ON TUESDAY NIGHT, I went to the Lakers’ first game of the 2009-'10 regular season at STAPLES Center...as they played against their city rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers. It was a great game—not only because the Lakers won, 99-92, but also because Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and company got their championship rings beforehand, and the Lakers’ new title banner was unveiled. Awesome. The road to a repeat has begun...



The only bad thing about the night was that I was too late in getting my coupon for two free Jack in the Box tacos (since the Lakers held the Clippers below 100 points for the game)...but that’s because I was still chillin’ in my seat long after the game ended to let the traffic outside the arena die down. Oh well.


LINK: Photos I took at the Lakers' 2009-'10 Regular Season Opening Game & Ring Ceremony

Canon / Scott Andrews

FINALLY! After a day’s worth of delays due to weather concerns and some Joe Schmoe errantly steering his cargo ship into restricted waters off the coast of Kennedy Space Center (KSC) yesterday, the Ares I-X rocket finally launched on its much-anticipated test flight this morning. And its flight sure was triboelectrifying! If you don’t know what that word means, look it up. Just don’t ask anyone who oversaw the test at KSC’s Launch Control today what it means... They’ll probably smack you upside the head in a sec.


NASA / Jack Pfaller


NASA / Jim Grossmann


Canon / Scott Andrews

Here’s the video of the launch:

NASA / Kim Shiflett

TODAY’S THE DAY... Bad weather might thwart this morning’s launch attempt (at 5 AM, Pacific Daylight Time) of NASA's Ares I-X rocket, but oh well. Just thought I’d share more awesome photos of the test vehicle at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B in Florida...


NASA / Jack Pfaller


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett

NASA / Kim Shiflett

Ready For Launch...

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NASA GIVES 'GO' FOR THE ARES I-X TEST ROCKET LAUNCH ON OCT. 27 (Press Release)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA has completed a review of the Ares I-X development rocket's readiness for its flight test and selected Tuesday, Oct. 27, as the official launch date. Liftoff is scheduled for 8 a.m. EDT from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Ares I-X launch date was announced after a flight test readiness review at Kennedy. During the meeting, senior NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the test and determined the rocket, support systems and procedures are ready for launch.

"I am proud of the work this team has done to ready this test rocket for launch," said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. "This is the first time in more than 30 years that NASA has built a vehicle in a new configuration so this has been a valuable learning experience.

"This test will yield important data to support the nation's next steps in exploration. There is no substitute for hard data - flight testing clarifies the distinction between imagined outcomes and real flight experience."

The 28-mile high, two-minute flight of the Ares I-X, an uncrewed development rocket, will provide NASA with an opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations, while gathering critical data for the Ares I rocket and future launch vehicles.

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NASA / Kim Shiflett

NASA / Kim Shiflett

ARES I-X Update...

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NASA'S ARES I-X ROCKET ARRIVES AT LAUNCH PAD IN FLORIDA (Press Release)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - For the first time in more than a quarter century, a new vehicle is sitting at Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Ares I-X flight test vehicle arrived at the pad atop of a giant crawler-transporter at approximately 7:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

The crawler-transporter left Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at 1:39 a.m., traveling less than 1 mph during the 4.2-mile journey. The rocket was secured on the launch pad at 9:17 a.m.

The vehicle is scheduled to launch at 8 a.m. on Oct. 27. This test flight of the Ares I-X rocket will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, models, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I launch vehicle.

The Ares I rocket is being designed to carry astronauts to space in the Orion crew exploration vehicle. The Ares I-X test flight also will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the vehicle's integrated stack, which includes the Ares I with a simulated upper stage, Orion and launch abort system. Data collected from more than 700 sensors throughout the rocket will begin to confirm the vehicle as a whole is safe and stable in flight before astronauts begin traveling into orbit.

"With the arrival of Ares I-X at the pad, this milestone demonstrates NASA's world-class ability to conceptually design, build and process a new launch vehicle in just under four years," said Bob Ess, mission manager for Ares I-X at Kennedy. "Nearly 2,000 NASA and contractor employees located throughout the United States worked together in an unprecedented fashion, resulting in the new vehicle ready for flight."

During the week before launch, technicians at the pad will perform a variety of electrical and mechanical checks to ready the vehicle for flight, including hydraulic power unit hot fire, steering tests and internal power verifications using flight batteries.

United Space Alliance of Houston is NASA's prime contractor for the ground processing of the Ares I-X rocket.

"Processing for the Ares I-X test flight in parallel with space shuttle operations has been a true challenge involving people and hardware from across the country, and we're very proud of what the team has accomplished," said Mark Nappi, vice president of Launch and Recovery Systems for United Space Alliance.

ATK Space Systems of Magna, Utah, is NASA's prime contractor for the first stage of the rocket.

"The NASA and contractor teamwork displayed over the last four years has been the catalyst that brought us to this important milestone today," said Bob Herman, ATK's vice president of Exploration Systems for Kennedy Space Center Operations. "As the Ares I first stage provider, we are looking forward to receiving invaluable data during the flight test."

At the Flight Test Readiness Review on Oct. 23, mission managers will finalize the launch date and provide the team with a final "go" or "no go" for launch.

Ares I-X is an uncrewed, suborbital development test in a modified Ares I configuration. Ares I-X is the first developmental flight test of the Constellation Program, which includes the Ares I and V rockets, Orion and the Altair lunar lander.

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NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Jack Pfaller


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Jim Grossmann


NASA / Jack Pfaller

FORMULA DRIFT... I attended the racing competition at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale (California) yesterday, and just like the one that I went to in Long Beach last April, this one was awesome. Of course, it might be because there were more crashes or vehicles falling apart during drifting (like losing bumpers, spoilers, etc.) last night than there were at the Formula D six months ago. This is most likely due to the fact cars travel at a much higher speed on the track in Irwindale than the one in Long Beach...since the track at Toyota Speedway is much longer and wider. But that’s just my guess.

LINK: Photos I took at the 2009 Irwindale Formula Drift competition



Like the Long Beach Formula Drift (and 95% of auto shows and cars races elsewhere in U.S.), there were lots of hot girls to take pictures with in-between drifting matches. Of course, did I really need to mention that after posting the three pics above? Anyways, check out this video I made using footage I shot with my Fujifilm still camera. Now if only I had a Canon XL2 camcorder...



PS: This is my 1,000th journal entry!!! Nice.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY... I found the pic below on an online message board yesterday. I disagree with it though... 6-year-old Falcon Heene was supposedly found because he got bored and left his hiding spot inside a cardboard box in the attic. Anne Frank got caught.

Diandra Jay / Long Beach Press-Telegram

LONG BEACH STUDIOS... One of my friends informed me yesterday about a deal being made to turn a former Boeing manufacturing site in Long Beach into a 77-acre movie studio. Being a film school alumnus who went to Cal State Long Beach 5 years ago, I must say that this is awesome news! You know a lot of students who are currently attending CSULB’s film school program will be eager to intern at the studio once it opens...or get a job there once they graduate (well OBVIOUSLY). If it was a choice between working at a movie studio in the LBC and having a job at one in Hollywood (I worked at Paramount Pictures 3 years ago, btw), I’d choose the one in the LBC.

Paramount Pictures is one of the nicest-looking studios you can visit or work at, but the area it’s located in is crap. Sure, Long Beach isn’t exactly the safest city in this state (let alone Los Angeles County), but Hollywood itself is overrated. You can just feel your morals taking a plunge when you’re driving through Tinseltown. I’d elaborate on this, but I don’t wanna. The point of this Blog is to talk about how totally awesome it is to have a film studio being set up only miles away from the school where I studied cinema. I definitely gotta browse online to see if job listings are posted once the studio opens for business. That, and polish my resume.


Click here for more details on this news.

GOOD JOB, ANGELS! You ain’t Boston’s b*tches this year... Next up: New York. F*ckin' Yanks.


AP Photo / Charles Krupa

MORE ON SENT FOREVER... On my way to work yesterday, it dawned on me as to whether or not my message was transmitted by itself on Tuesday morning, or it was combined with the messages of other people (a la Hello From Earth) before being radioed up into space. Logistics-wise, it would make more sense and be more efficient to transmit several messages simultaneously from the Goonhilly Earth Station. But if my message is traveling alone through deep space, then that’s even better for me. I don’t mind... I’ll resist the urge to wax philosophical and say that that’s pretty much the equivalent of me being a lone traveler in the universe. ‘Cause I know that this would sound really lame and pathetic to y'all.

SENT FOREVER... At 8:07 PM, California time yesterday (4:07 AM London time today), a large satellite dish in Cornwall, United Kingdom began transmitting into deep space a signal containing a text message I submitted on Monday morning. The signal was transmitted courtesy of a website known as SentForever.com...which specializes in gathering messages by people and sending them not only up into outer space, but to their loved ones via a mailed "Certificate of Transmission". This is pretty much the cosmic version of sending holiday greeting cards to folks you know.

Unlike the signal that was sent on behalf of the Hello From Earth campaign more than a month ago [this signal has traveled 643 billion miles across space, on its way to exoplanet Gliese581d (which is 20.3 light-years from Earth), since August 27], the Sent Forever transmission has no specific destination it will reach. As stated about a jillion times on the website, the message will travel through the heavens for all of eternity...hence the obvious name, Sent Forever. This bodes well for my Hello From Earth message. The Sent Forever site states that "radio waves will get weaker over time, but be assured that (my) message will travel for an eternity" in space. The radio waves are sent from Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station in the UK. Goonhilly is the site of over 60 communications dishes...making it the largest satellite tracking station in the world before satellite operations ceased there in 2008. The largest dish at Goonhilly is 32 meters (about 105 feet) in diameter, while the NASA Deep Space Network antenna that was used to transmit the Hello From Earth signal from Australia is 70 meters (or 230 feet) in diameter. If a radio signal sent from the much-smaller Goonhilly antenna can travel through the cosmos forever, then the transmission sent by NASA’s dish can also, um...last a very long time.

The difference between Sent Forever and Hello From Earth is that with Sent Forever, you have to PAY to have your message transmitted into the sky. This is because Sent Forever is an actual business that’s been around in the UK since 2007. And since Sent Forever actually has a satellite dish at Goonhilly that is primarily/supposedly modified for the company’s needs, then Sent Forever needs to charge dinero to keep the dish up and running. Also, Sent Forever needs to pay for printing as it mails out certificates to the people who sent messages...which is ironic...considering that I do believe that the point of Sent Forever was to reduce the waste caused by using greeting cards and other paper products, and letting a loved one (God, I hate using that term) know you care about ‘em through a more permanent (and environmentally friendly) method. That’s where a deep space radio signal comes from.

If you want your name and message radioed up into space over and over and over, just keep dishing out—no pun intended--$15.00 (US currency) to Sent Forever. That’s £9.95 if you’re a Brit. Which I’m not. So I’ll just say $15.00. I’ll probably submit another message a few months from now...this time devoted to either Lauren Conrad or Megan Fox. Probably Lauren Conrad. Only kidding. That’s what happens when you don’t have a girlfriend—err, loved one. That is all.

LAST NIGHT, a couple of friends and I saw the horror/comedy flick Zombieland, and it was friggin’ awesome! Woody Harrelson kicks ass...and Emma Stone is hot. Jesse Eisenberg was hilarious, though let’s hope that he doesn’t get typecast in films whose titles end in ‘land’. (His previous film was Adventureland.) The best part of the movie was a scene inside a mansion—where a certain big-name actor/actress makes a totally gut-busting cameo! I’ll give you a hint about who this actor/actress is: This person somewhat regretted being in the Garfield live-action films a few years back. Then again... I think that was too big of a hint. Oh well. Now it’s time to NUT UP OR SHUT UP!

PS: Happy Birthday to me! I turn 30 today.

TRANSFORMERS 3 IS A ‘GO’! The movie will come out in 2011 and not 2012 as rumored...so says Michael Bay on his official website last Thursday. He also has some nice advice for Megan Fox regarding the film shoot for Transformers 3. Unlike Revenge of the Fallen, there’s no excuse for rushing production and postproduction on TF3...since the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild won’t have their panties in a bunch this time around.

I THINK last night was the first time in five years that I was called an asshole and a jerk at work. Me? An ASSHOLE? WHAAAAA?!

HELLO FROM EARTH Update... As of 7 PM California time tonight (12 PM Sydney time on Friday, October 2), it has been four weeks since a radio signal containing 25,880 goodwill text messages—including one by me—(though the Hello From Earth website now lists 25,878 messages on its front page. Odd) was transmitted to the exoplanet Gliese 581d from a giant antenna in Australia. The signal is now 562 billion miles (904 billion kilometers) from Earth.

Even though this radio signal is suppose to last around 10,000 years, I wonder how weak it’s gotten since NASA transmitted the signal from its Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex 35 days ago? Obviously, not very weak. Though there should be some slight background noise in the signal by now... Oh well.