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Data point. If you would like to have & remember more nighttime dreams, consider regularly chomping down on multivitamins.
On the other hand, if you would like to have a sudden long-lasting bout of motion sickness, play or watch just a few minutes Gran Tourismo HD on the PS3 driving a big screen.
It seems that our brat Eric now has a little brother, Anonymous.
Naming rights are up for grabs. Submit your bid soon.
This month’s issue of the University of Toronto’s alumni “send more money soon” magazine contains a deep (?) tidbit.
Read more...There is a canonical diagram in every student pilot’s text book: a free-body diagram of the major forces acting on an airplane. I have a problem with it.
Read more...Today, our two-year old brat told me to go away, on two separate occasions.
Read more...A few evenings ago, I had a particularly serene moment.
Read more...A few days back, we had occasion to visit the airplane’s old home base, CYTZ. The summer construction has nearly completed, and the new ferry and buildings are looking sharp!
Read more...How can it be that after they are repeatedly caught in outright lies, companies like Associated Press and their retailers are still taken seriously? War is sober business, and facts fed to the population to motivate waging it need to be accurate. If the press does not take an obligation to the truth seriously, it shouldn’t take privileges of press freedom seriously either.
After a busy Saturday, it was time to head to bed, but not before a bedtime story.
Read more...A wonderful little example of supercooling occurred in front of my very eyes last night.
Read more...Oh lord, you who are so incredibly big, so hugely gargantuan,
please give me an excuse to acquire one of these awesome machines
so I can create small and insignificant objects.
I promise to model only good and beautiful things
and to run Windows only for the necessary CAD software.
Thank you for your consideration.
I’m sorry about three politics-related items in a row, but something jawdropping showed up in the news a few days back.
Read more...I found out today that a Toronto colleague named Paul S. has left the company. Reading Li’s article about motherhood reminded me of one of Paul’s zen observations to me, years ago.
Kids … they are the best things that ever happen to you. They are also the worst things that ever happen to you.
Having spent around two years in the company of the procreative minority of society, I’ve seen this duality face to face. Due to a fortunate stash of resources and lack of tragedies, the “worst” times have been tolerable, and the “best” simply sublime.
There is an interesting parallel between the recent spate of school shootings and the September 11 hijackings.
Read more...What Rep. Foley appears to have done is pretty awful. One tiny sliver of good news about it for the republicans might be that this is proof that homosexuals, like blacks and other races, women, and even the occasional handicapped folks, do not find the party too scary to join & represent.
An advertisement for a local small business brought to mind two fictional works:
Evocations: TaunTaun guest bed and To Serve Man.
I’m oh-so-late to this little meme, but it’s still funny.
Even better, wikipedia has banned any mention of the model involved, and indeed has hidden the discussion itself. It’s a gag-order on the publication ban, so to speak.
UPDATE: A more permanent archive
This fine day, the family took the family airplane out to an airplane gettogether in Parry Sound.
Read more...There are some widely held misperceptions about terrorism that are really irking me.
Read more...This article about a historical building in the country of my birth renews my gratitude that my parents sprung us from that crazy communist country 23 years ago. Prize quote:
True, we Americans have some wrinkles to sort out regarding our own freedoms, but our own people who think that we’re living in some sort of a “police state” haven’t the slightest fucking clue what a real police state is.
The last four days have seen lots of aerial activity over our new house very near the Brantford airport (CYFD).
Read more...During my formative years at school, back when the internet was for non-commercial use only, when Usenet was for Real Men …
Read more...By now, many people know of reutergate a yet another scandal where news is faked. Other recent examples include overstatements of casualty figures, staging of rescue / body-display scenes. Granddaddy “rathergate” from 2004 is still a freshly oozing memory.
Read more...Juimiin had an unfortunate encounter at Tim Horton’s this morning on her way to a brat entertainment event.
Read more...
The “big city phenomenon” is an explanation of weird things one may see if one is out and about in off-peak areas.
Read more...It’s time for another brief flight-related story.
Read more...I just witnessed an amusing scam perpetrated by a tow truck operator.
Read more...Toddlers babble, but that doesn’t let their caretakers off the hook. When the kid tries to talk or learn, play along!
Read more...This year’s visit to the canadian aviation expo was absent of gaffes but also of gawks.
Read more...In the news last few days: a possible North Korean long range missile test.
In the news the day after, if the US military had a sense of humor: a live test of the missile defense system shooting down the North Korean test missile.
This article points out an interesting tendency amongst some social engineers.
Read more...Along with many colleagues, I attended our company’s mini-tradeshow: the Red Hat Summit in Nashville, TN.
Read more...With GXRP back in glorious operation for a month now, more elaborate trips are happening. I came across this good writeup on turbulence by a Southwest jet captain. I plan to pass it on to first-timer passengers to help them relax when it gets bumpy.
I have been hunting for a house out of town for some time now.
Read more...Our little brat Eric had about seven days of illness recently, four in declining and three in improving health.
Read more...While my soon-to-be-ex neighbourhood is not known for its poor, several eyebrow-raising incidents remind me how I won’t miss some parts of this place.
Read more...Life’s fortunes have a habit of abruptly swinging between extremes.
Read more...Because GXRP was still under maintenance (due back this week, yey), I got to spend another few hours on commercial airlines last week.
Read more...This short 1994 paper is worth a read for computer science practitioners.
Read more...Trying to fill in my 2006 Census online has been frustrating. It is amazing that in this year, there are employable web programmers that write such bad software.
Read more...Presumption of goodwill is one of several names for a fragile attitude. “Giving benefit of doubt” is another name for the same.
Read more...This set of instructions on squat toilets is one of the smaller reasons I don’t wish to visit China. An excerpt:
Assume a squatting position like a competitive ski jumper. Stick your ass out like a whore in a 50 Cent video. This is a good time to pretend you’re not a miserable tourist with your pants around your ankles, squatting over a barbaric poo hole.
It has been a year or two since I last undertook a long drive. I did it again this past weekend, and for a good cause.
Read more...Pyper is now in the care of the Toronto Humane Society, who I hope will quickly match him up with someone who can share more time and space and affection with him. It wasn’t tough signing him over, but it was terribly sad.
Read more...April Fools day came and went, as did the gags. Many of the high-tech company ones were sadly facile – instantly recognized and thus earning only a snicker. I enjoy those that expend effort being plausible, drawing the reader in for some time before the punchline. Humble reader, have you seen any good ones this time around?
Almost exactly four years ago, this same ship took Juimiin and me from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert during our cross-country drive.
I am now accepting proposals of interest to join us, sometime within the next month or three, for a weekend trip to visit the battleship New Jersey. Wow.
Read more...You may have heard about Google being subpoenad by the US Department of Justice, in order to turn over query logs and database contents. Privacy advocates will celebrate that this was largely tossed out today. However, don’t be too hasty. According to the judge’s order, Google was not the only target of subpoenas, just the only one resisting. Page 3 line 22:
... AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft appear to be producing data pursuant to the Government’s request. ...
The little local activist group “community air” has filed suit against the Island airport today, to try to block the construction associated with the impending startup of Porter Air
Read more...Given two intelligent species on a planet, where should the smarter one make its home, considering the possibility of extraterrestrial invasion?
Read more...Every season, there seems to be some public-sector labour disruption brewing or in rolling boil. Right now, Ontario’s college staff are on strike. The customers, as always, are screwed.
Read more...It has been a while since I posted a status update on our little brat Eric.
Read more...I just realized that as of roughly now, I have spent the first third of my life in quasiformative Hungary; the informative middle third at/with transitory places and people; the most recent third with my dear lady wife Juimiin.
That is the question a strange man asked me in a Home Depot parking lot yesterday.
Read more...Today, I flew GXRP up to 14000 feet. That’s about half way to jet altitudes, and twice as high as I normally go.
Read more...Yesterday, my newly father-to-be little brother fessed up that he’s become afraid of flying (in general, not specifically with me). No doubt this is due to a sense of family pressure and responsibilities. Interesting note though: in case the worst happens, the liability insurance carried on the airplane is so much that, most likely, my passengers are worth more dead than alive. So if they want (financially) the best for their families, people should fly with me often!
How ordinary can those people be who come up with exquisitely sick humor?
Read more...Today’s weather in the Toronto area included the dreads of every aviator.
Read more...Quick jaw-position testing question. What fraction of public corporations are such that the top few executives earn more (from salary plus company-funded stock options) than the company as an entity does?
Some bloggers and news companies worldwide are trying to make a point by republishing those Danish mohammed cartoons, in the name of free speech. Not I.
Read more...Some think of the couple-of-hundred homeless in Toronto as a problem. I think of them as an opportunity for lateral thinking. At each meal time, offer each person in a caged homeless herd a collection of sharp utensils, and wish them “happy hunting”. If they eat each other, both the hunger and the population problems are helped at the same time. Sheer genius.
During yet another long Hope Air mission, I was reminded why the blue-tinted gasoline powering GXRP is key to successful flights.
Read more...First hand experience suggests that if you leave your car for service at Scarborough's Heritage Ford dealership, you best avoid leaving the car there overnight.
Read more...David Miller’s physician probably got a call today from our hyperventilating mayor.
Read more...Item. This month’s issue of the NRA magazine “American Hunter” has a cover story headlined “Brushes with Death”. However, they are not talking about the animals: the subtitle is A wildlife artists’s close encounters.
Item. US businesses fall over themselves to do business in communist China, which has both some anti-american ambitions and capabilities. Yet Cuba, which despite ambitions has zero capabilities, is isolated.
Here are some more amusing instances of companies messing with common sense in order to make another buck off of silly consumers.
Read more...I’ve been a multi-year client of Avidyne for avionics in GXRP. While I have no complaints about the hardware, two times now, their sole customer support person, one Jessica Power, has emitted a repugnant air of customer disservice.
Read more...Federal election season is on in Canada, so the phones are ringing.
Read more...James Randi wonders about the efficacy of prayer in his weekly newsletter.
Read more...A handy insight arose during a long-delayed flight with GXRP (yes, it’s back up).
Read more...The two Lycoming engines in GXRP are about 70% done with their expected lifespan. They are showing annoying but not alarming signs of this.
Read more...If you’re in the mood to read about a somewhat likelier doomsday scenario than melted icecaps drowning New York, read this article by Mark Steyn.
Years like the just past one make one doubt one’s sanity about aircraft ownership.
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