The Troubadour: My Slice of Humble Pie. A Comment. Space News. The Imaginarium

Hello Troops,

A quiet Monday at the Space Center; uneventful, except for the small slice of humble pie I had to eat this morning.

I dismissed my math class at 10:30 A.M. and made my way into the Magellan Control Room to work the A.M. field trip mission. Zac was well into his opening speech when I arrived. The mission was underway. I sat at the 2nd chair position, cracked my knuckles and started answering scans and printing messages.

I heard Zac confirm the crew had activated the Magellan's warp engine. That was my signal to play the warp jump. I pushed all the right buttons, so I was surprised when Zac told me they didn't see the warp field special effect. Devin popped into the control room and told me the same thing. I check the DVD players, there was no problem. The preview screen showed the players were working correctly - yet nothing was going out to the bridge projector. At that moment, my twenty two years of masterful problem solving went right out the window. Instead of going from the simplest solution to the complex, I immediately thought the switcher boxes were out, or something was wrong with the projector, or or or or - a dozen things went through my head.

"I'm getting Megan," I said to Zac as I bounded out of the Control Room. Of course I disrupted Lorraine's class. Of course Megan had already started her mission in the Phoenix. Of course she looked a bit annoyed when I told her to come at once.

"What's wrong?" she asked in the Magellan's Control Room Doorway.

"There is no picture going out to the Bridge," I replied. I had a feeling it was going to be serious.

Megan is well trained in the art of problem solving and did just what I had taught her to do. Megan started with the simple solution. She looked behind the switcher box.

"The video cable isn't connected to the box." Megan's voice sounded quite smug. She sounded proud of the fact that she had found the problem in a fraction of a second.

"I'll take two slices of Humble Pie," I muttered to myself.

I learned something today. I learned to follow my own advice.

Thanks Megan......

Mr. W.

A Message from One of The Troubadour's Kind and Intelligent Readers.

Keaton wrote:
I was just reading through this blog's archive, and I came to the realization that I've been an active reader for a little more than two years now. I've been reading the blog ever since the Space Center became important in my life, so I guess that makes this month, give or take a few, my two year anniversary as a camper. I guess that means I should just go ahead and say that I am absolutely thrilled that the Space Center is open again. It's closure was one of the saddest thing I've had to see. The next couple months after that felt like a dark age. There were very few days I didn't picture the five ships that I had endured countless adventures, and experienced some of the most spectacular, breath-taking moments of my life dark, in despair, and potentially to remain that way forever. I have watched the Space Center rise back power, and I think we have the potential to grow now more than ever before. I guess, in conclusion, this really is the happiest place on earth (Yeah Disney Land, you heard that), and we took a hit, but we're getting back up, and are ready to fight again. Let's do this!

Thanks Keaton for the Comment. Please Keep Reading!

Space and Science News

"In 1994, physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed a new kind of technology that would allow us to travel 10 times faster than the speed of light, without actually breaking the speed of light. Sound confusing? Well, the Alcubierre drive does not actually propel the ship to speeds exceeding light; instead, it uses the deformation of spacetime permitted by General Relativity to warp the universe around the vessel. Essentially, when the drive is activated the spacetime behind expands, while in the front it contracts. In this respect, the path taken becomes a time-like free-fall. The ship hums along in a little bubble of space, and neither the passengers nor the vessel encounter inertial effects." Read On

NASA-backed ground-based searches have spotted the vast majority of potentially dangerous near-Earth objects to date. But the B612 Foundation aims to join the hunt soon, and a pair of asteroid-mining firms hope their efforts also help keep our planet safe from marauding space rocks. Read On

J.T. Siems of Seattle-based perfume company Sweet Tea Apothecary has formulated Dead Writers Perfume, a unisex blend that “evokes the feeling of sitting in an old library chair paging through yellowed copies of Hemingway, Shakespeare, Fitzgerald, Poe, and more.” The copy further reads, it “makes you want to put on a kettle of black tea and curl up with your favorite book.”

The Imaginarium
You should know by now that no one, not even you, may see the following inspired bits of imagination without making the promise to spend your life looking for ways to make the ordinary, extraordinary.