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Monday, July 03, 2006
Happy Extraordinary Cosmic Events Day!
Today is a day of many posts, probably. Most importantly, it’s the day that 2004 XP14 was going to wipe out a small country or worse. Back when all those doomsday movies came out people were going crazy over this asteroid, discovered back in 2004, which actually did come close (between the Earth and the Moon).
Also, Today is the day of Earth’s Aphelion, for which my server is named. It’s the furthest distance from the center of the Earth to the center of the Sun, in it’s elliptical orbit. Should be a cold day, right?
Monday, July 03, 2006
The Big Quakecon Post
With only 30 days until the big event and even fewer than that to start planning for it, I've taken the liberty of setting up a schedule for Quakecon planning. It is open to suggestion, and is currently based around my work schedule. It involves everyone leaving CLE around 10am on August 1st, and returning around 8am August 8. I used Google Calendar to plan it because my calendar feature is broken (more like, not installed on Jo's server atm) and it looked cool. I can give other people with gmail accounts access to change stuff and add to it.DGS Quakecon Google Calendar: Click Here
Map to my place: Camden Oasis Apt 1402
Things to consider: Eclipse's Rules
I know Dan and Tim are going, as well as Tim(bro), Schultz, March, and maybe another. I suggest you guys all travel together. Even if you take separate cars, it's a big country and you guys can watch out for each other. I wish my forum was still operational, so you could organize it there, but this will have to do. Sound off in the comments for suggestions, and I will try to be on AIM and log any event changes here. Bookmark this entry!
Official Quakecon FAQ: Here
Quakecon Forums: Here
Friday, July 14, 2006
Flight Instructor Ride Passed!
In a very hot and exhausting day yesterday, I passed my flight instructor checkride. The weather in the morning was super shitty. Would have been an awesome day to fly in the clouds, but I needed to fly in the morning with my instructor before we left, and we couldn’t even get high enough to fly the traffic pattern. The checkride was scheduled for 11:30 am, and he pushed it back to Noon but said noon was the latest we could get started. Another guy I know named Brian Marsh was scheduled with me. Finally it started breaking up a little and I was able to fly with Nathan in the pattern for 2 landings. He signed my logbook and Marsh and I sped off to Medina airport at full throttle at a fairly low, yet not illegal altitude.
The examiner was his usual self; it’s fairly easy to talk to him but you better not relax or say anything that he’ll have you elaborate on. Marsh flew first as the weather barely cleared up to acceptable. His ride was fairly short. He passed, which is good. So up I go and we do about 7 or 8 takeoffs and landings. Luckily, I had some fairly good landings, even my emergency (he pulls the throttle to simulate failure and you have to land). He always likes to do it in a spot where you’ll have to make a choice and I went for the right runway. That’s good because I should be able to do it anyways though. After about 50 min of just traffic pattern work we finally went out for the maneuvers. Two steep turns, min. controllable airspeed, a departure stall, a lazy eight and two chandelles. My first chandelle was a little weak from not having done one in about 3 months, so he made me do it again. My second one was better. He finally said take me back to the airport so I did, expecting him to pull some sort of emergency again but he didn’t, only said to make the last landing a good one, which turned out okay. It was so damn hot in that airplane. Oh well it’s over and I’m a Certified Flight Instructor! Fear in the hearts of children!
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Internship comes to an end
My internship with American Airlines is over.
The flight team regional competition is over.
What the hell am I going to do with myself? I have free time again!
It’s been so long that I don’t even know what to do with myself at this point.
Since it appears like it will take a while before my actual webserver goes back up, I am going to attempt to use this livejournal thing since most of my friends are on here anyways.
So what’s been going on with me? I know it’s been a while since I’ve had any time to hang out.
Internship ended halfway through August. Most of you know that. It was an amazing experience and has left me with way too much desire to get into my career with the airlines. So much that I am now working hard to get my flight time in so I have the expirience to get hired. This means I have about one more semester in Ohio. Once I get hired, I will be given a city as my base city and I’ll have to move there. So like Will I will be torn away eventually. So, we’ve got to LAN party like we’ve never LAN partied before! Or something.
Once I got home from $Texas, I started work as a flight instructor at Kent State. I have two classes this semester, Crew Resource Management (easy), and Computer Literacy (makes me cry so easy). Computer Literacy is a little bit of work since my teacher is a retard and asks weird questions. I also still work at Resnet. Actually, I am taking computer literacy because I needed 6 credits to work at resnet. Any time that was not taken up by flight instructing, class, and resnet went to flight team. I probably practiced an average of 4 hours per day for flight team, and coached both Computer Accuracy and Simulator events. The competition was the week before last, and we got third place in the most competitive region and won a spot to nationals. I won 4th at Navigation, 8th at power off landings, 7th at power on landings and 6th at simulator. Awesome! I will graduate before nationals, so this was my last competition. I promised to stick around and help coach cause they are my friends and I can’t abandon them.
What news has happened in the last, oh 3 months, since jo took down my site?
I got a 15.4” macbook pro, 2GHz Core duo and 2 GB of ram. It’s pretty awesome. Runs windows except for the built in speakers don’t work (headphones port works fine). Excellent frames on q3 and fs2004. Still trying to sell my 12 powerbook, will go on ebay soon.
Also, I need a place to live, so anyone looking for a place until May, tell me.
I guess that’s all for now, not bad for my re-entry to blogworld.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Kent Stater
A few weeks ago I made the front page of the Kent Stater, so it’s official. I can graduate now.
That’s all for today
Monday, October 23, 2006
Nikki..
I am writing this later than I should have.
Yesterday, at 11:11am my friend Nikki Kukwa passed away from leukemia. She was getting better for a while, but it eventually overtook her. She was a good person, and a great member of the flight team. She was the best at the Safety interview and won the award for us twice.
One of the things I remember most is during the 2004 flight team regionals at KSU she sang the national anthem and messed it up! She stopped and I know she was embarrased, but she started again and did it perfectly. I’m not going to say it wasn’t funny, but now that you think about it, she could have run away right there.
If you get the chance to do something extraordinary today, maybe something you wouldn’t normally do, please do it for her and remember that you can always start again.
Thanks
Friday, October 27, 2006
myspace hat
[9:48] Eclipse: http://www.cafepress.com/myspacesucks.54446906[9:49] SwiftWulfBotW: haha wtf
[9:49] Eclipse: four hundred fucking dollars?
[9:49] SwiftWulfBotW: lol
[9:49] SwiftWulfBotW: that makes no sense
[9:50] Eclipse: its a god damn white hat with black text
[9:50] Eclipse: i can get a hat and a sharpie
[9:50] SwiftWulfBotW: rofl
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Flight Instruction First Thoughts
I think that to be a teacher, one of your inherent motivations should be the desire to teach. To search for the means and methods to instill new knowledge onto your students. I know everyone’s heard the start of this rant before. But here’s the twist. I am complaining about myself. I call myself a teacher in the strictest sense because I interact one on one with my students to teach them how to fly. I spent a few thousand for the knowledge and skill needed to become a flight instructor. But now that I am one, I find that any desire I had to teach people to fly has been eaten by the demoralizing bureaucracy and endless paperwork of a government institution. Disastrous Ohio weather also has its part to play. My students don’t make any progress. They are pretty lazy, especially when I remember the effort I put in to flying when I was in their place. They don’t study, they don’t make an effort to fly when they can, and it comes down on me as the instructor when they do not do well. It’s my reputation that they are risking as well as their own, and for that I have to find extra ways to supplement their learning. This equals more work for me, which as a general rule I am opposed to. Through all the pain and suffering I find myself asking where is the desire and devotion as a teacher that I am supposed to have? I think it disappeared when I went to Dallas and felt closer to my career then I do now. I feel that flight instruction is a step backwards although I was not even flying in Dallas. It’s something that I do only to return to that which impressed me so. I hope that in the days to come I will find something that will return the joy of flight instruction to me. Or maybe it’s just been a bad couple of days.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Website back?
I’ve been working hard to get this site back up and it’s close to being done.
For some reason, it’s showing some variable warning all over the damn place even though everything is actually working fine. I’ll see if I can get rid of it. I copied all of my livejournal entries over to this site cause I like this more. Also succeeded in taking over the friends pages in livejournal :D
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Maze Video
need sound to appreciate it…
Friday, December 01, 2006
I love Penny Arcade
this is exactly what I think once you guys start talking about wow.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Senioritis
I graduate in two weeks! It’s a weird thought but I don’t know. Not that weird. Every week for the last 4 and a half years (except some summers) I’ve gone to work at resnet and that’ll be gone. I just turned in the last paper I’ll have to write today. I haven’t been exactly in the mood to do much of any schoolwork, so this 3 page paper was really hard work for me. I got it done though.
It’s so strange to think I won’t be in school, not be a student. I miss it already. I am going to miss flight team and some of my classes, and resnet. But then again, not that much will change. I’ll still be out at the airport and see my friends and I’ll still coach with the flight team. But..it’s not the same…
Monday, December 04, 2006
Website Fixed
I fixed the PHP errors I was having. Actually I didn’t, but I hid them from view. I have yet to see anything not work, so I don’t know why it was throwing errors around. Just had to put an ini_set(‘display_errors’, 0); tag in every .php file. Search and comments are back up. Tell me if you see anymore errors kthx.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Macworld 07 Rumors
It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of the 12” powerbook by apple. I was waiting for so long for them to announce a new intel one before I finally broke down and bought the 15” macbookpro. I like the 15” (I just realized I never did a review of it, probly cause my site was down thx jo) but could I return to the 12 inch form after living the good life of my current awesome laptop? Probably. Let’s take a look at what I want:
Proc: Intel, semi fast…..nothing demands a super awesome processor anymore.
Ram: Upgradable to 2gb would be nice
Screen: Widescreen or not, >1024x768 would be nice
Vid Card: Capable of gaming in Windows. This is the only reason i picked mbp over mb
Hdd: My 80gb in the mbp is getting tight, would like more
CD: want one in there, thats why i got rid of the Dell L400
Design: I like the aluminum design over the mb, but at least offer it in black if not
Tablet: rumored that this could be a tablet. Depends on reviews..
So basically it comes down to how well does it game, and what does it look like? Unfortunately it has to beat my current mpb to justify the effort of selling it, which is a difficult feat. I sure like the ultra portability though. I take it everywhere. :D
Now onto other rumors. iPhone. If you’ve seen my phone lately you know I need a new one. I want to see what the iPhone will look like. It’s supposed to be an mp3 player and phone in one and supposed to work with every provider. I am holding off until macworld to make my decision, and it’s all based on design. If I don’t like it I will probably get a motorala PEBL. I know the PEBL gets bad reviews due to storage space and bad camera, but my current phone is the same and I don’t really care. I like the PEBL design and I just want it for a phone.
Widescreen iPod. I need a new iPod since my 3rd gen’s screen stopped working. If both the iPhone and the widescreen video ipod are released and both look cool I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m betting only one will be released or I’ll only like one. I want an 80gb at the moment but I can wait until macworld to see if a new one comes out.
With my luck, things will be announced and not ready until August or something. Until then, It’ll be a long 5 weeks!
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Science!
Forum question posed: Would an airplane on a gigantic treadmill be able to takeoff?(17:32:04) BobCortex:
i get the whole gyst of the dumb argument(17:32:17) BobCortex: figured i'd ask someone who flys the things
(17:32:37) Eclipse: if the engines are going, the plane will leave the treadmill
(17:33:08) BobCortex: even if the treadmill can keep it from actually moving foward?
(17:33:12) Eclipse: its like pulling a wagon, the wheels dont do the pulling
(17:33:21) BobCortex: right
(17:33:25) Eclipse: the wheels just let you move
(17:33:34) BobCortex: plane with breaks on and full power wont move or take off
(17:33:41) Eclipse: a treadmill would change the speed of the wheels, but not the body of the plane
(17:33:50) Eclipse: right
(17:34:29) BobCortex: its some weird physics question
(17:34:48) BobCortex: plane + treadmill that can keep up with the plane. prefect world physics
(17:35:09) BobCortex: people come up with all sorts of junk
(17:35:15) BobCortex: like wheels dont do jack
(17:35:22) BobCortex: planes can take off on water
(17:36:08) BobCortex: but i always kinds thought the engines kinda moved air over the wings
(17:36:15) BobCortex: at least with props
(17:36:42) Eclipse: the engines pull the airplane forward, wheter its a prop or a jet (a jet is a prop with a cone around it)
(17:37:03) Eclipse: the moving airplane causes lift under the wings
(17:37:03) BobCortex: but i guess if the plane is not moving. the wings arn't moving. thusly lift is not being generated
(17:37:13) BobCortex: therefore sits still?
(17:37:21) Eclipse: correct
(17:37:31) BobCortex: if eclipse says its so i can sleep easier!
(17:37:45) BobCortex: it was fun reading people bicker about it
(17:38:09) Eclipse: heh
(17:38:26) BobCortex: fun stuff like "piolts" saying they wouldn't even really notice a diffrence on takeoff
(17:38:52) Eclipse: they wouldnt, the airplane would still accelerate like normal
(17:38:59) Eclipse: the wheels would be spinning faster or slower only
(17:39:10) BobCortex: but take off would never happen
(17:39:13) BobCortex: no climax!
(17:39:26) Eclipse: the wheels do not pull the airplane!
(17:39:37) Eclipse: the engines pull it forward and therefore judge acceleration
(17:39:59) Eclipse: a treadmill would only change how fast the wheels spin
(17:40:30) Eclipse: like a car spinning out on ice, the car still moves forward at the same velocity (due to inertia) and the wheels spin really fast
(17:40:53) Eclipse: the airplane is similar except the engine cause the motion instead of inertia
(17:41:05) Eclipse: and the treadmill would only change how fast the wheels spin
(17:41:26) Eclipse: once the airplane accelerates enough, lift will form under the wings and takeoff would happen
(17:41:42) BobCortex: but its not really moving
(17:42:01) Eclipse: yes it IS
(17:42:08) Eclipse: you're thinking of a car
(17:42:13) Eclipse: thats not how airplanes taxi
(17:42:19) BobCortex: ok
(17:42:23) BobCortex: you keep changing your mind
(17:42:29) Eclipse: no im not
(17:42:34) BobCortex: i know the wheels on a plane dont actually move it
(17:42:46) BobCortex: they roll freely and have brakes
(17:43:34) BobCortex: sure the plane would accelerate on the treadmill. but it wouldn't really be moving in physical space
(17:43:46) BobCortex: is the conculsion from earlier
(17:44:28) BobCortex: heh
(17:44:32) Eclipse: wrong
(17:44:49) Eclipse: the airplane only needs air to move
(17:44:58) Eclipse: otherwise it would be a real shitty airplane
(17:45:18) BobCortex: ugh hurting my head
(17:45:18) Eclipse: so the treadmill will not affect the acceleration
(17:45:39) Eclipse: unless the treadmill is in a perfect vacuum, the airplane will move in space
(17:45:53) Eclipse: because it uses the air to accel and not the motion of the wheels
(17:45:55) BobCortex: but the treadmill is preventing it from actually moving foward to get lift
(17:46:08) Eclipse: no, the treadmill only moves the wheels
(17:46:40) Eclipse: if there were no wheels, and the plane's belly was sitting on the treadmill then maybe
(17:46:52) Eclipse: but the wheels spin freely
(17:47:28) BobCortex: plane acceleration -----> <------ treadmill
(17:47:59) BobCortex: if its moving the plane backwards as its trying to move foward. its not really going anywhere
(17:48:36) Eclipse: thats what i am trying to say, it doesnt move the airplane
(17:48:47) BobCortex: right its spinning the wheels
(17:48:54) BobCortex: and the wheels are connected to the plane
(17:49:05) Eclipse: i think that's where you are not getting it
(17:49:22) Eclipse: are the brakes on?
(17:49:24) BobCortex: no
(17:49:38) Eclipse: then why would moving the wheel move the airplane?
(17:50:06) BobCortex: but the engines are pulling it foward
(17:50:28) Eclipse: if you attach a rope to a wagon and put the wagon on the treadmill, will the treadmill pull you?
(17:51:00) Eclipse: now what happens if you pull the wagon?
(17:51:07) Eclipse: the wagon comes towards you
(17:51:18) Eclipse: the wheels are what prevents the treadmill from having any effect!
(17:51:32) BobCortex: trickery
(17:51:33) Eclipse: now the airplanes engines provide that same force as you pulling the rope
(17:51:59) Eclipse: because the airplane can accelerate independantly of the treadmill
(17:52:11) Eclipse: thats not true for a car
(17:52:25) Eclipse: cars need the friction between the wheel and the ground to move
(17:52:27) BobCortex: i thought the treadmill would act to keep it in place. as in someone running on one. like a propelled treadmill. not one of thoes free running ones
(17:52:27) Eclipse: airplanes do not
(17:52:45) Eclipse: the person would need the friction
(17:52:56) Eclipse: airplanes do not need friction under the wheels to move
(17:54:11) BobCortex: so glad i never took physics
(17:54:22) Eclipse: do you get it though?
(17:55:16) Eclipse: i have to go soon
(17:56:11) BobCortex: so the engines pull the aircraft. regardless of what the wheels are doing. beacuse the wheels do absoluty nothing except keep the plane from falling over.
(17:56:19) BobCortex: someone needs to build a giant ass treadmill
(17:56:32) Eclipse: thats right
(17:56:48) BobCortex: no matter how fast the mill goes it wont affect the plane
(17:56:54) Eclipse: right
(17:56:58) BobCortex: just makes the hwels spin faster
(17:57:01) Eclipse: right
(17:57:13) Eclipse: or slower, if the treadmill is going the other way
(17:57:41) BobCortex: crazy airplanes
(17:58:12) Eclipse: they have to rely on the air or they will be useless after leaving the ground
(17:58:20) Eclipse: like a car in the air can't do anything
(17:58:43) BobCortex: so the plane will justhop off the treadmill and carry on its way
(17:58:48) Eclipse: yup
(17:59:00) BobCortex: sorcery!
(17:59:09) Eclipse: physics!
The answer: The airplane will take off and the pilots will not notice any difference
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Geminids and Felines
Late last night my mom and I decided to go watch the Geminid meteor shower since it was clear, dark, and semi-warm for this time of year. We always used to watch the Perseids before school started in August, but with weather and internships and lots of other stuff, we haven’t done it in years. The geminids aren’t as numerous as the Perseids, but they are slower, bigger, and burn up nice and slow so they are easier to see. We went to Tinkers Creek on Old Mill road to escape the city light and though there were some clouds, it was an okay show. We saw two really good ones and a bunch others before it got too cold. It’s been a long time since I got to see some good meteors.
Also there was a stray kitten that came up to us and was even sitting on my lap before we got up to leave. It’s fur was pretty rough and there weren’t any houses around so I dont think it belongs to anyone. We felt bad to leave it alone in the winter so we brought it home and it’s in the garage. I’ll take it to a shelter today. Pretty nice cat for a stray. It should get a nice home.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Graduation!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Merry Christmas
I will be in California until the 28th. Call cell if you really miss me that bad. Otherwise see you then!
Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 28, 2006
A Plus for Plus/Minus
The plus minus system is designed to be a more accurate way to assess your abilities. If you got an A-, it’s because you did A- work. It is designed to separate the students abilities more accurately so not everyone graduates with honors.
A lot of students respond with “Why isn’t there an A+, if there is an A-? I will answer the question with another question. Why should there be? By getting the A-, you are only proving that you did not even do A quality work. Therefore, the +/- system rewards you by helping your gpa when you should have gotten a B.
Now take a look at some college where every student gets an A in every class simply for breathing. It looks like their college is so good at teaching, when in reality it just means that’s it’s ridiculously easy.
So when you go to get your next job in the near future, do you want your employer to say “Oh you went to kent state where everyone gets A’s just for breathing, maybe I should hire this Akron U. guy”, or do you want him/her to say “Oh wow, an honors student from KSU, he must work really hard”?
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Christmas in Review
Despite sounding like a christmas special, this is how my christmas went:
Spent the vacation in Sonora, CA which is about an hour and a half east of San Francisco. Very quiet little town with lots of cows and little cell phone coverage. Most of my mom’s side of the family were there, my grandma and my aunt and cousin Kendra, and us.
Installed windows on tim’s macbook pro finally and played some trackmania nations. He finally understands why Rick and I bought the mbps for games as he has now installed CS and stuff on it. Windows XP has no good way to set up an Ad Hoc wireless network. In fact, I don’t think there is even a way to do it. We got it to work by setting up a network in OS X, connecting the windows computer to it, and then restarting the OS X machine into windows. The network stayed and we could play. Manual IPs. Oh well.
I wasn’t very happy for the most part of the week. I had told my mom that I wanted a Battlestar Galactica Season DVD set for christmas and she replied with “well you’re getting a trip to CA, cant afford anything else!”. I’m not a scrooge or anything and I understand that being with family is more important than material gifts, but she didnt even seem to care about anything I wanted. Especially when I went all out showing her how cool iTunes is and why iPods are so cool and successful, getting her 7 beatles albums, a 30 gig iPod, and a TV cable (all split 50/50 with Tim except beatles songs thx ben). I felt like the scale of caring was a little one-sided. Combine that with my general not caring too much about christmas, being away from Alison, and my mom’s getting crazy stressed over holiday travel (which went so smoothly it was no prob even with the Denver thing) I wasn’t in a good mood.
So christmas morning comes along and I’m all happy to be with family and my mom loved the iPod and everything which made me feel really good. She ended up giving me one of those visa prepaid credit card things for $100 which is about twice the cost of a BSG season, which I would have been more happy with probably. All in all I liked being with my family and seeing them happy and I may have been stubborn and immature in what she said, but I can’t really help how it made me feel. I am in no means perfect. I also got some shirts and moneys which will go to a brand new iPod and phone after macworld.