A little of this...A little of that...

Not too much to report about tonight, but there are a few things.

Heather and I saw "The Da Vinci Code" tonight. We both read the book and enjoyed it, so we figured we'd enjoy the movie. No surprise, the movie was entertaining...but very hollywood-ized. what else would one expect?

Last night, Finding Reason had a meeting to discuss our future projects and how were were going to handle them. Our new drummer didn't show up...typical drummers...hehe. No, he had some personal issues to take care of, so we met and ate without him. We, for the umpteenth time, decided when to meet and how we would orchestrate our future jam sessions. We just need to keep up with our plans. We also starting generating ideas for font/logo work for Finding Reason.

The next shuttle flight is progressing nicely. If things stick to schedule we'll be launching the first of July. Work is busy as ever, with getting ready for this flight and the subsequent flights, planning out the next 6 month increment, of which i am lead for my group, etc. I stay pretty busy.

Heather completed her first week of her new job. So far things are going well. We'll see how things go when she actually leaves for a spell.

Tomorrow, i'll be mowing the lawn and doing some general household chores. I suppose i'll try to do some work for Finding Reason.

How was your week?

Music from Todd's Collection

For those of you like me who don't listen to the radio, here are a couple of albums to check out.

1)



This is classic Tool. Tool can be harsh to some listeners and is not suitable for young children, household pets, or some species of fish. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. 10,000 Days is my current choice of driving music.
2)



Ok, you may want to sit down for this. Matisyahu is a Jewish guy that does, get this, reggae! Yep, i said reggae. Before you mutter the words, "No way", it's actually pretty good. It's a mix of reggae and jewish song. Don't get me wrong, it's not Bob Marley, but it is catchy.

Well, that concludes this week's installment of Music from Todd's Collection. I need a better name for this newly formed weekly installment. I'll let my loyal readers dream up the new name. Have fun with it.

Heather's First Day

Today was Heather's first day at her new job. She works for NOAA.






She'll be a platform observer. I believe this week is training and safety seminars. She gets to do some helicopter ops this week too. I'm jealous.

Anyway, stay tuned for more update from our newest NOAA employee.

Astros versus Giants

On Monday, Moose, Heather, and I went to see the Astros battle the San Francisco Giants. It was also a chance to see major league baseball history. Luckily we didn't see the tainted homerun history. We did sit in the zone that would be the location of that history making hit. It was a dismal game for the Astros as they were rocked 10-1. Did see a grand slam, but that wasn't my first time to see a grand slam. But it was neat to see Brad Ausmus playing second base and Andy Pettitte as a pinch hitter. But that was about it...not much else to cheer about. I'll leave you with a few pictures that i took with my Canon S2 IS. By the way, if you are looking for a quality digital camera, I recommend Canon!!


Here's a wide angle shot of our view.


Here's Brad Ausmus, the regular catcher, playing second base.


Here's Andy Pettitte doing a little pinch hitting.


That looks like a 4-seam fastball grip. Pretty impressive to be able to see the grip from where we were.


Here are a few of the signs that were floating around the stadium in reference to Barriod Bonds, er Nancy Bonds, er Barry Bonds.

Severe Storms, Hail, and Loss of Power.

Today at the Horelica residence, we experienced some rather intense storms. Around 2pm, a line of large storms moved through our area, spewing pea-sized and marble-sized hail about the area. A few moments later the power went out. It looked to be a brief power outage, but the power never came back, until 2 hours later. There was no damage in the area...at least not any that i could see from the relative shelter of the house.

Power has been restored and all is well here. How did you fair?

Happy Mother's Day!!!

To all the mothers out there, hope you had a special day today! We wish to thank you for everything you've done for us! For without you we would not be here! Hope it was enjoyable.

Heather becomes a Former Aggie!

Today, on this 13th day of the month of May in the year 2006, Heather graduated from college!!! When you get a chance, congratulate her!!!
She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology from Texas A&M University Galveston.

The weather was pleasant for graduation, but started to get hot later in the day. The Texas A&M officials did not anticipate the large number of guests today and they had to bring in more seats for the guests. I suppose this was the reason i was only allowed 6 tickets for mine. Well, i also had over 2300 graduating in my class and she had 149 people.

We had a nice lunch at the Saltgrass Steakhouse and then a small gathering back at the Horelica residence. It was an enjoyable day.

Here is the new grad sporting her cap and gown.



Heather's yummy cake (red velvet with cream cheese icing)



And here is the unframed diploma. We'll get that framed so that it looks nice.

Today's word brought to you by the letter W.

As i was reviewing a paper that my mentee wrote, I noticed a spelling error. Well, I thought it was a spelling error. I asked Sloan if she used spell checker. She said she did. So, that got me thinking, is Word screwing up again. I put the word into Word and well, the word was actually a real word. Now, my curiosity was peaked. What does this word mean? I know, you want to know the word.

Wether. Sloan typed wether instead of whether. Now, the vocabulary word is not suitable for young children.

Wether:
Pronunciation: 'we-[th]&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, ram, from Old English; akin to Old High German widar ram, Latin vitulus calf, vetus old, Greek etos year
: a male sheep castrated before sexual maturity; also : a castrated male goat

This is a new insult word to add to your bag of tricks.

Fashion Flaws.

The 1960s called and they want their fashion back! It was not cool then, nor is it cool now, to wear a short-sleeved white shirt with a tie. In the 60s and 70s, it was a skinny black tie. Today it was a fatter brown tie, but the effect was the same--lame-o uncool. I know, NASA engineers in the day, that was standard issue dress. But I like to think that today's NASA crowd is a little more image hip. Just look at Tarik--Houston Chronicle's most fashionable. This cat knows how to dress...

So, running shoes or tennis shoes do not go with a dress pants. The only sneaks that go with dress pants or suit pants would be a kick ass pair of Chucks. By the way, for the cool people, design your own Chucks here at Converse one.
Here's a good one: White socks with black pants and a black pair of dress shoes.

What fashion flaws have you seen lately?

A trip down memory lane...

Today, I went to College Station to attend the Texas A&M University's Aero Department Senior class Critical Design Review (CDR). A CDR is a review of a design by other engineers and management, etc. In the case of the Aero students, members of industry and government come to give comments and ask questions. This allows the students to be exposed to tough questions and comments from people that are in the business. It is a very intimidating time for these young engineers, because it's probably their first time to make a presentation to this type of audience.

Anyway, today, i was one of the 19 persons from industry and government. I was the only one affiliated with NASA and the only operations guy there. I was also the youngest of the persons from industry and government. In fact, i was mistaken as a student.

I was impressed with all the presentations, especially the rocket team's presentation. Being a former Rocket Rat, i has a special interest in what they've been up to over the last 7 years. Yes, it has been 7 years since i have graduated from college. Crazy, I know. They have progressed beyond what i could've imagined. They have progressed into launching their hybrid engines. We never progressed beyond static testing on the test stand. The program has really come a long way, and I'm a bit jealous of their accomplishments. The good news is that they are still using the launch tower that our class built.

It was also nice to chat with a few of my old professors. Dr. Pollock is still the same guy i remember. He caught me up to speed on all the goings-on and future plans. He's trying to get a launch site in Angleton. So, hopefully that will go through so that i can actually see a rocket launch. I also spoke briefly with Dr. Carlson and Dr. Valasek. Dr. V will be at JSC next week, so i'll try to meet up with him then.

So, back to the trip down memory lane. It definitely was a trip down memory lane to be back in that building again. The smells were still the same. Walking through some of the classrooms brought back good memories and bad memories. The one classroom that i dreaded was the one in which i had numerical methods in, taught by Debbie Furey. I didn't do well in that class and had to take it twice...both times with Debbie. Luckily i was able to move on after the second time. Another fond memory was just being on campus and making the walk between buildings. From the parking garage, i walked passed a building that i had most of my math classes in. I made the walk to the H.R. "Bum" Bright Bldg from the math building (Blocker). A walk that i had made many times, but this time i didn't have thoughts of did-i-pass-that-test-panics, or when am i gonna get that report written, or did i finish my homework...etc. This time it was a completely enjoyable walk...i was able to stop and take in the scenery! Being back on campus was nice...

Well, that was my trip to College Station and my walk down memory lane. Have you taken a recent trip down memory lane?

Frank, the computer repairman...

Well, the last post describes my problem. This post will describe the solution.
After coming home from a very, very, very early sim today, i checked my phone messages. There was a message from Frank asking me to call him back. Well, with typical repairmen, i figured i'd have to set up an appointment around my schedule and then wait on an arrival window over a 4 hour span. Not so in this case. Frank is the man! He said he was twenty minutes away and could come do the repair right now. This was a shock to me, and since i was home, i was eager to get this thing fixed. About 30 minutes later, Frank is at the door. Luckily i had enough time to do some much needed cleaning before Frank arrived.

Frank is a large man. Large but extremely nice. We headed for the living room to do some laptop repair. Frank is really friendly and we started talking. He asked me if i was some kind of rocket scientist. I was a bit weirded out by that at first, cause i hadn't told him that i was. How did he know that? Well, then he told me he got the information from my voice message at work. I didn't give Dell my work number on Sunday...but i had when i bought this thing...so it was still on file.

Anyway, he asked what i did for a living and i told him. He said, "...kinda like Gene Kranz?" I told him kinda, but not exactly. He proceeded to tell me a story of how he worked on Gene Kranz's computers. He prefaced his story by saying that he didn't know who Gene was. He said he went to this gentleman's house and saw all this space memorabilia and asked Gene what he did for a living. Gene's response was something along the line of, "Have you seen the movie, Apollo 13?" Frank's response, "yes." Gene then asked him, "Do I look like Ed Harris?" Frank answered, "No, not really." And then it sunk in, "You're the guy that wears the vests?" Ah ha...he finally realized he was working on the computer of someone famous. Pretty funny story.

Keep in mind, he's still working on my laptop.

He tells me another story. He tells me that he went to the house in the West Village(i think?). A lady answers the door and tells him to come in. She tells him that he'll be down in a minute. As Frank is looking around, he notices a lot of baseball memorabilia on the walls, Craig Biggio posters, and the like. Frank thought to himself, "Man, this guy really like Craig Biggio." Then the homeowner, comes down the stairs. Frank said to himself, "Now, i see why this guy likes Craig Biggio...it IS Craig Biggio." Frank then tells me that Craig Biggio is by far the nicest celebrity that he's ever met.

By this time Frank is re-assembling my laptop. But in the process of replacing the keyboard, he accidently pops off a key of the laptop. After struggling to replace it, he says, i'll just order you another one. I'm not too worried about it, the laptop is still functional. Of course, i want my new keyboard, so he places the order. Frank tells me it'll be here tomorrow and that it's customer replaceable. He's a bit skeptical that it will come with instructions, so he gives me the run down on how to replace the keyboard when it comes in.

Frank tells me a few other stories about how his company is affiliated with the NBA and does work for them. Frank proceeds to tell me that he had lunch with Allen Iverson and Lebron James and he's chatted with Shaquille O'Neill.

And there you have it, my experience with Frank the computer repairman. So, if you ever need a computer repairman, I hope you end up with Frank!