(The following is an excerpt from my book, Prelude to a Super Airplane. It can be purchased by clicking on any of the roughly 400 banners adorning this site, or by clicking here. It’s also available on Amazon.
I’ve posted the first 20 chapters (roughly 55 pages of PTSA) on this site. Links to each of those are at the end of this post, or you can download all of them as a pdf by clicking here.
Forty-seven floors.
This airplane had forty-seven floors. Each one of these was a wonder of technology and function, and a singularly unique creative vision of the future of airplane design.
The first floor of the airplane was the airplane’s airplane baggage cargo hold. This was an unexciting place to be, except that inside this chamber was the best place to hear the airplane’s sixty-two pairs of airplane wheels doing their ascending and subsequent descending upon the take-off and landing of the airplane.
On the second floor of the airplane, above the first floor, which was the airplane baggage cargo hold, was a gas station. This was so that the airplane could refuel itself without stopping. The airplane ran on gasoline, because its creator was a man, and he believed that real men built things that needed crude oil to operate.
[Like here is how to read the rest.]
Go put this in like other places:
My brother is a huge Star Trek fan, so I’m sure he hates this picture of the new Enterprise (from next summer’s re-boot movie) on some kind of general principle.
To me, it looks like the same Enterprise, but cooler and modernerer.
I’m a big fan of the director, so I’ll be seeing this. I also saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua, so that statement might not be worth much.
I read maybe the stupidest thing ever in this article about the increase in gun purchases, from the Chicago Tribune.
“Why are white people buying assault weapons?” said Ben Agger, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Arlington who wrote a book about the Virginia Tech slayings. “I almost hate to say it, but there is a deep-seated fear of the armed black man, because Obama now commands the military and other instruments of the justice system. They are afraid Obama will exact retribution for the very deep-seated legacy of slavery.”
I don’t know, maybe my read of the man is off, but I can’t see him putting down an executive order for the military to start shooting white people.
The last thing I want to do is get into a huge gun control debate, but the Second Amendment is a consistently misread decree, ie it’s the product of a different era, and is no longer relevant.
Google Talk now has video for the Mac, which is where you can see other people when you talk to them.
This isn’t as exciting as my song about airplanes, but worth mentioning.
Sorry this is kind of scattered, but I’ve been trying to get up the 2GG site, as you’re getting close to a teaser trailer going live.
I’m in a branding disaster on this thing – I really want it to be 2WO G2N G2Y (and have that domain), but let’s run a scenario:
You’re in the street, and someone tackles you, and they’re like, “GO WATCH TWO GUN GUY ON THE ONLINE INTERNET!”
You don’t go home and search for “2WO G2N G2Y”, you go search for “TWO GUN GUY”, right? (Or “TO GUYN GIE” if you’re a non-speller.)
I dunno – I think it’s all work itself out. By the way, if you want to work on the marketing for this, I’m paying $5 per person you tackle/scream.
NOTE: Guess whose blog is the #1 Google result for “LeBron James yoked”?
Go put this in like other places:
(Took the tour of Texas Stadium yesterday – it was really weird.
Once you get to the field, it’s like recess – they literally let you run around and do whatever you want for a half hour, then blow a whistle and shuffle you out.
Everyone was throwing passes, tackling each other, kicking field goals, making sweet love to the star at the 50-yard line, etc. One dude like had worn a helmet and everything.)
Yikes – the NBA starts tonight, and I haven’t even had time to decide if I’m into it or not.
You longtime followers know this used to be my absolute, #1 favorite day of the year. Not so much anymore, but I’m not so much negative on the league as I was last season.
Things I’m taking note of, as of today…in no particular order:
1) Knicks – I’m guessing Game #14 is the one Isiah shows up at. They would never invite him, but he can afford to buy some tickets, can’t he?
2) Bobcats – I’m guessing Game #14 is the one Larry Brown asks for trades at. They would never invite Isiah, but he can afford to buy some car washes, can’t he?
3) Cavaliers – I’m guessing Game #14 is the one LeBron upsets me at. They would never celebrate Isiah, but he can afford to eat some eyeglasses, can’t he?
4) Mavericks – I’m guessing Game #14 is the one Jason Kidds breaks down at. They would never show a movie to Isiah, but he can afford to subscribe to library baseball cards, can’t he?
5) Greg Oden – I’m guessing Game #14 is the one he likes the most. They would never swim in the pool, but fish can afford to lie in the grass and then go to the restaurant, can’t they?
6) League Pass – I’m guessing Game #2 is the one I realize it won’t work on a Mac at.
I’d also say I’m moderately interested to note how quickly the Nuggets completely implode. It’s gonna happen, isn’t it?
The OKC Thunder will be horrible (as deserved for eternity), but unless Clay Bennett is out there a-gettin’ pegged with balls at halftime, there’s no reason to pay attention.
I have zero interest in the Celtics, nor the Lakers. They’re both gonna be fine, and probably there in the end. The BOS personalities are stable, as are the LA ones, save Lamar Odom.
Depressed doesn’t equal interesting, though. If he were angst-ridden, we might see some good stuff.
Go put this in like other places:
I just was Googling “The Crepes Are in the Oven” – I needed to find the old post to send to someone, and wanted to see where it landed in Google.
(The old post was jacked up in the server move, so I’ve put the key portions up on my Flickr page. French version is here. English is here.)
The search engine decided what I really wanted was “The Grapes Are in the Oven“, which makes even less sense than the crepes version of the phrase.
I mean, if you were going to pick one of two things to put in an oven, which would it be – crepes or grapes?
It’d be crepes, right?
NOTE: I’d really like to have one of these now, so if these rumors are true, I’ll be doing that whole “tackle UPS guy” like the ladies did back in the Beanie Baby Raids of the late 1990s. Which reminds me, I need to tell that story sometime.
NOTE 2: Based on the squealing and swearing I just heard from the bathroom, I’m fairly certain my roommate just tried to take a cold shower. He was talking about it, and watched Fight Club last night and everything.
Go put this in like other places:
