Movies - My Main Distraction

I really have been busy with work, but one of the main things I do when I'm not working is watch movies, so I've done a decent amount of that, too. Here are some of the things I've watched recently:

Volver
This is a movie set in Spain, starring Penelope Cruz. The premise is that her mother is back from the dead. It's an entertaining movie, and Penelope Cruz was very good, as usual. There were some serious themes that seemed to come out of no where, for a movie that is fairly light thoughout. Overall, I'd recommend seeing it.

Rushmore
Jeff and I are fans of Wes Anderson (Royal Tennenbaums, Darjeeling Limited, etc.) but had never seen Rushmore. It's about a student, Max Fisher, who has a horrible academic record, but involved in tons of extra-curriculars. Bill Murray plays the disillusioned father of some other students at the school. His character, who befriends Max, is hilarious - definitely one of the highlights. Max, Bill Murray, and a teacher at the school become involved in a love triangle that leads to all sorts of trouble. As with other Wes Anderson films, its a bit of an odd story, and ranges from funny to creepy to cute throughout the film.

Bottle Rocket
Another Wes Anderson film, Bottle Rocket was also quirky. The main character has just left a mental hospital and goes on a crime spree with a friend. They don't shoot too high, but still manage to boggle the job. Overall, it's a pretty funny movie - lighter and more silly than some of Wes Anderson's other films.

No Country for Old Men
This is a Coen Brother's film (like Fargo, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, etc.), but all the commercials I had seen billed it as more of a thriller film, which seemed odd. The commercial were true - don't expect this movie to make you laugh. It's about a guy who finds a bunch of money that at a drug deal in the desert that went bad. He then gets chased by Javier Bardem, who is extremely creepy throughout the whole movie. (He's got a sort of Kill Bill-like emotionless "kill everyone" style.) It's pretty violent, but doesn't show a lot of gore, which keeps it edge-of-your-seat, but not gruesome. Tommy Lee Jones does a good job playing the small town sheriff that's suddenly in the middle of everything. It's a well made and interesting movie, so I'd definitely recommend it.

The Game
The Game is a bit older, and is about a super-rich, hermit-like business man whose wild brother gives him a birthday card telling him to sign up with Consumer Recreation Services (CRS) to play a live-action. Soon the banker's life starts to go wild - his TV is talking to him, people are chasing him, etc. And "CRS" keeps showing up. The whole movie he (and you) is trying to guess what's part of the game. I thought the movie was exciting and entertaining - it was hard to tell what was real. The main issue I had was the ending. (Spoiler Alert - don't read any further if you haven't seen it and don't want to know the ending.) When he figures out that everything was part of a game - the death threats, etc., and is at the party, he seems pretty ok to me. This seemed so odd to me - like he needed no time to take everything in, and wasn't upset or in shock. I also wasn't sure how this was going to solve the issue of him being a hermit. Other than that, I did enjoy the movie.

So You Think You Can Dance

This is such a great show. I danced for about eight years when I was younger, and its so cool to see these amazing dancers do all sorts of forms of dance. It's pretty impressive, and is a quick-moving show. The competition episodes are the best. Check out the group dance on the episodes where they tell who is voted off, but you can skip the rest.

Firefly

Firefly is a TV series that used to be on the SciFi channel, and was also made into a movie "Serenity". The idea is that there was a war in space, and one group (the Alliance) won, taking control. The rebels now operate on the outer edges of the galaxy. Firefly is about some of these rebels, operating an illegal cargo ship. It's almost Western-like, even in the way they dress and talk. The characters are all really great - there are lots of laugh-out-loud funny moments. There are only about 15 episodes made, so it's fairly quick to see the whole series - and definitely worth the time.

Doctor Who (and Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures)

Doctor Who is one of my favorite shows. It's just so creative and fun, and the current Doctor - David Tennet - is amazing. If you're not familiar with the plot in general, it centers around The Doctor, who is the last Time Lord - a species that can travel through space and time (in the Tartus, his ship that looks like a 1960's British Police Box). He generally travels with another person. The Sarah Jane Adventures are actually based on one of the women that traveled with the Doctor on some episodes in the 1960's. Now she investigates alien plots on her own in the UK. Torchwood is a spin-off based on people that work in the UK to deal with alien issues - sort of like an MIB organization. All very fun shows.

The West Wing
This show is all about the president and his staff working in the West Wing. It's really interesting to see how the interaction happens between the White House, Congress, and the media. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but they deal with realistic and interesting issues, and it's fun to watch.

I haven't posted in forever!

So what have I been up to?

Well... for the first week or so in October I was busy doing all the normal work stuff - reading, writing papers, and studying for my three classes - Cost-Benefit Analysis, Politics of Earth and Space Science, and Independent Study. I also had my one credit class - two full days of lecture and activities on Negotiations. On October 7th, I took an exam in Cost-Benefit Analysis. (I just got my score back and found out I did pretty well!)

My mom came to visit on October 9th and stayed until the 13th. We had a really fun weekend - walking around the city, eating at fun restaurants, and watching movies. It was nice to just spend time hanging out and showing her my neighborhood.

Last week was big for space-related events. On Tuesday morning, I went to a Space Foundation Correspondents Breakfast which featured George Nield, Associate Administrator for commercial space transportation at the FAA. On Tuesday evening, I went to the Women In Aerospace awards dinner at the National Press Club. It was a very cool event with lots of interesting people, incluing Mike Griffin, the NASA Administrator. Stephanie, Emma, and Jaisha were all there, too - actually, I was there because Stephanie offered me an extra ticket from her dad's company. On Wednesday, I gave a presentation in Politics of Earth and Space Science with Adam and Stephanie. On Thursday, I went to an event at the Chamber of Commerce called "A Day Without Space", which was about the economic and national security risks that would occur if space assets weren't avaialable. It's incredible how far reaching the effects would be. On Friday, GWSS (George Washington Space Society) and ISU*USA (International Space University - USA Alumni) co-hosted an event called "Welcome Home SSP08: A Taste of Barcelona." Myself and the other DC-area students that had gone to Barcelona this summer put together a bunch of pictures and told stories about the summer to past ISU alums and other space society people. We had snacks and drinks, and it was a really fun night.

This weekend I've mostly been hanging out around the house - today I watched five episodes of Doctor Who - Best TV Show Ever. I've been doing readings for class and thinking about what to write, though I didn't get much down on paper. Back to being busy!

What I Do...

I started my new job at Space Foundation, and already I've had the chance to go to a breakfast talks by Mike Griffin (the NASA Administrator) and Gary Payton (Deputy Under Secretary for Air Force Space Programs), and shake hands with each of them. For these events, I help run things, take pictures and take notes.


Another part of my job is to come up with the daily "News Clips" - basically, I get to read the news for an hour or two each morning, and pick out the top five to ten space-related stories. If you want to see what I choose each day, you can subscribe to the RSS on the bottom left of our website (http://www.spacefoundation.org/) - titled "In the News".

Big Space News

This has been a big weekend for space events, but due to the election, debate, and financial crisis, it's gotten pretty buried in the news. Here's my quick synopsis of the two big stories.

Space-X Successfully Launched the Falcon 1
Space-X is a private company that has designed and built a series of rocket called the Falcon 1. Space-X is a topic of much debate in the space world. All other launch technology has been government funded, so a private launch company is a big change for this industry, and some people feel it cannot be successful. Space-X launches are advertised to be much cheaper than other launches available. The main competitor is Lockheed Martin and Boeing's combined United Launch Alliance (ULA). Some feel that ULA is too entrenched in the industry and inefficient. Some people, particularly those who have been in the industry a long time feel that Space-X is impractical and unlikely to succeed.

Space-X has previously had three unsuccessful launch attempts, with failures at various stages in flight. This has caused many who had doubts in the first place to feel they were right, and some who were hoping for Space-X to succeed to begin to give up hope. So Space-X really needed a successful launch. And, as you can see in the title, they got one! Now we'll see if they can continue to repeat this success and watch the industry react.

China's 3-Day Manned Space Mission Succeeded
At the end of last week, China launched their Shenzhou 7 spacecraft, with a 3-man crew. During the three-day mission, they completed a space walk (went outside the spacecraft into space), and used Chinese-designed spacesuits. Yesterday, they landed safely back on Earth. China's space program is advancing rapidly - in only three flights, they've accomplished much of what the United States did in its first 10 years. China's space program causes some concern among American leaders. The U.S. relationship with China is somewhat tense. Even in the area of space, where cooperation sometimes is possible despite other political issues, there is residual tension due to China's ASAT (anti-satellite) test in January 2007. China's space program is run by the People's Liberation Army, and the goals are not always as transparent as the United States would like. Regardless, the successful mission is very exciting and marks China as one of the few space powers in the world.

201st Post

This is the 201st post on my blog! I'm going to use it to write about two movies I saw recently.

Dr. Strangelove
This movie was made in 1964 by Stanley Kubrick, and is a dark comedy about a semi-accidental nuclear strike against Russia during the cold war. It's a little bit slow getting started, but once you're into it, it's very funny. I especially loved when the president talks to the Russian head of state, Dimitri. "I am as sorry as you are, Dmitri! Don't say that you're more sorry than I am, because I'm capable of being just as sorry as you are... So we're both sorry, all right?"

Burn After Reading

This is the newest Coen brothers movie - starring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, John Malcovich, and a bunch of other hilarious and talented actors and actresses. It's about two people who work at a gym who find the memoirs of an ex-CIA agent, and basically bungle the situation. Also pretty funny, this movie is reminiscent of Fargo. The plot wouldn't sound that funny if you just heard it, but somehow you're laughing throughout.

After Hours

I have to admit, part of the reason we wanted to go to the Alumni Conference was to have an excuse to spend a long weekend in Boston. Jeff and I tried to make the most of it and see our friends.

On Thursday, when I arrived, I met up with Patrick in Downtown Crossing and took the T with him to see his and Craig's new house the west side of Malden. It was a beautiful place, and they're doing some painting and decorating that's going to make it look pretty spectacular when it's finished. Patrick then made a home-cooked meal of meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and veggies. I helped out by making (instant) brownies afterwards. Then Craig, Patrick, and I hung out and watched TV - kind of like the old days when we lived in Medford!

On Friday, Jeff was in town, and we went to his old fraternity house to visit friends there. He and I grabbed dinner at Bertucci's, which shares a back alley with his house, and where we've eaten more times than I could count.

After dinner, we went back to the house where our friends were having a "Miracle Berry Party". Featured in the New York Times, this is a new fad in which you eat these berries that have a particular protein that binds to the taste receptors and makes sour foods taste sweet. After eating this berry, you eat other foods, which now have completely different tastes. Biting into a lemon just tastes like a class of lemonade or a lemon jolly rancher - no tartness, just sweet and lemony. Other foods are similarly altered. Bit of an odd thing to do on a Friday night, but that's pretty reminicent of our days at school.

Saturday, Jeff and I planned a big-ish dinner with friends at Vinny T's. We met up with Matt Herman, Matt Carvey, Andrew, Helen, Sunita, and Deepa. The food was great (as always) and dinner was lots of fun. Afterwards we walked over to Kendall Square to stop by Irene's housewarming party. Jeff and I had a pretty long day, so we caught a ride home with Craig and Patrick as they left the Farm Aid concert around 11pm. We hung out a bit at their house and then called it an early night.

Sunday, we didn't have anything planned, so we slept in and spent the morning on the couch. Carvey came and picked us up and we went for brunch at the Ball Square Cafe & Breakfast. The food was amazing. I had the Multigrain Delight - a multigrain waffle covered in fruit.

After brunch, we headed back to Carvey's house, where Andrew, Helen, and Dan Lopuch also live. I played Wii Fit for the first time ever. The games last about 2 minutes each, so you feel like you've done a lot even though you've only been exercising for 10 minutes. Then it was time for Star Trek Voyager - I just got Carvey to start watching this (he loves TNG), and he likes it a lot, so we though we'd watch a few episodes.

After that, Jeff and I headed into Cambridge to meet up with Brice and Dyani for dinner and a movie. We had dinner at B-Sides - which I had never been to before. Then we went to the Kendall Square Cinema and saw "Burn After Reading", which we all liked.

From there, it was back to Somerville, where Jeff and I met up with Jess for a drink at Orleans in Davis Square. We stopped by Jess and Sam's new house and hung out with them a bit. It's very cool to see where people are living, especially now that they own places and are doing all the designing.

Monday morning, we woke up, did a bit of work, and then headed to the airport. Great Boston trip!

MIT Alumni Conference

I spent Friday and Saturday attending the MIT Alumni Leadership Conference and here's what it was all about:

Friday, September 19, 2008
K-12 Initiatives
This series of speakers and panels was about K-12 Initiatives at MIT - things MIT is doing as an institution, things MIT Alumni have done as individuals, and ideas on how to get involved.

The keynote speaker talked about the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) education and noted that the portion of STEM graduates in the U.S. is declining. They're hoping to create an MIT Alumni volunteer program that trains thousands of volunteers to work in high school classrooms by 2011. Through this, they hope to make an impact on children's education.

Q. You know that a tree starts out as just a seed. As a tree is growing from a seed into a tree, where is most of the material coming from? (i.e. when you look at a tree, where did all the 'stuff' that makes up the tree come from?)

Q. When you burn something, there are only ashes left, and the ashes take up much less space than the object did before you burnt it. Where did all that stuff go?

The second speaker was Jo Ellen Rosemen, who works with the AAAS 2061 Program. The program started in 1985, and is named for the 2061 return of Halley's Comet. The program investigates what is necessary to be science literate. They found through their research that there is a very low proportion of the public, and even more surprisingly, of recent college graduates, that are science literate. The two questions above were used as examples of things that are considered necessary to be science literate, but which many college grads struggle to answer correctly. The program helps to develop standards and work with teachers on how to better teach the concepts.

The third speaker talked about MIT Open Courseware (OCW), which is a really cool program. MIT basically decided to digitize the course materials for as many courses as possible and put them online for free. You can access lecture notes, problem sets, tests, sometimes even video lectures, for hundreds of classes. These can be used by teachers for AP classes, or by students in other places for studying or just learning for fun.

The last panel was a group of alums who were very involved in volunteering for the K-12 group, and talked about their experiences. It was interesting to hear their unique perspective on how much time is required and what tactics to use to help students learn.

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Innovation @ MIT
The first talk was about innovation at MIT. The Dean of Engineering talked about the importance of innovation in general, coupled with the decline of federal funding for basic research. At MIT they are encouraging multi-disciplinary research. They have the advantage that almost all the schools, even the business school and school of humanities, are Science and Technology savvy. This helps facilitate interaction between those students and engineering students.

Synthetic Biology - iGEM
Another speaker talked about the new field of Biological Engineering (now course 20 at MIT). The field looks at building biological parts just like you build computer parts. This also means being able to manipulate biological systems. They hold a yearly contest (called iGEM) for high school and college students, the rules for which are basically to "do something cool" in biological engineering. And teams have stepped up to the plate. Students created an easy test to find out how much arsenic is in the water in wells in Bangladesh. Other students developed a way to make e. coli bacteria smell like bananas (less useful, but still pretty cool).

Leadership
There was a talk on leadership, and how to get others to take the lead. It gave four main steps. Sensemaking was about collecting data, and using this as well as trial and error to understand the situation. Relating was understanding other people's positiongs and clearly explaining your own views and reasoning. Visioning included coming up with a purpose for everything you're doing and having specific goals. Inventing was turning the vision into action and engaging others in the planning stages.

Behind the Scences of Admissions @ MIT
The last talk we went to was about how MIT runs admissions - how they choose the incoming undergraduate class. Though this isn't really something Jeff and I need to know for practical reasons, its always interesting to hear. One of the first things they tell you when you come to campus is that "It wasn't a mistake."

They gave some statistics, including that the number of highschool graduates is increasing, and that more women are now attending college than men and that this divide is growing. Then they went inot a bit more detail about how they choose. As you might expect, it isn't based solely on scores or on impressive resumes, but on accomplishments mapped to opportunities. They look for initiative, energy, and engagement, particularly in S&T. They like to see evidence of personal skills - being a good citizen, and extracurricular interests. They try to find the kids whose personalities seem best-matched to the MIT community. Despite popular lore at MIT, they denied any purposeful alternating between a "well-rounded" class and a "nerdy" class each year.

Overall the conference was a lot of fun - there didn't seem to be that many other young alums, but Jeff and I were glad to have gone, and would probably go again in the future!