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Washington, DC | June 05, 2008

Washington – The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) today endorsed Barack Obama as the president this country needs to restore accountability and fairness in the Federal Aviation Administration, reverse a disturbing trend of serious aviation safety concerns and lead an expedited effort to modernize our air traffic control system to cut flight delays and strengthen our economy.

“I want to thank the highly skilled and dedicated men and women who ensure that Americans are safe when they’re on board an aircraft and I am grateful for their support,” said Senator Obama today. “As President, NATCA will have a partner in the White House. Together, we can fix our nation’s aviation system and tackle the challenges we face – from the damaging effect flight delays have on our lives and our economy to recent safety concerns. I applaud the work that NATCA does day in and day out to strengthen our aviation system and keep Americans safe, and I look forward to working with its members going forward.”

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Dear Red States:

We’re ticked off at the way you’ve treated California and we’ve decided we’re leaving.

We intend to form our own country and we’re taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren’t aware that includes Nevada, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly:

You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.

We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

We get John Edwards. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.

We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss.

We get 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition’s we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro choice and anti war and we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight ask your evangelicals. They have kids they’re apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose and they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their children’s caskets coming home.

We wish you success in Iraq and hope that the WMDs turn up but we’re not willing to spend our resources in Bush’s Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand we will have firm control of 80% of the country’s fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95% of America’s quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90% of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the US low sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States you will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92% of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood, Lake Tahoe, and Yosemite, thank you.

38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

We’re taking the good pot too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Sincerely, Author Unknown in New California.

Yes, I know it’s been an incredibly long time since I’ve updated. I’ll be changing things in the very near future. :)

Yep, we were on TV again.

Just got my 2nd sector today. :D Time for beer.

Yep. I’m 14% of a fully certified air traffic controller. I got my first R-side this evening…and I wasn’t even expecting it.

This past weekend was a long one. Coming from having four days off (1 day of leave, 2 RDOs, and 1 forced day off for the Labor Day holiday) and diving into a busy sector was kinda freaky. Amazing how quick the cobwebs build up over a little bit of down time. Well, I was working my first session with Zinger, my trainer, and in between me trying to not go down the tubes, I keep hearing him talking to my other trainer, Gator, about recommending me and whatnot. Well, we had discussed getting my recommendations on my first two sectors today and tomorrow, and probably getting checkrides over the weekend.

Apparently, plans changed.

At the end of that first session, Zinger hands me a grading form (which usually isn’t done ’til the end of the shift to go over the day’s training) with “Recommend certification” written on it. My supervisor also showed me the previous two training forms from last Saturday where the same thing was added for my other sector. Next thing I know, I’m being told that I’ll be having a check ride a little later that evening and possibly a second for my other sector if time permitted. Eek.

Well, time didn’t permit the second one, but I did pass my first one. That was probably one of the most nerve-wracking 90 minutes of my life. Tomorrow I’ll get my other check ride (in theory). Hopefully this one won’t be quite so scary. :)

This coming week is the last week of Radar Class. We just did our final evals the other day, and everyone passed. It only took 30 someodd problems to get a clean run. ;) This week, we get to do familiarization problems on the sectors we get to train on once we get back down to the control room floor. A week from tomorrow, we’ll start training with live traffic. Oh noes. :)

I’m pretty excited about it. The only thing I’m really worried about is actual training I’m gonna get. Staffing has become so short that available trainers seems to be a commodity. They put out a memo about mandatory overtime for just about everyone, including trainees. That’s what I heard anyway, as I haven’t actually seen the memo.

I’ll be starting on a high and an ultrahigh sector. High in Memphis Center means from 24,000 feet to 34,000 feet, and ultrahigh is 35,000 all the way up. The ultrahigh sector in my area is m-a-s-s-i-v-e. I’m pretty sure it’s the largest sector in the house, coming in at about 250 miles across. We get a bunch of traffic going in/out of Houston, Atlanta, and Dallas/Fort Worth. Should be fun.

Go see Transformers.

It was possibly the best popcornsummerblockbusteractioncrazyfunmovie ever. Don’t expect anything serious, deep, or anything. Just boom. Lotsa boom. It had all the usual Michael Bay inconsistencies, screwups, exaggerations, color filters, and camera angles…but that’s okay! I can forgive him cuz it was just badass. That movie was made of awesome. (Thank you, Jeremie, for that one.)

Today’s June 11. Two 1s in there.

Today is our two year anniversary.

Today was also my second graded eval at work.

Far out. :)

Yep, two years ago today, Katie and I got married in Dubuque. Sure doesn’t feel like two years at all. I mean…they say time seems to speed up as you get older. I’d like to think that it’s going faster because I’m enjoying my time more being with the one I love. Yeah, it’s sappy. stfu.

Okay, found that theme I liked again.

So anyway, hello. Been a while since I’ve updated. Yeah, seems all us old bloggers suck at it now for some reason or another. Let’s see…

I’m in Radar class now (aka Stage IV Training). We did a week’s worth of bookwork, going over the same slides we’ve seen in every stage of training so far. Now we’re doing simulator problems in the DySim lab at work. They’re usually rather busy, although they do have a fair share of unrealistic situations just to create conflicts. We just did our first five familiarization problems, and I’m pretty sure that we’ve all gotten our asses handed to us. I’m convinced that the instructors just love watching us flail around and the resultant air show that happens. Ah well, I think I’m improving…hopefully. We’re scheduled to be in class ’til the first week of July, so we’ll see how things go.

What else… Katie got a new job with an advertising firm down in Germantown. I can’t recall the name of it, but it’s a pretty decent group with some bigtime clients. She’s been out of the field for a while, so it was a little overwhelming at first (understandably). She’s doing very well now, I think. Actually, she started it not long after her surgery for her cyst. So even while dealing with all of that plus starting the new job, she’s doing rather well. I’m really proud of her. :)

Now for a few random observations from the past month or two…

New Linkin Park album - Crap, but I’m still hoping it grows on me or something.
New Nine Inch Nails album - Above average. Better than With Teeth, I think.
Samsung Blackjack phone - Cool, but retarded. Major disappointment.
Insurance companies - Completely confusing.
FAA - Still a bunch of fucktards.

That’ll do.

Yeah, I upgraded Wordpress. It didn’t like something I had done previously and I had to delete all the files and go back to a clean install. At least all the stuff in the database is intact. I’ll get the theme fixed soon and I’ll have a nice update shortly.