Texting? Talking? Eating? Reading? Shaving?
I’ve always been fascinated with what people do at stop lights. I’ve written about this in the past.  here. here. here.  We have around 40 seconds in which we have no task but to wait and be ready for the light to turn green.   Fourty seconds isn’t a lot of time, but in a world of instant-everything I set out to see what people are actually doing at stop lights.
My rules:

I only recorded people I was able to see clearly
I only recorded people at stop lights (not stop …

The mirror settled into place gently and the crane was silent for a moment while we torque the restraining plates into place.  I removed the pin from the lifting plate and it moved up and out of sight gently revealing the gold coated JWST Primary Mirror Segment we were loading into the environment shipping container. 
It was the last one.

JWST is a scientific inspiration.  It is the most incredible and complex, optical instrument we can feasibly put into space with the technology we have today.   It will capture the most detailed …

The books we read define much as our mind forms around ideas, investigates theories, and dreams up fantastic worlds to play in.
I read A LOT as a kid, probably every Hardy Boys book ever written (yes even the paperback ones, and the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys combo books).  I read a lot of SciFi (Science Fiction) books with my dad when I was younger, and by myself later on.  They were really formative for me, showing me the dreams and ideas of people throughout our world, and how it related to …

I am standing in a forest watching fireflies.  Each one is a separate note on my consciousness, awakening, coaxing, caressing.  Slowly she brings me to “now” and smiles, as if to say “look how beautiful we are together.”  We are! The forest and I, we are magic in fact.  I remember now.  Thank you.
Synesthesia: mixing of the senses, in this case visual and auditory.
 Imagine your piano is a forest; each note is a firefly dancing in its own cadence.  Individually, they are nothing but a lone spark in the night, …

It hit me I’m here, working on JWST, helping to build the greatest space-based observatory ever created. I know this already, but sometimes among all the test procedures, quality assurance signoffs, spreadsheets, backwards progress, long  days, security lines, I forget.  It is good to remember that I am helping the human race look into the darkness, find inspiration. 
It is one of the grandest quests we have, to understand, inspire, and keep opening up the universe of possibilities.  It keeps our inner wonder alive and thriving, as well as clearly shows …