Mountain Launch

Mountain Flying

It has been a couple of years since l flew in the mountains. Autumn is a good time for Lookout Mountain Flight Park in north-west Georgia to host the Women's Hang Gliding Festival. I revisited the training hill to touch up my basic foot launch skills in the morning. This time, though, I'm prepared for total wetness from rolling in the morning dew. Then I learned how to deploy a parachute, which is not included in normal training. (Even you must carry one to aerotow, most people don't know how it works. It's kind of like a lot of people buy insurance, but don't actually know how it works when they need it, or will it work the way they expect it to. Being able to try it, and see how it works gives me more confidence.) And then there's more in-depth clinic in launching. We in fact did a lot of running the glider on flat ground. Another observation, if you look up, you will go up. If you look down, you will go down. I hope tomorrow the conditions will be calm enough to do some real mountain flying.

生命中不能克服的事情

看了一部巴西片‘The house of sand’，故事講及三代的女人，多年來都想離開這與世隔絕的沙丘。片中有迷人的連連沙丘，和令人心痛的「生命中不能克服的事情」。但到最後，不能克服的卻變成了習慣，而且不想改變。片中最後的對話；已經是中年的女兒告訴一把年紀的母親，有人上過月亮。母親興奮地想知道他們找到什麼, 卻失望和失神地得知，找到的只是沙。

Studio upgrade

There are two major upgrades in my studio recently. Both involved a bit of work after purchase. A new Samsung window AC replaced the 18 years old Kenmore. Firstly, it took some help of a friend to get the heavy unit out. Then some wood works around the smaller unit. In fact, I almost never use the old unit because of the amount of noise it makes. So, it's a lot of sweats in every piece of my works. :> Second upgrade is from a boomboxes to a shelf system with built in iPod dock. (The remote didn't work, had to get a replacement). Now, I can truly control my environment with my sticky muddy fingers with remotes (in ziploc). What a life improvement after only 300 bucks.

Classic & Modern

The two most important people in the history of animation are Winsor McCay and Walt Disney. Even most kids don't know about McCay, it took Disney a decade to match his works. In this almost a century old collection of silent film, it's the piano music catch my attention. Amazingly classic & modern, composed and performed by Gabriel Thibaudeau.