I Promise, I’m Not Dead
- October 18, 2006
- 3 comments
I know it’s been a while since I’ve added anything to the site, but it’s not because I’m dead or gravely ill or anything like that. I simply haven’t that much to write about. Actually there have been a couple things I could’ve written about, but I didn’t feel like it. So I guess I’ll write about them now.
First up, I’ve stopped playing World of Warcraft. Was that a loud gasp I just heard? The reason I stopped playing was because I was spending WAY too much time in front of the computer. I have to for work, sure, but there’s no real reason for me to spend another four to six hours in front of it afterwards. And that’s exactly what I was doing nearly every night.
I was part of a raiding guild on Elune called Shadow Manifest. We raided nearly every night of the week. Molten Core was our personal epic shopping center. Zul’Gurub was being run by our alts. We were making good progress through Ahn’Qiraj and Blackwing Lair. I was there for our first kills of Vael, Broodlord and Ebonroc. It was fun and gave me something to do at night, but all those hours in front of the computer started taking their toll on my back. At one point, the pain in my back was so bad it hurt to take a deep breath. Plus, the game was beginning to not be fun anymore. It was almost turning into another job, so I decided I’d give my back a break and stop playing WoW before I started hating the game.
I’ve missed playing it every now and then, but I haven’t missed it as much as I thought I would. Even after checking out the latest info on Burning Crusade, I’m not really interested in jumping back in.
Part of the reason for that is because I’m really enjoying my new hobby, RC helicopters. I mentioned in a previous post about buying an E-flite Blade CP Pro at the local hobby shop. It’s been quite challenging to learn on, but I can now easily keep it in a controlled hover at any height. Today I had it hovering around 30 feet over the backyard. I’m starting to get into forward flight and circuits now. Repair costs are cheap and it’s quite fun to fly one of these things.
I recently met up with several local RC helicopter pilots at a flying field in east Austin. After watching them fly and asking them lots of questions, I decided it was time to get into a bigger helicopter. The Blade CP Pro is only about two feet long and is relatively cheap. The bigger electric helicopters can be considerably more expensive. So I’ve been buying parts of the whole setup I’ll need as I’ve had the money.
I ended up getting a Trex 600 carbon fiber kit. It is quite a bit larger than the Blade CP Pro. It’s nearly four feet long and dwarfs the Blade. I only have the kit, motor, speed controller and two batteries for it. I still need to get a radio, a receiver, servos, a gyro and a battery charger and balancer. I could get it all in one fell swoop, but I can’t justify spending that much money at once. One good thing about the Trex is that even though it’s quite a bit larger than the Blade, repair costs aren’t that much more expensive, and parts are pretty easy to come by.
All this weekend, there will be a helicopter fun fly in east Austin. There will be quite a few people there from the whole surrounding region, and I plan on being there myself. Hopefully I can pick up some more things I need either used or at a discounted price.
That’s about it that’s worth writing about. Oh! We’ve had a bit of a rat problem in our house, but my mini Dachshund, Shorty, has been having the time of his life. We’ve caught five rats on sticky traps since we’ve moved in, and I’ve let Shorty kill every one. He knows what the traps look like now, so he gets really excited when I put one out for the night. The next morning he’s begging me to open the bedroom door so he can go and see if we’ve caught a rat. I have’t heard any recently though, so hopefully we’ve killed them all off.
Oh yeah, I had a birthday too. I’m 32 now.
Happy birthday) You know I share your interest towards helicopters…Since my childhood I had a dream to fly a helicopter. However, now my obsession is not so…obvious. Now I found a new hobby – races and racing cars. It’s so exiting!