I work in a scary place...

Now don't get me wrong, I love where I work and what I do. I'm in the Space Department at JHU/APL. I get to fly satellites for a living.

This week I had PSOP--basically orientation for new employees. I know, I've been at APL for over 2 years now, but this is the first time I haven't had a conflict. It's a four-day orientation, with presentations in the morning and tours in the afternoons. Every department at APL gives a presentation so you get an idea of what goes on in the other departments at the lab.

Really cool stuff, for the most part. There's a lot of work going on for development of a prosthetic arm right now. There's also a lot of work on building a human-like mannequin they can stick sensors into and see how it reacts to different types of trauma. Like what happens when a person puts on a bullet-proof vest and gets shot. Ok, so the bullet didn't go through, but what happened to the person's innards?

Scary stuff too, though. I learned that, during the Cuban Missle Crisis in 1962 at one point the guy in charge of the arrmed forces went into President Kennedy and told him that we had a huge command and control problem. There was no way to stop some guy out in a sub from starting the next nuclear war. Up to that point our focus was just to have more bombs and whatnot than the Russians. Once the crisis was resolved they decided we just needed enough to insure total anihiliation. I.e. the guy who shoots first dies second. APL was asked to step in and do some of the command and control work. Like I said, scary stuff.

I knew there was a lot of military stuff going on here--it was formed during WWII for just that purpose--but I had no idea what. I like my nice, safe, little bubble in the space deparment, working on the civilian space side of the fence (i.e. NASA). We do cool stuff too, discovering new things on other planets and determining the environment outside of our atmosphere. I'd much rather be involved in the work I'm doing. Far more positive. Though it is kind of nice to know some of the things we're doing to help our troops overseas. And under the seas as well. And I'm thinking I really need to get my brother (the unemployed one) to take a look at applying here. I think he would do well in the technical services department.

As for the rest of my week, it's just been long. So glad it's the weekend.

Oh hey, I didn't mention my trip to NYC! Shannon and I went up last Saturday on the train. We had lunch at a place serving New York Pizza, and then went to the theater. The play ("A Steady Rain") was ok, I think it suffered a little by being so time constrained, but there are no complaints at how well it was acted. Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman did FABULOUS!! They're so cute. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go. I'm really glad Shannon keeps up with what's going on around here. Next month we're going to the Star Wars concert at the Baltimore Maritime Arena. So cool!