… the BA family moved out of California. I had forgotten, but the Little Astronomer reminded me when I got her up a little while ago.
It’s been an interesting year, but probably not quite yet time to reminisce. For one thing, we have a Mars mission landing today! And for another I think it would make more sense to ponder the last 366 days on the anniversary of arriving here in Boulder, and that’s not until the 28th. So maybe then.
Today though I’ll be doing the video chat at 3:00 p.m., so around 13:00 or 14:00 Mountain time (19 or 20 UT) I’ll have up the usual page with the feed embedded. I may cut it off early if things start heating up with Phoenix. See you then! [Edited to add: Emily, who is at JPL, will be doing a half-hour chat starting at 20:30 UT, a half hour before mine! So that works out perfectly. I’m sure she’ll have Phoenix news worth getting. I’ll be listening for sure.]
Oh, I almost forgot: Phoenix isn’t the only thing making a long fall today: so is Michel Fournier. If all goes well, he will fee fall from a height of 40 kilometers up, jumping out of a high-altitude balloon. If you can read French, here’s the site for the long jump (it’s in English, too). I’m hoping to follow this story today as well.
Oh, one more thing: a new Doctor Who trailer has been released, showing teases for the rest of the season. I want to see it, but I really don’t want to see it! I knew too much of the season finales from both series 2 and 3 before they aired due to spoilers, and now I’m debating just keeping myself in the dark. For now I’m dithering over posting it, but if you want you can find it on YouTube. I still may yet post it. Drat! I’m torn. We’ll see.
May 25th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Hmmm must actually start watching my episodes of Doctor Who!
May 25th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Sadly, it looks like weather may delay the super-jump to Monday.
May 25th, 2008 at 11:51 am
It’s been 11 years since my family moved from Houston to Boston.
Huge changes in climate, language, transportation… pretty much nothing is the same. I feel like the time for reminiscing passed by years ago, because now I can’t imagine living in the south again.
Make an anniversary out of it Phil, or else you might miss your chance to be nostalgic.
May 25th, 2008 at 11:52 am
And about a year ago my wife and I moved to Pittsburgh.
May 25th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Oh maaaaaaaaaaaaan, it’s been 34 years since I moved away from California, and life still doesn’t seem right! What was worse, we moved from LA to Weirton, WV (the armpit of the Ohio valley, up in the northern panhandle). Talk about going back at least 100 years………
BTW, I have family in Santa Rosa. I haven’t been there in a long time, but I remember thinking it would be a great place to live. (Been to Boulder twice - it’s nice too if you don’t mind having that cold white stuff dumped all over you!)
May 25th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Watch it Phil. It’s too cool not to watch. Yeah it gives away a lot, but not too much. It just makes you want to see it more!
May 25th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
The Doctor Who trailer does reveal (or confirm) who the main “baddies” will be in the end of the series (as well as who is in charge of it all). So if you do not want to know this, I say avoid, if you don’t mind, then watch. Also seems to have some nice images from the next two episodes (a two parter) but not enough to give the story away at all.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
He he, I know what you mean, in this digital age it’s too easy to buy stuff on DVD or record it on your set top box, but finding the time to watch it is another matter.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
16 years ago I was born.
May 25th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
You do know that you can download all the episodes via bittorrent … we’ve already seen the next 3 episodes… (they air in the UK weeks before they air here, people record them on their tivo, and share them on the internet)…
And since it’s a tv show, you can download it with a clean conscience…
Word to the wise, rose is coming back! Soon!
May 25th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
also, phil, I have in my posession, EVERY episode of the Doctor going back to the FIRST doctor…
If you want them, I can send them… its about 25 DVD’s full … but they’re all in .avi format, so you’ll have to watch them on your computer…
May 25th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Sorry, but copyrights still apply.
May 25th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
A year ago next week my grandson was born. He’s become quite the flirt…just like his “gramps”.
May 25th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I read about the high altitude jump attempt in my local paper this morning and immediately though about your blog. In comparison to yesterday’s article in the NYT they cut the story down a bit, and wound up claiming that at 25 miles altitude he would “experience weightlessness”. Here’s the link to the Bad Astronomy candidate of the week: http://www.newsobserver.com/nation_world/story/1084477.html
May 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I can’t believe I found you after you move..I am at CCSF starting to dip my feet into astronomy ( i really don’t know why it took me so long to figure out how perfect this area of study is for me…)…And there you were..driving across the best looking bridge around.
Awesome.
I love the subject and your blog makes it easy to share subject matter with others. That and subjecting my sweetie to Astronomy Today podcast! He thinks it is almost better than Car Talk. Almost..
May 25th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
what, nothing about towelday?
And here i’ve got my great towelday pics, all sitting pretty on old-fashioned film…
May 25th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Oh dear. The Little Astronomer is apparently good at remembering dates. What is it about the X chromosome and remembering mundane dates/anniversaries? Lucky for her, the upcoming generations get all kinds of technical gadgets and facebook to remind em…
May 25th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Les dernières nouvelles (dimanche 25 mai 18h00) sur le saut de Michel Fournier.
A ce moment et sous réserve de variation météo, le saut est toujours confirmé pour lundi 26 vers 4h30. Les journalistes sont invités à venir à l’aéroport vers 4h30 et ils seront dans un bâtiment réservé aux journalistes.
“The latest news (Sunday 25 May 18:00–that’s 6:00PM for Americans) on the jump by Michel Fournier.
At the moment, and allowing for changes in the weather, the jump is good to go for Monday 26 around 4:30hrs. Journalists are invited to arrive at the airport for 4:30, and they will be in a building reserved for the press.”
So, why don’t you go and cover this, Phil?
—
Yes, the pepperpots are back, together with Rose…
May 26th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Heeeeyyy Then it’s been a year since I started reeding your blog!!! Well a little more than that. I don’t remember exactly when or why I ended up reading your blog but I do remember you talking about moving. So happy anniversary to me? Hahahahaa. Love the blog, it helps my “learn something everyday” quota.
July 9th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Phil wrote: “If all goes well, [Michel Fournier] will fee fall from a height of 40 kilometers up…”
Oh drat, a fee fall. How much is the fee from that high? Less that a dollar per km I hope…
-Tod