. In his opening, he stated Congress has declared war on the middle class in America.
Notes to Mr Dobbs: 1) You don’t know what war is if you think anyone besides al Qa’ida is at war with the American middle class or any other American. 2) Congress doesn’t declare war anymore (last time Congress declared war was 8 Dec 1941). 3) I’m pretty sure you can’t decide someone else has declared war. 4) If you’re concerned about the plight of the American middle class, you might try taking on banks that give out what amount to predatory loans and try to convince ordinary folks that excessive credit is bad; then get them to start saving instead of spending.
I’ve never been very impressed with Lou Dobbs. Maybe it would be even more accurate to say I’ve rarely been impressed by Lou Dobbs. CNN has gotten a little bit better in my view since they got rid of Eason Jordan. Axing Dobbs would go even further to make that network more palatable to me.
I’ve started using Skype and a new IOGear Bluetooth headset to make international phone calls. I put about $12 on deposit with Skype a month ago, and haven’t gone through all of it yet. The only thing I cannot do so far is call my wife’s cellular phone.
I also managed to get a local telephone number back in my home city. If I’m online, my folks can call me for free. Skype includes voicemail, so if I’m not online, I still get the message. That service cost $40.00 per year, and it goes into the Yellow Pages as a commercial number. Most of my voicemails have been from AT&T trying to get me to sign up for an 800 number.
I’ve talked to my elderly grandmothers this way a couple times now. Trying to get them to understand that I’m walking around my living room in Japan while connected wirelessly to my laptop in the kitchen through my wireless fiber-optic Internet connection is quite the challenge. Once they understand, they’re probably chuckling to themselves about my connectivity problems and thinking we’ve come a long way since the party line.