News-Star Blogs

TGDA Endorses Tribe’s Plan To Tear Down Tecumseh Square
Plans to seek a $175,000 federal grant to tear down the “strip mall” portion of Tecumseh Square and enhance the possibility of acquiring an educational center nearby won the endorsement of the Tecumseh Growth and Development Authority Thursday.

Two representatives of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe — Renee´ Hood and Ken Jones — explained that the tribe is seeking a grant to remove the aging strip shopping center building and tear up its parking lot.

Hood, the tribe’s environmental director, and Jones, its Oklahoma environmental health director, said the tribe is in negotiation with East Central University in Ada and Gordon Cooper Technological Center in Shawnee about a long-term lease on the adjacent newer building where a TG&Y store was once located.

If that happens, the old TG&Y building, which covers more than 50,000 square feet, would become an educational center with both institutions offering programs, they indicated.

Authority members voted unanimously to write a letter supporting the tribe’s grant application but put off a decision on whether to offer financial assistance because that subject wasn’t on the agenda for Thursday night’s meeting. Chairman Phil Hartoon, a former Tecumseh mayor, said the question of whether the authority might make some money available would be placed on the authority’s July 16 agenda.

Jones and Hood said the Absentee Shawnees can accept either cash or in-kind support and probably will ask for city for assistance as well. The said long-range plans are to replace the old strip shopping center with a new retail area.

The authority also dropped its plans to help renovate a restroom in Slick Humphrey Park after Bob Stewart, president of the Tecumseh Chamber of Commerce, outlined more comprehensive plans for park development and City Manager Jim Thompson said the city didn’t need the work done anymore.

In other action at Thursday’s meeting, TG&DA members:

• Interviewed Joe Vorndran, an attorney with Canavan and Associates, about becoming the authority’s lawyer. After Vorndran left, members voted unanimously to offer him the post.

• Voted to pay as much as $10,000 to help the city build a new lift station designed to increase pressure along a relatively new water line that runs west along Hwy. 9. The county has already earmarked $100,000 from its economic development fund for the project. Building the lift station should increase pressure along the line enough to meet fire protection standards and clear the way for final approval of David Qualls’ plans to begin building a new subdivision west of the city.

• Voted to purchase land at 506 and 510 W. Walnut (just west of Tecumseh Middle School) for possible future retail development.

Because of the heat I’ve been watching too much tv. I’ve been well informed about the affair of another pol. I just wonder if I really needed to know about this. We’ve heard about several in the last few weeks. I believe,in this case, his state needed to know because he was deserting his office to see his exotic lady friend.  Maybe it was important to others because he had been mentioned as a possible prez. candidate.

I think he is proud of his girlfriend and of his romantic emails. I don’t think he wants to go back to his family. I think he is just covering both bases just in case. I’m happy he has a strong wife. She will only take so much.

 His emails were vey provocative and I heard one talking head say he should give up his day job and write romance novels.

You can see I’ve been watching the coverage but I’m still rather sick of it. This stuff should stay in the family. 

 I was reading when FDR was prez and never heard of his affair. I never heard of Ike’s affair.I  didn’t know of JFK’s sexual exploits until years after he died. Reporters knew about this stuff but didn’t chase down the story. Maybe this was out of respect for the office. I don’t know. When LBJ was young he thought he was a movie star and wanted to be chummy with the Hollywood crowd but I don’t know how far he took his ambitions.

We just didn’t hear so much of this stuff before, before the tabloid days. I don’t think I need to know about all this stuff. Isn’t anything private anymore? Does the public need to know everything? I’d rather not hear about that old guy who was sending signals with his feet in the toilet stall. I’d like to know just how much should be public information.

Quote of the Day: Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. -Maria Robinson

Hello everyone!

Well, I have been requested to blog about my experiences while I am out here in Houston working at the Johnson Space Center so I’ll be more than happy share with everybody…

First of all, I will be dividing the blog into several sections so all of you can read everything easier. The first one will be a overview of what my job is, the second one will be about RayAnn, the third will be a summary of my past experiences, and the fourth will be my any recent experiences/what I have been doing, the fifth will be any updates that I want to announce, and the last one will be my final thoughts.

For those of you that read the Shawnee News Star a little over two, do you recall a part where it mentioned about two NASA interns from McLoud High School/Gordon Cooper Technology Center in Oklahoma? I’m one of them… Data if you can recall. My work at the Johnson Space Center is very different than what I would normally do. I am working along with another intern from Colorado in Management Services Office for all of the Mission Operations Directorate. The Mission Operations Directorate are the people responsible for the space program at NASA. They are the ones that do the Space Shuttle operations, International Space Station Operations, Mission Control Room operations, space exploration, and things like that. What the intern and I do is assist with IT (Information Technology)/technical support for the vast majority of the Mission Operations Directorate. It is mostly like troubleshooting and we help those who are having computer issues that need to be resolved. My workdays are Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Though my job may not sound much by reading, it is actually very fun. I get to see and meet so many people and neat things that are involved with the space program while I help with any technical issues that are needed. My office is actually in the same building as the Mission Control Rooms so I get to go to that big building every day.

RayAnn’s job is almost completely different than mine. It is a different field than my own. Her building is where all the executives and hotshots at NASA work. She is researching social networking and analyzing it to see how it would benefit the Johnson Space Center. I don’t totally understand some of the things she does, but I got a good idea after talking with her for a while. As of now, it is comparing and contrasting the different social networks and seeing what marketing or information sharing advantages could be implemented. She also researches the disadvantages of networking sites and is looking for ways on how to make it more secure. She says, “My project explores the science, skills, methodologies, and tools of social network analysis. It also looks at ways to utilize social network analysis within a project team or work group to enhance knowledge transfer.” As you can see, what she is doing is more broad than mine. Like most of us, she is doing something new that we have never done before.

There are three of our co-workers in our area that specifically help out with technical support for those in the Mission Control Room areas so they have access. One of them gladly took the other intern I work with including myself in the area where we wouldn’t have access unless one of them was with us on our first week. He first took us to the International Space Station Mission Control Room. We actually went inside where the tourists are not allowed to go. We could see them behind the glass window where people can sit, but we were actually inside. The place is huge. There are big screens at the front with tons of high tech computers in the room with all the controllers behind it. When I checked, the International Space Station was orbiting over Africa. However, that thing was moving across the Earth at an average of around 17,000 miles per hour. How would you like to go that fast? He then took us to the Space Shuttle Mission Control Room. From what I understand, HARDLY ANYBODY is allowed inside there, not even in the backroom with the window and seats where you can watch everything. None of the tourists are allowed there and not even the media is allowed there either from what my co-worker said. It is a special place apparently. It is for the space shuttle after all. Only “high officials or special people” are allowed to sit there and watch. NASA has video cameras in the corners of the big room which take recordings and that those video clips are released to the media for their stories on T.V. Remember the space shuttle Endeavour and how one of it’s mission was scrubbed due to the hydrogen leak? Well, because of that, there was nobody there so we were able to look around even more. I actually sat in the Flight Director’s seat and got a picture. It looked very much like the International Space Station Control Room. After that exciting look around, our co-worker showed us many backrooms where even more of the space operations take place. Mostly, there are a bunch of computers since everything is done via computer now. Another interesting part is that we even got to go to a backroom where the Russians have their operating offices. It was pretty neat, I couldn’t read any of the writings on the wall or even understand what they were saying.

On June 20th, we went to Space Center Houston. It is pretty much like a museum. They have a lot of space stuff to look at such as astronaut figures, Space Shuttle Adventure, Space Shuttle simulators (Not the actual ones), some Star Wars stuff, and even the tours for the Johnson Space Center. There were also plenty of things for the kids to do as well.

On June 27th, we went to Galveston beach. The beach was pretty exciting since I have not been to one in a while. It was RayAnn’s first time seeing the ocean in her life. That was interesting. I enjoy a lot of the scenery and sea shells that were along the shore. Most of the interns actually went swimming on that hot afternoon.

Work has been going great! I am getting very attached to a lot of the people here in Houston. As far as the working goes, I have not been doing anything too difficult lately. I have been helping out with whatever our co-workers need on the computers in our office and other small things. We haven’t been doing a bunch of technical work except only a little bit. There will be more to come next week!

Wednesday July 1st was when all of the INSPIRE interns had a special tour of the NASA facilities in the area. All throughout the tour, there was somebody that met us at our destination and talked to us about the place we were at. We got to check out Saturn 5, which was the rocket that NASA used to blast things off into space. It is a historical piece in space exploration history. Next, we got to check out the Space Environmental Systems Laboratory where they test freeze equipment before shooting it to space in order to see if it will survive. We all got to go to the places where NASA trains the astronauts, Mission Control Room personnel, and where the Space Shuttle/International Space Station Simulators are. When we were done there, everyone went over to the Mission Control Rooms and observed behind the glass windows. It is not the same feeling as actually being inside of it but at least I was there. We went to the place where NASA stores the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, International Space Station Trainers, Constellation/Orion Development mockup, Space Shuttle Trainer, CanadArm II Trainer, and the Russian Soyuz Trainer. In that same area, we saw two robots called the Robonaut and Spidernaut. These robots have the potential for helping the astronauts with space exploration/operations in the near future and have some of the most interesting features that I have seen. Robonaut can either operate by itself or be controlled by another human where it can function just like a human. With the electronics necessary for movement, you can move your arms and head as desired and Robonaut can do the same with good precision. The upper part is human-like and the lower part is more of a rover look. You even have a piece of equipment that you put on your head and you can see what it can see. The Spidernaut is an eight leg robot that obviously looks like a spider. One possible application for it could be operating on the solar panels on the International Space Station without any damages to the panels itself. The theory is that it could help inspect the panels without astronauts having to do the work, therefore saving time. After lunch, we actually went to the Space Foods System Laboratory. This is where NASA does it’s food processing for space. It was pretty interesting since it is different from what everyone else eats down here on Earth. When that was done, we headed over to Ellington Field and checked out the flight training facilities that NASA has over there. We saw a lot of T-38s and 2 modified Gulfstream jets that the Astronauts use for the Space Shuttle Training. I wish I had more time over there since it was the closest place that I would get to aviation probably. Our last stop was at the big pool in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. That is the spot where astronauts do their simulations for their missions/operations. Overall the tour went great. I just wish I had more time in some places, but couldn’t stay there forever.

As you all know, this is the 4th of July weekend! I am off on Friday and all of the interns will be out and about Friday and Saturday. I’ll keep you posted on what will be going on.

FINAL THOUGHTS…

I am really enjoying myself down here and I am liking my job. Hopefully more opportunities arise as time goes on. Thanks for reading!

Do people really think the world is only 6000 years old? Crazy.

I found this on popurls.com.  I couldn’t stop laughing.
Enjoy.