Planet Olin

4/8/09     2351
It's been a long day. I woke up at 0230 for dawn watch. I was the junior-watch-officer-in-training so I sort of led some maneuvers. We stalled the first time we tried to tack because we didn't have enough speed behind us. Elliot came up and reprimanded Jeff for it. So we gybed instead. We went up and down the side of the box until 0600, when we were supposed to be in a particular spot to motor toward our anchorage. After breakfast, we did our normal DC-love and heard rumors that the main engine wasn't starting. Luckily those didn't pan out and we were able to motor. We struck and furled the jib and mains'l while the next watch struck the stays'ls.
We didn't pass through customs until about 11am. We spent the morning gossiping on the bowsprit. [...]
Around noon, we finally got to Christmas Island. We walked around the lagoon and beach until it was time to go to St. Francis School at 1300. There they sang songs and performed dances for us. All of the girls were very giggly. There was about 2/3 girls in the school. They got especially excited when Bryce said he was 18. In Elliot's typical dry humor, he asked if they wanted Bryce's number.
We also sang for them - Build Me Up Buttercup, a sea shanty and Cape Cod Girls. The school also provided us lunch, which was incredibly generous. There's currently no sugar, flour, or rice on the island and the next shipment is not for another three weeks. [...]
We saw pufferfish in the lagoon and parrotfish at the jetty. There was coral everywhere, washed up on the beaches.
After all of that, we hitchhiked to London in search of cold, tasty beverages. The first store had nothing, the second had coke and orange soda, and for those of us who soldiered on the third store had beer (Victorian Bitter). The stores were incredibly bare. It seemed like they only sold soap and sauce.
On our way out, a guy named Andrew warned us that we weren't allowed to drink in public and chatted with us for a while. We hitched a ride back to the jetty with some drunken fishermen who tried to serve us fermented coconut milk.
Sleepy. Will continue tomorrow.

4/9/09    2119
So yesterday we sat on the beach drinking warm beer until it was time to get ferried back to the Seamans on the outboard. I hung out in the engine room before dinner where James and Mackenzie had been busy all day replacing the head gasket and putting the generator back together. I went back before my anchor watch and was there for the ultimate letdown when the generator still didn't work.
Anchor watch went well - the hour and 15min passed quickly. Too soon, it was time to get up for breakfast.
Everyone was a little peeved in the morning because we were told at 0720 that the 0930 boat run had been struck and there was only going to be a morning run at 0800. That was because a catamarran was supposed to come pick up all of us at once, but it never came. So at 0830, we used the outboard. Apparently the coat eventually called in at 1030, so we are giving them another shot to pick us up tomorrow for Henry's party.
Anyway, I decided to go on Henry's tour of the island, which was an all-day extravaganza. We went to the SE tip of the island and saw the town of Banana, the Captain Cook Hotel, several airfields, the place where they did nuclear testing in the '50s, other abandoned military projects, a coral brick church, and other cool stuff like that. I bought the Christmas Island book and I'm going to steal a bunch of Henry's photos. Henry's family is really cute. His daughter is adorable. I collected tons of shells and pieces of coral. It's amazing to walk along such remote beaches where you can find perfect shells within minutes.
It was kind of an uncomfortable trip, bouncing around in the back of an open bed pick-up truck, getting smacked by branches and drizzled on. But it was cool to see so much of the island.
This guy joined us who had just met Henry a week ago. He was shipwrecked on the island. He was delivering a boat from Hawaii to Costa Rica when he ran into some squally weather and a log hit the boat just above the waterline. He rigged a patch with an inflatable raft and they decided to sail to Christmas Island because it was closer than Hawaii and downwind. Now he's just messing around on Christmas Island, enjoying the surfing, and making plans to go back to Alaska for his job. [...]
Also, there are now flys on the boat. Gross. there are flys everywhere on Christmas Island. There's also a lot of junk lying everywhere and piles of burned coconuts. They eat a lot of coconuts. We drank coconut milk straight from coconuts at St. Francis School.

4/10/09
Ugh. Worst day so far. I started the day in the best mood. I was excited to stay on the boat and have a chill day that mostly involved not getting any more sunburned.
Unfortunately, when I woke up I found out that a bunch of people had gotten sick in the night. We still have no idea what caused it. So everyone was running around all stressed out about that. It was kind of funny at the all hands meeting because Elliot asked everyone to describe their symptons to the entire group - most of which was nausea and diarrhea. Then I found out that I owe Elliot money for the tour yesterday. It's not a big deal because it's only $10, but it was irritating that that wasn't made clear ahead of time.
[...]
We decided to make snickerdoodles and lemon macaroons. We mixed up the snickerdoodle dough and were halfway through putting it on cookie sheets when Natalie had to go to an hourly and never came back. Katy insisted that I keep baking through lunch, so I had to worry about the cookies while eating.
The snickerdoodle dough was very sticky and the cookies came out very flat. They were more square shaped than round. I think it had too much butter, although we were originally worried that it didn't have enough. The lemon macaroons were a disaster. they took forever to make and came out super shitty. I spent like an hour beating the egg whites and trying to get them to form peaks. At least they tasted good even though they had no substance. We served them as afternoon snack. Finally at 1500, I got out of the galley having missed a swim call and the deck practical review. I was in a super pissy mood. All I wanted was to go to bed and start over but since I was on watch, that was exactly what I couldn't do.
Instead, I got signed off on going aloft, washed the forward soles and hald the aft soles, jumped off the bowsprit twice for our mini-swim call and got ready to go to Henry's party. I was declared responsible for all the dishes and giving Ashley's information to Chris's captain.
I was pretty excited for the party until I got there and found out that I couldn't drink alcohol because I was technically on watch until 0700. I instantly regretted asking about it - but I honestly thought it was a rumor that Elliot was going to dispel. I had been so excited to chill out w/ a beer after being in a bad mood all day - frustrated with cookies, tired, sunburned.
I was feeling really antisocial so I just sat in a chair by the fire by myself. There was a kitten that I played with for a while and people would randomly come sit next to me and chat for a bit. The staff were all over-reacting and convinced that I needed an intervention. Mostly I was just frustrated that my day had not gone the way I had hoped in so many ways. The best part of my day was coming back to the boat to find out I had anchor watch with Luay instead of Katy. I spent too much time with Katy today.

4/11/09    2218
Ugh. Still anchored at Christmas Island.
Elliot announced that our departure was going to be delayed to tomorrow at an all hands meeting at 0800. The deck practical was postponed to 1430 and field day until tomorrow.
I wish we were sailing again. I'm tired of stale air and bugs and anchor watch.
Jessica and I had a nice chat about what's annoying us. She had a shitty day today. [...]
We had evening watch, which got stuck with an extra hour because we are changing the clocks to make twilight not during watch turnover.
It rained a lot. We left Ryan on deck while the rest of us cleaned the galley. We divided up the boat checks and hourlys. We all sat on deck and talked about sex to distract us from the sad fact that we were not asleep. Only two people needed to stay on deck for the last hour. Bryce volunteered and we pulled names out of a hat for the second. Jessica got picked. I felt bad but I was also really tired.

4/12/09    1901
So glad to be back at sea. We had a busy morning watch. We set the stays'ls and the jib to sail around Christmas Island on a port tack, when we could continue our southerly course. At that point, we took out the reef in the mains'l, set the mains'l, and prepared to do a double gybe to heave to for our first scientific station in Kiribati waters (we finally got clearance). Before the end of the watch, we set the jib (having sruck it to heave to) and made our official departure from Christmas Island traveling 2 knots with a Neuston Tow.
I was the junior watch officer in training so I had to direct all of the sail-handling. The only thing I forgot was to do wake-ups. Otherwise, everything went smoothly. We were aiming to set the mains'l 2nm off of the SW point of Christmas Island and we hit it right on the money. I was pleased because I had set the course and was steering at the time. After lunch, I took an hour nap before field day. It was super sweaty in the galley before we realized that the fan was set to exhaust instead of intake.
I really like Field Day because we get to listen to music and I like cleaning. Right before we broke off for cleaning, we were visted by some of Neptune's messengers. [...]
We were also visited by the Easter Bunny and spent most of Field Day pigging out on jelly beans. We kept finding plastic eggs and dumping the contents into a bowl. In cleaning the galley, we also found a tray of cookies that had been left to cool and forgotten as well as a melting package of dried blueberries in the back of one of the cabinets.
It's getting really unpleasantly hot. It reached 31 degrees C today. I got sunburned again. I think my lips are almost finished peeling. Next is my nose. Hopefully when I shave my hair off, I'll be cooler. I brought my sunblock to the communal pile - I'm about to run out. I can't believe 4oz. wasn't enough. When I worked for LCF, 3oz. lasted me all summer.
So excited to cross the equator, we're at like 1 degree North right now.

4/13/09    0323
I was in the lab for midwatch. We processed a Neuston Tow while Tracy creeped around whispering pollywog and popping up out of nowhere. There are notes everywhere that say "Beware Pollywog, turn back or face the wrath of King Neptune". Supposedly the heads splash up like boudets now - but I just used one and it didn't. So I'm not sure what the deal is.
I didn't take any seasickness meds when we left Christmas Island and I feel mostly fine. I got a huge whiff of ethanol in the lab and had to go outside and puke. I feel a lot better now.
I've been eating ginger - it's supposed to help seasickness.
My lips feel way better. My medicated chapstick works way better than the aloe kind.

Two weeks ago was one of the most exciting weeks I can remember. I really hope I will never forget it.

As mentioned previously, I was given passes to the STS-127 Launch so I was out in Florida attempting to catch the launch after an 18 hour road trip. The launch had been scrubbed Saturday early on in the day which gave us a day on the beach; Sunday the launch was scrubbed at the T - 9 hold due to weather violations. On Sunday we had made it as far as getting on the buses and making it out to the launch viewing area before it scrubbed.

Sunday also begins the best week ever. The company who was putting the buses together originally had three of them going, the one we were on broke down. There were 14 seats left on the other buses. Some how we got some of those seats. I do not ask how.

After the scrub we came back and spent the evening touring UCF and meeting characters such as Beth Lathe, known for destroying the SEDS-UCF Space Plinko Board. It was weird being at a big school but at the same time I think I'm ready to try one for graduate school. Olin was a great size for me for undergrad, but it is time to move on to something bigger.

Monday brought us another scrub, but a day of fun. We spent the day in Cocoa Beach starting with Starbucks which is where I first heard the rumors of upcoming good news. Keri and I started acting like the crazy people we were in the middle of Starbucks which likely made all of Cocoa Beach think we're crazy. Oh well.

We hit up the Dinosaur Museum across the street for silly fun which was aimed at four year olds, but awesome none the less. After that we headed out to the Cape for another launch attempt. Keri and I were caught by the person in charge of the bus singing Journey at the top of our lungs in the parking lot so she likely has the idea that we're slightly nuts, but I'm ok with that.

The launch attempt scrubed at the T-9 min hold once again after it looked so promising earlier in the day. It was a 48 hour scrub and after our trip we knew we wanted to stick it out. Neither of us had to be home before Friday.

Tuesday we headed to Downtown Disney and saw the Lego Store, a Disney store that required a map, and more. It was also Tuesday when I finally received the job offer of my dreams.

I've been working hard to chase down a job in the space industry since September and I finally did it. I've been rejected countless times after to applying to an unknown number of jobs. I've been to both coasts and the center part of the country. I've been called technically incompetent and also been told I was going to take over the place. People have told me they have fears about me failing, since I don't fail. (Oh really?). But I never landed that perfect job. I've continually been the second choice candidate. I found two jobs in the Northeast which is an area I love but feel that I need to try something new for a while. Both of them were defense jobs, and mostly involved programing. The third job was also a defense job, working on missile production in an area of the country I'm afraid I'd melt in. Closer to right, but still not quite there.

Finally, this job came in at the last second (I was about to sign the third offer) and was everything I wanted. It is a job working on rocket avionics in a city I want to live in. Needless to say I'm happy.

Wednesday was what we came for. Our third time out to the cape was the charm. Watching a shuttle launch was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Words will never be able to do justice to it. If I there is a way to get paid to sit out and watch launches all day, I need to find out how.

After seeing a launch in person watching them on NASA TV will look tame. I was 3.3 miles away from the most beautiful thing in the world. I really have to say watching a space shuttle launch ranks above graduating from college. A mentor just gave me the best graduation gift ever. Ben sent an email after the launch that simply said "HOW ABOUT THAT, your graduation present.................." Yeah, that about sums it up.

Getting both job of my dreams and a shuttle launch in 24 hours is something I still cannot believe happened.

We began our drive back home Wednesday night after a stop at Dairy Queen. On our drive out of Florida we ran into two gas station heists. You normally only see those on TV but from the comfort of the car we got to witness the police surrounding two gas stations, and a life flight helicopter landing on the high way. We were also able to witness a super cell descending on Orlando. A fairly exciting night.

Thrusday we completed the drive home with minimal stops. Louisiana still ranks as a scary place I hope to never have to live.

Friday was the day I signed my job offer, completing an amazing week.

I still cannot believe I landed the job of my dreams and will be working on rockets. I guess it proves that a little persistence and a lot of luck pays off. Ad Astra.

Even if you’ve never had the joy of using AOL, with thanks to Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan the friendly yet contemptible AOL voice proclaiming “Welcome!”; “File’s done”; “Goodbye”; and, of course, “You’ve got mail!” is recognized by many. This weekend, it was time to put an end to that voice on my Aunt’s computer.
.
It’s easy to hate AOL. It not only takes over your browser, but AOL infests your computer with all their tangentally related software, taking up significant space and slowing it down to a lagging crawl. In fact, just as I thought I had it completely uninstalled, I’d find another program.
.

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It’s amazing how your environment can really change your perspective on certain technology. While in Ethiopia, dial-up internet (although not AOL) was a lifeline, allowing us to connect during the numerous power outages without a generator. Without it, we wouldn’t have had internet half of the days. It might have been slow, but it was effective. Although Chicago does have its share of power outages, it’s nowhere like the loadshedding in Africa. The dial-up simply isn’t needed, and suddenly I viciously turn on the technology I was so thankful for just a few months ago.
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Despite these mixed feelings, as I hit the uninstall button I had to say “Goodbye” back with a huge smile on my face.

Verbatim from the bottom of a lyrics007.com page:

Tips to look for free audio clips
(Don't use those tips to download illegally. To buy music is always the best way to support your idols)

Use Google, Yahoo and MSN to find some auido clip sites. Sometimes search engines can direct you to right sites. Now that a lot of auido clip sites are banned by search engines, remember to make good use of exchange links in those sites.

Use auido clip search engines outside the United Stats. I used to use Chinese sites such as Baidu, Sogou, Yahoo China to search audio clips. Your browser maybe ask you to install simplified Chinese character, just ingore it. I always can find tons of English audio clips in those music search engines.

Use P2P software. It works well for full album audio clips specially. In fact, you almost can find everything with P2P software.

Visit artist's offical website. Some artists' sites provide mp3 files for fans to download.

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I get the sinking feeling that anytime I get a history question on Aardvark, it's someone asking me to do their homework for them...
 
"what does Woodrow Wilson's policy of "moral diplomacy" refer to, particularly in regards to the eventual entry of the U.S. into World War I?"
Asked by Zack M. from Austin, TX
 
“In the second world war, around May 1940, How the Germany tanks climb up the Ardennes and attack France ? As the Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and old mountains. It 's Pretty hard for Tanks to pass through. So, How the Germany did it ? Better offer me a reference.”
Asked by Pingping W. from State College, PA
 
“what ww2 battle gave the allies the most insight into how to best approach d-day”
Asked by Nathan S. from San Francisco, CA

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Should I go to grad school? When? More importantly, should I take the GRE in August?

As I traveled this past year, I made sure to learn how to cook a few authentic dishes in each region I lived. I’ve been terrible at posting them (only the Chapatti one so far), but here’s a long overdue entry for Germany.

Jägerschnitzel was one of my favorite food indulgences in Germany. Thanks to its fattening nature, it’s not only tasty but kept me warm on the chilly Düsseldorf days. Thanks to the help of Andy and Phil, my German flatmates, I also discovered it was easy to prepare.

Ingredients

4 Veal or pork cutlets (boneless)
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp flour
Salt and pepper (as needed, light)
Vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
2 lemons
1 medium onion, diced
8 oz. onions, sliced
2 strips of thick bacon
1 ½ cups water
1 cube beef boullion
1 Tbsp cornstarch
½ cup sour cream

Preparation Supplies

Cutting board or other clean, flat working surface
Knife
Meat mallet (or a good fist)
Bowl or plate for breading
Stove
Medium sized skillet and pot
Spatula/Wooden spoon

		1. Meat Prep Trim any excess fat off of the meat and pound it until it is less than 1/4 inch thick. Take out all aggression on the meat, just try not to tear it. Lightly serrate the meat. Pour some oil (1/4 deep) into a large skillet over medium heat.
		2. Season and Bread In a bowl, beat the eggs. Season the cutlets with salt and pepper. Dip the cutlets into the egg followed by the breadcrumbs. Make sure to coat evenly.
		3. Fry! Place cutlets in the skillet and fry until golden (1-2 minutes per side). Drain on paper towels to remove excess oil. Sprinkle with lemon juice.
		4. Sauce Add onion and mushrooms to the skillet and cook until lightly browned. Pour in water and dissolve the bouillon cube. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir together the cornstarch and sour cream; stir into the skillet. Cook over low heat until thickened but do not boil.
		5. Serve Spoon over the cutlets and serve immediately (preferably with a potato or German dumpling side)…Yum!

In the words of the third (French) roomate, Elodie…
Bon Appetit!

Holy cats. Back organizing IDDS again, and this year has new levels of insanity -- IDDS is running for 5 weeks in Kumasi, Ghana, instead of MIT.

Several studies have shown that living with a roommate of a different race changes students’ attitudes. One, from the University of California at Los Angeles, generally found decreased prejudice among students with different-race roommates — but those who roomed with Asian-Americans, the group that scored the highest on measures of prejudice, became more prejudiced themselves.

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aardvark@vark.com:
You there? I have a question about *drugs* that I think you might be
able to answer.
 
(Type 'sure', 'pass', or 'busy'.)
 
Brian Shih:
sure
 
aardvark@vark.com:
(From Kiefer K./22/M/Cambridge,MA)
what is the absolute craziest combination of substances to get crunk,
without seriously risking death?

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