alexis in the city

my dad is an uber space nerd

before the internet, i had no idea what my dad did. well, that, and i was a kid and just figured my dad had a job that he did somewhere. and what he’s done over the years has always been so complicated, and his titles so long, that i can never remember them for longer than two minutes. the only time it was easy to articulate was when we lived in florida and he launched rockets from cape canaveral. almost anyone living there knew what a titan rocket was, and so i’d say, “y’know the titan rockets? he launches those.” simple enough.

so back to the internet. most of what my dad does - well, the stuff he can talk about - is a). over my head, b). pretty heady and high level and c). not super interesting to me. aside from knowing that he helped built -  and now monitor/run - GPS, i know that he flies around a lot to all kinds of bases, government officials, meetings, seminars, blah…blah…blah.

but when i heard he’d be testifying on space debris before the science and technology committee of the house, i was googling away. the info is on the committee’s site, and i found his nine-page presentation that he gave (but no, i didn’t read it), plus a press release on the subject:

From a national defense perspective, USAF Lt. Gen. Larry James, said, “We need to be able to discriminate between natural and man-made threats. We need to understand the location, status and purpose of these objects, their capabilities, and their owners’ intent. This comprehensive knowledge enables decision-makers to rapidly and effectively select courses of action to ensure our sustained freedom of action and safety in what is clearly a contested environment.”

James continued, “To get there we require more automated, net-centric capabilities to command and control space forces, and networked sensors and information systems that seamlessly share information to more effectively use our current resources.”

yes, yes, very important no doubt. but the story that really takes the cake is my dad said after he was leaving the hearing, someone in a cab drove by, had the driver stop, back up, he rolled down his window and went, YAAAAY air force!  and then my dad’s escort asked him what it felt like to be a rock star.

you may not THINK a degree from the air froce academy in astronautical engineering (yes, a literal rocket scientist), a subsequent masters from MIT, and a career immersed in all things space would elevate you to a fans-screaming-out-of-car-windows status. but you’d (apparently) be wrong.

cross-promotion: eco-friendly pet clothes

i’ve mentioned before that this isn’t the only blog-child i’ve been raising. my other baby goes along with a company i have on the side: an eco-friendly pet clothing company called earth’s best friend. my partner (BFF, former college roommate and business genius michelle) and i have been putting our creative brains together in order to cultivate - and then trying to impart to our seamstress - our next line of products.

we’ve come up with a bunch of sketches and our seamstress has amazing turned them into a couple new proto-types that i would LOVE for you to check out and leave feadback on. before we go into mass production, we’re trying to get as much insight, suggestions, criticism and ideas as possible. so tell us what you think, and we’ll keep you posted on our progress!

can you clone a beagle for ME? and make it well-behaved

scientists in south korea have cloned a beagle puppy - and not just one. the team started with 344 embryos in 20 dogs, and ended up with 11 pregnancies. of those, five puppies are alive now. and here’s the crazy part - they’re not just any cloned puppies. no, no. that’s already been done. they’re transgenic and being used as models for human disease. their DNA has been injected with sea anemone protein which - in a kind of eerie way - makes them glow under UV light. from the article, i didn’t completely understand what makes that important, other than they’ve been engineered with a type of genetic material that isn’t naturally in their make-up.

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a heritage of environmental responsibility

“There is enough for all.
The earth is a generous mother; she will provide in plentiful abundance food for all her children if they will but cultivate her soil in justice and in peace.”
Bourke Coekran, author

“I really wonder what gives us the right to
wreck this poor planet of ours.”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., novelist

i’ve been waiting to conclude my series on faith, stewardship and environmental responsibility, and i thought that earth day would be a perfect time to wrap up. so here is the fourth reason why eco-responsibility is ingrained into my life.

4. i just grew up this way - and i live in san francisco. obviously, it takes a village to raise a child, and a good part of my outlook on environmentalism as stewardship came from my upbringing, and continues to come from my surroundings. growing up with a mom who washed ziploc bags (and no, it wasn’t to save money) and now living in one of the most hippie cities in the country has, i’m willing to admit, skewed my perception of reality a little bit. (you mean not EVERYONE has a pile of rotting fruit compost on their counter?!)

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picture of a mess: why i need a housekeeper

this was our kitchen today. well, to be honest, this is our kitchen - in varying degrees of utter disarray - about 50% of the time. it’s especially pathetic because there are only two of us, we have a dishwasher, and we RARELY ever cook full meals at home. yet somehow we amass a gigantic mess and pile of dishes on a fairly regular basis.

want to know what i blame for this mess? our marriage. and i mean that in the nicest way possible. ryan and i have entered into a marriage of equals. a dissloution of gender roles. a rejection of the idea that you should do something based on how it’s been done in the past, and an adoption of the belief that you should do the things you’re best at, the things you enjoy.

of course, there is a loophole in this system, a loophole that manifests itself in our kitchen each week: there are things no one’s good at, and things that no one enjoys doing. in these instances your best bet is to compromise, barter or learn to live with dog-sized dustbunnies floating across the floor (as i have).

but the there’s still a problem: when it comes to the way we live our life, there are just more important things than sweeping the floor or doing the dishes. work gets in the way, dogs need to be taken to the beach, we go out to dinner, have drinks with friends, visit museums, art shows, and family. ALL these things (and many, many more) are way more important to us than keeping up with chores. (but before you guys get the wrong idea and think i live in a pigsty, let me say that we HAVE worked out a lot of the day-to-day details.)

unfortunately, i DO like a somewhat clean place, which leads me to the conclusion mentioned in the title of this post: i need a housekeeper. i’ve always had this in the (not-so-) back of my mind, but as my kitchen demonstrates, i think i’m coming upon a crucial point here. however - since ryan’s start-up has yet to be profitable, i’ll likely have to wait a little longer. unless any of you would like to donate your housekeeper to me. i’d only need them once, maybe twice a month, tops :-).