Right some stuff.

I have no idea right now who is mad with whom about what. I can’t even figure out who I am pissed off with other than myself. So there is just a little tension around the office.

Lunchtime yesterday was more chess. I won the first game, Dave took the second one easily and I took the third. I’m actually really happy with the third one, I didn’t play particularly well, but I managed to set myself up nicely to get out of a spot of bother and put some pressure on Dave. It worked really well and I’m going to see what I can do about working things like that again. It was a lot of fun. Allthough at one stage I must have spent five minutes thinking about a move. I had 5 pieces bunched uptogether on the top cornor. Whatever I did I was about to loose my queen. I had a pawn clear to his last row…and I never once thought hey thats a queen. Oops. Still it worked out, checked his king and took his queen leaving me in a much stronger position. It rocked.

Last night was Starsailor in The Astoria. I’m going to put some pages up for gigs I’ve been too over the next couple of days so more details there. It was allright, I was going to say nothing special but they did a run in from Lullaby into a cover of Where the Streets Have No Name which was pretty good. Other than that, a few new songs, a couple of really good versions of album songs and then the rest of the songs just played well. I enjoyed it, my ears are still ringing, but I wouldn’t be in a rush to go and see them again. Support acts were all noteworthy; Hope of the States, 22-20s and Nada Surf.

Michael Jackson is enjoying quite a renaissance in the office the past couple of days. Bille Jean has just been calling out to everyone and man does it rock. It is one of those songs that I just cannot stay still while its playing. Fuck, it is no way hard to see why Thriller is the biggest selling album of all time. This stuff is just amazing.

– – – –
From a NASA mailing list.

Feb. 4th, 2003: At the dawn of the space age some 40 years ago, we always
knew who was orbiting Earth or flying to the Moon. Neil Armstrong, Yuri
Gagarin, John Glenn. They were household names–everywhere.
Lately it’s different. Space flight has become more “routine.” Another
flight of the shuttle. Another visit to the space station. Who’s onboard
this time? Unless you’re a NASA employee or a serious space enthusiast,
you might not know.

Dave Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson,
William McCool, and Ilan Ramon

Now we know. Those are the names of the seven astronauts who were
tragically lost on Saturday, Feb. 1st, when the space shuttle Columbia
(STS-107) broke apart over Texas.

Before the accident, perhaps, they were strangers to you. But if that’s
so, why did you have a knot in your gut when you heard the news? What were
those tears all about? Why do you feel so deep-down sad for seven
strangers?

Astronauts have an unaccountable hold on us. They are explorers. Curious,
humorous, serious, daring, careful. Where they go, they go in peace. Every
kid wants to be one. Astronauts are the essence of humanity.

They are not strangers. They are us.

While still in orbit Dave Brown asked, jokingly, “do we really have to
come back?”

No. But we wish you had.

The Science@NASA team, as does all of NASA and the world, extends
heartfelt sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of the STS-107
crew. Please see the NASA Home Page (http://www.nasa.gov) for more
information on the Columbia Investigation.

–Tony Phillips, Ron Koczor, Bryan Walls, Becky Bray, Patrick Meyer.