At the end of January, I finished a day of flying just after noon in El Paso, TX. After checking into the hotel and changing into civvies, my partner (Captain Ray) and I walked Eastward along the road that runs along El Paso Airport’s southern boundary to see if we could get a closer look at an Aero Spacelines Super Guppy that we’d seen sitting on the airport for a while.
While we understood the Super Guppy to be owned and operated by NASA, what we didn’t know is that El Paso Airport is home to a forward operating location of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The center is responsible for several things, including the maintenance and operation of the Super Guppy and the Gulfstream 2 Shuttle Training Aircraft, as well as servicing and upgrades of NASA’s fleet of T-38 aircraft.
We basically walked up to the facility and knocked on the door, since there’s no “visitor’s entrance” or anything of the sort. Fortunately, we were greated by a friendly employee of the maintenance facility who was only too happy to give us a look around when we told him who we were and who we worked for. Had we been just a day earlier, we would have had a chance to meet the crew of STS-133, who were there doing some final training in the STA for their upcoming mission.
The tour included quite a few interesting things. We got to sit at a big wooden picnic table in the hangar on which all the shuttle astronauts had signed their names.
We had the opportunity to check out the inside of the STA’s cockpit, which is essentially split in half with one side being the Shuttle Commander’s station and the other being a standard G-2′s cockpit.
They let me take a real close look at the cockpit of an Astronaut’s T-38.
And, of course, they gave the two of us the grand tour of the Aero Spacelines B-337SGT Super Guppy. This was a really special deal, since there are so few of these in the world.
I won’t bore you with specifics about the Super Guppy (you can find those on the links above), but I will say that it is WAY bigger inside than it looks from the outside! Muse be cool to fly something where you not only have to worry about the center-of-gravity fore and aft, but the center-of-gravity up and down, too!
Thanks to Bob Coyne and everyone else at NASA JSC El Paso for taking the time to give me and Captain Ray the grand tour of your facility!
In case any of the seven readers of this blog were A) still readers of this blog, and B) wondering if I was still alive, the answer to B) is: Yes.
Life has been extra-hectic.
We moved Mom in with us last October. This involved a drastic pairing down of her own existence so that it would fit into one room in our small house. It also involved an only-somewhat-less-drastic pairing down of the existence of myself, my wife, and our daughter so that Mom would have a room to fit into. So after clearing all the crud out of her four bedroom house that she was occupying all by herself and moving all of our crud out of what used to be our office (and remodeling the bathroom and pouring a new driveway/slab in the backyard for a storage shed) she’s all moved in. Of course, that left the cleaning and prepping of her old house for sale. In the meantime, Mom went through a hip-replacement in December and is juuuuust about back to where she was before the operation, albeit with much less pain. The house is now in escrow (for quite a bit less than our original asking price), and soon the entire process will be over and done with. “Old Normal” will be gone, and “New Normal” will be complete and here to stay.
Yep. That’s a lot of stress.
And the rest of my family is well, too. My wonderful wife turns 40 in April, and as part of her 40th birthday present, I took her to Hawaii for a week. We spent four days on Kauai and three on The Big Island, and we had a fantastic time! It was a HUGE letoff of all the stress we’d built up over the previous eight months. The pictures can be found here. Hope you enjoy them!
Work is virtually unchanged, for now. Slightly more experienced in-type (I flew a bit over 850 hours last year). And I’m slightly more advanced in terms of longevity, I suppose. The economy has kept the actual seniority advancement to a minimum, but that’s completely beyond my control. There’s a merger on the horizon, and I’m not certain how that will work out. I’m optimistic that, in the long run, there’ll be a lot of money made by the combined companies, and that will mean a modicum of career security.
Other than that, I’m pretty much the same guy I was last time I posted. Though, I did hit my weight-loss goal of 220 lbs (115 lost) back in September of last year. So far, I’ve managed to keep active enough to keep it off, mostly (had a bit of a setback from the Hawaii trip; dark-chocolate-covered macadamia nuts by the bag-full didn’t help). I’m running a lot, lately, and I’ve gotten to the point where I can run six to eight miles without stopping or falling over dead. I guess falling over dead would count as stopping…
I’m here. Still plugging away at the good life I’ve created for myself with the people I love. That is, in case any of the seven of you that used to read this blog regularly are wondering.
I’m still working on the weight loss kick. As of today, I’ve lost 87.25 pounds since I started the program on August 10, 2009. That leaves me with 12.75 pounds to go until I’ve hit the 100 pounds-lost mark, and 21.75 pounds to go until I hit my initial target weight of 225 pounds. I feel great in both body and spirit, and I can only complain about one thing: the cost of new clothes.
In general, all is well!
I’ve been updating my Now Reading widget regularly, and my Flickr widget always updates itself whenever I add any new images to my flickr.com account. Feel free to check either of those widgets out to see what I’m reading and taking pictures of. Again, if any of the seven of you that used to read this blog regularly are still interested.
I’m also on facebook (ugh) now. Become a fan of Glenn Calvin Photography and get regular updates to my photographic portfolio!
Another 805 hours in the logbook during 2009. And I thought I slacked off in 2008! I’m down nearly 40 block hours year-over-year. A lot of that can be attributed to a great decrease in the airline’s schedule that began in February.
Last year’s flying brought my totals to 4,101 hours in the 737 and 9,433 total time. That means I’ll fly my 10,000th hour some time in September, 2010!
I’m an avid reader. As you can probably tell if you (care to) watch the sidebar of this blog (whether I’m posting regularly or not), I read between two and four books a month. I attribute this to a couple things: 1) the commute to and from my domicile for work, and 2) the fact that I am hopelessly addicted to science fiction and history. For the last ten years, I’ve been buying book after book after book. Hardcovers and paperbacks began to pile up (deep!) on my office floor to the point where they were starting to get in the way and become fire hazard. Being that I’m not a pack rat by nature, I decided a couple months ago to box them all up and take them over to the local “Friends of the Library” shop where they’ll be sold to benefit our local public libraries. There were 11 boxes and almost 240 books. The little old lady that runs the shop had no idea what to think when I showed up!
About a year ago, I began hearing about these so-called “e-readers.” These things are essentially the iPod of the book world – simple electronic devices that allow a person to carry many many book titles in the palm of their hand and effectively freeing up office shelf space for their sports-related bobble-head and vintage aircraft instrument collections. After gathering up all those books for donation (and after some hemming-and-hawing about the unsettling thoughts I had regarding tech replacing tome), I decided that one of those little devices might be just the ticket for a guy like me who’s short on space and long on reading time. I looked at what was immediately available last October and decided that it was best to wait for an e-reader that was to be released in mid-December called Nook. Everything I’d read said that the Nook would really give Amazon’s e-reader a run for its money, offering more titles, better connectivity, better handling of .pdf files, and a color touch-screen for menu navigation. When they became available for pre-order, I didn’t hesitate.
At this point I’d like to pause briefly to thank my wife for my Christmas gift! Thanks, hon! My Nook arrived on the 24th, and of course she wrapped it right up and put it under the tree. She made me wait until the next morning to play with it, even though I’d given her Christmas gift to her two weeks before. She can be a right pain in the – Anyhow, now that I’ve had a couple days to play around with it a bit, I figured I’d review it and give you all the pros and cons I’ve found.
Pros:
First, it really is a sleek-looking and compact device. It’s about 7″ long by 5″ wide and is only 1/2″ thick. The last book I read was about the same length and width, but exceeded the Nook’s thickness dimension by six-fold. It goes without saying that this little device will save me lots of space in my travel bag!
I found that (after a Christmas day of dealing with the Barnes & Noble e-book delivery system’s teething problems) the connectivity of this device is lightning-fast. I downloaded two very-lengthy e-books in two different ways. First, I bought Ayn Rand‘s The Fountainhead – a novel of massive physical proportions – and downloaded it via the device’s cell-phone connection. In less than a minute, I completed the order and had the entire novel safely stashed in my Nook’s memory. Then, with the Nook’s wireless LAN connection hooked into my home network, I downloaded Peter F. Hamilton‘s The Reality Dysfunction – another gargantuan novel, this one of the space opera variety. Again, lickity-split, I had the book downloaded to the device and my wallet lightened by a dollar amount significantly less than the physical copy would have cost me.
The E-Ink main display where books and other publications pages are viewed looks just like the printed page of your favorite novel. It is very easy to read and is flicker-free while displaying a page. I found that it handled pictures and diagrams just as well as text (though in black and white only, obviously), and it is of a nice-enough size. I have yet to try my luck at reading a copy of the Wall Street Journal on Nook’s display, but I imagine it’ll do just fine.
Navigation through the software menu and functions of the device (which are based on Google’s Android OS) I found to be very intuitive. Forward and backward “page turn” buttons are located on either side of the device under relatively stiff membrane buttons so that they are within easy reach without lending to accidental page-turns. The color touch screen is a nice feature, showing full-color images of book covers in your library as well as menu and sub-menu selections, which leaves the front of the device uncluttered by buttons.
Cons:
It looks and feels like a very delicate device. Two displays, hard plastic corners, and a fall from a tabletop probably won’t mix well. And does even a simple protective sleeve come with it? Not on your life! That’s $20 extra! And my case is on BACKORDER! Fortunately, Mom is a whiz with a sewing machine and agreed to stitch me up a protective drawstring sack made of random fabric remnants…probably with a Raggedy Andy or Holly Hobby motif. Of course, I’ll have to replace a couple light bulbs for her at her house. Fair trade, I think.
The main screen probably takes longer to refresh on a new page than it takes for me to turn a page in a physical book. It takes about a second-and-a-half to refresh its display with a new page of text. After hitting the “Next Page” button, there is a positive-negative flash on the screen that is a tad annoying, though it is probably inherent to all E-Ink displays.
Though a neat feature, the touchscreen itself leaves a lot to be desired for a fat-fingered fool like me. The accuracy of the touch-sensing I found to be a tad “off” sometimes, and selection of the menu item/letter/number you’re pressing is far from instantaneous. Because of that delay, entering information or using the built-in highlighting/note-taking or dictionary systems can be a tad frustrating.
There is no web-browser. For a device that has such good and varied connectivity, being limited to viewing Barnes & Noble’s e-book site is just a little bit frustrating. I can understand AT&T not wanting the GSM bandwidth it provides with the Nook to be wasted (especially when device owners aren’t paying monthly service fees for that method of connectivity), but there should be no reason to disallow web-browsing while connected via the Wi-Fi antenna.
Conclusion:
Being a big fan of physical books old and new, I wondered just how different an experience reading a novel on the Nook would be. In fact, several people (my wife, primarily) have stated that part of the lure of a real book over this device is the tactile feedback a book gives. Of course, the sense of accomplishment one feels as the right half of the book gets thinner in their right hand while reading through it’s pages is something that might be missed by someone who is a fan of traditional books. Picking up the Nook is just simply not the same as picking up a well-worn used book and smelling an untold number of owners’ perfumes or pipe tobaccos and wondering about the history of that volume. And being able to lend a book you’ve greatly enjoyed to a friend or coworker whom you know will enjoy it as much just isn’t doable (though there is a somewhat restrictive “sharing” feature built into the Nook).
Still, I like this device. Will it ever replace physical books in my collection? That is doubtful. It will, however, serve the primary purpose for which I intended it – keeping me from going crazy with stacks and stacks of books everywhere, and saving me weight and space in my travel bags.
*****
If any of you seven readers are interested in how my weight-loss and physical fitness program is going, the answer is: It’s still going. I’ve been on the program now for about four-and-a-half months and I’ve lost over 50 pounds (down to 282.5 from 334) simply by eating less and working out more. I feel better physically and mentally than I’ve felt in a long, long time! My wife is being very supportive and encouraging, and she’s also doing very well on the same program. I’ve got quite a way to go, and I’ve been hitting plateaus pretty regularly, but I really do believe I’ll get to my goal weight on this program!
Sorry for the lack of updates, recently. Most of my writing tends to come from what I’m thinking about most at the time I sit down at the computer. Lately, I’ve been thinking and worrying a whole lot about the direction in which my wonderful United States seems to been heading, and that doesn’t really make for good reading on a blog that I prefer to remain mostly politics-free. So because I don’t feel a need to bludgeon you over the head with my ideology, I’ve been sort of mute here for a bit. Besides, I’m sure you can gather my political leanings by some subtle (and not so subtle) entries in my “Interesting Passages” posts, of which more are to come shortly.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season!
Our day started pre-dawn in Sacramento last Friday. While flying southbound on the SADDE6 arrival into LAX, we were treated to an amazing sunrise. The high cirro-stratus mixed with lingering smoke from the mostly-contained Station Fire created a wonderful mix of oranges contrasting with the purples of the San Gabriel Mountains as the sun behind them.
I shot this image just as we passed over the Fillmore VOR.
I just got back from the gym, where I had my second bi-weekly weigh-in.
So far, by following the Bodybugg program (not the diet portion of it, I’ve been making my own food choices) and exercising at least four days a week for at least thirty minutes per day, I’m down a total of 18.25 pounds! I’ve also lost 5 and 3/4 total inches in body dimensions, none of which was in my hips (though I don’t find that strange because I’ve always built muscle in that area faster than any other).
Needless to say, I’m quite pleased with myself. Another month or so and I should be somewhere near my first major milestone!
I’ve decided it’s high time to finally do something about my weight. I’m currently at my heaviest ever.
Ever.
And that upsets me.
I have a couple of negative personal traits that have helped me to be a horrifically efficient weight-gainer over the last seven years. First, I love food. I love to cook, I love to eat. And when I eat, I eat big. Second, I have a career where I have to wake up very early and then sit around on my rear end for most of the day. And finally, I hate the gym. I hate the narcissism, I hate the smell, and I have an aversion to pain (I injured my upper back about seven years ago in a gym and hadn’t been back since). Fortunately, these are all things I can change.
In the recent years, I’ve embarked on a number of fitness quests. They usually involve some way of changing what I eat and how much along with aerobic exercise of some sort. And I usually fall off the wagon after a month for whatever reason. However, I believe that I’ve now found a program that excites me enough to become a motivator to follow the program and stick with it long-term. That program is Apex Fitness’s Bodybugg ® calorie management system.
I was first introduced to the system about a month and a half ago by a good friend I was working with who is also rather “large-framed.” He had been on the program for several months and had been impressed enough with it to recommend it to me. The person that recommended the program to him had lost over 50 pounds by following the program. Initially, I thought, “Just another weight-loss gimmick…and at $300, an expensive one at that.” But after doing some research into it and thinking hard about the pros and cons and how I would do on a program like it, I decided to dive in head first and get started.
The program consists of two parts: an electronic device that you wear on your arm that tracks calories burned, steps taken, and activity levels (combined with a digital display that allows you to have an instant readout of your progress throughout the day), and an internet-based tracking and advice program that takes the data from your arm-band device and turns it into a graphical representation of your calorice and fitness performance compared to your caloric and fitness goals.
The device on your arm spits out data, and throughout the day, you upload that data via a USB cable into the web-based software. In addition, you keep a food-journal and input the foods you eat and their portion sizes into the software. At the end of the day, the software spits out a calorie deficit/surplus figure. Compare this figure to the goals that the software sets up for you after you answer a lengthy questionnaire to track your personal performance on the program. I find that attempting to meet the daily goals that it has given me of a 4050 daily calorie burn, a 500 daily calorie deficit, a 30 minute workout, and 10,000 steps a day is a great way of helping me meet the short-term and long-term weight loss goals I have set for myself. Also, similar to tying a string around one’s finger, having the band around my left arm gives me a reminder to consume food in a mindful way, as well.
In essence, this is a tech-geeky way for me to do something I know I need to do: lose weight and get into better physical condition. Since I’m all about tech-geeky, this thing is right up my alley.
As of tomorrow, I’ll have been on the program for two weeks. I’ve changed the food choices I make and I’ve added fast walks of distances ranging from two to four miles to my daily routine (though some days I just don’t have time). I’ll be going back to the gym again very soon…yes, even though I hate it.
I weigh myself for the first time this week, so I’ll see how those first two weeks have been shortly. The short-term weight-loss goal is a pound a week. The long-term weight-loss goal is 75 pounds (from…ugh…just over 330 lbs down to 255 pounds).
This time, I intend to meet the long-term goal. Since I’ll be working on this with my wife, I think I’ll succeed.
