Changing up the Desktop

Discovering NASA’s Flickr photo archive this week was nice, as it game me an opportunity to update a desktop wallpaper. Notice the use of a. Manjaro My Manjaro installation probably could have used a refresh. Now it looks like this. It’s KDE with the Sweet Ambar Blue theme, the Candy icon set, and the PlankContinue reading “Changing up the Desktop”

Adventures in Off-Brand LEGO: The Laser Pegs Aircraft

Friday! The end of a long week of deadline after deadline, deadlines that hurt me physically Tuesday and Wednesday, with one more deadline and one more project to do. So, I walked into the office building, stepped off the elevator, and was greeted by… At least it was National Donut Day, and even if IContinue reading “Adventures in Off-Brand LEGO: The Laser Pegs Aircraft”

Boldly Going Where No Beagle Has Gone Before

A couple of weeks ago Facebook showed me an ad. Usually I ignore ads on Facebook, but this one caught my attention. A Snoopy t-shirt commemorating the Apollo 11 landing! Fifty years ago come Saturday! The shirt is, naturally, unlicensed and unofficial. The Charles Schulz estate is receiving nothing from this shirt. And Snoopy, frankly,Continue reading “Boldly Going Where No Beagle Has Gone Before”

Apollo-Soyuz: Forty Years Later

I’m too young to remember the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Thankfully, NASA produced this video to commemorate the 40th-anniversary of the joint American-Soviet space mission, the ASTP. For this space nerd, seeing Deke Slayton and Alexei Leonov in space together is downright magical. Sometimes I think about a world where we didn’t abandon Apollo and the ASTPContinue reading “Apollo-Soyuz: Forty Years Later”

On “Day of the Moon” and the Doctor’s Plan

When last we saw the Doctor, Amy, and Rory on Doctor Who, they were in a creepy warehouse in Florida. Their erstwhile FBI ally, Canton Everett Delaware III, had been conked unconscious by persons unknown. River Song was exploring the catacombs underneath the warehouse with Rory where they found what appeared to be a proto-TARDISContinue reading “On “Day of the Moon” and the Doctor’s Plan”

On 25 Years Since Voyager 2’s Uranus Encounter

Friday evening, I received a press release from NASA. The reason? The twenty-fifty anniversary of Voyager 2’s closest encounter to Uranus. Voyager Celebrates 25 Years Since Uranus Visit Jet Propulsion Laboratory January 21, 2011 As NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft made the only close approach to date of our mysterious seventh planet Uranus 25 years ago,Continue reading “On 25 Years Since Voyager 2’s Uranus Encounter”

On a Decade of the International Space Station

Today, the second of November, is not just Election Day. It’s the tenth anniversary of human habitation of the International Space Station. NASA issued a press release this morning marking the event: NASA ADMINISTRATOR STATEMENT ON 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF CREWS ABOARD THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WASHINGTON — On Nov. 2, 2000, the first crew arrivedContinue reading “On a Decade of the International Space Station”

On a Book by the Mercury Seven

I walked to the Border’s near the office on my lunch break this afternoon, on the off-chance that they would have the newest issue of MOJO in stock, the one with the retrospective on the Beatles’ Let It Be album. I knew it was a long-shot, honestly; MOJO usually shows up on this side ofContinue reading “On a Book by the Mercury Seven”