Another day flying

I went flying again today.  It was a beautiful day to fly.  Matt and his girlfriend came with me.  I got to show the girlfriend the Longaberger Basket building.  It was a chilly -5°C, wind 330@06, altimeter 30.43".  We flew to KZZV, then over Muskingum College, down to KLHQ and back to KVTA.  The APE VOR is apparently out-of-service.  With this, I also finally went over 200 hours total time.  It was a good day.

Merry Christmas

Sigh...  I have so much I want to write about, but a tremendous lack of motivation to actually type out the words.  So, I'll just take this opportunity to wish all my readers (probably just me :)) a very Merry Christmas.  Take the time to tell the ones you love how much they mean to you and keep those who don't have loved ones around this season in your thoughts and prayers.  The holidays are always rough after a loss.  I'll do my usual 2 solos this evening at the 11:00PM Christmas Eve service, I'm trying to figure out now, how many years I've been doing it.  I think this makes 12, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, blessings to all.

Yes, I'm still alive

I really did have every intention of posting more frequently, but now I see it has been 1.5 months since my last one.  I've had lots of things I wanted to talk about (and I've posted many of the links to facebook), but I just haven't had the time/motivation/energy to make myself post here.  I'm on vacation this week and spending it with my parents.  A nice change of pace.  Watching lots of football and college hoops.  Tonight, I get to see my niece's band concert.  BTW, Happy Birthday, Mom!!  It has turned into another month of putting miles on the car, though not quite as many as in July.  I was out to visit my sister (and work in NJ) the week before Thanksgiving and now the drive down here.  It won't be the 5K+ of July, but easily more miles than I normally put on the vehicle.  Thanksgiving was good, I hope you had good ones, too.  None of the kids were actually around on Thursday, Shane and Jen went to her parents' and Erin had to work (and, of course, Matt was in ND).  Shane and Jen, along with Sherry's Mom, sister, brother-in-law, and their 2 kids were all out the house for a second Thanksgiving meal on that Saturday though.  I do truly have much to be thankful for this year.  I'm debating what to do for my holiday letter this year.  I'll probably only actually mail it to folks that I don't have e-mail addresses for (or folks that I'm not friends with on FB, I haven't entirely decided yet).  Oh, and I really need to work on that magazine/journal article I'm supposed to be writing.  I'll probably do that this afternoon while Dad gets his hair cut.

I should have been flying

Yeah, most people wouldn't have called today's weather ideal, but I was sitting at my desk wishing I was flying.  It was raining and/or overcast all day.  At about 3:00PM this afternoon, the weather at KVTA was 19°C (so no worries about icing), winds from 010@09 (a fair crosswind), clouds broken at 600, broken at 1000, overcast at 2600 (it was actually pretty variable below that overcast).  Now that I'm IFR current again, today would have been a great day to get some time in actual IMC.  It has been a long time since I flew in actual instrument conditions down to minimums, but it was well above the ILS minimums at KCMH and if I missed once going into KVTA, I probably could have gotten in the next time around, so not being able to get down wasn't really a concern.  Sigh...  I do need to get some time in actual again.

Flight Log 2009-10-17

Well, I will reach 200 hours total time before the year is out, after today I am at 199.5 (143.4 PIC time) and I need to fly again in Dec to remain current to rent at KVTA.  I went for another $100 hamburger today.  Flew over to Urbana Grimes (I74) for scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and black raspberry pie.  The banana cream pie actually looked better, but I didn't see it until after I had the black raspberry.  Then, on the way back I did a touch-and-go at Madison County (KUYF) to add 2 new airports.  I was supposed to have landed at I74 on my first night cross-country with Bruce back in 2002, but the lights weren't working, so we circled the black hole and then flew back.  I was originally supposed to fly to Charleston, WV today to visit a fried I haven't seen in 24 years, but the weather looked pretty bad that direction, so we changed those plans a couple days ago.  At takeoff there were reports of ice between 6000 and 8000 feet, so I wouldn't have wanted to fly much (any) actual today.  Ceilings were about 4000 feet at KVTA, but scattered at 4000 feet at I74.  The overcast pretty much ended at KOSU.  Winds were out of the north (360°) at 6 knots, gusting 15, altimeter 30.17, temp 7°C.

The Founding Fathers and meandering thoughts on healthcare and economic meltdowns

First off, a note.  I probably should not have begun this after taking an Ambien this evening.  I desperately need a good night's sleep tonight, but that means this post will probably wander all over the place.  Perhaps, I'll find out if anyone besides me even reads any of my rantings.  Oh, well.  Onward.  Now, don't get me wrong.  The folks who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the US did something amazing.  I think those documents hold up very well more than 230 years later.  A friend pointed me at a post the other day that mentioned (correctly) that the right to free speech isn't granted by the 1st amendment, it is protected by it.  I'll agree to a point (but then my next post will include a pointer to a post about rights and John Calvin who would argue there are no rights), but then that very same post seemed to have problems with the fact that some of us believe that there are other rights that deserve protection.  So, let me get right to the point of this post.  While they were courageous and perhaps ahead of their time, the men who founded this country were not perfect, they were not saints, and they were not gods.  They made mistakes.  Remember, to them "all men are created equal" meant all white males who owned land were created equal.  Women?  Nope.  Farmhands?  Nope.  People of color?  Are you insane?  Remember, two of our first three Presidents owned slaves and one of them had children by at least one of his slaves (and I still think he was a pretty amazing guy).  They were right to make it difficult to change the Constitution.  It isn't something that should be done lightly, but the document isn't sacred though some would have you believe it is.  It took a civil war before men of color were "officially" treated as men and another 100+ years after that before practice even started to match the words on paper (and, in many ways, I think we're still not there).  Women haven't even had the right to vote for 90 years yet, let alone equal treatment under the law.  Is there a "right to privacy" (whatever that means)?  Does it even make sense to say something like that in 1776?  The founders had no conception of a world of electronic surveillance and warrantless eavesdropping.  They couldn't have been expected to protect a right that was probably obvious to them against a future they couldn't foresee.  That's in part why the 9th amendment reserves those rights not specifically enumerated "to the people."  In fact, here are the exact words of the 9th amendment.  "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."  Now, there is no question that after seeing the abuses of the government in England, the founders intended the federal government to be fairly weak.  Over the years, the general consensus has drifted a little from that original mindset (though there are clearly those out there who want a weak federal government), but many of us believe that there are certain functions best served by government.  Going back 100 years, there have been efforts to include healthcare as one of those rights that ought to be protected.  Heck, Richard Nixon who sat on some of McCarthy's hearings, so could hardly be called soft on communism proposed extending Medicare to every citizen in 1974.  Unfortunately, for those of us who are concerned about possibly losing our health insurance (or our homes after a loss of health insurance), the Democrats in Congress thought they could get an even better deal in 1976 when surely a Democrat would be elected President.  They didn't seize what was probably the best opportunity presented to date.  They were arrogant.  If it wasn't already obvious, I think ultimately, "single payer" is the way to fix healthcare as most other industrialized countries have already concluded, but even the watered down "public option" now seems to not be included in what will come to the Senate floor for debate next week.  By the way, in the comments to a blog post that I'll link to in my next post, it was pointed out that the current healthcare debate is really mostly/entirely about the middle class and the poor.  The rich will always be able to afford whatever healthcare they want, why isn't anyone really talking about that?  There are folks who are all up in arms about the size (in $$) of the debt that would be incurred by the proposals to jumpstart the economy and take care of health care, but Nobel Laureate economists point out that it isn't actual dollar amounts that matter.  What matters is what is it as a percentage of GDP (by the way, did you know that the stimulus implemented by the Chinese government was 25% of GDP? the equivalent by the US government would have been in the vicinity of $2 trillion).  And there, we're actually in relatively moderate territory.  Yes, by the time all the stimulus and bailouts and getting health care right are done, the deficit could be around 50% of GDP.  That sounds large until you consider that it was 120% of GDP at the end of World War II.  Many industrialized nations (primarily in Europe) have successfully exited periods where there debt loads were in the 80-90% range.  To get out of the economic melt down that started almost exactly 12 months, the federal government became the spender of last resort.  Individuals were frightened so they started burying money under the mattress metaphorically (paying down credit card bills and getting by with less).  Well, if the consumers aren't buying, if demand dries up, then the supply side of the equation has to slow down.  You can't build and build and build if there is no one there to buy.  So, you cut back production, you lay off some workers, which frightens the consumers even more so they start hoarding.  When the demand side of the equation goes to zero, the spender of last resort has to come in to prevent entire industries and segments of society from going back to trying to farm their front yards.  The only entity with the ability to do that (in part, because they are allowed to have unbalanced budgets -- a federal balanced budget amendment would have caused the events of this past year to devolve into a second great depression --) is the federal government which must come in and spend stimulus money (that it doesn't have) to buy some of the goods just sitting around rotting and put people to work (some in almost "make work" jobs), but get them working and earning an income again.  It is what FDR seemed to have understood and Keynes articulated that led to the early programs of the New Deal.  Alas, just as things were starting to pick up steam but had not yet reached self-sustainability, the other party started whining about the debt and FDR gave in and started to cut back.  Many of us who have studied it believe the Great Depression could have ended in 1936 or 1937 at the latest, had FDR not given in and started cutting back for fear of the size of the deficits.  The result, the improvement slowed and drifted, not quite breaking out of the depression, not really falling further back in.  Conveniently (in economic terms if not in terms of world peace), World War II came along less than 3 years later and again we have the government push to build things beyond all proportion and to keep that up from 1941 - 1945 (or 1946).  At which point, it was possible to slow down a bit, but we now had so many skilled workers who had brought home a decent wage and they wanted to have a little fun with that.  And so, with the economic growth that came out of WWII (including new markets to sell to after we rebuilt them) that incredible 120% of GDP debt that we had in 1945 quickly shrunk as the economy grew and diversified and through the '60s, '70s, and '80s even with oil shocks and "stagflation" the debt as a percentage of GDP got small.  Ah, well, I really need sleep now.  Sorry for rambling.  Good night.

Current again

Well, I am finally IFR current again.  I went up Wednesday with Harold and got an IPC (Instrument Proficiency Check) done.  I was a little rusty (as I knew I would be), but I was pretty pleased at my performance.  Yes, there is still more rust to be knocked off, but I am confident that I would be fine in IMC up (down) to my personal minimums.  We first flew over to KZZV, flew the full ILS 22 (including the hold), then on the miss came around and did the full VOR 22 (including procedure turn), then the GPS 27 back into KVTA (circle to land on runway 9).  Now one of these cloudy October days with ceilings 100-200 feet above MDA, I'll have to go out and get some more time in actual IMC.  I am also now 2.5 hours from hitting 200 hours total time, at this rate that may still happen this calendar year.

A little bit of respect

I've been more than a little dismayed at the venom directed at President Obama over his planned address to school children on Tuesday.  Whether you agree with everything he stands for or not, it seems pretty strange to me that there is so much objection to the President of the United States telling kids to work hard and stay in school.  I mean from everything I've seen, it looks like the script could have just as easily been written by Laura Bush (and I doubt if anyone at Fox News would have been upset with her telling kids to stay in school).  Anyway, as I was preparing to write this, I read Bob Cornwall's post that says much of what I wanted to say and says it better, so go read it there, especially this sentence, "Even if we don't like the holder of the office, we need to respect the office or we will find ourselves in deep trouble."  Oh, and here's another one that makes the point pretty well.  I think that is one of the things that has been bothering me the most.  Disagree on policy, okay, but even when I haven't particularly cared for the person, I've tried to respect the office.  These nutjobs praying for the death of the President of the United States have gotten way out of line and I'm dismayed that more conservatives have allowed that to go unchallenged.  Okay, end of political rant for the day.  I hope anyone out there reading this is having a great Labor Day weekend.

Shalom,
Jim

Charitable Flying

One of the things I've wanted to ever since I got my license (probably actually before) was to do something meaningful with it.  Ever since I first heard about Angel Flight it has been something I've wanted to do.  I don't own my own plane, but I really like the idea of flying folks who need to go a distance for medical reasons or to help fly supplies after a natural disaster.  (Okay, if I'm the winner of tomorrow evening's $207M MegaMillions drawing, one of things I'm going to do after paying off the credit cards, the house, and the kids school loans, is buy myself a plane, probably a Diamond DA40XLS, but I digress).  The interesting thing about the various charitable flying organizations is that they all have different requirements of the pilots.  To fly for Angel Flight Central (that covers most of the upper midwest), you have to have 500 hours including 250 hours of pilot-in-command (PIC) time or a commercial license, instrument rating desired, but not required.  For Angel Flight East (AFE), which includes OH, you need 300 hours total time and an instrument rating (although you can fly as co-pilot without an instrument rating).  For Volunteer Pilots (VPA), you need 200 hours PIC time for VFR ops or 250 hours PIC time and an instrument rating to fly IFR for them.  All of them have some requirement for time in type of aircraft to be used for the operation.  As you can see from the little block to the right, I don't currently qualify to fly for any of them.  I have 196.1 hours total, 139.3 hours PIC.  So, I'm a minimum of 60.7 hours from being able to do this, but it is something that I feel is important and I want to take advantage of the opportunity I have been given by giving something back.  Unfortunately, 60 hours is an awful long time given the rate that I've been racking them up the last few years.  I got lots of hours in right after I got my license, but for the last few years, I've had to cut back mostly because of $$$$$.  With 2 kids in college, it is kind of difficult to justify spending the money to fly, but I will get there.  As soon as I get to that magic 200 hours PIC, the application is going in to Volunteer Pilots.  I may also look into volunteering in some capacity other than actually flying with either (or both) of AFE or VPA.  This is something I feel like I'm supposed to be doing, I just have to figure out how to do it.  By the way, any pilots out there know this, but any non-pilots reading this may not, did you know that you can fly people for money with fewer hours than you can fly people for a charitable contribution?  You can get a commercial license with 250 hours, but you must have (since the new regulations went into effect last year) 500 hours to make a flight in which the passenger donates money to a charity in return for the flight.  Strange, but true.

Flight Log 2009-08-17

I went flying today.  I wasn't able to visit the friend I was hoping to see this month, so I just stayed in the practice area.  I talked to my favorite CFII and I'll probably try to get an IPC in next week.  So, for today, I went over Buckeye Lake and practiced some slow flight and power on stalls.  The first take off was a simulated soft field, I realized I hadn't done one of those in quite a while (a year, maybe 2, I need to start working it back into my list of things to accomplish when I fly).  Then, as I said, slow flight and power on stalls.  It was very, very hazy for being "clear", visibility was 8 miles.  Well, it was a decent 0.7 hrs and there should be another 1.5 or so next week.

Working out

When I said yesteray, I planned on posting more, I didn't really mean I'd do it daily, but I wanted to get this written down.  I mentioned a couple of months ago, I've lost a fair amount of weight in the last year.  I've sort of stagnated here the last 3+ months.  First of all, we got a new scale because Sherry said she thought the old one was reading too light.  She weighed herself here and then at the Dr's office and the difference was more than could be accounted for by additional clothing.  So, I bought a new one and sure enough the old one was reading about 3-4 lbs lighter than the new one.  So, when I hit that 195, it was probably actually a 198 (I've actually hit 196.8 on the new scale, so I've been even lower than what the old reading of 195 would have meant) and the 232 when I started (this time) was likely more like 235.  Anyway, since early May I've been sitting at 200±2 lbs.  There isn't really a problem with that, I actually am feeling pretty good at this weight, I'm wearing jeans that are 4" smaller in the waist than I was a year ago (and I'm noticing that they are actually a little on the loose side).  Also, hopefully tomorrow the jeweler will call and I'll get my wedding ring back (it is being resized smaller).  Several times this summer, I've nearly lost it in the pool and when I nearly lost it in the shower last week, that was the final straw, I took it to the jeweler 5 days ago.  Now, I lost the first 15-20 lbs strictly by watching what I ate, cutting the caloric intake to 1500-1800 calories a day, but then I plateaued for a while.  In Jan-Feb, I started adding in some resistance/weight training (starting with the resistance bands 3 times per week and later switching to the actual free weights occasionally for some variation) and more weight came off, another 15-20 bringing me to a total of about 35 where I am now.  For the last two months, however, I've gotten out of the workout habit.  It started around the time of SANSFIRE (maybe just before) and with all of my travels in July, it kept on.  I worked out once while I was at my parent's place and was very, very sore the day I had lunch with the college friend (I hope she didn't notice I was moving like an 80-year-old).  Then not again until Monday.  I finally put the old DVD in and went at it.  Obviously, I had to lighten the weight (or reduce reps) from where I was when I was doing it regularly and I was a little sore yesterday and this morning, but I hit it again today and I expect I'll feel better tomorrow.  Perhaps a little more will come off if I get back in the routine.

To continue where I left off...

I still haven't made the flight to visit my friend, if all goes well, that should happen next week.  In the last week or so, however, I have gotten some good news, that I'd like to share.  I mentioned in the last post that there had been some bad news.  I was informed that my aunt had breast cancer.  About the same time, one of my wife's coworkers got bad news about possible cancer in her abdomen.  Finally, the father of a good friend discovered he required 5 heart bypasses.  Well, the good news is that after the lumpectomies, the tests suggest that my aunt's cancer was caught early enough and appears not to have spread.  Followup radiation should be brief and no chemo required.  My wife's coworker had surgery last week and they removed 17 lbs (yes, you read that right, 17 lbs) worth of tumor from her ovaries.  Now, she isn't a large girl by any stretch of the imagination, so I'm stunned at the size, but they don't believe the cancer has spread to any other organs (though they are still waiting for some test results).  Finally, my friend's father seems to have come through the quintuple bypass well, so it has been good news all the way around.  I am going to endeavor from here on to post something here at least once or twice a week.  I have a number of thoughts that I need to develop into a more complete form, but we shall see.

Home for a while

Well, my car has travelled 5,118 miles in the last 30 days.  It has been a busy month and I have one more little visit (though I intend to fly that one rather than drive) to make sometime this month, but otherwise I think I'll be a homebody for a while.  The week after the holiday, I visited my youngest sister for a couple of days and got to see my nephew play some baseball, then went on to NJ to get in some face-time with the boss and team.  While there, I also got to visit with some good friends from back when I lived out that way.  Then it was back to my sister's for another day and on home.  After a week at home, it was down to NC to spend time with Mom and Dad and celebrate Dad's 75th birthday.  While there, I set up wireless networking so I can use the laptop down there.  I also was able to have lunch with a very dear friend from college that I hadn't seen in over 25 years.  Then I came home, but my car went on another road trip with Matt.  He went to Memphis to visit a friend from basic training (I think) then to visit with George (his old boss, the one who took him to Japan a few years back).  After he brought my car back, I traveled back over to my sister's for my nephew's belated graduation party.  Lots of miles on the car, but lots of good visits with friends and family.  There has also been some bad news in the extended family, but I don't really want to talk about that right now.  It looks like the weather probably won't allow the flying I was hoping to do.  I really need to find some time to get instrument current again.

My SANSFIRE 2009 talk

My talk at SANSFIRE last month on my automated malware analysis environment is available in several forms on the web.  The slides with audio are available here, just the audio here, here, or here and just the slides, here and here.

The $100 hamburger

I desperately needed to fly, but my original plans to visit a friend (that I haven't seen in 24 years) fell through, so I decided to take my first "$100 hamburger" flight (which with inflation is probably more like $200, but who's counting?).  The weather was pretty nice this morning, high only expected to be about 80°F.  I flew from KVTA to KPMH and had lunch at the restaurant there on the airport.  The grilled ham and cheese was pretty good, the pie, not quite so much, but the people and the atmosphere were perfect for the venue.  Got some nice crosswind practice on landing too which I can't complain about.  The flight back was windier than I expected and on landing at KVTA, it was 28°C, alt 29.59, wind 270@16G22.  Fortunately, right down the runway, because that's a little more crosswind than I've done in a while (not that I was really worried about crosswind, but...).  A pleasant little 1.8 in the logbook (and another airport) and I'll still try to catch up with the old friend next month.  Life is good.

More random thoughts

Wow, so I went another month without posting anything.  Sorry about that.  Since I last posted, I finally got the notification that my GREM Gold paper was approved (it hasn't been posted yet, I'll update this (or post a new one) when it is (it should be at http://giac.org/certified_professionals/practicals/grem/48.php when it is).  I actually turned the original draft of the paper in around the end of Feb, but for some reason it took almost 3 months for my advisor to sign off on it even though I made no significant changes in it.  I've written up and done a trial run of my SANSFIRE talk based on the paper, it was too long, so I'll have to shorten the talk up some before I give it on the 18th.  The pool is open, I got in it yesterday, Erin got in today, but it is still a little on the chilly side.  I really need to find some time to fly under the hood with and instructor and get IFR current again.  Mom and Dad leave this week for their Alaskan cruise (did I mention we --the kids-- gave them this cruise as their 50th anniversary present?).  I saw the new Star Trek movie and I'm still (even 3 weeks later) not sure how much I like it and how much I dislike it.  I'm not real happy that they tossed out everything that came before, but I kind of understand why Abrams felt like he needed to.  Mark's baseball team lost too early in the state playoffs, but Marist made the NCAA tournament (where they were promptly eliminated by Ohio State).  Hopefully he can help them get back there again next year.  There still isn't a new contract with the union, so I still have to worry about possibly getting sent out to the New Lex CO.  I finally watched The Bucket List this evening.  I DVRed it a couple of weeks ago.  I enjoyed it though I thought Jack Nicholson had too much weight on him for someone going through chemo.  How's that for an odd thought.  I have built a database using the baseball databank data to give me game info back to at least 1920 and play-by-play back to 1960 (except 1992-1999).  I even figured out how to convert the current season data into retrosheet format and put it in the database.  I want to use it to get more accurate fielding data than I can get from the box scores.  I'll play with it after my SANSFIRE talk and before I start studying for my GCFW recertification.  I enjoyed Leno's last week and Conan's first on the Tonight Show.  I need to call my baby sister, I didn't get to call her on her birthday, I hope she'll forgive me.  How's that for random thouhts?

Random thoughts from Star Wars Day

I have a whole bunch of things I need to post about, but not enough time in which to do it, so I'll throw a few of them out here and hopefully find some time in the next couple of days to write about some of the others.

Wow, it was more than 10 years ago now when our musician at Faith UCC asked me to do "Gethsemane" from Jesus Christ Superstar as a solo for Maundy Thursday. Since I am not now (nor have I ever been, well maybe I was briefly, anyway...) a tenor (are there any parts in the entire show other than Caiaphas for basses?), we took it down a little bit and changed the arrangement slightly (and I took a few parts down an octave), but I really like that song. The whole story of Gethsemane has always been one of my favorites because it shows Jesus as struggling with doing God's will, just like the rest of us. I was reminded of this when John Shuck posted a link to this youtube video (it actually starts at 1:44).



The other thing I wanted to mention today has to do with my weight.  I am just shy of 6' 2" tall and when I graduated from high school I weighed 147 lbs, yup not a lot of body fat there.  Apparently, that is at the bottom end of "healthy weight" for my height.  I remained there until about my junior year of college.  I was still about 160 when I graduated from college.  By the time I returned to grad school for the second time I was in the 190s.  I topped out at 242 in 1999 (after my back surgery).  Yup, at that point I was 95 lbs heavier than when I graduated from high school.  In 2000, I talked to my doctor and devised a plan to take off some of that weight.  I ended up losing 44.5 lbs in 7 or 8 months.  I eventually got down to 197.5, but I didn't stay there long.  I was in the low 200s for a while, but over the next year or so, I gradually crept back up to the point that I was pretty consistently 227± 2 for about 3 years until last July.  When I got home from SANSFIRE in July, I weighed 232 again.  At that point, I decided enough was enough.  I've changed the way I eat (limiting calories by watching portion sizes, increasing fiber, drinking lots of water -- about 140oz/day) and I exercise regularly again (something I haven't really done in a very long time).  This morning, I weighed myself at 197.0 lbs which is the lightest I've been in at least 15 years (I was about 208 when we got married if I remember correctly).  I'd still like to take a little more off, but I'm very happy with this.  More later.

Oh, and may the Fourth be with you (yeah, lousy pun I've seen numerous places today).

Fuel - the documentary

I posted last month about Josh Tickell's book Biodiesel America and mentioned a couple of weeks ago that his documentary, Fuel was coming to Columbus.  I went and saw it at Studio35 in Columbus on Tuesday (tonight is the last night it is showing here) and it was every bit as good as I had hoped.  Now I just need to find ways to put it all in practice.  If it comes to a town near you, please go see it.  It is well worth the time and money.  I just wish I would have been able to get a few more people out with me to see it.

Fuel (the documentary) coming to Columbus

Before I forget, I wrote a couple of weeks ago about Fuel and Biodiesel America.  Well, I got an e-mail the other day that the documentary will be coming to Columbus 17-23 Apr.  I'm looking forward to seeing it.  Join me.  Info is here.

What is going on?

Things have been pretty busy for me lately.  I took a brief vacation last weekend and visited my baby sister and got to see my nephew, the baseball star, play.  His team won both games, he scored the first run in one and drove in the game winner in the other (and according to my internet research, he appears to have won this past Thursday's game with a solo homerun in the top of the 7th inning).  It was a good time, I always enjoy spending time with Munchkin and her family.  Yesterday and today seemed like they would have been great days to fly, but, alas, I didn't get to.  I hope to get in some flying again in the next week or two, but that will depend in part on the work situation.  The company and the union are still negotiating although the contract expired last night at midnight.  If the union goes out, I'll have to work in a new place and, I'm told, it will be 6 12-hour days per week for the first few weeks (if the strike lasts that long).  Ah, well, it isn't flying weather now, we have thunderstorms and a tornado watch and they are predicting snow tomorrow and Tuesday.  Gotta love spring, huh?!  Oh, well, tomorrow is opening day of the baseball season and the NCAA championship game (in basketball), so I'll try to OD on that and enjoy the snow.  It also just occurred to me that yesterday was the 41st anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King in Memphis.  As I think I wrote before, I really came to appreciate him much more in the mid-70s, but I do remember the rioting that broke out after that awful day.  I'll try to write something of substance in the next week.

Hoops OD and first ride of the year

Yesterday, I enjoyed the Buckeyes win over Michigan State (after upsetting Wisconsin in the quarters) in the Big Ten tournament semi-finals.  Today, the temp is around 60°F, so I decided to get the bike out and take my first ride of the season.  You can see the info in the column to the left.  It was a bit chilly and I probably would have gone a bit further, but I got a headache about 0.5 miles into the ride, so I settled for the 6.4 mile loop.  Fortunately, the tail wind was for the last half of the ride (I like those), so it overall felt pretty good for the first ride of the year.  Now, I'm sitting down to watch the Big Ten championship game (Purdue-OSU), then the NCAA tournament selection show and later this week will be the annual hoops overdose days Thursday and Friday from noon-midnight (half days of vacation both days, so I don't feel guilty).  Spring must nearly be here.

Biodiesel America

A couple of weeks ago, Josh Tickell was on the Tonight Show talking about his documentary Fuel and his book Biodiesel America.  He had what I thought were some excellent ideas about how we could wean ourselves from fossil fuels, so I ordered the book the next day.  While it got a little repetitive in places, I thought it was an excellent book.  In fact, I loaned it to Shane right after I finished it.  It has been a while since a read a book from cover to cover in one day, but I did with this one (even longer since I read anything non-fiction cover to cover in one day).  The book made me aware of a few things I hadn't been before.

1. The largest oil field in the world, in Saudi Arabia, has seen declining output for nearly 2 decades.  The US oil fields (primarily in Texas) peaked in the early 1970s.  That means we are running out of oil much more quickly than folks are probably aware.
2. I was stunned at the number of jobs that buying oil from overseas costs the country.  I don't have the book here now, so I don't remember the number mentioned there, but it was appalling.
3. Even mixing a relatively small amount of the biodiesel he described with petroleum diesel greatly reduces the harmful emissions.
4. There are diesel vehicles available in Europe that get 70+ mpg, but none available here in the US.
   

Now is the time we need to do something about our (the world's) reliance on fossil fuels.  Unfortunately, with the drop in price from their highs last summer (just like after the two oil shocks of the 1970s), I think the will to do it has evaporated again.  I'm hopeful that the president will pump some research and development funds into this area anyway because I fear that we'll wait until the supply becomes dangerously low and then it will take too long to develop the new sources and the prices will be ridiculously high.  This also reminded me of some exciting news I heard last summer about a company that was developing a new aviation fuel to replace the current 100LL.  This is being developed from switchgrass and sorghum (which have no food uses).  Anyway, I highly recommend the book (even though, as I said, it gets a bit repetitive at times) and if (when?) the documentary makes it to this area, I intend to go see it.

Some random thoughts for March

Okay, I still don't have the time (or more accurately the motivation) to write up the book thing, I promise I'll get it out in the next few days though, but I did want to post some links to some other people's work.

• I've mentioned it before, I really like a lot of the stuff that Don Brown writes over at Get the Flick.  Anyway, I finally figured out that we don't disagree as much as I thought about ADS-B and the FAA's NextGen project.  He wrote a piece this week making fun of Newt Gingrich (well, several, all probably well deserved, but I digress).  The key thing I finally figured out is that ADS-B and GPS can be very useful for general aviation (i.e., my flying), but won't be the panacea the FAA brass tries to claim for commercial aviation (which is all most people really think about when they hear the word aviation).  The real problem there is (as Don has pointed out before) "it's the runways, stupid".  Even for GA, however, the price can be a problem, especially if the ADS-B can't replace the Mode C transponder.
  
• He also, posted 2 excellent stories last month that should be required reading by those pushing for an entirely "space-based" air traffic control system.  Radar can't and won't ever go away completely.
• Although a bit overcast and windy, it is over 70°F today and would have been a nice day to fly.  Sigh...
• Also from Don, last week, another story about why the suggestion of privatizing ATC is just plain stupid.  We have the busiest airspace in the world by quite a bit.  User fees (which I think would be inevitable in a privatized ATC world) would kill general aviation in this country just like it has in Europe, Canada, and Australia.
• Okay, the labels would suggest that I'm not only going to talk about flying stuff.  Also, via Don's blog, (yes, I do read other things, but he had a number of good stories in the last month that I had marked in my RSS reader to share with my friends) Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, a rather conservative economic commentator, also saying the $787B stimulus package was too small.  Which reminds me, I may not have cared much for our former President at times, but I don't recall actually wishing that he would fail, so it really bothers me that there are a bunch of bitter Republicans (including the blowhard Limbaugh) who are actively hoping to see the current President fail.  How can you call yourself an American and say you hope the President will fail when he hasn't even been in office 2 months yet?  If he fails (especially now), we all pay the price.  It just makes me sick. (Okay, end of rant, I promise)
• And, finally (for today) from Fred Anderson's blog, a story by Kent Nerburn that touched me.
• Oh, wait, I guess that wasn't my final thought for today.  Thanx to Facebook, I've gotten back in touch lately with a number of classmates from high school and college.  I'll admit, I didn't really talk to (or care for) some of them that much back in the day, but we've all (well, at least I have) grown up some since then, so it is kind of cool finding out what they are up to now.  One of my good friends from high school will be having knee replacement surgery on St. Patrick's Day (at the ripe old age of 47), so I'd appreciate it if you'd keep her in your prayers (though I won't share her name here because I haven't asked her if it would be okay).
  

Religious Diversity

I know I still owe a story about the book I read the Sunday before last, but that probably needs to wait until next week.  This evening, I just want to point to a blog post over on Faithful Progressive I read last week.  This definitely looks like a book I need to read (as if I need another book to add to my pile). :-\  I've always had problems with the usage of the passage from John to condemn the majority of humanity for eternity.  Anyway, go read the blog entry and I'll probably post something more after I read the book.

Nice days and I'm stuck inside watching and other thoughts...

Work has been really busy lately for a number of reasons (that I won't go into now) and this blog has been one of the victims.  The other thing that has been driving me nuts is the weather has been so nice   I did manage to get out a fly for an hour last Monday, but there have been another 4 or 5 (including today) that have been absolutely gorgeous (and most of them not too windy) that I'd love to have flown more.  I did take the opportunity to intercept and track radials and even took two turns around in a hold at the Appleton VOR (APE).  I still need to do a post on the book I read last Sunday.  It has been a while since I read a book from cover to cover in one day, but I did last weekend, but that is a topic that requires more time than I can devote to it right now.  Today is Ash Wednesday, but I didn't make it to church this evening because I was working on something that my daughter needed.  I have a book (or two or three) that I'd like to knock off my list during Lent, but whether or not that happens will be determined in part by how much more work I need to put into the paper I've been working on.  More on that later, too.  Last thought for this evening, today was the first spring training game and the Reds won, 7-0.  No, I didn't watch or listen, just read that online after the fact.  I'm hoping for a better year than the last 8, but I'm not holding my breath.  Hopefully, my next post won't be so scattered.  Shalom. ---Jim

A couple of links

I know I haven't been posting much here.  I hope to rectify that soon, but in the meantime, I have a couple of links I'll post here for anyone who is actually reading this.

• The first is one that I really like from James McGrath is a thoughtful discussion (continued in the comments) about what it means to be Christian and about the historical accuracy of the Bible.
• The second one is one I put up as a link on Facebook, too about what we should be doing as a church during tough economic times.
  

Happy (Belated) 50th Anniverary, Mom & Dad

Last weekend (the one between Christmas and New Year) we had the great pleasure of celebrating my parent's 50th anniversary (which actually was two weeks earlier).  Unfortunately, Dad's siblings and 2 of Mom's brothers (due to illness, a grandchild's wedding, and weather) were unable to make it, but we still had a good time visiting with family that we don't get to see as often as we'd like.  Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.

 

Their wedding picture

 

And the  happy couple 50 years later

 

 With the kids, their spouses, and (all but 1 of) the grandchildren.