Now with extra Glenn!

It's a beautiful stormy night and in an hour, Ms. Kamara and I are off to see a midnight showing of X-Men.

We put in, oh, about 24 hours of work in the last two days. Won't go into the details, because there's a lot of them, but good stuff is happening.

Here's my lovely NASA office building for the next 12 weeks:




And "The Hangar" which is all the symbol of GRC, apparently.



If you look at a satellite picture, it says "NASA" on the top of it, and you can see it quite clearly.




Also, another pic from DC, courtesty of Marcia. We're on a patio at the Library of Congress.



Fine looking crew, no? And wouldn't you give them money to explore space if they asked? I would.

places that aren't here

Heading off to Cleveland tomorrow. On the schedule this summer:

Houston, June 16-18
Washington DC, June 30-July 5
Huntsville, AL, July 20-21
And, if I can swing it, at least a couple days in lovely Florida.

The rest of the time: Cleve-land. Dates are iffy, but give me a holler if you're going to be in one of those places the same time I am.

After August... who knows? Looking for a real job.

Happy Summer!

Citizens for Space Exploration trip

I just got back from a week in Washington DC supporting space exploration to our law-making folks up there. The trip was sponsored by Citizens for Space Exploration, and was mostly people from Texas, Florida, etc., but they also wanted students from states not traditionally thought of as space-related to come and talk to their Congresspeople. So I got to go represent Oklahoma. My group of 2-5 (depending on the meeting) met the science staff people for each of the six Oklahoma Senators and Representatives and some people from other states.

We got to stay at the fancy Hotel Washington, but we only saw one celebrity there, and that was the dog that we were told plays Duke in the Bush's Baked Beans commercials. It was a really sweet dog that kept wanting to lean on me, just like Classy used to do. Seeing Mikey rassle on the floor with Cooper (real name) has put a grin on my face every time I've thought of it. "Are you gonna tell the secret recipe, are you boy!?!" Truly adorable. When we all have our picture exchange, someone has a group picture of us with him, and I'll try to post it.

One of the coolest things about the hotel was the rooftop restaurant, which had a pretty cool view. We went up there for drinks and dinner a couple times.



The first full day we were there, we had Congressional office visits all day long, then a reception at the Library of Congress in the evening. All the big (Texas) space congresspeople came and talked, and we students got certificates. Space is something that is relatively non-partisan, and it was nice to have minimal issues associated with that arise. Everyone should support space for a whole lot of reasons. Our Ames Academy 2004 project was a website supporting the Vision and addressing negative concerns that we'd heard before.

(Me at the podium after the non-students left)


The students hung around for a bit after the reception for the sunset, because, seriously, how cool is this view?





When it's recruiting time next year, I'll try to put up some info on this yearly trip so people can apply. I just found out about it at the last moment this year, and I'm sure I can get some students from very geographically diverse areas of the country in on the thing.

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Jacqui (and Amy) graduate tonight! Which means I got to get up at 4:30 this morning to spend over an hour putting surprise decorations all over her (Jacqui, not Amy's) car (although I was following very specific directions from Amy's mom on where to put each element of the decorations [e.g. "two paw prints at the upper right corner of each side and rearview mirror; others at your discression"] so they would all match). Congratulations! Also: ha-ha! You have to walk at the ceremony because I'm here! One last looong corny high school event you're forced to go to!

Jac has a (last?) recital Sunday, and then I'm out of here on Monday at noon. I should probably spend every waking moment between now and then packing and writing Academy-related emails, but we'll see.

my job / televised bedtime / MSB visit!

Looks like my new crop of Academites will be ten strong, with several locals from Ohio.

Also, I'm watching School of Rock here, and I thought I'd share the description of my take on the Staff Position that I sent to the RAs a few days ago:

"The job of the staff member of the Academy is to basically be your group personal manager for the summer. I live, work, and play with you all, 24/7. Since we'll be minutes away from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I'll use a rock band analogy here: you're the ones doing the show, making the music, rocking the house, being out there for people to see. I'm scheduling you for gigs, setting up meetings with producers and other artists, booking your tours, making sure you get places on time, transferring information between you and the label, and just overall making sure you're making the most of your time. This summer, you'll be recording and touring at the same time, and I'll be your entourage of one. Dr. Kankam, the NASA Academy Director at GRC, is your label executive, with all the associated power and influence you'd associate with that position."

So that's what I'll be doing this summer.

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Check out the CNN spot on Erin who's doing the 12-week bedrest study for NASA. She's in Cleveland, so hopefully she's come talk to our Academy at Glenn this summer about what they were looking at and the science of it, but, more imporantly, the human aspect of it. It's good to get scientist and engineers to remember that humans are a big part of this exploration game, and
I just checked the cnn.com site again, and her video is on the homepage in the Top Stories! It's labeled "Woman paid to lay down on the job".

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Also, Mr. Marshal Blessing, GRC Staff 2005, Ames RA 2004, will be coming up from Dallas Cityville to visit, talk GRC NA, meet adorable puppies, and help found the Central Heartland Great Plains Mid-ish US branch of the NAAA. It has been decided that the first order of business is getting a better name and, being NASA-related, a decent acronym.