I've made a small gallery update with a few shots from the latest episode of "Battlestar Galactica". It's starting to get hard to remove shots from the gallery, which has to be done as new stuff is added, since I don't want to end up with a huge gallery spanning several pages. I just don't see the point. I'll keep trying to limit it to only the best stuff, but that's going to get harder and harder to do.
Check out this blog entry talking about some of NASA's environmental policies regarding their pesky foam insulation issue. Now I'm the last person to say that a blog is a reliable source of information, but the writer links to enough credible news sources, plus it's something I could easily see NASA doing.
I'm all for environmentalism when it comes to oil spills and companies dumping chemical poisons into water supplies, but 100 pounds of Freon? Per year? Give me a break. This could very well be costing us decades in space exploration advancement, not to mention the lives of astronauts, just for a petty PR blurb. It's probably the same group of environmental hippies who fight to keep us from trimming forest underbrush. I'm sure the folks in Kelowna could tell you more about that one.
The transformer on our block blew on Tuesday night, so we were without power for most of the morning as I understand it. It's obviously back now, thankfully. I'll have another gallery update this weekend, as episode 203 of "Battlestar Galactica" airs on Friday night on the Sci-Fi Channel.
So NASA has grounded the Shuttles again. A piece of foam fell off Discovery's external tank during the launch, but luckily missed the orbiter all together. There's also a small chip in one of the thermal tiles near the forward landing gear door, though last time I checked they aren't sure when that happened. Over two years of work by supposedly some of the smartest and best engineers on the planet, and the foam issue still hasn't been solved. I don't even know what to say anymore.
7:22 AM - I got up about twenty minutes ago, turned on the computer and loaded NASA's site and their live NASA TV video. I quickly checked CNN and Google news for any sign that the launch had already been aborted, but all of the headlines read "Shuttle ready for launch" and "Crew boards Shuttle, ready for liftoff". Thank God!
7:31 AM - Yes! Final launch countdown has started, T-minus 8:05 right now. Some of the online stream is a bit choppy, but other bits of live footage are running fine. I hope the launch isn't shown 3 frames at a time.
7:34 AM - The gantry is being pulled back. Some nice shots from inside there, along with pointless footage of Jeb and Laura Bush. Oh well.
7:38 AM - Centre fuel tank fueling arm is retracting. You can hear the controllers calling for fuel to start flowing through the system. T-Minus 1:30 or so.
7:40 AM - Liftoff! Fucking awesome! Rolling over perfectly, and throttling up.
7:42 AM - SRB separation complete. Altitude 38 miles, 40 miles downrange. Speed over 3000 miles per hour.
7:47 AM - Main engines operating normally. Altitude 65 miles, 615 miles downrange. Speed 13,300 miles per hour.
7:48 AM - Main engine cutoff, external fuel tank separation.
7:53 AM - External fuel tank photographic exam complete. Altitude 111 miles, over England. Speed 17,300 miles per hour.
Well that's about it, especially since I need to get ready for work. NASA TV worked well, except for the live footage, which had a horrible frame rate and made watching the actual launch impossible. They're replaying the footage now from various angles, which is cool. I definitely plan on watching as many launches as I can now that they've got this internet video delivery system. It can only get better.
I've added four new stills to the gallery from episode 202 of Stargate Atlantis, titled "The Intruder". This was my first show as the lead 3D artist and I think it turned out pretty well. I should be adding even more new stuff this weekend after episode 203 of Galactica airs on friday night.
Didn't do much this weekend except walk around looking for some running/outdoor activity clothing, which turned out to be quite a chore. I also bought some really nice looking but too expensive Panasonic earphones, but I plan on returning them due to an insanely short cord. It doesn't even reach to my waist without an extension, and that just seems silly to me. I don't know who made that decision, but they didn't seem to be thinking at the time.
Have a good week!
I'll be making a gallery update this weekend, adding some stuff from a "Stargate: Atlantis" episode which will air tonight, at least in the US. Speaking of which, the second season of "Battlestar Galactica" has started airing there as well. Of course thanks to the uber-cheap, tight assed Space channel, Canadians won't get to see the series until 2006. There is widespread outrage on Space's web forums, but even more interesting are some people who are piping up only to call the complainers "babies" and "snobs" who can't stand to wait six months. How typically Canadian; lying down and accepting an injustice instead of trying to do something about it, and passing that off as more "mature" and "sophisticated".
Space will lose out in the long run. How can the station claim to be faithful to its genre when it won't pony up the cash for first run rights to the hottest and most exciting science fiction drama in years. People will get satellite tv and order the Sci-Fi channel, or they'll simply download the episodes online, bypassing all of Space's low quality transmissions and excessive commercial breaks. Nice job guys!
To complete today's laugh-fest:
Ah! The supply of quality entertainment continues to pour in from the left aisle. Great stuff!
Chris pointed me to this great site yesterday called CBC Watch. I recommend checking out this article in particular.
I've gotten to the point now where I can't stand to watch or listen to the CBC almost at all. Even their sports coverage is too cute and politically correct, compared to superior broadcasts from TSN or Sportsnet. The CBC has become the perfect example of Canada's bare minimum, walk on eggshells and don't hurt anyone's feelings politically correct philosophy.
In case you haven't had enough left wing madness today, I've got some more. I can't find the link anymore, but yesterday an article in the Vancouver Sun informed us that Vancouver City Council has decided to close two of the six lanes on the Burrard bridge and dedicate them to bike use. Two entire lanes! What? Are tens of thousands of cyclists expected to cross the bridge every hour? The idea was proposed by councilor Bass I believe his name is, the same psychopathic moron who wanted to make people pay to park in front of their own homes. He seems to have taken it upon himself to make a crusade out of getting rid of cars altogether. Oh, and it gets better:
Cost to the City of Vancouver for closing two lanes for a 12 month trial: $400,000
Cost to the City of Vancouver for permanently expanding the bridge sidewalks to allow for dedicated bike lanes: $200,000 - $400,000
Yeah, exactly.
Last night I finished a big music purge. I've been going through my collection of game remix tracks and eliminating the ones I don't like. I used to want to collect them all just for the sake of having them, but I realized a while ago while listening to my iPod at work that I always skip a whole bunch of the tracks. They're just not very good. So my collection of game mixes has probably been lightened by about 40%, which might amount to a couple hundred megs. Not really a big deal.
The hard part is going to come later. From now on when I check out a newly released mix I'll have to decide if it "makes the cut" or not. Some of them are pretty borderline, and it can be hard to decide if you like a song or not until you try and fit it into your listening habits. Do you let the track play, or skip to the next one, when its turn comes up on the playlist? I guess I'll just have to see how it goes.
Metroid still has the best music, though. I hardly deleted any of them.
Maybe the title should read "North American Management". We've all seen plenty of this in Canada.
A Japanese company and an American company decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day the Japanese won by a mile.
Afterward, the American team became very discouraged and morally depressed. The American management decided the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found.
A Management Team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had eight people rowing and one person steering, while the American team had eight people steering and one person rowing.
So American management hired a consulting company and paid them an incredible amount of money. After six months of hard work, they advised that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.
So the American Team acted:
To prevent losing to the Japanese again next year, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to
four steering supervisors, three area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.
They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the "Rowing Team Quality First Program," with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower.
Even new paddles and medical benefit incentives were promised for a winner. We must give the rower the empowerment and enrichments through this quality program.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles.
Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, canceled all capital investments for new equipment, and out sourced existing canoe manufacturing to China.
The money saved was distributed to the senior executives as bonuses for a job well done, and the Administration in Washington was thrilled with the American Management's implementation of its free trade strategy.
I'm so glad that when reading an email with an embedded image, Outlook will only allow you to save that image as a bitmap file. Sometimes I really get pissed off when using programs that are designed for complete idiots, who when confronted with say, a GIF saving option, would freeze and call Microsoft technical support. Stop holding my hand Outlook! I don't need it!
Here is an interesting article. Obviously plenty of left wing bias, but there's always enough truth to make it interesting. Usually I don't run across too many left leaning writers who simply make stuff up on the spot, a la Bill O'Reilly, but I know they're out there.
Just one more busy week to go. I hope I'll be able to take a couple of extra days off around a weekend sometime soon. I need to catch up on some sleep and do a bunch of nagging little chores that have been put off. Expect another gallery update in the next few weeks as well.
Upset over the lack of a dressing room? Won't drink anything but Kabbalah water? Are these really the people we're supposed to listen to about African aid and debt relief? Please. They're musicians and actors, nothing more.