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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Saying Goodbye

Yup, I'm moving again. And with that, I've got to leave my lovely beach house behind. The housemates are moving on, and so I am too. I'm looking for housemates, so if you know anyone living in or moving to LA who's looking for housemates, shoot me an email.

I've been trying to spend more time at the beach to enjoy it for these last few weeks, and tonight gave me this beautiful view to share with you.

RIP, Good and Faithful Chair

Well, there it is, my chair. The chair I spent nearly my entire college education in -- in which I toiled over problem sets, papers, and projects, and even slept a few tired nights in. And today, it finally gave up, and left me to take up the torch and carry on...alone. But to be fair, it did try to take me with it when it went.

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Canticle of the Sun

I was reading a book that called out The Canticle of the Sun, by St. Francis of Assisi, which then reminded me of the classic hymn. Remember Canticle of the Sun? Those who went to church with me probably recall that we sang it all the time. Man, I miss home.

"Come, dance in the forest, come, play in the field, and sing, sing to the glory of the Lord!"

Link to a translation of St. Francis' original Canticle:
http://www.webster.edu/~barrettb/canticle.htm

Blessings to you PY and J

My cousin PY married J this last weekend, which is, in fact, the losing-of-a-bet for which I had to cut my hair. So, more than the haircut photo, I guess I owe you a photo of the lucky couple:


Congratulations, PY and J.

May you have every blessing that marriage has to offer, and through it, may you become a blessing to the world around you!

How to Vote

Just found this except from a conversation with a friend around voting time last October (2008) whilst digging through email archives:

10:16 AM me:don't vote for the bad stuff

vote for the not so bad stuff

10:17 AM then take all the money out of your bank and hide it in a shoe box under your bed

I didn't recall the cynicism setting in quite so quickly after I moved to LA, but now that I've been here for a while, I guess it sounds like good advice...

Life Flows

At mass today, the priest told a good metaphor:

Both the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee are fed by the River Jordan, yet the two are completely different in character. While the Dead See is barren, devoid of life, the Sea of Galilee is teeming with life -- with plants and fishes of all kinds. What is the difference? The Dead Sea has no outlet, and retains everything it receives, but the Sea of Galilee pours out its waters out on to the rivers and lands below. And life flows.

And so, the question is, which am I? Do my blessings, my money, my love, and my life flow through me and breed more of the same, or do they end -- stopped dead -- with me?

haircut.

SpaceX to Space: It's on.

7/13/2009: SpaceX just delivered it's first commercial payload, a Malaysian ATSB Satellite, into orbit.

We are now officially in the business.



And now with more video:

From our customer website:
http://www.atsb.my/

and space news coverage:
http://www.spacevidcast.com/2009/07/14/spacex-falcon-1-flight-5-razaksat-payload/

Did I mention that while the Shuttle was delayed by weather conditions (as well they should when carrying people), SpaceX launched Falcon 1 literally through a gap between storm clouds over Kwajalein?

Posthumous trunk volume reduced by a hit-and-run driver

12:17 June 27th, 2009 on the 105 Westbound at Sepulveda. Well, that was quick. Just over 3 months into ownership, and Posthumous has been rear-ended on the highway by a hit-and-run driver. I'm OK, but the car will need some work. She took it well, though, showing almost no external damage, but the underlying structure has been deformed. And of course, I never got collision insurance because I figured that as long as I did not crash the car, the at-fault driver's insurance would.

It's funny, though, because one of the main reasons I opted to get this particular convertible is because of the ample trunk space. Well, now the trunk volume has been reduced. Not by much, but enough that the spare tire cannot be removed and the trunk neither closes nor locks, rendering it unusable. And the real bummer- no more convertible-ing until it gets fixed as the trunk is an integral part of the roof retractor.

Well, here we go...

Intrusion of the rear frame into the trunk.

Where the sheet metal bottom shell of the trunk buckled

Not awful to fix, though not cheap. But seriously, a hit-and-run!!??

Aww, potatoes.

Distinguished Graduates of the Class of...SPARTAAAAA!

No doubt inspired by Wei and Joy Jams, I decided Wednesday and on Friday, hopped in a car with a kind friend and we drove up to Stanford for graduation. So many wonderful people graduating. Just had to see them again one more time. Couldn't miss it. More photos are coming after some sleep. Way to go, guys.

Wei and Joy Jams

Had a pretty rough day at work today. It's like going to war.

But today, Wei and Joy had jazz gig in a little university coffee shop 400 miles away, attended by so many friends, all of whom I love dearly. And I was on Skype, there, transported by a laptop on a counter. And it was beautiful.



Isn't it wonderful how, whenever things get worse, there is always something better?

Thanks so much, I love you.

The Car!

Tada! Here it is, finally ready for a full photo:

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Okay. Just kidding.
The Tesla is a spectacular car, but the real HMS Posthumous is pretty fun too:

And it knows a few tricks of its own:

Peeling a Banana...the SpaceX way

Fact of life #119: sometimes work is a drag, and sometimes it leaves you with a bunch of leftover liquid nitrogen from a cryo test.

Superman or not, this person is my hero.

From my weekend at Claremont, I saw this on a door.:

New (Used) Car!

Please meet the H.M.S. Posthumous (it needs a little work):
Yes, sadly this is a downgrade from the H.M.S. Haggis, the best car ever made.

Trunk limit switch.

Radiator fan controller

Radio
Tape deck (pre scalpel)

Reverse engineered!

Trunk disassembled exposing trunk mechanism, hydraulic, pneumatic, and fiber optic (?!) system.

Achy, breaky, (leaky) rear view mirror.


Lost a rubber bumper thingy from the trunk while putting it back together. Shuffled off to the hardware store. Now my car is part toilet parts. :-(

Radio, post-hack. Huzzah! I think the dealer wanted $300 for the ipod kit.

Throttle by wire!

More photos to follow.

Floating

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Flying back to LA.

Cruising at 35,000 ft, we saw the sunrise before anyone else.

The pilot banked right and the wing outside my window dipped dramatically into the clouds below.

Blindingly bright, white, pillow-y clouds as far as the eyes could see. Every detail cast deep shadows into the layers.

Every dance this weekend was beautiful. I was floating, long before I got on the plane.

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"Chivalry died with feminism"

I overheard this from an underclassman at the robotics team that I mentor at the local high school. Now I consider myself a feminist and I agree that the special treatment that comes from treating women as the fragile, fairer sex is sexism, so why did this bother me so much?

I think it's the implied notion that the demand for rights and the desire to be treated with respect should be mutually exclusive. That demanding to be respected should be an excuse that someone can use to be rude--not cool. You're just rude - no excuses. Being courteous and nice to people - male or female - should just be something you do - because you are nice. And it should have nothing to do with feminism.

And of course, the fact that this notion has enough of a place in our culture that our kids are in on it...

Reason #452 that LA is an alien planet

Car chase was going on the street outside our house. Police cars and helicopters overhead. People are lining up on the street in hopes of catching a glimpse. Whaaaaat? This entire city is one big movie premiere.

Old Photo Sunday

Back in twain, back in the old undergrad days, my impression of a sketchy grad student. Oh, how little did I know:

Ominous Moon

Photo from last week. The moon over SpaceX. Totally unaltered. This is what the moon looked like. And earlier in the evening when it was lower on the horizon it looked like an ominous broken moon crashing into the earth. (Also, we're breathing that air...blech)

The photo below is photoshopped (well, with MS Paint and MS Word) to try and recapture that scene, but imagine it with the highway and skyscrapers in the foreground (couldn't take that picture while driving). Magnificent:

$16 telescope at CVS + optics from an old spotting scope = moonstography!

Blogger didn't like my cropping; click here for the orginal.
(Unaltered except cropping and exposure)

Update: looks like last night when I took that photo, the moon was at perigee, the biggest and brightest moon of 2009.

And a playlist for moon-gazing:

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Risin'
Van Morrison - Moondance
Elton John - Rocketman
King Harvest - Dancin' in the Moonlight
Santana - Smooth

SeeqPod - Playable Search

SpaceX Holiday Party

Me and Housemates at the SpaceX (belated) Christmas Party last night in LA.
Clockwise from right: Jim, Casey, Jess, myself.
Yes, that is in fact how we roll.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from us at Burnout House.