HoodedHawk

William Gibson at Politics and Prose, Washington, DC (November 8, 2014)

Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran’s benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC’s elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton has to go out, but there’s a job he’s supposed to do—a job Flynne didn’t know he had. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her. The job seems to be simple: work a perimeter around the image of a tower building. Little buglike things turn up. He’s supposed to get in their way, edge them back. That’s all there is to it. He’s offering Flynne a good price to take over for him. What she sees, though, isn’t what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder.
–blurb from The Peripheral.

I must be getting old. I had my older son Dylan go next door during the talk to reserve a table for us (knowing it would be a long wait). The restaurant beeper naturally went off (Dylan came to get me) while I was waiting in line to get my copy of The Peripheral signed. So, I had Dylan wait in line to get the book signed for me while Preston and I went next door to order dinner. And yes, he was thrilled to do that for me – I could tell by his glare. Right.
I didn’t get to say ‘Hi” to Mr. Gibson this time. Last time I saw him was in 2007; right here at Politics and Prose! – See my previous blog post from 2007 (and compare the pictures).

I would have just stayed in line but we needed to have dinner and get Preston home for bedtime. Dylan got back to the table about 5 minutes before his pizza: “That line moved about 2 inches every 5 minutes, Dad!”.

Love the silver ink that Mr. Gibson used on the black background!

Dinner at Comet Pizza next door was very good. The wait for the table was 45 minutes, but we were in the bookstore, so no worries. The waiter was very apologetic for the wait and we had excellent service. I love their wood-fired pizza. So does Preston.

We have been coming on Saturdays the past few times we have been here, and thus it has been way too crowded to get a ping-pong table. But this time we got the best table yet – table at rear, just before the ping-pong area. This is MUCH preferred over the main dining area, which is crowded, and poorly lit (we like to play games like Roll For It while waiting).

Preston ate a whole cheese pizza himself!

Yes, I did something nice for Dylan for being my proxy – he got the book he wanted. :)

I have a lot more pictures from our day on Block Island, RI in August. However this one was just used for his birthday invites and I kinda like it:

We didn’t have any live critters to put in the payload, so Preston picked a flower.

We managed to launch the rocket 9 times tonight. For the last launch (not shown, unfortunately), I put the little micro flashlight from my keychain into the payload. It was past dusk, so hard to see – but with the flashlight in the payload area, the nosecone of the rocket was totally lit up! So nice to see this light dropping from the sky. That last one was the easiest to track!

I would have caught this last one on video, but Preston kinda launched a wee bit prematurely: “Ten, Nine, Ignition! ” What happened to 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1??? Again, very happy for that launcher key while I was attaching the igniter. Oh well, it looked really cool.

Engines were C6-5’s, the largest that fit in this rocket. This particular rocket has a plastic tail area with a twist-on engine stop, so it is really easy to reload with a new engine. Nice design, and quite sturdy.

I like the new igniters these engines come with: they have little plastic plugs that you push in to hold the igniter securely into contact with the engine. Back in the day when I was launching rockets as a kid, it was just a bare wire, and we had to use tape to hold it in. Many false ignitions/failures. But these new igniters with the plug to maintain contact work like a charm!

The launcher we used has a neat little “key” that you have to insert, and then you also have to hold down an “arm” button (which lights up an indicator light). While holding the “arm” button down, you then press the “launch” button to fire the rocket. This is a very safe mechanism. I just had to tell Preston to “remove the key” while I was attaching the launcher leads to the engine igniter – that way there was no way he was going to press the launch button by mistake and fire it off in my hands!

I remember using a small metal toolbox as my launcher. I drilled some holes in the top and put in a toggle switch, a light, and a button switch. Worked the same way as today’s pre-made ones – though I didn’t use a key; you used the toggle switch to “arm” the launcher (lit the light) and then the button switch to launch. Wish I could find that little launcher – would be cool to let Preston use it. But it is long gone. :(

Favorite quote from the launches: “I got it! Hey!! That’s hot!”

Second favorite quote: “Whaddya mean the kids have to chase after the rocket? Next time we are bringing Dylan!”

Preston and Olivia off to school; Kindergarten and First Grade!

Preston and Olivia off to the bus stop, first day of school.

Now if only more Internet companies were like the search engine, “DuckDuckGo“:

Their Privacy Policy is simple:

We don’t collect or share personal information.
That’s our privacy policy in a nutshell.

Nice. Simple.

I do like the completeness of Google, however as the majority of Google’s revenue ( close to $16 Billion in Q2 2014!) is generated via ads, they collect and compile a TON of information on your search/browsing/email habits in order to sell very targeted adspace to their customers.

Maybe I don’t want to be a packaged product. Or maybe I don’t care. Or maybe I like the eerily spot-on ads that show up in my browser. In any case I like choice so there are times I will choose to DuckDuckGo. Plus, the name is cool.

Finally? DuckDuckGo likes me more than Google. A search for “Hooded Hawk” on DuckDuckGo results in my site being the first hit! On Google, hoodedhawk.com is on the third page of results. With all that Google tracks from me, they should at least know my own website! Phhhhht.