A blog a day

Sensuous and Godlike Trombone playing

2011-05-14T20:57:00.000-05:00

Well, It's definitely that time of the year: time when nearly-graduated High School seniors have or are applying for colleges and college scholarships. Here on the home front, one of our own is about a month away from his graduation. He has already been accepted to the local Junior College, where he'll get his basics behind him. He has also applied for a few scholarships. Of course, most

An interesting work week ...

2011-04-01T15:53:00.001-05:00

This week saw me on the "graveyard shift" in Mission Control. It was an interesting week. HTV2 The week started with the Japanese HTV2 vehicle departure. Since I worked the early shift, I was not there to see the departure, but it went as expected. The HTV2 Konoutori vehicle served us well. It was attached to the ISS twice as long as we had expected, and had been relocated twice before it

More NASA stuff, and assessing a potential career... as an Acronymologist?

2011-02-24T11:35:00.000-06:00

Well, As I type this, STS-133 is in its countdown to launch. The Space Station crew did manage to move the HTV to the Nadir (upward-pointing) port - and actually a bit ahead of schedule, so the STS-133 team can do its job. Earlier today, we docked the ATV-2 (launched by the European Space Agency from French Guiana) to one of the Russian docking ports, and later tonight, we will perform a

Work happenings this week (somewhat HTV-related, at least)

2011-02-12T13:20:00.000-06:00

This past week saw significant SPDM use. SPDM (also known as Dextre) is robotic equipment that was used to relocate external equipment from the Exposed Pallet (brought up to the ISS via the HTV) to the SPDM itself (temporarily). This link details a lot of the operations that were performed. Next week, the HTV will be relocated by the SSRMS, from the Nadir (lower) Node 2 port to the Zenith (

What I think about Obama's proposed NASA budget

2010-02-09T22:51:00.002-06:00

Let me answer by analogy ... I'm sure you can fill in the blanks. I now live in east Houston. I used to live in west Houston. It's no secret that I used to live in Dallas and I've traveled there before. I liked Dallas. Dallas is not a perfect place, but I think it's a good thing that I could prove that I could live there like I can live in Houston. Houston is also not a perfect place,

No wonder Google didn't get popular until this decade ...

2009-08-29T11:03:00.003-05:00

It took quite a while for its service to really take off. If it had been designed in 1960, it probably would have looked something like this ...H/T: Dane Carlson/Business Opportunities Weblog

Sometimes, it's just better NOT to kill the bug ...

2009-08-23T22:08:00.003-05:00

OK,So, this is kind of a lame post, but here it goes ...One day, I was at work and I went to the men's restroom. I noticed other people in the restroom, as I went into the stall to take care of personal business.As I was in the stall, I noticed a reasonably-sized bug just outside my stall area, in the adjacent stall. My first inclination was to stomp on the bug. Then, I thought the other people

2009-08-21T23:32:00.001-05:00

This is just a short text message that I'm spamming to twitter, facebook, & my blogsite simo, via ping.fm! Isn't technology great? Now I can spam like the big guys!

Lunar landing "hoax" - enough already!

2009-07-20T22:15:00.000-05:00

With the 40th anniversary of the 1st landing on the moon, you'd think that most folks would finally drop the lunar hoax conspiracy theory.If they did, I think I'd shout "Whooppie"!Or maybe I should just shout ... "Whoopi"?You see, Whoopi Goldberg did it again. On the July 20th taping of ABC's "The View", Whoopi insinuated that NASA faked the moon landings, based on the obviously fictional movie "

A face only a mother could love ....

2009-07-19T15:23:00.003-05:00

I had to have a bit of surgery on my forehead ... turned out, it was skin cancer. It was squamous, so it shouldn't be a serious issue, as long as I look after it.I managed to take 11 stitches, and I developed a nice shiner on my left eye."... but you should see the other guy!"- BobHere's a nice, semi-blurry picture of me from my blackberry.

"We Witness News" material

2009-07-16T23:30:00.003-05:00

Back in my Middle School and High School Daze, some friends and I put together a mock newscast for our Middle School and High School's talent show. We called it "We Witness News" ... as a parody of a local TV channel's newscast (Eyewitness News). We had all sorts of jokes, puns, and sight gags in the skit - folks loved it.Every once in a while, I come across some news story that's so funny, it

Time for a restart

2009-07-15T21:08:00.003-05:00

It's been too long since I've posted.Stay tuned ... more posts are coming!!!

An inspiring picture

2009-01-24T23:53:00.006-06:00

I saw this one in NASA's 2009 "Healthier You" Calendar (in October), and then later, through ProBlogger Blogging Tips.Either way, I think it's from Tyler Westcott, and I think it's inspirational. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

I really feel uninspired right now, but I think I know why ...

2008-10-20T16:07:00.002-05:00

It's the wrong time of day to be doing this - it's been scientifically proven.I'll try again in about 6 hours. But I won't blog from my shower or bathroom.Really.

Not understood - local Houston utility prices

2008-10-19T23:51:00.003-05:00

I'm the biggest advocate of de-regulation, and yes, energy prices have gone up (although not extremely lately), but even I can't understand why the prices are so high. This article from the Houston Business Journal in August tells us that we had the highest home utility bills in the nation. It compares Houston to Portland, which isn't a fair comparison at all in July. What it doesn't say is

Hurricane Ike ... Thanks for the memories

2008-10-16T09:33:00.008-05:00

It's been about a month since Hurricane Ike hit us. And while everyone in the Houston area certainly has not gotten completely back into their pre-Ike routine, there's still some funny memories from the MSM buildup for Ike.In closing, I'm left (and am leaving you) with three images for Ike. Then, I won't blog about Ike anymore. Really.1. Some dude in a bear outfit playing on the Galveston Seawall

Welcome back to the ISS, Mike Fincke!

2008-10-14T21:34:00.004-05:00

Work was great yesterday. I got to see the 17 Soyuz crew dock to the International Space Station, which they managed to do about 5 minutes ahead of schedule (and since I happen to manage and monitor that schedule, I should know ...).The 17 Soyuz crew consists of the new Expedition 18 Commander, Michael Fincke, as well as the Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov (who is also a veteran on

The experiment is over, and the results are in ...

2008-10-11T16:15:00.002-05:00

... Blogger is a better place to blog than the free version of wordpress (wordpress.com).I didn't realize this until I started blogging there. Blogger seems to have quite a bit more flexibility in what I can add to the site than the free version of wordpress.Any other bloggers out there agree with me ... or have a different opinion? LEt me know in the comments.BTW - I've decided to repost all

Alt.energy roundup: Wind power

2008-10-05T15:44:00.001-05:00

As I’d mentioned earlier, Texas is actually an early adopter of wind power (and my school’s positioning itself well). Now comes news out of Norway that they are looking to build a floating wind turbine there. Also, CNN says that T. Boone Pickens is looking to get into wind energy as well.However, look before you leap in investing in wind energy. FuturePundit reports that wind turbine costs

The best space news last week

2008-10-02T15:43:00.003-05:00

I personally think we had great news from the “space biz” last week. It wasn’t the Chinese mission (although that was good). It wasn’t the ATV reentry (although that was good, too) It’s not even the funding that Congress & the President will provide for more Soyuz vehicles (which was needed - but they probably held their noses while they signed, given the political tension with Russia

Catching up: My Mom and Dad’s 50th

2008-10-01T15:43:00.001-05:00

August 30, 2008 - what a day! It was a day my parents probably thought never would happen. And it was a day we were looking forward to with a little bit of fear, due to my Dad’s Alzheimers. But … we had it! And it was fun - even my Dad agreed. We had a mass for my parents. (Well, OK, I’m stretching the truth a little bit. It was the standard 5:00 Saturday mass.) But it was also the exact date

TeenACTS retreat -July

2008-09-30T15:42:00.001-05:00

This past year, I was fortunate enough to go on two ACTS retreats - one as a retreatant, and one as a “retreatee”. My wife was also fortunate enough to do the same thing (men and women go on separate retreats).“ACTS” is an acronym which stands for Adoration, Community, Theology, and Service. An ACTS activity typically consists of a weekend retreat where retreatants engage in discussions,

The backlog

2008-09-28T15:42:00.001-05:00

Posted by rjmccormi on September 28, 2008 Sorry about not posting more frequently. The next few blog entries will be about some things that have happened in my life over the last several months. Don’t worry - it is mostly good news. I’ve just been waiting for the right time to blog about it. So, with those “teaser” statements, get ready for some good stuff!

Ike - finale

2008-09-28T15:31:00.002-05:00

Well, We are more-or-less settled back into our house since Ike. We lost all of our refrigerated food (and probably our freezer in the garage … it still reeks after being treated), as well as quite a few tree limbs. The tree limbs and rotten food have been removed, and we have power restored to our house. However, I finally got the chance to drive down parts of Todville road in Seabrook - very

I'm outta here!

2008-09-25T20:59:00.001-05:00

Well,More precisely, I won't be updating this particular blog anymore. Instead, I've moved to WordPress!You can find my new, hopefully-improved blog at http://mcc0rmick.wordpress.com/.See you there! - Bob