Bowl Week

I'm on my second bowl game of the day, now, and it seems like it was longer between the end of the regular season and the bowls than usual. Maybe that's just because I haven't been too excited about football for most of the season. I wonder why? Oh, yeah, 1-10. Anyhow, I'm very disappointed that Cal played so poorly last night. The stupid announcers kept on saying that the Pac-10 is so much easier than the Big 12 and blah, blah, blah. Makes me crazy. At least it looks like ASU will beat Purdue here in a couple minutes. And we'll see what happens in the Orange bowl

Anyway, I went to Becca's to change the water for Nick's bird earlier. After Oliver stopped attacking my finger, I decided to hang out for half an hour or so to give him some attention. I put him on my shoulder and went to play on Cari's piano. She has some Lord of the Rings music that was actually really good. And fun to play - just right at my unpracticed level. I kind of want a piano. I can't really justify buying one, because I would really only play it once every few weeks for a few minutes. Maybe when we have kids, I can get one so that THEY have to experience of learning. :)

I'm happy that there's a New Year's party tonight. We usually end up just going out to dinner and then watching movies, and I'm in the mood to be social.

It's really warm today. I put jeans on before I walked to Becca's and I was burning up by the time I got home. It's cooling off now, but I bet it was close to 80 deg earlier. On December 31. Welcome back to Texas.

How to Annoy Me

Docce, which I have recently become addicted to, does this little ditty all the time. My entry for today:

Call me up at work while you are "bored" staying at home on holiday and tell me that you think the pictures I posted on the blog are "too big", make the blog look "funny", and should be "fixed". Throw in a couple of "when I post pictures" comments.

White Christmas "Avoided"

So, Gavin said most of what needs to be said about the events of the last week. Berkeley was beautiful, but we missed the snow at home. Yes! Snow in Southeast Texas. I'm upset about this because it is probably the last time there will be snow in my yard for 20-30 years. Plus, it was on Christmas Eve! HOUSTON HAD A WHITE CHRISTMAS. Too bad nobody was around to see it. These pictures are from Galveston:



I'm at work today, because I have absolutely zero annual leave left. I have to work 9 hours today in order to make the math work out for the week. Luckily, things start over a week from Monday. And to think, management was worried that people were working too hard and not taking enough leave to stay sane. Not me!

Hopefully, tomorrow will find us at a gathering of some sort rather than watching the ball drop at home. 2005 is the 10th anniversary of my HS graduation, and I just spent a family vacation where I was most definately counted as one of the adults - not one of the kids. Some of the kids were in college. :P

The Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004

As we played cards the evening after Christmas, we heard on the TV that there had been a horrendous earthquake in Indonesia. There were unconfirmed reports of several thousand dead. It wasn't clear if there was a tsunami threat or not. As we discovered the next morning, there had been a tremendous loss of life and destruction from the shores of Africa, India, Sri Lanka, and many places in Southeast Asia. Right now the death toll is nearing 120,000, and it will probably double if not triple due to disease by the end. There are many ways to donate to help with the relief effort. Amazon.com has already raised nearly $5 million for the Red Cross.

Jen and I have always been fascinated by geology. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are all incredible displays of the sheer power of nature. I've found some very interesting photos and videos this morning that I will share links to.

Within hours of hearing of the tsunami damage, Japanese and American scientists produced a preliminary model of the propogating wave. This animation shows several waves propogating away from the fault line of the earthquake. It stops after the waves hit Sri Lanka, but we now know that the waves continued on for hours across the Indian Ocean to hit islands and the coast of Africa.

A commercial photo satellite, QuickBird, happened to catch one of the damaged areas just after one of the tsunami waves had hit. You can see the strong and turbulent currents as the water slowly drains offshore at different rates. A comparison photo from nearly a year ago is also offered. This area is on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, which did not experience the full force of the tsunami that the east coast did. Kudos to DigitalGlobe for the photos.

This blog by Austin has several links to sobering amateur videos of the waves coming ashore. Several have been played on CNN and the other news networks over the last few days.

The Wikipedia has compiled an extensive amount of the latest information regarding the disaster. An updated video file there shows the wave impacting the Maldives and the African coast as well. I highly recommend visiting this site for details regarding the earthquake and tsunami.

There has been much reporting in the US press of whether the East Coast, which has no tsunami warning system, could suffer a similar disaster. It's possible, but unclear how likely. It may be that a tsunami from an asteroid impact in the Atlantic is more probable in a given year than from a catastrophic underwater landslide in the Canary Islands.

Happy Holidays

We had a great time in Berkeley this Christmas, visiting my grandmother Sigvor along with my parents and Lauren and Melissa. She lives near the top of the hills overlooking Berkeley and Oakland, which affords a splendid view of the bay. Once can see all the way from Alameda (to the south), the Bay Bridge, downtown San Francisco, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Angel Island (to the west). There was a wonderful sunset the first day we were there. It was unseasonably sunny and clear for most of our stay, raining just a bit at the end. We went to San Francisco for a day, doing some shopping and hitting Ghirardeli Square just after dusk. Then we got to hang onto the side of a cable car as we rode up and down the hills back to the BART station.

We decorated the Christmas tree and hung up the stockings with care. 24 people came over for Christmas Eve, the table stretched from the dining room into the living room with barely room to spare! After dinner we sang carols and danced around the Christmas tree, then people settled into chairs and presents were given. It was a lot of fun, it had been many years since I had last spent Christmas at Sigvor's and it was better than I remembered.

We went on walks through Tilden Park. Dad and I went on a few runs. We also visited the redwoods at Big Basin just before sunset, with most of the family posing inside the trunk of a rather large tree. I don't think I had ever been near huge redwoods before, it was very cool. On the drive out of Big Basin, it grew very dark and misty. Jen and I lamented over not having brought along a Lord of the Rings soundtrack to play.

It was a wonderful trip.

Tick Tock Goes the Clock

It's no secret. Although it freaks some, or most, of my friends out when I talk about it, it is absolutely no secret that I want to start a family. My husband doesn't even have to ask anymore. When he sees me looking over his shoulder at something with a certain grin on my face, he turns to see what the infant/toddler that I'm looking at is doing. I'm very upset that my niece lives about 1500 miles from me in a place that costs $400 to fly to, and I will not get to watch her grow up on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. Semi-annually would be quite an accomplishment. I do believe, as much as I hate the phrase, that my "biological clock" is very much ticking. Not Ally-McBeal-dancing-baby scary ticking, but it's audible, if not hallucination inducing.

Quite honestly, I'm not that suprised. My mother was 30 when I was born (I'm the oldest child in our family). I always assumed that I would have children at about that time, although for some reason I had 28 in my head. I think it may be that 30 just sounded terribly old to me when I was thinking about this at 21, and 28 seemed far enough away not to be an immediate threat. Well, I am either a psychic and can predict the future, or the human mind has a lot of power over the emotions. Because, here I am, 28 and wishing that I didn't have to make responsible decisions.

You see, I also really want to be able to work the next shuttle flight. Which they will not let me do if I'm anywhere near or shortly after giving birth. My bad luck to have a career that I love that is by necessity a bit inflexible on extended leave - not that I can't take extended leave, but I have to spend a couple months bringing my proficiency back up before they'll put anyone's life into my hands. Anyway, let's go Shuttle!

We just got back from an extended coke break. Why am I here again? Oh, right. No more vacation hours. Maybe I can talk someone into signing off the rest of my paperwork for certification this afternoon.

Goody!

HoustonChronicle.com - Attention muggles: Harry Potter VI due July 16:
"The sixth novel in J.K. Rowling's blockbuster Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, will go on sale in Britain and the United States on July 16, publishers said today. "

Horray, horray! Harry Potter coming out soon.

White Elephant

The office was fairly well populated this morning, but I think I may be one of 2 or so left at this point. There just isn't enough vacation time in a year. I need to move to France so I can get the summer holiday thing going. That way I could take a big trip every year without sacrificing the Christmas vactation and the sanity hours that I always end up needing to take when I've had a slow week at work.

Tonight is Gavin's work Christmas party. This party includes, as always, a white elephant gift exchange. I LOVE shopping for white elephant gifts. I have so much fun looking for something kooky or strange or just fun that costs < $10 but that will also be at least a source of amusement. I go to toy stores or craft fairs or junk shops that I don't go into much, but that I have fun looking around in. None of my friends seem to get the same joy in looking for these gifts. Then I get a "well, Jen, why don't you get something for all of us?" I'm going to the party people! That would totally negate the point. I already know what at least three of the gifts are, and that's just because Sarah and Gavin bought theirs at lunch today.

By the way, it seems that nobody knows for sure what the story is behind the term "white elephant". I just got curious and googled it. I got about 10 different explanations. No idea which one is correct.

I'm Back!

I'm writing this on my laptop! Yes, I got it back yesterday, which I wasn't expecting after the fiasco last week. It seems to be in fine working order again, although I had to spend about an hour flailing around getting the wireless network to work again. I hope this is it - my warranty is pretty much up now.

We took the dogs to the dog park yesterday. It was so nice out. It really doesn't feel like a week before Christmas, but it was a great afternoon to spend a couple hours outside.

I don't really have much to say right now. I'm just happy to be able to blog from my own computer. :)

Jeans and Prejudice

This is for Cari: Pride and Prejudice Quiz
I scored abisimally on this quiz, guess I'm not the Jane Austen fan I thought I was.

What a long week! I'm totally in pre-Christmas mode, but I still need to work through Tuesday before we leave. In fact, I need to fit in a few extra hours here and there. I don't know how I'm going to manage that, considering how ready I am to leave work at, oh, say 3:30PM.

Golf yesterday was wet and freezing. There were puddles all over the fairways where low balls went to die. I did OK, but I really need to figure out how to hit the ball straight. We had fun, although we were rather stressed out at the beginning because the real golfers were trying to make everyone go faster. If they're worried about time, they should really say so up front.

My laptop has disappeared into warranty repair oblivion. Apparently, they lost my permission to reformat the hard drive. So, I called four days later wondering when I was going to get the computer, and they put me on hold for long periods of time trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I won't get it back until after Christmas, now. I'm distraught. (Not really, but I wanted to use that word today.)

Don't know what I'm going to do this weekend. I need to buy some White Elephant presents for Gavin's work Christmas party on Monday. I always have fun doing that. No malls, though! I think Seabrook is having a craft market, maybe I can find something there. I need new jeans (no malls!). Walmart stopped carrying the kind I've been wearing for 10 years. I have problems with jeans because usually 1) none of them fit right, 2) I don't believe jeans should cost more than $30 (maybe $40 for a really, really special pair), which cuts me out of about 80% of the jeans market, and 3) I have much more fun buying other things so when I go jeans shopping I usually return home with shoes or skirts but no jeans. I really need a few new pairs, though.

So much fun

Creat your South Park You

Irwin

To Infinity and Beyond

Today, a few of the NASA top brass spoke to JSC employees about the Vision for Space Exploration and such. It was really neat, because a lot of the topics they discussed were things Gavin and I have discussed (or fought over, if you will) in the last couple weeks. At least we're that much in line with management, that we are talking about the same topics. I specifically liked the following:

1) Focus ISS research on things needed to forward the Space Exploration programs.
2) Modularize the design of CEV so that it can be reused or at least expanded to accomplish future missions.
3) A prize approach to some technology development is at least being considered, pending permission from congress.

Of course, when we got back to our building, the first thing that happened was that a co-worker got onto the elevator with us and immediately went on a rant about how it is never going to happen, they won't fund it, they won't follow through, etc. So that kind of brought me down - I'm not the eternal soul of optimism myself, but I also don't like eternal negativity. He's been around for a decade more than me, though, so I suppose I should reserve judgement until I've been trampled down a few more years. :)

Golf tomorrow is probably going to get rained out - go figure. It's actually a good thing for me because golf was going to require vacation time that I don't really have, but I was looking forward to not working. Four more work days before I go on vacation.

All Better

So, in case you were wondering, my gloomy mood didn't last all weekend. :) I snapped out of it pretty quickly. No further posts because my laptop is still at the doctor. They called Friday and strong-armed me into giving them permission to re-format the hard drive. If anyone thinks that is actually possible that the battery corrupted the operating system, please tell me so I can stop feeling like I just lost all my data and software because of a real problem. As it is, I feel like I lost it either A) because they screwed up, or B) because they have a standard procedure to return the laptop to it's factory-approved condition. Or I suppose there's C) the computer sucks and every component is going to break.

Anyway, the weekend was fun. Saturday we went with Gavin's parents to see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the museum. That is some really, really old parchment. The exhibit was pretty nice, but it was not huge. They let too many people through at once - it was really crowded. I couldn't get close enough to stuff to see the numbers that I was supposed to be listening to on my little audio thing. Anyway, it's worth a trip.

Saturday night there was a going-away party for a co-worker who is going to school for a year. There were a lot of people that I know from my co-op days there that I don't see at all anymore. There's a reason for that. It was tiring.

Yesterday, I finished my Christmas shopping. Then we went to dinner at a place near home that is pretty good but is SO going to go out of business. Then we drove back into town to see Singing in the Rain. It was really good. They made it a lot like the movie. The girl that played Kathy is a bit shrill at times. That wouldn't be too bad normally, but since she's supposed to be the one with the nice voice it's a bit distracting. She was also very swoopy with her singing, which I'm not too fond of. This was definately the best TUTS performance of this year, though. Hair and A Chorus Line were disappointing. You couldn't understand anything in Hair, and A Chorus Line got a bit boring.

This week, work is going to be basically about clock watching. Which is worse than it sounds even, because I have to work Monday and Tuesday of next week as well. It feels like the last week before vacation, though.

Armageddon

Yesterday I had an incredibly frustrating and tiring day at work. The worst part about it is that I didn't have a big sim or a meeting where I had to talk to big shots about a contentious topic. I merely did software testing. Poorly. I couldn't seem to do thing right the first time. I recorded data in the wrong time format, took the long way to generated baseline data, etc. I was so tired that I fell asleep on the couch for about 2 hours early in the evening. Then I wasn't tired at bedtime, so today I'm really tired and I have a big meeting and a night sim. And all this, I did to myself.

Becca and Gavin had a big conversation about how best to take the next step of the space program and invigorate the space flight industry at the same time. It got me to thinking about national and global scale problems and how big they really are. You know, the global warming, world peace, starving children in Africa type problems. It always seems to me that we tend to try to treat the symptoms of big problems, but nobody ever talks about solving the root causes of the problems. And who can blame us - they're BIG problems, and that leads to it being really, really tough to solve them. I can't think of solutions. But that got me to wondering if we are ever going to solve anything. I mean, can anybody think of a truly global "oh-my-god-this-is-the-end-of-humanity" type problem that has actually gotten solved? Anyone? It would really do wonders for my outlook if someone can think of something.

Blah, I must be depressed today. Too bad I can't go to my boss's retirement party tonight and have some fun. :P

Identity

I'm waiting to get summoned into my boss's office right now. Not that it's anything bad; I just have to review some charts with him for Thursday. But it kind of feels like I can't really start anything because I'll have to jump up and go whenever he's ready for me. I've been working almost exclusively on training and software for so long, that I've forgotten what it feels like to have work that will go outside the division and therefore has to be reviewed by Management.

We went to dinner at Cafe Adobe in town last night. It was the going-away dinner for the co-op in Gavin's group. Apparently, Monday nights at Cafe Adobe is part of the Houston gay scene. We saw another person from work, and in that atmosphere it was like a light bulb coming on. I mean, it doesn't suprise me that this person is gay. It's just that I don't really think about that when I meet people. I wonder if that is an extremely healthy thing, a clueless thing, or me assuming that others are like me until I have reason to believe differently. I think it is healthy. I mean, it doesn't matter to me as far as how I relate to the person, so why should I be on the look out? It is true, though, that sexual orientation seems to be an important part of a gay person's identity, whereas I would never think to announce to friends/family/anyone that I'm straight. I assume that they'll assume. Doesn't that make it a bit of a double standard? I guess I can see why accessories with the gay rainbow on them are so popular. It's like telling someone who you are without having to say something that people normally wouldn't say as part of an introduction. "Hello, I'm Jane. I'm an engineer, and I live in Houston. I'm gay." Um, probably not.

the running man

I ran the Reindeer Run 5K with Sarah last Saturday. I ran 21:20, which works out to be something like 6:52 per mile. We both got trophies for placing in our age groups, which was pretty cool. I'm quite behind on the marathon training. Less than two months to go and my weekly mileage and farthest run distance are both abysmal. We'll see if I run the full or half marathon. If I was running tomorrow, I'd do the half. I'll decide which I feel up to by Jan 15.

Home is where the snow is not

I think the internet at my house is finally fixed. We finally got a guy out here when the connection was down. He went out to the box and replaced the port (he found condensation on the back of the panel). I don't want to jinx it, but I haven't seen the connection down since. Now I just have to fight with the billing people to try to get some compensation for it being down for a month plus, again. This is complicated by the fact that I was keeping a journal of down time and phone calls on my laptop, which is hopefully getting repaired now but that doesn't do me much good for the next couple days.

I did a lot of shopping this weekend. I've been finding good stuff, so it hasn't been that bad. Despite a few hints (not-so-subtle ones), Gavin hasn't started yet, to the best of my knowledge. We need to get stuff in the mail this week, so I hope he starts soon. We also did the lights on the house and the tree yesterday. I had to go out and buy a couple more nets for the bushes. What's up with things growing? We don't really like those bushes anyway. We keep talking about replacing them, but they're going to be a project to remove. They're pretty big. Plus, it will probably take six months to get permission from the homeowners ass. Punctuation intentional.

Today it was 72 deg. On December 5. I looked outside and saw clouds. It was kind of chilly in the house, so I assumed it would be chilly outside and put a sweater on. I had to buy myself a T-shirt while I was out shopping to keep from melting. The forcast for tomorrow - 78 deg. On December 6. Let me give you a peek at the weather forecast for tomorrow from some places I'd rather live:

Seattle, WA - High 46 deg
Casper, WY - High 37 deg
Denver, CO - High 44 deg
Albuquerque, NM - High 41 deg
San Francisco, CA - High 54 deg
Vancouver, BC - High 43 deg

See a pattern? 78 deg does not belong in December. Snow and cold and skiing belong in December. It sucks, because the weather is actually rather pleasant now (except for the nasty humidity, but at least it's bearable with the lower temperatures). But I'm so down on this place, that all I can think of is how different the weather is than it should be. In all fairness, this is unseasonably warm even four Houston. If life were a movie, this would be foreshaddowing for the storm of the century - or maybe the edge of the cliff at the bottom of which is the next ice age.

Anyway, the Christmas parties start this week. Social obligations abound around the holidays. I'm just ready for another vacation. I had fun writing our Christmas letter about all the places we've been this year. Travel is cool.

heigh ho

I've heard that many people in the world do not profess to enjoy their job. What they do for a living. It's secondary to them, something they merely do to support what they want to do, such as buying food or raising children or going on vacations.

I admit I have trouble understanding that. I guess I'm fortunate, that I frequently enjoy the work I do. I find I enjoy problem solving in general, I guess that's the trademark of an engineer. I'm sure I could do other jobs and enjoy them as much if not more than what I do now. I'm pretty happy, though. I think it's cool I get paid to do what I do. Certainly, there are bad days. But not often enough to bother me.

Some of my friends who work with me are not as happy, and I find it difficult listening to them when they talk about it. Sometimes it makes me feel defensive, that they feel the work that we do isn't important. That no one would really miss what we do. And while I realize the world would survive without us, it doesn't mean that our work is trivial. It merely means someone else would do it.

I feel defensive because I value what we do, and I don't like hearing opinions to the contrary. Everybody likes to think they're making a difference in the world, and I can understand people becoming disillusioned when they feel they're not. I know I would. Part of me feels it is my obligation to try to inspire my friends in such discussions, but usually I either fall silent or make disapproving comments which don't help.

TP and long grass

We have a softball game tonight. This is the softball season that never ends. I don't think we've played since early November. The season started in August, and was supposed to be a 10 week season. Oh, well. It has allowed us to play softball in November when it is "cooler". Well, at least the December game will be cooler. Forecast for game time is 57 deg. It's 68 deg right now. On December 3.

I went to the homeowners association annual meeting last night. This is basically a meeting where a bunch of middle class homeowners get together to bitch about their neighbors. "How come that guy got permission to put up a detached garage, but I can't put up a storage shed?" "What are you going to do about those kids that are TPing houses?" "What are you going to do about people that let their dogs poop in my yard?" "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Then we "elect" new board officers (4 vacancies, 4 nominations). It's depressing. At least my street is more sane than, say, Becca's street. She gets letters about her grass, bricks, etc regularly. We've actually only had one letter since we moved in, and that was about a dead bush right after we bought the house. People really need to get their noses out of everyone else's business about most of this. And the people that were complaining about the toilet paper - I just kept thinking how it was probably someone's kid in the neighborhood that was doing it, so why complain to the HA? Where's your teenager tonight?

I need to get on Christmas shopping. Somehow, once I get home after work, though, there is always something more attractive to do that go shopping. And the party invitations are starting to pour in. December is busy like that. So far, I have 4 on my calendar. I'm sure there will be more.

Back in the Saddle Again

I like Aerosmith songs.

I stopped by Warner after work today and traded in our old cable modem for a new one. The old one had 4 lights. The new one has 8. I have no clue what half of them do. But that doesn't really matter, because now we have internet working. At least, it did work great the entire night. We'll see if it works fine as the week proceeds.

If this is all it took, a modem switch, I'm not terribly impressed that three technicians who came to our house over two months didn't try it.

Adieu

Ah, it is a sad, sad day. I bid my laptop a fond adieu this morning, and sent it back to the manufacturer. I hope they fix it. I hope it doesn't break again. I hope they don't reinstall windows and erase all the data I've moved onto the hard drive. Sigh.

I made a fire last night. Well, I didn't so much "make" a fire as turn on the gas and light it. But, it was nice that it was chilly enough here to want one. I think it got down in the 40s where we are. It was supposed to get down below freezing north of Houston. That's downright cold for around here.

I got sucked into watching "The Real Gilligan's Island" last night. Reality TV is evil. You don't want to watch something that dumb, but you just can't help gaping at the crazy people they find to be on the shows.

Anyway, aside from the laptop casualty, Time Warner still hasn't managed to fix our internet. So, there's no communication from the home front. Blah.