Quick trip to LA

la.jpgBack from our quick jaunt down to Southern California. It was really a fact finding mission, as Deanne wanted to check out some of the universities down there for future reference. The drive down was very easy, and we got to Valencia in under three and a half hours. We arrived with Tricia a little after 10:30pm and she greeted us with red wine and halloween candy. We spent most of Saturday driving around the greater Los Angeles area, stopping at UC Irvine, Cal State Long Beach and UCLA. Irvine, both the university and city, was beautiful. We stopped at John Wayne Airport where my camera let me down, as always. We also stopped at LAX and ate at the famous In n' Out that sits right next to the airport perimeter fence. Saturday night was spent with Tricia's sister Nikki and her husband Michael. They were kind enough to have us over for drinks and Michael whipped up some of his famous Mai Tai's after returning from an unsuccesful search for Curacao. Nikki and Michael live in Newport Beach which is now my favorite town in California. We had dinner at a beautiful restaurant on the water. Afterwards, we took a stroll through the charming town, looking at the ridiculously expensive homes that lined the waterfront. The day's endeavours had left us rather exhausted so we collapsed pathetically early on Saturday night to prepare for the following day's journey home. Sunday morning gave us an hour extra to sleep, thanks to Daylight Savings. We packed up our things, said our thank yous and goodbyes to Tricia and her parents and hit the road. Part of the bargaining that resulted in our trip to LA was that we got to stop at Mojave on the way home. It's actually not that far out of the way, and only added about an hour to the journey. We ate at the fantastic restaurant underneath the old tour which has amazing views out over the field and the storage areas beyond. We took the car across the brush to the edge of the storage area to get a better view. There was not a soul to be seen anywhere. The number of aircraft has certainly increased since we were last there earlier in the year. This is probably due to the high price of oil. After snapping some photos, we hit the 58 and headed home. Deanne promptly fell asleep for most of the journey until her bladder woke her up in Fresno..........we didn't stop until Turlock. We made it from Mojave to Tracy in 4 hours, which isn't half bad. So a successful trip all around and our thanks to Tricia and her parents for allowing us to stay with them, and to Nikki and Michael for the excellent Mai Tai's. And yes........I got a new car. explorer.jpg

Diet Update

Well the scales are broken (not surprised after 4 years and 3 moves) so I can't tell you what my weight is this week but I'm pretty sure it won't be good.I'm sucking at this diet. I was doing well for a while but I find it very difficult to maintain a healthy eating ritual during the work week. By the time I get home, water the yard, and spend some time with Deanne, I'm usually exhausted and the last thing I want to do is cook a decent meal. That said, dinner is probably my healthiest meal of the day. There are some positives though. I'm eating breakfast regularly again which is very important. And since Noel is on this ultra-diabetic lowcarb diet, I've been forced to eat well at lunch as well. I usually end up getting a salad at Carl's. So we'll see. I need to start taking it more seriously, and find some exercise, besides the weightlifting, that I actually enjoy. Biking in Sycamore Grove was fun, but a pain in the ass, not to mention out of the question now that the days are getting shorter. Nevertheless, I will strive to continue and I will keep you updated with my progress.

This is a little frightening

From BoingBoing:Mark Frauenfelder: Is Bush Wired? is a site that speculates on whether the President has a teeny earphone that prompts him during speeches and conferences. "Television viewers have sometimes heard another voice speaking Bush's words before he says them. When Bush spoke at D-Day ceremonies in France last June, for example, viewers watching on CNN, Fox and MSNBC, including mediachannel.org's Danny Schechter, were startled to hear another voice speaking Bush's words as if to prompt him. Some said this continued into a q & a. And on the night of 9/11, when Bush appeared on television to address the nation, viewers of one television station in Quincy, Massachusetts heard another voice speaking, slowly and carefully, a few words at a time -- words which were then recited by the president. The voice was nondescript, male, definitely not the president's voice, says Quincy resident Robyn Miller. This went on for at least four sentences, she says, and then the "extra" feed was cut off." http://www.isbushwired.com/

It begins

Here were are, October 1st and my new diet and exercise regimen begins. I've taken a lot of time to prepare this one, as the only success I've had with other plans is when I've taken the time to plan things out in detail. It prevents any ambiguity that I might be able to take advantage of.I've had limited success with diets, I will admit. It's not so much the dieting that I find hard, I just can't seem to sustain it for more than a few months without getting really fed up. The last major diet I went on was pretty successful. I dropped 15lbs in 2 months and was working out everyday. I felt pretty good by the end of it. But life got in the way and I wasn't able to sustain the pace and sure enough, I put all the weight back on again. But that proved to myself that I could do it and get results. I actually enjoyed working out, especially lifting weights, as I could really see changes happening. I've taken the plan I used then and modified it based on the lessons I learned last time. A quick breakdown: My current weight - 221lbs Goal weight: 200lbs (I'm realistic) Current daily calorie intake - 2500+ Target daily calorie intake - 1500 My Basal Metabolic Rate is 2081. This means that I burn 2081 calories a day sitting still. To lose weight, I must eat less calories then my Basal Metabolic Rate. Hence my target calorie intake of 1500. Coupled with the dieting, is an exercise plan. For me, this part is much less painful than the dieting. I love my food. I really enjoyed lifting weights, and the cardio isn't so bad either. I'm starting with 30 minutes a day, increasing by 5 minutes each week until I reach 45 minutes a day.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Cardio (Walking/Jogging) - 30 Minutes Weights - 30 Minutes Cardio (Eliptical) - 30 Minutes Weights - 30 Minutes Weights - 30 Minutes Cardio (Eliptical) - 30 Minutes Weights - 30 Minutes

I'm putting all this info on here because I think it will give me some accountability. Each Friday, I'll weigh myself and post the weight on my blog, regardless if the number goes up or down. It will give me some motivation because I know you bastards will hound me if I don't lose the weight or if I fail to post an update! So wish me luck, hopefully this lifestyle change will get me back on track.

Earthquake

Just had a fun little shaker here in the Bay Area. Just under a 6.0 on the Richter Scale. It was enough to make people here at work stand up and go "Oh My God, earthquake!"To those of you who have never been in an earthquake, this one felt like the floor was rolling underneath me for about a minute. It makes you feel kinda dizzy and nauseous. It's rather disorienting. Anyway, it doesn't look like it's caused any damage, just rattled people a bit. Go California! Here's more info on the quake http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc51147892.htm Update: The epicenter is about 135 miles south of San Jose on the San Andreas fault. There have been a bunch of aftershocks, some in the 4-5.9 magnitude range. quake.gif

Home Again

england.jpgBack in the U.S. I really should have updated my blog while I was over in England but I was on vacation and really didn't want to. As ever, it was a hectic trip. All our trips to England seem to be non-stop but this time it was "good busy." I saw some family members I hadn't seen in years, ate some food I really missed, and was reminded how anti-american the british media is (I'll do a separate post on that later.) But the trip was one of the best I've had for many reasons. My parents recently moved back to England after a 31 year absence. It was strange to see them in their "natural environment." They seem to have settled back into UK life remarkably well considering how long they've been living the expat life. There was the occasional hiccup, like my mother's battle with the vacuum cleaner, but other than that it seems to be going well. It was nice to be able to stay with them and base ourselves from their house in Slinfold. Mike and Mindy's reception in Sunderland was fantastic. "Northerners" are famously warm and generous people and Mike's family are the epitomy of that notion. I was able to meet people who I had heard so much about yet never met. There were several occassions when I was introduced to someone and they would say "Ahhhhhhhhhhh I remember you when you were about 6!" or "Ahh yes, Alex, Mike's partner in crime!" It was a fun few days up in Sunderland, I left with very fond memories. As always, it was wonderful to go back to Burnt House and see my grandmother. It's always been a second home to me and it never changes, no matter how long I'm away for. My grandmother, as ever, was in wonderful spirits. We ate like Kings while we were there...except for Deanne who could only eat things that were either liquid or very flat. (See her entry for details.) I think the most surreal aspect of the trip was seeing my (ex-girl)friend Sarah. Deanne and I had lunch with her and her boyfriend. I hadn't seen her in four years and even though we have been in touch via email, it was still strange seeing her. We had a small family reunion at a Wood Fair (yeah I know, don't ask.) 11 members of my family were there, which is the most I've seen together in a very long time. All we were missing were my Aunt, two cousins and of course my brother and we would have had the whole family there. With all three of my grandmother's children now living in the same country, a first, it seems likely that a full on family reunion might be in the works. I also was able to see my Grandfather and Uncle from Somerset. We met them at the VERY grand Royal Air Force Club in London. It was great to see them, and even better to hear that my uncle might be paying us a visit in California in the future. I'm leaving out a bunch of details about our trip because they need their own posts but suffice to say the trip was a much needed respite from daily life. I took a ton of photos which are all up on the site. Stay tuned for more updates....

You like me, you really like me!

I have finally been accepted. After several attempts, I now have photos on airliners.net. Now to the untrained eye, that might not look like much of an accomplishment, but let me tell you, it is no easy feat to get past the incredibly picky screeners that airliners.net has employed to separate the wheat from the chaff, if you will. They reject 70% of the photos they receive and the ones they do accept are either taken by a professional photographer (or a rich amateur) with a really good camera, or the subject matter is very unique and "once in a lifetime."I uploaded some photos in the past only to be flatly rejected because my incredibly sharp photo was "blurry" or my bright and colorful image was "too dark." But this time...I knew I had them beaten. I had a rather good shot of Livermore Airport....from the front seat of a biplane. I knew that one was airliners.net material so I uploaded it. I also played around with some photos I'd taken while we were in Phoenix. One or two of them were rather good so I ran them through some software I got with my printer to correct the contrast and brightness, and then submitted them. Two weeks later I get an email saying they have accepted two of my photos and rejected three of them. The two ones they accepted are below: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/644637/M/ http://www.airliners.net/open.file/644636/M/ Of the one's they rejected, I was most pissed off about this one:

They rejected it because that tiiiiiiiny part of the tail was missing from the photo.........I appealed that one. Anyway you can find any photos I ever have accepted at Airliners by clicking on this link: http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?photographersearch=Alex%20Hunter&distinct_entry=true

Yes, that's an SR-71

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I am issuing an order. If you live anywhere near the Greater Bay Area, you MUST go to to the Castle Air Museum. Even if you only have a passing interest in airplanes, it is a required destination for any Bay Area resident. Deanne and I had driven through Atwater a couple of times and seen a mention of the Castle Air Museum. Being the plane dorks that we are, we made a note to go there sometime. Well we finally got around to doing that this weekend. Mike, Deanne and I drove out to Atwater (about an hour south of Tracy on 99.) Once we found the museum, the first thing we saw sitting in the parking lot was an SR-71 blackbird. Now this is probably one of the most famous aircraft ever made. There were only 36 produced and to have one sitting in our backyard was quite a surprise. Almost the entire collection of 46 aircraft is outside on the site of the old Castle Airforce Base. In a park-like setting, the planes are laid out with concrete paths for you to walk around the planes. The collection consists predominantly of post-World War II aircraft with many fine examples of very rare airplanes. Of greatest interest to me was the Sr-71 of course, but also the Avro Vulcan, which is my father's favorite airplane. It really is a massive airplane, and such a unique design. But it's size would pale in comparison to the massive B-52 which they had there. Castle AFB was home to the 93rd Bomb Wing, of which this B-52D was a part. I could easily have spent all day there and I will definitely be going back as they will soon (through donations) be getting an F-14 Tomcat and a F-15A Eagle, amongst other things. I urge you to go there, it's only $8 to get in and you more than get your money's worth. You can find my 99 photos from our visit here Mike also has some great photos here Interesting tidbit: On 16 February 1956, a B-52 exploded in midair near Tracy, California, while on a flight from nearby Castle AFB. The crash made national headlines, in part because of the B-52's then unprecedented cost of $8 million.

Biggles flies undone

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Sunday was a day of gender opposites. Deanne played host to Mindy's bridal shower and Mike and I embarked on a day of testosterone driven adventure. We started the day by heading up to the Chabot Gun Club with Mike's dad to do some shooting. I haven't shot in a LONG time but thoroughly enjoyed it. There were an interesting collection of people and weapons up there. Some of them I am now convinced could have destroyed a small tank. We all shot well and went home happy. The next part of the day would prove to be unforgettable. For Mike's bachelor present I got him a ride in a Waco (pronounced wah-co not way-co) open cockpit biplane. He's a plane enthusiast and has long harbored an ambition to fly, even completing a 12 week ground school course at Attitude Aviation. Originally Mike's dad was due to go up with him (the plane can hold 3 people, including the pilot) but he was adamant that I go with Mike - I could hardly argue with that :) So we arrived at Attitude and after talking it over with Rich Perkins, the owner of Attitude and also our pilot for the day, we decided it would be a lot more fun if we flew separately. This meant we could leave the control stick in and give us both a chance to fly this beautiful airplane. Mike went up first and had a blast - he was grinning from ear to ear upon his return. I went up next. I have never flown in an open cockpit aircraft before. It is certainly a unique experience. You are cruising at about 100mph with the wind rushing over you. Truly an exhilirating experience. As soon as we were out of the traffic pattern I took control of the aircraft. We flew over Highway 84 and near (but not too close to) the Vallecitos Nuclear plant. Once we were close to Del Valle, Rich took control and dropped the altitude down to a couple of hundred feet. We did a couple of wing rolls which drew the stares of the campers by the lake. We turned to the North and I took control of the plane. We flew along side the Altamont, intersecting Highway 580. There was quite a wind blowing from the West, so much so that the drift of the airplane was very noticeable. I flew us to the East of Brushy Peak and over Los Vaqueros reservoir before turning back South-West and over House on the hill. We entered in a 2 mile right base - the same pattern I had flown over and over with my previous instructor Luca Scheda. I was surprised when Rich told me to fly the plane all the way to final, at which point he took control and brought us in for a perfect landing. Now if anyone tells you that's any easy plane to taxi...they're lying. I was all over the place! But I (eventually) got us back to the hangar where we posed for a few photos by the plane. A fantastic experience, something every aviation enthusiast must do at least once. We got some amazing photos and even a couple of short movies. (Movie 1 -2mb Quicktime : Movie 2 - 3.1mb Quicktime)

Best. Spam. Ever.

I couldn't make this up if I tried. The following is an email I received last night:Any pocket can conquer pig pen around, but it takes a real somnambulist to widow near. Unlike so many girls who have made their treacherous cab driver to us. Most impresarios believe that hydrogen atom around turn signal operate a small fruit stand with related to microscope. I liken it to a combination of Mad Libs and deranged Dr. Seuss. There was no attachment or sales pitch, just those beautiful prose, trying to see what they could get by the Baeysian filter.

Bay Tour

cessna4.jpgOn Monday Andrew and I had the pleasure of taking a Bay Tour with family friend John Goldsmith. John has been flying for several years and I have been flying with him on several occassions. We happened to mention him at a recent barbecue that we were looking to go on a bay tour through one of the local flying schools. He said that if he was able to, he'd take us up. He immediately dashed off in search of a computer to check the availability of the aircraft. Alas, they were all booked up. Monday morning I received a message from John's son David asking me to give his father a call. It turned out that someone had cancelled their flight and the Cessna 182 was now available! We met John at LVK that evening and embarked on a wonderful trip around the bay. Our route took us up 680 through San Ramon, north to Walnut Creek where we headed west and descended to 1500ft. We flew towards the Bay, past Alcatraz and towards the Golden Gate bridge which we overflew before turning 180 and heading back East. We then veered south and flew over the Bay Bridge, and abeam SBC Park we turned back North and retraced our steps back to LVK. The beauty of this route is that although you're close to very crowded airpspace (with SFO, OAK and SJC all within a few miles) you don't have to talk to any controller as you remain below the (Bravo and Charlie) airspace. Andrew and I snapped over 60 photos on the trip, with some of them coming out really well. Take a look! Our deepest thanks to John for taking us up on this fantastic flight.

Smokin'!

altriagiv.jpgOn Friday Deanne and I were on our way back from Pleasanton when she suggested that we stop by the Livermore Airport just to see if there was anything interesting there. There's always the odd assortment of private planes and business jets, and the occassional "rare" visitor. So we were rather surprised to see not one but TWO Gulfstreams sitting on the transient jet ramp. Gulfstreams are very big airplanes and quite rare at Livermore. It was great to see them. Of particular interest was the larger of the two, which had it's APU running and the door open. Deanne and I were debating as to what model of Gulfstream it was, so I asked the friendly flight attendant who told me it was a G-IV 300 series, only 8 months old. I was completely wrong, I thought it was an older model. Deanne was right...as always. We sat and waited for a while so we could watch it depart. Seeing a plane that size depart from a small-ish airport like Livermore is quite spectacular. After all the well dressed passengers arrived and the doors were closed, the plane leapt effortlessly into the sky. Amazing. And so quiet. I had noted down the tail number of the plane N607PM, as I was curious to see who owned this magnificent bird. We stopped by Ken's shop to say hi and I punched the tail number into landings.com - it was owned by Altria. I paused for a moment.....Altria.....Altria.........ALTRIA! aka Philip Morris.....DING! the tail number = 607 Philip Morris - ugh. A little more research yielded the fact that they have a small fleet of these intercontinental business jets, as well as helicopters, and, incredibly, a Dornier 328 jet! Interesting fleet for a questionable organization.

Choose Your Own Adventure Game

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I heard a rumor today that Sierra, the software house that brought us Police Quest, Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry, is going out of business. This made me extremely sad as they produced many of the games that really kindled my interest in games and computers. Sure I may have started off on the good ol' Commodore 64, with such epic titles as Blue Max and Pitfall but it was the PC games that really define my childhood. When I was about 12, 13, 14 years old I really began to get into games - it also happened to be the same time when Sierra was hitting the top of it's game. I discovered the Police Quest franchise in about 1992, two years after the final Police Quest, "Police Quest 3: the Kindred" had come out. Sierra released a VGA version of the original Police Quest, "Police Quest 1: In Pursuit Of The Death Angel" in 1992 and that was the first version I played. I instantly became hooked on the Adventure genre (or "quest" games, as my brother and I used to call them.) They had a pseudo non-linear aspect to them which allowed you to explore the world, in this case the fictional town of Lytton, anyway you wanted. Of course you wouldn't be able to progress in the game unless you carried out certain tasks, but that didn't prevent you from taking the Police cruiser out for a spin, or strolling around the police station to your heart's content. I remember staying up for hours at a time in the study in our house in Hong Kong, trying to get past certain tasks in the games. It was a pleasant frustration though. You'd make a mistake, go back to where you had last saved your game and try it again, armed with the knowledge of your last attempt. Each successfully completed task was more satisfying than the previous. These were the games that defined MY childhood. Some people rant on about Pong and Frogger and PacMan - I was too young for that. Kids today talk the about Tony Hawk games, Final Fantasy 24, and Splinter Cell. For me, it was Sierra's "quest" games. Sierra weren't the only company producing great adventure games though. LucasArts were producing some fantastic adventure games at about the same time. Title like "Sam n' Max Hit the Road", Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and the incomparable "Day of the Tentacle". Indeed, Mike and I spent many an hour during my annual trips back to California, playing, discussing, dissecting the various offerings from the software companies of the day. In fact, recently I managed to find the Police Quest series, Day of the Tentacle, and Sam n' Max online - I couldn't get enough of it. I played them religiously until I had completed all of them. That's how good these games are. Sadly the Adventure genre is a dying one. There have been very few offerings lately; people are more interested in MMORPG and First Person Shooters. The demise of Sierra can only be the final nail in the coffin of what was to me, the best period in video game history.

Kickball: A True Underdog Story

I had the pleasure of playing in the first annual Sports4Kids Charity Corporate Kickball Tournament. That's right, I said kickball - as in the sport we all played in the 2nd grade. Apparently there's a thriving adult kickball community, even a World Adult Kickball Association. Who knew?



Anyway, a couple of weeks ago a colleague approached my cube and the following conversation took place: Colleague: "Hey Alex, you used to play soccer, right?" Me: "Yup." Colleague: "So...you could kick a ball pretty far, right?" Me: "...uhh.....yeah, I guess." Colleague: "Cool...Cool....so hey would you wanna play in a kickball tournament Me: "...a what?" Colleague: "A kickball tournament, it's for charity and we're putting an RHI team together." Me: "I dunno man, I got tons of stuff going on and I ne.. Colleague: "We're playing marketing" Me: "I'm in." So on Thursday I found myself heading towards Treasure Island (for those of you not familiar with Bay Area geography, Treasure Island is the little island (duh) in the middle of the Bay that connects the two spans of the Bay Bridge) Funny side story: my drive out there almost ended rather badly; when I was merging onto 580, I floored it and when I took my foot off the accelerator....I kept accelerating! It was stuck! So I quickly reached down and pulled the pedal up, hit the hazards and pulled off the road. Seemed as though the floor mat had jammed up against the pedal. Bit of excitement. Anyway, the tournament took place on a large field right on the water (see photos. There were a total of 10 teams, including 2 from RHI, a very drunk Oakland Fire Department team, and various other Bay Area companies. We had a fairly strong team including a former cleanup kicker for his Navy OCS team, and of course Deanne who played MUCH better than I did. We played a total of five games, won 3, lost 1 and were ROBBED in the final game. We placed second or third (I left before the final standings were announced.) I pulled muscles I didn't even know I had, got sunburned and blown around by the 25mph winds. I woke up Friday morning feeling like an old man. Don't let anyone tell you Kickball is a kids' game....it's not.