Sunday, December 2, 2007

Shuttle Atlantis STS 122




Shuttle Atlantis has been given the green light to launch Thursday December 6th. at 4:31pm EST. STS 122 main mission is to install the the European Columbus space laboratory onto the newly installed Harmony Node 2 on the International Space Station. NASA's website has had a cool makeover, very user friendly and aesthetically pleasing to the eye, check it out, has something for everyone, even the kids.

Anna over at My Only Photo tagged me with "Proudest Moment Of My Life". I have been tagged numerous times but being the introvert I am have not followed through with any of them. I am going to do something different this time, the last 3 tags I have received this week I will group in this post.


The proudest moment of my life besides being married of course was holding my new born baby girls in my arms for the first time, I was in the operating room for both procedures, very surrealistic, one moment they were in their mother's body, the next thing I knew I was holding a living breathing being in my arms, to this day I am proud of the fine young ladies that they have become.

DrowseyMonkey over at DrowseyMonkey has tagged me with name 5-10 courses you would like to take to improve your life and then one you would like to take with the person that tagged you.

1. A University course in Astronomy, I would love to learn more of the technical aspects and theory of the cosmos, also to help me sound more professional when I post about astrostuff.

2. Computer Science/networking, so I could be a computer IT guy, I just want to say to somebody over the phone, "is it plugged in?"

3. Automotive repair 101. lets face it wouldn't it be nice to be able to fix your car or at least do more then check that the battery cables aren't loose when your car doesn't start.

4. Photo shop, there is so much in this software that I would like to know how to use besides the saturation and contrast features.

5. Creative Writing, so I don't sound like a caveman when I do work memos or blog posts.

The last part of the tag is to pick a course you'd like to take with the person that tagged you, that would be the astronomy course, no particular reason for that choice other then the fact I love to share the wonders of the Universe and I think drowseymonkey would like that pick.

The last tag came from Tatiana from Totally- Useless, list 7 random or weird facts about yourself and tag 7 others.

1. I've just found out that I use "your" instead of "you're" when writing, spellcheck of course doesn't pick it up, and when I proof read my brain doesn't see it as a problem, I'm sure you will find lots of stuff like that in my posts with other words I shouldn't be using, see point 5 above.

2.I'm the only guy I know my age that loves video games. Right now I have a fake steering wheel, fake orange gun and fake guitar that I play more then my real one.





3. People who have monotone voices make me sleepy and bored.


4. Can't stand the sight of blood, or medical diagrams/pictures, you know the ones that show the muscles and veins and organs, get wheezy just thinking about it. I was getting an eye exam and the doctor had a medical diagram and was explaining the procedure he was going to perform, talked in a slow monotone voice naming all the various parts of the eye, I thought great I am stuck looking at this diagram and getting queasy, my only hope is he puts me to sleep before I pass out, too late the next thing I knew they were asking me if I was okay and if I would like some water, geez I hate when that happens.

5. I hate big giant books with no pictures.


6. I sing and play my real guitar really loud when no one's home.


7. My 2 most prized possessions are a couple of Christmas song singing dummies called Bing and Dean.


Because it is that time of year, and everybody is probably busy shopping and getting ready for Christmas I will put off the tagging other people part for a later TBA date. I'll leave you now with a pic of my fav singing dummies.


32 comments:

MYM said...

LOL - too funny. Hey I'd take that astronomy class with you...I could cheat from you during tests! :) Oh, and it would be fun just to hang out with you of course.

I'm with you on the blood & medical diagram thing...omg...I'm a fainter.

A very good list...you sound like a great guy...like we didn't know that already!

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks drowseymonkey and lol about the cheating, I hope (your) better at the esay questions, then I could cheat from you on that part.

Livingsword said...

Hi Bob;

Nice to meet you…and hello from Vancouver!

Cool article you certainly covered a lot of territory in a very interesting and readable way. You don’t sound at all like a caveman…but that may be an interesting approach to try the next time you do a space/technology article!!! Good practice at creative writing! LOL

I have bookmarked you for future visits.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks livingsword, nice to meet you as well, you have some great blogs, notice you have both Star Trek and BSG links on your site, very cool!

Anonymous said...

Cute dummies lol and what a lovely moment you have shared with us.

Rose
http://rosedesrochers.todays-woman.net/

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Rose, yeah they're pretty cute, everybody seems to like them, good conversation starters.

Shirley Twofeathers said...

What a fun post that was! You made me smile more than once. Thank you!

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Shirley, and your welcome, it wasn't as painful as I thought it might be,lol.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful post Bob. Nice insight!
Ummm, you don't sound like a caveman, far from it ... and I'm probably older than you and love playing Dungeon Siege :-) You've got company! Get the coffee out :-)
~JD

kml said...

Hi Bob - the dummies are a riot - if they could only see themselves now! I loved your post - glad you came out of your shell to share with us - your sense of humor is great!

Don't change anything about your writing - you make it easy for us to understand all that challenging space jargon.

Bob Johnson said...

Hi And thanks JD, too bad you don't live hear for the coffee and video games. :)

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks Kathy!, Bing and Dean are even more cool in person, they each sing about 4 songs, it's a riot watching them move their mouths and mikes.

Peter said...

Hi! I don't know how old you are but I'm 51 and I love video games. That's where my son comes in handy because he knows how to connect all the leads. Great post and Great Christmas Tree, as well!

Regards
Peter

Bob Johnson said...

Hi and thanks Peter, 52 going on 22lol,

tatyveli said...

Hehehe Bob, I found your 7 weird facts so funny, especially the monotone voices making you sleepy :)... and I would have replied earlier if it wasn't for the fact that all of a sudden I am unable to comment on Blogger blogs while using my own site and name, but HAVE to use google/blogger ID, which I hate since I don't use these ever :( is there a possibility to change this on your end? Or is it something on my end?
See on my blog in a few hours from now as there is a new Award for you ;) have a great week ahead my friend!
Tatiana

Bob Johnson said...

Hi and thanks Tatiana, the new comment format just happened a few days ago, it is a massive blogger roll out and I say a mistake on their part.

Anonymous said...

Hi Bob! When I was in college, I took an astronomy class for just that reason. Problem was that it was basically just a physics class, nothing that I was expecting. I hated the class, but still managed to keep my interest in the sky. Now I sometimes actually read books on physics out of interest and wish I had worked harder in that class years ago.

I see you are a victim of the Google mess I wrote about on my site. Not being a Blogspot user with a Google account, I can now only post with a nickname or anonymously. Can't link to the real me!

Shame on Google!

-Will

Anonymous said...

Tatiana: I can't view your profile to send you a message, but if you do get back here, this is the reason for the changes you noticed and disliked. You will have to copy and paste the link into your browser address fields to get there, though, as Google is trying to limit access to Blogger blogs only to people who use blogger and have a Google account.

If you have any questions after reading about the mess, just comment on my article and I'll try to answer. The main thing is that ALL bloggers, whether on Blogspot or not, need to make as BIG a stink as possible to get Google to change this!

-Will

http://willtaft.com/blog/

.

Anonymous said...

So honey, which website if you could name it.

I've got no idea wad you mean. seriously. out of the blue, you accuse me of that. that is absurd, no?

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Will, I know some people who know some people, lol, who have taken the university course, seems they liked it, and they have pretty good scopes they use at a dark site just out of town, I think it is better though if you have some practical experience first then I think a guy would appreciated the theory more, make sense? And it sucks what Google did!

EastPAWZ said...

Loved this Post Bob lol. you are a big Kid, I'm sure your kids loved that.
I like looking at the pictures in your blog.
I give you two thumbs up for being a gamer :)
You don't sound like a caveman, you write very well. Keep it up!
Peace...until later.

Swubird said...

Bob:

I took astronomy when I was in college, and I can tell you this: Your posts sound very professional. All the astronomy classes in the world can't compete with a guy in his backyard with a 10-inch tube, and a passion for the stars! You've got it, so keep up the good work

Bob Johnson said...

Zawadi, from one gamer to another I thank you.

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks swubird!, I do love this stuff and I hope it comes across as such.

myonlyphoto said...

Oh Bob you are so funny. I think I will have to write you this time some more to comment back on some of the things you wrote. So about the proudest moments of your life, I am not surprised, marriage and children are always on the list.

That is lot of courses to take to improve life, I guess having lot of pressure at university, I prefer to teach my self, first, and then when I am desperate, may be I will take the course, lol.

Bob please do not change, your posts are already professional with humor added. I couldn't stand another technical articles.
Photoshop is easy, just go through all features and see what they can do. Also play with layers your life will be much easier.
Bob you sounding like a caveman, give me a break, and if you are caveman then what am I, lol?

Bob, that is some real weird stuff about you. About video games, does not sound so bad for man, but for woman one day it will be funny, because my generation plays video games, and just imagine us bunch of 80 year old woman playing games, lol.

'I sing and play my real guitar really loud when no one's home' - can you make a youtube video and showcase one day, lol.

Great post Bob, really enjoyed reading it, love the humor.

Anna :)

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks for the beautiful comment Anna, About the utube video, you read the part about me being an introvert? lol, the video games I'll be playing way past 80, maybe then everyone will be playing.

Lynda Lehmann said...

What fun to get to know a little about you, Bob!

No need to worry about not sounding professional on your blog. You are so well versed on your subject and so dedicated that your excitement comes across an d is very inspiring. I don't think anyone is focused on the occasional grammatical snafu.

My husband is also a fainter! He can watch the worst darned violence on TV and not mind a bit, but walk him through the entrance of a hospital lobby, and get ready to play "catch!"

I can't believe it's 20 degrees below where you are. No wonder you don't love winter!

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Lynda, and thanks about the writing compliment, it has always stopped me from getting into blogging but I thought I'd give it a go and hope for the best, I just have to get this stuff out to people because it is so cool, hopefully some of it rubs off onto my readers. We have long cold winters here, thank the lord for Christmas,lol.

Lynda Lehmann said...

I'm glad you took the plunge, Bob. You bring the stars to us. I really know nothing about the skies and you provide us with a lot of awesome photos and information.

As for winter, I guess it's even harder to endure up where you are. Thank goodness for the video games and real and fake guitars and those singing statues to keep you busy!

Bob Johnson said...

Thanks again Lynda, your right I get very good at video games over the winter months, lol

Mike said...

Hello Bob! I still play video games. Well I got the PSP. I play Warcraft 3 online and Chess on chessbase.

I am even worse though. I love cartoons. For Christmas I am getting DVD's of Looney Tunes and The Flintstones. I love all of them still.

Bob Johnson said...

Hi Mike, use to have the psp, I like cartoons as well, watching Charlie Brown Christmas tonight, yeah it's a classic.