With that in mind, here are my final grades for my major 2018 initiatives, and my general plans for 2019.
Fitness - B
Content - C
Finances - D+
Going to do better next year!
In via praemium sum est - The journey is its own reward
Monday, December 31, 2018
Last one for 2018! Grades & Goals! Vlog 2018-52
Last vlog for 2018! Can't believe I managed to do this every week for a year!
With that in mind, here are my final grades for my major 2018 initiatives, and my general plans for 2019.
Fitness - B
Content - C
Finances - D+
Going to do better next year!
With that in mind, here are my final grades for my major 2018 initiatives, and my general plans for 2019.
Fitness - B
Content - C
Finances - D+
Going to do better next year!
Friday, December 28, 2018
Let's Play Wing Commander 1: McAuliffe Mission 3
I was going to miss flying with Paladin. He sure wasn't flashy, but you knew exactly where he was, and that he had your back. I hadn't realized how valuable that was back in the academy.
For what would be our last mission as a flight pair, the Colonel had us back on escort duty. Confed had a lot of heavy cargo coming in, both to fortify the system, and to resupply before our next jump. Not that the Cats were going to make it easy. They'd turned one of their best loose somewhere in system, and were putting up a massive fight.
Given that, I shouldn't have been surprised that we bumped into a four-ship of Krants halfway to the jump point. Paladin broke right to take the lead, and I burned in underneath to try and catch at least one of the big medium fighters from behind before its pilot could react. After that it just dissolved into a massive furball, fighters going every which way. Paladin drew a lot more than his fair share of fire, which allowed me to knock down most of the enemies.
That issue solved, we pressed on to the jump point. The Drayman transport jumped in right on schedule, and we started for home. That's when Bhurak and his two wingmen (wingcats?) jumped us. I knew Bhurak had me maneuvered, but he was still flying a Salthi. While Paladin rolled in on the wingmen, I went straight for Starkiller. Intel had said that the Kilrathi ace liked to launch his missiles at max range and then close for gun kills. I figured if I closed fast enough, I could negate his maneuvering advantage and bring my Scim's mass drivers to bear faster.
Against a heavier fighter, I would have been toast. As it was, I swear I saw one of Bhurak's rockets just pass my right wing, then I opened up with the mass drivers. Maybe the cat was used to people running from him. Maybe he just didn't expect a human to play chicken. I don't know. What I do know, is that I flew through an expanding glass cloud that used to be a Salthi, and the cat hadn't managed to knock my shields down.
After that it was an easy 2v2 cleanup of the remaining hostiles with Paladin. Then home to the Claw for a bit of R&R before the next jump.
Note: Success in this mission will send players to the Gimle System to fly Raptors. Failure will send players to the Brimstone System, still in Scimitars.
For what would be our last mission as a flight pair, the Colonel had us back on escort duty. Confed had a lot of heavy cargo coming in, both to fortify the system, and to resupply before our next jump. Not that the Cats were going to make it easy. They'd turned one of their best loose somewhere in system, and were putting up a massive fight.
Given that, I shouldn't have been surprised that we bumped into a four-ship of Krants halfway to the jump point. Paladin broke right to take the lead, and I burned in underneath to try and catch at least one of the big medium fighters from behind before its pilot could react. After that it just dissolved into a massive furball, fighters going every which way. Paladin drew a lot more than his fair share of fire, which allowed me to knock down most of the enemies.
That issue solved, we pressed on to the jump point. The Drayman transport jumped in right on schedule, and we started for home. That's when Bhurak and his two wingmen (wingcats?) jumped us. I knew Bhurak had me maneuvered, but he was still flying a Salthi. While Paladin rolled in on the wingmen, I went straight for Starkiller. Intel had said that the Kilrathi ace liked to launch his missiles at max range and then close for gun kills. I figured if I closed fast enough, I could negate his maneuvering advantage and bring my Scim's mass drivers to bear faster.
Against a heavier fighter, I would have been toast. As it was, I swear I saw one of Bhurak's rockets just pass my right wing, then I opened up with the mass drivers. Maybe the cat was used to people running from him. Maybe he just didn't expect a human to play chicken. I don't know. What I do know, is that I flew through an expanding glass cloud that used to be a Salthi, and the cat hadn't managed to knock my shields down.
After that it was an easy 2v2 cleanup of the remaining hostiles with Paladin. Then home to the Claw for a bit of R&R before the next jump.
Note: Success in this mission will send players to the Gimle System to fly Raptors. Failure will send players to the Brimstone System, still in Scimitars.
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Uncommon Heroism
Via The Dreamy Dodo blog, I came across this picture of Cessna A-37s, Northrup F-5s, and a single odd Cessna L-19 aboard the deck of the USS Midway (CVA-41) on their way to Guam after the fall of Saigon in 1975.
How that Bird Dog (the L-19) got there is one hell of a story. As Saigon was falling, South Veitnam Air Force Major Buang-Ly loaded his wife and five children into the two seat observation aircraft and headed out to sea from the island of Con Son. He didn't really have a plan beyond "get out of here and hope to find an American ship."
What he finally found as an aircraft carrier loaded with other aircraft, that he was sure he could land on. What happened next was recorded from the flight deck of the Midway.
According to NavyHistory.org, Major Buang's several passes over the carrier, were attempts to drop notes signaling his intentions. The first couple blew away, and he finally resorted to stuffing his third note into his pistol and dropping that onto the deck. Note the look of relief on his wife's face when she exits the aircraft.
In the linked article, there's a bit of follow-up as well. Major Buang and his family eventually settled in Orlando. In 2014, at a small ceremony held during Sun 'n Fun, Major Buang and his extended family were presented a special aircraft model honoring his historic flight. Major Buang's aircraft itself now hangs in the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.
I may have to go through my old photos and see if that aircraft is in the background of any of my shots of pointy jets.
The Cessna L-19 (O-1) was derived from the Cessna 170, which is a four-seat, high-wing taildragger. The biggest difference in the militarized aircraft was the tandem seating arrangement for the pilot and observer, making the L-19 the largest two-seat aircraft Cessna ever built. Even so, that must have been a seriously tight squeeze for a family of seven.
 |
| Sing it with me now: "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn't the same..." |
How that Bird Dog (the L-19) got there is one hell of a story. As Saigon was falling, South Veitnam Air Force Major Buang-Ly loaded his wife and five children into the two seat observation aircraft and headed out to sea from the island of Con Son. He didn't really have a plan beyond "get out of here and hope to find an American ship."
What he finally found as an aircraft carrier loaded with other aircraft, that he was sure he could land on. What happened next was recorded from the flight deck of the Midway.
According to NavyHistory.org, Major Buang's several passes over the carrier, were attempts to drop notes signaling his intentions. The first couple blew away, and he finally resorted to stuffing his third note into his pistol and dropping that onto the deck. Note the look of relief on his wife's face when she exits the aircraft.
In the linked article, there's a bit of follow-up as well. Major Buang and his family eventually settled in Orlando. In 2014, at a small ceremony held during Sun 'n Fun, Major Buang and his extended family were presented a special aircraft model honoring his historic flight. Major Buang's aircraft itself now hangs in the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.
I may have to go through my old photos and see if that aircraft is in the background of any of my shots of pointy jets.
The Cessna L-19 (O-1) was derived from the Cessna 170, which is a four-seat, high-wing taildragger. The biggest difference in the militarized aircraft was the tandem seating arrangement for the pilot and observer, making the L-19 the largest two-seat aircraft Cessna ever built. Even so, that must have been a seriously tight squeeze for a family of seven.
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Merry Christmas Christmas Music
Merry Christmas. I hope that you enjoy some time with family this Christmas, and remember who Christmas is all about. Please enjoy some of my favorite Christmas tunes, if you like.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Friday, December 21, 2018
Let's Play Wing Commander 1: McAuliffe Mission #2 - Destroyer Strike
Finally a chance to do something other than patrols or escorting fat, slow transports. McAuliffe was heating up, at least that's what the Colonel said, and he was sending strike pairs out to engage and neutralize possible threats that had popped up on radar.
It seemed like the guys in the bar earlier must have been part psychic, since we'd just been discussing the best way to take out an enemy capital ship. Maniac, of course, favored an agressive strategy of burning in, popping the cap ship, then dealing with the fighter escort. Iceman, and everyone with a brain, preferred to engage the escorts first, then deal with the big hostile once there wasn't anything left that could shoot us in the back.
The flight of Dralthi we blundered into halfway to the nav point was just bad luck. Certainly for them, since Paladin and I made short work of them. At Nav 1, we rolled in against a bigger threat: two Krants escorting the Ralari destroyer we'd come to destroy.
I gave Paladin the lead and burned hard to come in under the trailer. On paper, the Scim and Krant woere pretty close matches. The Krant had slight edge in armor, I had a little more firepower. When the trailing fighter couldn't turn in fast enough to hang with me, firepower won. I went underneath him at full burner, then cut my drives and pitched around to put myself on his tail. One full burst from my Mass Drivers was all it took. That gave me time to help Paladin, who was struggling with the other fighter. The cat must have gotten target fixated as Paladin tried to extend and clear, allowing me to call Fox Two and put a heater up the Krant's tailpipe.
After that, the Ralari was just a matter of weathering the flak and unloading guns into the engines. Problem solved, and we were RTB with not too much worse than some paint scratches and half-empty missile racks.
It seemed like the guys in the bar earlier must have been part psychic, since we'd just been discussing the best way to take out an enemy capital ship. Maniac, of course, favored an agressive strategy of burning in, popping the cap ship, then dealing with the fighter escort. Iceman, and everyone with a brain, preferred to engage the escorts first, then deal with the big hostile once there wasn't anything left that could shoot us in the back.
The flight of Dralthi we blundered into halfway to the nav point was just bad luck. Certainly for them, since Paladin and I made short work of them. At Nav 1, we rolled in against a bigger threat: two Krants escorting the Ralari destroyer we'd come to destroy.
I gave Paladin the lead and burned hard to come in under the trailer. On paper, the Scim and Krant woere pretty close matches. The Krant had slight edge in armor, I had a little more firepower. When the trailing fighter couldn't turn in fast enough to hang with me, firepower won. I went underneath him at full burner, then cut my drives and pitched around to put myself on his tail. One full burst from my Mass Drivers was all it took. That gave me time to help Paladin, who was struggling with the other fighter. The cat must have gotten target fixated as Paladin tried to extend and clear, allowing me to call Fox Two and put a heater up the Krant's tailpipe.
After that, the Ralari was just a matter of weathering the flak and unloading guns into the engines. Problem solved, and we were RTB with not too much worse than some paint scratches and half-empty missile racks.
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Just a Five Minute Job - A Home Improvement Metaphor for Tech Debt
One of the most interesting panel discussions that I participated in during Agile + DevOps 2018 centered around Technical Debt and what we can do about it. We found ourselves using a metaphor of home improvement projects a few times - especially the idea that you don't always know how big the task is when you start. With that in mind, I'd like to present a short recap of a recent "five minute" easy home improvement fix I found myself in.
The Problem:My girls share a room which contains one of the air returns for the heater. The grate covering this duct was no longer staying in the wall. This had led to at least one feline excursion into the ductwork, and now required that a trashcan or other large object block the grate to keep the cats away.
The Estimate:
This isn't a difficult fix. All I needed to do was grab my drill, zip in a couple of drywall anchors, drive the screws back into the wall, and done. Five minutes. Max.
The Reality:
First off, the grate cover is the wrong size for the hole. What I really should have done was get a new cover, or enlarge the hole, but one of those things would require spending extra money, and the other would require measuring and cutting additional bits of drywall. Both were out of scope.
My first fix was exactly as specified in the estimate. That worked fine, right up until I realized that the screws were now too short to properly open the drywall anchors. Okay, I'll get some new screws.
Then the screw on the right drove the drywall anchor straight through the sheet of drywall and into the five inch gap in the wall that I didn't realize was there.
No problem, I can go grab a couple of 2x4 ends, trim them up, fill the gap between the walls, and drive a 3" wood screw in there.
Which I did. Total time, between trimming 2x4 scraps, swapping out screws, removing busted drywall anchors, and oh yes, removing a helpful cat: forty-five minutes. That's 9x longer than my original estimate.
To bring this full circle, it's the same issue with technical debt. You don't know what you don't know. Even so, technical debt must be handled. If I'd known I needed to trim up some lumber to fill a gap, etc, my original estimate would have been a lot more realistic. As it is, sometimes you just have to pull a task off the board, set aside 10x whatever your time estimate is, and hope this task is actually what it seems. Ever time, the set of unknown unknowns in your infrastructure will (hopefully) decrease. Every time I dig into a fix in this house I learn a bit more about it, and shrink my list of unknowns a little more. Eventually I'll know this place as well as the builder. I hope.
The Problem:My girls share a room which contains one of the air returns for the heater. The grate covering this duct was no longer staying in the wall. This had led to at least one feline excursion into the ductwork, and now required that a trashcan or other large object block the grate to keep the cats away.
The Estimate:
This isn't a difficult fix. All I needed to do was grab my drill, zip in a couple of drywall anchors, drive the screws back into the wall, and done. Five minutes. Max.
The Reality:
First off, the grate cover is the wrong size for the hole. What I really should have done was get a new cover, or enlarge the hole, but one of those things would require spending extra money, and the other would require measuring and cutting additional bits of drywall. Both were out of scope.
 |
| After grate removal. Can't expand the hole to the left because there's a wall stud there. |
Then the screw on the right drove the drywall anchor straight through the sheet of drywall and into the five inch gap in the wall that I didn't realize was there.
 |
| Feline help from Romana the Time Kitty did not decrease the task duration. |
No problem, I can go grab a couple of 2x4 ends, trim them up, fill the gap between the walls, and drive a 3" wood screw in there.
Which I did. Total time, between trimming 2x4 scraps, swapping out screws, removing busted drywall anchors, and oh yes, removing a helpful cat: forty-five minutes. That's 9x longer than my original estimate.
 |
| Yeah, this drywall anchor isn't going to work. I don't know why the original grate was set up with that screw so close to the edge of the hole. |
To bring this full circle, it's the same issue with technical debt. You don't know what you don't know. Even so, technical debt must be handled. If I'd known I needed to trim up some lumber to fill a gap, etc, my original estimate would have been a lot more realistic. As it is, sometimes you just have to pull a task off the board, set aside 10x whatever your time estimate is, and hope this task is actually what it seems. Ever time, the set of unknown unknowns in your infrastructure will (hopefully) decrease. Every time I dig into a fix in this house I learn a bit more about it, and shrink my list of unknowns a little more. Eventually I'll know this place as well as the builder. I hope.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)