RazCat

I follow a lot of people on twitter: a few friends that use it, a few celebraties with witty things to say, but also a few designers and artists so I can keep up with what others are doing. One such artist I follow is Lar deSouza of Least I Could Do. I really admire his work, his art and how he uses social media to be involved with his fan-base. Following him is how I learned about #NASATweetUp.

He was lucky enough to attend STS-135: The last shuttle launch. Even though I wasn’t in Florida to see it for myself, I was still able to experience a taste of what was happening because of Twitter. It was because of that I decided to enter the next NASATweetUp lottery as soon as one came up. When I entered and won a spot, I was ecstatic! I tweeted at @Lartist mentioning I won, and if he had any advice. He replied saying to look up the TweetUp info sites and to get involved with the facebook group that will inevitably be created for it.

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The only reason I had an alarm set was to make sure I didn’t sleep through check-out. Trust me, I would have.

I was exhausted but I had to drag myself out of bed. Had to pack since I opted to sleep once I had returned to the hotel the night before. Drag everything back down to the car. pack that. Double check I didn’t leave anything. I left the burrs, though. Those fucking burrs.

It was only at this point did I realize I should have stayed one more night. I could explore Florida a bit more. There was the nature preserve near the KSC. Alas… didn’t think, didn’t plan.  And I had already picked these little bastards off my shoes…

Sharp prickly Sand Burrs

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Needless to say- I couldn’t sleep.

It was more like a nap by the time my mind took a break from its marathon of thoughts and the butterflies in my stomach settled from hours of anticipation. Or was it indigestion from the really bad Chinese food I had the night before? No. Anticipation. I was like a kid who wasn’t allowed to leave the dinner table until I ate enough of my veggies. Three hours of sleep enough? good.

Up and in the car well before the sun, drinking really awful hotel coffee, I drove back to the Kennedy Space Center for what ended up being the last time. We had been waiting for this day for weeks. Others had been waiting  for months, years! This was Launch Day!

We had to arrive by 6am. Again, most of us arrived early. Few slept at all. I was excited, but it didn’t hit me until I saw the clock on and counting down. Weather permitting, this was happening.

Launch Day - The Countdown Clock.

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What. a. day.

Still feeling a bit overwhelmed from all that happened today.

This morning we had to arrive in time for the 9am start of events. A well structured full-day of awesome. I arrived a bit early, much like everyone else, to explore the area where we’ll be spending the majority of that day and next. The VIP site was well inside the property of NASA. And yes. I almost got lost even with all the signs posted. I’m just that special.

Oh.. you know that clock? The iconic countdown clock? THE clock… yeah. I can already tell you’re jealous.

The famous count-down cock! It's HUGE!

Just to warn you.. this post is just as huge as the clock. I won’t feel bad if you skip the reading parts and just scrolled to see the pictures.

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I’d like to think myself a Jane-of-Many-Talents. In reality, I’m sure I’m just a Cat-That-Thinks-She-can-Do-Things-but-Fails-At-Most-But-Tries-Anyway. Trying counts for something, right???

right?

Well, I decided to create a new series called “Failed Attempts at Photography!” This is a new segment of my blog that I just made up about two minutes ago as an excuse to post pictures of things I currently feel proud of. The blog is like the giant fridge and you are the poor saps that have to look at it when you browse the kitchen for something to snack on!

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Happy-Super-Bowl-Ad-Watching Day!!

I was never a Handegg fan. I’m still not a handegg fan. I only have a thin grasp on the concept and rules of the game but I still question ‘why’. It’s a game, but it’s still a dumb game. Now hockey. That’s a sport! The players play the sport in Hockey. Handegg (sorry.. but football is a game you play with a ball and your feet. American football is handegg. Soccer is football.) is a game that is played by the coaches using the players as pawns in chess.

And why is it that NFL coaches always look like hobos? if you want respect, wear a suit LIKE ALL THE OTHER COACHES IN EVERY SPORT1! (Where a tie, ya bum!)

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What a day. What an amazing long day. Seriously. And the official NASATweetUp events haven’t even started yet!

Today I and a few other Tweeps opted to use our free day pass to the Kennedy Space Visitor’s Center. I woke at 7, having slept abou 4 hours (again) and got to the park at 9 when they opened armed with my tri-pod, camera, and lappy bag of organized chaos. yes. But to quote a new friend who quoted an XKCD comic “We are the Internet.” I wasn’t the only one bogged down with tons of stuff. And as I walked to the entrance I remembered the last time I was there. I think that I had more child-like wonderment now than I did when I was 10.

Welcome to the Kennedy Space Center!

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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Sorry. Residual stress from DRIVING TO FLORIDA FROM NEW YORK  WHATTHEHELLISWRONGWITHME!? It was fun. Seriously. No. Yes, I am crazy. I don’t think I was ever sane.

In case you haven’t heard me rant excitedly like a school girl for the last month- I’m here in the sunshine state for the #NASATweetUp of the Mars Space Laboratory dubbed “Curiosity”. I’m going to see and experience SO MUCH that I decided to blog about it.

First off. What is a NASATweetUp? Well, I suppose I should break it down even further to “What is a TweetUp”… A TweetUp is a gathering of people, specifically with at least one thing in common – they use twitter. The only way to enter is to use twitter. And if you win, the organization assumes you will tweet about it, and then tweet some more when you are at the gathering. In a way, it’s like unofficial publicity. NASA has seen this power of publicizing through twitter and figured out how to use it. NASATweetUps- using social media to gather people, with another thing in common (SPACE) and plan something amazing and fun that they’ll share with their friends and followers to help “spread the word”. Awesome for them. Awesome for us!

Now, about this Mars Space Laboratory… We are sending a new rover to Mars. The planet. No, I don’t think it is made of candy (no M&Ms on Mars… Cheese on the moon, however, is still debatable.) This SUV sized robot of awesome is going to to drive around the Gale Crater and “investigate the area’s past and present environments”(MSL press release. Seriously. Everyone should read this.) Basically, it’s going to observe and analyze what’s on the surface and below the surface (up to 6cm, I believe, with a laser!) and run other tests because it is a mobile laboratory on freaking MARS. (Well.. not there yet…)

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I was born and raised on Long Island, NY. I still have family here and always drive down from Rochester to be with them. This time around, I was here for my nephew’s first birthday. My parents are in town, too, and I have my other sister’s kids here so I decided to stay awhile. (Love my sister’s couch…)

Then the impending doom of hurricane Irene threatened the East Coast.

Did I leave? HELL NO!

I never experienced a hurricane. I was just a mere fetus for Hurricane Gloria. So I was curious as to how this would turn out. Besides, earlier that week, I had experienced my first “earthquake” so.. why the hell not. I was gonna have Irene Rock me like a Hurricane!

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If it wasn’t clear in my last post – GO READ THE HUNGER GAMES! NOW!!

I seriously finished the second book about 20 minutes ago and while I clench the third and final book in my arms as I type this dying to know how it ends, I figure I should take a break and reflect on the second book. Maybe review? We’ll see how that works…

Now see, it’s hard enough to write a review the first time around since you want to just type and spoil away, unforgiving because in your mind EVERYONE should have read this already. However, it’s even more difficult to write something on the second.. now I have to be careful not to spoil the first or second book. I’ll try and be as careful as I can.

So… beware what’s below.

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