Permanent Job

Back in Systems Engineering, where I started this whole crazy internship. Not exactly the way I wnated things to go down, but the result is fine with me.

In a surprise "double whammy decision" the Supreme Court struck down Judge Sonia Sotomayor's decision in the Ricci case and declared her to be "one stupid idiot." More tomorrow.

Balance of the News

Willie Herenton, mayor of Memphis, announced his retirement today (+)
He's done that before and didn't follow through (-)

Michael Jackson, the pedophile, died of a heat attack (+)

Farrah Fawcett, the iconic actress whose poster led generations of young men to get socks dirty, passed away today (-)

I'd have to call it a down day from that news. Little boys are safer. It's not that Farrah was the same pinup anymore, but that image defined a generation.

A little closer to home; I'm home now. The flight from Hartford to Washington, D.C. was great - I had two seats to myself. The flight from DCA to Huntsville wasn't quite so good. I had about 2/3 of a seat to myself. I'm not a small guy, and airplane seats are small, but I fit in them. I like not having to, but I fit. My neighbor, however, did not. On top of that, he insisted on poking his elbow out every few minutes. I'm not a fan of requiring people to buy two seats, but there are people who do not fit into a single seat. There was another instance that didn't affect me, but a tall, big guy had a center seat and needed two. I know plane tickets are expensive (not that I've paid for any recently, but I see what they cost), but come on, people. And this coming from not a small person.

Royal Pains, USA summer series. Go watch it. More tomorrow.

Gov. Sanford

I'm so very glad to see news organization treating Gov. Sanford's (R-SC) extra-marital affair with the same respect for his family's privacy as they did with Sen. John Edwards (D-NC).

Redux

Our Preliminary Design Review was going well today until we got to the Action Item review (the last thing before wrapping the meeting up). We'd taken actions, as happens at every meeting, and none of them seemed overly crazy to me (not that my opinion is worth anything). I'm going to have to establish a background here: we entered the review knowing that there were things that needed to be done. Moving at the speed of government, some things are always on-going and not complete when you enter a major review. We handle that problem with what's called a "pre-declared" action item. Everyone knows about it going in, and we all agree to the language, closure evidence, and estimated completion date. We had a few for our Requirements Review in January, and one was still open (mostly waiting on contract action, which takes freakin' forever). We opened another one leading up to this review. Then, we took about 15 - 20 actions during this two-day review. I can't go into details, but one of the actions we took during the review is very closely related to the predeclared action. And the government chair, 10 seconds before hanging up from the conference call, decides that the regular action is going to completely hold up our PDR. This comes on the heels of some other program decisions and opinions from the chair that made everyone think we were going have a pretty clean review.

After the chair hangs up, one of our guys insists on rehashing the issue 3 or 4 times. We all understood from the beginning, and we weren't the ones he needed to convince. The chair from the prime contractor was willing to proceed and sign off on the review (closure dependent on closing actions). He needed no further convincing. Arguing with people who agree with you and only want to leave is no way to win friends. Then, this guy insisted on going back in the presentation to prove his point. Again. The point everyone already agreed with. Except the guy who wasn't there anymore. Oy.

Lunch was the freakin' awesome pizza they order in about once a week. I'd had it several times on other visits, so I'd been hoping for it this trip. I'm not sure if I'll be back, for various reasons, and it was nice to go out on a good note with lunch.

The College World Series isn't bad. It suffers from a lack of attractive women in tight pants, but it's OK. More tomorrow.

Hyper Velocity Penetrator

Yep, that's what I said. That is a correct description of the cutting jet of a Linear Shape Charge, one of the coolest forms of explosive. The middle schooler in me still chuckles every time someone describes it that way.

Today was Day 1 of our 2-day preliminary design review. It went well. Lots of information about the process of getting here. Some very good information about the design. Design reviews aren't really engineering. The engineering has been done, and these are the reviews to present the results. There are big parts related to program management and documentation. The chairs of the review are chief engineers, so there's plenty of in-meeting engineering, but reviews themselves don't have a lot of fireworks (the way we do them, at least). So I've been chilling in the back of the room, watching the proceedings.

Tonight, the whole group went out to dinner. Not the best idea ever. The food was good, but with that many people, the service suffered. This place was better than the place we went after the lasy review, but 40 people will overwhelm any kitchen that doesn't expect them. Dinners and the like wear me out more than the technical reviews. Technical discussions are my comfort zone; small talk isn't.

Tomorrow we finish the review and get another tour of the supplier. This is my sixth or seventh visit up here. I've seen the place. If I'd known there was going to be a tour wasting my time, I'd have taken an earlier flight home. Eh, another few hours away from the office, some extra per diem, it's not all bad. More tomorrow.

Old People

On my flight out of Charlotte yesterday, there were about 8 couples, minimum age 70 - 75. It might have been only 4 couples, but they kept going up and down the aisle so often that it seemed like more. Loading on the plane, they couldn't figure out how suitcases were supposed to fit in the overhead bin, where they were supposed to sit, or that the lavatories are off limits during takeoff. During flight, they were up and down the aisles every 30 seconds, it seemed. They had to chat across aisles and rows. Deplaning, they couldn't find their bags, insisted on leaving out of the normal row order (back rows shoved forward to deplane first), and stopped halfway up the jet bridge. As you can guess, I was slightly annoyed.

On the bright side, I had an aisle seat on an exit row for both flights. Score.

Burying the lede, I'm now in Connecticut for Preliminary Design Review for my project. I've been doing all my travelling lately to support this review, so it's an important meeting. Tomorrow is most of the design parts. Today is overview for those new to the project and to verify the work that's been done (requirements and analysis).

I'm coming home Thursday morning. Very short lay over at Reagan National, but I've done the flight several times, so it should all work out. More tomorrow.

Dollhouse

I love this show. I just made it through the end of the initial season. Well, I'm watching the finale now. Even without the twist that I know Joss Whedon has in store, this is a great show.