Incoherent ramblings of a demented mind.
Letter to Senators and Congressmen
Mar 3rd
Last night I sat down and wrote a letter to the members of the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics and the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science and Space. I’ll share that letter with you today. Please take your time and edit this letter to fit you or write one of your own. It’s very important that we continue to fund the Constellation Project and all of NASA’s projects so we can continue to send men into space. The members of the House can be found here, and the members of the Senate can be found here. You may have to find their contact pages, but it’s not hard to do.
Here’s the letter:
Dear Senator / Congressman,
I’m writing you today concerning the future of manned space flight in the United States. As a member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Space and Science / House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, I’m sure you are well aware that the Obama administration has decided to pull funding for the Constellation program from his recommended budget for FY 2011. I know I’m not the only one that thinks that it would be a major mistake to cancel funding for this program and I hope that you feel the same way.
When I was coming to age during the 1980’s, it was right during the start of the Shuttle program. I dreamed of one day flying on that Space Shuttle and going to space. I cried on January 28, 1986 as the Challenger disaster occurred, not only because of the death of those 7 astronauts, but also because I thought that my dreams of going to space would now never come to fruition. I even went to Space Camp in the summer of 1988 as an 11 year old kid with visions of the magnificent desolation that is space in my eyes and an undying love of science and technology in my heart. Later in life I would have the honor of working for a short time as a contractor at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, LA and at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi as a network engineer. As you can see, NASA and the US space program have been a part of my life since a very young age. Years ago I came to terms with the fact that I would never have the opportunity to go to space as an astronaut, but at the same time I always held a small nugget of hope that one day NASA would start handing out medical waivers and I’d have my chance.
With the launch of STS-133 in September, the Space Shuttle program is slated to come to an end. The Shuttle Program is the only thing my generation has ever experienced when it comes to manned space flight. The last Apollo mission launched 16 months before I was born and for nearly 6 years there were no manned space flights until the launch of STS-1 in April of 1981. Constellation is supposed to continue that tradition of sending man into space, but without your help, that program may be in jeopardy.
Constellation is also going to be man’s return to the Moon. My generation never got to experience man landing on the moon. We haven’t been there since 1972, and when we went there we did it with a computer (the Apollo Guidance Computer) that had the same computing power of a digital watch. With today’s technology, just imagine what we could achieve. Man needs to return to the moon. It will provide a challenging, shared and peaceful activity to unite nations in pursuit of common objectives, extend human colonization, and expand the economic sphere while conducting research activities that benefit our home planet, not to mention engage the public and students to help develop the high-tech workforce that will be required to address the challenges of tomorrow.
While I can respect the President’s plan to pay private companies to shuttle astronauts to and from the ISS, there are currently no vehicles to do such a thing in the private arena. While we are talking about ending our manned space program, India is well on their way to starting theirs. By 2015 a third world country will be putting a man in Low Earth Orbit along with two second world countries and the greatest country on Earth, the United States of America, will be sitting back and watching.
That is why I am writing you and asking that you do whatever is within your power to assure that this program continues. There has been a 20% drop in NASA spending since 1993 under Presidents Clinton and Bush, and it doesn’t look like President Obama will stray from the path his predecessors have laid. I don’t think I need to tell you that the President’s budget is just a proposal and it’s up to Congress to approve it. It is imperative that we continue to fund these programs, not only for the advancement of mankind, but also for the advancement of United States. I don’t understand why the President wants to change policy that we have established by law not once, but twice. Please do your part in assuring that Constellation and all future NASA programs receive the funding they deserve.
Sincerely,
Gregory M. Ledet
Here’s a Word Doc format if you want it. NASA letter
I’m thinking about getting a new tattoo
Mar 2nd
I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. As a huge fan of science and technology, as well as the space program, I think I’m going to get a tattoo commemorating the Space Shuttle program. I’ve talked to a few people about it and I’ve gotten some weird comments. One person wanted to know why the Shuttle and not Apollo or even Mercury. That’s actually pretty simple for me. The Shuttle program is what I know. It’s been the manned space program for the vast majority of my life. I was born in November of 1976 and the first test flights of the Shuttle started in February of 1977. This has been the only space program my generation has known.
The shuttle program first launched on April 12, 1981 with Columbia and STS-1. I was 4 years old at the time of the first launch. I still remember very vividly the Challenger disaster in 1986 (STS-51-L) and thinking at the time that man would never go to space again. I didn’t know about Apollo 1 at the time… hell I had just turned 9 years old a couple of months before.
I was glued to the TV on February 1, 2003 when Columbia and the crew of STS-107 burned up upon reentry. I had tears in my eyes for those 7 people and their families. I knew that they shuttle would fly again, seeing as I had already experienced the Challenger disaster, but little did I know that it would cause NASA to scrap the program in 2010 in favor of Orion.
The Space Shuttle has been a huge part of all of our lives. The launch of Hubble during STS-31 and the subsequent servicing missions concluding with STS-125 have benefited all of humanity. I am so jealous of John Grunsfeld and Megan McArthur for being the final 2 people to touch Hubble. That one scientific instrument has taught us more about the cosmos than anything else in history. Hubble is just 6 of the total of 134 Shuttle missions.
So, in memory of the Shuttle program, I think I’m going to get a tattoo of STS-133’s mission patch. STS-133 is going to be the final flight of the Space Shuttle (STS-134 will actually fly before STS-133) and with it, it’ll be the end of an era. I don’t think that NASA has picked the final mission patch, but I do know that they were down to 15 finalist back in January. I have seen those 15 finalist and they were all cool and something I wouldn’t mind having on my body forever.
Another idea was to get the Shuttle Program patch tattooed on me. I have nothing on the right side of my chest, and that’s where the mission patch is located on the astronaut’s suits, so that’s where I’ll likely get something. I need to get something to remember the 14 people that lost their lives trying to improve our knowledge of the cosmos. I need to get something to commemorate all of the astronauts that have flown into space aboard the Shuttle and the countless support people on the ground that have made the program possible.
Sure, to some people the Shuttle will just be another craft in the list that went to space, but to me it’s something different. Mercury got into space, Apollo got us to the Moon, but the Shuttle has taught us more than we could have ever imagined. Because of that, I owe it to every astronaut, engineer, and even janitor that has been a part of the Shuttle Program to carry forward what they have done for all of humanity and to get something permanent that will stay with me forever.
EDIT
I was just informed that they chose the final mission patch for STS-133, and it just so happens to be the one I really liked. This will be my new tattoo.
The second happiest day of my life!
Jan 25th
I never thought I’d live to see the day; the day that the New Orleans Saints make it to the Superbowl. I’ve waited my entire life for this day! Hell, I’m at a loss for words right now because I’m just completely overcome with joy!
It was a hard game, but the Saints pulled it off in the end. One thing that pisses me off though is that no one seems to want to give the Saints any credit. I’m reading article after article on the internet, along with the comments posted on them, and it’s all Saints bashing saying that the numbers don’t lie and that the Vikings should have easily won that game. I’ve got news for you people, you can’t win a football game when you can’t hold on to the ball! I’m also tired already of reading about how the Refs blew 3 calls in overtime and that all 3 that were reviewed should have been reversed. Well, I’ve got more news for you. Did you bother to see the first 4 quarters of that game? The ones where the Saints got hit for 88 yards in penalties to the Vikings 32? Yeah, how they tried to NOT give Reggie Bush the touchdown that was obvious?
What about Joe Buck too? I was waiting for him to drop to his knees and start praying to Farve. He could not possibly have been any more unprofessional than he was tonight. A journalist is supposed to be unbiased and all Mr. Buck did all night was sit there and talk about Farve like he was willing to have his baby. After the game I switched over to ESPN and the Farve love continued. No one wants to give the Saints any credit. I guess that even though we started the season 13-0 means that we really suck.
And people, don’t give me that “the Vikings won on paper” bullshit. Higher stats /= winning the game. Sure, most of the time the team with the most yards wins, but once again, the Vikings had 5 turnovers to the Saints 1. We were better where it counted and the Vikings played like a Pop Warner team!
So, congratulations to the New Orleans Saints and to all the rest of you in Who Dat Nation! In 2 short weeks we go to Miami!
Sleeping the week away and no appetite at all
Jan 15th
I have slept all damn week long. Literally. I can’t think of a time in my life when I’ve slept this much… not even when I was a teenager. Wednesday night I got really into a new webapp that I was working on and didn’t get to sleep until yesterday at 6am. I slept until noon and came downstairs only to go back to sleep at 1:30 or so. I woke up just before 5, went to bed at 8 (no sleeping pills needed) and didn’t wake up until 10:30 this morning. I had to take a Ritalin just so I didn’t fall asleep again today. It’s been like this all week. I sleep and sleep and sleep and I’m still tired.
This is not to mention the lack of appetite. I’ve been having to force myself to at least eat a sandwich or something everyday just to make sure I have something in my stomach. I’m getting tired of throwing up and not having anything in my stomach to come out. It’s too damn painful. Even the nausea meds aren’t helping as much as I’d like.
I’ve been trying to keep my mind on things other than feeling like complete ass. I’ve just finished my second mobile webapp, admittedly it’s just another calculator and it looks similar to the first, but there’s a lot of difference in how the back end works. I’ve already started working on porting it over to the Palm Pre and Pixi, but I’m running into issues with formatting. I’ll figure it out.
Today’s injection site was the top of my right thigh. Yes, it sucks. I took it around 10:30 and I’m already feeling it bad. I know tomorrow is going to suck royally, but I just need to push through it.
That’s about everything that’s going on right now, so until next time…
Now, this is just stupid.
Jan 12th
I just read an article on Discovery.com about some people out there thinking the movie “Avatar” is racist. I believe it started with an article on Essence.com. I’m sorry, but this is just stupid. When are people going to stop looking for racial subtexts in everything? They are saying that because the movie involves a white man that saves the “colored” natives, that it’s racist. James Cameron said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that his film “asks us to open our eyes and truly see others, respecting them even though they are different, in the hope that we may find a way to prevent conflict and live more harmoniously on this world. I hardly think that is a racist message.”
It isn’t racist. The only thing that’s racist about this whole thing is the racist assholes who see it as racist because they can’t look beyond anything else. Annalee Newitz, who is editor for io9.com, has opened her mouth and came out to say “When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race in a new way?” Keep in mind that Annalee is white. She has also written a book called “White Trash: Race and Class in America”. Would someone like to explain to me what a lesbian Jew who grew up in California knows about race and racism? Antisemitism? Sure I’ll give her that. Homophobia? She gets that too. Racism? I think not…
Now, back on subject. I’m getting tired of all these people out there that want to say everything is racist. A white man can’t do anything in this day and age without being labeled a racist. I remember back before the Presidential election I was having a conversation with a woman in line at Walmart and the subject of the election came up. When I stated that I was voting for McCain, she immediately stopped talking to me. On my way to the car, the woman passed me in her SUV, rolled down the window, and shouted “RACIST” out the window at me before driving away. I was labeled a racist because of my vote. She never asked “why” I was voting for McCain, or what it was about Obama that I didn’t like, she just assumed that because I was white and I wasn’t voting for the black guy, I must be racist.
I’m not one of those people that have a lot of “white guilt”. In fact, I don’t have any “white guilt”. I never owned slaves. My parents didn’t either. Neither did my grandparents, their parents, or their parents. No one that is reading this was ever a slave. Neither were your parents or your grand parents. It’s time to get over this bullshit people. We are HUMAN BEINGS. Sure, we have out differences and sure, we say mean things about others at times, but why does it have to do with race? If I said “you know, Joe is a thief” and Joe was white, it would be fine. If Joe was black, I’d be making some sort of racist comment.
Over the weekend it came out that Harry Reid (D – Nevada), our Senate Majority Leader, said of then-candidate Obama that he “believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a ‘light-skinned’ African American with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”. HOLY SHIT! The best part about it? Because he’s a liberal, no one cared. The Congressional Black Caucus laughed it off. If Mitch McConnell had said that, they would be asking not just for his resignation, but his head on a spike.
I don’t believe in these double standards, and I don’t believe that everything is racist. Hell, I bet some of you are reading this and thinking “Wow, Greg’s a racist!”. Well, I’m not. I’m human, and I don’t have to sit here and prove to you just how not-racist I am. Yes, there’s tons of racism in America today, but I want someone to admit that it goes both ways. Last year, 12 people were arrested in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana in connection with hate crimes that were committed in the local jail. These were black men committing a hate crime against white men. Around the same time, 2 white men in the neighboring Louisiana Parish (Terrebonne) had hate-crime charges against them resuscitated following pressure from the local NAACP. They had the charges dropped because the defendant didn’t show up in court for the trial, so the prosecution had no witness. But because the NAACP started shit, they DA filed the charges again, the case went to court, and they were found guilty. But that wasn’t good enough. Civil-rights groups protested because they said the judge was too lenient in his sentencing. That’s not why I brought this up though. The Southern Poverty Law Center keeps track of all hate incidents in the US. They didn’t post anything on the one about the 12 people arrested in Lafourche Parish, but gave the Terrebonne Parish case tons of publicity. I know they knew about the Lafourche parish case too, because I brought it to their attention on more than one occasion. The SPLC’s reply? There’s no such thing as a hate crime perpetrated by a black person against a white person. Ain’t that some shit? Oh, and don’t get me started on Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Harvard professor that cried foul after he was arrested for suspicious behavior…
People, we’re all human beings. We all bleed red and we all die one day. Let’s get past this whole skin color issue and move on to more important things. There is way too much time and effort wasted on stupidity here.
It’s been a little while…
Jan 8th
Yeah, it’s been a little while since I posted an entry, so I figure there’s no time like the present. I’ve been extremely busy as of late and really haven’t had time to do anything. My best friend came down for a visit on the 30th of last month and stayed until the 3rd. All this week I’ve been trying to get everything setup and launched for the new business, Le’ Day Consulting. I’m finally getting a chance to breathe, seeing as there’s a foot of snow on the ground outside and the streets are slick as all hell.
The injection I took last Friday was one out of my old stash. I figured with Mark here I might want to take one that wouldn’t completely knock me out for the whole weekend. This morning I took one out of the new stash, so I’m not going to be looking forward to that. It’s kinda messed up too because I’ve been getting a lot of calls lately looking for consultants in Columbus, but I can’t exactly work right now while I’m going through treatment. The side effects are just too much for me.
I think I’ll be able to do OK once I get Le’ Day Consulting off the ground. I already have a few clients ranging from web design to network and security consulting. I just need to get a few more clients and I’ll be doing just fine. Also, I have a new site that will be going live in the next few months that should bring in some money once we can get it finished. There’s a lot of database programming going into this one, so it’s going to take a while.
Well, that’s about it for now. I’ll post more as info comes available!
-Greg
A very bad day, or a very good day. You decide!
Dec 29th
Today started off horribly. The doorbell rang at 10:30 and I was still sleeping, seeing as I didn’t go to bed until 4am. I knew my wife was downstairs, but I still wanted to see what was going on. I made the first step and my feet slipped out from under me. Down the stairs I went.
Not a good pic, but click for larger image
I screwed up my arms pretty good, but that’s just the part I can show you here. My lower back and and tail bone are destroyed. My neck is killing me. It hurt like hell when it happened, and now it’s getting worse as everything tightens up. I only thought that I wasn’t doing good with the treatment, now I have this to contend with. Trust me when I tell you… I’m in a shitload of pain. The best part about it? The doorbell was UPS delivering more Pegasys. I went through pain to take delivery of pain. It was so loud when I fell down the stairs that the neighbors came running over to see if I needed help. I couldn’t move for about 10 minutes.
While I was sitting here in pain I tried to get some things done knowing that I have company arriving tomorrow and I had a doctor’s appointment today at 3 and it was going to take an hour and a half to get to the doctor’s office. This is where to good day comes into play. The doctor’s appointment was my first meeting with the PA that will be taking care of me during my Hepatitis treatment. It was also my first look at the blood work I’ve had done since I started treatment. We got to the office and everything went OK at first. We went over the CBC and CMP info and I was informed that my white count was a little low, but my AST and ALT were looking better!
Click the image for full spreadsheet containing values
For those of you that don’t know, the AST and ALT are liver enzymes. Liver enzymes allow doctors to learn about the health of your liver. There are thousands of these enzymes in the liver and blood stream, but two of them — known as AST and ALT — are especially useful for determining the severity of liver disease. When liver cells are damaged, AST and ALT are “leaked” into the blood stream. The amount of these enzymes give the doctor an idea of just how screwed up your liver is. When the levels are high it causes concern because the liver isn’t functioning the way it should. In simple terms: if AST and ALT are high, that’s BAD. Liver enzymes are like golf scores. By looking at the teal and orange lines in the chart above, you’ll get an idea of what my liver enzymes have been doing this year. I started treatment on Nov. 20th, so they have gone down since then. Click that chart and bring up the full numbers and the spreadsheet. Lots of info in there, including the numbers that you need to make that chart look right.
So, now we know that my liver is working a little better because they’ve gone down since my last test. This is a GOOD thing, but it isn’t what I wanted to know. I wanted to know my Viral Load. That’s the test that I needed. It’s going to give me a number and that number is the amount of virus found within a given volume of blood. My last test, in September, gave me a viral load of 1,720,000 IU/mL. That mean there’s 1.7 million of those little viruses swimming around in that vial of blood. I had the viral load done again on the 21st and, I’m happy to say, it came back UNDETECTABLE! That’s right! The HCV RNA was not detectable in a range of 43 IU/mL to 69,000,000 IU/mL. It could still be there, but it’s less than 43 IU/mL. The next test I’m going to have done will be able to detect it down to 10 IU/mL. If it’s not detected there, then it’ll be save to say that I’m kicking it’s ASS. Or at least, I’ve kicked at least 1,719,957 of their asses so far.
5 more months of treatment and it’ll be looking VERY good for me attaining SVR. This is what this treatment is all about. It’s about it working. It’s about me beating it and not letting it beat me. And this is also help for all of you out there that are looking into starting treatment. There is hope! I’m a guy that started treatment before and stopped after 4 weeks. I had well over a year to let the virus mutate on me and build an immunity to the treatment, but it didn’t. It’s still getting it’s ass kicked, and as am I.
Speaking of getting my ass kicked, falling down the stairs this morning really sucked. My body is really starting to tense up and hurt like hell. I’m eating pain pills right now like mentos just trying to take the edge off. I mean hell… I sat on my nuts when I fell. Yes, my full 240 lbs of weight landed on my testicles as I was dropping down the stairs. It still really hurts… Not to mention that I popped a cyst on my kidneys when I fell (I have Polycystic Kidney Disease too) and I’ve been pissing blood all afternoon.
I’m still going to keep updating this blog, especially with info on my blood tests and everything. But the question still remains… How do you feel my day went. Was it a good day? Was it a bad day? Or, was it just Tuesday?
I think I screwed up…
Dec 27th
When I started this treatment 5 weeks ago, I was using some meds that I had left over from a previous round of treatment. On Friday I decided to mix things up a little and take another injection from the new stash. I now think that the meds from my old stash are no longer good. I feel 1000 times worse than I have been for the past few weeks, and with everything going on with the holidays, it’s been very bad for me. That’s why I haven’t been posting a whole lot. I’ll get something up here soon about what’s been going on.
On another note, a guy that a good friend of mine spent time with in the Marines has fallen on some seriously hard times. A few months ago he lost his daughter, and as a father myself, I couldn’t imagine how hard it is to lose a child. To top it off, his house burned down on Christmas Eve. To say it’s been a hard time for Bruce would be putting it lightly. A fund has been setup to help Bruce out, so if you can find it in your heart in this time of year to donate a little to help out a man who risked his life to defend this great country, please use the link below. Any amount would help, even a dollar.