So much to do!

Wow this summer is really flying by. My lack of updates should be an indicator that things at work and life in LA are picking up the pace.
Starting with work at JPL. My project is going very well. I have written a tool that reads flight software information and automatically creates command sequences to get some 4500 software parameters. I'm in the process of testing is on the spacecraft testbed now and it's going great. Everyone on the team has been very supportive and it feels really great to be contributing to the EPOXI mission.
Friday the 1st is a big day for my project because I have to have my sequences all tested and reviewed to be sent to the spacecraft around 5:00pm PST. I'm really excited!

Speaking of EPOXI, our spacecraft made the news the past week or so with the Earth-Moon Transit video. http://epoxi.umd.edu/4gallery/Earth-Moon_vid.shtml The activtity lead for these images was Greg Laborde, he has been helping me out with my project as far as sequence developement goes. It was really cool being at JPL and on the EPOXI team when the video got released.

Life at Caltech has been pretty sweet. Did you know that the movie Real Genius is about Caltech? Here is a Link that points out all of the relationships. It was funny watching that movie at Caltech housing, saying "Hey we're there!" There are a lot of really cool people here and the calibur of research is unprecendented compared to anywhere else I have been. One of the EE labs has at least 3 top of the line Scanning Electron Microscopes in it!

Rewinding back a couple weeks I went to Mayhem fest in San Bernardino. I got to see Dragonforce and Disturbed play live and rock the desert. I was able to snap some pretty sweet pictures.

Weekends have been pretty packed with stuff to do. We went to the Huntington gardens last weekend which was a lot like the Getty center but less artsy. My parents and brother came to visit this past Sunday-Tuesday. We had a good time in Hollywood and a great tour of JPL.
This summer I have gone to a different beach every weekend. Zuma beach is my favorite right now.

Huntington beach was also pretty cool. Ruby's diner is at the end of the pier and completely surrounded by the ocean. They had great milkshakes!

The most recent event I ventured to was 6 Flags Magic Mountain! I have never been on a roller coaster before and I got the complete works on Saturday. It was a blast. The newest ride there was called X2 and it was a total thrill, definitely worth the 2.5hr wait in line! For the most part the lines were not too bad and the long ones were worth it. We closed the park at 11:00 with the last Batman ride of the night. I am definitely looking forward to more coaster action in the future!

Today we're off to Mission Buenaventura then Ventura beach. Hoepfully I can make it back to update more often. Twitter definately gets updated frequently.