Tolga's Railroad Repository

I have probably become so lazy as to require only something that isn't just going around in circles to get my however frequent dose of exercise. So basically biking except for the tracks has been off bets, walking around the house too. Of course those two tasks were done with circuitous courses. Eventually it transcended to which I bike to the rock trains. Ever since Lufthansa brought the A380 to Miami , my spotting frequency slowly went up, but then I seemed to be limited to Aero Squadron, so really, I found the freedom to be around one spot. When I started meeting up with my buddy Carlos much more, who I realized to be in one class in 10th grade for a month (and I actually recount talking planes with him one day), spotting eventually moved to El Dorado (NW 72 AV). Well, I wanted to get the 388's Trent 900s spooling one day  and couldn't find a better place. The view of Runway 9 became fairly unobstructed and I felt like this would be the spot for days to come. Of cours...

Saturday, March 10 and Sunday, March 11 were as always, wonderful days as I was at the Doral Golf Resort for the Golf Tournament (WGC-Cadillac Championship). The community hours I was able to do were a top notch experience. On Saturday, I knew I would not make it in time for the Standard Bearer raffle drawing... Usually one has to be there one hour before the first pairing to do so and I had been up at 6AM the whole week, so I wanted a whole hour of sleep. I still found work being there at 8:00 AM (last year I made it 9 AM and did marshalling). Ironically enough, the first hour through, being spent on food and coffee, I found myself on the same territory, except a little to the right. In 2011 I marshalled for Tee 11 all the way to the hole, so for about an hour I got a great glimpse of Hole 12. I saw all the big leagues both years too, Tiger, Phil, Rory, etc. 2012 had me at the gateway between 11 and 12. Hole 11 is a 402yd (1206') Par 4 with the Dick Wilson dogleg design to the ...

Watching all 4.5 hours of this Friday Night Cranks show makes you feel like one of them. To me it sure did. Besides, I am college-bound (close enough); like to horse around, "troll", and kid around; and am their colleague, if you will, a YouTube Partner. Add these and you have common ground. Tonight I finished the last part of this show, that I have been watching in parts since Monday. Copying the link "at Current Time" made sure I would enjoy the rest of it, and I really loved it. Maybe if you are 40, 50, or 13 (w/o the sense of humor these people have), you would not think the same that I am thinking. Yes, I am 17 and think prank calls are funny (especially if done in the means these guys have done which is legal). In all, I look at this as a satire. It makes fun of the shortfalls of society in the form of prank calls. When they josh around with Walmart, or with Hewlett-Packard as seen in this video, I think they're poking around with the people who call from ...

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/01/2622870/teens-debate-clean-water-bill.html , photo #5 The Miami Herald very kindly featured photos of several of us debating the environment the weekend of the 28th. It was an energizing weekend, and I had a pleasure being in an open-ended, social event. I met my new friends Alex, Hunter, and Jasmine, and acquainted better with my debate team. I am also in my school's Mu Alpha Theta. Maybe that sentence can imply why I like a debate competition much better than a Math competition. In a debate, you present ideas. You're getting evaluated, but still the open endedness leaves you at ease. Some new ideas in an impromptu speech can get you points. It is a different experience... Yet Fairchild is a more environment sort of thing than a heavy debate. But it's still practice for me, as I hope to attend Student Congress sessions next year. (the big FIMUN and DIMUN events conflict with things such as the Cadillac Championship and others). ...

It is the habit of people to chant the amount of time left to the next break. It shows up a lot everywhere, especially on Facebook. Well, I guess it fits to speak of it now, writing from the hind end of the big Thanksgiving weekend. But maybe the big idea everyone is forgetting is that one will not live forever. It may be before long that one sees the heavens that determine our afterlife. My friend has an album (long term memory speaking) called "hay que disfrutar la vida" (Spanish for " You have to enjoy life ") and that title has been hitting me throughout the course of my High school years. Yes, it is torture sometimes to have to do college level work, but these years are supposed to be the most entertaining. Hell, I am among a family, a large one at that. And yet, I only have two years one and a half years left to enjoy it! Counting down is like anticipating your death, except you're doing it in intervals. One needs to realize they will only be where t...

IKEA Hacking is a fairly small trend that goes on in the home improvement sector. What it usually entails is a think-outside-the-box modification to certain appliances that they sell. Not surprisingly, the simplest hacks can be the most effective. Aside from a model railroading project I have been planning, I am also intending to do something I call Game Night Readiness . (A pun of A380 ready, which only select airports are, it's like making my house ready for a breed of people) My room has been plagued with considerably obsolete furniture for quite some time, and it wasn't until Winter 2009-2010 that the first changes started rooting. My computer (laptop) and most of what I did happened downstairs at the time, and I finally moved up by June 2010. By December the second change gracefully happened as this fine 1920x1080 desktop came aboard, and now that I have witnessed a Game Night, I felt like I wanted to chip in my own cash. Most if not all of the items here have been ...

I have had experience documenting subject-specific entries on a series of web logs for the past couple of years, notably in the model railroad, Rail Simulation, and LEGO hobbyist fronts. I feel the time has come to make general, varied, and critical entries on the many aspects of life and what has come my way. So feel free to take a seat, grab a Café Cubano, and get taken into a journey that will almost put you in my shoes.