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One weird day...
Nov. 9th, 2000 09:06 pmI reported to the sim on time at 7:30 am this morning, but things didn't get going until well after nine, owing the usual assortment of funny circumstances that prevent things from proceeding the way we'd like them to. It was one of a series of so-called "tsunami" simulations, which is not anywhere near as ominous as the name might imply. The scenario involved an "ingress" into the Lab module during flight 5A.
The term "ingress" is a fancy way of saying "entry into," which is far and away nowhere near as slick as the squeaky hatches that slide obediently out of the way on shows such as Start Trek. One thing I've noticed in observing these folks at work: nothing is taken for granted, not even something as seemingly simple as going from one module to another.
But that's not what makes this day weird.
There seem to be as many opinions about what to do, if anything, about the situation associated with the Presidential election as there are voters in Florida. At last glance, nobody was ready to declare Florida having gone one way or another, and there's apparently a groundswell of opinion - supported by the Democrats, wouldn't you guess - to the effect that things ought to reflect the popular vote, regardless of the legal and/or Constitutional niceties.
But even that's not what makes this day weird.
On the way home, I went out of my way to stop by a local grocery store that specializes in Asian food products. I can't explain it, but I absolutely love walking around a grocery store where a good portion of the products on display are a complete mystery to me. I picked up a six-pack of Hue beer (made in Hue City, Vietnam, by the Perfume River) and seem to have emptied all of the bottles. In the meantime, I had some red meat (not usual fare around here) and watched a DVD of Titan A.E. on my new Sony laptop.
Don't ask me why I bought the DVD, I suppose I was in the mood for an animated film. Having watched it, I must admit it was engaging, which makes me wonder what, exactly, is in that Hue beer.
It was the first DVD I'd seen. I was much less than impressed with the license agreement that popped up on the screen after the disk was recognized by the Windows Me on my machine. It seemed to imply that they had the right to collect a license fee from me, and that I owned the plastic that came with the container, but as far as anything else was concerned, all bets seemed to be off.
Then, to add insult to injury, they asked me to volunteer a bunch of personal information, presumably to aid them in doing their job. Right. Fat chance of that happening anytime soon.
Again, since it was my first DVD, I had a bit of a problem figuring out how to get away from the track where, it seems, the director and and producer of the film carry on, and on, and on about every conceivable (and not terribly interesting) aspect of the film. One nice thing - once I figured it out - is that I can see the film in French (not just French subtitles) if I so choose...maybe that's easy considering it's an animated film.
The drill tonight is to fall asleep...hmmm...in about 10 minutes, with a target wake-up time of around 4 am. I then plan to stay up until about 3 pm tomorrow, and then hit the sack again until about 9:30 pm. This whole rigamarole is undertaken in order to "sleep shift" my biological clock to allow me to do a shift from 11 pm tomorrow night, Friday, until Saturday morning at 10 am. This is not for any kind of simulation, but for the real thing, supporting real-time, steady state ops for the ISS.
So, it's off to a date with my toothbrush, and some serious rack drill.
Cheers...
The term "ingress" is a fancy way of saying "entry into," which is far and away nowhere near as slick as the squeaky hatches that slide obediently out of the way on shows such as Start Trek. One thing I've noticed in observing these folks at work: nothing is taken for granted, not even something as seemingly simple as going from one module to another.
But that's not what makes this day weird.
There seem to be as many opinions about what to do, if anything, about the situation associated with the Presidential election as there are voters in Florida. At last glance, nobody was ready to declare Florida having gone one way or another, and there's apparently a groundswell of opinion - supported by the Democrats, wouldn't you guess - to the effect that things ought to reflect the popular vote, regardless of the legal and/or Constitutional niceties.
But even that's not what makes this day weird.
On the way home, I went out of my way to stop by a local grocery store that specializes in Asian food products. I can't explain it, but I absolutely love walking around a grocery store where a good portion of the products on display are a complete mystery to me. I picked up a six-pack of Hue beer (made in Hue City, Vietnam, by the Perfume River) and seem to have emptied all of the bottles. In the meantime, I had some red meat (not usual fare around here) and watched a DVD of Titan A.E. on my new Sony laptop.
Don't ask me why I bought the DVD, I suppose I was in the mood for an animated film. Having watched it, I must admit it was engaging, which makes me wonder what, exactly, is in that Hue beer.
It was the first DVD I'd seen. I was much less than impressed with the license agreement that popped up on the screen after the disk was recognized by the Windows Me on my machine. It seemed to imply that they had the right to collect a license fee from me, and that I owned the plastic that came with the container, but as far as anything else was concerned, all bets seemed to be off.
Then, to add insult to injury, they asked me to volunteer a bunch of personal information, presumably to aid them in doing their job. Right. Fat chance of that happening anytime soon.
Again, since it was my first DVD, I had a bit of a problem figuring out how to get away from the track where, it seems, the director and and producer of the film carry on, and on, and on about every conceivable (and not terribly interesting) aspect of the film. One nice thing - once I figured it out - is that I can see the film in French (not just French subtitles) if I so choose...maybe that's easy considering it's an animated film.
The drill tonight is to fall asleep...hmmm...in about 10 minutes, with a target wake-up time of around 4 am. I then plan to stay up until about 3 pm tomorrow, and then hit the sack again until about 9:30 pm. This whole rigamarole is undertaken in order to "sleep shift" my biological clock to allow me to do a shift from 11 pm tomorrow night, Friday, until Saturday morning at 10 am. This is not for any kind of simulation, but for the real thing, supporting real-time, steady state ops for the ISS.
So, it's off to a date with my toothbrush, and some serious rack drill.
Cheers...
