Aug 31, 2011

Ideas...

I think I need a notepad for the random thoughts that pop into my head during the day. Seriously, when I am at work or out and about I think of all kinds of crap to write about on here. Once I get home and get (some) stuff squared away, I go blank.

So today I am just going to make some dot points of things that make me want to rant. I might come back to them at another time.


WoW takes up too much time to be able to be a casual player - I don't care what Blizz says.

Mainstream journalists know nothing about aviation. It makes me angry every time they push their poor research, lack of understanding and invalid opinions on the general populace, who take their word as law and become more afraid of flying or think pilots are whinging, whining, greedy jerks.

I listened to the Kyle and Jackie-O show on the way home from gym tonight (Australian radio show) and there was some poor woman, mother of a 12 yr old and a 10 yr old , whose deadshit husband came out and said he has been cheating on her for the past 18 months WITH A BUNCH OF MEN. What did listeners say? Majority came out with "its hard for him, be supportive if you love him" and other sentiments along those lines. Not one caller (that I heard or was allowed on the air) said anything about how WRONG it is that this guy was CHEATING on her! Imagine if he wasn't getting it on with a bunch of blokes in a sauna and instead was getting it on with a bunch of women in a sauna? I would guarantee at least 95% of people would call him a cheating, lying bastard and advise her to dump his ass. But because he is "going through a bi phase" its ok to cheat on the mother of your children with a bunch of dudes. So wrong.

Database analysis/management/input/ whatever the hell it is that I actually do at work is BORING. I swear my brain is going to get sick of it, detach itself and go find somewhere else to live at times.

Flying Tailwheel aircraft is WAY too much fun

I got tingles when I saw the trailer for Final Fantasy XIII: 2 (henceforth known as FFXIII2) yet the Halo 4 trailer left me nonplussed on account of them milking it for at least another two after that.

Girls are too much of a good distraction. They are so much worse than games when it comes to being addicted to them...

Money is the devil. Starting up another second job from tomorrow. At another bottle shop.

That is all for now.

Aug 17, 2011

It's a public holiday, but...

But instead of spending a glorious day of gaming, flying or drinking... I am studying!

Yes studying for the inevitable flying, but study nonetheless! I have always detested it. All through school, my short tenure with a university and even in flight school I always have been a poor self studier. I got by purely on what I could soak up in class and the odd moment of clarity when I could be bothered to sit down and read a textbook.

But now I can't get away with just a "pass". Aviation is this strange world where you need to be perfect. If you aren't, well.... We only have to look to the worst disasters in Aviation to see what happens when you are not perfect. So this means that every question I got wrong on an exam must now be answered correctly, general aircraft knowledge, procedures and knowledge of the rules will be tested. All before stepping foot into the aircraft.

Welcome to a pilot's flight test.

The last major one I did was about two years ago now, that being my Private Pilot's License. The ground component equates to more or less a verbal swordfight. An hour of prodding and defending your position with the weapon of choice your own knowledge. So after that you feel a little stressed, a little mentally drained and hopefully more than a little relieved that is over. I always thought that the ground component is the hardest.

The actual flight is not as bad. It consists of general handling of the aircraft ( steep turns, low level flight, precautionary searches and circuits), Basic instrument flight (where they ake sure you can't see out of the windshield and try to more or less make you sick and disoriented, then see how you fare under those conditions) and finally navigation skills.

If you answer wrongly in the ground component, the testing officer will try to use socratic reasoning to bring about a correct answer but if you are just stumped on critical knowledge, the test ends right there. If you stuff up in the aircraft- the testing officer can either not tell you until you are on the ground, or tell you in the air, giving you the option to save some cash and head straight home.

The two tests I have coming up are the Night Rating test (which is not that bad) and the Commercial Pilot's license test. The CPL test is a big one for me. 7 exams worth of incorrect answers to rectify, plus general knowledge component and what it means to be a commercial pilot vs a private pilot. I did ok on my exams but it is still a lot to study for. Having not flown much in the past two years is certainly counting against me also - things that were just second nature, ingrained in my head are now harder to recall, if I can at all. My in flight skills have deteriorated also, but not that badly that I will need tens of hours of retraining. I can still pump out a mean diversion when needed!

So today I am studying for my Night Rating pre test (well once I finish procrastinating with this blog) and also in the course of that covering some of the knowledge for my CPL test which hopefully will be coming up in the next two weeks. I would love to bust out some WoW (there is soloing and PuGs to be done!), attempting to finish Duke or LA Noire or even just floundering around in StarCraft II. I love flying more than anything but study just sucks so hard- I swear I must have ADD or something because my attention span when it comes to study is almost nil. However give me a wikipedia article on a WWII aerial battle, aircraft or something like that and I can read it for ages!

I really am a poor student.

Aug 13, 2011

So its Wednesday...

Its midweek and I am sitting at my desk listening to podcasts. I love podcasts. I mostly listen to flying, gaming or tech podcasts. It helps pass the time, keeps me sane and helps keep me up to date with what is happening in the world of Aviation.
I need more Aussie ones though. Plane Crazy Down Under is brilliant but since Steve and Grant have jobs and lives outside of podcasting, there are some weeks without any content!
Airplane Geeks and Uncontrolled Airspace help but not all of what they speak about is relevant to the Australian Aviator. But they are good to listen to because of their group dynamics and the stories about flying from another part of the world.
The other ones I listen to are This Week in Computer Hardware, All About Android, Hunting Party Podcast and the Rooster Teeth podcast The Drunk Tank.

This Week in Computer Hardware and All About Android are Twit.tv netcasts from America. Keeping up to date with what is happening with computer hardware and Android development is ESSENTIAL for me haha. I thrive on it.
Hunting Party Podcast is produced by Euripides from OutDPS!, Darkbrew from TheBrewHall and Frostheim from the WHU. It a nice weekly update on hunters in WoW, what blue posts effect us, theorycrafting, gear and random awesomeness that the class is capable of.
The Drunk Tank is a mish mash of just about anything that has happened in the world. They reckon its a gaming podcast but it is a lot more diverse than that. The cast changes often depending on who is available in the office. It is mostly just fun to listen to them.

Lately life has been work (with associated podcasts in my ears), gym when I can be bothered and gaming. I am actually getting right back into WoW. I am just about geared enough for Firelands Raid but I doubt I will get to raid it. The dailies are getting boring and repetitive and the hour it takes to run ZA/ZG with a PuG is painful.
I have been collecting rare pets though which is just really the Pokemon syndrome manifesting itself. Its fun when you get a few hits in a night but having to wait for days for a spawn sucks.
I tried PVP but found I sucked hardcore as both BM and SV so now I need to look at MM for it.
I am raiding BH and doing heroics as MM now and I am by far stripping the DPS i was putting out as SV or BM. It really is much easier to handle the MM rotation. I hated it at first when ICC released but soon came to love it. Readiness gives great burst potential! SV is just so freakin random, I have issues with focus. I either have too little to refresh black arrow or I get a lock and load proc which makes me have too much! And BM is fun with big red pet and the exotic pets (which I now have a few of) but Kill Command SUCKS. There is nothing worse than having to wait for my pet to reach the boss/mob before I can let off a KC. Even if I anticipate the tank pulling, its an inexact science. I love my rare exotic pets and my big red pet but it just is too much of a pain in the ass. I have found that I can plan my focus a lot more with MM because of Chimera Shot. With my latency, 10 sec is how long it takes me to cast 2 steady shot, an arcane, 2 steady shot and then have Chimera come off CD. So it works well. There is about a half second spare at times if I get the latency down but that just means that if Aimed Shot procs, I can get it away WITH an arcane and only push back Chimera a half second. 12k DPS in SV/BM has turned into 16-18k with MM in heroics. Im happy with it.