Greetings from Las Vegas! After talking about doing this CFI thing for so long, it’s almost odd to actually be here. The most remarkable thing about the “Total CFI” program seems to be the way the system works here. Days are long enough that one connects to another. For example, I was up at 4:30 a.m. today in order to… Read more →
Author: Ron Rapp
Goodbye Discovery Wings
I had a feeling this was coming. Bringing viewers compelling, real-world stories of heroism, military strategy, technological breakthroughs and turning points in history, Discovery Communications, Inc. will transition its Discovery Wings Channel to the Military Channel on Monday, Jan. 10, 2005. Despite the fact that D-Wings had an annoying habit of playing the same shows over and over again, it… Read more →
Success!
The month of December starts off on a good note: One checkride down, three to go. I wish I’d have remembered to bring a camera to capture the moment. But alas, a camera was just about the last thing on my mind today. The commercial glider checkride went very smoothly. For one thing, the FAA examiner — Roger Brownlow —… Read more →
A Refresher
For the past week, I’ve been having an interesting discussion over at Damn Foreigner on the subject of military recruitment. Manish wrote an article suggesting that since there are so many supporters of the war, it shouldn’t be hard to find new recruits for the Army unless those who support it aren’t willing to put their money where their mouth… Read more →
The Puffy Shirt Lives!
Leave it to Seinfeld to break new ground by inducting a sitcom joke into the Smithsonian. The outlandishly unfashionable shirt worn by Jerry Seinfeld on his hit TV show went on display Friday at the Smithsonian, alongside Kermit the Frog, Archie Bunker’s chair and Dorothy’s magic slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.” At the end of its nine-season run, “Seinfeld”… Read more →
Poetic Justice
I’m not anti-Microsoft, but the folks at Apple and Sun must be smiling about this: Forget trying to flood Bill Gates’ e-mail inbox with junk. The Microsoft Corp. chairman receives 4 million e-mails a day, but practically an entire department at the company he founded is dedicated to ensuring that nothing unwanted gets into his inbox, the company’s chief executive… Read more →
Oh, That Donation Was For 2004?
MSNBC is reporting that Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign had $45 million left going into the final days before the election, plus another $7 million in a legal and accounting complaince fund, much of which was never spent. If Kerry really thought he had a chance to win — and regardless of party affiliation, who didn’t? — why would his… Read more →
Good Luck, Harry
Senator Harry Reid has been selected as the next minority leader in the U.S. Senate, succeeding South Dakota’s Tom Daschle after his reelection loss to John Thune. It was a smart choice. I met Sen. Reid on a couple of occasions when I lived in Las Vegas, and he nominated me to the U.S. Naval Academy (I also received a… Read more →
WordPress / Gallery Integration Problem Solved
It’s been a few months since I switched from Movable Type to WordPress as a CMS solution. Overall, I’ve been happy with WordPress. However, there was one large bug I was never able to squash: it didn’t want to play well with Gallery. For some reason, I was never able to call WordPress functions from within the photo gallery pages.… Read more →
Updated Colophon
I updated the colophon page to read a little more like a personal narrative and a bit less like a legal brief. The only things it was missing were the double spacing and line numbers. Hopefully it’s now more entertaining, easier to read, lower in calories, and will cause the reader to buy the world a Coke and teach them… Read more →