Saturday, March 31, 2007

Shipping

Well got most of one item done off of the to-do list. For anyone that has never done it, just so you know, international shipping sux. Even if its just to Canada. First you are supposed to list everything in the box, in detail. This is very hard, especially given that you only have five lines to list items on. Try listing the contents of a tool bag in five lines. Also when you are shipping tools you need packing filler. I had this bright idea to use some of my less safety critical clothing items for this purpose. Good thought, but you have to list those on the forms as well.

Well my tools now belong to UPS, hopefully they will make it to Grant (our volunteer shipping coordinator from MS Canada, he is the Vice President actually) in Ottawa. He will be organizing the trans-shipment to Resolute. Thanks Grant!
-fingers crossed-

Friday, March 30, 2007

To-Do

Since I need to post more often, I think I'll use this for some personal organization. For those interested this is what I'm working on right now for the mission. In order of overdue-ness:
  • Shipping my hand tools and a few crew supplies to Ottawa for staging to Resolute.
  • Ordering engineering supplies for the advance team (myself and Paul Graham who will arrive in Resolute on 12 April) and the crew.
  • Data storage system design and implementation(10-20 drive SATA Raid array and backup system, in a decidedly, how should I put this, custom configuration).
If any of the crew are reading this, what have I forgotten? Yes, packing my personal gear! Oh, and I think I forgot to mention here that my dentist found a small problem in my pre-mission exam. That necessitated a bit of oral surgery yesterday. If you look closely now I look like a real Canadian hockey player. Here is a pic in smiley form - :-:

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Officiality

Just so there is no confusion this is my official mission blog.

For purposes of fundraising The Mars Society has set up an additional blog for the FMARS crew. I will post there as well, so that hopefully we can recoup some of the cost of this mission. Right now all personal gear is at the crewmember's own expense. If by some chance you have a boatload of change you would like to donate, just boogie on over to my bio page on the FMARS site.