I helped put together a meeting tonight of neighbors about an issue affecting the neighborhood. I didn’t have to speak, either. I just sat back and watch an engaged citizenry work to make their community better.
It’s stuff like this that gives me such a kick. I love being useful!
I just finished Area 51: The Uncensored History of America’s Top-Secret Military Base, Annie Jacobsen’s book about the military base in Nevada which officially doesn’t exist. It is a page-turner of a book for those of us who’ve often wondered what goes on at the base, with former workers discussing what life is like there.
Jacobsen says she got the idea for the book after meeting a retired Area 51 worker at a party, who shared some tales with her because the project he had worked on, the A-12 Oxcart, had recently been declassified.
Continue reading
I got a hang-up voicemail call today from 646-467-6665, a number apparently associated with a company known as Universal Survey. According to the comments at 800notes.com, the company can be rude to the people it calls.
I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but any reputable survey company would scrub its call lists against the national do-not-call registry before calling any number. Our phone numbers have been listed on the Do Not Call list for years now. Therefore, I made decide to tee this company up as my first defendant in small claims court for violating North Carolina’s Do Not Call law.
Google Plus
I know Google likes to stir up excitement about its services, but I question the value of the invitation-only nature of Google Plus.
I got an invitation and now I’m in, and certainly it seems better than the Google Buzz service that preceded it. However, by making it invitation-only, Google is limiting the number of friends, family, and acquaintances that can join the existing Google Plus users.
At this point, having a Google Plus account kind of like owning the world’s first telephone: it’s cool technology but it’s useless if you’re friends aren’t using it, too. A social networking site should put fewer obstacles in front of potential users wanting to sign up.
This morning at 11:26 AM, space shuttle Atlantis may or may not make its final flight into space. This will be the last mission of NASA’s shuttle program.
I remember watching on TV as space shuttle Columbia made the very first shuttle launch back in 1981. Of course, I also saw a few rocket launches for things like Skylab and space probes like Voyager, but the shuttle program was different. It was touted as essentially a space bus: making spaceflight routine with a reusable vehicle.
It didn’t turn out that way, as the reusable aspect of the shuttle made it incredibly expensive. Shuttles turned out not to be as reliable as they were initially touted. I remember being in my high school’s library, watching video of Challenger exploding as my math teacher sat nearby, weeping. It was a cruel reminder that nothing about riding rockets would ever be routine. The flagship shuttle, Columbia, proved that when it disintegrated above Texas during landing in 2003.
If all goes well, Atlantis will make a safe trip to the International Space Station (ISS) and then roll its way into a museum. With it, a space program stretching into the early 1970s will come to an end. I’m not sure what comes next for American space exploration but I hope it continues in one shape or another.
Back on March 19th, I took the family to a local arcade for a Saturday of fun and wound up losing my new mobile phone. Though the next day I realized where I’d lost it, I called the business the next day and no one had seen my phone. I gave it up for lost and canceled the Net10 account it used. The phone cost $50 so it wasn’t a big loss. I went back to using my previous phone and that was that.
Yesterday, though, my parents got a call out of the blue from a woman claiming to have the phone. “Brenda” had called a few contacts in the phone’s memory until she found one that knew me, apparently. My dad called Kelly with the information and soon I was on the way over to the place near WakeMed where Brenda was waiting.
We met at a Wake County Human Services office. Brenda, who was there looking for a job, handed over my phone with a sheepish grin. I thanked her profusely for her honesty and gave her a small reward as well as my business card.
I asked her what kind of job she was searching for and she told me she was trained as a phlebotomist, rattling off medical terms I did not recognize! Brenda told me quietly that she was living in a group home for recovering substance abusers and was behind on her rent. I told her to contact me if there was anything I could do for her.
Meeting Brenda was the highlight of my day yesterday. This morning, I contacted a friend I know in the medical field who might be able to find her a job. I just know there’s a business out there who could use an honest and hard-working employee.
I’m reading a good book about Area 51 from Annie Jacobsen. Called Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base, the book peeks into the secret and bizarre activities that have taken place there.
One thing I find fascinating is the accounts of how the base dealt with the multiple nuclear detonations that took place near the base over the years. One of the key environmental elements which helped maintain Area 51’s secrecy also put the base and it’s staff in jeopardy on a regular basis. There were many blown-out windows, warped steel hangar doors, and other frightening damage. I’m not sure exactly what goes on at Area 51 but being that close to ground zero would be my least favorite part of the job.
I’ll write a fuller review once I’ve plowed through it, but needless to say the book is eye-opening.
Update 11 Jul: Review posted!
We spent the Fourth of July at Kelly’s parents’ home, taking the backroads to avoid the holiday traffic. There, we spent Saturday on a geocaching hunt around Sky Meadows State Park. We also spent time at the pool, built hula-hoops, and watched the kids put on puppet shows.
Another highlight was visiting our friends from high school. We had dinner at the home of Jamie and Jim Neel along with Leigh Taylor. Kelly was friends with both Leigh and Jamie in high school and I was friends with Jamie, eating lunch together many days. It was good to catch up with them and to meet Jamie’s husband Jim, with whom I have a lot in common.
Sunday night as we were driving back from dinner, a strong storm passed through, breaking tree branches in the neighborhood and briefly knocking out power.
We enjoyed our visit. It’s tough getting back to work after that kind of fun!
