November 2007 Archives

Jose and I watched Michael Moore's documentary/mockumentary "Sicko" tonight. This was the first Michael Moore movie I've seen, and I went into it with a healthy dose of skepticism. While I think that the U.S. healthcare system is pretty much screwed, I still wasn't prepared to swallow everything Moore said. After all, it is easy to paint a picture one way or the other when you have access to hours of film and an editing room.

Moore is obviously a fan of socialized healthcare, and he paints an incredibly rosy picture of what things are like in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Cuba and (in the DVD extras) Norway. It's difficult to watch the movie without wanting to immediately pick up and move to France. Having a baby? It's free. Need medicine? Free. Get cancer? Treatment is still free. With the 35 hour work week and tons of vacation, France seems ideal.

Socialized systems. Public services. Moore does make a good point in saying that many things in the U.S. are already socialized. If someone breaks into your house, the police will come and help you, for free. You can go to school through 12th grade, for free. You can go to the public library and borrow a book, for free. If you need to send a letter across the country, you can do so via the postal service for a very small fee. If your house catches on fire, the fire department will come to put it out, for free.

Think about that. The fire department will do their best to save your burning house -- at no charge to you. But if you fall down the stairs and break your leg while you're running out of that same burning house and need medical assistance? Well, I hope you have insurance. We protect people's property before we protect the people themselves.

Obviously socialized medicine does come with its own problems, and is not some kind of panacea. But if our goal is to provide a reasonable level of service to all people, instead of a high level of service to only those who can afford it, we will have to change the way our system is currently run. Jose asked if I thought the U.S. would go to a socialized healthcare system in our lifetime. After a moment's thought, I was forced to admit that while I wasn't ready to give a definite "no," I don't think we will see significant change anytime soon. Why? Because it would involve such a widespread and fundamental change in how the healthcare system is run, in the government's involvement in such a system, and in the government's ties to the large insurance and pharmaceutical companies. And, as Jose pointed out, those companies are not going to go down without a fight.

And yet the fact remains that being an American unfortunate enough to get a serious illness leaves you with only two options: foregoing treatment or a lifetime of debt.

Regardless of how we fix it, I hope everyone can agree that there is something wrong with that.

Whew! Another hectic day. This job is really feast or famine sometimes.

Today was the one generic rendezvous sim in a three-month period, and I wasn't going to miss it. It didn't disappoint either -- lots of meaty failures that kept me busy for a solid four hours.

The good news? I feel like I did well and made solid contributions to the team. Things are starting to mesh, knowledge is starting to gel. I might just get the hang of this rendezvous thing after all...

Since deciding to forego the full marathon in favor of the half marathon in January, I have felt a lot better about the prospects for my running over the next few months. With the pressure of doing 15+ mile marathon training long runs off my shoulders, I can now focus on goals that I am happier about working toward, such as:

1. Having fun and feeling good.
2. Running a solid half marathon in January.
3. Improving my speed prior to the Texas Independence Relay in March.

I haven't written much about running lately, which makes it hard to call myself a running blogger (or a blogging runner). I must admit that I've been deterred lately by seeing what has been going on around the blogosphere in Houston and beyond and some of the judgment taking place. I don't want to be judged, really. Running for me has never been about time. I know I obsessively keep track of time and pace, but that's really just the engineer in me that loves numbers. Running for me has really been about staying fit and having fun. I do want to improve, and I do want to get faster -- but I'm not willing to make large sacrifices for that. I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it's not for me. Some days I just don't feel like running. Some days I just don't feel like pushing myself. I'm ok with that, even though I know that others aren't. Every time I start berating myself for not being "fast enough" or "strong enough," I lose sight of goal number one, and I start to hate the sport. When I relieve that pressure, the enjoyment returns.

I've had a few really good runs lately, good in that they were both fun and fast, and this is in no small part due to the gloriously chilly evening weather. I've lost a lot of my cold tolerance over the years in Houston, and while 55 degrees now seems downright freezing to me if I'm just walking around, it still feels great once I start running. Last night along with a warmup and cooldown, I did a two 1-mile repeats with a quarter-mile walk break between them, just to see what I could do. Running at 90-95%, I ran the miles in 9:12 and 9:17. Not too shabby, eh?

It was fun. And pretty fast. And I was happy.

So my sister sent me an email with the subject line of "I got elfed." I expected it to be some funny holiday card, or perhaps a cartoony version of her as an elf, or a photoshopped photo, etc etc. I did not expect to get a Flash movie of my brother-in-law Joel, Jose, my brother David, and me dancing around and shaking our elf booties. It made me laugh really hard.

We got elfed!

Today I had my midterm performance evaluation with my group lead. It's a very informal meeting where we sit down for a half hour, talk about the goals we set for me for the year (our "year" runs from May to April, no idea why), and see how they're going. I'm not very good at being aggressive and talking to my manager when there's something on my mind, so this informal meeting couldn't have come at a better time.

We had a good conversation and talked about a lot of the worries I mentioned here yesterday. As a result, I'm now scheduled for my midpoint evaluation as a rendezvous support officer. The date is not entirely set due to the upcoming shuttle flight, but it could be as soon as December 5 if the shuttle launch slips. I hope that doesn't happen, so more likely, my midpoint will be in mid-January. Either way, I am on the schedule, which is a step in the right direction for me. A midpoint evaluation will allow me to get feedback on how I'm doing and work on improving my weak areas. I'm excited. Progress is good.

My group lead also told me that he's been getting good feedback from my coworkers on the sims I've worked so far. I am my own worst critic and never really believe it when people tell me things like that -- mainly because I unrealistically expect myself to perform at certification level from day 1 -- but it was definitely nice to hear.

I told him that I feel like I'm stalled, and talked about options to get me moving again, and get me some tasks beyond just my training.

We also talked about the possibility of my continuing to work ascents indefinitely, provided it is not too much of a conflict with my rendezvous work. Originally when I got this job a year ago, the plan was for me to continue in the ascent position for another year before transitioning entirely to rendezvous. There is a running joke among my coworkers and me that no one in this division ever really gives up work -- they just take it with them when they move to different positions. It's funny because it's true, and yet I do really want to keep my ascent job. It makes sense because I'm needed there. But the current flight assignments were making things a bit rough -- I was scheduled to work both ascent and rendezvous on the same mission, which, while not impossible, would be quite stressful.

So I talked to the group lead in charge of my ascent job, and he agreed to shuffle the flight assignments so that I can maintain my ascent job without conflicting with my rendezvous job. The shuffle means that I'll probably only work one launch next year instead of two, but that I'll be able to continue working launches through the end of the shuttle program instead of quitting after April.

I know that was a lot of work talk, and maybe it's not very interesting to most of you, but it made today a lot better than yesterday, and has left me feeling really positive again. Today also served as a good reminder that if there is something bothering me, I don't always have to figure it out myself. There are people out there willing to help me get what I want.

Work hasn't been going very well lately. I find myself totally stalled in my training to be a rendezvous support flight controller. Fixing this is going to be difficult, because the fact that I'm currently treading water is no one's fault.

See, the heart of any flight controller's training is working integrated simulations, where the whole shuttle flight control team (and sometimes station too) gets together and pretends to fly the space shuttle. It's good practice for already certified operators, and it's good training for those learning new positions. There are flight-specific sims, where the team assigned to a particular mission gets together to practice their operations, but only certified flight controllers work missions, so only certified flight controllers work those sims. The other type are generic sims, where trainees get to play and learn. Everyone needs to work a number of generic sims before they can be certified. And right now, there simply aren't enough generic sims.

My last rendezvous sim was at the end of September. I have one this Thursday, and then likely won't have another one until January. That's more than 3 months with only 1 generic rendezvous sim.

And that means I'm stalled.

I'm starting to get pretty worried that I won't be certified in time to work my first flight as rendezvous support in April. And that thought bums me out.

On the bright side, I got selected to mentor another group of high school teachers for one of NASA's many microgravity programs. They'll be flying on the Vomit Comet in March, and hopefully I'll be flying with them!

With that now on my plate, plus the pressure to get certified, plus the April mission, spring is shaping up to be quite busy. J and I had hoped to take a trip to Japan in late March, and I still hope to do so, but there is a part of me thinking that the timing may not be right. And I hate that thought. I hate the whole concept of "the timing's not right."

I'm just crossing my fingers that everything comes together.

I got a Christmas tree today. A real one. It's the first time I've ever had a real Christmas tree in my apartment.

But it's not what you probably picture. It's only about 3 feet tall, as if someone simply lopped off the tip top of a normal Christmas tree. It made me wonder if there is a forest somewhere full of Christmas trees without tops. Think about it. Wouldn't that be odd?

I bought a string of lights and some ornaments, and it is awesome. Just looking at it makes me happy. I told my mom about it while talking to her on the phone tonight, and she said it's still too early for Christmas stuff. But I like to enjoy the decorations for as long as possible (while still refusing to put anything up before Thanksgiving), and didn't want to wait any longer.

Thus, today I got a Christmas tree.

When I said I got a blister on my pinky from playing Guitar Hero, I was mostly kidding. But now I have what is suspected to be a legitimate Guitar Hero injury. How sad is that? My thumb has been aching since yesterday. The only real cause I can guess is the marathon of Guitar Hero played after the Thanksgiving meal on Thursday. Last year Jose and I dominated the foosball table; this year we dominated the axe.

Seriously. My thumb hurts. Not even kidding. Pretty pathetic.

It was a great holiday in Corpus Christi and I am happy to have spent it with Jose's family for the second year in a row. The last time I went home for Thanksgiving was in 2000 -- we long ago decided that it doesn't really make sense for me to buy a plane ticket home for three days when I can save the money and time to allow me to go home for a longer stay at Christmas, only a month later -- and I had gotten accustomed to spending the holiday weekend alone. Running the turkey trot, meeting friends for a good meal, but then spending the rest of the weekend doing my own thing. It worked for me, but I must admit that it is nice to have a place to go once again. I do miss the turkey trot, but Jose's family welcomes me with open arms, and they are endlessly entertaining. There are so many of them, but this year I kept almost everyone straight.

After spending a few days with Jose's family, I can't wait to head to Charlotte to see my own family for Christmas.

For the second year in a row, I found myself awake at 4:30 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving and on my way to Circuit City to join the crowds of Black Friday shoppers. I must admit that despite the early hour and the masses of gadget-hungry people, there is a certain appeal to the whole thing. People watching is pretty entertaining, especially when the doors first open and you get to watch people go literally running down the aisles.

We were at Circuit City to pick up a TomTom GPS navigator for Jose's mom, but as we stood in line to pay I was tempted by a stack of HP portable photo printers on sale for $50. I have always been interested in getting one, but it seemed like too much of a non-essential item. I mean, I already have a printer capable of doing photos once I download them to the computer, edit them, etc, etc. But I couldn't resist, so I grabbed one.

We finally opened it tonight after a lazy day of post-shopping napping and movie-watching, and it is such a fun little gadget! To start, the printer itself is so small and cute -- which I love as a fan of good product design. But it's also amazingly easy to print with, even moreso than I expected. (I know I'm way behind the curve on this particular piece of technology, but oh well.) I plugged my compact flash card in and wham! Printed a photo of Jose and me atop the Space Needle two weeks ago. I plugged Jose's camera in and boom! Printed a photo of him flying his long cross country a few months ago. I even plugged my iPhone into the USB port and voilà! Printed the photo of Lady the puppy that I took when we got here on Wednsday night.

This thing is gonna be fun. After all, photos are so much better when you can hold them and pass them around.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in blogger-ville! It's been a nice day in Corpus. Cloudy and cold, but nice all the same. I managed to avoid completely gorging myself on all the good food, which is always an accomplishment, and I have successfully schooled most of Jose's cousins in Guitar Hero. No one ever expects me to actually be good at it, but I can play at least half the songs on expert level. Heh heh heh.

Food and Guitar Hero. Yep, it's been a good holiday.

Wonder what I should look for at Black Friday shopping tomorrow...? No one really needs anything but everyone wants to go anyone. I must say I don't totally understand that.

Hope everyone else had a great day!

The Xterra rode into the night and the cold black front followed.

Jose and I are headed south on Highway 59, headed to spend Thanksgiving in Corpus Christi with his family. (Blogging from the iPhone! Love it!) There is a spectacular lightning show going on outside my window in the towering clouds of the cold front that is pushing through this area tonight. The squall line is so clear and defined that it reminds me of photos of the inside of the eye of hurricane.

At first the light was diffuse, mere flashes flickering among the clouds. But as it gets closer, I can see huge spider webs, fingers of electricity working their way from cloud to cloud. The end of the clouds protrude into the sky and I swear it forms the profile of a man's face. Eyebrows, nose, cheek and chin. He is coming to get us, flashing in anger and bringing the cold behind him.

Texas thunderstorms are truly like no other.

And so we race the front to see who can get to Corpus first.

I had to work the countdown test for the next launch this morning, which meant I had to be in super early. And then last week when I was asked if I could work an undock sim this afternoon because the original team was going to be on vacation already, I jumped at the chance. After all, I haven't had a rendezvous or undock sim (which are the heart of this thing I'm supposedly training for) in almost 2 months. Someone offered me a sim? I'll take it!

And that's how I ended up working from 5 a.m. until 8 p.m.

I'm tired.

People run for many reasons. To get in shape, to challenge themselves physically, to push their limits, to lose weight. I know people that run every single day, but have never run more than 5 miles. I know people that run three times a week but do marathons regularly. I know people that run according to strict schedules, trying to better their times. I also know people that don't even wear a watch. I know people that run all the time but have never entered an event in their life. Everyone uses a different method, but underneath it all, they have a reason for doing it their way.

And then there's me. Somewhere along the way, I've lost my reason for running.

I started running at the end of 2001. That's not entirely accurate, because I attempted to start running many times before that, but the end of 2001 was when I not only started, but stuck with it. Six years later, I am still running, but I've forgotten why.

When I started, it was because I wanted to lose weight. I did exactly that, dropping 30 pounds over the next three years. The first race I did was a 5K in January 2002 through Golden Gate Park to a finish along the Pacific Ocean. There was a half marathon happening the same day, and as I watched people pass through mile 10, I couldn't comprehend of running the far. But of course that's the beauty of running. It lets you discover what you can really do.

A year later, I ran my first 10K. I ran my first half marathon in 2004, and a year later I did the full 26.2 miles of the Houston Marathon. It wasn't easy to train for that first marathon, but I had a lot of time and an unwavering goal. I wanted to say I'd done a marathon. I wanted to feel that sense of accomplishment, of doing something that I could have never guessed I'd do.

But afterwards, though I basked in the glow of finishing the marathon, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do another one. Instead of going bigger or faster, I turned my attention to other things. What I really enjoy these days are triathlons. I love the variety of the sport, and how you have to have a balance of skills at both swimming, biking and running. So I started doing a lot of triathlons and then I did a Half Ironman. It was awesome. I want to do another one next year. I probably can't do Lonestar due to timing, but I plan to do another one.

But another marathon? It's been almost 3 years. I'd love to run New York, but I didn't get in this year. But I'd joined Bay Area Fit's triathlon group, and they all talked so much about the fall marathon season that I found myself swept along. Another Houston Marathon? Ok. I joined. I trained. I talked about the marathon. I didn't fit in with the Orange Group as well as the Triathlon Group, but I kept up.

But I'm not really happy with my current plan. I'm not motivated, and I'm not having as much fun as I used to. Some runs this fall have been great -- the Houston Half Marathon, my short 3-miler last Thursday -- but more have been awful. Or maybe not awful, just a struggle. Perhaps a mental struggle more than a physical one. And those 30 pounds that I lost in the first 3 years? I've gained almost 20 of them back in last 3 years.

I did a lot of thinking over the weekend, and here's what I decided:

I will not be running the marathon on January 13.

This should come as no surprise to most of my readers. Even though my training has gone ok enough, I dread the long runs. They loom over my weekend, they occupy my thoughts -- and not in a good way. I am tired of agonizing, I am tired of dreading. I just want to enjoy running again, and look forward to getting outside instead of coming up with excuses to stay in bed.

Will my running friends think less of me if I don't run the marathon?
Will I be disappointing anyone if I don't run the marathon?
Does not running the marathon mean I'm not a "real" runner?

The answer to all of those questions is obviously no, but those were the issues that were keeping me from just doing what I knew I wanted to do. The vast majority of my running buddies run marathons regularly, and I was putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself to "keep up with the Joneses," so to speak.

So: no marathon in January. My head and my heart are not in it. Not right now. Maybe I'll regain my motivation if I get into New York next year, or maybe I won't. Maybe the marathon I did in 2005 is the only one I'll ever do. If that's the case, I will learn to be ok with that.

I will be running the half marathon instead.

There's a reason I have repeatedly confessed to loving the half marathon. In my mind it is the perfect distance -- short enough that I can finish in 2.5 hours or less, long enough that it requires some level of commitment and training, but not so long that the training is overwhelming and time-consuming. It's a distance that I can mentally handle, and it's a distance that I can excel at on my own terms.

When I finally decided, for real, to revert back to the half marathon, I felt so relieved. I know this is the right decision.

January 13. 13.1 miles. Sounds good to me!

With Karen's wedding now less than 6 months away, Becca and I finally agreed to seriously talk about bridesmaid dresses. Karen's original request to go looking back in the spring was rejected by the two of us, who argued that we didn't need to buy so early. (Aren't we such lovely, agreeable bridesmaids? Sheesh.)

There are three of us. Becca has dark brown hair and olive skin. I've got light brown-to-blonde hair and fair, freckle-ridden skin. Ashley, who we've only seen in pictures, appears to have red hair and pale skin like mine. Finding a dress -- and a color! -- that looks good on all of us is going to be challenging.

Nonetheless, Becca and I headed to the Galleria to try on the dresses at Ann Taylor, where we've previously decided to buy the dresses from. If we're buying dresses, we might as well get something of good quality. In 45 minutes, we blew through at least a dozen dresses in different styles and colors. We were like machines! Try on dress, take picture. Try on dress, take picture. Ashley and Karen now get to check out the pictures and hear our thoughts, and hopefully we found something good.

As for the rest of the mall, well, if I didn't know better I would've assumed Thanksgiving had already passed. Not only was the place absolutely packed, but every store had their Christmas decorations up. Every store except Nordstrom's, that is. Nordstrom's had a sign in the window saying that they like to celebrate one holiday at a time, and as such, they would not be putting up any Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I really liked that stance. I think part of the reason this time of year always feels so hectic is that we begin getting bombarded with Christmas decorations, music, and messages almost for two months in advance.

After the dresses, Jose and I wandered off looking for a couple items, while Becca and Byron went in a different direction looking for a new purse. I found a new shirt at Eddie Bauer on sale for $15! I bought that, along with three pairs of socks. Jose found a new pair of khakis like he wanted. Between the two of us, we got out of the gigantic, very upscale shopping mall with less money spent than yesterday at Target.

I'm not sure what that says about us, but I'm sure it says something.

Target is evil.

You go there looking for something totally innocent, but then between wandering around just to "see what they've got" and laughing at items such as the Old Fashioned Hot Dog Roller Grill, you suddenly leave the store an hour later with $130 worth of stuff, including a copy of Guitar Hero III that you were going to resist until your boyfriend innocently said "I'll split it with you!" So you then proceed to play for the rest of the night until your wrist aches and your fingers hurt and you feel like your hands are going to explode.

I think I seriously have a blister on my pinky finger.

Target is evil.

And I love them.

We just watched Ratatouille, which I wanted to see in the theater but never did. It was -- as expected -- great. Pixar can't fail.

There is a great scene at the end, when the looming and gray and dour food critic tastes the dish that the chef has prepared. He lifts the fork to his lips and tastes it, and the scene focuses on his face. His eyes go wide, the camera zooms out, and suddenly the old critic is transformed into a small boy, standing in the doorway of his house sniffling because he's fallen off his bike and skinned his knee. His mom sits him down at the kitchen table and serves him the same dish that he's just been served so many years later in the restaurant. He remembers that day, and the food takes him back.

I think that summarizes the appeal of the movie. It's about food, about a rat that can cook. But it's really about the emotional connection that people have to food, and how good food can really make your day.

Yesterday I wrote a list of why my day had been son nice. After I published, I realized that many of the items on my list were food-related. Coffee. Grilled cheese. Hot chocolate. Even water. I had a couple other things I could have written as well (for instance, Kelleen made some totally awesome brownies for the evening sim), but I didn't because it seemed too weird to make a list where fully half of the things that happened to me related to eating.

But it did. I don't particularly like to cook, but that doesn't change the fact that good food makes me happy. I can't really see anything wrong with that.

A morning sim.
A cup of coffee.
An interesting crew debrief.
A bottle of water with the new Propel powder.
A walk around the pond in the sun and cool breeze.
An afternoon sim.
A chat with the FAA guys.
A bit of gossip with a coworker.
A great run with a 9:30 mile in the middle.
A grilled cheese.
A cup of hot chocolate.

Yep, it was a good day.

I have read bits here and there about the One Laptop Per Child program -- the closest thing to the mythical "$100 laptop." It has always sounded like a very cool concept to me. It's a very simple laptop, well-constructed so that it withstands a great deal of wear and tear. It can be powered via solar panel or even via a pull cord (1 minute of pulling gets 10 minutes of battery life). It runs open source Linux and has wireless capability. There's no CD drive, the processor is slow, and there's very little memory -- but it's cheap, and it's for kids! It has an amazing array of features geared towards kids, like networking with your classroom, web-surfing, RSS reader, built-in camera, drawing programs, and even a few downloadable programs.

Yesterday I came across the XO Giving website. For a $400 donation, one XO laptop will be sent to a child in a developing nation. You also get one sent to you to give to a child of your choosing (or keep it yourself, I suppose, although as I've said it is very kid-oriented). After subtracting the fair market value of the laptop, $200 of the donation is tax-deductable.

This is the only time so far that the laptop will be available to US customers, and part of the reason they decided to make it available is that they hope to create an informal network of XO laptop users in the developed world who can provide feedback about how well it works as an education tool and help create open-source educational programs for the laptop.

What a cool idea!

Our final day in Seattle was unofficially declared to be "airplane day," which we celebrated with visits to the Museum of Flight and the Boeing factory in Everett. (More photos on Flickr.)

The Museum of Flight turned out to be much larger than we expected, and we could have easily spent the whole day there. We ran out of time to see the Warbird wing, and skipped the space display as well -- we'll put those on the list for our next visit. As it was, we made the best of our limited time and saw quite a few cool things. The highlight was the outdoor "airpark" that is home to the last Concorde, one of the first jet Air Force One planes (Air Force One is not a single plane, rather it's the name assigned to whichever plane is carrying the President), the first-ever 737, the first-ever 747, and a 727. The Concorde and Air Force One were both open to visitors so we got to walk through them! The Concorde was surprisingly dull inside -- it looks just like a normal airplane, except even more cramped. Sure, there were luxurious leather seats and a cool mach meter that showed passengers how fast they were going, but I guess I was expecting caviar or something. :)

Air Force One was cooler. It was a Boeing 707 used in the 60s and 70s by Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, and the interior decor reflected the style of the years it was in service. It was cool to see where seats were taken out to add a typewriter, copier, meeting table, presidential stateroom, communications center, and more. There was a pipe rack that belonged to Kennedy, and a hat rack under the desk that held Johnson's cowboy hat.

We walked around the first production 737 which is actually on loan from NASA Langley, and then gawked at the size of the 747 (serial number 1) used for extensive testing over the years. I wish it had been open -- I've always wanted to see the upper deck of a 747.

Though we skipped the space exhibit in the interest of time, I did make a pass through the area long enough to see this 60s-era board game that I totally need for my office, the Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures group. They actually had a large exhibit dedicated to rendezvous and Pete Conrad (not sure why, he must be from that area) and that's the one exhibit I regret not examining more closely.

Alas, we had to leave the museum because we needed to be in Everett in time for the 3:00 Boeing factory tour! Everett is home to the largest building in the world by volume -- the building that houses the assembly lines for the Boeing 747, 767, 777 and new 787 "Dreamliner." Yep, all the big boys. They didn't allow photos (in fact, they didn't even let you carry a purse or any personal items on the tour) so unfortunately I can't really share photos, but it was pretty cool. We saw the assembly lines for the 777 and 787.

The 787 "Dreamliner" is a new plane that was just rolled out for the first time in July. It hasn't flown yet, and we saw the first two planes still on the assembly line. Once up and running, they expect to assemble each 787 in only 3 days, since all of the components come pre-assembled from other factories and locations and the Everett plant simply has to put them together like Legos. The first 787 is going to All Nippon Airways, while the second is designated for structural testing. It's interesting that the first plane will be going into service while the second plane will be used for testing. I guess they're pretty confident that the plane is well-designed! The plane has a lot of composite material used in construction, making the structure strong enough that they can actually increase cabin pressure from the equivalent of 8000 feet to 6000 feet, while also including bigger windows. The windows don't have pull-down shades -- instead, you touch the window and it magically darkens. You can buy one -- without engines and without any interior furnishing -- for the bargain cost of ~$150 million, but the earliest delivery you can expect is 2016 since they already have more than 700 orders to fill.

We finally headed back towards Seattle and Auburn and met Jen and Boyfriend for dinner at (ironically enough) a Mexican restaurant. We hadn't eaten since breakfast and they could seat us immediately, so that's where we went!

Our flight on Monday left at 11:00 so we didn't have time to do anything that morning but play a few games on Katie and Joel's Wii. All in all we had a great (and very busy!) vacation and it was nice to get out of town for a while. It might be rainy and it might be cold, but Seattle is somewhere I think I could live...

Because the past mission featured both a female shuttle commander and a female space station commander (Pam Melroy and Peggy Whitson, respectively), someone decided to take a photo of all the female flight controllers that worked in Mission Control during the flight. The email went out, and got forwarded, and forwarded, and forwarded -- because when you start counting up all phases of flight and front room people and back room people and engineering support people, you realize that there are really quite a lot of people that work the missions.

The photo was scheduled for 4:30 this afternoon, so I wandered downstairs to the flight control room about 5 minutes before then. I walked through the door to see dozens of women waiting for the photo. More continued to stream in. By the time we squeezed together for the photo, there were probably 50-60 people in the room.

Girls rock.

I wanted to blog more from Seattle, I really did, especially since it's national blog writing month and all. But we were out and about all the time, and everyone would make fun of me when I sat down at the computer! I guess I fail at blog writing month, but no matter -- vacation was still most excellent.

I updated the previous post with some photos, and there are more on Flickr if you are interested.

We woke up to sunny skies on Saturday in Seattle, so at the last minute we changed our plans to include something "nature-y." This was premature of course, because the sun disappeared within an hour, replaced by ominous clouds. Nonetheless, we stuck with Plan B and headed east towards Snoqualmie Falls. I had never been there during my previous two visits to Seattle, and it was more impressive than I imagined -- a 200+ foot high crashing waterfall! We first saw it from above, and then hiked down the steep half mile trail to the boardwalk running along the river below. The woods were very green and pretty.

I could've stayed and stared at the waterfall all day, but we had an agenda to stick to! On our way back to Seattle we stopped in Issaquah to see the salmon hatchery and fish ladder. Salmon are born in freshwater streams, swim out to the ocean and stay there for a few years, and then return to the stream where they were born to spawn (and then immediately die -- rather depressing). The hatchery had a gate up that prevented the salmon from actually going upstream, diverting them instead to a fish ladder leading to a large holding tank where the fish are kept until they are spawned by hand. That didn't stop the fish from trying to get upstream though, and we watched them jumping in vain for quite a while. It was actually pretty fascinating. The fish are at the end of their lifespan anyway, so the hatchery spawns them by hand to ensure that there are plenty of baby salmon to keep the cycle going.

I could've stayed and watched the salmon all day as well, but again -- we had an agenda! We headed back downtown to the Seattle Aquarium. It was a bit small, but still had a couple good exhibits including a Giant Pacific Octopus and some sea otters. We got to watch both of those guys get fed, which was entertaining. The sea otters were like little kids, swimming around excitedly and floating on their backs while they nibbled at their mussels. While we were there, Jen and her boyfriend arrived to spend the next few hours with us. After leaving the aquarium, our agenda had finally ended so they suggested driving over to Alki Point in west Seattle to look back at the skyline. The view was indeed great, and we ended up staying over there for a delicious dinner at a chowder house.

Update: Added photos! There are more on Flickr if you are interested.

We arrived in Seattle on Thursday night and immediately went to bed. It was a good thing too, because yesterday we wore ourselves out! It was clear in the morning, and even a little sunny, so we took the opportunity and David, Jose and I headed to the Space Needle after riding the train up from Auburn with Katie and seeing her office. We met a couple of her coworkers who were nice; one guy is some kind of bus prodigy who knew all the bus routes in King County by the time he was 9 years old. He is definitely passionate about his job! (Katie works for the King County transit department.)

We got to the Space Needle right around 9:00 in the morning, which was nice because there weren't many people there yet. The view was great, as expected -- it wasn't clear enough to see all the way to Mt. Rainier, but we could see all of Seattle and the Puget Sound and the islands across the way. They also had some surprisingly good quality telescopes on top, and we had a lot of fun looking at the boats and ferries and spying on people walking down the street. The side facing the city was very, very windy and cold, but the side facing Lake Union and the university was calmer. After taking photos of the city, we had to warm up inside with coffee.

Our plan was to head from the Space Needle down to the Seattle Aquarium, but while searching for the bus stop we noticed the Science Fiction Museum that was right next door to the Space Needle. It looked pretty cool from the outside, so we decided to buy tickets and ended up spending the next 2+ hours there! They had a pretty amazing collection of everything from first editions of famous sci-fi books by Asimov and Heinlein to movie props from films like Alien to costumes from TV shows like Star Trek. It was really pretty cool, and I think David and Jose liked it even more than I did (they are bigger sci-fi fans). The entire museum was created/funded by Paul Allen, and a lot of the items on display said "From the Paul Allen Family Collection." Must be nice to be rich and able to buy whatever you want!

The museum didn't allow photos, but I did take one in the lobby of the sign for the women's bathroom, since it made me laugh. I also liked the architecture of the building (which is shared with the Experience Music Project that we didn't have time to see). It's so obviously Gehry.

Katie took the afternoon off, so she met us at Seattle Center and we headed back to Pike Place Market where we had lunch overlooking the sound and then wandered around the market for a while. Of course we saw the first Starbucks, and I think we tasted everything that was offered as a sample -- chocolate, jelly, honey, vinegar, all sorts of food items. We bought the yummiest things -- peppermint chocolate sauce and a honeycrisp apple. Man that is a good apple! (Though I'm not sure it was actually a Washington apple; who knows.) Monday Night Football is here this week, and we saw a few of the Seahawks players at the fish market -- they were being videotaped catching fish for a segment for the football broadcast. That was pretty cool, though Katie said none of them were the big stars of the football team. Oh well.

From the market we planned to catch the bus to Bellevue to meet Joel at his parents' house for dinner, but Katie (the bus transportation employee) didn't know where the bus stopped! Well, she knew one place where it stopped, down by the train station next to the football stadium and her office building, so we started walking there. Two miles later, we made it. I teased Katie a lot about the death march she took us on, because I was already tired from walking around all day. But it wasn't too bad, really. And we worked off all the calories from all the free samples at the market!

We had pizza and played pool and cards at Joel's parents house and after that we were pooped! I fell asleep in the car as we drove back to Auburn. It was a very busy day, and the next few will be just as fun!

Jose and I were on our way to the airport at midday when I noticed that the southbound lanes of traffic were suddenly empty. Each entrance and each exit was blocked by a police car with flashing lights. We drove a mile or so -- still empty, more police cars. "What is going on?" I wondered aloud again.

A couple police motorcycles appeared on the other side of the highway, speeding along. As I watched them, I suddenly remembered Jose saying something along the lines of: "The President must be coming here -- there's a temporary flight restriction in place for tomorrow."

As we pondered this, at least a dozen police motorcycles sped by, followed by the distinctive limo with flags waving from the hood. Three limos, and behind those came black SUVs. One of them had the window rolled down, and a man rested an assault rifle against the windowsill.

And then they were gone!

That's probably the closest I'll ever get to a president -- 60 feet away on the other side of the road for the split second it took to pass me.

Discovery just landed safely in Florida after - gasp! shock! worry! - flying over a good portion of the United States and even a little bit of Canada.

It was interesting and a little frustrating to hear the media harping on the fact that the mission changed to fly a descending approach that brought the shuttle over the heart of the country (instead of the usual ascending approach that takes the shuttle mostly over the ocean before crossing Mexico, the Caribbean, and possibly the Gulf Coast). Somewhere along the way, the media got the impression that we don't usually fly descending opportunities because we want to avoid populated areas -- but that's just not true. We don't usually fly descending opportunites from high latitudes because there are high altitude clouds that form that aren't totally understood. Plus, you have to remember that the shuttle can't just come home to Florida any time it chooses -- there are only a couple chances per day, and ascending opportunities usually fit better into the flight plan and crew schedule.

But this mission did something different, and the media jumped on it. The first descending opportunity -- the first landing to cross a significant part of the country -- since the Columbia accident. Gasp! Shock! Worry!

Pam Melroy put it best yesterday when she was asked by a reporter for her thoughts on the descending approach. To paraphase her answer: "Well, I hope a lot of people get a great view as we fly by!"

I hope a lot of people did.

I finally joined Facebook the other day after Leila sent me a direct invitation. I know I could've joined it years ago, but it never seemed necessary. It turns out that a lot of my other friends are already there, so I added them all. Then I added a couple photos. Then I surfed to see who else was one there. Then I sat there looking at the screen and wondering what to do next.

See, I don't totally get Facebook. I don't quite understand the appeal. Friendster, MySpace, LinkedIn, and blog-like sites like Tumblr -- yep, don't really get those either.

It's not that I don't get the Web2.0 phenomenon. Social networking sites can be great. A few months ago I started using Flickr for more than just cameraphone photos and love it. Same with Twitter, which I see as a fun way to read "mini-blogs" of what people are up to and what their random thoughts are. Wikipedia, del.icio.us, YouTube, and blogging in general -- these are all things I get.

I think the sites I don't understand are the ones that try to do a little bit of everything. On Facebook, I can blog, post photos, post status updates, and send messages (as well as do many other things I'm sure). But why? I already have my own blog, I already post photos on Flickr, I already post status on Twitter. Each of those sites has one specific function that it does really, really well. I don't mind using individual sites for individual things when they're done right. And consolidation? Well, that's what my blog does. It pulls everything together. I don't need another place to do that.

There are so many "social networking" and "new media" sites out there today, and more pop up every time I turn around. I'm not a teenager anymore, and maybe I just can't keep up with these durn newfangled web thing-a-ma-jigs. Yet it seems to me that there are a hundred sites all trying to do the same thing. I can't possibly be expected to join all of them (and I know no one actually expects me to join them all), but as someone who is interested in the web and the many things available online, I feel like I have to keep up with everything -- or at least understand it!

Anyway. I am now on Facebook. Do with that what you will.

Ohhhhhhh, this is going to be a restless week. I can tell already. Other people's life changes always throw me into a mini-tizzy of my own, wondering whether I need to make some changes myself. It's either funny or sad -- I have a long list of things I'd like to do. Wishes and dreams and such. A lot of them are actually realistic, but I just haven't taken any action towards making them happen. I'm so dumb.

It was a long, lazy weekend for the first time in a long while. Though Jose and I usually spend the weekend hanging out, his version involves being out and about. He loves browsing at Borders, Best Buy, Fry's, and the mall. It cracks me up -- I think he likes shopping more than I do! (Actually, I love shopping, I just do 90% of mine online while he prefers to visit stores.) But this weekend, Jose was asleep all day, which left me to my own devices.

My version of hanging out is doesn't take me anywhere. It's going for a long run. It's watching hot air balloons from my balcony, and aiming my binoculars at the recently-returned-from-his-6-month-disappearance alligator that loves that one spot behind my apartment. It's staying in pajama pants and an oversized t-shirt until 7:00 last night. It's messing around for a solid 6 hours on Saturday afternoon doing nothing and everything -- laundry, straightening up, web surfing, reading -- while a marathon of "America's Next Top Model" plays on TV in the background. (So help me, I love that show and all of Tyra's absurd dramatic pauses. I think I am genetically programmed to like crappy TV. Just accept it.)

This blog entry sucks. Bye.

Just finished watching the coverage on TV.

Lance Armstrong must've trained harder this year -- more than 10 minutes faster than last year.

Congrats Jen & Cassie! You did it!

Paula Radcliffe is frikkin awesome.

I so want to run New York.

Elite runner Ryan Shay died yesterday a few miles into the U.S. Men's Marathon Olympic Trials. I saw the headline yesterday on the Runner's World website, a bit before it hit the major news outlets, and since I couldn't find confirming cues right away, it was hard to believe. He was 28. It's a very sobering reminder that even the best runners aren't immune to random acts of fate. You just never know. I thought a lot about that during my 10-miler this morning. It was a tough run, and I was really struggling with sore shins, tight calves, and general fatigue. What if I have some unknown health issue? What if every time I run, I'm using up some limited number of beats that my heart has to give? I just never know. But like many others, I suppose that I'd rather go out running or triathloning than sitting on my couch. So run I will.

I'm tracking both Jen and Cassie at the New York Marathon today. Fun times. Jen's through the halfway mark in a very respectable 2:26, while Cassie's updates appear to be delayed. I refuse to believe that her IT band is acting up, so I'm blaming the website at the moment. I also checked the results for two locals I know that did Ironman Florida yesterday. Both finished. Awesome. I want to do an Ironman -- I just don't want to do the training! Thus, no Ironman in my immediate future. Gotta want it.

As I alluded to earlier, my 10-miler was a real struggle this morning. My shins and calfs were tight and remained tight through at least the first 3 miles. The temperature was cool, but the humidity was killer. I wasn't really feeling it. My route was an out-and-back from Clear Lake High School down Bay Area to Red Bluff to Kirby, turning around at the 5-mile mark -- yes, almost exactly the first half (and back) of the USA 10-Miler. I would've started at UHCL and done the official course, but there was a 5K going on at UHCL this morning and I wanted to avoid the crowd.

Off I went. After 2 miles, I told myself that I could turn around at 3 miles for a total of 6. At 3 miles, I decided to keep going and told myself I could turn around at 4 miles for a total of 8. At 4 miles, I told myself that I was being a wuss, and that I should suck it up and go all the way to the 5-mile turnaround and worst case, I could walk the final few miles if necessary. On my way back at the 7-mile mark, my stomach situation rapidly became dire, so I stopped for a bathroom break. Let's just say it was a very good thing that there's now a gas station at the corner of Bay Area and Red Bluff!! I stopped my watch during my potty break.

All that said, I finished in just under 1:59, which is still faster than the craptastic USA 10-Miler of three weeks ago, and I'm just plain proud that I was able to finish the whole distance at all because I was not mentally in this run at all. Splits were all over the place, thanks to a rather uneven run/walk schedule -- more or less a 5/1, thanks to just plain being tired, but sometimes I ran 6 or 7 minutes, and sometimes I ran the whole mile:

11:41, 12:05, 11:33, 11:54, 11:28, 12:12, 12:23, 10:59 (post-bathroom break energy surge), 12:09, 12:18

I was hoping that things would feel more comfortable, but oh well. Thus far this fall, I seem destined to follow up a good long run with a bad one. That means my next one should go well. Right??

Last night I woke up at 1:30 to find that I'd been asleep on the couch for the last two hours. At that point I decided that I was more tired than I thought, and pushed my run to Sunday, when I'll have the bonus of an extra hour of sleep thanks to daylight savings time (not to mention it'll be light earlier). So it was that I was still asleep at 9:30 when I awoke to a strange sound.

"What is that roaring?" I wondered groggily. I'd left the window open last night and was trying to figure out if it was windy or not, and how it could possibly so be windy that it was roaring through the open window. It happened again -- sounding like a dragon breathing fire from a movie. Wait -- dragon breathing fire? That's it! Fire! A burner! It's hot air balloons!

I leapt out of bed and opened the blinds to see dozens of hot air balloons coming right for me. I grabbed a sweatshirt and ran outside to find them floating over my parking lot, close enough that I could wave at the people in the baskets and greet them with a "good morning!" The rest of my apartment complex was out as well -- I've never seen so many neighbors out at one time.

After the balloons passed, I watched the skydivers from my balcony. My balcony looks directly across a field to the Ballunar Festival site that's less than a mile away. My apartment complex is the only one with a view of the festival from home! Pretty cool.

I'm currently watching Scott Parazynski dangling out on the end of a huge makeshift robot arm adding "cufflinks" to the torn solar array on the space station. What an insane view he has right now -- Earth below, station below, nothing but solar array and space in front of him. What a crazy world we live in where people can work in space. They're about to start redeploying the array now that he's added all five cufflinks, so I'm crossing my fingers that it deploys smoothly from here on out!

Update: It deployed smoothly! The cufflinks worked! To echo the astronauts: yaaaaaay!

There is only one workplace that I know of where employees are greeted by the sights and sounds of hot air balloons as they drive in one morning each year. This is yet another reason that working at JSC is cool. After being postponed in August due to all the rain and wet weather, the Ballunar Festival has finally arrived. (I can't help but wonder if the switch to November will be permanent -- the weather is certainly far more pleasant now than it would have been in August!) I got to work right as the majority of the balloons were coming over, after having taken off all around Clear Lake with the goal of ending up at JSC. It took a lot of effort not to crash my car as I craned my neck to see the sky. There were some low clouds, which gave the whole thing an ethereal quality, as some of the balloons floated in and out of the mist.

I'm planning to hit the festival either tonight or tomorrow night to get some balloon glow photos, but it all depends on when Jose feels most awake! He's back on the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift until the shuttle undocks early Monday morning, which sort of sucks all the way around. While it is certainly cool that he is working the mission, we are sleeping on totally opposite schedules, meaning there are only a few hours each day where we are both awake and not at work, plus his hours are about as bad as you can get. No matter how much you sleep shift, it's still hard to be awake in the middle of the night.

It's National Blog Posting Month, and apparently as part of that you are supposed to make a post every day. That shouldn't be too much of a problem, since I post at least 75% of all days already. The habit is definitely ingrained, and has been since my senior year of college when I posted every day for my last 100 days as an undergraduate. (Note to self: I need to re-post that site sometime. I liked it.) Anyway, the fact that someone made up a "national" month for blog posting strikes me as strange. I don't think I'll be particularly broken up about it if I miss a day, but I'll give it a try.

After having such a good day at the half marathon, it's been another rough week of running. Last night I got so fed up that I stopped after 2.5 miles and walked the last half mile back to my car. The leg pain -- the same shin splint/Achilles tightness that has plagued me bascially every fall for the past few years -- is back. I just don't get it! It seems to somehow be tied to this time of year, which could indicate that it happens when I start to ramp up my running after a lazy summer, except I didn't have a particularly lazy summer! I've been running pretty consistently since July, and even on the bad weeks, I've run a minimum of twice a week. So why the pain? And why now? I just don't get it. It's not so bad that I can't run -- it's never so bad that I can't run -- but it's enough to bother me, force me to walk occasionally, and leave me frustrated. Last night I ran a mile, walked a minute, ran a quarter mile, walked a minute, ran 3/4 of a mile, walked a minute, ran another half mile, and gave up. The tightness and soreness never went away, plus my right hip started to ache. ARGH. The Bay Area Fit schedule calls for 10 miles tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

I realized that missing the HMSA 25K (I'll be out of town) means that I will no longer be in the running for the BARC Ironfoot and the HARRA Ironfoot. Sadness. I've never gotten one -- because I always miss a race due to travel.

Good luck to Jen and Cassie at the New York Marathon this weekend!

I know yesterday was Halloween, yet somehow I was still surprised to wake up and discover that it's November. Seriously! November? Where did the year go?

I've been playing around with Google Reader lately as a new way of reading the many blogs and news sites that I like to keep up with on a daily basis. Despite loving the web, I've never used a feed reader until now. And while it certainly makes things easier and faster -- I don't click through a long list of blogs when only a quarter of them have actually been updated -- I find that I miss the blog itself. I miss whatever template the person has used, and whatever colors used to greet me on the screen. I find that without seeing the blog template, it is not as easy for me to identify whose blog I'm actually reading.

Halloween was a rousing success, if by "rousing success" you actually mean "complete bummer." I've had class on Wednesday nights all fall, and last night was no exception. Instead of trick-or-treaters, I was learning about home video, digital audio, and watching a Science Channel show about the development of the iPod. It was interesting, but not the most exciting way to spend Halloween. When I left at 10:00 it was foggy and a little spooky though, so I'll take what I can get.

It's been sort of a weird week so far. Work is slow, with most of my officemates off working the mission, which has turned into quite the ordeal. First it was the finicky solar array rotation joint, which has been vibrating and showing electrical spikes. When the astronauts checked it out, they found metal shavings inside, apparent indication of grinding. Not good. Then, while redeploying another solar array, they found a rip in the seam of the panel. Also not good. The torn solar array has now become the biggest priority and people all over are scurrying around coming up with fixes and procedures. Nothing much for rendezvous to do except try to figure out when we're going to undock, but there's still a lot going on. To add a bit of time, they have also decided to land on a descending opportunity -- i.e. the shuttle will pass over Canada and the continental U.S. on its way to landing, instead of over the ocean, Mexico and the Gulf Coast like it does for an ascending approach. That means a lot more work for all the entry folks.

As for me, I'm just sitting around, listening. President Bush (the first one) visited Mission Control today, but I missed hearing him talk to the crew because I was in the cafeteria eating lunch. I thought he was coming later in the afternoon. Oh well. Apparently one of my coworkers got to give him a pin, and explain what we do after he stopped at our console and asked "what does rendezvous do?" Pretty cool.