Neil Armstrong

Why haven't I seen a flood of journals on how shit it is that this great man has passed on?
For that matter, I don't think I even saw much of a peep about Curiosity landing on Mars.

I see journals about internet drama, and stupid shit all the time, but noteworthy, meaningful events take place, and I see nothing.

Personally I find that rather sad.


I watched the stream of Curiosity landing on Mars live, the night it happened.  We have a MacMini hooked up to our 64-inch TV in the living room, so it was streaming right onto the big screen in our living room, an hour before the actual landing.

I watched all the pre-show stuff where they showed the simulations of how the thing was supposed to land with a giant jet rocket sky-crane thing, and I remember thinking 'oh holy shit, are they for real?  There is no way this is going to work!'  And 'wait, the rover is HOW big?  It's the size of an SUV?  Really?'

I remember sitting there as it got really close to the 7 minutes of terror and hoping WISHING that it would really work.

I remember watching the control room full of NASA nerds, sitting on the edge of their seats, and each welling of cheers and celebration with each tiny indication that things were going as planned, and then the EXPLOSION of excitement and hugs and jumping, when it was finally confirmed that it had landed and pictures were coming through.

And I remember thinking 'I bet this is sort of what people felt back when they got to watch the Moon landing, back in 1969.'  That real-time, excitement, hope, and awe.

And now the man that took that first step onto the moon is dead.

The first man on the moon will never get to meet the first man on Mars.

I wonder if I will even live to see the day we finally put someone on Mars.

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