The girl of my dreams
It has been such a long time since I posted in my Blog. It is high time I fill everyone in on what has been happening with me... Well lets see first thing is I am engaged. I found the girl of my dreams and it happened purely by accident. Her name is Racquel Darwin and she means everything to me. In fact I am traveling to Europe just to be with her and to start making arrangements for me to move there and be with her permanently. We met through the Star Trek SIM that we are both apart. I am an Ensign in the Academy where I hold the position of Dean of the College of Communications. My dearest love is an Ensign as well in the UFS Medical division. She can give me a physical anytime hehe ;)... She makes me so proud of her every day I continue to fall even more in love with her every day. I have truly found my soul mate and she has made me so incredibly happy. We are planning to get married both in SL and if she will have me get married in RL as well. She completes me in so many ways that it is perfect. I know it is soon and we kept our relationship quiet for a while due to the fact that when we started dating she was a cadet and I was a Dean at the Academy. We would flirt with each other in the Welcome Center constantly in IM’s and have fun. When we talk we can go for hours and just talk about anything under the sun. Even though lately my conversations with her have been how much I love her and also about the details of the trip and move. She has my heart and it could not be in better hands than hers. She really cares and loves me for some reason. All I know is that when I am with her and she holds me in her arms all my problems seem to melt away. She is my true love and I look forward to growing old together. If you see her say hi and be nice to her. She is a sweet and dear person. After talking to her you will see why she has my heart.
I read on my dear friend Trinity Dejavu blog at http://trinity.fooroo.co.uk/ says that she Miya and Sara have landed on American soil. Well, Hotlanta which I have an intimate knowledge of that place with having a great Uncle living there and also where Southern Comfort takes place. You would think that with Atlanta hosting a TG event that they would be welcoming to all sorts of people. Unfortunately with it being in the heart of the south you have nothing but hicks and hard lined religious people and they do not know how to handle people from out of state let alone from another Country. One of the clerks decided to push her around and just be an all around jerk. I think that is just another reason why people like that should be locked away. Apparently they are not smart enough to recognize a smart and intelligent person entering our country. Trinity easily has a higher IQ then all those hicks at the airport and then some. Big huggs go out to Trinity welcome to the US of A. I hope the rest of your time here goes smoothly especially with the processing of your visa.
The Details have been worked out and I maybe out of contact for the whole month of July while I am in Europe visiting my love. I leave the US on July 1 and not set to leave until August 4th. There is so much to do while I am there I am so excited. I can barely wait. I have the plane booked. I have the places where I am staying in booked and paid for. So I just have to get my Passport renewed and info changed on it to reflect the changes since the last time I used it. That was over 12 years ago. Still seems like yesterday. Amazing how much the world has changed in that time. I am going to be keeping this blog hopefully a bit more updated.
As I turn in for the night I would like to say thank you to all my friends for the congratulations on my engagement. It means so much to me to have so many people come up to me and say how happy they are for us. I know I have found my true love and she means everything to me and I would do anything for her. Lastly I would like everyone that reads this to have my friend Trinity in their thoughts. I know I do. Good night world I will see you tomorrow errr in a few hours :)... One last thing if you ever want to check out a fun Star Trek SIM I invite you to join us at United Federation Starfleet.
This is a note that my good friend from the Transgender Lounge Kara Spengler wrote.
This is an article that my good friend Kara Spengler wrote and I thought I would share this with anyone who reads my blog. :) It is a very interesting read. I hope you like it as much as I did.
Huggs,
Dayna
(No, I have no idea where this essay is going to end up. Or even why I am writing it or what it will be about for that matter.) Communities. Intentional families. The more I use Second Life the more I realize that is what it is constructed on. It is why I spend as much time there as possible and never want to leave it, even if that means going from one place I have access to it to another. It is also why I get depressed that so many people I know in Real Life will not join me there (they either see it as a game or a waste of time and money). One friend characterizes people in Second Life as Immersionalists and Extensionists, I think I would clearly fall in the former category! Communities? Did I say communities? Perhaps the word community would be more fitting. Last night I was at a memorial service and, while I realized several of the people there would know other people I was completely blown away by how much interconnection there was. This even extended to later going to an unrelated party which included people (or people connected to them) I or my alter-ego (more on her later) had met previously. In order for this ramble to make sense though, I will use the plural form of community. Let’s see, where was I? Oh yes, my alter-ego. Like many people in Second Life I have several characters that I use. Two are most prevalent though. As I explained in another blog post, it gets tricky to decide which is the main one. One was the sole one I used last year (and the account I pay for). The other is the more active this year. Some people know one or the other, some both. Some people know both but primarily interact with one of them. Like I said, telling which is the main one and which is the alt tends to be a tricky concept. This led to a tricky question though. Which one to send to the memorial yesterday since the person who told me about it knows both characters. One is more apt for a solemn occasion like that but was not the one the invitation was sent to. In the end though, I went with the one she knew better. Two months ago the character that was my primary one last year wound up in a dispute with a group in a community I was in. Essentially, they wanted to exclude another community I was a part of with my other self. Solely on irrational biases about how they looked, acted, and a fear of ‘how it would look’. These were very dear friends but I knew they were in the wrong and could not let them continue that mistake. I tried to get them to listen to reason and be educated on the topic. I guess they never realized 'I Won't Back Down' is practically my theme song. When I tried to make peace between them and another group they recently dissociated themselves from (in the same community as them) I wound up being voted out of the administration in their group and generally made to feel unwelcome. Now they want to bury the hatchet and I have reciprocated. Still though, my other character is unwelcome unless she disavows the community she is in, which is one also vulnerable and often on the fringes of acceptance. It is for this reason that, while my original character can interact with them again, I feel like an outsider looking in as they refuse to allow my other character to also be welcome in their group. Interestingly though, at pretty much the same time as I was on the outside of one group, I found myself on the inside of another group in the same community and also in several new communities. Some other communities I was not in, but was friends with people in them. Going back to the links again, I was taken completely by surprise at most of them. Especially so when communities that had absolutely nothing in common (although sometimes individuals in them were part of another shared community) would be oblivious to their differences and work together. So, I may as well start wrapping this up. What have I learned from all of this? That even though we think we are separate communities, in a way we are all the same community. There are so many links between them and similar struggles that any differences are purely arbitrary. Yes, there are events which can split one group from another, but that happens with any family. While all of our paths may appear wildly different, all of them are just different ways to head towards the same fundamental goal (and, no, I have absolutely no idea what that is). Well, I certainly have touched on more topics than I intended to all while trying to talk about one idea. So, who do I send this to? Is it just for myself? People in the various communities I am a part of in Second Life? People I only know in Real Life? People I know in both Real Life and Second Life? Oh, I know, the person who introduced me to Second Life? Maybe a blog post? Only one answer is possible based on the above paragraph: all of them. As separate letters though, because, as I have learned, I have no idea where the connections are.
Transgender Lounge Second Life
I have been a part of this online virtual 3D community. It can be a really good place to explore who you are and make some really good friends. I know I have found them. I have a home and a new family. This time I picked my family. We all met in Second Life and they are the ones that I have come to consider real family.
The people that I have come to consider that way is the Transgender Lounge and Trinity at the helm guiding us with her wise and loving ways with the ever helpful Miya at her side. We have Miss. Lilly who I think is just as cute a button and a great helper of morale there and for anyone that is having a bad day, getting a jumphug really brings up mine and everyone else's day. Caitlyn and her mom Kara, what can I say about them? Probably two fun, friendly, caring and loving people I know of. Together we are family and when you hurt one of us whether it be verbally in in word you hurt us all. The Transgender Lounge is a place where you can come to relax and have a serious discussion about what is happening in our lives or just laugh and have fun with each other.
If you are ever in Second Life come by and hi. We love meeting new people and welcome old friends as well. You do not have to be Transgendered to visit or hang out with us. Just ask one of our regulars Alyx. I think she is there more to keep us out of trouble and also has been a good person to everyone there. Here is the link come and pay us visit some time http://slurl.com/secondlife/Paranthrene/31/244/101. Now this is all I am going to talk about it today. It will not be my last. I will always talk about my home :).
Kisses,
Dayna
Why is today such a sad day for me?
On this day 6 years ago I lost my brother a Chief Warrant Officer 4 in the US. Army. He was an accomplished pilot and one of the select few pilots in the US Army to be one of the US Army’s Golden Knights pilot. That was such an honor to have him be a part of it. He was really proud that his love of flying had taken him to that level. He had just earned his Master flight wings. Some considered him one of the best pilots and people. I know in my eyes there is no one better than him. He was such a warm, kind and loving brother to me. He and his family meant the world to me. His daughters and now granddaughters still mean the world to me. Being with them is like being with my brother again. He and I were very close even with the 18 year age gap we got along and had a lot of the same interests. I sometimes wonder what he would think of me now. I am not the same person I was back when he was alive, but I hope that he is looking down on me with a smile.
He died due to a careless less experienced civilian pilot colliding with my brothers aircraft as he was coming in for a landing. It is very hard for me to talk about this. A part of me died when he died. I try to carry on and be the same person he was. Below is the accident investigation from the NTSB. I have never been able to read it all, because it is to painful. :’(. I miss my brother everyday and the pain is still as deep as the day we lost him.
Sorry for the depressing first blog. I felt this will help people to better understand me.
HISTORY OF FLIGHT
On March 15, 2002, at 1000 mountain standard time, a United States Army Pilatus UV-20A, 79-23253, collided with a Cessna 182C, N8813T, over the Marana Northwest Regional Air Park, Marana, Arizona. The Pilatus was operating under the provisions of Army Flight Regulation AR95-1, and the Cessna was operating under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91. The pilot of the Pilatus sustained fatal injuries, and the airplane was destroyed. The commercial pilot and four passengers in the Cessna were not injured; however, the airplane sustained substantial damage. Both airplanes were conducting skydiving operations. The Pilatus had just completed a drop of five members of the US Army Golden Knights Proficiency and Accuracy team. The Pilatus departed runway 12 at Marana about 10 minutes prior to the accident, and the Cessna departed on runway 12 at Marana about 5 minutes prior to the accident. Both airplanes were going to return to Marana for another jump flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed for either airplane. The approximate global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the primary wreckage were 32 degrees 25.64 minutes north latitude and 111 degrees 13.01 minutes west longitude.
The drop zone was west of the intersections of runways 12 and 03.
This was the fifth flight of the day for the Pilatus pilot. The Golden Knights were making practice jumps in two lifts. One lift had five jumpers, and the other lift had four jumpers. One lift would repack their parachutes while the other lift was jumping. As soon as the airplane returned, the team on the ground would board and repeat the cycle. Five jumpers were on board for the accident flight.
Witnesses reported that after departure from runway 12, the Pilatus pilot would depart to the south and begin the climb to the jump altitude of 5,500 feet mean sea level (msl), which was 3,500 feet above ground level (agl). The pilot contacted the Drop Zone Safety Officer to verify that the drop zone was clear and the pilot could begin the jump run. The pilot began the jump run and broadcast the intent to drop jumpers when he was 1 to 2 minutes from the drop zone. The jumpers selected a flight path to the jump zone that was over a taxiway that had a bearing of 300 degrees. The first jumper exited over the drop zone. Jumpers remaining on board the airplane had the pilot adjust the flight path to the left 5 degrees and then again for another 10 degrees before the last jumper exited the airplane.
The first jumper stated that it normally took him between 1 minute and 1 minute 15 seconds to reach the ground. Maximum drop time would be about 1 minute 30 seconds. As he neared the ground he observed everyone running.
The Cessna pilot had four jumpers on board whom he had taken up for a jump earlier that morning. He said that jump pilots try to plan their climb so that they reach the jump altitude about the same time that they reach the jump zone. He was going to climb to 5,000 to 5,500 feet msl (3,000 to 3,500 feet agl) for this jump. He departed runway 12 and made a sweeping right turn around the airport to set up for the jump. He planned to make a right turn to parallel the left side of runway 12, and then turn right toward the drop zone.
The jumpers in the Cessna looked out of the right side, and watched the Golden Knights exit their airplane. The jumpers said that their altimeters read 2,500 feet agl.
The Cessna pilot turned to a heading of 120 degrees along the left side of the approach end of runway 12. He heard the Pilatus pilot say on UNICOM that the Pilatus was downwind for runway 12.
The Cessna pilot was a few seconds away from beginning his right turn to the jump run when everyone in the Cessna heard a loud bang. The airplane was at 4,800 feet msl. He felt something hit him in the head, and the airplane pitched down and lost several hundred feet of altitude. He noticed a blur of yellow and white out of his left window.
One of the jumpers noted that she usually could only see blue sky out of the windshield; now she could see ground. The pilot did a control check while the jumpers looked at him for clearance. The lead jumper decided that they should exit the airplane. All of the jumpers verified that they were 2,000 feet above the ground and could safely jump; all of them exited the airplane. The pilot, who was wearing a parachute, determined that the right aileron was working; however, the airplane was banking and yawing to the right. He decided that the airplane was controllable, and landed safely.
A loud speaker at the drop zone broadcast the UNICOM frequency. Both civilian and military witnesses on the ground heard the Pilatus pilot call downwind for runway 12. About 10 seconds later they heard intense transmissions over the loud speaker and at first didn't realize anything was wrong. Several witnesses looked up and observed the Pilatus in a nearly vertical, nose down slow spiral.
PERSONNEL INFORMATION
Pilatus Pilot
A review of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airman records revealed that the pilot held an airline transport pilot certificate with a rating for airplane multi engine land. He held a commercial pilot certificate for airplane single engine land, helicopter, and instrument helicopter.
The Army reported that the pilot had military ratings for airplane single engine land, multi engine land, and helicopters. He was instrument rated in airplanes and helicopters. He was an instructor in both airplanes and helicopters including instrument instructor. They reported a total time of 6,187 hours with 31 hours in make and model. He had 133 hours in the last 90 days, and 113 hours in the last 30 days.
The pilot held a second-class medical certificate issued on July 12, 2001, with no limitations or waivers.
Cessna Pilot
The pilot held a commercial pilot certificate with an airplane single engine land rating. The pilot held a second-class medical certificate issued on June 28, 2001. It had the limitations that the pilot must wear corrective lenses. The pilot reported a total flight time of 520 hours with 80 hours in this make and model. He logged 80 hours in the last 90 days, and 40 hours in the last 30 days.
