David's World

What I want for ....

2007-12-19T09:26:00.000-06:00

Now I realize that during the political process, the candidates don’t always cater to the masses, they do what they need to do to get enough voters to proceed to the next round. And, certain candidates have no chance of getting my support (I still don’t know who I am voting for), but during my drive into work this morning I heard a story on Morning Edition that was very interesting. With the Iowa Caucuses coming up very soon, Mike Huckabee has taken the lead in over Mitt Romney and Rudi Giuliani. That isn’t the interesting part – and neither is this – with the lead gone, Romney has gone negative in his ads. So how does Huckabee respond? He doesn’t go truly negative; instead he says something to the effect that America is tired of the political ads and the negative ads and that “that really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ”.

Well the problem is, that that is not what this is the time for… at least not for all of America. If we want to boil down this season, we could say it is a time for family, or commerce (though with the way the economy has been for the last 6+ months there isn’t too much commerce going on). For Christians, yes this is a time to celebrate Christmas and everything that is a part of it. But for every other religion (or agnostic or atheist), Huckabee is, well, wrong.

I am not quiet when I say my displeasure in the way that the country has been run the last 7 years. We have gotten ourselves into two wars, one of which it seems the president and rest of America has forgotten about. How much do you hear about Afghanistan except when something bad happens? And for Iraq, I knew that when we went into this mess, we would be a there for a long time. I had a conversation with people within the first few weeks that this would be the Viet Nam of my generation. So what does this have to do with Huckabee? Well I really don’t want to trade in the “Moron in Chief” for a “Pastor in Chief”.

If you didn’t know by now where my political allegiances lie, here is a clue – in 2008, in order to prevent the continued downward spiral of the government, economy, foreign relations, and further loss of life in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Democrats must win complete control in the House, Senate, and White House. But, you say the Democrats did win the House and Senate in 2006. Sort of. The Senate is a razor edge majority (when Lieberman decides to vote with the Democrats…he did just endorse McCain for President…not a “fellow” Democrat). With that, the Republicans have the ability to block pretty much any measure that the Dems try to improve this country. Additionally, any veto, or threat of veto must be taken seriously (even for extremely stupid reasons) since there is no way an over-ride would take place.

So basically, what I want for well…not Christmas, and Chanukah is over…my dream is that we don’t have as Sinclair Lewis said "…fascism com[ing] to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross".

Been a while

2007-11-15T01:51:00.000-06:00

But haven't had too much to write about. Wedding planning is going great and we decided on a honeymoon location . . . here is a hint - They Might Be Giants sang about this place. Can you guess it? That's right folks, this summer we are going to Istambul! Well, we are going to Turkey and one of the cities we will visit will be Istambul. Now we just need to figure out how to get there - what airline, coach/business class, miles or cash. Oh yea, and what we are going to do and see while we are there. But hey we got a few more months to plan this out.

As for other things - NASA had a successful shuttle flight, and the launch was really clean. No additional inspections were needed and aside from a few hiccups on the ISS side, a very well done mission. Of course, the fun begins in December when STS-122/1E flies. But that is because I am the lead for that flight so it is more fun for me than others.

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of speaking to 125 third graders in a Readers Digest version of the Sun. I talked about the main facts - how large it is, how long light takes to get here. And I talked about how the sun affects and effects us on the ISS and Shuttle and what we are going to do about solar radiation and protection on Mars. The kids ate it up and the teachers were really excited about the stuff that NASA provides to educators (stickers and magnets for the students, activities, workbooks, posters, cool pictures, and a whole lot more). And it was nice to show kids that are in Title I programs that if they work hard and study they can do almost anything.

That's all that I care to post. Life goes on, through the hills and valleys. Right now feels like a valley, but I am sure that will turn around soon, because I am sure I don't think I could take the depth of the Marianas Trench.

Couple of Links

2007-06-29T12:19:00.000-05:00

First - an interesting crossword puzzle
Next - yea so it is a website that sells "liberal" materials, but all of them are funny, and unfortunately, most are true. Write me a comment and let me know your favorite.

How quickly things come along

2007-06-28T13:51:00.000-05:00

In most cases things seem to fall into place. Pam and I are hip-deep in planning and things are coming around.

We have a photographer who just rocks. It is a coincidence that her website is a very similar name to Pam's mom's Hebrew name
We have a great location which lends itself to a really cool theme/idea (its a surprise).
We have a cake (yea so what if he's my dad)
We have great ideas about flowers

All this week we have had meetings with vendors. I go to what I can but Pam is being a huge help and going to some of the vendors while I am at work too. Why you may ask are we packing this week with a wedding meeting every day? We are going home tomorrow to visit with both of our families and want to be able to give them enough information to make a decision.

So we will be spending 10 days with the families. Yes this has the possibility to be a slightly stressful situation, but it will be nice to have some time away from Houston. Not quite sure what we will do the whole time we are going to be there, but Pam's youngest sister is leaving for a year-long internship in England so there will be a going away party, and infinite discussions on the wedding with the parents. Hopefully there will be some relaxation time too.

That's about it for now. More later.

At last a brief moment to breathe

2007-06-23T10:17:00.000-05:00

Having had so much free time in the last few weeks with working console before, during, and now after the Shuttle mission, and planning a wedding (though not doing as much as my wonderful fiancee) I have been a slacker on my blog....

Well, this past week Pam had a conference at The Woodlands Resort and Conference Center. Rough life for her let me tell you. Breakfast and lunch were awesome (or so I heard) with endless amounts of made-to-order items, and a constant stream of fresh fruit, snacks, and drinks. The conference was pretty much done by 3 each day and everyone had full use of the resort. The pool, tennis courts, nature trails . . . all paid for. They even got $32 a night for their dinner per diem (not bad). Well, she was nice enough to let me join her for Wednesday night through Friday and I readily agreed. I was finally able to relax, mostly because I had an 80 min Swedish massage at the spa. Let me tell you, that first of all it only felt like I was there for 20 minutes, and could have gone much longer, but c'est la vie. When Pam got out of her session that day she said that I looked like a new person - totally relaxed (true) and happy (also true).

Now that I am back from my mini-vacation, I am back at work on Saturday and Sunday for a few hours each. Then I am on through Friday sitting at the BME console...then...another "vacation". Pam and I are going to see her family for a few days and mine as well. Her youngest sister has a one year internship outside of London doing Packaging Engineering for Kraft Foods (at least I think with Kraft) so we are having a G'bye/Good Luck party for her. Then it is off to see my family in Orlando for a few days and back to Houston on July 8th. The cool thing is we leave on June 29th - a momentous day that should probably be a national holiday - our second anniversary (aww how cute).

Well that is all for now. By the time we get back from FL the "decision" on wedding locations will be finalized.

More to come later.

Fun And Games When Planning A Wedding

2007-06-04T11:13:00.000-05:00

So last week I was on the 3-midnight shift which loans itself to running errands during the day. What better way is there to spend your mornings than looking at wedding locations and as soon as you leave turn to your soon-to-be spouse and say "Yes" or "NO". The original top contender got tossed out on account that there is no way we could fit the number of people we expect to show up at our shindig...

Here is our math - we expect to send out around 200 invites: Pam's family,
Pam's family's friends, Pam's Friends, my family, my family's friends, my
friends. The friends part (on both sides) we are trying to keep to the
closest possible, else we would be sending out like 300 invites....ok so back to
the math. 200 invites sent out, we plan on 175 showing up, with the
reality of 150 gracing us with their presence (presents?).

Back to the story, so choice #1 (www.indiansummerlodge.com) was too small. It barely fit the 100 chairs in for the ceremony, so the cool option is out. Choice #1A is still the front runner (www.bellaterrazza.com) and the only reason it wasn't the first-first choice was the total uniqueness of ISL. When we went to look at the other places everything was compared to these...So choices 2 (Marathon Oil Tower), 3 (River Oaks Garden Club), and 4 (Courtyard on St. James Place) were in big trouble and here is how it broke down:

2) Marathon Oil Tower had a great view of the wooded houses north of San Filipe, but was as romantic as a bowl of snot. Great for the Bat Mitzvah that it was set up for. Though the F&B Manager kept calling it a Bar Mitzvah. I am sure that the two girls would have loved hearing that.

3)River Oaks Garden Club was stuffy, snobby, and would have forced us to have a split up wedding. Not enough room inside or outside so people wouldn't really be mingling, or dancing, or ...well it wasn't us. Of course it didn't bode well when I drove right past it and had to make two U-turns to get there.

4) Courtyard at St. James Place was actually a possible contender, but with the want to have an outside wedding (we can do that in March in Houston, but that is pretty much the only month of the year that we can) we still need a back-up plan. Getting married on the dance floor as the contingency plan ain't our idea of fun, so even though the place looked nice we decided to go with choice 1A. Now we just gotta agree on all of the terms and conditions.

Of course Pam has been on "3 Year Old On-Call Duty" for the last few weeks as a good friend was extremely pregnant. Everywhere we went, she (or I) had to hold the cellphone in case we go the call to pick up the first born and watch him until the baby popped out. Well, it turns out that the baby was very nice and decided to wait until Friday, the one day we didn't have any plans. So Pam wore herself out by doing in one day what typical parents do in a week, but at day's end Sam had a little sister.

So that was last week. More to come I am sure.

A brief update

2007-05-08T02:50:00.000-05:00

I have been back in Houston since April 27th. I had the whole weekend to get back into the swing of things before reporting to work on Monday, and this week I am back to working console (overnight shift).

When I got back Pam gave me my belated birthday present (but I asked her to save it until I got home...). When we go to NYC this weekend, she got us (and our families for a total of 12) tickets to the Mets-Brewers game on Mother's Day. For as long as I have been a Mets fan, I haven't been to a game at Shea so I am totally pumped. The seats rock and the weather is supposed to be really nice (at least that is what weather.com said earlier today).

The wedding plans are coming along - we have some plans to visit locations in Houston in a few weeks and will be going to Miami and Orlando at the end of June/begining of July to spend time with our families and look at locations then. We're also going for two celebrations - Pam's youngest sister will be moving to London for a one year internship and she leaves July 2nd, and my mom's birthday (we won't say the number) is July 10th so we are going to have a small party for her as well.

So that is it for the brief overview. More later I am sure.

Who do I know and my Mosel trip.

2007-04-07T13:14:00.000-05:00

So I know that people at work (both in Houston) and here in Cologne are on Facebook, and I had a feeling that a lot more people are on it, so why not join right? I'll be one of the few people on it who were born before 1985, but hey why not right?

So I started browsing for people that I knew from high school, college, Houston, Orlando....and there are more people than I thought on line. So if you are on Facebook, and not a child predator (or is that myspace.com?) look me up.

Now for the other info - my uncle and his girlfriend were just here this past weekend. They had planned a weeklong trip through Europe (Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne, Amsterdam again). We had a pretty good time going to the Dom, Roman-German Museum, and the Chocolate Museum. We ate well and had a good time. They left this morning, so it was a short weekend, but it was good to see them and since today is my birthday it was nice to have family here.

Below is a little story about my trip along the Mosel (3/30-4/1) -

Last weekend I went to the Mosel River Valley (by the way that is pronounced MOE-zul, not moe-SUL as I did most of the weekend, more mispronunciation later). The weather was pretty good, as it only rained late on Friday and the evening of Saturday.

Anyhow, the drive was great – about 110 miles through mountains (well in probably large hills, but mountains compared to anything in Texas or Florida). The town I stayed in was this little village called Bernkastel-Kues. The location was great – close to the river, and everywhere that I wanted to go. It had the stereotypical old European/German look to it with cobblestone streets and old-style buildings. I was there during the low season, so not everything was open but I was able to walk around and look at the little shops, take a 30 min hike up a hill to the remains of a castle (now expanded into a restaurant…) and visit a winery.

For all of those non-oenephiles (I had to look up the word myself) the Mosel region is known for Rieslings, which I really enjoy. The weingut (literally wine-good, but translates to small winery that only uses the grapes that it grows and not from other growers/regions) was nice, and I had a nice tasting of about 5 of their wines. Though the person at the winery was pleasant she wasn’t very talkative about the region or the grower or anything. It wasn’t because of a language barrier because she sounded like she studied English in the UK. After the flight of wines, I climbed the mountain/hill and was able look out over a good portion of the region. There was some fog still, but it was still a great view. I had lunch at the restaurant built into the remains of the castle, and explored a little on my way down and found a really cool looking waterfall and fast moving brook (or in German a “bach”). The rest of the day was spent just walking around the area, and enjoying the relaxing time – until it started to rain, when I took shelter at a café and had a few coffees.

Sunday I drove to Burg Eltz (pronounced exactly as it is spelled, not El-itz as I kept saying which caused much confusion). I had some really bad directions from a lot of people. It seems that people along the Mosel have no concept of how far away places are. Needless to say I got amounts of 5km behind me to 60km ahead of me. I finally found the turn off and proceeded to drive up the mountain. Now I haven’t talked much about my driving here, but before getting ready to come to Cologne (we are talking two weeks before) the last time I drove a manual transmission was in high school when a friend had a Escort ZX-2 and my cousin had his Jeep and they taught me (though I wasn’t exactly stellar). Before I left Houston a coworker took me in his Jetta and I did ok, so we decided that I would be fine, the first week would be “fun” but I would be able to get by. This is important because (1) it is hard to find an automatic transmission rental car in Germany/Europe and (2) it is more expensive. Back to the story, the training I have had was based on flat ground. I wasn’t exactly keen on the fundamentals of driving up winding mountain roads, and found out quickly that you can be in 2^nd and 3^rd gear and still keep the car going the speed limit of 40km/h without feeling the engine slip or get close to stalling as you slow down enough to make the turn.

After parking at the top of the hill, I made the 30 min walk down, around, and through the woods (not to grandmother’s house) but to the castle. The Family Eltz still owns this palace. Construction started in the 13^th Century and was finished in the 18^th Century. Somewhere in the 14^th Century the family split into three (i.e. three kids) so the castle plans were changed to include three different wings all connected through the courtyard. Two wings are open to the public for tours, while the family still comes to vacation/stay in the third. There are 100 rooms, 40 bedrooms, and 20 bathrooms in the castle. The original plumbing still exists in the public areas, where rain water was collected and used for flushing, I guess you hope for rain… Since the castle was privately owned, they asked that pictures not be taken inside, and the entrance fee (8€ for a guided tour and entrance to the treasury) goes to maintain upkeep.

After walking around the Burg, I walked back up the hill (not exactly 30 min in both directions) and headed to another weingut. At this one, the owner gave me a tour of the facilities and told me about the process. He also told me that the winery had been in his family for more than 500 years. A “moderately” old company by his account, while I thought, well that is twice as old as the US...I had a great conversation with the guy and we had about 8 different wines to taste. One of them was a “raisin” wine which I thought was really unique – the flavor was really concentrated and you really could taste the raisins (think golden not the red ones). After the tasting I drove back a different route and had a nice leisurely drive on the autobahn at 145 km/h (only 90 mph but it sounds like more in metric).

Big News

2007-03-22T04:08:00.001-05:00

So Pam came out to visit last Saturday. I was able to stay at a friend’s house outside of Frankfurt so that I could pick her up from the airport. We got back to Cologne took a nap (for only an hour and 40 minutes if ask Pam) and then walked around. Ok we walked a lot and she was a little tired, but the best cure for jet-lag is to fight it right? Anyhow we went to the Chocolate Factory did the tour walked more around Cologne and came back home. Sunday we took the Deutschebahn (train) to Aachen. Now for those that don’t know (like me before I came to Cologne) Aachen was where Charlemagne decided to run Europe. He built his castle, cathedral, and ruled from their instead of (I think) Paris. The town is really quaint and has the old look to it – small cobblestone streets, old looking buildings, and the cathedral was really cool. We went to the treasury and saw reliquaries (one had Charlemagne’s skull) and collected works of art.

Monday and Tuesday I had to work so in the mornings we hunted for a café to find some breakfast (I wanted to go to one but it was always closed at the “early” hour we were looking…). Pam went around to museums and stuff during the day and Monday evening we went out to dinner with a friend from work. Of course Tuesday, I left work came home and we hopped the train to Paris.

The hotel we stayed at was awesome. The room was huge and the location rocked. We were close to everything we needed to walk to and were maybe a couple hundred meters from a subway stop. Tuesday night we walked around the hotel for a while and saw Notre Dame at night. It was really pretty as it was light up. Wednesday we went to the Louvre and we saw pretty much everything. We spent about 6 hours going through the museum and only saw about two-thirds of it. Pam was a great tour guide, giving insight to each of the different paintings, sculptures, and works of art that we saw. Makes me wish I had taken an art appreciation class in school. One thing that we noticed is across from the room that holds the Mona Lisa are three or four other Da Vinci’s that people just walked right by. They were phenomenal pieces of art that showed his skill with the use of light and dark that were just passed right by. Yes I did see and liked a whole lot more at the Louvre, but I don’t have enough room here to talk about everything we saw there.

After the Louvre we walked down to the Tuileries and then went to the L’Orangerie where we saw two rooms of Monet’s Water-lilies built in the shape of ovals. Being surrounded by those paintings was really cool – everywhere you turned you saw another part of the pond at Giverny.

After the L’Orangerie we walked along the Champs Élysées (all the while I was thinking Tour D’Lance). As we walked up and came to the Arc de Triomphe we saw people in military attire and carrying flags getting ready to perform the daily ceremony to honor the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I had remembered reading that every day at 6:30 the cops stop traffic around the Arc and veterans and active duty military walk up to the Tomb and lay flowers and hold a short ceremony. This was even done on the day that the Germans “invaded” Paris while the German troops mustered by the Arc! So we stayed to watch and we were not disappointed, the ceremony was really cool. There looked to be vets from as far back as WWII and there were people from every branch (maybe not French Air Force) represented.

I realize that I have talked about one day of Paris and not much food – not to worry, Pam and I ate very well. I can’t remember if it was Tuesday after we got to Paris or sometime on Wednesday (I think it was Tuesday night) that I had my first real crêpe with bananas and chocolate (aka nutella). Lets just say it is a good thing that they don’t have those anywhere close to where I live as I would be there way too often.

After the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe we went back home and found a little restaurant close to our hotel on a side street in St. Germain. Pam had French Onion Soup (which in case you were wondering the French just call onion soup J) and I had a salad with warm goat cheese on crustinis for appetizers. She had a steak and I had lamb for dinner, and dessert was a chocolate crêpe with vanilla ice cream at another restaurant.

Thursday was a real busy day. We did quite a bit “in town” before going to the northern part of the city. We started out at Sainte Chapelle it is pretty amazing to be in a church that is more than three times as old as your home country (consecrated in 1248). The only guide information that we could find was in French so Pam was able to translate it and explain what each of the different stories were on the stained glass. One of the cool designs implemented into the stained glass windows is the effect that they play – the light inside looks like Burgundy wine, not a bad color or look in my book! We then went on to see Notre Dame and the crypt below. Again Pam’s knowledge of Paris and history came in quite handy as she told me all about the Cathedral (now when it comes to science and NASA and well, not European History and art, I am quite the knowledgeable person). Anyhow it was quite enjoyable even if I didn’t see Quasimodo.

After the cathedral, we went to the Deportation Memorial where we met one of the most serious people in Paris. The woman in charge of “crowd control” at the memorial was on a huge power trip. There was plenty of room in the memorial but only allowed about 10 people at a time and made sure that we were queued up waiting until she whistled us in. She didn’t mind the people changing clothes, but as soon as someone put a toe on the grass the whistle came out and she started her I’m in charge routine. I think that because she worked for the Ministry of Defense she wanted to show that she was a force not to be messed with.

After spending enough time above ground we went into the Crypt and saw the old Roman city ruins and the history of the building of Paris. Very interesting stuff, especially cool was how they showed the development of Paris from a small city to the center of Europe for a majority of its existence. After the Crypt we found a boulangerie and got a fresh baguette to share and some quiches and we ate lunch outside the Pompidou Center. We then hit the metro up to Montemartre where we walked around (or more like up and down some rather large hills), saw the Moulin Rouge and the Red Light District (wow talk about in your face). We then walked to the base of Sacre Cœur.

Pam had said something about a little trolley that you could take up to the top which was sounding pretty good after the week of long walks. Of course the lift was down for an indeterminate amount of time so we walked the stairs (most of these things that I am talking about will be available in photographs to be sent out soon, along with the Budapest pictures). At the top we walked around the church and were able to look out over Paris. The view was great, though slightly hazy or foggy. Now, by this time I have a feeling Pam had an idea something was up since I had been itching to go to Sacre Cœur and after leaving the church and the terraces outside I wanted to find a garden that she had never seen before in the 5 times she had been to Paris. We found it and started walking down.

At about half-way down the hill, I asked Pam to stop walking, got down on one knee and told her how much I miss being apart from her, how much I love her, and how I want to spend the rest of my life with her. She of course said yes and we sat down on a park bench and just enjoyed being engaged and not having to make any decisions about a wedding or anything yet. Of course as soon as we made it down the hill and started making the phone calls to our family the questions of “when and where we will get married” started. To answer that question – I think I have an answer, but until I get back I am not sure. Suffice it to say the important step is taken care of – we are engaged.

I had been planning to ask her since we decided to go to Paris and I think I decided on the gardens a couple months ago. However, I carried the ring with me all over Paris incase I found a better place. Now carrying the ring made for interesting times as we went through the metal detectors of and security of every museum – what do to with the ring (kept in a bright blue silk jewelry bag). So every time I was told to empty my pockets I kept moving it from my pocket to my jacket or my backpack and she never noticed. I had ideas for back-up places incase the garden was too crowded, but the place I chose was awesome. The weather was perfect, and the view of Paris was everything that I had hoped. After our phone calls I asked Pam if we should get something to remember Sacre Cœur. Her first reaction was to look at her hand and say “I already have something” but then she decided that with all of the fabric stores to buy a piece of blue silk, so we have the “new” and “blue” taken care of.

We then headed back and went out to dinner at one of Jacques Cagna’s restaurants (L’Espadon Bleu) in St. Germain and had a great meal (a very big thank you again to Pam’s parents for my Chanukah gift “a day in Paris”, as they bought Lunch and Dinner on Thursday). Pam had a great soup, seafood pasta and phenomenal dessert (French apple tart with cinnamon ice cream) and I had a carpaccio, brandade, and also a great dessert (soft centered “Guanaja” chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream).

Friday we went to Musée D’Orsay and did as best as we could to see everything there. There are magnificent pieces stretching from amazing sculptures to moving paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, and many others. Unfortunately, again Pam’s art knowledge would be helpful here - I think the problem is that I saw so many pieces of art last week… After the D’Orsay we went to the Rodin Museum. Not only were his sculptures on display, but the influences that he had on painters and photographers were displayed as well. Rodin had struck a pretty sweet deal while he was alive – let me live in a huge mansion in the middle of the city for free, and when I die you can display my art. Kinda makes you wish that you had a talent like that.

From the Rodin Museum we went on to see Napoleon’s Tomb at the Invalides. His tomb was HUGE, which for such a small statured man was quite interesting to me. We looked around the museum and monument at the displays of Napoleon’s sabers, muskets, swords, and pistols then headed home, as the museum began to close.

Friday’s dinner was again very good. We each had “onion soup” for a starter, and Pam had a cheese fondue for an entrée and I had a filet mignon. For dessert we shared a chocolate fondue and a crème brulee. Wow. Something that I can’t believe that I have neglected to mention was the fact that every night we had a demi-bottle or carafe of “house” red wine, and every night it was awesome. I guess in France (and Germany too) it is difficult to have a bad wine.

After waking up and having an awesome pain de chocolat we headed to the Pantheon. Along the way we each bought a daffodil to support the Marie Curie Center for Cancer Research. Outside the Pantheon, sod had been laid down, little wading pools had been setup to raise support for cancer research. Something I was unaware of was that the daffodil was the symbol for cancer societies all over the world. Inside the Pantheon we saw the crypts of some of France’s greatest heroes and thinkers – from Voltaire to Hugo to Braille to Curie to Rousseau and many others are all interned there.

Unfortunately after walking around the Pantheon, we had to head back so that Pam could get to the airport. After a longer than necessary shuttle ride to the airport I had to leave Pam at Charles de Gaul, which was not an easy thing to do. I had some time between when I left airport and when I had to be at the train station to get back to Cologne, so I went back to the Pompidou Center. I like modern art so it was a treat to see Kandinskys, Calders, Matesses, and many others. I only had about 45 minutes by the time I got there so I had to buzz through it pretty quick, but it was definitely worth running through it and seeing it.

I caught the train back to Cologne unpacked and crashed.

It was a great week and I couldn’t be happier being engaged to such a wonderful person. Sorry for the length of the post and the amount of time since the last one.

David

P.S. 37 days ‘til I come home.

Budapest

2007-03-09T17:01:00.000-06:00

Sorry it has been way too long since my last email so this one is pretty long to make up for it. You may want to set aside some time for the play-by-play that follows…

Work has been really busy. We had a deadline for a major project last Friday so life revolved around that (it wasn’t a cool project so I won’t bore you with the details). Of course that didn’t keep me from taking a half-day on Friday so I could go to Budapest for the weekend. A coworker dropped me off at the airport and I did all the fun security stuff. The rules are mostly the same here as they are in the States – take the laptop out of the bag, no liquids through security, you can bring up to 5 100mL vials of shampoo, conditioner... – but you don’t have to take off your shoes here. The last one is nice, because it saves a little bit of time.

Anyhow, once I got through security I had to go through Immigration/Border Control. The guy behind the glass seemed nice enough, but not exactly too bright. He stamped my passport with the wrong stamp. I don’t know why the guy who is at the “Leaving the Country” booth has an entrance stamp (the arrow tells you which one is which) but he did, and he used it. So he x-ed it out and signed below it. I knew that it would cause questions when I came back so if you are really interested and don’t care about Budapest skip down to the bottom, otherwise just accept this as foreshadowing.

Once I arrived at my gate I found out that the plane we were slated to fly on had mechanical difficulties so we would be using another plane en-route from Rome. Basically I got to take a nice (and much needed) nap while I waited for my flight. A little word about Germanwings Airlines – they are a no-frills airline much like Southwest. They have the cattle call boarding but in Cologne you can enter from either the front or rear of the plane so it doesn’t take as long. The baggage restrictions are little more stringent (although if you have seen the stories about Spirit Airlines and BA there are some airlines that are stricter). I was way under the 20kg for my one checked bag (it was 25€ for greater than 20kg and an additional 25€ for a second bag) and my carry-on was basically empty. Also there is no such thing as a free lunch. Or beverage for that matter. Water was 2€! You could buy a sandwich for 5€. I decided not to do either of those and took another nap.

A little side note Buda is on the west bank of the Danube (Duma) River and is the hilly part; Pest is on the east bank and is the flat part of the city. When I got to Budapest I found the driver I had reserved to get me to my hotel. He told me it was a nice hotel, but a little far. So as we drove through the city and the traffic he pointed out a bunch of the landmarks that I had planned to see while I was there – Hero’s Square, Dóhany Street Synagogue, National Museum, and Parliament. With traffic it took about 45 min to get to my hotel. I checked in and hopped on the train to get back into town for dinner. I found a nice little Hungarian place (sorry Mom and Dad I forgot the name) and had some goulash soup and bread. Instead of butter they brought out a paprika spread – VERY SPICY. I was still pretty tired so I just went back home to the hotel.

The next morning I set out after breakfast and took the train back to the city. I hit up four museums and had a great time walking around and trying not to get lost in on the subway system. I bought online a card that let me take all city transportation for free and get into sites either for free or discounted. I am usually pretty skeptical about that kind of stuff, but this one turned out to be for real and I highly recommend it if you plan on going. So the first museum I went to was the Terror Museum. No, this was not “Jason” or “Freddy Krueger” terror stuff, it was about the Arrow Cross (Hungarian Nazi party) and Communist control of Hungary. The outside of the museum has a bunch of pictures of people who had been killed or was missing and little shrines underneath (candles and flowers). The building itself used to be the headquarters for both the Nazi and Communist secret police and in many cases people who went into the building were never seen (alive) again. Inside you go through a labyrinth of rooms each one with pictures and stories about different aspects of Hungary’s troubled past. In the center of the building is a huge and very imposing tank and when you enter the room the turret is facing you. Another thing that stuck out in my mind was how well they could influence the mood with music. It was subtle, but almost ominous and foreboding. Very well done.

The next museum I went to was the Fine Arts museum as I felt I wanted something a little lighter. It turns out that there was a Van Gogh exhibit to celebrate the 100th Anniversary. Pieces from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Musée D’Orsay, The Met, and the National Gallery in DC were there. Most of the pieces were of his earlier sketches and paintings and included some of the influences on Van Gogh as well as some of the painters he influenced (Rembrandt, Delacroix, and some of the Japanese wood engravings found at his own collection). The exhibit did not cover the Blue Period or his pointillism, but lots of his portraits (none self that I saw) and still-lifes. Really cool stuff. The rest of the museum is very well done too, with rooms dedicated to different masters and areas.

Outside the museum is Hero’s Square (and where my camera battery died). The square was dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of “Hungarians” in the Carpathian basin. Yea, this country is old. It was on the edge of the Roman Empire with all of the normal Roman ammenaties (baths, buildings, roads, aqueducts…). Pretty cool stuff. There is a huge pillar with a statue of Archangel Gabriel in the middle and a bunch of statues with the chiefs of the original Hungarian tribes (I did some research), and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier there too.

After the Square I went back to the hotel and got a new battery and charged my old one and then headed back to the National Museum. The façade was pretty impressive, even in the rain as it started to fall. Inside, is the history of Budapest and Hungary. The basement has artifacts from when the Romans and in the center is a mosaic floor. Now it may take someone who can read Hungarian to know that “XYZ ABC“ means don’t walk on this. But obviously some Americans are really dumb. A woman in her 60s started to walk across this thing that is at least 2000 years old and when she got yelled at she said “But the sign isn’t in English. I didn’t know.” HUH? You didn’t have the common sense to NOT WALK ACROSS something that old? The rest of the museum was pretty cool too as it traced the history through the different kings, queens, and countries that ruled Hungary.

The last museum of the day was the Holocaust Museum. Kind of hidden along a side street, it looks tilted and very different from everything else around it. Inside again you are impacted by the music and sounds of the museum. As you enter you hear marching foot steps. Not the steps of a people walking, but of an invasion force. Before going to this museum I knew that Hungary lost lots of Jews and Gypsies (Roma) during WWII, but I had no idea. 1 in 10 who died during the Holocaust and 1 in 3 people at Auschwitz was from Hungary. The Jewish population went from almost 800,000 before the war to not quite 80,000 now. The museum was very well done and spilt the time pretty equally through both populations. It followed a few families through the war and talked how the Hungarian government tried to save its people, though it was obviously unsuccessful. At the end of the museum you are in a synagogue that was built in the late 1800s and used up to the war with a little display of several people who helped save Jews and Roma. In addition, as they do I most other Holocaust Museums, there were flyers all over talking about Darfur and how the mass-genocide needs the world’s attention.

I then went back to the city center for dinner and found a Hungarian restaurant that had live Gypsy music and entertainment. A trio playing the violin, a bass, and what looked like a piano but instead of keys the guy used padded drumsticks (a concert cimbalom if you care). About half-way through my meal (Pilsner Urquel, soup, bread with that hot paprika stuff again, venison with “forest fruit sauce”, rice, and fried potato dumplings), two women dressed in gypsy costumes started to sing and dance.

The next day (we are up to Sunday) I went to the Dóhany Synagogue. It is the largest synagogue by volume in the world and only Temple Emanuel in NYC has more seats. The style outside has Moorish influence and the inside is almost church-like. There is a huge organ in the back, that in the past had been played by many a famous organist and composer (Franz Liszt is the one I remember hearing). Behind is Raoul Wallenberg Square and a Holocaust Memorial area. The Jewish Museum is right next door and is pretty interesting with pieces that have been collected from all over Eastern Europe, some going back to the 16th century.
After the tour I had to make it back to the hotel so I could go home….Fast forward to immigration back in Cologne. The Border guard starts looking through my passport and stops at the x-ed out stamp and starts talking to the other guy in the booth. 20 minutes later he starts to ask – Short trip to Budapest? It was all I could take off from work. You work here? Only for 3 months. You live here? Just for the three months that I am here. Where do you work? At the European Astronaut Center in Wahn. And for how long? Three months, I have already been here for one. Ok. More talking to the guy in the booth pointing at my passport. Yea, I guess you are ok here you go.

Well that is that. Oh yea, my cell phone ran out of money (pay-as-you-go) while I was there and the guy who was supposed to pick me up at the airport was stuck in a stau (traffic jam) so I got to take the train home. First time for everything I guess.

That’s enough. Pictures to come soon.

Pam comes out this weekend and we go to Paris on Tuesday so I am sure that another email will come after that with what sights we saw while she was out to visit. I have been waiting to go to the Chocolate Museum until she got here. That one will be fun (as will Aachen, Musée D’Orsay, Louvre, Arc d’Triumph…..).

News from Cologne

2007-02-22T07:47:00.000-06:00

So it seems that one of the requirements for Karnival in Germany (or anyplace really) is to get there early, and start drinking. This past weekend were the big celebrations before the Lent-season, and Cologne goes ALL OUT. I went as a cowboy (the last BME here during Karnival went as a cowgirl). On Sunday I went to a co-worker’s home and spent the better part of the afternoon and evening with her family (she and her husband have a 12 year old and a 4 year old). The whole town comes out (it is a good size suburb of Cologne) and each street has a pot-luck where people bring food and drinks to share with their neighbors and watch the parade.

The participants in the parade give out candy or trinkets or flowers to all of the revelers along the street. These participants spend months getting ready, and spend thousands of Euros on their costumes, floats, and whatever they give out. Some of the chocolates are “name brands”…we are talking Toblerone and huge Swiss or German chocolate bars. I gave most of mine to the 4 year old and kept a small sampling so I could see what each tastes like. So far the cappuccino-chocolate tastes pretty good, next is orange-chocolate.

The parade lasted a few hours and then everyone continued to enjoy each other’s company, food, and drink. As cold as it was, it was nice that some of the food was really good soup and stews. We then went back inside to warm up, have some coffee and sort through the “loot”. It was like Halloween . . . and her mom did what every other mother in the world does (at least what mine did) choose a few, the rest are getting given away or tossed. Of course, as she was sorting the candy, it was - one for me to keep, one for me to give away, one for me to eat. Repeat.

I stuck around for what was described to me as a typical German dinner. To me it seemed very similar in some respects to American dinners – leftovers augmented with other stuff. We had the soup that she made for the parade (which was still really good), bread, deli and sausages, cheese, olives, and pickles.

That was Sunday. Monday was a totally different experience.

So Monday I went downtown to see how the “Big City” is different. In addition Rosenmontag (Rose Monday) is a huge celebration in Cologne. I went by myself for a little while and walked around looking at all of the revelers and their costumes. I got a text message from another one of my coworkers who had just gotten back into town from a week in Houston and we met up with a few of his friends to watch the parade and enjoy the day. So I had my first beer at 10:30am….I stumbled home very late and quite drunk, which is something I haven’t done in a LONG time and not something I will do again any time soon. Yes, I remember everything that happened. We had a pretty good position to watch the parade, but getting there was interesting since there were about 2 million people crowding the streets of Köln and getting through them and the parade and the barricades to keep cars (and people) was slightly difficult.

After watching the parade go by and having several beverages we went to a couple of bars to continue to celebrate. I went to a Donner Imbis restaurant (you have to go to special restaurants if you want take out so this one had shwarma pitas to go) for dinner and then went back to enjoying the kolsch beers.
The next morning was very interesting getting up for work…..I made it in at around 9:30, which isn’t too bad I guess, but it was definitely one of those days where the lights are off in the office.

All in all, I had an awesome time this past weekend and I am glad that I got to see two different Karnival celebrations.

A walking morning

2007-02-10T05:16:00.000-06:00

First of all - if anyone knows how to change the settings on Blogspot to keep it in English please let me know. All the buttons are in German and it took me a few minutes to figure out which button was the "New Blog". So when I got here I was told that there was a microphone for the computer so I could use a webcam to talk with MSN messenger. Yea that didn't happen, as the guy before me either broke it or it never worked....Needless to say, I finally bought a mic/headset combo and last night I was finally able to use it and the webcam to be able to see and talk to my girlfriend. Let me tell you, it was very nice to be able to see such a wonderful and beautiful sight. And no you pervert, we were both clothed. So that was last night and when I woke up this morning I decided I would walk around and try to find a café for breakfast that I went to last weekend. So I started walking. And walking. And walking. And I got lost. So I turned and thought that I would walk in a different direction to see if I could find a street name that I recognized. That didn't happen right away, but when I finally found the street that I live on and decided to walk back, I found a HUGE synagogue. I knew that it was here, as I think it was the one that the Pope came and visited a few months ago, but I had no idea where it was. I talked to a guy who was standing outside (ignoring the fact that across the street was a cop car who was guarding the place). I found out when services are and I asked him about Passover in Cologne. So he said that I should go to Antwerp (that's right drive to Belgium) to buy matzah and other things as (a) it is really expensive here and (b) it is really hard to find. Instead of doing that I will do this - can someone send me some matzah before the beginning of April? Ok, so I found the synagogue and I asked the guy outside what time services are and in addition to telling me that, he said I need to bring my passport. Wow. I guess I am glad that they take security seriously, but it is really sad that even now they need to have such security. I wonder what they do for locals....

So after walking around for about 1.5 hrs I finally found the cafe. And do I feel like an idiot. It is 2 minutes from my house, all I had to do was go left instead of right out of my apartment. So I had an awesome omelet for breakfast and some coffee then I went to look for a costume for carnival.

I have been told that carnival here in Cologne is just an awesome time and not as skanky as other cities around the world. So I decided to go as a cowboy (I do live in Texas). I found a costume shop across the street from the café and picked up some accessories for a costume. A friend is working on getting me a ticket to a party and I will be taking a few days off (Thursday-Monday) to celebrate/observe carnival.

Lets see…what else…I am going to go back out (without getting too lost) and get some food for the house, then go walking again and see what else I can find here in Cologne. All in all, it was a good morning. Lots of walking, but good.

I am here.

2007-02-06T15:43:00.000-06:00

Well, I have made it to Germany and have been here for for a few days and I am having a great time. It seems that Hand-Over week includes finding out all about Cologne and what it has to offer - Food, Beer, and lots of great places to walk around and hang out. I saw a plaque that said that Cologne was founded by the Roman Empire in 50 AD....pretty cool to be in a city that is more than 9 times older than the country that you are from.

The apartment that I get to stay in is pretty cool. It is a two bedroom, one bath with a nice kitchen and a den. The second bedroom and the den both have pull out sofa beds. I get cheap long distance from home and right now I don't have to pay for the bill and as I am writing my blog from the apartment I also get DSL.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I really start to work as my handover for responsibilites begins and I get to start my projects. The past few work days have been spent dealing with email and connecting to my desktop back at NASA.

Of course, NASA has had some interesting developments, but no, I don't know what caused the astronaut to snap or do the things that she did. All I can say is that I hope that the families involved all come out of this ok.

I'll definately try to update my blog more than the previous BMEs who have come out here but I can't promise anything.

No matter how sure you are, you are still wrong...

2006-12-13T06:02:00.000-06:00

A friend pointed out an interesting post on the NY Times Website. David Pogue is the Technology Blogger and he writes:

OK, this one’s driving me crazy. This brain-teaser is ripping around the Internet, plus I actually overheard it THREE TIMES in airport conversations on a recent trip to Canada.
Here’s how I found it presented at http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=34 8452:
“Imagine a plane is sitting on a massive conveyor belt, as wide and as long as a runway. The conveyer belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels, moving in the opposite direction. Can the plane take off?
“I say no, because the plane will not move relative the the ground and air, and thus, very little air will flow over the wings. However, other people are convinced that since the wheels of a plane are free spinning, and not powered by the engines, and the engines provide thrust against the air, that somehow that makes a difference and air will flow over the wing.”
The guy behind me at the airport told his buddy that somehow that makes a difference and air will flow over the wing.”
The guy behind me at the airport told his buddy that, in fact, the plane WOULD take off, and his buddy seemed to agree. Do we have any physicists in the audience?

Then there are the comments....OH MY GOD ARE PEOPLE DUMB.

Here is the right answer - NO. The reason planes fly is because there is lift generated when their wings move through the air. The speed of the air traveling over the wing is moving faster than the air traveling underneath the wing. Therefore the pressure is greater under the wing generating lift (the Bernoulli Principle). Now in the situation described, the wheels are moving, but the plane does not. If the treadmill/conveyer belt moves then the wheels spin. No matter how much you power up the engines the plane won't move enough to cause lift.

If you power up to 25% lets say that would give you a normal ground speed of 80 mph. As soon as you started to move forward, the treadmill belt would counteract and the wheels would spin and you loose all forward momentum. As soon as you increase the power again the treadmill counteracts by moving faster. No forward momentum, no pressure differential over the wings, no lift.

Read the comments there are some funny ones like the person who is is a 13th year student (equivalent to an American high school senior) who was willing to bet all of her belongings on the premise that the plane takes off. I'll take that bet (and win). The scary posts are like the one who is an 8th grade math teacher who gave this problem to his students. First of all, this is pretty advanced physics to calculate. Second he says that it lifts off and all his students got the right (wrong) answer.

There are also people who use correct logic, only to use it flawed and coming up with the wrong answer.

The funniest thing is that I can't stop reading it. It is a total train wreck. In fact I was reading this morning and saw one of the best (correct) responses yet:

272.
December 12th,20069:24 am
It is always best to simplify a problem in order to solve it. Consider this plane without wings. What we have now is a huge, jet-powered bus. I think we can all agree that on a runway (or a highway) this vehicle will never fly at any speed.
Now replace the runway with a treadmill. If the wingless plane was traveling at 120 mph and the treadmill matches that speed in the opposite direction, then (ignoring acceleration and deceleration) the plane will not move relative to the ground — just as a car on a dynamometer will not move.
Now put the wings back on the plane that is not moving on the treadmill. Obviously, with no forward motion relative to the ground there is no air flowing over the wings so there is no lift. This plane does not fly.
— Posted by DonnieBnyc

Thank you Donnie!

And then there is RDS. Lets take a look at his post line by line (or paragraph by paragraph):

281.
December 12th,20069:36 am
I’m an engineer, and I say the plane takes off. Just look at the forces on on plane. The engine thrust produces a force in the direction of take-off. The treadmill does not produce any force on the plane because the wheels are frictionless - it only produces a force on the wheels which makes them spin. Thus the net force is in the direction of take-off and the plane becomes airborne.

Wrong!
People are getting confused for two reasons. First, you can’t apply your treadmill running experience to this situation. Running on a treadmill is different because you are connected to your feet. (Last time I checked, the plane's wheels were connected to the plane too!) As your running creates a forward force the treadmill creates an equal and opposite force on your feet and you remain stationary. In the case of the plane the frictionless wheels decouple the treadmill’s force from the plane, so it’s not being pushed backwards. (Big words...being used incorrectly. The thrust being created by the engines would push the plane - and it's wheels - forward. As soon as that happens, the treadmill matches the speed of the wheels - and therefore the forward speed of the plane - in the opposite direction. PLANE ESSENTIALLY DOES NOT MOVE.) Imagine that the plane’s engines were off and it was placed on a treadmill. If the wheels are frictionless there will be no force on the plane and it will sit on the treadmill. Now turn the engines on. There is a forward force from the engine thrust. (The wheels aren't frictionless, that isn't in the problem. Also the plane has mass and is being pulled down by gravity. Turn on the belt, and the plane moves backwards. If you get on a treadmill with rollerskates, turn on the belt what happens? You go backward. The same if you didn't have on skates...)
The second source of confusion is that because planes have wheels people assume that - like a car - there is a force on the wheels from the engine that gets the plane to takeoff speed. In fact there’s no propulsive force on a plane’s wheels. They’re just there to reduce friction between the plane and the supports that keep the fuselage off the ground when the plane is stationary. The propulsive force comes from the principle of the jet engine (blasting high speed gases in one direction creates an equal and opposite force in the other direction). (Ok, he is right about this one. The wheels do not get the plane to takeoff speed. And when the wheels and gear are down, they do keep the plane from lying on its belly. But, he leaves out the key thing - when you blast all those hot gases and exhaust, you force the plane to move and when it moves through the air at a great enough speed you have a differential in pressure over the wings thus creating lift. When the plane is on the ground and you increase the thrust the plane moves forward on its wheels. If there is something, like say a conveyer belt, then it won't go anywhere.)

So the majority of the posts were "yes" which just baffles my mind.

Where is the happiest place on earth?

2006-12-07T09:23:00.000-06:00

So this past weekend I went home for my mom's bat mitzvah. Now those of you familiar with bat mitzvahs are thinking, "How can someone who is 27 years old have a mother who is 13?" Well you don't have to be 13 to have a bat mitzvah. When my mom was growing up, girls didn't partake, in fact it is only within the last few decades that women started having bat mitzvahs, it only used to be boys and bar mitzvahs. But I digress....she has been working on this for the last 18 months and did great. Of course she started the process a couple times, but each time something came up and she had to postpone.

But this time she and a bunch of others split up the prayers, torah reading, and haftorah and they did a wonderful job. She practiced a lot and a couple times my sister and I helped her through some problems that she had with the Hebrew and the tunes for the songs/psalms.

Mom invited quite a few people including my girlfriend's family and my sister's boyfriend. Since my girlfriends parents live in the Fort Lauderdale area and her youngest sister lives in Gainsville so they were both able to come in. We got to have a pretty good get-together on Saturday night with everyone with lots of food and friends and family (and I got some leftovers to take home with me).

Now, as for the title of this entry...I went to the Magic Kingdom on Sunday for free! Pam's cousin works at one of the character breakfasts and she was able to get us in using her guest passes. We hit all of the mountains - Splash, Thunder, and Space and just had a nice relaxing time. Of course since the weekend was packed, I was a little tired for work. But, I would rather be tired because I went home and got to go to Disney than not have been to Disney!

The next big step

2006-10-26T11:02:00.000-05:00

It is official....I am no longer a suburbanite. That's right fearless readers I have moved out of my apartment in the 'burbs and moved in with my girlfriend in Houston. Big step for Bacho!!

Well, that is not entirely true. I haven't moved out completely (probably one more car load) and I am not finished unpacking, but still, I am out of my apartment! Granted I have been pretty much living at Pam's for the last few months, but now it is official. The first night I was there, she thought to herself, so he will be here tonight, but what other nights this week will David be here??? Then it hit her....all of them! I think she is happy with that. :-Þ

Stay tuned for how the roommate situation works out (j/k...it will be great).

Brief history and update

2006-09-18T16:54:00.000-05:00

First of all, thank you, yes I was able to get my parking ticket overturned, so that is $205 that I don't need to say goodbye to.

So let's see, assuming you live under a rock, or don't care, the shuttle launched on September 9th, and undocked yesterday September 17th. If you want to see a cool picture click here to see the ISS and Shuttle silhouetted against the sun during undock! We had a truly successful mission - the launch was clean (no debris seen), the vehicle inspection was relatively clean (nothing that required an EVA to fix), and the EVAs went really well. The crew tried out a new method to prevent getting the bends (or in NASA speak Decompression Sickness aka DCS) and it worked really well. That is where I come in. I helped re-write/update the rules that were used for the protocol, no small feat if you consider all of the bureaucratic B.S. that we have to go through to get things approved.

Lets see other things going on....Pam and I went to Sanibel during Labor Day for her dad's belated 60th Birthday Bash. We all had a great time, and anytime you can go to a real beach and have a real vacation, you can't complain. We flew into Tampa and her youngest sister picked us up on her way down from UF. Little did we know that we were in for a drive! It took us a couple hours, and some time for dinner, and a little detour (we zigged instead of zagged when we got off the highway). So Saturday and Sunday were spent hanging out with everyone at the beach, fishing in the surf, going to the pool, and eating. Monday we drove back (without getting lost) and got into Houston in just enough time for me to be late for work. Prior to our leaving, I figured that Labor Day would be a holiday, but nope. So the day started early in FL and ended late in Houston, fun had by all.

As I said, the launch and mission went really well, and work is going fine. Definitely keeping me busy but going well. Not too much to report about it.

At then end of this month Pam and I will be going home for Yom Kippur, she to Ft. Lauderdale, and I to Orlando, but Saturday and Sunday my parents (and my sister and I) will be driving down to have the parents meet. After some discussion, we both realized that neither of us are nervous, scared, or worried as our parents are pretty much cut from the same cloth and should get along smashingly.

Well, that should be enough for now. I'll do my best to keep everyone posted.

-D

Yea I know

2006-08-29T18:28:00.000-05:00

If I posted more, my readership would be up. Well, I got four words for you... I have been busy.

I actually had a blog the other day that I was going to post, but I never finished writing it. It was something about how I had a project that was doomed for failure because everything that I did was based on my perception of what was needed. I had no support from the other person at my level, and the "managers" did exactly what they do in Dilbert - tell you something so cryptic that even they don't know what they are talking about. How do I know? I asked for clarification and got a vacant stare.

Moral of the story is that the project worked out fine, with only minor glitches and it appeared to everyone else (i.e. not me) that it was a raging success. I would put it at moderate success.

So here I am. Finally with a minute to write. We have had a successful return to flight (STS-121/ULF1.1 back at the begining of July) and we may be launching the next shuttle as early as next week.....

Which brings me to today. By the way, todays blog is brought to you by the letters "Q", "Z", the numbers "1", "6", and "75876", and the word "randomness" as evident by this sentence and the rest of the blog, just wait and see. So the shuttle originnaly was to launch on Sunday, but a lightening strike a few days before sent the Mission Management Team (MMT) off on Saturday to see if any damage had been done (scrub to Monday). On Sunday the MMT decided not enough information had been retrieved (scrub to Tuesday). Monday, it was decided that Tropical Storm Ernesto could pose a danger to the shuttle and we may have to bring it from the launch pad to a safe place. Tuesday (today) it was decided to roll the shuttle back on the crawler.

Understand that is no easy task. The crawler is HUGE and when it moves with the shuttle stack it moves at about 1mph. It pretty much takes all day from the pad to the Verticle Assembly Building (VAB) where the shuttle is assembled (go figure) and we could place it for safe keeping. Also once we move the shuttle it is a minimum of 8 days from when we move it back before we can launch again.

So about half way through the move back to the VAB, the Weather Team decides, "You know, that storm, it ain't gonna be so bad. Lets send the shuttle back to the pad and ride the storm out there. The winds will be less than the 40 knot requirement. No biggie." WE JUST BOUGHT OURSELVES EIGHT DAYS OF PREP TO LAUNCH. If weather was fine tomorrow, or Thursday or Friday or whenever WE COULD HAVE LAUNCHED NO PROBLEM. Instead we are on a race with the clock as the requirements for launch are quickly running out (we have until Sept 7th). Wait a second....today is August 29th. It gets back to the pad tonight at 10pm. 8 days from now is lets see ... 29 + 8 carry the 1 change months..... thats right, September 7th. We MAY be able to launch. Good luck Shuttle team.

Today was spent planning and replanning everything. Just a little busy.

Ok, other things that have been going on. Flash back to August 8th. It is $1 Dog Nite at the Juice Box (That is Minute Maid Field where the Astros play for those not in Houston). The GF and I get to the game around the 4th inning and find street parking for free. Or so I thought. First of all I am an excellent parallel parker - driver side or passenger side. I can do either. So I squeeze my Altima between an F250 Super Duty in front of me and a Volvo XC90 behind me. We then go to the game. After the game, and on the way home I notice a something under my windshield wiper. Is it a flyer for some bar? Nope. Turns out that I was in a Handicapped Zone. OOPS. The thing is, the zone is only handicapped during ball games. The signs were blocked by the rather large cars (remember the SUV behind me and the lifted F25o in front of me?) Oh yea and the F250 was parked infront of a fire hydrant. I got screwed (to the tune of $205) the F250 better have gotten fucked (fire hydrant plus handicapped has to be more than $400).

Today on my way home I went and tried to get the parking ticket thrown out. (1) The signs were blocked so I had no idea. (2) The curb wasn't marked. (3) Though the Volvo was actually a handicapped car, the placard that you hang from the window...not there. Lying down on the dash so you have to walk right next to the car to see it. The hearing officer said to take pictures and they would see about throwing out the ticket. Yippee for me. So in the Houston heat I went back to the spot and took some photos. I'll try to go back on Thursday to see if I am lucky.

Well that is enough for now. I may post how Cingular lost a customer some time soon....

What if Al Gore was right (and other political thoughts)

2006-07-20T12:08:00.000-05:00

First of all . . . does anyone else think that it is hotter than hell outside? Yesterday when I got into my car, it was like 80+ degrees. AT 6:45AM! That kind of thing is just wrong on so many levels. I picked up a friend from the airport in the afternoon and she said that in San Diego (where she was visiting family) it was in the 90's. San Diego! They are supposed to have the best weather in the country year round! I was talking to another friend whose wife was in Wisconsin and the weather was in the upper 80's to low 90's. He just got back from Miami and when it wasn't hot and rainy it was just hot. My girlfriend was just in NY and Toronto and said that she was roasting.

So is this a trend (aka Global Warming) or are we just having a heat wave try not to breakout into song. As CNN reports on a Congressional hearing:

The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of
scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the "recent warmth
is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last
several millennia."

Of course there are those in Congress who feel that Global Warming is a myth and do their best to quash any discussion or dissention. In fact, the Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an investigation into 3 of the scientists who performed the above study (at least CNN.com says so, and why would they lie?). Now, the last time I checked, the National Academy of Sciences is a non-partisan group of SCIENTISTS and Congress is made up of, well, partisan, non-scientists. Technically, the National Academy of Sciences is a private organization chartered by Congress to advise the government of scientific matters. Let's leave the intelligent discussion to those who aren't bought-and-sold with trips to St. Andrew's Old Course.

Look it boils down to this - we are using more fossil fuels than ever, they are running out, and the result is lots more hydrocarbon and greenhouse gas emissions and a lot more heat. I wonder if anyone said this would happen? I mean, it isn’t like there is a movie about this (some science fiction, some science fact).

So thing two I want to talk about . . . if you read Incoherent Thoughts (aka Rube's Blog) he has a pretty good entry on the latest hypocrisy of the current administration. Read the comment made by Evan too, interesting stuff. I wanted to write a comment then figured I had too much to say and am writing this entry instead.

First of all - The activist judges cause nothing but problems. You know - separate is not equal, removing the Ten Commandments from the courts, allowing for people to have some semblance of privacy in their own homes, and if we are lucky preventing a constitutional amendment that defines marriage. Don’t forget the activist judge who canceled Christmas though.

But the latest push of the Religious Right (or Religions Wrong) with Emperor Shrub vetoing the stem cell bill because it conflicts with HIS morals as a Christian. So instead of activist judges we have an activist president forcing his views down the throats of the American public. Well, I got news for you, not everyone feels that way. There are plenty of intelligent (and I guess I have to stress that word) people on both sides of the aisle who are for more funding for stem cell research and more money for scientific study.

I have a cartoon in my office that goes perfectly with the way the current administration, and unfortunately too many others in positions of political power treat science. What do you think? If you read the notes of the author, it is frightening. This cartoon was drawn more than two years ago and it is still the same old shtick from Washington. People wonder why our students fluster in math and science? We don't have any faith (yes faith) in the scientific community. Imagine if you will, that the theories are correct and stem cells will do what we think they can.

1) Superman may not have died – Stem cells can cure spinal cord injuries
2) Michael J. Fox may still be on Spin City – Stem cells can cure Parkinson’s Disease
3) I can remember what I wanted to say – Stem cells can cure Alzheimer’s Disease
4) The guy on the transplant list won’t reject the kidney – Stem cells can grow new organs
5) You won’t have to inject insulin – Stem cells can cure Diabetes

The list goes on and on. It is a shame that there aren’t enough votes to overturn the veto, because not only would the world be better for it, it would be great to have the first veto of Shrub be a worthless one. Almost as good as his idea to veto the ban on torture.

Just for you, my "loyal" readers

2006-07-11T07:20:00.000-05:00

If you scroll down to the bottom of the side bar. No the right side. Well don't scroll down now, you won't be able to read what I am saying. Well if you are still here you will see a new feature. Below the GOOGLE search I have programmed an RSS Feed for the website. Essentially (aka hopefully) once you sign up for a free (at least that is the way I read the fine-print) email notification everytime I update.

Of course since I just added it, unless you read this post (or I tell you about it) you won't know about it. Glad you are reading, and if you got my personal invitition welcome as well.

Ok here's the follow-up to the previous post. I am glad we launched on July 4th. I am glad that everything has gone well on the flight and that the imagery that the ISS and Shuttle have downlinked excellent still and video pictures that were able to give the quality needed to clear the shuttle for reentry. Being just over half-way through the mission and having seen the success, I am very pleased with what I have seen.

I am also very tired and cannot wait to be back on a so-called "regular" shift.

Conflicted feelings

2006-07-03T10:38:00.002-05:00

To launch or not to launch that is the question. God, isn't it amazing how easily it is to apply Shakespeare to anything? I understand that there are weather constraints, but most people do not understand that it is not just weather at KSC, but we also need good weather in different sites all over the world, so if for some miraculous reason, a Florida afternoon was clear, a Spanish rainstorm could cause us not to launch.

That said, this morning I found out about the crack in the foam on the External Tank and I am not sure what I would do. I am glad that I don't have to make the decision. After listening to the Mission Management Team discussion, it looks like all options are open. More discussions will occur throughout the day, and a final decision will be made this evening (hopefully). The selfish thing is, I am both on-call should we not launch, and working the first shift for the flight so if the decision is launch on July 4th, then someone else will have to cover console for me, if we launch July 5th, then I can cover, and I won't know until basically before I have to come in.

More to come later I am sure......

Keep informed - www.nasawatch.com; www.space.com; www.msnbc.com; www.cnn.com

What to do when it rains in Houston

2006-06-19T11:55:00.000-05:00

My first guess is not do what I did this morning. Understand that I had time to write this blog while I was parked in my car......

So here it goes, last night (and most of the last few days) it rained off and on. When it did rain, it rained pretty hard. So basically the ground here has been pretty saturated, and that is what I was dealing with when I woke up. That and my girlfriend's apartment complex was watering the lawn during the rain this morning, but more about that gripe later.

This morning I went through my normal routine - hear alarm, hit snooze, wake up after alarm goes off, get ready for work, and head out to my car. The local NPR affiliate was talking about the heavy rains and the fact that the National Weather Service (NWS) had issued Flash Flood Warnings due to the conditions Houston was currently experiencing. I of course thought nothing about it.

That is until I got to the intersection of highways 610 and 288. That is where the traffic was beginning to pile up. You see I thought (and it turns out correctly since 288 southbound ended up being closed) that taking Hwy 288 to Beltway 8 to I-45 to work route would be a problem due to quite a few low areas. I decided to stay on 610 and tough it out to I-45. Well that was at 6:15am. It is now 9:37 and I am writing this blog on paper in my car and will transcribe it later today.

For the last few hours I have been on the phone with my group lead and my girlfriend. Both tell me to drive safe (funny since to me driving means moving not sitting in a car that is in park and turned off) and when I get to work, I get to work. To which I mutter to myself, if I get to work. There are a crap load of cars in front of me and in front of them is a big puddle of water.

Funny aside, I just saw an 18-wheeler on the frontage road drive by and the water is above the tires. The truck is currently stopped, but I am not sure if he is stuck or what. More to come I am sure. Also my girlfriend (who is at home because her conference was canceled today) saw on the news that the water was receding in some parts since the truck that the helicopter was zoomed in on had a visible roof and back window, as before they didn't see the truck (doh).

The things that I am glad for today and I will let you think through them, some just won't get written about.

An empty water bottle
A charged cell phone
A full tank of gas (though I did keep my car off when I was sure I wasn't moving)
A pad of paper and a pen (to write this blog of course)
An understanding boss
A helpful girlfriend
My lunch

So back to the work issue . . . the mayor of Houston has had a press conference and said that if you are non-essential you shouldn't go to work today. Yea great, now you tell me. Of course that wouldn't have done much for me, as a federal government contractor I listen to them not him. Summer school has been canceled, and my girlfriend's Teacher Conference has been canceled. She heard from her principal, but a friend of hers who was planning on going to the same in-service did not hear from her principal. Good thing my girlfriend passes the good news along.

Remember that semi truck? Well it is still stuck and is starting to back up.

Fast forward to 10:29. I am able to get through on the left shoulder. The water comes up to the top part of the rubber on the bottom of my tires (a few inches maybe) and I am on my way. I left the house at 6:00 and I got to work at 11:00. On a normal traffic day if I had left at the same time, I could have driven from the west side of New Orleans and gotten to work at the same time. Or if you assume I drove at 68mph (just a guess at average speed) for 5 hours I could have driven 340 miles. It is a good thing that my boss understood and let me come in late.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

2006-06-12T01:55:00.000-05:00

So last week myself and four coworkers were called into a meeting. A contract had been signed and decision made and six people are going to Germany for rotations with the European Space Agency. One person is already there, the 2nd person leaves next month, and I leave for 3 months in December. I am not entirely sure of all of my duties while over there, but basically I will be doing much of what I do here - working with ESA as a Biomedical Engineer working in their MCC, and probably doing quite a bit of international writing (agreements between ESA, Russia, and NASA).

But, I will be in Germany from mid December to mid March and will thoroughly freeze my butt off, but it will be fun for sure. It will be difficult being several hours and a few thousand miles away from everyone but three months in the grand scheme of things is not too much. My parents are planning on visiting and so is my girlfriend. I will be put up in a 2br apartment in Cologne, Germany (it is by the Rhine River in western Germany) and plan to utilize my off time to visit Europe as much as possible. I have family in Vienna and a friend whose family is from Zurich.

I'll for sure keep blogging when I am over there. More info to come later.

Wow two posts in one day?

2006-05-21T14:26:00.000-05:00

Well these things happen. First of all I would not like to say I am sorry, as they say in Russia, "Tough Crapski" my life does not revolve around blogging (unlike the last week or so of the Zits cartoon . . . pretty funny actually check out http://www.arcamax.com/news/channel/1057 if you don't get it in your local paper).

Anyway - so the things that have happened since my last major post (aside from the one about Bonds which was posted about 2 minutes ago). My mission ended (woohoo!) successfully (double woohoo!) and I took a vacation to see my sister in DC and some family in NYC for a bar mitzvah, only to rush back for a wedding of a good friend of mine here in Houston. So what have I been doing with my life that has prevented me from writing you ask? Well, I am working out on a piece of ISS equipment called ARED (Advanced Resistive Exercise Device). Imagine a huuuuge thing (you will have to imagine since I am pretty sure that if I put a picture of it up I would be fired....) that uses two evacuated canisters to provide resistance. The theory, well not really a theory since it works, but the theory is that based on a specific leverage and force pulled against a vacuum you get a known resistance. This thing can equate to lifting about 600lbs. So 3 times a week I am part of a study where I am exercising on it (squats, heal/calf raises and deadlifts). When I am not doing that I am working.... a lot.

You see it seems that my company is really good at hiring people, training them well to do things that they can use elsewhere and watching them go bye-bye. We have lost quite a few people in my group so I am working console, sims, and other things a lot more then I used to. One of those people who left was in charge of the EVAs (spacewalks) for our group and that position has been split between two people now. I am in charge of all of the EVAs for the ISS from our group and everything that goes with it, and the other guy and I are splitting the responsibility for the EVAs and support and whatnot for the future (trips to Moon, Mars and beyond). So cool thing for that is now I have access to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab or NBL so I can assist some of the Flight Surgeons in studies and experiments with the astronauts dealing with improving suit design.

All that has been keeping me very busy.

Things on the GF front are going really well. Next weekend (the 28th) she and I are going to visit each other's family. For the first few days we will be with her family, then a day at the beach (literally as we are going to New Smyrna) then some days with my family then back to Houston. Though we are going so I can meet her grandmother and some other family members that I have not been introduced to, the initial reason that I was going to FL is to be with my family as we put up the headstone at my grandmother's gravesite.

It has been a difficult few years for my family - within a few short weeks of each other my maternal grandfather, and paternal grandmother passed away, my dad fought (and beat) prostate cancer, and then last year my last grandparent (maternal grandmother) passed away. Jewish tradition is that in under a year from burial you lay the headstone, so that was the reason for the trip.

It has been hard, but you remember the good times and experiences that you had and you move on. Well, today my parents are/were having a garage sale and getting rid of a lot of my grandparent's things. I asked mom how she felt about this and she said that there were a few things that she was keeping but when my grandparents first passed she couldn't/wouldn't get rid of anything but now she realizes that she can't keep things forever (our garage would be stuffed to the gills) and she is ready to keep their memories not their things. Of course there are items she doesn't plan to sell but that can be expected.

I'll try to post my favorite pictures from WDC (none were taken in NYC) and I am sure that I will take more in FL and I will see about uplinking those too.

Take a look at Rube's Blog, as it has some cool shots of his trips to Big Bend and Mexico.

Barry Hits A Homer*

2006-05-21T13:57:00.000-05:00

I am totally stealing this, but it is something that should be read. I subscribe to a political cartoon email by Dan Cagle (from MSNBC.com). Every so often he puts out emails with text by news reporters/columnists. Here is today's cartoon (drawn by James Casciari) and text (author John Steigerwald) as well as my forward to my friends (the forward is at the top).

Start of forward text:

Having heard that Barry tied Bond's record while watching the Mets-Yankees game (so the Yanks tied the Subway series the second game, lets just hope that Glavine beats Small....but I digress) I wasn't sure what to think. I will be going to see the Giants play the Marlins next week and I like most people will be yelling "Boo" to Barry. I think it is sad that he still claims that he did not use steroids, when what little evidence has been obtained shows that he did. If you look at pictures of him, there has been a drastic change. You could almost equate to Michael Jackson in the Jackson 5 to Thriller to now (those are some scary pictures if you have ever seen the morph). Anyhow, I really hope that this is Bond's last season and he does not try to eclipse Hank Aaron's record.

Cagle does raises some good points below. Of course the thing that is left out is that while Bond's was hitting HRs on steroids, Ruth was hitting HRs on cigars, hot dogs, booze, and women. I think that fact alone should put Ruth in the record books.

Start of email and cartoon:

Cartoon by James Casciari

Click here to visit our latest Baseball and Steroids cartoons.
Babe Ruth vs Bonds By John Steigerwald
What if The Babe came back for 4,000 more at bats?

How many more home runs do you think Babe Ruth would hit if he returned in his prime and played until, say, 2014? Think he'd hit 42 more home runs and finish one ahead of Henry Aaron at 756?

Henry Aaron hit 755 home runs in 12,364 at bats.

Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs in 8,398 at bats.

Who was a better home run hitter?

Would nine more seasons and 4,000 more at bats cancel out the legitimate argument that Ruth never played against a black player or that he never played in a night game?

Would nine more seasons hitting against pitchers, who are throwing off a mound that was lowered in 1968, put his numbers out of sight forever?

How about nine more seasons of hitting against, say, 150 pitchers (my quick estimate) whose ERAs wouldn't have kept them in the major leagues for a week? How about nine more years with armor on his elbow? How about nine more years in ballparks that were built to produce more home runs? How about nine more years on steroids? Are you getting the picture here? Henry Aaron hit 41 more home runs than Babe Ruth, but it took him 3,966 more at bats. Depending on when you're reading this, Barry Bonds has about 9,225 at bats. That's about 870 more at bats than Ruth and 3,000 fewer at bats than Aaron. The difference between Ruth and Bonds is about a season and a half. Give Ruth another season and a half and he's up to about 760. Think Bonds could beat that? I don't think so.

There's a respected baseball historian named Bill Jenkinson who had a lot of time on his hands and did enough research to conclude that Bonds would have to play at least another 10 years to hit more home runs than Babe Ruth would have hit if he had played in this era. Mike Berardino wrote about him in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on May 10.

Jenkinson says Ruth lost at least 50 home runs because of a long forgotten rule that required a ball to land in fair territory AFTER it left the park to count as a home run. If it curved around the foul pole and landed in foul territory it was a foul ball. The biggest factor, according to Jenkinson, is the difference in the size of the ballparks. He was able to track down multiple newspaper accounts of over 600 of Ruth's home runs. There was quite a bit of detail in those accounts and he was able to plot the distance and direction of almost every ball that Ruth ever hit.

I told you this guy had a lot of time on his hands.

Jenkinson took that information and put those balls into the average modern day ballpark-330 down both lines, 375 to the power alleys and 405 to center-instead of the huge parks from Ruth's era. Ruth did have a 257-foot right field line at the Polo Grounds and 296 at Yankee Stadium but Jenkinson's research showed that most of Ruth's home runs went to right center, left center or straightaway center field. He says the short right field lines were worth about three home runs per year. It was 429 to right centerfield at Yankee Stadium and 490 straightaway. Left center was 470. Because Ruth was pitched away so often, he hit a lot of fly balls to left center. That's a lot of long outs that would be home runs today.

Jenkinson told Berardino, "I really want people to know how often this happened. It was a regular occurrence."

Here's Jenkinson's clincher: Barry Bonds has hit 35 home runs of 450-plus feet. Ruth hit at least 245.

So, how many home runs would Ruth, according to Jenkinson's exhaustive research, have hit if he had played in the Barry Bonds era?

Would you believe 1,150?

Let's say he's off by 200. Bonds would still have to hit about 235 more to catch him.

I've decided to give Ruth another 15 home runs a year if he had played his last eight years juiced. That would put him at 1,270.

Let Barry put that in his syringe and shoot it.

Call me when Barry's sitting on 1,269.

If you're old enough to remember Roberto Clemente, then you have to read Dave Maraniss' new book, "Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero." If you're not old enough to remember him and you've always wondered what all the fuss was about, you need to read it even more.

A much needed post

2006-04-02T09:10:00.000-05:00

Well the end of my Expedition is just around the corner and so I am back on console for the first time since Christmas. Of course, getting up in the morning is the hardest part....the rest of it is just remembering the processes, and most of that is coming back. It has been a great mission and I am happy how everything has turned out.

Last night, I watched a movie titled Everything's Illuminated. It was distributed by WB's Indie division. The movie is great, and worth the rental. Elijah Wood (yes Frodo Baggins himself) is an "interesting" character. He is a collector of all things family, and just before the passing of his grandmother, he is given a photograph of his grandfather and some woman who saved his life in a Ukranian shtetl. The movie is about Foer's (Wood) journey to Ukraine and his guides - a translator who doesn't speak English well, the driver - the translator's grandfather (a man who believes he is blind), and the driver's seeing eye dog. The begining of the movie has some comic relief making me think that this was a comedy, but about half-way through the true drama of the movie came out.

Without giving too much of the movie away, the twists keep you intrigued and even a little choked up. I really recommend it. Of course, I saw it with the girlfriend, and she fell asleep about half-way through, and I think she is going to re-watch it today....

More posts to come soon, since I will be on console....

My vacation....

2006-03-14T22:14:00.000-06:00

Originally written but not finished on March 14th, so the weekend I am talking about is March 11-13....

This past weekend my girlfriend, her sister and I took a little trip since both of them are on Spring Break (GF is a teacher, and her sis is a student at UF). Since sis has never been to Mexico it was decided that once she came in to Houston (on a Saturday) we would drive to Laredo, spend the night at a hotel, walk across to Nuevo Laredo and do some shopping Sunday, then Monday drive back stopping in San Antonio.

Now all that is fine, except for the few weeks before we left everyone told my girlfriend and I that we were nuts. No one told us together (her friends and coworkers told her and mine told me), but we were basically informed that we would be going to Drug-War-Capitol, USA/Mexico and the best thing we could hope for is that we would be killed instead of kidnapped and raped. Greeeeaaaaat. I am here to tell you none of that happened and that Laredo is a pretty boring area. Nuevo Laredo was nice, and we limited ourselves to the least-sketchy areas. Got some nice shopping and walking and just relaxing time in.

Now, for the fun stories about the weekend. The GF did some research months ago about where to stay. She looked on TripAdvisor and found a place called the Family Garden Inn. On the whole it looked ok. Pictures were fine, the price was low, and it rated 4/5 circles so we made a reservation. Upon arrival we were a little freaked out. First, it looked NOTHING like the pictures. The people out at the pool were scary, and the quality of the place was no where near the description on the web (it was bad). The GF asked to go to the bathroom (aka look around) and as she did, decided we were NOT staying there. Good thing too, since the room we had reserved was not available (they only had smoking rooms, and we were not gonna stay in one of those). So instead we went and stayed at a very nice (and most-likely new) Residence Inn by Marriott. The hotel was very nice with breakfast in the morning, and the room has a little kitchenette, a sitting room with a pullout sofa bed, then a door, the bedroom with a king size, and the bathroom. Everyone had their required privacy and it was fine. The hotel provided us with transportation to and from the border so we didn't have to park our car in downtown Laredo and we felt a lot safer there.

So you would think that the hotel would be the biggest thing that happened that weekend (since none of us were murdered, kidnapped or raped in some gang/drug related activity), right? Wrong. The funniest part is as we were checking in my girlfriend starts laughing hysterically and has to go outside. Turns out that as we were leaving her condo (in Houston) she says, "I think I am forgetting something." "What is it?" I replied. "I don't know." Well, she forgot pajamas and undergarments. All she had was what she was wearing. I too forgot pajamas, so our first night in Laredo was spent at the Mall de Norte (I think that is what it was, it had something to do with Mall and North....) buying much needed clothes.

After our purchases the rest of the trip went fine. On the drive back I-35North was directed through a Border Patrol/Homeland Security Administration check point but since we decided to not bring anyone or anything illegal back, we did ok.

We stopped in San Antonio for lunch at a restaurant called Rosarios, and if you have a chance to eat in SA, and don't want to go to the Riverwalk, try this place. Really good enchilladas and fajitas. At night they have live music that was pretty good last time I heard it.

After lunch we went to this really cool ranch outside of San Antonio called Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. Basically it is an "in your own car herbavore safari". We got to feed a bunch of animals and take pictures all while in a caravan of cars. It was fun except for the zebra who got a little food frenzied. The GF dropped some of the food pellets in the car and on my lap so the zebra went to find the pellets. I got a little anxious when that happened and decided to get a little away from that zebra. The rest of the feeding went fine and we got some interesting pictures. Blogspot is giving me some grief so I can't upload them but trust me on that.

(Back to present day)

Since being back, I have been working a whole lot and getting ready for the end of the mission. Other than that not too much has been going on. Hope all is well in your world.

Real Quick Post

2006-02-14T15:53:00.000-06:00

Yea, I know it has been a long time since I posted and I am sure that my readership would go up if I posted more.

I was reading a friend's blog (see right side) and laughing hysterically about it. I don't know if it is possible to get restraining orders via WWW, but the poor guy has a Blog Stalker. Every entry has a comment from this random woman, and it is slightly disturbing. Funny as hell. But disturbing.

The other reason that I am writing is to say that celebrating Singles Awareness Day is fun and all but celebrating Valentine's Day is much better! For all of you sending SAD cards out, go out and enjoy yourselves. For those celebrating Valentine's Day (VD just sounds bad) stay in and enjoy yourselves!

Let's put the trip in perspective

2006-01-19T13:07:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Southwest.com for their route map. I have made it "easy" to read putting a different color for each part of my trip. I counted the flight home as 3 parts even though I didn't get off the plane in Jackson, MS. If you click on the image it will open up to be bigger and easier to read.

The flight home was at least a semi-straight line, but the trip up, woo-boy, that is like flying from Orlando to Dallas to Heathrow (then taking a bus to Gatwick) to Tel Aviv....Wait I did that already. And the return flight was Tel Aviv, to Heathrow (bus to Gatwick) to Miami to Orlando....Ahh airline intelligence, sounds almost like the intelligence that got us where we are today in the Middle East (Zing!).

From now on, I fly direct whenever possible, even if it costs a little extra. This was IN-FRICKIN-SANE and I should not have had so much difficulty. Thank God I didn't check any luggage. I have a feeling that I would still be waiting for bags to leave Chicago.

My trip ....

2006-01-17T18:45:00.000-06:00

Friday, January 13, 2006 ~9pm Central

So here is the story....I had a SWA ticket from Houston Hobby to Islip Long Island going thru Chicago-Midway. I was going to meet my girlfriend (and her sister, brother-in-law, and baby nephew) in NY. She bought her ticket a long time ago on Continental (direct of course). But because I didn't know I was going I flew on another airline.

Southwest cancelled the MDW-ISP route before I even boarded in Houston, a bit of knowledge that might have been helpful to me. I got to MDW and had to scramble to figure out my plan. After running about 3-4 miles between all of the concourses multiple times, talking to 3 airline counters, and the SWA 800 # I ended up on a flight to Hartford, CT. The plan (since I am writing this on my pda and will post later it is still a plan) is to catch a ride with someone I met in the airport to Bridgeport and then stay overnight at the Holiday Inn there and take the ferry to Port Jefferson Saturday morning.

While waiting and trying to make these ultimate plans I was working my cell to see if there were any buses or trains to either New Rochelle where my gf's friend lives, or if that failed to go into NYC and travel from there. Hard to believe that this is the best thing.

OK...now about the flight so far.... I was in the "C" boarding group and I had my rolling bag and backpack. As I walk down the aisle of the plane I am seeing that I and the few people still trying to find a place to put our bags are SCREWED. I find a place for my backpack and jacket and start hunting for space for my bag (think "Meet The Parents" only no one is saying "bomb". One of the overhead bins is open and has enough pillows and blankets to make all of Chicago sleep comfortably. So I started rearranging them. This doesn't make the flight attendants to happy, but we fit 3 bags in. Turns out that since this is the last flight there's a cleaning crew coming in who will refold and put the blankets and pillows away. But I digress.....not all of the plethora ("How many blankets in pillows? Many blankets and pillows, many! Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of blankets and pillows? Yes, El Guapo, you have a plethora.") fit in the overhead bins I start passing them out and putting them on empty seats. One flight attendant says if anyone asks for anything she is coming to me. I am thinking that I don't give a shit as long as I don't have to check my bag and we can get underway.

So that's it so far. I am somewhere between Chicago and Hartford and should be landing soon. I plan on keeping this a running story line so keep reading below.

Saturday, January 14, 2006 ~Early friggin o'clock.

So I made it to the hotel alive. The kind stranger was not an ax murder. The hotel was nice and I am waiting to catch the ferry. The gf will pick me up, then off to the train station to go to NYC...

Monday, January 16, 2006 7:30pm Central Time

I am in Jackson, Mississippi! Woo-fucking-hoo. It is starting to become clear to me that nothing on SWA is easy. The flight from Islip to BWI was boring but was late leaving so I thought that I may miss the next leg, but it seems that there were two passengers who needed "assistance" so I was ok boarding the plane.

NY was good. I never got a chance to see my family which kinda sucks, but I will see them soon.

I did go into the city though...we got to see the MoMA and a so-so Off-Broadway show called Forbidden Broadway. I had seen a version of the show a couple of years ago with my parents and really enjoyed it. This time however, it wasn't as good and of course we (the gf, one of her best friends and her husband).

Sunday and Monday morning were spent with my girlfriend's family. They are wonderful people, and fabulous parents to an almost 1-month old adorable baby boy. We helped out mom (the gf's sister) while dad studied for a med school test. It was really nice to be away from work for awhile. Of course the problem with wearing a nation-wide pager is that it works nation-wide. I guess getting two pages on a Sunday, while on vacation, in another state isn't too bad....

On the whole, it was a nice get away and the upcoming 4-day week will be awesome. I have a friend coming into town Friday who I haven't seen since June 2001, so it will be a fun weekend too.

-D

P.S. After I finished writing this blog, we were informed by the captain that weather was bad in Houston. We proceeded to circle (although it felt like we flew back to Jackson, MS) and we ended up landing 1:10 late. I plan on posting another blog entry with my route as I saw it along with the side note about the loud, drunk, woman on the plane ride from Jackson to Houston.

Yea I know, but I have been busy.

2006-01-10T22:52:00.000-06:00

So my last post was last year. You know, if you really wanted to read this blog for the multitude of posts you would have commented something to the effect of "Where are all the entries? You say you lead a cool life, but where do you prove it? I don't see any entries?"

So here is my entry......

First of all, Happy New Year. Ok, now thats done, lets get down to business. I recently read a book by Scott Adams of Dilbert fame. Now I know that this book, titled God's Debris has been going around the internet (mostly because you can get it for free here). Of course if you really felt like it you could buy it from Amazon.com. Anyhow, about the book - Adams clearly defines his intentions in the introduction and basically says that the book is meant to be a discussion point, as the subtitle is A Thought Experiment, but it was surprisingly good. If you have time, it is a quick read and it will make you think about the way you view religion, God, the question of why are we here, and where are we going. Neither I, nor Mr. Adams are trying to make you change your view, only see another point of view. As he talks in the book, if two sets of maps get you to the same point (and neither's directions intersect except at the start and end) is either wrong? Download the book, read it and let me know what you think.

Ok David. You read a book, what else has kept you from blogging? You mean besides my newest addiction (thank you Ms. Crawford and Mr. Taylor) of Soduko? I know it is a passing fad amongst geeks, nerds, and math wizards, but I am no math wizard, and I am only a nerd because I work at NASA, and I am not a carnival performer who bites the heads off of chickens. So I received a book of Soduko and I am starting to get it. I think that I see patterns and numbers in most places and I use pencil.

As for other things that take up my time, I have been working hard (not hardly working). The mission is a little more than half over and I am getting ready for it to end. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as the BME Mission Manager for a great crew and awesome team, but I am ready to work console again (and get the extra over time, shift pay, and fun of work ing console and sims occasionally.

Oh yea, this weekend the GF and I are going to see her sister, brother-in-law, and baby nephew (born on Dec 21) for MLK Jr. Weekend. Of course, since I will be going to Long Island, and trying to make a trip into NYC, all my family from the area will be out of town. No biggie, I'll see them in April (more on that later). I'll sign off now and post more later, I promise.

You would think....

2005-12-28T00:20:00.000-06:00

I mean, I know that not everyone is up to date on current events, but something that started in October wouldn't exactly be "current events" would it? When I was coming into work this evening (woohoo...overnight shift) I stopped off at Fourbucks to get a caffeine fix. I was wearing my E12 shirt (imagine the patch to the left with the words Expedition 12 BME Mission Manager underneath) and the barista girl asked how my mission was, and when did they come down. I of course responded that the crew is still onboard, and will be coming down on April 1st (no kidding).

Now I don't expect everyone to know that there is a crew onboard the ISS, but this Starbucks is about two miles away from NASA, and there are plenty of regulars who go in there. In fact, one of the other flight controllers, asked if I had swung by because she said that someone wearing a mission shirt had just been there (me).

I guess, I am just disappointed in the PR that NASA does. The only time we are in the news is when a tragedy occurs, or some monumentous occasion happens (Columbia and Return to Flight). We do lots of things that I think that people would find interesting, but it seems that only the NASA-philes and employees are the only ones who know. There is an urban legend that a few years ago, during a morning radio show a local moron called to talk to the DJ about all of the pollution in Houston. He said that the biggest problem was that NASA kept launching shuttles out in Clear Lake (south part of Houston). Well this logic is kinda flawed....the biggest is that, well, SHUTTLES LAUNCH OUT OF KENNEDY SPACE CENTER IN FLORIDA. The other is that the Shuttle Main Engines operate off of Hydrogen-Oxygen mix (think Hindenburg explosion if you are trying to figure out how water is explosive) and their byproduct is steam (purest water possible, as it is elemental) and the Solid Rocket Boosters are also low pollutants if at all. BUT, this dude thought that we were launching from here....

I don't have a fix for the problem, I just smile, nod and correct people. The worst is when people here at NASA say something like - well we only provide XYZ during missions (meaning Shuttle), when there has been a crew onboard the ISS for over 5 years. The Flight Director on console right now went off on the Security Office once for saying that one time - a Flight Controller left his badge at home and could not get into Mission Control and Security was being less than helpful. It almost came down to whom do I need to call (read: who does the Center Director need to call) to get this guy in?

Random thought - I have had the heat/AC off in my house for a couple days now. Today, it got up to 80 degrees, and I just refused to turn on the air conditioning out of principle. Last year it snowed on Christmas in Houston. This year I could have worn shorts and a T-shirt and been comfortable. No such thing as Global Warming, just luck that we don't need as much heating oil this year I guess.....

Merry Christmas?

2005-12-18T10:55:00.000-06:00

Look, lets not beat around the bush. This country is predominantly Christian and Right Wingers are getting pissed that we are celebrating the holidays not Christmas. I am getting fed up with the Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays signs that are filled with Christmas Trees and reindeer. There is no such thing as a Holiday Tree and Channukah Harry doesn't drive a sled, so don't f**k with me and say that those things are neutral.

Look, I am glad that my company sent me a "neutral" card this year not a Christmas one so that is at least a good start, but lets get over the PC stuff. I am tired of the Holiday Tree at the White House. It is a Christmas Tree no ifs ands or buts about it. Call it what it is, and quit using my tax dollars to pay to light it. I don't care about the one in Rockefeller Center (because I think that one is privately funded), but the one at the White House should be in the residence and not considered a National Tree. Putting up a menorah in the Green Room Hallway does not cancel anything out nor does it make it ok, and will still alienate people who don't believe in either religion.

Look, the fact that people got angry at Bush for sending out Holdiay Cards and at Wal-Mart for having Holdiay Sales, just goes to show that the Christian Coalition has nothing better to do then alienate and piss off the non-born-agains and the capitalists who try to make a buck (so I guess stereotypically those are the same people right?).

Bah-Humbug. 7 more shopping days until the holidays and the displays can come down (just in time for Valentine's Day)

SEASONS GREETINGS and all that jazz...

Nothing like a little Christmas spirit for the Jews

2005-12-12T19:01:00.000-06:00

So my girlfriend listens to a local radio station that plays, well "easy listening" and for the last couple weeks it plays all Christmas all the time. I of course am not the biggest fan of it (and this is not the first time she has heard it) but I listen (with a few complaints here and there). She will of course no longer let me complain without laughing though...

This past Saturday, we went to see the Houston Tidelanders, a chorus of barbershop singers, specifically the Increment Manager for the current ISS Mission who sings Baritone for the barbershop quartet Note-Oriety. It was really cool and we both really enjoyed it (it may become a tradition to go). The Houston Boys' Choir joined the chorus for a couple of songs and the rendition of Little Drummer Boy was friggin' awesome. I hope that next time my parents are in town there is a show, because they would love it (ok, so I guess I just invited you guys :-p!)

This weekend we are going to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which is something that I have wanted to do for a very long time. On that note, I am sure that everyone has seen the Wizards of Winter Christmas Light Show (the song is one of TSO's), well the lead Flight Director just got the forward from her brother, and he also sent a clip of Matt Lauer and Snopes.com's proof of truth. So we are contacting NBC for a broadcast quality of both to send to the crew, because even as bright as your next door neighbor's house is, the crew cannot see it from space, so we thought it would be a nice thing to send up some Christmas cheer.

For the Channukah side of things - I am close to being done. I have a few friends and my sister left to purchase for, but I have sent out my holiday cards and of the people that I have talked to, they have received them and thought that they were funny when appropriate and nice otherwise. So I am better than most, but not all.

So that is my post. Check out Rube's blog, he better write about his Improv debut. If not then I will critique him.

Is it Theatre or Theater?

2005-11-24T23:19:00.000-06:00

Well to me it depends on where I am going. If am going to see a play, I normally spell it the British way (...re). If I am going to a movie then it is the opposite (...er). So what if I am going to see a movie based on a play?

Just got back from watching RENT at the local theat...cinema. I have seen the touring musical quite a few times, own the cd, and know it as close to memorized as possible without being memorized. But it still strikes me and really tears at me watching it tonight. Of course there were the obnoxious patrons - the ones that left the movie half-way through (I can't believe they didn't know what it was about), and the dumb kids behind us who asked, "What's AZT?"

Enough of a social commentary on the audience. Now for the commentary on the movie. It was great. I loved the way they were able to take the stage and bring it out into NYC and show it the way it was in 1989. The image of the Twin Towers was moving to say the least. Only thing I noticed that was a little funny was that in one scene the cast gets on a subway, and the train was clean inside and out. In '89 there would have been graffiti all over the outside with gang tags and all sorts of stuff.

The other thing about RENT is that it really makes you think about what you have and to treasure those close to you. I guess this kinda goes back to the other blog I wrote today (I know, a week or so ago I wrote 3 in 3 days, now 2 in one!) - I am thankful for my friends, family, and the great year I am having and I really hope I don't take any of it for granted.

I hope all the best for you.

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-24T12:59:00.000-06:00

In my family, there is a tradition that we stole from someone or some people (nice huh?) that when I was growing up we would do during Shabbat Dinner, or Passover, or whenever we all got together for dinner. Of course Mom would initiate it, and my sister and I would groan, "Do we haaave toooooo?"

What is this tradition that scarred me for life? Well we call it "New and Good" and I am sure that you can figure out what it is - you tell everyone what is new and good in your life since the last time you did a New and Good or last holiday or whenever. Basically what are you thankful for, but in not so many words. Well, since my family is scattered today, we can't really do a New and Good together, so instead I thought I would write what I am thankful for.

I am thankful for my family and that they are happy and healthy. I am thankful for a wonderful girlfriend who makes me very happy. I am thankful for the opportunities that I have at work to do some of the coolest things that I know of.

What is hard though, is this is the first year I will be celebrating the holidays without any grandparents. I miss them deeply and the hardest part is that I don't know what I believe, so I don't know where they are. I know that they live on in my heart and in my memories, but it would be nice to believe that they are together with their loved ones somewhere together too. I know that their passings, Nana Janet and Papa Joe two years ago, and Nana Esther earlier this year were good things for them, so that they didn't suffer through a quality of life that they didn't deserve, but it is really hard to let go. Lets assume that they have the ability to read this so I can say that I love you and miss you.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. If you are able to, tell your loved ones how you feel and that you are thankful for them.

What a day....

2005-11-09T19:03:00.000-06:00

Last night I started and finished reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time". It is a phenomenal book and well worth the read. "Curious Incident" is written from the POV of an autistic child and his adventures to find the killer of a neighbor's dog. The book jumps around and makes you really think that you are in the kid's mind.

So after getting to sleep at 12:30 and waking up this morning refreshed and ready to go. I got downstairs and to my car just after 7:00 which would give me more than enough time to get to work before my 7:30 meeting with some high level ISS Program managers and Expedition 12 leads. Only one problem...my key fob doesn't unlock my car. This has happened to me quite a bit in the past, so I usually buy a new battery for the fob and get over it. Well, today my car doesn't even turn over. So I call AAA and they say that someone will be out no later than 7:57. That of course is 27 minutes after my meeting starts and leaves me only 33 minutes until it is over.

But that doesn't matter because the tow truck (that is a Wrecker to you Texans out there) doesn't show until after 8am anyway (meeting over by the time I would get to work). The driver tries to jump my car with a jump box but the car won't take the jump. He of course doesn't have jumper cables on his rig so he has to put my car on the lift. He gives me a lift to work and as I am walking to work a co-worker picks me up and gives me a lift. As soon as we park I get a call from the auto shop that I have the keys to my car with me. So I get a ride back to the front gate and drop my keys off.

After that I started my marathon meeting day and went from one meeting to the next. In between my meetings I got calls from the car shop saying that my battery was dead and that my car electrical system was fine so all I needed was a new battery. So about $180 later I have a car that works. So the interesting part of all of this is that I bought a battery from NTB not too long ago. Turns out the battery I bought, or the one they sold me, was the wrong size so of course it would die.

Well, at lease I won't have to buy a new key fob battery in a while. :-)

Anyone else that I have now posted 3 days in a row?

Have you done your civic duty?

2005-11-08T18:06:00.000-06:00

The only people allowed to complain about the way this country is run and the way that the business of the United States is conducted are those that vote. So to those 84% of Texans that DO NOT VOTE today, you should be ashamed of yourself.

I of course am part of the minority and voted. The big ticket item on the Texas ballot was (Proposition 2 or) the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. How did I vote? Well let me say this - I think that we can draw very clear parallels between bans on gay marriage and the bans on inter-racial marriage in this country, and the laws in the 1930's and 1940's in Germany that banned Jews from marrying outside of their religion. This is a form of discrimination in its most blatant form as they (the government) are asking for permission to write down that people should be prevented from doing something. Now I realize that it is written that people are not allowed to kill someone but let's not go down that slippery slope of total bullshit arguments.

Speaking of slippery slope of bullshit...today at work we discussed Prop 2. When I say we I mean 4 Democrats and 1 Republican- myself, a Hispanic woman, an African-American woman, girl from Denver who went to school in Boston, and an Texas A&M alum who was in the Corps of Cadets and the Marine Corps...you guess who was the Republican. We tried to explain our point of view, but as normal we were unable to say anything without him interrupting. His respond to - you are limiting someone's civil rights and their right to choose who they want to marry was thus: Well, this will allow gay men that they have the right to marry, as long as it is a woman. Huh? That doesn't even make sense. When I responded that this is the same argument (it is a moral thing) that was given that blacks should not marry whites and Jews should not marry Christians he said well what is to say that if we don't limit marriage to one man and one woman that we won't have polygamy. My response was that we have that law, but it does limit people's civil rights. His next response could only come from an Aggie - well what it to say that if don't have this amendment, what if a man wants to marry a cow, or his sister or cousin or daughter? Don't we have to establish marriage? I was too dumbfounded to reply, but I said that he was starting down a line of questioning that was beyond absurd. If he really wanted to protect his livestock here could be the wording:

Marriage is defined as a union, performed by a religious organization or state, between two human beings. Said human beings cannot be of direct blood relation.

Now I know that someone could drive a truck through the loop-holes in that statement but lets use some common sense. This isn't the Simpsons were the Sea Captain will go out to international waters an marry a squid (or was it a cow).

I just hope that when the votes are tallied the amendment fails. Of course Texas already has a DoMA law so all that the legislature is hoping to do is provide coverage in the Texas Supreme Court that DoMA is constitutionally legal.

Well, two posts in two days seems like a record. I'm gonna go watch the news.

D

I am such a bad blogger

2005-11-07T19:52:00.000-06:00

Well actually I am a great blogger. I am just bad about finding time to blog. I offer my humble apologies to my faithful and loyal readers (though they are a scant few).

Well lets see, I have gotten a few emails about meeting the GFs parents...I think it went rather well. Remember how I said that she was inviting some friends to help me out? Well one of them brought her 18 month old son (who is extremely well behaved and cute as hell) so, well how could anyone have a bad time? After the dinner the four of us (GF, mom, dad and I) went back to her place to do a little project. Her father and I ran a phone line from her bedroom to basically the front door so she could get an alarm installed. I think it was quite a success - the phone line worked and her father and I got along pretty well. I have been told that during subsequent discussions they used the words "keeper", "winner" and "fine gentleman".

Staying on topic - we travel well too. This past Saturday I drove up to San Antonio to meet her after a teacher conference. I had no idea what to expect in SA, but it is a great place. Not being the native Texan I never learned all of the history of Texas, but let me tell you, it is cool! We went to the Alamo and all of the missions (there were 4 others) and had a great time. We stayed at a B&B (my first time at one) and really enjoyed that. I am glad that she said that we should try that instead of a hotel. It is a totally different experience, and having worked in the hospitality industry before (Woohoo! Front Desk at the Holiday Inn Altamonte!) I can say that I will be staying at one again. Aside from the historical fun of San Antonio, we walked along the Riverwalk and through the King William historical district and both wished that we could have stayed longer to really enjoy all of it (oh well, next time right?)

Work has been going really well. Since my last post there have been some work milestones. First, Nov 2nd marked the fifth year of continuous life aboard the International Space Station. There were parties and events, but unfortunately I was too busy working on the next big item to attend. What was that item? Well today was the first Extravehicular Activity (EVA for NASA-geeks, spacewalk for everyone else) out of the US Airlock with only 2 people on orbit and it was a great success. There were some snafus in the morning when the crew was trying to get out, but the problem was realized and we were able to make up lost time and then some.

Alright, that is enough for now. I promise that I will try to update more than once every two weeks, but I can't promise anything :-D!

-D

Yes I do exist (a long entry on what is going on)

2005-10-17T18:29:00.000-05:00

Bless me readers, for I have sinned. It has been 16 days since my last post (sorry, to my Catholic friends for stealing what I think is what you say in confession).

So what has been happening that has kept me from posting? Well, lets see. First was the highly successful Friends of CanCare Golf Banquet and Auction on the 2nd. It went really even though I did not win the raffle prize of the wines and a wine cooler. Well, since I keep promising to talk about CanCare here you go - It's a non-profit organization whose goal is to help cancer survivors and their families through the tough times. By the way - once you have taken the next breath, the next heart beat, the next thought after being diagnosed with cancer you are a cancer survivor. The next big step is beating it. CanCare pairs up the survivors and their families with volunteers who have been through similar experience. Say you are a guy 25 years old, and you just heard that your dad has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. You ask CanCare for help and they will do their best to find someone who matches your story. In my case, I got paired with a guy who works at NASA and himself was the cancer survivor and it really helped me through it.

So aside from the fact that they helped me through that troubled time, why do I keep talking about it? Well, since it is a non-profit, they gotta make their money some how. The Friends of CanCare is the main organization that raises money for CanCare, but the Friends are my parents age and older. What about people my age? So a few years ago, some friends and I (and one of the CanCare staff members) kicked around the idea of starting the Young Friends of CanCare board, and we did. I am one of the founding board members, and am currently Nominating Chair on the Executive Board, so you could say I have a vested interest in it. If you have any questions about CanCare, or Young Friends, post a comment or go to the website and someone will help you out.

Ok. So that was Sunday (and a little background too). The other big stuff - well, Happy New Year to everyone. It was just Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur so I spent some time in services and on YK, the whole mishpochah (that's family if you didn't know) came to visit. This is the first year without any grandparents so mom, dad, and sis came to Houston to visit. They also decided to make a small side trip to outside the Galleria and meet the girlfriend. For as much as I said it was nothing and not to worry to the GF, I was a little nervous. Of course it was nothing and everyone got along great, no thanks to me - I took a nap while the four of them visited and talked (most-likely about me).

And, now for telling the future - tomorrow night, I get to meet the GF's family. Due to a loss in her mother's family, her mom and dad are going to Corpus Christi via Houston. Dinner tomorrow night will be great, as I will have a few buffers (GF is inviting some friends to see her parents, and since her friends know and like me I got some help). It should be a good time though cuz we are going to a really good Tex-Mex place here in H-Town. No it won't be posted because there are those of you readers who would gladly crash the party :-).

Oh, one last thing - WORK. So my crew has been up on the ISS since October 3rd, and things are going well for them. There have been a few hiccups but nothing out of the ordinary for new missions. I think that this is gonna be a great mission and I am looking forward to the next few months.

More posts to come (especially after tomorrow).

Can you hear me now?

2005-10-01T18:40:00.000-05:00

And no I am not talking about that damn Verizon Wireless guy. So about a month ago, my stereo receiver that I got from my dad (a Kenwood that he bought a long time ago) died. I was watching a movie and it turned itself off. So after a bunch of research, I went and bought a Harman Kardon 7.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound Receiver. I finally put it together today with a little help (ok lots of help) from a friend. Why would an engineer need help, aside from moving heavy stuff? Well take a look at the back of this sucker. That is a lot of plugs, wires, and options....

Since I live in an apartment I have decided not to run wires behind the walls or under the carpet, so I am not quite using all of the capabilities, but it sounds great! My first DVD that I watched was Star Wars. Let me tell you, when the Tie Fighters fly across the screen or any other time when things move left to right, it is amazing. I am hearing things that I have not heard except on the big screen. God, am I really that much of a nerd? I mean yesterday's post was about poker, but we stopped to watch NASA Select. Today I set up a stereo and watched Star Wars.

Tomorrow I am planning on helping out with one of the big fundraisers for CanCare (post on what that is to happen tomorrow sometime), so at least I will have done something useful with my weekend.

What's a guy to do?

2005-10-01T09:40:00.000-05:00

So here is the situation....my girlfriend is out of town (she went home for her sister's baby shower/Rosh Hashanah) so what am I to do with myself? Well last night five friends came over and we played poker. Real high stakes too - $5 buy in got you $10 in chips. At the end of it all I was up $2 and that is all that matters. Of course since 5 out of the 6 of us works at NASA and the 6th person is dating someone at NASA we paused play to watch the launch of 11Soyuz (more on why that is important below).

Now we didn't pause play to watch football, or baseball which was on in the background. Well we did pause to watch the end of the Astros game and one guy kept getting up to watch the Yanks-Sox game but still our biggest interruption was for the launch. And what is my plan for the day? CLEAN UP! My parents and sister are coming down in two weeks and I figure that it is time to do the first MAJOR cleaning of the apartment since I moved in. I really don't think my girlfriend has anything to worry about while she is out of town (not that there was ever any doubt).

Ok. Now why is the launch of 11Soyuz important? Well there are several reasons. One - I am the Lead BME for the crew that is on that vehicle. From now until April 1st, I am in charge of all of the medical activities, medical hardware, psychological support and associated scheduling for the two crewmembers who will remain onboard after October 10th. Now here is the kicker....I said until April 1st and I truly think that this is the cruel joke that NASA is playing on everyone - we are not sure if that is the end of the mission for one of the crewmembers. Currently due to a nuclear reactor that Moscow is helping build for Tehran, they are in violation of the Iran Non-proliferation Agreement (INA). And therefore, we (the United States Government aka NASA) cannot pay Moscow (aka the Russian Space Agency - Roskosmos). Due to a total lopsided way things work, Moscow's tab with us for launching the FGB module back in 2000 ran out yesterday. So CDR McArthur went up but is defying the laws of gravity because we are not sure when he comes down.

Now presumably, Sect. of State Condi Rice and Congress are working on a little side deal to allow for NASA to be exempt from the INA and they have been distracted due to a whole bunch of things:

A war that is running on and on and on in Iraq and Afghanistan
Two hurricanes that decimated the Gulf Coast region
Congressman Tom DeLay being indicted (WOOHOO)
Originally one, now soon to be Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearings

Now I am not saying that these things are not entirely important, or could be avoided (well two couldn't be) but now come on people. Lets make sure Billy-Mac has a ride home.

Ok, well the laundry just buzzed and I have wasted enough time here. I am sure that I will post more later.

Jack Handy's Deep Thought for the Day: "When you're riding in a time machine way far into the future, don't stick your elbow out the window, or it'll turn into a fossil."

A Much Needed Update (Take 2) Part 2

2005-09-27T01:28:00.000-05:00

I accidently hit post, so I might as well, make a Part 2.

Saturday - WOOHOO! Hurricane Rita has passed by and there was no damage to my girlfriend's place. Houston and the surrounding areas have lucked out as well and only had minor structural damages. It seems that the biggest fiasco has been the evacuation plan. The geniuses in the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) did not take into account that everyone would leave in a mandatory evacuation one month after a Category 5 hurricane demolished a town one state away, and when the people that did evacuate from that town were staying here.... Basically it took 2+ days to get all highways to be directed out of town. Also, it seems that TXDOT did not think that people would use cars that ran on gasoline to get out of town, because they did not seem to account for people to be stalling on the roads. The gridlock on the highways caused cars to overheat and run out of gas (again refer to Rube's blog).

Being of more intelligence, the Houston Mayor has decided to tell the residents of this area, even though Rita did not hit us with full force, we are not ready for you to come home. Schools are closed through Tuesday for most places, and through Wednesday in others. Come home slowly according to locations, and make sure that you have enough gas in your car, because there is none in the area.

Saturday night the girlfriend has some friends over and we have a post hurricane party grilling food that we placed in a cooler just in case the power went out so we would not need to get into the fridge/freezer.

Sunday/Monday - These two days were spent undoing all of the preparations we made for the hurricane. We returned what seemed like an endless supply of C and D cell batteries and items to Home Depot. Monday, I drove home and unpacked everything that I packed. It took a lot less time to undo than to do....

Tomorrow (technically today) I go back to work, then Wednesday I have Jury Duty. Back to work on Thursday and Friday and on October 1st, 11Soyuz launches and Expedition 12 starts. I am pretty excited for my mission to start, but I am a little nervous too. More on that soon.

Oh yea, I know it sounds like I was pretty calm through this, but for sure I was freaking out a quite a few points during the 6 days and I really appreciate my girlfriend putting up with it. Granted she will say the same thing about me, so I guess we are even with that.

A Much Needed Update (Take 2)

2005-09-27T00:37:00.000-05:00

Well, the first time I tried to write this, I accidentally closed the window and lost quite a bit of work...hopefully that won't happen again. Interesting enough the first time, and now the second time I am blogging because I can't sleep.

I am back in my apartment for the first time since Wednesday. Why have I been away for so long? Was I on vacation? Did I go on a trip? Well, sort of. Unless you have been in a coma or under a rock for the last week or so you have heard of Hurricane Rita and the scare that it gave to Galveston and Houston and the destruction it caused along the Texas-Louisiana border. Below is a summary of what has happened to me since last Monday. It will be a long post, so I recommend getting comfortable - go to the bathroom, grab a beverage of choice, sit down and enjoy.

Monday - I am busy thinking about what bands I want to see at Austin City Limits and my biggest concern is the fact that there are two bands I would like to see at 8:00 on two different stages. In the background is the thought that Hurricane Rita is coming to Texas, and since I am on the team that deploys to Russia in the event that JSC is underwater (or is just non-operational) I am making sure that everything is in order with my passport.

Monday Night - I attended a board meeting for Young Friends of CanCare. A wonderful organization that will be the topic of a future entry. The meeting goes really well, and since I am down the street from my girlfriend's place I see her that night, and we discuss the plans for the weekend - I am still planning on going to Austin, and she has decided to ride out the storm at home and will be getting more supplies over the next few days.

Tuesday - I have been looking forward to this day for a while. I am at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab getting a refresher course to fly on the "C-9". Huh? What the hell am I talking about? Well the NBL is a 202' long x 102' wide x 40' deep (20' above ground 20' below) 6.2 million gallon pool where astronauts train to perform their spacewalks. I am there because I have been asked to fly as a subject on an upcoming Vomit Comet flight. The old KC-135 has been retired for a new DC-9 plane (hence "C-9"). I am not sure when the flight will be because the C-9 is having some problems with fuel tanks and some other NASA certifications. Either way, I am excited as hell. The first part of the day is spent doing classwork: re-learning everything about spacial (dis)orientation, hypoxia, and atmospheric pressures and conditions. The second part of the day is where I got to do the chamber runs.

After lunch, I got fitted for an oxygen mask and along with 18 other people (15 students and 3 observers/instructors) entered a rather large pressure chamber. We pre-breathed 100% oxygen for 30 minutes then the chamber was brought up to 25,000 feet. For up to 5 minutes at a time, half of the students would remove their masks, experience hypoxia, recognize their symptoms, and then don their masks again. All the while, the other students and observers would be watching the hypoxic students for safety and to see what symptoms they see. FYI - mine are a warm feeling, light headedness, and slight tingling in my finger tips.

After everyone had gone through this, we returned to sea level and waited for the next session - RDs. RDs? What is an RD? Well, let me tell you there is nothing like a Rapid Depress to top off the day. In groups of 3 or so (2+ students and one instructor) we would go into a smaller pressure chamber and go up to 1,000 feet. Without warning the chamber operator would cause the chamber to go to 11,000 feet within a fraction of a second. This was to train us what to do in the event of a depress of the cabin of the C-9. Pretty cool actually. The air gets sucked out of your body and you have to don your mask pretty quickly. The air gets cold because of the condensation and I would guess the Ideal Gas law (pressure goes down, volume stays the same, temperature has to go down too).

At the end of the day, I went back to the office, learned how hardcore Hurricane Rita was and have been informed that I am on the second of 4 Russia trips (so if NASA has been destroyed and cannot be recovered in less than 2 weeks I am gone for 2 weeks, and then will go after waves 3, 4, and 1 go. Repeat). After leaving my office, I swing by the Blue FCR and help the guy on console start hand over control to MCC-Moscow. Then it is off to home to pack for my trip to Austin and to Moscow, because if NASA is flooded, there is no way I can come back to my apartment to pack.

It is at this point, I start shitting bricks, and decide that I will not be going to Austin for ACL, but need to come up with an evacuation plan (especially since Friendswood is under mandatory evacuation by Thursday at noon). I have made contact with several friends in Dallas and they are cool with me and the girlfriend coming up to stay if we need to.

Now, both myself and the GF have been through hurricanes before. I did 2 last year, and since she grew up in South Florida, she has had her fair share growing up including Andrew. I decide to weather the storm at her house, and unless it is gonna be bad we will be fine. She is not in a flood zone, and during Tropical Storm Allison and Hurricane Alesha her condo did not loose power or flood.

Wednesday - I go into work after not getting much sleep. Last night I spent packing up my life and apartment (at least what I think is important) and have loaded my car with clothes, non-perishable food, candles, water, soda, sleeping bags, air mattresses, tarps, my laptop, money, and some pictures. We got several updates, that basically said, "Unless the High Pressure zone sitting on top of Houston moves far to the east, Houston is fucked". NASA is shutting down by COB today so everyone is bagging their computers and making sure that nothing of value is on the floor. By about 11:00 I leave NASA, come home to do a once-over and head out to the GF's place. The drive that normally takes 45 minutes with lots of traffic takes me about 2 hours. This does not bode well for the everyone trying to evacuate farther out and from more south.

Thursday, Friday - These days are spent keeping in touch with friends, trying to find out where they are evacuating to, and screaming at the TV. When I am not on my cell phone (which is hardly working because over 1 million people are leaving the city and surrounding areas) the GF and I are prepping her condo. We lucked out and found a Radio Shack that still had a battery powered TV and a Home Depot that had some paneling to put up to protect us in case of broken glass. Wait a second, why am I screaming at the TV? Well since the local and state governments have issued the mandatory evacuation orders, EVERYONE is on the roads. People have run to the gas stations, and everywhere is out of it. People are sitting in traffic and have run out of gas on the evacutation routes (see Rube's Blog for his story).

Well, as slightly expected the High Pressure zone has moved to the east, and by the time I go to bed on Friday, Houston is not expected to get hit with the full force. We will be on the "clean side" of the storm receiving wind and rain comparable to a strong afternoon rain storm.

So I wigged out....

2005-09-19T16:12:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was fun-filled and packed with activities, and I didn't even go to everything! Here is the list of things that I was invited to:

Friday: Poker night and a good-bye party for a friend who is moving to Germany to work for ESA and be with her boyfriend

Saturday: STS-114/LF1 Post-Mission Celebratory Picnic, Graduation party for a friend from ITT Tech

Sunday: Luau 27th Birthday party for one of my best friends, Gary Gulman comedy show

So...what didn't I do this weekend? Just the good-bye party. All of the rest were a lot of fun, but it was a lot of running around and I think it showed. And not only with me. My girlfriend attended all of the things on Saturday and Sunday (she had a Happy Hour on Friday night with some of her co-workers). So neither one of us got to clean our apartments or take care of some of the errands that we need to run.

But you are wondering, "Well, David, why did you wig out?" Let me tell you. I told the GF that I would change the locks on the door to her condo. We went to Home Depot (woohoo! my stock went up 0.000000004% with the purchase) and bought a deadbolt and door knob combo. After the Sunday birthday party she went to the grocery store and left me to do the door. Now this would normally be a no-big-deal situation, as I have done this sort of thing before, and I think I could have gotten by with reading the Spanish instructions not the English ones but things were not meant to be.

I installed the deadbolt first. It kinda worked, but I was able to fenagle it so it worked. I then installed the strike plate (or whatever the hell it is called on the door frame) and I needed to chisel out more since this was a larger plate and the cavity and surrounding area was originally made for a smaller deadbolt. No issues until the deadbolt wouldn't retract all the way anymore. At this point I am sweating pretty hard cuz it is like 900 degrees in Houston and I am halfway outside. I decide to let it be and I will come back to it.

So I try to install the doorknob, and there is a significant issue with it as well. When I depress the part that sticks out of the door, it won't spring back. So I take it off and try to go back to work on the deadbolt thinking that, "I WILL GET THIS TO WORK". I take the deadbolt off the door and notice that it is completely shot to shit and there is no way I will get it to work. Here is where I start to wig out. I don't think rationally at all. It is probably about 5:30+ and the GF is probably on her way back to her house and all that is securing the door is the "apartment deadbolt" and there are the holes where the deadbolt and door knob belong. We have to be at the comedy show in 3 hours and I know that by the time she gets home, goes to HD and comes back it will be about 7 and there is no way that I will have the new locks installed and this causes an unnecessary panic. I call her to tell her that the locks are FUBAR-ed and she is totally calm (oh by the way, earlier I let her cat out of the house after she specifically said to put her in a room with the door closed and she rightfully wigged out) and says not to worry about it.

As predicted by the time she did the round trip to HD we had to start getting ready for the comedy show so I put the old locks and knobs back on the door.

Fast forward to after the comedy show (that is another blog entry, but suffice it to say, he was hilarious). It is about 10:45 or so, and I am able to put the new locks on the door in about 15 minutes. No stress. No worries. No big whoop. WHY COULDN'T THAT HAVE BEEN AS EASY THE FIRST TIME?

Other things to note - while she was coming home from the grocery store, I had to call my pops to have him console me. I can't believe that I wigged out over nothing and I am such a friggin' wimp.....

Things have definately changed, and then again maybe not

2005-09-14T08:45:00.000-05:00

Well, the one comment that I got on my new blog format - the text is too small, so back to the "Normal" size instead of "Small".

The Republicans are spending money left and right (well, mostly right aka wrong...haha) and Shrub is taking blame for the Federal Government's faults in dealing with Katrina. It is a shame that I am on the overnight shift, as I would love to see the press conference that he is going to give from Louisiana on Thursday. Now I am sure that the reason for these comments from the White House is that public opinion is that we took way to long to do anything on the Gulf Coast. I mean we nearly immediately mobilized a ton of aid for the tsunami but it took days for the New Mexico National Guard to get approval to move across Texas to help (the Governor of NM offered his help before Katrina even hit btw).

Well, we knew it would happen. Someone had to blame Katrina (and I am sure Ophelia soon too) on gays/lesbians/sinners/whatever. Leave it to the 700 Club's Pat Robertson to blame Hollywood for choosing Ellen Degeneres as the Emmys host. He also reminded his viewership that the September 11th attacks occurred just before the last time she hosted an awards show. Robertson has asked that the Academy not allow any homosexuals or bisexuals from participating (so basically that eliminates 85%, the other 15% would be Jewish right?). Robertson does allow for GLBT to participate in the Tonys though.

But if God is attacking the Gulf Coast because of Degeneres why did he destroy one of his favorite son's homes? Sen. Trent Lott lost his 154-year-old home, but don't you worry people of Mississippi and Louisiana, it will be rebuilt and it will be beautiful. Infact, President Bush said so himself. If you would like to join our President and Senator Lott in celebrating his new porch, go here to buy a bumpersticker.

If you were wondering who would be rebuilding the Gulf States (and Senator Lott's home) maybe this will help:

Am I excited?

2005-09-13T03:31:00.000-05:00

Yes. Am I nervous? Yes. Do you have any clue what I am talking about? No. Well let me tell you....My parents and sister are coming down for Yom Kippur. The plan is that my sister will fly to Orlando over the weekend (like Oct 8th or 9th), then mom, dad, and sis will fly to Houston on Tuesday afternoon. Dad and mom fly back Friday afternoon to Orlando, and my sister will fly back to DC via BWI Saturday afternoon.

I haven't really decided what we will be doing when not at synagogue, but I can assume that at some point they will meet the girlfriend. And there it is. The reason that I am nervous. Now, I know that everyone will like each other, and all will get along fine. It is just that, well it is a big thing. At least my family, who reads this blog, will be meeting her on our turf. I just think that it is a little less stressful to have someone come meet you then to travel to meet them. I can only imagine, that if I have to travel to meet her family, I will be sweating bullets. Now, she reads this blog as well, and let me just tell her that even though she told me that her family will adore me, I am still nervous about meeting them. The stress in meeting your significant other's family for the first time is something that just cannot be .... well, no matter what, or how much you are told that they will love you, you will always be nervous. Being told, "Don't be nervous!" just makes it worse. I know that my family will like her, and vice versa, but I am still going to be nervous.

So last week the people who sat on console were sick (see Rube's blog). Sunday, there was a bbq (see Rube's blog) to congratulate all of the people who have been recently certified and I was asked if I had been sick in the last week or so. I replied no, and was quickly informed that my turn was coming. The point of this? I was so paranoid when I came on console this week, I swabbed the mice, keyboards, telephones, and console down with alcohol. I sneezed last night, and used some of that antibacterial hand lotion just to be safe.

Ok, one more thought before I sign off. Vanderbilt is currently 2-0, and that is on the road! They won their first opening game in eight years (against Wake Forest). Vandy was down only once in the whole game and it was in the 4th quarter and only by 3, but scored a TD with 1:48 left in the game (ESPN.com Box Score & Story). Vandy's second game was against Arkansas. Now SEC schools usually put up a tougher game, and the Razorbacks definitely did that (ESPN.com Box Score & Story). Since Vandy and Arkansas are in different SEC divisions, they don't play very often (last match up was 1995) but to go since 1950 for a win against a team is pretty harsh. I don't envy Arkansas as their next game is against top ranked USC, and who knows, Vandy is hosting the water-logged Mississippi in a game where anything could happen, including VU going 2-0 in the SEC!

Oh yea, if you were paying attention, I made some changes to the layout of the blog. I kinda like the new look. What do you think?

Ahh, Free Speech (aka - The Blog That Pisses People Off)

2005-09-08T20:25:00.000-05:00

Everyone has the right to free speech (at least in America), but some people should just shut the fuck up. I came across this page while surfing some other blogs (if you look at the top of this page you will see a button for "Next Blog" and you will randomly go to another blog). I am sure that some of these quotes were taken out of context, but some of them you can't take out of context. The people who make the statements are just plain ignorant and wrong. You may agree with what they say (although you are probably not one of my regular readers), but then in my opinion, you are ignorant and wrong (see the description of this blog if you didn't think this was coming).

Here is some more politicking...I was sorry to hear that Chief Justice Rehnquist passed away this past weekend, but I was more sorry to hear that Shrub bumped his nominee to take his place. So yea, he has been a lawyer for a while, he has only been a judge for a few years and now he is being nominated to be the highest judge in the highest court in the land....hmmmm and when he was nominated CNN.com ran stories on "How Bush settled on Roberts". To me anyone that you settle on is never a good idea to nominate to such a position. Not that what I have heard about any of Bush's other nominations are what moderates would call stellar choices either. So with two seats open our esteemed President can (and probably will) slant the court to the Right and make decisions for the country that the minority of people would want ('cuz that is what voted him in).

Of course, I was really happy to see that the President would be heading up the investigation/inquiry on what is going/went wrong in the cleanup and recovery after the Hurricane. Maybe it is the fact that he was on vacation and he didn't start any actions until late in the game......

Ok, well here is the disclaimer on these rants (and the only disclaimer I will ever give) - these are my opinions. If you don't agree, comment. If you do agree, comment. Either way, welcome to free speech.

More than just movies

2005-09-07T22:49:00.000-05:00

I also review books! So a couple weeks ago while reading the Chronicle Arts Calendar, my girlfriend noticed that the play "A Lesson Before Dying" was coming to Houston and said that it was a really good book. I happened to see in her library that she had the book and I borrowed it and started reading on Friday. Now, those of you that know me pretty well know that I get engrossed in books, tv, movies, music really easily (I zone out). When that happens while reading a book I fly through it. This was no different. I finished the book last night, and wow, it is on my recommend list.

The book takes place in Louisiana in the 1940's but with the way that some of the interactions happen between the characters you would think that it occurred around the Civil War (not WWII). Boiling it down, the book is about a teacher (Grant Wiggins) who has come back to his roots to teach in what used to be a plantation. His classroom is the church, and his students (all slave descendants) are all elementary school kids (1st-5th). Wiggins is asked to educate a black man (his aunt's best-friend's godson) who has been convicted of murder and been sentenced to death. Since I hated book reports in school - I felt that if the teacher didn't know what the book was about, she shouldn't assign it or should just read the jacket - I won't give one here. What I will say is that I felt that the author, Ernest J. Gaines, made me feel like I was actually in the book. I could see the people and places vividly in my mind and whenever he discussed a feeling, I understood exactly what he meant.

I really recommend reading it, and no D.A.C. it doesn't have pictures but you should read it anyway.

So I got an email the other day saying from my dad complimenting me on my humor and that he didn't know I had it in me. Thanks, pops. I don't plan on quitting my day-job though (well, not always a day job, as I do work shifts hahaha), but I will keep it up. Lets see, big news! I got my first comment, thank you. I was informed that I had put that only Blogspot members can comment, and I have since changed that. You will still need to do the ticketmaster-esque word verification to prevent spam comments though. I also changed the counter to not count page loads, but to count unique viewings (so every time you hit refresh my counter shouldn't change). That's all for now and it's time to go to sleep. God...this is starting to sound like a diary. IT ISN'T. It is an on-line journal of free-flowing thoughts and is totally stream of consciousness.

More Movie Reviews and much more.

2005-09-06T20:08:00.000-05:00

So I went and saw a movie on Sunday with my girlfriend and one of her friends on Sunday. WORST MOVIE OF THE YEAR. Does anyone remember Van Helsing? Well it deserves Oscar for Best Picture compared to...wait for it...wait for it...The Brothers Grimm. Well, to tell you how bad it was my girlfriend fell asleep during it. The plot did not flow, the writing was really bad, and the accents were even worse. So if you are reading this blog, do yourself a favor and save the money you were gonna spend on the movie and watch something else.

If you noticed, the title of this blog is plural. So here is the second review. I also saw Wedding Crashers (actually on the day it came out, sorry the review is late). If you are not familiar with the movie, or even if you are, click here for a trailer. It is a really funny movie (not as funny as 40YOV though, but funny). It was well written, and even though Christopher "That dawg has no tail" Walken, Owen Wilson, and Vince Vaughn all play the same character they always play, it was well acted and they played off each other really well. So Wedding Crashers cancels out Brothers Grimm and my last two movies were basically a wash.

So in my "I know people are reading..." post I said that there was no more Tide smell in my bathroom, but I never gave a resolution on how I got rid of the smell or the pool of laundry detergent. So I went back to bed and slept for about 30-45 min and then decided that I would need the tub to shower in the morning. So I went and washed each towel in the bath tub individually. It took me about 2 hours to rinse each towel so that by the time I would put it in the wash, I wouldn't flood the whole bathroom with soap suds.

So after a couple hours of work, and I my hands and feet looking like prunes and my whole body smelling like Tide I started washing the towels. I think I did like 5 or 6 loads of laundry that night, and got no sleep. Anyway, I got it all clean and dried and folded and there is no Tide smell in the bathroom. And for those wondering but don't want to ask - there is no other smell in the bathroom either.

And one last thing. I threatened to do it earlier to see how many people visited my blog and now I can tell. If you look to the side ---> below the Blogger button you will see a counter. I am watching you!

Two posts in one day!

2005-09-01T22:55:00.000-05:00

Tonight (and all week) I and everyone else in the world have been watching images of Katrina and its' aftermath. Since there is next to nothing left in New Orleans, those that were able to do so have moved to "dry land" and for many that means Houston. Saturday, I will be volunteering at the Houston Food Bank. I know that my help will be a drop in the bucket for what is really needed, but I think it will be nice to help.

If you are reading this and are in the Houston area, there are plenty of opportunities to help out - the food bank, the Red Cross, churches, synagogues, United Way... any and all will gladly take your time. If you don't feel like donating your time, but would like (or can) donate your money. All of the charities I mentioned before have websites, but I recommend donating to the Red Cross only because they are still hurting from helping all of the victims from the hurricanes last year.

Please give what you can in your time or money to help the victims of this disaster.

I know people are reading....

2005-09-01T12:17:00.000-05:00

...because they send me emails (especially about my sea of Tide), but no one is leaving me comments. I am half-tempted to put in a counter to see how many people really do read.

Some other ramblings -

So today is L-1 month! What does that mean? Well in one month, Col. Bill McArthur and Valery Tokarev launch from Baikanour Cosmodrome to the International Space Station to begin their 6-month stint on the ISS. Pretty exciting stuff, especially since I have been planning for this for a LONG time. Today, the Flight Surgeon gave a presentation that I wrote (that sounds bitter, but it really isn't) and we are now officially certified for flight. Work is really starting to pick up and it is getting pretty exciting. I just sent in my order for some mission shirts (actually I got shirts for some other missions too). If anyone is interested in getting mission shirts (they are Lands End shirts with NASA patches on them) let me know and I can get you one.

For those who care, the Tide smell has left my bathroom.

I am drowning in a sea of Tide

2005-08-26T23:49:00.000-05:00

So it is about 11:50 on Friday night. I went to bed at 10:30 tonight after a productive, yet at times frustrating day. Why do you ask am I up blogging? Well, I'm a little hyped up right now and I will get to it.

I took a much needed half day today and a friend came over to help me finish my apartment. It looks great and I will be able to finish it tomorrow (I need to get new curtains for my bedroom and dining room and that is it). My girlfriend came over about 9:30 or so and saw my newly decorated place and said I did a great job and it looked really nice.

The girlfriend however was kinda sleepwalking when she got here, so we went to bed not long afterwards. Just after 11:15 she says that she heard something in the laundry room and there is some dripping or something that I should check. So I stumble to the laundry room/bathroom combo that I have and I see a puddle the size of Lake Superior of Mountain Spring Tide on the floor. Somehow the 2.34 GALLON container has fallen over and spilled all over the washer, dryer, closet door, laundry room wall, and floor. I then say "FUCK" and proceed to clean it up with every available towel that I have.

Now this seems like a good idea at the time, then I wonder, "how am I gonna get the Tide out of the towels, because if I throw all of the towels in the wash, I will have suds overflowing the machine." So I throw all of the towels in the bathtub and start to rinse them off. I get through two before I give up, and start writing this blog. I figure if I just throw two towels in at a time, by Christmas I will be finished with all of the fucking towels.

Of course since the Tide container fell, it broke part of it's cap, and will remain open. I currently smell like a laundrymat and have no idea what the hell I am gonna do with the towels in my tub in the morning when I take a shower.

The big winner....

2005-08-24T22:40:00.000-05:00

Tonight was the first poker night in a while, and I hosted it at my new apartment. It was pretty much the usual crowd of high rollers. Everyone (all 4 other players) was here by 6:45 or so and we started playing at about 7. Everyone bought in at the usual $500 ... oops forgot the decimal $5.00 ... and we started playing No Limit Texas Hold 'em. It must be the new apartment, because I was getting great hands.

That is until mom called and asked what I was doing. Here is a hint to all of you poker players - never say if you are doing well because your luck will change. Not knowing that rule, I told her I was winning at poker. IMMEDIATELY after that I started to get the crappiest hole cards, that is until I was big blind then my hand was even worse. By the end of the night my luck did turn around and I was the big (and only winner) at a gain of $2.50, which about covered half of my pizza, so I look at it as a gain. I would rather not think about how up/down I am though...probably down about $10-$15 over the last five or six games which isn't too bad if you figure how much it costs for an evening out.

Here is a status on the apartment - I bought a new tv stand (or as IKEA calls it a TV Unit) and put it together yesterday. It was quite amusing, as some of the parts on the instructions did not match what I had (there were more holes in the drawing then on the boards so I kinda had to figure it out on my own. Needless to say, I am an engineer and I now have a very nice looking Markor TV Unit from IKEA for my entertainment center. During the reconnection of all of my tv/vcr/dvd/stereo components I figured out why my receiver was working sporadically on the left channel.

You see, my receiver was my fathers from a long time ago (I want to say when he was in Viet Nam in '69) and it weighs a ton, and I think it may have tubes in it. So the fact that it wasn't working 100% wasn't a complete surprise, but I found out that there were some wires that had come undone. I asked one of the guys who was coming to play poker to bring his soldering iron and some solder and I was able to fix it no problem. I think that while I was fixing it, it showed that I hadn't done any solder or electrical work in a while, but hey, what the fuck do I care? It doesn't have to be pretty...just functional. And it is. The stereo works fine and I have sound from both the left and right side of the TV.

Now all I have left to do is hang artwork and curtains/drapes and I am done and the female half of the "Couple Eye For The Straight Guy" is coming over on Friday to help out.

Ok. Well the big winner/electrical genius is going to go to bed.

I almost peed my pants

2005-08-20T11:47:00.000-05:00

Last night I saw one of the funniest movies I have ever seen....The 40 Year Old Virgin. Just when I thought that I saw the funniest part of the movie, they went and did something else that was even funnier. I know everyone has seen the previews of the movie, but did you know that the waxing scene was unscripted? Every line that came out of Steve Carell's mouth was totally ad libbed. The blood coming from his chest, however, not so much.

Everyone else that I saw the movie with (7 friends from work) had the same feeling. This was a really funny movie. Now it won't win Oscars or Golden Globes for writing or producing or best picture (it may win that dumb MTV award thing) but in my opinion (and I am sure Gene Siskel's disembodied hand) give it a thumbs up.

So, this week at work I have been multi-tasking. I am observing someone on their (hopefully) final checkout week before being certified to sit in the Flight Control Room by themselves and getting ready for a review that I am chairing for the next expedition to the ISS launching in October. I think I have put together everything that I need, and I really appreciate all the work that the leads in my group did....especially after I asked like 800 times and they got their work to me a day and a half late and I have to compile everything today (on Saturday) for Monday.

That's all for now folks.

It has been pointed out to me....

2005-08-15T22:22:00.000-05:00

That it may seem like I am wasting tax payer money if I am blogging while at work. At no point will my blogging be done during "work" time (aka only during lunch) or during regularly scheduled breaks (aka coffee).

So I am well on my way to finishing up everything that I need to do at my apartment. For those keeping track, I think that the last things I need to do are:

Hang pictures and artwork
Get a something to put my tv on
Investigate if I can get rid of SBC as a telephone provider (get some VoIP instead)
See about fixing my cable - I have to turn off the satellite box if I want to watch local channels
Determine what I want to do about my bedroom furniture (I have a desk I am not using right now)

I think that is the all-encompassing list....at least what I can think of at 10:30 at night.

Random posting - if you get a chance to purge things from your apartment (collect clothes you aren't using, books you won't read again) and take them to a Goodwill location or your local library for donating (or a tax write-off) you feel really good and you have less stuff. I have already taken 3 bags to Goodwill, and a box of books to the library. AWESOME feeling, and I don't trip over them, as they were in the middle of the floor as late as last week.

If you know if you can get DSL and not telephone service please let me know.

More blogging to come when I have stuff to say.

Waiting for Guffman

2005-08-14T13:14:00.000-05:00

Well not really. I am sitting here in my MPSR (Multi-purpose Support Room aka back-room for the Mission Control Center) waiting for the Enviromental officer to finish turning on the CO2 removal system. Once he does that we can review the plans and I can get out of here and go to the Astros-Pirates game.

You see, there is this girl I started dating a few weeks ago, and she has a cousin who works for the Pirates as an athletic trainer. He got her a bunch of tickets to sit behind homeplate for the game today. And as I sit here, typing away, she is there with some of her friends watching, what I can assume is probably the 2nd or 3rd inning already. By the time I leave here, go home and change and make it to the "Juice Box" it will be the seventh inning stretch. Actually I just checked the box score, and it is bottom of the first with two outs. I may make the whole 7th inning.....

You like how I started that last paragraph? Well, until I get a go-ahead from said girl, that is all you will hear about it on this blog :-P. If you want anymore information, you will have to email me to find out more. Anyhow, here's to hoping I get out of MCC soon so I can go to the game. I found a picture that I think I may put up in the profile from a friend's wedding rehearsal dinner. I just gotta download the software to do it, so look for that in the next few days/weeks.

The station just lost signal (planned) so everyone left to use the bathroom....more stalling....I am getting fed up with this......lets review the plans please.....ok that is enough.

D'oh how could I forget to talk about this?

2005-08-11T13:03:00.000-05:00

It occurs to me I never blogged about my move . . . oh the story I have. So first of all, last November I went home for my maternal grandfather's and paternal grandmother's headstone unveilings. So I was in a really happy mood coming back to Houston. I get home and my front door is unlocked and I think that it is a little weird. After getting into my apartment, I see the couch has been pushed away from the wall and all my stuff is gone. Some f*cker came in and took - my laptop, my dvds, a digital camera, vcr, dvd player, clothes, food (they took a frozen chicken and bread), cologne, and some other things. I reported it, got a slow response from the police (it took them 3 hours to show), and an even slower response from All State's renter insurance people.

Needless to say I wanted to move to a second floor apartment. My apartment complex said there were two apartments available and to take a look. I looked and told them which one I wanted and they said it had been rented already (within 3 days). So as soon as my lease was up I was moving out and moving up (second floor +).

Flash to present day....On July 5th I went to the Private Mini Storage on Highway 3 between El Dorado and Bay Area Blvd to reserve a U-Haul truck for my move on July 30th. They say sure no problem, let us take a swipe of you credit card (American Express, never leave home without it) and we will save one for you. Done and done. They tell me to call the Friday before my move to confirm my reservation. July 29th I call the number on my reservation invoice (no $$$ charged yet) and there is no answer. A little background - the week leading up to this I have been working the overnight shift, and there is a little stress in the air as the Shuttle has just launched. Anyhow, since the U-Haul place is by my apartment and I have been trucking stuff over to my new place all week I stop by to confirm my reservation.

The geniuses behind the counter tell me that they only have one truck the size that I reserved and six reservations. I tell them that I would gladly drop down in size, as I don't need the largest size (26' is a lot longer than I realized). Well, that won't help since they don't have any other trucks. My next question (which should be obvious) was "so what do I do?" The person behind the counter, who happened to be the manager of the place, said that she would call "Traffic" who does the distribution of the trucks. After being put on hold for about 25 minutes she talked to someone who said that I would remain at that location (taking the one truck) and the other 5 reservations would get moved to another location. I said that was great and went about my business.

At about 4:00 that afternoon, I got a call from the U-Haul place. The person on the phone wanted to confirm that I would be picking up the truck at 8am Saturday morning. I told him that was the plan. He then asked me if I could have the truck back to them by 5:00 so that they could turn it around and re-rent it by 6:00. "No problem. I am planning on having it back to you before 3:00". They said fine and that I will be ready on Saturday at 8am.

So, who can guess where this is going? I show up at 7:50 am Saturday and walk into the store. "I'm sorry, we don't have your reservation here."
"........so what does that mean?"
"You have been moved to another location."
"Where?"
"We don't know, and we don't have the ability to check that."
"So how do I figure out where to pick up my truck?"
"Weren't you called?"
"If I was called that my reservation had been moved would I be standing here in front of you?"
"No, I guess not. We can try calling Traffic to see if they know."
"That sounds like a good idea. Let's do that."

So for the next 40 minutes I was on hold or being hung up on. I finally gave up and left U-Haul. I called my friends to tell them to not come to help me out yet, as I didn't have a truck. At 9:15 I finally got through to Traffic who said that my reservation had not been assigned a truck or a location and I would be called when that had been resolved. Pissed off at the world, I called my friends back and asked if they would help me move with their vehicles - an F150, Explorer, Crown Victoria, and my Altima. The three friends and I loaded up the vehicles and drove back and forth between the apartments 3 or 4 times. We finished the move at about 2:30 (I had planned to finish at like 1) and I started to unpack and clean up at the old apartment.

At 5:15 Saturday evening I got a call from U-Haul saying that they had found me a truck and would be making my reservation for 8am Sunday morning. I WENT BALLISTIC and asked to speak to someone about how utterly unacceptable it was to do this. What if I had been moving city-city (technically I was from Webster to Friendswood) or state-state? Anyway I haven't heard back from U-Haul.

As for my apartment - I am unpacked, but I still need to do some organizing and make some changes but I hope to be done in a week or two. Pictures to be posted when complete.

We did it!

2005-07-27T01:09:00.000-05:00

Well after about 2 1/2 years the Shuttle returned to flight. Of course we in the ISS world have not stopped flying (one of the only times you will hear me say thank you to the Russians). Of course there were some possible debris strikes, and the ET hit a bird within seconds of liftoff - it obviously ignored the No-Fly-Zone, but on the whole it was an excellent and beautiful launch. MSNBC has a pretty cool launch website that shows several different views and camera angles. More to come as we know more.....

Holding my breath

2005-07-26T03:35:00.000-05:00

Well as I write this we are at T-5:57:37 for launch and the clock is at the T-3:00:00 hold (the window is from 14:35:57-14:43:56 GMT with launch at 14:39:00 GMT). The External Tank is full and the ECO sensors are doing fine. Last update was that there was a 20% chance of scrub due to weather.

As I listen to the Shuttle Flight Director loop and NASA TV, all I can think about is, "Please, let the launch go without any problems. No problems on ascent, flight, or descent. And PLEASE let the media actually cover NASA in a good light." Of course I am sort of selfish too, since the planning that I have done for my Expedition requires both LF-1 and ULF1.1 to launch on time.

I comfortable with the fact that we are ready to fly and I wish people would understand that even though we practice as much caution and safety as possible to do, there is risk in our business. The NY Times reported that the risk of a catastrophic failure is 1:100 while the actual is 1:57 (2 accidents in 113 flights). Both are extremely low, but the public must realize that flying the Shuttle is not the same thing as getting into a 737 or even an F-16. It is a test-vehicle that has been tested 113 times. Here is to a successful #114.

Mooning over Emily

2005-07-25T03:40:00.000-05:00

No that is not meant to be anything dirty.....To continue on the utter coolness of NASA take a look at the photograph that the ISS Science Officer took on the 17th (GMT 197 if you care). It is currently winning hands down (by like 10,000 votes) the best photo of the week on MSNBC (picture #10). The image is so impressive and to the untrained eye (mine) it just looks like clouds and stuff but I am sure that meteorologists are creaming over stuff like this.

I had no idea people could be so wrong

2005-07-25T02:49:00.000-05:00

So I was surfing NASA Watch and came across this link to an Orlando Sentinel writer. I had no idea that people could be this wrong about NASA. I am actually sorry that Rick Maese feels that the Shuttle Program and NASA on the whole contributes nothing to society. I guess Rick would rather not sleep on that memory foam mattress, use his computer to type his columns, talk on a cell phone, use the GPS in his car and so on. As for NASA taking away from health care, I hope RM never gets kidney disease, because he is going to need dialysis from what? A) a machine using properties developed by NASA to remove waste from dialysis fluid (more items can be found here). For FY2006 NASA is getting $16.5 billion while the DOD gets $419.3 billion. To put that in percentages - NASA is getting 1.96% of the discretionary funding of the 2006 budget and Defense gets 49.90%. How much of that DOD funding is pork do you think? And RM thinks that NASA takes away too much money from health care and education?

I have heard recordings of JFK's speech in which the United States was given a mandate to go to the moon and to win the Space Race before the end of the 1960's, "We go to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard...". We explore the heavens even though it is difficult and risky, because the ultimate benefits and rewards can and will be great. At a point in the distant future, Earth will no longer exist. The sun will go nova and all life on this planet will end. If our species is to survive we need to explore and find a world that we can inhabit. My only hope is that we will be able to live in harmony with whatever exists on that new home (Gene Roddenberry would be so proud).

The Space Shuttle Discovery will once again take us back into flight (it was the RTF vehicle after the Challenger explosion too) and I think that it is appropriate that we return to the stars on its wings. I and everyone else at NASA will be watching with hope as cynics and critics like Mr. Maese will be twiddling his thumbs (or sitting on them) waiting to use any excuse possible to say that the 17 lives lost in spaceflight (3 for Apollo-1, 7 for Challenger, and 7 for Columbia) were in vain and we should not continue flying because the risk is to great. I agree that 17 lives lost is 17 too many, but in order to explore, we must risk. In order to discover we must try. In order to improve our lives, we must continue to look towards the heavens and reach out as far as possible. A coworker wrote the following prose that should be shared:

-Time-

Between the two points that define our life, time stands before us. On the eve of profound times, we recognize our mortality. We rediscover our importance to our beginning, to our future. No longer does time seem to just pass-by; it slows down for close examination. We become conscious of every breath, of every moment. These profound instances are sometimes defined by well thought-out plans, while other times chaos holds true to its character.

Soon, we will face a challenge of great magnitude. Although the human occupancy of space has not ceased since ISS Expedition 1, a space shuttle mission raises the bar. The intensity, the mission, the directive grow exponentially. Our deep-seated drive to push the boundaries, to explore for mankind resides in such missions. LEO (Low Earth Orbit) is not just a destination; it is the seed of a dream larger than any one human being.

I need not remind us of the danger of space travel. I need not remind us of the space shuttle history. We are not in a 9 to 5 business. We are in the business of exploration, of pushing the edge, of life and death. Fact, people will die as we push forward to explore the unknown. We should always be cognizant of this fact. Our job, our expertise pivots on very important words: “Do No Harm.” As advocates of the crew and their health, our priority is to keep them safe, to protect them, to give them the best opportunity to complete their mission, our mission.

I ask, of you, a simple request. Soon the launch clock will strike “000:00:00:00.” The main engines will fire full-up, the Solid Rocket Boosters will ignite, and the bolts will blow. In that instant, the lives of seven human beings will separate their bond from Earth and travel to our human outpost. Great responsibility rests on the shoulders of a few. In order to fully undertake such a mission, we must stare truth in the face and accept the possibility of the worst. We must be ready to make decisions that will impact others, that could save lives. On the eve of this momentous occasion silent yourself. Remember life is in this instant, this breath. When you are ready, step forward, and stand ready.

Sorry Rube - stealing your ideas

2005-07-16T00:29:00.000-05:00

So I was talking to a friend last week about our blogs and he was overjoyed about his 3 friends (or however many it was) reading his blogs. It occurs to me that I only have a link to my blog from my AIM account (guess what the screen name is...) and I haven't sent it out to my friends or family yet. Of course I don't really think that too many of my friends or family would read it anyway.....

Back to the subject of the post. I need a gimick. Something that would make me want to write more and people want to read this semi-stream-of-consiousness prose. Well, that and some mo' betta' writing. So if you are reading this and you have an idea for me let me know. Post a comment and I will see what I can do. Lets go for original though people. There was already a guy who chronicled his Guinness Diet and I am told that there is a blog somewhere out there where someone sends confessions on a post card and they get posted for all to read. Now the second one sounds a little kinky (but cool) but not really for me, and as much fun as being a functional drunk sounds, I do have to work and drive and neither mix well with beer for 3 meals a day.

So, help me out people.

What's been happening

2005-07-15T23:53:00.000-05:00

Yea, so I have had a pretty crap-tacular week. On Tuesday my father called to tell me that my maternal grandmother (and last grandparent) had passed away. Thankfully, we believe that it was quick, but it is still really hard to deal with. So I have been home in Orlando since Wednesday. Of course, I scheduled my flight to land about an hour before Discovery was to liftoff, but as everyone knows that has been placed on hold.

I am not saying this to be selfish, but LAUNCH DAMN IT! I know we are supposed to be safe and there is a reason for Flight Rules, but seriously folks.....I need for LF-1 and ULF1.1 to launch in July and September so that everything that I and the rest of my team has worked for will go the way we have planned it to go.

As for how I am doing (because, well, everyone asks) - I am doing remarkably well. I lost it, and I mean lost it after the funeral. My Nana is burried next to my Papa Joe and seeing his headstone was difficult. Then seeing my Nana Janet's was the straw that just broke me. My sister was standing there (more like squating but same difference) and we just opened up. Gave Niagra a run for its money. My family and friends have been great, I just wish that my mom and uncle (and dad) weren't putting up such a strong front. They are really doing well and it is almost hard to deal with it. We all know that she is in a better place. She wasn't really suffering before, but she wasn't exactly in the best condition.

Anyhow thats all from Lake Wobegon...where all the women are strong, the men are good looking and the children are above average. More to come later.

Keep a look out for the launch "Late next week" on http://spaceflight.nasa.gov.

It's called 'Checks and Balances'

2005-06-29T10:05:00.000-05:00

The purpose of having three separate, yet connected branches of government is to have some regulation, but to also have the independence needed to rule fairly.

Now, our esteemed leaders from Texas (DeLay and Cornyn) are continuing their fight to limit (or impeach) the Supreme Court Justices who disagree with them. There is a reason that appellate and SCOTUS appointments are LIFE-TIME. It is so when they make a ruling that is not popular nothing can happen to them. Can you imagine what would have happened after Roe v. Wade if the court was changed so that the ruling was overturned (granted that may happen if the wrong appointments are made over the next few years). The same thing would happen after the ruling that separate was not equal and gave rights to blacks and other minorities (yet equal protection under the law and other equality does not apply to gay rights...)

I guess I should be glad that I live in a country where I can rant on things like this, but I shouldn't have to. The fact that the SCOTUS ruled in a way you don't like doesn't mean you can change the rules (unless you are Tom DeLay, then the rules don't apply to you).

Been a while

2005-06-24T10:38:00.000-05:00

Yea, so I haven't posted in a while....so sue me. Nothing has happened. This past week I have been a test subject for a VR study at NASA. Doing a simple task of navigating around in a 3D space picking up objects, manuevering through a maze, dropping off the object and repeat. Pretty cool, then afterwards I go on a platform that measures my posture during several tests (the platform moves, or the surround moves, and my eyes are open or closed). Some people have gotten pretty sick doing the study, but no motion sickness or vertigo for me!

The other news from me is that I got approved to move to a new apartement (like there was any doubt). So by the end of next month I need to have all my stuff packed, moved and unpacked.

Thats all for now.

June 13th posting.

2005-06-13T19:12:00.000-05:00

Well, lets see....this past weekend I went on a friend's family's boat (that's a lot of possessives, isn't it?). Anyway, we started out in Clear Lake at a place called Marker 1, and went all the way down to Freeport making stops along the way. I had an awesome time and hope to be invited back. I took my camera to work to show some pictures and forgot to bring it home, so when I download them I'll put the link here.

Speaking of work, this week is gonna be a busy one. I have a two day meeting starting tomorrow and I get to present 20-something slides in 10 minutes. Basically, I gotta hit the high points and they are all high points, kinda the opposite of the "Don't sweat the small stuff, and it is all small stuff" mentality.

As for current events...we all remember where were were when things that shape our world happen:

Challenger - I was at Park Maitland School watching the launch from the playground, when we all knew something bad had happened
OJ Simpson Verdict - I was in Mr. Bluge's classroom having lunch, playing cards and watching what the jury had to say
The shootings at Columbine High School - I was in college, I had just walked into my fraternity house for lunch when I saw it on the tv.
September 11th - I was at work and was one of the last to leave after securing the facilities
Columbia - I was helping a friend move apartments, I turned on the tv to see what the weather was going to be, my father called and told me to put on CNN.
Michael Jackson - I was working out today on ARED and one of the spotters told me.

Everyone one of those items on that list should have never happened. I can't claim to know everything about the MJ trial (or everything about anything) but considering we live in a world where Media/News/Information is everywhere and you can't drown it out we were told a shit load. We all saw the Martin Bashir special. A lot of us came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with MJs "Peter Pan lifestyle", but 12 people in CA can't seem to say that he did anything wrong. The good thing about America is that I have a place to write to say that I think that is crap. The defense obviously did it's job and proved that a resonable doubt exists that he did nothing wrong, but I mean the man has some serious issues. He said that he would never hurt a child, but what does that mean? I would think that it would be traumatic to sleep with a grown man, no matter who he is. The guy has had advisors tell him to shut up, and to stop what he is doing. He has had people leave him in order to distance themselves from his ideas of "normalcy". I think it just goes to prove that if you have money (or can borrow enough) you can get yourself out of anything.

Alright. That's enough.

HOBY Pictures Posted, and other stuff.

2005-06-09T01:02:00.000-05:00

So, I finally posted my HOBY pictures on Kodak Easy Share (aka Ofoto). Click on the link to view them. You will probably have to log in....http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=y0egebj.8p066zsz&x=1&y=-x9umor.

So Tuesday I gave notice at my apartment complex saying I was moving out. The last time I did that (at Signature Pointe) they did everything they could to keep me there. This time, they said ok. No change in rent, no Q&A as to why I was leaving. Not that I care, but this management company stinks. Yesterday, I went and looked at a complex and the apartment is a little bigger then mine, and nicer, the complex itself is newer, and best of all it is cheaper! I have a couple more places to look and I want to look at a couple condos but I think I know where I am moving to.

I got an email from my dad the other day. He saw a family friend at a Panera in Orlando (on a side note, they really need to open one up in the Clear Lake area) who has a relative (cousin, sister, in-law...something like that) here in Houston so I get to play Jewish Geography and extend my network. Who knows....

Still tired, but ready to post....

2005-06-07T02:00:00.000-05:00

So I get to work today, and I have a slew of emails from all of the A-W-E-S-O-M-E HOBY Team Leaders talking about how tired they were that day. I really think that pales in comparison to how I felt last night. From Thursday to Sunday I slept a grand total of 11 hours. Monday, after my shift to when I finally woke up at 9:30 I slept 13 hours! That just boggles my mind . . . I slept more hours in one day then over a long weekend. Of course, sleeping the day away meant that I could not attend what I am sure would have been a fun get together in Baycliff. How can 'ritas, sangria, and food be a bad thing?

First Blog/HOBY

2005-06-06T01:37:00.000-05:00

Well, I figured it was time that I joined the rest of the world and start a blog.....

Right now I am sitting in MCC on the Orbit 1 shift and trying to stay awake because this weekend I was a Team Leader at the Texas Gulf Coast HOBY conference (http://www.hobytexasgulfcoast.org/). What a great time. The ambassadors were great and I like to think that I, and everyone else made a difference in their lives. I'll post later with a link to some pictures on Ofoto.

Until then, I am gonna sign off and get back to work.