Yep, that’s me!

Yep, that’s me!

Originally uploaded by Kjirstin.

I found this CD of pictures, finally, and put it up on my Flickr site. I love this particular photo–though when I got it back from being developed, I was somewhat horrified at the time. The sun was setting directly into our eyes, and I’d been quite motion-sick for an hour or more at that point, so it’s no wonder I look quite so strung out.

This was back in the fall of 2003. At the time I was working on a project called OpTech. Six of us lieutenants were corralled by a couple of colonels who wanted to help us facilitate rapid development of applications for the Air Force. To this end, we gathered requirements, brainstormed the best sorts of projects that we could do, and then decided what we were going to do–and actually developed a working prototype.

We ended up developing a laptop that would be able (ideally) to interface with the computers aboard the F-15E, and use existing technology, including map software, wireless technology, and the sensor feeds from the plane in order to create a truly 3-D image of the battlespace for all the pilots in the vicinity (and anyone that they cared to share the image with). Our prototype was fairly primitive, but it worked well enough to gather some attention, and the colonels who worked on it with us were able to gather funding and turned it into a follow-on project that has been metamorphosing into bigger and better things.

But truly, doing this “orientation flight” had to have been the highlight of the whole project. I spent 2 1/2 hours in the plane, and we did all sorts of maneuvers, from terrain-following in the Appalachian mountains (where we buzzed by a couple of mountaintop cows that didn’t look too thrilled) to target practice at their target range. I did admirably through the first hour or so of the flight, while we did lots rolls and turned upside down–but then when we started pulling G’s, my stomach had enough. It was great, though–and I even managed, through my shaky green-faced pallor, to target a couple of our dummy bombs and get them right on target. My pilot was very proud of me. (Though irritated because I kept re-targeting, and he didn’t know when to let them go. Perfectionism at work–well, that and the fact that I didn’t quite know how the system worked . . .)

I’d go again in a second.

The countdown

It’s odd to be in this between-times state. At my regular job, they’re taking responsibilities away from me because I’m not going to be around, for six months, to see them through. And there’s not too much that I can be doing on this end to prepare for it. All right, cancel that. I think that there’s plenty I could be doing–but due to my procrastinating nature, I don’t want to do them. I could get my apartment all squared away (I stopped in the midst of unpacking sometime in April and haven’t managed to get back to it yet), I could work on learning Arabic (but with CDs? with computer software? with a book? and should I buy online or from a bookstore?), and I could call some of the companies with whom I have an account and figure out exactly how I will need to get all this set up. Additionally, I could buy a digital camera since I won’t be able to take my cameraphone with me overseas. I guess I could, but it wouldn’t do me any good to do so! Instead, I remain inert and worry about it. Somehow, I don’t think that is the best policy.

However, I also know that I always work best under pressure. Thus it’s quite likely that I will do better when it gets down to the line. My real problem now is that I have too much time to prepare for it–I need more of a crunch! Well, anyhow, that’s what I’m going to tell myself for now. And maybe, having worked myself up to it, I will feel enough guilt to go unpack and clean up part of my house now. You never know . . . it could happen!