The test last night wasn't so bad. It would've been better if I had an additional 15 minutes to complete it (it was timed), but what can you do...?

The Rice Honor Code still flips me out. As a sign of respect for the students and trust that they will not violate the honor code, professors are never supposed to proctor an exam -- or even create the appearance that they are proctoring the exam. Each professor behaves differently when trying to avoid the appearance of proctoring. The start of a test typically goes like this Prof: "I'm not watching you or proctoring you or anything, I just want to stick around for 5 minutes in case you have any questions..." (10 seconds pass, professor looks nervous, I mean an engineering professor with any sort of normal social skills is about as rare as a three headed chicken) "Well, um, maybe I should just go to my office, you know where it is, just come get me if you need anything. I'll check in on you in about 30 minutes..."

You have to love teeny, tiny, over-priced private schools... the type of school when you call the registrar's number, you actually end up talking to the Registrar, not some flunky. Of course, the teeny, tiny, over-priced private school also can't manage to master online registration.

The engineering quad has these three enormous blocks. I kid you not. They are spread apart, and each is at a different angle. Its kind of like an oriental sculpture garden. Very minimalist. Occasionally I notice a student sitting on the flat one studying. I stare at them frequently, trying to figure out what their purpose is. Do they make me want to be an engineer? Are they a testament to the engineers that managed to erect Stonehendge without so much as a crane? As it turns out they are a monument to George R. Brown. Apparently the artist who set them up didn't feel that the standard statue was sufficient. There's a online tour here where you can see them (you have to keep clicking continue tour for a while until you get to them). Apparently they are made from Texas Pink granite. There's also a campanile bell tower over the quad. I think I'm destined to always take classes under a campanile (at Tech, we called ours "The Shaft"). This one used to be a smoke stack. That makes me laugh.

Currently I'm listing to "Violently Happy." I have a new Bjork obsession. Weird. But you got to love Iceland...

Katie sent me this great rant about the lack of dog parks in Houston. Its ridiculous that I have to drive over an hour to find a place besides my backyard that I can legally let my dog off her leash. (Of course, I also find it riduculous that it can take several hours to drive to the corners of Houston's boundaries.) There are less humans in Austin than there are dogs in Houston, and Austin has 11 dog parks! Jen is rebel rousing trying to get us to demand one for League City. I agree. I feel like rebel rousing right now. But I don't know if I should save it for taking over the Homeowners Association (which has sent me yet another letter telling me to mow my lawn, this time I was told "You have 10 days to comply or punitive actions will be taken". Yeah, real friendly. My homeowners association president said "I'm sorry if they sound unfriendly, but they are simply neighborly reminders.")

Thank you all for you thoughtful birthday gifts!

Work was very exciting yesterday. I got to sit in my first simulation with the LSO's, which was really cool. I am totally eager to start with the training. Maybe too eager. Then, I found out I am going to be working the next NEEMO mission from the ExPOC (its an experimental mission control). And THEN I talked with my supervisor about my NASA Subsystems Engineering training which is supposed to get started really soon - and he said I may get to spend a week at Ames (in San Francisco!) to train to fly one of their motion simulators that does shuttle landings. Its all very exciting, considering how slow things have been for the past few months!

This afternoon I have a test in Gas Dynamics. Its open book/notes, and I hope it will be as straitforward as it seems so far.

Cari and the ISU crowd are heading to Tunisia, a little north African country sandwhiched between Algeria and Libya. For vacation. They pick the weirdest trips.

Last night was fun. I love getting a lot of people together - it makes me feel so happy to be around friends.

Today is my terminal birthday. Seriously, in the future, we will only celebrate the anniversary of my 25th birthday. 25 is the perfect age!

In my horoscopes for the day:

You make many feel special, which in turn gives you security. Inner confidence attracts better pay next month -- money continues to flow in if you keep impressing your clients or boss. Capricorn and Aquarius are sweet at first, but passions run deep, so prepare for an eventful ride! This summer, a wealthy acquaintance supports your venture. Your lucky numbers are 7, 13, 26, 45 and 10.

You are faithful and very devoted to your cause in life. You are also generous and giving. You command respect in large part because you are confident. You are serious about your commitment to social causes. You will always choose to walk the high road. The year ahead is highly social, friendly and focused on partnerships.

You will really knuckle down and start to take life more seriously this year. The sun aspecting Saturn on your birthday means you are acutely aware of the passage of time and you know that if you don't get down to business soon, the chance to do something special with your life may pass you by for good. Make this the year you leave your mark on the world.

You have an innate ability to observe people. Perhaps at times you are too highly critical of others and so issues of trust need to be developed for you to rest easy in yourself and to find the deeper meaning of a relationship.

There will be difficult periods in your life, but these will be usually of your own making. If you use the power of your speech you will see that people take what you say seriously and make a great impact on those around you. Remember the key issues are trust. Trust others and they will trust you.

Your lucky colours are the darker green shades.

Your lucky gems are turquoise, cats eye, chrysoberyl.

Your lucky days of the week Saturdays and Mondays.

Your lucky numbers and years of important change are 7 , 16, 25, 34, 43, 52, 61, 70, 79.

Famous people born on your birthday include Pierre Renoir, John Foster Dulles, Meher-Bab, Jim Backhus, George Harrison, Tea Leoni, Julio Iglesias Jnr, Justin Jeffrey and Justin Berfield.

Sarah and Jen have posted the mp3 game, where you put your whole mp3 collection on random and see what the first 10 (or 20) songs that come up are (and possibly how embarrassing!). So here are mine:



"Sweet Dreams", Eurythmics

"Jeux D'enfants", Alegria, Cirque Du Soleil

"Road Movie to Berlin", They Might be Giants

"Christmas is All Around", Billy Mack, Love Actually

"Breathe", Michelle Branch

"Kryptonite", 3 Doors Down

"Take Me Down", Alabama

"Regrets", Ben Folds Five

"Rock Me Amadeus", Falco

"I Move On", Chicago


And the second 10 are:


"Water Music", Handel

"Time Will Heal Me", Everything

"Recovering the Satellite", Counting Crows

"Life for Rent", Dido

"Every litte thing she does is magic", The Police

"Amon Hen", Lord of the Rings

"Aeroplane", Bjork

"Empty Spaces", Pink Floyd

"My Stupid Mouth", John Mayer

"Einstein on the Beach", Counting Crows

This made me laugh this morning. Doonesbury is offering a $10,000 reward for a definitive witness for the President's national guard service. Anyway, total joke/publicity stunt, but the frequently asked questions were very amusing:



Q: The DTH&WP is a media content web site, which means you're broke. Who's paying the reward?

It still feels like a Monday. It is so misty out. Last night when I was running I couldn't see very far in front of me, which made me dizzy and slightly disoriented. This afternoon I have two classes (my canceled one from last week was rescheduled to this evening). Then, some friends are meeting me near Rice for a small birthday dinner. I know my birthday isn't until tomorrow. But, in the fine tradition of high school and college and now grad-school, I have a midterm on Thursday and will need to study.

I can see again. This is a good thing. Yesterday afternoon my contacts started making my eyes water like crazy. This has been an off-and-on problem lately. Looking like I am constantly crying is probably not a good thing. A few months ago, I switched to a new brand, because my old one had been discontinued. This new brand had sued my old brand for impinging on their patent for the same kind of contact, I assumed they would feel the same. I guess I was wrong. Anyway, I swung by the eye doctor after work and got Acuves, which is what I used to wear. Its kind of a shame, because the Acuves are only supposed to be worn for a week, and the ones I had been wearing for the last couple of years can be worn for a month. Now, I didn't really stick to those time limits (bad me), but I felt like there was less potential for damage in the more permeable month-long wear kind.

The weekend basically occurred as planned. Friday: Tex-Mex for Dinner; Saturday: 5K, gardening, Jen and I took all 4 dogs to the new dog park (think 4 large dogs in the back of her station wagon, it was quite a site!), girls' night (some of the gals baked, and we watched "Sliding Doors" and "When Harry Met Sally"). Sunday: Slept in, took both dogs for walks, watched t.v., read, cooked myself a lovely salmon salad (Nick, my hero, is bringing the leftovers to me for lunch, because I accidently left it in the 'fridge this morning).

The temptation of my birthday gifts was just too much. I opened the ones sent by Aunt Diane (who is living it up in Malibu this week). I got jewelry and a sweater, which was basically the perfect gift (ok, a new BMW would be the perfect gift, but in the realm of reality, this was great..). The entertaining thing is that I also got a subscription to "Outdoor Life" magazine. I asked for "Outside" which details cool globe-trotting adventures, and sports that I like (such as skiing and hiking). They must not have had it, so she opted for "Outdoor Life", this month's cover story was the "Top 5 Destinations for Hunting and Fishing". I think I will probably have to transfer the address to my dad's.

Dragging myself out of bed on Monday morning is always really difficult. I almost wish the dogs were more annoying on Mondays, but they weren't. Time for coffee. Maybe I'll write more later.

Friday came quickly this week. You have to love 4 day work weeks.

It took me 1.5 hours to get home from class last night. Damn the gridlock! I must find a better way!

I don't have anything planned for tonight. Tomorrow I'm running a 5K; then Jen and I are taking the herd of dogs to the new Houston dog park; then a girls' night.

If the weather is nice on Sunday, I'm going to try to do some yard maintenance. I expect the grass will start growing again in the next few weeks, so I want to get ahead of things. The horrors of suburbia. I read an article once about some guy who replaced his yard with astroturf. I bet you my homeowners' association would love that.

The next shuttle mission has slipped to March, 2005. Most people were aware this was coming. Certainly there are some technical issues that will take that long to sort out. Its still kind of sad, I couldn't help but hope that we'd start flying again sooner. I remember right after Columbia there was some optimistic speculation that we could return to flight in just over a year. I know such a quick return to flight was always doubtful. But hope springs eternal -- at least until reality sets in. So, here's to flying in 2005!

I'm groggy this morning. I really should have two cups of coffee on a day like this. Sarah is still out sick, so it will be another quiet day.

Cari had yet another adventure.I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles...I love Paris every moment of the year.

Cari also had her first poutine. Yum. In case you didn't have the privledge of frequent childhood trips to Quebec, poutine is french fries covered in half-melted cheese-curd and gravy. I know it sounds disgusting. I wouldn't normally eat it just because its on par with chicken-fried-steak as likely-to-cause-a-heart-attack-in-one-meal. But there is nothing like coming in after skiing all morning to a warm lodge and having poutine. Its the perfect apres-ski food: warm, calorie-filled, and yummy, and after skiing for hours, its also guilt-free. Of course, Cari would never normally have this experience, because her idea of a ski lunch is a cliff bar on the lift in order to maximize time on the slopes. Cari, have those Canooks fed you Beaver Tails yet?

I'm not looking forward to class this afternoon. I imagine my professor is going to hand back the disaster of a test I took and I am SO embarrassed by what I know will be a awful score. To top that off, for the next three years, they will be doing an idiotic downtown construction project. The road I take into and out of Rice is a 5 line highway that is gridlocked usually during rush hour. Well, for the next 18 months, it will be TWO LANES!! Its packed with 5 lanes, now only two are left! There is an alternate route, but they also completely demolished a major spur into downtown (its traveled by 40,000 cars during rush hour) and all that traffic is diverted onto my alternate route. Its a huge nightmare, and its more permanent than temporary. While discussing alternate routes in class on Tuesday, I discovered that 6 out of 8 of the students in the class actually commute from Clear Lake (besides the two other NASA people, one lives at home, and several are stationed here with the Air Force). I feel like we should stage a mutiny and move class here so less of us have to drive through the mess created by this construction.

I was looking at my web tracker today, and I noticed I have a few regular readers who I have no idea who you are. I'd love to know who you are (or just have you sign my guest book). Especially if your domain is US Army, Univ. of Texas, UUNET, Adelphia, Univ. of Illinois, or jrsmith. Solve the mystery!

Of course, if you are one of the people that uses a crummy search engine (like MSN) and finds my page by searching for: "sponge monkey", "pinapples houston" or "seabrook mud wrestling", well USE A BETTER SEARCH ENGINE!

I have decided my running must be distinctly related to certain moods. Some days, like Monday, I can't force myself to run more than a few blocks before my legs scream "Stop!" Then, last night, I didn't even notice the first mile pass, and I felt so good, I extended my run two blocks "deeper" into my route than usual. It doesn't seem to be linked to time of day. Or if I eat before or after my run. Its just completely random.

I just opened up my work journal. In addition to the date, I always put a number, for the number of days I've been at work (my first entry was "1"). Anyway, today was my 500th day of work. I feel like I should have a little party or something.

I love being a couch potato. That's what I was ALL weekend. It was oh, so lovely. I read an entire book on Saturday (Deception Point, by Dan Brown, who wrote The DiVinci Code; it was an an entertaining page turner, but I don't think I enjoyed it as much because it made me want to argue. It was really disturbing because it was highly critical of NASA and contained some outright inaccuracies presented as truth in order to justify its NASA-bashing).

On V-Day night Matt, Rich & I drank beer and watched Four (yes FOUR) stupid movies. Airplane, Top Secret, Loaded Weapon and Mallrats.

Sunday I went running, I was supposed to run 4.5 miles, but only made it 4. I don't think I'm going to be ready for a 10K in two weeks. I am going to look for one in April sometime. That will give me more time to prepare.

I did my taxes. I owe money, mostly because when I estimated my taxes last year, I assumed I would only have one roommate paying me rent instead of two. The whole thing is rather confusing, because the rental property form is written as if you own a second property instead of renting out a room in your primary residence. If it was a second property I can write-off the homeowners' association fee and insurance, but you aren't supposed to do that for your primary residence, so I can't quite figure out what I should do. I also saved $1.12 according to TurboTax from the new dividend tax rate (I earned $42.36 in dividends). I still don't approve of cutting taxes on dividends.

Work should get pretty interesting this week. I guess I finally made a well-timed remark about wanting to do flight control work, because on Friday, I met with management about my job. This resulted in my doing some "job swapping". I'm going to train to be a Landing Support Officer (LSO - they are the people that communicate with all the runways the shuttle could land at). And the girl who is an LSO now is going to take over some of my analysis work. I'm pretty excited about the whole thing, especially since before my job satisfaction was rapidly sinking.

I went to the mall on Monday, I got a pair of black slacks, two black skirts. I still need more slacks (at least one dark brown pair and a grey pair). I don't know why this is so hard to find. I was going to just buy my staple Liz Claiborne wrinkle-frees, but they changed the material they are made out of, and they felt all hard and stiff. Yuck. And they are making a lot of slacks out of this weird stretchy material that just doesn't fit me right. Double yuck. Whatever happened to good, old-fashioned, 100% cotton?

Wow, that was a rambling entry.

Hip hip hurray for a 3-day weekend! I love stupid legal holidays that give me off while the rest of the world still has to go to work.

My plans for the weekend: More shopping (I still need some fresh work clothes). Babysitting G&J's dogs (they're going to Mexico). Sleeping in. Hoping it stops raining. My V-day plans? Well, two co-workers and I are going to BBQ and watch stupid movies and celebrate being single.

I've decided Karen needs to find a cell-phone that lets her talk earlier in the evenings, that way we can talk while I'm driving home from class, rather than when I'm eating dinner. Karen, you work at that, and I'll work on the transportation technology that gets me to El Paso like its next door instead of a million miles away.

Happy 51st Anniversary G&G!

Woe Is Me.

I was warned. I was told that I needed to commit the notes to memory. I thought I did a pretty good job. I was wrong.

One student looked at the test, got up and left. I assume that meant she was dropping the class. Another two students were PhD students auditting the class (they didn't have to sit for the test). 3 students took this professor's last class, so I'm assuming they knew what to expect. The remaining 2 students have shown themselves to be well-ahead of the curve in the class (they appear to have had a lot of optimal control before). This puts me dead last in the class. I hate that feeling.

The test was literally a regurgitation of the notes. Every question prompted me to move onto the next section of the over 30 pages of notes from 15 hours of lecture. If I had an history degree and a photographic memory I would have had a better chance of passing this test. As it is, I estimate I got about a 60-70% (I bombed 4 questions, made errors on another 2).

To add insult to injury, the T.A. came in and announced that we had until 6 p.m. to complete the test. Class supposedly ends at 5:15 - the hour-long class period was part of why I assumed (incorrectly) that I wouldn't have to repeat the ENTIRE set of notes on the exam -- that wouldn't be possible in only an hour. In fact, I had another class right at 5:15 (luckily its a casual enough class that missing it wasn't a problem). I was still working on the test at 6:15 when I decided I had enough and turned it in. What if I had someplace to be after class? What if I couldn't have missed my next class? GR!

On top of all this, if I drop the class today, I only get a 50% refund of tuition (meaning I'd have to pay NASA back the other half, $1700). Of course, if I get anything below a B in the class, I'd have to pay NASA back 100% of my tuition, $3500. I never really seriously thought about this risk of taking classes through NASA before. Its kind of frustrating.

I still haven't finished committing the notes to memory yet. Still working on it, I guess I know what I'll be doing over lunch.

If you want to send me on an exotic vacation, I absolutely must go here.

I did have some good news this morning - my Gas Dynamics prof moved class from 3:15 to 5:15. This is awesome, because it means I don't have to leave work as early on Thursdays! Plus, I like having class later, because when I do end up leaving Rice, I won't have to fight rush hour traffic. This thrills me. Its these little things that excite me.

Sarah is building a LEGO Delta 2 (plus rovers and satellites) at her desk. I get the feeling its going to be a slow day.

No rain today. Just clouds and cold.

RAIN RAIN more RAIN! I like the rain on the weekend when I can spend all day curled up in bed with a good book. I don't like the rain when I have to be out and about. Or when I have to be productive. Or when I have to memorize a month's worth of notes for a test tomorrow.

In case you wondering what has taken NASA's place as my dream job, you can read about it here. I did apply for a job with Scaled out of college, they just weren't interested in me. Actually, I like NASA a lot. I just wish we were flying. Or building something new and cool. Or pushing a frontier, instead of flying around the Earth in low little circles. Instead, it will be another year before we're flying. As for building something new and cool, I sometimes wonder if a redesign of Apollo (same design, newer computers) really counts. Other dream jobs include owning a book store on the side of a mountain in New Zealand, travel writing, being a professional student... did I mention the book store?

Its so rain rain rainy! Its going to rain through Sunday. Grumble. Gavin and Jen are going to Mexico, so I'll have 4 dogs, trapped inside, while its raining. At least its a three-day weekend. I don't know why I'm already thinking about the weekend. Its Tuesday. I have a test on Thursday that I am NOT ready for (I've been told the only way to be ready is to literally commit the notes-so-far to memory. Rote memorization isn't one of my strengths).

I'm starting to get frustrated on something I've been working on since last week. I thought it was only going to take a day. And the first part only took a day. But debugging it so I get the right answer has taken the better part of the week. Of course, its not like I've been working obsessively on it. But still.

Last night I got back from climbing (my left hand hurts whenever I try to make a fist today, grrr!) Kennda decided she needed to clean the kitchen at that very minute. I commented that the cleaning lady was coming this morning, and she should just leave everything out (I mean, that's why we pay the lady!). Kennda kind of acknowledged the comment and I went and put my PJ's on. When I came back out, she was cleaning away. I said "Can't help yourself, eh?" (this is very amusing, because Kennda will go weeks barely acknowledging the mess in the house). Her response "Well, if I clean up in here, the cleaning lady will have more time to clean the animal hair from the other rooms." I tried explaining that the cleaning lady doesn't stay a fixed period of time, she has a list of chores and does them and leaves, so if Kennda cleans the kitchen, it just means its one less thing for the cleaning lady to do before she leaves. The whole thing was totally absurd.

This is how zen-like I've gotten though. I figured I wasn't wasting my time cleaning, so if Kennda wanted to do it, who was I to stop her. So, I meandered off to bed. However, it was really frustrating, because she was banging around in the kitchen for an hour while I was trying to sleep. I wish Kennda's spurts of desire to clean came on the off-weeks when the cleaning lady wasn't coming!

There’s a picture opposite me
Of my primitive ancestry
Which stood on rocky shores and kept the beaches shipwreck free
Though I respect that a lot
I’d be fired if that were my job
After killing Jason off and countless screaming Argonauts

I ran four miles last night without stopping at all to walk! Go me! Four Miles!

Jen, Sarah, Nick and I spent six hours at the mall yesterday. Unfortunately, the only thing on my list that I found was brown shoes. No slacks (drat!) Six hours!

On Saturday, at lunch, I spent two hours trying to be a positive female role model for elementary & high school beauty queens. Yes, they were wearing both their sash and crowns at lunch, which was very disconcerting. Still, it was interested being with the "other half." Two hours!

So, basically this weekend I set all sorts of records for stamina.

Also, if you want to amuse yourself today, watch this clip from the Daily Show, called Bush vs. Bush. To get to it, you'll have to scroll through a few clips (You may have to click on the link at the bottom that says "NEXT 1 2".) It was HILARIOUS!

My throat is so sore. I could barely sleep last night because I was constantly waking up to drink water. I brought a bottle of honey to work and intend on drinking a lot of tea in the hopes that it will go away.

Tonight I am going to see Miracle. Tomorrow I'm going out to lunch with a bunch of teen pagent competitors(don't ask). I think I'm going to go clothes shopping, because my wardrobe could really use sprucing up. And I'll probably sleep a lot.

Absurd & Prudish

I think the whole Janet/Justin Super Bowl thing is absurd! Last night on E.R. they blurred a scene because it had about a millisecond of an exposed breast. To add to the stupidity, the Grammy's have canceled Janet's performance (but they didn't cancel Justin's performance, now why is that? it did take two to make that wardrobe malfunction.) And I can't help but feel sorry for J.C., another member of NSync who isn't exactly the star that Justin is, got his Pro Bowl performance canceled even though he had no part in his former bandmate's nonsense.

Its all very ridiculous. Not to state the obvious, but most American's have, in fact, seen an exposed breast before.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat. Yuck. I guess its time to pay my dues, considering its been over two years since I've really gotten sick.

A few days ago, Cari posted these weird sponge-monkey critters singing "We like the moon" on her journal. Anyway, Sarah and I both discovered they like Quizno's too, because they appear in Quizno's ads. How freaky! I mean, really really freaky.

I did my homework last night in about 45 minutes, much less than the three hours I expected. I attribute this to the Anderson text book. Every aerospace engineer is familiar with the series of textbooks written by John David Anderson. He writes on EVERYTHING! All I have to say is that I love John Anderson. He gives an example of everything, so all you have to do is reference the corresponding example to a given homework problem and you're set. This makes me very very happy. Actually, I'm happy because I'm back in my element. I've taken gas dynamics before, I know what a pitot tube is, I know what Mach number is, I have the full collection of Anderson text books, and I know aerospace engineering. And this is one of those mechanical engineering classes where I have a distinct advantage because I am an aerospace engineer. Its rare, so I intend on enjoying it. Go me!

The funny part about the whole thing is I was doing the homework in front of the t.v. and I didn't have a calculator. So there are a bunch of big gaps of numbers I didn't multiply out. It makes me laugh. But I'm not really concerned because the homework is "optional" anyway.

Oh, and Sarah & Katie pointed me to this cool web site that maps all the states (31 down, 19 to go) and countries (20 countries down, 92% of the world to go) I've visited


create your own visited states map

create your own visited country map

This is a really cool web site (thanks to Sarah's sis Katie). You type in a zip code and it narrows into where that code is located.

Yesteday, I ended up playing hooky after all. Mostly because I was in a meeting with my boss, and I couldn't just get up and leave, (especially since they were discussing a white paper I wrote earlier). I apparently missed nothing good, except that we're having a test next Thursday. Just what I need. At work, I actually have a lot to do this week for the first time in over a month. Go me!

Because I played hooky, I got home from work at a reasonable hour. So I went running, which has completely messed up my schedule. I would normally have gone running this morning, but since I went last night, I have to wait until tonight. Plus, I can never force myself to run as far or as fast after work as I do in the morning (not that I ever run very far or very fast), so I always feel kind of crummy after I run. I did register for my first 10K, which will be at the end of the month. I am more than a bit worried about the whole thing because I am so slow. I usually finish with the walkers when I'm doing a 5K. Well, I find it unlikely that there will be any walkers for the 10K, so I dread the idea of finishing dead last - I had a nightmare last night that I finished 20 minutes behind the person in front of me. Hopefully it won't be *that* bad.

In appalling news, a pharmacist at a Texas Eckerd's refused to fill a prescription for the morning after-pill for a rape victim on "ethical grounds". What b*llshit. It doesn't seem very ethical to me that some pharmacist can mess with your life like that. Anyway, she got it filled at a competing drugstore. But I'm sure there are plenty of small towns in Texas where this wouldn't be an option.

Last night rock climbing sucked. I was week from not going in two weeks. I was tired. I was stressed about non-mandatory homework for class. And there was a thundering herd of Boy Scouts and their parents using 1/3 of the walls. They were so loud I couldn't hear the music or instructions from my belayer. Plus, once again, I am really not looking forward to class. I've spent all day contemplating playing hooky. Woe is me! Add a splitting headache and a several day old bad mood, and I'm just a peach to be around right now.

The Lord of the Rings music is really helping calm me down though.

Sing for the laughter, sing for the tear

I wish I could think of a fitting tribute for the Columbia crew. It was a year and a day ago. I remember coming into work that Monday morning and seeing the sign at the front gate covered with tributes. But very quickly I became consumed by work, instead of tragedy. But occasionally I still feel that sinking in my stomach I had on that Saturday morning a year ago. I remember the call from my Mom. I remember the call I made to Sarah right after. I remember the flurry of phone calls between my co-workers. But I also remember how good it felt a month later when they finally raised the flag to full-staff.



Weekend recap

Saturday, I spent the day judging Science Olympiad's "Storm the Castle" event. Basically a bunch of teenagers built quite impressive catapults (called "trebuchets" - pronounced "treb-you-shay", or "tree-bucket" if you are a Texan) and launched bean bags at targets. It was really amusing, except that it was outside (and it was damp & cold!)

Sunday was dominated by the Super Bowl, which sometimes feels like a national holiday. Houston, the country's most self-conscious city, spent the week obsessing over Super Bowl events. But that didn't stop them from price-gouging (I heard reports of $100 covers for some bars). The game rocked (I like when they have dramatic endings) - though I totally missed the streaker and Janet's "clothing malfunction" because we were eating during half-time. The whole moon-astronaut thing was hokey - even for a space buff like me. But, I'll admit, I enjoyed Aerosmith's NASA tribute in pre-game show. I'm also a sucker for "Dream On" (its probably my favorite Aerosmith song). Though, the parachuters surprised me considering the roof of the dome appeared closed. Did they crack it? Did they risk BASE jumping? I don't know.

Chasing the years of my life...

Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting time. Only 100 years to make an impact on the world, so far, not really making much progress. Maybe I should join the Peace Corps. Or run for Congress. Or invent a cure for cancer. At the very least, I feel like I could make at least a bigger dent in contributing to the space program. Instead, I am coding Approach and Land guidance. A sometimes-wise person pointed out to me that anything I learn about Approach and Land will be basically out of date in ten years, when the shuttle is replaced by a capsule. I know a capsule is the way to go to meet mission requirements, but it still *feels* like a huge step backwards from the dream of a truly reusable space plane. Maybe I'm just plane crazy.

Oh, Jen posted these two blogs which I found very interesting: one based in Israel and one based Iraq