Not much to say in the past few days, simply because I'm taking my Private Pilot checkride on this upcoming Saturday. The sheer volume of information that you are required to master is pretty much insane. So any spare moment is spent reading, and any other spare moment is spent flying.

Well, Joe Millionaire certainly lived up to my expectations, although a "twist that you'll never see coming" was pretty much what everyone expected. I had expected from the beginning for this show to be incredibly cheesy and full of drama, surprisingly, I found the ending to be, well, quite uplifting. When you're consumed in a world of bad news and hate, it was nice to see the human condition actually shine through in the most unexpected of places, a Fox television show.

Here's a fascinating article that is a bit long, but definitely worth your time if you were ever a "nerd" in secondary school. When thinking about my childhood, I'm often happy with most of it, but there were some points that were just terrifying. For example, I was walking home from school one day (5th grade) on a dirt road when someone on an off-road motorcycle rode up to me and slid his bike just inches from my feet. I tried to run, but he was on my heels the whole way, sliding and kicking dirt on me with his rear tire. I can still remember that day vividly and I'll never forget it. I have a good idea who it was, but I'll probably never know for certain. Anyway, good reading and food for thought to process for the next few days.

Okay, um, how in the hell does this thing work?!? Update: I figured it out, but it's pretty damn cool anyway!

Yeah, I'm a tool. Despite Fox's last episode of Joe Millionare, I'll be glued to the tube tonight to finally see what the hell is going to happen.

Oh, and Friday's Jimmy Kimmel Live featured "Big Tad" of KROQ morning show fame. It's pretty clear he's grasping at straws at this point. Oh well. Some friends and I are going to try and get to the show in early March, if it's still on.

It’s no secret that I drank the Kool-Aid labeled “Disney Parks.” I love Disney theme parks, despite Eisner’s reign of incompetence when it comes to bleeding the park coffers dry to save other divisions of the ABC empire.

Anyway, one of the websites that I frequent for Disney gossip is reporting that they’re kicking around the idea of changing the theme from California Adventure to Disney’s America. They went through this exercise before, but this time without Vice President of Parks, Paul Pressler. Hopefully, since Mr. Pressler has moved on to The GAP, we can get back to making wise decisions about the parks with longevity in mind.

In other news, I’ve watched 4 episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the show is essentially the television version of KROQ’s morning show, Kevin and Bean. It’s pretty clear that what works for radio doesn’t work so well for television. For example, one of Jimmy’s guests was the Armenian Comedian who has been a staple of the KROQ morning show. While the Armenian Comedian is completely inept at comedy, he manages to be completely entertaining on the radio, while being completely awkward on television.

I love Jimmy Kimmel, and have enjoyed him as the sports guy on KROQ and his work on The Man Show, but I have a feeling that this latest outing will be canceled within a few months. I hope I’m wrong.

Actually, the correct response to this is to force the teacher to write on the chalkboard 1,000 times: "I will not be a complete idiot and leave my computer console unlocked and unattended." Not condoling what the youngster did, in fact, I probably did worse growing up with computers, but a felony? Are you kidding?!?

Everyone read the headlines a couple of weeks ago regarding two small aircraft that collided in the air and crashed into a residential area of Denver, Colorado. The circumstances of the crash are sobering since both pilots were receiving VFR advisories from air traffic control, which is an extra measure of safety not required by either pilot, and yet they still managed to find each other in that “big” sky. Of note, my own flying will change in that I will not be lured into complacency when receiving VFR advisories from ATC.

The media went wild with the story, and even the Mayor of Denver called for an immediate investigation to “the number of low flying aircraft over Denver.” Of course, the media failed to report that the last mid-air collision in Colorado was over 29 years ago. In fact, in 49 million general aviation flights in 2002, there were only 7 mid-air collisions, and only four of those produced fatalities (AOPA Safety Foundation). Certainly there is room for improvement, but methinks this is hardly a crisis, Mr. Mayor.

Why a blog? Because I maintain the fantasy that someone somewhere might find a morsel of my writing relevant. Other than that, it’s a good way to document life experiences that maybe others can learn from and I can reflect upon. And most importantly, I can bombard readers with irrelevant information that I’ve come across on the Internet.

In this spirit, I offer one of the best comedy bits I’ve ever seen on late night television. If you’re a Star Wars geek, it’s even better. Click the video with the title “Triumph Visits the ‘Star Wars’ Nerds Part One"

(Thanks Dave G.)