More tales from Wisconsin

Things we did:
Decorate the trees on Black Friday
Look at funky Christmas trees at Menards
Watched the cute movie Stranger than Fiction
Tried to make butter mints...
Walked the meadow trail in the neighborhood
Saw the "Dead Animal" store
Ate dinner @ Frank's (mmmm!)
Had Christmas tree trimming (pt 1).

Want more? See the pictures.

Thanksgiving in Wisconsin!

We've been having fun in the not-so-snowy north at Alice and Tom's house. Jen came up here over Veteran's Day, but I haven't been up here since before our wedding. Ouch! New features include outdoor accent lighting for the house (ooohh, ahhhh!).

We came into MKE on Wednesday night via Midwest Express. Grandma and Grandpa had already arrived a few days earlier and were at the house when we arrived. Jen and I are stying downstairs to let Grandma and Grandpa avoid climbing the stairs all the time.

On Thanksgiving day Tom's dad, brother, and cousin all came over for dinner. We'd been working all morning on the turkey, etc, and had a table full of food. I ate until I was about to explode [ref: Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life"]. The stuffing was a special kind that had cranberries in it. Tom and Alice had gone to see the cranberry bog a few weeks earlier so we had some great cranberry food :-)

After almost erupting, I ate desert. WE had cheesecaks, pecan pie and apple pie, plus numerous cookies and ice cream. After an hours-long food-induced coma in front of the fireplace, I asked Jen to shoot me if I ever tried to eat that much again. I've been losing a little bit of weight (like 5 lbs; due to my stomach shrinking in Europe and my increased activity being at the house all day), but I will be busting my belt if I eat like that more than once a year.

I missed seeing my family up in GA, but I got several nice phone calls to let us know we were remembered. My mom and dad left Thanksgiving dinner and jumped in the car to head to FL for some repainting at the Port Orange house. My brother Robbie and his girl friend Lindsey both work at Best Buy and will not be seen again until some time in January. (Seriously. If they take a day off, they're fired!).

All told, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are thankful to be able to travel about to see our extended families and spend holidays with people we love. These past few years have been whirlwinds of change and motion, but we always end up where we are supposed to be. I cannot wish for a better life than the one I have. We are truly blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Thank you for the difference you make in our lives and in the world. You are noticed, counted, and appreciated.

Student Space Conference

The local SEDS chapter hosted the annual Space Vision conference at UCF last weekend. The variety and quality of students was amazing. I am glad we have such passionate and diverse people rising up to lead the space industry! I was privileged to be invited as a speaker amidst such space current industry leaders as:

• Peter Diamandis (X PRIZE, ZERO-G, ISU, SEDS, etc)
  
• Rick Tumlinson (Space Frontier Foundation, etc.)
  
• Bob Richards (Optech, SEDS, Space Gen, ISU, etc.)
  
• George Whitesides (Executive Director, National Space Society)
  
• Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides (President, Space Generation Foundation)
  
• Mark Craig (President, American Aeronautical Society)
• Jim Muncy (Founder, PoliSpace)

Sky Fire Lab was also privileged to provide the design for the conference t-shirts. Thanks, guys! See you next year at MIT!

It's a Brand-You World

I found an article in Time about personal branding services. This is where someone interviews you and then tells you how to make yourself look & sound better on a resume or online personal ad.

What struck me was that I already do this for free! At the space conferences and events Jen and I regularly attend, I always gravitate toward the students. They are a great source of inspiration as well as an indicator of how well the space industry is connecting with youth today. They are also a fun challenge :-)

Typically when I meet someone at a conference, I immediately start to pick past all the standard answers to get to the good, meaty stuff. Students are ripe for this process. It usually only takes a few minutes for them to get past what they are doing now and start discussing the type of things they want to do (ex: "I am working on a degree" to "I am interested in developing new propulsion systems for long-duration space missions"). My goal is always to understand what they want so I can connect them better with each other and industry insiders. But seeing them leave with a clearer understanding to their core desires and strengths is often more useful to them.

At the SEDS conference where I spoke last weekend, my main focus was on finding your "source": the thing that really drives you and says why you're doing all the other stuff. Be it a quest for knowledge, concern for human survival, or the joy of sharing discovery with others, your core values and ideals are very powerful tools. Too often I see students explaining that they are getting a degree without ever saying why.

Try it yourself: ask someone who they are and what they're up to in life. Usually I get a response like: "I work as a manager." Great, now I know your job title but I don't know you or what lights you up on the inside. What's so bad about saying "I'm working to serve the needs of the community by being a great parent, a volunteer, and managing a department at a local company."? For me, that makes a huge difference in the way I listen to the person for the rest of the conversation.

I think it is really neat to see someone else offering this service to the general public. Knowing that I have one more marketable talent in my bag of tricks is nice too. And if you ever hear me answer with a crap reply, please call me on it! Don't let me get by without branding myself :-)

X PRIZE Cup Recap

Oct 18-22 Jen and I were in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for the 2006 X PRIZE Cup. This is the second year for the event, and the first time they have done a Lunar Lander Challenge or hosted the Space Elevator Games. The other spectacles included amateur rocket launches, rocket-powered bikes, cool spaceship mockups, a jetpack (think James Bond), and a vertical wind tunnel for virtual skydiving. We were at the event promoting Sky Fire Lab and showing off some of our newest shirt designs.

I posted some pictures from the X PRIZE Cup here.

Due to some horrible, horrible customer service screw-ups by our t-shirt vendor in El Paso, I learned a LOT about silk screening during the trip. Here's the story:
We thought we'd save some time and money by getting a local company to do the printing job (instead of going with our previous vendors and shipping the merchandise). I sent in our order a week in advance to ensure time for shirt delivery and printing. What happened was that the shirts were ordered late, got delayed, and ultimately ended up being either the wrong color or completely missing. As if this was not frustrating enough, some of the shirts that did arrive were ruined by bad printing (wrong colors used, wrong side printed--you name it, we had it).

My partner, Karen, was a trooper and worked with the apathetic graphic arts guy to fix numerous errors in the complex "artwork-onto-t-shirt" process. We both stayed up all night before the show working with the production crew to get shirts done that were already 2 days late. We ended up with about one third of our intended supply of shirts/colors/sizes missing--including most of the kid's sizes and all of the girl-cut shirts.

All told, we sold about 100 shirts and made some great business contacts despite our bad location (inside an unmarked exhibition tent), numerous other t-shirt vendors, and our production woes. It was definitely a great learning experience! I am already applying some of the lessons learned to our next job making shirts for the SEDS conference.

Other things happening:

• Sky Fire Lab's online store is opening this week
• speaking at the Space Vision 2006 conference in Orlando
• Loretta and George are staying at our house for the conference
• Jen is going to Wisconsin for Veteran's Day
• Mom and Dad will be in Port Orange for the weekend