(baltimore -> houston -> san jose)

for loretta and george's wedding.

(dc) goddard culture photoessay number n

view from my desk: two nasa scientists consider new ideas with old chalk in the hall outside my office.

(dc) nature boy

i just downloaded (PURCHASED) about 30 different versions of "nature boy," which is one of my favorite songs ever, and which suddenly i've decided i want to record.

"Nature Boy"

There was a boy...
A very strange enchanted boy.
They say he wandered very far, very far
Over land and sea,
A little shy and sad of eye
But very wise was he.

And then one day,
A magic day, he passed my way.
And while we spoke of many things,
Fools and kings,
This he said to me,
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return."

And then one day,
A magic day, he passed my way.
And while we spoke of many things,
Fools and kings,
This he said to me,
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return."

(exit 31A off I270 Southbound, fredrick, MD)

i wish i'd taken a photo of the front of the car, which was covered in black goo that exploded out from under the hood in a violent eruption as we caravanned (caravaned?) back towards the city from the farm. up till that point, it had been an absolutely lovely day of fun things with the girls. nasa rockets, road trip car games, horses and carrots and berry picking.

then disaster struck. fortunately, we were calm and lucky. after a series of misadventures wherein alfonso, jasmine, and nia spent one hour in the toyota on what was supposed to be a 3 minute bathroom run trying to get back to the offramp where i was sitting on my broken down studebaker, we were finally reunited just in time for the arrival of the tow truck.

we weren't sure what happened, but it turns out the thermostat got stuck and the radiator spewed its disgusting black guts all over my pretty white car.

but it was all good sunday fun.

(LAX -> DCA) abandon ship

original plan:

9am - 12pm - Diviner science team meeting @ Caltech
1pm leave Caltech in Govt van with Alfonso and Rosalba
Drive back to San Jose
10:30 pm catch redeye to DC via Atlanta
10:30 am next day, arrive DC and go directly to work.
try to stay awake at work.

dumb plan.

what i did instead:

9am - 12pm - Diviner science team meeting @ Caltech
rode to LAX in govt van with Alfonso and Rosalba
abandoned Alfonso and Rosalba
flew direct nonstop to DCA on a mostly empty plane
home by 10:30pm
slept 8 hours
worked normal day next day

(pasadena and LA) moon science

this is my first time on a science team for a real instrument, (Diviner) on a real mission (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter). The team is meeting for the first time today and tomorrow.

(baker, vegas, and points between) Desert Research

Road trip in govt van with Chris, Alfonso, and Rosalba.

dust exprimental apparatus 4.0 in lab at the Desert Research Institute. henry took better photos. i may post them some day.

(san fransisco) happy birthday to me

one of the best birthday's ever. last year's birthday was with my new dc friends and 200 of my friends' closest friends and fans. this year was with another 200 strangers (mostly) plus mother, carl, anthony, chelsea and keri and 18 lovely Baha'is at the wisdom course community event. we shared our dreams. i learned new things about my family.

chelsea gave me a mixtape that she called "phat beats" and then a jar of beets labeled "phat beets."

mother gave me her presence that evening and a family heirloom pearl and sapphire ring that my grandfather designed and had made for her.

carl drove them to san fransisco and paid for a very expensive hotel room so they could all be with me.

anthony gave me a couple smiles and his sweet spirit.

we left the party a bit early (right after the human pyramid, which i still have to track down photos of (carl and i among those on bottom and anthony standing on top with his fists in the air)) to have dinner on the 46th floor of the hotel overlooking the (foggy) city.

then carl, anthony, and i dropped mother off at the hotel and joined about 10 other friends (alfonso, sam+linda, their friend jeff, jessy, robbie, loretta, +others) and another 300 strangers for a midnight showing of tron in 70mm at the castro.

lots of people sent me birthday wishes on myspace and called and texted. thanks everybody. it was an awesome birthday.

(san fransisco) 3rd wisdom weekend

weekend #3 of my landmark wisdom course in san fransisco. truly a land mark weekend.

(*ames) Next Generation Exploration Conference

Space kids unite. and for posterity, here's a pdf.

(*ames) version 4.0

working today and tomorrow on designing version 4.0 of the dust experiment apparatus at ames.

(dc -> sfo) ABS via chicago

i missed my flight this morning and ended up on the next flight to chicago sitting next to one of mike griffin's senior staff. we chatted about sudoku and i ate pumpkin seeds.

the night before the trip i had a lot to carry home from work in preparation for my long trip. i'd grabbed my bagful of overripe farm fresh yellow cherry tomatoes (yum) and stuck them gingerly in my purse/bag so i could have them the next day for breakfast before my flight. sometime during the night as i was packing i remembered them and transferred them to the fridge. the next day i forgot them in the fridge.

so this (very) senior nasa person and i were chatting away and decided to have lunch during our layovers in chicago. i'd been sitting with my purse in my lap on the plane and noticed that i must have spilled my water on the plane or something because my purse was a bit wet as i was getting off the plane.

when we got off the plane, we wandered to check where our connecting gates were. he took a bit longer than i did, so i decided to investigate the bottom of my bag. it looked like the moisture was coming from inside and i remembered that i'd had a bottle of cough syrup in there at some point. yuck, i thought. and besides, why didn't they take that away from me? this was the very day of the new london-bombing-no-gel-or-liquids-onboard-planes scare. but wait. the cough syrup was closed up just fine. no leakage.....

what's this?

i felt some textured slime in the bottom of my purse and quickly pulled my hand out to find it covered in pulverized half-rotten yellow tomato goo. just at that moment, mr. senior nasa person walks back up to me to shake my hand because it turns out he's got to make his way over to a different terminal and doesn't have time for lunch.

sigh. would you like some pulverized half-rotten yellow tomato goo, mr. senior nasa person?

i shook his hand with my other hand. good thing we have two and good thing i'd decided to explore the nether regions of my purse with my left. i went into the bathroom and pulled out several pulverized tomatoes, and a few that were still intact. i ate those. i was hungry. they don't feed you on planes anymore.

(*sfo) abs

here at the ABS conference to help with the sound and perform with devon and andy.