Curtis C. Chen's Blog, page 17

I Witnessed Orion's First Flight

It was beautiful and awe-inspiring, and I hope to see more space flights soon. Our future is up there.

Whether or not you believe all the #JourneyToMars hype, no matter how critical you might be of the Space Launch System (SLS)—if you don't feel something when you watch a rocket launch, please consult a medical professional, you freaking Grinch.


http://youtu.be/6Hn8qnsucwo

I cried when Orion lifted off—even more than I did when DeeAnn and I watched the STS-124 launch in May of 2008. Last Friday, when that Delta IV Heavy hit its second launch window, I was standing less than three miles from the pad. I felt the heat from the engines. For a moment, I honestly couldn't decide whether I should just watch the blurry scene through my tears, or blink and risk missing any of it.

Others in my NASA Social group got brilliant recordings of the EFT-1 launch—I didn't even try. Check out our photo pool on Flickr, some of which I daresay rival NASA's official images:

Favorite of the #Orion EFT-1 launch photos I took. You can see the shock diamonds in the rocket exhaust #NASASocial pic.twitter.com/sMGzxPjYsL

— Denny Atkin (@dennya) December 8, 2014

Don't even get me started on how great our amateur videographers are:


http://youtu.be/2siA3sOS61A

And for a real treat, listen to Danny Sussman's audio recording with headphones on:



But what I'm really looking forward to is Alison Wilgus' forthcoming comic about the event. Alison is a fantastic writer and artist, and she was one of my Clarion West classmates this summer. It was a complete coincidence that we both got into this NASA Social—we live on opposite coasts, and I didn't even know she had applied until we were tweeting at each other about the movie Interstellar and other space-related topics. Second-best surprise ever!

Just made travel arrangements for my 1st @NASASocial trip, can't decide if I'm more excited about seeing @NASA_Orion or @aliwilgus XD

— Curtis C. Chen (@curtiscchen) November 15, 2014

Alison drew a wonderful comic about her previous NASA Social rocket launch experience, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-K (TDRS-K) launch in January of 2013. Incidentally, this is possibly my favorite single panel from that comic, because I'm a weirdo:


You can read the entire comic on Alison's web site. And if you enjoy it, sign up for Alison's newsletter to get updates on her future projects!

I don't have much more to say about my NASA Social week. It was amazing, informative, and incredibly inspirational. I brought back some souvenirs, but nothing compares to the indelible memory of seeing that rocket rise from the ground and disappear into the clouds.

One. More. Time:


http://youtu.be/afWAw1cmJJU

If you have a couple of hours to spare, I recommend watching our Orion pre-launch briefing, which was video-conferenced between several NASA facilities around the country and included a lot of great information. My fellow NASA Social attendees asked some excellent questions about the future of America's space program.

Finally, I threw together a slide show of my own photos from last week. They're neither spectacular nor comprehensive, but should give you an idea of what the trip was like:



I was born after the Apollo missions ended. No people have walked on the Moon in my lifetime. I hope I live long enough to see human beings land on Mars. I really do.

@NASA_Orion @ExploreSpaceKSC @NASA #Space #ToBoldlyGo #OrionSplashdown pic.twitter.com/Jf8R5KGuBU

— Joe D (@Tooboldlygo) December 5, 2014

I am in Titusville

As mentioned previously, I'm here as part of the NASA Social event for Orion EFT-1 at Kennedy Space Center.


instagram.com/p/wHjzqKGphj

Look for my tweets in the Orion NASASocial - KSC stream this week! You can also watch the briefings on NASA TV later today.

I Am Thankful for Many Things

Including (but not limited to) my amazing family, friends, and communities—both near and far. Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating this week!

And everyone, please enjoy this lolcat picture, which I made recently while procrastinating.


http://cheezburger.com/8383208192
First commenter to correctly identify the source of the quotation wins bragging rights. (Hint: it's a musical.)

I'm going to KSC!

Last month, I submitted my name for one of NASA's #JourneyToMars promotions—specifically, the
While I was poking around the web site, I also registered for the associated NASA Social event, because why not?

And I got in.

So I'll be at Kennedy Space Center the week after Thanksgiving with a bunch of other folks from the Internet to watch the Orion launch and tour some NASA facilities and meet people working on the project and I don't know what else.

Even better, I'll be rooming and carpooling with my fabulous Clarion West classmate (and NASA Social veteran) Alison Wilgus! Follow us on Twitter if you dare. :)

Just made travel arrangements for my 1st @NASASocial trip, can't decide if I'm more excited about seeing @NASA_Orion or @aliwilgus XD

— Curtis 小說作家 Chen (@sparCKL) November 15, 2014

SnoutCast #211: Anna McCleary

Continuing our conversations with some of the women behind Puzzled Pint, this month we talk to Anna McCleary in Chicago! (Sorry about the audio weirdness toward the end of the show. I blame Skype and/or Microsoft.)

[ Download mp3 ]

Show length: 41:53
File size: 38.3MB

Stuff and things:
DASHShinteki Field Trip: Disneyland 2014TakenokoFlash Point: Fire RescueCards Against Humanity (and their "Holiday Bullshit")Bohnanza
What Else?
Dan Egnor's Puzzle Hunt CalendarRich Bragg and company's ClueKeeperYou can still get in on JoCo Cruise Crazy 5!
Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "I Crush Everything" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link / Stitcher link ]

  

I didn't write a blog post today.

Question: does writing a blog post about how you didn't write a blog post still count as a blog post? Discuss.

I am now an Associate Member of SFWA

That's the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to you:


(For the record, I'm glad Jim Kelly told me this summer to wait, and I'm glad Mary Robinette Kowal told me last week to go for it.)

But speaking of waiting, I'm also waiting until next week to celebrate properly. Why next week? Well, I'm glad you asked!


sfwa.org/other-resources/for-readers/reading-series/sfwa-northwest-reading-series/
I will be one of the featured authors at this quarter's installment of the SFWA Pacific Northwest Reading Series, along with Daniel H. Wilson and Django Wexler. (I am still a bit mystified at my invitation to this event, but I don't feel so bad now that I'm at least a SFWA member of some kind.)

Please join us at the Wilde Rover Irish Pub and Restaurant in Kirkland, WA on Tuesday, November 11th; or at McMenamins Kennedy School in Portland, OR on Wednesday, November 12th! It'll be great. You'll love it. Have a drink.

I Survived My First Surrey International Writers' Conference #SiWC14

And the proof, as usual, is on Twitter:


twitter.com/search?q=%40curtiscchen%20%23siwc14&src=typd
Highlights included: finally meeting Stephanie and David in person, after many online writing Hangouts; seeing my VPXII classmate Katrina again and getting an autographed copy of her book; learning about book publishing contracts and romance novels from literary agent Lisa; and hearing the fabulous Diana Gabaldon read three different "wedding night" scenes aloud in a room of appreciative listeners (mostly women, natch).

If I can make my schedule and budget work for 2015, I'll definitely go back. And next time I'll wear the tux on Saturday. #nocontextforyou

SnoutCast #210: Laura E. Hall and Mink Ette

This month, we talk to Laura E. Hall and Mink Ette, two of the six creators behind Spark of Resistance , Portland's first live, interactive room escape game! (No spoilers herein. You can see some mildly revealing photos of the room in the recent Oregonian write-up.)

[ Download mp3 ]

Show length: 53:50
File size: 49.2MB

Stuff and things:
60 Minutes to Escape: Spark of ResistanceCuppa Quest at IndieCade"Mutant Giant Spider Dog"Follow @lauraehall and @mink_ette on Twitter for more!

What Else?
Exit Games UKEscape Room DirectoryClueKeeperPuzzle Hunt Calendar
Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "A Talk with George" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link / Stitcher link ]

   

I Am Not Canadian

I recently came across this post on Weibo, China's Twitter-like "microblogging" service:


http://weibo.com/1654694194/BnIEU7RQ6
What do you mean, you don't read Chinese? Fine. Here's Google's auto-translation:


To be fair, I can see how someone in China might be confused, since I do live in "Vancouver." Speaking of which, I keep meaning to pick up one of these t-shirts:


http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/12/06/us/06vancouver_CA0.html

Anyway. In related news, two other bloggers also posted very nice reviews of "Zugzwang:"

"The story was excellently crafted. The plot had tension and several layers of things going on, yet no word seemed redundant and all of the sentences were simple-yet-varied."
 — Natso, "A Cool Sci-Fi Short Story, A Question That Sprouted From It," 20 Sep 2014

"This story could’ve been bleak, but instead it made me happy and hopeful."
 — Sara Norja, "Sunday recs: Fairytale, memory loss, alien chess," 28 Sep 2014

Finally: I'm going to be at #SiWC this weekend, along with at least two other VP alums. It's my first time attending this particular conference. Excitement!