Rants

If I have a problem with something, here it will be.

Too Much Travel, Too Little Flying (GA)

Jun 24th

Posted by mstroud in Flying

It seems that I’ve been on the road constantly, and that I’ve done very little general aviation flying.  Upon looking back at my schedule since January, it does appear that most every week and weekend I’m in another city or country, talking to a different customer or partner, eating at a new or similar restaurant and staying at another hotel chain.  I certainly have the flight miles (and nagging cough) to prove it.

I also have started lacking in my ability to get to the local airport and fly, and when I do get out to the airport these day my More >

Bad Weather Lessons: 28 and 29

Feb 13th

Posted by mstroud in Flying

I managed to sneak in a couple of hours of flying this weekend, between downpours and crazy work scheduling. The net-net of these flights were that I’ve now picked up a bad habit or two: flying the pattern too fast and loose at times, and under-rotating at touchdown.  Needless to say both are bad and I am working to correct both.

What was really rough, however, was flying in 14+ knot winds with low clouds and crummy visibility.  My instructor loved it as it pushed me about as far out of my comfort zone as I could be at the home More >

Lessons 26 and 27: Back on the Horse Again

Jan 21st

Posted by mstroud in Flying

My two most recent flying lessons were proof of what happens when I spend a long time away from the cockpit.  On lesson 26 I spent the entire time bobbling around, blowing landings, and generally being a mess while flying.  It was as if I had erased several months worth of flying skills and had regressed to a much earlier phase of flight.  I knew I’d be a bit rusty, but this was bad news.

On the 27th lesson, after around 5 touch and go’s, some of the old flying skills returned.  It was truly maddening to think that the effort More >

Thoughts on CES and Such

Jan 15th

Posted by mstroud in General

I have just about recovered from the ordeal that is getting ready for, staging, shipping, demonstrating, and tearing down a full show load out for CES.  I can’t say that I enjoyed it, or that I’d volunteer to do as much work again, but I’m glad its all done.

Severe pain came from the logistics of getting people (namely me) and equipment (some 80+ boxes of it) to and from the show.  As the largest single event in Las Vegas, CES is uniquely positioned to stress out every part of the infrastructure needed to travel, house, transport, and sustain a group More >

Holiday Downtime, Drivers, and Renewals Oh My

Jan 1st

Posted by mstroud in General

After a short 3 days and change in OK, plus a day and a half in Tahoe, I get a short rest in San Jose for the next week.  Well, that isn’t really true, as I must now scramble to get all of the work done to make it to CES this coming weekend and all next week.  But at least for today it seemed a bit more subdued than usual, or maybe I’m just not sure what to call the time you have outside of work.

What did get me wondering about stuff is the temperature at the house, which is More >

Grr! Holiday Air Travelers

Dec 19th

Posted by mstroud in Rants

I had to fly to Orange County, CA for work today and I thought that I’d have a pretty clean trip, what with it being Tuesday and all.  The day started off simple enough: get up at 5:30am, get to the airport by 6:10, and on the plane by 7:30.  No security lines, no delays, no parking issues.  This seemed great.

But when it came time to fly home tonight, via LAX, I could see the problems mounting.  Awful traffic getting to the airport (not unusual for LA), really crowded check-in areas in most terminals, spotty seating at the food court, More >

Flight Lessons 19, 20, and 21

Nov 25th

Posted by mstroud in Flying

I must have really bad luck with equipment, or something.  The 19th flight lesson was short because of the rapid onset of darkness (stupid wintertime!).  The 20th was fogged out with visibility of less than 500 feet.  The 21st was only 30 minutes long thanks to a weak engine.  Needless to say, I won’t be flying that particular airplane for a while.

If there is a silver lining out of all of this, its that I’m really learning not to trust the engine in the aircraft I fly in, so I’m extra paranoid about finding an emergency landing spot each time More >

The "Fun" That is Windows Media Center and Xbox 360

Nov 4th

Posted by mstroud in Rants

Recently I went through a setup related exercise for work where I needed to get a Windows Media Center PC to talk to a Media Center Extender. An extender in Microsoft’s view is a device that attaches to a TV and enables interacting with a Media Center UI without the PC actually having to be in the same room as the TV. There have been a few of these devices shipping for a couple of years so I thought this would be a cakewalk. Boy was I wrong, really wrong.

I spend nearly two hours hooking up the Media Center PCs More >

Lost Wallets

Oct 23rd

Posted by mstroud in General

I had the occasion last night and this morning to have completely lost my wallet.  This led to several panicked phone calls (sorry Steve and Paul) and a lot of tearing up the house.  In the end, I cancelled all my credit cards, my ATM card, and lost my Social Security card, requiring calls to replace them all.

I rarely lose things of such great value, but this time around I just sucked.  Moments after I put the call in on all these items I found my wallet, wedged into a small opening between the passenger seat and the rail it More >

Back Home for a Bit

Oct 16th

Posted by mstroud in Rants

I have finally returned from my whirlwind tour of Europe and NYC.  Although my body isn’t sure which time zone it’s in, I am sure that I’m home again.  Where else can you say that the taxi drivers speak less English than they do in other countries?

I’ll be travelling again later this week, but hopefully this stop will be long enough for some clothes washing and a little sleep.  Yawn is the order of the day, for sure.

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