It is time!

I had lunch with dear Barb.  She wanted her summer student to meet me, learn about my career path, and my experiences at my Alma mater.  Barb was doing it all over again with the new girl in town :-) There she was, a tiny petite freshman girl in computer science and aerospace engineering, and Barb was telling her how I got all my degrees from her school.  I felt so old in front of her.  Also, I realized more than before how I did not have an adventurous career path until now that I was considering a couple of new opportunities.  The truth is I never got bored.  The projects and applications varied through out the years and I never stopped learning new things and growing within my position.  Barb reassured me the reason she has to change often is that she cannot "focus" on research and technical work the way I can; Otherwise, she would have loved to stay in one position.  Systems engineering matched her personality better.  Learning about all components and systems of a project and making sure they all work together well.

"Focus"!  Yeah, that is it!  There was a time I could focus.  Focus long and for many hours.  Code and solve problems tirelessly.  Now the right mood has to strike, and the right mood has to last long enough;  At least I still can focus at times;  I have a feeling these days are numbered.  I keep day dreaming, or just dreaming, dreaming big.  It is time for making big things happen and telling others how to make them happen.  I feel it is time for me to be a project manager, a leader, and not just a researcher and executor; Not because this is the time in my career I should do it, but because I feel it in my bones; I feel the energy and the need to do bigger things.  The time is right!

Funny turn of events

Universe has a sense of humor.  I have always had Windows laptop and computers.  I wanted to treat myself to a nice gift. For the first time, I decide to switch and order myself an iPad and then what happens? First, I track the shipment. I see it is coming all the way from China and I recall the article on Apple's labor abuses there. Yes, almost anything these days is made in China, but I really did not like seeing the FedEx tracking system literally showing it was being shipped from there. At least they could have packaged and assembled the parts here or something! Then, before I receive the darn product, the news about them not selling an iPad or iPhone in some cases to Iranian-Americans comes out.  I have not yet received the thing and I already do not want to own it. 

God help with the babies!
p.s. A friend of mine took this picture in New York.

Our invisible celebreties

After a weekly meeting, I came down to the lobby of the building I was at, to grab some lunch.  I am waiting in line, and right behind me is a tall middle aged man.  I thought about how humbly and invisibly he is going about his day.  With a back pack on his shoulder, getting lunch, just like me and so many others who work here.  I thought about if he was a famous singer or actor, how the general public and media would not let him walk a block freely unnoticed, and how he was walking around unnoticed.

I paid for my lunch, and was walking away from cafeteria towards the door;  He was still walking behind me.  I could not let him get away unnoticed.  I kept looking at him with a smile;  He smiled back "How are you doing?", he asked kindly.  "Good!  It is nice to see an astronaut in cafeteria.  Not everyone can say that", I said happily.  "Right here, every day!", he confirmed joyfully.

Dr. Piers Sellers is now back to science full time.  Only if society recognized and appreciated science rock stars!  On a second thought, maybe they are beginning too!

Let's See!

Luck is when opportunity meets preparation. Opportunities are knocking at the door.  I am about to open them, to see new worlds, or rather to look at the same old world, with new eyes.  I am excited.  There are callings, I am going to respond.  Will there be a match? Won't know unless I try.  I choose to try.

Friday night theories!

A stormy Friday night with tornado watches and a runny and congested nose due to I do not know allergy or cold, made me take it easy, become a couch potato, and watch a chick flick, and honestly, I realized how much I had missed it.  Anyways, the movie is the Holiday, and I just liked this conversation:

he: "So, he's a schmuck."
she: "As a matter of fact, he is... a huge schmuck. How did you know?"
 he: "He let you go. This is not a hard one to figure out. Iris, in the movies we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason you are behaving like the best friend."
she: "You're so right. You're supposed to be the leading lady of your own life, for God's sake!"

So true! Only if all girls learned this sooner than later!  Or not!  Maybe behaving like the best friend is our natural evolutionary mechanism of not wanting to be the leading lady of a schmuck!!