Spare Parts and Left Over Screws

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

If Only
Spare Parts and Left Over Screws
I finally got around to checking out the Emode Testsemode tests that were the talk of the blogs about six months ago. It gave me an IQ of 135 which apparently would put me in the top two percent of the population. If only these things told the truth...
posted by Jonathan 8:40 PM

Monday, November 17, 2003

Fly SkyHigh Airlines
Spare Parts and Leftover Screws

Finally, an airline with a sense of humor. Visit SkyHigh Airlines to find out where in the world your luggage went, how best to survive a night in an unknown terminal, or how your drink container can double as a barf bag.
posted by Jonathan 9:26 AM

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Turn Your Head and Cough, Please
Spare Parts and Leftover Screws

Not today, thank you very much. I finally got around to getting my flight physical done today. It was even 8 days before the deadline. There is not much that I hate more than waiting for hours to have some stranger poke and prod me like something one might find in the back of the fridge. However, this visit was a pleasant surprise. I showed up half an hour late so I only had to wait for 45 minutes. When the doctor finally came in, the first thing he did was take my blood pressure. He kind of chuckled when he found the results and mentioned, "120 over 70," or something like that, "that's about as good as it gets." That was about the extent of the physical. Oh yeah, he looked in my eyes with that flashlight thing. I was done before the spots disappeared.

I'm pretty sure that more is generally required for the physical. I didn't stick around to find out.
posted by Jonathan 6:31 PM

Saturday, September 13, 2003

By the Numbers
Spare Parts and Leftover Screws

6 - Number of hours spent outside painting today
8 - Number of windows I finished priming
20 - Years since the house has been last painted
93 - Age of the neighbor that told me about the house
3 - Number of times the other neighbor's car alarm was set off by bass thumping ghetto cruisers
1 - Number of times I was offered pot while painting
2 - Number of times I was asked for money to buy "medicine"
13 - Number of gunshots heard within a block of my house
2 - Number of sirens heard after the gunfire
0 - Number of times I thought this was an unusual day

Gotta love Longview...
posted by Jonathan 8:09 PM

Tuesday, June 03, 2003

Construction
Spare Parts and Leftover Screws

I am trying to do some work on this page. I am going to edit this post to say something meaningful soon. Enjoy the rest of the site.
posted by Jonathan 3:39 PM

Monday, May 26, 2003

The Newsletter
Spare Part and Leftover Screws

Yes, it is really here. A new post. Looking back at my posts I realized that the last time I posted anything was when the world was supposedly mad at the French. It's been a LONG time. It's been a long time since I've sat down at this computer. I can't say that I missed it much. So much has happened. It is hard to believe that school ended about a month ago.

Since my last post:

I finished up finals. The more semesters I take the less relevant they become. Finals fell so low on my priority list it is a wonder I was able to get decent grades at all.

I said goodbye to a bunch of people. It happens every semester. I guess each time there are more and more. That is what I get for going through school so slowly. Everyone beats me out. So long Cowboy. Glad you are doing what you want to do. See you Steve. It's been fun jamming, sitting through classes, and talking about airplanes, the future, and how they are going to fit together. To the girls in the Yellow Ghetto House - it's been great being neighbors. Sorry my home improvements caused such a headache.

I made the trip home in record time - for the longest trip ever. After being delayed two days waiting for my commercial certificate paperwork to go though I left in the mid afternoon to get stuck in a traffic jam caused by a combination of Friday night rush hour, a bridge, constuction on the bridge, and and accident on the bridge involving at least 6 cars. Fun stuff. Then I stopped at a hotel for the night and overslept. Then I got diverted 100 miles out of my way due to an accident closing my road and missing the exit back on the right one. Then I stopped to help someone who blew a transmision. (I let them use my phone to call a tow truck - something blew a hole in the bell casing in its hurry to exit the gearbox.) Then as I was pulling back onto the highway I heard a load bang, followed by the loudest 1.9 cylinder engine I have ever heard in my life. I limped off at the exit a mile down the road and discovered that the down pipe on my exhaust had completely separated from my exhaust manifold. In addition the hot gases had burnt through the vacuum line for my power assist brakes. (It was a bit of a surprise to realize I had to jump on the brakes to stop as I exited I-81) I needed to clamp the exhaust system back together, but there was no VW dealer even remotely close by, so some chick offered to call her dad to see if he could help. I asked him to bring a vise grips and a carpenters C-clamp. He arrived a bit later slightly drunk and very confused, but with the clamp in hand. I managed to get it clamped back together with the additional help of some baling twine and went on my way. I splice the vacuum line back together with a random bit of tubing I bought at the only open parts store in town and limped back into my driveway well into sunday morning. Pretty exciting stuff really.

I started work. It's always a change to switch hats between school and work, moving from shooting approaches to pulling wires, from airplanes to houses. It's great. Almost therapeutic. I was getting burned out with airplanes to the point where I didn't want to set foot in another one for a very long time. Now it is great to got to work and come home at the end of the day with nothing else to think about until the next morning.

I am preparing for my trip to Africa. The latest development there is that we have to find a new way to get there. Last week British Airlines received terrorist threats against flights into Naroibi Kenya. They stopped their flights and my ticket became a bookmark. They are working on other possibilities. I'll keep you posted.

That's been my life the last month. Hope yours has been as good.
posted by Jonathan 7:31 PM

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

The French and the Pitot Tube
Spare Parts and Leftover Screws
The Limey Brit got me thinking about how aviation would be different if we followed the same vane as the rest of the world's effort to bring politics into everyday language. Here's to a patriotic de-frenched version of aeronatutical terms.

Empannage - French for "Feathers of an arrow." English equivalent - You can't get too fancy with a tail and get away with it.
Pilot - French for "steersman of the ship". English equivelant - I'm the one in charge so I can call myself whatever I want
Fuselage - A weaving term for a spindle with thread wrapped around it. (Only the french could make that connection) English equivelent - Very expensive place to sit out the ride.
Aileron - "little wings." The English call them flippers. How about "freedom flippers"
Nacelle - French (and in Latin (Navis) "ship" English equivalent - Conquer cowling?
Mayday - Taken from the french "m'aidez" which means "help me" They need it. English version- "Holy crap - I'm going down."
posted by Jonathan 11:31 PM

The French and the Pitot Tube
Spare Parts and Leftover Screws
The Limey Brit got me thinking about how aviation would be different if we followed the same vane as the rest of the world's effort to bring politics into everyday language. Here's to a patriotic de-frenched version of aeronatutical terms.

Empannage - French for "Feathers of an arrow." English equivalent - You can't get too fancy with a tail and get away with it.
Pilot - French for "steersman of the ship". English equivelant - I'm the one in charge so I can call myself whatever I want
Fuselage - A weaving term for a spindle with thread wrapped around it. (Only the french could make that connection) English equivelent - Very expensive place to sit out the ride.
Aileron - "little wings." The English call them flippers. How about "freedom flippers"
Nacelle - French (and in Latin (Navis) "ship" English equivalent - Conquer cowling?
Mayday - Taken from the french "m'aidez" which means "help me" They need it. English version- "Holy crap - I'm going down."

posted by Jonathan 11:31 PM

Saturday, April 05, 2003

The End of an Era?
Spare Parts and Leftover Screws

Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago ordered midnight sneak attacks on Meigs Field , using bulldozers to carve massive "X"s into the runway. The cowardly act has left the aviation industry outraged. He has used the false pretense of homeland security to close a historic and beautiful airport, and prompted a backlash from AOPA, the FAA, the state legislature, and the general aviation public. It is a sad day, and, yes, I'll admit to being sentimental toward a piece of land.
posted by Jonathan 5:12 PM

Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Can you Hear me now? Good.
Spare Parts and Leftover Screws

I have spent the last several months browsing the banter and reading the essays that have been posted via the keyboard. It has been quite enjoyable and refreshing. I remained largely quiet, keeping my thoughts and opinions to myself. However, a sponge can only soak up so much without a means of release. An undisturbed wet sponge is nothing more than a square chunk of mold. It is time to escape from the dank corner and stretch my brain for some active thought.

The process of publishing blogs is an entirely new experience. It is a process and a challenge that I welcome and I am excited about the opportunities it will provide. I don't pretend to have incredible insight into the meaning of life (although the word on the street is that it is 47) or even an interesting life. I realize that writing will never be a breadwinning skill, and that my attempts to wield the pen have the same results of a drunken monk using chopsticks to eat his soup. That is why I am studying to be a bus driver. However I hope this page will provide a perspective that can be beneficial to someone, at least occasionally.

Please feel free to respond to my page with thoughts, comments, derisions, and suggestions. I am encouraging you to respond to what you see here. Any suggestions about format, etc. is also appreciated. Let me know that you are out there. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll do my best to make it worthwhile to come back.

posted by Jonathan 2:43 PM

Snowballs Replace Bullets as Snow Hits Holy Land
Spare Parts and Leftover Screws

Ripped from the News...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Witness to centuries of bloodshed, the ancient walls of Jerusalem's Old City saw only white Tuesday as Palestinians and Israelis traded snowballs instead of stones and bullets.

The exchange -- between Palestinian youths and Israeli passersby at the ancient Dung Gate -- came in celebration of a rare heavy snowstorm that brought much of the Holy Land to a standstill, offering a respite from 29 months of fighting.

"This sort of thing gives everyone perspective. It makes people focus on what they have in common rather than politics," veteran Israeli meteorologist Danny Roup told Reuters.

Across the West Bank, the strongest cold front in a least a decade brought snow as deep as 12 inches, almost unimaginable in a region better known for balmy winters.

In Israel, snow blocked palm-lined highways and only a few vehicles dared to venture out as the Mediterranean country's tiny fleet of snowplows went to work.

Most of neighboring Lebanon and Syria were also snowbound, with the main Beirut-to-Damascus road blocked and dozens of mountain villages isolated.

In West Bank cities that have been largely reoccupied by Israeli forces, the winter whiteness masked the scars of almost daily Israeli-Palestinian clashes.

Palestinian youths who on other days might play deadly games of cat-and-mouse by throwing stones at Israeli patrols or putting up nationalist posters made do with tamer pastimes.

Snowmen went up in Ramallah''s main square, indistinguishable from those made by Israeli children only a few miles away.

In Bethlehem, the town revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, snow dusted church steeples and mosque spires.

"People are out and about. There is a sense of relaxation and joy that comes with snow -- children and even young men throwing snowballs at one another," said Sami Awad, a Christian activist who promotes nonviolent resistance to occupation.
posted by Jonathan 2:42 PM