Thank you for your comments on the Vanguard Design Proposal 1. Today I received another email from Alex DeBirk, our Supremo Imagineer with three more Vanguard design proposals. Please comment if you'd like input.
Saturday at the CMSEC
Can you find the news hidden in the fun?If time permits, I enjoy stopping by Pleasant Grove's two Space EdVentures Centers (CMSEC and DSC) on a Saturday afternoon and getting caught up on the latest news. What I learn gets passed on to you, my fellow Troubadours. The DSC was highlighted in yesterday's post. Today is the CMSEC's turn.
Shocking is the only word I know to describe what I found. The working conditions for the Space Center's administration and programmers is deplorable. I found Megan, Jon, Matt, and Dillon sardined into a room the size of an upscale home's walk-in closet. My first instinct was to get on the phone with OSHA to report this objectionable lack of consideration for a person's need for personal space.
What made the situation worse was the atmosphere in the room. Those poor people were being forced by circumstances to breath each other's air! Anyone who knows me, knows of my phobia concerning people standing in my comfort zone and breathing my air. Notice I took this picture from the safety of the hallway.
Megan noticed my hesitation to enter the biohazard field and assured me that what I saw wasn't the norm. "The programmers are showing me their latest work and..... well.... Jon is just being Jon," she explained. "The only real problem is the sink behind my chair, and I'm told that will be gone over Spring vacation."
"What do you mean I was just 'being Jon'?" Jon interjected. Megan looked at me. "He got that?" her eye's questioned. I nodded.
"Are you Jon?" Megan asked while examining the dozen or so sticky notes framing her computer screen.
"That's IS my name," Jon replied.
"And would it be logical for you to act and speak like yourself?" Megan found a note that caught her attention.
Jon looked perplexed. "Well....... yes I suppose that I would act and talk like myself."
"And wouldn't you say that I act and talk like myself." Megan was nearing her final move and checkmate.
"Yes definitely you act and talk like yourself," Jon replied.
"I'd agree. Megan does act and talk like herself," Matt Long added to the bewildering string of logic.
"Thanks for having my back on this." Jon shot Matt a thumbs up. Matt responded with the same.
Megan was ready for the final blow. "Then what is wrong with me saying that you were just being you?"
Jon scratched his head for a moment while staring at Megan's dead pan face. She refused to break the eye lock she had on him - which noticeably increased the tension in the room. Jon's face turned red. "Ah, I guess nothing is wrong."
"Well then, thank me," Megan dropped Jon's King to the board.
"Ah...... thanks."
"You're welcome. You may go now. Time to get to work."
Jon gathered his papers, and what was left of his thoughts, and removed them, and himself, from the room.
"Well played Megan," I said from the hallway.
"I learned from the best," she replied.
My next stop at the CMSEC was the Magellan Control Room. I found Logan P., working his last mission as a volunteer. Logan has officially retired from both the CMSEC and the DSC.
"There are other things I've put off doing," Logan explained to me. "After four years working as a volunteer, it's time to move on and scratch more things off my to do list."
Thank you Logan for the four years you've given us at the Space Center. You did a fantastic job. You were dedicated to your work and kind to the staff and other volunteers. Good luck with all your future endeavors.
I'm happy to report that Farpoint Cadet Jake H., has graduated from the Magellan Control Room observing / stand by stool to the Second Chair position. Supervisors Jacqueline and Andrew stood behind him, their facing beaming with pride at his accomplishment.
"That's our Jake," I overheard Jacqueline say to Andrew. He smiled, took her hand, and gently gave it a quick pat.
"He's only getting to sit there because he broke his foot," Lissa mumbled under her breath at the video station. "Everybody feel sorry for Jake.... Oh, he broke his foot. Well, the mission's only started, we've got a few hours, let's see what can be done about his other foot."
Jacqueline is shown getting a Magellan away team event ready. Lissa and Rich played the story's primary characters. That's the problem with our volunteers. They are all such great, clean cut kids, it's difficult to get them to look like the Universe's most wanted criminals.
"That Galileo Lamp has snapped at its last volunteer," Megan said as she reached for a pair of scissors to finally end the device's long reign of terror. "I know Nathan is emotionally attached to it. I know Lamp has served many flight directors and has brighten the control room for a number of years, but its getting unreliable in its old age and, well, I just can't risk it any more. It has to be put down." And with that said, she cut through Lamp's cord. One final spark burst from the severed end - Lamp's final goodbye.
"I'm sorry," Harrison said to Nathan. "I was only trying to change the bulb when it broke and Lamp snapped and got my finger. I didn't want it to be put down. You gotta believe me!"
"It's not your fault," Nathan said as we wiped a bit of moisture off his cheek. "It was getting old. Lamps gone on to its reward in that great Control Room in the sky."
The Imaginarium
Let the Extraordinary wrap up your weekend.
