Nah nah nah nah... hey hey hey... goodbye...

Well here's the post I'm writing to make myself feel better, because you need to get things out.

I'm disappointed in America. Chiefly because enough people fell for glitz and glamor instead of substance. But also because of how people at large are acting.

I'll just say that I am worried about this country being forced into socialized health-care, the government controlling the banks, and the slow erosion of our constitution by radical liberal politicians. But am I going to say that this is the end of the world?

No. Do I think we're in for at least two and possibly more years of really crappy times in America? Yes. Do I think we're in for more terrorist attacks on US soil? Probably.

I have to say I'm a bit ashamed of how ignorant the majority of people are in this country about issues that affect them. I mean, it's one thing to not be able to pick out North America on a map, or answer simple questions on the Jay Leno 'man on the street' quiz, or even to come in dead last in math scores among developed countries. But to actually put someone so under-qualified as Obama into office because the media makes him out to be some kind of anti-Bush messiah? Really? Did Democrats need revenge that bad that they put their OWN stooge in the white house?

Ho hum. It's not going to get better folks, and it wouldn't have even if McCain had won. It's just a matter of how fast we go down the toilet.

But I'll end on a hopeful note, because without hope and faith, we have nothing. I think that some good will come from this election and presidency, and I think a lot of that will be people understanding just how bad big government really is. And further that it doesn't matter which party is in the White house, government will only grow and take more from you unless we all stand up and do something.

So put on the gloves people, things are about to get ugly...

And boy are my arms tired...

Ok, I love planes, I love flying, and mostly I love the sense of humor it takes to be a pilot...

Thus I post this email I received from a rare breed... and old pilot... my dad.

Pilot Philosophy

The difference between a duck and a co-pilot?
The duck can fly.

A check ride ought to be like a skirt.
Short enough to be interesting, but long enough to cover everything.

Speed is life.
Altitude is life insurance.

It only takes two things to fly:
Airspeed, and money.

The three most dangerous things in aviation:
1. A Doctor or Dentist in a Cessna.
2. Two captains in a DC-9.

Aircraft Identification:
If it's ugly, it's British.
If it's weird, it's French.
If it's ugly and weird, it's Russian.

Without ammunition, the USAF would be just another very expensive flying club.


The similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots?
If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies.
If ATC screws up, the pilot dies.

The difference between flight attendants and jet engines is that the engines usually quit whining when they get to the gate.

New FAA motto:
'We're not happy, till you're not happy.'

If something hasn't broken on your helicopter--it's about to.

I give that landing a 9 . . on the Richter scale.

Basic Flying Rules:
1. Try to stay in the middle of the air.
2. Do not go near the edges of it.
3. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly in the edges.

Unknown landing signal officer (LSO) to carrier pilot after his 6th unsuccessful landing attempt:

"You've got to land here son. This is where the food is."

The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and a good bowel movement.
A night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities to experience all three at the same time.

Clarity

I don't think I'll ever get too old or too jaded to not marvel at those sudden moments of clarity I'm given.

For me they end up like the end of a movie where there's music playing and the camera just pulls back and reveals an overhead view...

Not all of them are earth shattering, but I think if you can just take what they show you and keep it tightly locked in your head, it's sure to do something good for you down the road.

Now if I could just play blues piano I'd be on my way...




To a blues bar more than likely. I mean... it is Saturday night...

Ah Venice

So.......
Tomorrow is my first day off in over two weeks and I plan to sleep and drink away a considerable amount of it. I'm feeling a bit fatigued. Not from work, or from training. Mostly from this world around me. I think it's the noise. There are so many people yammering at once about nothing at all... on TV, on the radio, even on the Internet (yeah, I know, pot and kettle, but you can't technically hear me typing so this doesn't count as yammering) I just need some blessed silence.

So I'm retreating more and more from the 'new' in all things media, and as such I'm finding many authors and subjects I seemed to have missed in my 23+ years of schooling. Today's find was Tennyson. Excellent stuff so far.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm taking a road less traveled in my desire to connect more with the past than the future with regards to music, art, and literature or if the men and women who were dubbed 'classicists' at the turn of the last century were simply feeling the same as me about the new age of cars, jazz, and machinery. It's not that I mind technology (he types on his Pentium Zillion+2 computer while listening to digital music on his ipod). Not so. It pays my salary, makes my food, heats my house, entertains me and wakes me up in the morning.

I think I have more of a problem with people's reactions to these things. More to the point, I have issues with being constantly bombarded with voices and 'communication' at every turn. I am of the opinion (especially during election season) as is Whitney and many other people I know that the 24 hour news cycle is destroying this country. The need to fill ever hour with some sort of information has caused all telecommunications hell to break loose. Now reporters feel the compulsion to report EVERYTHING to their audiences, no matter how awful, vapid, useless or trivial it may be. "The people have a right to know"... Indeed. The people, more often than not, would be better served with taking care of their own lives than worrying about others. Remember when you were young and you played that game "telephone" where ten people sit in a circle and one person whispers a statement into his neighbor's ear, then it's passed around the circle from person to person until it gets back to the person and you see how mangled the original statement has become? It's like that with satellites.

And let's face it, warnings against gossip (which is exactly what the majority of the "news" we get is, glorified, re-fried, dolled-up gossip) aren't exactly a new invention. The Bible even warns against it many times.

Wow, I'm like an angry old woman. I started this post talking about my day off and it became a soapbox rant about the evils of mass-communication.

Do I have a sense of irony or what?

Meat

So today was interesting. Actually it was a bit normal for this meeting; me running around like my head's on fire, setup here, breakdown there. But then 4:35 came and it got REALLY interesting.

So in case you don't sit glued to C-Span or CNN you probably don't know that both candidates were here at the Smelldorf tonight for a charity fund raiser of some sort. We were filming in the main ballroom where this event was being held and we were told a few days before that we'd need to clear out quickly. So the time comes and by then I'd estimate that about 50 or 60 Secret Service guys were milling around looking official and menacing. Mostly menacing. We then proceeded to strike the entire room, down to the last cord and chair in about 23 minutes. I've never seen so many people moving so quickly to clear a room in my life.

After that it was apparent that Elvis was in the building because you couldn't access half the floors and the rest were just swarming with blue-blood New Yorkers in tux and tails, all going in a different direction. As it was nearing dinner time and I had no desire to hang out and play the turd in the wealthy punch bowl, I rounded up some co-workers and headed out to find a real honest to goodness New York eatery.

I ended up finding a little corner of heaven. On a suggestion we went here, where I ate this:

It's roughly the weight of a small baby and brought tears to my eyes... in a good way. Follow up with some sauteed spinach, garlic mashed potatoes and finish with a glass of Taylor Fladgate 20 year old tawny port and you have the makings of a nice food coma.

Traveling for work can suck.

But sometimes it's got it's perks.

If you'll excuse me I'm going to go and dream of doing the appropriate amount of sit ups.