Isqua Istari

I had an unnerving experiance the other day. I’ve felt it before, the best way I can describe it is the “unseen bulk syndrome”.

My job is in a large industrial building, a warehouse really. It has seen previous owners, and when my company moved in lots of the infrastructure was left in place. There are large pipes and huge ducts snaking across the roof, probably more than twenty years old. I guess it costs too much to pull it out and throw it away.
The layout is almost like a castle. The exterior walls are lined on the inside with rooms, surrounding a central large open space. The rooms on the walls are offices, workshops, labs, and storage rooms. Above the ground level roooms are a second level of rooms, mostly used for storage. Imagine a wall two stories high, seen from inside the main area. On the ground level there are some doors and windows, and then about fifteen feet up there are a set of double doors (three sets actually, around the warehouse), flush with the wall, reachable only by rolling ladder. If you want to get into the second story, you have to climb a ladder and then open the door with one hand before you can step in, since there is no landing. I’m mildly acrophobic, so this is always a little harrowing. There are no windows in the second story either, so it’s really dark unless you can find the light switch.

Monday I was tracing some ducts for a machine I’m working on. They went into the roof, so I went back into the warehouse and climbed a nearby ladder to the second story. Above me (and a little to the right) is a monstrous duct, probably four feet tall and ten feet across. It goes straight into the wall, but I don’t really think about what this implies. I get to the top of the ladder. The door opens easily.

I step into the darkness. (more…)

After posting a rant on the subject I was pleasantly surprised when I went to see “Enchanted” with my sister. I was quite impressed! Maybe I just really wanted to enjoy the movie, but I’m honestly not sure what to make of it. While I was watching I felt like the story was setting up a beautiful picture in order to make fun of it in some way. The thing is if it did I never caught it. The picturesque quality survives to the end. The plot is rather straightforward, villains predictable, humor mild; However, the hero(s) are honorable (if a bit stereotypical) and the heroine is lovely. It seemed so wholesome that I was a bit unbalanced by it all. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but looking back I begin to suspect that it was barefoot the whole time.

In its essence, “Enchanted” is about the power of innocence, purity, joy, and optimism in a jaded world. The “true love’s first kiss” slant made me a bit uneasy, but it was balanced out by a healthy practicality (and I can’t honestly vouch one way or another). If “true love” is interpreted broadly enough one could even draw rather deep implications from it. Go see Disney’s “Enchanted”, I hope you’ll be as encouraged as I was.

Oh, and if you don’t like it, please let me know where I lost my mind.

I made an album of the photos I took while at the X-prize cup. It included more airplanes and less rockets than expected, but it was great nonetheless. There was a really impressive airshow, including some stunning aerobatics by Rob Holland. Getting sick wasn’t part of the plan, but it happened anyhow, and I’m just recovering today. Not much to say about the x-prize cup, some rockets launched. One exploded every time it launched, which was barely inside the operating envelope. As you can see from the picture, the airforce personnel allowed us to get very close to the planes (inside them in many cases).

Okay, time for the nap portion of this post.