Boots on the brain

Newly acquired:

October

Autumn is here. I like this season alot, probably a little because I was raised in Florida, where it brought a relief from the heat, and it's the season that marches straight into Christmas.

The last month has been mostly somber, due mostly to the loss of Don, but it hasn't been all bad. Not to sound too too sentimental, but sometimes you are made fully aware of what you have, how lucky you have been, and how precious time is. And then of course, it gets to be too emotional to dwell on so you throw yourself into other things.

I just finished a book my sister Liz let me borrow called NightWatch by Sergei Lukyanenko. I liked it, mostly because it was an unusual fiction read. It's set in modern day Russia, which is interesting, and the storyline has about 3 or 4 humps. The same characters, but in what feels like connected 'episodes.' Anyway, it keep me going strong until the end.

Dan has been working alot lately putting out never-ending fires of a simulator in 'integration' - that part where everything is thrown together, and come what may, it all needs to work. This difference with the project he is working on now (and for which I worked on for the first 2 months or so), is that there are multiple companies contributing different portions of the simulator, for example, one does the motion, the visual system and the FLIR, and another does the instructor station, the computer-generated forces, the radar, and so on. So not only do you have to deal with the common problems of getting things to work together, using relatively the same technology, but you have to interface with other companies (who are your competitors usually) to get the project completed. Add the real-time simulation requirements for a flight simulator, and you run into some tricky situations. Anyway, long story short, there is still much work to be done, but I know it will get there. Dan's awesome. And of course, there is no other option. ;)

I'm happy with what I'm doing right now at work too, I don't ever want to go into much detail on the internet, we've all read the horror stories about the employee from Microsoft, etc... but I've been given two systems for a new simulator and they are both things I've not done much with before, so I'm learning new things. Plus, I like my new group, the people seem to be good at what they do and low drama -- not trying to make themselves look good at the expense of others. Two things I really can't stand is stupid/lazy co-workers and drama queens. So I think I got lucky.

So while Dan is gone in France for work during the week, I have been watching old seasons of One Tree Hill. I am strangely addicted to this show right now. It's drama, it's based on high school, things that happen are sometimes(usually) highly improbable, yet for some reason it makes me warm and fuzzy. So who cares. I really hope the new season is good and the momentum continues so it can stay in production.

I ordered some books from Amazon.co.uk, the closest online English book dealer (that I know about), but I haven't received my shipment of books yet. I unknowingly ordered right at the beginning of the strike there, seems like every country in Europe is on strike about something.. Anyway, it's been 3 weeks and still no package. Not looking good. I'm going to the post office here tomorrow, see if the notice got lost, maybe I'll get lucky.