Revelation – Page 147 – Rants and Revelations

63 Random Facts

1) How old do you wish you were?
Sometime between when my brother left for the army and stopped torturing me, and when my knee pain got so bad I had to give up orienteering, cross country skiing, backpacking, canoeing, etc. Probably first year university was best – 19 years old, in the best physical shape of my life, got my silver Courier de Bois in the Canadian Ski Marathon, 7th in the North American Orienteering Championships, hardly a weekend went by when I wasn’t doing something active.

2) Where were you when 9/11 happened?
Talking to my therapist. Somebody phoned her to tell her that a plane had just flown into the WTC, and I didn’t understand, I thought it must be a small plane accident, not a purposeful act. I never connected it with the fact that I was supposed to call Julie Z after noon because she was going to be out of the office in the morning. It wasn’t until I got to work that I found out where Julie was – 102rd floor of WTC 1.

3) What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Get mildly annoyed. Call the service number if there is one.

4) Do you consider yourself kind?
Not as kind as I wish I was.

5) If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
I’d like to get a maple leaf tatooed over my heart. I don’t feel like I can get US citizenship until I have the physical reminder that my heart belongs to Canada.

6) If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
French. I am still sorry that I never picked it up living in Quebec.

7) Do you know your neighbors?
Many of them. I know more about my neighbours in a year of living in this neighbourhood than I did living 10 years in my previous neighbourhood.

8) What do you consider a vacation?
I used to consider a week hiking the Western Uplands Hiking Trail in Algonquin Park, or going to a week long orienteering festival, or anything involving a tent and some physical activity a vacation. Don’t do those things any more. The best vacations I’ve had in recent years where the 5 days I spent at Oshkosh 2003, and the cruise Vicki and I had in Alaska.

9) Do you follow your horoscope?
No, I don’t even read the horoscopes in The Onion or BB Spot.

10) Would you move for the person you loved?
I did. I get homesick for Canada when I’m here, and I get homesick for the person I love when I’m there.

11) Are you touchy feely?
No. One of my male friends is a hugger, and it sort of makes me uncomfortable. And then I get uncomfortable about the fact that I’m uncomfortable.

12) Do you believe that opposites attract?
There is nothing rule based about attraction.

13) Dream job?
I’d like to stay home and write software, but I don’t know if I’m disciplined enough to do it.

14) Favorite channel(s)?
History Channel, BBC America, etc. Man, I wish I could get CBC here. I miss “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” and “Corner Gas”.

15) Favorite place to go on weekends?
Mostly I just like to veg out and recover. I never get enough sleep.

16) Showers or Baths?
Showers.

17) Do you paint your nails?
No comment.

18) Do you trust people easily?
Sometimes too much. Sometimes not enough. It’s a hard balance to strike.

19) What are your phobias?
That my kids won’t be able to recover from my bad parenting skills.

20) Do you want kids?
Have two, don’t want any more.

21) Do you keep a handwritten journal?
Never.

22) Where would you rather be right now?
Asleep.

23) Who makes you feel warm and fuzzy?
Vicki.

24) Heavy or light sleeper?
Mostly heavy, I think.

25) Are you paranoid?
No, people really are out to get me.

26) Are you impatient?
With people, yes. I try to not be, but it’s a long process.

27) Who can you relate to?
People with open minds.

28) How do you feel about interracial couples?
Mostly it makes me ashamed that I still have some residual racism deep down inside.

29) Have you been burned by love?
Oh yeah.

30) What’s your favorite pick-up line?
“The kids are at their dad’s tonight.”

31) What’s your main ring tone on your mobile?
Fur Elise

32) What were you doing at midnight last night?
Sleeping. Not very well.

33) What did the last text on your cellphone say?
“On the ground in Raleigh. Now to find where I’m staying.”

34) Whose bed did you sleep in last night?
My own.

35) What color shirt are you wearing?
Off white.

36) Most recent movie you watched?
Over the Hedge.

37) Name three things you have on you at all times?
Combined Cell phone/pda, wallet, keys.

38.) What color are your bed sheets?
You mean I’m only supposed to have one set?

39) How much cash do you have on you right now?
About $25 US, and about $15 Canadian.

40) What is your favorite part of the chicken?
Wings. In Buffalo sauce.

41) What’s your favorite town/city?
Ottawa.

42) I can’t wait till:
I can stop feeling bitter about things.

43) Who got you to join LJ?
Vicki

44) What did you have for dinner last night?
Cheese fondue.

45) How tall are you barefoot?
6’2″

47) Do you own a gun?
Not any more. Used to own a few rifles.

48) What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
Tea.

49) What is your secret weapon to lure in the opposite sex?
Blissful self-unawareness.

56) Where do you think you’ll be in 10 yrs?
Doing what I’m doing now, or unemployed.

57) Last thing you ate?
Pulled pork from Dinosaur Barbecue.

58) What songs do you sing in the shower?
Hardly anything – I hate my own voice.

59) Last thing that made you laugh?
Over The Hedge was a surprisingly funny movie.

60) Worst injury you’ve ever had?
Probably the most painful thing that ever happened to me was getting penile frostbite in a cross country ski race at -40C.

61) Does someone have a crush on you?
Doubt it.

62) What’s your favorite candy?
I don’t get to eat my real favourites any more because of my sugar intolerance, but I currently love wasabi almonds.

63) What song do you want played at your funeral?
“Rise Again”, Stan Rogers. No, I don’t really know.

The Computer Doctor strikes again

As reported in Rants and Revelations : The Computer Doctor is IN, I did some major disk swappery when Stevie’s iBook died a few months ago. I put Stevie’s hard drive in Vicki’s iBook, and Vicki’s hard drive in a 15″ Powerbook Titanium that she borrowed from work. Well, Stevie graduated, and as a graduation present she was given a MacBook. So it’s time to reverse the surgery, putting Vicki’s hard drive back in her iBook, and the original hard drive back in the Powerbook.

Time to haul out the Torx and Phillips screw drivers, and most importantly the Fixit Guilde.

Putting the hard drive back in the Powerbook is pretty straight forward, except taking the ide cable off the hard drive is a little brute force for my liking. Only 9 screws, all the same head and general size. And after a little coaxing and swearing, it went back together and booted.

Putting the hard drive back in the iBook is a real pain in the ass. Lots of fiddly crap, including a bit where it says

Breathe deeply. Trying times are ahead, but we promise the lower case does come off.

and another bit where after about 30-45 minutes of work, you get to the bit where it says

Remove the following 16 screws:

But at least they put handy little loops on the ide cables so that they could be removed without bending any pins.

This is about that stage. (As you can see, I’m a firm believer that a clean organized desk is obviously a pre-requisite for doing good work.)

Actually, it was a lot easier having done this a few times now. But I still held my breath as I booted it up and make sure the fiddliest bits, the trackpad and speaker cables got hooked up correctly and it boots properly. And it did! Yay for me!

While dis-assembling and assembling this iBook, several of the Torx screws were getting very rounded off – I had a hell of a time removing one or two of them. I have my doubts that I’ll be able to get the screws off again. I guess next time it breaks, Vicki will have to get a MacBook too.

Product Review: Innopocket Hard Case for Palm Treo

After wrecking my Treo at Pinckneyville, I decided the replacement (that goodness I bought insurance on it) needed a bit more protection. I got the Innopocket Magnesium Case for Palm Treo.

The case appeared to be ideal, with strong clear plastic over the screen and strong magnesium everywhere else important. Even better, the case has a good double hinge so you can get the front out of the way to use the whole device. The reviews warned me about one drawback – there is a nubbin on the back to clip into the belt clip, and when you fold back the front the nubbin touches the clear screen protector. And sure enough, there is a bit of a wear mark there. But then again, better wear on a replaceable case than on the Treo itself.

The design of the case seems to have placed a premium on access to all the extraneous bits of the phone, like the SD card and the camera. That can be handy at times. But it has also lead to a couple of drawbacks:

The SD card keeps popping out. Especially when the phone pops out of the belt clip and drops on the ground.
There isn’t anything along the top to secure the phone in place if the hinge opens, which has lead on more than one occassion to the phone dropping on the floor.

The belt clip is an interesting design and works pretty well, except when the clip itself falls off my shorts.

Not a complaint about the case itself, but more a simple observation: a couple of times I’ve forgotten that the case was closed and attempted to “touch” on the touch screen. Doesn’t work through the screen protector.

In summary: I like the case, and can overlook the small flaws. I hope it will protect the Treo, especially since Cingular cancelled my insurance for having the temerity for making a claim against it.

Basso!

Ivan Basso’s performance on this year’s Giro d’Italia leave no doubt in my mind who the real inheritor of Lance Armstrong’s mantle is. It looks like he’s going to try for the impossible – back to back wins in the Giro and le Tour, and if anybody can do it, he can. In a way it amazes me that a team from Denmark of all places can be so dominant in the mountains, but Basso had much better support in the mountains in the Giro than Armstrong had in last year’s Tour. Last year it seemed that whenever there was a mountain stage after a flat one, Discovery would get caught flat footed when the peleton broke up, leaving Armstrong alone without support. But Basso always seemed to have another rider or two until the crux of the stage.

It’s not as good as watching it on TV, but I’ve been following the race thanks to live.cyclingnews.com, and when away from the computer, using their WAP equivalent on my Treo. I think next year I’m going to spring for the money and get OLN’s webcast version. I didn’t do it last year because it was just the bare tv feed with no commentary, and because it required a Windows computer. This year they seem to have added commentary, and it works on Macintosh computers, but I didn’t go for it because I wasn’t sure if it was worth the money. But I’ve spent more for less, so next year I think I’m going to try it.

Pinckneyville #3

With my broken Treo, I felt like I was getting my weather briefing for the trip home with one arm tied behind my back. The briefer initially gave me a glowing report for the trip home, saying that there was a cold front, but it wasn’t anywhere near my route of flight. But then he started reading the NOTAMs for Rochester and told me that runway 16 was closed. Rochester doesn’t *have* a runway 16. Wait a second – “I did say Rochester NY, didn’t I?” Ok, time to start over. Suddenly the cold front was very significant. The weather now was similar to the trip out – VFR between Pinckneyville and Lima Allen County, but an airmet for turbulence below 6,000 feet for much of the route. It was going to be breezy for both landings. There was also going to be ice in the clouds from Cleveland on, and the freezing level was going to be lower than on Friday – as low as 3,000 feet between Buffalo and Rochester. Oh, and some convective activity around Buffalo.

I was pretty sure I could handle it, and finding a place to land en-route and waiting it out would always be an option. So I filed the first leg IFR from the BIB VOR on to AOH, figuring that it would be easier to pick up the clearance in the air than in a tiny uncontrolled field, especially without a cell phone.

As I lifted off from the runway, a voice came over the radio warning me about the presence of motorcycles and to conduct myself accordingly. And with that, I bid a fond farewell to PJY. It was a bit bumpy on the way up, but was smooth at altitude. It was a great clear day, and not much haze. I had a bit of trouble remembering how to pick up an IFR clearance in the air – I initially contacted Flight Service, but they put me straight and gave me a Kansas City Center frequency to call.

The only other excitement was due to my having gobbled down a couple of hard boiled egg just before I took off – suffice it to say I can’t apologize to Mark enough for the result of that. Once again we saw the airport from well away, and cancelled IFR, and entered the downwind. It was bumpy down low and pretty gusty winds, but I think I did one of my better landings of the weekend, if I do say so myself.

In the FBO, we borrowed the courtesy car, and went into town to grab a bite to eat. Mark put some gas in the car, so they waived the $10 rental fee. There was some sort of 4WD festival going on, and we saw a lot of people from that. We also checked the weather, and it looked pretty crappy. The winds were getting worse, the icing pilot reports were getting more numerous, and there were several areas of yellow and red on the radar around Buffalo. Once again, the plan was to try it, and be flexible.

As we’d been cut loose from Indiana Approach coming into AOH, we’d been told to contact them on the same frequency to pick up our next clearance, and so we did. In spite of the fact that I filed the same route (in reverse) that I’d had on the way down, which had netted me a re-route along the way, I got “cleared as filed”.

Somewhere between Indianapolis and Cleveland, the clouds started filling in below us, and I had to ask for higher to stay in the clear. I could see solid clouds below for as far as the eye could see, but more importantly I couldn’t see any clouds boiling up into the stratosphere. I was up to 9,000 feet or so over Cleveland, and they gave me a short vector to get me off Victor 14 over the airport, which you can see in the flight track.

Between Dunkirk and Buffalo, when they turned me over to Buffalo approach, the clouds were suddenly higher and I knew I’d soon be in them. I asked what they could see on the radar and they suggested that I go direct to Rochester which would put me between two areas of rain. I didn’t have anything on the Stormscope, so I wasn’t worried about thunderstorms any more. But not long after I was in the clouds and picking up ice. I asked for lower, and they soon sent me to 6,000, and then 4,000 as that *still* didn’t put me out of the clouds. A few times I got between layers and it looked like ice was coming off, but then the layers shifted and I was back in it. I asked for still lower, because I could see the bases not too far down. He said he couldn’t vector me down lower there, but he’d send me north to where the MVA (Minimum Vectoring Altitude) was 3,000 feet. On the vector, I got clear of the clouds and could see Batavia down below me. When he’d got me where he wanted and down to 3,000, I was definitely below the freezing level and the ice came off very fast. Which is good, because if that hadn’t worked I probably would have made a precautionary landing at Batavia, or cancelled IFR and scud run at 1,500 feet.

The Rochester controller didn’t seem to believe me that I was landing a small GA plane in this weather. He gave me numerous un-requested wind checks. It was varying between 30 and 40 knots, and I swear at least once it was gusting up to 48 knots, but fortunately it was only 10 or 20 degrees off of the nice long and wide Runway 28. I had to cinch up my seat belt to keep from hitting my head. It wasn’t a pretty landing, but with the strong winds I could keep a lot of power in, which helped. Taxiing back to the tie down I had to pause and think about how you are supposed to hold the controls while taxiing, because I rarely bother with such a heavy aircraft in normal light winds.

It was a challenging flight, a learning experience, and a great way to end a great weekend.