When I was planning our road trip to Florida, I developed, or rather, realized an interesting, and I think healthy habit: I found that before I go somewhere, I like to research about it, and what is there, and why any of that would be significant or interesting at all.
As well, with this upcoming trip to Dryden Flight Research Center as part of the #DrydenSocial that I have been invited to, even though I know a lot about some of the projects that have taken place at Edwards AFB, I find myself researching planes, and people, and research results. An insatiable thirst for knowledge is a curious thing. The more you learn, the more you want to learn. The more you research, the more subjects you find that are interesting.
Of course, what makes this easy, and convenient, is the internet.
Being able to sit in my livingroom at home with my Wife, and watch some TV, or a movie, and upon discovering some nugget of curiosity, I can almost instantly find out what about that intrigued me, why it was, how it was, who was involved, and what else about it might be interesting. In that regard, I am like a sponge - especially when it comes to Aerospace stuff.
On Sunday, we went over to my Brother's house for a bit, and ended up watching 'In The Shadow Of The Moon', and though I'd seen it before, there were all kinds of things that I found to be interesting. I won't bore you with a list, or rob you of the particular joy of discovering the who, what, when, where and why of it for yourself, but suffice to say, pause was a commonly pressed button, and it took twice as long to watch the movie than it did last time, and the time before that, and there was quite a bit of good conversation. I love that both my Wife and Brother share an interest in Aerospace with me.
2012-04-30
2012-04-28
Hermit without a shell
I used to think that the greatest thing in the world would be to become a hermit somewhere.
I've had my share of jading experiences for sure. High School was one. I think I knew *everyone* at school. I was the quiet one that just observed and watched, and knew everything about everyone because I just sat back and saw it. Never an instigator, never wanted to get anyone into trouble - or get myself into trouble, but I knew an awful lot more than I let on, and than most people thought I knew. I'm not sure that everyone knew who I was, but I knew them. I think an easy way to put it would be this: When they were reading the names for graduation, I said them in my head without a list, and with preferred pronunciation or appropriate nicknames. But at the time, I didn't care to be around anyone. I had maybe two friends when I graduated.
My work environments haven't been much better with few exceptions. Certainly there were few relationships that existed outside of the office, and fewer still that lasted for any decent amount of time.
I have had a lot of exposure to crowds. I hate crowds. It doesn't seem to matter where they gather, but when they do, there is little by way of consideration or manners, and this both saddens me and makes me furious. My parents raised me to be courteous, hold a door for someone, say excuse me if you get in someone's way, and don't cut people off when you're walking. I can hardly ever seem to get the same kind of courtesy from people in a crowd - even from older people, parents, and those that are old enough to know better. Full disclosure, I find myself doing the same thing when I don't watch myself, so I get it. I don't think it's right, but I get it. Sometimes, the parents are the worst offenders! My Wife and I spend a lot of time at Disneyland in Anaheim, and while I love me some good people watching, the crowds are the pits! It never ceases to amaze me how horrible individuals can act in a crowd. From Adults running to get ahead of kids in a line, to what they do with their trash - it's just plain silly. However, it does reinforce the desire to go become a hermit somewhere.
And I've noticed, that perhaps to my own eventual detriment, that I've become much more boisterous about pointing out bad behavior in crowds that is just intolerable.
Walking through an attraction once, I noticed a teen sucking on the last of a pop-sicle when he wrapped the stick in the wrapper, and was noticeably looking for a place to put it. Lacking trash cans within arm's reach, he thought he was slick when he stuffed it in between the knots of a rope barrier, thinking no one had seen, and he was rid of his burden. He turned to talk to his family who was straggling behind, and when they caught up, he began to proceed on through the attraction. I got his attention, and asked him what he was going to do about the trash that he had left behind. With the fear of a scolded child, he grabbed his trash, and walked on - his mother could hardly believe her eyes. There's no reason for that kind of laziness.
I usually have little interest in much of anything that puts me in the middle of more than an intimate gathering. Concerts? I've got the CD. Movies? I'll wait for it on Bluray. Conventions? I'll read about it online. I'll take crowd-free any day of the week.
But recently, I have been learning the distinction between crowds and people. People are great. Individuals are simply amazing. Once you remove someone from the crowd, they become fascinating, intriguing, rewarding to be around. And I'm not even one that is constantly working the angle of what can you do for me - there are just those people that it is a pleasure to be around. I didn't find many of those when I was growing up, or in High School, or even inmost of the places that I have worked. Just one or two, here and there.
I am finding that Twitter, and to a lesser extent, Facebook ae helping me to be able to weed through the crowd, and find decent people with which I would enjoy hanging out. I hope to make that happen in the near future - especially with those who live further away. I think I've come to the point in my life, where I am realizing that being a hermit is not quite the thing for me, and that there exist a number of people with whom spending time with can be a good thing. My hope is that with just the little bit of digging that I've done, and have managed to find the quality and type of people that I've found thus far, that as my efforts increase, so does the quantity of really great people that surface.
I've had my share of jading experiences for sure. High School was one. I think I knew *everyone* at school. I was the quiet one that just observed and watched, and knew everything about everyone because I just sat back and saw it. Never an instigator, never wanted to get anyone into trouble - or get myself into trouble, but I knew an awful lot more than I let on, and than most people thought I knew. I'm not sure that everyone knew who I was, but I knew them. I think an easy way to put it would be this: When they were reading the names for graduation, I said them in my head without a list, and with preferred pronunciation or appropriate nicknames. But at the time, I didn't care to be around anyone. I had maybe two friends when I graduated.
My work environments haven't been much better with few exceptions. Certainly there were few relationships that existed outside of the office, and fewer still that lasted for any decent amount of time.
I have had a lot of exposure to crowds. I hate crowds. It doesn't seem to matter where they gather, but when they do, there is little by way of consideration or manners, and this both saddens me and makes me furious. My parents raised me to be courteous, hold a door for someone, say excuse me if you get in someone's way, and don't cut people off when you're walking. I can hardly ever seem to get the same kind of courtesy from people in a crowd - even from older people, parents, and those that are old enough to know better. Full disclosure, I find myself doing the same thing when I don't watch myself, so I get it. I don't think it's right, but I get it. Sometimes, the parents are the worst offenders! My Wife and I spend a lot of time at Disneyland in Anaheim, and while I love me some good people watching, the crowds are the pits! It never ceases to amaze me how horrible individuals can act in a crowd. From Adults running to get ahead of kids in a line, to what they do with their trash - it's just plain silly. However, it does reinforce the desire to go become a hermit somewhere.
And I've noticed, that perhaps to my own eventual detriment, that I've become much more boisterous about pointing out bad behavior in crowds that is just intolerable.
Walking through an attraction once, I noticed a teen sucking on the last of a pop-sicle when he wrapped the stick in the wrapper, and was noticeably looking for a place to put it. Lacking trash cans within arm's reach, he thought he was slick when he stuffed it in between the knots of a rope barrier, thinking no one had seen, and he was rid of his burden. He turned to talk to his family who was straggling behind, and when they caught up, he began to proceed on through the attraction. I got his attention, and asked him what he was going to do about the trash that he had left behind. With the fear of a scolded child, he grabbed his trash, and walked on - his mother could hardly believe her eyes. There's no reason for that kind of laziness.
I usually have little interest in much of anything that puts me in the middle of more than an intimate gathering. Concerts? I've got the CD. Movies? I'll wait for it on Bluray. Conventions? I'll read about it online. I'll take crowd-free any day of the week.
But recently, I have been learning the distinction between crowds and people. People are great. Individuals are simply amazing. Once you remove someone from the crowd, they become fascinating, intriguing, rewarding to be around. And I'm not even one that is constantly working the angle of what can you do for me - there are just those people that it is a pleasure to be around. I didn't find many of those when I was growing up, or in High School, or even inmost of the places that I have worked. Just one or two, here and there.
I am finding that Twitter, and to a lesser extent, Facebook ae helping me to be able to weed through the crowd, and find decent people with which I would enjoy hanging out. I hope to make that happen in the near future - especially with those who live further away. I think I've come to the point in my life, where I am realizing that being a hermit is not quite the thing for me, and that there exist a number of people with whom spending time with can be a good thing. My hope is that with just the little bit of digging that I've done, and have managed to find the quality and type of people that I've found thus far, that as my efforts increase, so does the quantity of really great people that surface.
2012-04-26
Road Trip Photos
Two years ago, for the STS-133 launch of Space Shuttle Discovery, my wife and I took a road trip to try and view the launch. Long story short, we didn't get to see the launch, but ended up taking over 18,000 photos on this epic journey. After returning home, and getting back into the swing of things, I finally managed to collect all of the photos from our phones and, five different cameras, and working with my brother, we developed a shift for the EXIF data that shifted all of the time stamps to line up correctly, and rename each file with a sequential number suffix, and appropriate prefix so that I could go through all of them to filter out anything that was bad, and do any other work on them that needed to be completed before I showed them off.
In a discussion for the Dryden Social, someone had mentioned road trips, and then it occurred to me - I never posted photos from this epic vacation that we took! So many people have been waiting so patiently for me to gather and post photos, and I have been a complete slacker, and hadn't posted a one.
So the good news: I have begun filtering through the photos, organizing them, and adding captions/tags to them so that I can post them on Facebook, and I might duplicate the album on Flickr as well. So if you were waiting on these photos, a little longer, I'm sorry, but they are coming, I promise.
In a discussion for the Dryden Social, someone had mentioned road trips, and then it occurred to me - I never posted photos from this epic vacation that we took! So many people have been waiting so patiently for me to gather and post photos, and I have been a complete slacker, and hadn't posted a one.
So the good news: I have begun filtering through the photos, organizing them, and adding captions/tags to them so that I can post them on Facebook, and I might duplicate the album on Flickr as well. So if you were waiting on these photos, a little longer, I'm sorry, but they are coming, I promise.
An Awesome Opportunity: Dryden Social
My life is usually a little on the mundane side.
But on May 4th, I get to do something *really* cool: visit the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, CA.
As part of a #NASASocial, Dryden is hosting its first ever #DrydenSocial, and it has invited 75 of its followers from Facebook, Twitter and G+ to come see the facilities, some historic aircraft, and hear a little about what research is currently being conducted at Dryden, and meet with some of the pilots who conduct this research. They are currently working to make sonic booms quieter to advance the possibility of domestic supersonic air travel, and they have even threatened us with the possibility of being able to experience a sonic boom in person!
Beyond all of this, being able to visit the Dryden Flight Research Center is something that I have wanted to do my entire life. A California resident since birth, I grew up knowing that cool things happened there, and research is constantly being conducted in many different areas of study to better our understanding of flight, and just what can be accomplished when we dare to dream. Edwards AFB was the site of the Shuttle landings early in the program, almost exclusively, and it has been crucial to the development of most military, and many civilian aircraft since the jet age. This is where Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier!
My thanks to the Dryden team, and NASA for putting this event together, and for picking me as a participant! This is one of the coolest opportunities that I have ever had, and I am so excited, I can not wait!
Watch this space for an update following the event!
But on May 4th, I get to do something *really* cool: visit the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, CA.
As part of a #NASASocial, Dryden is hosting its first ever #DrydenSocial, and it has invited 75 of its followers from Facebook, Twitter and G+ to come see the facilities, some historic aircraft, and hear a little about what research is currently being conducted at Dryden, and meet with some of the pilots who conduct this research. They are currently working to make sonic booms quieter to advance the possibility of domestic supersonic air travel, and they have even threatened us with the possibility of being able to experience a sonic boom in person!
Beyond all of this, being able to visit the Dryden Flight Research Center is something that I have wanted to do my entire life. A California resident since birth, I grew up knowing that cool things happened there, and research is constantly being conducted in many different areas of study to better our understanding of flight, and just what can be accomplished when we dare to dream. Edwards AFB was the site of the Shuttle landings early in the program, almost exclusively, and it has been crucial to the development of most military, and many civilian aircraft since the jet age. This is where Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier!
My thanks to the Dryden team, and NASA for putting this event together, and for picking me as a participant! This is one of the coolest opportunities that I have ever had, and I am so excited, I can not wait!
Watch this space for an update following the event!
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