The Year in Review
Welcome to 2012, the year it’s all supposed to end. Everyone likes to joke about the Mayan calendar, but perhaps they simply knew the election cycle would be tedious enough to make the entire planet take the Jonestown route. The turning of another page on the calendar reminds us of the passage of time. Or at least, it would if anyone had a calendar with physical pages to turn. For most it’s now done with the click of a mouse or flick of the finger on the iPhone. Even that is becoming passé — now you can simply talk to Siri and have her handle the scheduling for you. I wonder how long it will be before we can say things like, “Siri, load the ILS 19 approach and fly it for me. After we land, please taxi to Atlantic and have them add...
Read MoreMarried!
Hello there. Yeah — you. The one who thought I was MIA/AWOL/just plain dead. I will be the first to admit that I’ve been remiss in keeping my site up to date. As a former professional web developer, the kiss of death for any site in my bookmark list was always when a site was no longer updated on a timely basis. Sort of the way this one has been of late. After all, why should I pay more attention to a site than the owner does? So who knows what sort of readership I still have left for the House of Rapp — if any. In my defense, however, I’ve got a great excuse. I went from being unattached to dating to engaged to married in a little over a year. If you know anything about me, you’ll know I’m very methodical about...
Read MoreThe Big 34
I just put up some captioned photos from my birthday party. I was gonna write a big thing about it, but photos are far more interesting aren’t they? I will say that when you have birthdays like this one, it almost makes getting older something to look forward to! A small group of close friends laughing the night away. Perfect. The timing was ideal, because Italian Girl in Algiers was in a rather stressful stage at the time. We were quite short on rehearsal time and about to launch into tech week feeling unprepared. As it turns out, the production is great and the preview audience loved it. That eased the stress considerably for tonight’s opening. Anyway, back to the party. Paul put together a great spread of food from the Austin Rib...
Read MorePlastic Airliners
A post over at Cockpit Conversation got me thinking about the 787 Dreamliner, a new all-composite airliner from Boeing. That post referenced a British newspaper article whose title was a bit sensationalistic. “Passenger aircraft rivals clash over safety of fuselage built from plastic”. Airplanes are not built out of plastic, they’re made of carbon fiber. The two are both composite materials, yet interchanging them would be like saying a metal airplane was going to be made out of tin. The article also states that the Dreamliner will be the first “passenger jet” made entirely of composites, which is untrue. Smaller passenger jets are already made of composites. The Raytheon Premier, for example. The Hawker 4000. The...
Read MoreGoing to Church
The new year is starting off right at work. My boss just had a front page article published about him in the Orange County Register. The Register is the largest newspaper in Orange County, with a daily circulation of about one million copies. Unfortunately, the Register requires online users to register before reading the article, but you might be able to get a login from BugMeNot.com. As I recall, it’s a copyright violation to reprint an entire article without permission, but I can quote from it, so here’s an excerpt: The 62-year-old, Yale-educated native of the Virgin Islands whose floppy white hair, somewhat patrician bearing, and desert-dry wit call to mind an aerial George Plimpton likes to teach by doing, not telling. His midair engine...
Read MoreCancer Sucks
A few years ago, most of my donations were to Angel Flight, a very worthy aviation-based charity which provides medical transportation to those in need. I also did a lot of flying for AF. Lately, though, most of my charitable dollars have gone to organizations fighting cancer. It wasn’t a conscious change, but one that I now see was prompted by the fact that nearly everyone I know is being directly affected by cancer. My niece has had it — twice. Paul’s mom has it now. So does Jason’s wife. Both my sisters-in-law have had it. And the list goes on. So it’s apropos that Lesley is fundraising for the Light The Night Walk, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s nationwide evening walk to build awareness of blood cancers and...
Read MoreEwww
I just returned from the gym. One of my favorite parts of working out at 24 Hour Fitness is that they have a dry heat sauna, and the temperature is always set just right. It’s even better when there’s no one else in there and you can soak up the heat in solitude. Well today I was in there by myself. It was so relaxing I almost fell asleep! And that was when I looked down and saw a large cockroach scurring over my foot. Yeah, I got a good workout all right. As I hauled ass out the door (nearly stepping on another one). Thanks, 24 Hour Fitness. You’re the best.
Read MorePoker Night
It seems I’m one of the few people in the northern hemisphere that doesn’t play poker on a regular basis. It’s more for a lack of time than invitations or interest. Some folks get pretty serious about the game. Dan has his own Yahoo group for poker nights, and even went so far as to build a table — the famous Green Monster — for the events. Now all he’s missing is Dave Foley to color commentate the thing from his living room. My desaparecido streak ended last night with a couple of entertaining games at Rich’s place. First, we feasted on microwave snack food that had been picked over by the dogs while watching the Patriots squeek out a win against the Colts. Then I went out in a blaze of glory (or, as I described it...
Read MoreFeel the Burn
Freezer burn: it’s not just for food anymore. Nothing brings out the grouch in me like heat. I hate heat with… well, with the heat of a thousand suns. Or whatever. The past two days have set record high temperatures here in Southern California. And glory be, I’ve got no air conditioning! It’s over 100 degrees today, yet it’s forecast to be 30 degrees cooler tomorrow. The heat wouldn’t be so bad if there was at least some air movement. But when it’s hot and the air is dead still, that’s the worst. Speaking of heat, it must be causing brain damage at my local gym. I frequently use the sauna there and have noticed a disturbing trend: people working out inside the sauna. Push ups. Sit ups. Exercising with...
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