The drive up here to Tallahassee on Sunday was fairly uneventful, save for driving in the outer rain bands of Hurricane Katrina which, much to my surprise and delight, were substantially weaker than I expected. The rain was light, but steady and some wind gusts knocked my car around a bit. Overall, I think everyone here in Florida is very lucky, unfortunately at the expense of Mississippi.

I am all settled in here at Claire and Ashleigh's house where I have a nice guest room to myself, my computer and most of my clothing. As an added bonus, I have been enjoying their fifty-five inch widescreen rear-projection television with high definition. INHD and INHD2 are officially my two new favourite channels, even when the show is not of particular interest.

My new job with the government (herein and thereafter referred to as "The Agency") is going well, so far. I have already started to acclimate to the new environment, policies and procedures while at the same time learning some new things and hopefully proving to be a valuable asset to the organization.

Since giving it a try when it first became available last week, I have fallen in love with the simplicity and power of Google Talk, the new instant message and voice chat client. While not yet available for non-Windows platforms, this thin and resource light tool is great for standard instant messaging plus offers a wonderfully crystal-clear live voice feature. The pure digital quality of the transmission is quite spectacular. My overall fondness for this new application and my ongoing displeasure about the way Trillian runs on my older system has brought the decision that I will use Google Talk primarily. It requires a Google Mail ("gMail") account to use, so if you do not already have one and would like to chat with me, let me know and I will send you the invite to Google Mail and to Google Talk. If you already have Google Talk and would like to chat, my address is — surprise, surprise — mountsutro@gmail.com

And last but most certainly not least, my new Post Office Box is active. Feel free to send me mail, though remember that if you need to ship something using a non-USPS service, DHL is the only organization that will deliver to USPS boxes.

David July
Post Office Box 268
Tallahassee, Florida 32302-0268

Normal message service to my mobile telephone via mobileATmountsutro.org has been restored. Thank you to those who let me know of the issue (Erik and Scott, among others) and to Chris for helping me fix it despite the simpletons at Cingular. I miss AT&T Wireless… but now I digress.

Please remember when sending messages that although you are sending an e-mail, my telephone is a few years old and truncates messages at 108 characters. If you use the above address to send me a message, be sure to get your point across quickly; however, messages are also delivered to my normal e-mail box so I can read longer messages at home.

As I make final preparations to move, I can now comfortably indicate my planned moving times.

First, I will travel with primary living equipment — clothing, bathroom accoutrements and my notebook — to my friend's Claire and Ash where I will stay temporarily as my apartment is readied. I plan to make this leg on Sunday, 28 August 2005 barring any unexpected need that requires my presence in Tallahassee sooner.

Then, after living and working for a few weeks I will travel back to Orlando on Friday, 16 September 2005 and stay the night. On Saturday, 17 September 2005 I will pick-up my U-Haul 6' x 12' Trailer, pack it and begin the trek back to Tallahassee, this time with the gracious assistance of my parents. Once in Tallahassee, we have a hotel room waiting for us where we will quickly crash after eating somewhere on Monroe Street, as the next day's move-in procedure will begin quite early.

Hopefully everything will continue on track as it has been so far and this schedule will hold until implementation. In the meantime, I continue to pack and arrange for services — such as my bank and treasured Post Office Box — to be started or transferred. Oh, and I have a couple of articles I have been meaning to compose. I should have some time to get to that as well.

The quality of my life improved exponentially this morning. It was then that I learned my apartment application had been both received and accepted.

The space — a studio apartment featuring 530 square feet — is located 2.9 miles away from my new office for a total travel time of about five minutes. Additionally, the price on this space is extremely affordable.

According to the leasing office, my apartment will not be available until Thursday, 15 September 2005. While I already have worked out where I am going to stay in the meantime, I had hoped the move-in day would align with a weekend. Regardless, it appears I will be doing the real move that following weekend.

I have not yet seen the space and unfortunately will not be able to until possibly the end of August, but I am confident that it will be nice enough. As an extra precaution, I am paying more per month for a six month lease in the event that this location proves unacceptable.

I can remember the first time I saw the images from a video camera positioned on the external fuel tank during a Space Shuttle launch. It was the first time images like that had been recorded. And I was amazed by its beauty. In subsequent years, new cameras were occasionally added and on-board video equipment captured great images during launch, re-entry and landing.

But in their effort to improve the safety of manned space flight, NASA has been increasing the amount of data they collect during tests and flights. During the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery on Mission STS-114, I was once again floored by viewing images never captured before: the external fuel tank separating from the ship and beginning its fiery and destructive voyage through the atmosphere.

Just this moment while browsing around the NASA website looking for a new desktop wallpaper I discovered the video to end all videos. Yes, not even the images captured during the historic Shuttle repair space walk I feel compare to this.

Have you ever wondered what the ride was like on the back of a solid rocket booster? Well, wonder no more. NASA has video from the left SRB as it propels away from the external fuel tank and falls all the way into the Atlantic ocean. There is creepy audio also, so be sure to turn your speakers up.

This amazing footage starts out slow. Do not get impatient and fast-forward through any of this video! You will see the simultaneous jettisoning of the solid rocket boosters and watch as they tumble down to Earth, falling like the Odyssey from 2010. If you look carefully, you can watch the right SRB as it falls in parallel.

Spinning and falling, the Earth appears to be much farther away than it is, but then when clouds quickly streak by you know the voyage is close to an end. There is a strange flash of light and then blurry images; those are the three parachutes slowing the decent. Then, splash! Bobbing on the surface of the water, the mighty engines come to a rest.