Posts by Kelly:
Worst flight ever
Went to Phoenix over the weekend for Pammy’s brother’s (Todd’s) wedding. She flew out Friday morning so I had to fly N233ME out on my own. Pretty uneventful trip with light headwinds ended up taking me 2:15 to get there. Not bad. Listened to the Ipod the whole way. The return trip was another story.
We left Sunday around 1pm, expecting a not great flight – winds out of Goodyear airport were 15 gusting to 25 knots. At altitude they were forecast to be not much better. I expected a bumpy, somewhat longer ride. I wish. Taking the same route home (for pilots out there it was KGYR-BLH-PSP-KEMT-KVNY), we started running into cumulus buidups with virga falling about 50 miles east of Palm Springs. I diverted around that, and found what appeared to be clear passages through PSP as well as across the desert into Palmdale. I elected to go via PSP and through the Banning pass because it would mean not having to go around Big Bear – saving 10 minutes.
When I got close to the Banning Pass, I realized it wasn’t going to work out. The weather was low there, and scud running didn’t look like an option. I considered going IFR, but the reports of heavy precip and icing made that sound somewhat less than fun. I turned around and now traversed ALL the way around Big Bear, and in clear air with moderate turbulence the ENTIRE way some with 30 knot headwinds. Whole trip took just over 3 hours. At least the landing was good.
Summary:Â It SUCKED.
Losing that last 15 pounds
I knocked of the easy stuff – the first 35 pounds. Now it’s time to drop the last 15. My assault begins on April 21, and ends June 21 – the first day of summer. 4 workouts a week and extensive cardio, coupled with watching my diet like a hawk should get me there easily. […]
Ubuntu update
Bottom line – I love this operating system. It’s fast, stable, installed 95% perfectly, and is now running absolutely perfectly. Printer works like a charm. Plaxo works with Thunderbird. Firefox is wonderful (I knew that before, but you get a better taste of it when you use it exclusively). What is now left for me […]
My daughter is smart
And in some cases, smarter than I. At dinner tonight, while discussing how important math is, she said “Yes – I know. I do a lot of math. Do YOU even know about AVERAGES?” I laughed. I’m in the programming business. I know all ABOUT averages. She proceeds to write out a list of 10 […]
Live from Ubuntu
Ok – so now I’m really up and running with Ubuntu – a search of Digg for help with the OS yielded a post on Top 13 things to do immediately after installing Ubuntu – very helpful indeed. I installed flash, codecs, fonts, repositories – everything. The only thing not working at the moment – […]
The God Delusion
Just finished reading this great book by Richard Dawkins. Always been an Atheist to SOME degree, but I am ashamed to admit I didn’t know to WHAT degree. I am now convinced, absolutely and completely, that there is no God. (I capitalize only because it is the standard convention) This book truly is a life […]
The continuing Linux test
The Linux movement is one I have acutely aware of, but not terribly involved with. My software company is going to be running on Linux (the App server anyway), and so i see it as necessary to become an expert of sorts. i decided to start with it at home. I started by installing Debian, […]
IFR the old fashioned way
Since the club took delivery of our newer planes, I’ve been very happy to utilize all of their capabilities – namely the autopilot and approach-approved GPS receivers. It’s a key thing to know how to use – especially when you are IFR without another pilot in the plane – which is most of the time. […]
Rats!
I’m a fairly manly guy. I take care of the manly things around the house. I open jars. I replace lightbulbs. I fix things. I kill bugs. If necessary, I could get a snake out of the house. But I cannot STAND rats. They are vermin in the truest sense of the word. So when […]
You can’t spell Windows without WIN.
Setting up the new office (including some rack servers), I have come to truly appreciate not just how EASY a Windows server installation is, but truly how mature and stable Windows is compared to Linux. Wanting to install the same setup as our offshore partner, we installed Fedora 6, the Sun JVM, Apache, and Tomcat […]