The coldest winter I ever spent
Archive for August 2003
Every year around this time I become sad and wistful that I am, again, not going to Burning Man. I should go. I must go before I die. It is one of the shapes of perfection. I was going to put a Burning Man picture here, but there is no way that a single photo can do it justice. The BurningMan.com site does it up with over 4,000 photos.
I fixed the motor mount and flew on Saturday :-)
I created an EPP foam motor mount. You can’t see in the image but where the front of the motor touches the foam (in the photo, very close to where the blue wire is soldered to the motor) I buried a quarter in the foam to distribute the force of the motor sliding forward during a sudden stop.
I found a coroplast sign on the street that no one was using [grin]… (one of those awful “Lose 50 lbs in 10 days, Guaranteed!!!” signs). I cut a long rectangle of it and put it on the bottom of the plane as a reinforcing plate. I then sliced holes down through the wing to insert “GB Grip Strip” velcro strapping from Home Depot. This strapping now holds the motor in place! As well, I put strapping in front because, cool as it looks, I want to stop the battery from it’s habit of flying loose and cutting into the ground like a throwing dagger tossed high in the air during my inverted stints.
A couple times now, the battery has come loose! Just this weekend it happened too… before we put the battery strapping on. Julian and I had finished putting the motor mount on, and I wanted to FLY immediately. So I gave it a toss. I was showing off my new inverted skills over the strip when…. the engine cut out suddenly, the battery flipped 200 feet with a thud (Julian was looking away at the time but he tells me that he felt the thud!) and the plane wafted down like a giant sheet of construction paper let go from a building-top. Yea, time for better velcro on the battery!
I am now officially a die-hard. It drizzled on us a couple times when we were out flying. We kept watching the sky, wondering when we’d get the brunt of it. I 
went up and was having a blast when… It felt almost like I was getting tunnel vision. I was losing my peripheral vision due to a sinister darkness that was sneaking up on me from behind! The air suddenly smelled different. The leaves on the trees flipped over. It was time! The rain hadn’t started but I called out, “That’s it! Here comes the rain!” As I was landing and packing up, the rain started…. and then in earnest! It poured! Four of us hid in the RAMAC shack. Julian luckily had the combination to the lock, there was also a Russian man named Gen and …. oh dear, I forget the last guy’s name. We sat around talking about Gen’s diesel powered control line plane. He last flied a control line when he was 15… an old diesel :-). His new plane had a new engine on it… but it was the exact same model engine :-). Diesel engines are more efficient but they can be a REAL pain to start. While it rained, he worked on getting it started for an hour or so. The smell of the fuel was wild! It’s 1/3 ether, 1/3 kerosene, 1/3 mineral oil. The ether gives it this cool, fruity, clean smell… maybe like a doctor’s office… After a few minutes in the shack with him starting the engine, (the door and windows were open, but still…) we were all permeated with the smell. I didn’t mind.
The rain finally stopped after 1 1/2 hrs or so. We went out and Gen really wanted to get his control line flying. I wanted to see it. I only have 1 vague memory of ever seeing CL and my dad talks a lot about how he flew CL when he was a kid. He finally got it started, I held it, he gave the signal and I let it fly! It went up. And it went down. Smoosh. 5 seconds in the air. The damage wasn’t too too bad… the wing was crushed from the “Art” decal outward. :-(.
After we all moped about the smooshed plane, I whipped out the Zagi to cheer everyone up. I have Gen the controls… he asked if we were ready for a low flyby; he almost hit the shack! It was a gas! I landed on my own once in the parking lot (RE: the mud on the plane in the pix) and Julian caught it once.
On the way out, Julian’s brother finally showed up (only like 3 hrs late) with Angelina, a friend. We had a very nice time talking there.
Neurotheology*************!
I saw this thing on Tech TV… an episode of Secret, Strange & True.
God, Ghosts, and Magnets
Is religious experience merely an electronic impulse? “God, Ghosts, and Magnets” asks this question. Some of the world’s top neuroscientists have found a link between a specific part of the brain and moments of religious experience. If their theory about the brain is correct, faith and religious experience may simply be an electromagnetic field in the brain.
This new science, neurotheology, began when scientists explored a condition called “temporal lobe epilepsy.” Epileptics often report profound religious experiences. Scientists began to wonder: Could there be a connection between the temporal lobes of the brain and divine revelation?
Neuroscientists began to examine the life stories of celebrated mystics, including Joan of Arc, St. Paul, and the founder of the Seventh Day Adventist Movement, Ellen White. They also monitored the brains of nuns as they sensed unity with God and the brains of Buddhist monks as they achieve oneness with the universe. All exhibited very similar patterns of brain activity.
Explore this controversial theory on TechTV’s presentation of “God, Ghosts, and Magnets.”
I thought I got a lot of spam. I’m around 40 a day… A discussion on the ARL list about spam brought out one person that gets about 400 spams a day! Another found that their Earthlink Spaminator filters 1,800 messages a day! I’m not worthy!
Remember that ad I put in the Panther? (Journal 7-11-03) Well, it’s working! The ad came out about 2 weeks ago and I’ve had a bunch of people call me, saying, “Help, Help! My computer/TV/cable modem/… is broken. Come fix it and I’ll give you money!”
I have a pile of 20’s and 50’s sitting on my desk from the jobs I’ve been on. Real money from my real startup business! This has the makings for a real business! Wow!
Today’s spam poetry make very interesting use of rhythm, playing with the form and pushing the reader’s attention in exciting and edgy directions. I find that the author’s use of nonstandard capitalization, spelling and punctuation allows drips and drops of the ‘true’ meaning of the piece through like a used canvas bag allows light through when held up to the sun.
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Happy wishes, your Nice assistant.
TJIC’s Project SHERPA project sounds excellent. I really think he’s got something there.
This month’s top photo is of my niece Julia and I at the NJ Festival of Ballooning on July 25th. It was really something to see!