Journal entries in 'Dear Diary' for November, 2004

*shakes* I think I broke my sleep schedule. After staying up for about 30 hours on Fri/Sat., I then slept around 15 hours Sat night. You'd think that'd more than take care of the problem, but then I slept like 8 hours on Sunday night and was still sleepy on Monday. I think it's off it's tracks now and my sleepiness no longer bears any corellation to actual amount of time slept.

Today I woke up bright and early to head to Old San Juan to help Michelle shoot a film. She'd been wanting to do a Chaplin-like film for a long time. Weather, camera batteries, and limited time schedules did their best to ruin the day, but we managed to improvise and get some good shots. We'll be going back out on Sunday to do the last shot or two.

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Arrived at work yesterday and was greeted with an email telling me I had today (Thanksgiving) off. Pleasant surprise. Of course, now I have to work 12 hours tomorrow night (10pm-10am) so that Luis can have a day off as well, which will make it fun getting to the airfield at noon on Saturday. But whatever, I can deal with one day without sleep, especially when I have a whole day before that to sleep as much as I want :)

You: How old is it?

It's so old, that owning a generator is pretty much standard practice.

Last night... (smiles, waits for laughter to die down)

Last night as the clock was making it's final round of the night, I was saving my files and packing up when the power went out. We've got UPSes, but they are only supposed to keep the vital systems running for the 30-45 seconds it takes for the building's generator to fire up. However, apparently the superintendent never got around to fixing the generator when it broke down a month or so ago. So as the last machines ran out of battery and fell to silence, we made our way out to the parking lot to wait in the fresh air for the power to return.

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Had my first solo flight today. Well, semi-solo, anyway. Harold was at my side and had to take over at one point when the helicopter got far enough away that I couldn't make out which way it was pointing, but other than that it was all me. The first flight was with the trainer cord, to get me warmed up and used to it again. The second was on my own with him at my side, and then for the third, he went and sat down and kept an eye on me as I took it up and hovered and practiced landings.

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It took an hour to get the drummer out.

On the Evo, the doors lock automatically when you start the car. It's not a new invention, but it's the first time I've dealt with it on a manual transmission car. On my mom's minivan, it locks the doors when you shift out of Park, and then unlocks them when you shift back into Park, which is sensible. But on a manual transmission, there's no easy way to determine what gear the car is in, so the Evo locks the doors when you start the engine, and then unlocks them when you shut it off.

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You know what's a great invention? Christmas bonuses. On the way to work today, Luis called to say he had a check for me, but since he had already left for the day, I'd have to wait until Monday to get it from him. I had totally forgotten about the christmas bonus as a concept, so this comes entirely as a surprise, and a particularly well-timed one at that, because money is somewhat tight these days. But now, I have no idea how much the bonus is. I don't know in what range these usually fall, so for all I know I could be getting $100, or $5000. Oh, the suspense. :) He did say that Puerto Rico has a legal minimum requirement for the christmas bonus, and that we were not just meeting it but exceeding it. Which is good I guess. It doesn't make a big difference one way or the other — anything is more than I was expecting. I just hate not knowing things :)

Last Saturday Harold mentioned that he'd be back at the airfield today (Wed.) from 9am until around 2pm or so, and I was welcome to come out if I wanted to get some more flying in. Of course, that was right in the middle of what is normally my sleep period. Since it takes about 45 mins to get to Tortuguero, I could basically only get three or four hours of sleep if I decided to go. The question then was, just how much do I want to fly my helicopter? :)

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I went back to the eye doctor today and she said I still have a slight bit of wear on my left cornea and that she'd still like to keep me without contacts for another week, but she recognizes that I've already been three weeks without them so she went ahead and gave them to me but asked that I try to limit my use this week, and come back in next Monday to see if there's any improvement or worsening.

She said it's happening because of lack of moisture, and when she looked up close, she noticed that I don't close my eyes all the way when I blink, and the part of the eye that stays open is exactly where the problem is. So apparently my woes are due to my inept blinkery[1]. Perhaps I should set aside an hour a day for blinking practice.

[1] Yes, that is now a word.

Went back out to the airfield today (pics). It was raining off and on, so I only got three flights in, which brings my total up to five. I landed once today, and while it wasn't pretty, I did manage to get the heli down in one piece. The simulator is definitely helping.

From what I had read online, usually the first few flights are done with the instructor controlling the throttle, collective (angle of the main rotor blades), and tail rotor, and letting the student concentrate on the cyclic (tilts the helicopter left/right, front/back), to learn how to keep it hovering in one spot. But in my case, from the beginning I've had total control of the helicopter, and he is merely available to take over with his transmitter (attached to mine via the trainer cord) should the need arise. From time to time I let the helicopter drift far enough away that he has to bring it back in, but for the most part I've been flying it myself, which is pretty cool. But also really hard :)

Once again, I have no pictures of my own helicopter in flight, because my hands are usually busy at the time. Maybe next time I'll have him do some 3D (stunt) flying so I can take pics.

There's a "fun fly" tomorrow in Sabana Seca, where model aviation enthusiasts from various clubs get together to check out each other's models and go flying. Supposedly there will be three turbine-powered model helicopters there, which should be cool to see. I'm not sure yet if I'm going, but I imagine I probably will. Since I won't be doing any flying if I do go, I'm sure I'll have more pictures from that one.

At work the other day, they were discussing a candidate who recently interviewed for a position with us. They mentioned how he started off by saying that he hated Perl, and they laughed about how that got the interview off to somewhat of a bad start. Luis said "What we need is more people like you, Dan. You did a great interview," and Deoscoidy agreed. I didn't realize that my interview had stood out in any particular way — this was basically the first real job I applied for, so I didn't really have much to compare it to. :) I could tell it didn't go particularly badly, but basically all I did was come in and tell them I didn't know any of the stuff the position required, and I felt the job was way over my head. Maybe that's the secret strategy everyone is missing out on. Anyway, it was really nice hearing them talk about how pleased they were with it.

I had my first R/C helicopter flight today, and as expected, it was incredibly fun — even the limited, simple flying I'm capable of so far (namely, trying desperately to keep the helicopter from venturing off alone into the woods). He actually was surprised I did so well on my first flight. I guess spending all that time practicing on the simulator has helped a lot.

It was interesting — for once, I really didn't feel like taking pictures, because I didn't want to have to divert my attention from flying or (more often) watching others fly. I think it was the first time in a long time that I've done something that was truly just for my own enjoyment, with none of that sense of just wanting to document it so I can share it with others. Of course, it'd be awesome to have Andy or Bryan out there too, people who are also interested in the hobby. But it's surprising that it's still entirely enjoyable even if nobody else shares the experience.