Daily: April 2008 Archives

After weeks of discussing the nuances of Guitar Hero 3 in the office after a bunch of my coworkers gave the game to their kids for Christmas, Ray decided it was time for RGPOGH32K8 Playoffs. (That's Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Guitar Hero 3 2008 Playoffs, in case you were wondering.) There was much trash talking prior to the event, and I actually got a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to live up to my reputation. However, I am proud to report that I am the official RGPOGH32K8 Champion.

Here's a photo of my Guitar Hero glory. Comments are Ray's. He keep muttering some nonsense about how I "ruined" his game by calibrating it, despite the fact that everyone agreed that the timing was off prior to said calibration. :)

Click on the photo if you would like to enlarge the bracket to check out songs, scores, and difficulty.

Yes, Guitar Hero is my TUSP* and I'm not ashamed to say it.

* Totally Useless Superpower

Last night at the Astros home opener against the Cardinals, I had the single worst experience I have ever had at Minute Maid Park when I ended up in line for 25 minutes waiting for two pizzas and a coke (at the bargain price of $19.25 I might add) and missed 2.5 innings of the game. I am not even going to go into detail because if I think about it again, steam might come out of my ears. And this was after waiting for 20 minutes in the will call line to get our tickets. When we got to the front, they gave me my tickets for every game that I'd already ordered for this season, from last night through September 28. No wonder the line was taking so long. Why on earth didn't they just print the tickets for last night's game in an effort to shorten the lines??

The game itself was a good one. Wandy Rodriguez battled the Cardinals in a pitcher's duel until the Astros went ahead 2-0 in the 7th on back-to-back home runs by Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee. Wandy left the game after 7 1/3 and Brocail finished the 8th. The Asros added a third run in the 8th on another solo shot by new catcher J.R. Towles. Then came the top of the 9th.

Over the off-season, the Astros finally parted ways with sometimes-awesome, sometimes-crappy closer Brad Lidge. He was never really the same after that home run that Pujols hit off him in the 2005 NLCS, but that's another story. In his place, the team picked up Jose Valverde, a fairly solid closer who will hopefully pitch well this year. However, he didn't exactly pitch well last night.

Valverde promptly gave up three runs, with the third scoring on a play at the plate where the runner knocked the ball out of the catcher's hands. Tie game. Wandy's win gone and replaced with a no decision. I sighed a big sigh and sat down, hoping that this wasn't a harbinger of what the rest of the season will be like.

Things turned out well though. Carlos Lee led off the bottom of the 9th with a single, and Miguel Tejada hit the 4th home run of the game to give the Astros the walk-off win by a score of 5-3 (which, ironically, is the opposite of their current record after 8 games).

The game was over so fast (about 2 hours and 5 minutes) that I was home just after 9:00 and got to watch the second half of the NCAA championship! I gotta admit, a fast baseball game is pretty nice sometimes.

On Wednesday, I had my cert sim for my position as Rendezvous Procedures Support (RPS). It's a backroom flight control position for the shuttle supporting the Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Officer (RGPO) in the front room of Mission Control. I passed! As soon as I finish the rest of my off-console tasks, I'll be officially certified! I will work STS-124 in June and then start training for RGPO after that. Very exciting. (I've also been assigned to my first flight as lead RGPO for STS-129. However, that flight is a very long time away. Sigh.) The sim was hard, and I felt like there were some things that I could have done better, but overall I'm happy to have passed.

Because I had a long day on Wednseday, I was able to take off early yesterday for my first ride on my new tri bike! I am in love with it, so much so that I even made it the wallpaper of my phone. It is so pretty! And shiny! For now, I'm calling it Red, for obvious reasons. (It is red.)

It was a good ride. I made it short, only 9 miles, because I wanted just long enough to get a feel for the bike without starting to get uncomfortable. Observations:

• The aero position, where I'm down on the bars with my arms tucked in and streamlined, is new to me and I expect an increase in back aches and neck aches as I adjust. I could feel my neck tightening after only 20 minutes.
• This bike, due to a combination of being lighter and putting me in aero position, also feels less stable. I don't trust myself at slow speeds in the aerobars -- I just can't maneuver very well. But I expected that.
• This bike is light! As I stood outside my apartment waiting for Garmin to find some satellites, the bike was leaning against my legs. A big gust of wind came along (it was very windy yesterday evening) and almost blew the bike over!
• I'm faster on Red. At one point, I looked down and I was going 25 mph. Granted, this was just after a slight downhill and was with the wind at my back, but still. I never go that fast. Even when I turned back into the wind to head home, I never saw my speed drop below 15 mph. I averaged 16 mph for the ride, and that was with a ton of wind, including stops at stoplights, and taking the first 5 minutes super easy.
• The seat that came with the bike is not so comfortable. After only 10 minutes I was in pain! I will definitely be looking for a new saddle.
• I remembered why I usually avoid riding outdoors immediately after work. Way way WAY too many cars on their way home for the day.

The official Lonestar photos are online, so here are two for you to enjoy. In the first one, I've got my bike gloves in my mouth. Strange, I know, but it was only a few tenths of a mile into the bike and I hadn't put my gloves on yet. I prefer to just grab them in transition and wrangle them on while riding. For short races, I don't even wear them.

From the photos, you might not guess that it was sunny enough to burn my shoulders to a crisp. Burn them enough that they took until last night to recover even enough to start peeling. Yeah. Awesome. I will have some great tan lines for the near-strapless dress I'm wearing for Karen's wedding next weekend. In other news: I am an idiot who apparently cannot apply sunscreen correctly.

Lots on tap for the weekend after a change of plans that means Jose and I are not going to Corpus Christi. BAM meeting tomorrow morning, volunteering at the BAM water station at Angie's Half Crazy on Sunday morning. Anybody out there running this one?