Good-bye Twitter...

I've removed Twitter from my blog.

Why? Well, I only really can use it from my job via the IM function. It's fast and unobtrusive. For MONTHS that feature has been down and I'm not seeing anything from Twitter that makes me think they are close to solving it.

So, like an old time saloon keeper taking care of a patron who is too drunk to keep paying, I'm throwing them out.

I now own...

An exercise bike.

And I have already used it.

Last week of laziness...

Okay, this is it. My last week off before the final quarter. I just got my grades for the previous quarter, they're all good so I just need three more credits to graduate with the Masters of Science in Library and Information Sciences aka MSLIS.

In keeping with my enjoyment of a week off, here's what I'm reading, in addition to the Forbes Trail Guide:

Yep, nothing else says a fun couple of weeks off than reading about the very violent end to World War Two in the Pacific.

Actually I'm a latecomer to Max Hastings' works. I picked up Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945 when I was commuting back and forth from Northern VA in 2005. I really enjoyed it. It was a broad sweeping history of the end of World War Two in Europe and very crisply written. He was able to cover the major topics without getting too far into the minutiae to bore readers but still provide enough detail to provide a clear picture of the events.

Retribution is so far written with the same quality. I'm very pleased he's actually writing about the war in Indochina which for most Americans is truly the forgotten theater of World War Two. There's more to come like the liberation of the Philippines and Iwo Jima and the bomb, but I haven't gotten there yet.

So, based on the first hundred pages I've read, I definitely recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the subject.

French and Indian War Guide for Review

Just got something in the mail today!




I was sent this guidebook to review so I'll be uncapping the red pen and taking notes. It's a good sign that Fred Anderson wrote the Preface. If you don't know who Fred Anderson is, he wrote the best modern history of the French and Indian War (in my opinion); Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766.

More to come.

Quick someone talk some sense into me...

Okay, it's that wistful two weeks between quarters at Drexel's On-Line MS Program in Library and Information Science.

In fact it's the last two weeks I will enjoy between quarters for I am due to complete my degree at the conclusion of the summer quarter.

This means I will have no academic requirements to meet. No readings to read or blow off, no papers to write and no assignments to complete.

Just loans to pay...many many loans.

Now as I am looking at this chasm of academic inactivity, I find myself wandering to the University of Delaware's graduate program page. Dr. Nick...hmmm sounds interesting.

Heh, this is a dumb line but...

Can you smell the rocks we're cooking?

Yes, it's time for another tangent on what's doing at NASA today. And it's that the Phoenix lander has successfully gotten its first sample of Martian soil into its oven for analysis. We're looking for water or evidence of water on the Martian surface or just below the surface of the polar regions. The idea is if we find water, we'll find life.

Please enjoy this brief training film on Martian Life:

As I was ruding while I was sayly interrupted...

My apologies for the dearth of posts, but grad school work just knocked my blogging schedule right on its keester.

Okay...historically, what's been going on:

Well, tonight was the first night of "When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions" on the Discovery Channel. I have been pleased with the footage they've shown but they really just threw people right into the narrative with no prep. The space race really goes back to WW2 when the Germans were working on missiles and the Americans and Brits were building A-bombs and the Soviets were looking on with concern. I wouldn't have minded a bit more prep-work, heck even a pre-show just about that at 8pm EST. But that's water under the bridge.

This is definitely a show worth watching and worth buying on DVD. First, it's probably one of the last times we get to see interviews with some of these people. We're down to TWO of the original SEVEN Mercury Astronauts. The mission control staff and the engineers aren't getting any younger either and the New Nine and Astronaut Group 3 aren't spring chickens themselves.
Second, people, your kids need to see this. We went to the moon with computers that were less sophisticated than what's in our CARS. We went on kerosene, oxygen, hydrogen and slide rules.

Think about that.

Also, just for grins here's my favorite crew of the entire history of the US space program:


(NASA Image found at: GRIN)
This is the crew of Apollo 12. Left to right: Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon and Alan Bean. They made the first pinpoint landing on the moon and actually brought back pieces of another space probe that had landed years before. In addition, they were probably the closest buddies of the Apollo crews and had more laughs on the way to and back from the moon than any other crew.
I'll take people who enjoy their jobs for $200 Alex.

You can read the Apollo 12 Flight Journal HERE and the Apollo 12 Surface Journal HERE

Lest we forget...

We have memorial day for a reason:


This shot is from Arlington National Cemetery. It was originally the estate of Robert E. Lee, Col. USA. After Col. Lee became General Robert E. Lee, CSA things changed. First his estate was seized by the United States Government. Second, Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs felt that there would be some poetic justice in burying the Union dead coming from the battlefields of Virginia at the hands of Gen. Lee and his Army at the former estate of said general.

After the war the southern states created a day to remember their dead, Confederate Memorial Day. Former Union General John Logan, now head of the Grand Army of the Republic (the Civil War version of the American Legion), decided that the Union should have a day to remember their dead. (I can see Logan's thoughts, "I mean hey, WE won! What is it with the losers having a holiday for their fallen and we don't? Dudes! Why didn't we think of this!") So Logan and the GAR campaigned and eventually got Memorial Day to be a National Holiday.

For my day off I thank you General Logan.

For my freedom I thank the soldiers under your command and their comrades and successors.

Moving on up...

I have left the wide open spaces...er subdivisions of Frederick County and the family ancestral estate for suburban Baltimore. Only a few minutes from work and more space for me and my books.

Huzzah!

OW! I am sore.

Last dispatch from Huntsville...

Well, this is our last night in Huntsville. We fly out at 3pm tomorrow and hopefully will miss the line of storms that is supposedly coming our way.

This has been a great trip, we've met some great folks at the center here and it's nice to put names to faces. I've also had a chance to check out some historic buildings and walk in the steps of Werner Von Braun.

Also we've enjoyed some great food. Here's our dining locations for this trip:

Day 1: Dreamland BBQ. A chain restaurant but very good BBQ.

Day 2: Rosie's Cantina. Great Mexican food.

Day 3: The Greenbrier. A local place west of Huntsville. Worth the 12 mile drive for the hand breaded catfish and the hush puppies.

So that's it. Hopefully it will all be ok tomorrow.

Greetings from...

Space Shuttle Main Engine Test Firing at MSFC (NASA Photo)

Huntsville, Alabama

This week I'm doing a visit at the Marshall Space Flight Center here. Three days of presentations and visiting, this is actually one of the most ambitious site visits I've done.

The flight down was uneventful, but we had an hour delay in Atlanta. However we found a great BBQ place here in Huntsville.

Trying to educate...

I'm trying to do some web based interpretation. Check it out here.

Let me know what you think. Should I include a more extensive list of helpful books? Should I put in more maps? More photos?

My moment of Larry King...

How about those Baltimore Orioles?

The Miami Dolphins will surprise everyone this year.

Brett Favre, greatest quarterback ever.

Is there a hotter team right now than the Cleveland Cavaliers?

Drew Carey was on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me this weekend. Funny guy.

John McCain...that guy married well.

Ed in Sacramento, GO!

The O in B&O...

This weekend is the big spring trip to Ohio, the O in B&O Railroad. However the original O was for the Ohio River not the state of Ohio, but still it works for me as a nice little title for a blog post.

Anyways, I've had a rather productive weekend. Got some backlogged projects almost done for the Historical Society, just have to move those out to the printers and pressers (some are CD-ROMs.) I got my homework done for my class. I'll have to ramp up early this week to get stuff done before I go on the road and then I'll have to do my homework from a hotel room next week as I'll be in Alabama doing a center visit for work.

Unfortunately I screwed up with my travel reading and read my Werner Von Braun book during my trip to Stennis Space Center and therefore I don't have it available for this visit. I try to pick books that are appropriate for where I'm going. The next book that would have been good was Glatthar's "Lee's Army from Victory to Defeat" which I'm almost done with and is a great book. So, I'm down to my third string books for this trip. ARGH! I'm gonna have to hit Borders this week and browse to find something new.

You know I'm busy...

When I'm not posting.

Things have been very busy, archives stuff, work stuff, school stuff. All kinds of good to mediocre things have been occurring. But it's all been so long ago that they don't make good blog posts.

However, I'm going to another NASA Center in two weeks. Woo!

Where have I been?

Sorry, I totally missed a chance to post something from Joshua Chamberlain's "The Passing of the Armies" on the 12th. I got a cold and I got stuck on a project, etc.

Anyhow, more info as things calm down.

April 9, 1865...

Appomattox Court House, Virginia:


The First Day of Peace by Stanley Arthurs from: NPS Appomattox Court House NHP

APPOMATTOX COURT-HOUSE, VA.
April 9, 1865

General R. E. LEE:

GENERAL: In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged; and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by U. S. authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.

U.S. GRANT,
Lieutenant-General.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
April 9, 1865

Lieut. Gen. U. S. GRANT:

GENERAL: I have received your letter of this date containing the terms of surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you. As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.

R. E. LEE,
General.

From The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion

The war wasn't over yet, a Confederate army still faced William T. Sherman's men in North Carolina, Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Government were on the run and there were various smaller commands that still needed to be confronted with the news.

But it was a start. Tune in for the posting of the 12th where Maj. Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain oversees the surrender of arms from the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia.

For those who love the 50s and 60s...

The University of Texas at Austin has put several episodes of "The Mike Wallace Interview" on the web. Neat stuff!

Check them out here.

Sometimes, work is far too cool...

Hi! My name is...

This past weekend was another weekend on the road. Malvern, PA and the Railway Prototype Modelers meet. Three days of clinics about how to make your model railroad look something like this:



It was a long weekend, I took Friday off and hit a Dr's appointment and Saturday night had a great dinner with a friend from college.

Then on the way home, in case I didn't see enough trains...I saw this at a hardware store in Pocopson, PA: