Dad called last night to wish Summer a happy birthday and he and I chatted for a while about the weather, his garden, and my health. As we discussed my recovery, he asked if I had gotten myself into more than I realized at first. In thinking back on it, I’m not sure whether he […]

January 28, 1986: I was a senior in the Electrical Engineering program at Auburn University; it was winter quarter, my second-to-last quarter at Auburn. About that time I was taking courses in 3-D computer modeling, coding theory, and a graduate-level course in digital control theory. The weather was clear, but winter at Auburn meant that […]

Today I marked my tenth anniversary with United Space Alliance. When I joined the company, it was known as RSOC, the Rockwell Space Operations Company. About six months after I hired on, Rockwell and Lockheed Martin combined their NASA contracts and spun off USA as the prime contractor for Space Shuttle operations. Everyone changed badges […]

Ernie the Attorney posted a friend’s suggestion about having a single Internet site that people can use to locate family or friends displaced in a natural disaster like hurricane Katrina. Ernie lists three sites, but his friend claims there must be a dozen. If you’re trying to find someone, or help someone find you, are […]

Today George W Bush offered up one of the most insightful statements I’ve ever heard him utter. He said, “It’s as if the entire Gulf Coast were obliterated by the worst kind of weapon you can imagine.” Exactly, Mr. President, exactly. In other words, it’s no different than a terrorist attack. Which begs the […]

In the foreword to his 1977 collection Essays of E. B. White, the famous author wrote “The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest.” In 1995, I put this quote on the first personal web site I ever […]