morrowlife

Here’s a pretty busy trail marker.  Looks like the crossroads of the place.  Great Art courtesy of my good old Minolta pocket-sized digital camera, taken during our fun hike a few months ago and part of my famous Hiking series.

Wow. Yet another looong blog-free period. Did you miss me, Loyal Readers? Hello? Anybody there? No?

Well then. At least I’m reading this, and that’s what really matters, no?

Lots of stuff going on.

By the way, greetings from the train!

Anyway. Lots of stuff going on. LRN2 and LRN3 are still here. Not for long, though. They’re both on the way out the door first thing tomorrow morning. I’ll miss them! It’s been such a great visit. Except we didn’t visit nearly enough. They spent a bit of time playing games. I spent a bit of time reading. Also going to work. WAY too much of
that.

Getting ready to take care of that last little problem, though. LRN4 sent me a note this afternoon, telling me she heard from the nice folks at Princess Cruises, who offered us a generous discount on a two-week cruise to Hawaii in October. We had been planning to do that in January (probably on a different cruise line, incidentally), so we did about fifteen minutes of research (the swimming pool is covered, which is highly important; also, the weather in Hawaii is quite good in October) and decided to go for it. She called a travel agent, who was surprised to discover that they could actually get us the cruise for the advertised price! So we’re in. Cool. Can’t wait to go now.

We already love Princess Cruises. On our Alaska cruise a couple years ago, the service and food were outstanding. The ship that time wasn’t really appropriate for a trip to Alaska (no covered pool!), but we really loved the quality of the experience otherwise. So we have high expectations. Need to see if any of our cruising friends want to and are able to go with us.

I haven’t been spending enough time creating lately. I feel like I’ve been busy, but I really haven’t been. I’m consuming too much content and not creating enough of it. So I’m trying to turn over a bit of a new leaf. I still want to read meaningful things and see and hear a reasonable amount of entertainment, but I’m committed to creating something every day, even if it’s very small. I’ll report here (which is creating something in itself, so the mere act of reporting fulfills the goal!).

So let’s talk about some things I have in the creation pipeline. I’m sure I’ve talked about RoboWar already. I’ve decided to go ahead with it, in spite of the fact that I won’t be able to charge for it. At this point, I need the experience and perhaps a bit of notice more than I need the money. So I’m going for it. Ought to keep me busy for the next several months.

But first, I’m making my UNO scorekeeping app. Can’t find anything out there that’s free and good, so I’m making one. It’ll have a few useful features and will hopefully be useful to a few people. And it’ll be absolutely free, of course.

There’s another interesting opportunity out there right now. My work has announced an app contest. They’re looking for things that have a business use, of course, and they get the rights and the source code when it’s done. But they’re giving away an iPad and some other electronic junk to the contest winners! Yes, I know I already have an iPad, but I’m sure we can all agree that’s something you can never have too much of.

The real challenge, though, is the idea. The major limitation the app has to work within is that it can’t access company-owned data, but it still has to have a real business use to us. Challenging! How can I make something useful that can’t access or store any data? I’m cogitating on it. One idea provided by our finance people is an app for Cost Account Managers (of which I am one) that tracks data on an ongoing basis. I don’t yet know if it’s practical, though, since I believe financial data is something the app isn’t allowed to access or even save. I’ll have to get a ruling on that one. Another idea – some tool that does back-of-envelope-style guidance & control calculations. Hmmm.

Listening to an episode on Everything Creative that features Mormon Mommy bloggers. It’s very interesting. I’m finding all kinds of useful ideas (you don’t have to be a mommy or even a woman to join their group!) and will definitely recommend it to LRN4. By the way, have I recommended her blog lately? It’s really going well and it’s quite entertaining.

I’ve been feeling a bit down lately. I think it’s largely related to my slug-like lack of creation, as already mentioned. Also, I’ve really let my dietary and exercise choices revert to some bad habits, thus undoing some progress I had made. I’m committed to reversing that reversal, starting today. I keep thinking I’ll improve my habits when something is finished (after the boys go home, for example), but then something else important always seems to come along. So I can exercise just a bit of self-discipline regardless of my circumstances. It’s either now or after my heart attack, no? Plus, it makes me feel good to exercise a bit of self-discipline.

Interesting week in space. Not a good week, but an interesting one. The Russians lost a Breeze M with a Russian-owned (but European-built) spacecraft on it. It made it to orbit, but not to a usable one. To compound it, the spacecraft doesn’t seem to have deployed its solar arrays and they can’t seem to talk to it. So it had a very limited lifetime as of yesterday or the day before. I haven’t heard whether they’ve been able to contact it or have given up.

The important thing to me, though, is that this is just one more problem with a Proton upper stage. The Breeze M has been very problematic for Khrunichev. And the Block DM hasn’t been exactly stellar either. I don’t know what’s going on there, but I do know that they have a history of being much less than forthcoming with data. I suspect these continuing failures without clear explanations will cost them more and more in the commercial market as time goes by. If I were contemplating buying a ride on a Proton right now, I would want to hear some very frank talk from the Russians. It will be interesting to see if they eventually get it. They’re still very much fighting the cold war in Moscow.

Time to quit. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife employment agency job opportunity: sunglasses-stealing monkey!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s an old gasoline tanker.  Absolutely beautiful.  Great Art taken at the Henry Ford Museum and part of my famous Machinery and Vacation series.

Well.  It’s been a long time again, hasn’t it?  LRN4 correctly pointed this out in a comment today, so I thought I’d make a bit of an update.  There are actually a few things to talk about, too!

Let’s start with this past weekend, shall we?  LRN4 and I used our Groupon to stay Friday night at the bed and breakfast in Auburn, which is a very old gold mining town about 45 minutes east of Sacramento.  The place was nice and the people were very friendly and helpful.  We enjoyed it.  Saw a bunch of the town.  The old town area had a bunch of nice old buildings, a few small but interesting museums, and some other nice stuff. We did a bit of exploring on Friday afternoon, spent a nice evening and night at the hotel, got a very good breakfast, and spent a bunch of time in old town on Saturday morning.  We were done by about noon and were thoroughly hot and sweaty by then.

Hiked back up to the car and left for Sacramento to look at a few cars for LRN4.  Did I already mention we’re selling the Suburban to LRN3?  Well, we are.  That means I needed another car at the office.  My beloved Honda took that spot.  That means I needed another car at home.  The Taurus fills that bill nicely.  That means LRN4 needed another car.  So we went to look.

Drove a couple of Fiat 500s.  I have to say I was very favorably impressed!  The cars are way cute, very well-equipped, and all kinds of good things.  There’s just one problem – they have no power.  None.  Utter dogs.  Still, we came this close to buying one, and I think we would have been happy with it.  However, we decided to just drive down the block a couple of miles and check out the Mini Coopers, which LRN4 has been dreaming about for years.  They brought one out for us to test drive that was her favorite color and had just about everything she wanted on it.  One drive was enough to convince both of us and we bought it on the spot.  Got home with it at about 6:00, completely exhausted but happy.

That car flies!  LRN4 is worried about getting speeding tickets in it.  You start it moving and, before you know it, you’re way over the speed limit.  The handling is outstanding, it has automatic everything, navigation, bluetooth, Sirius, voice commands, automatic temperature control, and a whole bunch more stuff.  Not to mention traction and stability control and just about every other kind of “control” the nice folks at BMW can invent.  I love it.

Moving up to today, it’s LRN2’s eighteenth birthday!  Happy birthday. LRN2!  We’re celebrating on Saturday, which is convenient because that’s when he’ll be home.  I’m really excited to see him.

Moving up to tomorrow, LRN3 is coming!  LRN4 picks him up at the airport mid-morning.  We’re excited about his visit too.  The house will be full for a couple of weeks.  Fun, fun, fun!

But it’s time for bed now, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: therapy kangaroo!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN4 with the Weinermobile.  Great Art taken at the Henry Ford Museum and part of my famous Machinery and Vacation series.

Long time no post.  I’ve been busy again.  Although I haven’t really done anything to speak of.

LRN4’s away at girls’ camp this week.  Hopefully, she’s having a great time.  I’m doing fine.  Had sushi twice so far.  Ate a bunch of Spam, eggs, hash browns, and biscuits.  Also had some frozen dinners LRN4 bought for me.  They’re low-fat and actually tasty.  I especially enjoyed the tamale.  No complaints in that department.

Doesn’t seem like I’ve gotten anything accomplished, though.  Did a bunch of LDS Tools work and umm . . . not much else.  Spent some more time working on OS X Lion, did a bit of reading, and worked.  Also ate.  And slept.  But not enough.  Sleeping, that is.  I did plenty of eating.

And I think I’ll got to bed already.  So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: Blizzard assault!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the steam train at Greenfield Village.  I don’t know why I love steam locomotives so much.  They’re just cool.  Great Art courtesy of my good old Minolta camera and part of my famous Train, Machinery and Vacation series.  A very rare Morrowlife trifecta.

Extreme Short Shrift tonight.  It’s late.  The missionaries came over tonight to get some help with a presentation they’re making to the Relief Society on Thursday evening about mormon.org.  That website has gotten quite good – I recommend my Loyal Readers check it out.

Sadly, my thousandth post has gone unnoticed and uncommented by my Loyal Readers.  Sigh.  I guess I’m just not posting often enough for anybody to think to read the blog anymore.  I have nobody to blame but myself, I guess.  Don’t know if I should really keep this up anymore.  Maybe Facebook and/or Google+ are the places to be these days.

Speaking of Google+, LRN5 gave me an invitation the other day, so I have an account there now.  Not many people yet – it’s going to take a LOOOOONG time to catch up with Facebook.  However, Facebook caught up with and utterly smashed MySpace, so it’s still anybody’s game.  Google doesn’t always win these wars, but they have a fairly decent track record.  Things I like about Google+: Circles.  You can choose which of your friends can see which messages.  Keep family separate from friends separate from work separate from hobbies separate from whatever other weird things you do.  Yeah, I know Facebook can do that too, sort of.  But it’s really easy with Google+.  Let’s see, what else do I like about it?  I don’t know.  Haven’t used it that much yet.  But it’s pretty much like a very barren Facebook.  It’ll grow.

Things I don’t know about Google+:  Not having achieved critical mass yet.  Time will tell.

Okay, that’s it for tonight.  Busy week ahead, followed by a busy weekend.  Oh, we’re going to a little seminar on Saturday for people interested in starting their own businesses.  I’m really excited about it, although I’m a bit worried I’ll find out I don’t really want to make the sacrifices necessary to build business up.  I’ll let you know!

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: neutralized fruit basket!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s an old-time scale.  Great Art taken at Greenfield Village and part of my famous Workbench and Vacation series.

Welcome to a Very Special Morrowlife Blog post.  Are you sitting down?  Okay.  It’s my one thousandth post!  That’s right – one comma zero zero zero.  A grand.  My kilopost.

Absolutely amazing.  A thousand posts without ever saying anything.  Must be some kind of record.

Anyway.  If I still have any Loyal Readers left, leave me a message of hearty congratulations.  Cash is always nice too.

Sadly, nothing happened today.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  LRN12 is here!  Yea!  She and LRN4 had an action-packed day, full of book-related activities (see LRN4’s book-related blog here) and a visit to Library Park.  LRN12 and I played restaurant, cars, balloon, and Spongebob Uno.  We also watched several Spongebob episodes.  Which I possibly enjoy more than she does.  They’re upstairs getting ready for bed now while I write this.  Then it’s lights out for the entire house.

Drove home from work today.  The train people sent me a text message in the afternoon, saying there was a wildfire burning somewhere on the route and the train would probably be delayed.  I wisely chose to drive.  I just checked their website, and the first AND second trains arrived in Lardville at 7:20 (should have been here at 5:21 and 6:21, respectively), while the third train arrived at 7:28 (a mere seven minutes late).  I would have taken the second train, so I chose . . . wisely.  Even though the traffic wasn’t exactly great, I got home shortly after 6:30.  Of course, I have to drive back tomorrow morning, which shouldn’t be too bad.  Friday mornings are usually good drives, followed by horrible drives on Friday afternoons.  Which I won’t need to worry about.

Anyway.  I’ve been thinking about the last space shuttle flight, which is currently on orbit.  A lot of people are predicting doom and gloom for American Space.  I disagree.  I was working for a NASA contractor in the 1980s.  We made expendable Atlas/Centaur launch vehicles one or two at a time, always under NASA’s direction.  NASA handled all the commercial sales and ordered our products to fulfill them.  We never built enough vehicles at a time to afford to upgrade anything until it either no longer worked or absolutely couldn’t be bought anywhere at any price.  We just kept on cranking out the same old NASA-spec launchers.

That lasted until shortly after the Challenger was lost.  NASA decided they didn’t want to be in the commercial space business anymore.  They stopped selling commercial rides on the shuttle, and they decided to turn us (and our competitors) loose.  Many (most?) people in the industry thought it would be impossible to commercialize the Atlas (also the Delta and Titan bad guys) – it was way too expensive and risky for private industry to be able to do.  Well, it turned out they were wrong.  General Dynamics invested a bunch of money to modernize the fleet and offer multiple versions, and it turned out there was a strong commercial demand that kept us building Atlases at a much faster rate than we had done with NASA.  We were able to afford to make a lot of updates – really started a program of constant upgrades that continues to this day.  GD ended up losing their shirts on us, but they eventually sold the division to Martin Marietta and wrote off the development expenses.  Without all that debt, Martin was able to turn a profit on the business.  The Delta folks lived a similar story.  Both vehicles are still flying and still being actively developed – now as a joint venture between LockMart and Boeing.

Titan was a different story.  Martin was never able to position it well for the commercial market, and they were so deep into the Government Contractor way of doing business that they couldn’t figure out what to cost to make it commercially affordable.  They eventually settled on being an Air Force contractor and flew them at a large profit until the Air Force couldn’t afford them anymore.

Anyway, my point is that I believe manned space will go the same direction as the Atlas/Delta/Titan business and its numerous newly-minted competitors.  Some of the old NASA contractors will leave the market, some will lose a bunch of money trying to stay in it and will end up selling their manned space operations to leaner operators, and some will prosper as-is.  Maybe I’ll try predicting who will do what in a later post.

When we were getting ready to go commercial, many people predicted that our customer base would evaporate without NASA to hold their hands.  They thought we’d never be able to afford the financial risk (turns out you can buy insurance!).  They thought there just weren’t enough commercial satellites out there to sustain a viable business.

I see some very distinct parallels in what people are saying about manned space.  How can we send people into orbit without NASA?  Who could afford to do that?  Where’s the commercial market?  There are only so many space-enthusiast billionaires to go around, after all.

My feeling is that the commercial manned space market will blossom exactly as the commercial unmanned space market has done over the past twenty years.  New businesses will appear that will discover novel uses for people in space, and they’ll make a profit at it.  Space tourism will become a reality.  An insurance market will develop that will help spread the risk around.  We’re already seeing an explosion in the number of launch vehicle and manned spacecraft developers.  Some of the old guard will survive – I’m hoping my company will be one of them, although they’ll need to get out of their Government Contractor mode to have a chance.

I think the golden age of space travel is right ahead of us.  What do you think?

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: Evil Russian Hypnotist!

See you tomorrow.