I'm Thankful for Family!

This Thanksgiving was just like TOTALLY awesome!! There was fun, food, games and more. But as I look back on my holiday, I realize that perhaps the thing I'm most thankful for is family.

On November 18 my grandparents drove down to our house from their abode in Michigan. I was SO excited when I learned that they had arrived! (During their arrival, I had been at work.) Friday and Sabbath just seemed to speed by, and soon November 21 arrived.

Now you must understand something. For about the past year, I've been interviewing my various grandparents and asking them questions about their lives, all the while filming. The only grandparent I hadn't filmed yet was my Michigan grandmother. To this end, my first project of the week was to film her and create the show.

WOW. Was I ever in for a surprise! Usually I will only film my grandparents for half hour or so, but my grandmother had so many more stories to share! Stories of her childhood, of going to school and family. She told me how she learned how to drive, about raising her kids. And then there were the stories of all the places she's been, like Hawaii, Europe, and Mexico! In the end the interview took almost an hour and a half...but it was surely worth it! After 2 1/2 days of work on the project, it was done and out!!

As I look back now, I am extremely happy that I did that, that some of my grandmother's stories and life experiences are captured forever. That's one of the reasons I wanted to interview my grandparents--because they are a true treasure. They have had stories that you have never knew, stories that are fascinating. Stories that need to be remembered.

Video on Enos

Here's a 100-second video on the flight of Enos, space pioneer. If you don't know who Enos is, please read the post below this post to find out more!! Enos is really really cool!

~Photobug

P.S.--If you are reading this post by e-mail, you will have to go to my blog to view this video.

John Glenn wasn't the First

FYI: "A Subject I almost MISSed" will return next week. For this week, thought you'd enjoy learning about a little animal pioneer. ~Photobug

Many people think that John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth in space. Actually, John Glenn wasn't the first American in orbit. He was the second. John Glenn was the first American human being in orbit. A little African immigrant monkey named Enos was the first American into orbit.

Enos' flight (Mercury-Atlas 5, or MA-5) was no monkey business. Actually a 5-year-old chimpanzee, the feisty and smart Enos was flying into space to make sure humans could perform simple tasks in weightlessness. The earlier flight of chimpanzee Ham had proven this, however, Enos was to ensure that humans could perform complicated sequences in long periods of weightlessness. The issue of humans performing complex operations in weightlessness was a crucial and important matter to the United States, who was planning on sending John Glenn into space very soon.

Silence

Silence. Do we really know what it is any more? Certainly seems possible that we don't anymore. We get up in the morning, listen to the radio, listen to the mp3 while eating breakfast, and then rush out the door to school or work or whatever. Now I know I'm exaggerating a bit, but I'm sure you still get my idea. The idea of just sitting still 20-30 minutes does not seem to appeal. Or if not that, we certainly don't seem to have the time!

Recently I've been exploring the wonder of silence. I have a little old weather-beaten bench I've carried out to the farthest corner of our tree-laden property in our woods. I try once a week to go out to my spot, and just be still and sit, think, pray, and assimilate myself into nature. About a month ago my parents bought me a sketchbook in which I've been drawing what I'm seeing out in our woods. (Above you'll see some of my sketches.) It's really a cool adventure. Sometimes I've seen squirrels, other times tufted titmice come within my view. While I'm just a beginning artist, I really enjoy sketching and journaling about what I've seen.

But drawing is not the only reason my "spot" attracts me. In my hectic schedule of work and school (I'm sure you can relate!) it's just...lovely, really, to hike out to my spot, forget my worries, and listen to nature. Watch the birds, the squirrels, the activity around me. It's especially grand when the animals come near me, and I get a special experience.

Sparrows, Juncos, and You

About a week and a half ago I had the most remarkable experience. It was just after lunch, and I had returned to school when my 6-year-old sister Alison bolted into my room exclaiming, "Mommy is outside and got a bird in her hand! Come take a picture of it!"

My initial reaction was, Alison, I gotta do school! I can't go take pictures now. But she kept at it, and so I figured that for just the remote chance that Mom DID have a bird in her hand, I should go check it out. And was I glad I did! Sure enough, Mom did have a bird in her hand. I guess right after I had gone back to school this bird (later we realized it was a junco) had banged into a house window. When Mom went outside to look for it, she found it upside down...picking it up, she was trying to revive it. That's when I was called and went outside with my camera to snag a few shots. (like the one above.) I really enjoyed stroking our little friend--I was amazed at how beautiful, soft, and fragile he (she?) was.

A Subject I Almost MISSed, Part 4

What's happening: In this 5-part series I'm writing about the different space books I've read this school year. Right now I'm telling the story of John Glenn, first American in orbit. Mercury Control is receiving telemetry (data) from Glenn's capsule that the heat shield is loose. And if the heat shield is loose...well, American's first man in orbit may not return home alive. ~Photobug

When Glenn and spacecraft got back safely to Earth (the heat shield had, in fact, been just fine) technicians traced the false telemetry signals to a faulty sensor switch. Faulty switches aside, it caused Mercury Control (and later John Glenn) some concern. With this in mind, listen to a line John Glenn said when asked by the doctors if he had any other comments on the flight…He had already answered tons of questions…and again I’m paraphrasing: “No, just another normal day in space.”

Glenn had made three orbits of our mother planet—and made Americans proud. When he back on Earth safely and saw the sunset, he remarked that (I’m paraphrasing) “It’s rare for a man to see four sunsets in one day.” Since Glenn had orbited the Earth 3 times, he had seen 3 sunsets, 3 nights, and 3 sunrises.

After his flight Glenn made a speech before a joint session of Congress. He lauded his appreciation to Shepard and Grissom, and then he told about his flight from Florida up to Washington, D.C. Before Glenn boarded Air Force One, President Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline, met the Mercury astronauts. As Glenn remarked, she put the astronauts in their place when she asked, “Where’s the monkey?” :D :D (Ham and Enos had preceded Shepard and Glenn's flights, respectively.)

I, The Cat

Hi. I, the cat shall now give you an exclusive interview on my thoughts on life and particularly on the intruders of my house. Mind you, however, that I am not doing this because you asked. No, that is far from it. As you well now from the preliminary material I gave you to read, I, the cat, do not do anything because you ask me. I only do it because I want to. Therefore, listen well, write fast, as I hate repeating. I am the cat, His Royal Highness King Emperor of the Entire House, Pumpkin Pie the First.

If you have lived with any of the feline species before, you know that you do not own us. Far from it. We, the cats, own you. When we want you to give us fish, you give it. When we want a nice roaring fire, you make it. When we want more food or a nice clean kitty box to use, we howl, meow and generally make your life miserable until you fix whatever we want. As I said, you do not own us. When you got us, I suppose you thought that you were getting us to give you company. As is supported by the afore mentioned examples, that view is far from the truth. You got us, so we would have owners and masters to give us everything we want when we want how we want. You can never be our master. We are your masters. The most you and we can ever be is partners. However, this relationship is only entered into after many years of living together. So, to summarize this paragraph, we are your masters, you are not our's.

Over & Over Again, Until...

Last week I had the most unusual experience. I was just starting work at our church, something I do each and every week. One of my first jobs each Thursday is to empty all the trashcans in the lobby and children's wing. And one of the trashcans on my list is in the copy room, right next to the copy machine.

Usually this job is pretty easy. Most of the time I can just dump the trash into my big huge black trash bag, instead of actually having to change the bag in the trashcan. Sometimes, however, there is so much trash, or it is so dirty, I must actually change the bag.

And that's what happened this last week. I didn't know what it was, but there was some black powdery stuff all over the trashcan, and in the trash bag. Well, I decided everything was so full and messy I needed to change the bag. So I dumped the whole bag into my big trash bag, and then inserted a new white trash bag into the copy room trashcan. Problem solved, right? Well.......

A Subject I Almost MISSed, Part 3

What's happening: In this 5-part series I'm telling about the different space books I've been reading this school year. ~Photobug

My next space adventure was entitled Into that Silent Sea, and this book chronicled the early Soviet and American space flights. It was written by Colin Burgess and Francis French. As usual, it was an awesome book. (and 383 pages.) I had originally learned of it in California, and so when we got home I read it. :) Into that Silent Sea was really cool in the way that it jumped back and forth from the Soviets to the Americans. First I learned about Yuri Gagarin and his flight, then about Alan Shepard. After learning about the astronauts’ nurse, Dee O’Hara, the book went back to Russia and Cosmonaut Gherman Titov, the second man to orbit the earth. The book continued talking about more Russian firsts, such as the first 3-person crew (Voskhod 1) and first spacewalk. (Completed by Alexei Leonov, see above for description of his flight.) In addition to this, Into that Silent Sea told about the flight of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. Of course Into that Silent Sea also describes the Mercury flights, of Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, and Gordo Cooper. (I don’t think I missed any astronauts/flights there…)

When I started reading space books back in January I was just focusing on Apollo. But with reading Into that Silent Sea, I found that Project Mercury—and Gemini too, I’m sure—are just as exciting. I thought it interesting that in the early stages, Project Mercury was referred to MISS, Man-In-Space-Soonest. However, NASA was wise and reveled America’s first space program as Project Mercury. I think the press would have had a heyday with the name MISS…especially if a test or flight went wrong!

As If Struck By Lightning...

41 years ago to this moment (11:22 am, Nov. 14, 1969), Pete Conrad, Al Bean, and Dick Gordon were launched on their way to the moon aboard Apollo 12. I'd say the Apollo 12 launch is one of the most interesting ever--you'll see what I mean once you watch the video included in this post!!

~Photobug

P.S.--If you are viewing this post by e-mail or Facebook, to view the video you may want to go to my blog, as that is the only place it will play. My blog address is: www.tennesseephotographer.blogspot.com

My Plan vs. God's Plan

Recently I was preparing another flight to fly on my Flight Simulator game. I was planning the flight in southern New Mexico, and on this first leg I'd fly from Las Cruses (just above El Paso) west and a little north to Silver City. I figured it'd be about a half hour flight.

So here I am plotting my flight plan. For some strange reason Flight Simulator was taking me SOUTH to Deming area then north to Silver City. Why in the world was it doing that? As I said, I only have half hour of computer time. I didn't want to take the long route to Silver City, I wanted to take the fastest and most direct route! So I plotted my flight plan to go northwest from Las Cruses and then straight west right into Silver City's longest runway. Perfect, right?

Well, not exactly. I hadn't really thought about terrain, that southern New Mexico might possibly have mountains above my cruising altitude of 8,000 ft. And my very direct flight plan pointed me straight over mountains, which, unknowingly right now, that I'd crash into!

John Paul Jones: "I have not yet begun to fight!"

FYI: This week in American History I got to study the American Revolution, and in particular, the naval officer John Paul Jones. Here's an essay I wrote about him. ~Photobug

John Paul Jones, about 1781

Who was John Paul Jones? Some people may know nothing about him. For those that do remember him, they may remember his famous quote, “I have not begun to fight” as his ship Bonhomme Richard was being bombarded and almost sinking.

John Paul Jones was an excellent sailor and really the founder of the almost non-existent American Navy. Why was there almost no American Navy? The answer is really quite simple. There were plenty of sailors from the colonies. They just decided to become privateers, not join the Navy.

One might wonder why no one would want to join the Navy. See, being a privateer was a lot more fun and more profitable than being in the Navy. In the privateer business, you would find yourself some partners, buy a ship, and sail the seas until you found a ship laden with goods from afar. You would pull up next to that ship, kindly ask the captain to show you his goods, and take whatever you wanted. You could take the whole ship if you wanted, and had enough weapons. Escorting your captive ship into port, you could sell the goods and pocket the difference. Being a privateer was very good business. You certainly didn’t get paid so well when you worked for the Navy!

But back to John Paul Jones. He was an excellent sailor. Coming to America, he assessed the situation and decided to take the battle right to the England Isles.

The American and British Armies at the time of the American Revolution

Hi Everyone! This week in American History I was very privileged and got to study about the American Revolution. Naturally, I got to learn quite a bit about the American and British Armies. Here's an essay I wrote on the different armies. ~Photobug
P.S.--I forgot to mention that this is the 300th post on this blog! :D

Was there really any chance of America winning her independence from Britain? With uniforms, muskets, bayonets and very good training, the British army was understandably the best army in the world. And what did the rag-tag American army have? Virtually nothing—whatever the British did have, the Americans didn’t have. Just about the only thing going for the Americans is that they were fighting for their liberty, while the British were fighting for money.

What was the British army really like? First of all, they were failures. All the red-coated soldiers you’d see out on the battlefield were failures in their chosen professions of farming, selling or what not. A lot of times the front lines were made up of criminals and drunkards. (Hey, what would you want to do, go live in a prison or have an exciting life in the army??) Living in England, you just didn’t choose the army as a profession.

A Subject I Almost MISSed, Part 2

What's happening: In this 5-part series I'm telling about the different space books I've been reading this school year. Right now, I'm telling the story of Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott on Gemini 8. At the time I closed off the first part, Gemini 8 is twirling around, once-per-second, and the crew or Mission Control can't figure out what to do. Gemini 8 is in grave, fatal danger. ~Photobug

Armstrong and Scott weren’t sure if the problem was the Agenda or the Gemini capsule, so they undocked from the Agenda. But that didn’t help. So they docked again…but still no fix of the problem. Finally, on the edge of unconsciousness, Armstrong and Scott aborted the mission and came home, safely.

Alexei Leonov became a very historic cosmonaut—he became the first person to do a spacewalk. While it may have been fun at the start, it was quite the challenge coming back into the spacecraft. He almost didn’t make it. Thankfully he finally managed to squeeze back inside. But then as he and his commander were preparing for re-entry, the automatic landing system went zonkers, so the cosmonauts had to control the landing manually. When the team finally made it safely to earth…they came down in one of the most hostile portions of this globe—right in the middle of Russia’s Ural Mountains! In deep snow and bitter cold they had to survive 2 days and nights until a helicopter could get to them! (They landed in such remote parts it took a day to clear away a spot for a helicopter to come and land in!)

Naturally the Soviets didn’t let on that anything had gone wrong—as live video of Leonov spacewalking was beamed down to earth, the Soviets said “everything was going fine.” Uh-huh! At that time, anyway! The Americans didn’t know about Leonov’s troubles till years afterwards.

Which happened to be about 1975.

The Adams Boys: Both Important in America's Cause for Freedom

FYI: This past week in American History I have studied about John and Sam Adams, two men vital in America's cause for freedom and independence in the 1770s. Here's an essay I wrote about them. ~Photobug

Before and during the American Revolution, there were two men who were vital to the cause. Their names were Samuel and John Adams.

Sam Adams grew up rich. Living in Boston, he was part of a very wealthy family. When the appropriate time came, his father sent him to Harvard for college. While in college, the elder Adams decided to open a bank. There were backers, enough money, and people who would benefit from this institution. But there was a problem: Parliament across the Atlantic had to approve the action. Unfortunately, Parliament said no. With this action, Sam Adams’ father lost a lot of money, and Sam had to go work serving tables. Sam actually enjoyed this job, as he got to talk with lots of people and learn their view on politics and what was happening. However, Sam was extremely angry at English control. He thought that governmental decisions should be made in America.

Unfortunately Sam had no talent whatsoever for business. Just about the only thing he was good at was politics. He talked politics all the time. He listened to people all the time. He got involved in politics. He was one of the “Indians” that raided Boston tea ships in the much-remembered Boston Tea Party.  Adams kept developing his talent for politics. While good at nothing else, he was extremely talented in the business of agitating. He could make a group of people mad in no time! He even started up the leader of the “Sons of Liberty”, who agitated the British. Adams was also involved the creation of the Declaration of Independence.  Finally Sam Adams became governor of Massachusetts. While he disappeared from public eye after the Revolution, Sam Adams’ actions helped unify the colonists against the British in the preparation for the Revolution.

Joyzappers

A couple weeks ago my 6-year-old sister asked a question. She and I were eating supper, Mom was probably on her laptop, and Dad was probably studying for his next class. Now you must understand that my sister is quite the little scientist. She throughly enjoys watching videos on weather, earthquakes, etc. Anyway, my sister's question was this: "Daddy, what are black holes?"

Discovery Waits On till End of Month

Hi All...it's me again! So there is still no launch for Discovery today. I have a new launch date/time though: with the hydrogen leak and all Discovery will not be launching before 4:05a.m. November 30, 2010. The (above) video explains the leak better than I can. (If you are reading this post on e-mail or FB, you will want to come to my actual blog to view the video.)

While I am slightly disappointed, I understand the reason for the delays. If it was me riding that beast, I'd certainly want the crews to make sure everything was working right! Another reason I read that NASA is delaying the launch is that the launch window, just 7 days long, is expiring on Sunday. I guess they have figured that the hydrogen leak will take longer to fix than that.

The launch window is determined by length of mission (this case, 11 days) and by the angle of the Sun. And early December is the next time the angle of the sun will be right.

So anyway. That's that on Discovery launching. Hope you all enjoyed my "Discovery Delay" posts! :P

~Photobug

Discovery's Delayed Departure

Hey All. Just a few minutes ago I found out that Discovery's launch today is scrubbed due to a hydrogen leak found somewhere. No new date and time for launch is published as of yet. If they don't launch by Sunday, the mission will wait for another acceptable window of time, coming up in December.

~Photobug

P.S.--this is the 100th post I've posted this year!

Wickie Mouse, Gordo, & Eisenhower from Space (Armchair Astronaut, Nov. 2010)

Hello everyone! :) Considering that November is Space Month on this blog and everything I thought I might launch a new monthly column! It's called "Armchair Astronaut", and in it once a month I'll be posting about a space book I have recently read. Sooo....the "Armchair Astronaut" book for November 2010 is A Ball, A Dog, and A Monkey, by Michael D'Antonio.

Remember last month I wrote about the anniversary of Sputnik? Well, one awesome thing about A Ball, A Dog, and A Monkey is that this book covers Sputnik and afterwards. Always before I've read books about Mercury, Apollo, or the Space Shuttle, but I've never read a book on Sputnik, or the world reaction afterwards. Which is one reason why I just loved A Ball, A Dog, and A Monkey!

A Ball, A Dog, and A Monkey starts out talking about American reporter James Reston  his and family taking a never-heard-before car trip to Moscow in September 1957, just a matter of weeks before the Sputnik launch of October 4. As Reston prepared his article for The New York Times, he distinctly noted the difference of American and Soviet societies, and the superiority of America.

However, Reston and the rest of the Western world had quite the surprise/shock coming when on October 4, 1957 the USSR's rocket Chief Designer (Sergei Korolev) and team launched the first-ever man made satellite into outer space. I believe Sputnik means "fellow traveler". People all over America and really the world eagerly started listening for the satellite's beep-beeping. Newspapers all over published the times and places in which Americans could see Sputnik for themselves. Sky-gazing and rocket-building clubs sprang up all over the place. Some were mere amateurs, but some clubs became quite professional. The Russians themselves had made known the particular frequency that Sputnik would be on, and wisely choose a frequency that many people could tune in to.

Almost before America knew it, the Soviet Union had achieved another space spectacular: Launching a dog into space. They called this mission Sputnik II, and the lucky (or unlucky, as you may look at it) canine was named Laika, which meant "barker".

Discovery Delays Again; Next Attempt Planned for Friday

Well, ladies and gentlemen, what do we have here?? Another delay for Discovery! The new date/time for launch is Friday, 3:04pm EDT. This most recent delay is for weather conditions. However, the Friday date is not set in stone, as NASA managers will meet early Friday morning to discuss whether conditions are fine for the launch. Personally I am happy with this most recent delay because if it had launched today, I could not have watched it! (I work basically all day on Thursdays.)

If you would like to watch Discovery launch when it does launch, go to this site: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html That's NASA TV, and you can watch the launch from there. :)

Anyway, thought you might like to know! Again, the new launch date and time is Friday, November 5, 3:04pm EDT. 


~Photobug

Discovery Waits On; New Launch Date of Thursday

Sooo...sorry I wasn't able to get on earlier today. As all of you probably know this by now, the shuttle Discovery didn't launch today. I guess there were some problems with something electrical while NASA was powering up the engines Tuesday. Something like that.

So. New launch date is: 3:29pm EDT, November 4. Which happens to be tomorrow, Thursday. Anyway, thought you might like to know. For all of those who can watch, it's going to be AWESOME!! I got to watch a launch (on the Internet) last year and it was waaaaaay cool. Again, if you're going to watch, here's the link to NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html Unfortunatly I will not be among those watching, as I am working during the afternoon. Right now I am hoping for another delay to Friday! ;)

~Photobug

Celebrating A Decade of the ISS

Guess what?? Today is the 10th anniversary of human habitation on the ISS, or International Space Station. Back on November 2, 2000, Expedition (flight, mission) #1 with Bill Shepherd and  crew boarded the ISS. Since then, there has been 26 Expeditions of several months in length on the ISS. Anyway, I thought it was really cool that the ISS was turning 10!! Learn more here about everything ISS and click here to learn about the different Expiditions aboard the ISS in the past 10 years. There's also a really cool video!! :) If you want to learn more about how NASA is celebrating a decade of the ISS, click here.

~Photobug

P.S.--This great photo of the ISS I got from nasaimages.org :)

A Subject I Almost MISSed, Part 1

FYI: As you may know I really enjoy reading books about space, namely the Apollo program. In this series, I will share with you some stories and titles of the space books I have read this school year. It is so long I will break it down into 5 parts, posting one per week. :) ~Photobug

Maybe it’s the adventure and excitement of going to another world. Or perhaps it’s the element of unknown. But anyways, the story of Project Apollo is one of my all-time favorites.

This past May I wrote an article describing the different space-related books I had read over the past 5 some months. And right here I’m going to do it again….I have not run out of books to read! ;)

In July I decided to see for myself what Apollo books our university library might have, as I had (thought) I had exhausted our public library’s Apollo books.

And what do you know? At our university library I find tons of space books I haven’t read yet…at least a dozen! So, one book at a time…

First I read Flight: My Life in Mission Control. It’s Chris Kraft’s autobiography. He was one of the main key guys when NASA just was getting started…like back in 1959. Kraft ended up being the flight director for Mercury and about half of Gemini. (The Flight Director was the main guy in Mission Control making all the decisions. Kraft entitled his book Flight because during a mission the flight director was referred to as “Flight”.) It was amazing to read about Mercury and Gemini, subjects I knew almost nothing about. Previously I had read only books on Apollo. Anyway, Flight was totally awesome…and 355 pages. :D

As you may know, I really like finding really cool or funny tidbits of information about the U.S. space program and then tell them to people I meet. I found quite the funny story in Flight. (I also found this story in the book Animals in Space.) Anyway, Kraft told of NASA employee Guenter Wendt and a relentless Congressman. This was in the days when NASA was sending chimpanzees into space before the astronauts. Anyway, among many there were two space chimps named Enos and Ham.