we're not hosting an intergalactic kegger here

NASA lost a satellite today, when the payload shroud failed to deploy, throwing off the dynamics of the launch vehicle and sending to crashing to Earth. (Hah! I'm an aerospace engineer, so I know what I'm talking about. Mostly.) I think it's rather ironic that the satellite, designed to study climate change, crashed near Antarctica. While I'm disappointed about the loss of the mission, we chided my boss at NASA about it since he was involved in a project that ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic when the exact same thing happened to his launch vehicle. Hey, at least we can joke about it, right? Right?

When I put up the hit counter on the left side of the page, it gave me the option of setting how many zeros show up. I think I was a little too optimistic.

And now, I leave you with a little clip from one of my favorite animated films:

the needs of the many

It's no secret that I'm a Star Trek fan; in fact, I have been one since a very young age. You might even say that I'm a Trekkie. Regardless, I am very disturbed by the new Star Trek movie that's coming out this year. Nerd alert: Chekov on board the Enterprise with Pike? And as a bridge officer?! And the new Enterprise doesn't look anything like the original. And what's up with the new iBridge? Where's the multicolored lighting? The analog switches and dials?

Unfortunately, established continuity and decades' worth of episodes and films being thoroughly disregarded by Trek director J.J. Abrams is only the latest event in a long line of re-imaginings and remakes by directors that are hell-bent on ruining my childhood and classic films. What could possibly be next?

That's why I take solace in watching old Star Trek episodes, which were campy but goddamn awesome. I mean, where else will you find a show that has its main characters infiltrate a planet filled with Nazis by posing as them? The answer is nowhere, and it seems that you'll never find it anywhere else. I therefore offer you this tribute to a television show that inspired me to dream and reach for the stars.



And because of that, I'm now an aerospace engineer.

punch and pie

I have just discovered Matt & Kim, and now you know them too. Kim's smile and antics are crazy contagious. And the song has a kickass beat too.



And here's a bit of them live. Not too sure about the vocals yet, but damn these beats are addicting, kind of reminds me of Ratatat.

what a hilarious misunderstanding

Yesterday I came home to find that I had a magazine in my mailbox. Imagine my (pleasant) surprise when I opened the wrapper to find that it was Playboy magazine! Of course, I immediately knew who had done this. Thanks Joshua!

Flight of the Conchords is playing in DC in April (incidentally, they had an interview in the previously-mentioned Playboy. Go FOTC!). God, I want to go. For those of you who don't know who they are, they're the second-most popular folk-comedy duo from New Zealand. Please refer to this video:



They're cool guys. See?

man, gooch is crazy

If you've been watching Scrubs recently, you'll know that Ted finally got a girlfriend in the form of ukelele-player Stephanie Gooch, aka Kate Micucci. If you haven't been watching Scrubs recently, get the hell off my blog. For the rest of you though, please enjoy this song by Garfunkel and Oates, of which Kate Micucci is half.

y hallo thar!

where did you get that preposterous hypothesis?

Today at work we got an e-mail alerting us to the fact that apparently we employ stinky craftsmen:

“Today there will be a couple of craftsmen working upstairs in the mechanical room and they will be making some repairs to the damaged coil in the air handler. The reason for this email is just in case you should smell an odor, don’t be alarmed it is just the craftsman working.” (emphasis mine)

Apparently teenagers spend an hour and 40 minutes a week looking at porn on the Internet. All of you should know that this is preposterous. That should read more like, they spend an hour looking at porn every thirty minutes. I mean, that's what the Internet's for! m i rite?

As you may or may not know, romcoms are one of my guilty pleasures. I also have a massive crush on Zooey Deschanel. That's why I'm posting this preview for [500] Days of Summer -- not only is it a romcom, it has Zooey. It also has a kickass song by The Temper Trap. And it's narrated by Leslie Nielsen! He should do more of that.

a tentacled work

I've been getting into The Octopus Project recently. You should, too. I'm not sure what it is about this song, but I've been playing it almost constantly the past two days. Keep an eye out for the smiling sun :)

a fresh start

After months (years?) of absence from the online post-your-life scene, I have returned -- this time in the form of a blog. If you don't remember, or if you were not in the know, I used to have a semi-hit newsletter named College Notes that came out monthly, that later turned bi-monthly, that later turned dead. It started concurrently with my start in college (2003) and ended somewhere in the depths of my senior design project (2006). Will this go better? Will this be funnier? Will it be more relevant? Who knows? All I know is that everybody has a blog now, so damn it, I will too.

Here goes.