Flying is one of those things that I’ve always enjoyed. I love anything that has to do with flight. It is more of a hobby than a career though, which is why I don’t fly for a living. I was going to get to fly last night with a buddy of mine, but his instructor got sick, so we had to enjoy being stuck to the ground instead.
My sister, Jenna, has a fear of heights. She always has. I remember driving to Grandma and Grandpa Laird’s every year growing up and going through the rest area that had the observation tower back in the woods. Every year we would go to climb it, and every year she would get all disturbed. I didn’t pay much attention to this back then because I wanted to get to the top as quick as I could to see the view. What a kind brother I was.
This fear of heights has translated into a fear of flying. Which is most unfortunate for her in my opinion since I think flying is great. The advantage, is when we go on family vacations, she is more than happy to give up her seat by the window to me in exchange for a seat near the center of the plane.
The truth is, people that are afraid of heights may have good grounds to be afraid of them. Even I get the queezies when I look at the picture below.
Men On Skyscraper
If one of those guys fell backwards, they would more than likely fall to their doom, death, and demise. That’s why I have a desk job. This does not hinder my enjoyment of flying however.
Why, you might ask, does the fact that falling from hundreds or thousands of feet in the air will cause death not hinder your enjoyment of flying. This is the important point, and the point that I hope my sister Jenna takes to heart when she has to fly next time. It is the fact that a human, is not designed to fly or glide or do anything graceful in the air, other than fall. The airplane however, is designed to do all three: fly, glide, and do them gracefully.
A quick physics lesson about airplane flight. Think of the wings of the airplane as what keeps the plane up, and the engines as what makes the plane go forward. In some respects you must have both in order to fly, however you can get speed without engines, if you have altitude just be descending, but I digress.
The engine in the plane is similar to the engine in the car, so I won’t get into that. Suffice it to say that the engine propells the plane forward and causes air to rush over the wings.
That last part is the important part, because this is where planes differ from humans falling through the air. A human falling through the air can flail as much as they like, but will most likely never fly. They don’t have wings. A wing is specially designed to create LIFT. Lift is described as the difference of pressure between the top and bottom of a wing causing the wing to move towards the area of lower pressure. A visual would help.
Lift
I had originally thought that it was the engines that kept the plane up. You push anything fast enough through the air, and it will fly right? So you just need a really big engine (which planes have) and you can fly. What I was thinking of is actually called a Rocket (which I always enjoy). A rocket doesn’t have a wing and is, in fact, propelled upward only because the engine behind it is huge.
The airplane however does not rise off the ground solely due to the engine power. The engine just propels the airplane forward so that air passes over the wings. Once air passes over the wings, lift begins to occur. See the diagram above? The air has to take a longer path around the top of the wing than around the bottom. This results in the air moving over the top of the wing moving faster. It’s roughly the same amount of air as is moving along the bottom of the wing though, so in order to move faster it has to spread out. And when air spreads out, the pressure drops. Pressure is just the measurement of how many air molecules there are per square inch.
When you suck on a straw, the Pepsi in the cup comes into your mouth. This is because the sucking action causes the pressure in your mouth to drop below the pressure in the cup. The Pepsi tries to fill that area of low pressure and moves up the straw and into your mouth.
The same thing happens with the wing. When the lower pressure is created on the top of the wing, the wing begins to move up.
Therefore, the engine is only used to keep air moving over the wing, the wing itself is what causes the plane to rise off the ground and truly fly. This, I hope, is a great comfort to those with a fear of flying because it demonstrates the difference between a human falling through the air and a bird or plane flying through the air. The human is helpless because they have no wings, but the plane with the help of the lift on the wings, will be able to gracefully soar to its destination.
Armed with that knowledge, go out and fly confidently and without fear.
Boeing 777-200
I am the 2nd born of 4 children in the family (see image below). Being an analytical type by nature, I sometimes analyze myself and one way to do that is to try to figure out if I fit into the Middle Child stereotypeor (because I’m actually the eldest boy on top of being the second child) do I take more of a first born role?
The Siblings - Note these are actual photos taken of the children as much as 30 years before they were born!
Henry T. Stein developed some basics of children behavior. Here’s his summary of the positions that may apply to me and my thoughts:
Second
| He has a pacemaker. There is always someone ahead. | Is more competitive, wants to overtake older child. May become a rebel or try to outdo everyone. Competition can deteriorate into rivalry. |
Jenna is my elder sister, so she’s the one that was “always ahead” of me. I’m not sure if Dr. Stein meant “peacemaker” rather than “pacemaker” but either applies really. I don’t like conflict and tried to keep my siblings from fighting. Unless we were fighting Alex (my younger brother), he was fair game. I never felt very competitive, but maybe I was in the depths of my brain. I’m still not competitive at all, but I am a better driver than Jenna and I’m taller than her too, not to mention I’m more dashing and stronger.
Eldest
| Dethroned by next child. Has to learn to share. Parent expectations are usually very high. Often given responsibility and expected to set an example. | May become authoritarian or strict. Feels power is his right. Can become helpful if encouraged. May turn to father after birth of next child. |
This is a stretch since I’m just the eldest boy, not the eldest child, and it was 4 years after I was born until the next boy (Alex) was born. So I didn’t feel very “dethroned” by him since I was far Superior. Maaaybee I was kinda strict and authoritarian towards him, but you’ll have to ask him – either way I think he’s cool now. I like the part about being helpful, that’s me to a T
Middle
| Is “sandwiched” in. May feel squeezed out of a position of privilege and significance. | May be even-tempered, “take it or leave it” attitude. May have trouble finding a place or become a fighter of injustice. |
Ashley (Sister) and I are both middle children, so we were both squeezed out of privilege and significance. This could be remedied by larger portions of the parents will, but I’m probably still out of the will and will therefore have to get back in before I can get any extras. The even-tempered is a good description of me. I usually only get riled up after several days of repeated abuse from my siblings.
Only Boy Among Girls
| Usually with women all the time, if father is away. | May try to prove he is the man in the family, or become effeminate. |
This applied for the first 4 years of my life and, truthfully, Dad was not “away” all that much so I had a good man figure despite my sisters attempts to make me “effeminate.” No high heels here. I’m sure there’s probably deep underlying scars from having to live 4 years without a brother for support though. They probably will become evident when I go through my midlife crisis.
Most of those characteristics seem to focus on the negatives of each position. So here’s some positives of being the second/middle/eldest boy/among girls for 4 years born in the family: I wasn’t the Guinea pig like Jenna, I got Dad’s attention all to myself, I learned how to relate to girls early in life, I had Sister as a fellow middle child to play with, I got to do more cool guy stuff than Jenna did.
Ernie is our dog. He’s pretty high maintenance in that he is very needy and has to be in the same room as any humans in the apartment and if he’s not, then he howls expressing his fealing that the world is coming to an end. But that feature of Ernie will be demostrated in a later video.
Today’s video exibits the Ern’s hatred for air blowing on his face. This was realized years ago when he was a puppeh. Last week Laura was blowing up our exersise ball and realized that Ernie was extrememly anxious about the foot pump that blew up the ball. It was blowing air on him and he didn’t like it. We grabbed the camera and got some great reactions from him. Enjoy.
I figured I would take a few moments this morning (now that I’ve got my disclaimer out of the way) to introduce myself into the blogosphere.
My name is Andrew and I live in the beautiful Midwest of the US of A. I have a lovely wife name Laura and we have a dog named Ernie. My family is mostly addicted to blogging and everyone except for myself, Laura and Ernie had a blog. My sister Jenna decided it was high time I entered the great world of bloggers and so she kindly set up this blog for me.
That is the origin of this blog, the title of the blog (I Analyze Things) was also set by Jenna, but feeling comfortable with the fact that I do indeeed analyze things, I don’t plan on changing it. Whether I actually analyze things on this blog or not has yet to be seen.
Hey it's me!
The Family
This picture introduces those who will most likely be referenced in this blog. On the left is my wife Laura, next is myself (after I cut off that hair from the previous picture). Next is Stephen and Ashley Nicole my brother-in-law and sister. Mom is next followed by Dad. Jenna and Joey, my other sister and brother-in-law are next, and my brother alex who can’t decide if he wants to be negative (the thumbs down) or positive (the smiling face) today.
This picture was taken just before we headed into the great wilderness of the Boundary Waters which you can read about on my sister Jenna’s blog where she has tons of pictures and great comments about the trip.
Hello friends family and enemies (until otherwise labeled).
My sister Jenna has kindly set up a blog for me so that I can use those precious few hours that I should have been making the world a better place with, to communicate with you.
My first post, will be a short disclaimer about the content of this blog.
The following text and images herein enclosed are the sole property of Andrew J Laird or whoever he stole them from. You are here by warned that due to severe LOL cat influence the spelling and or grammar of the following pages is most likely incorrect and should not be used as references to middle school research papers or other “official” documents. Also note that due to the fact the owner of this blog is part of a minority of previously non bloggers in his family, this blog should be supplemented with the blogs of the afore mentioned majority of the family that does blog, which now includes this member.
And lastly, any confusion created by the previous paragraph is hereby pardoned. Thanks for visiting, and come back again next month when there may or may not be anything new on this page.
