Thu, 31 Dec 2009
Like last year, here is the list of cities I visited during 2009, in chronological order.
- New York, NY*
- North Kingstown, RI*
- Oakland, CA*
- Mountain View, CA*
- Niagara Falls, ON
- Pacific Grove, CA*
- Fresno, CA
- Yosemite National Park, CA
- Santa Monica, CA
- Whittier, CA
- Blackrock State Campground, CT
- Cocoa Beach, FL
One or more nights were spent at each. Cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.
posted at: 13:22 | category: travel | permanent link to this entry
Sat, 5 Sep 2009
Last week Monday, in the earliest hours of the morning, my girlfriend and I touched down in Orlando, Florida. We immediately picked up the rental car and drove out to Cocoa Beach, situated along the Atlantic coast, where we were planning on staying for the week. Then we slept. We were in Florida to see the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-128, which we expected would be pretty cool.
Discovery was supposed to launch at 1:36 AM Tuesday morning. We spent most of Tuesday gathering supplies, looking at exhibits at Kennedy Space Center, and waiting around in lines to get on buses. Despite an 80% favorable outlook, though, bad weather scrubbed the launch about 10 minutes before liftoff. Apparently the Shuttle doesn't respond well to lightning. As an aside, though, we learned that Apollo 12 was struck by lightning twice shortly after liftoff, but the systems in those days were sufficiently simple that it didn't cause major problems.
The next night, we made the same preparations and set out. When we arrived at Kennedy, we learned that the launch had been scrubbed due to a valve problem. The 8-inch liquid hydrogen fill and drain valve hadn't registered as closed when they tried to close it, which obviously was a huge problem. The absolute earliest they could attempt to launch again was 48 hours from then, but they weren't even making any suggestions about scheduling another attempt until they got a chance to look closely at the valve and its associated sensor (which they suspected of being the real source of the problem). They wanted to get it resolved quickly, though: their last chance to launch was Sunday night. If they were still on the ground at that point, the launch window closed and the next opportunity was more than a month later in October.
Disappointed, we headed back to the hotel. Our flight home was Thursday morning, and the next possible launch attempt was just after midnight on Friday morning. What were we going to do, we asked ourselves. Do we eat the cost of the flight and stick around until who knows when? Or head home and risk missing the single event we came to see? We decided to wait and see what they said on Wednesday about the valve. After all, the airline said we could cancel our flight up until an hour before it left, and the valve problem might have been bad enough that they had to delay until October, when we could return.
We went back to Kennedy on Wednesday and took the bus out to the Apollo/Saturn V Center and International Space Station Center, all the while keeping an eye on the Kennedy Space Center Twitter feed. In the early afternoon, they announced that they would indeed make another attempt early Friday morning, so we decided to cancel our tickets and stay. After all, there were four launch opportunities that weekend, so the odds seemed pretty good.
Thursday we spent doing very little, but it didn't pass entirely uneventfully. The mission managers decided they wanted more time to come up with contingency plans in case the valve acted up again, so they pushed the next attempt back another 24 hours to just before midnight on Friday. Just three launch attempts left before the August opportunity was gone.
Friday we decided to do something fun, so we rode out to Orlando to see Epcot at Walt Disney World. We had a great time, and my girlfriend was quite surprised as how much entertainment there is for adults as well as kids. We got a late start leaving Cocoa Beach, though, so all too soon it was time to get back in the car and make yet another trip to Kennedy.
Getting out of the park, back to the car, and out of the parking lot took longer than we anticipated, though. We were a little worried about getting to Kennedy on time, as they block off the roadways several hours before launch attempts to keep people from driving in to see the launch and putting themselves in harm's way. We had a vehicle placard that was supposed to get us past the roadblocks, but we hadn't ever tested it, and it was up to the security guys whether they wanted to honor it anyway. If we were sufficiently late, we'd be out of luck.
Of course, as we got on the freeway, we noticed that we were down to about a quarter of a tank of gas. My memory was that we were at a little under half a tank when we left Cocoa Beach, though, so it didn't seem like it would be a problem. We'd have to get gas shortly before or after the launch, but no big deal. About halfway between Orlando and Kennedy, though, the gas light goes on. In most of the US, that wouldn't be that big a deal, but the stretch of road between Orlando and the coast is basically all fields and wilderness. My girlfriend got rather worried. I told her it'd be fine, and hoped it would be. It wasn't like we could do anything about it, so we had to just keep on driving.
It was at this point that my iPhone saved the day. By finding a gas station? Not really. We did use it to find one, but the closest gas station turned out to be along the road we had to take anyway, so we would have stopped there regardless. No, what it did was give us peace of mind that we weren't going to run out of gas and miss the launch. And boy was that nice at that particular time. Late to where you're going and low on gas, just the knowledge that it's only 3 miles until one of your problems is solved is quite relaxing.
Flush with gas, we breeze onto Kennedy without a barricade in sight and find ourselves at the Visitor Center for the fourth time in five days. As before, we wait around in lines for a while and then board the buses. The crowd had really thinned out from Monday night's attempt, we presumed because they couldn't cancel flights and add vacation days quite as freely as we fortunately could. The weather forecast was only 60% favorable, but the attempt would go forward.
The buses for a launch take you out to the viewing area several hours early. On both the previous attempt and this one, we had gotten on the second or third bus to leave, so we got a prime spot right on the front edge of the seating area. Once you're there, though, there's basically nothing to do. There's a PA system that broadcasts NASA's coverage of the launch attempt, including some snippets from the radio traffic, but the launch timeline has large portions of built-in buffer space in case anything goes wrong, so when nothing has gone wrong there's a lot of just sitting. We got periodic updates on the weather, which were promising, but otherwise you're left to whatever distraction you brought with you. (Professor Layton, in my case.)
The final major decision point in a launch seems to be at about eleven minutes before liftoff, when they decide whether or not to restart the countdown, which has been holding at T-9:00 for about an hour. All the major groups on the launch team have to give a go/no-go signal when polled. When this time came around, a hush came over the crowd as everyone listened for the signals, especially trying to catch when weather went by. All "go". When they finished the poll, all the spectators started cheering.
The final minutes of the countdown flew by, with the NASA commentators describing all the steps the launch controllers and computers were taking as they happened. Final checks of computers and flight control systems, pressurization of suits. And at 11:59:37 PM, the countdown reached zero.
I was born after the advent of the Shuttle program, almost a decade after the last moon landing. I was three years old at the time of the Challenger disaster. Human spaceflight has just been a fact of life for me, along with air travel, radio, television, electricity, and all manner of other technological achievements.
Spending a week immersed in the process of spaceflight, culminating in the launch of one of the most powerful rockets ever built, gives you a new perspective on matters. Spaceflight is neither easy nor routine; it's actually incredibly complicated. Human beings strap themselves onto a rocket that releases more power than a nuclear weapon and then spend days, weeks, or even months at a time in an environment that is completely unlivable for all life as we know it.
Watching the incredible blast from the rocket engines light up the launch area like daylight, with a plume that was painful to look at, I couldn't help but think to myself how amazing it was that I was watching a man-made vehicle rocketing seven people into space. Literally into outer space, hundreds of miles above the surface of the Earth, where there's no water and basically no air and alternately intense solar radiation and freezing night. A place where you see fifteen sunrises a day. Where you can look down and see entire continents laid out before you, not on a map, but really there, with your naked eye.
It's amazing the kinds of things that the human race has managed to achieve, and maybe even more amazing to think that we do it often enough that it doesn't even make the news most of the time. Ho hum. Another group of people just went to space.
posted at: 14:21 | category: travel | permanent link to this entry
Mon, 29 Dec 2008
Following Jason Kottke's example, here is the list of cities I visited during 2008, in chronological order.
- New York, NY*
- Philadelphia, PA
- Chicago, IL
- London, United Kingdom
- North Kingstown, RI*
- Las Vegas, NV
- Acapulco, Mexico
- Oakland, CA*
- Barkeyville, PA
- St. Louis, MO
One or more nights were spent at each. Cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.
The vast majority of my traveling was done early in the year and in spurts; the trips to Chicago, London, and Rhode Island had no weekend at home in between, as did the trips to Acapulco and Oakland.
posted at: 17:04 | category: travel | permanent link to this entry
Tue, 5 Feb 2008
I forgot to mention that on Sunday afternoon I also headed over to Buckingham Palace while I was waiting for a room to be made available at my hotel. Perhaps 100 yards away from the palace is the Canadian War Memorial.
In my view, the Canadian War Memorial is right beside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as the most potent war memorial I've ever seen. But where the Vietnam Memorial provides an overall impression of solemness, and possibly sadness or regret, the Canadian War Memorial evokes a profound sense of gratitude. It's a water cascade over a granite diamond that has images of maple leaves embedded into it, and the memorial is surrounded by maple trees. In autumn, the leaves from the trees fall onto the memorial and mix with the carvings. It's just stunning.
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If you're ever in London, do yourself a favor and pop over to Green Park, right by Buckingham Palace. The palace is rather nice to look at as well.
posted at: 06:39 | category: travel | permanent link to this entry
Mon, 4 Feb 2008
I have arrived in London, where I'll be working for two weeks. So far, everything is going well.
Immigration was ridiculously fast. I mean, literally, I walked into the room and up to an available desk. The immigration officer did the usual routine of complete non-interest except when I mentioned I worked for Google, to which I got a "Oh, mhmm."
The hotel I'm staying in is really nice. Probably nicer than I deserve. The mirror in the bathroom has a section of fogproof glass. I can see the top of Big Ben's tower and the parliament building from the window.
It's also creepy. The minibar is computer controlled. If you remove anything from its spot, it bills your room. When I arrived, I opened up the minibar hoping that it had space to be used as a fridge (it doesn't). About 15 minutes later, a room service guy arrived with a can of Red Bull and put it in the minibar, and he implied that they had noticed that I had opened the minibar but hadn't taken anything out, so they wanted to restock the can in case I wanted it.
I spent last night wandering about the Square Mile, which is also creepy after dark (5:30) on a weekend. Nothing is open, including museums and things, and you can walk for blocks without seeing anyone. I originally went out to go see The Monument, but it's closed for renovations for 18 months, so I decided to just wander about. Guildhall is really impressive, though, even at night when you can't go inside. In fact, the whole city has this really cool feel from being a mixture of old medieval architecture and beautiful modern stuff. Walking along a long slim overstreet walkway and looking over to see a ruined section of the London Wall is awesome. I unfortunately don't have any pictures, as it was dark and my only photographic device is my phone, but trust me, it's great.
Also, 140 London Wall is perhaps the greatest address ever.
Cars driving on the opposite side of the road are kind of unsettling, too. I didn't realize to what extent I have subconscious feelings about what direction I have to watch out for cars, but when you're walking along the left side of the road and a car whips by from behind you, it's quite surprising.
The London office is quite a lot like New York. My major impression is that it's smaller and has better junk food.
So, it appears that my impression of London so far this time is impressive, yet creepy. More tales as the trip progresses.
posted at: 14:43 | category: travel | permanent link to this entry
Sun, 30 Dec 2007
As I sit here in my parents' house on the last night before I fly back to New York, gazing into the thick fog that's settled over the neighborhood, I feel compelled to take stock of my life. The last week has been a really great time, and it's going to be tough to leave, though I know I have to. Knowing how hard it is on my mom doesn't help either.
Overall, I feel like my life in New York is pretty good. Looking at it from the outside, it certainly looks awesome: I live in a great place, I work at one of the most desired places to work, and so forth. But for the most part, I feel unfulfilled, and I can't quantify exactly why. Part of it is that work isn't that interesting to me; I work on interesting projects, but the complete disconnect from the customer dampens my enthusiasm dramatically. I don't feel like that's it, though. Hopefully I can find what I need to change to feel better.
In other news, there are some exciting developments on this side of the country.
My parents have a new cat, and she's absolutely adorable. Her name is Gina, and she's quite small, roughly 2/3 the size of what I think of as a normal cat. She's got plenty of spunk, though, as she'll happily climb up onto my (six foot high) bed or chase a wine bottle cork around the house.
There's a new Catholic cathedral going up in Oakland right on Lake Merritt, and it's pretty impressive. It looks to be about eight stories tall, judging by the neighboring buildings, and is faced with glass panels in a elegant curve shape with a angled indent. Andrew Sherman has been keeping a log of its construction with a large helping of pictures.
Speaking of Lake Merritt, they're finally doing planning and construction for the southern end improvements, most notably: redesigning 12th Street and Lakeshore, adding more park space, and removing the horrible tunnels that go under the expressway. The design looks really good, though there are concerns about the number of trees being removed (both there and elsewhere), and I'm not convinced that the new restaurant that's being put where the boathouse used to be will be worth anything. There've previously been restaurants on the Lake and all of them have gone out of business. I wouldn't mind living in a high-rise apartment overlooking the lake someday, though.
Also, SCO was delisted in the last couple days, though not as a result of low share price (which it was already under advisement from NASDAQ about), but due to filing for bankruptcy.
posted at: 04:43 | category: travel | permanent link to this entry
Thu, 12 Oct 2006
I had an awesome time this most recent weekend. Everything began Thursday night with Heather, a player in GemStone, coming into town for an interview. My friend Oliver drove in and we met up with her and Brad, we had dinner and a couple drinks, then Oliver and I hung out in Heather's hotel room for a while before heading back to my place, finally getting there at like 5 AM.
The following day, we went and got a dozen cupcakes from Crumbs before heading up to Jenny's for the weekend. Oliver and I had previously attempted to bring cupcakes from Magnolia's to Jenny's but failed miserably. I won't say whose fault it was, but Oliver left them on the table. Unlike Magnolia's cupcakes, which have delicious frosting but are slightly dry on the cake end and somewhat small, Crumbs cupcakes are very moist when fresh with equally delicious frosting. They're also as big as your fist. Literally.
Jenny's kids are ridiculously cute, so it's always a joyous time at her house. Dan and Holly were there, too, and we managed to convince them both to reopen their World of Warcraft accounts. I don't get to be a bad influence too often, so it was a nice change of pace.
We went to a relatively small (in my estimation) zoo in Massachusetts, which was an interesting experience. The only zoos I've ever really spent real time at are the Oakland Zoo (which isn't huge, but has a fairly wide variety of animals, along with an excellent elephant exhibit) and the San Diego Zoo (one of the largest in the country), so my perspective is probably skewed, but it was a little weird to go to a zoo that had a somewhat limited range of animals. It was still a good time, though. I got to carry Jenny's youngest around so she could see over the railings.
Aside from that, we pretty much just hung out. Which was good.
I took the train home, which was my first time doing that from Rhode Island. You have to take Amtrak to get across the RI/CT border, since apparently the commuter train systems centered around Boston and New York City each think the other has the cooties, so I transferred at New Haven and took Metro North back into the City.
I was totally going to work on a presentation I had to give Monday over the weekend and totally didn't, so I ended up finishing it at 3 AM Monday morning, but it was completely worth it.
posted at: 17:54 | category: travel | permanent link to this entry