The big HIGH FIVE goes to...

....Chesley B. Sullenberger III, or "Sully."



Simply amazing. Most folks who know me know that even though I don't have a whole lot of time in the air, I know a few things about airplanes. I also know enough to know that Captain Sullenberger performed a brilliant ditch in the Hudson River. Even ditching in a small airplane is a dodgy affair, and this guy put Airbus' equivalent of a 737 in the water in one piece. What is great is that this guy is getting not only a slap on the back from the general public, but aviation types are also giving him the Bravo Zulu because they are the ones who know what he really pulled off here. From what I understand, in the three or four minutes the aircraft was in the air, Captain Sullenberger had an apparent bird strike that took out both engines. Then, he actually was able to fully contemplate all his options (return to LaGuardia, divert to Teterboro, or ditch in the river) and then made his decision and deadsticked the plane into a perfect ditch. He then assisted the passengers in getting out, and was the last person out of the plane after double checking that everyone had safely un-assed the airplane.



A few thoughts on the crash yesterday:



Blackfive says that Captain Sullenberger was a former Phantom (F-4) pilot. I can hear my uncle now (former Marine Phantom pilot). Sullenberger was also a Zoomie, but then nobody's perfect.



Rachel Lucas has suggested that we should look for PETA to try to outlaw aviation since it seems to be dangerous to geese.



For anyone who does not know the inherent danger in ditching a large aircraft, here's the Wiki on what usually happens.



One can only wonder how those passengers are feeling right now, but one thing is for sure: today is the first day of the rest of their lives.

New FS Blog

I started following a new FS blog, The Hegemonist, since it popped up on the list at Life After Jerusalem. The blog itself is run by a Foreign Service Officer and the latest topics have centered around the actual process of joining the FS. Since I have been through this process recently, it is an interesting read. The most recent post is about the written test, which I did not find as difficult as most people have made it out to be. To be fair, the test is somewhat more condensed from the traditional version, which used to take about half a day. It was recently revamped to make it more user-friendly, and new measures for rating candidates have been added to compensate for the shortened test. Personally, I thought the most difficult portion of the process was the Oral Assessment, but The Hegemonist has not posted on that part, yet. The link to the latest post is here. 

I am a candidate in the Consular cone, and The Hegemonist's post about that particular career track is here.

Stupid parents.

I drove Tater out to the aquarium today where she screamed with glee at the top of her lungs at all the fish. After about an hour, I knew it was time to head on home because 1. Tater decided that she no longer wanted to wear shoes (that's my girl!) and 2. I got into a confrontation with another parent over her butt-wild four-year old muscling Tater away from one of the displays. Actually, I don't have a problem with four-year olds being four-year olds. What I have a problem with is zombie parents who won't correct their little darlings when they bully other children. Basically, Tater was on this play boat thing that they have set up for toddlers. She was having a ball steering the wheel and moving the throttles back and forth. Another kid who was about three times her size essentially shoved her to the side and started playing with the wheel. (I mean, isn't there some sort of protocol for taking the helm? Even the captain has to request the helm from the bridge officer, right?)

Anyhow, I looked over towards this kid's mother who was with another mother and what I assume were their spouses. I was expecting this lady to say something to her kid, since she saw the same thing that I did. When she decided to ignore it, my blood pressure began to rise and, realizing that I was in one of those situations where I am a private citizen and not a cop (and therefore not subject to an Internal Affairs complaint for rudeness), I decided to yank this woman's chain a little. I asked her if it was okay for me to chastise her darling if she was going to abstain. She replied that her little darling was none of my business. I retorted that her little darling's ability to do what he darn well pleases stops at the border of Tater. I made a couple more comments to her about her hands-off parenting approach and then took Tater off to see the sharks. I could not help but notice the two she-men husbands, likely long ago emasculated by their wives, standing there with their hands in their pockets saying nothing. I'd like to think that they were silently cheering me on for speaking to Mommy in a way that they have long since dared to do.

Disconnect

Grandfather Mountain from Blowing Rock

Nothing is nicer than fleeing Chucktown for a few days where there is no cellphone contact and the computer is sitting at home cold and dead. Actually, I intentionally left the laptop at home, but I could have used the phone a couple times. For some reason, T-Mobile doesn't work in Boone, NC. Actually, my Father-in-Law has T-Mobile, and his cellphone works just fine up there. I must have the Confederate version of T-Mobile that doesn't work in areas of Unionist sympathies. 

Mrs. Warpiper and Tater went to Tobacco Road a couple days early to see Nana and Papa while I stayed in Chucktown segregating the haves from the have nots. A couple days before the New Year I drove up to Boone and met Mrs. WP there. The new cabin is excellent. Really nice views, although it is hard to find a bad view up there as long as you are up on a mountain. Tater liked the Blowing Rock. She especially liked the gravelly pebbles that made up the walkways. Most of our time was spent stopping and picking up handfuls of the pebbles and then trying to hand them to perfect strangers. Tater is so giving.

New Year's Eve was nice with grilling out on the deck and card games, although I have to admit that the Warpiper pooped out at about 2230 hours (that's 10:30 p.m. to Zoomies). I stayed up in the mountains until yesterday. Really the only thing that drove me back to the Lowcountry was the fact that Mrs. Warpiper and Tater came back Monday for Tater's doctor visit. Otherwise, I'd still be up there being incommunicado.

If this stupid fence wasn't here I'd be testing my wings!

To the point.

I LOL'ed at this one word summation of Bill Ayers at Confederate Yankee.

iTunes, Part II

My brother gave me a $25 iTunes gift card for Christmas. WORD to your MOTHER.

Last night I decided to take a musical trip down memory lane and build up my 80s library. I loved the 80s. I attended both high school and college in the 80s, and that's where most of our best memories lie. Amid some ribbing from Mrs. Warpiper, who totally does not understand the greatest decade ever (for the same reasons I do not understand the 70s), I began surfing. Let me say that I put together a killer library of stuff that I haven't had since my last cassette player went the way of the dodo. It was a nostalgic stroll through a wonderland of Eurotrash big haired electronica. A Flock of Seagulls, The Fixx, The Police, Talk Talk, Echo and the Bunnymen, The B-52's, ABC, The Clash, and, well, you get it.

Anyhow, after downloading all the music, I decided to throw together a playlist. There is a new function on iTunes called "Genius" and it will automatically make playlists based on the selection of one song. So, I selected The B-52's "Rock Lobster". I hit the "Genius" button, and an entire playlist of 50 songs popped up. It was excellent. It included pretty much nothing but 80s music, with a pretty good representation of all the music I had downloaded, plus a bunch of stuff that was already in my library. Everything from Toad the Wet Sprocket (not quite 80s) to The Clash to Rush (yes, Rush- I love Rush) to Simple Minds.

I started playing the lineup as I did other things on the computer, and I must have zoned out for a while, because the playlist had been going for about 20 minutes when I was snapped out of my zone by something that sounded out of place. It was Dan Fogelberg. Not just any Dan Fogelberg, but one of his mellowest tunes: "Longer." Now, Dan Fogelberg (God rest his soul) put out some really cool stuff in his day, and he IS associated with the 1980s. However, how in the hell could anyone honestly build a playlist off of "Rock Lobster" and wind up with "Longer" on the dang list?? It's a buzz killer. It really busted up the marble game for me, I can tell you. So, the iTunes platform allows you to hit the Genius button as much as you want until you arrive at a playlist you like. I hit the button again. Another great playlist, with good ol' Dan Fogelberg stuck in the middle of it again. After five do-overs, I still had Dan in the lineup. The same song. I swear if I listened hard enough I could hear evil giggling from the same pencil necked geek up at iTunes headquarters who took "Dixie Chicken" off of Little Feat's "Waiting for Columbus." 

I swear I didn't even know I had Dan Fogelberg on my iPod. Mrs. Warpiper must have put it there. I feel like Austin Powers disavowing the Swedish sex toy.

Waiting, waiting.

The calls for the January 2009 FSO orientation class came and went a couple weeks ago. Now that the dust has settled, it looks like I am somewhere in the area of number 30 on the Consular list. The State Department has now given extensions to folks who were set to age off the list, so this makes it seem as if they expect that there will be more positions to offer than they will have candidates for. Current foreign service officers advise that during this time, one should just live one's life as usual and not get to worked up about the wait. I have been doing a pretty good job of that, I think.

It is getting harder to do now that the list continues to shrink and my rank gets higher.

Yes, blogging was nonexistent during the holidays. I like to unplug from time to time. A couple highlights from the last two weeks:

Redskins - Giants:

Also, when we got back to Chucktown, Tater decided that she did not want to wait for her bath, so when Mrs. Warpiper wasn't looking, she hopped into the tub as it was filling up.... fully clothed.