Take a peek in the Anechoic Chamber

Happy birthday to Robin! Who's LJ name I can't remember right now.

Lots of stuff going on. I have a social life, I'm in school, and I'm working. I'm desperate to have a new job, but I may have to wait until Jan. because a lot of companies aren't hiring until the year is over. Or something.

I met a guy on Friday at a Halloween party. We're supposed to have a date Tuesday, and I'm trying to play it cool by only talking to him every other day, but it's really hard, because I'm worried he'll think I don't care, or he'll forget about our plans and make others. I do have to give him a location for the date, and I've been told to do that on Tuesday. I hope I can wait that long.

Anyway, that's it for my update for now. Happy Halloween!

Originally posted by kazbaby at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Well, this one got extremely long, so I'm putting it behind a cut. Enjoy! ( Day 2 and 3 )

It has taken me a week, but I am finally going to blog about my experiences at the NASATweetup for the GRAIL Launch. For those of you reading this that aren’t in the know, GRAIL stands for Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory. It is actually two vehicles that are going to the moon to map the gravity of the moon. There are much better explanations on NASA’s website or a plethora of other places online. I’m not going to talk about that. I want to talk about myself, my experiences, and all that stuff, because you can’t Google how I feel, unless I write about it.

-----Tuesday Sept. 6-----

It all started very early Tuesday morning. There was one other person from Colorado coming to this event, and we set it up so that we were taking the same flight, sharing a car, and staying at the same beach house. It worked out really well. We flew Southwest, and managed to get seats next to each other on the plane. At first we had conversation and then we did our own thing. Because this was a NASA thing, the first thing I did was play the Apollo 13 score. I didn’t listen to every track. I got to the track after “Houston, we have a problem” and then I moved on.

When we got to Florida we went to the car rental place. They offered us an upgrade to a “fun” car, such as a Charger. With a daily rate of $75 a day, we opted not to get it. I had gotten a reservation at $17 a day, so I wasn’t interested in the upcharge. Alamo had an interesting way of doing things. You walked down a specific aisle and just picked one of those cars and drove off. We picked a Dodge Caliber that was grayish.

After getting the car, we decided to go do early check-in and get our badges. I was the driver and had to keep reminding myself that I was the driver, because I kept looking around for wildlife. After getting our badges, as we were getting ready to make a U-turn, we were almost hit by a Golden Eagle. They are big birds! We were apparently in his airspace, and he let us know by buzzing the car. Welcome to Florida!

After getting our badges, we decided to head to the beach house (from here on out, known as Discovery House or DH) for the couple hours we had before the pre-grail dinner. The street signs are not very easy to read and so we missed the turn the first time, and got to see the number 1 nightclub in town, Cheaters Gentleman’s Club. It may really have been the number one nightclub, the parking lot was always full. We turned around and found the street we needed and got to DH. Apparently, the cops come out in full in Cape Canaveral, because we saw a lot of cops in just that small area we were in. After parking and unloading, we spent the rest of the free time, just hanging out with the DH crew. At this point, all but one of the houseguests was there. Their names are Bryan, Nathan, Chris, and Nicki. James would be joining us at the dinner event.

The dinner was at a neat little seafood restaurant called Dixie’s Crossing. I had the rock shrimp, sweet potato, and some cheesy grits. ((The Florida native at our table informed me that I was not eating real grits. It was like cheesy cream of wheat. Not a horrible item, but not something that I’d have again.)) The thing that impressed me the most was that we probably had almost all of the RSVPers plus some people that hadn’t rsvped but showed up anyway. We had a back room, and I think almost every table was full. I’m used to group gatherings where only about half of the people signed up to go, actually show up. So I was glad to see that most people who said they would be there, actually showed up. The other fun thing about the dinner was that you could finally start to put faces to names. Most of us had interacted either over Twitter or Facebook, or both, but didn’t necessarily know what the other people looked like. So it was very cool to start meeting people. I barely got to meet the group that was there, we sat as a table and there wasn’t much space for other people. We still had some good conversations, but part of me wishes we had all gone to different tables. It still worked out nicely, so I’m not going to complain for too much. Overall it was a very nice evening, and a great start to the Tweetup. At this point, we decided to split DH into two cars, Bryan and James were the drivers. Chris and I joined James, and Nicki and Nathan joined Bryan. We kept that break down for the rest of the time, and it worked well.

Back at Discovery House, we continued to just hang out. Everyone pulled out their laptop and began working. I brought my tablet and pulled it out too, just so I had my nose buried in the technology like everyone else. Eventually we got around to the topic of the next day. James needed to be at the KSC Visitor’s Center early, so that he could get his badge before the event started. We decided to have two shifts, those that left with James and those that slept in. I went with James, and so was on the early crew. Since I’m more of a morning person than a night person, I was happy to be in the early crew. The next order of business was to decide the sleeping arrangements. Someone would mention that we need to decide where people are sleeping, and then no one would speak up. James finally claimed a room, and then Nicki claimed a space and eventually everyone found their own sleeping spot. ((At the end of the Tweetup, we decided Discovery House should have been named Indecision House, this was just the first in a long line of examples at how no one would step up and make the decision.)) This ends the first day.

It felt real and surreal at the same time. I felt excited that I was on the cusp of an amazing experience, but I was dreading how quickly it would go. I didn’t dwell too long on the negative, because I was just excited to be surrounded by people that wouldn’t roll their eyes when I talked about nerdy, geeky things. ((That was one of my favorite things about the whole event, being surrounded by people that didn’t mind when I talked about my passions)) I am so happy and grateful for this experience. I will always treasure the people, conversation and things I saw. And tomorrow I will blog about the other two days.

So, a month ago (minus two days) , I posted that I had been accepted to a Tweetup. On Tuesday Sept. 6, exactly a month from that post, I will be getting on a plane to go to Florida to begin the week of awesomeness. I want to blog about it, but I think I'm going to use my professional blog.

Anyway, so a brief synopsis: Going to take some behind the scenes type tours of Kennedy Space Center (basically going to see the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and some launch pads, and maybe some other things) going to hear lectures from people involved in the GRAIL program, and other things (i.e. the director of NASA). Sally Ride might be there. Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) from the original Star Trek is going to be signing autographs at one point, she will be attending the launch. I'm attending an event that will be lunch with Charlie Duke (Apollo Astronaut) So this is going to be a week of pure awesomeness for the NASAnerd in me. And I'm also going to meet 150+ awesome people who love NASA too. ((There's international people. One from UK, Spain, Australia that I know of for sure)

Anyway, I'm super excited and just can't wait for it to begin. I am nervous about leaving Poof, but I have a friend stopping by every day to give her fresh food and water and spend a little time with her, and I'll only be gone Tuesday morning through Friday evening, so it shouldn't be too bad. I know I'll miss her though, but I'm sure she'll be fine.

I finally got accepted to a Tweetup! I'm going to the GRAIL launch in Sept. in Florida. Awesomesauce. Totally stoked! That is all.

Today Poof and I went to the vet. Cats sure know how to make some horrible sounds. -_- Little one had me in tears driving to the vet because she just sounded so pathetic. And then of course, we get to the vet and she's quiet as can be and very calm and does wonderfully. She didn't even squirm during the rabies shot. However, she has dental needs, and may have to lose some teeth because of it. Since they'd have to put her under anesthesia, I think I'm going to wait until we're a little more comfortable with each other, and she's adjusted to her schedule. If I keep upsetting her schedule, she's never going to adjust and I'm never going to stop worrying.

So we'll wait just a little longer. Plus, I think she should probably be off the meds before they do anything with anesthesia anyway. Otherwise, she's in good health. The Vet gave me some pills and some pill pockets to see if that would go down easier, since I've just struggled with giving her the liquid. I think she kept it down today, but I think most of it ended up on my pants and the floor because I missed her mouth.

I saw her eat the pill pocket that was empty, earlier so I'm hopeful, but I have to give her meds twice a day so hopefully she'll be hungry enough in the morning to take it and then again at night.

When I come home from being gone for longer than 10 minutes, she seems to ignore me and almost run away for a few minutes, but if I sit down and talk to her, she comes over and begins rubbing against me and purring quite quickly. We'll see how tonight goes. I'm home for a couple hours, and then I'm leaving again for an event. I think she'll be fine. ((I left the tv on all day, so she'd have some voices)) But, I'll be a worried momma until I come home.

((I had thought about cancelling my rsvp yesterday, and just not going, but she has to get used to me coming and going at some point, if I introduce it to her now...maybe it won't be as traumatizing?))

So anyway, we're taking baby steps. I love my Poof.

Someone asked for pictures, so here's the pictures, though, they're the same pictures that I put up on Facebook.
Also, I'm still having moments of freaking out about either how Poof is gonna ingest something bad for her, or get sick, or get lonely and die, and that I'm going to be a horrible caretaker. Is this normal? I've had pets before, but never one that was just me and her.

( Read more )

So, I went with a good friend to the Denver Dumb Friends League (an animal shelter) to -look- at cats, because I have been considering adopting one for a few weeks and decided to "shit, or get off the pot". I wasn't looking to adopt today because I feel like my apartment is just too messy. Well, I came home with a roommate. A 6-year old cat named Poof. Poof is long-haired...calico colored...sweet, loving, fluff-ball. I fell in love with her staring through the window, because she looked like she had attitude. I met her in a little room, and she was very affectionate. Unfortunately she is just getting over a kitty cold, so I'm going to have to give her medicine for four days, but the other two I saw, were also suffering from kitty colds, and much less...affectionate. Though I think that was because they just felt horrible. ((One had just come down with the kitty cold and couldn't stop sneezing. Poor thing.)) But both of them were younger and cute and I knew they'd be adopted. I wasn't as sure about Poof.

I thought about waiting a week, like I had planned, but there's no guarantee that Poof would still be at the DDFL tomorrow. So I went to lunch and came back and adopted her. She's been in my apartment for maybe 2 hours now, and seems to be making herself at home. A storm started, and she was hiding in the kitchen, and then I opened up a cabinet and she climbed in. I'm guessing she really doesn't like storms. I hope to draw her out after I type this up, but she only weighs 8 pounds, so if I have to pick her up, I can.

I'm worried that I won't be a good cat momma, but I'm going to do the best I can. Shower her with lovings when I can, and let her be herself when I'm not home. So here's hoping that we have many happy years together!

What's with all the spam commenting lately? I've never had spam commentors before and now I'm getting like one a week ((which is not a lot, all things considered, but still))