Relocation time

Last night of the midnight shift...for now, at least. My body can tell it's the last shift because it's on the verge of shutting down. The human body is just not meant to be awake at these hours and every time I work this shift I experience the consequences. Fortunately, I have it lucky. There are other flight controllers who work this shift 7 days straight, with two of those days being 12 hour shifts. I'll take five days over 7 anytime...

Tonight was special, though, because I got to witness a Soyuz relocate. I know that means very little to most people who read this and about as exciting as a mouse fart so I won't bore you with details. The Russian capsule that the crew members have been using to get to the space station is docked to a certain location on the ISS space station. For reasons not worth mentioning, it was moved to another location on the station. The reason why this is such a critical activity is because the crew has to get all suited up within the Soyuz in case something goes wrong, the Soyuz can't redock, and they have to come home. But that's not why I bring it up.

As you can imagine, there are multiple cameras on the outside surface of the space station, some of which were able to capture this relocate. In a word: breathtaking. The redocking took place as the space station was making it's way over the Sahara Desert and was complete somewhere over the western edge of the Mediterranian Sea. It's not the kind of view most people get to see everyday. Or anyday. The brown of the sand juxtaposed with the deep blue of the sea is an amazing site and really makes me appreciate the diversity of our planet. How can a land so dry border the ocean? Simply incredible.

Happy thought of the day: Getting off of work, hopping on a plane, and flying to New York for Thanksgiving

Song quote of the day: "The best thing about New York City is you and me."

A new way of looking at things

Tonight I told someone that this morning around 5a.m., while playing an annoyingly addictive word game on Yahoo!, my brain just wasn't functioning at its maximum capacity. Not surprising since I had been up all night doing very little at work which is not something you're supposed to admit when your work is in Mission Control. However, the crew is usually very autonomous and the less I have to do, the better. But that's beside the point. What I had actually said was it felt like the inner workings of my brain were running at full speed, grinding away in all their cognitive glory, while the front end, the user interface, if you will, was doing nothing. Like the gear box connecting the two was missing so that while one part was at full capacity, nothing was happening up front. It's a strange metaphor but eerily accurate when it comes to how it actually felt.

On a separate note, have you ever looked at someone you know through the eyes of someone who does not know them? I've found (at it's no huge discovery) that the longer we get to know someone, the more comfortable our view of them becomes. When our gaze hits the face of a friend, our processing of the face not only involves the curves and lines and tones unique to that person, but their personality also. Everything we know about that person, all our experiences and memories, all contribute to how we perceive that person to look. Try looking at someone as if they were a stranger. Like you had never seen them before and you're scanning them to create a first impression of their attractiveness. It takes a little practice but the results are interestingly strange. Or strangely interesting.

It's kind of like looking at yourself in the mirror, I mean really staring yourself down, and having to wrestle with the concept of self. Your mind knows that the body it sees before itself is the physical manifestation of the entity you know to be yourself. That is, the body in the mirror is "you". If I stare long enough (and maybe it's just me) the little voice in my head begins to realize that the body it sees is only that, a body, and that the person I know to be myself, my consciousness, lies somewhere else. It doesn't quite realize that all this is going on in the brain which is, in fact, part of the body because my self isn't all that bright. All this makes me wonder if one day it will be possible remove the consciousness from this body and put it somewhere else. Not that I want to, of course, because I'm perfectly content with where I am. I just think that if a separation between mind and body does exist, then this moment of clarity while staring in the mirror is the greatest proof of it.

Like I said, it's amazing what I can come up with at four in the morning.

Happy thought of the day: Only one more night of midnight Mission Control.

Partial song lyric of the day: "Well I know these voices must be my soul..."

10 quick years have come and gone

In a week and a half my high school class will be convening at a banquet hall to eat and drink and catch up with everyone after all these years. I will be going. I don't know why.

I do know why. It's because my friend wants to go and he wants me to come along. I couldn't convince my brother to go and after looking at the list of people who will be attending, I really don't blame the guy. These are people that I grew up with. I had some classmates who I went to school with from the first day of elementary school to the last day of high school. Others I met along the way. Most, however, had very little impact on my life. Those that were important to me have stuck around in my life. Mostly. There are some people that I lost touch with and this I regret, but such is the way of life. My point being that I really don't care if I ever see most of these people ever again. Before I saw the list I though it would be a good idea but now that I know that the people I would actually like to see aren't even going to be there I've lost my desire to attend. The only catch is that a friend of mine (you remember my friend?) has already payed his money and I don't want to ditch out on him. So I haven't. My money has been paid and I'm going to the reunion.

The thing that bothers me the most, and it bothers me that it bothers me, is that I feel like this is going to be one big judgement festival. Who's successful, who's not? Who's married? Who's still single? Who's in prison? Who's out on parole? You get the idea. Because, really, why else would anybody attend? Truth is, like myself, most people have kept in touch with the people that they wanted to keep in touch with. I'll admit that I'm curious to see how a few people turned out. I like to think that I've done a decent job with my life. I've gotten a few degrees, landed myself an interesting job, and well...that's it I guess. What I'm not looking forward to is spending three hours meeting everyone's significant others and hearing about the wonderful babies. Or repeating my story over and over again until I get to the point of just making things up to keep myself entertained.

I'm also partially embarrassed to admit that I'm still single. My situation is definitely not unique but I used to think that by this point in my life I would have made a little more progress in that area. I haven't. I'm not necessarily concerned what everyone thinks about this fact and I'm not conceited enough to think they even care. Just like I don't care about their spouses and babies (though I'm sure they're just adorable) my former peers aren't really going to give two shits about my marital status. It bothers me, especially as I quickly approach my 28th birthday in a week. It shouldn't bother me. I know this. On a day to day basis I don't even think about it as I tend to enjoy the things I get to do as a single person.

I'm not happy with this post but seeing how I've spent a good chunk of time writing it I'll keep it for now. This will be a lesson to myself not to write entries at 4am. Read it while you can because there' s a good chance it'll be gone be tomorrow.

The midnight shift strikes again!

Expect a lot of posts this week. I'm working the graveyard shift once again and this is really the best way of keeping awake. That also means what I do write will be grossly incoherent and about as random as a donkey in a pinball factory.

Answer of the day: Ringmaster. I was a ringmaster. From a circus. On a side note, I apparantly wear a size 10 women's jacket (it's hard to get a bright red men's coat...).

Happy thought of the day: My loyal readers, who have pushed my hit counter above the 1000 mark. If you were that 1000th person, let me know. I have a toaster waiting for you.

The midnight shift strikes again!

Expect a lot of posts this week. I'm working the graveyard shift once again and this is really the best way of keeping awake. That also means what I do write will be grossly incoherent and about as random as a donkey in a pinball factory.

Answer of the day: Ringmaster. I was a ringmaster. From a circus. On a side note, I apparantly wear a size 10 women's jacket (it's hard to get a bright red men's coat...).

Happy thought of the day: My loyal readers, who have pushed my hit counter above the 1000 mark. If you were that 1000th person, let me know. I have a toaster waiting for you.

The midnight shift strikes again!

Expect a lot of posts this week. I'm working the graveyard shift once again and this is really the best way of keeping awake. That also means what I do write will be grossly incoherent and about as random as a donkey in a pinball factory.

Happy thought of the day: My loyal readers, who have pushed my hit counter above the 1000 mark. If you were that 1000th person, let me know. I have a toaster waiting for you.

A belated Halloween picture

This year a friend of mine decided to throw a Murder Mystery Dinner for our Halloween party. It turned out to be quite interesting and everyone's costume was top notch. Well, almost everyone. I showed a picture of my costume to a friend and she thought I was going as a pimp. I was not a pimp. Here's the photo:


Riddle me this: Does this look like a pimp costume to you?
I'd like to know what you think I was actually going as.

Engineers Without Borders

It's taken me far too long to post this but I've found myself with some time on my hands so this has turned into the perfect opportunity to tell you about an organization I'm a part of. We're called Engineers Without Borders, though the chapter I belong is is EWB-Houston Central.

Although we're not affiliated with the much more well known Doctors Without Borders, we do share a common goal: improving the lives of those less fortunate than us around the world. In our case, we do it through improvements in community infrastructure, whether it be building a school house, providing a means for energy production, or digging a well. We're not taking huge steps in changing the world but we do what we can, one village at a time.

We're currently involved in a variety of projects, the most pressing at this time (on the national level) is tsunami reconstruction. As you can imagine, these projects involve rebuilding the communities that were damaged/destroyed by the tsunami in Southeast Asia last December. But that's just one of the projects.

We are also working towards the construction of a retaining wall for a village outside the capitol of El Salvador. It's not very glamorous but to the people who can't travel on the road during the rainy season because half of it has eroded down the hillside, it's an important project.

Closer to my heart (because it involves power tools) is the construction of an windmill turbine.

The most impressive thing about this windmill is the fact that most of it was constructed in someone's living room. The impetus for constructing this windmill is to come up with alternative ways to produce electricity. When EWB goes into communities for this purpose, they typically install solar panels or gas-powered generators. The problem arises when these devices break. These communities will most likely not have the technology to repair a solar cell. The generator is mechanical enough where the village might have the resources to do some work on it. But then there's the issue of supplying fuel, which may be hard to come by and expensive. The theory behind the windmill is that it's technologically simple and maintenance costs are small or non-existant. Sounds like a good solution to me. Of course, windmills need wind so this type of device isn't appropriate for every location. That's in addition to the fact that we still need to determine if this type of electrical generation is adequate for a community's needs. It's a work in progress but it gives us a chance to get our hands dirty and actually build something.

Like any non-profit organization, we are in desperate need of money. If you're interested in making a donation (it's tax deductable) you can go here and make sure you specify the Houston-Central chapter. Or you can go to fundable.org and play a little donation game.

This really wasn't meant to be a plea for money, as I tend to shy away from hitting up my friends (yes, you are all my friends) for donations. My main intent was to make everyone aware that an organization like this exists, and chapters can be found around the country. If you are an engineer, or anyone with any kind of skill (financial, marketing, fundraising, etc.) and would like to be involved, please visit the EWB-USA site and find out how you can participate. It's a great organization with a great vision and the more people that get involved, the more we can make a difference in the world.

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Ok Sara, I did it. Now get off my back.

The pictures are finally in!

Most of them, at least. This is a continuation of my previous post of the zero gravity plane ride I took. I've finally collected the photos from everyone who took'em (minus one person who's taking her sweet time). If you want to check them out (and I don't see why you wouldn't) you can find them here:
http://alwaysgoodtimes.smugmug.com/gallery/885577