Woke up this morning and was going through my Drivetribe notifications when I saw this posted in the comments to Flightline 182:

That's it, my brush with greatness.

So I didn't really talk about it last year, what with the Coronapocalypse and all, and even now I don't like making a deal about it because I don't feel like I did much beyond showing up places, but I had (outpatient) surgery and chemo last year for seminoma.

I had noted a change in the left one late in 2019, and subsequent to talking it over with my doc during a checkup early in 2020 she gave me a referral to a urologist. After an initial visit with him I had an ultrasound and a few other tests, after which he recommended removing the testicle. The worst part of that was having to wake up at 5 for an early morning visit to the hospital, but still, I was home by noon. Took me about a week and a half to heal up , during which they determined that it was cancer (tentatively categorized Stage 0/1) and I was off to see an oncologist. He was relatively confident that the cancer was confined, but ordered a PET scan and bloodwork to be sure. The PET indicated a minimal swelling of a few lymph nodes, and he felt a single round of chemo was prudent. After having a PICC line put it (which, thanks to my deep, narrow veins took forever) I went in on 5/22 for chemo.

-Sitting in a chair for an hour, tied to an IV pump, the worst part of the process.

The infusion went without issue, and two subsequent PETs have show no further changes in my nodes. I have to go back annually for the next few years, just to keep an eye on things, but so far things look fine.

It's a lot smaller than I was expecting, and it's not all that realistic; 1/10.

Nah, I'm just messing with you. This was the Rocket Ride freebie I got with the Shuttle. I should have pics of that soon, and it's well worth the price...

Unmute!

So I picked up a new keyboard last week, as the one I've been using was giving me grief. I decided to bite the bullet and spring for a mechanical keyboard, and snagged one with RGB lighting. Plugged in yesterday and everything was fine, except there was no instructions or indication on how to install the drivers to run the lighting. Took an email to the mfgr, but I finally found the site and got the drivers on my desktop (I won't be able to run the lighting effects on my work laptop, but that's a minor issue). Everything was fine for 30 minutes, then I walked away to work on fixing a broken stair.

When I came back the pc was rapidly repeating the number 7. Odd, but not worrying (yet), I tried a few things to work the problem (unplug the keyboard, close programs, yadda yadda), but the 7's kept coming. Figuring it was the drivers, I tried to remove them, except the 7's kept interrupting me from getting to the settings screen, so I tried restarting. Got to the login screen, still repeating 7's, so I couldn't enter my password.

Trending towards doog.

Tried a few permutations of unplugging the keyboard, mouse and wireless dongles and restarting, but that only changed the number to 6.

The panic of having picked up a hitchhiker with the drivers is now setting in.

I decided to try yanking a few more USB cables from the back, along with pulling the Cat5 so I'd be off the net if there was something lurking, and that's when I found something plugged into the old ps/2 port.

Following the line, I found the old MS keyboard I had left attached last year when WFH started and I stopped really using my PC. While shuffling some stuff around, I'd knocked the keyboard over without realizing it, and it was now resting on the number pad. Simultaneously relieved and mad at myself, I unplugged the old keyboard and restarted the PC. No 6's or 7's. Signed in and everything's fine.

Remember the 1970-71 Ford Pinto sales pamphlet I posted this weekend? I printed one out today on photo paper and assembled it:

Not too bad if I say so myself, though I might try again with card stock. The slots also needed cut larger than they indicate, but it was easily fixed.

It was a big spider too.

@ttyymmnn That word would be "Second".

@atfsgeoff I would get behind that.

@kiltedpadre Filthy's its own little world, might as well be part or Jersey or NY.

@bloody-the-resident-shitposting-saffer That's not the sun, it's Pennsylvania at the the other end of the Ohio Turnpike, welcoming in the poor, bedraggled refugees from The Mistake on the Lake.

@kiltedpadre Ohesians seem to think the matter is settled:

In 2003, Congress officially declared Ohio as the “birthplace of aviation” over North Carolina, because Dayton was the home of Wilbur and Orville Wright, who were credited in inventing and flying the first aircraft.

I say let them have it; it balances out the stain from having Cleveland located there.

@mark-tucker The Beast Raban does not like your joke.

@forsweden Basically, yes

The year was 1978. Jaws, the movie, was still popular, and the military found an excuse to turn the name into an acronym. Tactical tests of the A-10 and Army attack and observation helicopters became the “Joint Attack Weapons System.” During the tests, Air Force Aggressors reported that the A-10’s light celestial camouflage scheme made the A-10 easily visible from the air. The 57th Tactical Training Wing had 4 aircraft given an overall coat of tan, green, or gray, then sprayed and brushed with spots of three or four other earth tones. The scheme’s developers had plans for repaint kits to accompany deploying units, changing the spots on aircraft as geographical conditions required.

YA-10 in the "celestial" camo:

Of course, we've basically come full circle:

@bloody-the-resident-shitposting-saffer Rooivalk is a really neat looking chopper.

It's interesting how everyone has more or less settled on the same basic form factor for attack helicopters:

and the TAI/AW T129 derivative

CAIC Z-10

Mi-28

RAH-66

Looks like Bell's looking to continue using the planform for the Invictus

Though LockMart is thinking more along the lines of the Huey for the RAIDER X:

@ttyymmnn Huh, I'd seen the tan "desert" camo Intruder before, but green is new to me.

There's also a variant Desert Storm camo with gray under, which I haven't seen before:

@ttyymmnn Ditto; I try anything beyond basic algebra and