I’ve been at the HOSPITAL all weekend.

Well, to be more precise, I’ve been at the hospital this past Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Apparently, the reason I couldn’t consume solids (by Saturday morning I couldn’t even drink water properly) was an abscess in my throat (I had never heard the term until this weekend). This required me to have several doses of intravenous antibiotics with a few sides of morphine; which means it could not be fixed by any of the various products I tried (most significantly on Friday, more sparingly from Monday through Thursday): Dayquil liquid, Dayquil tablets, Advil, acetaminophen, Orajel, Cloroseptic spray, energy drinks, mashed potatoes, veggie soup, oatmeal, gallons of water, ice, and…well….beer.

Obviously, I’m a stubborn ass for waiting this long to go to the hospital. I don’t complain medically. I don’t ask for help often. I like to think that I can do as much as possible on my own. I think I learned my lesson.

Went to Co-op training at NASA the past three days. Learned a lot. Saw a lot. Took a lot of pictures and video (we weren’t allowed to day 1, but days 2 and 3 are below).

Day 2 [pictures]

Apollo Mission Control [4.8M avi]
Mission Control for the odd-numbered Apollo missions, and the early shuttle missions. (Note the end of the video: that’s the pay tour behind the glass. Suckers, haha).

Shuttle Mission Control [10.9M avi]
Mission Control for the shuttle operations. They were doing a simulation at the time. Shuttle missions have been stalled since the Columbia disaster. They are set to resume this summer, hopefully.

ISS Mission Control [8.3M avi]
Mission Control for the International Space Station. There is a Russian one in Moscow. Sometimes, the ISS controllers use the shuttle mission control center, because it’s bigger and the shuttles haven’t been flying for a while.

Shuttle Mockup [1.4M avi]
Full-size mockup of the shuttle. The person pictured in the beginning is my friend Will.

Shuttle Nose Mockups [2.3M avi]
Another view of the full mockup, and a view of the two nose mockups. These are used for training purposes, and can be tilted on hydrolics.

Astronaut Training Description [2.8M avi]
One of the guys showing us around. He’s describing some of the training that’s going on, such as the use of a camera and robotic arm to make sure that there’s no damage underneath the orbiter like there was with Columbia.

Shuttle Middeck [2.8M avi]
Shuttle Flightdeck [8.8M avi]
This is a smaller version of what the orbiter middeck would look like, and a full-size version of the Flight Deck. Both of these videos are way too dark, so they’re probably not worth watching.

Space Toilet [10.9M avi]
Yeah, that’s right. Tour of the toilet, the gest of how it works. Astronauts must be potty-trained. Some parts were left out of this video, sorry. Haha. If you want to know more, ask me I guess.

Day 3 [pictures]

The HUGE Pool [22.1M avi]
The world’s largest indoor pool. Used for training astronauts for zero-G through neutral bouancy with the full size models of Space Station and shuttle parts.

Propulsion Genius [13.6M avi]
This guy’s brilliant. This is right before he explained to us his experiment: he’s figured out new type of propulsion that could take us from Earth to Mars in 1.5 months using 1/5th of the fuel (hydrogen-based). He needs more funding though.

So, how has work been, eh?

I made some stuff.

…took care of some stuff at Mission Control…

…and got PAID. Woot

Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man!!!

Houston, Texas is completely ameliorating my animal rights activism. To be honest, Orlando was taking a toll on me, mentally and passionately. I didn’t discuss it with anyone, but I really was losing hope in the movement and its members, as well as some people’s generally unsupportive nature, in Florida. Not that I was ready to stop being vegan, it’s not that at all. I just couldn’t find a reason to feel active anymore, as if no one cared.

But then, I came here. I had zero expectations; not to sound discriminating towards anyone, but Texas has a reputation for being heavy meat-eaters. But wow, I was way off.

1. There a weekly radio show here called “Go Vegan Texas!”
2. Went to an Animal Rights Meeting (InSolidarityWithAnimals.com) and they were all SO motivated and filled with great ideas.
3. The vegan and vegetarian meetups here have some really interesting people.
4. Some girl in a city nearby messaged me online saying that they were going from veg to vegan, and they’re going to ask me if they have any questions.
5. My neighbor today came and asked me to help him to go vegan!! He’s a retired philosophy/pyschology/sociology professor and hospital manager that is worried about his health. We’re going to meetup once a week for a couple of hours and I’m going to give him “lessons” on being vegan, and he’s going to give me graduate-level tutoring on the subject he was a professor for!! It’s really exciting.

All in Texas, who knew?

My first two days at work were AWESOME.
The paperwork never stops, I swear.
They’re giving me $650ish dollars for driving over (I didn’t even cost half that in reality).
I have both a USA and a NASA badge (so yes, I guess I do work for NASA).
I hung out at MISSION CONTROL a little today. Be jealous.
My two managers are amazingly nice and laid back.
I got my first assignment, and they’re giving me as much time as I want (whoa).

I went two vegan buffets.
One was by myself, the other was a Vegan Meetup
Went to a animal rights meeting tonight with In Solidarity With Animals
Activists are very passionate, energetic, and honest here.
Met a lot of really great people at these.
I’m going to like it here.

I did a good deed tonight.
Chick at gas station drove off.
Gas cap on roof, then on the road.
I yell and point to the driver.
She got out and thanked me lots.
It was nice. Good deeds rock.

I just got the craziest idea I’ve ever had: I could run for congress (HoR) in 2010.

I’ve always loved politics, but I’ve only recently started being vocal about it. Perhaps it was the combination of my animal rights advocacy three years ago, and the recent election.

Step-by-step:
1. Start a website early. Lay out my entire platform, and be as detailled as possible on my opinions, maintaining a non-partisan appeal. The idea would be to hide nothing for my potential voters.
2. For two years before running, attend as many community meetings as possible for the district that I would run for. Meet the people. Make sure they know my name. Be vocal about my opinions.
3. If everything seems to be in order with the communities, fill out the appropriate paper-work, and pay the registration fees (a few thousand dollars). I looked into it, and it’s actually not very involved. Renting my apartment required more signatures.
4. Ask for the support of the community members with whom I’ve gained trust. (Kind of like a political street-team).
5. Be the both the community candidate AND the online candidate. (I’m concerned with future blogger-candidates, but this would be different as I would try to be the best of both worlds).
6. Hope for the best?

This may just be a passing thought, but there might be an appeal for a younger (youngest?) congressman by 2010. I know I don’t have experience, but I do have intelligence. And if I could gain the trust of the older population, I don’t see why I couldn’t win. If faith can be a campaign platform, why can’t youthful vigor? Heh, Barack Obama has it, and he’s 42!

One of the possible problems might be my faith, or lack there of. However, the remedy might be emphasizing my understanding for all religions and ideologies. The other day, when speaking to my (very)Christian roommate, he explained that, to him, I seem to have a greater understanding of ‘both sides’ than most. I’ve only known him a few days, and he sees that in me. Maybe there’s hope for me yet?

I’m loving Houston… starting to get a feel for driving & traffic here.
Went downtown today, ate at an all-vegan lunch buffet. ( pictures )
Here is a semi-cheesy video about where I live
Vegan meetup tomorrow, Animal Rights meeting Tuesday, Veg meetup Wednesday.
I’m going to finally see Ani Difranco next month.
I’ve started working out, too.