If you might remember, I said back in late March that I had started flying again, well that hasn’t stopped. In fact I’ve been flying pretty much every weekend since then, with last Sunday being the first exception. I’ve added up quite a bit of time so far and things are moving pretty well.

My current instructor is doing a good job, and I feel like I’ve been making progress. Everything still needs a bit more polish, but I feel like I’m getting closer to actually being ready to take my check ride and get my license. I think it will happen sometime this year, but we’ll have to see.

Even better, a few weeks back he resigned me to do solo work again. This means I can fly, solo, within 50 miles of the airport. So naturally I’ve been using it as often as I can. The plan is basically to do a solo flight midweek and a flight with my instructor on the weekend. It seems like a good plan to build up my skill level. At the same time I’ve been working on my written tests, trying to get my scores well above passing level.

It seems like I keep flying on the windy days, usually with the wind going pretty crazy. Not only has this allowed me to work on my crosswind landings, but I’ve had some interesting things happen. For example, last week I had a landing just fall apart on me. I was coming over the runway and was still about 250 feet up (well above the usual 50-100 feet at that point) and didn’t seem to be getting down, so I decide to abort the landing (which is called a go-around) because it wasn’t worth trying to force the plane down.

As soon as I had informed the tower, I was instructed that once I crossed the far end of the runway I was to make a 90 degree turn to the left, then a 270 degree turn to the right. I had take my time reading that back to be 100% sure I had it right. As you might tell, they basically told me to turn around, but in a safe way. The reason was that the wind had reversed direction and they were changing runways. I guess the reason my landing was so bad was that I was landing with the wind at my back instead of into the wind.

The funny thing is, you don’t a go-around very often. It’s part of the training, but you don’t need to do them much at all. So to make it interesting I had to do one today as well. This time though it wasn’t because of me. I was following another plane in to do touch-and-goes (where you land and then take off without stopping), which is pretty normal really, and I was trying to keep my distance for him so he had time to clear the runway before I landed. But he wasn’t, he had been given the option, so he got to chose the sort of landing he wanted, and instead of doing a touch-and-go, he did a stop-and-go, and stayed stopped… and stayed stopped… and stayed stopped. I was keeping my eye on him as I was coming in as I was cleared to land, waiting for him to start moving, but he wasn’t.

As I was getting close to the run way, the tower called up and told me to do a go-around (before I could do one myself), which I was more than happy to do. You don’t enter the runway when another plane is already there. It also meant I got to watch the other plane to a short take off from above, that’s not a common view.

Still, it was a fun day of flying. Lots of lands, lots of working with the wind and the rest. I still have a blast doing it, and I’m looking forward to this weekend when I got to do another cross country. That will be really fun.

For variouse reasons I've uploaded some pictures of my cat Sebastian. I thought I should share them with you all.

Funny, I've had him for a few years new (six, maybe seven?) but it feels like it has been forever as well as no time at all. He's a fairly good cat most of the time, but he has his moods... he also likes to try and get my attention early in the morning which usualy results in him being rolled onto.



You can find the rest over here.

Not as many books this months, but I have something different this time as well!

#11: Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

Well here we are with the fourth book of the Dresden Files. I did read the third book as well, but that was quite a while ago (really, I remember reading it while at lunch in Cardiff, so about two years ago now) and was between my book reviews, so no coverage on that one sadly. But still, moving on.

This books finds Harry in worse sorts than usual, he’s been preoccupied with trying to save his girlfriend from becoming a vamp to the point of looking less like a wizard and more like a bum. The white council is really not happy about the whole war he started with the vampire and are looking to put him down for it. To make things even worse, the Queen of the Winter court wants him for a job, to find out who killed an artists.

Of course he really doesn’t have a choice in the matter, as she bought his debt to the fey so he’s going to have to do the job, and because it’s not complicated enough the woman he thought long dead is doing the same job for the other side.

That’s really just the first third of the book as well, it kind of starts getting crazy after that. Still continues on the series and keeps everything moving along, though once again the mystery is somewhat weak and not quite fair.

#12: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Alright, time to break out a classic book, and I have to say this was nothing like I expected it to be. Let’s be honest, we all have a basic idea of the story, Dorian Gray has a picture of himself that ages while he stays young. It seems simple enough, but that’s not what the story is about at all.

I really didn’t know what to expect going into this, I was thinking it would be something more fantasy styled, but the story was far darker. Basically Dorian is a young man who is very attractive and has befriended a painter who is painting the eponymous picture. At the same time he’s also been talking with Lord Henry Wotton, who’s been filling his head with ideas about how precious and important his looks are, and how one should give into temptation among other things. Basically hedonism.

With all this in his head, when Dorian saw the picture it crushed him, because the picture would always be beautiful while he would grow old and hard. He wished it would be the other way, and even offered his soul for the barging.

And really, that’s what happened, his soul seemed to have become part of the portrait, but not just reflecting his age, but his sins as well. The cruelty and darkness inside of him became more and manifest in the picture the more he indulged it. It seemed even the consequences of his actions managed to avoid him, falling onto those around him instead.

It really is a good book, though it is somewhat hard to read at first. The writing is very well crafting but sometimes seems extensive. Paragraphs can go on for well over a page, and I’ve seen fanfics with less commons pre a sentence. That being said, once you get used to it, it’s a pleasurable read.

#8: Past the Size of Dreaming by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

As you might guess this is the sequel to the last book and picks up someplace close to where the last one left off. This book focus on a few more characters then the last one, picking up an a few hanging threads from the last book (including a pair of witches) and bringing in pretty much every other character mentioned in the last story into this one.

One of the things the book does as kind of a twist is that one of the characters they are looking for, the same character is the focus of a fair long flash back, is trans and is now living as a woman. Lucky for her she can use magic to do it without having to go through all the work everyone else is stuck doing. Even more annoying is that there are no hints of the character being like this in the flashback to support this. I saw it coming, but I don’t know how many other people would.

Even so, the story is still a very good one and feels like it’s a little bit unfinished. The conclusion to the story ends quickly and leaves more things hanging. It seems like there is more to tell but sadly there doesn’t seem to be a third book.

Hey, Ms. Hoffman, if you ever come upon these reviews, I would love to know if there are any plans.


#9: Doctor Who: The Taking of Chelsea 426 by David Llewellyn

Back to Doctor Who and some of the newer tie in books. This is one I picked up last year at Gally and it took a while for me to get to it. It’s set during the specials when the Doctor was running around solo. The story is set about 300 years in the future on the titular space station which is floating on the surface of Saturn. The big event is that they have found some sort of plant in the atmosphere of the planet and are having a flower show.

Naturally of course this is one of those crazy alien invasions plots, the plants being spores of the Rutan, and being that the Rutan are at war with the Sontaran naturally they have to show up as well. Oddly this is something we’ve never seen in the show itself, we’ve seen both side of this war but never both races in the same story. Go figure.

Now as a nice change this group of Sontaran are fairly reasonable and want to isolate and limit the damage for this instead of just blowing up the station and killing everyone. This could be a nice conflict for the Doctor, giving him a good reason to team up with an enemy who is being reasonable and aren’t interesting in attacking the Doctor. In fact they even tell the Doctor they have it well in hand and to just go on his way. You could have some good moments of them butting heads on the proper use of force and how to deal with prisons It would have helped fill out the Sontaran’s.

Sadly this is all wasted as the Doctor ends up basically doing his own thing while the Sontaran’s get some sub plots of their own to try and flesh them out. It ends up being weaker all for it. It’s a pity, I think this could have been a much better story if they went that way. It’s took okay, but really just okay.


#10: His Pregnant Housekeeper by Caroline Anderson

Ah the trashy romance novel, one of my guilty pleasures. I know, I know, but they are just silly fun every now and then. I do prefer when pregnancy is a them in the story as well, I just rather like how it helps the story and pregnant woman are just attractive.

Okay, so the plot of this story… outside of the obvious part of the stock romance plot is that Iona is pregnant and squatting in an old hotel because both her child’s father and grandfather are dead and the will is naturally missing. Staying in the hotel is just a way to try and secure some sort of claim for what her child should get in the will, if it is ever found.

She’s discovered by the contract who is renovating the hotel who is naturally smittened with her so decides to help both with getting her a good lawyer and hiring her on as a housekeep. The rest of the story is the usual romance plot until they find the will near the end and everything works out. Basic and by the numbers, but over a decent read.

Confession time, it’s been over a year since the last time I went flying back in February of 2011. There are a number of reasons for this, the stuff to get the house was starting to pick up but even after that I didn’t go back. The problem was that I was getting very discouraged, it seemed like I couldn’t do anything right and the more I worked at it the worse I seemed to be, and my lands were always a bit rough even after a couple hundred of them.

In addition, I pretty sure my last instructor wasn’t the right choice. He was very low key and I there were times when I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do. I really needed a lot more guidance then I was getting, so I found myself just not wanting to bother because of just how bad I was doing.

Well I finally managed to have a flight today, brand new instructor (though the same old plane) and I think it went really well. He was impressed with my over all skill for being so out of practice and right away was giving me advice that was actually helping. I really feel like I’m starting to make progress again. It’s a nice change.

So for now the plan is to get my skill back up so I can solo again. That will cover landings, slow fight, stalls, ground reference work and possibly steep turns. I suspect most of it will come back pretty quickly and once I get my head around it again I think I will finally be back on the path of getting my private pilot license.

Oh hey, look what as returned. It's time for some book reviews again! I know it's been a couple years since I've done this last, but I havn't read a lot of books as I've been keeping up with other things, but now I have the time for it. So yes, I'm reading ficition again so I'm going to be doing reviews of my books again. Heck, maybe you'll even find a book or two in here to read as well.

#1 - #4 Are a number of tech books and I don’t have the titles off hand, not that they are really worth covering in book reviews, you know? So we’ll jump over those and start right out with the first fiction novel I read this year.

#5: Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Betrayal by Aaron Allston

Wow, that’s a bit too many colons that’s healthy for a title. Now, I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, I’ve read a few of the books in the past, but most of the ones I’ve read were of fairly low quality and this one is no different. It’s not really a good book, not as sci-fi and not as a Star Wars novel, maybe if I’ve been familiar with the 50 books that came before… but I doubt it.

The long and short of it is that this book is the start of a new series of stories in the universe, some 40 years after the end of the movies. Surprise, the main characters are still the same characters from the last movie. There are a few other minor ones in the mix as well, and they are all children of the movie characters. In fact it seems one of the children character is there sole to turn evil at the end so there’s a big bad for the book… sadly there’s no good reason for it.

In the end it’s just kind of a bland boring book. I got it as a freebee in a con bag, probably the right price for it.



#2: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie

Ah, back to Hercule Poirot. These are always a joy to read and this one is no exception. This time through someone has murdered Poirot’s dentist, and only a few hours after the detective himself had some work done.

Really, there is no reason to kill this man, he’s just a dentist and a reasonable good one at that. Then there is the murder of a rather unsavory man who had also seen the dentist that day. Everything is clearly related, but the question is how?

I think this one does a good idea with working up the story, as usual some of the clues aren’t obviously clues until later on, which is nice, but some of the clues stand out as being easy to pick up on. You still need to do some thinking if you want to solve it yourself, but that’s the way I like a mystery.



#3: A Red Heart of Memories by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

This is a very interesting book, I’m not quite sure how to classify it. It’s urban fantasy, but I think more magical realism. The whole setting it well described and the characters are very interesting, while the story was kind of odd and slow the characters pulled me in. I didn’t want to see what happened next, but I wanted to see what they would do next.

Here’s the basic outline of the story. Matt Black is a woman with no roots who moves around and can’t connect to people. She can see dreams and talk to objects so she’s okay with her life. She meets Edmund, a witch who is introduce as he walks out of a wall after helping it be stable for a few months.

Edmund is a nice enough man, but he’s broken and Matt decides that she wants to help him, they go back to the town he grew up in, meting his sister and haunted house along the way. They find there is a darkness in his past that needs to be fixed and an old friend of his who needs to be healed.

I can’t really say more, the story is simple but the characters are fantastic. It really feels like it’s dealing with some heavy stuff which I identified with. There are a lot of plot threads laid out but weren’t picked up, but they do lead into a sequel which I’ll be reading next.

Well, I managed to pull it off. I posted up a story idea every day last month. 29 of them in total. Some of them were good, some of them where kind of weak, but on the whole it was an interesting project. I did what I set out to do and in fact I managed to come up with 97 or so ideas, about three a day. Some days I only came up with one idea, but there was at least one a day.

The ideas I posted were all over too. Somewhere hard sci-fi, others light fantasy, I had a couple epic fantasy, some urban fantasy and even one that would qualify as ‘literary’ (I have no idea how the heck that one got in there). Still, they are just ideas, while some aren’t fantastic in the right hands everyone of them could make a good and interesting story.

The fact is, it’s easy to come up with ideas, in fact that’s probably one of the easiest things you can do as a writer. But ideas are not stories, they are just seeds of stories, the kernel that can grow into something larger and better if you carefully nurture it. You can mix and mingle the ideas, cut parts from one and merge it with anther, reshape and reform them and making something grander than just the simple idea.

Really, that was the whole point of this exercise. Ideas are easy, if you can sit down and play around with thoughts you can put them together into some basic ideas. It does take practice, but it also doesn’t take a huge amount of time. I came up with most of my ideas is about ten minutes or so of just playing around with ideas.

And that being said… I’m still not sure if this is a success or a failure. True, I did what I set out to do but I still don’t feel like it worked. I was somewhat trying to prove a point, but I honestly feel like no one was listening. I even tried to talk about the idea to another write who keeps talking about wanting to hear about ideas like this, but it ended up without any response.

So yeah, it was a success, but I feel like the point I was trying to make was lost.

Coming up with ideas can be hard, I think anyone who has ever done anything creative knows that. No wait, let me try that again.

Coming up with GOOD ideas can be hard, we all know this, we’ve all had to fight with at times, looking at the blank page, waiting for something great to come into our head. It’s frustrating for everyone. This leads to the very common question for new writers “How do you come up with story ideas”?

Well, there’s the thing, coming up with ideas can actually be pretty easy, you just have to ponder ideas and see what gels. If you just think about it you’ll come up with some sort of idea, it may not be a great idea, but an idea none the less. With a little work you can come up with a page full of story ideas, then pick the best one to write.

Yeah, I make it sound easy, but it can’t be as easy as that can it? Well I’m always one who’s willing to put my pride before a fall so I’m going to have to prove it. So here’s what I’m going to do.

I’m going to post a story idea every day in February.

That will be twenty-nine story ideas in as many days, all posted to my Twitter account. Why there, to keep them short and sweet. Will they be great ideas? Not all of them, some will pretty good, some will just suck. And they aren’t going to be outlines, just simple quick ideas elevator pitch style. Some will be setting ideas, some will be interesting characters, but all will be something you can turn into a story.

Oh yes, this will be crazy and a bit insane, but as a challenge I think it will be a good one all around, and heck I might come up with some really great ideas from it. Tell you're friends, it should be a fun show.

Well, the snow and ice has mostly melted off though there are still trees down everywhere. I only lost part of one of my own trees, which didn’t seem to do any damage, but there are trees down all over my subdivision. It makes driving a bit hectic in places.

I did get to use the fireplace a bit during the night, which helped until I went to bed once it had gone out. I have to say I miss the old wood stove we had growing up, ever underestimate the importance of having a cooking surface, even if it’s just to boil water. The power was still off by Friday morning when I plowed my way into work (under the theory that however hard it would be to get there, it would be warmer then the house).

The power came back a few hours later, after that was just turning the furnace and water heater back on (I had cut off the gas when I thought it I smelled some). I never had to light a pilot on a water here before so that was different. Luckily the furnace lit itself.

So, in the end it’s all over but the cleanup, though that’s going to take a while. I want to get a closer look to see what damage I might have had with the part of the tree that fell off, but that can wait until things dry out a bit more.

On the other hand it gave me enough time to finish working on my current scarf. This was one I was doing as a surprise for a friend of mine and she was really happy to see it. She’s a big fan of blue and blue things, so I knew she would like it. I’m going to be mailing it off to her soon.

( Picture under the break )

Well, there goes my power.

Lost the top of one of the trees as well, though the rest look fine, not a lot of bending.