Steampunk, Flying and ... stuff.

I have had a bit of a look at Steampunk lately. Mostly because some of the fashion is badass. Also Victorian era clothes were just so much classier than today's. These days if you get around in a suit people look at you funny. Even in the office where I work we wear business pants and shirts - as soon as the jacket comes on you are out of place. What would happen if a vest was thrown into the mix? Or a pocket watch? I think they would blow up or something.

But steampunk isn't just dressing up in old school clothing. Its putting a different spin on it all. Its difficult for me to put a definite label on it, a proper description. I have never read any Jules Vern or H.G. Wells- who have been credited as the creators of steampunk. I should fix that before attempting (and failing) to wax eloquent about it.

Older styles interest me on the whole. Like 1920's barnstormers. Tiger Moths, badass flight jackets, caps, goggles and silk scarves! Times were simpler- no shitty CASA telling you where and how to fly, no RA-Aus cowboys to worry about. Just flying from town to town, making your living from aerobatic shows. 1920's Mobsters - pinstripe suits, awesome hats, a huge cigar and a cheesy fake Bronx accent. These are looks which have a lot more class than todays social norm. I tend to go for the (untorn) dark jeans, t-shirt (ironed, clean, also untorn) and awesome military style jacket look. It just isn't as daggy as some of the guys getting around at the moment with their pants hanging down under their arse, or skinny leg jeans. Its just not a real masculine look. In my opinion anyway.

I am currently looking at some ways of videoing my exploits in aircraft. So far my best bet is the GoPro HD Hero Camera. It allows me to strap it or hook it just about anywhere to record my flights. I'm thinking that it would be a good idea for me to strap it to my head and use it to breakdown flights I have done. Both as a record of what I do, where I can improve and also to past together some awesome flying videos for here. Aside from my first two (now outdated thanks to Cataclysm) hunter videos, I really have not explored video blogging at all.

Yesterday would have been one of the perfect times for it. I was flying relatively low over the Brisbane CBD doing a mock up photography charter. Being so close and having that view of Brisbane was wonderful and being able to record that would have been brilliant.

There is also something like this:

Making my own videos for study purposes. The RAAF 2FTS pilots use this as a training too to memorise the startup procedure for the PC-9/A. Regardless if it is for study or for entertainment value, this is something I really want to get in on.

In other news I am taking hiatus from WoW again. It takes too much time to be raid ready. It sucks even more now they restrict the dungeon finder to average ilvl - it makes gearing up so much slower. But not only that I farmed up a good deal of the mats for Witch-Hunter's Harvester the other weekend - it took TWO WHOLE DAYS! Even then that was just the levelling of my blacksmithing and trying to farm at least some of the volatile elements required for both the weapon itself and the truegold transmutes. Truegold transmutes suck. Titansteel was bad in that you could not get any multiple procs (unlike transmute master) but having to find alchemists with a spare CD who are also a transmute master is a pain in the ass! At least now I am geared enough for Firelands, got all the dailies out of the way and I can come back to it at any time and slot into the guild raids. Even though the guild has some absolute tards in it now. /wrists

The reason I am having a break is simply because of two jobs and study taking up all my time. I am getting close to the end of the commercial pilots license and study is a priority. Right now I am listening to Sydney International's LiveATC.Net feed to try and ingrain the standard phraseologies into my head. I will probably listen to it at work too with the new Android App.

That is all.