This is the Weekend Update for the weekend of September 28th – 30th.

Missed the last Weekend Update? Check out the Weekend Update archives.

Well, the big event this weekend was the air show. My father, brother-in-law, and I all went to the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends at Rickenbacker airport. This was a really good show.

First, the most amazing thing I saw there was a demonstration of the 5th generation fighter plane, the F-22 Raptor. You know those lights in the sky that conspiracy nuts claim are alien ships because of the way they dance in sky that seems impossible? Yeah, those were the Raptors. This YouTube video of the Raptor does not do it justice. This plane basically flew backwords, did a turn on its nose, and made the tighest turns I’ve ever seen. It can do an Immelmann so fast and tight that it could literally flip around behind a fighter chasing it. It can reach Mach 1 without afterburners. Oh yeah, did I mention it was stealth too? Enemy targets have no chance.

The best part of the show, however, was the incredible collection of World War 2 planes that were there, especially Mustangs. We got to see a lot of them fly, which was so cool. I actually got to go up inside of a B-17, which is probably my favorite WW2 plane. Those things look big, but they are incredibly cramped. I imagine that it was a pretty intense experience to be in one of these things in combat.

The most ridiculously awesome part of the show was the simulated strafing/bombing runs that the classic planes did. Go ahead and read that last sentence again. A bunch of the WW2 planes made passes on the runway, and explosives/pyrotechnics would go off on the ground to simulate what their ground attacks would be like.

One of the two remaining Lancasters is the world was at this show. The largest bomb that the British ever constructed in WW2 was made especially for this bomber’s large capacity. It was called the Grand Slam bomb. The simulation of the Grand Slam bomb may not have been entirely accurate, but I think that’s only because they erred on the side of safety. If this picture had sound, it would be a thousand people screaming HOLY !@#$. I think when they “dropped” it, I pooped a little.

Here’s a Flickr slideshow of the rest of the stuff. I could write all day about all the history and things I learned about these aircraft, but I encourage you to check out Wikipedia.

It turns out that my dad was stationed at this same airport when he was in the Air Force, so I got to see a lot of the base and stuff too. I also got to see the type of cargo plane that my brother has leaped out of for no good reason.

The other major thing that I did this weekend was go to the Funny Bone comedy club here in Columbus to see Adam Ferrara. He’s not my favorite comedian or anything, but he’s very funny, and I really enjoyed it. The opening comedian was Rob Little, who was very funny too. The MC was the guy who hosted (and still hosts) open mic night at the Funny Bone. He is a bitter, angry man (it’s not just his act), and I don’t really like him. He is pretty good at getting the audience warmed up, though.

This is the Weekend Update for the weekend of September 21st – 23rd.

Missed the last Weekend Update? Check out the Weekend Update archives.

Pretty quiet around here this weekend.

I’ve been working on a new mini-series of posts leading up to the new Futurama DVD release, highlighting some of my favorite moments from the show. I hope you enjoy it.

I might actually end up going back to Philadelphia this year for a cousin’s wedding. I’m not looking forward to another road trip, especially since I swore them off last summer, and I’ve already made too many exceptions.

Skybus, the Columbus-based cheapity-cheap airline has just added another 4 destinations. One of these days I’ll get around to actually giving them a try.

Baseball season is winding down, unfortunately, and College Football is just winding up. The Reds have recovered somewhat from their dismal start, and have put in a respectible second-half record. It’s almost officially 16 years since their last World Series trip. I’m not getting any younger here, guys. How about at least 1 more World Series for me, and 1 more for my future son? Is that doable? I mean, c’mon guys.

This is an awesome animated GIF I found on Coding Horror that visually demonstrates the run time of three different sort algorithms on the same data set. It would be cool to see this sort of GIF for bubble sort, bogosort, etc.

Ali & I had dinner with some family at a restaurant on Buckeye Lake. There was a live musician there, Brad Moore who played “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. When he finished playing it, he asked if anyone knew who originally sang it, and if anyone guessed right, they’d win a free CD. Being the master of useless knowledge, I knew the answer and won a copy of the guy’s CD. He’s another acoustic guitar player in an ocean of them, but he seems to be a very talented and nice guy who doesn’t take himself too seriously, so check him out if you get the chance. He brought a trash can on stage with a “tips” sign on it, which I thought was a bit optimistic. Nothing wrong with that though, the world need more optimism! Here’s a quick sample:

I had some dishwasher problems this weekend, and I was on the verge of (finally) getting the new one that I’ve wanted for years. But no, I took the thing apart and found something clogging up the works. Plumbing sucks.