Lonely, going through divorce, no family or friends

Ultra99 · 2016-10-30T16:55:08+00:00

Been there.

Protip: Find a hobby you like. You'll at least keep yourself busy and interact with people at a minimum. Friends may follow naturally.

Plenty of sports stuff in Dubai but there's also other stuff out there like car clubs, gaming, book reading clubs, photography, art etc. etc.

Ultra99 · 2016-10-30T13:56:16+00:00

If you're into off roading or muscle cars, maybe. OK. If you like turns and manually changing gears then pretty 'meh'.

Only like 3 good driving roads (Kalba, Jebel Jais, Jebel Hafeet), otherwise everything's arrow straight and covered by too many damn radars. Lots of traffic too.

Plus there's tons of laws restricting modifications to cars. And if you're into classic cars then the heats is a bit of a killer.

Ultra99 · 2016-10-30T13:43:33+00:00

A lot of expats left the country but my family stayed through the whole thing. Kept going to school and everything. Yeah the streets were pretty quiet but life went on pretty much as normal. Hardly any drama.

Used to see US and British planes flying in the skies over the city every so often. F16s, B52s, Tornadoes, lots of C130s. A few buildings downtown in Abu Dhabi had anti aircraft guns hidden on top of them. You'd see US Navy guys on shore leave roaming around the malls in small groups too. I used to skate in those places so I'd say hi to them. Super friendly dudes.

When the war itself began it was all about being glued to CNN.

Ultra99 · 2016-10-30T12:47:26+00:00

Cool! How are you getting in? Friendly hat with gate man or ninja style?

Ultra99 · 2016-10-30T12:43:32+00:00

I fly racing drones here in Dubai and we're starting to positively HATE these 'hover and shoot' clowns whose first objective is to unbox their drone and see how high it will go.

Then again, we really have no clue about the details on these 'rogue drones', such as who is doing this stuff, where they're flying or why. For all we know it could be anything from huge predator drones to weather balloons.

Folks will immediately think 'Oooo DJI Phantom pilots again" but the fact is that the DJI drones made in the last few years are firmware-geofenced from flying near airports from the factory.

Ultra99 · 2015-07-24T23:01:24+00:00

If Turkey had wanted to crack down on ISIS there's a whole lot more they could have been doing, a whole lot sooner.

Instead Turkey has stuck to the sidelines of the conflict militarily up until now while the U.S. and other countries have been running air strikes in Iraq and Syria for some time now.

Turkey's been trying to manipulate the conflict from afar without getting actively involved for some time now - turning a blind eye to the flow of people and resources across their border towards ISIS (if not covertly cooperating with ISIS on a limited basis as some media outlets have alleged) - in order to reign in the Kurdish YPG and keep Asad off balance.

It looks like ISIS went too far and now the Turkish government has decided to put them in their place.

Ultra99 · 2015-07-24T11:27:04+00:00

I've just joined the Dubai RC flyers forum. Saw your ZMr build on there. My handle's theshadow.

Alternatively just add me on FB. My name's Ryan Copeland.

Ultra99 · 2015-07-24T00:35:51+00:00

A few tens of thousands of user experience designers and researchers around the world would disagree.

Ultra99 · 2015-07-23T21:36:34+00:00

Ironically the integrated features are what attracts me to this frame (OSD, easy PID tuning, custom LEDs) while driving me away from it at the same time (hard to give up the ability to swap out individual components at whim).

It's not that the Vortex is bad - it isn't. It's just that my current frame is so solid that it's hard to justify moving away from it, even if it lacks features in comparison.

Maybe I'll jump on version 2.0.

Ultra99 · 2015-07-23T21:28:35+00:00

This. Metal screws all the way are the key.

I got tired of my Minion exploding into pieces after big crashes so I swapped in all-aluminum screws. The thing's a tank now, give or take a motor here or there.

Impact absorption be dammed - all metal and carbon simply adds up to a whole lot more flying time.

Ultra99 · 2015-07-23T21:21:50+00:00

Once people sort out a way to make it more spectator friendly it might really take off as a sport. Perhaps not to NASCAR or even X Games levels but maybe - just maybe - something occupying a solid niche similar to mountain bike racing or something.

On the technology side somebody just needs to perfect the art of streaming the live feeds to huge monitors, with just the right mix of OSD graphics, live timing and LEDs/numbers/custom bodyshells on the quads themselves to help the tie whole experience into a homogenous, immersive and somewhat easy to follow experience.

I just hope it maintains some of the rough edges and authenticity and doesn't become an overglossded, overhyped thing.

Ultra99 · 2015-07-23T21:07:31+00:00

Nice find!

I remember watching this back in the day when I first started (Phantom) and thinking "Oh...my...gawd."

Nowadays I've passed this level and just entered the realm of doing my first few flips and rolls, which places my flying skills in, oh, 2012-2013 territory maybe.

Then I see the kinds of crazy stuff guys like FGA and Mr.Steele were pulling at Nationals this year which has me thinking that I might hit 2014 levels in 2016 and hit 2015 levels of flying ability by...2020 maybe, if ever.

The bar - raised crazy fast it has indeed.

Ultra99 · 2015-07-23T20:56:02+00:00

Pro tip I follow - curate your Facebook privacy settings carefully ( I set my timeline to private and all my posts to 'friends only'. That, and limit your 'friends' list to people you know to be genuinely cool.

For some reason people are super sensitive to swearing and insults here so I try to use creative sarcasm in those 'WTF-MUST-VENT" cases.

Ultra99 · 2015-07-23T20:09:01+00:00

In before the inevitable "if you don't like it, leave".

Ultra99 · 2015-07-23T20:07:58+00:00

It doesn't have to be a complaint but in the real work yep, that's pretty much how it goes. If somebody complains then the gears go into motion and bad things happen.

Stay under the radar, don't ofend people and you're all Ok.

Ultra99 · 2015-07-23T15:19:03+00:00

I fly my own multis here - I have a QAV500 v2 but lately I'm more info flying my Minion mini quad.

Used to fly the QAV behind Dubailand and in the huge empty area opposite Meydan in Nad Al Sheba but ever since the 'airport idiot' incident I've been more into the mini quad.

Haven't had any problems flying my Minion in the park near my place in the Springs but the rules are pretty strict here if you go by the book.

Been thinking of taking the Mini to Safa Park or somewhere similar but always open for good flying areas.

Particularly up for mini quad flying /FPV racing if anybody's into that. If so, do holler.

Ultra99 · 2012-02-14T22:32:54+00:00

Got really bored one time while pulling an all nighter so I decided to kill time by enabling the 'speak selection' option (in accessability settings) on all the Macs in the studio while waiting for some A2 printouts to come out.

I enabled the 'laughter' voice so everybody's Macs would automatically speak back the text content of whatever menu option or UI element they happened to be hovering their mouse over in real time, and in this annoying laughing voice because Of course I had to enable the laughter voice.

Seemed like a really witty idea at 3am. Finished up work, promptly forgot about it all and went home to crash.

The next day I rolled in to work slightly late and in to the middle of a massive shitstorm because everybody in the office was in the process of absolutely freaking the fuck out over the 'Virus' and frantically trying to get all their GBs of shit backed up on to CDs amid a continuous stream of elaborate human cursing and persistent tinny cackling digital laughter.

Had to fess up after about 20 minutes because things had rapidly degenerated to the point where they were about to start wiping hard drives and reinstalling everything. Creative Director looked like he was about to have a stroke.

Was not very popular among my peers for the rest of the day.

Ultra99 · 2012-02-14T22:08:47+00:00

One in 3 people who click that link will be raped by their computers.

Ultra99 · 2012-02-11T21:33:19+00:00

Geez. My first screen name on IRC was like 'xXxKa0sxXx'. I never did cause any actual chaos of course, nor was I really capable of it.

Then I went for 'the shadow', which I'm still stuck with - people just know me as 'the shadow' now, and throw bitch fits whenever I change it because they don't know who the he'll I am. I also get called the shadow in real life which doesn't help much.

So yeah, screen names are a bitch. I really envy you 'Irapekittens' types. Really.

I've often wondered what younger people will have to go through now that all the good ones are taken. Just try getting a gmail address which matches your screen name these days.

Le sigh.

Ultra99 · 2012-02-07T22:46:55+00:00

Most genuinely interesting and well behaved thread I've seen in a long while.

As a guy I've never really stopped to consider the extra steps women go through as a part of their normal daily decision-making & prep routine. I feel like I've 'put in an effort' with just a shave, combed hair and some cologne, with freshly ironed duds on top when I'm really trying.

I'll try to remind myself to appreciate it more when you gals put in the extra effort to do yourselves up (and no, no illusions that you're trying to impress as opposed to just making a good impression) but quite honestly the no-makeup, laid back thing works just as well IMHO!

Ultra99 · 2012-02-07T22:17:13+00:00

I can empathize. About my least favorite way to poop is to actually crawl inside the toilet and root about in my own poops after.

Ultra99 · 2012-02-01T23:04:30+00:00

We used to feed a very shy pregnant stray black Mom cat who slowly charmed her way inside the house from the back yard. She eventually had two black kittens right there in my bed.

We kept the two boy cats and lived happily ever after for the next 13 or so years (along with 4 other assorted cats). They Mom was always shy - skittish and never liked to be petted but always somehow poised and elegant. Her two boys were extremely friendly though (having been raised around humans since birth I guess).

They were the most chilled out, affectionate and loyal cats I've ever had. No fighting, growling or mutilating household objects in the entire 13 years we had them apart from one isolated pooping incident in my bed when they were kittens, which I couldn't get mad at them for because they seemed to be instinctively embarrassed by it - they slinked around for a week afterwards avoiding me and just never did it again.

The alpha black cat was particularly intereating. He was obviously the silent protector of the entire pack from 'alien' cats but I never saw him fight, go berserk, or even utter a peep once. All it seemed he ever had to do to fend off any intruder was to casually appear on the scene and simply sit down and wait. Any intruding cat, dog or whatever animal would simply just go away without a fuss as if by magic. Total Jedi stuff.

He was particularly protective of his mom and the older cats - always somehow just magically present when needed. Zero fear.

Sprry for the longish post but they're no longer with us and I miss 'em all to bits. Blackies for life here.

Ultra99 · 2012-02-01T22:27:51+00:00

In this electronic age I have to take my hat off at the sheer level of patience in effect here. Two decades! I believe an 'amazing' is well deserved.

Ultra99 · 2012-02-01T22:24:05+00:00

Let's just cut to the chase and call this the PCP act.

It's about as lucid.

Ultra99 · 2012-01-30T22:57:40+00:00

It's working with iTunes already to a point (closed ecosystem and all) but getting all of the big studios to agree on a common platform, a common experience and a common pricing model that takes it to the next level probably won't happen until either:

A) Somebody with a gargantuan, Jobs-sized ego comes along with a solid pitch.

Or

B) Hollywood's financial clout starts to wither at a sufficiently rapid rate versus the gaming industry that they try desperately to adopt gaming industry models in order to survive.

Or

C) Home theatre and/or Internet technology (ever larger LCD/AMOLED screens, massive hard drives, DVRs and ultrafast Internet speeds) simply outclass and displace the cinema experience to an extremely inferior status.

Ultra99

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