Am I the only one that thinks that the super-cool shuttle spacewalk repair mission is a hype job to show how NASA really is cool and knows what they’re doing? (Not dissing the astronauts here….dissing the bureaucrats)
Consider…..
NASA needs a good ending to or at least a newsworthy accomplishment from this launch. Like an astronaut going on a spacewalk and pulling out some insulation out from between tiles. I guess. It’s not really a “John Wayne” type of heroic effort, but then again it’s not my butt sitting inside a 21 year old rocket.
Y’know what’s a bummer? Getting up early to tweak the website and realizing that somebody ELSE is also up tweaking the site. I could have slept the extra hour!
I made it to the gym yesterday. That makes me happy. The eating plan fell apart though. Baby steps. No gym today. Might hit the bowflex though — provided I can make a path to it through all the crap in my basement.
Breakfast: Grapenuts for the win!
Lunch: Probably Applebees. I have a tradition now of going out with Coworker R after the Big Weekly Meeting.
Work Docket: Firstly, I need to find what’s going on with the opinion stories that didn’t make it online today. The originals are living in a network I can’t access from home. Today I’m running two 90 minute user training sessions for newsroom folks. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. I’m terrified. Why? I have no idea. It’s a general overview on the Big Summer Project’s user interface. I know how to work it. I’ve been using it since June. But the idea of sitting in front of a group of my peers and teaching it? Can I call out sick? Because I feel sick!
The Big Weekly meeting may be cancelled today. Even if not, Big Boss gave me the Okay to show up late to it. But he didn’t laugh like Doctor Hibbert.
Evening Plans: Let’s do math…3 hours worth of training…potential for a 1 – 1.5 hour weekly meeting (that’s after showing up late, mind you)…1 hour lunch…within an eight hour day… I’m sure I’ll be pulling a late night tonight. Actually…what I’ll probably do is come home to visit with BvP before he goes to work, walk the pooch, and head back in for a spell.
Dreams: Something having to do with England. Can’t remember the details.
Hear hear about the Shuttle. A couple nights ago, CNN asked its viewers "Are you confident in NASA’s ability to run a safe space program?" My answer was "Oh, I’m fine with their ability to run a safe space program. I’m not at all confident that they can run a space program that has a point"
I remember reading about the Space Shuttle in a book that came out a couple years before the first actual launch, and I’m pretty sure that, given its name ("shuttle"), by 24 years into the program it was meant to be a frequent, low-cost transport for all kinds of everyday space needs. I love space. I want to see us do all kinds of cool things in space, building colonies on the moon and Mars and all that cheesy juvenile sci-fi stuff. But no. Here we are, 24 years and 113 flights later, and it’s still a major media event whenever one lifts off. And when they do lift off, it’s to study rats reproducing in zero gravity or some such.
Enough of this nickel and dime crap. I WANT PROGRESS!!!
(Sorry to rant in your blog, LG dear…)
Personally, I fully expect all of Ian’s space shuttle toys will attain the status of “Vintage Historical Replicas” once the Discovery hits the ground. I would be surprised to ever see another shuttle flight.
And the worst part is… NASA is talking about going back to f*cking CAPSULES and PARACHUTES! Ugh!
Ya know what. The Space Shuttle might have a lot of merits – and I can’t see I’m all that knowledgable on that. However to be honest, it bores me. I have never been excited about a Space Shuttle flight in the past 24 years. A new mission to the moon would interest me! Let’s start making Mars happen. Astronomy has made such big advances in the past 5 years – yet NASA seems stuck in the Stone Age.