Out of the mouths of... well... okay my kids

Every so often I mark papers. It's part of my job, I sit down, look over 150 papers, correct the errors with my red pen, write "Good Job!" and then give them back to the teacher... well, it's part of my job...

But I do run across some interesting things:

"I think to lurn English to we."

I actually wrote: "I really don't know what you are saying here..."

And

"(MyTown) is the city where a lot of green is wonderful"

I just couldn't explain that one to my teachers... it's correct... but... woah...

and

"Because delicious kimchee wants to eat."

I tell you, the food here is a little scary...

But the best one came today... I photocopied it because... well... I... um...:

I started laughing and laughing... and tears started streaming down my face... then I realized... I can't even begin to explain why this is hysterical... My teacher, hoping to find the same humor, read it and just simply didn't get it...

She had even written "Team Members" on the board... that just adds to the pricelessness of it all.

---Still laughing

One Demon down...

I've been struggling since November to break a personal barrier.

The content of this barrier really isn't important, but the barrier itself is.

For many, many years I have struggled against myself to complete projects that I start. I have a wealth of good ideas and I never seem to finish them. As I grow older and mature, my ideas seem to be maturing as well (As in, they are starting to sound better... less... erm... "stupid").

I love telling stories, and writing, and have done both since I was in Junior High. I have written stories with my friends and have involved myself in writing challenges with them as well. I'm not particularly an incredible writer, nor really an excellent artist. But I consider myself servicable at both tasks, which is a useful combo...

The problem was; I never managed to complete these projects. If the project went on too long, I'd ultimately lose interest and give up.

But I finally did it.

After 20 years of struggling, I managed to finally complete a cycle. The first Tamerlane comic is now done. Not only that: I managed to release it only two minutes late (The standing tradition with the Fan community is to release their fan works at the time of the registration numbers of the ship, in this case: 5:10PM... it's stupid, I aknowledge that... but sometimes its fun to do stupid things... one could say this entire project is stupid... and since I can't ever sell it, one might be right...).

As I said earlier: don't judge it on it's content. I'm not so much a Star Trek geek that I can only write Star Trek fan fiction, this just happened to be the first project I managed to complete (Ironically, this is also the first Fan Fiction thing I've ever written in 20 years...). I'm going to finish out this story and then, taking all the experience from this project, I'm going to move on to my own stories (And provided this continues, complete them!). Besides, the comic itself could be about naked cats dancing in the rain and I'd still be posting here about this success. What it is isn't even remotely as important as what it signifies; I can complete a project, long term, start to finish.

For those interested in reading said book, you can find it over on my Tamerlane website:

http://usstamerlane.foxtailgraphics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53

Anyway, if you've been wondering where I went; I haven't forgotten my blog, I just know that if I go onto the web, I lose about 1 or 2 hours surfing the various forums and posting and stuff... and as I approached my personal deadline for this comic I couldn't afford to lose those precious hours...

So, I'll be posting back here now that I'm done devoting so much time to a silly fan comic... Well, until issue 2... but that's not going to start until May...

next: Naked Dancing Cats in the Rain- the comic.

:)

--Me.

STS-122

STS-122

Orbiter: Atlantis (OV-104)

Payload: European Space Agency's Columbus science laboratory for the International Space Station (ISS Assembly Flight 1E)
Launch: Feb. 7, 2008, 2:45 p.m. EST (5:45AM Tokyo time...)
Site: Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landing: Feb. 18, 9:57 a.m. EST
Site: Shuttle Landing Facility, KSC
Duration: 11 days (planned)
Number of Orbits: TBD
Orbit altitude: 122 nautical miles (226 km)
Orbit inclination: 51.6 degrees

Stephen Frick - Commander
Alan G. Poindexter (rookie) - Pilot
Leland D. Melvin (rookie) - Mission Specialist 1
Rex J. Walheim - Mission Specialist 2
Hans Schlegel - Mission Specialist 3 - ESA Germany
Stanley G. Love (rookie) - Mission Specialist 4
ISS Expedition 16 Crewmember Léopold Eyharts - Flight Engineer - ESA France (Eyharts will be replacing Daniel M. Tani on the Station)

Love was the Capcom (Capsule Command at Mission Control) for the ISS for a while, so on this flight, he'll actually get to be on the other side of the radio. Melvin was a NFL draft pick for the Detroit Lions, but pulled a hamstring during practice, moved to the Dallas Cowboys and pulled it again during practice. He left football and became an astronaut.

So far the orbiter Atlantis has completed 28 flights, spent 220.40-days in space, completed 3,468 orbits, and flown 89,908,732 nautical miles (166,510,972 km)

STS-122 will mark the 24th shuttle mission to the ISS, the 29th flight of OV-104 (Atlantis) and the 121st space shuttle flight since STS-1.

Good luck, Atlantis!

A day of rememberance

It was five years ago today, at 9:01 AM on February 2, 2003 that the Space Shuttle Columbia (NASA Orbital Vehicle (ov) 102) fell into the normal radio blackout as it passed into entry-interface with the Earth's atmosphere. The protective heat tiles, used to shield the fragile orbiter from the heat caused by the extreme friction with the speeding atmosphere, failed and the left wing of the orbiter was burned off of the spacecraft. At a speed of nearly 25 times the speed of sound, the unbalanced spacecraft attempted to use it's space-borne retrothrusters to control its firey descent, but by then the left side of the spcaecraft was disintegrating. Columbia broke apart over the open fields of North Texas.

A little under a minute later, the seven astronauts in the hardened protective cabin, were also subjected to the immense forces of the thickening atmosphere as the crew cabin, too, finally failed and broke open.

None of the seven crew members survived the remaining unprotected 2 mile freefall at mach 10.

Today marks the end of a very tragic week for American Spaceflight, with January 27 being the anniversary of Apollo 1 and January 28 being the anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger, I'd like to take a moment to remember these men and women who have given their lives to further our boundaries and push mankind into space, a noble and peaceful cause.

Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Command Pilot, Apollo 1
Edward H. White II, Senior Pilot, Apollo 1
Roger B. Chaffee, Pilot, Apollo 1

Francis "Dick" Scobee, Commander, Space Shuttle Challenger,
Michael J. Smith, Pilot, Space Shuttle Challenger
Judith Resnik, Mission Specialist (MS1), Space Shuttle Challenger
Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist (MS2), Space Shuttle Challenger
Ronald McNair, Mission Specialist (MS3), Space Shuttle Challenger
Gregory Jarvis, Payload Specialist (PS1), Space Shuttle Challenger
Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Spaceflight Participant (Teacher in Space), (MS4), Space Shuttle Challenger

Rick D. Husband, Commander, Space Shuttle Columbia
William C. McCool, Pilot, Space Shuttle Columbia
David M. Brown, Mission Specialist (MS1), Space Shuttle Columbia,
Kalpana Chawla, Flight Engineer (FE1), Space Shuttle Columbia
Michael P. Anderson, Payload Commander, Space Shuttle Columbia
Laurel B. Clark, Mission Specialist (MS2), Space Shuttle Columbia
Ilan Ramon, Payload Specialist (PS2) - col. Israeli Air Force, Space Shuttle Columbia

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