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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 2 of 2. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Shame on March 22, 2005, at 13:53:52
If your afraid of flying, read no more. Seriously.
My work suffers. There isn't really anything I can do about it, even though I feel like it's my fault. My attention wanders. My eyes glaze. Things drift in and out of my head, demanding my attention, drawing me away from the task at hand. After a few minutes I realize I'm staring into space, my mind floating from one thing to another like a piece of diaphanous fluff.
I write software that goes on board aircraft.
I check and re-check my work. There are other safeguards in place, my code is gone over and over and over... I don't trust them. I can't. All I can place my trust in is my own mind, my own conscience. Both are flawed at best.
I'm told I am one of the top engineers in the company. If they only knew. Would they trust me if they looked in my medicine cabinet? Listened in on a talk with my therapist? Heard the clutter in my mind?
I wouldn't.
Information streams into the aircraft's system, a living thing coursing through the software channels I have made, delivering each piece of data to the correct input. Each system breathing in perfect unison. Each depending on my flawless logic.
The miles slide past, the aircraft devouring the distance in an easy lope. 98,000 foot pounds of thrust pushing it through the air. A mere 7% of the space shuttle. An insignificant .7% of Apollo. Still more power than the combine output of every vehicle you have ever ridden in your lifetime. 45,500 gallons of fuel burning at 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. 500 degrees above the melting point of the cast aluminum housing that contains the engine. 200 degrees below the melting point of the solder joints that carry information from the engine to the rest of the aircraft. Carbon steel glowing a bright yellow inside of the turbine, despite the 28,000 mile an hour winds ripping past it.
Power.
Entrusted to me.
Don't worry. I'll keep my mind on the game.
Posted by sunny10 on March 23, 2005, at 12:58:32
In reply to Fly the crazy skies., posted by Shame on March 22, 2005, at 13:53:52
I'm sure that you are the best.
I'm also pretty sure that you cannot see that about yourself when others can.
Your screen name says how you feel about yourself. I wish you wouldn't feel that way about yourself. Might as well call yourself "Human".... We have all been ashamed of ourselves at times.
This is the end of the thread.
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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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