Apologies for Lack of Postage

Lack of postage? Posting? I have postage, since I still haven't the foggiest idea about what to do with them stamps...

The first things to get out of the way: I had a lovely weekend with my parents and my mom's parents, I'm so glad they seemed to have a good time. I'm sorry we didn't have more time and I left this morning kind of freaking out about a presentation for the Duke TIP kids, but I guess that just means we aren't done messing about Brevard yet. Next time we can all watch Dad slide down sliding rock before following him...or not.

Looking Glass Falls

Also I totally need to go back to the spice and tea store, because they had a good selection on curry powders and I wouldn't mind picking up some tea for myself. However, tea for certain siblings birthdays may have to wait until we drag her up here and see for ourselves just what she'd like to try. Assuming she hasn't switched permanently to coffee after her adventures in Europe. Psh.

Furthermore, I'd like to add that I do know specifically where I'll be living next year. Third floor, Gardner hall, UNCA. I know the room, room selection was this morning, and I also changed my password like UNCA requires every 90 days. Which is weird and twisted. Note to self: It's the most recent password (you actually use places) that's in circulation. I wish I could've shown you Highsmith  Student Union or the inside of my dorm when we visited UNCA, family, but that does mean you'll just have to come visit me. Somehow, I have a feeling you'll be more inclined to visit me here than in Alabama... there are better bakeries, for a start.

ALL THAT BEING SAID

My day has started rather strangely. Well, okay, my day has me trying to figure out how I can sell my ideas for the space gallery thus far. I think I'm coming up some decent ideas, but my day isn't the strange one just this second, it's just writing. Yesterday was as well, which is why I started this post yesterday and am continuing to work on it today; a post consisting of "I sat at a desk and worked on a paper here are some extracts" is just a bit less than exciting. I did work on a drawing of my timeline ideas, but I'll post that later.

No, Sean's day is the strange one right now, I just got to witness it. John Sinclair, rock curator and globe trotter, has been abroad since I mentioned him last. It would seem that he ran into a friend in Europe--France, Germany, Switzerland, something like that--who is looking for a mechanically inclined young man to run a factory in China. They'll discuss this more later, once said friend is stateside, but no he isn't kidding how's your Mandarin?

...Yep.

Well, I guess the opportunity for crazy opportunities to appear is partially why we're here--as well as the part where the PARI staff don't have time to do what we're doing, regardless of project, and somebody badly needs to do it.

A proportionally correct blank floor plan

I haven't actually figured out the proportions of the space gallery--until now. When I kind of need to know, so I can start establishing sight lines. Each corner has a door; one to the rock gallery, one to the rock office, one to the hall, one to the multimedia room (which in turn leads to command central). The dimensions are in floor tiles--I didn't really want to take a tape measure in, since it doesn't need to be *that* level of accurate, just something to give me an idea of the proportions of the place. ATS-6 would be about a 2.5 floor tile square. The window is the 12-tile line about halfway down the right side.

A rough idea of what I'm imagining--and it seems to fit fairly well, given that I'm guessing dimensions in terms of floor tiles, and I don't have a place for *everything* just yet--is as follows:

Done in LayOut, a free program for this kind of thing

I'm still not sure if it's even possible for me to design what Steve seems to want. I'm not sure what Steve actually wants, frankly... but this is my best guess right now. I'm still working through iterations of a talk-to-space display and a space shuttle display and an Apollo Soyuz display...the timeline was the most straightforward, and I'd be happy to give anyone who thought it was worthwhile some CAD pictures so that they could build it. I don't think it would be hard--the video screens on the little displays could be connected to cheap DVD players set to loop. The videos would be slightly harder; ideally, I would want the NBC clips from the 1980s, a condensed version of the ATS video I have from the 1970s, and I worked for a while yesterday on condensing the Vital Link documentary I have from the 1960s. Give them all subtitles while you're compositing the clips--it'd take a few days, but probably less than a week, just based on my work yesterday--and you wouldn't need to worry about sound. Maybe stick something quiet and atmospheric in the background, something that wouldn't interfere with the hard-of-hearing.

A neater drawing of the timeline I'm imagining in a simplified drawing of the room.
Still, you get the idea. Also a map we could create for the back wall.

I'm still a little torn about the location of the timeline, though--since most people enter at the back of the room, would it be confusing to have time progressing from left to right? I don't think so, as long as things are boldly labeled. I'm picturing bright colours, the kind you find in the Dorm Decor section at Target: A dark fuchsia, a dark teal, a forest green, those inoffensive shades that still add a pop of colour...and look decent with faded gold, blue, and magenta. (I'm including *all* the colours in the carpet, which are arranged in blocs that follow some layout I can't discern. Presumably it made sense in 1962.)

Oh well. If somebody disapproves of my design choices, they can tell me--although, frankly, since basically anything would be an improvement over what we have currently, I don't think they'll mind very much if my results are less than perfect. I just hope they take any of my suggestions at all and I'm not barking up the wrong tree.