Soon Enough

So I went to the citizenship interview on Monday, and yesterday (Saturday) I got a letter for the ceremony. It's gonna be about 10 days from now. Good shit. Finally, things went smooth with the government. I hope to find a more decent job in a not-so-distant future. Plus I don't have to pay to renew my green card.

Soccer game was canceled because of bad weather. Too bad. But it was good in a way, cuz I wasn't really fit to play today. I guess we're not gonna practice anymore, so I gotta find someone else to play just for practice. I'm more confident about my basic skills, and I can play at pretty much any position. I wanna work on speeding up my decision makings and using my left foot more.

Priority

No job inquiries recently.
I haven't flown for about two weeks.
Even though the soaring weather has been pretty fucking good for the last two weeks.
I'm taking Monday off (again) for the protest, but the weather seems to be pretty bad that day.
I have a soccer game on Sunday, but the forecast is rain for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

I play a lot worse when it's raining. Probably because I'm not good at adopting to new things. It messes up pretty much every part of my game when the 'feel' of the ball changes. I have to be more alert to guess where the ball is going to be. And keep my feet on the ground as much as possible. My goal for this game is to not let the opponent score. I'll just distribute the ball from the back and let the other guys score. It should be easier to construct the offense once the defense is set.

Sometimes I Lie

Went to the citizenship interview. I actually had an interview today. All the paperworks are filled, background check is done. At least that's what the guy told me. I just need to do my oath and shit. So I guess I'll sell out and get a job working for the military and the government and shit. I think it's a bad thing. Many people won't think so, but that's because I have this general mistrust of things like the nation state. It's hard to believe that so many people just assume that the politicians really know what they're doing. I don't think they're any smarter than any of us. Anyways, I have this general estimate as to when I'll get my citizenship, but I feel like it's a bad luck to talk about it. We'll see how it goes.

We had our first league game on Sunday. Lost 5-1. Although I didn't think that we played badly. We just couldn't deal with the high balls. And we should've spread the ball the the sides more during attack. I played in the defensive midfielder position. So it's mostly my fault that I didn't distribute the ball to the sides more.
I was able to
1. keep the ball
2. pick up the second ball
3. mark up their attack from the second row
But I didn't
1. keep pressure on the ball
2. distribute the ball better
3. support the attack from behind.
I didn't move as much as I had to for most of the match. I was mainly concentrating on taking care of the space infront of our defense.
Next time, I'll work on stopping their counter attack with fouls and communicating with others to mark up on their midfielders.
Maybe we should think of a better system that's better for the players we have.

Loss

My laptop died on me.
I had to erase everything and start over again.
Lost all my pictures...

I guess it's good to start over sometimes...

Note to self.
Make backups.

Only one call from a recruiter this week.
I-DEAS drafter position at Fermi Lab.
It would be nice because it's not too far from the soccer field and the glider field.
I'll be making twice the money.
I could still live in Elgin.

But this job requires citizenship.

I have my interview for citizenship this coming Monday.
I also have the first soccer game of the season this Sunday.

I'm taking the day off on May 1st because of the immigration law thing.
It's good to get people's attention, I reason. No one really cares about politics unless it's got something to do with them. I'm not illegal, but I have lots of friends who are, and I feel that many people and companies take advantages of them just because they don't have the paperworks. I wouldn't have done anything by myself, but this is an opportunity to tell people about the problems.


Oh yeah...
I took one flight in the L-13, and I did pretty bad. I never had to be on tow in L-13 and didn't know that the control pressure is pretty strong during tow. I was expecting that it'll be the same as L-23. Also I have to really watch out for the difference in cockpit attitude for a given airspeed. Sometimes I was really slow because I got too used to the 1-26. I was feeling down for doing so bad, but I wanna get familiar with this ship so I can take some friends for a ride someday. Although I have to suspend my glider activities for a while due to lack of money. Gotta find another job soon.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

I am an undecisive person. I think too much.

The weather is not so good for glider flying today.
But who knows, the closest soaring forecast for here is about 200 miles away.
Useless but gives me a rough estimate.
What am I supposed to do when the top of the lift is 800ft AGL...

Tomorrow is a lot better (at least from the overnight low and dew point), but I have to work till noon tomorrow, and there's gonna be a lot of people because we have a meeting tomorrow.

I play soccer on Sunday...

I'll just drive up there and maybe get one instruction in the L-13 and change the wind sock on the hangar.

No job prospects as usual.

Endless Loop

Got a call about a contract drafter position in Portland. $21 an hour. Asked for a detailed job description and this is what they sent me.

I know the job description is short, but it's all I have. I will try to get a more detailed one. -Someone who can take models and turn them into drawings. -Strong Inventor experience.

...What the fuck am I supposed to get out of this shit?
Am I supposed to apply for a job 2000miles away without knowing what the fuck it's about? I won't apply for the job unless the fucker sends me a better job description.

I'm signed up for the soccer league.
I wanna stay with the glider club.
I'm just about getting better at thermalling.
I like the place that I live.
So... It's gotta be something that's more important than all that for me to take a job in another place.

Went up in the 1-26 Saturday.
Stayed up for 39 minutes.
Wind from North.
Lots of thermals to the northwest of the airfield.
1-26 has gots to be my favorite airplane to fly.
Forgiving and very nimble.

On this flight, I noticed one thing that I hadn't noticed before. I didn't look at the instruments except to occasionally check the speed and altitude. I just flew with the 'feel.'
I can tell when it's about to stall. I'm usually coordinated without knowing. I think this might bite me back if I rely on my 'feel' too much. But I think it's somewhat necessary to have the 'feel' for the aircraft to fly it well. There's also no guarantee that the instruments will work all the time neither. I'm gonna ask Jim about this the next time I see him.

On the landing, I didn't check the ground activity before entering the pattern and caused a slight conflict with the departing towplane&glider. I had to adjust the pattern last minute and came in quite high. I slipped with full spoiler like a champ and made it back in one piece. But I should've seen the towplane and glider ready to go before I called downwind on the radio.

By the way, I usually land really well on the 1-26. I just glide on the ground with the tire barely touching the ground. Probably because I made the fatal mistake on the first flight. As an afterthought, I came in too fast. It's a mistake that many people make when flying a glider for the first time. I made the same mistake on the PW-5, but I'm grateful that I didn't break anything (badly), and I've learned my lesson.

Season Starts

Left work at noon and went to the field at one.

Had two flights, one with Geoff and one solo in the 2-33.
I did a lot of things wrong, I think, but I'm good to go for the year after I get one more solo.

Things I did wrong...
1. Not coordinated well
2. Not used to using MSL
3. Tried to raise the nose too early on take off.
4. Came in slightly low
5. Should've looked for other traffic more carefully (although I was the only one in the air at the time)

Overall, I'm not as sharp as I was last year.

Also, on the second flight, it started raining when I was going through my checklist.
It was just a few shower with no thunderstorms in the area, but it could've been worse.
I should be aware that things, especially weather, changes frequently.
I should be flexible and always have my limitations in mind before taking chances.

I should write down my operating limitations before the next flight.

Selfish

Played soccer today.
I think I tend to play really selfish sometimes.
I keep the ball too much.
I don't see other people running sometimes.
Some people think that I'm arrogant or showing off.
But from my side, I keep the ball when I don't see anyone to pass to.
I'd like to one touch pass to others every time, but that's not going to happen.
What I want to say is that I'm not trying to be selfish.

Bought a guitar stand.

I spent a lot of money this past week.
I have to pick one or two things that I want to do and not get side tracked.
But there are a lot of things that I want to try.
And they often cost money.