One giant leap.

"A bit of history for you…

Do you know how many people are watching this live on the telly?  Half a billion.  And that's nothing, 'cause the human race will spread out among the stars, you just watch them fly, billions and billions of them for billions and billions of years, and every single one of them at some point in their lives will look back at this man taking that very first step and they will never ever forget it."

The Doctor, The Day of the Moon

Neil Armstrong died yesterday at the age of 82.

 * * *

It was, in fact, just one small step.  And I acknowledge all of the people who contributed, all of the ground work, all of the other small steps necessary to make that final small step possible.  But to be that person at that place at that time makes Neil Armstrong a unique figure in human history.

In many ways the potential offered by that moment has been wasted.  Dreams of moon bases and Mars landings have become just that, dreams, as fiscal issues and changed directions diminished the focus on space exploration.

None of that matters.

The instant when Neil Armstrong's foot touched the surface of the moon on July 20th in 1969 changed humanity forever.  It opened the doors to the universe - it made us infinite and immortal.

You just watch us fly...

- Sid

Old school.

I cannot even hint what it was like, for it was a compound of all that is unclean, uncanny, unwelcome, abnormal, and detestable. It was the ghoulish shade of decay, antiquity, and dissolution; the putrid, dripping eidolon of unwholesome revelation, the awful baring of that which the merciful earth should always hide. God knows it was not of this world - or no longer of this world - yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty on the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more.

H.P. Lovecraft, The Outsider

"The putrid, dripping eidolon of unwholesome revelation" - now that's what I'm talkin' about, baby!

- Sid

 

Have Space Suit - Will Travel.

Well, I might as well just come out with it - I'm thinking about building a space suit for Hallowe'en this year.

The company that I work at places a large amount of importance on employee involvement in shared social activities (to the point that we have an Employee Engagement manager) and for the last couple of years, I've maintained my standing by showing up on October 31st in some form of costume.  Two years ago it was my infamous zombie outfit, and last year I took the easy way out and wandered around in a life-sized version of my port pass badge - with my actual face in the space for the ID photo.

Having won the Best Costume prize both years, I was thinking that I might legitimately skip a year in the interests of letting someone else take the prize, but I stumbled across a site that was selling transparent acrylic domes, and I got to thinking...

After all, take a look at the various spacesuits in movies and TV shows (and at NASA) and you'll immediately see that an awful lot of them rely primarily on a padded coverall and a helmet, plus whatever amount of greeblie dressing the designers felt like sticking on.  How hard could it be?

Yeah....

And now I've been foolish enough to put it in writing...wish me luck.

- Sid