JOURNAL ARCHIVE:
July 17, 2006
Now I understand why Microsoft created that area at the entrance I walked through every day to work. They called it "Mission Control." To my right as I was walking out of the building, they had a large photo of three enlisted U.S. Navy sailors saluting. I saw that same photo on the classmates.com website. One day, I became convinced they even had a hidden camera in my Jeep. One clue was something Vince Maraia kept asking me about the dashboard.
I'm beginning to think that all those times I was sick with what I thought was the flu, were actually the result of being poisoned. I was watching something on tv the other day about a woman who poisoned her husband with anti-freeze. The symptoms of anti-freeze poisoning are similar to the flu, according to that tv episode. That may explain why I was thinking about that sometime last year, someone was trying to tell me something.
I wonder if this scar on my hip is actually from getting hacked with a machete. I have also been wondering for a while if I have ever been attacked by a shark. I can't remember any scars that look like teeth marks, although I did see one on my lower right leg that I wonder about. There was also this time I had a nasty scrape from falling off the back of a motorcycle. Today I was wondering about a circular scar on my temple behind my left eye. I have also been thinking about something Tracie Rhodes Crooks told me about how cosmetic surgeons can cover up scars.
Something has bugged me about Eric Rudolph, especially last year, what did it mean? I remember going camping up in those mountains near Boone by myself.
Interesting timing on this. I decided that I must have graduated USNA this same week. There is also that memory about Phoebe writing that I should never forget that dance where we met, but I think that may represent something earlier.
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1982/42382d.htm
Message About the Observance of National Dance Week, April 25 - May 1, 1982
April 23, 1982
During National Dance Week, Nancy and I are delighted to join with America's dancers, choreographers, teachers, and dance lovers celebrating our nation's liveliest art.
This century has witnessed dramatic growth and innovation in the world of dance, with American choreographers and dancers playing a principal role in defining twentieth century dance around the globe.
Thanks in large measure to the generosity and initiative of individual citizens and corporations, American dance companies have flourished, providing opportunities for many new and talented young artists. These creative men and women have made the United States the dance capital of the world.
In its many variations -- ballet, jazz, tap, folk, and modern -- dance has become an integral part of America's cultural life, winning the highest accolades both here and abroad.
We ask all Americans to join with us in celebrating dance as a dynamic expression of the American spirit and an important part of our national heritage.
Ronald Reagan
I am growing increasingly certain that everyone else in this homeless shelter is also a 40-something Top Gun Falcon/Tomcat-driver commando-sniper astronaut guided-missile-destroyer Commanding Officer military lawyer. That would explain why I am here.
July 18, 2006
Am I associated somehow with the CH-53 helicopter? Did I travel around somewhere with a military unit that used the CH-53 in the late 90s?
July 19, 2006
I started thinking yesterday about a scene from "Escape From L.A." It's that one where Plissken is on that basketball court and has to score a certain number of points before the clock runs out. I am wondering if I did something like that, in that I scored several points in the final minutes or at least made a game-winning buzzer beater, while in a game with the USNA basketball team.
July 20, 2006
Since you asked, George W. should get the Silver Coin Star for Selling Out America medal.
No, wait, George W. should get the Gold Coin Star of Dishonor For Selling Out America. Karl Rove should get the Silver Coin Star For Corruption.
July 21, 2006
I wonder if the people on live tv broadcasts are going to reveal right away they can hear me hear too or if I am going to have to get creative to find out.
July 23, 2006
As I was trying to go to sleep last night, in what would turn out to be another restful night, I got out of bed to write down something else. I wondered if that period when I was in school from Feb. 1986 to June 1987 actually a time when I was missing. I have had many thoughts that I was shot down in Africa and had to make a long journey to return. Not sure if I was a captive. Maybe I was captured by locals at some point, but managed to escape and continue trying to get back. I was thinking a while back about a book I read a long time ago that is somewhat similar. The thing is, I wonder if I actually read the book or whether the memory of reading the book with a similar story line to my experiences was implanted in memory to deflect my memories of those actual events. I have thought several times about that movie "Jewel of the Nile" where I believe it was an F-16 they used to break out of that fortress. anyway, I'm not sure about the timeline because the Stark was hit in May 1987 and I am not certain what that incident even means to me. Was the Stark transfering me back to another ship or a port? I don't know. But it certainly is good to get a good night's sleep again. But they are keeping me in this limbo so they can steal as much of this story as possible.
I've been thinking for a while about possible similarities in Russell Crowe's "Gladiator" to my real life. Something about this theory I have about traveling across Africa trying to get home. After watching it again the other day, I was mildly surprised to realize what I had written a while back about Lysium, or however it is spelled. That can't be a coincidence but I have no idea how I generated such thoughts.
It seems important that I went to see that movie with some people from work. I remember Jon Langdon was there, Lynn's husband, and I think Mike Torbeson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator_%28film%29
Release date 5 May 2000
Unless you're Bill Gates and you actually got more Americans civilians killed than Saddam Hussein, Khomeni, and Qhaddafi combined.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Yee_Border_Stop.html
"I think sometimes, 'Is this the way my life is going to be forever?'" Yee said, who has worked since leaving the Army as a public speaker talking about religious freedom and American values.
The West Point graduate who converted to Islam in 1991 said his experience in Cuba taught him that he can just be picked up and put in jail.
That is also why Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer performed that silly skit at the company meeting based on The Matrix. The Matrix is associated with me somehow. I'm thinking I know Kenau Reeves too. But Gates and Ballmer knew that and were trying to exploit my association with it. Just as that company meeting, which I think was later, it was the one when it was really cold, where Ballmer said something in his speech about us not being prisoners of war. If I could just remember, I would understand exactly why they were saying all that stuff. I find myself identifying with the character of Data in that TNG movie where he installs the humor chip and laughs at that joke from seven years earlier.
Reading about Reeve's character's name, Thomas A. Anderson, reminds me of an instructor I had at Great Lakes in 1986. He was FC1 Anderson and he had it in for me, wanting to kick me out of school for some reason. I think there was a girl I was hanging around there at G.L. that I knew from Orlando whose last name was Anderson. There was a photo of her and a buddy of mine standing next to my Explorer one night in Orlando after we had been out for the night on the town. There is also a movie with Tom Cruise where I think his last name is "Anderton" and his boss is named "Lamar Burgess." There was a lawyer that used to ask me for help with the Lexis Nexis application when I supported a law firm in Charlotte. I think that movie was "Minority Report." "Anderson" also makes me think of some POW camp during the Civil War. Was that Andersonville?
July 24, 2006
Correction: I only have 5% more privacy here. That may change though because I am reasonably certain there is a hidden camera in my room somewhere. I have absolutely no doubt there is a listening device in there somewhere. I can't even read the newspaper without thinking someone is noting what I read.
At least I can now turn off the light switch when I want to go to sleep. That is a remarkable improvement. Now if I just had a television and my own internet connection, my imprisonment would be slightly more tolerable. "Tolerable," of course, is relative to the intolerable environment of having no private life.
There's something about this new fighter. First, it is a '35.' The other thing is something about some thoughts I have had recently about two lightning strikes, not sure what that was supposed to mean. The F-35 is named the "Lightning II."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-35_Joint_Strike_Fighter
The F-35 Lightning II — known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)
F-35C, a carrier-based variant slated to replace U.S. Navy (USN) F/A-18 Hornets beginning in 2012.
In 1982, The Open Championship was at Royal Troon. Troon is a street intersecting with a street I lived on, symbolically, in Memphis sometime in 1992. That was at Lincoln On The Green in Germantown. I lived on Greenside Drive, overlooking the 9th hole and which intersected with Championship Drive and Troon Drive. Eagle Drive ran parallel with Greenside Drive. Nearby was the major thoroughfare, Winchester Road. I was watching for Micheal Jordan to play through there one time, I think it was the St. Jude's tournament, but I didn't see him. And how about that: 1982 and 1992. Can't think of anything relevant to 1983 other than Barksdale Air Force base, which is where Chad Trammel was stationed when he was an Air Force lawyer. But since he doesn't really exist, who knows what it means. I last saw Chad in 1994 at the Ashdown high school reunion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Championship
1983, Royal Birkdale Golf Club, Tom Watson, United States, -9
1982, Royal Troon Golf Club, Old Course, Tom Watson, United States, -4
I don't see how I could have played that tournament in 1982, assuming it was in July of that year.
BUT the third Friday of July 1982 was none other than the 16TH. That may be the July 16 I was writing about the other day. July 16 is Tracie Rhodes Crooks birthday and is also the day I got out of boot camp in 1984.
I don't know if this means anything relevant to me, but it would fit in with a trend I have noticed. This speech was given on July 19, 1982, which would be the Monday, I guess, after The Open Championship in Royal Troon. The speech was to a tennis team and the U.S. ski team. Why can't I remember what I was really doing back in these days so I would know if this means something to me??????
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1982/71982f.htm
Someone once said that youth was America's oldest tradition, but I would amend that to be youth striving for excellence. You live that tradition. You've worn your country's colors in contests around the globe. Setting world records and winning world championships, you've made your countrymen proud. And in you, we've looked for courage, excellence, and honor. And in you, we have found it.
I'm thinking that snow is symbolic of something else. First of all, it represents something about happiness, as in being a kid and youthful. But it also has something to do, something that developed in my mind later, with safety. A snowstorm is the best time to travel unseen. There may be also something about traveling in the ground clutter of radar, perhaps referred to as 'snow,' while in an aircraft. The 'court' may be symbolic of a carrier deck.
July 25, 2006
I was thinking this morning or last night about all that commotion in the Ironman community a few years ago about people racing under other people's name. That would seem to tie in with my theory about Tom Warren and Tom Watson. They are probably real people, but I think they know I was there. Not exactly clear on this, but it means something. I suspect that people were all talking about something along these lines and that produced the buzz about the "phantom" competitors.
Also, I have been thinking that my memory of returning to my fictional niece's birthay, was actually about me returning from a space shuttle mission, possibly in July. I told my relative, probably my daughter in reality, that I traveled all the way from space to be there for her birthday. I think it was STS-71. The June 29 date for the rendevous with Mir is an important date too. The first Ironman CDA was June 29, 2003. I wrote something about this trip for Caitlins birthday a while back. It was that reference I made to the Simpson's episode. When I wrote about that, I was still believing all that literally happened to me. I noted the part about Bart talking to "Dr. S" about Spirograph. When I arrived at my sisters house for Caitlin's birthday, I gave Kaitlin and Kayli and couple board games I had picked up. One was Spirograph and the other, I think, was Life. Or maybe it was Sorry. I can't remember for certain. Maybe it was both, that I gave them three games. Melissa and I used to play those games when we were kids. I was trying to remember, but I was certain that I had given them that Spirograph game exactly a month before the airdate of that Simpson's episode. I also noted that it was exactly a month later when I started that contract job at Microsoft in 1995. I think it was the previous year I drove back to Ashdown for her birthday.
July 26, 2006
I was thinking last night about a memory featured prominently in my symbolic memory. It is of a time in 1985 when I was on the Taylor. It was during that same deployment when I watched the Estocin run aground in Key West. We were traveling along shoulder to shoulder with a Soviet battlegroup that was touring the oil pltform fields off the coast of Texas and Louisiana. During that time, I still worked for the Boatswain's Mates, but I was assigned to a 90-day tour of the mess decks, as all junior crewmen had to complete. I was working every day on the mess decks as a dishwasher. There was three of us in there and I remember one of them telling me "happy birthday". The part of this memory that seems to be operative is that I remember thinking several times that I turned 20 years old in "the Gulf." There seems to be a process there to makes me want to, that forces me to think that it was the Gulf Of Mexico. If I need to be forced to think I was in the Gulf Of Mexico for my 20th birthday, does that mean I needed to forget that I was actually in the Arabian Gulf for my 20th birthday? After I thought about that for a while, a few minutes ago I started wondering if it was actually my 21st birthday that I turned in the Gulf. Then I thought that maybe it was both. Maybe in March 1979 and March 1980, I was in the Arabian Gulf. I don't know why I would be there in '79, other than some kind of midshipman training. In March of 1980, when I would have turned 21, I could have been there in preparation for the attempted hostage rescue, Operation Eagle Claw.
According to this wikipedia article, that there were 53 hostages at the Tehran embassy being held by the radicals. According to this article, there were 52 that were releaed, but at the time of the rescue attempt, there were 53 captives. My starting salary at Microsoft in December 1998 was $53,000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_One
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/list_of_hostages.phtml
This reference to the Great Salt Desert, the staging area for the rescue attempt, reminds me of that memory on the Taylor. There was a problem with the fresh water machines and we couldn't wash clothes for a while. As I was standing lookout on the bridge at least once a day, my clothes were filthy from evaporated salt water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis
On the night of April 24, 1980, as the first part of the operation, a number of C-130 transport airplanes rendezvoused with eight RH-53 helicopters at an airstrip in the Great Salt Desert of Eastern Iran, near Tabas.
For some reason, the flag of Turkey reminds me of that camping trip that I went on with Randy Cole and his father, who was a surveyor. That may have actually been sometime around 1980, I need to think more about that to remember for sure. We camped on a mountain in Central- or North Arkansas that was called "where the moon drug." It was a reference to how there was a slope in between two peaks of the mountain, which formed a crescent shape, not unlike the crescent moon. I'm thinking it has something to do with being in Iran in 1980. Also, after I saw that flag of Turkey, I was reminded of a couple girls Mogge and I were hanging out with one day in Italy. We met them while we were visting Pompeii. The Wainwright was in nearby Naples. There is something about them that I associate with Turkey. They had either just come from there or they were on their way there.
http://islam.about.com/library/weekly/aa060401b.htm
1986. What is it about 1986?
There doesn't seem to be a STS-10. The one after STS-9 is when they started using a different designation code. I have been wondering if my Little Leaque baseball jersey number was relevant, which I think was '10.' I have also been trying to remember what it was about that jersey, seems like one of the numbers was about to fall off the shirt. After I just wrote that, I thought that maybe that actually is relevant. I can't remember if it was the '1' or the '0,' but if it was the '0' that was falling off the shirt, maybe that means I was on STS-1.
I've been trying to figure out more about the 62, 72, 46. I was thinking about how those flights, when using the first letter of the vehicles name, produced C.,E.,A. It is interesting that STS-47 was the first flight of Endeavour. I was trying to find an E.C.E.A., which was A.J.'s name, or Ecea. Can't remember her last name. But I think A.J. is supposed to remind me of Angelina Jolie.
July 27, 2006
I was thinking last night about a couple scenes from recent Star Trek movies. One was that scene from "Generations" where Kirk goes into that deflector control room to make some kind of fix to a system. I am wondering if that relates to what I read about the problem with the landing gear on Columbia during STS-1, assuming that info from wikipedia is even true as I haven't verified it yet. The second is from "First Contact" where Riker and LaForge ride along on the first flight of the Phoenix and how none of the people in the context of the movie, would know they were there because they were from the future.
I must have had something to do with these patrol boats. I remember the hydrofoils very well, but I don't remember anything about these boats.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/03idx.htm
The new patrol craft coastals (PC) were originally designated as patrol boat coastal (PBC), changed to PC's on 25 July 1991. Patrol Craft Coastal ships are built by Bollinger Machine Shop and Shipyard of Lockport, LA. All PCs were/are assigned to the United States Special Operations Command (USSSOCOM) and manned by Naval personnel of the Naval Special Warfare Command. The PCs mission is to conduct Maritime Special Operations, including: maritime interdiction operations, forward presence, escort operations, noncombatant evacuation, foreign internal defense, long-range Special Operations Forces (SOF) insertion/extraction, tactical swimmer operations, reconnaissance, intelligence collection, operational deception and SOF support as required. The operational capabilities of the PC are designed to meet the unique requirements of their Special Warfare missions.
Ah, here they are. And the Pegasus was the lead ship. I have this memory of one of them literally running circles around the Taylor when we were on that deployment in the Gulf of Mexico in 1985.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/16idx.htm
Patrol Combatant-Missile (Hydrofoil) (PHM) Index
PHM-1 Pegasus
I don't know why we did away with these fast boats.
That is almost 8 miles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_rocket
The vehicle is launched from another aircraft at approximately 40,000 feet (12,000 m)
http://www.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back/news.206
In June, the first launch of an advanced Pegasus XL from the L-1011 Stargazer carrier plane ended in failure; the cause has been identified as aerodynamic problems due to faulty hydro simulations (no wind tunnel testing was done).
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jun-1996/0230.html
"*Stargazer* is a specially modified Lockheed Martin L-1011 TriStar jumbo jet that's based at Meadows Field in Bakersfield," stated Jim Spellman, executive director for the National Space Society's Western Spaceport Chapter in Kern, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo county.
"It was named by OSC team members in honor of the first 'starship' commanded by fictional character Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the *Star Trek: The Next Generation* television series," Spellman added. The aircraft serves as the "first stage" by carrying the Pegasus XL rocket up to its 40,000 foot release point over the Pacific Ocean near Vandenberg AFB in Santa Barbara county.
"Upon release from *Stargazer* and a five-second freefall, the Pegasus XL's solid propellant rocket ignites
I am 4% less aggravated at having to live in this place as I was at Pioneer Square.
The Falklands also has a placed called Pebble Island. As soon as I saw that on the map, I remembered something about Tom Watson winning a pro golf event before the Open Championship in 1982.
It looks like Ramon had attended F-16 training at Hill Air Force base, which is listed as 30 miles north of Salt Lake City, Utah.
http://www.hill.af.mil/main/library/newcomer/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-107
Ilan Ramon...gained experience in flying the A-4, F-16 and Mirage III-C aircraft, which included time training at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
DAMN DAMN DAMN that teacher in high school.....she was the instructor for that TARGETS class I've written about....her name was Mrs. Hill!
July 29, 2006
I just saw this. For some reason I can't explain, I feel that it is relevant to me.
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1981/82081b.htm
Proclamation 4853 -- Commodore John Barry Day
August 20, 1981
By the President of the United States
of America
A Proclamation
Commodore John Barry, hero of the American Revolution and holder of the first commission in the United States Navy under the Constitution, was born in 1745, in County Wexford, Ireland. Commodore Barry was commissioned to command the brig Lexington, one of the first ships bought and equipped for the Revolution, and became a national hero with the engagement and capture of the British warship Edward on April 7, 1776. He distinguished himself throughout the Revolution and again shortly thereafter in the Quasi-War with France as a fighter and seaman.
In 1797, with the advice and consent of the Senate, President Washington appointed Commodore Barry Captain in the Navy of the United States and Commander of the Frigate United States. In so doing, the President said that he placed ``special Trust and Confidence in (Commodore Barry's) Patriotism, Valour, Fidelity, and Abilities''.
That John Barry proclamation was on August 20, 1981. The day before, August 19th, was when the U.S. Navy shot down those two Libyan Sukhoi's that were interfering with Freedom of Navigation exercises. I wonder if I was there. I want to say that Reagan was just a fan of the U.S. Navy's professionalism, but then I wonder more about that clue with me living on Wexford in Taylors in 1991.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Sidra_incident_(1981)
The first Gulf of Sidra incident, August 19, 1981, was an incident in which two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter fighter jets engaged two US F-14 Tomcats off of the Libyan coast.
When I think about the A-7, I always remember telling my mother one time when I was a kid that the A-7 could carry its weight in bombs. There is also this reference to the A-6 crew where one was a POW for a year. It says the pilot was killed, but is that the truth?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_history_of_the_F-14
Operations In Grenada and Lebanon
These incidents resulted in US air strikes against Syrian positions near Hammana. During the attacks one A-7 Corsair and one A-6 Intruder were shot down. The A-6 pilot was killed and his Bombardier/Navigator taken prisoner and released a year later. The A-7 pilot ejected and was recovered by friendly forces.
Obviously, the only probable way to get me killed is to keep me in this hibernation so that I won't remember my skills and training. They are forcing me to live under these conditions because I am more likely to get killed if I can't remember the skills and training I have used to fight terrorists in the past.
I hate being imprisoned here 4% less than I did being imprisoned in Pioneer Square.
This has also been a good exercise to suggest how I would behave in the future if I ever develop Alzheimer's. It was funny the other day; I was taking the bus down Aurora, I had just written something earlier in my journal about this feeling as though I was in the early stages of Alzheimers. I noticed a Holiday Inn Express had on their sign outside on the first line something about "continental breakfast." On the second line was "Alzheimer's Disease." I read it in the context of those commercials they run where people say things such as "I'm not really a brain surgeon, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night." It's clever and disturbing all at the same time. I doubt even Stephen King could write anything as disturbing as my reality every day.
July 30, 2006
For a while now, I have been wanting to write about another memory I have from when I was a kid but never got around to it. I used to imagine a situation where I was falling through the sky and I was thinking about how I would survive the fall. In this memory of this train of thought, I was standing on the trunk of a tree as it was falling through the sky, on its way to hit the earth. How a tree trunk could be so far up in the sky, because it wasn't simply about a tree falling over as I was standing in the top which would make more sense, rather the tree was falling a long distance. So anyway, I imagined that if I waited until the very last second before impact and jumped off the tree trunk, I would gently land on the ground. In my memory, I remember eventually understanding that gravity doesn't work that way, that I was traveling with the same momentum of the tree and I would hit the ground just as hard if I was standing on the tree or not. I wonder why I have that memory.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1028-01.htm
Two Years Before 9/11, Candidate Bush was Already Talking Privately About Attacking Iraq, According to His Former Ghost Writer
by Russ Baker
HOUSTON -- Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.
"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade•.if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency." Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker."
Bush's circle of pre-election advisers had a fixation on the political capital that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher collected from the Falklands War. Said Herskowitz: "They were just absolutely blown away, just enthralled by the scenes of the troops coming back, of the boats, people throwing flowers at [Thatcher] and her getting these standing ovations in Parliament and making these magnificent speeches."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030203-15.html
February 3, 2003
Is the President grateful that in 1981 this officer, as an F-16 pilot, helped demolish Saddam Hussein's nuclear plant at Osirak, near Baghdad?
MR. FLEISCHER: I think that many people expressed, after 1991, when the United States realized that, contrary to the intelligence information suggesting that Iraq was years away from the development of a nuclear weapon, they actually were only six months away. Had that mission not taken place at that time, the military mission in 1991 would have been made far, far more difficult. I just leave that as a statement of fact.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml
By June 2001, there still hadn't been a Cabinet-level meeting on terrorism, even though U.S. intelligence was picking up an unprecedented level of ominous chatter.
The CIA director warned the White House, Clarke points out. "George Tenet was saying to the White House, saying to the president - because he briefed him every morning - a major al Qaeda attack is going to happen against the United States somewhere in the world in the weeks and months ahead. He said that in June, July, August."
July 31, 2006
When I think more about Kalpana, I think I must have known her. I remember this woman I worked with early on at Microsoft, who I think was also of Indian-descent. What was her name? Charitha? She was on Jayne Donovan's team with me. I remember that time we had a team outing to go skiing up on the I-90 pass. One woman was talking about how Charitha had bought some ski gear the night before but then didn't go with us. There is something important about this skiing business. I just can't remember what it is.
This reminds me of that ladder that went up and out of Missile Plot on the Wainwright:
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-72/html/s95-12721.html
STS-72 Shuttle Mission Imagery
S95-12721 (May 1995) --- Astronaut Brian Duffy, mission commander for the STS-72 mission, prepares to ascend stairs to the flight deck of the fixed base Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC).
I've read about this "Glovebox" experiment a couple times lately and it keeps reminding me of something with my blue Chevrolet. The glovebox was in bad shape so I ripped it out and constructed a new one with wood boards and panels in shop class.
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-87/hires/s87e5002.jpg
STS87-E-5002 (November 20, 1997) This Electronic Still Camera (ESC) image shows Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist, with the Microgravity Glovebox Facility onboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Columbia.
AHA! The deck plating in Missile Plot. That has got to be it, something about the deck plating.
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/sodb/2-4d.pdf
So if I am reading that schematic correctly, the area above and outside of the landing gear is one of the places where you could enter the shuttle, aside from the regular entrances, so denoted for emergency entry I guess.
I'm not sure what that means. But if that is what it means, then you would actually be able to enter the compartment with the landing gear in it from inside the shuttle. And my memories of pulling up the deck tiles in Missile Plot on Wainwright must be something relevant.
There was that comment Scotty made about the Enterprise deck plates, I think in that TNG episode where he is rescued from transporter limbo.
Yeah, that's what they are calling them:
Moldline penetrations/access panels
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/sodb/2-5a.pdf
August 1, 2006
When I started thinking about STS-1 again this morning, I was thinking that I may have had a static line attached to me and that deployed my parachute after I fell out the landing gear. I wonder about that trouble item titled "Lateral oscillation at about 1.6 Mach" and I wonder if that was near touchdown and the roll threw me out the opening in the deck. Something still makes me think I hit the ground pretty hard so we must have been close to the runway, if any of this even happened at all.
After I thought of that idea about the static line, I thought again about this memory of a black lab. retreiver we used to have. I've wanted to write about it several times over the past, I guess, few months.
This seems to be another important difference. In "The Truman Show," he is on a set that is closed to the public. This movie sounds like the worst elements of both movies in that it is secretive as "The Truman Show" in that I can't figure out a location to go to where I can make it stop, and of "EdTV" in that every looney in the world has access to me during every second of this war crime.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000JMOD/sr=8-1/qid=1154497050/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7738403-3446267?ie=UTF8
At a slipping cable channel, two rancidly intelligent executives (Rob Reiner and Ellen DeGeneres) hold a contest, choose an appealing but ordinary guy-one Ed Pekurny (Matthew McConaughey), a video-store clerk in San Francisco-and put him on the air, live, twenty-four hours a day. The whole world watches and gets involved in Ed's life, which quickly resembles a soap opera.
"Ed" even has a brother named "Ray." "Ray" auditioned for the part, but they liked "Ed" better.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000JMOD/sr=8-1/qid=1154497050/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-7738403-3446267?ie=UTF8
THE STORY OF A NOBODY EVERYBODY IS WATCHING!, May 18, 2001
Reviewer: John Dagley "RonHowardFan@hotmail.com" (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews
Ed is an average, easy going sort of bloke who owns a local video store. Never one to go searching for the public's attention. That is until well-known television station True-TV has a slide in the ratings and need something new to keep their network Number 1.
Their solution is to broadcast one persons day to day life LIVE. Ed's brother Ray decides to audition, but the network like Ed better. At first Ed thinks maybe he shouldn't get involved in such public scrutiny, until his brother talks him into it.
After a slow, embarassing start to live television, Ed soon begins to enjoy the fame. He gets everything he ever wanted. Until his family and friends begin to regret their time in the spotlight, after some uncomfortable truths are learnt. Suddenly, Ed must decide which is more important, instant fame or a right to one's privacy?
Acclaimed director Ron Howard (Ransom, Apollo 13) explores the realities of instant fame, and all of the repercussions. A perfect choice of topic considering he has been in the public eye his entire life.
This illustrates why the manager broke into my apartment at Limestone and why someone stole my car that time. They wanted something they could eBay in the future.
http://news.com.com/2300-11397_3-6074268-2.html?tag=ne.gall.pg
'Star Trek' props live long and prosper
May 19, 2006 10:28 AM PDT
CBS Paramount Television Studios is offering more than 1,000 lots including about 4,000 items for the auction. Christie's expects to raise about $3 million from the sale but says the "emotional fury" is hard to gauge.
It's only plastic? Christie's will be auctioning the Enterprise this way: "A model of the Starship Enterprise-A, made from a modified plastic hobby kit--22 inches by 11 inches by 6.5 inches--used in visual effects production for 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country' and in earlier Star Trek movies. Estimate: $15,000-$25,000."
August 4, 2006
Hey....I just realized something...these screen captures, especially the one where Jack seems to be looking up at the trees after awaking from the crash.....it reminds of what I wrote about being passed out under the sink after that party. It was the anniversary party for Mogge and his wife in that cabin by the lake near Charleston. Tom Huston hit me on the head with the door.
http://www.lost-tv.com/pictures/thumbnails.php?album=24
http://www.lost-tv.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=24&pos=3
and there was that guy trapped under the landing gear:
http://www.lost-tv.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=24&pos=38
http://www.lost-tv.com/pictures/displayimage.php?album=24&pos=39
Didn't I read somewhere that the wreckage on the beach for those shots was from a Ten-Eleven?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-1011
Lockheed L-1011
In the early 1990s, Orbital Sciences began to use a converted L-1011-100 named Stargazer to launch Pegasus rockets into orbit around Earth.
In the ABC television series Lost, the set piece of the crashed plane was a retired L-1011, although it was supposed to represent a Boeing 777. The plane, which formerly served for Delta Air Lines, was cut apart and barged to the filming location in Hawaii.
http://www.lost-tv.com/transcripts/Pilot_Lost.htm
JACK [off camera at first]: We must have been at about 40,000 feet when it happened. Hit an air pocket. Dropped, maybe, 200 feet. The turbulence was: I blacked out.
KATE: I didn't. I saw the whole thing. I knew that the tail was gone, but I couldn't bring myself to look back. And then the, the front of the plane broke off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cast_Away
Release date December 22, 2000
Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks), a perpetually hurried FedEx executive, is the sole survivor of a harrowing plane crash.
I don't know why this seems important:
http://www.quotesbase.com/celebs/84/
[reading label on port-a-potty that has washed ashore]
Chuck Noland : Bakersfield? BAKERSFIELD! BAKERSFIELD!
I wrote earlier about some thoughts I had about me getting married at the WTC. Considering that those thoughts, which I perceived as something as a fantasy, involved me wearing my U.S. Navy officer's uniform, I am thinking that is probably some real memories I am remembering and not just imagination.
As I was reading this article, I remembered some thoughts, imagination-fantasy types of thoughts, that I was on the Roberts when it hit that mine in April 1988. I don't remember any of that, but just having those thoughts tells me it is probably reality trying to resurface.
http://www.navybook.com/nohigherhonor/chapter1.shtml
http://www.navybook.com/nohigherhonor/chapter1.shtml
It would take Rinn and his crew hours to add up all the clues, but the news they gathered early on wasn't good. The main engineroom and another capacious engineering space were inundated with oil-slicked water, and a third compartment was filling rapidly. Lose that one, and the frigate would likely plunge to the bottom of the Gulf.
The Samuel B. Roberts was flooding, on fire, surrounded by sharks and sea snakes, alone in a minefield in a sea at war. Its crew was fighting for their lives. But they faced the battle well-prepared, well-led, and with a sturdy ship beneath their feet. The outcome of the next few hours would, in no small part, be determined by events that began many years before.
Aha….. “Stark” sounds kind of like “shark.” Not sure what that means, it just popped into my mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Angels
Today is a very special and memorable day in your military career that will remain with you throughout your lifetime. You have survived the ultimate test of your peers and have proven to be completely deserving to wear the crest of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.
The prestige of wearing the Blue Angels uniform carries with it an extraordinary honor — one that reflects not only on you as an individual, but on your teammates and the entire squadron. To the crowds at the air shows and to the public at hospitals and schools nationwide, you are a symbol of the Navy and Marine Corps' finest. You bring pride, hope and a promise for tomorrow's Navy and Marine Corps in the smiles and handshakes of today's youth. Remember today as the day you became a Blue Angel; look around at your teammates and commit this special bond to memory. "Once a Blue Angel, always a Blue Angel," rings true for all those who wear the crest of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels. Welcome to the team.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Angels
The Blue Angels have a place in the local culture of many of the locations in which they fly. They are exceptionally popular in Seattle, being a staple of the city's Seafair celebration during the summer.
I didn't know that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Angels
Pilots in the Blue Angels are some of the only personnel in the United States Armed Forces to be saluted by officers of a higher rank than themselves.
The Blue Angels must be why my 1967 Chevrolet pickup with dual exhaust was blue. That would suggest that I was flying the Hornet while a Blue Angel. I have been thinking that I flew the A-4 too, but as with all of it, I don't actually remember it yet.
I wonder what would be the situation in Iraq if I had been on active duty in 2001 instead of in hibernation? I am quite certain the situation in Iraq would be much different than today for several reasons. One is that if I had not gone to work for Microsoft, 9/11 would not have happened. I would have probably came up with some very good reasons for not invading Iraq if 9/11 had happened anyway and if Bush was simply set on invading Iraq regardless of 9/11 as he was a wusy living in his father's shadow. Bush should never have even run for president as he isn't mentally or professionaly qualified for such a position.
