Darby's Apartment Photos (Fall 2001)

Darby's Apartment Photos (Fall 2001)

	The 3 flights of stairs I had to climb every day...
	Here's a shot of my living room. Note the network cable slung down from my roommate's room on the second floor down the hall to my room.
	Another shot of the living room.
	The spacious kitchen area.
	Our living room. This is when both of the plants were still alive. Gosh, that was a while back.
	Another shot of the living room showing the fireplace. The only plant to survive our reign of terror is the one on the table by the couch. That's right, it's plastic.
	My room, back when it was clean. Gee, I guess this was probably in September 2001, before Analysis and Models classes really kicked in.
	Another angle of the room. I didn't have time to clean up, but at least I could hang this picture on the wall to remind myself what it was supposed to look like.

Darby's Cave Photos (Fall 2001)

	One of the many, many nights we left the MSE Cave at o'dark-thirty. The MSE Cave is where our cubicles were located on the 4th floor in Wean Hall. O'dark-thirty is that hour, sometime between 3am and 5am, when the MSE students typically finish their homework.
	It's hard to make out, but there are thumb tacks on this map on the hometowns of all the MSE students. One of the best things I got out of this program was a friend from every place marked on this map.
	My MSE Studio team, "the Borg". We were smiling back then. Oh, if we had only known...
	The "server room" of the MSE Cave. To the left is the legendary Dogbert server. In the center is a Sun workstation no one remembers the password to. :P
	The MSE program affords the students the opportunity for an elegant dining experience at La Cueva. Reservations are not necessary, since La Cueva caters to a very exclusive clientelle.
	Darby attempts to absorb the intricate details in a research paper from his Analysis class.
	Ed, waking from a dream about having a life outside of MSE. Constantin, taking great pleasure in waking Ed up to remind him he has homework due the next morning.
	After about a couple of months, MSE students get this look on their face. It's the first step down a long road to insanity. This MSE student has been in his cubicle so long, he is now afraid to leave.
	Constantin pretends like he is doing some work for the camera. How do we know he's not doing any work? Easy. He's smiling! Look at how neat his office is. He's obviously not doing any work!
	Uh, obviously by the looks of his office, Andrew is doing work. If I remember correctly, he's in the process of hurling an expletive at the camera man in this particular scene.
	Darby's office in the MSE cave. Note the "water of life" sitting next to the computer.
	The MSIT-SE computer cluster. This is a general use cluster of Windows machines for the MSIT-SE students. So where are they? They all grabbed cubicles which weren't in use early in the Fall semester.

Darby's NASA Photos (Summer 2002)

The following pictures are from my stay at Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA. Moffett Field is in Mountain View, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Many of these shots are from the air show they had the weekend before I left.

	This is a look down the fuselage of one of the Boeing 747s which NASA uses to transport the shuttle from the landing site at Edwards AFB to Kennedy Space Center. Note the additional vertical stabilizers on the tail. You can also see the support struts where they attached the orbiter to the top of the 747 fuselage.
	Looks like an F-5 to me. Not sure, I didn't think they were two seater. Note the blimp hangar in the background. This hangar is the most prominant landmark at Moffett Field.
	An F/A-18 Hornet NASA chase plane. It's easy to spot, with the twin tails that are slanted outward at an angle. I think the Hornet is a carrier launched Navy fighter.
	An F-15 Eagle. Characteristic twin tails and fixed, swept wings and a single seat cockpit. That's my buddy Kees (pronounced "Case") from the CMU MHCI team walking by looking at the plane like "yeah, I bet I could fly that..."
	An F-16 Fighting Falcon air superiority fighter used by the Air Force. I particularly like the tail ensignia on this one, it's an eagle poised to strike its prey.
	A photo of me standing in front of the Flight Operations center at Moffett Field.
	A photo of my buddy Kees standing beneath the wing of a C-5 Galaxy.
	Here's that same C-5 Galaxy with all the air show tourists walking through it. A great Dennis Miller news item if ever I saw one. "Today, in a radical new move, the State of California attempted to round up and deport all the stupid people in the state. Unfortunately, they couldn't find a plane big enough."
	Here's a lovely shot of the blimp hangar at Moffett Field in the background, and the facilities deployed for the air show in the foreground.
	A P-51 Mustang World War II fighter. One of the fastest fighters of that era, the P-51 was employed in the European theater for bomber escort. The 10 little Nazi ensignias beneath the cockpit indicate 10 air to air kills against Nazi german fighter pilots.
	The same P-51 from a different angle. It's tough to take off in that thing, you have to lean to one side of the cockpit to see the runway. Also, the prop's so damn big, that when it's full throttle, the plane had a tendency to turn to the left on the runway. How do I know? My friend Rob Harris at Ames let me fly one on his X-Plane flight simulator.
	This is an old jeep mounted heavy machine gun. Not sure what type of gun, or jeep for that matter! Another great Dennis Miller news item. "The problem of road rage in California is an escalating crisis and this year's offerings from the major automobile manufacturers aren't helping matters."
	I'm not sure, but I think this is an AT-6 Texan. I actually had to look this one up on the web, I thought it might have been a Grumman fighter at first (Hellcat or Wildcat).
	A closer side view of the F-15 Eagle.
	A look inside the blimp hangar at Moffett Field. They had it open for the air show, with a few NASA exhibits inside about the current missions being pursued at Ames Research Center. I've heard that the blimp hangar is large enough to fit two Titanics inside.
	The air field at Moffett Field is very big. This picture makes that more apparent. The blimp hangar makes the rest of the field look smaller when its in the frame.
	Here's a shot of the preparations for the air show. See what I mean about the blimp hangar?
	Here's a shot of the Nasa Exchange Lodge where I stayed over the summer. Looks really nice, huh? If you look at it from the side, it looks like a Motel 6.
	Here's a shot from the corner of the NASA Exchange Lodge into the parking lot. You can just make out the McDonalds in the background. That's right, Moffett Field has a McDonalds on base! It's gotta be the only McDonalds on the planet that closes at 7pm.
	This is just a random shot of an awesome luxury apartment complex on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale, CA. A far cry from my digs at the NASA Exchange Lodge. Of course, my rent was probably just a little cheaper!
	Here's a shot out the door of my room at the NASA Lodge. The building you are looking at would be the old enlisted barracks from the glory days of Moffett as a naval air station. It's not nearly as upscale as it looks, the sunshine just makes everything seem nicer out there. Oh yeah, the weather was like this every day for the two months I was there.
	Here's a shot of my room at the NASA Lodge. Can you say "we'll leave the light on for ya"? I was expecting Tom Bodet to stop by at any minute. (another Motel 6 reference)
	A U-2 that is on display outside the Visitor's Center at Ames Research Center.
	A 1/3 scale model of the space shuttle orbiter which was used in wind tunnel testing at Ames Research Center. The huge building to the left is the wind tunnel!
	Here you can see (from left) a Hawker-Siddeley Harrier jump jet and an F-104 Starfighter on display outside the Visitor's Center at ARC.
	This futuristic looking little plane is a remote controlled high manueverability test aircraft on display outside the Visitor's Center.
	This big hunk of wood looks like the central section of one of the big wind tunnel fans, with the blades removed.
	This is a shot down the center of Moffett Field. The building in the center of the picture is the new CMU West facility. It was formerly the admirals' offices on base. In the background, you can see the blimp hangar. Yeah, it looks like they run the place, doesn't it?
	Here we are, the Borg team, finishing the final presentation for our Master's project at Ames Research Center.
	Here we are cheezing for the camera, at the end of our final presentation for our Master's project.

Darby's BBQ Photos (Summer 2002)

	Here is the entrance to the MSE Cave. The name plate on the wall actually says "MSE Cave". There should also be a sign over the door that reads "Abandon all sleep, ye who enter here."
	This is the outside of Wean Hall, the home of the School of Computer Science and the MSE Cave. Most MSE students rarely see the building from the outside.
	This is most of the MSE and MSIT-SE students from the 2001-2002 year. How'd we get them to come out of their cave? Easy, free food.
	A piece of barbeque chicken attacks Constantin.
	Boy, those MSE folks sure know how to throw a BBQ. Why are all these MSE people smiling? Because they're almost done!!
	Just in case I needed a flash.
	Everyone crowds around to pounce on the burgers as they come off the grill.
	Master Chef Eduardo oversees the cooking process.
	Constantin, Dave and Georgios. From the looks on their faces, I'd say Dave just told Constantin that they lost his grades, and he has to go through the program again.
	Can you say "Cheezin' for the camera", I think you can.