More Ramblings

Don't really have time to write out a thoughtful, well-conceived post. So here's a few random takes...

- Space Shuttle Columbia. Here are the crew members and a short description, from the memorial service on Tuesday:
Air Force Col. Rick D. Husband, shuttle commander, 45, was "a boy of four when he first thought of being an astronaut. As a man and astronaut, he found it was even more important to love his family and serve his Lord."
Columbia pilot William C. McCool, 41, known by friends "as the most steady and dependable of men."
Ilan Ramon, 48, the much-decorated Israeli air force colonel and hero, "was a patriot, the devoted son of a Holocaust survivor, served his country in two wars."
Navy flight surgeon David Brown, 46, thought of astronauts as a boy as "movie stars" and "grew up to be a physician, an aviator who could land on the deck of a carrier in the night and a shuttle astronaut."
Navy flight surgeon Laurel Clark, 41, "a physician and a flight surgeon who loved adventure, loved her work, loved her husband and her son. A friend who heard Laurel speaking to mission control said, 'There was a smile in her voice'."
Payload commander Michael P. Anderson, 43, was "a role model, especially for his two daughters and for the many children he spoke to in schools" who once told his minister, "If this thing doesn't come out right, don't worry about me, I'm just going on higher."
Mission specialist Kalpana Chawla, 41, "She left India as a student, but she would see the nation of her birth, all of it, from hundreds of miles above."

- SITC reunion

A few Saturdays ago, got together in SF with some of my old teammates from Summer In the City, New York. Several of those people I haven't seen in a long, long time... it was cool to catch up. We had dinner at The Stinking Rose (I was actually kinda disappointed... the portions are rather small, though fairly tasty), then walked around for a while and then sat down in a cafe to talk. To describe the evening, here's an (edited) snippet of an IM conversation I had with Drew Hyun (who was also on the team, and has a blog - that he needs to update more! - linked from this page):

Drew (10:10:10 AM): hey bob how was the sitc reunion?
Bob (10:13:08 AM): 'twas fun
Bob (10:13:29 AM): saw Mark, Jane, Kai, Meg, and Jen Cooper
Drew (10:13:37 AM): sweet
Drew (10:13:41 AM): how they all doin?
Bob (10:13:45 AM): let's see...
Bob (10:14:09 AM): Mark is starting to feel old since he's a grad student on campus and most of his undergrad community is graduated
Bob (10:14:25 AM): Jane's moved back down to South Bay and is working at a children's education center, and helping to set up a young adult fellowship at her church
Bob (10:14:40 AM): Kai is interning in CA and wants to stay here and not go back to Texas
Bob (10:14:53 AM): Meg and Jen are both super seniors
Drew (10:15:45 AM): sweet
Bob (10:19:26 AM): I think I've been away from school long enough to the point where it was kinda unexpected/neat to hear Meg and Jen talking excitedly about campus ministry
Drew (10:19:40 AM): haha nice.
Drew (10:19:50 AM): whoa... it was a long time ago for us eh?
Bob (10:22:16 AM): yes indeedy
Bob (10:22:28 AM): I guess b/c my focus has been workplace/youth for a while
Bob (10:22:40 AM): so it was a bit odd to hear the word "campus" again
Bob (10:22:41 AM): heheh
Drew (10:23:02 AM): yeah
Bob (10:23:56 AM): Kai changed his haircut
Drew (10:24:07 AM): really?
Drew (10:24:14 AM): what is it like now?
Bob (10:24:45 AM): before it was kinda short and poofy, right?
Bob (10:25:04 AM): now it's shorter and combed straight
Drew (10:25:04 AM): yeah
Bob (10:25:06 AM): more slick
Bob (10:25:09 AM): he wears glasses too

That summer was a huge influence in my life... even though I inexplicably forgot some people's names as we looked through some pics that evening (I'm getting old!), the entire experience has both helped shape my worldview and has become a large part of my witness. Seriously, I've had the opportunity to share so much from that summer just because I can say when and why I was in New York. I think we're having a project mini-reunion at someone's wedding this year... in IOWA... gonna see if I can make it :). Iowa baby! "Hey look, corn!"

- Super Bowl - eh. Not even close. And the commercials were generally underwhelming as well.

- The new direction of Alias

I'll admit, the whole "SD-6 has this mission, this is your counter-mission" thing was getting a bit old, but the real intrigue in being a double agent was keeping that identity secret, in my opinion. Sydney keeping Dixon in the dark, the tension when interacting with Sloane... I'll miss all that, I think. I'll be interested in finding out what direction the writers take the show, but I hope they don't completely ditch the plot complexity from Season 1 (Rambaldi, prophecy, etc.) in the name of emotional drama between Sydney and Vaughn... cuz then it'd just be Dawson's Creek with guns.

On a related note, I've heard good things about the show "24"... my bro has the season 1 DVD, perhaps I'll start watching sometime.

- NBA All-Star Game
JRich can only jump off two feet, which works for dunk contests, but no so well in games. But the catch-between-the-legs-backwards-with-the-left-hand finale to the dunk contest on Sat was pretty darn cool. I liked the skills competition... every other sport has a skills competition at their All-star games (NHL - skating/slap shots, NFL - QB accuracy, defensive player speed), and it's kinda neat to see which NBA players got the fundamentals down. Throwing passes through buckets, hitting mid-range jumpers...

I think a worthy addition to All-Star Saturday would be a game of HORSE. You just know that guys like Paul Pierce have crazy range... and wouldn't it be fun to watch NBA players shooting from beyond half court, from the stands, left-handed, over the backboard, etc.? How many 3-ptrs could you hit in a row with your off hand?

The game itself... eh. They shoulda played Yao more.

- Spring?

It's been unseasonably warm the past week and a half or so. Mid-60s during the day... the trees outside the window of my office are already blossoming. This is why people pay the big bucks to live in California...

To come... the aforementioned 2002 reflections... some comments about what Mark calls the "angst generation"... and whatever else that comes to mind, when I can relax some from work...