Back from the dead

Okay, time to resurrect this blog...

Expect content soon

Sorry, nothing about the FAA today...

So I want to be a writer... 

All I have to do is rekindle the fire...

For that, I need some matches.  Or a couple of rocks.  That'd be more my style, bang some rocks together until something creative comes out.  Of course, the neighbors will probably look askance if I sit under the willow tree, bashing fist sized quartz cobbles together.  Might be fun, but I'm going to need a scotch or two.  On the rocks (pun intended...)

As long as I'm banging rocks together, let's see what ideas do come out.  Way back when, I outlined a few storylines to work on, eventually I chose Imperfect Hope to work on first.  I did indeed finish the first draft, printed it out, and promised myself a break before getting back into the grind.  I suppose a year and a half is a long enough break.  I've started rereading IH, taking notes on the storyline, and trying to see how much rewrite, as opposed to revision, it's going to need.

I know I touched on it a bit ago, but right off the bat, I can see my opening is weak.  Not so much the writing, but the concept.  What I'd decided way back when I finished the first draft was that I was starting the story as if the readers were already familiar with the protagonists.  In essence, it was as if I was writing the third installment of a three book series, assuming the reader already had "an investment" in the characters.  So...  I did start writing the new origin of the story, untitled and, as yet, without a firm plotline other than a hope to introduce the main characters (and all the background) to the readers in a more involving manner. 

However...  The storyline needs to be developed before I go any further.  So time to get a brainstorm on...

I need a real gully-buster of a brainstorm.  Filled with thunder and lightning, blizzard conditions, maybe a tornado or two...

Hmmm...

More to come...

Clear skies, (except, perhaps, in the new project...)
Jim

7 months to go...

Here we are in september already.  Guess I'll start a countdown, 7 months to retirement.  Barring any surprises, my last day as an air traffic controller will be march 31st, next year.  Guess what...  I'll be ready...

It's silly season again, political ads are spewing filth all over the place.  Despite the fact that almost nothing you see or hear from either side tells you anything useful except what a despicable character the opponent is or makes vague, unattainable promises, there are those who believe what they see and hear as "TRUTH".  Bad enough we get it from paid advertisements on television, worse that our "unlisted" phone gets bombarded with "unknown" recorded messages that bark inanities to our answering machine.  (note to any political's reading this, if the number shows up as unknown or blocked, we don't answer, and chances are the message will be deleted seconds into the recording.  (Oh wait, a political reading...  not gonna happen...))

The latest recorded message to hit our phone, played by both sides, is a fake town hall meeting, where you supposedly get to hear a broadcast of a live town meeting, and perhaps if you're lucky and answer the phone, you can ask the candidate a real question.  Except it's baldly plain it's merely another recording.  What's really annoying about this, however, is that it ties up my phone line for several minutes of some nim-null blathering on about bull****.  It's not easy to get them off your line, either, if you pick up the phone and hang it back up, somehow it remains connected, and minutes later, if you try and use your phone, ta-daa, they're still blathering...

Another exceedingly annoying part of this years campaign are the non-stop "status updates" on facebook.  Okay, it's your right to like either candidate.  I'd really rather not have you re-post political propaganda that I have to then go in and block from showing up on my page.  The problem is, in most cases, it's pure party propaganda, the same unsubstantiated rumor/half-truth/lie that is getting broadcast on TV or spewed into the answering machine of my home phone.  If the info being shared were anything other than leftist or rightist propaganda, I might read it.  I won't read/listen to propaganda from either side.  I don't care if you heard that first lady Michelle Obama has a staff of 22, the most of any first lady (and check out snopes.com to debunk that myth), or that Romney didn't pay taxes for more than 10 years, an unnamed source told me so...(really, an unnamed source?  What about the rumor I heard...  Bleah!)   Junior High School students make up better gossip than that...

Oh the joys of being an independent voter in a battleground state....

Clear skies,
Jim

July and still ERAM'min...

Well, we've gotten through 8 weeks of ERAM, the new air traffic control radar display system.  Is it workable?  Yes.  Is it good?  Bits and pieces of it.  Some of the features are an improvement over what we used to use, some are a step backwards in useability.  Overall, it's a wash.  Nice to know the gov't has spent multi-billion dollars on something that works almost as well as the system it's replacing...

Yes, eventually, when they get all the annoyances, glitches, and bugs out, it will be a good system.  However, my work load is increased, right smack in the middle of thunderstorm season, and in an effort to handle the extra workload the new system introduces, we're working more overtime than ever. 

(Insert grumpy old man noises here...)

And that's enough about ERAM...

Back to the original reason for this blog, writing.  As most of you have probably realized, my writing output this last year and a half has been pretty non-existent.  All the usual excuses pop up.  However, that doesn't mean I've forgotten about my ultimate goal, writing.  Waking up the creative process is underway, despite the challenges of extra time at work.  Little writing exercises with a cup of coffee in the morning, perhaps in conjunction with tossing the occasional bran muffin at those blasted squirrels who are starting to take interest in my apples and pears (which should be ripe soon...)  Find the right bran muffin, and I'll give a concussion to one of those tree rats...  ;-)

At any rate, where to start with writing exercises.  Oly the weatherman comes to mind, as does some pre-story for Imperfect Hope.  I'll let you know where I start, soon as I figure it out...

Clear skies,
Jim

She swallowed the cat...

... To catch the rat...

Eram's coming...  The new FAA en-route air traffic control center radar display is undergoing another 48 hour test, with a new patch to fix the problems they found last week...

Among the current problems, the patch they put in last week to try and fix some of the previously identified problems introduces us to a new bug, in which the altitude conflict probing (a tool used to predict a conflict when you "trial plan" an altitude change works in a way that nobody predicted.  Rather than predict a conflict based on the aircrafts real time position, ERAM backtracks the aircraft to it's previous fix (up to an hour in the past), then assigns the altitude and probes for conflicts from that point.  In otherwords, it's useless to us.  So today, when I get in for an overtime shift, I get a briefing on how to work around this "problem".  (Basically don't use conflict probe when trial planning an altitude). 

But this latest patch did fix the problem of aircraft creating a false conflict with itself in the middle of nowhere.  So, in an effort to fix this problem, they created a new one...

...She swallowed the rat to catch the mouse...

As a result, they're introducing a patch in the middle of next week that will un-fix the random conflict alert problem, but fix the conflict probe problem...

...She swallowed the mouse to catch the spider, that wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her...

Who knows what the next patch will break.

...She swallowed the spider to catch the fly...

But we're still on track to launch this bottle rocket next weekend, bugs or no bugs...

... I don't know why she swallowed the fly.  Perhaps she'll die...

Next up?  Will the FAA try to keep london bridge from falling down... 

Clear skies,
Jim

Here we are, thunderstorm season already...

 I'd ask what happened to winter, but I already know. It melted...

So what's happening in the wide world of ATC and writing? Same story, different day. No writing done of late, the FAA has finally succeeded in destroying my creative efforts thru massive fatigue. The FAA continues to grind away, we're testing (read periodic live tests) a new computer/radar display system. Someday, it will be an improvement. Right now, it's... Less than ideal...

Reasons for my initial dislike of the new system: It's buggy. It's awkward. It's a change.

It's buggy...
Two years overdue, and they still find problems that sometime cause aircraft data blocks (the tags we use to identify aircraft) to disappear. We've been briefed on more than a dozen "work arounds" to known problems, issues that range from inconvenient to downright dangerous. However, the political football has been tossed, some highly placed bureaucrats in the department of transportation face embarrassment if the new system isn't implemented NOW! Guess what wins when you put safety against a bureaucrats career...

It's awkward...
The new system was designed by a bunch of bureaucrats and engineers. None of whom had any real experience with air traffic control. Oh, they observed us working, saw how the old system ran, and from that, they designed something essentially from the ground up. As a result, a lot of effort went into features that the bureaucrats thought would be useful, for example, Automatic forwarding of holding delays to the national flow control center for data recording. Old system: Supervisor with a piece of paper writing down delay information and having a flow controller enter a delay report twice a day. New system sounds nice, no? Except, in order for the system to work, the controller working the traffic is now responsible for at least a half dozen data entries per aircraft put into holding that he didn't have to worry about before. I know, six data entries doesn't sound like much, except that in a holding environment, the controller generally is full-on focused on keeping the aircraft away from each other. I really don't want to take my eyes off the scope for even a moment, but soon I'll have to enter holding pattern data that was handled quite nicely by a bored supervisor with a pen and paper... Many other examples exist...

It's a change...
I've had 25 years of working on the current system, even though it's gone through several computer upgrades, the previous improvements left the way I work traffic pretty much unchanged. I know where a weather report is going to appear when I call one up, I know where to look to find the hot button to identify a radar sort box when a problem comes up... (Etc...) The design techs arranged things the way they think it should be, not based on how we think it should be. I really don't need 5 different ways to do one thing, each involving 5 or 6 steps, I want one way to do it in 2 steps. Sure, the techies think it's cool. Controllers don't do cool. We do safe. Over and over. Period.

As you can see, I'm on a bit of a rant. Someday, the new system will be a helpful improvement, when they get all the bugs out, when we streamline our procedures to get back to keeping our eyes on the radar screen. Probably after I retire... In the meantime, with thunderstorms building, it's going to be an ugly summer, because like it or not, we're probably going 24/7 on the new system in one week. See the light in the tunnel? It's not the exit.....

Clear skies, regardless...
Jim

Somewhere, a snowy, wind-swept plain

Crow: "Is it dead?"
Squirrel: "I dunno, it ain't movin! Whaddya think?"
Crow: "Maybe... They're pretty tricky. Poke it, why doncha"
Squirrel: "I ain't touchin it, it smells terrible! You poke it!"
Crow: (Hops around to the other side of the body) "Uh-uh. They're pretty tricky, might just be playing dead. Why don't you throw your acorn at it?"
Squirrel: "And waste a perfectly good acorn? No way!"
(The hand twitches)
Squirrel: "Aieeeee! I'm out of here, it's alive!"
Crow: "Nah, that's just a reflex. Go ahead, poke it!"
Squirrel: (over his shoulder as he scampers off in search of a tree) "No chance. See ya!"
(The hand twitches again) Crow flies up to the fence post. "Guess I'll wait around and see what happens"

(To be continued...)

October

Writing continues to be on the back burner, the FAA has demanded far too much of my time and energy of late. However... Looks like the overtime trend is backing down as we enter the doldrums of travel season. Let's see what I can do to fire up the creativity, or at least crawl out from under the log...

I've actually joined the facebook world. Mostly to get in contact with long-lost relatives. It has been fun to see recent new pics uploaded from the other side of the world. Of late, while I've been trying to unwind after work, I'll share a pandora radio link to something new that's caught my interest. Otherwise, there's still a lot of junk that I can ignore...

Silly season approaches. IE, time for the loonies to come out and run for office. Ugh.

We've had a warmer than usual fall here in Colorado, averages more like the beginning of september rather than october. As a result, I'm still having to mow the lawn. Guess that's one good reason for the first snow of the year...

As I've mentioned, retirement looms. 12 or 18 months, depending on what happens with our retirement plan. Irma and I have talked about what we'll do with all the extra time. Consensus is, we're going to be busier than ever, but with good things. I know my writing attitude will improve, plus more time to just do what we want. Fly Fishing ranks high up on the to-do list. We've even talked about IFGS. I doubt I'll be bored.

Anyway... I always say, more to come. Perhaps I'll drag out some old D'oril tales to revisit, writing wise...

Clear skies,
Jim

Dog Days

August. Last post, (I know, I'm sorry) was last June. Perhaps I can claim that July doesn't exist, since there's no blogging proof... ;-)

It's been a weird and difficult thunderstorm season at work. I've done little writing as a result, though I will admit to some wool-gathering about storyline ideas for Imperfect Hope. I've not given up on it, just sidelined it for a time. Same with Ole the Weatherman, ran into time issues. September will be better. I promise myself...

I did get selected to appear for jury duty. Conventional wisdom here at denver center is that Air traffic controllers never get past the first round of questions, assuming you even get selected. I can't think of another controller here that has actually served on a jury. So, summons in hand, I showed up at the courthouse, expecting a "thanks, we don't need your type here".

Surprise.

I ended up serving on a 4 day criminal trial. It was an eye-opener. At first (and probably like every other person on the jury) I felt like "Oh, great, what a burden. Lets get this over with"... Opening statements painted the defendant in a very bad light, and at first, it seemed like it was going to be easy. After all, the prosecution had numerous witnesses, a 911 call, police reports, and cell phone tapes to back up their claims. However, I was careful to not prejudge (even though the defendant "looked" like a thug...

My optimism for an easy verdict fell to pieces as the prosecutions first, "star" witness began to open her mouth.

In a nutshell, she contradicted herself several times in the first few minutes. She contradicted her statements to police minutes after the crime, she contradicted her later statements to investigators months later, and she even began disparaging the next upcoming prosecution witness before she even got to the stand.

There followed witness after witness whose statements the day of the "event" matched statements made to investigators over the next few months only rarely. The most believable testimony came from a 16 year old girl, who basically said to police the day of the event, and on the stand last week, "I didn't see a bat, there was a lot of chaos". She did tell investigators about a bat 6 months back, which backed up her mom's (Star witness #1) claims.

The 911 call was odd, in that for the first 30 seconds of the recording, the witness was calling everything out in real time... "He's chasing us with a bat... He just ran his car into a house... He's attacking my husband with his car..." The next 2 and a half minutes were a past-tense narrative. There was no vocal transition between the two stages of the call. Initial police reports, told of the witness claiming she made the call from the dead end street where the assault was taking place. She told investigators she made the call when the defendant first pulled out a bat. On the stand, her husband contradicted her statement by stating that "they made the call from the house".

There were many other discrepencies.

Defense witnesses, amusingly enough, consisted of police officers called to the scene.

Unfortunately, the DA (or ADA) was very articulate, and the public defender was much less so. When we the jury got the case, there were only two of us who had "reasonable doubt" about the prosecutions version of events that night.

Two days of logic presentation, argument, and discussion later, we found the defendant not guilty of the 5 most serious charges (including 3 felonious assault), and guilty of one count of "reckless endangerment" (Police found tire tracks of his car cutting across a lawn at high speed).

The "thug" began to cry when the 4th not-guilty verdict was read.

During the pre-trial brief, the judge defined reasonable doubt for us. Among the legal descriptions, she included the observation. "You can be assured that reasonable doubt exists when, two days after the trial, you wonder to yourself what really happened, or you have a bad "feeling" about your decision. (odd commentary from a judge at the time)".

I feel good about our decision. And, interestingly, I came away with a sense of accomplishment.

I won't discuss my feelings about the legal system in general, however. I'm still a cynic. Most of the time...

Clear skies,
Jim

June's bugs

Another month almost gone. I'll not bore you with more tales of FAA madness, suffice it to say that it's still an ugly summer thunderstorm season. Writing wise, however, I feel like it's time to get back to the future job. I suspect a week off from work last week has a lot to do with the improved morale.

We did go on a vacation last week, 8 days in Alaska, as well as attended our nieces wedding while we were up there.. Not Irma or my first trip, but we brought along Claudia, Gerardo, and our 6 year old Granddaughter for their first Alaska experience. Tatiana (the granddaughter) was one Meghan's (the bride) flowergirls. It was both a wonderful wedding (though more than a little odd to be at the reception, nearing midnight, and still bright daylight (though the shadows were quite long)), and a great relaxing vacation. We stayed at a condo in Girdwood, beautiful, restful, with a mountain stream burbling outside our balcony. I'll post some pictures in the near future.

Among the highlights (beside the wedding), we took a day cruise out of Seward into the Kenai Fjords national Park. Even with a little drizzle, it was a great day, saw sea otter within 5 minutes of leaving the dock, Orca, Porpoise, Humpback Whales, innumerable sea birds, including Puffins too stuffed with fish to get airborne, and house sized hunks of ice falling off the Holgate Glacier. It was exhilarating.

Of course, we ate far too much (even cooking in the condo a couple of times), but hey, that's what vacation is for. If any of you are ever in Anchorage, and crave pizza, however, I'll strongly recommend Moose Tooth, probably the best pizza I've eaten. It didn't hurt that he brews his own microbrews and sells (half-gallon?) sized growlers to take home with you. Yummm. Wonder if they deliver to Longmont...

Anyway, as always more to come.

Clear skies,
Jim

June? Already?

Okay, somebody stole May.  I blinked, and it was gone.  Local police have no suspects, but I have a feeling that it was either the illuminati, or the Boulder County Commissioners.  Either way, I'll never get it back now...

     Work at the FAA has been brutal, our thunderstorm season hit early, and the patterns we've faced have been ugly.  Nothing like a line of thunderstorms 600 miles long to mess up the system.  I have had an opportunity to see the control room from a different viewpoint lately...

     I work on a crew that butts up against a senior crew on one end, and a junior crew on the other.  I'm senior on my crew, could have been on the senior (A) crew, but chose to avoid working mids and hence selected B crew.  That means that one night a week  (Tuesday), I'm working with more experienced controllers, and on Wednesday I work with mostly junior.  The way the evenings run on either day show the differences between 20 years experience, and 7.

     Tuesday nights, when we've had bad weather, we've gotten through with much less drama and panic and screaming than similar weather on Wednesday nights.  It's not that the senior controllers are all that much better, individually, the b crew controllers are almost as skilled with routine operations.  The experience shows as the senior controllers handle the pressure, coordinate with each other, and keep coming back for another round.  The juniors get clobbered, and tend to be gun-shy the rest of the night.

     There are other differences, junior controllers tend to use one or two main "outs" when confronted with a difficult situation, senior controllers have a much larger 'bag of tricks'.  Sometimes the one or two outs that the junior has learned just can't be applied.  Also, senior controllers work faster, even though they speak more slowly (which increases pilot comprehension and hence reduces repeating instructions). 

     On the other hand, the junior controllers aren't jaded.  They'll come back the next day fresh and ready to try it again.  Senior controllers have a "been here, done it too many times before, gonna get clobbered again and it's gonna hurt, oh well.." almost Eeyore-ish attitude to another day of thunderstorms. 

     Anyway...  One year, ten months...  Not that I'm counting...

TTFN
Jim

sleeping addenda

Good Morning, I'm well rested and ready to go... Uhhhh. At least, as much as possible when my sleep schedule has been disrupted for 23 years...

I won't blather on about the current ATC crisis much more, but at least the news media is finally recognizing something I've said for five plus years, there's a shortage of conrollers now, and it's going to get worse. I did want to comment on sleep-gate one more time. Our fearless leaders continue to nod their heads at the media ("yes, yes, safety was never compromised, we're addressing the problems, don't worry, those lazy-ass controllers will be dealt with...") This in the face of more and more evidence showing up as to how fearless leaders have ignored the problem for 25 years+.

I recently read an opinion piece that seems to address the problem from a reasonable and intelligent point of view. Charles A. Czeisler, Ph.D., M.D., is Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine and director of the Divisions of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, he posted an opinion on CNN referring to his long history with the FAA and sleep studies. The full text of his article is ... http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/26/czeisler.sleep.air.traffic.controllers/

Some of the key points he addresses are that he advocated reforms to the FAA's controller schedules way back in 1983. Ignored by our administrators. In 1989, the NTSB (national transportation safety board) cited the FAA's response to air traffic controller fatigue as "unacceptable". In 2001, an advisory committee recommended schedule reform and fatigue management programs. Ignored. In 2007, the NTSB strongly recommended the FAA change it's scheduling practices and implement the fatigue management programs that had been recommended following a series of fatigue related air traffic control incidents. Ignored.

Now our FAA administrators are acting surprised at the revelation of tired air traffic controllers making mistakes.

I'm, sadly and cynically, not surprised.

Reading more on the sleep experts, I've come to realize that the fatigue that the article talks about seems to affects everything I do. My friends in the IFGS have often wondered why I poke my head up so rarely to join in on the fun and games, others observe that my schedule, though it gives me a full weekend off (except when I'm assigned mandatory overtime...), still seems to prevent me from socializing regularly. Irma's been a saint, more often than not we'll make plans and I'll back out at the last minute, mostly because of just a deep, probably subconscious, fatigue. I'm used to being tired at home, knowing that on my next shift, I've got to fire it up and be ready. It's been this way for 23 years. You get so used to it, you don't even notice it.

Announcement: Jim retires in 25 months. Mandatory. Even if the FAA changes the rules, I've decided. April 2013, I get my life back. Counting down.....

Who wants to help me plan the retirement party...

Here's to 2013...

TTFN
Jim

Time for a nap

Probably a few of you have noticed the recent firestorm surrounding the actions of a few air traffic controllers of late (or more appropriately, the non-actions). As is typical, our friends in the media tend to bloviate without any understanding on what is really going on, as well as tend to jump on the "lets find any dirt we can on them as long as we're looking" bandwagon. Keep in mind, there have always been a few who screw up, in this case 3 or 4 controllers out of some 7000 nationwide. Some of you probably wonder what I think of all of this...

I'll tell you after my nap... ;-)

Seriously, the media is turning this into a circus (but hey, that's their job). The fact is that on a midnight shift, there are long periods of extreme boredom. Because of our short staffing, many facility managers have made the choice to reduce staffing on the midnight shifts in order to have more controllers on duty during the busy day and evening shifts. That's fine, except if you're one of the mid shifters who is stuck in the control room alone. (Thankfully, I don't work many mids, since I've the seniority to pick a better schedule most of the time)

Here's the recipe for the scandal, though. A few years back, one administrator or another, (who likely never worked a minute past his 6:00 pm work-day end), decided that the control room was filled with too many distractions on the midnight shift. Yes, the lone controller often brought a radio into the control room, perhaps he brought a crossword puzzle book to work on between flights through his sectors, maybe there was a chess set set up on the supervisor's desk for an adjacent area controller to swap moves with. Said this administrator, "BAD DOG, No biscuit! Get all distractions out of the control room". Now, the lone controller gets to sit in a semi-dark room, staring at empty radar screens, for hours at a time. Nobody to talk to, because the facility manager stripped the mid crew of staffing to avoid paying overtime on the day shift. No planes for dozens of minutes at a time. Absolute. Utter. Boredom.

Now, you stay awake at 2:00 am, during your second shift of the day.
Really! I mean it. Stay awake!
NOW! Stay awake, dammit.
Okay, your turn for a break, here's your relief. You have one hour before your next turn in the control room. Go ahead, watch tv. Read. But, DONT take a NAP, the public will see you sleeping while you're on the job. That will make the administrator look bad!
Back into the control room. Still no traffic. Stay awake some more. WOnder how long the coffee will keep you alert.
Repeat all night until the morning crew shows up at 6:00 am.

And that's in the center, where we staff 2 controllers for the shift, allowing them to alternate breaks. The small towers often only schedule 1 person all by themselves for the entire night. No breaks. No allowed distractions in the control room. Did I mention no breaks?

A few years back, we had three controllers working the mid shift here each night. Two would be in the control room at all times. That extra person isn't so much to handle the busy workload, instead he was there to help you stay awake.

There are logical solutions out there. Sleep experts will tell you that a power nap would make all the difference, pilots are allowed to alternate short naps while they are flying, so long as one of the flight crew up front is in charge of the plane. Firefighters don't sit up all night playing cards while waiting for an alarm, they have beds and they use them. Returning to an extra person on the mid shift would do wonders as well, having a second person in the control room at all times would pretty much eliminate controllers falling asleep at the sector.

Shame the administrators put a higher value on saving money rather than flying safety.

Anyway... This firestorm of media attention is, as usual, annoying, but in the words of my louisiana born and raised supervisor, "It don't mean a thang..." We'll keep grinding through the heavy traffic during the day with 33 percent fewer controllers than we really need, and the mid shifters will grind away at the boredom as best they can.

Otherwise, the country will stop flying.

Clear skies,
Jim

Spring Break

Not the kind of spring break you may have been hoping for. I took a break from blogging in March. Work continues, writing continues, and soon we'll see how our government runs with all the non-essential personnel sent home because our leaders in Washington can't come up with a compromise. Cue the cynical boo's...

What comprises "non-essential" personnel? Among others, the folk who process the essential personnels paychecks. The ironic thing is, they'll go home for a week or two, and when they're called back in, they'll probably put in overtime to catch up. However, I'm willing to bet you they won't lose any pay for the time off, either. Just the way our govt works. Meanwhile, if this lasts more than one week, expect to see the "essential personnel" like the military or air traffic controllers face delayed paychecks. "No one to process them, sorry folks. Just keep showing up, and we'll pay you, eventually..."

Did I cue the cynical boo's yet?

Good thing our health care system isn't under this program. Oh... wait... More cynical boo's...

On the positive side, It's grillin season. Going to be doing some "Three Day, Margarita-chipotle ribs" soon. Mmmmmm.

TTFN,
Jim

Grinding away

     I've been working (with my brother) on a short story for the Grantville Gazette these last couple of weeks.  It is a different world working on a project for a targeted audience, inside a pre-defined world.  I've actually been doing a fair amount of historical (or hysterical?) research as I go, trying to keep both characters and locale accurate, historically, as well as fictionally for the series 1632. 

     We started by bouncing ideas off each other, looking for something that hasn't been done in the world yet, as well as trying to play to our strengths, we eventually started on "Ole the Weatherman" (Tentative Title).  Ole, a norwegian student and part time fisherman, ends up learning how to forecast the weather.  We'll see where it goes.

     On the research side, I've found it necessary to track some historical characters from that era, both those mentioned in previous books, and those as yet unknown.  We eventually selected the historical character, Evangelista Toricelli, an Italian scholar and occasional correspondent of Galileo.  Galileo played a part in the novel 1634 The Galileo Affair, which runs takes the up-timer Americans (from the future) to Venice and eventually Italy as Galileo's trial by the catholic church comes to a head.  It's a good read, really well researched and fun.

      Toricelli eventually became known for inventing the Toricelli Barometer in 1643, but there is an interesting gap in his real history from 1631, when he wrote Galileo in support of his theories on planetary movement, just prior to his incarceration by the inquisition ("No-one expects..."  <wince> (sorry, inside joke)) until his publication scientific papers and reappearance in 1641, when he returned to the public eye.  We're going to take him from 1633 or so and run with it, having him end up in Germany, where he gets tapped by the future-americans to help establish a weather forecasting office.  There are other twists we're working is, so...  Stay tuned.

     Why a weather forecast unit? That has to do with my observation that in the series, though weather reports are mentioned by many writers, none have taken the time to define the how, where and why.  Weather forecasting without computer models or satellite feeds was in real life far different that the forecasting we have now, and in the 1632 universe, that's exactly what they'll have to do.  Though there was some beginning research into weather data back then, forecasting didn't really take off until much later, at least on a scale other than locally.  We'll see if we can turn it into an interesting story.

     Imperfect Hope has been tabled for a while.  However, it's not forgotten, and every so often I think of something and write a note to myself.  A growing folder of random thoughts awaits me when Jeff and I finish our project.

At any rate...
CLear skies,
Jim

writing prompt and stuff.

Hey, all.

     Took some much needed time off, Irma and I spent a couple of days up in Estes Park at the Stanley hotel to celebrate our 15th anniversary.  Didn't do anything but rest, relax, and hike.  We had really nice weather, warm for this time of the year, and normally windy this time of year Rocky Mountain National Park was clear, sunny, and not much below freezing, made for a really relaxing hike.  We both came back refreshed, and I'm ready to write something.

     To get me in the mood, I dug out some writing prompts and tackled an amusing one, write a short bit from the point of view of a rope about to snap. 

    “Shaddup, If I hear you groan one more time, Mast, I’m going to snap.  You think you have it so tough, well let me tell you, mast, you don’t know what tension is.”  Rope creaked as another gust of wind stretched him taut as the mainsail belled out under the growing gale winds.

    As soon as the gust let up, rope sagged for a moment.  Under his breath, he mumbled to himself.  “No respect.  I’m pulled this way and that, and only time I ever get off is when I get so wound up my head’s tucked under my ass so tightly I can’t move an inch.  Splashed with salt water.  And so help me, if those stinking sailors smear that tar on me again, I, I, I don’t know what I’ll do.” 

    “You think you got problems, Haul line?  Try life as a belaying pin.  Either I got you wrapped around my neck, or I’m plucked outta my hole and swung left and right smacking hard headed sailors about by the first mate.  That’s right, discipline, rope.  And you ain’t got it.”

    “Shaddup, I said, you and mast both.”  Rope readied another curse, but fell silent as he caught sight of the rogue wave bearing down on ship.  “Ohhh, man, this is gonna hurt.”, he said to himself, then shouted over the wind.  “Hang on, fella’s, here it comes again...”

     The point of a writing prompt for me is to just write, don't edit, don't revise, so, there it is.  Now to tackle something with more meat...

Clear skies,
Jim

Channel changed...

     Well, I took my own advice, and changed my channel for a bit, I put Imperfect Hope on a back burner, and started fiddling with some ideas for a short story for the 1632 slush pile.  I have jotted down a couple of IH ideas and filed them away with the rest of the stuff for when I get back to it, but otherwise, I've put a fair amount of effort into just clearing my mind of the logjam that had developed...

     Writing a short for the 1632 universe is a complete change of channels for me.  Going from an entirely self-created universe to a shared world with some pretty exhaustive rules is a challenge.  I read a fair amount on the ground rules for writing there, they all make sense, (and would make really good sense in a shared ifgs writing world).  Major characters are "owned" by specific writers, new writers may petition to obtain rights to one of the 3000 or so "uptimers" known to have existed when Grantville jumped back to 1632, or may create any number of non-historical, non-major characters for their stories.  Technology has major restrictions, for example, no airplanes were transferred back to 1632, so when the Grantville army needed an airplane for scouting, they had to cobble one together using a vw bug engine and a relatively primitive design. 

     I've been bouncing ideas back and forth with my brother, comparing notes on "what we know", between my aviation background and his engineering background.  Jeff had spent a fair amount of time working in the north sea, and so has met some unique characters both on the offshore oilrigs, and on the mainland itself.  Me, I've dealt with aviation ups and downs, seen technology change over the last 23 years (oh so slowly in our bureaucracy), and handled many types of emergencies, from "ohgodfireinthecockpitwegottalandthisthingnowcentercanyouhearus" to an open-cockpit 1930's era restored monoplane stuck on top of solid cloud layers, no navigation equipment, and no holes in the clouds within 100 miles.  The latter is something that just might translate to a good 1632 type story.

     See, the way I figure it, one of the biggest lacks in the down time of 1632 for aviation wanna-be's (after the shortage of reliable aircraft powerplants is addressed) is navigation and weather.  No gps nav systems, no vor nav aids, no radio beacons.  No satellite weather forecasts, no current upper wind readings, no dopplar radar.  A pilot flying from point a to point b in 1635 will have to reinvent (or resurrect) dead reckoning navigation if he wants to fly in any kind of weather.  Even flying visually, there will be very few roads to follow.  Visual navigation will rely on geographic features, not terribly easy even in clear skies visibility 100 miles.  If you've not flown somewhere before, you'll have almost no visual references to tell where you are, one small hamlet will look exactly like another, and unless you've planned your flight carefully, chances are you'll be lost most of the time.  Rivers will become critical for knowing where you are, and since cities tend to be near rivers, they'll be a useful air highway...

     My job as a writer is to introduce a stick of gum into the gears, though.  One storyline to fiddle with involves a young swede or nordsk, trying to learn his now profession as a United States of Europe certified "weather guesser".  Stay tuned, we'll see if anything comes of the concept...

Anyway, more to come
TTFN,
Jim


     Weather forecasting today relies on computer models and satellite feeds.  60 years ago, though, forecasters depended on amassing hourly readings from all across the US, fed to the weather forecast offices where trained scientists analyzed the data and gave out limited forecasts.  Predicting conditions beyond a day or so was iffy.  Local conditions could be predicted several hours in advance with some accuracy, but...  Not the degree that we have now. 

     Since navigation and weather go hand in hand in early aviation, I think I've got a good story to piece together.  Gonna toss an idea football back and forth to Kuala Lumpur and see what come up.  More to come soon...

Another year...

Welcome to 2011.  And I thought 2010 looked like science fiction.  Time to look back at accomplishments of the past year...

     Okay, enough of that.  Things I didn't get done:  Imperfect Hope.  Yah, I know, it's been number one on my topics these last few months.  Time to change the channel...

     Got a note from my brother Jeff a few weeks back (Hi Jeff, know you're reading this), He'd gotten a short story published in the Grantville Gazette, a ezine dedicated to Eric Flint's 1632 universe.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is a shared world speculative fiction (sci-fi) series based on the concept of a time-transference of a small area surrounding Grantsville, WV from the year 2000 back to 1630 germany right smack in the middle of the 30 years war.  Eric Flint set up some very specific rules about writing in that era, most important of which is that the modern resources available to the uptimers (those from the year 2000) are restricted to an accurate inventory of what was actually in Grantville at the time of the transfer.  Population 3000 or so, coal miners and librarians and school teachers, no rocket scientists, no aeronautical engineers, no lost detachment of special forces soldiers on leave. 

     The grantville Gazette is an ezine consisting of non-fiction articles on recreating technology under those circumstances, historical references and conjecture on societal changes, and fiction short stories or serials based around the events of the print books co-written by Eric Flint.  Some years past, Jeff wrote a non-fiction article on "oil mining", a low tech source of much needed hydrocarbons that the Transplaced Grantsville residents might use.  From that article came his short story, co-written with Kiwi (I believe) Kerryn Offord about another potential low tech means of obtaining oil in 1634.  It's a good read, I have to admit. 

     Because it's published in an E-zine, I shouldn't post the entire story for the entire world to read, since it is a subscription e-zine, but they do allow previews of about half the story without buying a subscription.  You'll find it online at http://grantvillegazette.com/ .  For those interested, email me and I'll "loan" you my copy to read as long as you promise not to spread it willy-nilly about the internet.  (I'm sensitive to the needs of copyright protection, and since writers to ezines get paid through the 'zine's subscription, if you subscribe, you'll be supporting starving writers like my brother...  And perhaps me...)

     Not that he's starving, he and Bess Anne are in Kuala Lumpur living in a 3700 square foot penthouse working for a multinational oil company, and has to walk 15 minutes to his office on some upper floor of the Petronas Towers.  Other than being half a world away from the triplets, I suspect he's doing fine.  ;-) 

     I hadn't kept up with the 1632 series of late, though it's always been a fascinating storyline to me.  They've been pretty strict about keeping the limits of the recreation of technology realistic, and I've enjoyed the meshing of historical characters such as Galileo (tried for heresy in 1632 historically, I won't tell you how the writers have changed history in the book dealing with that case), and Richelieu with fictional characters such as Tom Stone (resident "non-traditional chemist known to the locals as stoner) and his rather undisciplined teenage boys, and challenging topics such as the catholic reformation, the plague, and politics, politics, and more politics.  Give it a read.  Perhaps I'll have a short story there someday...

Anyway, more to come soon, I promise...
TTFN,
Jim

december, finally some snow

     "That's the last of the cargo, sir"  Captain Lanso Malring tugged on his thin beard and eyed the wagon-sized pile of crates, barrels and sacks stacked up on the end of the stone pier, then acknowledged the bosun with a wave dismissing the lading crew.  The offloading had taken far longer than anyone had expected, but at least they'd finished before the brunt of the approaching squall hit.  His vessel sat on the leeward side of the stone causeway, only partially shielded from the building waves, even now spray was crashing across the pier, driven by the erratic gusts.  A pair of sailors finished loading a hand cart with some of the supplies, they kept their heads hunched down on their shoulders against the icy wind-driven water as they pulled the two wheeled cart down the pier toward the weathered shack at the other end of the pier.

     Captain Malring turned to the red haired man who had stood silently beside him the entire time the cargo was being unloaded.  "My men will finish moving the supplies to the supply shack at the other end, won't take but a few minutes.  You sure you don't need anything else?"   A minute passed with no response from the passenger, and the captain wondered again why anyone would take the job offered by the coastal league to tend the lighthouse, but then revised his opinion, if anyone would take such a job, it would be someone as enigmatic as this person.  He'd offered little more than the occasional grunt or nod of assent during the entire 3 day journey from  Port Whiterock, the longest conversation he'd had with anyone had been with the cargomaster about his personal gear when the gruff sailor had noted that some of the supplies seemed more appropriate for delivery to a brewery than a lighthouse, to which the mysterious passenger had replied, "who says a light house can't be a brewery".

     The above blurb is a writing practice I sat down to and keyed out over a pair of breaks at work.  There's been no polishing, editing, or rewriting.  It is a germ of an idea I've floated around relating to a tie between the the ifgs storylines of D'oril, and the literary storylines I'm working from.  The lighthouse referred to is also a tie with another story concept within the d'oril world I've occasionally referenced, Lighthouse, lighthome.  That story isn't well placed within the timeline yet, parts of it fit well with a precursor civilization that fell apart long before the confederacy of Imperfect Hope arose, but I haven't figured out the connection to the K'tath and their timelines.  Where will it go from here? 

     SInce it's been 6 weeks since I last posted, I feel I should apologize.  All I can say is, holiday travel can be a bear, and I've been doing this for nearly 23 years now.  Guess I'm starting to wear out.  On the plus side, I managed to get a 2 week vacation the last two weeks of december, first time I've ever had holiday vacation time.  Irma and I didn't actually go anywhere, instead the first week was prepping for christmas eve dinner, and week two (right now) is rest, rest, and rest.  We've done a couple of day trips up into the mountains, lots of snow there, and until today, none around here.  But, today, it's snowing, so we're staying in, and Irma's going to make some chile verde con puerco. (green chile pork stew)  Yummm.

     I mentioned 23 years.  Mandatory retirement is 2 1/2 years away, unless congress and the FAA change the rules, something they're threatening with the continued controller shortages.  I'm betting there will be some changes, but I'm still planning on stepping out of the ATC biz then, unless they offer some really good incentives to stay.  I'm not holding my breath.  However, the concept of retirement doesn't seem real yet.  Most people don't have the option to retire (with relative security) as early as controllers do, on the other hand, the stresses of the job make it a health risk for many controllers to continue, thus the reason for the mandatory age 56 retirement that stands right now.  The talk is that medical waivers are going to be granted based on health and some expanded requirements to keep our medical clearances. 

     Back to writing.  No progress on Imperfect Hope, some progress on background details, and a eureka moment regarding my writing habits.  These last few days of unfettered rest has opened up my creative channels, with the observation that being a controller wears me out much more than I thought.  I'm still thinking through the implications, and considering ways to keep the fatigue monster from chewing me up once I return to the grind next week.  Any suggestons (besides more scotch?)

     Anyway...  More to come, (he promises)  Watching the snow fall outside makes me think of D'oril...

TTFN,
JIm

Catching up with life

     This always seems to be the busy season for me.  Yardwork (winterizing), Work-work (transitioning from summer thunderstorm season to winter "ski-season" traffic patterns, and getting the house ready for the holidays tend to fill most of my time.  Despite that, I have managed to do some writing, if not on Imperfect Hope, at least with the goal of getting back into the groove.  With the silly season passed (er, election season), things are looking up. 

     Last post, I commented on "writing what I know", at least with regards to the lore and history of the D'oril world that I know very well.  Writing these last two weeks has put me back into that era, 60-100 years prior to the time of Imperfect Hope.  Since most of my lore from that time focuses almost exclusively on the D'oril forests of the K'tath and the incursions of the Tallux empire, I do have to provide some background on what is happening around the rest of the world.  I've made an effort to divorce the D'oril lore that references the IFGS lands that surround the k'tath homelands, and made good progress on replanting the characters I want to bring from the IFGS D'oril to the 'book' D'oril lands.  So, where do I begin...

     Obvious to me are the K'tath characters, with one exception all of my own creation.  Brandis, of course, as well as the NPC k'tath characters I developed while writing the IFGS games that took place in D'oril.  The Sen'anth (in the IFGS games, never actually named, just referred to by title, was killed by plotline mid Sha'te Valley (a player motivational event that didn't have the emotional impact I'd hoped for, but one I can refer to in the book version).  Kira, the deadly quiet Kel'anth, trying to hold the badly outnumbered kel together against the empire's legions.  Other fringe NPC characters also created for the games include Cinda and Merrick, of the Inn of the Stumbling Friar.  Their backgrounds, though never explored in the games, provide me with a great starting point for the surrounding areas.  Also of the k'tath, though not of that race, is Merlissa, a PC character that was tightly intertwined with Brandis' early character history.

     South of the E'tel river, the non-k'tath have a couple of regularly appearing characters.  Merrick, for example, is actually an Empire refugee.  He came to the lands south of D'oril from the empire some 10 years or so prior to Sha'te, one of a small handful of survivors of a shipwreck from an Empire expedition searching for wintergem sources along the western coast of D'oril.  A senior non-com (I hadn't decided whether he was an imperial marine, or a legionnaire), he found the lands south of D'oril to his liking, especially the relative freedom from oppressive government.  Cinda, the (in the games) stereotyped bar maid of the Inn of the Stumbling Friar, was also a refugee in a character history that was never explored in the games either.  She came from the lands to the south, fleeing the chaos following the fall of "the eleven kingdoms" just prior to the confederacy beginning to pull itself together. 

     Then there were the villains, most notably Phorix, Beauty, Grannach, and Yam'to.  Those four were the core of the Sha'te storyline, each representing an characteristic of the empire that PC's could relate to, or despise.  (all had some elements of each).  I'd written a lot about their pasts within my game lore, stuff not released to the players but instead intended to help me and the NPC's portraying them fill out their character. 

     The events surrounding Sha'te are both well defined and vague.  Vague in that, for the IFGS games, the empire had the clearly stated but vaguely motivated goal of conquering the area north of the E'tel, well defined in that they had put into a straightforward strategic plan to obtain that goal, and the 'good guys' (players and k'tath) were in the way.  Because of the way IFGS games are run, the sha'te storyline necessarily had the players react to the empire's plan.  Had I made Yam'to's strategy too complicated or convoluted, the IFGS gameline would have been overly complex.  Translating that to the Imperfect Hope world mostly involves revising the empires motivations, in part through the wintergems found in the D'oril forest, a source of magical power now hard to find in the empire but necessary for the emperors continued hold on the far-reaching lands he controls).

     I've found my thought process interesting, though, as I dig deeper into the sha'te era, I find more interesting projects to tackle.  So, do I sidetrack myself, or focus myself.  Stay tuned for the answer, soon...

Clear skies,
Jim