Birthday Wishes

Hey Friends,

I hope you are all well. I'm not usually in the practice of making birthday wishes, but this year there are a few worthy causes I'd like to support. So, just in case you were thinking about a birthday something, consider helping me with these. Every little bit helps. And, as an added incentive, email me back with the amount you donated and I will match your donation dollar-for-dollar, up to $100 per donation, to $500 total between all the donations, first come, first served!

Have at 'em:

This lovely young woman is a cousin of a friend of mine. She has an aggressive and fatal, but treatable, form of leukemia (wiki) that she has been fighting for 8 years. The barrier between her and a full recovery is, of course, cost. Help her heroic adoptive mother (who adopted her after she was abandoned with the disease) save her life:

http://pomnatasheeng.ucoz.ru/

For the last 5 years, the city of Ngelenge, Tanzania was blessed with a life-changing water well serving over 2,000 people built with the help of Engineers Without Borders. But recently, the well has been shutdown by an excess of fine sand clogging the works. (read about it) A new pump can restore water to them. We individually can't really bring them a glass of fresh water, but we can help pay for the pump.

http://www.ewb-sfp.org/donate and select "SFP Tanzania Project" from the pull-down menu.

What can I say about the Heifer Project? They enable families to provide for themselves and others by giving them livestock with which they can create sustainable livelihoods. It's not a handout, it's a tool in the hand, and a chance at dignity. Plus, where else can you buy someone a goat without all the horrible consequences?

http://www.heifer.org

Peace, all!

Edwin

Falcon 9 Maiden Launch

Launch is currently scheduled for 11:40am EST (8:40am PST). Click on the image below to go to the webcast:


In case our servers get slammed, you can also watch on spaceflightnow.com:



While you're waiting, some cool photos:
http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20100211

And the obligatory playlist:

Queen - Don't Stop Me Now
The Crystal Method - High Roller
Elton John - Rocket Man
Dragonforce - Through the Fire and the Flames
Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Coming Home)
The Mountain Goats - Autoclave
MC Chris - Fette's Vette


Update:

10:00am On Launch Hold. There is a boat violating the downrange clear zone. Range is working to clear it.

10:16am: Hold released. T-15 min

10:20am: We are GO TERMINAL COUNT. T-10 min

10:24am: Internal power.

10:26: T-4min

10:30am: Launch abort. Final conditions not met for ignition. Waiting on word for re-cycle and re start terminal count.

11:30: Re-cycle approved. Preps complete. Hold released. T-15min

11:40: Hold released. Terminal count T-5min

12:12: Successful ignition. Successful 1st stage burn. Successful MECO. Successful Merlin Vacuum ignition. Successful 2nd stage burn. Waiting on word of SECO1, restart, s2 burn2, SECO2, and recovery.

Team Critter in St. Louis

I took a trip to St. Louis, MO to visit Paul, Jeanette, and Ale of Team Critter. Enjoy some photos! Thanks for making us at home, for the smiles, and the schmoopie bread. Oh, and Happy Mother's day!

Ale and I had our first ever conversation!

At the Jefferson Memorial of Western Expansion

Of course, there was the arch...

And who knew? You actually have to ride an alien spaceship to get to the top!

Cue the timpani!

Also making an appearance at the top, is... Team Dork.

That's one happy kid! (Apparently at that age, I too thought toes were the coolest new thing ever)

Midwest folks, I know you're jealous...everything you said about frozen custard was true.

Well, that's all for now. What a beautiful weekend. Hope to see you all again soon!

Until then, keep smiling!

Ooh! And you can follow Team Critter's blog at http://herecomescritter.blogspot.com/ !

Easter Baptism

My friend got baptized; what a beautiful Easter. Congratulations!



In addition to this happy news, there's an awesome story I want to record:

Having traveled from LA for the baptism, I arrived with a very wrinkled dress shirt from a suitcase. Since I was going to be her sponsor at her baptism, went in search of a cleaners to get it ironed out. Well, while we were talking about this, a woman walked by and over heard us. She immediately stopped and offered to iron the shirt for me since she lived just down the road. At first I thought she was one of our group, but nope, just a random person walking by. Not wanting to impose, we said we'd look for a cleaners first, but she gave us her number in case we couldn't find one open at that hour. Well, we found a cleaner, just minutes from closing time, and they were willing to iron the shirt right away. And when they found the shirt was to wrinkled to iron well, they SOLD ME ONE OF THEIR EXTRA SHIRTS for $5, perfectly starched and ironed. Best shirt I ever wore. Kind strangers are the best. What a happy Easter!

Just to bring this up to date

Since then I moved two more times - stayed with a friend for a while, moved, got cheated by a dishonest housemate, moved again, finally settled down in a nice big house with a few friends, whom I'll someday introduce, some from work. Five of us in this house, ocean views, great place for having guests over. Had Thanksgiving, Christmas for our friends at our house. Lately, a pipe broke in my room and flooded it, so I'm out of a place of my own again. Always an adventure. We share the house also with a very clever, very friendly one-year-old border collie.

Still working at SpaceX, still building spaceships. Getting ready for a big launch.

It's still beautiful down here, please come and visit!

My last day at the Burn Out House...

Moving again...

All my stuff is now moved out and the empty room has taken on an unsettling echo that I really wasn't prepared for.

In an earlier post about moving, I spoke about physical places and homes. I don't think I gave it enough credit. Physical places really do have a power and significance that is not totally illegitimate. Not enough to hold you back, but it deserves respect.

With that, here are the things I want to remember about Burn Out House:

-Jess, Jim, Casey, and me - the Burn Outs
-running into the beach at 3am
-the lightswitch fireplace
-the sound of the ocean as I'm falling asleep
-the ocean
-AS, DM, LD, ES, and my family, all who came out to visit and shared this space, you guys rock.
-my little oil lamp
-that washing machine - yes, it really was worth it.
-rock band
-parking...creatively
-the funky 1st floor layout
-the move out party
-the coastal commute to work
-coming home over the crest of Marine, and seeing the ocean, and calling it home. yep, it never got old.

This part of it is not a distrust of the future; it is a bond with my past. An empty house certainly looks like I've never been there, but I like to believe that I've left a imprint on the spirit (and not the walls, paint, and floors) of this place.

Onwards and upwards!

Painted on the Sky

Nice clouds today...more photos! At 50mm and 18mm.

Nifty fifty...is nifty!

The sky, it was thiiiiis big!

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