Dreaming Big
I've written before about the incredible experience it is to stand on the tarmac at Boeing Field when large jets are taking off. That experience was completely eclipsed by my opportunity to watch the Blue Angels take off for Seafair last week. First, their transport ship, a C130 called Fat Albert took off. It liften off the runway and then took to the sky at about a 60 degree angle. You know how much typical roller coasters tilt back as they get dragged up the first hill on the track? Thats how much fat albert was pitched up. I believe the reason it can do that has something to do with taking off under fire.
Then the Blue Angels themselves took off. While I was under the impression that their formations only involve 4 jets, they have six, and all six took off a once. They taxied and positioned themselves on the runway ridiculously slow, appearing to bake in the visible heat waves. The entire scene was similar to something from Top Gun, only a million times better. A few people had handheld radios tuned to the tower frequency (120.6, FYI) so we heard the angels receive their clearance, and then with a sudden plume of smoke they shot down the runway in formation: first four planes in a diamond, and then two following them some distance behind. It was the most deafening, and most exciting, sound I've ever heard in my life. For whatever small number of seconds it took for them to roar off the ten thousand foot (2 mile) runway, I seriously contemplated joining whatever military force it would take to get me in one of those jets.
I took pictures of the whole event, but yesterday my phone decided that the 9 key was gonna stop working for about an hour, so I don't want to press my luck by trying to download the pictures. Doing that with my previous phone made half of my contacts disappear.
There are many kinds of people, but only two are relevant to this paragraph: people that do things, and people that read about doing things. The disadvantage of actually doing something, is that the plane you fly or the motorycle you ride will never live up to the imagination of someone who reads about what you do. "Oh, a ninja 250? Yeah thats peanuts compared to my imaginary Hyabusa with an extended rear wheel and smoke grenades." Or "you fly cessnas? Those are too small. I prefer 20 million dollar jets. If I had a jet I'd get one the new supersonic business transport that doesn't exist yet...." The disadvantage of the people that just read about things, is that they never feel what its truly like to ride a motorcycle, or make your first landing. I don't have a choice in the matter; I am the kind of person that likes to do things. As far as I am concerned, jet fighters may as well not exist unless someday I can be the guy in a pressure suit pushing the throttle forward.
SOL
Tuesday, while I was at work, we heard two really lound sounds. To me it sounded like someone had dropped a filing cabinet onto the parking lot from the 19th floor. No big deal. For some reason, everyone else in Seattle and a bunch of surrounding towns also heard them. Bomb blast? The president of our country was in town. After that last one survived four years without even getting shot, I had my doubts that there was any chance there could be a successful attack on one that the entire country and world doesn't hate. As it turns out, the explosions we heard were not bombs but instead the sonic booms felt from two fighter jets that were scrambled from Oregon to intercept some guy in a float plane that flew too close to Seattle while the president was in town.
Yeah, ridiculous, I know: the planes came all the way from Oregon. We have like, two air force bases and navy bases nuclear subs and probably sharks with freakin lasers on their heads, and our nearest air defenses had to be scrambled from a backwards-ass state that doesn't let you pump your own gas.
I, and many other pilots, feel great pity for the poor pilot. He probably had one fighter jet cut him off and rock its wings, while the other followed, ready to shoot him out of the air if he didn't comply. Normally, I'm told what those jets do is escort you to an airport where they tell you to land so homeland security can rape you. However, there is an interesting twist here: this guy was allegedly a float plane. I don't know what those jets did, because F15/F18s/whatever can't float. Whatever happened, the guy will probably lose his license. I feel bad for him, but here is a list of things he could have done to avoid flying into a Presidential Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR):
1) Call Flight Service and get a breifing, which you kind of have to do anyway if you want to legally prove you were briefed on the weather
2) Get a DUATS weather briefing. Its like calling flight service but you can avoid interacting with a human being, and instead print out about 30 pages of cryptic weather text.
3) Talk to Air Traffic Control. I'm pretty sure if he was talking to Seattle Approach or Seattle Center they might have, I don't know, told him to stay the fuck away from the TFR. At the very least, they wouldn't have scrambled jets; I am assuming ATC is the one that saw him on their radar in the first place.
4) Be on an active flight plan (which means talking to Flight Service) with flight following (which means talking to ATC). I personally never do this one, because I hate talking to ATC.
5) Check Notifications to Airmen, or NOTAMS. Bullshit like Presidential TFRs, which usually mean that pilots like me are not allowed to fly but lame commercial carriers like United are allowed, are broadcast in NOTAMS. I have no idea what the official way to check for NOTAMS is, and I would probably get scolded for not knowing, but I normally just call Flight Service. See #1.
That could have been me; I had briefly considered going flying on tuesday, just to stay current. I would have gotten a Flight Service briefing though. Or have been warned by someone in the club. Or been warned by the tower when the controller heards a request for a VFR flight.
Doppleganger
I dislike plane GPS' because in my opinion they have poorly designed interfaces (i.e. I don't know how to use them). My primary flight instructor found it unusual that while all of this other students would use the GPS exclusively if they were allowed, I pretty much ignored it in favor of older, ground based navigation systems called VORS. When I did my "checkride" to get my license, I specifically chose a plane that did not have GPS installed in it so the examiner would have no opportunity to observe me attempting to operate it.
For this reason I elected to attend a GPS seminar at my flying club. Also in attendence was some girl from Venezuela sporting a familiar looking ugly red backpack--the exact model that the company I work for handed out to new employees last year. Turns out, she does work here, and she is trying to finish her license before winter while dealing with an incredibly tough job. Pretty much exactly what I was doing last year. I gave her my email and suggested we go flying together. I wasn't trying to pick her up; it would be nice to have another pilot there when I go flying places. Especially someone who can help with the radio calls and instead of saying "pretend I'm not here."
Supplementary Income
I'll give you the full story another time, but I think I am going to try to start a side business selling high end Lego instructions over the internet. I think there is a market for them--namely other Lego fans like myself that never quite grew up. I've looked around; there are other people selling Lego instructions. They suck. Their offerings are actually so pathetic or overpriced that, as a web surfer, I find myself offended by the very notion that I'm expected to pay money for them.
While it won't be my first project, I'm aiming to make a correctly-scaled (to minifigs) replica of the Firefly class ship Serenity. If you are unfamilar with that ship, you have a cultural deficiency that needs to be remedied. Some other ideas I've had include the U.S.S Defiant (again, to scale, which would require a quarter of my living room) and the Space Needle. The Space Needle will be highly challenging though--Lego bricks are not good at representing anything with three sides. Or triangles. Or curves. Or cars with more than one occupant. Serenity, when I finally get to her, is going to be awesome. I'm going to put in all the rooms, and make it easy to slide pieces off so you can see inside. Maybe have the engine glow with fiber optics.
I might start with a town, and create that enormous online virtual city I've always wanted, and sell instructions for Lego sets I invent that go in the city. I could also have affiliate links to the Lego sets on Amazon.
Maybe I could also create lego posters--something like the "Where's Waldo?" books, but done with Legos.
Oh, and I was also thinking about creating a Lego version of the boardgame Clue. That, actually, I might start with first, because then I could have friends over and get to play Clue moving little Lego people around. If I play my cards right, maybe I could get Lego to pick it up and sell it? They do boardgames now.
I'm thinking I could offer a lot of instructions for smaller Lego sets for free, to get people using them, and so that people know I don't suck, and only charge for the larger ones. According to the nonfiction book I'm reading that inspired me to take this instruction-selling idea seriously (I've been wanting to do this for a while) but which will remain unnamed for now, $50-$200 is the best price point for the kind of business I want. I could also resell other peoples designs--I remember someone made a kickass Viper from the tv show Battlestart Galacta. I intend to make the Galactica. In fact, as a general rule, if its cool looking, and if creating it to scale correctly to the little Lego people would be a ridiculous feat of brick assembling, assume that I intend to make it eventually. Maybe I'll start an LLC and call it "Epic Bricks."
If you have any ideas about selling Lego instructions (or sets themselves), or you'd like to get rid of your own childhood Legos, please let me know. I will pick them up on my Hyabusa and transport them back to Seattle in my supersonic jet. Just kidding--its really easy to mail them. I've already broken my buying-Legos-in-adulthood cherry, and the torrent of spending must come eventually.
Some other ideas I've had that would be difficult to realize: a computer game that is like a combination of Nethack/Diablo1/NeverwinterNights, but in Legos. Also, a facebook game where gameplay is like that Scotland Yard boardgame, but with Legos. Also, I think I am, instead of getting a fishtank, going to buy a cabinate, and create a lego display that just runs up the wall. I have no idea how that would bring me money, but it would look cool in my bedroom. I'll put it underneath all of my 3-Sat notes. Maybe I could make a Lego train run through my entire apartment. Who knows?
I wrote down all of my goals in my life...it was mostly difficult things like flying a small plane to philly, solving the greatest problem in computer science, getting a girlfriend, etc. It filled up a page, and I hadn't even gotten to the one about starting a metal band. I think, though, that the key is for me to be able to work on these projects for like only an hour at a time, instead of staying up all night marathon-style. Then, maybe, I might actually finish one of these before I die of sleep deprivation. Also, knowing which ideas to cull is also important. Like abandoning the holographic 3d alien fish tank idea--that was a good choice. And my car does not need to be outfitted with smoke bombs and anti-duckboat cameras if I just walk to work more often. And if I continue salsa dancing with my new friends, then I'll even have a social life on top of all that.
[Edit]
Another idea: recreate every Duke Nukem 3D level...in Legos.
Lego style Myst game
Allow people to navigate my virtual lego city with Myst style controls
create a useful online Lego part database that doesnt suck
Online thing like icanhascheezburger, but with pictures of Legos
galleries of pictures of lego scenes
Lego based comic (had an idea for one about pirates)
Lego gundams
Redo a movie in lego animation (either Dude Wars style, or with the full soundtrack--would need permission though)
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