Ad Astra:

That’s the first thing I wanted to say on my new weblog. Yeah, I know, the only people reading this right now are either my friends who I told to check out my blog ever so surreptitiously through instant messenger conversation or those who have accidentally stumbled across my little piece of the internet and are most likely wondering why they’re still here. Whatever the case, I’m glad you’re taking the time to read this rambling of mine. Since this is my first post, I’m very tempted to just go all-out and start writing about anything and everything that I have stumbled upon in the past few days. I will, however, refrain from doing so. I intentionally started this blog today, being the first day of the new year, so as to set up a boundary for myself, otherwise this post would be ten screens long and I highly doubt any of you would finish (or start for that matter). So with that in mind now, I want to welcome you to my blog and hope you will find reason to return.

Before I officially begin my post, however, I’d like to give credit where credit is due. Although I have been somewhat against weblogs (as I always saw it as a crude attempt at web design), I have found one blog in particular that has shifted my perspective. My new friend, David, has been posting his remarks, opinions, and insights on the world of technology through his blog, My Piece of the Inter(.)net, since October of 2007. Upon reading his blog, I became inspired by the capabilities a blog could hold. All this time I have come across so many discoveries, articles, software, etc. and just wanted to share it with those who shared the same interests and passions as I do. Now through this blog, I hope to do just that. So I invite you to share with me now my dream, my passion, and my life. Ad astra — to the stars!

In the desire to constrain myself from writing a novel as my first blog post, I think it’s best just to mention something fascinating or compelling for each of the topics you will come across in my future posts. Well let’s start off with the aerospace, shall we? An article on Discovery News was recently released about the first commerical spaceport getting the green light. I must admit that I almost let out a small yelp at the sight of the title. My aerospace interests lie in getting people to space and expanding our currently earth-bounded community. This is such a fantastic start in that direction and I find myself just wanting to leap into this project. But I know I’ll have my time soon, and for now I will just have to admire these achievements from my dorm room.

On the computer science end, I just now decided to take advantage of Microsoft’s DreamSpark program and got myself nearly $2000 in Microsoft software absolutely free, including Visual Studio 2008 Professional and Expression. How wonderful it is of Microsoft to give away their professional-level developer tools to students in the hopes of inspiring and creating the next generation of avid developers. I applaud you, Microsoft. Hopefully I’ll be able to play around with this stuff before the semester starts.

And finally, I give further kudos to Microsoft for not only winning a spot as my computer topic but also as the astronomy topic. Yesterday when I posted my message of Year-of-Astronomy-anticipation as my Facebook status, my friend, David, commented on it, directing me to the WorldWide Telescope software created by Microsoft Research. The capabilities of this visualization software environment are beyond words. I literally spent a good two hours this morning (and I’m talking around three o’clock this morning) messing around with the numerous features, flying from Jupiter to the Ring Nebula as well as scanning the Apollo 12 landing site and zooming in over the Vallis Marineris of Mars. I find the most fascinating part, however, to be the guided tours which range from traveling the Earth at night to a broad journey of the Universe. I am still in awe over what the normal, everyday person can obtain with today’s technology, and this is why I am so passionate about blending the benefits of technology and the beauty of astronomy together.

Well I think that’ll do for now. I hope I have not scared you off with such a long post, but do understand that being the first post and all advocates a lot of things to be said. The next one will be shorter and more concise, I promise. But until then, a happy new year to all! :-)