The Queen to visit NASA Goddard

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh will visit the Goddard Space Flight Center on Tuesday, May 8. Security will be high, and I am not sure if I will get a chance to get to see the Queen and Duke, but I hope to get the chance. It is not often that the opportunity comes up, especially in the course of your normal job.

The guys over at geeklabel.com (ding) mentioned me on the RavenCon episode of their podcast. Very cool. In case you were wondering, I do find them cool, but sometimes they fixate a little tooooooooo much on things they shouldn't. (Vicar, I am talking to you.) I had a good time talking to them at the con though and look forward to seeing them again at DragonCon. They promised to link to my blog, so THANKS!

Still planning on doing some more RavenCon follow-up. Only 4 days until the end of the semester, so one thing will be over soon. On the other hand, there are a lot of things waiting to fill the time I have been spending on school.

Quick Update, More Soon

I owe you all many many posts. Most predominantly a blow-by-blow follow up of the AWESOME time we had at RavenCon 2007. If you missed it, pleas consider coming to Balitcon 41. It is a bigger convention, lots to do, and it should be a blast.

As for the updates... I have a Final Exam to finish tonight... Homework due on Thursday, and then an in-class final a week from Thursday. I hope to do some more extensive updates over the weekend. I really want to get into the habit of updating this blog several times a week, or even every day as appropriate.

To keep you amused for a little while, I added a "Laura's Life" Calendar to the right hand side of the page. It is deceptively empty. Don't be surprised to see more and more stuff showing up there soon. I am only planning on putting up larger events like trips, etc. But not meetings and other more mundane stuff. You don't want to know how long I have to sit in meetings tomorrow, believe me.

Before I go, if you are in the Metro DC area, I am setting aside May 12 as Game Night at Savage Mill. It may be one of the last times I can go to Game Night before ISU, so I would like to get as many people to come as possible.

Monacan High School

RavenCon 2007 is getting underway and I am already tired. I am about to take a bit of a nap before working on my talk for tomorrow. Mostly that has to do with only getting four hours of sleep last night. The drive down after work, school, dinner, and packing got me to the hotel around 1:00 AM. Once I got everything to the hotel room, I spent an hour and a half sorting through all of the promotional material I brought with me. (6+ boxes worth)

Earlier today I spoke to an astronomy class at Monacan High School. It was so much fun. The students really seemed to enjoy the talk. We discussed careers in space, the James Webb Space Telescope, Private Space Travel and student internships.

They really enjoyed the freebies that I brought. The biggest hit were the temporary Hubble image tattoos. Several girls ran off and put them on right away. The tattoos came in three different styles, and at least one girl put on on each cheek and the other on her forehead.

Welcome to any of you who are reading this after meeting me. I hope you will keep reading and perhaps post a comment.

RavenCon this Weekend

Only 2 days until RavenCon this weekend. I would be excited if I weren't so frazzled. I will be speaking at Monacan High School on Friday. My schedule for the weekend is:

Striking A Balance 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM Saturday
- Government versus Private Exploration of Space

Space News 12:01 PM - 12:50 PM Sunday
- Some cool things going on with NASA and beyond

Koffee Klatch 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM Sunday

Beyond this weekend, I am terrified at the following statistics. So much to do. So little time.

37 days to Balticon
52 days until I leave for Dublin, Ireland
66 days until I ARRIVE in Beijing, China

Summer Fun

Just to prove that I am insane here is my planned schedule between now and September:

April 20-22 RavenCon, Richmond, VA, USA
May 14-15ish Work trip to Houston, TX, USA
May 25-28 Balticon, Baltimore, MD, USA
June 1-3 Book Expo America, New York, NY, USA - Unlikely but the door was opened
June 9-15 Work Trip to Dublin, Ireland
June 15-17 Wingin' It Pool Party trip, Phoenix, AZ, USA - Probably
June 20-21 Visit to Ames Research Center - Probably
June 22- Aug 25 International Space University Summer Session Program in Beijing, China
Aug 30 - Sept 4 Dragon*Con, Atlanta, GA, USA

That is all that is firmly on the schedule for now.... looking at some other things past September. ;)

RavenCon Schedule

Once again this year John and I will be a science panelists at RavenCon. From April 20-22, 2007 we will be in Richmond Virginia having a blast.

I am doing two panels and a Koffe Klatch. I'll be on my own for the two panels, but John and I will be doing the Koffe Klatch together.... kind of a sit around and chat with the science panelists thing. John has one panel.

Here is our schedules:

Laura Burns
Striking A Balance 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM Saturday
- Government versus Private Exploration of Space

Space News 12:01 PM - 12:50 PM Sunday
- Some cool things going on with NASA and beyond

John Cmar
The Once and Flu-ture 2:00 PM - 2:50 PM Saturday
- Something about whether or not we will have a Flu Pandemic

Koffee Klatch 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM Sunday