“There’s a story behind everything… But behind all your stories is always your mother’s story… Because hers is where yours begins.”
― Mitch Albom
Category Archives: WordPress Post a Day 2011
Yellow Iris
This one has magically made everything golden in the afternoon sun.
“How we think…
“How we think shows through in how we act. Attitudes are mirrors of the mind. They reflect thinking.”
― David Joseph Schwartz
Yellow Iris
Afternoon sun catchers.
Yellow Iris captured in afternoon sun.
Sabbatical
Many marvelous folk
have visited here
thank you.
It is time
to go away
for a while.
For your comments
thank you
For your encouragement
thank you
For your friendship
thank you
Perhaps
I will be back
Perhaps
not
There are
dusty
frosty
starlit
footprints
left in
words
for me
to remember.
From Diapers to Depends: The Intervals In Between
“Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.”
– Salvador Dali
This project proposes to seek answers to specific questions from subjects at intervals; i.e. 4 to 6 years; 13-15 years; 27-30 years; 45-47 years; 58-60 years and then those between 70 to 100 years of age.
The research methodology will be quantitative; there will be a set of open-ended questions and then one on one interviews, if possible.
The significance of the study will be to verify if indeed the mind grows significantly in wisdom between the intervals.
Wisdom will be identified by looking at past and current philosophers and how they defined a wise person.
There is no budget. Persons who wish to participate please respond to this post. This may be the FIRST research study completed totally online if there are enough participants. Each person will be assigned a random number and only I will know who they are. I would hope that your grandchildren, children, and you, if you fall into one of the categories or if your grandparents or parents are over 70 and would answer the questions would participate.
After this post, the participants will respond to an email address; not on this blog. However, the results will be written up and shared on this blog.
Collaborator: None at the present time. If you have a degree in Psychology, Philosophy or Social Work or think you would be a good collaborator, please drop a note to: linda.bourgeois@gmail.com.
If you are interested in this project, perhaps you would feel better emailing me at:
linda.bourgeois@gmail.com
P.S. The University of Chicago is involved with a wisdom project. I know all of the folk are writing more scholarly papers than what I am proposing, however, I still feel this has some merit.
Press Release Woes
Open Space Society Announces Capability for Commercial Payload Launch to Earth Orbit
Thursday, 28 February 2013 09:39am EST
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Team FREDNET / The Open Space Society Announces
Earth Orbital Commercial Payload Launch Capability
Small Cubesat Payload Module Adds Positive Cash-Flow to
Team FREDNET’s Google Lunar X PRIZE Launch Campaign
HUNTSVILLE, AL – February 28, 2013 – The Open Space Society (http://teamfrednet.org/), the latest entry in small satellite access to Earth Orbital Space today announced the availability of its first Small Commercial Payload Launch Opportunity. The initial launch, which leverages The Open Space Society’s technology developed during its five-year history as well as its participation in the NASA Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data (NASA ILDD) program and Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP), will take place in January 2015. Expanded launch details will be made available in a subsequent announcement.
The Small Commercial Payload, also known as the Small Cubesat Payload (SCP), will consist of 50-100 Cubesat units, each 1U unit comprising a 1000cc cube volume with a total mass not exceeding 1kg. Experimenters may apply for 1U, 1x2U, 1x3U, 2x2U, or 2x3U slots within the SCP deployment module. A few additional reserved-size slots may be available within the SCP to support special access programs. The SCP module is designed to be carried in several configurations, including as an independent “top stage” aboard their first Lunar Spacecraft deployed while in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), as an independent launch payload module, or (in a version still in conceptual design) as a Lunar Orbital deployment module.
For those unfamiliar with Cubesats and the metric system, a Cubesat is an (approximately) 4x4x4 inch cube weighing less than 2.2 pounds. The Cubesat standard is widely used in programs of professional researchers, university engineering departments, high school science departments, and smaller national research institutes as an entry-level satellite form-factor allowing experimenters to fly orbital experiments at manageable costs. In the past, cubesats have sometimes launched within the spare capacity of a larger primary payload system. This launch by the Open Space Society is one of the first to provide a dedicated module for deploying a large constellation of Cubesats aboard a single spacecraft stage. The cost to launch a single Cubesat is typically less than $100,000, and in the industry rates currently average $85,000 per 1U cubesat unit.
Launch parameters and data are included in the formal SCP Call for Experiments and Participation, which is being distributed to key researchers concurrent with this press release. Applications and Letters of Intent are now being accepted, and an “Earlybird Discount” is being offered on the first units reserved by experimenters who file applications and letters-of-intent prior to March 29, 2013.
About Team FREDNET, The Open Space Society, Inc.
Team FREDNET, The Open Space Society, Inc. is a next generation Space technology, engineering, and exploration firm that specializes in small spacecraft and satellite development for cost-effective, innovative Space access. Designing commercial orbital and cislunar robotic spacecraft and missions at paradigm-shifting efficiencies allows the Open Space Society to create more “Accessible Space” for commercial, non-government, education, and entrepreneurial clients. Founded in 2007 as “Team FREDNET” by industry entrepreneur Fred Bourgeois, The Open Space Society evolved from an early Google Lunar X PRIZE competitor to a viable Space Access business by persistently pursuing innovative solutions. The company’s headquarters and manufacturing facilities are located in and around the Huntsville, Alabama region, with personnel located in more than 60 countries around the globe. The Open Space Society was selected in 2010 as one of only four currently active contractors under the $30.06 million dollar NASA Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data program (NASA ILDD), and is currently eligible to receive up to an additional $9.4 million from NASA for data related to its development of commercial space programs. For more information, please visit http://teamfrednet.org/ or email publicrelations@teamfrednet.org.
About The Google Lunar X PRIZE
The $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented competition to challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. In order to win the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a privately-funded team must successfully place a robot on the Moon’s surface that explores at least 500 meters and transmits high definition video and images back to Earth. The first team to do so will claim a $20 million Grand Prize, while the second team will earn a $5 million Prize. Teams are also eligible to win a $1 million award for stimulating diversity in the field of space exploration and as much as $4 million in bonus prizes for accomplishing additional technical tasks such as moving ten times as far, surviving the frigid lunar night, or visiting the site of a previous lunar mission. For more information, go to http://www.googlelunarxprize .org.
Team FREDNET, The Open Space Society PR Contact
EMAIL: publicrelations@teamfrednet.org
Web: http://teamfrednet.org/
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/teamfrednet
TWITTER: @teamfrednet
Note to readers:
I decided to try publishing the Press Release here.
The Examiner placed garbled junk at the beginning. I have tried all the fixes and nothing works.
I tried a press release service; their server went down so I have not a clue what happened to the press release I paid to have sent out via eWorldwire.
This will at lease post to the social media sites, I hope.
Five Sentence Story--3
I am an old man who fills large canvases with the Past’s sunsets; I rarely venture out.
Recently, I looked up to see a small face and figure at my studio door—perhaps a mere figment of my fatigue?
Daily, she returns—quiet as a field mouse, with her shy mouth and eyes like black almonds, peering in at me from beneath her over-sized straw hat.
This is a heartbreaking 5 sentence story. The best I have read so for. Please enjoy.
Five Sentence Story
Midnight I awoke with a voice stating, “you must get out” and not knowing what this message meant, I wandered to the kitchen to ponder the meaning, having received so many of these messages in the past and knowing that something would happen within the family somewhere.
Morning news report from daughter and family in Boston digging out from 24 inches of snow but power on and warm as well as daughter-in law calling in afternoon from CA stating they had heard from son in the army and his platoon had come in first in something therefore giving him a free thirty minute break to call home.
Sister calling in to report that they had arrived home from Winona and the Coon Hunters Meeting, stopping to have lunch with her sister-in-law, the one who has already lost two children in unspeakable tragedies.
Her eldest son, along with his two sons, were coming to have lunch with my sister and her husband but were not present.
He had hydroplaned and lost control striking a tree and totaling the vehicle on his way, but fortunately all seat belts were buckled and there were no injuries…they “got out” and a terrible tragedy was averted.
Where I was Born Revisited
English: Huff Hall at Pearl River Community College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Yes, I met my husband at Pearl River Junior College. He was a student and I was the speech/English Professor, however, I was only 2 years older. I tried dating another professor but he was rather dull and I preferred this younger person. Today, I probably would be jailed because I was 21 and he was 19. Is that a minor? I think so.
Anyway, we were married and I changed from teaching in college being far to young to know what I was doing. Remember I went to college to get a husband and failed. No one taught me how to teach so it was time to regroup and teach in high school which meant I had to go back to school to get more hours in how to teach.
Hancock North Central was my next place to teach after we were married. The school was located in Kiln, MS about 30 miles from the MS Gulf Coast. I car pooled with other teachers and we lived with his mother and father. Not the best but the only thing we could afford at the time. There were 3 generations living in the house. The Bourgeois’ were one of the oldest names in Waveland, MS and his father was Chief of Police; his mother worked doing something or other at City Hall and his uncle was the Mayor. Did not dare step out of line in that small town. Everyone knew everyone else or was related to everyone else.
I quickly became pregnant and of course the old biddy’s counted the months on me. I did not care because I knew and secretly smiled that they were off by one month….and they were. My son was born on July 4th. We were married the year before on September 9th if you would like to do the math yourself!
We moved that summer to Weir, MS because my husband was going to finish his degree in Math at MS State University. Therefore, the job teaching English in Weir, MS. That town is another story unto itself as is the story of my son….
I had a maid who came every day while I taught school in Weir. We were so poor that she felt sorry for us and would bring us food from her house. We paid her $25. a month and we lived in one room sharing a kitchen with this really old woman 
maybe 50 who taught at the school and had a big old house; one of the genteel folk of Weir.
Things began to go downhill but something happened during my time at Weir. For those of us alive we all remember the day, time and where we were when JF Kennedy was shot. I was sitting in my classroom, planning period, when the principal came and told me. That weekend we watched TV at my parents home in Sallis (about an hour away) the entire weekend. We would go almost every weekend so mother could give us food to take back. The car we had was mine from when I was teaching at Pearl River Junior College; a Chevrolet Impala, white with red interior…”See the USA, in your Chevrolet.”
English: 1959 Chevrolet Impala 2-door Hardtop (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
He finished at State; my son was in the hospital; somehow I got pregnant again; and things became worse. I had a job teaching back on the coast, but resigned to take care of my son who had been given a year to live. My husband went off to work at the Stennis Center which was being built, at this time. A few buildings were open and they needed a mathematician.
During this time, a gay male friend of mine in the area stated that he tried to get me not to marry my husband because our backgrounds were so different. I think I was really miserable by this time. We had to travel to Jackson every other week to take our son to the doctor.
My daughter was born in Gulfport on May 23 and then my son went back in for his second surgery. A surgeon from Boston’s Children’s Hospital did the surgery. It was 8 hours long and I was told that if he survived the first 48 hours he might live 5 years. My mom, who was a nurse came to stay with me and we hired an RN to stay as well. My husband was so upset that he could not listen to the explanation from the doctors; this left me to deal with everything. By this time, he was working at the Corp of Engineers in Vicksburg, MS
English: The historic Mississippi River Commission (MRC) Building in downtown Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA. This building was constructed in 1894 and is listed in the U.S. list of historic federal buildings. The building is located at 1400 Walnut Street in the Uptown Vicksburg Historic District. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
and we had moved yet again to Clinton, MS to be closer to the doctor and he commuted to Vicksburg. Then we moved to Vicksburg. My son was better; I had a job teaching in the Vicksburg City Schools and we hired a maid/nanny for my daughter. She loved my daughter dearly.
I am now tired because the story does not get any better.
Later, I will revisit this untold tale.
