Just installed Ubuntu 5.04. It's definitely one nice Linux distribution. The installation went smooth although it took me a while to figure out how to boot from my secondary harddisk without alter primary Windows disk MBR (ie using NTLDR). Also, I had to change my wireless network setting to remove all encryption for it to work.

This blog is now on Planet CP24, my undergrad friends blog community. Ouroboros and Digital Death really did great jobs on this. Thanks.

David Blaine is truly an amazig magician. I had watched David Blaine: street magic a long time ago and his tricks were stunning. Examples of his tricks are to lift himself off the ground, to guess what's on someone's mind (like somebody's names or numbers 1-1000), and to change a cup full of coffee to a cup full of coins.

AXN Asia features his shows on August 22nd, and 29th nights at 10pm. Check it out!

Today was a good day.

We pilot trainees finally had to decide which airplane fleet to go for. For us, there were 3 fleets available, namely Boeing 737, Boeing 777, and Airbus 300. Boeing 777 is very hi-tech and, of course, most favorable. Airbus was 2nd most popular. While Boeing 737 is most people's last choice.

I thought I'd go for Airbus 300 at first. But Boat somehow persuaded us to join Boeing 737. His arguments were based on the fact that B737 is the easiest fleet to transfer to another fleet in the future (maybe because of skills required), and that it'd be easier, in order to get through this class, to stick with a small group of close friends (less people, less trouble sort of thing). I agreed.

So I went for B737, and so did all my close friends. And I thought I made the right choice.

Some pictures from Emergency class. Just got them from Oz.

Featured on Discovery Channel this week. Giant of the Skies: Building the Airbus A380 premieres August 17-19 at 9pm BKK time.

It's the most ambitious project ever in civil aviation – building the world's biggest airliner. In 2006, the 240-foot triple-decker Airbus A380 is due to enter into commercial service carrying more than 550 passengers distances of over 8,000 nautical miles. The most progressive aircraft idea in history was introduced in 2000 as the new alternative to Boeing’s 747. When completed, the Airbus A380 will be able to ferry more passengers over a longer distance than any other airliner in existence.

Jib mentioned about this book. The author and his team collected water from different places and use microscopes to see their crystal shapes. What's more interesting is when he took water from the same source and expose it to different words, the shapes of crystal are different. Below is the crystal of water that have been exposed to the words "Thank you."

It's the Queen's Birthday and Mother's Day today. So long live the queen and happy Mother's Day. First I thought of a family dinner, but mom and dad had already left for Lopburi. They enjoy spending holidays at our Lopburi house so much as it's the only way for them to really have some rest, and being away from work. So, maybe later, mom.

No class today. However, there's Aircraft Performance quiz in the morning so I had to go to school anyway. The quiz came out a lot harder than I expected. :-( But the good news is this quiz is the last quiz in technical ground training course. Yeah!

I took a 4-day Basic Emergency (aka EM) course at TG Crew Center, Laksi. This course is mandatory to all flight crew and cabin crew as it's concerned with safety of passengers. It talks about emergency equipments, procedures, and survival. It also includes practices of slide/raft deployment, fire extinguishment, and water training. And since this course is about passenger's safety, everyone has to score more than 90% to pass.

Jon wrote interesting information that you guys as aeroplane passengers could do to save yourselves in emergency situations here--it's called Brace position--bend down as much as possible and hands over you head. It's been studied that sitting in brace position will minimize injuries caused on impact. And next time when the cabin attendants show you emergency demonstration, please take a few minutes off the newspapers and pay attention to it. It might save your life.

More resource on safer air travel here. Note that brace position shown in the link is no longer recommended as it will cause shoulder injuries upon impact, use brace position described in Jon's blog instead.

I've been away for a while. Here's an update for the whole week.

>> continue reading this post..

There're lots of things to mention/going on last week. There's TG Pilot meeting at the Rama Gardens on Thursday, one thing in the agenda was to welcome new pilots--me and my classmates--to the company. It wasn't a ceremony or anything, but it made me feel good that at least they recognized us. Best part is the party: it seemed like there's an unlimited supply of everything, from food, drinks, wine, you name it. Not to mention 2 pool tables, great music by Power Jam, a resident bandat Hard Rock Cafe Pattaya, and a few ladyboy shows from Alcazar!

On Friday, our class held another party to celebrate the completion of our 1st part of ground school, and P'Tor, who went to flying school with us at Hua Hin but on his own expense, for he'd been accepted as pilot at TG. There's so much fun but I couldn't stay up too late cause..

My father had a seminar at the Regent Cha-am on the weekend. I thought I'd be a good opportunity to visit my friends in Hua Hin so I volunteered to drive him and spend the weekend there. Unfortunately, almost all of them were in Bangkok because the weather was not good and of course they couldn't fly in bad weather condition. It was raining all day. I had lunch at Nai Hoi's (นายหอย)--the most delicious fish noodle in Hua Hin, and spent the afternoon at Starbucks reading books. At night it's time to visit our best friends at Spin Bar. (Did I mention it was featured in MTV Partyzone last week?) It was so crowded (surprised). This is definitely the place to hang out in Hua Hin. I also helped them serve from time to time. :-)

It took me half a day to get sober and be able to drive back home. :-) Exhausted.