mikeg's blog - Entertainment

Born Trilogy (@rob_t_firefly takes the blame for this)

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:11:48 -0500

So the point of this whole thing is trivial enough that I went ahead and did it: Go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (month and day). Then you write down 3 events, 3 births, 3 deaths and 3 holidays.
December 29

Events

1778 – American Revolutionary War: 3,500 British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia without firing a shot.
Way to go Georgia, just roll over and take it. Bitches.
1890 – United States soldiers kill more than 200 Oglala Lakota people with four Hotchkiss guns in the Wounded Knee Massacre.
120 years later we're still treating the natives like shit & using the treaties to wipe our national ass -- Progress, we no can has
2003 – The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct.
Interesting tidbit in honor of all those linguistics courses I took.

Births

1800 – Charles Goodyear, American inventor (d. 1860)
A subtle reminder from the universe to check your tire inflation and wear pattern
1921 – Robert C. Baker, Inventor of the chicken nugget (d. 2006)
Cue ironic chorus of "Nugget Man"
1967 – Andy Wachowski, American director
I still won't forgive him for the Matrix sequels. Filthy humans ruinsed a good thing.

Deaths (Excluding the "event" death)

1731 – Brook Taylor, English mathematician (b. 1685)
1737 – Joseph Saurin, French mathematician (b. 1659)
1891 – Leopold Kronecker, German mathematician (b. 1823)

Apparently not a good day to be a mathematician… Do I get any bonus points for a trifecta?

Holidays
Only 2 and nothing relevant: The 5th day of Christmas (but nobody cares aside from the song) and apparently St. Becket's day (patron saint of secular clergy, so I suppose that's appropriate with me being an ordained minister and all)

What got me where I am today (the "3 things" blog meme)

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:16:11 -0500

Sure, OK... why not.

Paul Randal started this mess: He wrote a blog post about 3 events that brought him to the current point in his career, and invited the rest of the interwebs to do the same. I decided I would and promptly forgot about it, then @zippy1981 did and I felt guilty, So here, with a decidedly carreer-and-IT slant because y'all just DO NOT WANT to know about my personal proclivities, are my three events:

Continue reading "What got me where I am today (the "3 things" blog meme)"

I hate my brain...

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:09:54 -0500

... It never turns off when I want it to. 3AM with the past staring me in the face and the future receding into the distance. Another sleepless night... And I'd give up forever to touch you 'Cause I know that you feel me somehow You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be And I don't want to go home right now And all I can taste is this moment All I can breathe is your life Sooner or later, it's over I just don't want to miss you tonight And I don't want the world to see me 'Cause I don't think that they'd understand When everything's made to be broken I just want you to know who I am And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming Or the moment of truth in your lies When everything feels like the movies Yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive

Cocaine... Runnin' all 'round my brain...

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:46:23 -0500

Sittin' here thinking 'bout back when Everybody I knew, was my best friend cocaine, running all round my brain It was you take Sally, and I'll take Sue and if you let me see your coke, I'll take Sally too cocaine, running all round my brain Uh-hu mama, ain't it strange How a mind can turn, and a life can change Cocaine, runnin' all round my brain There was damage to the body Damage to the soul Damage to the quality of the Rock n' Roll And the years spent stumbling around half knowing something that something was wrong And it don't help now, but you can look back and see how some of us damaged are creativity And there are good friends of mine that are dead and gone uhhuh, mmmhmmm, cocaine Now I ain't saying, it wasn't fun at the time Staying up for days on end, crazed out of my mind Waking up in strange places feeling like the army had marched across my tongue And look at me now, sharp as a tack Except for a few billion brain cells I wouldn't mind having back Now you take Nancy, and I'll take Ron No telling what kinds of drugs those two are on Inner city ghetto children, going down slow Ron and Nancy wanna tell them you can Just Say No Then they cancel the school lunch program, buy a few more tanks Uh huh, come here quick The hypocrisy, bout to make me sick Well ya finally get so tired, of walking around looking and feeling like shit You decide Today is the day is the day I quit Till a little later in the evening You start thinking about...Whatcha gonna do? But I wouldn't have been a user, even one more day If you could have shown me how I was helping turn a profit for the CIA Cocaine, runnin' all round my brain

c0mix

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:53:22 -0500

http://www.xkcd.com/341/ - The beginning of a WONDERFUL 4-part series. Go read.

Totally_Random

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:23:52 -0400

KT Tunstall - A/K/A "The chick that sings that 'Black Horse' song". Apparently she does her own backing tracks. That's cool. Apparently she records and runs them LIVE while she's singing. That's FUCKING AWESOME. Also, she has an incredible voice. Just rambling... I'm done now. Go away.

OMG Update

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 22:46:44 -0400

OK So... 1) My great aunt died this week. Scratch yet another flying lesson. 2) My last hermit crab (Zoidberg, the big one) committed suicide. I'm not sure why, but he jumped from the top of his branch and landed hard in his food dish. I made him as comfortable as I could, and he died this morning 3) There's a SuperPad Halloween party on the 21st; I will be attending as Arthur Dent. 4) I bought a goldfish, because the empty crab tank depressed me. Said fish is currently sulking behind some plants in the tank. I'll have pictures when it comes out. I'm accepting name suggestions :)

LOL @ German

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 23:57:25 -0400

German Lesson for pilots (Helps if you say the "German" parts out loud): Aircraft: der fliegenwagon Light aircraft: der kleinen fliegenwagon Helicopter: der schwingen fliegenwagon Crop dusting aircraft: das fliegenwagon mit der holinder buttonvor puffen der pauder auder Propeller: der airfloggenfann APU/GTC: Der airfloggenfann flinger Passenger jet: der grosse fliegenwagon mit sckull splitten schremen spittenfirenbakof das airfloggenfann Cyclic: der pushenpullen schtik Anti-torque pedals: der tailschwingen werks Pilot: der pushenpullen schtiken tailschwingen werker Student pilot: der dumbkoff lernen fliegen Instructor: Mein fliegen furher CFI: Uber fliegen furher Air traffic controller: der schweinhund ubben sie tauer watchen allo der dumbskoffs fliegen Ground Studies: Das headschratchen bukwerken Link Trainer/Simulator: Boks mit aller fliegenwerks innit mit on der ground stayen Visual flying: lookenoutenseein fliegen Instrument flying: lissenwaitenhopen fliegen Forced landing: trinen gebackonner graund mittaut der kraschen Parachute jump: trienen gebackonner graund mittaut der fliegenwagon Weather radar: das electroniken stormengerschniffer Bird Strike: Der fliegenwagon und dumkoff fliegen birden dat kraschen und kausen poofen fedders und twisten arsen

THUD.....THUD....THUD....

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 00:57:10 -0400

I'm not dead.... The plane isnt broken.... I suppose we can call that a success. Today's lesson was steep turns and landings. Steep turns are basically 45-degree constant-bank & constant altitude turns. I did OK on the first turn, but I'm chalking that up to a fluke, since the rest of them were pretty lousy. My first turn I nailed the bank and held altitude easily. Then we went the other way, and things started getting funky (couldn't make the plane stay at a 45-degree bank, which then made the altitude go all over the place). I started getting the hang of it again toward the end, but steep turns are on the top of the list list for next weekend (along with a bunch of other stuff that I want to work on to get closer to PTS). Then we headed back to the airport to work landings... hence the THUDs. First landing was OK. I flared a little high, but we landed pretty decently. This was my first touch-and-go at FRG, and the pace is definitely fast-and-furious, no sooner does the nosewheel touch the ground than you need to yank the flaps up and firewall the throttle (before someone lands on your slow ass). The other two landings.... not so much with the smoothness. They were definitely safe landings, bud they were definitely THUD landings - the main gear pretty much banged into the ground. Apparently I'm entering the flare too high, so that's going to need some work next lesson too. And of course, the next problem - Apparently at some point my brain and my feet stopped speaking. Because of the left-turning tendencies of properller-driven aircraft, you need to pretty much STOMP on the right rudder pedal whenever you're moving slow with lots of power on. My brain knows this. It's known this for a while. It has made my feet do this on climbout every single time I've gone up. Unfortunately my brain or my feet werent paying attention during the touch-and-go's. We were constantly drifting left on the "go" portion. I kept us on the runway, but well off the centerline. I'll need to figure out some way to keep my brain and feet on speaking terms for the next lesson. That's it - short cuz I'm tired :) I'll write something tomorrow about the next lesson, and maybe a more thorough review of this one.

Lions and Tigers and Landings, Oh My!

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 00:45:54 -0400

Sometimes I question my flight instructor's self-preservation instincts. He's had me preflighting the A/C unsupervised since lesson 2 (not that I'm not thorough, I'm probably pickier than he is, and the mechanics throw things at me when I walk by (the sparkplug wires were chafing damnit!)), and unless he's far more sneaky than the other instructors he hasnt been doing the "peek at the student from behind the fuel truck" thing). And last weekend for whatever reason he decided to go pretty much hands-off on the final approach and landing. Surprisingly I managed to keep 1933H shiny-side up and rubber-side down (although I landed with more of a "THUD!" than a "squeak").
Continue reading "Lions and Tigers and Landings, Oh My!"

Hazy dayz of summer...

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 22:04:43 -0400

More flight training this past saturday. In haze. Again. The bright side is that if I can learn to fly in this crap "VFR" (who are we kidding? There's no horizon!) weather, I'll be able to fly in damn near anything. The bad news is... there's no horizon! So yeah, I was all over the sky (not like WAY all over the sky, but definitely not going to hold up to the PTS - Altitude +/- 100 feet my ass!) At some point I'm sure this will all come back to me, and I'll remember how to put the airplane where I want it, when I want it. Also I couldn't keep a turn coordinated for shit - my feet and my brain not much on the speaking terms. I was skidding across the sky (though I managed to roll out on heading about 75% of the time).
Continue reading "Hazy dayz of summer..."

Buying Things...

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 01:47:14 -0400

Just on a whim, I went and punched up an insurance quote from AOPA. I'm gonna go out on a very thin limb and assume that the numbers they're giving me are annual numbers (i hope so anyway)... If I purchase a PA28-140 (the same class of Cherokee I'm training in), insure it for $30,000, and get my private with 70hrs, insurance will run me $950/yr (about what I pay for car insurance... I'm shocked by that!). Assuming I get my IFR ticket in a rather generous (low) 45 hours after that (115h total time), it drops to $875-$900ish. If I buy an IFR-Rated Cherokee (which can be had for about 30,000 right here in NY (Dunkirk)), I can use it for my IFR training. I need to amortize a few more costs into this (tiedown @ KFRG, annual inspections, etc.), but I was viewing insurance as the "OMGZ0R" expense, and it's starting to look reasonable ($150/mo will amply cover it, and thats about what I spend in ONE LESSON renting 1933H (the cherokee I seem to have the best luck in out of my 3 flights so far) at NFI, not counting instructor fees)). What sucks is I don't believe I can secure a decent aircraft loan (looking at that now, thinking a 10% downpayment will get me about where I want to be so $3,000 toward the plane from the outset).
Continue reading "Buying Things..."

Been a few days . . .

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 21:16:16 -0400

I'm back to the flying grind (trying to get up once a week or so, but grounded by the weather overhead for the last few days - thunderstorms and rain all weekend . . . FUCKERS!) So in celebration of the weather, I hacked up some weather scripts (and imagine my surprise when I discovered I could still read METARs!) To punish you all just the right amount for reading this dreck, Click Here for the current METAR from KFRG in all its glory (apparently there's no forecast station at FRG or it shuts down after hours, 'cuz I can't get a TAF, but you can check out KLGA or KISP for forecasts). This system eats any recognized airport ID and fetches the most current data from NOAA. As a note, you really SHOULD use 4-letter IDs (K??? for US Airports), because NOAA has ALL airports in their database. If you neglect to use a 4-letter ID, my script adds a K for you and tries to get the information for you. There are nice decoded METARs available (Woah... that's new!) for those of you who can't read the heiroglyphics -- See Here for FRG's decoded METAR.
Continue reading "Been a few days . . . "

OMGZor... too funny!

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Mon, 22 May 2006 20:07:57 -0400

In celebration of tomorrow's (hopeful) return to flight training, Lizzie sent me this: TSAThemeSong.mp3 Lyrics below the jump
Continue reading "OMGZor... too funny!"

ScrubZ0R...

mikeg@bsd-box.net (mikeg) — Sun, 21 May 2006 22:35:36 -0400

So it's been about 2 years since I last went up in a light aircraft with an instructor to log time toward my private rating. I went in yesterday (Saturday 5/20) to make an appointment; scheduled myself for 14:00 today, on what was forecast to be a nice VFR day (well, scattered thunder storms, but they were moving slow and I figured I'd be well on the ground before they popped up around the field. WRONG! I showed up around 13:45 and met my instructor (nice guy, kinda cute... perhaps taking flying lessons while single is not a good idea? :-P). We headed out to preflight the aircraft... And walked right into a squall line. Needless to say, we agreed that todays flight would be better off scrubbed and rescheduled. I will be going up Tuesday evening at 18:00. Expect to see something on here after that, assuming I manage to keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down. -MG