Evelyn took these photos this morning. See what a deer running into the side of your car can do:

  

  

(Click thumbnail for larger image.)

We got the estimate earlier today, and it’s over $3,100 in damage. Thank goodness we have full coverage on the car.

It’s a good thing that it hit us on the side, when we had slowed down (to 55 MPH) to go through a town. Here’s what the speed limit normally is:

Here’s the executive summary: The Air Show rocked, the Space Show sucked.

Out of nine or so lunar contestants, only ONE (Armadillo Aerospace) took part in the X Prize challenge. The others either didn’t show up, or showed up with their props but didn’t get on the field. Very disappointing, especially for the large number of people who came a long way to see this event.

On Day 1 AM the Armadillo crew could not get the ignitor to work. On Day 1 PM they got it to work, perfectly! It rose in the air, moved the across to the other pad, and came down fine. They then needed to refuel within 45 minutes. This they did, just barely. It rose, moved across to the original pad, and then hovered above. Then, with 5 seconds left (they have to stay up for 90), something went wrong and the thing toppled over. At that point, the decided to hold off until Day 2. Of course, Day 2 AM and PM ended up being a complete waste, as they could not get the ignitor to work at all.

Thoughts about the Armadillo effort: First, I applaud them for getting out there in front of a huge crowd and trying. That’s a lot more than I can say for the other teams. Second, I think they got what they deserved.

Why? Because of the way they handled the “90 second” rule. The craft is supposed to be in the air for 90 seconds, with the intention being 30 up, 30 across, 30 down. Intead, they followed the letter of the law, but not the spirit: They went up quick, across quick, down quick–and then hovered inches over the ground for the remaining minute or so. Like I said, the letter of the law, but certainly not the spirit.

I know why they did it, they didn’t want their craft to fall and crash apart. Instead, they kicked up a bunch of dust while hovering low, and completely clogged up their engine system. Trying to be “slick” bites you in the ass, every time. Still, at least they had the balls to go out there and try.

Besides the last of any real competition, I didn’t like that the space-launch part of the show really hurt the air show portion. That because every time they tried a “lunar” launch, the field had to be locked down. So, we’re all sitting around picking our noses for an hour at a time while they are dinking around with their rocket. I understand that rocketry is tough work, with lots of trial-and-error, but 90% of the people there were looking for an air show–meaning loud jets overhead–and I don’t think it was fair to them. They should make the space part a different show, or schedule it differently, so that it doesn’t screw up what most of the people came there for (the airplanes).

On the bright side, the air show was really nice. Wing walkers, hang gliders, stunt planes, parachutes, gliders, WWII planes, and modern jets. Plus, there were a lot of plans on he ground that you can see, and walk in. We walked through a C-5 Galaxy, an AWACS aircraft, and got to go into the cockpit of a B-1 Lancer Bomber. Once we organize our 2000+ photos we’ll post them up.

We got back to Austin safe and sound this evening. However, we did encounter an unexpected surprise: A deer decided to t-bone our car. Evelyn was looking over to me and suddenly sees a deer heading right for the car. I see a flash out of the corner of my eye, and a huge series of thumps along the left side of the car. I say “Don’t tell me we just hit a deer….” Evelyn confirms. “Ah, shit.” (We had just been talking about how dangerous this one stretch of road was–I had seen 4 dead deer on the way out.)

So, my door barely opens, and the whole left side is screwed up. The front-left panel, driver door, driver passenger door, and rear-left panel are toast. Plastic rubbing against the tires, body parts flapping in the wind. Driveable, but a bit of a mess. No blood, though, which is odd. Evelyn says the deer got away, though I thought I saw it in the road.

I’m thinking of getting a little silhouette of a deer and sticking it to the side of the car, just like the “number of kills” they put in the side of fighter planes. I’ll tell you one thing, after that experience, I feel like hunting. Gimmie my mini-14, I’m out to blow Bambi’s brains out! Fucking deer.

We arrived in Ruidoso, NM safe and sound. About an 11 hour drive altogether (with lunch, stops, etc). Tomorrow we head out early to the Air & Space show. It’s in Alamagordo, about 70 miles away. Though it’s a haul, it’s cheaper to stay here (off-season) and it’s more in the middle of stuff.

We’re pretty high up right now, at 6920 feet–the scenery, especially along US 70 is really beautiful. Evelyn took hundreds of pics already! We’re hoping to hit the nearest peak, which is over 10,000 feet.

More later. It’s been a long day and I need some sleep.

Earlier today I asked Evelyn to run over to the local CVS and pick me up a cheap bottle of wine. She returned back with the bottle, a bag of beef jerky (for our trip tomorrow), and the following receipt:

That’s right. Two items resulted in a receipt 41 inches long! I didn’t know that the combined power of wine and jerky would result in:

• $10 off purchase of $50 or more
• Buy one nutrition bar, get one free
• $3 off $15 photo gift
• $1 off Hershey Extra Dark Bar
• $3 off Theraflu Fortifense
• $1 off Hershey Antioxidant Chocolates

I don’t know if I’m more amazed by the waste of paper or the idiotic marketing associations. Does wine go really well with chocolate? Are they trying to tell me that too much jerky will result in bad health? Too bad it didn’t list $5 off a pregnancy test–that would have been perfect.

Though, now I have a new game. My CVS lists will become more complicated, with the hope of getting longer and longer receipts. How many exciting offers can I get on one purchase? The six here are quite a lot. Can I get 10? 15? More? The anticipation is killing me.

I have a humble suggestion to all businesses out there:

Treat everyone who works for you as a consultant.

What do I mean? I mean treat everyone as a dollar amount per hour.

Why? Because it will attach a real, in your face, dollar amount to every business decision you make. Want to constantly have your staff attend meetings? Well, those meetings are costing you hundreds of dollars an hour. Seeing people not doing their job? That’s money out of your pocket.

Think about it: The total cost for an employee is generally two times their salary. So if someone is making $40K a year, it’s costing the company at least $80K a year. This extra money is in equipment, benefits, workmans comp, sick time, social security, and so on. So, a full-time $40K a year worker is costing you, roughly, $38 an hour. If you have a more skilled, IT-like worker, that’s costing you $70K a year x 2 =$140K a year, or $67 an hour.

I really do believe that a majority of large organizations need to start thinking like this. I’ve seen huge amounts of time wasted in meetings, only to have additional meetings. And meetings not with 2 or 3 people, but with everyone who might possibly be involved. An example, a certain company has a status meeting with everyone involved in the project. Total number of people attending, on average, is 10. Total number really needing to be on the call? About 3. So you have 10 x $50/hr  (average)  = $500 a week thrown out the window. And that’s one one hour meeting a week. Some of these companies have their people in 20 hours of meetings a week! That’s $1000 lost (on average) every week–per employee!

And I do mean lost. I am a firm believer that a majority of meetings are complete wastes of time. More often than not they:

1. Have no agenda.
2. Have no structure.
3. Have too many people.
4. Are inappropriate for problem solving.

So, start adding up the real costs of these time wasting events. I think you’ll quickly realize that focused, limited, conversations will save a boatload of time and money.

It looks like New Mexico’s the place to be for anyone looking to catch a glimpse of a possible future mission to the moon, with the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge set to get underway tomorrow at the Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo. As an added incentive for competitors, NASA is ponying up $2M in prizes, although they’ll have their work cut out for them if they want to take that home. Specifically, they need to show off a rocket-propelled vehicle and payload that “takes off vertically, climbs to a defined altitude, flies for a pre-determined amount of time, and then land vertically on a target that is a fixed distance from the launch pad.” Then they have to do that all over again within a predetermined period of time. To open things up a bit, there’s also two difficulty levels but, as with all challenges of this sort, no one takes home a prize unless they fully meet all the requirements.

…you’ll end up on a blog. I can now be found on the Make site, talking to the guys at Octopart.

Octopart

For those of us in North America, the days are getting shorter, and the trees are losing their leaves. (Though, it seems, much later than last year.) Today in Austin was the first really cool day in a while–50s and rain. It’s nice to get a break from the heat, though it hasn’t been a super-hot summer (I don’t think it went over 100 this season).

Ah, fall. A lot of people love fall. I hate fall. I think it sucks. It’s always meant less sunlight, going back to school, allergies, burning leaves (not good for a kid with asthma), and less green. Walking in the crisp air, my aching ass. You fall lovers can keep your annual reminder of death to yourselves. I’ll take the eternal green of Puerto Rico any day.

To help combat the lack of green, you can have house plants, or sun rooms, or whatever. The problem is that most house plants don’t give you that summer-green look. And, being in a tiny apartment, we don’t have room for much in the way of plants.

So, what gives that summer feeling? Well, grass, of course! So, we’ve started growing little containers of turf in our apartment. As strange as it sounds, it really is super easy to do, and give you the most wonderful color of green in your home.

You need is a little container. We use old plastic containers from “fancy” ramen packages–old plastic microwave dinner containers work fine, too. They are about 5 x 7 and about an inch or two high. The perfect size to put on a windowsill, on a desk, on a nightstand, whatever. 

Next up, the soil and the seed. (Remember: As my sister taught me, dirt is what you clean up, soil is what you plant in. Thank you FFA!) We got a small (8 quart) bag of Miracle Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix. This is about the smallest bag we can find and will fill up about 25 of those containers, if you want to go crazy. It comes in a resealable bag and is not messy to work with (since it’s mostly peat moss).

For the seed, we got the smallest bag we could find. A one pound bag of “Bare Spot Repair” from Pennington Seed. The spot repair stuff is great because (a) you get a small quantity–though there’s enough seed for 100 square feet of containers, (b) it’s designed to germinate quickly, and (c) it has magical chemical coatings which prevent fungus.

Planting is super easy. Put in some soil, sprinkle a good quantity of seed, cover with a bit more soil, “rake” it in with your fingers, and you’re set. Give nice spray of water every day. Within a week you should see it sprouting. We had 3-4 inches of grass after only 2-3 weeks!

See Turf Fullsize

The best part is that, if/when it dies, who cares! It’s grass! Just “till” the soil and sprinkle in some more seed.

We’ve yet to see how it looks over the winter. So far, even with this fall light, it’s very green and growing like a weed. (It will soon need a haircut with some scissors–or maybe I can make a tiny lawnmover that a hamster can push. Or a tiny, genetically engineered, goat.) I’ll keep you posted.

This coming weekend (10/26-29) we’ll be in Alamogordo, NM checking out the Air & Space Expo at Holloman AFB (southern part of WSMR). The main reason is because the Wirefly X Prize Cup will be having the Lunar Lander competitions. (This is part of the Google X Prize, which includes the lunar rover prize.) Evelyn hasn’t been buzzed by military jets for a while, so I thought it would be a good refresher course.

After that, if time permits, we may head up toward Los Alamos and check out the Black Hole. You never know when you need a spare klystron.

Welcome to the future. See you on the moon.