I feel so bad, yet I feel so good...

Ok, so I just completely compromised my morals. But I also upheld my morals in a sick and twisted way. Let me explain:

I hate Wal-Mart. They are the world's largest corporation, with the largest profit, yet they still can't manage to pay their employees decent wages or offer them health insurance. They impose their moral beliefs upon their customers by censoring media products and by refusing to fill certain prescriptions (i.e. prescriptions for emergency contraception). Sure, they are a private company, and people can choose not to shot at Wal-Mart, but the way Wal-Mart makes money is by going into a small town, buying out all the local retail stores, and basically becomming the only shopping option. You can read more about Wal-Mart's evil doings at Wal-Mart Watch.

So...why am I ranting about Wal-Mart? Today I talked with someone who had bought a cheap bike from Wal-Mart while she was in Alaska for the summer. She used the bike until it broke (which wasn't that long), then took it back and got a full refund thanks to Wal-Mart's no questions asked 90-day return policy. Hmmmm. I've been looking for a bike. Hmmmm. There's a 24-hour Wal-Mart right across the street. So, you can put two and two together and figure out what happened. At 12:30 am I went to Wal-Mart and bought a bike for just under $60. The plan was to use it for the rest of the six weeks that I am here and then return it.

Ok, so I feel like I'm just on the dodgy side of the moral spectrum here. Am I right to feel a little skeevy? True, that is their policy, so I wouldn't be breaking any rules, just taking full advantage of the ones that are in place. And true, the bike may in fact break and I may in fact have a legitimate reason to take it back. But I still feel a little wrong, first because I purchased something from Wal-Mart (tonight I stepped foot inside Wal-Mart for the very first time), a company I wholeheartedly DO NOT support, and second because I feel like I'm cheating...someone? something? But what am I cheating? An organization that cheats the rest of the world?

So...I was wondering what everyone else thought. Am I psychotic for feeling guilty about doing this? Or am I a horribly immoral person for attempting to do this in the first place? If I can't sleep tonight because of it, I'll return the bike tomorrow unused. (Ok, maybe I'll ride it to work and then decide.) If I still bad about it in the long run, I can always just use the bike for the summer and say that the $60 was worth it and not go back for my refund...or hope the thing breaks.

I'm a nut, I'm a nut, I'm craaaaazy...

Oh, I'd like to add: This was somewhat an act of desperation. I'm getting a slight case of cabin fever here in suburban hell (or maybe it's agoraphobia?), and I want to be able to go places. I want to bike to work because it's only 3 miles away and I feel like driving is completely unneccessary (if two of us bike, the rest can all fit in one car and that's half the pollution--right now we need two cars). I want to bike to parks that are further away so I can run in new and exciting venues! I want to bike for extra exercise. I want a little bit of freedom and autonomy. So, when I found out I could get a bike, now, kind of free, I was a little drunk on excitement.

Also, I realize that my Wal-Mart woes aren't exactly the most pressing problems in the world right now. But my little dilema spawns some important moral discussions, like: is it ok to cheat something evil? is there such a thing as a victimless crime? does intent overshadow action?

I really just need to go to bed...

Too good to be true

All right...get ready...

This happened on Monday, but I wanted to wait to present it to the world (meaning: you, my loyal audience) until I had photographic evidence to supplement my story. What you see before your awestruck eyes is me. On a Segway.



We were visiting Cleveland State University, idling in a conference room waiting for our tour guide, when Gregg Schoof (the bald guy next to me in the picture), manager of the Fenn College of Engineering, comes gliding into the room and starts doing laps around the table on a Segway like it's perfectly normal to ride one around in an office building. (I think he really enjoys picking jaws up off the floor for his collection each time he does that.) The engineering staff at CSU thought "Hey, we need one of those so that we can be badass!" and bought the second Segway to be sold in Cleveland. Gregg "Aerodynamically Shaped Whippersnapper" Schoof keeps it in his office and uses it whenever he wants, although it officially belongs to the department and is used for a freshman design project.

Anyway, Mr. Schoof kindly let us ride his gentle steed. It was on "slow" mode, so I couldn't get up to supersonic speeds, but I definitely tried. On a Segway, you just lean forward and it starts moving forwards. It's like it reads your mind (almost)!
Schoof mentioned that the battery-life depends on the terrain over which you are gliding. I imagined trying to take a Segway off-roading or mountain climbing...but I don't think that's quite what he meant.

Oh yeah, we also toured a lab at Cleveland State where they are developing a satellite that will be launched this August. The satellite doesn't really do anything special. I'm not sure what the point of that tour was, actually. The (not even close) second coolest part of the visit was the big 3D color printer (MIT has one too). It had just finished printing a piece, so we could look inside and see how the chamber was filled to the brim with dust. To get the piece out you have to do an excavation archaeologist style.

Duct Tape!

No no, I haven't forgotten how to write (or even gotten tired of it), I just have some pictures that are somewhat exciting.



Snazzy duct tape clothes



Duct tape velociraptor!

It's the medium of the future! (Or...not...)

Some pictures for you!

(Posed) pillowfight outside of Mission Control in Houston



Full-scale model of the Space Shuttle used for astronaut training



Practice toilet for astronauts


Pictures from the "Duct Tape Festival" coming soon!

Let me know if you want to see more Houston pictures...

One of the best things in the world...

...is getting a free burrito from Chipotle. We went there last Monday, which just happened to be the summer solstice. To celebrate Chipotle was giving every customer a free burrito if they bring the receipt back before June 26th. Well, today was the 26th, and I managed to get my free burrito. This is fantastic because 1) burritos from Chipotle weigh about 5 pounds (literally) and 2) burritos from Chipotle are most excellent (veggie burritos come with free guacamole) and 3) I did a long run (~12.5 miles) in the sticky heat today and was ravenous.

In other news, last night we went to a local Greek Festival, where we feasted on spanikopita and Greek pastries, and watched a lot of Greek dancing.

I've also been taking advantage of the fact that wmbr now has mp3s of shows online available to download. My music collection is rad, but lately I've had a hankering for spicing things up with stuff that is new and different. I'm getting itchy, really.

Oh, and more about what I've been reading...coming soon...

So this is Cleveland, huh?

I'm getting really homesick for Oregon. (And even a little homesick for Boston, too.)

In the past 24 hours I've had my first taste of Cleveland's nightlight and Cleveland's beachlife.

Last night I went to the Tremont district (which is touted one cleveland.com as "historic and hip"). They had street names like "Professor" and "Literary", and bars such as "The Treehouse" (which had a giant faux tree inside), "Edison's" and "The Flying Monkey". I ended up in a martini bar on the corner of Professor and Literary (how fitting) with great antique furniture and an awesome bathroom. I actually preferred Edison's, however, because it had an excellent looking pizza place attached to it (I didn't buy any pizza, but people kept going next store, getting pizza, and bringing it back because the pizza place has no seating) and they played really good music (i.e., in Jordan's case, old school punk...the martini bar played a lot of European dance music). There was also one of those old-fashioned bicylcles that have a giant front wheel and a microscopic back wheel mounted on the wall. Rad.

Today I spent a few hours on the shores of the most polluted great lake. Cleveland has earned the nickname "the mistake on the lake", and I think the beach might have something to do with it. There were all sorts of pesky insects that looked like oversized mosquitoes but didn't bite. Instead, they would just swarm around you and land on every part of your body (including all possible nooks and crannies). I think they are called "muckleheads" or something like that, and rumor is they blow in over the lake from Canada. That's right, let's blame Canada. The beach was extremely crowded, so I walked aways and found a less crowed area that unfortunately smelled like feces. Camped out next to us was this woman who was holding a toddler and telling him to slap this little girl (maybe the little boy's sister?) and demand his money. That's right, she said "You need to learn how to slap that bitch and get your money!" Wow.

Ok, I know I've been spoiled by Oregon's scenic beaches, so I really shouldn't complain...

I'm feeling a bit deflated at the moment, so sorry if this entry sounded a little forlorn or lethargic. I'll try harder next time.

My new hero

Dr. Sheila Bailey may be perpetuating the stereotype of a typical “woman of science” (frizzy androgenous hair, frumpy mannish clothes), but nonetheless she is my new hero. She's a super-important physicist (with the hair and wardrobe you'd expect from a female physicist, to boost) who works in the Photovoltaics and Space Environments branch at Glenn Research Center. She does lots of ultra-innovative works improving solar cells using quantum dots (I'll get to that later-I wish I remembered more from 3.091 because I wanted to understand her talk better). But, the reason she's my hero isn't (entirely) the research she does; she's rad because of her life story. She's traveled all over the world. She went to grad school in England and did a post-doc in Australia. After that she “hitch-hiked” back (across the ocean) to England, where she and her husband bought an antique British ambulance. They then used the ambulance to drive all the way to Nairobi. That means she had to drive across the Sahara. She then drove to Thailand and Cambodia (and everywhere in between), and had lots of crazy adventures. But, she got pregnant and had to cut her escapades short and go back to the United States. She has three kids, and she had to raise them mostly on her own because her husband left her when her youngest kid was about to enter school. Wow. So, after ten years of “working on the farm” and staying at home with her kids, she got back into the industry, did a lot of part-time teaching, and then eventually started working at NASA in 1985. She's been flourishing there ever since, and is really involved in all sorts of pioneering research and inter-disciplinary collaborations. She's also very involved in educational outreach and getting girls involved in science and technology, and as a consequence she was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame. And she loves to talk. When we mentioned the video we were making, she immediately said we could go to her for funding or advice or for a tour of her lab. Yup, she's definitely my hero.

But back to her research…

Dr. Bailey is working on using quantum dots to improve the effectiveness of solar cells. What are quantum dots? (I didn't know until two hours ago, either…) What I've been able to gather is that quantum are like little tiny semi-conductors that luminesce or fluoresce (I wasn't quire sure which…I think it has to do with the wavelength of light they emit) when they get hit by alpha particles. Dr. Bailey uses quantum dots to:
-power photovoltaic (or solar) cells when they are in the dark. This combination allows you to make a very tiny self-contained power source (that requires only a radioactive material to supply the alpha particles) that can be used for anything from small sensors (including bio-sensors) to large-scale power for electric propulsion systems (see earlier post about Eric Pencil).
-increase the efficiency of traditional photovoltaic cells by inserting layers of quantum dots into traditional photovoltaic materials (into the “i-layer”…I wasn't quite clear on what that is).
-create photovoltaic cells out of polymers, which are way cheaper than the materials they currently use (I think it's silicon), by injecting them with carbon nano-tubes that have quantum dots clinging to them.

All right, I'm going to stop gushing about Dr. Bailey because it is, after all, Friday night, and I still haven't gotten to experience the Cleveland nightlife. Maybe tonight will be the night…

Two bad ants (ok, one good ant and one bad ant...)

Yesterday I listened to two presentations: one was the ultimate pile-up of presentation pitfalls, and the other was a model of top-form talk technique. (Sorry…alliteration helps me wake up in the morning…)

Eric Pencil (infamous for using a portable microphone and speaker system when we took a tour of his lab) was discussing research in electric propulsion, which is a very interesting topic. Electric propulsion means we could carry more stuff faster and further into space. There are various types of electric propulsion thrusters that are being developed (and Eric Pencil tried to mention every single one of them…), but they all involve “the acceleration of gasses for propulsion by electrical heating and/or electric and magnetic body forces.” (See, I was taking notes!) Some of the problems for electric propulsion include:
-life-span limitations of the thrusters (they get corroded by metal sputtering caused by the pummeling of components by ions). They are by design meant to be used for prolonged periods of time (because they rely on a continuous acceleration that is relatively small).
-size and weight of thrusters (the bigger they are, the more powerful they are).
-Integrating the thrusters into missions, because they require a large amount of power to run (i.e., could require a nuclear reactor). For example, they are going to test some electric propulsion thrusters on the ISS, but it doesn’t really have any extra power to give. How are they going to manage that?

But…Eric Pencil just glossed over these issues. Instead of discussing them, he listed every single electric propulsion project in development, what companies and universities are collaborating on it, the project’s timeline, and what it should be able to do when it is complete. He must have gone through about 20 different types of thrusters (and for each one he tried to cram all of the aforementioned information onto a single slide that was unreadable).

When he finally opened it up to questions, someone asked if there are any applications for electric propulsion methods on Earth. (Why, Eric Pencil, didn’t you already address this in your talk?) He said that they are very useful for creating thin carbon films and coatings, and can also be used to inject plasma into combustion processes to increase the amount of thrust produced.

In the afternoon Matt Melis gave a presentation on the Space Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation and the “Return to Flight” initiative (for those of you that haven’t been following closely, the Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-114 launch window opens on July 13th), specifically on his involvement with impact testing. I was supposed to introduce Matt Melis, but at the last minute Dr. Kankam stole my thunder (because, he said, it was a presentation that wasn’t just for students…psh). Anyway, Matt Melis works in the Ballistics Impact Lab, where they use pressurized cannons to shoot things at other things. For the past two and a half years, they have been devoting a lot of their time to shooting insulating foam (the stuff that is used to keep the 1.6 million pounds of liquid oxygen hydrogen in the space shuttle’s external cold while it’s sitting in the humid pre-launch Florida climate) at reinforced carbon carbon (which serves as thermal insulation for the wings of the space shuttle, which have to withstand a 3000 degree C inferno upon re-entry). Reinforced carbon carbon, while being a great insulator, is very brittle, and so when a piece of foam from the external fuel tank hit the wing of the Columbia at around 500 mph during takeoff, it shattered the reinforced carbon carbon insulation, which ultimately led to the wing burning up during the shuttle’s return trip through the Earth’s atmosphere.

Matt Melis’ talk was awesome because he gave all sorts of relevant background information (on how the shuttle works, on the accident investigation—which included months of scouring the landscape near the crash for every single possible piece of debris they could find, on the accident itself, and on the processes that go into preparing the shuttle for a mission), was very passionate about this topic (he said as soon as he finds out exactly when the launch will be he’s going to jump in his car and drive town to Kennedy), and he presented his findings in a very engaging way (lots of rad pictures and movies of collisions). Matt Melis showed us high speed footage of all sorts of pieces of foam hitting things, and ice hitting things, and even a full-scale test of a space shuttle wing that he did.

The talk was excellent. The only painful part was when this guy (who had been sleeping during the entire talk) tried to attack Melis for being biased and only presenting one hypothesis for why the shuttle crashed (even though Melis had emphasized that without video evidence there is never any way to know for sure what happened, and he also discussed just how many people poured over the evidence and brainstormed and whatnot for months—no wait, years—before coming to their conclusion). That guy was a total asshole.

Ok, that’s about it for the science-y stuff.

Personal hygiene DEFINITELY falls under the category of "boring"...

...so I'm breaking my own rules.

But, I just wanted to mention that, as proof that people can change, I've been flossing every day since I got my teeth cleaned nearly a month ago. Don't get too excited (or worried...not that there's a real risk of either occurring), because I'm not on moral crusade to support dental floss as the pillar of personal hygiene. It's an experiment: I just want to know whether, if I keep this up until the next time I get my teeth cleaned, they will still reprimand me for not flossing.

Nuts and Bolts

Finally turned that epic of a summary from the mission control center tours into a link. But maybe the damage has already been done and no one read my JSC post because of its massive girth (or maybe because it's only interesting if you are a space nerd).

But anyway, I remembered that one of the astronaut trainers told us that astronauts actually don't eat any of the "astronaut food" that they sell at science museum gift shops, especially not the freeze dried ice cream. It's all a big scam! They do, however, indeed drink Tang (though for them it's called simply "orange drink").

I told you I would...

Last week I raved about the awesome nerd-power of Dr. Landis.

I wrote a summary of his presentation for the Glenn Academy website.

Placating Allen...

My carefree (ha!) days as an undergraduate are numbered, and I can take a hint when my dad keeps giving me books about applying to grad school, so here's my most recent idea:

(Dad, this post is dedicated to you, by the way...because I'm sure no one else is really interested in the teeter-totter--no wait, maybe it's more of a tilt-a-whirl--that is "Jordan trying to figure out what she wants to do with herself after college.")

All this space stuff I've been learning about is amazingly cool, but I got interested in space in the first place through geology, and the things that interest me most about human space exploration are the things that relate to geology. (What can I say, I just think rocks are really cool.) So why haven't I been studying geology? Well, maybe it's because when after working in a geology lab I realized that I didn't want to do that for the rest of my life.

As much as I complain about my major, I do think that I enjoy engineering. I haven't really gotten my hands dirty on any huge engineering projects yet, but there's still something attractive about the field.

Now how do these things fit together? There are several schools that offer, within either the environmental engineering or the civil engineering department, a sub-field of geotechnical or geological engineering. (I'll just say geo-engineering for short.) It consists of engineering things that are made of or in rocks, and engineering solutions to natural disasters like earthquakes and floods. And that's just the beginning.

I've been yearning to return to the west coast ever since I first started at MIT (no one needs to remind me that in high school I pined away for the east coast), so in that vein there are programs that have a focus on geo-engineering at UW, Berkeley, and Caltech (to name just a few). And if I decide I want to take a hiatus to the midwest, the University of Minnesota has a geo-engineering program as well. And if I get really adventurous, there are always programs in Australia and New Zealand.

Of course I still have fantasies about studying literature, or linguistics, or becomming Indiana Jones, so we'll see what happens when I sit on this idea for awhile.

And there's still the question, what do I want to do before I go to grad school? I'm still waiting to hear back from Maria on how Teach For America goes.

Don't hold your breath...

All right, here is the long awaited report on my trip to Houston (aka Hell on Earth, which just happens to be home to one of the coolest facilities on Earth, how ironic).

First off: for all you Murakami fans out there (especially those who have read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle), in Houston we kept hearing this bird that sounded like a whirring buzzing motor. Using all my creative talents and juices I named it the Robo-Bird. We heard Robo-Bird again at the airport when we got back to Cleveland. Weeeeird.

As soon as I stepped outside Hobby airport, it became apparent that for anyone who isn’t a native Texan –and consequently used to the unrelenting 95 degree weather, smog, and endless sprawling expanse that is Houston—working at Johnson Space Center is a compromise. There are so many amazing things happening at JSC that aren’t happening anywhere else in the world, so from what I was able to ascertain, the compromise is well worth it. Unfortunately, I think I’d have a harder time adapting to Houston than most. (How do you go running there? You’d die! And there are no forests or mountains. And no vegetarians.) I’m not about to pack my bags and jump on a plane to the Lone Star state, but if I ever become a NASA astronaut, I think I could suck it up.

At NASA Academy they like to do things because that’s the way they did things the year before (I think eventually this is called tradition), which is why we spent our first night in Houston at the Cadillac Bar and Grill. (Yes, they did have a Cadillac there.) We rolled in a bit late, so the other Academies (Marshall and Goddard) were already there. Yet somehow we managed to get our food first. I only mention dinner because we were next to some body of water (I’m still not sure what it was…I don’t think it was the Gulf of Mexico) and this psychedelic boat from Joe’s Crab Shack (an adjacent restaurant) kept floating past us. On this boat were some girls whose job was basically to do the Macarena continuously in order to entertain the passengers. Apparently that’s one of Joe’s Crab Shack’s gimmicks. They must have a very high turnover of Macarena dancers, because I’m sure sanity is fleeting within that profession.

After that, all the Academy staff members were nearly jumping out of their pants because they wanted to go “The Outpost”, which is supposedly a big astronaut bar/hangout (or, was…). When we got there the place was completely void of life except for a solitary bar hound. Even the jukebox was dead (and ate our money). Nonetheless, there were all sorts of dollar bills signed by real astronauts stapled to the walls (unfortunately it was the dollar bills, and not the astronauts, that were stapled to the walls).

The next morning I tried to go running. That didn’t turn out very well. But at least the water was pretty.

--Warning, rant ahead--
I just want to say that I hope I never have to wear a business suit. I think that they are unflattering on women, and totally not my style. So I was glad that the three of us from Glenn were the only girls (except maybe one) of all three Academies who weren’t wearing cheesy matching business suits. Go us. Ok I’m done now. Hopefully that’s the only fashion rant I’ll have all summer.
(Just a side note: I’m at work right now and planes keep flying right over me…did this just not happen last week or did I just not notice?)

Thursday morning we were addressed by the director of Johnson Research Center, Jeff Howell, a stately military gentleman from Texas. After that we met Chris Hadfield. Hadfield was a guy who really really loves his job. Why? He’s an astronaut! (And a Canadian, no less!) He looked exactly like you’d expect a male astronaut to look like: he was compact and sported a bushy mustache and a crew cut (whereas female astronauts always have big curly 80s hair). He talked about a lot of the different sides of his job (including the spiritual aspect of being an astronaut: Everyone believes in something, he said, and being in space seems to reaffirm that, whatever it is), and a lot of the issues NASA is dealing with concerning the space shuttle’s return to flight.

After Chris Hadfield’s talk we got tours of both the historic Apollo era mission control center (where we would watch Apollo 13 later that night, how fitting) and the current mission control rooms for the ISS and Space Shuttle. I wrote a very touching (aka sappy) summary of the MCC tours, which is now up on the Glenn Academy website.

In the afternoon we heard a talk on Astro-biology. The guy giving the talk, Doug O’Handley, kept mentioning how life on earth kept getting wiped out and then had to completely start again from scratch. Hmmm, I want to see him and Sam Bowring (my Intro to Geology professor) get into a fight. I think Sam would totally win.

Next was a presentation on AERCam, which is a soccer-ball-sized camera that flies around the outside of the ISS taking pictures. It has I think 12 little pressurized gas thrusters on it so it can move around. That was pretty cool (and a crazy controls problem; I had a hard enough time trying to control a satellite with two thrusters last semester). We also saw a presentation on “Robonaut”, this human-like robot that is designed to be an assistant to astronauts during spacewalks. I don’t really know why they had to make it human-like; the only cool human-ish things on it were its hands (which were rad). It had a scary helmet and a Kevlar torso with fake muscles patterned on it. Now was that really necessary?

On Thursday we also saw the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, which is basically all the buttons and switches and panels of the space shuttle but without any of the exterior hardware. On Friday we saw the opposite: scale models of the space shuttle and the ISS without any of the blinking whirligigs inside. Both are used to train astronauts.

As far as I can ascertain, the life of an astronaut is all about training for hundreds upon hundreds of hours to do one specified task or mission. I thought marathoning was a copious endeavor because you train for months on end for one single day, and if something goes wrong on that day (like say, you get strep throat) there’s nothing you can do. Being an astronaut seems similar only multiplied by a few orders of magnitude, only in addition you also train for all the things that could possibly go wrong.

But back to the astronaut training. We got to see the EVA (extra-vehicular activity…sorry, I’m falling into the deep dark hole of acronym over-use) lab, where I learned they can fit someone up to 6’8” in a space suit! That means even Dan could be an astronaut! Girth is apparently a lot harder to manage than length. But the coolest thing about seeing where they train astronauts (besides the giant 40 foot deep pool, and learning that there are several vegetarian astronauts) was where they learn how to use the toilet. You have to line yourself up very exactly to use a space toilet (because it forms a tight seal), and because your muscles are finely tuned towards controlling your movements in Earth’s gravity (i.e., you are really good at balancing a full cup of coffee here, but try doing that in space, that is, if you could find some way to keep the liquid inside the cup), it takes a lot of practice. So there’s a practice toilet with a camera inside it (that’s right, an ass cam) that displays to a monitor in front of the toilet. You can look at your own ass. While on the toilet. There’s also another toilet that is fully functional and doesn’t have a camera inside of it. I got to sit on the same toilet that astronauts use to learn how to go to the bathroom in space! Ok…sorry for getting over excited there…

I think I glossed over the giant pool there. It’s actually called the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, and it’s the biggest pool in the world. It has full size models of the Space Shuttle and all of the American ISS components in it. One thing I learned at JSC was that there’s a lot of vomiting involved in being astronaut, both in the training process and the actual going into space part. I won’t elaborate how that fits into training in a space suit underwater. Anyway, being a SCUBA diver who trains astronauts sounds like one of the coolest jobs ever. Being a SCUBA diver in general sounds awesome. That’s something I’m definitely going to keep in the back of my head.

While I’m on the subject of cool jobs…there was a girl from the Goddard Academy who was deaf, so they had a sign language interpreter for her on all of our tours and lectures. I couldn’t stop staring at him because sign language is so awesome. I’m going to have to learn sign language some day soon. When I took linguistics my textbook had a section at the back of each chapter about how whatever concept we were learning applied to sign language as well as to spoken languages. That must have been (to use my mom’s vocabulary word and my pet peeve) a “sexy” topic in the realm of linguists at the time the book was published.

Oh! I almost forgot. We also got to see where they test the VaSIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasm Rocket) at the Advanced Space Propulsion Lab (which works in conjunction with MIT’s Plasma Science Fusion Center). I just have to saw that plasma rockets are just about the coolest thing ever, but a lot of people are opposed to using them because they require a very large power source (like a nuclear reactor) in order to run. I’m not going to launch into a tirade on plasma rockets and how they work, but here’s the ASPL website.

All right, that’s it as far as the official tours at JSC. Other than that, there was a lot of badging, riding around in vans with escorts, and other typical NASA stuff. We got to interact with the students from the other NASA Academies, and I can now say, without a doubt, that I’m lucky to be at Glenn because we’re the most awesome group. There were a ton of people from the Midwest. Can anyone explain that phenomenon to me? Also, around JSC everything is space-related. All the stores and restaurants are called like, space taco, or something similar. And the streets are named “NASA Rd.” because they are very creative.

There were also lots of crazy shenanigans to be had, and there was a swim shop called “The Wet Spot” (no joke). Overall it was a good trip. I’m getting tired of writing so…we’ll see how many details I’ll remember that I forgot and then try to add in later. Maybe after I take a break I’ll write about this weekend, too.

You go, Mt. Hood!

I was watching a special on the Travel Channel (hey, it was just while I was eating dinner, I swear!) called "The Top Ten Wonders of the West" (or something similar). Mt. Hood made number 5! And I learned that it's the second most climbed peak in the world. Wow. (I wonder what the cut-off is for "peak", though.) They tried to make Mt. Hood sound "dangerous yet beauitful" as they emphasized the volcano factor (ooooooooh) and showed clips from the climbing accident a few years ago where the rescue helicopter crashed). I'd also like to say that one of the reasons my mom is awesome is she climbed Mt. Hood.

They did a piece on Carlsbad Caverns (which was number 7)...that place looks so rad. Oh man...this special is making me a little sad that I didn't take a job with the SCA working in a national park. It makes me want to live on the West Coast so I can be a mountain woman.

tommy's

I'm still catching my breath from my trip to Johnson Space Center, and mulling over the best way to describe it, but I promise I'll write about it very very soon.

But before that, while this is still fresh on my mind:

Just as I was beginning to think that Cleveland had absolutely nothing to offer, I stumbled upon an amazing retaurant called tommy's. It has every type of vegan, vegetarian, and macrobiological-or-something vegan (whatever the hell that is) type of food you could imagine (all homemade, including salad dressings and pickles), plus meat too, so carnivores and herbivores can dine together in harmony. There's filafel, hummus, bouba ghanouj, cheeeeeese, and more. And they have amazing milkshakes and desserts. AND, it's not too hippy-ish (or hipster-ish, though I did see a lot of cool haircuts); it has just the right amount of art news and liberal news publications on the newstand out front. It's in the "Coventry" district of Cleveland. I had some amazing black bean chili and a cherry milkshake. Mmmmmm. And the brownies are covered in fudge. And they sell pottery! Ha! But here's the best part:

There's a USED BOOKSTORE connected to the restaurant. It's the perfect Jordan hang-out! I can't believe it!

Cici's may be a phenomenon, but tommy's is sublime perfection. (Did I mention the prices are cheap, too?)

While I was browsing at the bookstore after dinner I found a collaborative literary journal published by prison inmates from around the world. In high school I did a history research paper on changes to the Oregon State Penitentiary made during the Progressive era and I read a lot of prison publications (newspapers, journals, and diaries) as primary sources. So it was cool to see something similar published in 1992.

Also, I noticed that they were selling Harry and the Potters CDs at said used bookstore. Hmmm, that's weird. (Harry and the Potters played in the basement of Bexley at Beast Roast. I didn't particularly like them--actually, I walked out during their set because I was getting annoyed--but some of my friends, er, did.) They are playing in that bookstore soon. I never thought Harry and the Potters would follow me to Cleveland. Huh.

That's all for now. Stay tuned.

I'll keep this short and sweet because I posted so prolifically yesterday

(Well, everything but the title, that is.)

So I've been telling everyone about this, but...

Today I saw a machine that turns pee into water! How amazing is that.

Ok...maybe I'm a little too excited about it. It's designed astronauts to use for long missions, so that they don't have to bring all the water they will need with them. (Weight and space are very precious in space flight.)

I also got a surprise impromtu tour of the 5 second drop tour. It's a tunnel into the group as deep as the Washington Monument is high, and instead of landing on a giant air bag when it gets to the bottom (like the 2.2 second drop tower I saw), the experimental rig dropped falls into a pool of styrofoam balls and makes an awesome splash!

I also saw Dr. Geoffrey Landis talk about Mars exploration today. But I'll write more about that later, since I need to write an official summary of the presentation for my program's website.

The first day of the rest of my life...

Today my life changed forever as I had my very first encounter with what has to be one of the greatest human accomplishments: Cici's Pizza. Sprinkled across the Midwest and Florida, Cici's is a well-kept secret in the rest of the country. That needs to change.

Inside it's hallowed halls lies a buffet of the greasiest cheesiest anti-Atkins Diet-iest faux Italian food ever concocted-all for $3.99 (plus tax and drinks). Salad, pasta, pizza, and dessert are lined out in front of you, Tom and Jerry cartoons are playing on the television, and it seems like anything is possible.

Ok, so it's no Chicago's Pizza (which, by the way, I've been craving ever since I left Boston…I have a certain someone to thank for introducing me-and subsequently getting me addicted-to Chicago's last semester), but it's only $3.99! Shit! It's amazing. Really and truly, I was just…too happy for words tonight. Unfortunately (or maybe it's for the best), this map portends that after this summer my love affair with Cici's must come to an end.

I also had a very awesome run today. It cleared my head, relaxed me, and reminded me how much I love running. It would have been a completely sublime experience except for the asshole on the bike who felt it was appropriate and necessary to say “What's up, sexy?” as he rode past me (I've had this rant many a time-why do guys feel that it's ok to do that to runners?), and the motorcyclist who pulled to the side of the rode in front of me to take a piss in the woods. I am still in Cleveland, after all.

(There are so many motorcycles here…and everyone riding one thinks he is too cool for a helmet.)

Also, today I found out that one of my group members had to have skin grafted from his shoulder onto his nose. But then, as he got older and his chest got hairy, hair started growing out of the patch of displaced skin on his nose. That's gross…yet fascinating.

I also cultivated my interest in goofy safety and informational drawings (a la the book my parents have on their coffee table…Instructo-Art!) during the mandatory chemical safety training we had today. Maybe a collage is in order (especially since I found a breast cancer information pamphlet in the bathroom at work today…complete with diagrams of how to do a self-examination).

Ok, I feel this blog slowly seeping into the dregs of the boring. That may be because I already spent an hour writing an entry this morning. But on Wednesday I'll be heading to Johnson Space Center, so I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about when I return from Houston.

Welcome to Monday

Oooh, I’m updating my blog from work. I feel so scandalous. But, it’s Monday morning, and we get here at 8 every day and no one else ever gets here until at least 9, so while I have some time on my hands I might as well make use of it.

Our educational video project, which I’ve excitedly mentioned several times now, may include an interview with NASA’s new administrator. (You can read about him here) The guy has five (that’s right, FIVE) master’s degrees, including degrees in Aerospace, Electrical, and Civil Engineering. And also a PhD. Now that’s a lot of school. I’m not sure if it’s completely necessary, but what is?

As much shit as I hear about Cleveland (and it seems like there is a lot of shit to hear about Cleveland), I’ve actually been very impressed by the Cleveland Metroparks system. I’ve already mentioned the Rocky River Reservation, which is where I go running every morning (except for today…I went to bed at 2 am last night…oops). This weekend we went hiking at the Hinckley Reservation, which includes an urban climber’s oasis called Whip’s Ledges. There are tons of vertical and near-vertical rocks there for climbing and repelling (which, unfortunately, we didn’t get to do). So, Sarah, if you want to come visit me in Cleveland, I’ll take you there. We also saw, tucked far away in the woods, some other rocks which were covered in mysterious carvings. Engraved on the side of the cliffs were (among other things): several large faces which made use of natural lumpy rock forms as noses, a giant cross, and a galley or some other kind of sea-faring vessel.

The park had a swimming area, which was basically a converted spillway. I didn’t go swimming there, but it wasn’t because I was intimidated by Cleveland’s notoriously polluted water, it was because the opportunity just didn’t come up. My dad tells me that there’s a Randy Newman song about the Cuyahoga River catching on fire, which is an event that actually happened. But, maybe a flaming river was one of those horrendous events that somehow end up being miraculously fruitful in the end; I think it sparked Cleveland’s push towards greenifying and cleaning up, and is the reason the (relatively new) Metroparks were created. But I’m not advocating pollution or anything…

On Sunday I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art, which was no MFA or Metropolitan Museum of Art, but had a lot of merit in its own right (even when more than half of the galleries were closed due to renovation). There was a Michaël Borremans exhibit that I found really interesting. A lot of the pieces were informal sketches that he had done on the back of flyers and hotel stationary and such. There were a lot of heads on shelves and heads in boxes, and humans with altered anatomy. He also played a lot with scale and perception. Here are some highlights from the exhibit.

I also did several other things on Sunday (like laundry and grocery shopping) that are much too boring to be fodder for blog material.

Oh oh oh. I’ve been meaning to write an entry about the books I’ve been reading (and the books I intend to read) this summer. (I’d like this to be a book-reading blog in addition to an adventure-having blog.) I have some very ambitious goals. Thus far, I have read:

“The Homecoming”, Harold Pinter. A play, which only sort of counts because I read it in the nether region between classes and finals, but I thought I’d mention it anyway. Anat, it’s your kind of play. There’s lots of scandalous-ness and raunchy behavior.

Dance, Dance, Dance, Haruki Murakami. This is the…one, two, three, four, fifth novel of his I’ve read (plus a short story collection), and I think it had a very different affect on me than the others did. There seemed to be something more mature about it. In most of the other novels I’ve read, the action seems to be the focus, but in Dance, Dance, Dance the novel’s effect (which is a very wonderful one) seems to come from its curious (often slightly disturbing) in-action. (If that makes any sense at all.) The atmosphere of stasis that Murakami creates is very (er, um) beautiful, but it asks a lot more of the reader than the books predecessor (A Wild Sheep Chase) did. But, of course, it was well worth it. This book builds tension in a must more subtle way, which is, of course, extremely artful. I also think this is a book I should read again when I turn thirty-five, because it seems like the kind of book where you get different thing out of it as you grow and change, etc. (Yes yes, cheese alert of 7.6. Sorry.)

Friday, Michel Tournier. I read this book upon Anat’s request. It’s a retelling of the story of Robinson Crusoe from an intensely psychological perspective. I don’t know much about French thinking, but all I know is this novel was very very “French” (whatever that means). Robinson struggles with finding meaning his life, and flops between valuing only that which is organized and conquers nature’s savagery, and that which is birthed, untainted, from the “mother” island. Anat described it as being “very sexy”, but be forewarned: all copulations are between flesh and soil (quite literally). This isn’t a book that I particularly enjoyed reading, mostly because it too much of an effort to be psychologically profound; but revelations that were supposed to be chilling ended up being comical, and I’m not sure if Tournier actually uncovered any truths about human-nature.

Under the Banner of Heaven, John Krakauer. This book is a close and careful study of religious fundamentalism through a case study of Mormon Fundamentalists (most readily defined by their adherence to the formerly mainstream now-defunct practice of polygamy), specifically those that were responsible for the murders of a woman and her infant in 1984. (So…the murdered girl would be my age right now if she were alive.) Krakauer has definitely mastered his style of literary journalism, so the book was both engaging and informative. He attempts to make clear the distinction between mainstream Mormonism and Mormon Fundamentalism, but in order to do this he has to also describe their common origins through the story of Joseph Smith (which is very entertaining…and made me really want to see the South Park retelling) and the early years of Mormonism and its persecution. Portions of the book turned into exposés of polygamist colonies where Krakauer waxed a bit sensationalist. But, like most sensationalism, it was irresistibly engrossing. Krakauer’s goal was to explore fundamentalism, and as such, he didn’t dwell much on describing mainstream Mormonism and how vastly different it is from Mormon Fundamentalism; so I wasn’t surprised when I reached his author’s note at the end of the book, where he feels the need to confess his own religious (non) affiliation and say that he respects Mormons and grew up around them. Overall, though, this book is extremely interesting and well-worth reading.

Phew. Take a deep breath. Right now I’m in the middle (past half way!) of reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch. I’m currently on page 464 (of 781), and I made a goal for myself of finishing by next week. About five days ago I made the resolution to read 50 pages per day, and since then I’m only 11 pages behind (I’ve impressed even myself!). But enough about those technical details. It took me awhile to reacquaint myself with the pleasures of reading a Victorian novel (those pleasures are many…), which kind of surprised me (though I really should have seen it coming, after just taking two semesters of literature classes focused solely on “modern” authors). But, now I’m fully engrossed, and somehow reading a Victorian novel has turned me back into a teenage girl. I find myself getting a little bit bogged down by the sections dwelling on politics and reveling in the interpersonal marriage-troubles, girlish-hopes-and-dreams-shattered-by-reality sections. It’s quite funny.

On the docket for the rest of the summer:
Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust
Parade’s End, Ford Maddox Ford
The Golden Ass, Apuleius
Demons, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Castle, Franz Kafka

And whatever book Anat decides on for her book club (if I haven’t read it yet). I wanted to start a book club for so long, I’m going to have to try to participate remotely. (Ha.)

So you can see what I mean about being ambitious. We’ll see, she says, we’ll see.

(Though thankfully, it looks like I’ll actually have a lot of time to read this summer.)

All right, this has been quite the entry. I doubt many of you will make it all the way to the end. But if you’ve made it here, there’s a prize. I don’t know what it is yet, but just email me saying you want your prize, and I’ll think of something. Ok, I have chemical training (another monotonous safety lecture) in an hour, so I should probably try to get some work done this morning.

In which lightning strikes and thunder rumbles

Week one has come to an end (excepting the exciting weekend of team-building fun that lies ahead!). I have several things to say on many different fronts, so let's see if I can find a way to keep this organized.

I'll start off with my impressions on NASA and Glenn Research Center as an organization. It's no small secret that NASA has been faced with seemingly unending budget and personnel cuts, which seem to be on everyone's mind (and mouths) around here. I can't begin to count the number of times I've heard the phrase “Progress seems to be going very well on Project X, but we'll probably get cut next month anyway.” I've been to several meetings, most of which weren't budgetary based, but all of which ended up wandering in that direction. Everyone talks about the “rumors” that are flying around, most of which turn out to be true. Today I heard that Glenn is facing a 75% budget cut on most of its research and development.

No one here is secure about his job or his future. Today my boss told me that Glenn barely survived for another year, and has narrowly survived being shut down each year for as long as he's been working here. Everyone seems to have an opinion, but there doesn't seem to be any consensus as to who or what to blame. One problem I heard about today was that the employees of NASA are very bimodal; there is a group of aging experienced engineers who have been around since the 60s, and a younger group who has been hired within the last 10 or 15 years. When personnel cuts arise (and they do…very frequently) the young engineers are the ones to go based on seniority. But the aging professionals are already beginning to retire, and in about 5 years they will be largely extinct on the NASA scene. Which, you guessed it, means that NASA is going to be in even bigger trouble in the near future.

Also, at every meeting and tour I've been at, with the exception of my fellow interns, I have not seen a single woman in an engineering or research position.

That said, I'm torn about the aerospace industry and my potential future involvement with it. Seeing all the amazing things that are going on at NASA has re-stimulated my interest in space in a huge way; the bureaucracy has completely stifled it. Environmental engineering has started to sound more and more appealing. And if in the future I want to get involved in the space industry there are definitely applications. If lunar and Martian colonies are ever going to become a reality, they will have to be completely self-contained closed-loop systems. That's a serious environmental engineering problem (all waste has to be completely re-processed into usable resources, etc.).

But, who knows. I still don't know if engineering is even the right field for me. One of the things I have liked about the projects going on at NASA is that so many of them are multi-disciplinary. I think whatever I end up doing, it can't be monotonous. Any field where I would have an opportunity to constantly learn new things (yes I know, that sounds so cheesy) would be ideal. That's one thing I think I'll like about my summer position here. I've already had to brush up on my (practically non-existent) electronics skills to hook up an experimental set-up. Today I sat in a meeting (all day long! But that's beside the point…) about a new kind of cutting edge discrete element modeling software for particle analysis. I learned so much about particle dynamics just in one day, and its applications to agriculture, mining, medicine, and many other things.

But I'm rambling…and digressing…

Back to what's been going on at “The Academy.” Wow, what a pretentious name. I try to use it as infrequently as possible (except, of course, in places like the previous sentence, when it has sarcastic merit).

We've decided on a group project, and it is going to be (yay!) producing an educational television program about the space industry. I'm immensely excited about it. Who knows how successful it will be, but we already have some awesome ideas. A fellow group member's boss came up with a really cool idea; he suggested we do a human factors simulation/study of a manned mission to Mars. We already have five people living in very close quarters for an extended period of time, so we could get NASA scientists to send us problems at random intervals that we would have to “deal with” to simulate how astronauts would have to adapt in the field. We are thinking about doing that for a week and documenting it all on video for one of our segments.

Hmmm…what else has been going on around here? The hellish weather was finally dissipated by a massive thunderstorm that hit this afternoon (right as I was walking back from work). I seriously thought I was going to get hit by lightning (but I think all that proves is that I'm a wuss when it comes to thunderstorms). Now the Ohio weather is finally bearable (but who knows how long it will stay that way).

Today we had some mandatory “team-building” exercises. They weren't as exciting as a ropes course so…I'm just going to leave it at that.

Everyone here is getting along well, but nonetheless, I think I'm going to go insane if I can't get away for 9 more weeks. Today we might go check out the Cleveland “nightlife”.

Um…just wondering…how are other people's summers going? I haven't heard from many of you…

The inner workings of Glenn

I'm going to keep this fairly short because I'm itching to go read more Middlemarch, but today I went on tours of several departments of GRC, all of which housed amazing equipment. I saw:
-2 wind tunnels, one that specializes in icing and one that specializes in supersonic flows (up to Mach 4).
-A giant acoustic dome for jet-engine noise-reduction testing. The inside was crazily textured to eliminate noise reflection.
-An 24m high drop tower that simulates weightlessness for 2.2 seconds for microgravity research. They do a lot of research on combustion; without gravity flames are spherical and very very pretty. We got to see a drop. RAD.
-2 electric propulsion centers with giant vacuum chambers to test ionic engines and other cutting edge electric propulsion components.

I also sat through a 2 hour meeting. And I went to Coldstone. And I had one of the most rewarding naps I've ever had. I was completely incapacitated for a solid 2 hours.

Day Two

This is my first official update from the NASA Academy at Glenn Research Center. I stepped out of the airport into a blistering heat wave (90 plus degrees) and immediately traveled to Glenn (Sleep? Clean clothes? Settling in to my home? Those can all wait…). The area around the Cleveland airport isn't the most scenic sight I've seen in my life (admittedly I am rather spoiled coming from the Pacific Northwest), but I swear the grass was greener as soon as I got to the Glenn Research Center. However the buildings-
all monotonous sterile military type recta-cubicles except for the giant silver dome in the center-are arranged in what has been repeatedly been described to me as a “giant D”, prompting the question what exactly does the “D” stand for? Development? Delirium? Duct tape? Whichever one you choose, GRC isn't the most spectacular sight from the outside; tomorrow I'll be getting a grand tour (it's scheduled to take nearly four hours, so it had better be grand) where I'm sure I'll get to see all the magic happens on the inside of the Dubiously Dull shell.

All right, moving past aesthetic matters onto logistical ones, I'll be working on developing and testing dust mitigation techniques for lunar and Martian missions. The first thing I'll be doing is corrosion testing on a mildly conductive coating designed to bleed charge off dust so that it doesn't stick to the surface. I get to design and order the experimental set-up, which is daunting and exciting. The past two days of work have been largely uneventful, so hopefully things will begin to pick up soon.

A few differences between working at NASA and working at MIT:
-People actually seem to work regular hours. As I was leaving at 5 pm, so was just about everyone else. Astonishing! I guess things are different when you aren't working with grad students but with people who have real lives and families.
-Most of the equipment here looks like it was ordered from an outside manufacturer instead of being improvised and constructed by people within the lab. I'm still not sure which I like better…
-There's a microwave in nearly every room. It's quite eccentric. I was in the Glenn library today and there was a microwave and a toaster oven in the microfiche room.
-Copy machines are easy to use and free.

I'm sure I'll have more revelations as I begin to explore more.

Hmmm…what else? I sustained an injury immediately upon arriving at the hotel. Ok, so it's not quite an injury. I gouged my foot on a metal protrusion and it's been oozing ever since. But if Prefontaine can win a 5K with stitches on his foot, I'll survive.

Which brings me to…running this morning! It was actually the best part of my day. When my alarm went off at 5:30 I really didn't want to get up. So I didn't. Forty-five minutes later, I convinced myself that un-zombifying myself was better than waiting until the afternoon and running in 90 degree weather, so I was off and running. The Rocky River Reservation is very close (less than a 10 minute run away) and it has lots of shade, lots of trees, and lots of trails. It's no Forest Park (but really, what is? Ok,..my Portland snobbery stops here…or not…), but I think it should be enough to keep me occupied and stimulated for 10 weeks.

Except for the park, I am stuck in suburban hell. There's a Wal-Mart directly across the street from where I'm staying, a mall down the road, and every sit-down chain restaurant you can imagine (Olive Garden, Red Robin, Bennegan's, etc.). If anything, this summer should thoroughly convince me to never live in the suburbs of Ohio (or any suburbs, for that matter).

All right, it's getting late and tomorrow will be another early start. I'm still running on empty in terms of sleep, so going to bed early tonight will be most excellent.

Oh, but before I leave…for NASA Academy we have to organize a group project to be completed over the next 10 weeks. I suggested that we should produce a radio or TV show or documentary, and people seemed very interested in that idea. I think that would be rad! Now we just have to see if it is feasible.

Off to a good start...

June 6th, 2005, 8:40 am, Chicago

The debut NASA Academy Glenn Research Center is officially underway—unfortunately I’m still sitting in the Chicago O’Hare airport. Because I’ll no doubt be behind by the time I finally get to Cleveland (when that will be is still a gaping mystery), I might as well take advantage of the hours afforded by my second day of mind-numbing waiting by documenting my tale of travel woe.

Like most travel misadventure sagas, mine is long and tedious, and begs to be told much more than it needs to be heard. Yesterday’s heat wave is the first guilty party in this story. After taxiing for over an hour in a plane with broken air conditioning (the flight attendant handed out ice water and I could see the cold air emanating from the cup) , our plane was deemed a health hazard (fainting and heat stroke in the cabin aren’t exactly desirable for United Airlines) and was sent back to the gate. The plane that was on its way to rescue us joined Bigfoot and Atlantis in the realm of myth and our flight was cancelled. Thus began the hours upon hours (upon hours upon hours…and still more hours) of waiting in line. I finally made it to a hotel around 1 am for a scant four hours of sleep. After an early shuttle to the airport and a rousing wakeup-wanding at the security checkpoint, here I am back at the airport in a state worse than purgatory or limbo: perpetual standby.

On the upside, my anesthetized brain has lost the capacity for disappointment and I’ve learned a few lessons along the way:
-The ability to get in line fast is an invaluable skill. There’s a reason people wait in line just to be able to wait in line.
-While a quick line-joining instinct is useful, multi-hour waits are still inevitable. Cell phones help. Making friends with your line-buddies helps. Books help. Sitting down helps. For some reason no one besides me ever attempts the latter two.
-Always carry on necessary items for an overnight stay when flying. I learned this lesson the hard way.
-There is always someone in a who’s situation is worse than yours. Waiting behind me in the first of many lines yesterday was an old woman from China who spoke no English. I let her use my phone, and she kept asking me questions that I had no idea how to answer.
-Airline customer service agent must be one of the worst jobs ever. Airline desks are on the front-lines of the travel battlefield: before an agent even opens his mouth everyone they speak to is angry, frustrated, tired, and looking for an outlet for their anger, frustration, and fatigue.

Another positive side to my mishaps: the enthusiasm I had for NASA Academy yesterday morning has been hextupled by all this waiting. Arriving in Cleveland, no, just getting a boarding pass to Cleveland, will be the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me in a long time. If my luggage is somehow waiting for me on the other side, I just might collapse in elation.

A boring little post...

My most exciting adventures in the scant time I've spent home in Oregon have been running in parks where I spent time as a kid. I know, I should be out celebrating my new-fangled twenty-one-ness (and my brother, Chandler, and I did experience the Saucebox, Tugboat, and nameless sportsbar with Finnish bride, groom, and wedding guests last week), but remembering my childhood in the woods is just more fun.

Since I arrived home late Monday night I've run 39 miles at:
Forest Park
Washington Park
Champoeg Park
Tryon Creek State Park
Pre's Trail (or one of them) Eugene
Leif Erickson

And I've only run in Sherwood once.

Cleveland better have some bad ass running trails, because I'm getting spoiled.

Home hasn't been much other than running, reading, eating, and sleeping, but I think that's just what it's supposed to be. I live a relaxed life for just under two weeks, which makes me ready to accept whatever is coming next (in this case, Cleveland and NASA).