La-Jan

Dr. Joe!

By LA-jan - June 16, 2016

We were all invited to Joe's graduation ceremony at UCLA!

I was bummed because I was scheduled to work and didn't have

time to wheel and deal to get it off.

But, our census dropped and I got offered the night off!

So I went!

We had to get up pretty darn early to get out to Westwood in time

to make the seating at 8 am!

The guys were so glad I got the night off so I could

make sure they were up in time!

We were on the road at 7 am in separate cars since I had to

leave early to go to work that night.

With coffee mugs in hand we made our way on clear roads

since it was early Sunday morning!

Woohoo!

Finding our way to the right parking lot and to the right

building on such a large campus

was not easy!

We bumped into the Reeffs who were also

wandering around looking for the way.

Together, we found our way!

After a bit of waiting we found our way to seats.

We saved seats for one proud Mama!

It was really difficult with my camera to zoom in to the stage
so these pictures are not great but it was impressive!
He was hooded by his advisor who was from Germany

A couple graduates gave a pretty humorous speech and a former graduate
gave a very inspirational one.

Very cool, Dr. Joe!

We're all so proud of you!

Matt and Katie are now in town because Katie recently graduated, too, with
her Master's and landed a job in Claremont!
Her dream job!
So proud of her, too!
No sooner did Eileen get one family back in town, than
she lost another though.
Joe landed a sweet post-doc research position
at Stanford!
Not too bad!

He had just flew in Saturday morning and arranged a
wonderful park picnic for everyone
with a little help from his friends Moose and Max!

What a treat!
I took mine with me and had a great dinner that night!
Thanks Joe, Moose and Max!

3 Comments

JPL Tour!

By LA-jan - June 09, 2016

We had a chance to tour JPL today!

Awhile ago, someone from work FB'd about a special tour of JPL.

I missed that tour, but found anyone could get a tour!

So we found a day after school was out for the guys and we all

headed out.

The tour took us on a long walk through the campus

The campus is in the La Canada foothills and is quite beautiful

and very well maintained. It is operated by Cal Tech in Pasadena on about $20 billion
annually, just southwest

of there. The history goes that around 1930, some graduate students of

Cal Tech were working on rockets and kept projecting things into walls

and blowing up sides of buildings on the Cal Tech campus. They became

known as the suicide brigade. The president of the school

was ok with their plans, including their suicidal testing, but decided

to establish the campus of JPL to let them go about their research

without risking the lives of other students and damaging the campus of

Cal Tech. It was then in a no mans land, much hidden in the foothills,

away from all civilization.

The term"rockets" were not well respected at the time, and conjured up

feelings of fictional science more attuned to Buck Rogers

than real respectful research, so it became known as Jet Propulsion,

rather than Rocket Propulsion, and the name stuck.

Some time in the 50's NASA became involved after their start with the military

uses for their rockets and missiles during WW II.

Given the choice, it was a much welcomed move for the scientists!

Now, they tongue in cheek call themselves the bastard stepchild of NASA,

as, when things go wrong, NASA distances themselves from JPL, and when

missions are a success, NASA takes the credit as part of JPL!

We next moved inside to see the clean room where the

projects are built.

No action here as all the research and development is going on now for the next mission.

Right now, they have a mission scheduled to land on Mars on July 4th!

That large shiny object in the top right is the next land rover base ready to be loaded.
The red and black panels are solar panels ready for the next mission.
The room's air is cleaned and recirculated every 10 mins. to keep the dust level down
to 10,000 parts per million. On a good day, at the top of a mountain, the level is 500,000
parts per million. Downtown LA, 100,000 parts! That large metal
room with the open door can keep it down to 1 part, and void
all radio interference to work on sensitive small parts.
The circles around the top of the picture, are all the missions built in this
building.

Next, we headed into their Mission Control.

Here, there are always at least 5 persons to monitor the missions and take in the data.

In the middle of the room on the floor is their logo under glass which they call
"the center of the universe"

We could transfer scenes on the big screens from mission to mission.

Some were in deep space which left in 2011 to Jupiter, the other Mars mission which takes

about 8.5 mos., and there are more here. They are continuously monitored with huge
telescopes in CA, Spain and Australia. The three locations cover the missions
from all sides of the earth so even as we rotate, they can always
be seen.

During a landing, only VIPs are allowed in the viewing room we sat in.

And, wherever we go, we can't help but bump into someone that knows Terry!

As we were leaving the viewing room,

we hear "Terry Pollard!" and their is a friendly face looking for Terry.

He works at JPL and was giving a small group a tour.

He pointed us at a special "thing" that eliminates all dust for work to be

done on high tech instruments.

We were fascinated by what looked like a square "cloud" box that was in the palm

of someone's hand that could be picked up and moved

and it would double it's weight every time it was touched, but remained as light

as a feather.

I had to quick grab a picture as our tour guide was rushing us along!

So cool!

Next, we went into a building with a scale model of the Mars rover on the

current mission.

But first, one of their logos. . .

and the Pulse

and the huge new Rover!

And to show you the sense of humor JPL has,

those holes in the titanium wheels to keep Mars dirt from sticking on
and preventing the rover from gaining traction,
are placed in Morse Code for JPL!

This is the earlier version
with no holes and the wheel got stuck after a build up of Mars dirt
on the wheels.

and the very first rover

the little guy there in the back

What I found interesting that I did not know, was that all the robotics they do
provide the research for NSA's manned missions. They even
sent missions to the moon before manned missions to disprove
that the surface of the moon was not a type of quicksand
that would swallow you up!
That little rover proved that they could send, land,
receive transmission and do scientific studies on Mars.
That provided the proof to fund the further missions that are now
providing the proof that man can go.
Once, the proof is provided and the scientific research completed at JPL,
NASA takes over and sends the manned missions.

Here, a moon rock. . .

So much to see!

this recorder was used on the Galileo-- a tape!

Taylor says this looks like Grandma's radio!

Can you tell they were overwhelmed?

One last look at explorers and science in action!

Ha!
So much fun!

1 Comments

Chef Terence!

By LA-jan - June 05, 2016

We had a big event yesterday!

Terry became Chef Terence!

He graduated after 5 years of braising, blending, boning, chopping,

(not to be confused with mincing),

chiffonading, clarifying, curing, caramelizing,

deglazing, deveining, demi-glacing, dredging,

egg-washing, emulsifying,

filleting, folding, frying,

grating, infusing, julienning,

kneading, macerating, marinading, mashing,

parboiling, paring, peeling and poaching,

reducing, roasting, sauteing, scalding, searing,

seasoning, shredding, sieving, skewering, skinning,

smoking, souvide-ing, steaming, sweating,

tenderizing, trussing, whisking,

and zesting (just to name a few)

He did it!

As a 4.0 graduate!

He was so very nervous early that morning as we arrived

Once on campus, we passed some familiar sights that put him at ease
and some familiar faces greeted him

He remembered his classes when he ran the booth and
helped sell concessions

He fondly looked at the ice sculpture and relived his memories of
ice sculpting with fellow students.

But, the time came to gather with his fellow graduates
and we found a seat as preparations got underway

It was rather inspirational really, all the faculty lined the graduates path

to the stage and greeting them with proud smiles and high 5's!

Such unbridled joy and enthusiasm, shouts of support and

cheer all around. This was no solemn occasion, this was an

event most of these people, these families never dreamed would happen!

And it was a witness to such dreams, such impossible

dreams that were being actualized!

I have heard personal anecdotes from Terry of fellow students

that he came in contact with, that he helped through difficult times

that he gave study tips to, that he helped get out
of tough spots, but I never witnessed any of the struggles

he was so personally involved with.

You could see it on the faces of the families

This woman came with her own frame that declared "I did it! Graduate of 2016!"

She was voted by the faculty as the student speaker.
Her speech was not only a testament to her strength and
fortitude, but to the faculty involvement and support.
She described how, as a child she was labeled "not smart" and a
"trouble maker". She told her parents she saw an 8 foot angel
and her parents thought she was "the chosen one".
Only later, finding herself homeless as a 13 yr old, on a fog of drugs
and struggling with depression , did she later find
out she was schizophrenic. She was helped into a
group home and encouraged to get her GED, never thinking she would make it.
But, she ended up in a college class, only to keep her from losing her housing
and found that she could do it.
She found a mentor in her faculty counselor, her professors
some of which fielded her frantic midnight phone calls
and kept her on track.
She failed out of her registered nursing program only
to be guided back into an LVN program. She made it through,
and now is graduating as an RN.
Really amazing. There are so many stories like that at this technical
college, so many that do not have such happy endings,
but this was a happy, joyous day for these graduates!