tracker7 | Entries tagged with space

First day of the GAMA Expo is done. Chatted with folks here and there; while waiting for an event in the hotel lobby, I put up a little sign telling passersby that I live here and want them to think of me as their friendly local guide. That led to several conversations and exchanging contact cards, and that was really fun.

Got a few more cards at a mixer, a couple of designers looking for a publisher, and even if they're not making something Crafty's interested in, the company can probably point them in the right direction. And, to top off the evening, I crossed paths with Ken Hite outside the expo hotel and he described Louisville as a city that makes him feel good about attending GAMA again, so, choke on THAT, Nevada.

I'm far more tired than I should be at 9:20PM. I want to stay up and see the Crew Dragon launch, but that's not looking likely. This bed is looking amazing, and I think that's going to win out tonight. Catch y'all later.

Interstate 64 has been peppered with accidents between here and Frankfort, and I-71 was closed between Glencoe and the 75 merger. With that kind of risk on the main roads, I feel pretty good about the decision to stay here this weekend.

Having written that ... I went to Meijer around 7AM today. Cold, cold, cold. The Escape started right up, got me there and back again. Streets were mostly covered with packed snow; there were a few patches of uncovered pavement along the way. I felt pretty confident out driving, and I think that if I had a good set of snow tires on the little SUV, I'd feel good about making longer trips.

But, that is not how things are.

I'm at home, watching Goodnight Oppy on Prime Video. I am going to get choked up before this is over, and I am not ashamed of this. Good robots.

The midterm elections finally wrapped up last night. Georgia sent Raphael Warnock back to the Senate, but his margin over the Republican candidate was tighter than it should have been. The Senate now sits at 51 Dems, 49 Repubs.

Artemis 1 is heading home. Successful mission so far, with splashdown scheduled for Sunday.

The LeNoue humongous holiday party is this weekend. So very much looking forward to this.

The Repubs are going to get the House, but we're keeping the Senate. Georgia's going to have a runoff election between Raphael Warnock and some dude who played football several years ago. A Warnock win would be tremendous, as that would mean there are enough votes to advance legislation without having to bow to Manchin or Sinema. Word is, Kevin McCarthy will seek the Speaker of the House position, and I think he'll get it if he does; I've read here and there that he doesn't have the chops to wrangle his fellow Representatives, though - made some enemies along the way. Still, Democrats fall in love while Republicans fall in line.

The orange bastard announced his candidacy for 2024 yesterday. See above - some of his allure is probably gone after 2020 and his chosen candidates' losses in the midterms, but, there's that benighted cult.

After a hojillion delays, NASA got the Artemis 1 mission underway this morning. The SLS is a mighty rocket, and the launch was spectacular. The Orion is already on its way out of Earth orbit and towards Luna. Still a long-ass way from a crewed mission, but it's a forward step at last.

On the returns side of the scoreboard, one USAF's X-37Bs quietly (well, without much fanfare, anyway) landed at KSC a few days ago after 900+ days in orbit. I know those things are up to no good, but it is a nifty little craft, and I would have loved to have seen another version of the X-37 enter service.

Andor continues to be darned good Star Wars. This week's episode got some spaceship fighting in, so there's some SFX action to back up the vary darn good storytelling, personal drama, and everything else.

Thanksgiving's next week. Looking forward to seeing Dad and the Doberman, not looking forward to the time on the road.

A few nights ago, YouTube's algorithm served up "My Name is Ruin," by Gary Numan. Heck of a track, with all of Numan's heavy sound, and the video is stark and beautiful. Numan's oldest daughter, Persia, sings backing vocals and appears throughout the video, and I gotta tell you, I've heard people described as "angelic," but Persia Numan is the first that I think I could truly apply it to.

Yesterday was a much lazier day than I had planned for, but I managed to get a couple of resumes out. Lake Cumberland District HD has an incredible opening that I'm in no way qualified for, and the posting almost reads like they already have an internal candidate, but what the hell. If there is a vacancy coming up, maybe I'll be a better fit there.

SpaceX got the first Dragon-flown ISS crew back home safely. Nighttime water landing, this time with the Coast Guard keeping gawkers at bay. China put up the first module for their Tiangong space station.

Crew Dragon 2 launched without a hitch and docked with the ISS right on schedule. There are currently 11 people at the station, which is the most since the end of the Shuttle program, I think.

Our big-ass Armada match was a great time, but about three hours into playing, we all started losing focus. Lots - lots - of laughs over the evening. The Rebels won, I learned how not to use the Onager's area-effect superweapon, good times all around.

Brief power outage Saturday afternoon, timing and duration just right to keep me from joining the MCC game. Grr. The other characters progressed to second level, and we're not playing this coming weekend because the other players are celebrating May Day.

Saw Mom&Dad yesterday, and came home with a nice little charcoal grill.

SpaceX's second Crew Dragon launch is pushed back to Friday morning, a little before 6AM. That's about the time I wake up, so I'll probably watch the rocket go up.

Friday's going to be a day. One of our Fort Knox guys (Michael Predny, future-Andy) is transferring to Aberdeen next month, so we're having a big Armada match as part of a send-off. Two teams, 1000 points per team, with a custom objective - the Rebel general and his command are attempting to escape to a new base, and the Empire is here to keep that from happening. My partner and I are fielding six Victory Star Destroyers between us, and I'm getting my Onager onto the table for the first time. That weird beast is going to, hopefully, use its ridiculous weapons range to herd the Rebels into the Victories' guns and missiles. This will probably
go four or five hours, and my brain will start leaking out of my ears by the time we're done. And it will be a blast.

My favorite X-Wing podcast is hanging it up. The Shuttle Tydirium made its last flight this week, after five years and 132 episodes. They've promoted my favorite style of play - casual, narrative games that don't adhere to the "standard" 400/6 setup. I got to play in one of their events at GenCon 2019, had an incredible time and came home with a terrific stack of loot. The only other X-Wing podcast I still listen to is Gold Squadron, and I've skipped over a lot of their episodes lately.

The Dodgers are the best team in the Majors, 18 games into the season. They're sitting at 14-4, off tonight, playing the surprisingly good Padres tomorrow night.

Serif put their Affinity software on sale again last week, so I sprang for a copy of Publisher. Well, a license, since the purchase allows me to put the app on every computer I own. I've mucked around with Scribus over the years, and it's good and pretty capable (and free!), but sometimes it can be described as user-surly. I started playing with Publisher tonight, and it's pretty slick. There's a good and knowledgeable and helpful user community, and while it's not the super app that Indesign is, the purchase price is less than a month's subscription to Adobe's products.

SpaceX tested another Starship prototype today, and it did not go as hoped for. Successful launch, flight up to about six miles, but it did not stick the landing. That's why these things get tested, and retested, and redesigned, of course.

Friday night was pretty darn good. Got home within the regular window and since I had no plans to go back out, I was in pajamas by 4:45PM. Since sunset is now around 5:30PM, that's not really a big transgressive deal. Suitably comfortable, I fired up the PS4, watched a episodes of Lucifer on Netflix, and played a couple hours of Civ 6. A good evening.

Good time with the M&M game on Saturday afternoon. Quiet evening, in bed a little after midnight, good good sleep.

Got up early this morning and headed to Liberty. Dad neglected to tell Mom that I was coming, and he's on the road (surprise to me), so I surprised Mom when I got there. Rainy morning with high winds most of the day, so we didn't do much besides watch movies and football all day.

SpaceX got a Crew Dragon up this evening! Four-person crew, and the first operational Crew Dragon mission to the ISS. Everything went well, first stage recovered on one of the drone barges and the Dragon's on path to dock with the station around 11PM tomorrow. So so happy to see manned shots going up from American soil again!

Got the PDF from a MCC Kickstarter a couple of days ago, and it is so damned good.

Friday night (May 29), a rioter - different than a demonstrator - shattered a window and lobbed a firebomb into the building I work in. Fire suppression system did its thing, and damage was contained to a couple of tables.

Over the course of the week, LMPD engaged in some pretty heinous action. Destroying first aid supplies and stations, shooting news crews with pepper balls and tear gas, and otherwise needlessly escalating peaceful demonstrations into violent responses.

We were under a dusk-to-dawn curfew for a few nights, and that seemed to calm things down.

KSP and the Kentucky National Guard were deployed during the demonstrations. Seeing Humvees set up to block intersections at Jefferson Square Park - on Liberty Street, for all your irony needs - while a Huey helicopter orbited overhead was pretty damned surreal, and my buddy Gabriel, a veteran of both Afghanistan and Iraq said he didn't have the words to express his feelings on seeing Humvees deployed on American soil.

SpaceX got the first manned Crew Dragon flight up. Perfect launch, orbital insertion, booster recovery, and ISS docking.

I left the farm early Friday afternoon. A game shop in Lexington announced the obligatory Black Friday sale, and poor impulse control convinced me to detour that way instead of heading straight back to Louisville. The visit reminded me of why I quit going to that store when I lived there. Headed on to Louisville, got to Heroes and got in a couple games of Outer Rim.

Bought a copy of Goodman Games' gigantic D&D 5th version of the old Expedition to the Barrier Peaks module - I've resisted the previous tomes, but D&D characters exploring a crashed spaceship is what I want right now.

So, I guess I'm going to run some goddamned D&D soon. My GM burnout seems to have been setting-based, not role-based, because I am pretty darned excited for this.

SpaceX got another Falcon 9/Dragon stack up this afternoon. Successful first-stage recovery, and the Dragon looks to be working just fine and should dock with the ISS in a couple of days. Next big milestone is Boeing's unmanned CST-100 test in two weeks, barring another delay.

We're halfway through the first season of The Mandalorian, and it has not disappointed. Before the launch, I was more excited for it than Rise of the Skywalker, and I'm still there. Everything about the show is working for me, and among the highest points is the music. It's flawless, going right down the line between Williams and Morricone.

The Crew Dragon launch and ISS docking went off without a hitch. The capsule will stay docked until Friday morning, then return to Earth, splashing down off the Florida east coast. Exciting times for space enthusiasm.

Went 1-3 playing X-Wing on Sunday, then headed to Lexington to see Camille&Clayton. Always good to see them and with their impending move out of state, the visit was a little bit bittersweet. This was probably the last time I'll be in the house on Twain Ridge, and that knowledge led me to think about another way in which the world moves on.

Places - especially ones where people live - change. Dad finally sold Mamaw & Papaw's home last year. It's staying in the extended family, and that's a plus, but I never want to go there again. I saw the inside a few times when it was being rented; I didn't really want to, but there were things that required it. I want to remember it as it was, in 2008 and early 2009. When it was still Mamaw's, still the place I went to for advice or company or to mow the yard or take care of Mamaw when she needed it. That's how I want it to be forever, and if I never go back inside, then it will always be so.

Black Panther won three Oscars, the first for Marvel Studios. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse deservedly won Best Animated Feature. Green Book won Best Picture, and the comparisons to Crash's win a few years ago came on in a hurry.

Bumblebee was - damning with faint praise here - the best live-action Transformers movie yet. Never insulted the audience, Hailee Steinfeld is amazing, and there are quite a few really excellent moments. Thoroughly enjoyable movie.

SpaceX is taking another big step this weekend. The first flight of a Crew Dragon capsule is scheduled for late Friday night. It's an unmanned shot to the ISS, the first test of the crewed version of the Falcon/Dragon system. If this and next month's launch abort system test are successful, a crewed mission is scheduled to go up in July, and for the first time since Atlantis made her final flight in 2011, Americans will go up in an American craft instead of hitching a ride on a Russian ship.

Listening to The Midnight tonight, synthwave band outta LA. They're playing at Headliners on April 6, and I'm starting to think that maybe I should go see 'em. It's been forever since I've seen live music (a Waterfront Wednesday last summer?) and Headliners is a darn good venue.

I'm glad to see this synthwave trend rise up in the last few years. Lots of good music, quite often exactly what I need or want to hear. Gunship is my current fave - their "Dark All Day" video is just a thing of beauty.

Tumblr announced today that effective December 17, all adult/NSFW/porny content will be removed from the service, and you can start making your jokes here. I figure this will be the effective end of the platform, but I hope I'm wrong because there is some super adorable stuff on EverythingFox and don't you begin to judge me for my appreciation of them.

UofL looks to have hired its new football coach - Scott Satterfield, from Appalachian State. If true, I think it's a very good choice - under Satterfield, Appy's developed a real reputation as a giant-killer (they beat Michigan at Michigan a couple of seasons ago), and Satterfield loves high-scoring and fast-moving offenses. Official announcement comes tomorrow afternoon.

SpaceX launched 64 mini-satellites this afternoon. Third launch for the booster, and a perfect landing. Another launch tomorrow, this one an ISS resupply shot. Further from home, OSIRIS-Rex went into orbit around an asteroid; this is a planned sample-return mission.

Baseball season has returned to us. The Dodgers started of 2-2, splitting the opening series with the Giants. L.A. lost the first two games 0-1, then remembered that they're the defending division champs Saturday with a 5-0 win, and that they're the defending league champs Sunday, winning 9-0. They have a series against the Padres coming up, playing in Monterrey, Mexico. Pretty nifty.

China's orbiting lab came down last night, and SpaceX launched a resupply mission to the ISS this afternoon. This particular Dragon capsule has flown before, as had the Falcon 9 booster. No recovery this time; the booster was flown back to the Atlantic in a maneuver precision test.

A couple of weekends ago, I sat down for my first D&D 3.X game session in ... years. Maybe 15 years. I've played plenty of d20-derived stuff since - Spycraft, Fantasycraft, M&M, Pathfinder.

D&D 3.5 is still a pretty good game; the session was a tedium, though. DM had a script, and he was sticking to it. Pixel-bitching, and way too much time wasted in the PCs-meet-one-another. It's a good group, and I think they can pull the game out, so I'm calling this one a ball instead of a strike.

SpaceX achieved another first yesterday. First launch of the Falcon Heavy, a honking big launch vehicle. Three Falcon 9-derived boosters; two out of three were recovered, and the sight of those two landing within a couple hundred feet of one another was a hell of a thing. The third, the core booster, came in way too fast, missing the landing barge. A successful test, all things considered, with the second stage making it to orbit and restarting twice, putting a test payload of a Tesla Roadster and its mannequin driver - in a SpaceX-designed space suit - into a solar orbit.

Wedding rehearsal - went well, no problems, simple, fun ceremony. Lots of laughter and joking around. Got some great news - Rebecca's taken a position with CDC that will move them from Birmingham to Marysville, Ohio. Most importantly, it means that B&R will be three hours away instead of seven. As a bonus pointed out by Ben, it means that Dusty and I have a place to stay for Origins trips.

Wedding day! Events led to me lighting out for Simpsonville around 9:45 to pick up Ben's suit. And then, the weather. Oh dear me. According to WLKY, I drove under a possible funnel cloud a few minutes after getting back on I-64. I cannot verify, as visibility was down to about nothing. This was a monster storm. Got back to the house, made sure my stuff was together, and settled in to wait for D. She arrived, and off we went. Got to Lexington without any problems and helped out with last-minute details. Lots of photos. So many photos. Then the ceremony. Then more photos. Then the reception. Then turning for home. Such a great day.

Saturday would have been D&D, but I was having none of it, my body decided. Slept until noon. Read. Read some more. No idea what I did on Sunday.

New Horizons sent back some amazing photos of Pluto and Charon. There's real geography there! Mountain ranges, canyons, all the good stuff. And data will be coming in from the probe for another year or so - and it may be able to visit other outer system bodies. So damn cool.

Current Mood: content

So, I went to Florida last week. The original plan for the time off was to go to Diecon again, but my enthusiasm completely evaporated in early May, so I extended my time off from work and decided to head somewhere.

I left Lexington around 4:30 Wednesday morning. Made an impulse side trip to Savannah, Georgia, and Tybee Island, both of which were utterly beautiful, but in totally different ways. Spent a few hours at each place, then pressed on to Daytona Beach and spent the night.

Saw Daytona International Speedway, walked around the beach a bit, then headed south to Kennedy Space Center. Holy ground for a space geek like me. Saw Endeavour out on 39-A. Nice long tour of KSC. The astronaut memorial is beautiful. Drove to West Palm Beach and spent the night.

The Shell convenience store where I refuelled in West Palm Beach had a good-sized wine rack, about 20 varieties on hand, with a recommended pairings list. Man, it's a whole other planet sometimes.

Friday was Key West. Got there around noon. Saw the Hemingway House, the end of US1, and met some fun folks from Maryland. Left Key West around 8 p.m., and decided to try driving straight home. Took 22 hours, but I did it. Stops every four hours or so for fuel and drinks, and one real meal along the way.

Lots and lots of time to think while driving. Made some decisions; now to see if I can stick with them.

Current Mood: rejuvenated

Impending drama at work. Perhaps it'll shake out by end of day tomorrow and I'll have juicy details on the weekend.

Mutants & Masterminds tonight. One new character - a resistance fighter from a world subjugated by the Egyptian Empire. This is going to be fun; I've had a time/world-lost NPC in mind for some time, and there'll be some sympathetic action there. The team composition is now kinda weird - 3 of the 5 are battlesuit characters.

There's some trouble at the ISS. Computers that control stationkeeping and stability are failing for whatever reason. It's a serious enough problem that evacuation procedures are being hashed out. Atlantis is docked there now, but I don't think it's set up for the additional crew of the ISS, so they'd have to come down in the Soyuz.

Current Location: The Bunker

37 years ago today, the first manned lunar landing was accomplished. Having reached a quarter-million miles into space, we've dropped back to low Earth orbit for decades. Yes, Galileo and Cassini and Viking and Pathfinder and Spirit and Opportunity and all of their counterparts are fantastic machines, but they're not enough.

Shifting topics wildly.

Spycraft tonight. Hoping to carry on last session's excitement and intrigue. I've got scads of ideas, and I need to winnow some of them out before the session begins.

Current Location: 100 Midland Avenue

Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

Born With a Hammer in My Hand

Sometimes, Forever

Rings of Saturn

Across the Lines

Are Friends Electric?

No Exit

Razor

Under the Gun

Song From the Edge of the World

Citizen Joe

Reach Out

Live Transmission

In the Name of Love

Driven to Tears

With or Without You

Blood of Eden

Land of Hope and Dreams

Vacation

I Don't Need This Pressure On

Cleaner

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June 2025

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