Is the Thriller genre over?

I read a lot. All three of the walls in my home office have Ikea bookcases filling them. And of course - you would be hard pressed to find any room on any of the shelves for anything new.

A sizable number of those books are action adventure or military thrillers. And when you talk about military thrillers - you have to include Tom Clancy. The first Tom Clancy book I read - was the Naval Institute release of "The Hunt for Red October", and I was hooked. Ever year or so from that point one - there was a new Clancy thriller to look forward to, and a new copy would get added to the bookshelf.

[one of the early books, actually was personally signed by Clancy when one of my friends got it at a book signing]

As the Cold War changed, so did Clancy's novels. Gone were the Soviets, replaced with terrorists (way before 9/11), or by greedy idealistic corporate leaders. But Clancy changed outside of the novels as well. His 10th novel - Rainbow Six - crossed over to become a very successful video game series.

After an absence of several years, Clancy has finally released a new book this holiday season - Dead or Alive.



A follow-up to 2004's Teeth of the Tiger.

The irony of all of this - in the 6 years since the last Clancy book, I have moved on. I saw the new book listed as a Future Release on Amazon a couple of months ago, but there was no excitement in finding it. Because the book was listing a co-author.
One thing I have seen w/ several other thriller author's in the last couple of years, is that unless the co-authors have the same style, the book becomes a mess.

So I am sitting on the sidelines and just wait for this to come out as a paperback next year (or maybe I will just get it as a Kindle download).

Most Viewed Pictures for November 2010

Most Viewed Pictures for November 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Even though my picture taking in Nov was pretty busy, I still have most of the pictures backlogged on my PC waiting for review/processing/posting.

I will be glad when 2010 is finally over, and maybe life will settle back down to normal.

Most Viewed Pictures for October 2010

Most Viewed Pictures for October 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Another wild mix of pictures made the Most Viewed list for October. The B-36 Peacemaker at Pima is 4 of the 25 pictures.

How many miles will I drive....

Using up more of my accumulated vacation for the rest of this week. And I am going to be doing some driving between different photography outings.

The challenge is to guess how many miles I rack up between now and Saturday evening. Closest guess wins a 8x10 of print of my best shot of the week.

The only hint - I will only be going to one other (besides Arizona) state.

Any takers?

Most Viewed Pictures for September 2010

Most Viewed Pictures for September 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Every single picture for September - was from http://flightaware.com/live/airport/KPHX" TARGET="flightaware">PHX Sky Harbor in the last 60 days.

I have done other things in the last month, but the pictures are still on memory cards waiting to be edited and uploaded.

Most Viewed Pictures for August 2010

Most Viewed Pictures for August 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Yes - I was at the airport a couple of times taking pictures - as the majority of August mosaic's shows.

Unplanned photos are the best

My major project at work is starting to wrap up - so I have some more free time to get out and take pictures. There were rumors of a unique plane coming through Phoenix on the 2nd, so I took the day off to take pictures at the airport.

The rumored plane didn't show - but I stuck around to see what else went on during a weekday (since normally only get out to the airport on weekends or in the evening).

I was rewarded almost immediately when one of the Air National Guard KC-135's took off - right past my vantage point in the Terminal garage. [click any of the pictures below to see the image at full size].



Then I caught the daily Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu (this is the 2nd largest passenger airplane that regularly operates in and out of Sky Harbor).



But the airplane I was the happiest to see flying - was the Honeywell 757 Engine Test bed. It took off and flew racetrack patterns for a couple of hours before returning to Phoenix.



I had gotten fleeting pictures of this plane before - but never its right hand side - where the extra test engine is mounted. The slideshow includes some of these older pictures - as well as pictures of the Boeing coming back into its parking place (directly off the runway).



Definitely a great way to spend a day taking pictures.

My number is.....

34 1/2. That's the number of vacation days I have to use (or lose) by the end of the year.

I better get busy ;

Just an ordinary Air Canada Airbus A319

Air Canada Airbus A319, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

This is another one of those ordinary looking airplane pictures - but it obviously got someone's interest. Because in less than 24 hours - it has over 300 unique views from outside of Flickr.

(reminds me of this photo of a Delta Airbus from last Fall - that got over 400 views in a very short period of time)

Most Viewed Pictures for July 2010

Most Viewed Pictures for July 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

The end is in sight for my work project - so I have started to venture out and take pictures again.

The large central picture - was of a Royal New Zealand Air Force Boeing 757 transport heading back down under - after being in England for the Farnborough International Air Show.

And this is why I won't use Facebook

Details of 100 million Facebook users were published the other day on several file sharing sites - including Pirate Bay.

Link to BBC story

Old Time Memories

The other night my wife and I were having root beer floats after dinner and I got out some old glass mugs that my family had picked up when I was a kid in the mid-70's. At that time we were living in the Seattle area. As I was making the floats - I realized that these mugs had survived a couple of coast to coast moves and four different teenagers, and were actually older than my younger brother.



I don't know if Farrell's still exists up in Seattle (another photographer told me that there used to be at least one Farrell's in Arizona).

Of course Murphy had to strike after these memories - and he did. As I was taking another glass and one of the mugs to the sink, I dropped the mug. It bounced twice on the tile floor and I thought it might survive - but on the 3rd contact w/ the floor - it came apart.



Oh well - I still have two left. But it maybe a while before I pull them out of the cupboard again.

Most Viewed Pictures for June 2010

Most Viewed Pictures for June 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Another quiet month for airplane photos (busy with everything else) and the Most Viewed photos reflects that. Only a few of these pictures are from this year - and even those are from back in March.

Happy 234th Birthday America

Flag Bearer for the National Anthem, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Here is to another 234 more.....

Its summer already?

Lockheed_C-130_Hercules-8040, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

I realized the other day - that May was over - and June is almost half over. May just flew by. The good included my daughter finishing another year of school, advanced another rank in her Karate for Kids class. There was drama with family hospital visits (everyone is alright) and I flew back to the East Coast for a day and a half vendor meeting (in NYC which was new to me).

And with all of that activity - I still got out a couple of times to take picture of airplanes (and even that will start tapering off for the summer - since 100+ degree temperatures isn't the right time to stand around at airports).

The picture above - was taken at the monthly Coolidge Breakfast fly-in. As the fly-in was winding down - one of the corporately owned C-130 Hercules returned from being 'elsewhere' conducting some drop tests. Some of the other photographers were braver than I in their choice of locations to capture the landing.

The crew was nice and let us climb on-board and take pictures once they had finished unloading their personal gear (their 'gear' included their personal trucks - the joys of having your very own air lifter).

Then - on the way back to town - the Honeywell 757 engine test bed was doing touch and go's at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway (aka ex-Williams AFB). I had never actually seen it flying - only parked at Sky Harbor. Unfortunately it only flew one direction (so you can't see the small bizjet engine mounted on the right side of the fuselage).

Not to be outdone by Honeywell (who is actually providing components for the Dreamliner) - Boeing brought one of their brand new Dreamliners (787 #4) for some low altitude hot weather testing late in May.



Now the weekend that Boeing was in town - there was a cool front going through Phoenix. So we learned that Boeing's 'hot weather' temperature was only 80 degrees (Phoenix normally hits 80 in April). So the Dreamliner had to wait for the temperature (and a mechanical issue) before they could fly. Both the airport and Boeing were very tolerant of the curious visitor as well as the aviation photographers (incl me). The airport opened up one of their overflow parking lots to allow a relatively unobstructed view of the airplane on the tarmac.

Hopefully Boeing will bring the new 747-8 (a stretched 747 w/ highly efficient engines) to town some time soon to test it as well.

And I will try to do a better job of posting on a regular basis.

Most Viewed Pictures for May 2010

Most Viewed Pictures for May 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Another month gone - and another set of pictures.

It has been a very busy month - and nothing has jumped out as being worth of blogging.

Must be the heat getting to me.

Most Viewed Pictures for April 2010

Most Viewed Pictures for April 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

All in all - April wasn't a bad month for photography.

A Beriev firefighting seaplane at Sky Harbor.

A Mig-17 Fresco outside of Tucson, along with a B-17 and a P-51.

Say goodbye to Launch Complex 39-B

Launch Complex 39-B, in transition, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

It was announced today - that NASA was going to go ahead and start demolishing the Shuttle-specific structures on Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center.

This is not unexpected since the Shuttle program is in the process of winding down. But it just seems short sighted. 39B (pictured) and 39A are the ONLY pads that the Space Shuttle can launch from. If something happens to 39A between now and the end (however unlikely) - there is no backup plan.

Once the Shuttle program is over - the only way US astronauts can get into orbit would be the Russian Soyuz capsules - and the Russians (taking a page from the Capitalist playbook) have already raised the cost of a flight on the Soyuz from the estimated $31million (paid by Cirque du Soleil's founder for his trip in Oct 2009) to $45 million for Tourists and $56 million for NASA astronauts (for flights in 2011-2012).

Please let SpaceX's Dragon/Falcon 9 combo work - when they fly it next month. Please.

Have you done your Census form yet?

If you feel the every 10 year US Census is asking for too much information - take heart. It could be worse.

It could be the Indian census. According to the BBC - the Indian census will be collecting biometric information for any person above the age of 15 to add to the Indian National Population Register.

Biometric info is being defined as;

.. such as photograph, 10 fingerprints and probably Iris information will be added for all persons aged 15 years and above.

If those are my options - I will happily fill out the US version.

An unusual plane

One of the other aviation photographers I travel with - got the heads up on a very unusual plane that was going to be coming through Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX). But instead of it being an airline or aircraft that we don't normally see here - it was a completely new type of airplane.

Here it is coming into land on Tuesday night;





It is a Russian designed Beriev Be-200 'Altair'. It is a multipurpose amphibious aircraft. It was in the Western Hemisphere to try to drum up sales for it. It was on its way to California where it was going to be shown off for potential use fighting forest and wild fires.

[For other pictures of the Beriev coming in and leaving Phoenix - take a look at the Photo club's site here]

Most Viewed pictures for March 2010

Most Viewed pictures for March 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

For a change - every single picture shown is from this year (2010). And I didn't have to fudge it to get rid of the continually annoying QR code for the movie '9'.

Cable modem upgrade

network-speed_home_20100321, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

I joke w/ my wife all of the time that I get better speed at home on my Cable Modem then she gets at her office (where they have two T-1's for Phone and Data).

This was despite the original Motorola Surfboard that I had bought when I first got cable high speed back in Virgina (that supported the DOCSIS 1.1 standard). That modem was no longer supported by my provider - so I finally went ahead and upgraded to the new Surfboard modem that supports DOCSIS 3.0.

The upgrade was a snap. Connected it it up the cable line, powered it up, called Tech Support so they could update the MAC address of the new modem, reboot my wireless router - and I was on-line.

My next step was to perform a speed check to see what I gained. The download speed shown isn't the overall download speed - but the peak speed once the Download Boost kicks in (on larger files). The real gain - was on the upload speed. It went from 1.5 up to the 6.5 shown.

Either way - if your provider offers DOCSIS 3.0 compatible service - go ahead and upgrade to a new Cable modem. It is worth it.

Eva Air Boeing 777

Eva Air Boeing 777 returning to Phoenix, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Not a normal visitor to Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. In this picture it is arriving for the 2nd time in a week.

[no scheduled airline currently flies a Triple 7 in or out of Phoenix on a regular basis]

Early last week - it flew from Taipei direct to Phoenix, to pick up the LA Dodgers for a set of exhibition games to be played in Taiwan.

[LA Dodgers are in Phoenix - as part of Cactus League Spring Training. About half of the Major League Baseball teams are in Arizona right now.]

Then last Saturday (Mar 14th), it brought them back and I got this picture as the plane was about to land before sunset. It only stayed long enough to drop the team off, refuel and then it left later that same night.

F-22 Raptor - High speed pass on the tower

F-22 Raptor - High speed pass on the tower, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

I posted this picture a little over 3 days ago. I took it last weekend in Tucson (AZ) watching the Air Force rehearsal some of the demo routines they will fly during air shows around the country.

Someone who saw the picture on Flickr, Digg'd it - and it ended up on 2 different blog posts (freerepublic.com and rotter.net) and now is my #2 most viewed picture w/ over 1,700 views.

Maybe there is something to this Internet thingy.....

Most Viewed pictures for February 2010

Most Viewed pictures for February 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

About half are new, and are from either this years or last years trips to Florida.

The picture of the different cruise missiles at the US Air Force Museum (lower right hand corner) was the winner for the month - but I couldn't get it to show up in the center block no matter how many times I tried.

My most recent rental car - a Kia Rondo

A Kia Rondo, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Unlike the Nissan Versa I had back in the fall (and positively hated it), my most recent trip involved this Kia Rondo.

At first I was like - great another cheap small car. But it pleasantly surprised me. It had a 3rd row (which got used during lunch breaks) that folded down easily for carrying luggage. And it didn't feel underpowered (I could accelerate onto the highway just fine). My only complaints were that the windows weren't tinted, and there was no cover for the back (w/ the 3rd row folded down), so I had to make sure my stuff was secure when I parked the car.

Surprise upgrade

Upgrade to a large SUV, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

When I travel on business - usually one of the first questions my daughter asks me when I am on the phone with her is "What kind of car do you have?"

So I started taking pictures of my rental car with my Blackberry so she can see them.

Last month - even though I reserved an Intermediate (read that small/mid-size car), when I got to the counter the clerk asked if I wanted a mini-van or SUV. Since it was just me - and I normally drive a SUV, I took the SUV, and got this Jeep Commander.

[basically - it sounded like the car rental company had already rented out all of the cars that size, and didn't have a lot of demand from families - for the large SUV.]

Smooth highway ride w/ power when you need it. A 3rd row for extra people - which folded down easy to carry luggage. But it was the interior that really turned me off. It was plain black plastic. It felt cheap.

If someone gave me one, I wouldn't turn it down - but I don't think I would buy one myself.

Most Viewed Pictures for January 2010

Most Viewed Pictures for January 2010, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

I did the Mosaic as 5x5 this month instead of 4x4 (w/ one large image in the center) because there were fewer repeats this month. Usually I get one or two images that constantly get a large number of views - but this month the Top daily views were spread across pictures old and new.

Almost stopped

Almost stopped, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

The New River channel still has water in it - but there isn't much left to come downstream.

(this was taken just about a week and a half after the major storm came through)

We are due for more rain later this week, but I expect that it won't be enough to get the river flowing again.

Same riverbed - 24 hours later

Same riverbed - 24 hours later, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

Same (New) river channel - 24 hrs later.

Taken on Thursday after the rain had stopped about 12 hrs earlier.

It will probably be dry by the end of the week.

After 3+ days of rain - even Phoenix is wet

New River - not dry this week, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

This is day 3 of rain in the Phoenix Metro area this week.

One of the forecast's I saw - was calling for up to 5 inches of rain by the time this system moves out tomorrow (Friday) night.

For comparison - Phoenix normally only averages 10 inches of rain for the whole year.

Noah hasn't made an appearance yet.....but I am keeping an eye out for him.

Most Viewed Pictures for December 2009

Most Viewed Pictures for December 2009, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

I keep waiting for the QR code/movie poster to finally stop getting views - but it keeps showing up.