Maps as stories
Two of the most memorable books I’ve read in the last few years are atlases. Together they are part of an exciting trend I’ve noticed, the use of maps not just as a source of information, but as a storytelling medium in their own right. Obi Kaufman’s California Field Atlas is a book like no…
Biomimicry
The science fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke coined the oft-cited phrase, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. There have been many remixes over the years, and a new favorite is, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature” which came up in a podcast interview with Dr. Angus Harvey (who is the writer…
Composite joints
My last couple of projects at JPL have involved bonded composite joints and I’ve learned a few things about the topic: 1. Every design requires an engineering development effort. Composites and bonded joints are highly workmanship dependent, hard to analyze, and will likely break in the most unique way possible. 2. A picture is worth…
Vacation time
I recently took two weeks off from work. I didn’t answer any emails, nor did I turn on my work phone once. No one pressured me to work more, or to come in on one of the days I marked off. All this despite the fact that my project’s critical design review occurred halfway through…
Citrus Season
I sometimes mention that my favorite season is “citrus” when the topic comes up. It’s a joke but also very true. Southern California doesn’t have nearly as much seasonal weather variation as my home state of Nebraska so my wife and I find other ways to mark the changes, most notably with food. We primarily…
A Ten Thousand Dollar Day
I got married just last weekend. We spent over $10,000 on the day which, despite being well below national averages, still feels exorbitant to write down. The ceremony itself was small, intimate, and in a native garden. For lunch, we fed our guests a memorable four-course meal with fresh gelato to top it off. And…
Slow is steady
Driving a Mars rover takes something of a unique mindset. There are the technical skills of course, but I found a big part of my training was learning how to operate in high-stress environments. It’s not uncommon for a room full of colleagues to be waiting on you to figure something out, and if you…
Timshel
Sometimes I read books for an entertaining story, other times to gain factual knowledge, and only rarely because the book reveals something significant about the human condition. “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck falls into the final category. The semi-biographical work is essentially an exploration of free will in the context of good vs evil…
Selenography
I’m a very topographically inclined person. I enjoy staring at maps, I have a strong memory for where events happen in a geographic sense, and it bothers me if I’m unsure which direction north is while walking down the street. I’m also an amateur astronomer and have been so nearly as long as I can…
Hello World
It seems appropriate to leave my initial “Hello World” post here. The phrase It reminds me of my freshman year of undergraduate when I had to pick a coding class to take. We were given two options: MatLab or Fortran. Not knowing any better I signed up for Fortran because it fit better in my…