January 2005 Archives
Documented evidence of the fact from Bill's Blog :-)
I'm sorry, i know, but I just can't resist pointing this out - proof that NASA doesn't employ South Africans :-)
Or maybe they do...
Happy 6 months birthday my wonderful little son.
It sounds like such a cliché, but I can’t believe it’s been 6 months since you arrived in our world on July 14th at 14h44, and turned everything upside down.
We had been watching you grow inside your Mom for months (we called you Prawn before we knew you were a boy), 
but it didn’t really hit home that we were parents until you were born. You were a helpless little 3.5 kilogram blob (but oh so adorable and cute - and you scored 10/10 on your APGAR test), with stubby little arms and legs, whose only talents were crying, sleeping, eating and peeing on your father. We couldn't help but love you :-)
We took you home from the hospital on a cold winter night (I don't think i've ever driven so carefully), turned on every heater we had, and started two difficult weeks of little sleep and many nappies - and we learned to be parents.
I remember....
- How, when you were upset, i could often calm you down by playing Britney's "Every Time".
- How you used to pee on me at every opportunity, before i learned to be fast and clever :-)
- You falling asleep in your bath.
- You learning to use your arms and legs, and figuring out the connection between your senses - learning to turn your head to face sounds you heard and things you touched.
- How Winamp Visualizations used to fascinate you, and make you forget - at least for awhile - how upset you were.
- How delighted we were when you first smiled at us, and made everything worthwhile and wonderful :)
- How much fun we all had when you first learned to splash in your bath.
- How terrible we felt when you had your first immunisation injections, feeling like traitors handing trusting little you over to the nurse who then stuck a needle in your thigh. But you were so brave.
- How you started to babble and jabber away in nonstop babytalk when i changed your nappy.
- How excited we were when you learned to roll over, and lift your head up for minutes at a time to look around.
Your first laughter, how we would do anything to get you to laugh more, and how you laugh and gurgle when we kiss your tummy.
- Your first introduction to a real swimming pool, and how you loved the water - almost throwing yourself out of your parents arms, kicking and splashing on a hot summers day. I remember the hat your Granbad made for you out of a hanky, and how you fell asleep in mom's arms.
Your first Christmas! You brought back the magic of Christmas for me. I remember how you enjoyed the wrapping paper more than the contents, and the first time you hugged your beloved Giraffe from Justin and Tirone.
- How proud we are that you can now sit up by yourself for a few minutes without falling over.
- How you made everyone at your Moms and Babes class laugh :-) They gave all the babies a development test, giving you all one toy and then two, so you grabbed one in each hand. Then they gave you a third more interesting toy, and you were supposed to drop one or both current toys and grab the new one - and instead you hung onto the two, and tried to bite onto the third :-)
- How excited you get when i come home from work - giving me a huge grin when you first see me, and waving your little arms around. There is no better way to start my evening :-)
What we call "The Silence of Doom" - the prequel to a truly upset wail, when you hold your breath for 5 seconds and turn bright red. It used to freak me out, but now it's almost funny (forgive us!) - we both mentally start a countdown when you stop breathing :-)
- How we think your first meaningful word is "mamam" or "mabmab" which you say over and over whenever you get upset, and stop when your mom picks you up. You make her so happy :-)
- How one of the most wonderful sounds to wake up to is you happily jabbering away to yourself in your cot, when all we can see over your cot bumper are your hands and feet waving around.
You weighed 3.5 kilograms then, and now you weigh 8. You're a bubbly, happy, wonderful little baby boy who i struggle more and more every day to think of as a "baby". Every day you learn something new, and every day you make us smile and laugh, remind us how truly wonderful God is, and how blessed we are.
So, happy 1/2 birthday Caleb. Thanks for making us so happy. I can't wait to see what you do next.
I'll keep updating your photo gallery for all your fans.
My new hosting domain is now setup (or at least i've got it up and running - i'll never be finished setting it up :-) and MovableType is running, so welcome to my new MT blog. Please use this URL from now on : http://blog.ewanscorner.com/, and update your RSS / ATOM feeds please :-)
I've imported all my old Blogger posts (i'm not happy with the formatting, but that's an issue for another day) - so thanks for all the good times Blogger, and hats off to you Pyra, but it's time to move on. Using the default template for now, until i have enough spare time to design my own...
- 07h51 - electronics on, transmitter on in low-power mode
- 12h13 - technical entry into Titan's atmosphere begins (1270 km up)
- 12h17 - pilot parachute deploys, rear cover released shortly afterwards (should be 180 km up, moving at under 400 m/s)
- 12h18 - Front shield released, Huygens begins transmitting to Cassini (about 160 km above the surface of Titan). First images and data recorded.
- 12h32 - main parachute separates, drogue chute deploys. Tons of data being captured :-)
- 12h49 - Surface proximity sensor activated - Huygens should now be able to tell it's distance from the surface (around 60 km) via radar, as well as it's spin rate. Timing gets fuzzy from here on.
- 13h57 - Begins sampling atmosphere using the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer. Descent should take 137 minutes (+-15 minutes) in total. Cameras and instruments should see the entire panorama as the probe rotates.
- 14h30 - Main camera activates a light - the Spectral Radiometer lamp.
- 14h34-ish - touchdown (or splashdown) at around 5 m/s (ouch). Surface Science Package captures as much data as possible in the remaining 3 minutes of battery life.
- 16h44 - Huygens landing site drops below horison for Cassini, and no more data can be received by Cassini. EOM.
- 17h14 - Cassini turns high gain antenna to Earth, and begins transmitting data. World listens carefully for repeated data.
I'm holding thumbs that Huygens has better luck than the ill-fated Beagle did on Mars.
I've come over all nostalgic now.
It's amazing we even managed to survive without Google.
Update: this entry is now obsolete - things are now (permanently - ha :-) at http://blog.ewanscorner.com/.
NASA Earth Observatory images:
- Earthquake Spawns Tsunamis (from the EO Natural Hazards section of the site) for the latest collection of images
- Tsunami Destroys Lhoknga, Indonesia
- Tsunami damage in Aceh Province, Sumatra
- Tsunami Damage in Northwest Sumatra
- Tsunami Strikes Sri Lanka
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