Well, after figuring out what was wrong with my knee and making sure to take electrolytes every day for a week (to keep my calf from cramping, another self-diagnosed problem), I can now run 2.5 miles completely without pain. And I was able to do it in 25:31, which is just about a 10 minute mile...slow for most but fast for me! Now I have to get to where I can keep good form for the entire run and start increasing the distance...woo!
On another note, I'm going up to Boston for about 12 hours this weekend. It's Adam's housewarming party. Unfortunately, it's also the weekend that I move in to my place in Silver Spring, which explains the 12 hours part...I have to get the cats situated.
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06:34:41 PM,
Monday 24 October 2005
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The knee was much better but still hurt near the end of the two miles--I probably should have taken an extra day off--but my right calf cramped! I'm in terrible shape, I guess. :(
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(3)
07:37:29 PM,
Monday 17 October 2005
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Well, my knee pain keeps coming back. If I don't run for a couple of weeks, then I'm shot and have to build up very slowly from scratch again.
I've self-diagnosed it as Ilio-tibial Band syndrome, kind of dyslexically known as "IBT" syndrome. If I'm right, all that's causing my knee pain is the rubbing of the I-T band against some cartilage in my left knee. The solution: a bit of stretching to lengthen and loosen the I-T band so that it doesn't rub. If that doesn't work, then I'm getting the rubbing because of poor biomechanics, like my flat feet or my rotated pelvis, and I'll have to go see a specialist. I've been stretching the since yesterday afternoon, and I'm hoping that my symptoms will be less today. We'll see.
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05:28:30 PM,
Monday 17 October 2005
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I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.
- Rita Rudner
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08:58:11 AM,
Friday 14 October 2005
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So I'm in this really important meeting this morning, where we're trying to piece together what a bunch of people have done since I left HQ at the end of July. We're getting the description of what changed and why so that people can go brief some concerned house and senate members. So I'm sitting taking notes in this meeting and my "office assistant," which I have set to be a cat, clearly "meows" when I make a mistake...how wonderful is that? Sitting in a meeting with bigwigs and your computer meows to you? :)
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12:43:56 PM,
Wednesday 12 October 2005
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Moss, you were right! The little pocket in the right-hand side of jeans is for watches, not change.
I never thought it was for coins, anyway: too impractical.
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(5)
11:13:07 AM,
Wednesday 12 October 2005
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It looks like my commute from home will be about 45 minutes via metro, and perhaps 1 hour to 1:15 by bicycle (including showering at HQ). I have to scope out a nice bike route that will avoid as much traffic as possible, but I think that an hour or two of excercise for an increase of 15-30 minutes is quite good.
Plus it saves me a $1.85 metro fee or $1.50 in gas every time I ride.
Some talk on Slashdot is going on about how we might hope that private industry might make it to the moon before NASA or the Chinese do...anyone have any thoughts on this?
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(4)
03:50:54 PM,
Tuesday 11 October 2005
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Everybody remember how poorly Achilles acted in the Iliad? Achilles has a prize taken from him and cries about it, leaves the battlefield, and lets all of his friends get injured, his best friend/lover dies, and it's not until that happens that he finally reenters the battle.
Well, it's interesting to look at it in this way: Achilles has been taught all of his life that if you do good things on the battlefield, you will be rewarded. There is absolutely no dispute that he is the mightiest of warriors. Yet, when he does so well, saving lives, taking cities that wouldn't have been taken otherwise, and slaying foes, he gets singled out and punished for it. His entire worldview is twisted by Agamemnon. It's no wonder that he says, "Well, fine. You guys go out and kill yourselves then, because I don't even get respect for what I've done, what I do for you--much less rewarded."
Here is a modern Achilles.
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(4)
08:48:05 PM,
Thursday 6 October 2005
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I am in Washington, DC. So are my cats and my cello--and enough clothes to get me through the month before I move into my apartment.
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(4)
08:41:16 AM,
Thursday 6 October 2005
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Most of my house is packed. I can't believe that I have touched everything that I own at least once in the last two weeks or so.
I have only the bedroom left to finish, really, and a run to Goodwill.
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10:23:46 PM,
Wednesday 28 September 2005
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The library (my second bedroom) is empty. Mostly packed, a few things still need to be boxed but not many.
Now just the kitchen, living room, and bedroom to go...
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12:27:13 PM,
Sunday 25 September 2005
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This guy, for his summer engineering project, made an autoturret out of a BB gun and took videos of his little brother getting shot by it.
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(2)
11:15:11 AM,
Friday 23 September 2005
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How I spent my summer vacation.
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(10)
05:20:17 PM,
Tuesday 20 September 2005
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So you want to live forever.
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02:22:10 PM,
Sunday 18 September 2005
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I was able to run 3.1 miles last night without any pain whatsoever! Wheee!
I'm completely out of shape again. I can't believe that I let this happen to myself, but I stop excercising every once in a while and it takes a lot to get started again. I like biking and running, and I occasionally fall dow--I mean, um, rollerblade.
Well, I used to lift weights a lot, and I stopped doing that a long time ago. Last time I tried to pick up running, my left knee hurt a lot. It kept me from running, but, then again, a lot of things have kept me from running. I figured this time that it was my lack of weightlifting...my quads were weaker and so my kneecap was able to move around a lot more. Oh, well, too bad. I started bicycling again.
Then I found this wonderful book.
Chi Running is all about applying the principles of T'ai Chi to running--among lots of other things, keeping your spine straight and strong, moving from the center of your body, and relaxing the extremities as much as possible. It also recommends getting flexile shoes..I chose these.
Well, I ran for 2 miles, and my knee hurt, so I stopped. The next time, the knee pain came back, but less, and a little further in distance. The next time, the knee started hurting almost right away, within a mile, but the pain was very mild and so I decided to run through it--I could tell that it was more of a soreness than a pain, if you know what I mean--and I ran all the way around the Rose Bowl, 3.1 miles! My knee wasn't even sore afterward, it didn't hurt to walk around or anything. Then I went again, and the knee hurt less and started hurting at around 2 miles again. Well, the progress kept happening and I ran around the Rose Bowl last night with no pain whatsoever, hooray!
Now I can keep working on the techniques and start increasing my mileage. I'm hoping to run around the Bowl twice tomorrow, we'll see what happens.
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11:26:33 AM,
Friday 16 September 2005
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Well, I've decided to go with a different place. I really wanted to have something larger, and since JPL/NASA are paying for it, I decided that I could go ahead and spend a bit more. :( I won't be able to move in until the 29th of October, though, so I will need to live in a hotel room for a month. With my cats. :( Poor kitties!
Anyway, there are a ton of details to take care of before I get on the plane in two weeks or so. I have to pack my house up and move a lot of it into the garage; I have to figure out what I'm taking with me to DC/Maryland; The cats both need flight certificates; I need new cat carrying cases; I just ordered a hard cello case and I need to have that delivered; ugh, I can't go on, I'm getting knots in my stomach. I'd better pick up some boxes and start packing books tonight or tomorrow, and I'd like to see my friends before I leave...
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(3)
03:28:28 PM,
Wednesday 14 September 2005
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Well, I don't know. I think I've found a place to live. It's only a studio, the floorplan can be found here.
It's "only" $1025/month, on the top floor, has a gym, free parking, and is very close to the downtown Silver Spring area, which is supposed to be pretty nice.
It's also close to Rock Creek park, which extends north and south quite a ways...so far, in fact, that I can ride my bicycle to work (south of the Capitol building) mostly on roads or paved trails that go through parks.
What do y'all think?
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(4)
01:58:58 PM,
Tuesday 13 September 2005
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So Kyoto is a good idea--but it wasn't accepted by the US. And it doesn't really go far enough to stop our slippery slope into obvlivion through the destruction of our environment. "But what can I do about it?" You ask...well, you can calculate how much CO2 you use and donate to Carbon Fund and donate to people who will zero out your emissions. They'll plant trees, buy CO2 and bury it, buy CO2 credits and retire them to keep other companies from using these credits to pollute more, capture the methane from landfills and make electricity out of it, and they help sponsor renewable energy.
I zeroed out my emissions, which are about 2.5 times my personal energy usage numbers because of shipping and other impacts for the food, clothing, and other things that I buy.
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07:07:02 PM,
Monday 12 September 2005
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The move date is approaching. I will be back in Maryland the same weekend that St. John's has its homecoming--my fifth year anniversary of graduation. I'm hoping that I can make it for at least Saturday and Sunday, but I might not be able to. :(
I'm going to get a 2-bedroom apartment up in Silver Spring, near the downtown area. I think I've picked one out, but we'll see what happens. I am hoping to wait to rent it until I have my cash advance, which would cover the first, last, & deposit or whatever the fees are. I really am looking forward to being in DC, although I will miss Pasadena and my house quite a bit, too. How confusing life can be.
so it is unclear, as yet, as to what exactly my job will be. I will be working for the "Program Analysis & Evaluation" group, so I am expecting to be evaluating programs within NASA and asking if they've done proper analysis and such. If they haven't, then I expect to be doing some analyses to show people why they should be doing them, such as planning ahead with probabalistic scheduling instead of deterministic, making sure that the technology investment plans for a project are optimized, figuring out why things cost as much as they do and if there are reasonable ways of cutting costs, that sort of thing. I'm expecting it to be a lot of fun, varied work--but we'll see what happens!
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(1)
11:26:28 AM,
Thursday 8 September 2005
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Well, I donated to the Katrina relief effort the day that the levee broke. I also have found an interesting way of helping, and just made a small second donation: there is a need for books down there, and a friend's wife has set up a book fair at an online book seller. You can pick out childrens books and ship them to the shelter system. Here's the link: http://www.ubah.com/BF16482. You get free shipping if you're shipping to the shelters, and there's a wish list of books to choose from, some of which are only $3.
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04:45:22 PM,
Wednesday 7 September 2005
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I'm sure that everyone has heard this, but it's still depressing: Fights and fires have broken out, looting continues to be a problem, corpses lie out in the open, and rescue helicopters and law enforcement officers have been shot at as the more than 80 percent flooded city spirals into increased anarchy.
So, St. John's students and others, what is Civilization?
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(3)
10:17:23 AM,
Friday 2 September 2005
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Wow, this really sucks. I don't want to move, but I really liked my work in DC. Does anyone think that NASA would be willing to move HQ to Pasadena? Santa Barbara would be even better, I think...
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(6)
05:41:34 PM,
Monday 29 August 2005
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I did some gardening today. And yesterday, too, when Serena helped. Can someone tell me how to embed pictures into this blog? I don't know how, I'm so lame...
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(2)
11:43:16 AM,
Sunday 28 August 2005
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So I guess I'm moving to DC. It's strange how one can understand something mentally but not understand it emotionally. I have yet to make my cat Whiskey into a cybercat (embed a chip between his shoulder blades that serves as an ID), get flight helth certifications, buy a hard cello case, find a place to live, or get a full description of what I'm going to be doing. Ah, well.
There's a very interesting article about how NASA's culture has failed to change here. It's very interesting for a number of reasons, I think, not the least of which is the mention of Griffin, the new Administrator.
Griffin is a hard-hitting guy. My short experiences with him have been good--my team presented results to him recently, and I've been in several other presentations to him. I would have to say that I haven't met someone in that high of a position who is more willing to be fair, just, and attentive to analysis results. When an analysis doesn't go the way that he thought it would, he accepts the fact, changes his mind, and moves on...but it has to be a good analysis. I think that this particular effort of his to listen to good analyses and challenge poor ones is going to go a long way to fixing the problems that NASA's culture has. I certainly hope that it helps, we can't afford to lose another Shuttle.
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(4)
04:25:30 PM,
Wednesday 24 August 2005
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I just bought a new car. It's neat, a used mercedes SLK. There's a picture in the picture link on the right side.
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(4)
12:03:29 AM,
Monday 22 August 2005
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Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah Lyrics
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Baby I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew ya'
Yeah, and I've seen your flag on the marble arch
But listen, love is not some kind of victory march
No it's a cold a it's a broken Halleleuja
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
There was a time you let me know
What's really goin' on below
Ah but now you never show it to me, do ya?
Ah but I remember yeah when I moved in you
and the holy dove, she was movin' too
And every single breath that we drew was Halleluja
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Maybe there's a God above
As for me all I've ever seemed to learn from love
Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew ya
Yeah, but it's not a complaint that you're here tonight
It's not the laughter of someone who claims
To have seen the light
No it's a cold and it's a very lonely Halleluja
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come all this way to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
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(3)
07:55:25 PM,
Tuesday 16 August 2005
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I'm experiencing a wide range of emotions, now that I'm back in Cali but planning to go to DC. The standard fear and depression, excitement and worry, of course, but there is a very strange one for me that I have felt many times before. I'm not sure that I can describe it in one word, but if I were to try, it would be: guilt.
Guilt isn't right, though. There's a part of me that feels guilty, certainly--I'm passing up hundreds of people in NASA and in JPL. I'm basically getting a promotion many years before I would normally be considered for one. I'm being appointed to what seems to be considered a very advanced and possibly even powerful position, and I've only worked at JPL for two years. Some people see this position as one that should be held by someone who knows JPL much more thoroughly than I do.
I said that it isn't right to call it guilt, though. If I feel guilty, it's because my actions have been recognized and rewarded where other people's actions have not been recognized or rewarded. However, I still did my job, did it well, and was in the right place at the right time, so I am not truly feeling guilt. I guess I'm feeling a heavy sense of responsibility and pressure to continue doing a good job.
As most of you know, this whole thing can be directly traced back to the fact that I built a cello when I was attending St. John's College. That cello was pretty much the deciding factor in my application to MIT; which helped me get the knowledge and connections that I needed to come work for JPL; which allowed me to work at the job that I chose (a less technical job that was interesting to me partially because of my St. John's training, and partly because of my Lean Aerospace institute training at MIT [http://lean.mit.edu/] which isn't exactly the standard sort of engineering); which allowed me to be known for my technology optimization work; which caused someone at HQ to contact me for ESAS.
The question that comes to my mind over and over again, though, is probably due to my deep-seated lack of self-confidence: what have I done lately? Am I still just riding my one life accomplishment, building a cello? I mean, I didn't even get the varnish right on the stupid thing!
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(4)
04:24:08 PM,
Tuesday 9 August 2005
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It is AMAZING being home. I can't tell you how much I really appreciate my home, I've always been a kind of a home-centric person--to the detriment of my social life, of course.
The cats had clearly been well-loved, they were not starved for affection. They immediately switched over to sleeping with me instead of Erisa, though, which is kind of cute for me and sad for her. :)
JPL is an FFRDC--the people who work here are not, technically, NASA employees. We're contractors. Normally that means nothing--but when it comes time for me to enter a NASA center or HQ, though, my badge isn't good enough. SO, I've spent much of the morning ignoring my job and working on getting a JPL/NASA badge. All the cool kids have one, now I'll be part of the club. :)
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(7)
01:33:01 PM,
Thursday 4 August 2005
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I am at home!!! My cats are doing well, and I am starting to relax. Yay!
When I get to DC, I think I would like to live in Silver Spring. It's 1/2 hour from work by Metro, which is a bit far for me. Houses are a bit expensive, but the area seems nice...there is less crime there than any area that I've looked at. Plus, they're still cheaper than where I live now. I should pay less in DC than I do in Cali--and if I rent out my place here in Cali then I'll have more money coming in than I have to pay for the mortgage.
The only thing wrong with it, I suppose, is it's tough to ride my bicycle in to work. Not too big a deal, but it is so efficient, time wise, to do that. Here in Pasadena, it takes me 15 minutes longer to get to work by bicycle than by car, so I get 1/2 hour of exercise for an additional 15 minutes. There, it would take an hour to get to work, and an hour to get home, which is the same ratio. I suppose I could ride the bicycle in, then take the metro home, then take the metro to work the next day and ride the bicycle home. Well, we'll see if I can even get a house there...
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(5)
11:29:01 PM,
Saturday 30 July 2005
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It's in writing. I have been asked to work at HQ for a 1-year stint beginning in October.
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(11)
03:38:11 PM,
Wednesday 27 July 2005
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Well, the position is working as an analyst. There would be two major roles: 1) reviewing other people's analyses; 2) doing analyses on my own or with others, publishing at least once a year.
The review of other analyses can be coupled with analyses of my own to try to change funding for a program. For instance, the human research people might say that they need $3B and ten years to develop artificial gravity. If I don't believe them, then I can go gather data from scientists and researchers in colleges and present research that shows that they might be overexaggerating the time and money. Both Analyses would go to the budget people within NASA, who would then decide how much money to give the artificial gravity people.
It should be interesting work and might actually change NASA's approach to doing business...imagine if this had been in place when station was being defined! There were people who said that station would cost more than twice of the cost estimates...but they were ignored. In the end, it cost about 50% more than the highest estimate made within NASA! Perhaps we would never have tried to build a space station, but I'm not sure that would have been a big loss....
I'll be talking to my direct superior (it turned out that I was talking to HIS boss) on Wednesday, at which time, if he wants me working for him, I'll ask for him to send something in writing to my manager back at JPL. Then we'll see what happens...I can try to buy a house, or I can get NASA to pay rent on an apartment...either way, I should rent out my place in Pasadena. I think I'll put a lot of my stuff in storage rather than move it all for only two years...it might take a year to unpack! :)
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(6)
08:16:59 AM,
Monday 25 July 2005
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Well, I've spoken to my possible future boss and I believe that I have been offered a job.
I say "believe" because he explained that he would appreciate it if I can keep getting funded for the moment from JPL, but if I need a different funding source then he can get money for me right away...which seems to imply that I should get stuff together as soon as possible...
I'll describe the job a bit more when I have more time, probably on the weekend.
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(4)
04:25:45 PM,
Thursday 21 July 2005
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“Make a recommendation” he said.
I mean, really. The recommendation that we’re supposed to make is to explain what to cut from a program, but I just sat and listened to one of the managers of that program say that they need 600+ people to work on a part of NASA that is doing only 1/10 of the work that they planned to do. 75% of their workforce is “untouchable,” or “keep alive”—if something were to go wrong, we want these people here.
So the problem here is that I don’t believe the manager. Not for a minute. I can’t believe that this part of NASA has to have more people doing operations than the people actually working science. I don’t believe that we need to have 75% of the workforce to do 10% of the work. I don’t believe that we should fund these people when we could be using the money to reduce the gap between Shuttle and its replacement.
At the same time, I’m not qualified to make a recommendation as to how much to cut these people. The manager is being unreasonable. We’ve done our best to figure out what they really need, and we’ve reached a compromise: give the office that runs this program (and many other programs) one half the budget and let the program office figure out where to get the other half of the money—if it’s really needed! If we give them the whole budget, there’s no incentive to try to improve. If it’s really important, the program office will find the money. Ah, this is so much *fun*, don’t you think?
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(4)
07:24:34 AM,
Wednesday 20 July 2005
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I have found out that the Apollo program faced very similar difficulties to what we have now. There were existing programs that thought that they should have been part of Apollo that weren't included. So my last post isn't quite right...although the existing projects weren't as numerous as they are today.
On an entirely other note, I may...just may...have named the launch vehicles! Can you imagine?! I mean, how cool would that be, to name NASA's next launch vehicle? It needs to be approved, but the program manager really likes my idea. Unfortunately, there are some strange people who have used that name in the past, so the decision hasn't been made, so I can't say what it is, so don't ask. :(
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(10)
11:34:36 AM,
Friday 15 July 2005
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Well, as I expected but didn't hope, in the end it comes down to politics.
I have begun to realize just how lucky Apollo was. One of the huge budgetary problems that faces NASA is that, well, NASA already exists. It didn't when we started to go to the moon, you see, and that makes all the difference.
There are programs that exist that are researching things or developing things that are not needed to go to the moon. There are facilities that exist that have to be maintained that are not needed to go to the moon. There are programs that exist because someone knows a senator and that senator got it funded--so it can't be cut, because a senator put it in place.
All of this is good, it creates and maintains several thousand jobs for the American people...but NASA needs every dollar that it can find to return to the moon. These political programs, these pre-existing leins on future funding, well, they have to be taken care of, and that will at least delay things or cause serious political problems. We will see if the new administrator of NASA can get this started...
...then we will see if the next President wants to continue it.
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07:18:41 PM,
Tuesday 12 July 2005
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Sorry, my mother pointed out last night that I should have said something about the interview...it went okay, there is so much uncertainty right now that he wasn't able to answer my questions. Next time I'll try to get with the person who would actually be my boss, he should be able to provide more information about what I'll actually be doing if I am offered and if I take the job.
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09:08:04 AM,
Sunday 10 July 2005
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site & script courtesy of Moss