Sure, a band like this might have made a funny cover of a Katy Perry song. But would I have ever heard it? Only if I had accidentally bought the CD, or heard it in some coffee shop. God bless you, internets. I love you.

Black or White (extended version)

it’s not just the rocket science that is difficult.  it’s the logistics.  it’s the politics.  it’s the bugs and quirks and anomalies that can cause catostrophic failure.  it’s the show-business.  it’s the pageantry.  it’s the stunning beauty of a machined nozzle spewing gas at ungodly temperature and pressure.  it’s the defeat.  it’s the victory.  it’s everything in between.

if i didn’t believe that i was making a difference in the world every single day, i would never keep doing what i do.

for your enjoyment, i present a video of what exactly i’ve been up to this past week.

while driving through the barren landscape of the new mexico desert, we stumbled upon an awesome oldies station (i think i heard maybe two commercials the entire trip).  and this little gem came on, which i hadn’t listened to in a long, long time.  i couldn’t help but post it here.

but what this eventually leads to is epiphany, closure, elation, or discovery.  in this particular case, i had a little of each.  as the week came to an end, i felt as though i had explored some new part of my life that i had thus far failed to recognize, and i’ve come to realize that although it may not be exactly what i imagined it was, i always have the ability to change it.

for fear of being even more vague and introspective, i’m going to change the subject (as i said, i only wanted to mention the tribulations of this past week as a means of record).  you see, after a long week at the office, when everybody is ready to just call it quits, it sometimes helps to lighten the mood a little.  here’s a sample:

that, my friends, is how you have a little fun at the office.

the good news is that after a week of busting my ass, i actually have something to show for it.  the northrop grumman lunar lander challenge is officially ON.  it’ll be held october 24-25 in las cruces, new mexico, and i’ll be there to supervise the webcast and any technology issues we have.  it should be a blast, and if nothing else i’ll get to see some rockets fly.  and there is very little cooler than flying rockets.

here’s a preview:

and just because i feel like it, here’s a little song i’ve been enjoying recently.  hope you like it too.

while visiting las cruces international airport in las cruces, nm, the us border patrol helicopter pilots decided to have some fun with us.

Someday I’ll actually get to fly on a rocket, but for the time being it’s pretty exciting just to see one launch.  I had the opportunity to watch a test flight of TrueZer0’s entry in the lunar lander challenge.  This is not a launch vehicle (i.e. something that’ll fly you into space), but rather a next generation landing module, designed to softly land and traverse on a foreign planet.

I snapped a whole lot of awesome pictures, available on my Flickr stream.  Here’s a sample:

What can I say?  I have lots of pets, and I love ‘em.  OK, well, Mingus is the only one that’s mine (he’s the big fat one), but the other dogs and cats are lovable as well.  So long as they keep their urine off my carpet.

Click through for the HD version, recorded on the Canon HF-10 we just got at work.