Happy New Year

Thursday, January 1st, 2026 03:54 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
Random:

The purple talking llama in the ad distracted me so much that I closed the tab after it finished its bit, forgetting I hadn't yet watched the video I'd meant to watch.
.
Near sunset, airplane contrails glow orange in the sky.
.
Aluminum foil slightly crumpled and pulled out flat again is so pretty. A landscape of silver.

puddle jumper

Saturday, November 12th, 2022 02:51 am
darkoshi: (Default)
Looking at a map, I saw a "Puddle Jumper Lane" and thought that was a cute name, thinking of someone who jumps over or into puddles.

Then I did a search on "puddle jumper" and found it is a term used for small aircraft (which may also be called "puddle hoppers").

Interestingly (since cars drive through puddles rather than doing any jumping), puddle jumper was used to refer to cars before it was used for airplanes:
What is the origin of the term “puddle jumper” for a smaller commercial airplane? (quora)
What is the origin of the term “puddle jumper” for a smaller commercial airplane? (reddit)

evolution, planet

Tuesday, January 11th, 2022 05:12 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
Random thought:
It could be argued that humans aren't the pinnacle of evolution on earth, but rather the one branch of evolution here which so far has turned out very very badly.

(in terms of damaging the planet and wiping out other species, causing destruction, pain, and death, etc.)

Context of thought:
Bright yellow sun setting towards the far end of the street as I walk back from the mailbox,
a small airplane flying from that direction, catching my eye so that I follow it as it slowly curves towards the north,
a small flock of birds also flying by overheard, chirping, towards the north,
(me thinking of how carefree the birds seem).

Why the birds flew north, I don't know. Probably not going far in that direction.

isn't it nice

Wednesday, November 17th, 2021 04:21 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
when you hear a noise
and look out the window
to see 3 military helicopters flying by
not to have to worry
about the imminent possibility
of missiles and destruction

not to have thuggish soldiers in the streets
ordering you out of your houses
rifling through your belongings
taking people away
to unknown destinations, unknown fates
darkoshi: (Default)
Not sure about how safe this was to do, but the resulting video is awesome...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9cSxEqKQ78

Info on the making of the video here.

More such videos here.

This next video shows an "AR.Drone" helicopter, which is different than the flyer in the above videos, but just as nifty.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYvTJnWrH2Q

From http://www.jwz.org/blog

Germany Trip

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 04:23 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
The first 2 days of the trip were a bit rainy/drizzly, but not enough to keep us inside. Overall, the weather in Germany was quite good.

The pay-phones all took coins so we didn't need to buy a phone-card to make calls (a few years ago I recall most of the pay-phones only took cards).

In Munich, we went up the one tower of the Frauenkirche, which has an observation area, giving a good view of the city.

In Berlin, we went up the television tower, which also had a good observation area.

We went and saw various things, and met with a friend and some family. Qiao bought souvenirs to take home as gifts; I bought mostly chocolate.

One vegan restaurant in Berlin had vegan white chocolate bars for sale (Bonvita Reismilch Tafel Weiss); I bought 2. (Yay! Vegan white chocolate!) That made up somewhat for them not having the (as advertised) vegan cheese-spaetzle available on that day.

There are so many flavors of chocolate bars for sale in Germany. Of the non-dairy ones I found, I bought the following flavors:
Ginger
Lime-Ginger
Sour Cherry
Dark Chocolate with Olive Oil
Pepper
Green-tea Mango
Cherry-Tomato Salt

There was an intriguing "Absinthe Truffel" flavored bar, but unfortunately it had dairy in it.

On the plane-trip back, Qiao and me lost each other in the Atlanta Customs area. While waiting in the first line, picking up our luggage, and waiting in the next line, I was disheartened that we stood a good chance of missing our connecting flight since it was already past the time when it would normally be boarding. I hadn't realized until the flight back that we only had an hour and a half in Atlanta... normally one schedules the flights to allow more time to get thru customs.

I had been flagged to go through the extra agricultural search section, and while I was waiting for Qiao to get through the previous checkpoint, the guards kept telling me to go onward to the agricultural area. So I reluctantly walked that way, and when I saw Qiao heading past, I yelled to him twice. He turned his head and I thought he saw me, but apparently he hadn't. When I exited the other end of the agricultural section, he was no longer to be found. I didn't know if he was still waiting for me back near the other side (the guards didn't seem amenable to anyone walking back that way) or if he had gone on ahead. After dithering about for a bit, I eventually went through the last security screening on my own, even more disheartened now.

When I checked the departure screens for our flight, it said "At gate". That meant it hadn't left yet! Maybe Qiao had gone on ahead, and we could still catch the plane! I started rushing toward the terminal and gate, running in some places, asking people to let me by on the escalator, hurrying past people... naturally, the gate was one which was all the way down at the end of the long terminal, huff-puff, puff... When I got there, I was relieved to hear Qiao call my name and to see him there. So we made it onto the flight; Qiao had got there only a few minutes before me and the flight personnel had told him if I didn't make it there in the next minute, the plane would be leaving without us.

Our checked baggage unfortunately didn't make it to our plane on time. It came on the next flight in.

In Berlin, the light-athletics (?) world-championships were going on. In the Berlin airport, we were sitting for a bit next to someone wearing a nice-looking African-style outfit. I decided to be friendly (good for me!) and asked him if he had been there for the championships. He said that yes, he was the president of the delegation from Burkina Faso and that he had attended some meetings, but had to go back now even though the competitions were still going on.

Flying in airplanes, the occasional turbulence scares me. It seems so easy for a part of the wing or some other important part on the exterior of the plane to break off... and falling from such a height... smashing into the ground... seems scary. I don't remember feeling this fear when I flew as a child.

(no subject)

Monday, August 17th, 2009 09:43 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
I am back home. At work, after a week off, I had accumulated 231 unread emails. By the end of today, I had it down to about 165 unread. But by the end of the day, I was already feeling frustrated enough again to want to do something violent. I resorted to biting down on one of my stress balls. That made my teeth ache and didn't make me feel any better. I need to find a better way of dealing with stress and frustration than being violent. Otherwise I might really end up hurting myself one of these days.

Feeling down makes me care less about other beings. I care less about whether I kill a mosquito or not.

The 9 hour transatlantic flights were much more endurable this time than on my last such trip a few years ago, due to each seat now having its own little display screen. One could choose to view any of many many movies or TV shows, play various games, or listen to music including many CDs of various music styles.
On the return flight, I watched the movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. I felt it was a very good movie. It even brought tears to my eyes in a couple of places.

I had gotten some noise-cancelling headphones; the noise-cancelling part was good for reducing some of the airplane noise, but they also doubled as very good ear-warmers in the plane.

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