Week five started off with another long weekend. That’s probably been the most disconcerting part of training here: we get weekends and holidays ‘off’. We’re still here, we’re not allowed to really go anywhere, but no one is making us do anything. So Monday was a day off. Can’t say I did much, which was nice.
Tales from the Inside: Week 4
My mother will always remember our family trip to Arizona in ’96 for, among various other reasons, my reaction when we first walked out of the airport and I saw for the first time in my life a saguaro cactus.
“They are real…” my 13 year old mind exclaimed.
Of course I had seen them in cartoons, TV shows, pictures in books, but that was the first time I had ever seen one. That was only minutes into our trip, yet to this day she has said that single remark made the entire trip worth it. Continue reading “Tales from the Inside: Week 4”
Tales from the Inside: Week 3
Another week in the books.
Tales from the Inside: Week 2
And thus week two comes to an end.
Tales from the Inside: Week 0/1
For those that don’t know I am currently attending the Air Force Total Force Officer Training course on my way to becoming a Second Lieutenant. This was originally an email sent to a handfull of people who I felt might be intereted in my activities. Why is this such a big deal you ask? Well asside from the obvious, and baring any catastrophic dismemberments, it will mark the culmination of a journey I began 17 years ago when I first arrieved at WPI.
So without any further delay I present for your reading enjoyment Tales From the Inside: The Jounrey’s End
How Fortunate We Are
How dare you imply luck.
Being reminded of how fortunate we are can elicit a wide variety of responses. I’ve seen people get angry and defensive at the mere thought of a suggestion that they were gifted even the smallest things, as if they stole something and were defending it. As if they admitted that they were lucky, that they were fortunate, that they’d been set up right, someone would suddenly come and take it all away from them.
Accumulated Memories
To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is unpatriotic. American nationalism isn’t the same as in other countries. It isn’t nativist or imperial or xenophobic, or it shouldn’t be. Those attachments belong with other tired dogmas that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.
– John McCain, “The Restless Wave”
Crushed Like a Fine Wine
One of the most soul crushing aspects of motor sports is that a driver can be knocked out of the race before they’ve even completed the first turn. Or, as was the case for Valtteri Bottas in Azerbaijan, going from first to DNF on the final lap because of a blowout due to debris on the track. Of course it’s part of the sport, but that can be little consolation, even without championships on the line.
The Cause of and Solution To
The past couple Thursday’s I’ve had trouble accessing some websites on the Rising Star WiFi. Some load just fine, while others (including wordpress) do not. The past couple weeks I’ve just hotspotted my phone and loaded it that way, but today I decided to try and figure out whether the issue was on my computer or their router. Continue reading “The Cause of and Solution To”
It’s the Little Things
While sipping tea atop the Etihad towers and munching on tea food I came across one of the more brilliant minor designs that I have seen. One of the issues that annoys me most about dining in a restaurant is the final bill. Not the paying or the final total (though these too can be issues of annoyance) but in how the bill is presented. Specifically that, when paying by card, there is nowhere to put the pen. When presented in a folder, the pen often prevents the folder from closing. On occasion there is enough room to tuck it in the spine, but while functional, it is less then ideal as it puts added stress on the seam and results in a broken folder (a broken or *gasp* missing credit card holder in a folder sets off a serious neurotic episode, and let’s not even discuss the ‘coin’ problem). Continue reading “It’s the Little Things”
Infinitely Expanding 