Wednesday – 10 February 2010

This morning started off with me slamming off the alarm and rolling over and falling back to sleep. (There’s a reason that I keep a secondary alarm set on my cell phone: Some mornings, I’m either really tired and/or lazy. This morning was one of those “tired” mornings. I woke up again at 0658, two minutes before the second alarm would go off. While I pondered whether to get up or to wait for the alarm, a couple of car alarms went off outside the window. I couldn’t tell if it one of them was my car or not, so up I got. By the time I got to the living room, both car alarms had stopped… and the cell phone alarm was starting. *sigh* Hell of a way to kick off Comics and Sushi Wednesday.

Last night, SaraRules fixed lasagna for dinner. Vegetarian lasagna. We had discussed adding a vegetarian meal or two to the week’s meals, so it wasn’t a total surprise… but I wasn’t expecting it last night. More importantly, though, it was good.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s person of note is Dr. Mae Jemison

Mae Carol Jemison is an African American physician and NASA astronaut, born October 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when Jemison was three to take advantage of better educational opportunities there. During her time at Morgan Park High School, she became convinced she wanted to pursue a career in biomedical engineering, and when she graduated in 1973 as a consistent honor student, she entered Stanford University on a National Achievement Scholarship. At Stanford, Jemison pursued a dual major and in 1977 received a B.S. in chemical engineering and a B.A. in African and African-American Studies. Upon graduation, she entered Cornell University Medical College to work toward a medical degree.

After completing her medical internship, Jemison joined the staff of the Peace Corps and served as a Peace Corps Medical Officer from 1983 to 1985 responsible for the health of Peace Corps Volunteers serving in Liberia and Sierra Leone.[10] Jemison’s work in the Peace Corps included supervising the pharmacy, laboratory, medical staff as well as providing medical care, writing self-care manuals, and developing and implementing guidelines for health and safety issues. Jemison also worked with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) helping with research for various vaccines.[13]

Following her return to the United States in 1985, she made a career change and decided to follow a dream she had nurtured for a long time. In October of that year she applied for admission to NASA’s astronaut training program. The Challenger disaster of January 1986 delayed the selection process, but when she reapplied a year later, Jemison was one of the 15 candidates chosen from a field of about 2,000. She became the first woman of recent African ancestry to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.

After leaving the astronaut corps in March 1993, Jemison accepted a teaching fellowship at Dartmouth. She also established the Jemison Group, a company that seeks to research, develop, and market advanced technologies.

Stray Toasters

And now… meeting time.

Namaste.