Blade Edge

Here is the flight plan for this trip.

Today I woke up early – way way early. Like, before the sun had risen early. Bleh. So to make up for it I decided to boot up the sim and hop into a plane and fly somewhere. No idea what or where I just loaded things up and looked at where my aircraft were. I decided to go with the Cessna 172 parked at Red Lion (N73), fly out to the coast and then up into the hill country of northern NJ to the northern-most airfield in the state, Sussex (KFWN). I knew the weather was decent and figured if I hit a point in my flight where low ceiling blocked me I would just divert to the nearest airport, no harm no foul. The plan for the flight was tossed – I did it all seat of the pants and wrote up the plan attached to this entry afterwards. Worked out fine, this time. Don’t plan to make it a habit just wanted to get in the cockpit and flying before the sun got too high and spoiled my dawn light.

Taxi and takeoff was uneventful although I forgot I still need to tweak the Shockwave3D lights put on the default 172 when they first install – the beacon is too bright and flashes in the cockpit and I have to add a taxi light. Again though – must get flying! I’ll tweak them for my next flight. I’ve also decided to start sticking with the safety suggestion by the FAA that landing lights be kept on below 10,000′ – in the past I’ve only had them on while in the pattern or departing.

Heading out for the coast I had to weave around some low clouds, hanging 5-700 feet over the ground. I dropped down to 250′ so I could buzz the Barnegat Bay lighthouse (which is an accurate model I downloaded off AVSIM then placed properly over the satellite scenery) but I belatedly realized I probably should have waited until I was over the water to fly that low so as not to disturb sleeping residents in the houses below me! Oh well, it’s Monday they should be up getting ready for work anyways.

Up the coast and turning back inland I was once again weaving around clouds – plenty of lateral clearance. Things cleared up for a bit as I left the morning sea mist behind but hazed in again a short while later as I approached the higher elevations. The haze burned off though by the time I was getting ready to enter the pattern for Sussex.

It’s been a while since I’ve taken a flight and it doesn’t take long for me to lose my ability to fly properly in some aspects. Two stupid mistakes I made this flight were 1) forgetting to listen to VOR station idents and 2) approaching my landing runway from the wrong end. I love that second one. It was almost an epic fail because as I lined up for a straight-in approach an aircraft announced it was taking off. Had I not realized my idiotic mistake we might have had a collision. Luckily I realized my error almost instantly – it’s the fact that I was even thinking of lining up opposite the runway heading which is embarrassing. So I swung around in a tight left pattern and was coming in for my landing way too hot – the runway at Sussex has been shortened considerably due to age (they keep moving the thresholds towards the center) so I needed a nice slow approach. To that end, I announced a go around and flew the pattern again – which was okay since I obviously needed the practice. I turned early for my final because I lost sight of the airport rolling out onto my base leg – damn hills. Other than that it was a nice smooth approach and touchdown with full flaps.

I have a new aircraft to review so I’ll be busy with that but I’ll be making at least one cross-country flight in it during testing so once that review’s posted I’ll add the flight log here as well.

What are Game Notes?

While playing a game I have found it somewhat cathartic at times, thoughtful at others to tweet my experiences. Twitter is a great medium for condensing your thoughts – if I can’t figure out how to say what I want to say in 140 characters or less then I don’t feel it’s worth saying. I very rarely link tweets or post tweets in quick succession to complete a single thought unless I feel very strongly about what I want to say. What people get out of these tweets is varied – some just like following me as I play through the game (in some cases re-living their own past play through), some respond to discuss the more insightful thoughts revolving around design and function, and others just get a kick out of the pictures I post with weird instances and bugs I come across while playing. Thanks to the back up service Backupify that stores all my old tweets, once I’m done playing a game I can compile all my tweets together as a sort of gameplay journal for whatever reference anyone would want.

Some of the tweets below are edited for context (in brackets) as I do not have copies of tweets I replied to.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I came into playing DXHR with a long history from multiple play throughs of the first Deus Ex as well as a very close relationship to many of the people at the game’s studio Eidos Montreal. So not only was I happy to see the result of many years hard work by friends, but also to be able to immerse myself back into what made the original game such a great experience for me, and that was mostly the numerous options available to you to carry out missions. I spent so much time in the first game first taking out every guard that’s possible to kill without them seeing me. Then I would back-track my ingress route to find all the alternative ways to enter or achieve mission objectives. Deus Ex was the first game to teach me to always complete secondary objectives first. In my time spent with DXHR I did the exact same thing, and that pleased me. Added to that were the amazing amount of inside jokes and references made to not only the original Deus Ex but popular sci-fi culture as well. All-in-all the experience was well worth waiting 11 years for.

2011-08-22  21:07:38 (EDT) god dammit, none of the Best Buys are doing a midnight launch #SADFACE  #DXHRLAUNCH

2011-08-23  10:38:19 (EDT) it’s #DXHRLAUNCH day! Got  my  Hive  t-shirt on  (subtle, yes) and picking up the game after coaching a private

2011-08-23  12:47:21 (EDT) *sigh* @bestbuy preorder #epicfail. Only  the store down in Brick got PC Augmented Ed.  They have to drive it up. Going back ~4pm #dxhrlaunch

2011-08-23  12:48:00 (EDT) My only minor consolation is that I wouldn’t be able to play it before then anyways today

2011-08-23  16:56:30 (EDT) Sry @eidosmontreal, just missed snapping a pic of DX:HR trailer playin on  ALL the displays in the store when I picked up my  copy #dxhrlaunch

2011-08-23  20:43:35 (EDT) Adam Jensen has been staring at me for  hours. My willpower is waning. Must… finish… work… http://t.co/JgEsBIe #DXHRLAUNCH

2011-08-23  21:25:20 (EDT) To @CorvusE y’know, I’ve never really noticed how most ppl  call  it DX:HR instead of DE:HR. Phonetics just work better I guess

2011-08-23  21:45:28 (EDT) glad I got an external DVD drive w/ my  last laptop so I could use it to install DX:HR since my  desktop drive seems to have crapped out #phew

2011-08-23  21:47:36 (EDT) DX:HR is the first retail game I’ve bought since Sim3 – and I only got that retail cause I couldn’t initially find  the digital version

2011-08-23  21:48:43 (EDT) I bought it retail because I have PLANS for  this nice, black box surface. (Hint: it involves a silver pen)

2011-08-23  21:59:21 (EDT) did  anyone else get totally freaked out when the game wouldn’t accept your Steam code & u realized u were using the wrong one? #DXHRLAUNCH

2011-08-23  22:26:03 (EDT) looks like pre-order bonuses got mixed. Mine  from Best Buy  came w/ Explosive Pack instead of Tactical.  http://t.co/cw62Mn0 #DXHRLAUNCH

2011-08-23  23:08:18 (EDT) alright no  one seems to be very #dxhr chatty so I’m  just gonna shut up too and play the game since that’s likely what everyone is doing

2011-08-24  03:32:54 (EDT) almost 4 hrs into #dxhr & ~halfway thru warehouse. Leaving all bad guys down. No firefights. Only  haven’t shot cause no  silenced weapon yet

2011-08-24  16:53:29 (EDT) did  any of my  friends playing DX:HR pre-order from Best Buy?? Please let me know if you got the Tactical Pack DLC like you were supposed to

[several people discuss stacking boxes around cops]

2011-08-24  17:07:13 (EDT) To @MrWasteland, @tinysubversions I thought it would be funny to throw a box at [the cops]. They didn’t think it was funny #deadintwoseconds #dxhr

2011-08-24  18:42:15 (EDT) From @dhw Did not pre-order, just got it straight from Best Buy. Box included the code for  the tactical pack. Now  if only there were ammo…

2011-08-24  20:12:47 (EDT) To @dhw wow. That’s just…. what the fuck. You just got the normal game at launch and it came with a pre-order DLC exclusive?

2011-08-24  20:17:19 (EDT) From @dhw Bought it online on  8/23 for  in-store pickup, online showed the preorder DLC, which was in the box.

2011-08-24  20:17:55 (EDT) To @dhw this is the normal or augmented edition?

2011-08-24  20:25:49 (EDT) From @dhw Normal edition, 360 version

2011-08-24  20:26:34 (EDT) To @dhw k thx for  the report will add it to my  thread over at the Eidos forum… i just want my  damn sniper rifle!!

2011-08-24  21:08:14 (EDT) From @dhw I want ammo for  my  damned sniper rifle. Ran out early, haven’t been able to buy more.

2011-08-24  21:09:29 (EDT) To @dhw sounds like you’re still  in the warehouse. S’ok you can take em all down no  shots fired. Once back you’ll be able to see the gun seller

2011-08-24  21:10:59 (EDT) From @dhw Oh,  I’m  a few  missions in.  Still not finding sniper ammo.

2011-08-24  21:12:03 (EDT) To @dhw kinda odd they give it to you so early. Bet you can’t even find  a regular sniper rifle  yet either?

2011-08-25  00:49:25 (EDT) finally getting back to #dxhr – back from warehouse looking forward to checking out the hub world

2011-08-25  01:03:46 (EDT) wow  nice, the guards are commenting on  how many terrs I sent to the hospital with injuries (non-lethal takedowns) #theliitlethings #dxhr

2011-08-25  01:05:36 (EDT) is a functioning escalator so hard to put in games today? At least a “closed for  repairs” sign? #dxhr

2011-08-25  02:24:07 (EDT) hack record so far  – 0.33 left on  the clock when I broke through a lvl3  #dxhr

2011-08-25  03:18:19 (EDT) I miss my  Kbar. How  am I supposed to chop up trash bags? # dxhr

2011-08-25  04:35:24 (EDT) “dogmentation?” “yea! Copyright that shit!” #dxhr

2011-08-25  04:55:03 (EDT) quicksave is quick. quickload? Notsomuch. Just  greater incentive not to die… #dxhr

2011-08-25  05:37:58 (EDT) I found the basketball court! #dxhr

2011-08-25  06:03:26 (EDT) and then of course there’s the second-story fire escape window… loving all the homages #dxhr

2011-08-25  07:23:05 (EDT) To @dhw I’ve found 9 rounds (3  packs) in Detroit hub so far  And  a rifle! Can’t attach a silencer on  this one tho

2011-08-25  07:25:52 (EDT) oh  hey there random valve behind a crate. What do  you do? *turns valve, chokes on  poison gas* #curiositykilledthecat

2011-08-25  10:30:17 (EDT) OMG Ton’s dead! (runs over) *chuff* OMG Ray’s dead! (runs over) *chuff* OMG Lee’s dead! (runs over) *chuff* http://t.co/cGZiQei #dxhr

2011-08-25  10:33:03 (EDT) From @tinysubversions Haha, was that while sneaking into the gang compound to do  the antenna/O’Malley quest stuff?

2011-08-25  10:33:44 (EDT) To @tinysubversions yep. took me three tries to get em all without being nailed but when I did… I did  it good hahaha

2011-08-25  10:35:37 (EDT) From @tinysubversions Heh. I snuck by  most of them (except in that hallway with the wall  explosives, I had to detonate them to get by,  drew attention)

2011-08-25  10:36:54 (EDT) To @tinysubversions woah hey slow down there #eyesnowpeeled

2011-08-25  10:42:00 (EDT) From @tinysubversions Don’t worry, they’re big  flashy red things, can’t miss ‘em

2011-08-25  10:44:25 (EDT) To @tinysubversions oh  right. I had to deal with them in an apartment already I hacked in to. I’m  lvl5  hack with full stealth aug.

2011-08-25  10:45:19 (EDT) From @tinysubversions Nice. I’m  lvl3  hack, some stealth hack, plus some arm augs and social, and the high jump

2011-08-25  10:46:48 (EDT) To @tinysubversions yea, I’m  working to max my  inventory next. More stuff to collect and sell. 14,527 credits right now

2011-08-25  11:28:35 (EDT) From @g_shonk @tinysubversions Damn, I have no  money haha, I spend it too fast. Also  being able to punch through walls is awesome.

2011-08-25  12:31:57 (EDT) To @g_shonk excuses excuses!! And  I’ll have to do  the wall  aug when I’m  in a more offensive playthru

2011-08-25  23:43:46 (EDT) oh  yes. MUCH better load times with the new patch. Quickload is quick! (~30-45s now) #happyjoy #dxhr

2011-08-25  23:56:01 (EDT) have to be careful opening doors – open a locked one from inside and you can’t hack it #dxhr

2011-08-26  00:16:51 (EDT) “I got to pee” “u should hold it” “yea don’t wanna get caught w/ my pants down” he couldn’t hold it. Caught: http://t.co/QZDKxdi #dxhr

2011-08-26  02:22:03 (EDT) in earlier exploring, hit  an apartment I had to take down later w/more ppl  inside – good thing I hid  bodies 1st time thru!! #dxhr

2011-08-26  03:31:55 (EDT) after Mead, was wondering when Manderly’s name would pop up. Interesting to see where these guys came from! # dxhr

2011-08-26  20:01:24 (EDT) stockpiling Nuke and Stop viruses in #dxhr like I stockpile multitools and lockpicks in #dx1

2011-08-26  20:42:01 (EDT) sux the arms dealer outside the merc compound doesn’t buy stuff from you. I could be making bank!! Maybe that’s why #dxhr

2011-08-26  20:47:04 (EDT) From @rickdog141 do  yu  have the pc  version?

2011-08-26  20:48:32 (EDT) To @rickdog141 yup! I can’t play it on  console it just feels… wrong Want it to be as much like DX1 as possible. So  far  going good!

2011-08-26  20:52:20 (EDT) Don’t be insurgent, yo  http://t.co/la71lPR #dxhr

2011-08-26  21:47:25 (EDT) I also appreciate how a silenced weapon can take someone down silently and not always with a “YEEEEEAAAAUUUGGHHH!!!” #dxhr

2011-08-27  00:12:45 (EDT) when I paused the cinematic and saw Skip, I was really hoping it would let me skip that stupid boss fight #dxhr

2011-08-27  00:30:44 (EDT) awesome seeing my  earlier Detroit exploits making headlines in the paper #dxhr

2011-08-27  00:50:20 (EDT) wow  talking to ppl  has made me realize all I’ve done so far  has occurred in *one eve/nite* game time – tho IRL hrs it’s more like 34 # dxhr

2011-08-27  01:07:37 (EDT) Redhead wigged lady. What was so bad about being blonde, babe? #dxhr

2011-08-27  01:08:43 (EDT) oops forgot pic  http://t.co/v3YClsi #dxhr

2011-08-27  01:36:08 (EDT) ooh ooh credit chip behind high fence! No jump aug #muststackcrates #dxhr

2011-08-27  01:57:09 (EDT) after I break into people’s apartments, I turn their sinks on  #wetbandit #dxhr

2011-08-27  02:22:27 (EDT) man only now just realized the out of order elevator in your apartment is yet another dx1 homage… #dxhr

2011-08-27  03:17:22 (EDT) oooh good to know a rocket will suffice when you don’t have the Bust Thru Walls aug #dxhr

2011-08-27  05:33:22 (EDT) young medical student in Hengshaw talking to a street pimp. Somehow I think she’s having the wrong interview #dxhr

2011-08-27  05:48:28 (EDT) O yea, this Dutchman, he’s a badass hacker alright. So  caught up in his  l337 skillz  he forgets his  pwn security & don’t lock  his  comp! #dxhr

2011-08-28  05:49:14 (EDT) that hengsha subway station looks mighty familiar also, a shame you can rifle  thru sleeping ppls pockets #dxhr

2011-08-28  06:27:02 (EDT) I had a feeling fertility drugs and Nigerian scam email spam wouldn’t be gone in 2027 #dxhr

2011-08-28  08:57:45 (EDT) If I ever get shot & live, whoever gets to me first will prob hear me deliriously mumbling “quickload… gotta… quickload… try  again…”

2011-08-28  09:23:45 (EDT) a little disappointed I couldn’t break into any of the closed shops in hengsha. Also  found a Lebedev mention! #dxhr

2011-08-28  10:42:09 (EDT) From @sdastous // I like to follow your play-by-play description of your DXHR experience … How  many hours up to now?

2011-08-28  15:28:02 (EDT) To @sdastous thx for  listenin in!  Game has me at 15:23:56, can’t check “actual” time on  Steam until I get Internet back, know it’s much more

2011-08-28  15:31:04 (EDT) Ok at least Dutchie remembered to lock  his  home comp, but only a lvl 1 hack? #gamedesign wins here, need access for  story progression #dxhr

2011-08-28  15:32:31 (EDT) Hahahah Invisible War strikes it big  at the box office. Hope this doesn’t mean the #dxhr movie will tank!

2011-08-28  17:00:54 (EDT) new hacking record – 0.26s on  the clock. I had to watch it count down from ~2.5s as I captured the last node. Tense as hell!! # dxhr

2011-08-28  17:02:17 (EDT) suuure I coulda used one of my  51 stop worms but, were’s the excitement in that? #dxhr

2011-08-28  17:26:07 (EDT) Whoooo 0.12 left on  the clock. How  low  can you go? http://t.co/mmkQXaW #dxhr

2011-08-28  17:46:42 (EDT) one of the small port issues I have problems with is the mouse cursor not centering in the screen when a button selection comes up #dxhr

2011-08-28  18:03:24 (EDT) Damn you TYM! I want this guy’s walk thru wall  aug! Way cooler than punching. Where’s the upgrade?  http://t.co/4KA9mU2 #dxhr

2011-08-28  18:56:42 (EDT) ahhh good ol’  crate steppin’ #dxhr

2011-08-28  20:37:42 (EDT) can’t seem to find  a panel for  this one laser alarm system. I mean yea you can get around it but strange not to have option to disable #dxhr

2011-08-28  20:41:38 (EDT) why am I clicking to open a door clearly advertised as being automatic? #dxhr

2011-08-28  21:01:34 (EDT) finally above Pangu. Wow  stunning views. Looking down on  Lower City  was awesome too #dxhr

2011-08-28  21:07:07 (EDT) Lol “death by  vending machine” “how pointlessly tragic” #dxhr

2011-08-28  21:39:30 (EDT) WTF. In a room. No one can see me. Soon as I hack into the sec hub an alarm gets triggered. The  hell? Creative solution time #dxhr

2011-08-28  21:48:55 (EDT) I took out the guard that obviously has the same see thru walls aug that I do. Well,  obvious now anyways. Sec hub hacked ok  now # dxhr

2011-08-28  22:20:04 (EDT) it’s really hard to tell  from a distance if you’ve hacked an alarm panel or not. Why  couldn’t they have just gone dark when inactive? #dxhr

2011-08-28  22:27:31 (EDT) wow  it never occurred to me until now that I can takedown *anyone* because I was only ever prompted to do  so for  red reticule targets #dxhr

2011-08-28  23:17:05 (EDT) just figured out a third way to bust through walls, tho it def takes the longest amount of time #dxhr

2011-08-28  23:28:28 (EDT) holy shit this actually just happened http://t.co/TyzTXqY was not even trying to run down the clock this time #epicwin #dxhr

2011-08-29  01:09:17 (EDT) oh  yea, you guys just stand in a nice big  circle now *fwiishhhhhh* BOOOOM!!! Only  two left? I like those odds # dxhr

2011-08-29  01:31:36 (EDT) breathtaking view of Montreal from the helipad. Just  don’t jump at the rail  #dxhr

2011-08-29  01:57:09 (EDT) From @ravuya It is truly remarkable how many problems you can solve with gas mines and the ability to lift and drop unconscious bodies.

2011-08-29  02:07:45 (EDT) another major dx1 player found, this one running a global news conglomerate #dxhr

2011-08-29  02:09:18 (EDT) To @ravuya interesting playstyle. I’ve not made use of mines at all, just chucked a few  frags, emps and concs here and there for  kicks

2011-08-29  02:14:48 (EDT) folded up the stun gun reminds me of one of those grip workout devices that you squeeze #dxhr

2011-08-29  02:17:40 (EDT) From @ravuya I treat mines mostly as an insurance policy for  when I screw up being stealthy. “Hey, I think I heard something” *PSSSHT*  *thud*

2011-08-29  02:41:45 (EDT) To @ravuya quickload is my  insurance policy I’m  not the type that plays w/ consequences. I have a defined way I want things to go

2011-08-29  03:21:52 (EDT) [referencing this tweet] oooh I know why now. It’s  to trick the bad guys too! So they stand there & keep tryin to activate it while you shoot them #dxhr

2011-08-29  03:36:48 (EDT) it’s no  wonder it takes me forever to play this game as I’ll spend 15 minutes busting down a wall  to save me a rocket and power cell! #dxhr

2011-08-29  04:53:08 (EDT) really, dx1 fans if you’re not reading *all* the computer emails you’re missing out on  *a lot*  of tie-ins to the original #dxhr

2011-08-29  04:59:49 (EDT) Big Bang Theory reference in one of the Picus employee names! Awesome go  read emails people #dxhr

2011-08-29  06:22:31 (EDT) cleaning up evil  secret bases is like cleaning up dust. You work from the top down #dxhr

2011-08-29  06:34:10 (EDT) it’s a bit  disappointing to see security cameras in #dxhr mostly reduced to obstacles and no  longer also useful for  intel gathering

2011-08-29 06:40:59 (EDT) From @Aardvajk Curse you @dsikora, I give in.  Just  spent £35 on  DXHR. Probably take a day to Steam update with my  internet dongle but better be good. # dxhr

2011-08-29  09:33:07 (EDT) To @Aardvajk did  you play the original?

2011-08-29 10:17:56 (EDT) From @Aardvajk Yeah, was big  fan of DX1.  Looks like Steam update for  #dxhr is going to be an overnight job  though

2011-08-29 19:49:43 (EDT) From @sdastous // still  playing DXHR Drew? you know i’m  monitoring you…

2011-08-29  20:08:11 (EDT) To @sdastous long as no  one manages to steal my  generator [post-hurricane Irene] (no worries, I got guns & shit) I’ll be back to it later tonight… can’t stay away!

2011-08-29  23:14:33 (EDT) for  some reason I enjoyed the 2nd boss fight a little bit. Dunno why. I think it was just cause she was hot #dxhr

2011-08-29  23:16:28 (EDT) To @sdastous I’m  at “chapter 11″ according to the game load briefing

2011-08-29  23:22:46 (EDT) To @ravuya I just realized you can stack mines. I now stock them instead of grenades. 9 mines saves me 3 slots compared to 9 grenades #dxhr

2011-08-29  23:30:21 (EDT) hahaha just spent a min making Adam dance. Awesome. (look on YouTube) #getdown #boogie #dxhr

2011-08-29 23:33:55 (EDT) From @AdamJensenSI that was you, huh? Just  you wait, “buddy”.

2011-08-29  23:36:53 (EDT) you wanna speak to me, Serif? That’s nice but I’m  still  pissed. Re-exploring Detroit. Ppl locked their doors again. I’ll fix that #dxhr

2011-08-29  23:40:57 (EDT) To @AdamJensenSI hahaha no  that wasn’t me go  infiltrate @Kotaku HQ and they’ll lead you to the video author I’m  sure

2011-08-30  00:10:49 (EDT) the weapons dealer in the Downtown Apartments did  not take kindly to me chucking his  fridge around the kitchen #dxhr

2011-08-30  00:36:26 (EDT) [referencing this tweet] finally a “closed for  repair” escalator in Conv Center. Janitor says “damn budget cuts” IRL allusion? Very possible #dxhr

2011-08-30  00:59:46 (EDT) sry  bout this, guys http://t.co/851xAsL if I’m  wrong I’ll buy you all beers when you wake up. #dxhr

2011-08-30  01:05:23 (EDT) Oh  man – original dx1 soundtrack music coming over the radio! NYC street ambiance. Awesome #dxhr

2011-08-30  01:06:42 (EDT) actually, standing around a bit  listening more there are a couple audio tracks from the original game #dxhr

2011-08-30  01:17:19 (EDT) also, it seems the radio DJ is called Lazarus – he does sound a lot like Lazlow Jones from GTA… # dxhr

2011-08-30  01:25:37 (EDT) got sick of this guy’s anti-aug soap boxing so I dropped a dumpster on  him #hihothewarlockisdead #dxhr

2011-08-30 01:26:55 (EDT) From @the_met lol that’s awesome

2011-08-30  02:04:41 (EDT) thought approaching Radford’s storage unit from the rear would be a smart move. Apparently not designed to be sneaky from this angle #dxhr

2011-08-30  03:12:41 (EDT) “Did  he have the shirt too?” “What?” lulz  #dxhr

2011-08-30  03:21:32 (EDT) oh  fucking #fail I forgot the pic  http://t.co/sye6X7Q even more awesome now right @the_met?

2011-08-30  03:29:23 (EDT) SMASHTHESTATE!! # dxhr

2011-08-30  04:49:53 (EDT) there’s no  way I actually need this many credits, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try  to collect as much as possible… #dxhr

2011-08-30  05:09:34 (EDT) “gunshots!! … You have to come! You have to save me!!” I never even fired my  weapon. Nor  did  any guards #dxhr

2011-08-30  05:10:44 (EDT) I guess that would file  under one of the (minor) disadvantages to using pre-rendered cutscenes in a game like this # dxhr

2011-08-30  06:56:41 (EDT) now thinking my  0.00 hack time remaining was a glitch. Just  had a hack trace completely stop w/o  using any virus/worms. Never resumed #dxhr

2011-08-30  07:01:56 (EDT) woah Sarif didn’t have just *any* illuminati banging on  his  doors. They wanted him on  board bad it seems. #dxhr

2011-08-30  07:11:19 (EDT) oh  hells yea! I knew I was hauling around this un-silenced mostly- useless sniper rifle  for  *something*. You’re welcome, flygirl! #dxhr

[missing tweet from @g_shonk asking if I saved Malik]

2011-08-30  12:27:46 (EDT) To @g_shonk on  the second try, yes. She’s way too cute to let die, after all.  It felt a bit  like saving Paul

[missing response from @g_shonk]

2011-08-30  12:34:40 (EDT) To @g_shonk yea, just like I had always thought u couldn’t save Paul in DX1 until I really tried. Sniper rifle  + rocket launcher = win

[@Aardvajk tweets about thinking mustard bottles are selectable]

2011-08-30  19:11:06 (EDT) To @Aardvajk there are indeed a couple yellowish objects that trick you at first

2011-08-30  22:23:08 (EDT) loving how the emails reveal various connections to characters. Was wondering whether Tong was being used as a common name or not #dxhr

2011-08-30  23:48:04 (EDT) Dayum!! Just  took out 4 guys w/ 2 dbl  takedowns in less than 5 seconds. Cloak, takedown, re-cloak, takedown. That was cool as hell  #dxhr

2011-08-31  01:18:33 (EDT) if you’ve been playing primarily w/o  a silenced weapon, the plasma rifle  will give u that option if you want it #dxhr

2011-08-31  01:24:05 (EDT) the lack of purchasable consumables (namely nutrient bars/packs) is getting annoying #dxhr

2011-08-31  02:11:45 (EDT) takedown PUNCH!!  #dxhr

2011-08-31  04:18:23 (EDT) just busted past 100,000 credits. Yea I’m  still  buying up a lotta stuff too. Baaahahahha I’m  rich!! #personalachievement #dxhr

2011-08-31  04:39:07 (EDT) I’m  on  a boat, motherfucker #dxhr

2011-08-31  07:06:42 (EDT) I wish you had cover takedown options as well. That would be all kinds of extra rad #dxhr

2011-08-31  07:26:00 (EDT) “in other words, stop breaking shit with your fat asses” lulz  #email #dxhr

2011-08-31  08:33:04 (EDT) aaahh the M12  church music. Nice inclusion! #dxhr

2011-08-31  09:47:39 (EDT) how the hell  did  I get up on  this helipad?? #dxhr

2011-08-31  09:52:16 (EDT) this game does such a great job  of “look and you shall find” just like the original. Stuff to discover *everywhere* #dxhr

2011-08-31  11:27:41 (EDT) “Hey, JC…” #email #dxhr

2011-08-31  11:42:34 (EDT) oh  yea. I am SO ready *hefts heavy rifle*  BRING ON THE CRAZIES!!! *laughs maniacally, mows people down in hail  of lead* #dxhr

2011-08-31  13:03:01 (EDT) as soon as I walked on  that big  ass elevator I thought TMNT & similar side scrollers (Castle Crashers). No baddies here tho #dxhr

2011-08-31  22:00:24 (EDT) From @Griggs3d @g_shonk damn!! I had a sniper rifle  and enough ammo but didn’t think to try. That sucks…

2011-08-31  22:15:56 (EDT) To @Griggs3d, @g_shonk eh, like I told Grant – you’re gonna play thru again *anyways*

2011-08-31  22:27:48 (EDT) To @Aardvajk I was too busy exploring early & ignored David #consequences #dxhr also, you *have* to fight bosses. (kinda sucks) Stock up!!

2011-09-01  00:49:23 (EDT) I think Hyron coulda done with more crazies. My heavy rifle  wanted to get used more, hahah. Maybe on  Deus Ex difficulty next time #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:18:27 (EDT) aftr all the side questing, email reading & character interaction to uncover the whole truth, there was really only 1 choice @ the end #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:20:42 (EDT) “but please, call  me Bob” also great music selection to end with the beginning #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:21:52 (EDT) they say in the load screen tips you can’t fully  aug – but you can get pretty damn close http://t.co/eFjiNjR

2011-09-01  01:33:28 (EDT) ok  restarting on  Deus Ex difficulty. Straight up action playthrough. I hate what’s been done to me by  Sarif. Spoiler: everybody dies #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:33:52 (EDT) *sigh* ok  I’ll admit I didn’t realize who the guy in the opening cinematic was until just now. Epic. Fail.  #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:35:58 (EDT) or maybe I did  just didn’t fully  realize it. Either way, I now know who the other 3 speakers are too. #dxhr

2011-09-01  01:38:01 (EDT) From @zaoo I might have to unfollow you if I’m  going to get *any* enjoyment out of this game I just bought. #DXHR

2011-09-01  02:22:56 (EDT) my  frontal assaults need a healthier dose of cover #dxhr

2011-09-01  02:26:58 (EDT) To @zaoo hahaha too much teasing?

2011-09-01  02:31:51 (EDT) From @zaoo Nah, more like a steady stream of maybe-spoilers, having to avert my  eyes all the time.

2011-09-01  02:39:00 (EDT) when you restart the game it’s important to remember you don’t have certain augs anymore. Like Icarus landing system. Owch. My legs… #dxhr

2011-09-01  02:39:59 (EDT) To @zaoo ah well, you know I’ve already played thru so I know what u know therefore I know how to tease but not spoil. No spoilers, promise

2011-09-01  02:40:46 (EDT) To @zaoo but at some point you’ll get to a place in the game and be like “ah so *that’s* what he was talking about” (if u remember)

2011-09-01  02:42:21 (EDT) To @zaoo actually you may have seen one spoiler if you follow the right people as someone replied to a tweet & I was like “yes you can do that”

2011-09-01  02:45:30 (EDT) From @Aardvajk Yeah, forewarned about bosses, thanks. Playing obsessively and searching every body, every room, etc so should be good for  a scrap.

2011-09-01  03:11:16 (EDT) To @Aardvajk, @zaoo will admit I’ve done “soft” spoilers – like watching the “making of video” I realized I’d be interacting with Eliza  later on

2011-09-01  03:43:03 (EDT) so this is all going a lot  faster now that I’m  just killing people, lol #dxhr

2011-09-01  03:53:36 (EDT) wait lemme amend that: now that I’m  just shooting people #dxhr

2011-09-01  05:14:01 (EDT) ROFL. After being called a piece of shit it was so satisfying to immediately punch him in the FACE. Take *that*, bitch #dxhr

2011-09-10  23:17:11 (EDT) wow. didn’t even bother talking down Zeke and still  capped him w/o losing the hostage #winning #dxhr

2011-09-10  23:27:45 (EDT) #deusexforme is quicksaving whenever someone insults me then using the melee knockout to punch them in the FACE. Then reloading

2011-09-10  23:32:56 (EDT) leave no  box unturned #dxhr

2011-09-11  17:28:40 (EDT) had to share my  own brand of Adam Jensen bad assedness. Call  me a piece of shit will you? Take THIS  http://t.co/ToAP2Ao #dxhr

2011-09-14  01:24:55 (EDT) #deusexforme is taking out every DPD officer in the streets so I can have more assault rifle  ammo. I swear that’s the only reason. Really

2011-09-14  01:44:44 (EDT) From @zaoo Did you know that dragging an unconcious character across an autosave line  supposedly kills  them?

2011-09-14  01:55:32 (EDT) there’s a computer with the login BGUM at DPD – I wonder if that’s a ref  to a gumshoe detective? #dxhr

2011-09-14  01:58:56 (EDT) To @zaoo for  reals? Interesting! Thx,  will have to remember on  my  no- kills  playthru. Prob just disable AS since I quicksave like a mofo anyways

2011-09-14  02:02:47 (EDT) just sucked down a beer and a vodka and hacked a computer all hazy-eyed #thatshowiroll #dxhr

2011-09-14  02:28:02 (EDT) OMFG the crossbow is amazing. I shot the dude in the head and he flew  back 5 feet and got pinned up to the wall  #dxhr

2011-09-14  02:30:33 (EDT) what up dawg. I’m  just chillin’…. with an arrow through my  neck http://t.co/rurP5Pz #dxhr

2011-09-14  02:32:12 (EDT) on  this note, I am a bit  disappointed that you can’t go  rogue on Undercover Jenny & decide to work with O’Malley instead #dxhr

2011-09-15  12:24:35 (EDT) well  well  well  what have we  here? It appears to be #dxhr load screen advertising. Interesting http://t.co/47XbW56E

2011-09-15  12:26:15 (EDT) From @JaiKrika What.. What version you playing? PC, 360 or PS3?

2011-09-15  12:27:33 (EDT) To @JaiKrika PC build 1.1.622.0

2011-09-15  12:37:22 (EDT) From @JaiKrika That’s not possible.  I’ve loaded up half a dozen save files. Entered new areas with loading screens and I’ve not seen these adverts

2011-09-15  12:42:42 (EDT) To @JaiKrika are you in the US?

2011-09-15  12:46:03 (EDT) From @JaiKrika Im not no. Im in the UK. Are they really, In US versions of DXHR they are advertising the new Star Wars during load screens?

2011-09-15  12:48:33 (EDT) Ok I’m  noticing some other slight changes too. Hey  @eidosmontreal is there a change log  somewhere?? Steam is of no  help here #dxhr

2011-09-15  12:50:25 (EDT) To @JaiKrika that’s probably it. Marketing stuff like this tends to be region specific. I could care less, just made me aware game was updated

2011-09-15  12:56:01 (EDT) From @JaiKrika How  very weird. Unless Steam has the game in its download section from being updated it must of been quietly added.

2011-09-15  13:18:42 (EDT) To @JaiKrika http://t.co/sPWzUeXk

2011-09-15  13:24:36 (EDT) From @JaiKrika Wonder if it will eventually be added to Euro versions. I noticed they mentioned “real” advertisements, something didn’t see ingame

2011-09-15  13:25:04 (EDT) To @JaiKrika me neither. Or at least, didn’t notice them

2011-09-15  13:31:54 (EDT) From @JaiKrika Same. Saw nothing in Detroit or Hengsha. Loaded an old save in Hengsha to see if anything changed but its still  the same.

2011-09-21  20:56:29 (EDT) the mines in #dxhr give you just enough time to say “oh  fuck” in your head & resign yourself to death before they blow up

2011-09-21  21:27:22 (EDT) anybody can put a ball  through a net, but how about a body? http://t.co/YkDm9LYg  prob been done already tho right @eidosmontreal? # dxhr

2011-09-21  21:53:31 (EDT) From @TorontoJoe @eidosmontreal lol nice shot! =)

2011-09-21  21:54:25 (EDT) To @TorontoJoe, @eidosmontreal I had him going in feet first once but they don’t stay in so I wasn’t fast enough to snap a shot

2011-09-22  02:28:42 (EDT) From @Aardvajk Excellent shot, but is it technically a point if he doesn’t fall  all the way through? Not  a basketball fan, sorry.

2011-09-22  03:12:30 (EDT) To @Aardvajk he fell  thru. I had 2 more “baskets” (1  legs first!) but both went thru before I could snap a shot. He  got hung up for  a few  secs

[tweet by @JaiKrika about massacre at Detroit PD in newspaper]

2011-09-23  19:48:00 (EDT) To @JaiKrika that was my  paper too! #everyonedies #DXHR

2011-09-23  20:13:21 (EDT) From @JaiKrika Heh This  is my  “asshole” playthrough. Jensen is currently being the most unlikeable, psychopathic person that Detroit has seen.

2011-09-23  20:14:17 (EDT) To @JaiKrika ditto. He  hates what has been done to him. Already know which ending I’ll pick this time thru. Been dead since the break-in

2011-09-23  20:25:23 (EDT) From @JaiKrika Adam snapped after he found out what the PD did  to cover the Sarif incident so he killed them all.  No remorse, no  regret.

2011-09-23  20:27:05 (EDT) To @JaiKrika my  Adam just considered the cops an obstacle. And removed them. No need to talk to Hass. Dead men don’t talk, after all.

2011-09-23  20:38:16 (EDT) From @JaiKrika He  walked in the front door looking for  answers and left via  the fire escape with answers and blood. Death swept through the PD.

2011-09-28  10:34:42 (EDT) I am Adam Jensen, an unwillingly augmented man who just lost a woman I cared for. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! #dxhr

2011-10-02  08:11:05 (EDT) the prob with leaving a game like #dxhr & coming back to it, even for  a week, is all the little side stuff u can’t remember if u did  or not

End Timeline

Here is the flight plan for this trip.

Leg 1: KVAY – NJ84

It was a blustery day yesterday according to the weather reports, so the first thing I did after finishing my pre-flight checklist on the tarmac of KVAY in the Cessna 172S was taxi on over to the pump to top off the tanks. Whenever you’re dealing with turbulent weather the heavier you are the better off you will be as the wind won’t be able to knock you around as much. So, that done I taxied over to hold short for Runway 26 as a Piper Archer made its approach. I probably didn’t have to wait for it but it does take a bit extra to taxi onto this runway because you have to turn around at the end to line up. So I waited for the Piper to land then taxied out into position and took off – the wind was strong enough from the right that I didn’t have to compensate for propeller torque on my takeoff roll. Once up in the air I set the controls to cruise at 1400′ – although I had it in the plan for 1500′ I realized that was the floor of Philly Bravo airspace and decided to stay 100′ under and clear. I still tuned into Philly Approach for flight following however, and stayed with them until I passed over the VOR before tuning back into local traffic, although NJ84 doesn’t have a frequency of its own. I also realized I had compensated for FSX’s late DST switch the wrong way, setting the game clock an hour behind real world when it should be an hour ahead. Fixing that, I made my approach to Hidden Acres without issue – the flight had been bumpy all along but nothing serious just a few shakes here and there not requiring any serious control input to correct. My first approach to Hidden Acres didn’t go so well, I was expecting the 16-17kts heavy winds to slow me down a bit more than they did and I ended up long on final and had to go around. Second approach I put down 10 degrees of flaps and came down right on the runway after crabbing in slightly to stay aligned against the wind.

Leg 2: NJ84 – N73

I started this leg right after the previous, taxiing back and departing NJ84 – but once in the air since it was getting darker I decided to adjust my ENB settings and when I resized the window to put them into effect the sim continued to run but I could no longer get it to render anything. So I was forced to quit and decided to postpone the flight until the next day.

So today I hopped back into the Cessna around mid-morning and started a flight at NJ84 to pick up where I left off. It was still windy today, and on takeoff I had to be careful no to let the wind blow me into the trees off to the side of the runway. I didn’t have far to climb for cruise so I was shortly en route direct to the Atlantic City VOR where I intended to arc around at a 10nm distance before turning towards N73. It’s been a few months since my last DME arc so I wanted to keep up my technique. Turbulence was minor but persistent along the way and during the arc but never enough to seriously disturb my aircraft attitude. I started the arc fine but halfway through I let myself drift inwards and ended up 9.2nm from ACY at my closest approach before turning out towards N73. In retrospect I didn’t remember to account for the wind blowing out of the northeast pushing me off course. Live and learn! I finally remembered to pull up a track of my flight after I landed so I could see my arc:

You can see how as I turned out of the wind, which was coming from just west of north, I started to get blown inside the ACY 10nm radius. After a short flight out from ACY I reached Red Lion and entered the pattern for Runway 05. Great pattern, rounding out on final on slope and aligned with the runway, although I got a bit sloppy just before touchdown and had a scary left skid that almost took me off the runway thanks to the wind coming from the left making my torque-induced weather cocking worse than I anticipated. After finding a parking space and shutting down I also realized I never pulled an ident on the VOR. I’m very inconsistent with that still…

Leg 3: N73 – KMMU

A few spots over was my V35B from last weekend, and after pre-flight I taxied to Runway 08 and was able to take off right away as no traffic was inbound. I forgot three things in short order though on my climb to cruise altitude. One was that in setting my instruments to take off I had neglected the altimeter. Two, I didn’t circle-climb on departure but immediately flew direct for COL which caused me to skim over McGiure’s airspace. Three, I forgot to complete my after takeoff checklists. So when I was finally leveled off at 3500′ I tuned to KWRI for a weather check (shouldn’t I have done that before departure?) and reset my altitude to find I was really closer to 4000′ – d’oh! By the time I crossed over COL I was back to cruising 3500′ and began to descend again to duck under the NYC Bravo shelf and prepare for entry into the Hudson SVFR corridor. As if it’s not hard enough keeping this aircraft at 1200′ while not exceeding 140kts things started getting real bumpy as I cruised past the city. Like, attitude-changing where all the sudden I would find the aircraft starting to roll to one side. Steady hand on the yoke and smooth corrections though kept me on course without too much of an altitude or speed adjustment. Once clear of the SVFR corridor I climbed back up to 3000′ to head over the north Jersey hill country towards the Sparta VOR. I waited until I was over the VOR before tuning to KMMU for a weather report and then contacting the tower, which told me to make left downwind for Runway 05. This was great because the radial I was tracking outbound from the VOR set me up for a perfect 45° pattern entry. I received my landing clearance as #2 behind a Cessna on approach but the problem was I couldn’t spot him and there was another aircraft waiting to land behind me. So I turned base when I figured the Cessna had passed me by but then his landing light came into view in the distance. I stuck in my turn for final thinking I could cut him off but the tower told me to go around, no surprise. So I went around and slotted in behind the Cessna I was supposed to follow – when I heard the tower tell him to go to ground I turned base and final, rolling out right of the runway on final but I made it down okay. I had to taxi in partway on an inactive runway to get around some traffic taxiing out and shut down in the main tie down area to the west.

Good times. Where to next?

Ahhh my first flight of 2012! Also my first flight since the start of November, yikes. Reminded me why the FAA mandates check rides every few months for proficiency, especially considering some of the mistakes I made on this flight. Thankfully I was able to run my computer at 4.5GHz again after accidentally wiping out my overclocking settings a few weeks ago. I didn’t remember I had included details as to how I set up my overclocking in a previous Flight Log entry until I looked back and so getting it setup and running again was easy. Phew! Those extra megahertz do indeed make a difference in performance!

So the objective of this flight was two-fold. One: to get in some night time flying, of which I don’t have many hours logged. Two: to visit some of the airports I’ve designed and released over the last three months.

Here is the flight plan.

Leg 1: KFWN to N73

This was originally supposed to be two legs, from KFWN to KMMU and then on to N73. However I decided that KMMU was way to close to fly to, even for a touch and go – too much too fast for me to handle after just hopping back into the cockpit after a while on the ground. The longer flight from KFWN direct to N73 gave me more time to get back into the groove from takeoff to landing, especially considering I was flying the quicker Bonanza V35B.

The first attempt at this leg is where I made my first mistake by failing to visually inspect my aircraft for properly operating navigation lights. Granted it’s not something that’s on any of my checklists, but it is now! After departing and climbing to cruise altitude I stepped outside to capture some photos and noticed I was running without any lights – strobe, navigation and beacon were all not showing up. Realizing I couldn’t continue into growing darkness without navigation lights, I immediately considered landing at a nearby airport but I was at 5ooo feet and didn’t want to descend to anything right beneath me. I decided instead I still had enough light to turn around and head back to Sussex – bonus would be the sun would be behind me illuminating my instruments as I found my panel lighting also to be malfunctioning. So I backtracked my VOR radial and entered the pattern, cutting my downwind leg a bit short to beat in an aircraft on direct approach – I tried to clear the runway in time for him to land but he waved off just as I pulled onto the taxiway. Sorry dude, but my situation was bordering on emergency with coming darkness and I had to get to ground fast. After pulling up to the repair hangar I shut down and troubleshot the problem – turns out the new updated aircraft.cfg file released with the optional patch had the light positions all wrong for some reason. I replaced them with the light positions from the original .cfg file and all was right again.

So a bit later I was back in the cockpit and once again leaving Sussex behind and climbing for FL05. There was a crapton of traffic still in the air so I called into NY Approach for flight following and I tracked towards my VOR. As I was just hitting the VOR and getting ready to turn east I ran into a small bank of clouds at around 4700 feet, luckily there was a gap between them that allowed me to circle around and resume course without breaking VFR or changing altitude. As I approached the NJ Turnpike I switched off instruments to visual navigation, tracking the Turnpike southwest and trying not to lose it as it snaked past several other major highways. I personally find it a lot harder to identify roadways at night. After intercepting the Turnpike I also began a nice slow descent while NY Approach handed me off to McGuire Approach. I used flight following until I dropped to around 2500 feet and was closer to N73 when I switched to McGuire for a weather report. However it seems ATIS at KWRI is non-existent in FSX so I simply fell back on my weather planning I had done prior to flight and overflying the field to check the sock. My weather plan was spot on and I made my planned approach to Runway 23, coming in a bit high on final causing a little dive towards the runway but still had plenty of roll out and managed to give the Cessna behind me enough time to land afterwards. Once parked and shut down, reviewing my flight made me realize I had forgotten to do an ident on the VOR to ensure it was properly operating and that I was in fact tuned to the right station. Luckily (this time) it wasn’t an issue.

Leg 2: N73 to KBLM

The next morning it was up early and into the Tailwind W10 tri-gear, which was designed by Lionheart Creations. It’s a nifty little plane and I hadn’t really flown it more than once or twice since I got it during a sale so I figured I might as well take it out again. I got into the cockpit and went through a modified preflight – it doesn’t come with its own checklist they just ripped the Cessna 182S one from FS9 – but had trouble getting the engine to turn over. I think this is from the V35B having only left/right fuel tank selection, so when I reloaded the flight from last night and switched aircraft, the Tailwind effectively had no fuel flow since it only has a single tank (or two with one feed, dunno for sure). Eventually I just reset the flight with the aircraft already running. My first impression is that the volume for everything in this aircraft is a lot louder than the other aircraft I fly. The fuel pump, for example, is a loud as the engine itself. Also when toggling the panel lights with a keystroke it doesn’t toggle the dash switch. So if you toggle the lights on with a key then click the switch on, the panel lights will go off.

After fiddling around a bit more and getting used to the instrument layout I taxied towards the runway but after the heavier V35B I wasn’t ready for how quickly this aircraft accelerates and ended up crashing into a hangar. Whoops. Luckily damage was minor and I was able to get back to taxiing in short order, keeping a lighter hand on the throttle as I did so! Once departed from Red Lion it was a quick climb to 1500 feet cruise – this sucker is indeed fast! But once you get it leveled and trim it’s very stable and well behaved. Switching to spot view for some pictures I didn’t stay long because the outside engine noise is on a blatantly obvious loop lasting only about 3 seconds – it was pretty annoying. As I approached the coast and throttled back to slow down and drop lower for a buzz past Barnegat Light I also noticed no real discernible change in engine pitch until I had throttled down to near 50%. Oh at this point too I realized I had forgotten to continue my checklists after takeoff and upon returning to them I realized I still had flaps down from takeoff. And the VOR I used to track out to the coast? Didn’t ident. GAH!!

After following the coast north I made a direct approach for Runway 32 at KBLM after calling in and checking the weather matched the report in my plan. However on final another aircraft decided to ignore the fact that I had been announcing my approach for the last 10 minutes and taxied onto the runway for takeoff. I tried to slow down to let him go ahead of me but ended up having to call a go around. My second time around there was more traffic departing but thankfully they were kind enough to wait for me to land. However I then went and flipped the aircraft as I tried to rush and exit at the nearest taxiway. Although I will say I thought for sure I had slowed down enough to make the turn, apparently I hadn’t – no doubt my inexperience with the aircraft led to this disaster. I should probably have handled it with more care not having flown it much huh?

Leg 3: KBLM to KVAY

So technically I made it to KBLM and was totally not in the mood to try that entire leg again so I just hopped into the ol’ 172S which I had left stashed in one of the long-term hangars north of the airport. Before that though I reset the time to bring the sun up a bit more. I realized a bit later that since FSX was designed prior to the recent Daylight Savings Time changes, when I set the clock to real-world time it would put it an hour behind and not expect dawn to arrive until 8:21 instead of 7:21.

After the disaster of Leg 2 this leg was. thankfully, much nicer. I had no troubles departing KBLM and after reaching cruise I even remembered to finish off my checklists and ident the VOR I was tracking towards. Then it was just time to sit back and enjoy the sunrise and watch the traffic moving about the sky around me. Once I hit the VOR I began a gentle descent that put me near pattern altitude as I approached KVAY, which is bunched up with Flying W N14 and Red Lion N73. I threaded over both runways which set me up nicely for a pattern entry to Runway 08, although I was a bit off on the altitude I otherwise flew the pattern without issue, ending up on slope and centered as I turned final. I made sure to stay on slope to clear the power lines in front of Runway 08 and came down to a slightly bumpy landing.

Since KMMU was the only recently-developed airport I didn’t get to visit, that will be the target of my next flight, though I’m also working on a small grass field a little ways south as well that I might take a small plane to and back, and then cruise up past NYC to get to KMMU and then take a helicopter into the city? We’ll see.

Forecasts were good for the Quadrantid meteor shower set to peak this morning so I decided to check it out since this was one of the yearly showers I had not yet witnessed. Of course, although we’ve been having very above-average temperatures around here the past few weeks last night it decided to plummet close to the single digits, with windchill on top of that to bring the “feels like” temperature forecast from Weather.com down to -2°F. Man I thought I had on enough layers – I was wrong. I was out on the roof just after 2am and 15 minutes later I was back inside getting scarfs for my face. A little over an hour in and my extremities started to hurt. Close to an hour after that, just before 4am, I saw my 25th meteor and called it. When I got back inside I didn’t warm up until I had stripped off most of my outer layers because they were so cold the heat from inside the house wasn’t reaching me!

So the shower itself was about average. 25 meteors isn’t so bad for my neck of the woods. Unlike some other showers like the Perseids that are known for fast meteors, the Quadrantids have slower moving, brighter ones. Indeed that’s mostly what I saw whenever I caught one. The ones that burned bright and long across the sky were quite beautiful. One was definitely throwing off a noticeable blue glow. It’s really hit-or-miss for me since I have a lot of light pollution so when a dense shower is forecast I have to hope that most of the dust particles are large, but not this time. I’m sure people way out in the mountains saw 3 times as many easily. One meteor either came at me head on or was an iridium flare, as a spot of light in the sky grew bright and then dimmed out. That was pretty cool. Most showed up around the tail of the Big Dipper.

This shower is very capable of producing meteors worth watching. Hopefully next year will be just as good if not better if I can catch it.

so 2011 is over, and it was a pretty rad year. Let’s do the quick recap of major events: I attended my 10th Game Developers Conference, I celebrated 10 years of working with GameDev.net, I got to work on my first barge display for Grucci, I got to see the launch of the last space shuttle ever, and I got to take part in a major Hollywood blockbuster film. In between all that I did a fair amount of flying the virtual skies, as well as caught some Perseid meteors even though I couldn’t make it up into the mountains this year thanks to my 10yr high school reunion. That was a great time though so no complaining. The Perseid camping trip is back on again for this year though! I also continued with my scenery design over at MegaSceneryEarth Airports and pumped out almost 50 airports over the last 12 months. One of the more well-known and visited flight simulator sites AVSIM accepted me on as a staff reviewer as well, I have a blog over there now that has my latest reviews and flight simulator thoughts I’ll be cross posting here as well. There was also the IGDA chapter I helped to found celebrating 10 years of meetings this year as well. I got to tour ILM’s Presidio offices while George Lucas was visiting and hell during 2011 I even managed to have an epic game of beanbag, of all things. My health is still with me, I still have a great time coaching at the gym, and my car is running like a champ. She took me on several memorable road trips this year – I finally got to drive the Tail of the Dragon (both ways no traffic!) and I also checked out the Cherohala Skyway and did the rest of the Blue Ridge Parkway that I had to skip when I tripped down to Raleigh back in 2010. Coming home from PAX East I took a new route along the Molly Stark Trail as well. If only my bike was still on the road – but that’s about the only crappy thing of 2011: finally earning enough points to suspend my license and bring down a bunch more fines and fees that kept me from repairing the trusty steed for use this season.

So it wasn’t a perfect year, and I’m fighting not to lose my license again (more on that later this month) but even I had forgotten how much cool stuff happened until just now thinking back on it. So now time to look ahead and see what’s in store for 2012. You can call this list a bunch of resolutions, goals, plans – whatever. These are things I will be working on in 2012. They may all not get accomplished, but they will all be attempted.

• I’ve already been saving money but will continue to do so until spring arrives and I can get my bike into a shop and looked over. It will need some tuning, new chain and sprocket, probably some new hoses as well at the very least not to mention change of fluids. I’m hoping it won’t cost more than $1k to get back to being fully operational. Thankfully a bike shop opened in the last few years right down the road from me run by people who are friends of one of the coaches at the gym.
• FSX scenery design is going well. A year in and I’m still having a good time with it – that’s a good sign especially considering I’ve only gotten one $10 donation. So this year I plan to finish off all the NJ airports and start looking for people to work with on commercial scenery projects.
• GameDev.net just launched a new upgrade and we have lots of ideas with how to run with it moving forward. Hopefully we can keep things fresh and interesting, not to mention useful, for our audience and start to grow things out from the business side as well.
• I’ll be doing at least one review a month for AVSIM and I’ll be switching between scenery and aircraft. I want to try to get back to flying more often as well.
• I will be turning 30 this year and I want to celebrate my birthday feeling a lot more in shape than I do right now. It’s been a downhill spiral ever since I stopped doing the Batman Show – that was great for staying in shape lemme tell you! I spend too much time sitting at my desk, and we all know that’s not healthy. Regular workouts with the Iron Gym will recommence immediately and after three months of strength and conditioning I will start training gymnastics again. Nothing extreme, just working on getting back old skills like giants on bars, tumbling on floor, handstands on parallel bars, press on rings, that kind of stuff.

Oh and of course if the world does indeed end, I’ll be ready for that too.

Bring it on, 2012!

Part of developing airports for FSX, which I do for my website MegaScenery Earth Airports, is that I need to make sure the way AI aircraft taxi around the airport follows realistic taxi patterns and, more importantly, that it even works and I don’t have aircraft going in circles or not finding a parking location and just vanishing off the runway/taxiway. Normally I would do this by injecting aircraft into the simulation and watching them land, takeoff and taxi, but that only works with individual aircraft. When you get multiple aircraft taxiing about at the same time things can break down.

So in order to make it less painful to sit and watch the sim while it… simulates, I did some research into time-lapse tools for screen capture programs. This led me to a little freeware tool called Chronolapse which allows you various options for capturing screen shots of your computer screen and then also does the job of outputting the video for you. Nice! Getting it setup and running was a snap, just plug in the number of seconds between captures, the capture format and the destination directory and you’re all set to go. A progress bar at the bottom lets you know how much time you have between the next capture in case you want to try to do anything that doesn’t get seen during the pause between captures.

Even better is that if you have multiple monitors you can capture those as well or ignore them and capture the main screen only. This means even though I plan to mostly let this run while I’m not at the computer, if I am I can still work on my other two monitors and not interfere. You do have to watch out that you don’t start up a program or activate a window that will overlay the main screen for too long, but that’s about it.

To test out the capabilities of this whole method, I decided to use my modified Rotterdam X scenery, which I have been tweaking over the last few days to properly recreate the ground movement patterns outlined for the airport.  I also decided to check the stability of Chronolapse working alongside FSX so I let the simulation run in real time for 16 hours straight. This didn’t work well at first, FSX crashed some times and other times I would end up with a window over the screen when I came back to check on it. Once I figured our what programs not to have running to make sure no windows popped up, I started from a clean reboot with all non-vital background apps shut down and let ‘er rip.

16 hours later I had 11,357 PNG images in my destination folder totaling 13.9GB. Each individual PNG file was roughly 1.5-2MB give or take a few hundred kilobytes. Had I set the destination format to JPG each image would have weighed in around 200-600KB. The dimension of these images are 1680×1020 as 30 pixels were cropped during capture to hide the FSX window bar – although now that I think of it I could have just used the Autohotkey I have to expand the FSX window (see this thread on AVSIM for more information). These images were captured at a rate of 5 per second.

Some of the images needed to be tweaked, as I wasn’t perfect in keeping stuff from popping up over the screen as I worked alongside the simulation later in the run. This simply meant loading up an image from before and copying the spot and pasting it in the affected image to cover up the foreign window. This was made easier by the fact that the camera was static – a moving shot would have made things much more difficult to cover up.

To process the images into HD video for publishing I used Vegas Pro 9. First I did some testing to quantize the amount of video data that would be required for rendering HD 108oi at the highest quality settings for the MPG codec. So I took 713 images, which comprised approximately one hour of captured footage, and loaded them into Vegas at 0.1 seconds per image. The result was a 1:11 video that came to 224MB and was too choppy to be used for public consumption but decent for use in debugging AI movements for development. Next I compressed the timeline to speed up the video and outputted a 35 second video weighing in at 112MB that was fast enough to be smooth, but would still mean over 9 minutes of video for the whole time lapse. So I took the compressed timeline and punched up the velocity envelope to 300% to end up with a 6 second video at 19.8MB that wasn’t too fast to blur everything.

So from there it was pretty much multiply everything by 16 to get final output times and sizes, which I felt were all reasonable. While the times of course turned out to be pretty precise, I was surprised that the file size output came up slightly less than projected – but no complaints there! The final videos, each taking around 20-30 minutes to render, came out to 3.46GB, 1.76GB and 312MB respective to the order I gave in the last paragraph. I was tempted to add some ambient music and some low-level ATC chatter in the background but ultimately couldn’t be bothered. Then after I uploaded to YouTube I remembered I could add audio from their library, so I found some nice ambient tunes to go with them. No “oontz oontz oontz oontz” I promise

Speaking of next time, while I said this is primarily for development purposes I might take some time down the road to do some real time-lapses like you see in the stunning Skyrim video below. Would need to invest in a better in-game camera add-on for FSX however as I can’t get movement in the sim to go slowly enough to capture nice moving/panning shots like the video below over long periods of time. For now, it’s back to development!

But quickly, speaking now of development, this video did also serve its purpose for that goal as well. I noticed several aircraft disappear while holding short waiting for 2-3 aircraft to arrive. To solve this I installed AI Timeout Patcher. Then I also noticed some GA aircraft holding short using the farthest hold marker which is too far from the runway to give them ATC clearance, so I tweaked the AI pathing network a bit to make that trip (hopefully) too costy for them. Then you can also spot a Piper Cub being stupid turning around in big circles – not much you can do about that. Stupid AI Cubs can’t turn worth shit…. Finally you may see an outgoing aircraft duck through the refueling area to work around an incoming aircraft (not really a big deal IMO) and some un-coded airline traffic is parking way back in the general aviation area.

Okay, now for some real time-lapse:

Yea so it’s been a while since I’ve gone on a planned flight – and even this flight I’m blogging now actually took place back on October 22nd! Besides my airport scenery development I’ve also been busy getting started as an AVSIM staff reviewer – I’ve already written two reviews and will be working on a third this month. Also at the time I was rather frustrated after not completing the entire flight I had planned out and that put me off blogging it right away. Then the rest of life caught me up in a whirlwind that still hasn’t quite set me back down.

I guess this flight was doomed from the start when I began planning it at like 2 in the morning. It was so long since I had planned a flight that I was forgetting things that needed to be done – my memory retention has never been all that great. So that slowed the process and to make things worse SkyVector decided to stop loading charts on me before I could complete my planning. Then I added to the problem by deciding not to sleep since it was by now after 4am and just get set to takeoff with the dawn and fly all morning/afternoon and then crash the rest of the day.

Here’s the full flight plan.

Leg 1: KBLM – KFWN

I started out in the Bonanza V35B out of Monmouth Executive, where it was parked last. Once airborne I had a simple VOR route plotted that would take me within spitting distance of Sussex. Weather was calm and clear and the VOR beacons came through strong and steady. I realize now that I completely forgot to tune into their Morse frequencies and identify that I was setting course towards the proper beacon – luckily that wasn’t an issue this time around (I have caught myself in earlier occasions of being tuned to the wrong VOR!). I did let my attention drift every now and then (sleepiness probably didn’t help) so I was banking left and right to get the course needle back to center, and of course thanks to the tip tanks keeping the wings level wasn’t made any easier. I probably should have topped them off before departing KBLM but didn’t bother.

I pulled int KFWN airspace right on target and flew the pattern around the airfield, lining up perfectly with the runway as I rolled out of my base turn to final. Sussex doesn’t have much useable runway left for landings these days – my theory is that to save money on repairs they’ve simply moved the displaced thresholds further and further towards the runway center. Anyways it’s best to land a bit fast in the V35B, so I touched down around 60kts and immediately had to stand on the brakes to come to a stop with just enough room to taxi off at the end of the runway.

Leg 2: KFWN – 1N7

Once I parked, shut down and saved the new location of the V35B I loaded up the American Aerolites Falcon, which was an aircraft I had recently reviewed. It’s a nifty little ultralight and I was going to make a short hop with it down the Delaware River to Blairstown – since the Falcon can only go around 55kts for a normal cruising speed. The falcon is a stick and throttle aircraft so I had to reconfigure my hardware setup a bit to get ready to fly, including some axis and button assignment changes as well. By the time I got off the ground the sun was fully up over the horizon.

The flight down the Delaware and to 1N7 was largely uneventful. I found the river okay and followed it down to the Water Gap, at which point I turned off the engine and glided down through the gap, enjoying the wind rushing past me before kicking the engine back on again near the ground and continuing to power towards 1N7. This I found through dead reckoning and flew the pattern down to land and taxi to a parking location. In doing so I ended up “below ground” and realized I would need to add a flatten polygon to this airport scenery when I revisit it sometime in the future.

Leg 3 Fail

Next it was time to load up a freeware aircraft in my library I hadn’t tried yet, a Cirrus SR20. It looked good at first glance, enough for me to want to try it, but ultimately proved to be less than adequate for my demanding sim realism needs. The controls, especially the radios, were hard to read and see, and every time you so much as tapped the brakes the whole nose would dip down like 2 feet as if you slammed on them instead. It was so bad that when I used the pushback function to move the aircraft backwards out of a parking space, when I stopped the craft tipped back onto its tail and stood there! I had to power up, start moving and tap the brakes to drop the nose back down. To add to my frustration I had forgot I had set my yoke/throttle null zones extremely wide to prevent dual inputs from being sent to the sim when I was using my joystick to control the AA Falcon while the yoke was still plugged in. So I didn’t have enough power, yoke control to take off when I rolled down the runway the first time.

Finally, after making it into the air clouds had moved in to prevent me from climbing to 8000′ like I had planned. Rather than go around I decided to go over – but at around 12,000′ I started losing climb performance and only then discovered that apparently this aircraft has an adjustable propeller pitch but couldn’t see a control in the cockpit for it. Regardless, I was beginning to get seriously tired and annoyed in general so I just shut down the sim right then and there, and went to bed.

Hopefully my next outing will be a bit more enjoyable overall Hopefully it will be sometime soon as well… heh

This past week I was rehearsing and shooting for the film Magnus Rex in New York City, as I mentioned in my last blog post. Here’s what I’m able to say so far:

Rehearsal Days

These took place Wednesday and Thursday out in Jacob Riis Park on Long Island, which has a huge parking lot that we used as there were a lot of extras there. I hadn’t gotten wind of the scope of the scene we were shooting until after I arrived, checked in and sat down for the catered breakfast – it was then I noted the small line I had waited in at 7am had by now grown to at least three times its former size. It was now only about 7:20. It wasn’t until closer to 9am that all 500 or so of us were checked in and ready to go. There were two sides represented – the good guys (cops and SWAT) were wearing mostly white while the bad guys (thugs and mercenaries) were wearing mostly black.

We spent the first day in basic fight training, which harkened me back to the beginning of my Batman Show days. They let us pair ourselves up with a partner from the opposing side after forming us into our separate camps out in the parking lot. I was right across from a fit-looking older guy around the same height as me, so when they let us break rank to find a partner I went straight to him and grabbed his hand to shake it and introduce myself. Once Chris and I had exchanged greetings we waited until the stunt people separated us further into 50-person squads that would each be trained by two members of the stunt team. None of the stunt guys asked for prior experience and I didn’t mention that I had any – I figured they would see it. Sure enough, as the morning went on my partner and I were pretty much ignored by the stunt guys, who walked around giving pointers and lessons to the rest of the group. I spent the time passing on what experience I could to Chris when needed – fortunately he himself, while not having previous fight experience, was able to pick up a lot of the basics on his own.

Before lunch they had us separate back into our good-guy/bad-guy groups and gave us an idea of what would be happening in the scene we would be shooting the coming weekend. We rehearsed the action for a while before breaking for some catered lunch and rest. I’ll admit that my arms and waist were already starting to tighten up from throwing punches and reacting to getting hit – ironically enough my neck seemed to be just fine, which is usually the part that gets really sore from snapping back.

The afternoon was spent back in our groups rehearsing various fight sequences that would fit a brawl-type scene, and we also ran through the scene’s action a lot so that we could do so as a smaller group and fine-tune things. Chris and I also got some attention from the stunt guys as well as the fight sequences became a bit more complex. Later in the afternoon the stunt guys in charge of our group came around taking down names and putting stickers on the shirts of people who would be returning for additional rehearsal the next day. Both my partner Chris and I were selected, which was great because some people were asked to return without their partners and would have to find new ones.

The next day only about half of the people from Wednesday were back, and it was largely the same deal as yesterday except more detail was given to the fighting to really make sure everyone was throwing and reacting properly. Additionally, some of the extras were taken out to receive weapons training (both proper gun handling and actually firing blank rounds) and kill training. I was selected for the latter, and they had several of us from my group and others walk on mats and react to getting shot in both the head and the shoulder and taking the fall onto the ground. Several people fell backwards or flopped down on the mats and were reminded that they would not have this padding during the shoot. When I went down I tried hard to remember to use my contact points – knees, elbows, shoulders, hands, that would be padded. I did almost fall sideways off the mat once and was reminded that I should be aware of where I’m falling in general as well.

Once day two of rehearsals were over it was just a day off before shoot weekend.

Shoot Days

We were all warned about early call times due to the number of extras being used in this scene, so I was ready to wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning on Saturday. Luckily they worked the calls in groups alphabetically, so while people whose last names began with A-F had to report at 2:30 in the morning, my group of surnames weren’t needed until 5:30. This was also a great thing as my plans to stay up with friends in the city fell through and I would have to drive. So it was up at 3:30 and on the road at 4am – I got to the location at 5 but the parking garage closest to the set was full-up – the last car pulled in just ahead of me! So it was a 30-minute scramble to both navigate the city streets and find another garage in the area that wasn’t full – I finally ended up a good 15 minute walk off location but a cab was right there as I exited the parking garage so I was only 10 minutes late for call. Luckily it wasn’t that important I be strictly on time as there were still a lot of us to process and it wasn’t like I was holding up anything by being a few minutes late.

Six flights of stairs up the building led you to check in – talk about your morning work out! They had signs posted on the wall at the top of each flight – “Good morning! Welcome to Magnus Rex” and “You’re almost there!” and the like. Once through check in it was down two flights to wardrobe where we exchanged our clothes for our costumes. Then it was down another flight to our holding area, which was divided into three groups – those that hadn’t attend rehearsal, those that had attended one day of rehearsal and those that had attended both rehearsal days. In here we could still use cell phones and have our bags to read books and eat or do whatever while we waited to be called out to set. The cops and SWAT were a floor below us in a similar holding arrangement.

It was cold out, and although the day warmed up a little it was generally chilly – luckily most of us like myself were costumed appropriately anyways. They organized us out on set by ranks – those who had attended both rehearsal days were up in front, those who had attended one day were behind and those who had not rehearsed were in the back. The idea obviously was to get the better-looking background fighters closest to the camera. Still, those all the way in the back might have been consoled a little to know that they were still part of something big – one of the Assistant Directors or Production Assistants (couldn’t tell who) let everyone know that we were officially in the books as the largest amount of paid extras used in a scene in NYC film history! I don’t have any official numbers but the rumors put it at around 1100 extras.

We spent the first day working all the way up until the sun was too low to shoot. Obviously there were numerous takes we had to go through to get things up to a level acceptable for the director, especially considering the number of people that were being used. We shot several different scenes throughout the day and we had lunch breaks in waves so that there would always be enough extras out to use on camera at any given time. At the end of the day they had us all return to holding and reversed the process we had gone through in the morning, letting the people who had arrived at 2:30am get checked out first. We all managed to get out in just over an hour – which pleased production immensely as they had expected it to take more like 3 hours to get everyone checked out.

The second day of shooting was similar to the second day of rehearsals in that only about half of the extras were called back to shoot some additional scenes and some closer shots of the scenes we worked on the previous day. I was able to park in the garage right down the street from the location this time and was early for my call, which was a bit earlier at 5am. The day didn’t last as long as Saturday, and we actually got our last shot in one take for a wrap.

Apparently production was extremely pleased with how the weekend went, and many of the ADs and PAs went to lengths to tell us they weren’t saying good job just to make us feel good or anything but that they really were happy with our performance and cooperation. Well, we get to wait and see now as the final result won’t be viewable until Summer 2012! Once the film hits the theaters (in IMAX!!) I’ll be able to post up more information about the scenes we were shooting. Until then, stunt-wise, we’ll see what comes up!

I was notified by a friend a few weeks ago via a generic tweet that a certain blockbuster movie was having an open casting call in the city for background stunt performers (non union) and being that it has been a while since I tried nabbing some stuntwork I decided what the hell, grabbed my fellow Batman show buddy Dizzle and we caught the first train up to the city at like 5:30am. We got to the location around 7am, 3 hours before call time and were only like 17th in line. So we chilled out and waited, thankfully the rain held off although we had to watch out for pigeon shit falling from the flying rats resting on window ledges over our heads when we leaned against the building wall.

Dizzle chilling out, we were both wearing our Batman stunt team jackets

We were the first batch of people in at 10am where they sat us all down, explained what was expected of us, had us fill out forms, take a picture and sent us on our way. We were out of there in 15 minutes. So I asked Dizzle why the hell did they make us show up just for that? He posited that it was an initial culling process – whoever took the effort to show up was someone worth looking into, as opposed to just some kind of online sign-up where thousands of people could have easily participated. Well that made sense. I hoped they were taking it a step further and keeping all the people there first on the top of the pile

When walked out we checked the line – it went all the way down the street (streets in NYC are long), around the corner and halfway up the adjacent avenue. Despite the fact that it probably moved pretty quickly we were happy to be done and gone to continue on with our day.

A few days later an email landed in my Inbox confirming my participation in Magnus Rex! From that point it occurred to me that I should probably do some training to get some stunting moves ready in case I needed them. I’m not deluding myself – I’m a background performer and will probably not be asked to do anything seriously difficult or demanding. At the same time however I’m not going to assume this is the case and want to be as prepared as possible to do whatever they might want me to do. As a gymnast, I knew I could do some of the more demanding stunt falls like gainer flips and such, but to be completely honest I had never tried before. So after coaching I would stay a while and gradually worked up to performing the falls on floor starting with practicing on trampoline, moving to tumble trak with an eight inch-thick mat to deaden the bounce a bit, then on floor with the eight incher and finally on floor with only 2 thin “sting mats” and with shoes on. Here is the result:

• Swing-leg gainer 3/4 back – a “gainer” is any flip that travels opposite its rotation. So a backwards gainer is a backflip that moves forwards. Because you are traveling forwards, it makes it difficult to impossible to go upwards as well (especially considering you’re pushing off one foot), which is the direction you would prefer a flip to go. At best, you stay level to your takeoff height and so it can be a bit disconcerting to perform as you don’t feel yourself lift for the flip and can freak out a bit thinking you’re not actually turning over. The “swing-leg” part helps induce the forward motion, which you see carried into the hips as well before I arch back. This kind of fall is what you see when someone gets clothes-lined or arm-barred while traveling forwards
• Swing-leg gainer arabian crash dive – another gainer, this one adds a 1/2 twist. As I mentioned earlier, it’s hard to rotate these flips. So when you want to add a twist, it’s best to do the twist before you do the flip. An arabian is a 1/2 twisting front flip that actually begins with a backwards rotation. “Crash diving” out of the flip lays you on your back in a 3/4 rotation. This is another clothes-line/arm-bar fall that is a bit more dynamic and can accompany something like a spinning back kick or similar move that would induce a spin reaction.
• Standing 3/4 back flip – a static standing flip like this can be cut in to react to something like a smashing uppercut or kick that catches you under the chin. There’s also a “break-fall” 3/4 back that you can use for harder surfaces that has you placing your hands down early to “worm” the flip down in a more controlled fashion. You just have to ensure a nice arch to your flip to avoid actually breaking your arms
• Standing 3/4 back flip with 1/2 twist – as mentioned earlier, it’s hard to twist a gainer late, but for a standing flip where you can lift upwards, this is easy. The only danger is twisting too soon, which will leave your feet behind you and you on the back of your neck. It’s simple not to make this mistake – spot the ground first. This is a reaction similar to the 3/4 back but again just more dynamic and a better response to anything with a spin in it.
• Double-twisting fall – I love doing this move. A haymaker punch or spinning back kick lends itself nicely to performing this. Nothing complex, the hardest aspect of this move is rushing the twist – best is to stand up and spot over your shoulder prior to wrapping in for the spin. Note how I “flail” my right arm out – this is part dramatic, part functional. When I wrap I have greater momentum in my spin just like a figure skater pulling their arms in to spin faster. I kept the second take in because LOL BOUNCE

I’m hoping to next spend some time performing these moves against other actors.

So while I was working on these moves I got called back to the city for wardrobe fitting. I showed up and my fitter went about finding me some clothing to wear for the shoot. I got handed a nice-looking outfit and went into the dressing room to try it on – which was just an adjacent office with a sheet over the door. One poor guy, when told to get changed, was like “there’s someone in there”. He was told succinctly that he better get used to it, haha. Another extra was in the process of trying on his 3rd outfit, because we’re supposed to look run down and so far he had remained “sharp-looking” according to the fitter. Well you have to take a compliment where you can I suppose! My outfit was snug and good-looking on the first try with a few small additions once we saw the costume director.

I’m thinking they should have called it “Myopic Rex”

Next it was on to hair and make-up. At first, when I decided to stop getting my hair cut, the decision was based on the fact that I was tight on money and didn’t want to spend it on a haircut. Then I realized hey – if I get a stunt gig they can just do whatever they want with my hair. It is, after all, easier to cut hair short than grow it long when needed. So I went to see the hair and make-up people expecting to have my head worked over – but they actually liked me just the way I looked, and wrote down on my sheet for shoot day “come as seen in fittings”. Well alright then that was easy! Even the costume director, for my reference photo in costume, told me to make it look “as crazy as possible”. After that it was the usual contract and payment information signing and I was on my way once again an hour later or so.

It’s actually longer now!!

So that’s pretty much that. If you follow me on twitter you’ll know when I’m rehearsing and when I’m shooting, but that’s about all I can say until the movie comes out – and even then due to the contract I signed I might not be able to say that much, but I will of course report what I can! The kids I coach at the gym were a bit disappointed to hear I only have a background role, but I tried to explain to them that it’s not really the role that’s important, but the fact that you’re able to perform in any capacity – especially on a movie like this. They were even further flabbergasted when I told them I might not even make it into the final cut “Well why bother then?” asked one. “Because it’s fun!” was my response.

I should have enough vouchers after this gig to join the Screen Actors Guild, which is something that would help in finding future work, and I’ll probably put a bit more effort into hunting down jobs than before. If you’re not familiar with past stuff I’ve worked on, here’s the synopsis.

Yea so. Yea. More as it develops!