Moving

Found this from my journal, random thoughts while I was moving to LA back in June:

packing is really difficult
each item has a story, and many must be left behind
the most precious things I carry with me in my heart, still it is hard
I should work to collect the things that cannot be taken away or left behind: memories, skills, experiences, etc.
each of these things, at some time meant the world to me, and invention, my first computer, a project, poetry, pictures, etc, but now they are tossed away as trash
how do i feel about this

hoarding comes from a fear of the future
the belief that each moment will be the best it will ever be
a doubt that the future can only get better
this, an idea of an investment in the past.
keeps us going back, history repeating
because we feel invested, we do not leave the past, even if it is the wrong path
have faith that the future holds great things!
let each moment be the best, better than the last, and not as good as the next, but still each precious

Beautiful

I have always believed that it is good for people to be told what others find beautiful in them.

Talking to Pixi today made me realize today that it is not enough to tell people what is beautiful in them, but to make them ask and see what they find beautiful in themselves. It's what I needed to do. A simple thought, but one worth sharing, I think.

She sent me this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQu9D4bjXaU

So, what beauty do you find in you?

Come Hike-Bike-Kayak in San Diego!

This Labor-day weekend. Anyone want to join me? Website here. Eight glorious hours of hiking up the mountain, biking down the mountain, and then kayaking through no less than 7 sea caves in La Jolla. If you come down, there's plenty of room to stay at my place in LA, and in San Diego, I will try to make living arrangements with friends, depending on how many are coming.

Come down for the weekend! And let me know soon. I have to reserve the kayaks.

SpaceX: An Introduction for Me and You Both!

I've moved to LA to work for SpaceX. (www.spacex.com) I started on July 7th, 2008.

In a word, SpaceX is crazy. Everyone here is crazy, what we're doing is crazy, and the CEO is crazy. As you may already know, I am crazy too. SpaceX is trying to get to space and to do so commercially, without the backing of a government or a multi-billion-dollar budget.

For comparison, other aerospace companies told me about 8-9 year product cycles, and 30% chances of projects being cut before launch. When I got to SpaceX, they said, "take the time to get up to speed but don't drag your feet. This project we are putting you on needs to be done by the end of the month." "Why?" "In September, it's in space." A week later, they made me the engineer responsible for the project. Crazy.

We are focused on orbital launch, and eventual inter-planetary travel. Other private space companies have done sub-orbital tourist spaceflight; orbit takes 7 times more energy. So far, only Orbital Sciences has been able to do it, but still for big bucks.

Our smaller launch vehicle, Falcon 1 is for small satellites.

NASA is looking to us and our heavy-lift Falcon 9 and our Dragon crew/cargo capsule to replace the Space Shuttle for ISS missions when the Shuttle gets retired in 2010.

The Space Race. It's back.

Falcon 1 Flight 003, and beyond! (and launch videos)

So as some of you know, SpaceX recently launched it's third Falcon 1 rocket aimed at reaching orbit. Now I did not work on this particular rocket, having started just 2 months ago, but I am working on the next rocket, Flight 004.

Flight 003 did not reach orbit (CEO's message here), failing because of unexpected residual thrust in the 1st stage engine interfering with stage separation. This was a new engine design that could not have been tested in the true vacuum of space until that moment, and there we learned something. Plus, there's a fabulous video:

http://spacex.com/multimedia/videos.php?id=13

With 3 failed launches, SpaceX is still ahead of the game compared to most if not all space programs in history. How many rockets did we fail wondering if Russia would beat us to the moon? However, the catch is that we're trying to do commercially what entire governments have pooled resources to do as a country, so we kinda have to be on top of our game. That's what working at SpaceX is like. It's like the excitement of the whole US-Russia space race all over again.

Our CEO, and indeed, all of us, have made a public declaration to fix the problem, assemble another rocket, and launch flight 004 very quickly. And this time, my project will be on that rocket.

It's gonna be a busy couple of months folks. Stay tuned for more updates, and expect find me looking skyward.

SpaceX

OK, everyone at SpaceX is a little crazy.

Case in point: Friday night, leave work at 10pm and head for a party at my coworkers house.

After some partying, it's 1:30am, time to run outside and jump in the ocean. What follows is 2 hours of swimming in a wonderfully warm open pacific ocean under a beautiful full moon.

Then, after some drying off and some more chillin', we go back to work at 4am.

To be fair, we had to go back anyways since we carpooled, but since we were there, we did some work we still had to finish to free up the weekend.

JaSmix and more!

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to see you and dance with you all at JaSmix (weekend of Aug 10th)! I am grateful beyond words. Oh how I have missed you all! You gave me such a warm welcome; it's really nice to have a home to come home to, ya'know? Thank you for the music (the songs I'm singing...), DJ Jason. A shout out to the most fabulous dance partner in the world - that's you, Joy. And to Ella, visiting all the way from Israel - having you back is about the best thing ever.

And that's not all!
Katherine, cheers to France! Paris is one lucky city. Have a great time. Thanks for having me over!
Jackie - Happy Birthdaaaay!
Jason - beautiful hike; quote of the day: "could you guys talk quieter, because you know we're, like, in nature"

Hello World: Edwin has a blog!

Hey Lovely People,

I'm finally getting a blog. With my new life starting in LA, I've got plenty of stories and thoughts I want to share with you, as well as preserve for myself. I can't think of a better way to start a new life than to share it with you, my friends. I've already got a few things saved up, so here comes the deluge!