And THAT'S How You Land A Rover On Mars!!!

Forgive me for a moment while I geek out and make a total fool of myself.

WOOOOO! AHHHHHH! OHHHHHH! BLEEEEEEERK! SNNNNNERBY!!!! WOWWWWW!

A photo taken my the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which shows Curiosity hanging from its supersonic parachute as it drops toward the surface of Mars.

Had you been at the Rugg homestead last night at around 10:31 PM, those are noises you would have heard me make as we watched the newest Mars rover, Curiosity, triumphantly touch down on Mr. Bradbury's wonderfully red planet. (I'm not entirely sure what SNNNNNNERBY means. But it's a good noise. A happy noise.)

Long-time readers of this inestimable blog are well aware by now that I'm a bit of a fanatic about aviation and space. I am, as my wife informed me, a "Rover Hugger". That's a term she found on the internet that describes people like me who avidly follow the comings and going of those plucky little robots on Mars.

Had I not been one of St. Viator Elementary School's "worst students of all time" and unable to tie my shoes  until I was 17, there's a good chance I would have been a brilliant engineer that made cool Mars rovers. However, as one of St. Viator Elementary School's worst students of all time and unable to tie my shoes until I was 17, there was little I could do except for TV Animation.  (On a side note, I recently  came across a letter written to my parents by my 8th grade teacher which stated, "We feel Paul will need constant care throughout his adult years. Please plan accordingly. We can recommend a number of wonderful group homes.")

Anyway...

Curiosity is safely down on the surface of Mars and the whole thing couldn't have been more exciting. Seriously. If you don't believe me, then please take the next 5 minutes to watch what it had to go through.




I hope you watched that and didn't just pretend to watch that because it's really cool. And if you did just pretended to watch it, but are now feeling somewhat sheepish and slightly curious, go ahead and watch it now. Go ahead. Don't be shy. We'll all wait.

Pretty awesome, right? So there we were last night watching all of this live. In the weeks leading up to the landing I had forced my family to watch the above video countless times. (That's the video I asked you to watch and you did. Right? If you didn't. Do it now. There's still time. Seriously. Don't be ashamed. Just do it.) So, having watched the video, we all knew the various things that had to happen as the rover made it's way down. Luckily my family got into it and you would have thought it was the superbowl. When we heard that the parachute had deployed, we clapped. We we heard the heat shield had come off we clapped. When we heard the rockets had fired for powered flight, we cheered. When the sky crane started doing it's thing...I think that's when I made my SNERRRRRBY sound. And when Curiosity said it had arrived, I jumped up and down. Cuz it's cool. And there aren't enough cool things happening today.

Thanks to the rock star engineers and scientists at JPL for putting some cool back into the world. It needed it.

Now if you'll excuse me, we're going out and I need my wife to tie my shoes.

Thank You, Dear

Alas, my intention to keep this inestimable blog chock-full of wonderful goodness throughout the summer has flamed-out spectacularly. Work (that which I do for a living and often regret) once again reared it's ugly head and crushed me like a small thing that is crushed beneath something large. And it hurt. And I couldn't blog. Throughout it all I carried deep-seated resentments about said work...and longed for the day when steady employment would yield to joys of communicating with you for little or no money.

And so, with said work now behind me, and little or no work ahead of me, it's time to get down to business and thank my wife, who, on our recent summer vacation to the great Pacific Northwest, spent five hours with me at Seattle's Museum Of Flight. Actually, she didn't really spend it with me per se...she followed me as I gleefully ran from one display to the next. She waited patiently as I gently caressed and whispered sweet nothings to "The City Everett", the first 747 ever built. She patiently waited as I sprinted over to the Lockheed Super Constellation and gawked at its sleek neato-ness. She then lovingly placed herself on a bench as my daughter and I painstakingly combed through the museum's store for a scale model of a Boeing Stratocruiser 377. Two hours later, we emerged from the store, victory in hand. Plus a nice Boeing baseball cap. Plus a T-Shirt which says, "If It's Not Boeing, I'm Not Going." Plus a die-cast model of a Lockheed Super Constellation. Plus a keychain. Plus a bunch of other stuff.

Thank you, dear. I promise to return the favor one day when you really want to go somewhere. As long as it's not boring. Like ballet. Cuz, that's super boring. And no modern dance, either. I hate that stuff. But anything else. I promise. As long as it's not something cultural. I hate that. And don't drag me to the Museum of Fabrics or something like that. Blech. But, anything else. Seriously. I love you. I want to return the favor. AND NO JAPANESE GARDEN CRAP. At all! I WON'T GO. But, anything else. Seriously. I love you. No sculpture exhibits. Got it? Gross. Boring. Hello? Anything else.

I love you.

R.I.P. Trololo Guy. And Thank You...

I have just been informed by a close friend that Eduard Khil, better known as the Trololo Guy passed away this morning. He was 77. I think it's only fitting that we take a moment to remember this man and his work.

Tomorrow's Weather

Scattered patches of sunshine which will turn into other things as the day goes on. Highs should be in the upper portion of the livable range. Lows will generally be the same.

The Best Thing Ever Done On Froynlaven By Chester Phelph

Hi, this is Chester. Please watch the following video as many times as possible. They are getting angry with me that not enough of you are watching what I've done. So, here's something you are bound to pass along and get viral.

Thanks. Chester A. Phelph.

Chester's First Blog And Art Project

Chester A. Phelph's First Blog Is Minutes Away!

Hi. So, my blog is coming sooper soon. Like in an hour. Until then, check out the silly pictures of kitties in stuff which I have added captions to.

Chester A. Phelph