On my way out of the office, I bragged to my boss that I was going home to fly. He knew how anxious I was to try out my new CH Products yoke and rudder pedals. Problem is, I stayed grounded.

I just bought Fly!II, thinking that a new yoke deserved a new flight simulator. Heh. It runs like a snail on my Pentium 266. Even my Voodoo3 card can’t help. Ugh.

So I fight with it for hours; still no luck. Thinking that FlightGear was still installed under Linux, I tried it there. Well, RedHat 7.2 broke OpenGL, so FlightGear doesn’t work.

I could’ve gotten my pilot’s license by now. Sheesh

Dave, the guy I just met this morning when he delivered plane stuff to me, did it again! He stopped by after lunch to give me an FAA sectional map and the address of yet another flight school.

Any minute I expect to find a set of Cessna keys on my desk.

Expressing interest in flying is a like joining a cult: once you express interest, the “members” make sure you don’t back out!

Out of the blue, so to speak, I got a visit from another pilot here at the company. He heard from Bill, my pilot boss, that I was hooked on flying.

I’d never met the guy before, but here he was in my cubicle, handing me a folder on flight schools at a local airport and a book on Federal Aviation Regulations.

One thing that pilots all have in common is their zeal for flying. They can’t wait to tell you about it. It’s clear that by becoming a pilot I’ll be joining a very friendly, chummy group of people.

It’ll be a week of public service this week. Last night I led a meeting of Garner Crimestoppers, a group whose mission is incredibly easy since crime in Garner is almost nonexistent. Unfortunately, so was attendence. Oh well.

Tonight I meet with the web group for the North Carolina Museum of Art Contemporaries, a group working to increase museum membership (and donations, natch). Ah, the lengths I will go in making the world a better place.

The ticket diatribe below grew out of my frustration in finding an easy source for tickets to Contemporaries events. I was pitching Etix, an innovative Raleigh company doing print-at-home ticketing. They seemed like a perfect match. My scheming came to a screeching halt when I found out the museum has an exclusive contract with TicketMaster, meaning that we’re SOL for doing easy tickets. Monopolistic bastards!