I'm trying to catch up on my satellite backlog (and failing at 100 MPH). I'm still about 2 months behind in just getting the basics with no real details (like what type of satellite it was or what rocket put it up there).
But I have figured out what #1000 is:
December 28, 2011 6:20pm
Name: Tansuo 1 LM2r aka Long March 2C Rocket used for putting Tansuo 1 into orbit
Int'l Designator: 2004-012-C
I was hoping that I would have been more organized and that number 1000 would have been something like the ISS or the X37-B or one of my most often see satellites Resurs 1-4.
However, I wasn't, so it was all kind of random.
BUT....
Here are the satellites that surrounded #1000:
#999 - ISS (International Space Station)
#1001 - X-37B (OTV 2)
#1002 - Resurs 1-4
I couldn't plan that, but it all kinda worked out that way. I find that to be kind of... cosmic. :-P
Also of note... my next session after the Dec 28th one was Jan 5th 2012, so I just got my #1000 in the year 2011 which was close to my original goal (get #1000 in a year). By getting it on Dec 28 2011, I got it in 1 year 4 months and 1 day (my first logged item was the ISS on Aug 27th 2010).
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Oh yeah.... it's back on. *BOOOOOM*
Did you hear that? That's the sound of a human breaking the speed of sound, without a plane, car or rocket. Just a big balloon, gravity, a pressure suit, and 120,000 feet up in the air.
The Red Bull Stratos project, after being delayed by some legal issues, is back on.
http://www.redbullstratos.com/
Felix Baumgartner and team are back on the job and planning for this historic attempt. I'm giddy as all get out.
The Red Bull Stratos project, after being delayed by some legal issues, is back on.
http://www.redbullstratos.com/
Felix Baumgartner and team are back on the job and planning for this historic attempt. I'm giddy as all get out.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Still here ... November edition
Yeah... I'm still here.
======================================
The Mrs and I went down to Hocking HIlls... like a month ago. It was great to get away in that little cabin... with no TV. We went hiking and saw Old Man's Cave and Cedar Falls. Then we ate some BBQ. Then we trekked all the way to Circleville for the last day of the pumpkin festival. We parked in some dudes backyard for $10, putting us like 1 block from the festivities. I got some deep fried pumpkin pie. It was F'ing tasty. Then we drove all the way to Athens and ate at O'Betty's, a kick ass hot dog place. It was tasty as well. Then we went back to the hotel and read books, where I read a good hunk of the 2nd Chris Jericho autobiography. It was good. (I got the first Chris Jericho autobio from the Dollar Tree, I believe).
=====================================
The wife also got me the Ace Frehley autobio for our anniversary. Almost done with it. Good stuff. Ace did a lot of blow.
=====================================
My satellite watching has been fairly sporatic. I haven't cataloged my sessions since September. I counted up the ones I haven't cataloged the other night and had 96. I think that puts me around the 850 mark. It'll be difficult to hit 1000 by the end of the year. I just have too much stuff to do.
====================================
Like watch shit on the BluRay player I bought about a month ago. I need to explain this one a little bit. Ya see... A friend of mine let me borrow a TV tuner card. Basically I plug cable into the back of my computer, allowing me to record TV show (at least for channels 2 - 70). I think it's stupid to have to pay TW $17.95 / mo. for DVR service as well as 7.95/mo for the newer box which can handle doing DVR (double dip much????) So, instead, I record the shows on my computer. The BluRay player is wireless, so I set up my own DNLA server (dont ask, just understand that it acts as a server to host the files), and so I can stream the shows to the BluRay player. The BluRay player also comes with all these other streaming 'channels' like Crackle which has free TV shows and Movies (it's owned by Sony, which is what I bought), and a bazillion other things like free concerts from Australlia (Megadeth and a couple of other bands), Flixter (movie trailers), and also access to tons of other pay services (like Netflix, Vudu, Hulu Plus, etc). I swear there are like 40 differnt channels that you can watch/listen to for free (as there are also free radio channels like Pandora, NPR, and a bunch of other shit I've never heard of). It's so awesome that it hurts and there's nto enough time in the day to watch shit. And do all the other things I should be doing. It used to be that if I wanted to start watching a new series, I'd have to make time to watch it.. and if I missed some episodes, that was usally the end of that since I would get behind with no real way to catch back up (unless of course TW had it OnDemand). Now, I just set the scheduler up to record every Weds at 10pm and BLAMMO, I can watch it whenever I want. It also serves as a DVD player, CD player and also has a USB port so you can put pretty much anything you want on that thing within reason (be it a usb flash drive or a big honkin extrenal USB drive). It's the goods.
=======================================
Work is going better. But who cares. No one probably knew it was bad since I don't communicate with the outside world anymore. I'm a slave to my TV shows. Bad Darrin.
=======================================
My wife is done with Christmas shopping. In fact, she was probably mostly done a week ago. That's a new record right there. I have a hard time gearing up for Christmas until its officially after Thanksgiving, regardless of the fact that 93.3 starting playing 24 hour Christmas tunes BEFORE HALLOWEEN this year. That just blows my f'ing mind.
=======================================
I did not go to the record show on Nov 12th. And I didn't really miss it either. I have 10 boxes of LPs downstairs that I haven't even peeped at since I moved into the house (well, techincally, it was impossible to do so since 90% of them were in my sisters basement 150 miles away). In other news, I'm nearly done listening to my CDs (I started a few months back and have been on a tear). I have only the boxset and Christmas CDs to go. I'm also in the home stretch for listening to all my cassettes. I saved the best for last as the last 2 or 3 holders have all the good metal stuff (Metallica, Dokken, Motley Crue, Leatherwolf, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Winger, etc). I'm not sure what I'll do at the end. Might Craigslist a whole crap load of stuff... or I'll just hoard it some more. I can't get rid of all my cassettes as the car doesn't have a CD player and since that thing has 115k on it, I'm not about to have someoen crack open the dash and install something new into that old car. It's a good car and gets me where I want to go at 30 MPG (which is badass for a 6 cylinder from 2001).
========================================
Sugar gives me heartburn. Esp donuts. And I love donuts.
========================================
I have nothing more to say for now. Adios mi nachos!!!
======================================
The Mrs and I went down to Hocking HIlls... like a month ago. It was great to get away in that little cabin... with no TV. We went hiking and saw Old Man's Cave and Cedar Falls. Then we ate some BBQ. Then we trekked all the way to Circleville for the last day of the pumpkin festival. We parked in some dudes backyard for $10, putting us like 1 block from the festivities. I got some deep fried pumpkin pie. It was F'ing tasty. Then we drove all the way to Athens and ate at O'Betty's, a kick ass hot dog place. It was tasty as well. Then we went back to the hotel and read books, where I read a good hunk of the 2nd Chris Jericho autobiography. It was good. (I got the first Chris Jericho autobio from the Dollar Tree, I believe).
=====================================
The wife also got me the Ace Frehley autobio for our anniversary. Almost done with it. Good stuff. Ace did a lot of blow.
=====================================
My satellite watching has been fairly sporatic. I haven't cataloged my sessions since September. I counted up the ones I haven't cataloged the other night and had 96. I think that puts me around the 850 mark. It'll be difficult to hit 1000 by the end of the year. I just have too much stuff to do.
====================================
Like watch shit on the BluRay player I bought about a month ago. I need to explain this one a little bit. Ya see... A friend of mine let me borrow a TV tuner card. Basically I plug cable into the back of my computer, allowing me to record TV show (at least for channels 2 - 70). I think it's stupid to have to pay TW $17.95 / mo. for DVR service as well as 7.95/mo for the newer box which can handle doing DVR (double dip much????) So, instead, I record the shows on my computer. The BluRay player is wireless, so I set up my own DNLA server (dont ask, just understand that it acts as a server to host the files), and so I can stream the shows to the BluRay player. The BluRay player also comes with all these other streaming 'channels' like Crackle which has free TV shows and Movies (it's owned by Sony, which is what I bought), and a bazillion other things like free concerts from Australlia (Megadeth and a couple of other bands), Flixter (movie trailers), and also access to tons of other pay services (like Netflix, Vudu, Hulu Plus, etc). I swear there are like 40 differnt channels that you can watch/listen to for free (as there are also free radio channels like Pandora, NPR, and a bunch of other shit I've never heard of). It's so awesome that it hurts and there's nto enough time in the day to watch shit. And do all the other things I should be doing. It used to be that if I wanted to start watching a new series, I'd have to make time to watch it.. and if I missed some episodes, that was usally the end of that since I would get behind with no real way to catch back up (unless of course TW had it OnDemand). Now, I just set the scheduler up to record every Weds at 10pm and BLAMMO, I can watch it whenever I want. It also serves as a DVD player, CD player and also has a USB port so you can put pretty much anything you want on that thing within reason (be it a usb flash drive or a big honkin extrenal USB drive). It's the goods.
=======================================
Work is going better. But who cares. No one probably knew it was bad since I don't communicate with the outside world anymore. I'm a slave to my TV shows. Bad Darrin.
=======================================
My wife is done with Christmas shopping. In fact, she was probably mostly done a week ago. That's a new record right there. I have a hard time gearing up for Christmas until its officially after Thanksgiving, regardless of the fact that 93.3 starting playing 24 hour Christmas tunes BEFORE HALLOWEEN this year. That just blows my f'ing mind.
=======================================
I did not go to the record show on Nov 12th. And I didn't really miss it either. I have 10 boxes of LPs downstairs that I haven't even peeped at since I moved into the house (well, techincally, it was impossible to do so since 90% of them were in my sisters basement 150 miles away). In other news, I'm nearly done listening to my CDs (I started a few months back and have been on a tear). I have only the boxset and Christmas CDs to go. I'm also in the home stretch for listening to all my cassettes. I saved the best for last as the last 2 or 3 holders have all the good metal stuff (Metallica, Dokken, Motley Crue, Leatherwolf, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Winger, etc). I'm not sure what I'll do at the end. Might Craigslist a whole crap load of stuff... or I'll just hoard it some more. I can't get rid of all my cassettes as the car doesn't have a CD player and since that thing has 115k on it, I'm not about to have someoen crack open the dash and install something new into that old car. It's a good car and gets me where I want to go at 30 MPG (which is badass for a 6 cylinder from 2001).
========================================
Sugar gives me heartburn. Esp donuts. And I love donuts.
========================================
I have nothing more to say for now. Adios mi nachos!!!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Saw it!
I actually saw the Northern Lights last night. And it was a total fluke. We were watching "The Sing Off". I really wasn't in the mood to look for satellites, but I also new it was super clear that evening. I had gone out around 8pm but nothing was going on then, at least none that I noticed. About 9:30pm, during a commercial break, I decided I'd go out quickly to see if I could spot a satellite just for kicks. I went outside and saw the 'red clouds' in the sky in the north. I called the wife out and she saw them as well. I thought it was pretty cool. At that time, I wasn't sure that it was the Northern Lights (as most of the time people assume they are green, not bright red), but I knew it was something very special. I confirmed my suspition when I read it on the NBC 4 webpage (and various other places).
By 9:40, they were gone (or at least were taking a break.
I remember my dad saying that he once saw the Northern Lights in Ohio when he was growing up. I assumed it would not ever see them, honestly. Certainly not in Ohio with all the stupid light pollution we have everywhere. Well, surprise surprise! I've seen them! I think this was on my bucket list I created a LONG time ago. I'll have to dig that thing up and cross something off that list. The last time I found it, I was able to cross off 'get married' and 'have children'.
Here's the NBC 4 article about it
My favorite fact from the article:
"The red glow is very rare, according to UniverseToday.com. The site says it is produced by the interactions of oxygen atoms more than 200 miles above the earth's surface." Not only did I see something rare by seeing them in Ohio, I saw RED which is pretty freaking rare itself. AWESOME!!!
Here's aabout what I saw (per the photo taken by Jim Kolb in Newark, OH)
By 9:40, they were gone (or at least were taking a break.
I remember my dad saying that he once saw the Northern Lights in Ohio when he was growing up. I assumed it would not ever see them, honestly. Certainly not in Ohio with all the stupid light pollution we have everywhere. Well, surprise surprise! I've seen them! I think this was on my bucket list I created a LONG time ago. I'll have to dig that thing up and cross something off that list. The last time I found it, I was able to cross off 'get married' and 'have children'.
Here's the NBC 4 article about it
My favorite fact from the article:
"The red glow is very rare, according to UniverseToday.com. The site says it is produced by the interactions of oxygen atoms more than 200 miles above the earth's surface." Not only did I see something rare by seeing them in Ohio, I saw RED which is pretty freaking rare itself. AWESOME!!!
Here's aabout what I saw (per the photo taken by Jim Kolb in Newark, OH)
Friday, September 16, 2011
What's new - August and mid-Sept Edition
I started writing this entry at the beginning of September, but then time got away from me 'cause I was trying to have the satellite spotting stuff in here. But it's just too much ... so I'll get the sat stuff up later.
Once again it's been a month (and a half) since I've updated. Good golly. I barely check email once a week now. How sad is that???
The latest and greatest thing is that I built my first new computer in 7 years. It's finally up and running. And it's bad-ass. It's a Quad-Core AMG 3.2 GHz w/ 8 GB of RAM (with two slots left where I can upgrade it to the max of 16 GB someday), a 1 TB HD (small, I know), a dual-layer DVD-burner (I didn't see the point in getting a blu-ray player since I've been comtemplating getting a dedicated bluray player anyways), a 500 W power supply, a fairly decent ASRock mobo and a case that looks like a f'ing spaceship. The case itself was much mroe awesome than I even realized. It has a hot swappable 2.5' hard drive bay. You just take the drive and plug it into the front. Good thing I had that 100 GB drive from the laptop laying around! It's fast as all hell and I get giddy every time I get to use it.
We said goodbye to the minivan about a month ago. It was a good vehicle while we needed, but the gas prices were just killing us while it was getting like 16 MPG. Now we're in a Ford Fusion getting over 30 MPG. Woot. We likes it.
We went to the zoo the other day. Lots of animals were out. Both polar bears were out and swimming. The otters were swimming. The penguins were out in force. The wolves were running around. The elephants were hanging outside. Even the Pallas' Cat was out and about. And then the family ate Skyline. Tasty!!!
I was excited to see that in July 2011, Red Bull finally got past litigation and are now (presumably) proceeding with the Red Bull Stratos project. The plan is to put Felix Baumgartner in a gondola attached to some balloons, send him up 120,000 feet (that's like 23 miles or something, let him jump out in a space suit thingy and them, hopefully, have a free-falling human break the sound barrier. There are 4 world records in there: 1. Altitude record for freefall, 2. Distance record for longest freefall, 3. Speed record for fasted freefall by breaking the speed of sound with the human body, 4. Altitude record for the highest manned balloon flight. They were supposed to try last October on the 50th anniversary of Col. Joe Kittinger setting the majority (if not all) of these records in 1960, however literally 3 weeks before they were going to make the attempt, someone claimed to have contacted Red Bull with this idea initially but were left out in the cold, so they sued. As of July, the have amicably settled their differences. Game on! Go Felix!!!
Don't forget the super awesome Ben Folds 3 CD Retrospective is being released in October. W00t!
I'm still looking up license plates. I've upped the ante as well, I'm also looking for truck, trailer, motorcycle, dealer, temp and state govt plates as well. I've got got over 30 of the car plates. Not much of anything else, though I do take pride in spotting a California motorcycle plate.
We have too much stuff. The wife is making dents in the crawl space as I type this. I might have to hire Ian to sell some stuff for me again, though he says that teh ebay action is for poop as of late, so... who knows.
August is turning out to be a pretty decent month for sky watching. There was the Perseid meteor shower, and it's also been cool enough that the mosquitoes haven't been too horrible. This past week was great because the moon was 'off-phase' and wasn't up for most of the evening. I spotted my brightest objects just the other night. It was a flare from an Iridium satellite which clocked in at -7.2 magnitude. to put that into perspective, the lower the number the brighter... the sun is something like -26 and a full moon is -12.7. The brightest ISS sighting I have had was -4.6, so this nearly doubled as the brightest object I had seen. My August sightings thus far (something like 60 objects) are below. I'm nearly 3/4 of the way to my 1,000 object mark which is pretty cool. And Resurs 1-4 (ye olde faithful) is coming back around again for several months which means I should be able to hit another goal of seeing a single object 50 times.
Hope all is well with everyone else. There was a record show last weekend that I totally spaced on, but I'm kinda recorded out (though I still like to peruse around). Next show is Nov 12th according to my postcard.
Once again it's been a month (and a half) since I've updated. Good golly. I barely check email once a week now. How sad is that???
The latest and greatest thing is that I built my first new computer in 7 years. It's finally up and running. And it's bad-ass. It's a Quad-Core AMG 3.2 GHz w/ 8 GB of RAM (with two slots left where I can upgrade it to the max of 16 GB someday), a 1 TB HD (small, I know), a dual-layer DVD-burner (I didn't see the point in getting a blu-ray player since I've been comtemplating getting a dedicated bluray player anyways), a 500 W power supply, a fairly decent ASRock mobo and a case that looks like a f'ing spaceship. The case itself was much mroe awesome than I even realized. It has a hot swappable 2.5' hard drive bay. You just take the drive and plug it into the front. Good thing I had that 100 GB drive from the laptop laying around! It's fast as all hell and I get giddy every time I get to use it.
We said goodbye to the minivan about a month ago. It was a good vehicle while we needed, but the gas prices were just killing us while it was getting like 16 MPG. Now we're in a Ford Fusion getting over 30 MPG. Woot. We likes it.
We went to the zoo the other day. Lots of animals were out. Both polar bears were out and swimming. The otters were swimming. The penguins were out in force. The wolves were running around. The elephants were hanging outside. Even the Pallas' Cat was out and about. And then the family ate Skyline. Tasty!!!
I was excited to see that in July 2011, Red Bull finally got past litigation and are now (presumably) proceeding with the Red Bull Stratos project. The plan is to put Felix Baumgartner in a gondola attached to some balloons, send him up 120,000 feet (that's like 23 miles or something, let him jump out in a space suit thingy and them, hopefully, have a free-falling human break the sound barrier. There are 4 world records in there: 1. Altitude record for freefall, 2. Distance record for longest freefall, 3. Speed record for fasted freefall by breaking the speed of sound with the human body, 4. Altitude record for the highest manned balloon flight. They were supposed to try last October on the 50th anniversary of Col. Joe Kittinger setting the majority (if not all) of these records in 1960, however literally 3 weeks before they were going to make the attempt, someone claimed to have contacted Red Bull with this idea initially but were left out in the cold, so they sued. As of July, the have amicably settled their differences. Game on! Go Felix!!!
Don't forget the super awesome Ben Folds 3 CD Retrospective is being released in October. W00t!
I'm still looking up license plates. I've upped the ante as well, I'm also looking for truck, trailer, motorcycle, dealer, temp and state govt plates as well. I've got got over 30 of the car plates. Not much of anything else, though I do take pride in spotting a California motorcycle plate.
We have too much stuff. The wife is making dents in the crawl space as I type this. I might have to hire Ian to sell some stuff for me again, though he says that teh ebay action is for poop as of late, so... who knows.
August is turning out to be a pretty decent month for sky watching. There was the Perseid meteor shower, and it's also been cool enough that the mosquitoes haven't been too horrible. This past week was great because the moon was 'off-phase' and wasn't up for most of the evening. I spotted my brightest objects just the other night. It was a flare from an Iridium satellite which clocked in at -7.2 magnitude. to put that into perspective, the lower the number the brighter... the sun is something like -26 and a full moon is -12.7. The brightest ISS sighting I have had was -4.6, so this nearly doubled as the brightest object I had seen. My August sightings thus far (something like 60 objects) are below. I'm nearly 3/4 of the way to my 1,000 object mark which is pretty cool. And Resurs 1-4 (ye olde faithful) is coming back around again for several months which means I should be able to hit another goal of seeing a single object 50 times.
Hope all is well with everyone else. There was a record show last weekend that I totally spaced on, but I'm kinda recorded out (though I still like to peruse around). Next show is Nov 12th according to my postcard.
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