Archive for July, 2007

Food Talks

Sunday, July 29th, 2007

Hot Sauce Packets

Flying isn’t everything. You’ve still got to eat. The other day we ran out of milk so I couldn’t fix my usual breakfast of oatmeal and raisins unless I used heavy cream thinned with water to moisten the oatmeal. But that’s a substitution I don’t enjoy.

So I drank some tea lightened with several molecules of heavy cream and drove over to Jack in the Box for an Unhealthy Breakfast.

When my order arrived, I noticed that the paper placemat featured interviews with Jack’s three major meals, elaborating themes introduced in recent TV commercials.

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Going to a Fun Fly

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

Fun Fly

It was billed as a Fun Fly and I wanted to shoot fresh pictures for the PCC website. Also, I thought it would provide a good topic for my blog.

So I drove to the club’s Half Moon Bay airfield on an overcast Sunday morning.

Paul Lum, Mike Peck and Eric Einarsson are there when I arrive, all flying in the breeze.

I take some pictures.

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Up & Down & All Around

Sunday, July 15th, 2007

Reflected Starfighter

My car has a music control conveniently mounted on the steering wheel. It consists of a Source button and two pairs of controls: +/- for volume and ^/v for going to Next and Previous songs or playlists.

Or is that Previous and Next songs?

My first instinct was that the Up arrow would move up in a list, as it would on a computer screen. So Up would go to the Previous song.

But it doesn’t. It follows a more natural logical route: Up goes to the Next song.

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No Plane Left Behind

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007

Frank’s Multiplex Canard

The Pickleweed picnic table closest to the right edge of the Great Meadow at Baylands must be enchanted.

In Monday’s hot late morning sun, Mike, Bruce, Dave and Doug and I are sitting at the Magic Table, talking about canards, planes based on a design which puts the wing in the back and the horizontal stabilizer in front.

We see one when Kevin Chin shows up every month or so with a beautiful canard which he scratch built from Depron. It hovers beautifully, which is a strength of this design. I’ve seen photos of Brian Chan flying a canard. Otherwise, it’s a rare bird.

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The New Look

Friday, July 6th, 2007

Old Ups & Downs

Ups & Downs got a makeover.

The original version, created in iWeb, was attractive and easy to use.

But its commenting system was annoying. The software wouldn’t notify me when comments were posted and I couldn’t edit the comments: I could either approve them or delete them.

Not that I’m into editing comments, but once or twice I heard from the author of a comment who wanted to fix a typo and I couldn’t.

I also wanted more control over the look & feel of the website. Now I have limitless power. :-)

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