Dancing, sort of
Aug. 25th, 2003 07:17 pmThis morning, I was at a meeting at FAA headquarters in downtown Washington, there to supposedly informally confer with the FAA, Dept. of Defense and Homeland Security (that name... ugh) about plans for a huge middleware layer for distributing and managing all aviation data (including tracking and passenger stuff) in real-time. The small gathering of 8-10 turned into 30... industry (Boeing and MITRE) also turned up, sniffing future large contracts.
Dynamics... FAA wants to run things, because they do air traffic control. But DHS and DoD can trump them, or even take over if they don't like what FAA is doing. Mineta and Rumsfeld's undersecretaries are debating this. And FAA has minimal R&D capability, so needs NASA or DoD to fill any technology gaps. And there were two competing NASA groups. So the agencies flirted, changing partners in a sort of dance... grouping, regrouping, testing each other's depth and skills. And I rebuilt some trust between us and the other NASA group, and was praised for my briefing (I was last on the agenda).
Then... it was lunchtime, so I drove 45 miles out west on I-66 to Warrenton, where I met![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
geekchick's boss, swapped stories about kids with head lice, then geekchick and I went out for a long Chinese lunch. She's definitely lost weight since the last time I saw her... and I get to see her again in only 3 days! (fond, dreamy smile)
Back east to National Airport, and thence here to Houston. I asked for a different car (first one reeked of cigarette smoke) and scored a new white Mustang convertible with leather and a satellite radio. Which was set... to show tunes. Really.
Questions while driving... why would anyone want to stay in a "Drury Inn"? It looks like a typo... For a supposedly conservative, Bible-Belt area, why are there so many seedy-looking "adult" stores and strip clubs along I-45? Seems like one every couple of miles... give me Good Vibes anyday. And Enron Field is now Minute Maid Park, oil to juice.
And after an hour in the wind, my hair reverts to form (reddish ringlets).
Dynamics... FAA wants to run things, because they do air traffic control. But DHS and DoD can trump them, or even take over if they don't like what FAA is doing. Mineta and Rumsfeld's undersecretaries are debating this. And FAA has minimal R&D capability, so needs NASA or DoD to fill any technology gaps. And there were two competing NASA groups. So the agencies flirted, changing partners in a sort of dance... grouping, regrouping, testing each other's depth and skills. And I rebuilt some trust between us and the other NASA group, and was praised for my briefing (I was last on the agenda).
Then... it was lunchtime, so I drove 45 miles out west on I-66 to Warrenton, where I met
geekchick's boss, swapped stories about kids with head lice, then geekchick and I went out for a long Chinese lunch. She's definitely lost weight since the last time I saw her... and I get to see her again in only 3 days! (fond, dreamy smile) Back east to National Airport, and thence here to Houston. I asked for a different car (first one reeked of cigarette smoke) and scored a new white Mustang convertible with leather and a satellite radio. Which was set... to show tunes. Really.
Questions while driving... why would anyone want to stay in a "Drury Inn"? It looks like a typo... For a supposedly conservative, Bible-Belt area, why are there so many seedy-looking "adult" stores and strip clubs along I-45? Seems like one every couple of miles... give me Good Vibes anyday. And Enron Field is now Minute Maid Park, oil to juice.
And after an hour in the wind, my hair reverts to form (reddish ringlets).
