February 28, 2005
Little bit o' nostalgia...
My mom sent me a link to a story about my grandfather. Papa was a civil engineer who worked for the State of California's aviation bureau. He was a pilot, and part owner of a Cessna 140.
The story I link above is written by a man who apparently became a friend of my mom's family. He seems to think that Papa almost killed them both, trying to get out of the Lake Tahoe airport in a heavily laden airplane on a hot day. I'm inclined to think that, since the fellow lived to tell the story, Papa did a pretty good job.
I'm pretty sure that the airplane described in this story is the same one that he took me for rides in when I was a little boy. I remember once, we flew out to the Nut Tree in Vacaville, CA. The Nut Tree was one of my favorite places to visit, and getting the chance to FLY there (instead of driving) was quite a treat. The Nut Tree was (in retrospect) a strange sort of place. There was a big toy store, across the miniature train tracks from a large souvenir shop. The train looped out to the airfield, through the nut orchards, and then dropped you off in front of the toy store and souvenir shop. (Smart marketing.) In front of the souvenir shop, there was a line of dozens of large rocking horses. I remember as a teenager, my father's father gave my sister a 3/4 scale reproduction of one of these Nut Tree rocking horses. I don't know if Liz was as attached to those rocking horses as I was, but I sure thought it was cool. So, you add rocking horses+toy store+airport+Tiki huts+a big mural of animals with little doors in the back of the faces so you could put your face in an animal face=a pretty cool place for a little kid to hang out. Too bad that the children of the founders didn't love the place as much as I do. Apparently, they've torn everything down.
Anyhow, I thought it was neat to read about this guy who flew with my Papa. I know I'll never forget that experience, although for different reasons.
Posted by Lee at 11:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 13, 2004
Freakin' HR drones...
Yesterday, B and I went to Seattle for a job fair with a certain large aerospace firm. Getting into the job fair was positively Kafka-esque. We started out in this humongous mile-long line of immobile cars, on the highway running North parallel to SeaTac's runways. The hotel/convention center was up on our right, and we couldn't figure out what all this traffic was about.
I got impatient, and popped into the left lane to get ahead of all these meatheads. Apparently, they were all trying to turn into the Hilton (where the job fair was).
In retrospect, this was the First Bad Sign.
So I drove up the hill behind the hotel, and looked at B for clever ideas. She told me "Shut up and get in the passenger seat." Uuukie.
She parked us in a residential neighborhood a few blocks from the hotel. I saw maybe half a dozen other well-dressed individuals who had the same idea.
So we walked down to the convention center, only to see a line of about 700 people wrapping around the back of the center headed into...wait for it...the parking garage. OK, who's in charge of THIS side-show?
So we get in line, and start socializing with the people in the herd around us. Note that this is at about 12:45 or so, fifteen minutes before the doors open.
We finally get into the parking structure (and see the other half of the line) at about 2:00. I see an elevator about 3:00, and we get upstairs around 3:10. Once we got into the parking structure, I looked outside. The line we'd been standing in now goes all the way around the front of the hotel, and all the way up the hill we'd driven up to park. I guesstimate that there were about 5000 people behind us.
Smells like economic recovery, huh?
So I finally get in, get sorted into another line, and get told by an HR flack that unless I had a 3.0 GPA, I've wasted my time. Well, thanks for nothing, lady. Had you put that on your web site, I could have saved myself standing in line for three hours, and six hours of driving from Portland to Seattle and back. I wonder what GPA she earned with her engineering degree? Oh, wait...she probably doesn't have one.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.
B was looking for a gig in the business/finance side as a purchaser. They told her that she's wasted her time coming up here unless she's got 8 years' experience. She "only" has 6.
argh.
So, that was a bust. B and I then went over to the IKEA store. Woo hoo! Flat-pack nirvana! This is a cool, cool place. Yes, I have now picked out furniture with my girlfriend. *meaningful look*
We (by that, I mean "she") wound up buying two very nice dining room chairs, and about $60 worth of crap. By "crap", I mean absurdly useful, reasonably priced, and well-designed crap. Then, we bopped into Seattle proper to meet J, a friend of ours (and of other people we know) (Ask him about prepositional phrases!) for a very pleasant dinner (with alcohol!) at Red Robin. Pictures!
Then we had ice cream, and picked on B, and went home.
Re: the stupid cattle call: Fortunately, I've still got some other irons in the fire. All this has shown me is that cattle calls really, really suck.
Posted by Lee at 07:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 05, 2004
Okay, I'm not counting my chickens...
But I've got some eggs. I've got a good contact at Boeing who looks like he is gonna come through for me. I'm stoked.
Today, I wandered down to Woodstock St. to meet tha lady and her dad for lunch. He's a quality assurance guy at the titanium casting company that her entire clan apparently works at.
On the way back, I got:
Some bubble tea with a Super Deformed Freddy Krueger on the lid. Arigato gozaimasu, Freddy-chan!
I don't understand Asian pop culture, but I really like it.
Never had bubble tea? Too bad for you. Imagine a nice glass of iced green tea, with some .40 caliber spheres of tapioca rattling around in the bottom of the cup. You are equipped with a straw of similar gauge, so you can suck up the bubbles and chew on 'em while you drink your tea.
You will never, ever find a superior spitwad. Not that I've ever tried, or anything.
On the walk back, I started listening to some albums in the Best of College A Cappella series, which I pillaged from KB's Stash O' Music. (Which is huge, and has a large overlap with my own tastes, with which I'm attempting to fill my iPod). Some really, really great stuff. I love finding new a cappella grooves.
BTW, the image above is a still from my iSight webcam. I'll see if I can get a little better shot.
Posted by Lee at 05:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 23, 2004
Good news...bad news.
First the good news. I bought a sweet new computer. I am now the proud daddy of a 12" Powerbook. Bask in my coolness.
Now the bad news. My security clearance was not authorized by the Department of Security Services. No idea why. Now, after three months of waiting to hear, I get to spend another couple months trying to figure out what happened.
So. No move to LA for Lee. Very bad.
Next week, I'm going back to Portland as scheduled. I'm going to visit the lady, and hopefully get some traction on gainful employment. I'd be quite happy to work up there...it's pretty country.
Anyhow, that's that. Prayers and cash donations gratefully accepted.
Posted by Lee at 06:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 28, 2003
I likes airplanes.
Today, my folks and I went to the Alliance Airshow. Of course, there were the normal air-show staples: static displays of neat airplanes, aerobatic displays, and enormous numbers of people. I got to crawl around on a 777, which I'd never been close to before. There was also a mock-up of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Right as we were walking in the gates, the Oracle Challenger was taking off. Now, I hate Oracle corp (for personal reasons), but this was one cool airplane. I've never seen anybody do a one and three=quarters roll before. Really amazing flying.
We got there just in time to elbow our way to the flight line to watch the Blue Angels take off. Seems like their show gets better every time I see it. I particularly like the high-speed overhead passes when they demonstrate how you can sneak up on somebody with a fast (and loud) airplane. Of course, there was also the jet-assisted takeoff of Fat Albert, which is just way a lot of fun.
I want a combat jet.
Posted by Lee at 10:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack