This afternoon I had signed up to volunteer at a robot competition out at the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a.k.a. big freaking astronaut swimming pool). Becca and I showed up at 1:00 only to find that there were actually more volunteers than needed, and we were just standing around making sure people were wearing safety goggles and had closed-toed shoes. I know this is a necessary function, but do you need 8 people to do it? No. We asked if there was anything else to help with, and they didn’t have anything. So, feeling only slightly guilty, I asked if it would be ok for me to go back to my office. They said sure, so here I am, about to finish up a brief analysis and watching the phone hope hope hoping that my potential angel from Langley will call me and tell me that my Monte Carlo sim is set up and ready to go. Hope hope hoping.
This has been a crazy busy week. It never fails that just as I am about to leave on vacation, I find a pile of work that needs to be done before I leave. However, I won’t complain too much because it feels good to be busy for the first time in a while. Really good. And I am in a much better mood than this time last week when I was still arguing with the Stardust simulation.
Yesterday afternoon I gave a presentation to all of my management as well as a fair number of my peers about the Mars work that I am currently doing. It was part of a new thing my division and our contractor counterparts are starting, an “educational engineering exchange” where people present different things that they’re working on just so everyone can get a better idea of what’s going on across our large organization. It’s a cool idea, even though after yesterday I think there are a few kinks to work out. I volunteered to present because 1) I thought it was going to be at the end of July and thus would be good practice for the conference I hope to go to in August and 2) because I figured “why not just be a guinea pig?”
It went pretty well, and I enjoyed the ego trip I got by realizing that as much as I might complain about my job, I am actually working on way cooler stuff than others. At least in my opinion. 😉 The project I presented, in one sentence, is: using neural networks to determine whether a Mars precision lander is on a trajectory that will crash or not, and if it is going to crash, call an abort such that the lander can be saved by sacrificing landing target accuracy. It is a really interesting project even though I have been lazy thus far about taking it to the next level.
The pitch went fairly well. I haven’t given it enough yet to really have the routine down, and since neural networks aren’t the easiest concept to pick up in the span of 3 minutes, I’m not sure how well I really got the message across. I felt rather tongue-tied. But most people said it went fine, and last night as Jen, Becca, Cari and I ate at Mely’s, a man I didn’t recognize actually came up to our table and said “I really enjoyed your presentation this afternoon.” So that was random and surprising and nice.
For volunteering to present at the first of these meetings, my branch chief decided to give me a K-88 award (i.e. I get to use his reserved parking spot, K-88, for a week; minor thing, but nice all the same).
Last night I had softball and the game was totally bizarre. It was the weirdest game I personally have ever had. First of all, I was alternating between catcher and first base and I had the hardest time, you know, catching the ball. I missed so many balls I should have caught. Second, I walked three times. I never walk because I’m really bad at judging the ball so I usually just swing away. But I walked three times. On my third time up, Russ (the ump) even gave me an extra pitch in an attempt to let me hit a ball, but the pitch was wide. For some reason, the girl just couldn’t pitch a strike to me, so I went 0-for-0 with a run scored. Bizarre stat line.
Finally, after my second walk, I got caught in a run-down between second and third. Nick (not Saadah) had hit the ball and it went to the center fielder, so I stopped at second thinking he would throw to second. He threw home instead, but I stayed at second because I didn’t have time to make it to third. THEN I turned around to see Nick basically on top of me. He just hadn’t seen me at second base, and had kept running. So he ran back towards first, and I thought they tagged him out, so I started walking toward the dugout (would’ve been the third out), but then I guess they hadn’t tagged him out, so I started running to get to third, but the ball got there first. It was a very bizarre play, aided by the fact that Jason, third base coach extraordinaire, just sorta stood there dumbfounded. 😉
Tonight I stupidly said I’d play soccer as a sub for my coed team, so not only do I have to go out instead of packing to go home tomorrow, but I also have to play soccer in the FRIKKIN HOT weather. It is really disgusting humid and hot outside. The heat index at 2:00 was 104. And it’s only June.
My potential angel from Langley had not called me back yet. 🙁
