If You Can't See Venus -- It's Cloudy

I was driving home about an hour ago and I saw a bright star in the western sky. There is one problem with that...we can't see stars in Alexandria, there is too much light pollution. This is weird to adjust to, but once you are used to a blank sky (except for the moon), it's really weird to actually see something.

Anyway, tonight I saw an incredibly bright object, and it turns out it's Venus! Venus is much brighter than anything else in the night sky (except the moon) by a wide margin. As Space.com's NightSky report for February said:

If you go out as it gets dark and look to the west any early evening this month, and do not see Venus -- it's cloudy!

So grab your telescope and check it out! Saturn is also visible in the night sky but I haven't been able to pick it out yet...if I can, with all of the light pollution.

Getting Spaced on Twitter

As some of you may know, there's a "micro-blogging" website called Twitter that has been building momentum for the last few years. It's called micro-blogging because posts can only contain 140 characters or fewer.

Once dominated by geeks, like Leo Laporte (@LeoLaporte), it has grown with the adoption of "tweeting" by celebrities and news organizations, and in the recent election cycle when both the Obama and McCain campaigns posted updates to Twitter. It's worth noting that both have largely gone dormant since the election (@BarackObama has just 2 tweets leading up to the inauguration, @JohnMcCain has not posted since Oct 24).

Anyway, I mention this because Twitter not only gives you the opportunity to follow people, but also news organizations, radio shows (@GrandyandAndy is my favorite), and as it pertains to Kal in Space, select NASA/JPL programs.

NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab have 4 main twitter characters: The Mars Phoenix Lander (@MarsPhoenix), Cassini Spacecraft (@CassiniSaturn), Spirit and Oppy (@MarsRovers), and the new Mars Science Lab rover (@MarsScienceLab). I call them characters because the JPL did something unique with Mars Phoenix, in that it the person who provided the updates did them in first person. It was like Mars Phoenix had a personality that you could interact with. In fact, in June 2008 when it was first confirmed that there was in fact H2O ice on Mars, it was announced first on Twitter with this:

Are you ready to celebrate? Well, get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!!

We who follow MarsPhoenix on twitter watched as the rover's mission got an extension when the rover miraculously regained enough power to continue a few months beyond the original projection.

The other twitter characters aren't written in the first person, but they do provide great updates on what is going on around Saturn and on Mars, and they frequently answer questions that are sent via twitter.

Check them out!

-Kal
(@KalMiller)

Love Affair with Toaster Ovens

I love toaster ovens. My senior year in college, my roommate Jason had a big, old toaster oven that he brought to our apartment. I was skeptical at first: We already had a toaster, and an oven. Why do we need a frankenstein of the two?

However, I quickly learned to love this peculiar device. You can make anything in one. I frequently would make batches of cornbread muffins or cornbread loaves (those didn't work out so well). Worked great for things like Pizza Rolls and other tasty snacks. But one of the best uses is reheating pizza.

Microwaves make reheating pizza a mushy affair. Use a toaster oven, though, and it's crispy and almost as tasty as if it were just made fresh. However, why not just make fresh pizza in your toaster oven? That's right, it heats up faster than a conventional oven and will cook a personal size pizza in no time!

Today, I contemplated that very thing. I brought some homemade pizza for lunch today. Pizzeria Miller Pizzas don't reheat well in the microwave, at least not as well as the pizza-chain delivery kind. Problem: No Toaster Oven at work. Heck, we don't even have a toaster. (Makes enjoying pop tarts a bit difficult...) Impolitic Solution: Buy toaster oven, and put it on my desk. Reheat Pizza.

However, I then asked myself: Why reheat pizza when I could just make my own FRESH in the toaster oven? BRILLIANT! I'm sure this would make even more people jealous than reheating homemade at my desk. But making people jealous isn't the goal. Tasty pizza is. So what do I do? Do I continue to suffer through mushy microwave pizza, or do I infuriate our facilities department by making delicious, fresh pizza at my desk?

I report, you decide. (Oh, wait...that's Fox News...never mind.)

Kal

My Week as a "Single" Dad

This past week I spent as a "single dad." Rachel had to go to Houston for work. It was her first business travel since she went back to work after Kam was born. I hadn't been looking forward to it because while I generally get him around in the morning and I have spent days watching Kam myself, even putting him to bed (something Rachel generally does), I hadn't done the whole package...and I hadn't done it for 4 and a half days straight.

During that time I:

• Put over 400 miles on the new car (good thing it's a Hybrid, right Al Gore?)
  
• Left work early every day by at least a half hour
  
• Prepared 9 bottles
• Changed a few more diapers than usual each day
• Watched 7 episodes of Stargate Atlantis on DVD (No TV competition)
• Ordered a Pepperoni, Bacon, and Extra Cheese Pizza

And I got to spend a lot of time with Kam. We played cars, and played with blocks, we read a few books, we watched a little TV, and we enjoyed some goldfish crackers together. We spent a lot of time in the car, but we had fun. The best part, though was when I picked him up at Day Care on Thursday, Ms. Fauzia had taught him to say "Dah-dee", and he proceded to say it over and over all evening, and it was extremely cute.

I realized that it wasn't as daunting a task as I thought originally - facing each day "alone." We get to do it over again in a couple weeks, but for now Kam and I both agree that it's great to have mom home. :-)

On Public Smoking Bans

Along the politics theme that I've been going on, another post. I've determined recently that I'm not as conservative as I thought I was during 2008. A couple things have helped me to realize this, but chief among them are certain laws that are enacted for public health reasons.

The first sign of this was when we went home to Michigan after Christmas. With one exception, most of the restaurants we went to had smoking sections. I don't smoke, and I cannot stand the smell of it. Living in Northern Virginia (coined "Communist Country" during the 2008 Campaign by Joe McCain), and working in suburban Maryland, I am very spoiled. The District of Columbia and the neighboring Maryland counties (MoCo and PG) have specific ordinances prohibiting smoking inside bars and restaurants. In Northern Virginia, the practice isn't specifically prohibited, but most restaurants do it on their own, or will have very small and very isolated smoking sections.

For health reasons, and my own enjoyment, I think this is a very good thing. Gov. Kaine of Virginia tried in 2007 and is rumored to be trying again in 2009, to pass a statewide smoking ban like those in DC and Suburban Maryland. It is not likely that this will pass the Republican-dominated General Assembly. That's ok, I guess. But what irks me, and why I'm inspired to post about this, is that there is a bill in the works that specifically prohibits localities from enacting their own laws for against public smoking. I'm not saying that we should actively support banning smoking laws everywhere, but the idea that Alexandria or Arlington or Fairfax should be prohibited from enacting public health laws on their own is preposterous!

Kal

Inaugural Musings

A few things struck me today as I watched the inaugural festivities:

• 2 million people really do fit on the mall...but they overwhelm Metro to do it.
• Where did the elder Bushes get those snazzy purple scarfs?
• I'm glad I watched it from home on my HDTV.
• For Obama's sake, I hope he isn't caught in the backlash where expectations are too high. (Bush is out of office now, shouldn't the rising waters be pushed back our planet be healed and the financial mess fixed now? What? Obama can't pay for my mortgage, gas, and food?)
• How did Dick Cheney go from injuring his groin to throwing out his back? Who makes this stuff up?
• Best line of the day goes to Katie Couric: At 12:05, pointing out that they need to get moving because constitutionally JOE BIDEN IS PRESIDENT since Obama wasn't yet sworn in and George Bush's term expired at 12:00 noon! (Katie, don't scare me like that!)
• I'm still glad I watched it from home.

Anyway...congrats President Obama, I wish you well.

Stargate Atlantis Makeover

In honor of the recent finale of Stargate Atlantis, Kal in Space has been given an Atlantis Expedition Makeover! The new theme features the Atlantis city-ship in flight, a Pegasus galaxy Stargate, an Ancient Puddle Jumper, and the USS Daedalus!

The goal is to introduce other Stargate Sets, like a Tau'ri, Wraith, Asgard, Goa'uld, and Ori...but this seemed like the best start to me!

Kal