Now it's dad's turn. Again, we're having fun, if you couldn't tell.

Here's my mom...haha, I love this pic. As you can tell, we're having a BLAST tailgating at a MSU football game.

Ah, one of the holiest places on earth. I told ya we went to Boston :)

The Magic, The Mystery, The Mesmerizing....the Blog Update

ahh, nothing like a good ole' update to brighten your morning...

there have been several significant events since we last talked.

First off, I have been recruited to play with the Co-Op Ultimate Frisbee Team against the ASCANs(astronaut candidates). Yeh, and these aren't the old 40-something astronauts. No no, these are the candidates, mind you; that means they are gonna be young, fast, strong, and arrogant, just like high school soccer. Needless to say, I'm pretty pumped about playing. Hopefully my workout routine and conditioning the past few weeks will give me an edge. I guarantee I can outrun any of the ASCANs in a dead sprint towards the disc, so I can't wait. We are practicing Sunday, and the game is Thursday. Yeh, THURSDAY, the day before Mal gets here...that means I gotta make sure pretty much everything has been taken care of before I play on Thursday. By the time I get home that night, I'm gonna be SO tired.

Speaking of Mal, this week I've begun the "planning" process, if you will. I'm not scheduling our entire day or anything gay like that, I'm just getting the right reservations and certain things taken care of. My god, if you ONLY knew what I have reserved for us...mwa hahaha. I can't wait for Mal to get here. I mean, I was excited last week, and the week before. But she's only SEVEN days away now, so you can only imagine how anxious I am.

I was thinking about doing a dry run tomorrow, driving to the airport and seeing how to get there. I think I might pass on that, though. I need to start cleaning up the apartment, clean my car(inside and out), etc. I'm gonna work a few hours extra the first few days of work next week, so I'm gonna be able to leave for the airport really early on Friday. I guess if I can get there, I can get back, so I think I'll be fine.

Travel-wise, Mal and I have been to quite a few places this year:

August: Boston, MA
December: Washington, D.C.
Now: Houston, TX

Travel savvy, we are.

I brought two dozen Krispy Kreme donuts to the group meeting this morning. They were a hit(shocker there), but there were about 5 donuts left over after the meeting. You know I couldn't let them just sit there......and even though I'm tryin to watch what I eat and get toned for summer, I just had to eat them, all 5 of them. They were soooooooooooo good.

Work is going grrrreat. I'm becoming an ASP God. My script is coming along quickly. I've started adding all kinds of cool buttons and menus. Ted, the resident programming guru, has given me props already, so that has pushed me to do even better. As soon as I get through with this project, I'll start getting into the RAVEN training flow...sweet.

I'm kinda pissed about my present I got Mal for VALENTINE's. Yeh, that thing that was two weeks ago. The guy shipped it(I got it off ebay) on February 11, so you think it would be here by now, but no...not here. I sent him an ebay message, and he hasn't responded. I'm kinda worried, but hopefully it'll get here before Mal arrives. I was gonna send it for a V-day present, but obviously I've had to alter those plans...oh well, I'll get to see her reaction LIVE if it gets here next week....that was my whole point anyway; I wanted to see/hear her reaction when she saw it for the first time.

If my Dawgs win tomorrow, we're pretty much guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament...and it'd be nice to beat our state rivals.

well, I think I have brought you all up to speed on how everything is going here. I'll talk to ya latre...and we'll talk Oscars next time :)

Night!

Here's another early design(and flown) of the X-38. You just get the feeling that that thing is a total BLAST to ride in.

I also like to pose with test flown vehicles for the X-38 project.

In my spare time, I like to pose with nixed government funded projects, like the X-38.

All alone at Johnson Space Center, Henry decides to knock on the bay doors to the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility to see if anyone is home.(click for larger picture)

"He's a very pahurful magician"

Well today was kinda cool at work. I got to see the X-38. No, it's not the latest razor from Gillete. It is the scrapped project that would have been the escape vehicle for the ISS. It is also the only vehicle built at JSC. I can go on about the X-38 for hours, so just pick me up on aol or MSN messenger and ask me about it. It's very cool. Even google for pictures of it, and you'll find some info about it. It's a very neat project that should NOT have been scrapped....I'll try to post some of our pics soon. Jason has them now, so I'm awaiting the transfer.

Well today was a great day in terms of American history. It is the 25th anniversary of the Miracle On Ice, the USA Winter Olympic team's victory over the big nasty Russians. They showed the original broadcast in its entirety on ESPN Classic. WOW. That was so freakin awesome. I got pumped just from watching it. Now I wanna kick it with the guys at the league in Starkville. Man I miss those fellas...I'll join them soon enough.

well it's gonna be short today. I'm pretty tired. Tomorrow is my day off from working out, so maybe I'll be up later to type more, cuz I wont be as tired.

y'all take care

UPDATE time

I'm tellin ya, workin 40 hours a week REALLY makes you enjoy the weekends so much more. I think because I enjoy it so much more now, that it goes by SO fast. There is nothing I look forward to more than sleeping in at the end of the week. I LOVE it.

I played quite a bit of disc golf today. We haven't been to our local course in a few weeks, due to previous engagements and weather, so it was cool to get back there today. HUGE crowd of guys playing today, so we joined in their group. Richard Rosch, the guy that keeps the course, always plays around 3 pm on Sundays, and people have begun to join him. He's REALLY good at disc golf, and he has given me so many pointers. I can really tell that my game is improving. Today, I BIRDIED on Hole 1 of the course, which is VERY hard to do. I was impressed. My birdie shot was from about 35 feet out, so I was excited.

Speaking of disc golf, I just booked my tickets to Jackson, MS for the weekend of April 1. Man am I excited. I get to go home and just chill, while spending time with my parents, my awesome dogs, and the Bratton Green Disc Golf Course. It will be SUCH a relaxing weekend. I cant wait to test my skillz on the course there; I think I can birdie on most of them now that I have greatly improved.

In baseball news, Kevin Millar has now gotten into the A-Rod bashing fiesta. Just go to espn.com and check it out. I think that is 6 Red Sox players in 6 days that have said something negative about A-Rod. HAHA! This is so awesome, and we're still over a month away from the season.

Sci Fi channel had the entire Indiana Jones trilogy on today. Now THAT is a dvd collection I would die to have. That would be so freakin awesome. I LOVE those movies, and especially The Last Crusade. I was practically raised on those movies. You could turn one of them on, and I would be completely mesmerized for hours. I even had my own whip and Grail diary. Man, it doesn't get much better than that.

Oh yeh, my dawgs got the crap beat out of them last night at Lexington. We need 2 more wins to be assured a spot in the tournament, but if we don't start playing any better, I dunno if I want my dawgs in the tournament. We don't need more embarrassment on national tv.

and with that, I am out.

Deja Vu

well, my hopes were shattered once again today... the NHL players and the owners resumed talks at an undisclosed location today in New York, and there were many rumors that a deal had been reached in principle. Needless to say, I was very excited. The GREAT ONE(Gretzky) and Mario Lemieux had talked both sides into getting back together since there was such a small gap of money to close for the season to resume. Unfortunately, both sides remained adamant and could not agree on anything. Once again, the NHL has made a fool of itself and its players, and I am severely disappointed in both sides as well. SWALLOW YOUR PRIDE, Damnit!! Jesus, it's FOUR FREAKIN MILLION dollars less for the salary cap. You are NHL players, NOT NBA, NFL, or MLB. You will NEVER make that much, so SUCK IT UP. It makes me mad that so many people have to suffere because so few are so greedy....pathetic.

on a lighter note, Mississippi State Bulldawgs play the Kentucky Wildcats tonight at 8 pm CST on ESPN. WATCH IT!

I finished Resident Evil 4. WOW. What a game. Check out my full review at my video game headquarters: hvgc.blogspot.com

ahhh...at least the beginning of spring training for MLB can make me forget about the NHL. Fightin' words are already being thrown between the Yanks and the Sox, and I couldn't love it anymore. This is great. Finally those cocky bastards from the Bronx are getting what they deserved. BRING IT ON Yankees! We'll see you on April 3 at....well, what do ya know...YANKEE STADIUM...where we last kicked your ass.

alrighty, i'm gonna watch some Dawg basketball...I'll see everyone here soon, and hopefully I'll be in a better mood.

SAD SAD DAY

You prolly dont wanna talk with me right now...I am SO PISSED. The whole friggin NHL season is down the drain. Commissioner Gary Bettman cancelled it today during a press conference. There was some optimism tomorrow when the Union finally accepted a salary cap and the owners decided to NOT link players' salaries with revenues. EVERYONE, including Barry Melrose, thought that we would finally salvage a season and have a playoff...it felt pretty good. The union was given a 10 am deadline today to make something happen. The union offered a 49 million salary cap, and the owners rejected. The owners proposed a 42 million. The union refused. AND THEY COULDN'T FIND COMMON GROUND!!! WHAT THE F#*@! Come on guys! Six million dollars, and you couldn't work it out? Wow, that's sad and unsettling. Who knows when we'll see hockey again. I'm sure the players will realize how much they miss their game, and also realize that they aren't gonna make friggin NBA salaries. Hockey is now lower than the 4th professional sport in the USA, and the players' salaries are gonna reflect that until they get more fans and make people realize how awesome the game is. This whole temper tantrum is definitely not good for the sport...I am very disappointed in the PLAYERS, the UNION LEADER, and the OWNERS. They better be glad I love this sport so much...otherwise, they would have lost me. I'm sure they've already lost thousands, if not millions of potential fans, from this. Tsk, tsk, tsk...

anyway...

I was on tv yesterday, that's right, NATIONAL TV!! I was in the ISS control room most of the day, and at 10 am cst everyday they have LIVE ISS mission coverage. This means they show the flight control room for an hour. Well we turned on the PIP on one of the moniters and turned on the NASA channel. Ten o'clock rolled around, and the camera was right on the room. Unfortunately, the camera was JUST to the right of my console, so I wasn't on it. So Pam(the ODIN on console at the time) had a great idea: go get a paper out of the printer. So we printed out a screen shot, and I walked all the way TO THE FRONT of the Flight Control Room, and I was RIGHT on tv! Woo hoo! Pam says I can get that snippit of film from Ground Control, and they can put it on a dvd or vhs for me. HOW COOL! I just gotta remember to get Pam to do that for me.

My big project is coming right along at work. I will have to present my pitch to the ODIN group soon, and see what they think about the program/tool I am developing. They'll give me criticisms and comments, all while I'm standing in front of everyone. Should be fun, haha...not really, but learning how to receive constructive criticism is good. This tool is gonna be SO badass. I can't wait until its finished, and yes, I'll tell you all about it when it is done.

Well I need to iron some clothes for tomorrow, so I guess I'll go. TOMORROW IS PAYDAY! Woo hoo!

-H

UPDATE

Video Game Central UPDATE.

I'll post about my 15 minutes of fame tomorrow...

night!!

This is a shot of where Mal and I are gonna stay during the weekend she is here. It is the San Luis Resort in Galveston. I went down there to see it last weekend...it is unbelievable. Can't wait to spend a few days relaxing in Galveston, right on the coast.

This is my mom's(and quickly becoming mine as well) favorite dog, the Bernese Mountain Dog. Is she beautiful or what?

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Well I didn't get to go to MCC today :(...I got tied up with stuff in the office, and by the time I was done, there was only an hour left before handover, which is when the shifts in the FCR change. NO ONE besides the flight controllers are allowed to be in there during that hour of handover. So that kinda sucked, cuz I was STYLIN' today. I had my ironed suit pants(they need to be dry cleaned soon), shiny black shoes, dark red dress shirt, and a sharp black tie. Very professional while also showing a lil' Valentine's Day spirit. I even sported my new haircut, so I was all clean shaven and stuff. I'll still dress up tomorrow, so check me out at 10 AM CENTRAL. That's when the NASA channel does LIVE ISS Mission coverage...

Speakin of haircut, the place I went to was AWESOME. It's called Sport Cuts. They cut your hair while you watch whatever big sports game is on. They have a bigscreen in the lobby area, and they have tv's at each stylists cutting area. It was great. They aren't bad at haircuts either. They know exactly how you want it.

The weather today....omg....it was incredible. It was about 68 degrees when I got out of work, and there was a slight breeze and no clouds. Picture perfect.

Mal got her roses today. She called me, and it made me SO happy that she really liked them. I was in such a great mood after I talked to her, I ran an extra mile in my workout. It was great. LESS THAN 3 WEEKS until she gets here. I can't wait :)

Well right now I'm typing as the 2005 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is taking place on the USA network in Madison Square Gardens in New York City. I started watching this show every year with my mom since, wow, who knows when? Five, six years ago? Anyway, my mom and I are huge dog lovers, so this is always a fun thing to watch. Watching these dogs makes me miss my dogs even more, though...I'm gonna try to get some pics from my parents, so I can show you how cute they are. BEST dogs in the world, hands down.

Well, the second half of the Terrier Group is about to start. I'll catch everyone later!

I'm ready for my close-up

YO!

Check out NASA channel tomorrow! I'll be in the flight control room for the ISS! Check me out, I'll be wearing a dark red button-up dress shirt with a sharp tie(light or dark, I dont know yet) and charcoal slacks. I'll be in the middle of the room on the left side. If you see me, give me a call! I wont be able to answer, as my phone has to be turned off in Mission Control. But call me anyways so I know if you saw me. I'll be there from morning until at least noon.

I'll try to put on a good show for you all!

Later

Somber day

hello everyone...

Not much going on here...just the usual weekend...

I got what could be some of the worst news EVER friday night. Mal called me, and from the moment I answered, I knew something was wrong...well I was right, unfortunately. Her dad has been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis(ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He's going to get a second opinion in March at Vanderbilt, so hopefully we'll find out it was misdiagnosed.....I swear, everything is just the pits now that this has happened. I dont feel like doing much of anything. I feel even worse that I am SO freakin far away from Mal. If I were at school right when I got that call, I would have been in my car on my way to Chatt without second thought. But no...I'm here...and it sucks. I should be there for her...

well I'll keep you all updated and abreast of her dad's situation as it develops. Keep Mal, her family, and her dad in your prayers.

-Henry

And THIS is a later shot. I don't think it is a current picture, but you get the idea. SO much of the land is not even used......yet.

Well this is an aerial view of the plot of land set aside for Johnson Space Center. Not much there, eh?

Ramblings...

Well I didn't think that we'd get THIS much rain and bad weather when I got down here. I was thinkin sunshine and great weather all the time. Maybe it's on its way...God I hope so...

Monday was cool...I got to view a sim from a test room in mission control. I was with Zorba(a fellow aerospace engineer, the only other one in ODIN), and he let me mess around the displays on the ODIN console. (Again, I wasn't in the real flight control room, just a test/support room). So that was really neat; he kinda tested me with some question on where stuff was, and I was able to do pretty good. I learn so much more when it's hands on.

Tuesday, I woke up early to get to the Sim that Zorba was involved with. They were simming(that a word?) a situation where, upon inspection, the crew determines that the orbiter is not safe enough to return to earth with due to its damage. They have a procedure for undocking the orbiter, and the ground control here attempts to land it in one piece(hopefully). When I went to the sim at MCC this time, however, I REMEMBERED MY HEADSET. So I got to be all cool and use my headset. We were the sim backroom(mpsr) support, call sign RAVEN. My call sign was LOKI. Funny thing, both ODIN and LOKI are Norse gods. Interesting.......anyway, I got to talk to ODIN here and there(Tracy was workin ODIN), and it was just the coolest thing......."ODIN LOKI, talk to me"........yeh, I said that. You say who you are calling first, then say who is calling, then you say what you need to say. SO COOL. I had a blast tuesday.

Today, I finished up pretty much the bulk of my busy-coop-office work. So now I get to start on my real project. Basically, what they want me to do is write some code(or alot) that will automatically read what the ODIN/RAVEN console people input into the Caution and Warning Log. The CW Log is just a list of events that have caused a caution or warning on the ISS. We have to document them, cuz alot of the times they tell us what's going wrong with the station if there is a problem. My code/program will then transfer what is input at the console and transfer it to a clean, crisp, well organized database that we can study back at the office. To do this, I have to learn a new programming language, WOO HOO. It's called SQL(sequel). It stands for Structured Query Language. It's basically a database/server language. I started reading up on it today. IT'S SO BADASS. I cant wait to get to work and go over some more of it.

well that's it for today. I'm SO tired.

NOTE

Oh yeah, and I started archiving my pictures at a larger size, so when you click on them, you can get a closer look at the picture. Save 'em if you want! ENJOY!

Back again!

Gooooooooooooood Mornin' VIETNAM!!!

sorry, I just had to say that...welcome back everyone, I mean, I'm back to blog.

Last time we talked was, when, Friday? Sorry about that...I was kinda a bum this weekend. This work week has started with a bang, but I'll get to that in a moment.

Let's see, Friday was cool. Jason and I went out to eat at the Crazy Cajun, right across the street. What an experience, lemme tell ya. All the tables are wooden, and you sit on benches you'd find at a local park. The drinks are served in jars, and the "napkins" are retrieved from a paper towel dispenser at the end of the table. All above you are trophies of animals killed by the owner of the place, Sonny. Speaking of Sonny, he comes by everyone's table one by one and asks them how their meal is. Sonny is basically a Santa Clause with a trimmed beard...you prolly think this place kinda sucks from what I described, but don't let that fool you. The food was FANTASTIC. I had a whole catfish fillet, a hush puppy, and some fries. Mmm mmm, it was good. Just a really fun atmosphere, like something you would find in Texas. I loved it. The service was great, and the experience was truly enjoyable. I am DEFINITELY taking the guys there when they get here...

Saturday was cool. We played at the Wilmont Disc Golf Course. WOW, that place was awesome. I was wrong last week. THIS was the home to the State Championships in the fall. Yeh, I'm gonna definitely check that out my next term. I'm enjoying this great practice I am getting with my golfing skills. I have already noticed improvements in form, distance, driver throws, mid range throws, and especially putts. I cant wait to get back and check out the course at State and the course at home.

Ah, and Sunday came. You know, it's like the sun. We know it's gonna rise every morning. The Patriots are the same way. We all know they're gonna win the Super Bowl. They are truly a dynasty, and they deserve it. They are "perfect, in every aspect of the game."(that's a quote from one of MY favorite movies. Know which one?) Anyway, I've never said I'm a NE Pats fan, so I wont start now; that'd just be bandwagoning. Of course I kinda had to root for them a little, but I'm not a fan. I'm a Red Sox fan all the way, no doubt about it. I've never really had a favorite NFL team, so I guess that's why I keep up with the league so much.

Speaking of Super Bowl, that means ....yes........that's right........SPRING TRAINING IS NEAR. And that means......yes........yes....you got it.........BASEBALL SEASON IS NEAR!!! Some of my fellow Sox fans at work are going to go see them when they come down to play the Texans in April. I think I'm going with them; I think it would be fun...and THREE games of Sox!!! That's a no brainer.

Today was great. I got to work with a simulated ODIN console during a sim. No no, commands were not enabled. I could, however, manipulate the outputs of the telemetry, and see what the guy on the real console saw. We even turned on the DVIS(digital voice intercom system, very cool) to speaker, so we could hear the loops( I forgot my headset :( ).

Well, today, I bought/procured/packaged ________ for __________ for ___________ Day. I can prolly guarantee you that one of those blanks is absolutely nowhere close to what you think it is.

With that, I'm out.

Again, just look at that form. This was Hole #16 at the Wilmont, home of the Texas Disc Golf State Championship. GREAT course.

NEW THRILLS AWAIT

Good evening everyone. Well, for those of you who get excited when I talk about videogames, I have just the cure. It's Henry's Video Game Central!!! That's right. A place to talk about games and test your video game knowledge, without driving everyone away from my main blog. Where is it, you ask? Right here:

hvgc.blogspot.com

There will be quizzes, Top 10 lists, games, AND MORE. Don't stay here any longer...head over to the VGC!

You think I like to eat pizza?

TGIF...almost

Today was cool. I found out I was signed up for a training class! Exactly who signed me up remains to be seen, but I was excited, needless to say. Training Class = NO READING! The class was about the MDMs on board the ISS. An MDM is a Multiplexer/Demultiplexer, basically a computer. They control EVERYTHING that goes on in(and out) of the ISS. The class was about how the astronauts take the MDMs out of the racks, how they remove the data cards from inside the chassis, and how they put the cards and mdm back where they found them. It's a pretty cool process, one that requires some cool tools. Yes, I got to take part in the hands-on activity. VERY COOL. You are prolly wondering why the heck we ODINs(me and few other guys) had(or even wanted) to go to this class. Well, we deal mostly with problems solving with aspects of the computer network in the station. It helps to have an understanding of the physical components of what we deal with everyday. Just think if you knew all about how the computer worked, yet you knew nothing about the input devices such as the mouse and keyboard. Follow me?

My back tooth has been bothering me since this Christmas. I think it's a cavity, but my dentist back home in MS tells my dad that it can no way be a cavity(she was lookin at my xray). So I dont know what it is. I'm gonna try to see a dentist here and get his opinion on what is wrong. If it is something rather serious/costly I might have to hop on a jet home to get something done. Maybe I can visit my boyz one night while I'm home? Maybe...or maybe they can visit me in Jackson? Who knows...stay tuned

Yes, I'm still playing RE4. It's hard as #)@*# at some points. Enjoyable so far though. Let's hope it keeps up.

And for all you gaming geeks, get prepared. In a few days(possibly this weekend), I'm gonna post my TOP 10 VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME. That's right. I'm gonna give it to ya straight. The best of the best. There will be few rules that I will follow, though:

1) I will not judge PC games(they are the dark side of gaming)
2) I will only judge games that I have played(it is MY Top 10, after all)
3) I will not judge games that have come out in the past year. Their knee-jerk impressions(good or bad) are still too recent in my memory. I have to place the games against the background of history, and judge them from there.

that's it...

STAY TUNED!!!

Well, today at work I got to thinking about that statement that co op made the other day(see below). I was in the middle of writing down how to log in to my console at MCC(top left corner). I then wondered about the "weight" difference in space and how much less force would be needed to accelerate a 2000 kg mass at .01 m/s^2. Well, I worked out the problem, and the answer is at the bottom. I then began to wonder about the difference in atmospheric drag the ISS experienced at different times in orbit, and that is diagrammed at the top right. Just shows you how my mind works sometimes, from one thing to the other.

Funny Story

hey errbody...

I'm kinda tired but I have a funny story to tell:

Okay, you remember last week I was at Top Gun(Training Academy), right? Well, we were being taught some things about Space Station Operations. The instructor began telling us about the MPLM(multi purpose logistics module), and she told us about how the shuttle brings the MPLM up to the station, docks it, and they remove racks from it. Racks are the scientific "stations" that go in the U.S. Lab module. Anyhoo, the racks are about, I dunno, a little taller than I am, about 2.5 feet wide, and about 2 feet deep. So, the instructor(a very nice lady) began talking about transporting the racks from the MPLM to the Lab. She then showed us slides of how the astronauts would go about doing it. And of course, we can visualize how they'd do it: They'd unhook them from their attatchments, and then they'd float them through the station to the lab. Riiiight??

Well, this bright kid asked this question. AND I AM NOT EXAGGERATING. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID:

"Mam, how did they move those racks? I mean, they look like they weigh alot."

Are you KIDDDING ME?!? Well, I proceeded to chuckle out loud. I couldn't help it. It just goes to show you that, even though someone could have ALL the book smarts in the world, they just dont have common sense.

Thank you, and good night.

Remembrance

"This cause of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose; it is a desire written in the human heart. We are that part of creation which seeks to understand all creation. We find the best among us, send them forth into unmapped darkness, and pray they will return. They go in peace for all mankind, and all mankind is in their debt."

---President Bush at the memorial service 2 years ago today for the Columbia astronauts.

Here's the mission patch for STS-107, Columbia's final flight