COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY: From Handicap To Happiness
Danny Stone
Lead Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist at Northwest Center for Behavioral Health
I'VE ALWAYS WANTED to be pilot of an airplane. In the early 1980s, I found out my vision wouldn't support it, at least not for a commercial airliner. They used to require 20:25 vision for both eyes, and my right eye was both lazy and was physically incapable of meeting this requirement.
Okay, so I could be a private pilot, right? In the Army in 1988, when I was learning to rappel (that's where you back up to a cliff with a rope supporting you, and then let your body lean backward, and then you jump down the hill) in Boot Camp, I found out I had vertigo. So much for flying.
(Or going down a hill the way they wanted me to. It seems my imbalance makes me lose my sense of direction, which is why, after 50 times of trying, I finally gave up and simply jumped forward off the cliff, spinning 180 degrees, and continuing down the cliff normally. Looks great, but hard on the guy below trying to keep the rope taut.)
In high school, there was an Apple ][+ computer at our city library. I spent more hours learning to program in BASIC, play its version of Flight Simulator, and a whole lot of other things than I can count. It made me feel smart and have a purpose in life. I was soon to find out about jobs, paying bills, and all that other crap that high school doesn't prepare kids to deal with.
Later, I did manage to get a Coleco Adam. Without this particular computer, Coleco might still be around. For me, though, it was fantastic. Word processor, Apple ][+ BASIC compatible interpreter, and it played Coleco games.
While I was in the Army, I was able to play with an Atari 520 ST computer. For the late 1980s, it was cutting edge, very similar to the Commodore Amiga. Atari was more popular in Europe (I was in Germany), whereas the Commodore had caught on in the States.
It wasn't until the 1990s that I finally had a chance to get back into my games. I bought a few computers. One I dedicated to the BSS I ran, StarTek BBS in Amarillo. The second system was for my wife. And the third I used to do my own thing, to include starting and maintaining a video game club. Our focus was on Air Combat and Space Combat simulators.
What I figured out during this seven years is that I could fly, but only in a gaming environment. I got pretty good, as my vertigo quickly became a non-issue. Other pilots were better than me, but my military tactics (which most of them didn't have) helped me win sometimes when the odds were way against me.
The 2000s came around, I had to rework what I was doing in life. This included dealing with a nervous breakdown, depression, anxiety, and the recovery that followed. Not advised if you're looking for a new project...
Enter The Year 2023...
Since Covid started, I've been upgrading computers. This has been hard since 2022 tried to kill me several times. Apparently being overweight, aged, and having diabetes gets you on the "You Might Die From Covid" list. Not recommended.
I got married on January 6th, and finally got the video card upgrade I needed. This started in December, but I managed to drop my credit card into our Jetta's door jamb, which sliced it in half. I ordered a new credit card, of course. The video card was the wrong type, so I had to return it. Walmart reverses the charges...to the nonexistent old card.
We finally got the money back last week, and I ordered the new card from Amazon. I will no longer deal with third party sellers on Walmart. I have learned my lesson, thanks.
领英推荐
Sitting on my desk is the most advanced computer I have ever had. It is a 12-core, 24-thread system with 64GB RAM running at 2.5 GHz. The video card upgrade is a GTX 1060 with 6GB VRAM. It's a sweet system, and decent for gaming as well as typing. My wife wants one too.
2nd "Career"
On Steam, I have several Air Combat games. These include:
These are mostly fairly new, or are updates to older games I've played. At a later date, I will be changing to the non-Steam version of DCS, as you can do so much more with it.
THE FLIGHT SIMULATOR COMETH
The computer was my Christmas to me. I don't usually do this, but 2022 was rougher than most. Thanks to a Christmas bonus and more, I was able to get quite a few things to go with it.
One of these things is X-Plane 11. While version 12 is out and I will probably get it later, I'm perfectly happy with 11. There are a ton of planes and other things to go with it.
On YouTube, I came across funny Air Traffic Control (ATC) conversations, some of which were from Virtual ATCs. I didn't know such an animal existed. So I decided to find out more.
I found VATSIM, is a Virtual Air Traffic Control simulator. And then my favorite airline: Southwest. They have a Virtual Southwest Airlines. That means... I CAN BE AN AIRLINE PILOT!!!
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
I applied for, and was accepted, as a Trainee Pilot for Southwest Virtual Airlines. I start my training tomorrow.
On YouTube, I'll be telling this story from my own perspective. It might be short-lived. People have been known to be "fired" from Southwest Virtual Airlines before. At the same time, I might have have.
Let me know if you want to watch my progress (or lack thereof.) I'm optimistic that if 2023 doesn't take me out, maybe "crashing" a few planes will. Actually no, I'll do my best to avoid that one.