If ya got a minute

I and my family (and especially my Dad and Mom) could use your prayers or good thoughts for my Dad,

Today is the day for his heart valve replacement.

Supposed to be all but "routine" and all, but still....open heart surgery.

So whatever good energy you can send his and her way would be appreciated.

Thanks

B

Geh

Made an offer on a decent 182P today. We shall see. I have verbal acceptance, but nothing in writing.



Also did some pattern work. 3 landings and a go around. There was only a 45 minute window to rent a 172 today, and the following week is gonna be too busy for me to be able to fly. The three landings were decent, and the wind gust caused me to weathervane at about 5 feet before landing, so I saved the tires and went around instead of skidding sideways.

As Aaron puts it, 0.6 and 3. (and 9/10, but that doesn't really count)

This morning

My prayers are for the victims and families of the victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue.

Apparently, they didn't garner enough sympathy in the US

Or, perhaps, they didn't get the  liberal and undecided  voter base as energized as Soros and the DNC thought they would.

So, apparently, someone pulled the funding for transport and Food and Water and other logistics...

And, oddly, the Migrant Convoy has splintered...with about a third of them turning back, a third staying in shelters along the southern Mexican border, and a third still undecided. 

Probably most of 'em don't wanna continue now that they aren't getting paid without any food/water/sanitation/transport provided...

I'da whacked it with a hammer

.

But they simply turned it off and then back on again.

Apparently, it worked though. 

As I said:

Some Suspected Mail Bombs Were Not Capable of Exploding

Pretty inept, whoever the perpetrator was....If they wanted to do more than scare people and make a big HuHu.

I still hope that whoever he or she is, they catch him and incarcerate him for a long time.


ETA: Apparently a suspect in Custody....and (and this is significant!) they used his cell phone to track him down. (For good or for bad, having a cell phone in your name destroys your privacy. Even a burner phone, once you take it home, can be linked to you. If it is co-located while  turned on with your "normal" phone, it becomes linked to you, especially if you drive with both phones powered up.  So don't do illegal shit , and the authorities won't have a reason to use your phone to track you)

macabre

Seen on a car near a police station in Indiana:
Wasn't a Police car, as far as I can tell.

Kinda macabre, but still, pretty cool.
I may have to get one for the front of my truck though.

Indeed:

" A lot of Democrats have openly called for civil unrest. They've excused and condoned violence for political purposes. Well, this is what that looks like. If they advocate this sort of chaos and lunacy, they shouldn't act surprised when they become targets of it."

Be careful of that for which you wish....you might get it. 

Why some women come in second

This woman tried being assertive....and, oddly enough, people LISTENED to her, and took her as....await for it....A LEADER....Odd how that works. She gave direction rather than asking for a consensus...she made statements that left no room for prevarication, she gave FIRM timelines...and, guess what? People treated her as they would any leader.

She, of course, claims it is "Entitled White male "swagger"" that made it all work for her....not, the fact that she was decisive, didn't try to reach a "Consensus",  wasn't "inclusive" didn't try to make sure everyone was satisfied...didn't take excuses, didn't give extended deadlines, just, like any real leader, expected results and was, like any real leader, firm and clear and gave orders.....and expected those orders to be followed. In  other words, she acted like a boss and got treated like a boss. Like a leader.

Her story is a perfect example why women are "underrepresented in leadership roles"...why so few are top bosses. Why they are fewer in upper management. (Hint, it has everything to do with timidity, and culture of women and failure to take charge, and little to do with your actual physical gender).

Act like a leader, and people will follow. Act like most women do and they won't. Assertive behavior works.

Re: mail bombs

Does anyone think that these are real? That they are anything but either really poor amateurish attempts to make bombs, or (more likely) to make something that LOOKS like a bomb? (Or at least the type of thing that looks like a bomb as seen in the movies.


PVC? Hard to get any decent pressure to make ....well, either you understand or you don't. I'm not gonna give any clues. Coiled wires leading to a box from the ends? Yeah, it looks like a movie version of a "bomb"...meant to be seen and identified when the package was X-rayed. I'm surprised they didn't write "Bomb" on the side in bright red marker just to make sure that it would be identified properly.

Plus of course the "timer" as means of detonation. I'm surprised they didn't use a "Baby Ben" alarm clock (kids, ask your parents).....

Plus, of course, those 6 stamps...even though the packages were delivered by a courier, not the USPS.

But hey, it makes for good press don't it? Lots of pictures and something for the Talking heads to talk about. And, of course, a mostly uneducated audience to believe.

I tried

I tried to give "FBI" on CBS one more chance......but I hadda stop watching.

THis one was about Nuclear Power plants....and the errors to make the plot work were....huge.

Plus, I think the intelligence level of the target audience is about 85...with a 9th grade education.

(and, the writing sucked and the acting was....marginal)

As an engineer with some small level of technical training (but a broad, if not deep, level of knowledge), I find shows like this.... poorly written and (obviously) done without a technical consultant of any kind....to be painful to watch. 

But, seriously, if this "New! Hit! Series!!" is aimed at a mainstream audience (or, God help us, a new Millennial audience) then we, as a nation, are circling the rim.

I think I'm gonna have to change my routine and find something else to do on Tuesday nights..,

Short field practice:

Spozed to be winds of less than 10 knots for when I had scheduled the airplane.

and they were....but the occasional (mostly not too "Occasional" though) gusts to 24 made me rethink that.  On the other hand, it ain't like I will never encounter gusty wind conditions...But I didn't wanna waste my money and not learn anything.

However, in the end, I went up with an instructor and (mostly) hit my marks.... Crosswind shortfield landings in gusty conditions are a challenge though.

Frustratin'

Buying a used airplane is kinda like shopping for used car....in craigslist/want ads....only a LOT more expensive and with even more deceptive advertising and creatively done photographs. The dealers are just as much liars as the private individuals...

It might well be worth going through a broker and paying him/her a fee to find what I am looking for.

Gotta wonder:

So I was watching TV Tuesday evening, and happened to catch the opening scenes of the "New Hit Series!" on CBS...."FBI".

The scene was about a shooter. A sniper. In NYC.

And the character's speculations about the gun used tell me that they believe that most of their audience has never held a rifle and has never read a gun magazine.

Are the majority of Americans that truly ignorant of rifles in general?

Or is it just writing by east coast urbanites trying to explain the plot details to themselves?

Some of that "Civility" they were talking about:

Try this sort of shit in the  "Red" states.

See how well that works for ya.

Be sure you are enrolled in ObamaCare first though.

I doubt the outcome will be what you want, though.

This time, however, everything was peaceful....'cause it stopped when there was no support from others. I expect, however, that at some point that will change.

I hate Emoji's

and I think they are one of the stupidest things the cell phone industry has come up with. They are a poor and childish embellishment to a basic communication.

I am only slightly less derisive of those who use them regularly in their conversations via text.

Most of us aren't 7th grade girls, we shouldn't act like it.

Time to Grow Up. Act your age, 

Welcome to the blogroll!

So... Garry, from Thomas Whispered is now a part of my blogroll.

Go over and check him out.

I'd post more, but I'm planning on being out all day looking at junk used airplanes

I really hate folks who falsely advertise products on the web.

It's not like I'm not gonna see those flaws when I come to buy it.

Waste of my time, and theirs.

ANd stuff like this is exactly why some folks need their asses beaten.

Change.org wants little known (even on campus)  "Clarence Thomas Building" renamed because "Some students feel unsafe because of the name".

I sincerely hope that the campus administration tells 'em to go pound sand. 

The Cherokees don't care

But Lizzy Warren keeps pushing it, cause she knows we all know she was lying about her connection to the indian nations just to get special treatment at the university... a

She did (finally) take a DNA test...which was, as we expected, inconclusive anyway..
(ETA: Apparently she is less indian than the average white American citizen)

And the Cherokee nation stated:

"A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship. Current DNA tests do not even distinguish whether a person's ancestors were indigenous to North or South America. Sovereign tribal nations set their own legal requirements for citizenship, and while DNA tests can be used to determine lineage, such as paternity to an individual, it is not evidence for tribal affiliation. Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong. It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is prove. Senator Warren is undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage."

- Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin, Jr.


ETA2: