two things. first, i need some 3D glasses. i wonder if i could color saran wrap red and blue and make them myself… second, just ridiculously hot.
now that that’s out of the way…
i am ecstatic that the spirit rover landed successfully on mars, and i am anxiously awaiting color pictures (hopefully sometime today). if spirit had had problems landing, it would have a big effect on the 2009 mars science laboratory lander, the mission for which i’m now working on the entry guidance team. entry guidance! until this week, i don’t think i had really registered how huge and important an issue that is. good entry guidance = successful landing. bad entry guidance = lost in space forever. anyway. i am incredibly excited, and incredibly relieved, that spirit is there (on mars! good lord!) and sending back incredible pictures.
so this morning it is 34 degrees outside, and i swear this weather is going to kill me. not the 34 degree weather, and not the 80 degree weather, no, not either separately. but i can’t deal with the temperature dropping 50 degrees in 36 hours, then going back up in another 36. yesterday my throat was doing its telltale achy, scratchy, needles thing…and sure enough, today my throat feels fine, but my nose is slowly stuffing up. it’s how a typical sarah cold always progresses, so maybe the cold that has been threatening literally since the beginning of december is finally here. oh well, at least i can finally get over it. i have been gulping the orange juice.
because of the cold (temperature, not virus), i pulled a sweater out of the closet that i haven’t worn in, hmm, probably at least a year and a half, maybe two years. it’s a green lambswool cardigan from old navy. i bought it one of my last years at tech, probably, so it’s old, but not that old. however, when i went in to get coffee, george kindly pointed out to me that it has holes in it! on the back, and in the armpit, where i didn’t notice them this morning. i am so embarrassed! i have no idea what happened, other than something must have eaten it. rich says ants eat clothes, which i don’t know if i believe, but it certainly looks like something liked the taste of it.
colds are weird though. they make me uncomfortable, but usually not to the point where i want to stay home. last night for instance, despite the sore throat, i went climbing. i mean, i had to, i had new shoes and a new harness, and i couldn’t wait to use them! i’m happy to report that the harness is quite a bit more comfortable than the crappy rock gym harnesses. and the shoes, though stiff because of their newness, are going to be great. it’s funny–a lot of people at the gym have the same shoes, but you can tell that mine are new because mine are bright purple, while theirs have faded. i don’t know why rock shoes are so colorful. anyway, climbing was excellent. i am getting really close to climbing the yellow nemesis in one go (despite the fact that i swear they’ve moved the volcano hold about 6 inches from where it used to be). and last night they had the coolest thing–a list that finally had accurate route ratings for each rope. the yellow nemesis is a 5.9. the green on the other wall that i can do pretty easily now is also a 5.9. there’s a new blue 5.9 that i need to try. it’s nice to know what you’re climbing, and to use to list to determine what else you should be trying.
for anyone interested in structures, materials, or general engineering analysis, this is an interesting article in the new york times today about the analysis being done on the world trade center collapse, fire science, building construction, and more. i found it to be a really interesting article. things like this, and the fact that nasa can land a tiny robot on freaking mars, always remind me that there are some really smart people in the world.
