Astro-Stars in Our Eyes

My youngest daughter, Steph, is a Houston Astros baseball fanatic. She grew up wanting to be Craig Biggio. She lives and breathes for the game, watches them on her computer, knows the stats by heart.

Two summers ago, she came home for a visit with one purpose in mind — watch the Astros play a 3-game series against the Nats in their new stadium. I’d never been there before, so we headed out for our adventure in southwest DC. We bought our tickets to sit above the Astros bullpen, so she could be close to her boys.

My daughter's fav baseball player ever!

During the game, a man and two boys sat down next to us. One of the boys wore a NASA shirt. I asked where he got his shirt. He pointed to the man next to me and said his dad worked at NASA.

What an amazing coincidence. Of all the seats in the National’s Ballpark, two NASA employees end up sitting together.

I asked his dad where he worked. Houston, he told me. We chatted for a bit before I discovered he was an astronaut. Turns out he’d come to the game to throw out the first pitch. He brought his son and nephew along with him. Really nice guy.

Terry Virts. STS-130 Pilot.

STS-130 Pilot Terry Virts

I share this with you now because he’s up in space right this very minute. He broke the bonds of Earth yesterday on his first flight to space. And how cool is that?!? He’s circling the planet at 17,500 mph while I type.

STS-130 launch. Credit/NASA

Today’s STS-130 Flight Day 2 wake-up call was dedicated to Terry. Great song by Brandon Heath, “Give Me Your Eyes.” Wake-up calls for Space Shuttle missions are chosen by family and friends. The song selection says a great deal about the person, I think.

Mission Control ground-to-space Flight Day 2 audio recording.

I’ll share a few lyrics from “Give Me Your Eyes” by songwriters: Brandon Heath and Jason David Ingram. (The lyrics themselves serve as a wake-up call for service to the forgotten and broken-hearted.)

“Looked down from a broken sky. Traced out by the city lights. My world from a mile high. Best seat in the house tonight. Touched down on the cold black top. Hold on for the sudden stop. Breathe in the familiar shock. Of confusion and chaos.

All those people going somewhere. Why have I never cared?

Chorus: Give me your eyes for just one second. Give me your eyes so I can see. Everything that I keep missing. Give me your love for humanity. Give me your arms for the broken hearted. Ones that are far beyond my reach. Give me your heart for the ones forgotten. Give me your eyes that I can see.”

Great song. Great heart. Great guy. So nice to see the good ones fly.

Oh, sorry, I got caught up in the whole rhythm and rhyme thing.

Getting back to the event that started this whole story. I don’t recall whether the Astros won or lost. Steph can tell you, though. She’ll remember who got what hit. Who scored. How many runs batted in. How many errors.

But she won’t remember which astronaut she talked to. I will. I’ll be able to tell you how many times he flies. How many hours in orbit. What music he likes. And so on.

At least we’re keeping space in the family. Steph has stars in her eyes for Earth-bound Astros. I have stars in my eyes for Astros who leave Earth. Life offers such interesting parallels. Don’t you think?

You can find out more about Terry and the STS-130 crew at NASA.gov.

Ideas on How to Open NASA? Spill!

Are you someone who knows exactly what it takes to make NASA the best agency possible? Do you doodle ideas on cocktail napkins and mail them to a NASA Center? Do you wake up early in the morning to watch Space Shuttle launches (like this morning’s 4:14 a.m. EST STS-130 launch) or stay up all night for mission coverage of Space Station? Do you wish you could wear a NASA badge and sit in a cubicle somewhere in the bureaucratic maze at a NASA installation?

Have we got a job for you!

Get your creative juices flowing. Capture all your ideas. We’re listening. You have until March 19, 2010 to share your ideas with us about how NASA can be more:

1. Transparent,
2. Participatory,
3. Collaborative, and
4. Innovative.

OpenGov NASA idea sharing site

We’ve deployed a cool idea-sharing tool to let you give input, comment on input of others, and vote ideas up or down. Your ideas will feed into NASA’s Open Government Plan. You need an account first, but that’s as simple as adding your e-mail and a password.

Go ahead. Give it a try.

Submit an idea

And if you find any ideas by me in the system, feel free to give them a generous thumbs up!  (I’m just getting started….)

OpenGov/NASA innovation idea

OpenGov/NASA People's Choice Award

“We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” – John Gardner 1965

Let’s tackle those opportunities!

Crosspost on GovLoop and OpenNASA.

SnOMG=X-teroid Invasion!

I’m snowed in. I should be shoveling out. But, I really don’t feel like it. I’m not in the mood to exert the energy required to uncover almost two feet of snow. If I were smart, I’d be shoveling out every couple of inches. Or if I were really smart, I’d move to the British Virgin Islands. Yet, here I sit — a blanket of white falling hard and fast out my windows. No end in sight.

Snowmaggedon. Snowpocalypse. SnOMG!

While I sat here, posting info on tomorrow’s Super Bowl Sunday STS-130 Space Shuttle launch on Facebook, I ran across this X-files-looking Hubble image of a “mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust” that astronomers have never seen before.

Hubble discovers X-teroid

I know this can all be explained-away by science. Here’s what NASA has to say about it: “Hubble shows the main nucleus of P/2010 A2 lies outside its own halo of dust. This has never been seen before in a comet-like object. The nucleus is estimated to be 460 feet in diameter.”

But…what if it really is a spacecraft of some kind?

Ok, let’s stop here. Let me warn you that I have a vivid imagination. …Now, with that said, hear me out.

What if this crazy blizzard is a cover for a planet X-teroid invasion?

Look at the timing. Hubble catches a glimpse of the advance X-ship. Then, the snow storm of the century hits our Nation’s Capitol!

Rather suspect. Wouldn’t you agree?

No? You’re not buying my alien conspiracy theory? I’m crushed. But hey, what a fun SciFy plot. SnOMG=X-teroid Invasion. I’m selling the rights. Who’s buying?

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some of my crazy blizzard shots. Then, I guess I have no excuse left NOT to go shovel my way out.

SnOMG Trees

snOMG snow boat (i.e. hammock)

SnOMG front steps

snOMG is devouring my car

Tootles! A-shoveling I go….

Zombieland, formerly known as Penn Station

The cab driver stopped at the curb and pointed across the street. Penn Station. Our destination. I stepped from the cab. Frigid 16-degree air bit the flesh on my face, as if ravenous hunger drove its aggression. Sharp. Painful. I thought about Steph’s poor ungloved hand. Somewhere on the streets of New York City lay one turquoise glove. We gathered our luggage and dodged oncoming traffic to cross the street.

“Which way, Mom?”

“I have no idea. I’ve never been dropped off here before.” I looked up to see the Madison Square Garden sign overhead. Somewhere inside this structure, our Amtrak train awaited. I lead my daughter into the building.

The moment we stepped beyond the entry, we encountered creatures — humanlike, yet not quite alive. None made eye-contact. Some spat unrecognizable words. They shuffled in slow forward motion, as if on auto-pilot. Male and female, tall and short, dirty and ragged. Everywhere, yet nowhere.

I felt as if we’d entered Zombieland, formerly known as Penn Station.

“Are they allowed to live here?” Steph spoke softly, fearing one of the creatures might awake to our presence.

“I don’t know. Maybe if they keep moving. It’s too cold out there to survive for long.” We kept moving too, quickening our pace.

Steph saw the ticketed passenger lounge area before I did. Humans greeted us. Real, live humans. They stood apart from the zombies — making eye-contact, speaking words we understood, and yes, they smiled. We flashed our tickets and slipped into the safety zone where zombies weren’t allowed. Guilt followed us in.

+++

NYC 42nd Ave.

I’ve been back from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Winter Conference in New York City for several days now. The images from Penn Station still haunt me. I’m overwhelmed by what I saw. I looked up statistics for New York City: 38,000 individuals EACH night use shelters. That number obviously misses all the homeless we saw in Penn Station at 6:00 in the morning. The NYC Department of Homeless Services offers help for those in need, but the problem just seems SO huge.

Sometimes I fixate on issues that I think are problems — like my heater can’t seem to get over 64 degrees in this crazy cold weather. But hey, I have a home to shelter me. I may get frustrated when project I’m working on doesn’t go forward as quickly as I’d like. But, I have a job and a paycheck coming every two weeks. How easy to let all the little things in life bug us. In the grand scheme of life, who really cares if I don’t make it through the traffic light behind the car in front of me?

My trip to Zombieland reminded me: be thankful, count my blessings, help those who can’t help themselves.

Story-Makers Making Stories: Day 2

Libba Bray, best-selling author

Libba Bray, author of the “The Gemma Doyle Trilogy” and award-winning “Going Bovine,” started the morning with humor sharing her thoughts on “Writing as an Extreme Sport.”

Tweet about SCBWI keynote speaker Libba Bray

Here are a few pointers from Libba:

1. Be the giraffe: Don’t jump to the obvious. Dig deeper for the unexpected.
2. Find the cracks. Let the light in: Allow the characters be fully human. Let them have flaws. Allow them to make mistakes – not placing them in harm’s way, but for on the path of painful truth.
3. Stay away from trends: Danger, Will Robinson. Danger!  Don’t stray to far from your story where you can’t hear your characters whisper. No sure thing exists, in the world of writing, except what is deep down in your heart. Make it as true as you possibly can, then dig deeper.
4. First you jump off the cliff, then you build your wings: Take the fear in. Welcome it. It’s your compass. Go ahead. Jump. Experience the terror of the fall. Trust in your work, and wait for the wind to help you soar.

Alvina Ling, Senior Editor, Little Brown

Alvina spoke about Literary Novels. She shared the distinction between commercial and literary.

• Literary fiction: characters focus, description, beauty of the language.
• Commercial fiction: adventure, plot, story gets to the point quickly, less character-driven

“I love meaty tragic books that make me cry, make me think, and offer hope.”

As a literary editor, Alvin is looking for books to fall in love with, savor every word. Literary fiction steeps in relationships, characters, development of internal struggle. Literary fiction is quieter than the commercial fiction; more about the writing, less about the plot. Both should be well-written.

Literary books may not sell well, but hopefully get a good review.

Ben Schrank, Publisher, Razorbill

Ben shared insights on the teen fiction market.

1. Don’t “windmill-write” — too much info to set the stage, where words are thrown to the wind.
2. All stories have been told before. Tell them in new ways.
3. Teen readers need the cafeteria connection — real life issues.
4. Combination of voice and concept important.

“I can almost scratch a manuscript to see if it’s something I’ve never seen before.”

Vampire quote from Ben Schrank @ SCBWI NYC

The real pleasure of being a writer is writing, not publishing:

“If you write a good book, it should find it’s way to the market.”

Authors: it pays to be nice:

• If you behave badly with your writers group, they won’t give you good feedback.
• If you behave badly with your agent, He/she may not pitch to editor.
• If you behave badly with your editor, he/she may not not push book forward to publication. And so on….

Arianne Lewin, Senior Editor, Disney/Hyperion

Arianne shared insights on the YA fantasy market.

What she’s looking for:

• Baseline: quality writing, plot line, character development.
• World-building: Craft fantasy world focused on people and stories. Story must stay personal to the main character.
• Concept: idea must be workable, fit into a logical structure. Characters can’t suddenly discover new powers to solve problems in the plot.
• Rules: Scope out all the rules of the fantasy world. Understand them and how the characters would interact in this new world.

“Fantasy stories can’t be an excuse for the characters to stare at the world and wonder.”

Spaghetti tweet by Arianne Lewin @ SCBWI NYC

Good story-tellers unfold the world without exposition. Find an organic way to introduce information. Start at a pivotal moment in the story, but decide what is the pivotal moment for your character.

Common mistake of new writers: too aggressive with fantasy elements. They cram everything into the story. The dragon saving an elf in vampire land won’t ever work.

The end game: “What are the stakes that create tension for your readers? Make sure your reader can relate to them.”

Craft tweet by Arianne Lewin @ SCBWI NYC

Whew! Another big day. Mary Poppins on Broadway awaits. Tootles.

Story-Makers Making Stories in NYC

Quick highlights from today’s Writers’ Intensive at the 11th Annual Winter Conference for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. For starters, I started the day out at the wrong conference. A man with an accent-other-than-mine asked me if is was a “story-maker,” or so that’s what I thought he said. I followed him to a registration table, only to find out it was the “History-makers’ Conference.” My bad. But, then again, I could’ve been at the right place, but for two pesky letters.

Fiction writers = story-makers. Can you think of a better description?

I finally found the right registration table and the right room, packed wall to wall with writers, editors and agents.

SCBWI Winter Conference, NYC 2010

I’ve attended the NYC Winter Conference several times, but today was my first pre-conference Writers’ Intensive. Intensive is the PERfect title: two, count them, two critique sessions in one day, where we humbled ourselves by reading 500 words of a manuscript aloud  to a group of eight writers and an editor/agent.

We giggled a good deal in our first critique session:

• Francesco Sedita, Vice President and Publisher, Grosset and Dunlap and author of “Miss Popularity,”
• Charlene Allen (New York),
• Genetta Adair (Tennessee),
• Sheralee Hill Inglehart (California),
• Lucia Arno-Bernsen,
• Leah Odze Epstein (New York),
• Sharon Dembro, and
• Stasia Ward Kehow (Washington).

Our second session included the delightful Suzanne Young, author of the Naughty List series, as our guest SCBWI blogger.

• Michelle Nagler, Editorial Director, Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books,
• Christina Jespersen (Denmark),
• Allison Keeton, (Connecticut),
• Janie Makuch, (twittersphere),
• Sandy Opheim,
• Allison Keeton,
• Priya Ardis, and
• Bridget Casey.

I’m so thankful for the opportunity to grow and learn from the editors and authors contributing to our critique sessions. But…critique (of any kind) can feel like ripping off a bandaid. Necessary to move forward, but OUCH, it stings.

The more I learn about the craft of fiction the more I learn that I need to learn.

I’m in an eternal do-loop…or at least that’s how it feels sometimes. That’s why writers’ conferences are so important. We come to hone the craft, and learn about the industry. Oh, and make new friends too.

BTW: Shout out to writer Billy Baldwin, a new buddy from last summer’s Southampton Writers’ Conference. How fun to see him again and hear about how his stories are progressing.

Much more to cram into my brain tomorrow. Yawn. More later.

Keep up to date on what’s happening at the conference on the SCBWI conference blog.

Life Off-Planet Affects Planet-Bound

In a discussion thread on NASA Facebook, several asked:

What do we get out of research that supports humans traveling off this planet, since the rest of us don’t get to tag along for the ride?

I decided to post my thoughts here. This is, by no means, a comprehensive argument for space. Rather, I offer a few brain bubbles on the topic…to get them out of my head, really. So here we go:

Most advancements in science and technology from space are used here on Earth to benefit humans living on this planet.

Take the issue of radiation. The sun bombards this planet every day. Look at the alarming rate of skin cancer. I know it well. I lost my Daddy to it. Outside the thin blue line of protection our atmosphere gives us, radiation is much worse. We protect our Space Station crews as best we can. But they’ve taken extra precautions, lining up water containers against the walls in certain areas to give them more protection.

Going out further in space, humans will endure much greater exposure to radiation. Any anti-radiation measures we create for space travel will find their way to market back on Earth. That’s just the way it works. We invest in the solution. You benefit from the technology.

What about the humans who sign up to go “out there.” Why should anyone on Earth care what happens to them, right? I mean, they applied for the job. They volunteered. So what do we (the planet-bound) get out of their choice?

Astronauts are human science experiments.

Astronaut Scott Kelly tweets about Station Science

Astronauts get poked and prodded, spun around, submerged under water, crushed under g-forces, and suffer bone loss — all in the name of science. Oh yeah, they float weightless too. Well, that’s another grand experiment in itself.

Space pioneers, and their families, endure great danger and discomfort to expand the boundaries of human knowledge. They willingly sacrifice themselves for what we don’t know — to advance the cause, to break the code, to peek under the curtains. If we knew everything we ever needed to know about the Universe in our how-to-live-on-planet-Earth guide book, we wouldn’t need pioneers to go out there and  scout out answers for us.

Space Station experiment: sodium chloride crystal. Credit: NASA

Humans who travel outside the boundaries of Earth teach us about living and working in a hostile environment with constrained resources. Their space ship is a closed–loop, self-contained biosphere — just like Earth.

Our home planet is a self-contained biosphere with finite resources surrounded by hostile environment of space.

220 miles overhead on Space Station: we make our own energy (solar), recycle our waste water, filter our air, and conserve all our resources. Astronauts/cosmonauts use considerably less water and energy per person than the average American. Not by choice really. By necessity. Just like the many citizens of this planet who live without easy access to water or electricity or clean air.

Off-planet living= green living!

We are working to apply these efficiencies back home to help conserve precious water and energy and air on Earth.

And don’t forget this one: unparalleled point of view from SPACE.

We give you a no-borders look at our fragile planet from the outside in.

NASA imagery offers us the big picture view of deforestation, shrunken polar cap, massive weather patterns and more. We help nations address global issues that might not be visible standing on the front porch. Our eyes (cameras and satellites) capture the whole planet for objective analysis.

Earth: the Dark Side of Carbon. Credit: NASA

We can’t solve all the world’s problems, nor is it our charter; however, we push the envelope. The issues we face off this planet are the Earth’s issues, but magnified.

Make no mistake, Earth faces the same issues: as we stretch our limited resources across the globe to meet the needs of the world’s population. I can say this with certainty based on our 50-year history at NASA:

Whatever we learn about humans living outside this planet will be leveraged to make life safer and better here on Earth.

Your life may depend on it.

Two NASA links you may find of interest: NASA technology and the story of the Universe.

Kids and Social Media: What the Buzz?

At the Science Online 2010: Exploring Science on the Web conference in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina this past weekend, I attended a panel session of students from Stacy Baker’s Staten Island Academy Biology class. The panel, Blogging the Future — The Use of Online Media in the Next Generation of Scientists, featured eight students who covered the following topics:

• Salina – data analysis (Video posted by Hilary Maybaum)
• Mike – extremebiology.net/blog (Video posted by Hilary Maybaum)
• Ammar – www.ptable.com (Video posted by posted by Hilary Maybaum)
• Melina – chemtouch iphone app (Video posted by posted by Hilary Maybaum)
• Brooke – Waves iphone app (Video posted by posted by Hilary Maybaum)
• Alex – The Body Pod Game (Video posted by posted by Hilary Maybaum)
• Carl – RPG Games (Video posted by posted by Hilary Maybaum)
• Jack – Jack’s game (Video posted by Hilary Maybaum)

We learned how students use social media tools for homework and daily interaction with classmates and friends. They’re jazzed about anything that involves their friends (interaction) or what friends/others think is cool (the buzz factor).

Salina's Social Media Survey

Their comments about Twitter:

1. Twitter is for adults.
2. What’s the point?

I agree, from their perspective. My daughters don’t use Twitter. They text and Facebook their friends. They tease me about my TWaddiction, and threaten to take my iPhone from me during holidays — TWintervention. I digress….

Here’s how I see it:

Students have an extensive social network already. A well-populated, self-contained social bubble where the latest buzz spreads like a flash fire that consumes all the oxygen. Then they move on to the next buzz. Within their bubble, facebook meets their needs quite well. But, the moment they step out of their social bubble and yearn for the bigger buzz –timely information about what’s going on in the world, job fields or project funding — they may find Twitter useful. Or more likely they’ll leap-frog to the next social media buzz to follow Twitter.

Jack presented the games he created. We were totally blown away.

Jack's bored, so he created his own games.

I piped up from the audience, saying someone needed to hire Jack. I asked Jack if he wanted to come to NASA and be an astronaut. He looked blankly like the words NASA and astronaut meant nothing to him. Someone else from the audience answered for him, “Why would he want to be an astronaut, when he could be a game-developer?”

BTW: Did you know that the #1 career field for college graduates is game design?

Note: I received quite the ribbing about getting shot down by Jack. Oh NASA, we have SO much work to do! (See Jack’s response below.) On the bright side, Salina was thrilled to talk about NASA.

Yay, SPACE-girl power!

Two major takeaways:

1. Students look for apps to help with homework. App developers take note: student’s create your buzz for you — if the app is cool AND meets their needs.
2. Students prefer social interaction over flashy design! If their friends or other students aren’t part of the experience, they won’t engage.

This image and tweet provide the perfect wrap-up:

Photo by @simpleelovlee

Photo comment by @iescience Hilary Maybaum

1/22/10 Update

Jack talks back:

The amazing Jack, The_Dude_Guy, is now on Twitter. He saw this blog and responded. Here is his tweet. Yes, he’s even a diplomat! ‘Gotta LUV Jack! I see a great future ahead for him, whatever career field Jack chooses. He’s absolutely adorable.

Jack explains....

Class insights:

Teacher Stacy Baker posted a blog, Extreme Biology at Science Online, about the students’ experience at the conference — one of many, she promises. Each of the students will blog, as well.

Crosspost on OpenNASA.

What’s YOUR Passion? Why should We Care?

This weekend, I participated in the Science Online 2010 conference at the Research Triangle in North Carolina, at the request of Karen James of the HMS Beagle Project. We connected on Twitter. She works in the UK. I work in DC. We met for the first time in North Carolina. Pretty cool, huh!

Our panel focused on how to get use online resources to share our stories with a broader audience for maximum impact.

Broader Impact Done Right – Karen James, Kevin Zelnio, Miriam Goldstein, Jason Robertshaw, Jeff Ives and me. (Great to meet you all!)

Science Online 2010: Broader Impact Panel

One question at the end of our panel stuck with me. One geneticist commented that missions we shared in our panel — to space and deep sea —  engaged the audience through the drama of adventure. She expressed frustration that her genetics field held less pazazz.

How does an “average” scientist communicate effectively, create new communities around the research?

Great question. I heard it often this weekend at the conference.

But let me ask it differently: is the communication about the subject/research OR about our passion around it? Aren’t we all passionate about something? If something amazing (or awful) happens, don’t we want to share it? Isn’t that what communication is all about?

Meaningful communication = sharing what matters most.

So perhaps the question should be: how to rise above the white noise, the chatter. How can we be heard by those we want to hear what we have to say?

How do we  find, share, engage, and build communities?

First things first. You can’t communicate what you’ve haven’t articulated even to yourself. Let’s figure out what you care about.

What’s your passion-point?

Here’s a little formula that may help:

1. Ask yourself why you do the things you do each day — your research, your writing, your challenges?

• What brought you to this field in the first place?
• What grand world problem awaited you that you wanted to address when you first started down this path (field of study, career path, skills development).
• What wakes you up in the morning that you want to tackle each day?
• What would be success to you if you could push that magic “ah ha” button?

2. Collect all these thoughts and commit them to words on a page — (wiki or paper).

• Write as much as you need.
• Take as long as you need.
• Keep adding points. They don’t have to be coherent.
• Stop only when you have nothing left to say.

3. Let these thoughts rest — a week, at least, once you think you’re finished. (I promise they’ll keep invading your brain, especially in the shower or on the treadmill.)

4. Dare to open your document again after a suitable rest.

• Reread.
• Change.
• Delete.
• Rethink.
• Most importantly, make an outline of what you’ve written.

5. Analyze/evaluate your outline.

• Consolidate points.
• Rank your points from most important to least.
• Put aside all but the number one MOST important thing. (I’m talking about that “thing” keeps you going each and every day EVEN when traffic is horrible, the coffee pot is broken, the plumbing leaks, and the kids are sick.)

5. Congratulations. You’ve identified your passion-point. Yay!! Hurrah!

6. Party over. We have work to do. We need to dissect the passion-point you identified.

• Why is this so important to you? Make a list.
• Why should it be important to me?
• What would happen in this world if you didn’t pursue this one thing you care about?
• Who else cares about this?  
• Who should care about this?
• Who would you like to care?
• Whose lives would be changed by this?
• What happens if no one cares?
• For those who should care, what else do they care about?
• Can you connect your passion with their passion?

7. With these point in mind, write one paragraph about your passion-point — clear, concise, confident. Make sure any reader is left with no doubt as to what this means to you and why we should care.

Whew! You’ve done a great deal of work.

Now that you’ve figured out your passion-point and why others should care, you can begin to reach out and build communities around your passion through social media tools that we discussed in our panel: Broader Impact Done Right. Quick rundown: creative use of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flick, interactive games, etc. As we learned from our students attending the conference, it’s all about the buzz and social interaction.

If you’re a one-man/woman show and have no resources, think about connecting with students/schools to create the buzz and community for you. If you can infect them with your passion, they can help get the word out for you in their way through their connections — which are pretty amazing.

But, you can’t communicate through any of these options if you don’t know what you want to communicate or to whom you want to engage.

If you haven’t figured out your passion-point yet, you’ve got work to do. Either dig deeper, or look around for something new to do — work, home, or school. Is it really worth living another day without something you can get excited about?

Get busy. Find your passion. Once you know, you can share your passion with us. We’re waiting!

Crosspost on GovLoop.

Going Green for Green Sake?

In the mid-1990’s, I traveled to Norway to negotiate NASA’s Sounding Rocket agreement with the Norwegian Space Agency to study Northern lights. (Note: This project nearly caused World War III when the Russians mistook the Black Brant XII, launched from the Andøya Rocket Range, for a U.S. Trident missile.)

NASA Sounding Rockets: Black Brandt XII

In my tiny little hotel on the Norwegian island of Andøya I encountered, for the first time, the ‘green hotel’ concept where guests are offered the opportunity to reuse the towels and sheets to save the environment — saving precious water, reducing energy required to heat the water and power the washers, and preventing spread of pollutants caused by cleaning detergents.

Since that time, the idea spread across the Atlantic. I rarely stay in a hotel that doesn’t offer me the opportunity to reuse my towels and sheets.

For the record, I wholeheartedly support the option of green services at hotels. I feel quite nobel for my contribution to help save the world by using ‘dirty’ towels and sheets. (Ewww. Sounds pretty awful though, doesn’t it?)

My sister Aimee, however, doesn’t think it’s noble at all.

In fact, she refuses. Her rationale: she’s paying full cost for the service.

Why should the hotel save money on water, energy, detergent, AND staff labor at the guest’s expense?

My sister believes hotels reap financial reward from environmental do-gooders. Hotels charge daily rates. Guests willingly opt for less service. Hotels come out ahead. She sees the environment less of a concern to the hotel than the bottom line.

She makes a good point!

In the article, ”‘Green’ hotels juggle conservation with customer service ,” Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin points out a totally different issue — hotels boasting green service without the follow-through. Towels and sheets are changed out each day even when the guest wants to save the planet. I guess I prefer the hotel erring on the side of clean.

Tangent: I once stayed at a very nice hotel only to wake in the middle of the night to the pungent smell of dirty hair (not mine) on the pillowcase. Evidently not all the pillowcases had been changed from the previous guest. That’s a little too green for me.

So how do we get this right? You know, the whole saving-the-world-one-choice-at-a-time thing….

What if hotels offered a discount on hotel rates for green services? 10% off the cost of the room, perhaps?

Guests might be persuaded to sleep on the same sheets a couple of nights in a row…and reuse a towel or two IF they have financial incentive.  Going green to save green (money, I mean). It’s only fair, really. Hotels DO save money. Personally, I’d LOVE a discount on my room.

Or, it could go the other way. If we’re not careful (with our precious water), we may find ourselves facing additional fees for water-based services, like clean towels. Look at all the places around the world where people live daily with water shortages.

Zambia: Mukuni Village Water Supply

But in the places-of-plenty, where I live, sometimes the green (dollar) speaks louder that the green (environment).

A “green discount” might just be the place where water conservation and wallet conservation meet.