Daily: November 2006 Archives

Run run run. I've run three days in a row now. Perhaps a Keith-like streak is in order? Highly doubtful, but hey, three days in a row is a lot for me. Since I ran pretty fast (for me) on Tuesday, I took it easier last night. I'm still having some problems with a reoccurance of the shin splints, thought last night it was only my left leg. Odd. I did 3 miles in 33:40 -- something like 11:25, 11:35, and 10:40. I didn't mean to speed up in the last mile but I did. I almost always do, unconsciously.

I added a few more pieces to the puzzle last night. Now that the border is done, filling in the middle is going to be much more difficult. I decided to start with the light pieces and made about 15 connections in an hour. For fun, I started a Flickr set where I'll post "puzzle status updates" as they happen. You can then either make fun of me for how slow I'm going, or congratulate me for being such a puzzle whiz!

In other news, it's going to get cold here tonight. For some reason, this is all anyone has been able to talk about for the past 24 hours. There's a front coming! It's 70 now but it's going to be 33 tonight! Wind, rain, cold, the END OF THE WORLD! The local news was on in the background while I was puzzle-working last night, and they kept on returning to the impending DOOM weather. From what I can tell, it's not like we're going to have hail and fire and brimstone. It's just going to rain, and get really cold. Coldest of the year, sure, but just cold. Houstonians are weird about weather.

I was busy all day yesterday and have a full schedule tomorrow, but today I have nothing. I'm in the office all day. That means reading, reading, reading. On Tuesday I finished the intro section on ground-targeted rendezvous burns. Today I start on the on-board targeted burns. Read read read. Learn learn learn.

I found out yesterday that I probably won't be able to start sims for my new position until May. I was a bit disappointed to hear that, even though I wasn't totally surprised since there is one person ahead of me in the training flow who just started in September, and he will be taking most/all of the sims. Rationally, I know that I have plenty of stuff to keep my busy until then -- finishing my off-console tasks for ARD Support, preparing for and working STS-117, mentoring the next ARD Support trainee, taking care of much or all of my rendezvous reading, and maybe even training for a rendezvous or proximity operations analyst position. And I can also go watch sims to prepare myself for working them. So yes, I have plenty to do. But...

But May just seems like a long time from now. I finally moved to my new office, my job is finally gathering steam in a direction that I'm excited to go, but I have to wait. Which is unfortunate, because I'm impatient. Things are looking up, and I want everything now! :)

Update: Apparently the cold front has already come through. When I walked in 1.5 hours ago, I was wearing short sleeves and was perfectly comfortable. Now, the weather station on top of my building says it's 48 degrees. I didn't bring running clothes for 48. Guess I'll be on the treadmill tonight.

Enjoy this cool Flickr set that I came across, where famous landmarks are replaced by souvenirs. Sounds weird, but is really neat.

My running has been pretty inconsistent this fall. I know I'll be ready to cover the half marathon distance in January, but I'm not so sure I'll be ready to run it in any sort of decent time. My longest run to-date is the 11-miler I did (rather stupidly) with June and Erica. On my own, my longest run is a 10K. I need to up the quality long runs, and soon. I ran last night for the first time since the 25K relay. With my cert sim and going out of town, I didn't fit in any runs. I was surprised to find that I actually felt pretty good last night during my 3.5 easy miles on the treadmill. I plan to run again tonight, but unfortunately it will be on the treadmill again since I won't be leaving work until at least 5:30. Stupid early darkness.

Last night Jose and I watched last Thursday's Tivoed episode of Survivor. I've watched the show on and off over the years, but I've really gotten into this season for some reason. There's one guy, Ozzy, that I totally have a crush on. He's the only one of all of them that I believe actually could survive on his own in the wilderness, you know, without a TV crew and stuff. For that, I think he totally deserves to win. He's like a monkey and a fish in one. He climbs trees! He spearfishes! He can hold his breath, like, forever! He's by far the coolest castaway.

Afterwards, we got into a debate. Normally I don't like debating/arguing, but I'll make an exception for Jose because, well, yeah. The fundamental question was whether everyone's brain is created equal -- do all brains have the same capability or potential for intelligence? My supposition is that all brains have equal capability to be intelligent, but that different brains are predisposed to different types of intelligence. Some brains are good at math, some brains are good at art, etc. Jose's stance is that all brains are equal, and all brains are capable of understanding everything. It's a similar idea but not quite the same; he argued that brains that are good at math are only "better" at it than others because they'd had more math classes, or because they were just interested in math. But I maintain that for reasons unknown, some brains are just interested in different things and thus better at different things. Just like some people are faster, or some people are stronger, or some people are skinnier. Those are physiological differences that are understood, but I say that just because the brain isn't totally understood doesn't mean it can't work in similar ways. I think that some people are probably born with a predisposition to be better at repairing cars while other people are prepared to be better at writing novels.

Of course, it's not like I've done any serious study on the brain, so it's all just my ideas without much factual basis. So. Anyway.

From that, we eventually ended up talking about personality, socioeconomic concerns, and what's the definition of "smart" anyway? Can you really say that I'm smarter than an auto mechanic just because I have two college degrees and what's considered a white collar job while he graduated from high school and went straight to his blue collar profession? He can't do aerospace engineering, but on the flip side, I can't fix my own car! We're both tech-saavy, and I'm sure I could learn how to fix my car. But I bet he could also learn aerospace engineering if given the chance. At this point, I'd argue that everything comes down to socioeconomic status and what kind of situation you happened to be born into. Brains might be capable of anything, but it's still next-to-impossible to significantly alter your socioeconomic standing in today's society. Hmm...

I passed!

I passed, I passed, I passed. La la la la la.

I am a certified ARD Support Officer! (Well, I will be once I finish the rest of my pesky off-console, i.e. non-sim, tasks.)

No one should ever be required to certify during a FDO/Booster sim. For non-NASA folks, these sims are different from normal ascents because we generally stop each run right after the engines cut off, instead of continuing with some of the early orbit procedures. It means we end up doing 6 or 7 ascents in four hours, instead of our usual average of 4.

I felt brain-dead after 4 runs, and I still had 3 to go! It was perhaps the most intense 4 hours of my entire life. But it's done, and I passed, and I even got a "you guys kicked butt" comment from the guy who's been an ascent flight controller since, like, the dawn of time. That felt good. Really good.

I worked my first sim on December 20, 2005 and I passed my Cert on November 22, 2006. When I started this whole thing my goal was to finish in less than a year, and I did. I'm happy. I'm relieved. I'm ready for a BIG OL' NAP. :)

I probably won't be online again until Sunday night. Here's wishing everyone out in blogger-land a very happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!

Last night was the coldest thus far this season. The thermometer read 43 when I left the apartment at 6:45 this morning, so I'm betting it was under 40 at some point. There was white stuff -- frost! -- on the ground. Craziness. The extremes in weather are amazing; I think I was complaining about heat just a few weeks ago.

The change in weather is always both nice and unwelcome. My body doesn't react as well as it used to when the temperatures shift over a short period of time. I woke up Sunday with a slight sore throat. It was followed yesterday by general aches, and those have only intensified today. I slept horribly last night, tossing and turning and having dreams that I was late to this morning's sim. And late to tomorrow morning's sim. Taking Advil every 5-6 hours seems to be working, but I certainly hope I kick this thing fast. Just my luck to get sick in time for my big sim tomorrow morning and going to Corpus for Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow morning's sim is my Final Cert. You might wonder why I haven't mentioned it much, and certainly not nearly as obsessively as I talked about my Cert Qual a few weeks ago. To be honest, I don't know why I haven't talked about it as much. I was so nervous leading up to my Cert Qual, but I'm not feeling as much pressure this time. I'm not sure if that's because I think I can handle it or because I think there's no chance of me handling it (I'm going to see 6-7 runs, which is 2-3 more than normal, and they're going to be crazy because of the type of sim it is). I hope it's the former. It's very important; it's my Final. If I pass, I will be a certified ARD Support Officer and will be clear to work the launch of STS-117 next spring.

Wish me luck!

On Wednesday, the first live high definition broadcast from space was featured on Discovery HD. Michael Lopez-Alegria gave a 20-minute tour of the space station for Space Station Live. I don't get that channel, so I couldn't Tivo it (oh Tivo, can't you go beyond the limits of my cable package?), but JSC kindly replayed it today in the auditorium for anyone interested.

The HD video is stunning, as was to be expected. But to me the more surprising thing was the audio. In addition to the HD video signal, they were broadcasting very high quality audio as well. It was unlike anything I've ever heard from space. I'm used to hearing the astronauts come through with static, gaps, and some garbles, not to mention the ever-present beeping of the UHF comm system: *beep* "Roger that." *beep*

This audio was completely clear. Soooo clear. Almost too clear -- you could hear every bump and click. It was like Lopez-Alegria was standing right in the room with you.

Very cool.

I'm feeling better about what I have on my plate. See, I kept telling myself that not only did I need to read 300+ hours of material, but I needed to retain all of it. Yes, I know it sounds silly to say that I don't actually need to remember what I read, but what I mean is that I don't need to remember every nitty gritty little detail. That's why it's written down. That's why we have manuals and checklists and procedures and handbooks. I just need to start getting the basic concepts, and the rest will follow.

JD, I did exactly as you suggested and went for a run last night. Unfortunately it wasn't a great run, but a run is a run and I'm counting it. I wasn't prepared for the wind (gusts up to 60 mph!) or the chill, so I ran inside on the treadmill. That's probably the cause of the blah-ness. Treadmill runs are no fun. I ran 3.5 miles at a very leisurely pace, finishing in about 40:00. Today I'm better prepared for the weather and the wind has calmed down, so hopefully I'll hit the Gilruth trail after work.

Something's broken with the HARRA website's Google Maps hack. Google upgraded something, and I have to figure out how to make it work again. This is easier said than done, considering I have no real web coding expertise. Hmph. Hopefully people will be patient with me, but I feel a lot of pressure to get it back up and running.

This afternoon I'm giving a presentation to a group of work people about the collaboration we've done and now do with the FAA during shuttle entries. That's one task I'll miss now that I've moved down the hall. The FAA guys were fun and funny, and the work was cool.

When faced with a big change, most people take a day or so to adjust and get on with things. If it's even bigger, they might take a few days, or even a week. Whatever that normal time is, multiply it by at least a week. Then you'll have the time it takes for a crazy person like me to adjust to changes.

I'm in a new office. It feels weird. There are people behind me, which I'm not crazy about because it's weird to think someone might be looking at the back of my head. There are people in front of me, which is also weird because they're always in my line of sight. I have to turn to the right instead of the left when I come out of the elevator. I use a different bathroom. It all just feels weird.

Those are the little things. Those are the things I'll get used to in a few days.

But then there's the new work, and the reading, oh WOW, the reading. I talked to my mentor yesterday, to ask him what I need to do to get started in my training as a Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Officer. Now, I knew that the early stages of this job would involve a lot of reading, and yet...

He pulls out the training guide, and starts to go through the lessons that are required over the course of the training flow. This lesson takes 40 hours to complete. That one takes 20. This one over here takes 2, but there are 20 other lessons just like it. The total number of reading hours starts to climb. 100 hours...200 hours...300 hours...

Visions of being stuck at my desk behind a mound of paper for the next three months start to fill my head. Anxiety builds. It's like being back in school! I start to freak out a little.

I think about the best place to start. I procrastinate by taking care of something else on my to-do list. I think some more about where I should start. I go get a coke. I talk to someone else about how I just don't know where to start! I don't know if my child-of-the-80s short attention span can concentrate for 300+ hours of reading. I get more and more stressed out.

I'll be certifying for my first flight control position next week (with any luck). When I started training a year ago, I stressed and worried and procrastinated enough about the background reading that I got to the point where I started working sims without having read much at all. But with sims, I could figure things out as I went along; I'm much better when I've experienced something than when I've just read about it. If I saw a case in a sim that stumped me; I talked it out with my mentor and then read the training manual to get the final nitty gritty information.

That approach, for better or for worse, has worked very well for me. But it's not going to work this time. There's too much that I need to know in advance, and too much I need to understand before I can get thrown into a rendezvous sim and actually do anything.

When faced with a seemingly endless stream of things to do, I figure that the best thing to do is to jump in and just get started somewhere, anywhere. But for a planner like me, it's easier said than done.

Paralysis by analysis.

I've just got to jump in.

I have tomorrow off work in honor of Veteran's Day, so today is like Friday and I'm enjoying it. Today is also that day that I'm finally moving down the hall to my new office, new group, and new job. This move is proceeding just like every other move in my life: I procrastinated until the very last minute and then found myself frantically throwing things into boxes in random order.

Yesterday evening while I was at a sim (which, on another note, was the perfect sim; it was tough, I saw cases I hadn't seen before, I didn't mess up too badly, and the small mistakes taught me a lot of really good lessons; it was everything a sim should be), a tech came into my office and unplugged my computer. Now it sits on my desk, unplugged, but not moved. My boxes have not been moved either. My phone, however, has been moved, so my calls go down the hall while I remain sitting here.

The guy who came yesterday had the job of unplugging my computer. Someone else has the job of physically moving it down the hall. A third person has the job of plugging it back in. At no point am I allowed to think about touching it and/or moving it myself.

Yep, I love my government job.

Whew. My rep in the U.S. House is no longer Tom Delay, and is no longer nobody. I now have a Democratic rep: Nick Lampson. He was my rep when I first moved down here, and now he is my rep again. Yay. Thanks to Delay's totally sketchy efforts to redistrict Texas, Lampson lost his seat two years ago, likely would have lost again had Delay run, and now will probably keep the seat for the minimum of two years before losing in 2008 to the Republican who lost yesterday only because she wasn't actually on the ballot; she was a write-in candidate because Delay resigned too late. Even as a write-in, she got 62,000 votes (Lampson got 77,000). I expect her to win handily in 2008. Unfortunately.

Such is life for a Democrat in Texas.

Jose and I ran last night, 3 miles in 34:11. It's faster than he's run since the spring. I think it was because he was worried that we were out on the trail in the rapidly deepening dark. We headed out at about 5:15, so by the time we were coming through the home stretch it was pretty hard to see. He says my night vision must be better; that may be true, and I spotted runners ahead of us more quickly than he did, but I think I'm just used to it. I've run in the dark on the trail before, and I know that trail like the back of my hand. I know where all the quarter-mile markers are, and where each turn is. I'm not too worried about my safety, because the trail is well-paved. I suppose I could get attacked by a deer, but I figure they have better night vision than me and can get out of my way. :)

Jose and I worry about totally different things. He worries about running in the dark, or driving in a big thunderstorm, or making sure I lock the door when I'm home alone. I worry about the intangibles. Bottom line: I worry about ifs and maybes and things I can't control, and he worries about things he can.

His way is probably better.

Sometimes you have good days, and some days you have crappy days. Sometimes they sneak up on you and are bad for no apparent reason. Yesterday was one of those. I was grumpy, I was tired, it was mostly gray outside, and I was sore as alllllll get out thanks to Sunday's 11-mile run followed 8 hours later by a very physical soccer game. Somehow I managed to come away with a contusion on my left leg, just to the right of my shin. I'm not quite sure how this happened, considering that part of my leg is covered pretty well by a shinguard.

I was ready to leave work by about 1:00, but managed to make it through the rest of the day. On my way to class, I got rained on. "Perfect," I thought, and sighed.

Class was fun, though, and got me out of my funk. We met in a different building and room, where the professor has set up a basic photography studio complete with two softboxes, three strobes, and assorted accessories. It's missing a couple ingredients that would make it a really quality studio, like a couple hot lamps and some reflectors, but I'm very excited to have access to anything, period. (Hmm. I could just donate some cheap reflectors. All you really need in a pinch is a reflective car sun shade from Walmart.) I don't have an immediate need for studio space, but I'm planning to go over and just play around to get some more experience working with studio lights.

Tonight is the first weeknight in a while where nothing is planned. I am looking forward to going for a run, going out to dinner with my boy, and having a relaxing evening.

On another note, last night I started looking at wetsuits, since they are highly recommended for the Half Ironman in April. Wetsuits are expensive!! I had no idea. Wonder if I can get a deal somewhere...

Last night was the coldest night this fall (it got down to ~45 degrees), and of course we had to play a softball double-header. After 4+ years here, I'm afraid that I've lost any small amount of cold-resistance that I ever had. It was 55 degrees and windy vduring softball, and I was cold! We had a good night though, winning one game and losing one. Any night we come away with a win is a good night.

This week has worn me out. I have little motivation to do anything this afternoon.

Life has been interesting lately. And busy. Too busy. It's only Thursday, but it has been a very rough week.

First there was the fact that I didn't go out of town as planned last weekend. I was stressed out and had too much studying to do, so I didn't go. But then, of course, not going stressed me out, and made me sad.

Then there was my cert qual, which thankfully went well. Still -- a major source of stress.

Then there's the steady stream of evening activities that have left me with just about zero personal time this week. I get antsy and anxious when I have no personal time, and as much as I enjoy hanging out with friends and watching classic Japanese movies (like last night), it doesn't count as personal time.

Then's there just life in general. I have always been a bit of a worrier, especially when it comes to major life changes. I like plans, and I like to know what's coming. Major life changes scare me. Major life changes freak me out. I even get freaked out over other people's major life changes.

Next week I finally move to my new job, the one I got back in August. I got the job almost three months ago, and yet until next week, nothing has changed. I haven't started training for Rendezvous GPO. In fact, I know basically nothing about rendezvous; I will be starting from zero. I'm a little scared, and a lot intimidated.

I'm stressed. I need a vacation. I really want to go see Jen out in west Texas next weekend, but I'd need to be there by early Friday morning and I have to be at work till 9 on Thursday night. That pretty much rules out any reasonable means of getting to El Paso (i.e. commercial flight or driving). Anybody got a rocket I can borrow?

Today's weather would be great for a run, but I've got two hours of softball tonight instead. I haven't really been in the mood for softball this season; not sure why. Maybe I'll take next season off and just sub. Multiple people have pointed out to me that softball is an athletic activity and that I'll run some during the game; however, I should point out that I'm really not a very good hitter, and therefore never have to run any farther than first base. :)

June and Vic, I think I'm going to join you on Sunday morning.

I PASSED!

I passed, with only a few mistakes. (For reference, to have zero mistakes is practically unheard of.) Afterwards, I was declared ready for my certification sim! My final cert is scheduled for November 22. There's no question that it will be another tough sim, just as difficult as last night's, but in my mind, last night was the real test. If I hadn't done well last night, my final cert wouldn't be on the schedule, and without my final cert done by December, I wouldn't get to work STS-117 in March! Which would be sad. So hooray for none of that happening.

Now I just have to come up with some kind of Thanksgiving cookie to bribe my evaluators with at my final...

This morning, as part of the push to get me certified, I went over and had a class in one of the SSTs -- a big mockup of all the switches and displays in the shuttle cockpit. We talked about crew procedures and I got to do them myself and I must say: there is something very satisfying about actually flicking switches and hearing them click.

And.... I signed up for the Lonestar Half Ironman on April 1. I paid the money, so I have to do it now, right?? :)