A Space Shuttle Celebration

For those of us at a certain age, the space shuttle represents the United States space program. We were kids when the shuttles first started their regular trips into orbit to run experiments in zero gravity or deploy satellites or whatever they were going to be doing.

We were too young for the Apollo space flights and Moon landings, and even the space station didn't really capture our awe of the universe and what might be out there. Perhaps that's because, while the shuttles would never go further than the space station, at least they were vehicles that were reaching for the stars, even if they never actually got there.

When the final shuttle mission ended last Summer, with Atlantis touching down after another trip to the space station, I have to admit I felt a little sad.

(Thanks to The Word of Ward)

Something that had been around since my childhood, the public face of NASA, was now no more.

Yes, there are still plenty of cool things going on in the space program, including ongoing images of Mars from the various robotic missions that have been sent up there (though mysteriously, a number of mishaps have prevented even more Mars exploration, such as the Mars Polar Lander crashing in 2005).

But unless you're really into space science, you really don't hear about all of that stuff unless something happens, which may prompt a short blurb on the news or in the newspaper. The shuttle was it.

I remember watching with rapt attention whenever the shuttle was going to be launched. It was just such a cool thing to see that huge blast of gas and exhaust as the rockets fired and the long torpedo-like fuel tank that dwarfed the shuttle itself slowly rose from its station.

(Thanks to How Stuff Works)

It carried a majesty that was hard to compare to anything else going on in our lives.

I also remember the horror when I heard that the space shuttle Challenger had blown up 73 seconds into its flight on January 28, 1986. I was fifteen, in my first year of high school. I don't remember exactly how we were told, unfortunately. It may have been an intercom announcement. It may have just been buzz around the school. It was being followed because school teacher Christa McAuliffe was on that flight. It was a tragedy no matter who was on it, of course, but it hit home for us a little more because one of us were on the flight. Astronauts were heroes, but we couldn't always relate to them. But a teacher? Somebody like our Biology teacher, who we could have known? That really hurt.

After a hiatus while they checked into safety procedures and reworked things, shuttle flights continued, and they almost became passe. That's a shame, because the engineering prowess it takes to do any of this stuff, whether it's getting them ready for launch or docking with a moving object in space or whatever, is simply phenomenal when you think about it.

And now the shuttle is done. The shuttle Discovery is preparing to make its final journey, to the Smithsonian in Washington DC. Carried as always on the back of a trusty 747 airplane, the same way it habitually made its trip from its landing zone in California back to where it launches in Florida.

(Thanks to the Daily Mail UK and, of course, Reuters)

Hopefully it will capture the attention of youth who go there for many years to come.

Of course, there are the old arguments that have probably been going on since the Shuttle program began: is this a good way to use our space resources? Does this move our attempts to explore the solar system and the galaxy forward at all? Why can't we go back to the Moon and, later, Mars and even further? Does the Shuttle program represent stagnation?

All of those questions and argument are valid.

But as the shuttle goes off into Smithsonian retirement, those aren't the questions that come to mind right now.

Instead, I wonder if anything in our space program will ever capture the attention of the public again. Will we ever see another spectacle that will wow us? That will keep us glued to the news when it launches or when whatever it is happens? That will renew the enthusiasm for space exploration that the Apollo missions and the shuttles did when they first started?

I truly hope so.

Podcast Stuff - Ep 33 of Down the Hall

With the return of this blog, it's the return of plugging our show!

Episode 33 of Down the Hall is now up!

Jenny talks to Norman Daoust, Director, Academic & Information Technologies in the Faculty of Education about the direction e-learning is taking in the faculty. He also talks about the importance of educational technology and producing teachers who are skilled in its uses. It's a fascinating interview, I thought, and for more than just UBC people. I usually do the Ed Tech stuff for the podcast, but Jenny did a great job with the interview!

Before that, we talk about the Vancouver Canucks and the top 4 things on our Education Bucket List, things that we want to learn before our time expires (which will be a long time from now, so we've got a lot of leeway on when to do it).

And we posted on Friday the 13th! I'm hoping that wasn't a bad omen.

While you're at it, why not go over to Facebook and like us? I'm feeling very unloved right now. *sniff*

Let us know what you think!

The Legion of Blog - the Canucks 7th Men

Apologies in advance to all of my international readers (Hi, Sven!), because this post is going to be very Vancouver-centric. In fact, it's going to be hockey-centric, so that probably kills many of the rest of my audience.

But I don't care, because it's my blog and I can make what I want out of it. I can make a hat, or a brooch, or a pterodactyl (10,000 Quatloos for whoever gets that reference).

Anyway, it's time for the NHL playoffs to start! Game One is tonight, where the Vancouver Canucks play the Los Angeles Kings in a best of seven series. Assuming they're able to repeat last year's efforts (and hopefully win one more game), this is the beginning of a grueling two months of hockey, for both the players but also the fans who live and die with their team. Garments will be rent, much beer consumed, and people will fall off the Bandwagon and climb back on as their team's fortunes ebb and flow. It's a great time to be a hockey fan.

Today's blog is to extol the virtues of a gaggle of great guys, collectively known as the Legion of Blog from the Vancouver Province sports section. These guys together do a bunch of humorous Vancouver Canucks posts about anything and everything regarding the team, and hockey in general. Do the Canucks need Trevor Linden to be part of the team in order to win the Cup this year? Wyatt Arndt makes the case for why the team should hire him for the inevitable press box shot to push the team over the edge.

Does Don Cherry confuse you as much as he does the rest of Canada?

He probably does, especially when he makes you wonder what sofa no longer has any upholstery on it.

Anyway, Cam Charron agrees with you! And he'll showcase it every week.

I read these guys religiously, always checking to see what other new posts may have come up since the last time I looked. Since there are four of them (five? I think four), there are guaranteed to be posts every day (or almost every day, anyway). Of course, as with every comedy routine, there are some that bomb, but their hit rates are generally pretty good. I love the post-game recaps done by Wyatt, the Post-Game Quotes We Wish Were Real done by J. Bowman.

While I like all of the bloggers on there, I really like Wyatt because we've connected on Twitter a few times. I followed him before he became a blogger.

He's known on Twitter as "The Stanchion," and he created the account after this legendary goal by Kevin Bieksa in Game 5 of the series against San Jose.

The puck rebounded off the stanchion and right to Bieksa's stick. Wyatt's twitter feed was hilarious for months after that as he pretended to actually be the Stanchion (talking about the Canucks may not offer him a contract this year, things like that), until the Province was looking to replace their current sports humour bloggers. Wayne was one of the people who applied, and the Province decided to go with a Legion instead.

I also feel a connection with Wayne because he works at UBC, but that's neither here nor there. We've never actually met.

Whatever the case, all of the bloggers in the Legion are hilarious and well-worth reading, and may get Canucks fans through this long two-month ordeal (hopefully two months, or it will mean they bowed out early).

Because even when your team is down for the count, you need to laugh.

*Edit*Oh, how embarrassing. "Wayne" Arndt notified me that, of course, his name is *Wyatt*, not Wayne. The perils of dashing off posts on your lunch break. Sorry, Wyatt!!!

The Most Annoying Alarm Clock in the World

And no, it's not your mother.

Do you have trouble getting up in the morning? Is that temptation to hit the snooze button just too hard to resist?

Have you missed meetings because you've overslept? (I don't mean actually sleeping through them, and by the way, you over there, I heard you snoring this morning during my presentation).

If you fall into all of those categories, then we have the alarm clock for you!

In looking for something to write about, I went to my old stand-by, the UK's Daily Mail newspaper. This time I didn't find a hilarious study. Instead, I found this gem about a new alarm clock invented by one Paul Sammut from Hoboken, New Jersey (it doesn't actually say New Jersey, but I don't think there's a Hoboken in the UK, is there?)

Here it is in all its beauty.

(Picture taken from the article as well)

What makes this clock so special? Because it has no snooze button. In fact, there is no way to turn it off other than the proper way which makes sure you're up.

From the article:

There is no snooze button. If you unplug it, a battery takes over. As wake-up time approaches, you cannot reset the alarm time.
It could be the world's most exasperating alarm clock.

Once it goes off, to stop it you must get out of bed, go into the kitchen or bathroom, and punch the day's date into a telephone-style keypad.

That's the only way to stop the loud `ding-ding,' designed to sound like a customer angrily banging on a concierge bell at a hotel.

Is that neat or what? (Please put down that 2x4 you're holding over your head)

Apparently he built the prototype himself and has used it because he has trouble getting out of bed. A friend suggested he sell it, and he raised funds on Kickstarter (a very cool web site where you can propose ideas or products and have people voluntarily fund them or invest in them, which has worked beautifully for a couple of video game ideas). He's raised $150,000 and formed a company to make these clocks, already receiving 400 orders.

Unfortunately, the article doesn't link to Paul's site or anywhere that you can get more information on the clock, and it leaves out some vital stuff.

For instance, it mentions that you have to get up and go into the bathroom/kitchen/wherever to punch in the PIN code to turn it off. Is the thing wireless? Do you have some other object standing on the counter in the other room that's linked to this somehow? We only see the picture of the clock itself. Rather than another picture of the same clock (in fetching white, but still), why not have a picture of the entire contraption together?

I'd also love to know whether this is only being marketed to single people. Because if you're married or living together (or even with a roommate or two!), I can just imagine their reaction to this loud clanging noise going off every morning.

Also, how does it work where you can't reset the time? Is there a switch in the clock that, for example, will cut off the ability to change the alarm time 30 minutes before it's set to go off? An hour? I assume you can reset it at night, so what's the drop dead time ("Ha! I see what you did there" - The Peanut Gallery) for changing your alarm time?

Finally, who in their right mind would pay $350 for an alarm clock? Are you having *that* much trouble waking up in the morning? I guess some people do have that much trouble, but $350? That just boggles my mind.

Especially when a far cheaper alternative would be having your alarm clock on the other side of the room, so you have to get up even to hit the snooze button. How many people, once they're actually out of bed, are going to lie back down? If you do, I'd say you have a lot more problems than just not being able to get up to your alarm clock.

Still, that's the really cool thing about funding projects on Kickstarter. You have a ready-made audience of people who are already putting their money down to say "I want this." If you don't get the people interested to begin with, you haven't lost anything other than time. It's not like you've built a bunch of these things, later trying and failing to get anybody to actually purchase them. If Paul has 400 orders for them already and has raised over $150,000 for the project, more power to him. I hope it's really successful for him.

I just can't see it.

Do you have this much trouble getting up in the morning? What kinds of solutions do you have to avoid the Snooze Button Blues?

(It's probably fitting that I write this on the last day where I *don't* need an alarm clock in a week. Back to work tomorrow!)

A Great Way to Meet People!

Sometimes it feels like we're living in an increasingly closed society where the only friends we have we've never met. Or we only communicate with them online because somebody's moved away. I may be jaded, though, as that seems to be the type of person I am right now. That being said, I think it is becoming more of an issue as time goes on, with people shutting themselves away.

Do you have trouble meeting people, like I do? I recently discovered a great new site that many of you have probably already heard of called Meetup. (Many thanks to an author and incredibly nice woman I met at V-Con last year and who I talk to on Twitter a bit, Sandra Wickham, for pointing me to this site). No, it's not a site for clandestine rendezvous or anything like that. Basically, it's a site where groups of people can find others with similar interests and get together socially. It can be for activities, or just discussing common things.

(Thanks to Egreog's Place)

Sandra pointed me to the site because there is a Dr. Who group on there she thought I might like (my Twitter handle is whovian223, so she figured I was a Who fan). However, given the writing class I just finished, I decided to look and see if I could find a writers group too. As I mentioned the other day, I did find a group called the Vancouver Independent Writers Group, and I've had a blast at the last two meetups.

Funnily enough, both of them have been at coffee houses (though one served beer, thankfully). I'm looking forward to many more great conversations with my fellow writers. It looks like we typically meet every two weeks. One time for something purely social (the karaoke nights apparently haven't been that successful) and the next for just a sit-down discussion where we're also welcome to read some of our work if we want to.

The best thing about Meetup is that it's worldwide, but it always takes into account where you are, though you can find meetups elsewhere by just typing in a new location when you're searching. When I type in something, it will only show local things unless I tell it otherwise. If you live in the heart of Texas, you will find things local for you. It's genius!

How does Meetup work?

Just go to the site and type in something that you're interested in. Are you into knitting? I just typed "Knitting" into the search engine and found a bunch of different groups in Vancouver. Joss Whedon fan? I know there's at least one group in Vancouver, and I think there are more.

Find a group that looks interesting and join it (after creating your Meetup account, of course)! Some groups may have to approve members first, but others are open. They may request a bio so that they can be sure that your interests meet the groups (the Vancouver writers group asked things like "what do you write?" and "favourite author?")

The group organizer (members can suggest meetups) can organize a meetup and post it to the group. Maybe you want to organize a meet up at the local pub to have some beers and talk about your dating life (if you're in a dating group). Set it up! Members will RSVP officially on the site, so you'll know how many people are planning to attend. Of course, you may get people who don't RSVP but just show up, or something might come up and somebody who did respond may not come. The good thing is that you have an idea of who you're going to be seeing when you show up.

I haven't attended a meetup with the Dr. Who group, though I'm looking forward to seeing everybody there. I'm really enjoying the writing group, though.

You can even just see what's trending locally to see if there might be something that you didn't even realize you might be interested in.

As an example (though it's not an example I'm interested in, obviously), currently trending in Vancouver is the Vancouver Women's Newcomers Social Club, a group for women new to Vancouver to meet some people here. I can see how this would be a valuable group for a woman who's new to the city and doesn't have many (or even any) friends here.

It's a great site if you like to socialize but you're having trouble finding people to do it with!

Using Your Phone While Eating - No Longer Rude?

I love my phone. As a social media junkie (Seriously! I've been to the meetings. Everybody's on their phone Tweeting their comments), I love the ability to get on it at any time and connect with people. During intermissions at the hockey games, the wife and eye are both checking out Twitter and doing other things on our phones. Don't worry, we talk during the game, so it's not like we're not communicating.

That's why it doesn't surprise me that more and more people are using their phones while dining out. Getting on your phone or listening to the baseball game clandestinely during a dinner out used to be considered the height of rudeness. Is that no longer the case in our internet-smothered society?

(Thanks to Impact Lab)

According to an infographic put out by market research firm Lab42 (shown on the Mashable social media news site), apparently it is.

The numbers are actually kind of staggering when you put them all together.

There are some interesting stats on that infographic, so I encourage you to go take a look at it. Here are a few of the things that stood out to me, though.

1) A whopping 85% of respondents trust online reviews from fellow diners over food critics and professional reviews on food sites and the like. That floored me because I know what a lot of people think about the general public. I hope that those who answered this in the affirmative actually take all of the reviews together and use their brains to sift through the idiots out there. I think this shows that the "common" people actually trust their compatriots to steer them right more often than they do their "betters" who are being paid to put this stuff out there. This might get blurred a bit when you talk about smaller sites who may not fall into either category easily (I know somebody who does this, and I would say she would fall into the group that's more trusted, even though I believe she's getting paid for it).

I wonder whether this is true for book reviews as well? I could be sitting on top of a gold mine!

(Thanks to Bucket & Boomers)

2) The primary reason for using your smartphone during dinner is taking pictures of your food.

Really? Taking pictures of your food is the most popular? That seems to be true, at 24%. A full 19% post Facebook updates (doesn't mention Twitter, so not sure whether that's factored in or not). I would bet that a good number of those food pics are actually posted as part of the updates, too. When you're eating out, you have to share with everybody what you're eating! Boy, doesn't this look delicious?

I found doubly hilarious that 13% of people are spending their time on their phones while eating by looking for someplace to go afterward. I guess it's too much to ask to have made plans in advance? The truly funny part, though, is that 70% of these people are men. I guess that just makes sense, doesn't it?

3) It's almost a majority! Fully 49% of people consider their phone at least somewhat important to their dining experience. This doesn't necessarily mean using it during the meal, as I'm sure this includes those who used their phone to find a good place to eat at moment's notice and looked up user reviews and all that. Still, how far have we come where almost half of the population sees their phone as an important part of the eating process?

I'll bet these guys would be shocked now (thanks to Spacecoast Medicine)

So what do you think of all this? Do you find your phone important for dining out? Do you use it while eating? How about setting up your dining out plans? Do you post status updates of your food?

Us curious people want to know.

Who is that Stranger?

This may be where I appear in a puff of smoke, hacking and coughing because some of it got up into my lungs and all that. But appear I shall!

Some of you must really have been wondering what had happened to me. If I have any followers who don't also follow me on Twitter or Facebook (or even on Game Informer, where I have still been posting some blogs that you should read if you want a laugh), you probably were wondering if some giant chasm opened up in the Earth and swallowed me whole.

(Thanks to Laughing Squid)

Actually, that did happen, except that I managed to avoid it by using my super powers.

But I digress.

I've written quite a bit over the last six months before my final post on January 22 (has it been that long?) about getting into writing funks, wondering whether I had the determination and will to keep going on this blog. The desire to write blog posts and come up with interesting topics was just eluding me. It was starting to feel forced, and more and more it became a place to post my book reviews and latest podcasts and that's it. Pretty boring if you're not interested in either of those. I would come back raring to go for a brief period of time, and then the desire would leave again.

Finally, after going through the motions in January, I just stopped. Is it ironic that this came shortly after my "I'm feeling newly invigorated!" post that I did on January 2? I think it is.

Anyway, things have continued on in the life of Dave, even if I haven't been sharing it here.

The short story writing class that I mentioned in my New Year's post actually did happen. Eight weeks and we wrote a lot! I really enjoyed it. Had some great classmates (though I'm a bit disappointed that nobody seemed to connect outside of class, or at least not with me). We had a great time sharing our writing with each other, giving us some wonderful critiques and I produced a couple of short stories that I may do something with some day. The class was taught by Alison Acheson, and she was a wonderful instructor. She gave us very good feedback, writing tips, as well as the inspiration to keep writing.

I really do want to keep the wheel rolling, and while I haven't written as much as I would have liked since the course ended, the inspiration is still there. I wanted to join a writer's group and keep going. I'm not sure I'm ready for a critiquing group yet, or at least one that meets every couple of weeks. Maybe after the NHL play-offs are over and I have more evenings free. I did, however, join a writers group called The Vancouver Independent Writer Group that I found on Meetup.com. I've been to two of their gatherings now, where we go to a coffee shop (at least the two I've been to, though I know at least one of the previous ones was sushi) and just talk. Mostly about writing, but just anything really. I'd talk more about it, but why rob myself of a blog topic possibility?

The same goes for Meetup.com, a great site that I will blog about later.

We have also had five podcast episodes posted since I stopped writing here. You can find the link to all of them here. And if you bookmark that page, you can always find them.

So yes, I am alive. I am active. I've just been in a funk, the worst one I've had in a while. I haven't even been reading blogs (other than political/news blogs), so I'm way behind on my friends' blogs like Healing Morning. I will read the backlog that I've missed, Dawnie! I promise.

I've decided to use this week I'm taking off (only needing three vacation days to get Wednesday-Tuesday off because of the Easter holiday...WIN!) to start up this blog again. I may add a new template to really make it new, but not sure if I'm in the mood for *that* much work. I am back, though, at least for the time being. I don't want to unduly stress myself by making promises I might not be able to keep, so I'm not going to say this is permanent. I hope it is. I truly want it to be.

Finally, before I close out, I wanted to send a shout-out and thank you to Raquel, an old friend. She's going through a tough time right now, and I reached out to her because of that. In the process of doing that and our conversing about it, she mentioned how much she enjoyed my blog. It's hearing things like that, completely out of the blue and from unexpected sources (as opposed to expected sources, which are also wonderful to hear and well-appreciated, but don't have quite the same impact), that give me inspiration. While I've been mulling over whether to revive the blog or not, it was her saying that which put me over the edge and made me decide to do it this weekend.

So thank you, Raquel.

For now, Dave's mind is buttoned back up, and ready to spill over with bloggy goodness.