Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 22:56:33 -0700
Subject: August 19 - 21: Another 'painful' update
Howdy. Time for another painful update. Hopefully this one will be short, but they never are - sorry.
TUESDAY Aug 19:
Another PI day. Nuff said. I tried to get some stuff done in Linux a bunch of differnt ways but no success. The PI and I just don't click some times. That night was a relaxing night. Went to the airport to pick up new plane ticket and pay the money.
WEDNESDAY Aug 20:
In the morning, I worked on documumentation for my computer work. In the afternoon, I had a 2 1/2 hour meeting with Bob to teach him a little more about using his laptop. This included such basics as putting a floppy in the disk drive and inserting the battery - simple things, but necessities. That night, we had a 2 1/2 group meeting to make sure that everybody was on the same track on the group project. Right now, the project outlook is not looking so good. We got rejected by one key lady that needed to approve us. The reason was that they were not allowing any more "CoIs" to the project than there already are and we didn't go through "peer scientific review". We are definitely learning a lesson about bueracracy with this flight project. We are going to keep trying various avenues to get the project approved. There's still a few cards in our hand. We began testing the dream questionairre out on ourselves last night. We will be doing this for about a week to get more of a feel for the questions and the type of data we will be getting.
THURSDAY (today) Aug 21:
This morning, we had a meeting with a policy advisor working at Ames to discuss a variety of issues. We talked about the Space Act, which I wrote a paper on for history and my family was so gracious to e-mail me today - thanks a bundle Luci and Dad. We also talked about power and other aspects of NASA. We ended by having a one hour discussion on the group flight experiment and asking this lady the best way to get that approval and who we need to ask and what ways around this we have. She was very helpful. We've got enough contacts that we can make this thing work. That discussion (10-12) was the only scheduled thing today. Some had lunch with Bob Zubrin, author of Case for Mars, while some of us (including me) ate at Ames. The Ames gift shop was the first stop after lunch. Little disappointed in it. Hope nobody was expecting NASA gifts because given the quality of the gift shop, it's probably not going to happen. Sorry about that. Then, this afternoon, we went to Xerox to hear Bob Zubrin talk again. Most of the group had his book already, but I bought it and he signed it for me. Tonight was nothing big - relaxer.
We bought Melatonin tonight. Since it is part of our experiment, a few of us have agreed to start taking it or a control pill (placebo) each night. We will take a pill, but we will not know which one it will be. I some how got roped into this. Taking the drugs man!!!!! :-) Don't know when or if that's going to start. Should be interesting.
That's pretty much it. As you can tell, the academy is pretty much winding down. There's still ots of work to do, but we aren't doing as much fun and exciting stuff as we were doing. Lot more free time, which should be spent on work but is not due to the constant feeling for the need for relaxation and the constant desire to goof off. Only one week left. In this week, we must finish up on our PI project or get as much done as we can on them, prepare and give twenty minute final presentations, and of course, pack. It promises to be a fun week. In addition, I'm in charge of next week's weekly summary, which I would like done by Friday so I can read it. I'm going to miss the group - we're one big happy family, but I'm going to be glad to get back to Montana - home of the best football team in NCAA Division 1AA. It's going to be tough to say good bye. It's been tons of fun living with some of the brightest students in America, if not the world. That alone is a luxury that I'm glad I had the opportunity to partake of.
Well, I suppose I better go before this message gets any longer. I told you it would be long. I have no control over these things. Anyway, keep the country up North warm for me. I don't want to do this thirty degree junk as soon as I get home. Okay? Hopefully update you once or twice more. Later.
Don Olinger
Research Associate
1997 NASA Ames Astrobiology Academy