Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 00:44:20 -0700
Subject: The Weeks Activities
Hello to all. Sorry about taking so long to get another e-mail out. It's been over a week -I know. Things have just been so hectic around here that I haven't been able to get on the computer and send one. Let's go through the days.
LAST FRIDAY: We got up, ate breakfast at ARC cafeteria and then went to see a screening of Contact at around 8:30 (movie started at 9 or 9:30) at a 16 plex digtal theater. I liked Contact. I highly recommend it to all. It's on my top five of all time. After Contact, we went back to ARC for lunch, hung around there for a few minutes for people to go to a meeting, and then headed for Tahoe around 2:00 or so. We got to Tahoe City around 7:30 or so and ate at a nice restaurant called Jakes. We then went back to Doug's condo, where we were staying (the gals had the neighbor's condo and the guys stayed in Doug's) and went out walking. You can really see the stars from his place. Very beautiful.
SATURDAY: They really worked us hard on Saturday. We got up, ate breakfast, and then went out on Doug's (director) boat. We relaxed the rest of the day, having a nice BBQ at night.
SUNDAY: Some times you just got to break loose and go swimming with all of your clothes on (jeans and shirt), climb up to 8300 feet, eat a piece of Hula pie followed by a whole pizza, and sing the Montana state song. I did all of those that day - no kidding. On the way back from brunch at Sunnyside, a few people went skiing in Doug's boat. I went with. On the way back to the condo (on the lake), the other two decided to go swimming since they were wet already. I decided to go and see where the pool was. Then i decided to dip the legs in. That felt so good that I jumped straight in. A short while after getting dry from that, we went hiking way up. It was a rough hike. Tahoe's at about 6000 feet. Breathing was rough. I made it to the top, stopping every 200 or 300 yards to catch my breath. After the hike, we stopped at Sunnyside for some food. I wasn't hungry so I went with a slice of Hula pie, which is the unofficial food of the 1997 Ames Astrobiology Academy. It has an oreo crust, Macadamean nut ice cream in the middle, and chocolate on top - real good. Then we got back to the condo and went to dinner in Tahoe city. There's where I had the pizza. After dinner, we headed to the other side of the lake to South Lake Tahoe. We stayed at Harvey's Resort Casino/Hotel. It was not even two blocks on the Nevada side of the border.
MONDAY: We basically went to the ICES (Internation Conference on Environmental Systems). This conference did not have quite the caliber of speakers taht Planetfest did, but it was still a good conference. I liked this one better because it concentrated on keeping humans alive as they journey through air and space. That night was casino night. I hit the arcade since I'm not much into gambling. Ate at Planet Hollywood for dinner and a nice buffet for lunch.
TUESDAY: Attended ICES in the morning. Had luch at the buffet. Headed home with Doug in his BMW and with another RA. We had a nice conversation and stopped at a clothing outlet on the way for some new dress clothes. After we got home, I made some phone calls and worked on downloading some web software to allow us to make web pages without typing in the html code - this means I won't have to taach them html.
WEDNESDAY: Group project day. All we did was work on organizing the group project. Some of us also made final arrangements for the Dryden Academy Underground Tour. We made some progress on the project, but not a whole lot. That night, I messed up my PI's laptop computer again by deleting a partition that I though was useless. This messed up the whole system and disabled me fromgetting anything to boot. I also started on my own home page. It is on the web but there isn't much. The url is: http://www.mcn.net/~dolinger. I sent in my resume to Boeing that night via e-mail. The ball is now in their court.
THURSDAY: PI day in the morning. I managed to get Linux back on the computer by snaking into the system via the back door and using fdisk to change the settings to allow me to get Linux going. I also figured out that the software he wants installed (Tex and LaTex) is already on there. He got mad at the little incident about deleting the partition, but he was more mad at how the academy is running. He's going to talk to Doug. Doug'll put him straight!!! At noon, I did the usual lunch at ARC cafeteria, and then we took off for Stanford. About six of us Ames RAs met the Dryden Academy at Stanford for a one building tour. We got to see (in order): a model plane lab, a robotics lab, an underwater lab, and satellites being assembled. Impressive, especially for a college!! That night, two Ames RAs, Doug, another staff member went with the Dryden Academy for dinner on Pier 39 in San Fran. We were there until 10. When we got back, I got back Win 95 by recreating the original partition table and sneaking in again.
TODAY: This was the day the Ames academy gave the Dryden acadmy an underground (student organized) tour of Ames Research Center (ARC). We started by Dave Morrison, Director of Space at ARC, discussing what Astrobiology is (the study of the living universe). We then went on the tour. We went to these sites, in order: Space Station Mock Up, Twelve Ft Wind Tunnel, Kuiper Airborne Observatory (organized by me - we got inside the plane), Educational/Elementary exploration center, lunch. Right before lunch, we got to walk by the 40x80x120 wind tunnel, which had its doors open. After lunch at ARC Cafeteria, we went to see the VMS (vertical motion simulator), which we had already been in, but Dryden had not. Then we went to see anther wind tunnel where they tested the Mars Pathfinder.; Then we had a speaker on high speed tranisit. Then Doug, our director, an expert in his own right, gave a presentation on the space exploration initiative. He had a lot of neat stuff to say about the next "big step for mankind". He advocates a lunar base before a manned mission to Mars. He also talked about the politics involved. We had dinner at his place tonight. Now we're with Dryden back at the French House where we're staying.
That's about it for the update. I tried to summarize as best I could, but I still left a great deal of the fun and excitement out. I'm still having the time of my life. Getting some great pictures that I'm anxious to share with you when I get back. Hopefully I'll e-mail you again before long.
The plan for the next few days is:
Go camping with Dryden Academy tomorrow and tomorrow night
PI work Mon - Wed
Leave for Reno on Wed for a conference or some thing at the Desert Research
Insitute and possible have dinner or lunch with the Nevada governor.
Go to Doug's condo again that weekend
Head for LA the following Thurday and meet Dryden again as well as go to
Disneyland (with them). After that, who knows..
I'll e-mail after I get back from camping Sunday night. Until then, hope Big Sky Land is doing good. Now get out and see Contact if you haven't already. It is well worth your while.
Don Olinger
Mail Stop 245-1
Nasa Ames Research Center
Moffet Field, CA 94305-1000