iPhone 6.

It was about 40 days ago that I stepped up to the Verizon Wireless kiosk at the mall, spoke with our trust Verizon person named Mike and ordered a Space Gray, 64GB iPhone 6. Since placing that order I have been nursing my aging iPhone 5 along, waiting for the day for the new iPhone to arrive.

Today was that day.

Verizon sent me a tracking number on Wednesday night, advising me that my iPhone 6 was in FedEx’s hands. Thanks to a wonderful little app called Deliveries, I knew the exact instant that my iPhone 6 arrived at the mall kiosk. When delivery was confirmed, I sent a text message to Mike who assured me that he was at the store. I raced down to the mall and picked up my new phone.

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iPhone 6 and iPhone 5 side by side.

If I am to be honest, I can’t say that I have been delightfully thrilled with the Apple Experience lately. Work recently sanctioned the latest version of OS X, Yosemite, for our work MacBook Pros and this crippled my ability to use the built in Mail app with our Office365 mail server at work. Thankfully, Microsoft released Outlook 15 for Mac and it works great. iOS 8 has been a little buggy, especially on my iPhone 5. The thing about that is that I don’t know whether the actual iPhone 5 was starting to fail (I suspect that it is) or if iOS 8 was having some sort of fit, but whenever I left the house I would have to toggle airplane mode to make my iPhone 5 find the nearest Verizon tower.

I haven’t had to do this with the new phone. This looks promising.

While I have found that the excellence of the total Apple experience has come down a bit in quality, I still believe that they offer the premium computing experience overall, so I continue to keep my faith in Apple products. I’ve had several Android phones over the years and while the experience has improved drastically in the past year or two, I don’t find the Android experience to be as cohesive as I have come to expect on iOS. Yes, I think that some of what Apple does is kind of gimmicky but I believe the quality of their hardware is the best in the business and as I mentioned before, I think they offer the closest thing to “it just works” that we have right now.

I’m excited about my new iPhone 6 and I look forward to having a happy run together. I still proudly wear the Dude (Apple Dude) badge.

7 November 2014 by Geek 1

Night.

With sanity restored for a few days (the end of Daylight Saving Time) before the insanity started again (the midterm election results), my instructor and I took the opportunity to do a little bit of night flying last night. Technically when we started the flight yesterday it wasn’t quite night but by the time we meandered around a bit (and I worked on maneuvers for my approaching checkride), it was plenty o’ dark quick enough.

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While flying at night brings interesting challenges to the sport of aviation, I have to admit that I really the extra challenge. Everything is beautiful from the sky; the city lights twinkle, the car lights snaking their way through the city streets.

With last night’s flight I am “night current” and once I get my ticket I will be able to take passengers at night. I am really looking forward to that.

5 November 2014 by Fly. 0

In Tune.

I am always in search of good music to listen to at work. I usually opt for something along instrumental lines, but once in a while I find a lyrically-focused artist that doesn’t intrude too much into my concentration. My searching usually results in going back to the 80s or 90s or earlier, as overly produced music tends to distract me too much. And I have mentioned before that auto tune makes me want to crawl up a wall.

Last week I started listening to Air Supply’s Greatest Hits album. I’ve always been a closeted Air Supply fan, primarily because of the quality of their musicality. They play real music, they employ real vocals and you can feel their heart and soul in their tracks. They love what they do.

Curious as to their whereabouts these days, I decided to look them up on YouTube to see if they had performed live recently and come to find out, they still do about 150 shows a year. Earl reminded me that they perform at the local casino from time to time.

We’ll have to get tickets the next time they’re in town.

The thing that absolutely astounds me about Air Supply is that over 30 years later they still sound amazing. They’re not pitching their songs down in a lower key, they’re not auto-tuning the hell out of their vocals, they are simply still sharing their heart and soul through music. I’ve always found Russell Hitchcock’s tenor voice to be crazily crystal-like and I’m very surprised that at 65 years old he still sounds the same! Same key, pretty much the same quality. Yeah, there’s a little bit of age in his voice but it hasn’t turned into some husky ghost of what it used to be, like other 80s singers have done.

Here’s a video of a recent live performance of “Sweet Dreams”.

3 November 2014 by DJ 0

Sync’d.

So, here in New York State we are back on Standard Time. At 2:00 a.m. this morning, Daylight Saving Time came to an end for the season and for approximately the next four months, the clocks will match what the sun is doing in that noon will be approximately when the sun is at the highest point in the sky for the day.

That’s the way it’s suppose to be.

I have wretched about Daylight Saving Time every year since the birth of this blog back in 2001. With the Energy Something Act of 2007, Daylight Saving Time was extended by three weeks, all in the name of “saving daylight” and “saving energy”. I really don’t know anyone that enjoys whipping the clocks around but in the circles I hang in I tend to be the most vocal about it.

No one really knows why we change the clocks twice a year but we still do it, much like the stoning of that pleasant woman in the short story, “The Lottery”. Something about the corn is high when the stones are thrown or something like that.

I’m just happy that things are back the way they should be for the next four months. I feel awake, I feel alive and I feel quite happy.

2 November 2014 by Why. 0

Williamsport, Pa.

Earl and I took the day off from work yesterday because we were in the mood to do so. As we approach the end of the year we find ourselves with some extra PTO time that needs to be burned off before 2015 and we like to burn the days off in small doses, so we’ll probably enjoy a long weekend a couple of times before the end of the year.

We are meandering through the central portion of the Keystone State. Earl used to live here in Williamsport, Pa., so after supper we walked through the downtown area (do they call this “Center City” or is that only a Philadelphia thing?) and he showed me where his old apartment is located.

We are relaxed. We are content. Things are good.

1 November 2014 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Bewitched.

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It was announced yesterday that after a bidding war between NBC and ABC, NBC has signed on for a pilot of “Bewitched”. Entertainment outlets are calling this a reboot or a reimagining, but from what I have read, this doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a retooling of the very popular show that ran from 1964-1972, but a continuation of sorts.

The lead character will be a witch named Daphne. She’s in her 20s and she is the daughter of Tabitha and the granddaughter of Samantha, famously portrayed by Elizabeth Montgomery. Tabitha was played primarily by Erin Murphy during the original series run, but the character was played by Liberty Williams in a failed television pilot and then by Lisa Hartman (now Lisa Hartman-Black) in a series that lasted for just one season on ABC.

“Bewitched” has been and will probably always be my favorite show of all time. The 2005 movie based on the characters from the original show was an big disappointment, so I’m a little worried about the fact that the new series will be produced by the same company that produced the movie. However, it sounds like this new series will be a continuation of the “Bewitched” universe, so I think there’s hope. To be honest, I’m excited to see what comes of this project. The only reservation I have thus far is that the lead character’s name is “Daphne”. It sounds kind of witchy, but the majority of the witches on the original show had an “a” or “uh” sound at the end of their name; one would hope they would continue the tradition.

I’m interested to see how this pans out. I have just a few expectations:
1. Use something to tie it back to the original show, maybe the magical sound effects could be the same?
2. Keep Shirley MacLaine far away from the role of Endora.
3. Go with the “magic in the background” vibe that the original series had in seasons one and two. And don’t make it too dark.

23 October 2014 by Geek 0

Flight.

The club airplane has been grounded for the past couple of weeks for a maintenance inspection. Luckily, I was able to fly in Kansas City in a rented Cessna 172 with a rented instructor and my husband in the back seat. It was Earl’s first time flying in a small plane and first time flying with me at the controls. He’s really excited for when I have my license now.

Because the club airplane has been grounded, we haven’t been doing a lot of flying. My instructor sent me a text message on Sunday advising that he had rented another airplane for Monday after work. He was “getting the itch” and he invited me and another student and friend to tag along.

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It was my first time flying with my instructor in the left hand seat. He did some maneuvers that I haven’t done in a long time. The three of us did Lazy-8s, Chandelles and some fancy landing maneuvers usually used in formation flying. The rented Cherokee, a Cherokee 180, is a faster airplane so there was an extra dose of exhilaration. As I sat in the right seat, carefully watching every move he made, every indication of the instruments and felt every shift in gravitational pull, I had a huge grin on my face. We were flying like I had flown when I was a kid with my dad and the best part was, I now know how to do what he was doing. It was awesome.

The checkride for my private pilots’ certificate is not too far away. I am more excited than ever to be a pilot and I’m looking forward to the challenge of doing well on my checkride.

Flying is so awesome.

22 October 2014 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Hysteria.

Nearly three decades ago I was sitting in the break room of a regional department store, enjoying my 15-minute break from sharing my social security number with hundreds of customers1. There were several of us on break. A television sat in the corner; we were excited because cable had just been added to the mix. Headlines were being discussed on CNN, the topic at hand was the growing AIDS epidemic. One of my co-workers spoke up. Her name was Kelly.

“I think we should gather up all the AIDS patients, put them on a rocket and blast them off to Mars.”

I found this to be rather harsh. After all, at the time we didn’t really know a lot about the disease and though it seemed rather scary, we should probably still keep our wits about ourselves and not overreact. I don’t remember what I said in response, probably something non-committal, because I was still navigating as to who I was and honestly I was worried about becoming a statistic. I needed to know more before speaking on the subject with confidence.

Fastforward to present day and CNN and many other flavors of a similar brew are all vying for advertising money. In that quest to increase revenue, conjecture, opinions and claims are all spun in a certain direction so to yank in the viewer, and subsequently, boost ratings. Pundits are calling to block air travel to and from Africa, where Ebola is most prevalent. People are showing up at the airport in homemade hazmat suits. In short, many are just losing their minds amongst the hype (and I bet the woman in the hazmat suit REALLY wanted her photo to go viral).

Like the day I sat in that break room at the department store, I don’t feel confident enough in my assessment of the facts to make a broad statement as to ban flights to and from an entire continent. I mentioned on Twitter that since folks are calling for a ban for air travel to and from Africa, we might as well do the same with Texas, since that’s where Ebola patients are being treated in the States. This horrified some and I understand why it would do just that. It’s crazy talk.

I believe that a lot of the hysteria around the Ebola situation is media driven. That grab for ad clicks and viewerships and all that stuff prompts for outrageous headlines and bombastic statements from folks that are just trying to get attention. Instead of spending time how to figuring out how to help fellow human beings, folks are spending time screeching about sealing ourselves off from the perceived threat. Calls for locking door our border in this manner is nothing but grandstanding.

Folks forget that it’s one Big Blue Marble that we all share together. Borders are man made and locking down a border is not going to stop anyone from getting anywhere they want to go on this Big Blue Marble. If you’re that concerned that you’re going to contract Ebola on a flight then here is a simple answer: don’t fly. Just keep it all here in the States and don’t step foot on an airplane. And if you choose to fly, don’t lick the vomit or blood of another passenger, because after all, Ebola is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids.

The hysteria around all of this would not be this crazy if we weren’t only three weeks from the midterm elections2. You know it and I know it, that is, if you knew that the midterm elections are three weeks away to begin with.

Calm down and think rationally.

1 I was a cashier at said department store. The first bit of information on the cash register receipts from back then, aside from the logo at the top, was the cashier ID number, which was our social security number. My social security number was shared with thousands of people.

2 Please remember to vote on Tuesday, November 4. Honestly, I don’t care how you vote, but I do care that you remember to vote. You have the right to share your voice through the voting process and if you don’t vote, you’re not being a good citizen of this democracy.

20 October 2014 by Ponderings and Musings This Ain't No CNN. 1

UA 3765.

The origami case I recently purchased for my iPad has to be one of the best purchases I have made for an Apple device. This case allows me to store and efficiently use a full-sized Apple keyboard with my iPad, and it all fits on a snack tray on a CRJ-700 whilst flying Mesa Airlines doing business as United Express.

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The smaller things amuse me.

We were about 45 minutes late for takeoff on the second leg of this trip; a computer responsible for “making the dinging noises” in the cockpit wasn’t doing its job, so they had to replace the computer. This involved going back to the gate, having maintenance come on board, swapping out a module and then rebooting the airplane. All in all the fix took about 15 minutes once maintenance was out to the aircraft and then we were on our way. Folks on the flight were good natured about the delay. This isn’t a full flight. Earl moved across the aisle to a pair of empty seats so we have lots of elbow room.

I’m wondering if this flight is using the traditional Victor Airways for navigation instead of going GPS direct, because we just jumped in line with four different aircraft flying in the same direction at differing altitudes. This is very cool to me. As a student pilot, I’ve flown a Victor Airway on just a couple of occasions and I’ve only seen one aircraft within reasonable eyeshot when on that Airway. It’s kind of nifty being on the highways in the sky. The aircraft closest to us the flight we are currently on is close enough in that I’m able to identify that it’s an American Airlines flight with the new livery.

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I’m excited about our trip to Kansas City. Even though Earl and I will be working for a couple of the days there, the change of scenery and new experiences will be quite enjoyable.

7 October 2014 by Fun and Games Dept 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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