Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

This afternoon, I made a visit to the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, adjacent to the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. I had heard the Visitor Center was closing next month due to budget cuts at NASA, and wanted to make a visit before it closed.

NASA Glenn is home to several laboratories dedicated to jet engine and rocket propulsion research. As a government research and development facility, it has the usual and expected security precautions -- US citizens only, no weapons, cameras allowed in selected locations (such as the visitor center) only. There was a tour of the microgravity Drop Zone laboratory that day, but that required an advance reservation.

I watched a 15-minute summary of the STS-117 mission, narrated by one of the astronauts. I then wandered toward the static display area. They had a display honoring the facility's namesake -- astronaut and senator John H. Glenn. There was an operational scale model of a wind tunnel. They also had scaled-down mock-ups of the Ares I and Ares V rockets, which will be used on the missions to return mankind to the moon.

Naturally, much of the exciting way-cool R&D stuff currently going on in the labs hasn't been cleared for release to the public, and the other buildings on the campus were off-limits to us visitors. (Even though I used to work at Wright-Patterson AFB and GE Aircraft Engines as a contractor, I don't have any current credentials to prove this to the NASA Glenn staff.)

The visit lasted about 90 minutes, ending with the requisite stop at the gift shop.

I plan to post my pictures to my Webshots page soon.

There's some way cool music they're airing during "Local on the 8s" on the Weather Channel this month. They have a list of it here: weather.com/tv/music.

One song that I really dig has a slow, seductive synth bass line. It's got a techno/electronica sound to it. Some web searching, along with some trial-and-error listening on Rhapsody, have brought me to the band's web site. STS9, or Sound Tribe Sector 9 to use their full name, is a quintet of jam rock musicians. The song they're using on the Weather Channel this month is called "Metameme", from their 2008 album "Peaceblaster".

I'm gonna have to buy this CD now.

It's good that these guys are getting some airplay somewhere. Jam rock bands don't get much airplay on the radio.

Some time ago, I used a graphic in one of my posts as part of a meme. The graphic came from an astrology website. (I won't name names, but part of its URL is tarot.com). In order for me to use the graphic, I had to sign up for their mailing list. Okay, no problem. So I did.

It's been over a year, and I'm still getting messages from them, at the rate of one every few days. I have two problems with their mailings.

First, the messages are image-oriented. For someone like me who (1) cut their teeth on Unix sendmail back in the 1980s and (2) still use dialup to this day, I don't see the value added in sending an image-oriented message when a text-oriented message will do. Also, image-oriented messages disenfranchise the small number of internet users who are blind and/or visually impaired.

Second, the frequency of the messages. In the 14 months that I've been getting email from them, I've received nearly 200 messages. I think that averages out to about two a week, maybe more. Is it really necessary to send that many email reminders to me? My memory isn't that short. I'd be comfortable receiving one reminder a month at the most from them.

Yes, I'm aware I can choose to unsubscribe from them. But that doesn't mean someone else can bombard me with their spam. Grr! Argh!

First of all, I want to thank the wellwishers: bikergeek, thatcrazycajun, and mseuphrates.

I ended up inadvertently sleeping in yesterday. I got in to work at 9:15. Oops. I didn't have time to wait for coffee to be brewed, so I downed a can of sugar-free Red Bull. I should call that stuff Liquid Luck, because that morning, I was able to solve two problems that had me stumped on Friday. After work, I headed to the local IHOP for my traditional birthday meal: steak and eggs. (Hell, it's what the astronauts ate when they were in training!) Then I did some grocery shopping. And then it was back to the hotel.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11_40th.html

I think I already posted my memories of that day elsewhere/elsetime in my LJ.

(My current music -- Ethereal -- features the conversation between Mission Control and the astronauts of Apollo 11, juxtaposed with some hauntingly beautiful Gregorian chant.)

Shout-outs: Happy birthday stevemb!

I can spend all day watching both real and computer-generated imagery from NASA. Coverage from past missions, juxtaposed with simulated images from projected or future missions. It would make a nice video, especially if it was set to music.

Even better would be in a keyboard-based band or orchestra, with the imagery being projected on a large screen above the band, a la Jean Michel Jarre.

What are your favorite pieces of "space music"?

Found out last night that the father of one of my friends in Buffalo passed away yesterday. I feel sad that I won't be able to be there for him at the wake or at the funeral. I know I was there for him 20+ years ago when his mother passed away.

A post in the spaceagers community mentions a Twitter thread that recaps the Apollo 11 mission in somewhat real time, 40 years after the event. Here's the post, which contains the details.

I'm long past the age of getting drunk to the point of getting sick. But there are a couple of incidents from my college days that I should mention at this time. Names are being withheld to protect the guilty.

Back before the days of the FIPG, one of the guys in my fraternity indulged a little too much and went out back to take care of himself. Lo and behold, someone took a picture of him being sick, went to Kinko's, and had the picture blown up to poster size. I think it should have been captioned "Alcohol poisoning is very glamorous." Kind of like the smoking posters from the 1970s.

Another went to a local bar and had a little too much to drink. He got sick on the way home. Someone wrote a rap song about it, and several titles were bestowed unto him. Titles like Titan of Toss. Viceroy of Vomit. Baron of Barf. Earl of Hurl. Duke of Puke. Champion of Chunder. And the Maharaji of Regurgitation.

Needless to say, these two guys cleaned up their act quickly, and never got sick from drinking again.

And the moral of this story is: Learn from the mistakes of others so you don't have to make them yourself.

1) I can reduce a whole lot of note paper if I sat down and typed some of the notes I've accumulated in the past several years, ignoring stuff that's no longer pertinent. (Information does have a shelf life.)

2) I haven't seen a Billy Mays ad since he died on Sunday. I guess all the networks and cable channels pulled them out of respect for the man.