June 2008

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Blog accountability partners

June 30, 2008 in Aviation, Blogging, Friends, Homebuilding | No comments

Two years ago I entered the world of blogging through the back door.  A weblog to chronicle my airplane building project was the easiest way to track my progress, and a side benefit was that it connected me to a whole world of builders — quite literally around the world — who regularly connect with me to offer suggestions, to seek advice or just to say  “hi.” 

After my recent two-month hiatus from building (due to my bad back), I was surprised to hear from a good building buddy who told me he checks my kitlog daily.  That’s hardcore!  Talk about the power of intermittent positive reinforcement.  Sorry to leave you hanging for so long, Dave.  I’m back.

That was just a reminder to me to keep up both blogs for those who are tracking with me.  With the help of the “delayed posting” feature,  I hope to send out something — if nothing more than an interesting fact or observation — each and every day.  More later.

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The 2nd Anniversary of the week

June 29, 2008 in Family | 2 comments

In 31 years of marriage, which I celebrate today, there are many lessons to be learned.  In addition to the core curriculum of “love” and “respect”, I would add “listening 101” to the required courses for happiness in marriage.  Having flunked the course many times over the years, I’m technically on academic probation, but by the grace of my life instructor I see hope for a passing grade sometime before our golden anniversary.

When I announced to my wife that I was starting a blog, her aversion to “life in a fishbowl” became very evident.  She made it clear that didn’t want her name or picture on the Internet, perhaps because of watching one too many “Dateline” specials on cyber stalkers or identity theft.

Since I started my own blog on my own self-named website, we obviously don’t see eye-to-eye on this subject.  Viewing this as another quiz in “listening 101” I asked how I should refer to her, other than to say “my wife.”  With a perfectly straight face, she said I could call her “Pinky.”  Since my place is not to question why, I officially introduce you to Pinky, my wife of 31 years today.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so consider this one slightly discounted to roughly 925 due to the privacy bar I have inserted.  Here I am with Pinky on a trip to Solvang and Santa Barbara a few years ago.  Doesn’t she have a great smile?

We are blessed to have two great kids, Red and Pinky II (otherwise known as Ryan and Andrea, seen below).  Apparently they don’t share their mother’s grave concerns over the dangers of Internet exposure as both have My Space and Facebook sites, and Ryan is now responsible for developing Web 2.0 strategies for an international relief agency. 

 Seriously, I want to say that I’ve been blessed to have someone as caring and capable as Pinky in my life since our marriage in Gilbert, AZ on June 29, 1977 and I hope to be able to find new ways of showing her the love and respect she richly deserves, even if I am a bit of a late bloomer. 

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Two Anniversaries in two days

June 28, 2008 in Aviation, Homebuilding, Zenith Zodiac 601XL | No comments

Today I’m writing about the first significant anniversary to be celebrated this week.  On June 27, 2006 I was in Louisville, KY for the North American Christian Convention which was to begin the next day.  Taking advantage of my proximity (all things are relative) to Mexico, MO I drove nearly 6 hours each way to visit the Zenith Aircraft factory where I took my very first demo flight in the Zenith Zodiac 601XL. 

This was the culmination of decades of dreaming and months of comparing various homebuilt aircraft, and I left that day with plan set #6493, a metric tape measure and a smile.  Now, two years later, I have wings and all control surfaces in the hangar, my engine is  a few months from completion, and I’m starting to tie together the bottom half of the fuselage.  In retrospect, I feel quite good about my progress, notwithstanding a couple of unplanned delays (for parts and recuperation from a sore back).  Based on my rate of progress and level of determination, I predict that N601VP should be ready for an FAA inspection by this time next year.  This is the view I’m most anxious to have some time in 2009. 

Three years to scratch build an airplane seems downright respectable when I hear sad tales of full kits just collecting dust…sometimes for decades.  For the record, I wouldn’t pick a different course, even if I had it to do all over again.  The amount of learning and satisfaction I have gained from scratchbuilding has been well worth the extra work and increased time to fabricate parts.  Above all, I’ve enjoyed joining the community of airplane builders from around the world.  What could be better than broadening your circle of friends while doing something you love?  I’m hooked.

If you’d like to track my building progress toward the plane you see below, jump on over to my weblog anytime at www.mykitlog.com/lwinger.

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Jott & ChaCha (not a couple of morning DJs)

June 11, 2008 in Life in General | 1 comment

Almost every month we are introduced to some new tech tool, delivered by cell phone, that is absolutely free and revolutionary.  Over the last few months, my favorites have to be Jott and ChaCha.  One is driven by voice recognition and the other by starving college students.  I’ll explain in a minute.

Have you ever noticed that your flashes of genius usually occur when you have no easy way to capture them for posterity…or just for your to do list back at the office.  You could be sure to always carry a pad and pen, but that is so 1980.  You could carry around a digital voice recorder, but who does that anymore?  Enter the cell phone and a free service from Jott.com. 

Once you sign up online, it knows you by your cell phone number and you give it information on your email address.  Then when you dial Jott’s phone number from your cell phone, Jott records your voice message.  What it does next is magic.  It sends a text transcription of your message to your cell phone (as a text message) and to your email account (as a regular email).  Both have links to their website where you can listen to the actual message. 

Having the actual message attached is a good thing, because the text recognition is not always perfect.  A work associate recently sent himself a reminder about “gym socks.”  The text transcription was “Jane Sucks.”  While both might be true, only one answer matched his original message. 

Notwithstanding the ocassional mis-transcription, Jott is an incredibly useful tool for capturing ideas and future tasks while you’re on the move.  I didn’t even mention that you can add the names and email addresses of friends and work associates, making it possible to Jott individuals or even groups with your voice messages.  Make a group called “Team” and let them know you’ll be a few minutes late to your meeting, and instantly they will be notified by email…whether your team consists of two people or two hundred.  Pretty cool!

Even if you can’t dance, you can still ChaCha by calling 800-2CHACHA (800-224-2242) from your cell phone.  At the prompt ask any question you’d like, and within minutes you’ll receive a text message with your answer and a link to the source web site.  Who won the Stanley Cup in 1979?  Why is diesel more expensive than regular gas?  What is the fastest production road motorcycle in the world?  Those are all questions asked by people in my office, and the answers were quick and amazing!  You’ve got to try this one.  It’s free.

As I hinted before, ChaCha’s secret weapon is college students sitting at computers, churning out answers on demand.  While you can’t expect ChaCha to answer the deep philosophical questions of the universe, it does provide mobile answers to questions you would normally Google if you were back at your computer.  With ChaCha, anyone can be the King (or Queen) of Trivia.  Use your power wisely [and remember that standard text messaging rates apply!].

 

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