It's been a very long time since I've posted anything. I think the main reason is because I'm already swamped with writing. I've been taking a Creative Arts class that requires me to go to 20 different events over the course of the semester, then write a paper about each of them. I've also had to do my design proposal, preliminary design review, and lab reports on top of all that. Blech. I don't really care that much for writing, but thankfully I can typically string a somewhat coherent sentece together once in a while.

The recent election was probably the most important one to me so far in my life. Before this one, I still cared, but I think I was a little young, immature and sheltered when it came to politics. I still am to some extent, but it's getting better. I had a good time researching all the different candidates, even the ones I didn't expect to agree with. It seems that most americans have the same desire for life, liberty and the pursuit of justice, but I could not help but wonder if these candidates had same idea. I get the feeling that some of these men and women have a lust for power, and will stop at nothing to get it. I am just thankful that I have at least a small say in who will govern me.

Every day brings something new it seems, and not only for the little people. On the topic of little people, I have to wonder how humankind ever made it this far. Having a toddler is easily the most frustrating experience of my life. They do the strangest things, destroy the most well protected treasured items, and manage to overturn any semblance of order and cleanliness in a house, and most amazingly they do it all in a single day! I wish I could be as "productive"!

I suppose the things that keep us going and loving these little tazmanian devils is the little things they say and do. Just today, out of the blue, my little toddler boy came up to me and said he loved me. I love the way his eyes light up and how he squeals in delight when I come home from work. Those (and more) are the little things that keep me from completely losing my temper and patience with him.

Coming back to how I started, today was the first day I rode my bike to work. It's a pretty good ride, and I'll have to do it some more. I'm just glad it's downhill to work so I don't work up too much of a sweat getting there.

I also played the game Loaded Questions, another first. Wow, what a day! I even woke up before 7 am for the first time in a while. Not exactly a first, but I'll count it anyway. I'll have to get used to it because I'm taking a 7:30 am class this fall... yikes!

"When all else fails, duck. It's not practical, but it can be momentarily comforting."

Kids are strange creatures. It never ceases to amaze me how little things can amuse them for hours, at least until something goes bump. They can go from completely independent and disintrested, to clingy and desperately in need of snuggles when they hurt themselves playing.

It is interesting to see the development. First there is just wide-eyed wonder at everything, then it moves on to "what's that?" Not long after that comes the "What doing?" I have so far been spared the "Why?" I dread the day when that word becomes the dominant word in my son's vocabulary. Until then I'll be content with the determined refusal to do anything that I ask him to do, especially if it involves going to sleep at any time of the day.

It has always suprised me how fast life passes me by. It seems just like yesterday that I made my last post. I've had a persistent itch to make a new post, but when I have a spare moment, I never seem to be thinking about it.

This last month has been a prime example of human resiliance. Life has a way of kicking you in the teeth, yet we still seem to be able to turn around and smile at the memory of it. The drubbing I've taken this last month has been from school. I have never been busier in my life. You wouldn't think that 12 credits could work a person so hard, but it did. The best news is that I pulled through, even raising my cumulative GPA (by something like 0.005 points). I suppose I can't really complain because it turned out better than I had feared.

This summer has always seemed like it was only a vauge and distant dream. Now that it is here, it still seems a bit unreal. I've been working more, and that offsets the "extra" time I've gained. Between work and family, I've kept very busy indeed. It almost doesn't seem like a vacation until I come home and realize that I don't have any pressing deadlines or due dates to worry about, so I can then breath a small sigh of relief.

On a seperate note: I've always thought my hobbies were pretty expensive compared to most other students. I've been trumped! One of my neighbors is deeply involved in photography, which I found out makes my hobbies seem almost affordable in comparison. I suppose the only difference is that his hobby also serves as a source of income. I can't say the same for mine. I have a lot of dreams, but no money or time to realize my dreams, which is a great moderator.

It has always struck me as odd how the weeks seem so busy, but the weekends sometimes seem busier. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy my weekends! In fact I really enjoy my weekends. My only complaint is that they fly by too fast...

Speaking of flying by fast, I flew my little electric airplane yesterday. I've had this plane for some time, but have only flown it a few times. It's packing a brand spankin new (4 months ago) brushless motor. I've been excited about getting into brushless motors for some time because they pack a few more (micro) ponies than the traditional cheap brushed motors. I was exited to fly so I tossed in my one and only 10 cell battery, checked the controls and throws. Everything was looking great, or at least as great as a big chunk of baby blue foam can look.

Before I get into the real interesting part, I'll tell you about where I was flying. Not far from my house, nestled up against the mountains stands a little hill, jutting out from the mountains like a giant toe. Unfortunately, I don't have a truck, so I ended up hiking up the hill with my plane and gear in hand and my toddler son on my back. I thought I was going to collapse right there on the hillside. The sides of this little hill are steep enough that even they guys running around on motorcycles barely had the guts or horsepower to scream up the hill. Once I did manage to crest the top of the hill, panting, wheezing and exhausted, I was rewarded with a fantastic view of the valley. It was a good day, just a bit chilly, but I was hot from the exertion of climbing the hill. There were intermittent winds that didn't seem to know which way they wanted to go, and I had a little boy on my back so excited about seeing the plane fly that he hadn't stopped telling me about it for the entire 20 minutes it took to get to the top of the hill.

So, I got my battery charger out, charged up my 10 cell pack, loaded the battery in the plane, then my friend (who was smart enough to find a way for his truck to get up the side of the hill) tossed the plane over the hillside for me.

A little background about this plane is probably in order. Some time ago I was browsing around the internet reading about electric R/C airplanes at the ezone. I stumbled, purely by accident, across an article about a new design for a small speed 400 sized electric plane called the xbow. In the forum post were some pictures... I instantly fell in love with the plane. It is a sleek, agressive looking plane, built from blucor foam insulation (also known as underlayment by many siding contractors). The plane sported a forward swept wing, canard, and a pusher electric motor. Subsequent posts on that thread showed that a great number of people had tried it out and loved it too. I searched the web some more and found more pictures and movies of this little plane in action. After seeing the movies, I knew I had to have one. The fact that I didn't even have any of the parts I'd need didn't deter me. Months of searching and pleading various local hardware stores to order some blucor foam, hours of trying to figure out how to build this thing and lots of tried and sometimes failed experiments brought me up to this particular xbow: XBow #8.

Yes, 8. All but one of the other seven have been either crashed and smahsed to smithereens or retired from service for other reasons. Each one was slightly different than the others. I experimented with motor systems, materials, glues, and on the last two I even left the canard off (it didn't seem to do anything but make it look a bit cooler, and make the nose portion a bit less resilient to crashes).

Ok, back to the flying. My friend tossed it off the hillside. I kept the throttle at about half, and let it drop a bit to pick up speed. After the speed picked up I goosed the throttle and watched that little blue plane get small in a real hurry. At first things looked a bit bumpy because I had my radio set to "high rates" which means that my shaky thumbs were making this plane do some funny kinds of things in the air. I pretty quickly decided to go down to "low rates". The sickening lurches, swoops, dives and wing wobbling settled down considerably. The air was a bit turbulent, especially when the wind in some other part of the valley decided to take a pot shot at my piloting skills.

The one thing I really wasn't prepared for in this flight was how FAST this little plane could move! I wish there were a way for me to clock it, but I feel quite confident that it was doing at least 50 mph! After two frenzied laps I cut the throttle back to under half. Then it started to fly like my previous xbows. Pretty soon the standard speeds started to feel mundane again so I throttled back up, tried a few rolls and loops. My friend had his camera handy so I tried to fly in close for some good camera shots. I was having so much fun that I almost forgot that my batteries don't last forever. I was making one last pass, enjoying flying BELOW myself for a change rather than having to kink my neck to look up at my plane, when the battery kicked out. No big deal I thought, just a pain to have to go down the hill and hike back up again.

As the plane got farther and farther away, I realized there was a problem I hadn't forseen. By now the plane is very nearly directly below me. The base of the hill is at least 50 yards below where I was standing, which meant that my depth perception was gone! I had no clue when it would actually be on the ground. I kept it straight and slowly sinking. Just before I was going to loose sight of it it finally set down. When I went down to collect it, I found that the long nose had broken clean off right where the fuse meets the wing. I guess that's the danger of flying with such a heavy pack so far ahead of that weak point where the fuse meets the wing. Thus ends XBow #8.

I am not really very dismayed by this loss. I could easily have taped it, and flown again that very same day, but I didn't really feel like it. I have other plans for that motor. There are so many new planes I could make that I don't know yet which it will be. At least it gave me something to reflect on while I walked back down the hill with a now sleeping and silent toddler on my back. Maybe I'll do an even faster model! Or perhaps one that is more to scale, such as a small "Extra". I'm not sure just yet, but I know that when I'm done, my little son Joseph will be thrilled to go with me while my wife does whatever it is she does when we go flying.

Joseph for one doesn't seem to upset about the whole matter. I've let him help me dismember the retired aircraft. I salvaged all of the electronics out of it and let him have the airframe. The wing is still in perfect condition, even though much else of the plane has been destroyed. He likes it so much that when it was time for bed, he wanted the plane to be in his arms instead of his Ernie doll or his stuffed rabbit. Hey, whatever works! He was thrilled to have such a cool toy to help him drift off to sleep, and I was thrilled that he actually stayed in his bed for a change! Sometimes it seems that some unpleasant things turn out to be good in the end.

Now that I have this blog, I guess I'll actually have to start doing more writing. I suppose that's not all bad considering I stink at writing. I can barely string a few words together without sounding somewhat like a preschooler. I don't suppose that having a toddler around the house has any negative effect on my vocabulary and communications skills. Just one example could be this typical sort of conversation with my toddler son Joseph:

"Joseph, do you want to go to the park?"
"Nowannit! Go park! Go park daddy!"
"Ok, let's go!"

Which as everybody knows (right?) means that of course he wants to go to the park and he will absolutely go by himself if you don't hurry up and go with him.

So I guess the moral of this silly story is that if I'm not making any sense when I talk to you, it's either because my brain is so fried from doing homework that I can no longer function as a normal human being, or that I'm so used to talking with Joseph, that I've adopted his unique take on the English language.

Those of you with kids will understand and sympathize, the rest of you can just laugh... for the time being anyway!

It's been a LOOONG time since I've done anything with my website, as anyone unfortunate enough to ever look at it can testify. So, I guess this is something new for now. Hopefully this can turn out to be entertaining for both you and me.

That's all for right now. Keep coming back and I'll make sure I bore you with useless trivia and mindless mutterings