VolaciousNet

Hello all !!!

I don’t know why, but it’s 4:35am and I’m absolutely hyper. Go figure. I think these night shifts are getting to me!
I have a huge urge to go clubbing, partly to do with the fact that it’s silly season, it’s 4am, and I’m listening to the Anthem (i.e. dance anthems) music channel on Foxtel.

Y’know. Sometimes it pays to be a geek. On Thursday morning I managed to get lucky in scoring tix to Homesexual on New Year’s Day. As I said… I have a hankering for clubbing at the moment, and all the better if surrounded by hundreds / thousands of shirtless boys. The party had been sold out a few weeks ago, and I had heard that there was going to be a release of 100 tickets at 9am on Thursday morning, via their website. The link to the purchase site was to go out via email, so I was very happy to be running my own email server. I sat there at 9am watching the live SMTP log, waiting for the email to come. I saw the connection come in, grabbed the email, clicked the link, and got the tickets. Apparently there were 1300 people trying to get tix in the first 25 minutes, with 500 in the first minute. Muahahahahahahah such a competitive fag I am!

Good timing too. I finish my run of night shifts the night before, and will be well and truly nocturnal for the party. Adam has been doing lots of crunches and pushups lately so he will look all buff shirtless. Ahhh… vanity!

On another topic, I’ve just been watching the Discovery Science channel (one of my favourites), and just saw a report on this guy who makes his living sucking prairie dogs out of their holes using a giant vacuum cleaner. Funniest shit ever!!!! They had a camera inside the vacuum truck, showing the dogs hurtling out of the tube at 300km/h, hitting a foam pad, then running around dazed. What a job!!! heh heh

I hope everyone has a great NYE… think of me whilst I’m here at work!
‘later gators!

Well it’s turned into a two-coffee night.

I’m currently on a week of night shifts (1900 – 0700)… the first night was ok but I’m struggling a little tonight.
Considering that it’s been a fairly quiet week at work, I was going to try and think up new ideas for a redesign of my site, but for some reason the creativity is just not hitting me! Got another 5 nights of this… maybe the idea of a lifetime will hit me later this week.

That being said, I’m really losing interest in updating it… I think I originally created the site when I was feeling very insecure and vulnerable, and needed an outlet. That, and when I feel insecure I like work late at night in front of the computer. That being said, I now have a very powerful computer that’s sitting there running all day with little to moderate traffic… wouldn’t mind utilising it a little more.

Maybe it’s been the crazy hectic nature of the past few weeks, but I’ve been feeling fairly sane and happy lately. Not a second to sit around and worry about myself. As soon as I returned from Leeton, I started my full-time contract at work, and combined with the pre-Christmas and Christmas craziness, I haven’t had a moment to slow down.

It’s an unusual realisation that’s hit me now… with my recent change to full-time work and receiving a regular salary, things are a lot more stable than they once were. I do however need to make a concerted effort to renew some friendships that I’ve let go by the wayside. I definately want to get out into the social life once again! I’m even willing to get my butt into Stonewall and catch up with people there.

I get a few days off after New Year, so I’m really wanting to get out after that. I have to work NYE (sucks, I know), so I wanna hit the town on Sunday night and have a wild one! Anyone else up for it?

Ahhh… almost 7am! Knockoff time! Talk to y’all later, peeps!

Gus

*groans*
The work Christmas Party is a deadly thing, especially when held on a Wednesday, and especially when I’m expected to go to work again at 7am the next morning for my shift.

It was quite a fun night, and had some of the spunkiest waiters I think I’ve ever seen. Almost makes me want to get back into hospitality. Not quite though. I’m liking it too much here, even if it does mean I have to do shift work at 7am with a massive hangover.

However, this is a very important update, for much has happened since I last wrote in here (yes I know it was only a week ago!)

JoeyGlide wrap-up
Well, the last time I posted, I was still on an airfield in the sunny town of Leeton. Sunny is not a bad thing though…. but it was also windy! On the last day of flying, the wind got to about 20-30kt and was unflyable. So we all packed our gliders away in their trailers, and got stuck into the turps!!! Ohhh that was a messy night. We ended up drinking until almost dawn, whereupon I lay my head down for about 2 hours of rest, then got up again, packed up the tent, and drove 8 hours home. That’s stamina for you!

Needless to say, I was a tired boy that night! Especially after having to be at work at 7am the next day. Took me about 5 days to recover!!

Here is a pic for y’all…It’s behind a LJ-cut to save space. It’s of meeeeeee coming in to land :p

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Adam’s Graduation!
Wow. Friday was a biiiiiig day! Waking up WAY too early for my liking, I attended my first graduation ceremoney! Pity it wasn’t mine (some day, some day!), but I was so proud of my pretty graduand. I was there with his parents, and my it was surprising how civil they were being towards me! After the ceremoney (which even for a new university was fairly traditional and quite grandiose), we all went up to Bulli for lunch… which was actually quite enjoyable! I had an official photo taken with my boy, but here is an unofficial one! Isn’t he gorgeous???

Click to enlarge

Silly Season
The graduation wasn’t the only thing to happen that friday. We also hosted Adam’s Graduation Party at our place, and we had about 30 people rock up at some point in the night. It wasn’t as big as our infamous Housewarming, but still a lot of fun, and a very diverse mix of people. Again, I had to be at work at 7am the next morning. That’s dedication for ya!!!!
And as mentioned before, last night was Foxtel’s xmas gig, which was very messy. My undoing wasn’t having 5 glasses of red wine, but rather the rum n’ coke in the pub as I was waiting for Adam to pick me up. I haven’t felt as rotten in the morning as I did this morning. However, looking at the bleary eyes around me at work, I’m definately not the only one!

Back to the Stage
The last thing I almost forgot to mention was the other big thing that has happened this week… I finally, after almost two years, got back on the stage and sang! I had only been practicing a week, so I was still quite rusty, and was quite nervous as to how it would all go, as I was singing solo in front of about 1,000 people at the North Rocks Carols in the Park. I had a lot of fun, as for the rest of the night I was on the stage helping to lead the carols, until it was my time to take the stage by myself and sing the very grandiose The Holy City by Adams (c.1900) I couldn’t hear myself very well as I sang… the foldback from the microphone was too small, but apparently I sounded quite good! I definately got a good round of applause!
I miss being on stage sometimes… next year I intend to get my brother to sing with me in a duet of “Oh, Holy Night”.
Photos will be coming soon… don’t have them yet unfortunately!!!

Anyway, in other things, I have been quite happy lately. Extremely busy, lacking in sleep, hung over, but happy. Things between Adam and myself are going better than they have done for a long time, and I couldn’t imagine life without him. I came back from Leeton to discover that he’d been doing exercises every day and was looking quite butch.. yum!!!!

I hope everyone has a great christmas!!!!! *big hugs from Gus*

Hello there everyone!!!

I’m sorry I haven’t updated… have been sooooo active lately and with so little time, that I’ve rarely had the energy to type up a nice post like this.
I’m curled up in bed, it’s the final day tomorrow, so I’ll keep this short.

Wednesday was an interesting day… the task was very much over-set, and with the strong winds up top, there was no way we were going to complete the 300 km task that was set. However, I gave it a fair crack, and ultimately ended up having to land in a farmer’s paddock about 10km from my last turnpoint. I’m not so scared about having to land in paddocks now… I just accept that it happens sometimes and that as long as I’m careful I will land safely and the aircraft can be used again. So I had a beer with the farmer and waited for my crew. Ended up that 19 out of the 22 on task that day all ended up in paddocks, and that even though I didn’t make it home, I still managed to score 7th for the day. I’m quite happy with that.

Yesterday wasn’t brilliant… I woke up in the morning feeling crappy, disorganised, and not wanting to fly. After the launch, I soon found myself making silly little mistakes in the air, and not concentrating. I took the safer wiser option and decided to abort the task after the first turnpoint. After a rather crappy and unimpressive landing I felt reassured that I shouldn’t have continued on task that day. I spent the day resting up, sitting in the clubhouse, doing odd little tasks. I of course felt horrible when everyone started to come home… I felt like I had cheated myself somehow… like I had let myself down. The scores of course were woeful, but that’s to be expected.

Today was another kettle of fish though. The task was a 300km set task, around 3 turnpoints. I opted to not fill the wings with water, something which in hindsight I should have done. The thermals were rough, but there was an extraordinary amount of wind that the weatherman had told us shouldn’t have been there. Yeah, right! I slogged my way around the course, getting home at the end of the day, but with a rather unimpressive speed. Not to matter though! This comp is more about enjoying myself and doing some flying, rather than competing. I haven’t flown enough this year to really be up to scratch.

Ok… I’m nodding off to sleep here. Veeeeery tired. Will post again soon.

take care all!

Hi boys and girls!

Today is the second day that we’ve not flown. Yesterday was cancelled at the last minute because a strong inversion meant that the gliders could not climb about 2,500′ above ground, which simply isn’t enough to really go anyway. Thankfully, they had only launched 3/4 of the fleet before they realised the futility, so I sat on the ground for 2 hours beside my aircraft whilst the others darted in an out of a single thermal, trying desperately not to hit each other.

This morning I woke up and read the bureau, which warned of 50kt gusting winds inbound, which are strong enough not only to rip apart tents, but also of lifting and flipping gliders that aren’t properly secured. So it was a mad rush out to the glider to check that it was tied down, and then the rest of the day was cancelled as lines of storms tore across the scky. Naturally, the day was called off, and naturally it was spent at the pub. In fact, I’ve spent nearly all today and tonight at that pub. Good times.

Tomorrow’s weather looks like the cloud will clear, and whilst there might be no promises of a good day, it will at least be soarable and we will go on a task, probably about 300km. Should be good fun!

I did get my most dreaded uni results back today though. The two exams I was petrified of not passing… ELEC3504 and ELEC5508… I got 52 and 53 respectively.
In ohter words….. I PASSED!!!!!!!

You have no idea how happy this has made me.
This has been a shit of a term, and I don’t know how it is that I managed to weasel and spin doctor my way out of this one, but I fucking did it, and now I’ve passed.

The feeling is indescribably.
I sat by the glider tonight on the airfield and looked up at the non-polluted sky at the galaxies, and thought that life was just beautiful.

Hi all

Well, I didn’t update yesterday as I was too upset to write.
I had a very hard day in the office yesterday… the air was rough as guts and took a lot of hard work to get anywhere. However, I managed to get around, even if it did almost cost me losing my lunch.

The shit came when I landed, and tried to make my flight recorder dump its data…. no luck. I had 3 recording devices in the aircraft, and ALL of them fucked up.

NOT HAPPY JAN

Looking at the provisional scores, I would have come between 5th and 8th in the field. (Scores are now being listed on http://www.joeyglide.com … follow the links)
However, because the flight couldn’t be proven, I get a score of 0 and last placing.
I was upset last night, mainly because of how tired I was, and went to bed early. Didn’t sleep though… just lay there for 10 hours. Feel a little bit rested this morning, and I will see if a coffee helps, but I will be quite cautious to see if I will fly today.

Anyway, I had better get up, have a shower, and wash my plane.
Drop me a line even if you don’t know what the hell i’m talking about

‘lata

Gus

Hi All !!!

I’m here, tucked into bed in my tent. Enjoying the wireless internet to communicate with y’all

The flight today was definately an interesting one. The thermals were very broken down low, and I really had to get high and stay at cloudbase to really make any headway. With 20-30kt winds, every time I stopped to thermal I would end up back where I started. I managed to make it back, but only just!! I started out on final glide about 20 km from the airfield, at a height of 6,000 feet. At that heights, I should have easily been able to make the airfield without turning. However, As I was coming over the range of hills, a massive amount of sink hit me, and I watched my approach angle get shallower and shallower to the point that I wasn’t sure I would make it back to the airfield. It was actually quite scary… the trees were getting very big and I was still 5km from the airfield! I skimmed over the hilltop, hoping like hell that I would find some buoyant air otherwise I would have had to land in the paddock just before the airstrip… not a fun prospect! In any case, through a sheer miracle I managed to scrape in just 500′ above the strip, a quick few turns and I was on the ground, safe. That definitely deserved a few beers I think !

Hopefully tomorrow should be a bit of a better day. I have been having some annoying GPS problems which means that my flights aren’t being properly recorded, which could make this whole competition worthless. Really, I don’t mind though. I’m just here to have a good time, and so far it’s been great.

I realise that most people who read this probably don’t understand anything I am talking about… just ask me if you don’t understand the jargon!

Meanwhile I’m missing my boy like all hell… I spoke to him earlier tonight, and I don’t know how I’m going to last this next week! I’m such a sap !

Hi Folks!

This is going to have to be a REALLY fast post… so I apologise for the typing.
We’ve had a power blackout out here at the airfield, and surprisingly there is a UPS that keeps the wireless alive and also powers the 512K microwave link back to town. So I have limited time until it runs out.

It’s been shitting storms like nothing else… very reminiscent of the competition last year. I am so proud though… the beast of a tent I bought for this competition managed to survive a direct encounter with the gale-force winds (it was one of the very few to do so). It is a massive tent… 3 rooms / 9 people! A little bit of a move up from the tiny little 2-man tent I had last year.

The trip down was quite nice… of course the day I travelled down on was brilliant with beautiful soaring conditions… 12,000′ cloud base with 8kt thermals under each one! As soon as I come… the weather turns to shit *lighting flashes outside*

So please drop me a line! I will have internet access surprisingly… and will try and update as much as possible. You can track the live scores as of Sunday at http://www.joeyglide.com
There’s even a live webcam!!!