Work, Bonnie Doon, Downtown, Swimming

Howdy everyone! This last week was a fun, if very busy week. At work, I just finished my 2nd prototype for Dexter, and though I didn't push it quite as far as I was hoping, the model did meet all of my goals, but I kinda ran out of time to get everything I wanted into the GUI (graphical user interface). Lots of good progress and extra capabilities going into that, and I'll post some cool pics when I can.

Other than work, there were a few other goings on in my life which I thought I would share some pics of... First of all, I did little bit of house-sitting for a fellow that Scott and I carpool with. They live in a little area called Bonnie Doon. Below is a pic of some of the road that gets me to his house. It was a magnificent drive, and hopefully this first pic can capture some of that beauty. It did add about 50 minutes to my drive, but it is a fun excursion to change up some of the monotony.



This second pic is of the house that I "sat" in. Or is that sat on... I don't know, but anyway this is a very picturesque place, and surrounded by a big redwood forest. They have a very affectionate cat named tom, and he kept me company, or maybe more accurately, I kept him company because he was definitely the master of the house. ;)



After a tough week at work, I slept in 'til about 10am and Sharon and I went on a little trek in downtown Santa Cruz. That was pretty cool because she got to point out some interesting landmarks and architectural things as well as do a bit of shopping. This pic (below) is of the Holy Cross chuch which is right next to the original Santa Cruz mission. I took some pictures of both, but the church has more interesting architecture, so I included that pic here.




Then we continued to do some shopping and did a little downtown exploring and sightseeing. Below is looking down Pacific Avenue (so named 'cause it leads to the pacific ocean). You can see the Marquee of Santa Cruz Cinema 9. I have to say that felt a little like a poodle going in and out of shops like Bunny's shoes (okay, I didn't go into Bunny's... but I dutifully stayed outside). I did follow here around in Macy's, so I think that counts. Anyhow, it was a fun trip to see what was there.





One of the shops that we needed to go into to get Sharon's watch fixed was this little watch shop that had some not-so-little furniture. I sat in a chair that was from the Land of the Giants!




So that was Saturday. That evening, we got some round table pizza (the ulti-meat, it was super good), and watched Stargate Atlantis, which I am starting to get into a little bit, but that was the end of this season. On Sunday, I went to church with Sharon and Scott, and then went to an early lunch with cousin David Lundberg and then went to his house and went for a fun hike in the San Lorenzo Valley along the San Lorenzo river. Here a few pics of that journey..




The end of the journey was at a fun swimming hole called "The Garden of Eden" which, as the name might suggest, was super relaxing and actually a very popular place considering how long the hike was to get there... (about 2.5 miles one way). So we spent some time basking in the sun and getting some swimming in, and then hiked back out. Very fun.




I guess that brings me to now, when I am just kicking back and relaxing before another week of workin' hard. Lots of fun here, but gettin' lots of work done too. Kinda missin' home and family back in Orland, but gotta keep on track. I hope everyone reading this is havin' a good one.

NASA/Santa Cruz Update

Whew! one week down! Here is a small bunch of pics from your long and frequently lost brotha! (though I have to say, I thank God for my GPS... it has been a life-saver).

This pic is of my accomadations... pretty nice digs, eh? I feel quite at home amongst the shelves of books, it reminds me of my room. In that vein, I found out today that we have to move out of the chico house by July 4th, so we gotta find a new place. That was fun while it lasted, but it is always fun to change up too... Anyhow, without further ado, I give you the pics!

I arrived early Sunday morning, and Scott and Aunt Sharon let me sleep through church (at home), but after the service, we all had lunch together and after running a few errands we worked on the plane.... it was fun!

notice the cart with screws on it? that was most of my job... put a buch of screws into the wing and call it good. And to think, this fellow flies! Amazing! I think it is tradition to have peanutbutter m&m's when working on the plane because I was rationed a few handfulls for my efforts. Unfortunately, one of those handfulls fell prey to a certain marauding pilot who spotted them unattended. this next pic was taken just minutes after he confessed to such a grievous crime. See the remorse in his eyes? :P

the first couple days, I didn't have an office of my own, so I kinda tagged along with Scott to his office and lab to read and research. Pictured below is the building where the lab he works in is, taken essentially from the building where his office is.

this picture (below) is a cool shot of the big wind tunnel inlet. It is taken from the perspective of Scott's office (facing the opposite direction from the pic above). This tunnel (in the smallest part) is 120' wide by 80' tall! It is the largest in the world, but it is hard to get a feel for the scale until you are standing next to it! I thought this pic (below) showed the scale rather well. if you click on the pic, you can see there is a hockey game going on and you can see how small the people are compared to the inlet... crazy, huh? I kept chuckling thinking about some prankster quickly turning it on and sucking all of the hockey player to wall for a bit... that'd be funny. ;)

this next pic, below, is another shot of the big tunnel, but this time from behind Scott's office building.

This is the building where I work. It is an army building that specializes in rotorcraft. Location, location, location... this buidling is nicely located directly across from the research center's cafeteria... and they have good food! oh yeah! ;)

If you were to turn 90 degrees left (counter-clockwise) from the pic above, you see the pic below. this is another shot of the big tunnel, and what it looks like down the street I'm on. (doesn't that song from my fair lady spring to mind?) Also, they have some sand volleyball courts there, which I think would be a lot of fun to join in on soon... Hopefully there are some ballers too, I have been told that there are some courts on the other side of the base.

Going into the building, my office is on the 2nd floor. Here is a shot of my desk and the development hardware that I am working on. Very cool stuff.

My office mate's window looking out on our little wind tunnel (7' x 10'). One thing that is kinda cool about the office is that the windows are like 8' tall, so if you open the blinds, you can see planes coming and going. Today we had an F-18 making low speed passes testing out something or other...

thanks for catchin' up with me, I'll post some cool pics of the model and helicopter tunnel when I can, that is really cool lookin'! Please forgive my lack of posting/calling this week -> I have been on the tired side, trying to get used to my new life for the summer... once I get more in sync, I'll be a little more social.

One more thing, I really need to get some pics of the three of us and our dinner/movie setup... it is really fun spending time with family that I've never really gotten to know. What a great thing to know your cousin and aunt better, and to have a nice place to live as well! I feel very blessed!

NASA ho!

Well, I have announcement to make:

I have been honored with acceptance into a graduate internship position with NASA/Ames Research Center over the summer! ;) Below is a shot of the center...

Ames is located in Mountain View, CA and specializes in wind-tunnel related research, but they do a lot of other things there too. My job is to design and implement a data acquisition system for an experimental helicopter rotor blade. Essentially, it is a trailing-edge flap (there are two per blade) that is independently controlled and will help reduce main hub vibration loads and noise as well as possibly increase power efficiency. I am very excited about it! I leave this evening (Sat) to go and stay with my aunt Sharon and cousing Scott in Santa Cruz, which will be a lot of fun.

I really love the unknown adventure aspect of this, it is very cool. Though, I haven't really had much of a chance to philosophize to the extent I might normally because I've been working really hard on trying to finish the Blackbox project this week. Okay, when I say finish, I mean phase 1 complete at least. That (As always) is proving to be a challenge, and I am looking forward to a time when I can relax slightly more on the weekends!

Anyhow, it's late and I need to sleep (I don't know what my sleep debt is, but I know I'm in the red!!) I just wanted to give a big shout out to all my peeps (yeah, I DID use that word) and let everyone know the good news. I wish you all a merry summer!

-Sir Gavin out!

P.s. I finally walked! yay! just to comemorate commencement, I (purposely?) forgot to put on sunscreen so I look a little darker than usual. But its all good, I hear the ladies like 'em tall, dark and handsome... two out of three ain't bad!! (:-P