I don't know what to call this entry?
Jan. 11th, 2023 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWork day, uneventful, which is good.
Had a bit of an epiphany on the subway ride home. I'd been frantically hunting for jobs, for art classes, for retreats, and finding nothing.
And felt this impending sense of ....urgency? As if - I needed to do something to change things, or I was doomed?
Anyhow, the epiphany was...this little voice that said, "you know what? You should just relax for a bit and go with the flow. Don't try to plan too much of anything big right now. Stop hunting. Just draw, maybe paint a little, and maybe things will start to open up a bit. Keep revising your books. Keep writing. Sometimes opportunities open up when you least expect it."
It's kind of like that saying - "love finds you when you stop looking"? Or whenever I'm hunting something - I often find it when I stop frantically looking for it.
***
My brain refuses to accept it is 2023 for some reason. I keep putting 2022 on everything at work, and people keep correcting me.
Project Manager: It's fine, but you might want to change the date. You have 2022.
Me: Sorry about that. My brain refuses to accept it is 2023 for some reason.
Project Manager: LOL! I get that. But after attending three funerals last week - I'm ready for 2024.
***
Sisinlaw got COVID Rebound, so is cooped up again for two more weeks. She has different symptoms. First round was stomach and intestinal issues. Second round is a sore throat, cough, and fever. Poor sisinlaw. Brother is feeling better, however.
***
My latest dream is to run an artist collective, no hierachary, no competition, no ranking, no selling, or buying, just people hanging out, doing art, playing music, displaying art. Preferably near water and accessible to a train. Yes, I want to retire and join a commune. Or become a socialist. I'm so over capitalism. Too stressful. No one ever has enough money, and people are always fighting over it.
***
Co-workers are into the Netflix series Kaleidoscope - apparently there's a gimmick to it. I found this out from the co-workers.
If I hit play - I may start with the episode YELLOW, while you may start with the episode RED, and someone else GREEN or BLACK. Only Pink and White are in the same order for everyone. Kaleidoscope stands for the randomly ordered episodes for each Netflix account.
IDK - these gimmicks often annoy me. Instead of working on story - and making that innovative, they go for the gimmick. But I may check it out to see.
Texted my brother about it - and he pretty much agreed with me. He saw it over the holidays, and said it made him miss Money Heist. It could be a lot tighter, and the writing wasn't that good in places and failed to tie things up well. Problem is - heist shows really do need to be tight - plot is important with heist television series.
***
While watching NY1 this morning...there was a line running below the News Commentary - in Red: "FAA reports that multiple airlines are grounded due to an FAA computer system glitch at Laguardia airport that involves air traffic controls. We have a news crew en route to the airport to get further information."
Me: Okay, you're talking about the Golden Globes, and meanwhile this is going on? LOL!
Talked to Moscow Coworker - who informed me that they were slowly getting back to normal around noon. He also told me that airfare to Russia went up considerably. It used to be just $500, now it is $1500 per person. Because - you can't fly directly to Russia from the US any longer. You have to fly to Turkey or the Middle East first, change planes and then into Russia.
Mother gave me the skinny over the phone - after I got home.
Computer Breakdown Causes FAA to Ground Flights Across the US
"Thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled or delayed Wednesday after a system that offers safety information to pilots failed, and the government launched an investigation into the breakdown, which grounded some planes for hours.
The Federal Aviation Administration said preliminary indications “traced the outage to a damaged database file.” The agency said it would take steps to avoid another similar disruption.
The breakdown showed how much American air travel depends on the computer system that generates alerts called NOTAMs — or Notice to Air Missions.
Before a plane takes off, pilots and airline dispatchers must review the notices, which include details about bad weather, runway closures or other temporary factors that could affect the flight. The system was once telephone-based but moved online years ago.
The system broke down late Tuesday and was not fixed until midmorning Wednesday. The FAA took the rare step of preventing any planes from taking off for a time, and the cascading chaos led to more than 1,300 flight cancellations and 9,000 delays by early evening on the East Coast, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told a news conference that the problems “led to a ground stop because of the way safety information was moving through the system.”
After the failures were fixed, he warned that travelers could continue to see some effects “rippling through the system.”
Buttigieg said his agency would now try to learn why the system went down.
Longtime aviation insiders could not recall an outage of such magnitude caused by a technology failure. Some compared it in scope to the nationwide shutdown of airspace after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“Periodically there have been local issues here or there, but this is pretty significant historically,” said Tim Campbell, a former senior vice president of air operations at American Airlines and now a consultant in Minneapolis.
Campbell said there has long been concern about the FAA’s technology, and not just the NOTAM system.
Many of those systems “are old mainframe systems that are generally reliable, but they are out of date,” he said.
John Cox, a former airline pilot and aviation safety expert, said the aviation industry has talked for years about trying to modernize the NOTAM system, but he did not know the age of the servers that the FAA uses.
“I’ve been flying 53 years. I’ve never heard the system go down like this,” Cox said. “So something unusual happened.”
According to FAA advisories, the NOTAM system failed at 8:28 p.m. Tuesday, preventing new or amended notices from being distributed to pilots. The FAA resorted to a telephone hotline to keep departures flying overnight, but as air traffic picked up in the morning, the phone system was overwhelmed.
The FAA ordered all departing flights grounded early Wednesday, affecting all passenger and cargo flights. Some medical flights could get clearance, and the outage did not affect military operations.
This is the second time in less than a month that thousands of flights have been cancelled or grounded due to a computer system error.
It is time to invest in a high speed train line. Also upgrade computer systems, or not rely to heavily on them?
Had a bit of an epiphany on the subway ride home. I'd been frantically hunting for jobs, for art classes, for retreats, and finding nothing.
And felt this impending sense of ....urgency? As if - I needed to do something to change things, or I was doomed?
Anyhow, the epiphany was...this little voice that said, "you know what? You should just relax for a bit and go with the flow. Don't try to plan too much of anything big right now. Stop hunting. Just draw, maybe paint a little, and maybe things will start to open up a bit. Keep revising your books. Keep writing. Sometimes opportunities open up when you least expect it."
It's kind of like that saying - "love finds you when you stop looking"? Or whenever I'm hunting something - I often find it when I stop frantically looking for it.
***
My brain refuses to accept it is 2023 for some reason. I keep putting 2022 on everything at work, and people keep correcting me.
Project Manager: It's fine, but you might want to change the date. You have 2022.
Me: Sorry about that. My brain refuses to accept it is 2023 for some reason.
Project Manager: LOL! I get that. But after attending three funerals last week - I'm ready for 2024.
***
Sisinlaw got COVID Rebound, so is cooped up again for two more weeks. She has different symptoms. First round was stomach and intestinal issues. Second round is a sore throat, cough, and fever. Poor sisinlaw. Brother is feeling better, however.
***
My latest dream is to run an artist collective, no hierachary, no competition, no ranking, no selling, or buying, just people hanging out, doing art, playing music, displaying art. Preferably near water and accessible to a train. Yes, I want to retire and join a commune. Or become a socialist. I'm so over capitalism. Too stressful. No one ever has enough money, and people are always fighting over it.
***
Co-workers are into the Netflix series Kaleidoscope - apparently there's a gimmick to it. I found this out from the co-workers.
If I hit play - I may start with the episode YELLOW, while you may start with the episode RED, and someone else GREEN or BLACK. Only Pink and White are in the same order for everyone. Kaleidoscope stands for the randomly ordered episodes for each Netflix account.
IDK - these gimmicks often annoy me. Instead of working on story - and making that innovative, they go for the gimmick. But I may check it out to see.
Texted my brother about it - and he pretty much agreed with me. He saw it over the holidays, and said it made him miss Money Heist. It could be a lot tighter, and the writing wasn't that good in places and failed to tie things up well. Problem is - heist shows really do need to be tight - plot is important with heist television series.
***
While watching NY1 this morning...there was a line running below the News Commentary - in Red: "FAA reports that multiple airlines are grounded due to an FAA computer system glitch at Laguardia airport that involves air traffic controls. We have a news crew en route to the airport to get further information."
Me: Okay, you're talking about the Golden Globes, and meanwhile this is going on? LOL!
Talked to Moscow Coworker - who informed me that they were slowly getting back to normal around noon. He also told me that airfare to Russia went up considerably. It used to be just $500, now it is $1500 per person. Because - you can't fly directly to Russia from the US any longer. You have to fly to Turkey or the Middle East first, change planes and then into Russia.
Mother gave me the skinny over the phone - after I got home.
Computer Breakdown Causes FAA to Ground Flights Across the US
"Thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled or delayed Wednesday after a system that offers safety information to pilots failed, and the government launched an investigation into the breakdown, which grounded some planes for hours.
The Federal Aviation Administration said preliminary indications “traced the outage to a damaged database file.” The agency said it would take steps to avoid another similar disruption.
The breakdown showed how much American air travel depends on the computer system that generates alerts called NOTAMs — or Notice to Air Missions.
Before a plane takes off, pilots and airline dispatchers must review the notices, which include details about bad weather, runway closures or other temporary factors that could affect the flight. The system was once telephone-based but moved online years ago.
The system broke down late Tuesday and was not fixed until midmorning Wednesday. The FAA took the rare step of preventing any planes from taking off for a time, and the cascading chaos led to more than 1,300 flight cancellations and 9,000 delays by early evening on the East Coast, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told a news conference that the problems “led to a ground stop because of the way safety information was moving through the system.”
After the failures were fixed, he warned that travelers could continue to see some effects “rippling through the system.”
Buttigieg said his agency would now try to learn why the system went down.
Longtime aviation insiders could not recall an outage of such magnitude caused by a technology failure. Some compared it in scope to the nationwide shutdown of airspace after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“Periodically there have been local issues here or there, but this is pretty significant historically,” said Tim Campbell, a former senior vice president of air operations at American Airlines and now a consultant in Minneapolis.
Campbell said there has long been concern about the FAA’s technology, and not just the NOTAM system.
Many of those systems “are old mainframe systems that are generally reliable, but they are out of date,” he said.
John Cox, a former airline pilot and aviation safety expert, said the aviation industry has talked for years about trying to modernize the NOTAM system, but he did not know the age of the servers that the FAA uses.
“I’ve been flying 53 years. I’ve never heard the system go down like this,” Cox said. “So something unusual happened.”
According to FAA advisories, the NOTAM system failed at 8:28 p.m. Tuesday, preventing new or amended notices from being distributed to pilots. The FAA resorted to a telephone hotline to keep departures flying overnight, but as air traffic picked up in the morning, the phone system was overwhelmed.
The FAA ordered all departing flights grounded early Wednesday, affecting all passenger and cargo flights. Some medical flights could get clearance, and the outage did not affect military operations.
This is the second time in less than a month that thousands of flights have been cancelled or grounded due to a computer system error.
It is time to invest in a high speed train line. Also upgrade computer systems, or not rely to heavily on them?
no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 08:28 am (UTC)Sounds like a plan to me!
no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 09:10 am (UTC)Aha, I think Kaleidoscope must be what they were talking about in some feature on the radio I came in on partway through.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 10:56 pm (UTC)State of the art - it's not.
We were kind of discussing it at work the other day - and all came to the same conclusion you did.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 06:17 pm (UTC)No kidding. That was front page news, not only because of the millions of people affected but because of the reason why it happened.
Not that I was planning to travel anywhere this year anyway, but I really wouldn't mind never getting on an airplane again.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 10:52 pm (UTC)My mother wasn't nice - she didn't pick a place that I could travel easily to by train. (You can travel to Savannah by train - but you wouldn't want to. It's a 13 hour trip or thereabouts, and stops at a nasty area of Savannah, and I have to get Hilton Head.)
no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 06:42 pm (UTC)I read that the existing system is "dual channel" - basically two systems and if one goes down, requests are automatically and seamlessly routed to the second one - so they didn't actually have a backup for this system. They were using an older system as the backup.
These government agencies tend to get stuck maintaining ancient software - and it's a nightmare to get any changes or updates approved.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-12 10:48 pm (UTC)I work for a government transportation agency (funded with state and federal funds) - that likes to brag about its advanced software systems. When it's already five years out of date by the time they get around to installing it.
That said, they do have far more advanced systems for train control, switches, and signals than the airlines do. The Train Control Theater was wickedly cool and up to date. When it comes to safety, they tend for the most part to be up to date.
But, they also like to cut costs. So often procure cheaper or antiquated systems. The problem is government agencies don't have a lot of money, and rely on tax payer dollars, real estate sales (vendor leases), and customer fees. And like all things - you get what you pay for.