PlanetHolt.com—Posts by Brian Holt

The Penultimate Space Shuttle Launch

bholt — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:13:06 +0000

Some news about Space Shuttle Endeavour reminded me that while I blogged about my first attempt at seeing its last launch back in April, I never wrote about my trip with Kaitlin to see it actually launch. So, despite the long delay, here’s what I remember.

We traveled to Florida on May 14, 2011, in preparation for the launch on May 16, and returned home on May 18.

While waiting at the airport in Moline to begin our trip, we heard over the PA, “Will Kaitlin Holt please report to the gate agent as soon as possible.” We had booked business class tickets with AirTran because they are refundable (Remember, the launch date of a space shuttle is likely to shift, so one’s travel plans need to be flexible.). The morning of the trip, when we were certain we were going, Katie canceled her business class ticket and bought a coach fare. We were thus concerned that AirTran had detected the change and was going to do something about it.

Luckily the mother of one of Katie’s classmates had seen our names on the passenger list, noticed my flying in business and Katie in coach, and upgraded her for free. The trip, therefore, began on a high note. We both enjoyed Screwdriver and Bloody Mary cocktails en route. When we landed in Orlando, there was some weather-related delay and we had to sit on the tarmac for some time. Katie had to ask special permission of the flight attendants to get up and use the restroom. They gave us a hard time about the cocktails, but it wasn't a problem. After she went, it opened the floodgates, so to speak, as a bunch other passengers did the same.

After collecting our rental car and getting our bearings, we decided to get dinner. I decided to treat Katie to a steak dinner at Ruth’s Chris, but first we stopped at Walmart to buy some things for the launch and the beach. We both bought chairs, which we used at the launch and at the beach, and I think I bought a tent (which I ended up returning before we flew home). Kaitlin bought a boogie board. We had a cooler so we had ice packs, deli meat for sandwiches, etc.

Suitably provisioned, we continued to dinner. It was delicious and we both enjoyed our steaks, although I think I enjoy Fleming’s a little better (I went to Flemming’s for the first time on my initial attempt to see the launch.). Finally, after dinner, we headed east, towards the coast and Cocoa Beach, where we were staying for the trip.

During the hour-long drive, Katie did some research and we realized that not only did Cocoa Beach allow open alcohol containers on the beach, but they also have no closing time. So, despite our late arrival, we put on our swimsuits and headed down to the water. We were staying at the Hilton Cocoa Beach, which is right on the beach and has a private gateway.

We were free all day Sunday, but we knew that we’d need to be at Kennedy Space Center between 1am and 2am Monday morning in order to get a decent seat for the launch. We spent the day on the beach, enjoying the nice weather and the cans of High Life and doing our best to avoid being swarmed by lovebugs.

Knowing that we needed to take care of some things before getting at least a few hours’ sleep, I set the alarm on my iPhone, which I kept in a little zip-top bag with me on the beach. Having forgotten all about it, a few hours later I noticed some birds diving for fish a couple hundred yards off-shore. I remarked to Katie how loud the birds were, and she started arguing that it couldn’t possibly be those birds in front of us, because the sound we were both hearing was distinctly coming from the left. It must be the birds over there!

Your browser does not support the audio element, but check out the Duck ringtone on an iPhone.

After a good five minutes of debate, I finally remembered the alarm. Katie was sitting in her beach chair to my right, and thus the phone’s sound was coming from her left. It was under me and I clearly thought it was in front of us. Ok, maybe you had to be there, well into a case of beer…

We did get a few hours’ sleep before waking around midnight to start heading to Kennedy Space Center. It was a fairly short drive from our hotel, so we showered and ensured that we had everything in our bags, and headed out around 1am.

A ton of other people had the same idea, and it took us a few minutes to get through security. Once we were in, we headed directly for the front of the park, where I knew we’d have a decent view. The small grassy area was already quite full but we threw down our blankets, set up our chairs and my tripod, and settled in. It was 2am and the launch wasn’t scheduled until 8:56am.

We both tried to stay awake for a little while but Kaitlin decided to lay down on the blanket and get some sleep shortly after we arrived. I was pretty excited and so stayed awake for an hour or so, but eventually I crashed too. I couldn’t tell for sure, since she had her head covered by a blanket, but Katie claims she was awake most of the night and I was snoring about 20 seconds after laying down. Probably all true.

(Looking through my photos of the day, I don’t think I have any of our little campsite, at least not at night. I was probably trying to be considerate and not use the flash in the dark, but I’m kind of disappointed about it now.)

NASA sets up large video screens showing their NASA TV coverage of the launch. These were on and very bright when we arrived, but they did shut them down for at least a few hours. They were back on before dawn, though, and there was a palpable excitement in the air.

It’s difficult to tell how many of the people there were in attendance for the first, scrubbed launch attempt a couple weeks before. I recognized a few of the more memorable looking guests, and I would guess that quite a few had already experienced one letdown. Still, everyone had a cautious optimism that grew more and more excited the closer we got to the launch time and each milestone on the countdown was achieved.

The launch itself was crazy. Quite a few people had tripods set up around their areas, so I thought maybe people would stay seated so as not to block the cameras. That didn’t happen—as soon as the countdown got to under 30 seconds or so people were on their feet. From the Visitors’ Center, one cannot see the launch pad, but shortly after the time of liftoff we saw the shuttle slowly climbing. The one disappointment was the cloud ceiling: at about 4000′, we only had a few seconds of visibility before the shuttle disappeared behind the clouds. That did allow this incredible photo of the shuttle climbing above the cloud cover to be taken from a shuttle training craft.

In fact, it was probably twenty seconds after we lost visibility that we heard the sound of the launch. It started off as a low rumble and grew to a tremendous roar. You could really feel it, and we were over eight miles away from the launch pad.

Most of the guides I read prior to the launch suggested not bothering trying to take your own pictures, especially if the launch would be your first. “Too hard,” they said, “Experts are on hand—just buy a print from them.” Well, I tried anyway, and managed to get four decent shots. There is a pair of power lines in the frame but otherwise I was pleased with how they turned out.

I also took video of the launch with my iPhone. The video portion turned out pretty well, but infuriatingly it didn’t record the audio. Apparently when the phone is on vibrate mode the camera doesn’t record audio, and apparently it takes a reboot of the phone to get it to turn audio recording back on. Completely ridiculous, and it’s something that has bitten me since.

Now, it was great having Kaitlin along for the entire trip, but having a partner at the launch site made a huge difference. I didn’t have to pack everything up or risk someone walking off with my bag in order to go to the bathroom. After the successful launch, still high on the excitement of it all, we explored the park for a few hours before heading back to our hotel and the beach.

We spent the rest of the day on the beach, enjoying the surf and the lovely weather. I still have a festive glass from Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar, where we had dinner. If I remember correctly I had some delicious fish tacos and Kaitlin had some sort of pasta with shrimp (Since Katie eats “some sort of pasta with shrimp” about 90% of the times I eat with her, I might just be making the assumption she had that…).

Tuesday was our last full day in Florida, and we again spent most of it on the beach, playing with the boogie board and generally enjoying the sun. Tuesday night, though, we did drive back to Orlando in order to catch our flight home Wednesday morning. Before leaving Cocoa Beach we stopped at a few surf shops so Kaitlin could shop for souvenirs. I think we also drove a little south and saw Patrick Air Force Base. That wasn’t the point of driving south, but I don’t remember what the point was.

Back in Orlando Tuesday night, we checked into our final hotel and then headed to a nearby Bonefish Grill for dinner. I don’t remember what I had but Kaitlin had the pasta diablo, which I remember because I warned her that it would be spicy (diablo!). We also had a coupon from the rental car agency for free Bang Bang Shrimp, which were excellent.

The flight home Wednesday was uneventful, and unfortunately no one upgraded Kaitlin so we could sit together.

All in all, I am exceptionally happy I got to see a shuttle launch. It had been something I’d wanted to do since I was a little kid, and they’re not flying any more so it was great I had the opporunity when I did. Having Kaitlin along was a lot of fun, too.

Jamaica in January

bholt — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:56:52 +0000

January in the Midwest is generally a cold, dreary affair. Some of my friends decided to go to the Sunset Beach resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica for a week, and invited me to join them. It was a blast and I am very happy to have gone. Not least because it snowed just before we left Des Moines, and it was about 85°F every day in Montego Bay. My photos from the trip are online in the gallery.

Jason and Elizabeth were the masterminds behind the trip, so they really picked the resort and the dates. Some of Jason’s family came too, but I spent most of my time with Remo, Kortni, Nate, Jen, Jason, Elizabeth, Jared, and Julia. The last four and I traveled together, meeting the rest of the group on the island.

We left Des Moines around 7:00pm on January 15, and drove to Kansas City (Flights out of Des Moines are unreasonably expensive.), where we stayed overnight at Jason’s brother’s house. After a fairly uneventful drive—although we did see a car pass us and then immediately get pulled over—we hit the sack and got ready for our 6:30am flight.

After connecting through Atlanta—and a few in-flight Bloody Marys later—we touched down in Montego Bay. The rest of the group had all booked their tickets through a travel agency, who had arranged for transfers to the resort. I booked mine separately, but after paying the driver $15, I was on the bus. We arrived at Sunset Beach around 4:30 or so, and Nate had fruity drinks waiting for us in the lobby.

That first night was a blur. Between the exhaustion from our long day of travels and our exuberance at the all-inclusive nature of the drinks, we had a good time. I think I lasted until 11 or so before I had to call it a night.

The rest of the days were mostly the same. Wake up around 9:30 to get breakfast before the buffet line closed at 10. Head back upstairs for a shower and a nap. Put on swimsuit, head to beach. Enjoy the beautiful weather, drink a few cocktails, play some beach volleyball, switch from beach to swim-up bar, etc. Ya mon!

For the most part the thermos I brought as a drink container worked well. Some of the bartenders were hesitant to fill the thermos directly, but they allowed me to order two drinks and pour them in myself. I didn’t have a consistent drink I stuck with throughout the week, but I enjoyed margaritas, daiquiris (especially with the dark, molasses-y rum), margaritas and daiquiris mixed together, Dark and Stormies (dark rum, ginger beer, lime juice, and bitters), and of course Red Stripe beer. Nate introduced most of us to Dark and Stormies and they quickly because the go-to drink for the week. The girls tended to sneak bunches of bananas from the lunch buffet for Dirty Bananas—the bars kept running out of bananas, so it was best to bring your own.

During the week I spent a fair amount of time reading, too. I finished Continuous Delivery, which is my new favorite book on delivering software, Growing Object–Oriented Software Guided by Tests, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, and about half of Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, along with the issue of Harvard Business Review I picked up at the airport in Atlanta. I’m afraid the magazine is a little worse for the wear since I generally turned to it immediately after liberally (a word I apparently have great difficulty saying aloud…) slathering myself with sunscreen, resulting it my greasy hands making a mess of the pages.

On Thursday we took a trip off the resort, taking a catamaran offshore for some snorkeling. I had never snorkeled before, and it was fun. I cheated a bit by allowing a lifevest to be tied around my midsection, but I was pretty impressed by how well the snorkel actually worked. Somehow I had always expected to have considerably more trouble with water coming down the tube. Remo, Kortni, Jared, Julia, Jason—all experienced snorkelers—joined us, along with Scott (Jason’s uncle), Kim (Scott’s girlfriend), Dee (Jason’s mom), and John (Dee’s husband).

After spending some time at a reef, the catamaran docked at Margaritaville, where some passengers disembarked and enjoyed their waterslide and casual dining. I stayed on board and drank the beer that came with our tickets, and tried to predict at what angle the next waterslide rider would come shooting out into the sea.

Thursday night Jared and I tried to watch the Illinois–Penn State basketball game, which the local ESPN feed claimed would be on TV there. Unfortunately when game-time came around, they decided to show some North Carolina game instead, much to our disappointment. That Illinois eventually lost that game did not help things, either. Still, we enjoyed the Cuban cigars we bought for the occasion and proudly sported our orange shirts. We did meet another Illini fan, an older gentleman who was still very bitter about the retirement of Chief Illiniwek.

Unfortunately, every vacation comes to an end, and we had to fly home on Saturday. While at the airport in Montego Bay, though, we did manage do to some duty-free shopping, and I brought home a bag of Blue Mountain coffee and a bottle of Sangster’s rum cream.

More photos of the trip are available on facebook from Jared and Julia.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, I thought I’d spend a little time critiquing the resort. Overall, it was great. The service was very good, it wasn’t too crowded but there were enough people that it felt lively, and the beaches and pools were in good shape.

If I have any complaints, they are that the food was mediocre—breakfast was by far the best meal of the day—and that the quality of the mixed drinks varied widely. You were better off asking for drinks not by name, but by listing the ingredients, at least until the bartender had made a couple for you. We ate in the Jamaican and pan-Asian restaurants and I got the feeling the food came out of the same kitchen as the main buffet. (The Jamaican meal took over 2 hours to complete, too! And for no good reason.) The buffet and grill were both decent (I think Remo’s week-long total number of hot dogs consumed topped 20… But don’t worry, they were chicken hot dots, so they were very healthy.) and I always found something to eat. Finally, the room was pretty spartan, but considering how little time I spent in the room, that was no big deal. It did have a nice balcony and a great view of the ocean.

bholt — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:56:31 +0000

bpholt Wow. We should have won that game.

bholt — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:02:19 +0000

bpholt @jareddellitt check out this win probability graph… http://t.co/EADlZpRK via @AaronGleeman

bholt — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 03:57:16 +0000

bpholt is enjoying watching this game with a #Cardinals fan. @jareddellitt

bholt — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:24:40 +0000

bpholt @ryber When I worked on a team that did serious time tracking I had a bunch of scripts to do stuff like that. (Not looking forward to EPPM.)

bholt — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 01:50:20 +0000

bpholt is somehow not surprised WGN censored "poop" on #30Rock. Lame.

bholt — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:05:11 +0000

bpholt can't understand how staffing agents send resumes with blatant misspellings & other mistakes. Reflects very poorly on candidate and company.

bholt — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:06:11 +0000

bpholt is having a lot of trouble transcoding MPEG2 TS to h.264. Mainly AV sync issues. Tried a few Handbrake options, might try VLC next.

bholt — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:40:11 +0000

bpholt has been having weird issues with txt and iMessages on new iPhone. Doesn't seem to recognize incoming phone numbers correctly.