Posts Tagged ‘Seattle’

Shuttle Trainer….very cool and interesting.

Mon ,27/03/2017

So for a bday thing, a friend and I went to the Museum of Flight yesterday and specifically to check out the Space Shuttle Trainer they have. When NASA’s Shuttle program ended, there was of course a mad dash by all the museums everywhere to ‘get’ a Shuttle. Boeing’s Museum of Flight naturally wanted one too, but ended up getting something arguably better – the full-on Space Shuttle Trainer mockup that was actually used in Johnson Space Center for hands-on training by the Shuttle crews.

It’s important to note – this is not a flight simulator – rather, this was meant to simulate and train on nearly everything else (equipment, evac, procedures, operations, etc.) – the thing is huge and has a fully-accurate, replica cockpit and crew module underneath, built to full scale.

So regular visitors can go in the main cargo bay and in the tail section, but only special tours (yes, costs extra) can go in the pilot section and the crew module. Naturally we did that!

What follows are pics from the tour. I’ll post all the ‘plane photos’ tomorrow from the other parts of the museum we went to, but the Shuttle tour was our first priority yesterday. Definitely very cool and the tour guide was well-informed. The main take-away for me is simply how impressive a technical achievement this thing is – in one of the movies you can watch (sadly about the Challenger and later Columbia disasters) they note at one point that at re-entry to the atmosphere, the heat outside is hotter than the surface of the sun – boggles the mind. In many ways the Shuttle is a tougher and more impressive achievement than even Apollo was, despite the program not ending up near as ‘affordable’ as they predicted nor as long-lived in the end.

here’s to you, NASA!

candybowl

Click on a gallery pic, then click it again to get the high-res version….

Dr Evil gets tased…!

Thu ,09/03/2017

Lightning strikes the Space Needle

and if you just needed to know more about Seattle’s most important building, watch on…

candybowl

Gatos….

Sat ,28/01/2017

Here they are, in all their furry glory – Oso the Tabby, Azul the Bluepoint Siamese.  Both of these pics are a bit old, but the cats really don’t look any different…. 🙂  Oso is about 18(!), Azul is about 6.

osozoomazulcut.jog

candybowl

Pizza Burger in NOLA

Sat ,17/12/2016

why couldn’t we have seen this when we were THERE in Oct??? Argh.

Pizza Delicious & Company Burger Have Your New Favorite NOLA Mash-Up

although this is definitely a heart attack on a bun. Double Down and Godzilla burgers, eat your heart out.

candybowl

Flight to Mars…argh…..

Mon ,23/05/2016

Missed Mike McCready’s annual Flight to Mars benefit rock show again this year with his UFO tribute band, doh! We were in OR doing Reach the Beach (see post tomorrow night). But thanks to the magic of YouTube (clips below), not a complete loss…also some clips on their Facebook page.

gotta love Mike McCready’s Flying V….Rudolf Schenker, eat your heart out!

Other clips from this year:

and from past years, some faves:

my alltime fave UFO song, Love to Love:

enjoy…

candybowl

thank GOD for Train!

Sat ,07/05/2016

I now know my June (2016) will not go unrequited. 🙂

Train Re-Records Led Zeppelin Album, Improves Plight of Humankind

that is *so* funny! Here’s hoping they tackle Black Sabbath’s Paranoid or Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast next! Ah, these are heady times, my friends… 🙂

candybowl

Dan speaks the TRUTH.

Wed ,30/03/2016

and the City of Seattle/especially the liars at Sound Transit can BITE ME.

Monorail Deadender: Can We Build Light Rail Without Shitting On Elevated Transit?

candybowl

Have yourself a Merry “Robin” Christmas….

Sat ,02/01/2016

So on Christmas Day this year, it was pretty mellow at our house. No kids, no tree (two cats make that impossible – destruction would ensue), just the two of us having a nice, quiet am.

But outside our house – there were a bazillion Robins, Starlings and other birds, plus a few intrepid hummingbirds, zipping around all over the place – in the crabapple trees in our front yard, in the holly trees in our side yard, and taking baths in the street in front of my parked Beetle. It wasn’t freezing around here, obviously. Enjoy!

candybowl

Manooghi hi……?

Sat ,12/12/2015

I’ve now lived in Seattle over 20 years (doh! twenty!) and have seen many bands (kind of a ‘Seattle requirement’, similar to having work to do with technology or building airplanes, and drinking a LOT of coffee) – but aside from visiting bands from other places, there have been a few local bands that rose way above the pack. Manooghi hi was definitely one of them, but only 1.5 albums came out and they seem to have disappeared….I think the drummer lives in SF, I have seen one of the singers around locally but not sure about the rest….sad…. 🙁

here’s one from their prime…besides the links above from when we saw them live – got to see them at least 3-4 times, so that was at least something……

candybowl

I don’t care what Kerewin says….

Sun ,09/08/2015

I still want a goose watchdog!

goose!

candybowl