sts-130

just a few more shuttle missions this year, and the fleet will be retired from use.  sts-130 is the 130th shuttle mission and the 32nd mission to the international space station.  they will be delivering the tranquility node, a seven windowed module which will serve as the control room for the station’s robotic arm. target launch date is currently set in the early morning of february 7, 2010.  endeavour is the shuttle of choice.

my mom has a cousin whose daughter, jill, is the engineering branch chief in the aircraft operations division at johnson space center.  in 1994, she was considered as an astronaut candidate.  but her work with the t-38s is more notable.  she helped upgrade the avionics to these aircrafts in the early 1990s.  you can read more about this and the t-38s in the june 2008 edition of the johnson space center newsletter, “roundup” [pdf].  (the pdf is a better format for reading.)  nasa tv has a clip (on youtube) of the dress rehearsal of the astronauts for sts-130.  the jets in the beginning of this video are t-38s.

with someone from nasa twittering about the shuttle launches and everyone else in the virtual world responding and posting tweets of their own, you can follow an interesting stream of chatter about the sts-130 launch at twitter’s search page.

you can watch a time lapse account of the shuttle endeavour being rolled out from the vab to the pad.  four hours shortened to to less than three minutes.

hubble on the imax

i was sitting through the previews of avatar and caught the 3-D clip of an upcoming presentation of the shuttle launch serving hubble for the final time in may of 2009. nasa shot the presentation using imax 3-D cameras. this will debut spring 2010. (http://imax.com/hubble/)

this happens to be the shuttle mission which i got to witness the launch in person. not only did i get to see the launch with my own eyeballs but with this presentation i get to see the up close and 3-D personal of the entire mission on the really big screen. awesome!

christmas avatar

christmas 2009 seemed shorter and less like christmas this year than in the past.  maybe it was because i felt like i was doing so much as soon as thanksgiving ended until christmas or maybe it was that i didn’t start my traditional christmas music until after our christmas musical, but it was different than past years.  we’ll see how christmas goes next year.



i am planning on seeing avatar tomorrow with some pals.  i caught this clip on the fox movie channel about the making of the movie.  it is actually ironic, i think, that the plot of the movie involves an avatar and the making of the characters as avatars was very similar to the same approach.  watch the video below to see how the cg animation is a direct modeling of the actors’ actual acting.

android

on november 1, i rushed over to the sprint store to upgrade my phone from an lg rumor to a samsung moment.  i have been very pleased with this phone and with android.  my phone is only on android 1.5 (2.0 is the current version of the software with 2.1 coming soon).  when i get to upgrade this to the most recent, i look forward to some nice features.

pros:  the screen is very nice.  there are a bunch of apps that have been already built for android.  plus i can get an sdk to build app myself.  i like having a better browser to hit the net compared to a stripped down version on my rumor.  google maps plus the device’s gps is a great combo.  i found a nice secure shell (ssh) app which drops me right onto any unix/linux box for which i have credentials.  integrating my google calendar with my device’s calendar is a huge time saver.

cons:  the camera is a little delayed to taking pics, as i have read–still adjusting to that.  i have to get used to plugging in my phone to keep it active in the twenty-four.  i am still learning to be more careful with it since the screen is very important.

i am also hopeful that the change in plan to accommodate the new phone will resolve the billing issues i had with sprint last time i made adjustments.  at this point, i’m good with things.  all is finally good.  this makes me happy with sprint again.

some of the other things i find gloat worthy:  i had cut/copy & paste from day one.  i can run multiple apps at once…from day one.  have better coverage than, say, at&t from day one.

i’m happy with this purchase.

prime time colors

this weekend was the prime time for the trees turning their colors.  in an effort to get some photos of the trees in full turn before storms came and stripped them of their colors, i headed immediately out after work to shoot the scene before the saturday weather.

i had noticed highland memorial cemetery had some full, colorful trees while driving down sutherland one afternoon.  last year’s jackpot of vibrant trees had been in a cemetery off western avenue.  and like last year, i was not disappointed when i started driving the graveyard.  i found plenty of oranges, yellows, reds, and all the colors in between a combination of any two of those choices.  i took as many as i could before the sun set.

if i had taken the time, i could have set up my tripod and tried my hand at some hdr pictures.  i might make the attempt before it’s too late.  i love fall in this area.  there is no place better!

shorter and darker

couldn’t decide what i was going to dress up as for halloween this year.  a couple of thoughts pass through my mind.  i decided to give the military/swat theme a go since i had the clothes.

my sis is in school learning to cut and style hair.  naturally, i asked her to shorten it up and give it some black.  she did a good job.  here’s a before and after shot of her work:

waiting for a moment

if you know me, i avoid apple products.  i see no reason to spend extra money on devices which have the same (or fewer, in some cases) functionality than other products on the market just for cool design or because everyone else is doing it.

the videos below demonstrate the unboxing of the moment and an initial review of the phone.  the phone is reviewed having android 1.5 (cupcake).  there is integrated gmail and google calendaring support, youtube video application, exchange server connectivity (which i probably wouldn’t use), and an exceptional amoled display.  he does give the keyboard a bad rating, but this guy doesn’t seem to have used a phone with a slider keyboard before.  having the separate row of keys for numbers is way better than having to hit some shift key to type them.  having to do that currently is not convenient.

samsung moment for sprint (part 1 of 2)

samsung moment for sprint (part 2 of 2)

you can get some more details and some pics on engadget’s mention of the moment.  it comes out on november 1, next sunday.  outside dealing with sprint’s sales people and current contracts, i hope to make a smooth transition to this phone.