chilling down at the shore...

So I'm down at the Jersey Shore for a couple of days: family reunion with relatives visiting from the "Left-Coast" (California.) I've been going to and from the shore for the past week so far. Traffic on the Parkway sucks as typical NJ, always an accident and always backed up. So far it's been colorful weather, hot, humid, rain, t-storms, nice, breezy and generally alright. The water temp has been in the mid to high 60s, so chilly but refreshing from the hot sun.

I decided to grab a stick from my quiver (surfboard from assortment of other boards) from under the house. Yes I keep my surfboards under the beach house, it's the only logical place to put them since underneath the temp is cool, it's out of direct sunlight and nobody will accidentally knock them over or step on them. UV is bad for fiber glass too. So anyway I grabbed my 7' retro egg, a fun shape that I had custom made just after freshman year in college. Had to buy a bar of wax from the local surf shop, Mrs. Palmer's 5 Daughters imported from Oz. Best surf wax out there, plus it comes with a nice pair of ta-tas on the box which just makes it awesome to be rubbing on the board. Got to love Australian marketing :P.

Donned my old wetsuit and ran to the beach to give it a whirl. Too bad it's been mostly choppy with the southerly wind, blowing the waves out and strong current. Nonetheless I went anyway out of trying to see if I could still do this. Didn't catch very many waves, and found that my arms are out of shape as I wasn't really going anywhere when I paddled out. Something I need to work on. Had fun, let the tide come in and eventually got out and went home. I suppose I'll try again early tomorrow morning. It's usually better in the morning s as the wind is usually calmer and you get to watch the sun rise.

I'm bummed however since I won't be able to attend my friend Kelly's party way upstate near Potsdam, NY. Complications involving having to drive my ailing grandfather back to his home in central NJ and the improbability of possible jury duty on Monday. I can't find out if I have to attend until late Sunday afternoon. How inconvenient is this country's justice system. I was talking to one of my cousins about it and he mentioned that he had to take a whole week off from work and turns out he never had to go. Something about them telling him to call for several days in a row to see if he was selected from the lottery of names and he wasn't but talk about inconvenience in case I didn't already mention it before. Personally I think it's total BS that we as citizens have to do this, I mean I've got shit to do and plans that I've made which now have gone out the window.

So in the meantime I'm waiting out for a reply for a diving job up in the finger lakes, so far no response. I hate it when people don't reply. Just might think of taking up that Learjet and helicopter refueling job at 39N in Princeton.

Bry-Guy out.....

Brainwashed...

I came across something quite odd yesterday as I was meandering my way through the hip downtown Princeton area on a quest to find a Panera's. I had just finished up a short belated b-day celebration for my friend Anna who works as a researcher in Princeton. Was a little tipsy from having shared a bottle of wine and only really having eaten a slice of chocolate chip cookie cake. (Like a really big cookie.) So any case, I was on a mission, a mission to get myself a serving of broccoli and cheddar soup in a sour dough bread bowl, it's really good. When I crossed on to Nassau St. I was politely stopped by a young man and an older looking man who wanted to ask me a few questions about religion. I decided in my slightly tipsy state that this might not be all that bad as it didn't occur that these people were christian fanatics.

So they began to ask me about what I thought about Christianity and what my personal faith was. I tried to play the egalitarian philosophical and explained that I had spent some time as a Buddhist monk in Thailand and was if anything slightly Buddhist (even though I'm an atheist, I wasn't sure how they would take it, most people who are christian don't really appreciate it when you tell them you're a non-believer.) So without letting them know, I proceeded to let them think I was only slightly religious and was interested in what they had to say about how great Christianity was.

The younger guy started lecturing me on what the true meaning of existence was and that it was wrong to want to attain a state of non-existence or to let go of reality which is the core idea behind enlightenment. He explained that there is meaning to the chaos and that we do exist and that there is a heaven and hell. He basically explained that we were all sinners and that we could all be forgiven for what we did. Jesus Christ was meant to take most of the edge off of all the sinning so that it would be easier for us to get into heaven. (By now, I'm laughing in my head at what this guy is telling me but playing along as if I'm really interested.) So he pretty much said that Buddhism was a crock of nonsense and couldn't be true based on some lines he read me from his little bible. Whatever.

He continued to tell me that we should believe whatever we want and that if we chose to believe in God, then we would be forgiven. This was a little different because he wasn't forcing his ideals and suggesting that it was individually up to us to decide what we believed. I asked him what he was doing here in Princeton and he said that he was a rising senior at the University studying economics but religion to him was a hobby. He mentioned that he grew up in an atheist family, only finding Christianity at college. This was weird. I thought that it worked the other way round but if one can go from believer to atheist, surely it has to go the other way too. So I finished up talking with this guy and he gave me some pamphlets and a mini book of psalms which I promptly stuffed into my pockets and proceeded on my way to Panera's.

Had a bread bowl of broccoli and cheddar. Satisfactorily got up and left, tossed the christian promotional items into the back of my VW and drove home, end of story.

I suppose what one believes is up to the individual alone and it doesn't matter what they think. I for one don't believe in a supreme god because I have no proof that it exists. I consider myself very much a scientist and will test predictions based on evidence to seek truth. However truths are sometimes proven wrong so therefore the idea of truth is relative. I'm getting over my head here I think, and the little kitten is trying to walk across my keyboard again......

Almost a month without blogging.....

Ok so I've neglected blogging for a month not because I didn't have time but just because I've let it slip kind of like when you let exercise slip out of lack of interest or laziness. Whatever, cutting to the chase......So I'm now back in the urban rain forest of humid New Jersey. Temps have been pretty mild but the weather is disappointing; usually wet and hazy in the mornings and almost always a thunderstorm in the afternoon. At least the nights are pleasant and neither the a/c nor the window fan have to be used.

My relatives whom I am staying with (aunt and uncle) have adopted a new kitten which has been slowly growing. It's black and white, looks like it's wearing a tux and has white paws and blue eyes. Or at least it had blue eyes, now more of a grey/green color. It's name is Kitty, out of us not being able to figure out it's gender and thus chosen a generic name for the new pet. (It's actually female, so I proposed "Judy Blue Eyes" after a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song for her blue eyes but I think we're sticking with plain and simple "kitty."

I've applied to several jobs and still to no avail have not been hired. I tried: KEEMA Energy consulting, ESRI (makers of GIS software,) Target (yup that's right, retail....) Rejected by Target, and still not heard back from the other two. If I can't find something at the end of July, I may just take temporary job as a line guy at Princeton airport where I would refuel airplanes and helicopters. Not too thrilled with it but hey it's something to do. Only gripes would be that it's an on-call type job, not too keen on refueling helicopters while they're "Hot," i.e. engines burning, rotors turning (they do it this way because aparently it matters how many times engines are turned on and off from an overhaul and long run cost perspective.) Oh and if you've ever smelled jet fuel, it stinks and the smell won't come off your clothes if you spill it which is very likely. There are however incentives.....1. discounts towards flight training and 2. Work and you won't get fired.

Oh I finally got that go-ahead from Binghamton University that I could request my transcript from my summer course to be sent to HWS for processing and finally get my diploma mailed to me.

We'll see what happens.....

Other than that not much else going on besides my continuation of flight training for the private pilot's license. I just completed my first solo cross-country fligh of 100 nautical miles (that's aprox. 120 statute miles.) From Princeton to Mt. Pocono and back. I was a little nervous but that's expected. Not so much flying alone that was scary but the weather. It wasn't the greatest day and I was perhaps done with a little less visibility that I would have liked. 5 miles visibility with haze, and overcast cloud ceiling at around 3,000ft.

So I was moving along at a brisk 120mph at 2,000ft which isn't very high. At least there was smooth air but I was being extra careful about my dead reckoning (noting elapsed time with known way points on the map.) to navigate. I did have my little gps strapped to my leg on top of the folded map to use as back up just in case I missed a way point. Flew right over the Delaware Water Gap and saw all the congested traffic going through there.

Got to Mt. Pocono to find out that they had temporarily closed one runway which was the one I planed on using but switched to the other one instead as the operator on the ground there radioed me to do. Apparently they are extending one of the runways an extra 5,000ft, no idea why, it's already several thousand feet long. My only guess is perhaps they're planning on receiving heavy jets but I have no idea why, not exactly a busy airport unless Joe Biden is planning on landing Air Force 2 there? I bought fuel (a whopping $4.19/gal.) and topped off the tanks, managing to spill avgas all over the wing, my first time using a high pressure aviation filling nozzle from the self serve. (I'm only used to the automotive nozzle we had at Penn Yan, NY.) Funnily enough while in Princeton, they have attendants who fill the tanks for me, Jersey you don't pump your own avgas either.

Preflighted the airplane, found a little water in the fuel after draining the belly drain, so had to continue taking fuel samples until all the water was gone. Water in the fuel is a bad thing. But it has been known to get into the fuel systems either through condensation from partially filled tanks or from rain if the tank caps don't have very good seals. Nonetheless that's why each tank has a quick drain valve for taking a fuel sample every time before you fly to make sure you know what's in the fuel and that you drain all the water from the tanks.

I taxied to the end of the runway, took off, and flew back to Princeton. Once I got a mile out from Princeton I noticed that there were several planes in the pattern. The other two Cessna 152s where up and I managed to get on one's 6-o'clock (tail) as I came in. (Some times I wish I had machine guns and pretend to be a WWII fighter pilot! I think every pilot wishes this.) I heard the instructor of that plane say his call sign and then an expletive over the radio so I made climbing 360 turn and overflew the airport above the traffic patter to wait while everyone got out the way before I made my way back down to earth. Landed, parked, singed the logbook and then drove home. That was it.

Next week I'm going to plan my last solo requirement which is the 150 nautical mile solo to 2 different airports. Then all I need to do is complete my 3hrs instrument training with my instructor, take the written test, then pass the check ride and I'll be a private pilot, yay! After that, and quoting from another pilot's blog (but can't remember where on the internet) "a mile of runway can take you anywhere."

So that was yesterday.....Today the weather was shitty, so I went and chilled at the local Barnes and Nobel and flipped through books on the science shelf. Namely a book called "Longitude" about watchmaking, geography, astronomy, and navigation. And another book that really caught my attention after reading the first page: "Zero" it's about the number 0. I might go back there tomorrow but I've got to drive my mother and my grandfather to the Jersey shore for the weekend as it's our family reunion and I have relatives coming from CA that I really would like to talk to about me moving there and getting a job.