I've battled fortran and won. Mostly. At least my program is compiling and giving me results, which is a good good good thing. Now, do the results make sense? That is a problem for today. I'm actually starting to really feel the crunch for finishing things up before going home for Christmas.

I had good news yesterday that I (and Sarah too) was selected as a mentor to a team of physics teachers to fly in the Reduced Gravity program. This could potentially mean another flight on the "Vomit Comet" for me. This is pending on my losing ~10 pounds and sorting out some potential time conflicts with return to flight. But I'm really excited about it so hopefully it will all work out.

Hm. That's all I have to say. We've been doing a lot of arguing about missile defense here lately, because one of the leading candidates to replace Mr. O'Keefe is the Lt. Gen in charge of missile defense. This leads to arguments about the role of the military in the civilian space program. My personal opinion on the subject is pretty simple: The military and the civilian space program will always have things to offer each other and they should take advantage of opportunities to share resources. However, its a good thing we have a *civilian* space program, and I want to keep it that way. On missile defense, I don't like people who argue against missile defense because its technologically infeasible - I think if we spent the time and money and we could make it work. I don't like missile defense because its pointless and potentially a destabilizing force in international relations and definitely really expensive (more expensive than a Manned Mars Mission, for instance).