Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 21:31:58 -0700
Subject: The 'Don' of a New Era: 7/9/97
I've got a special treat for y'all tonight. I've never made any of my jounal public, but I feel like it tonight. The following is an excerpt from the July 9, 1997 (yesterday) entry of "The Journal of Donald T Olinger: The 'Don' of a New Era, Volume 1". Since the beginning of college, I have filled seven notebooks ('volumes') with journal and I've almost complete an eigth. "The 'Don' of a New Era" is intended to start where the "Journal of Donald T Olinger: The College Years" left off. There is no intended audience and I write intending for it only to be read by me. So sit back and enjoy this journey into the world of Don.
"7/9(10)/97 Wed (Thur) 12:11 AM
So what did I do today? I ran into CD-ROM problems. Some how, I had lost my driver and Win95 and DOS didn't recognize it. I also worked on organizing a tour of the KAO (Kuiper Airborne Observatory). I talked to numerous people. I tried doing many things at once. That's the kind of environment I like. Tonight, we had a meeting with Doug. Pat gave his review of the week. We also talked about a group project. I like the idea of the dream one [studying astronaut's dreams]. So do the rest of them. I spend a great deal of time today recovering from yesterday's frustration; I did not remain positive through the whole day. I did have some low points, but I recovered. Bob [PI] was great today. Mike Haas, the systems administrator for Bob's dept. told me I had a 4-year dedree in cs. I should be able to figure my problem out. Bob said don't worry. He didn't mean it. Interesting fellow, Bob. Better get some sleep. Thank you Lord. Amen. Donald T Olinger 12:30 AM "
Now on to the e-mail update for today.
We had four guest speakers today, including the president of the SETI Institute (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). They talked on a variety of different topics. We had one in the morning and three back to back in the afternnon. All presentation were an hour and a half and were taped. They will appear on the web shortly. They were all interesting. We had a tough time staying awake because of the dark auditorium and comfortable seats. We also talked about the group project -looks like an astronaut dream study is going to be the one we do. I'll give you more later. Tonight we're just chilling.
Tomorrow, we see a screening of Contact in the morning with the SETI people and thenleave for Tahoe in the after noon. Doug, the director, owns a condo up there so we're going to hang with him and convince him to spend some money on us, which he is more than happy to do. On Monday, we have a conference we will be attending (ICES - what ever that is). It has a lot of good presentations. Our group was going to give a presentation, but we cancelled because a few others on the panel with us cancelled. Needless to say, we have no task but to attend the conference. We are skipping out a day early. Next Thursday, the Dryden Academy comes for the weekend. We give them a tour of Ames on that Friday. Then we go camping over the weekend (I think Saturday night). Should be a fun week.
Since we'll be in Tahoe the next few days, I'll probably not e-mail until about Tuesday. So until then, take care. Hope all's going well in the Pacific Northwest (ie Big Sky and Wash).
One more announcement. I got my resume on the Mac tonight. I've decided to apply to Boeing in Seattle. I will be sending in my resume (the preliminary step) just as soon as I can get around to doing it. They want it send via e-mail so they can scan it. That's the tricky part. I'll keep you posted.
Have a great weekend. Getting real home sick for Montana and real tired of California. Talk to ya when I get back. —Don