mikeg's blog

In celebration of tomorrow's (hopeful) return to flight training, Lizzie sent me this: TSAThemeSong.mp3 Lyrics below the jump Continue reading "OMGZor... too funny!"

So it's been about 2 years since I last went up in a light aircraft with an instructor to log time toward my private rating. I went in yesterday (Saturday 5/20) to make an appointment; scheduled myself for 14:00 today, on what was forecast to be a nice VFR day (well, scattered thunder storms, but they were moving slow and I figured I'd be well on the ground before they popped up around the field. WRONG! I showed up around 13:45 and met my instructor (nice guy, kinda cute... perhaps taking flying lessons while single is not a good idea? :-P). We headed out to preflight the aircraft... And walked right into a squall line. Needless to say, we agreed that todays flight would be better off scrubbed and rescheduled. I will be going up Tuesday evening at 18:00. Expect to see something on here after that, assuming I manage to keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down. -MG

Tracking your flight by watching routers chat Complete with a very good explanation of network routing. Basically, he was able to track his flight by watching the BGP updates. A bit wasteful (each aircraft has a C-Block (CIDR /24), which it announces via good old-fashioned BGP), but definitely better than a centralized access exchange and a bunch of traffic being shipped there (cranking the latency up as you get further from the company's exchange). I'm not crazy about the fact that each aircraft is NAT'd (each one is a flying C-Block, why not give everyone a public address for the flight? (YES I *KNOW* there are good reasons not to, so STFU. I'm just bitter because I'd like a routable address!) Go read it, check out below for more of my thoughts. Continue reading "Muy Very Interesting"

I'm boggling right now... Really boggling. Perhaps it's just because I'm a child of the 80s, and because being in a funk makes me all reminiscent, but I'm listening to all sorts of crap 80s music - one song in particular came on tonight: Simple Minds -- Don't You (Forget About Me); A/K/A "That song that plays at the end of The Breakfast Club". I mention this to someone... and they tell me they've never seen The Breakfast Club. So I must now ask: HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU *NOT* HAVE SEEN THE FUCKING BREAKFAST CLUB?? How How How? Am i really that fucking old? Is that really not The Best Teen Movie Ever? Are you, all ofyou, not at least one of the characters? Maybe not seeing the breakfast club is a gay thing... *shrug* Someone explain in the comments, please.

Sometimes we find inspiration in the oddest music. Spoken words on the subject of war and warriors. Warrior - Steve Earle This is the best time of the day -- the dawn, the final cleansing breath unsullied yet by acrid fume or death’s cacophony the rank refuse of unchained ambition. And pray, deny me not but know me now, your faithful retainer stands resolute to serve his liege lord without recompense, perchance to fall and perish namelessly. No flag-draped bier or muffled drum to set the cadence for a final dress parade. But it was not always thus—remember? Once you worshipped me and named me a god in many tongues and made offering lest I exact too terrible a tribute . [ Interlude ] Take heed for I am weary, ancient and decrepit now and my time grows short: There are no honorable frays to join only mean death dealt out in dibs and dabs or horror unleashed from across oceans. Assail me not with noble policy for I care not at all for platitude and surrender such tedious detail to greater minds than mine and nimbler tongues singular in their purpose and resolve and presuming to speak for everyman . [ Interlude ] Oh, for another time, a distant field, and there a mortal warrior’s lonely grave; But duty charges me remain until the end: the last battle of the last war . Until that ‘morrow render unto me that which is mine my stipend well deserved -- The fairest flower of your progeny your sons, your daughters, your hopes and your dreams, the cruel consequence of your conceit