Tom Drapeau

My family and I sent my Dad to go see the STS-130 launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor. The germ of the idea came from a day I sat down with the lovely @ShayWade around Christmastime and asked a simple question, “Instead of just buying stuff, what if we enabled a family member to do something they have always wanted to do?”

My Dad is a no nonsense guy who places his family above himself and is one of the most selfless guys I’ve ever known. He would drop everything and help the rest of us out with anything we needed, not asking for anything in return. In fact, his modesty and selflessness make it pretty hard to figure out what to get him for Christmas. My sister and I often say that the ideal gift for Dad is something he really wants, and can’t possibly return.

He loves things that fly. He spends his free time, such as it is, looking at birds and airplanes outside and on the Discovery and History Channels. We have tried tapping into his love for flight before, but he wasn’t too excited about hang gliding or pilot’s lessons. So this time, we thought we would explore a trip for Dad that involved flight without involving him piloting himself.

I have 2 friends in Alex and Gavin who I met through work and will become actors in this story. My wife and I started to consider a trip involving the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), so I instinctively contacted Alex, who lives with his wife near KSC. Alex told me about the different types of activities KSC offers, and Gavin inspired me over lunch talking about his recent shuttle viewing experience. After those conversations, I was locked in. This was it. My Dad was going to see a shuttle launch.

The logistics weren’t very friendly to shuttle launch hopefuls coming in from out of town. Alex and the KSC information desk warned me repeatedly about the likelihood of a scheduled launch being scrubbed and postponed, sometimes for weeks or months. Some of the other KSC offerings, such as the Astronaut Training Experience (ATX) and the Lunch with an Astronaut, seemed like better bets than putting all of our eggs in the shuttle launch basket.

And that was assuming we could even get tickets. There are 2 classes of tickets: obstructed view from the KSC Visitor’s Complex, and unobstructed Causeway view. I counted down the days until the next shuttle launch: STS-130 and the Space Shuttle Endeavor. The plan was always to tell my Dad about this on Christmas, which happened to fall before the tickets went on sale. We decided to go ahead on faith and tell him on Christmas.

“Son of a bitch!” is not something I ever expected to hear from my Dad, who is mellowing with age. And yet, it was the best son of a bitch I’ve ever heard. He was truly excited, and he never gets excited about a present! This was getting good–now it HAD to happen. I dreamed dreams of shuttle launches for the next 2 weeks, waiting for the day the launch view tickets went on sale to the public. On a brisk Wednesday morning, Sharon and I sat faithfully by our terminals, fingers poised on the “Purchase” button… and watched helplessly as the launch view tickets sold out in 2 minutes. All the wind went out of my sails. This couldn’t be.

Enter Alex, stage left. Alex has friends in high places, and with a single stroke got my Dad a Causeway launch ticket and restored my faith in humanity. Without his knowledge, my Dad had gone from not going to going in a matter of one day, and received an invitation packet (courteously requesting his presence at the launch) directly from NASA!

In the midst of my mental celebration, Alex reminded me about the possibility of launch postponements. Sharon and I busied ourselves getting Dad’s flight, hotel and car arranged, and booked him Saturday, Sunday and Monday night for an early morning Sunday launch. We gave him as much time as his wife and job would allow, so now it was up to the fates.

Dad arrived with a look of anticipation, dropping my Mom off to stay with us while he went to fulfill one of his lifelong dreams. The snow held off in our area, we got him off OK and he called from sunny Orlando several hours later, ready to see the last night launch of the NASA Space Shuttle program. The weather appeared to hold, but the launch was postponed due to low cloud cover.

Meanwhile (back at the Hall of Justice), I couldn’t sleep, checking the KSC Twitter feed looking for news about the launch. My Dad, still as optimistic as ever, took a nap and spent Sunday at the Visitor’s Complex. Sunday night the air of anticipation began again, as the postponement put the new launch schedule on for ~4am Monday morning. I fell asleep hoping that the clouds would clear, and woke up at 5:35am to see this picture:

Overjoyed, I text my Dad “Blast off!” and get an immediate call back from a guy who sounded like a kid, so excited to have seen the launch. That moment for me has to rank in the top 5 of my lifetime moments. My Dad has done a lot for me, and I am happy I could do something for him.

He topped off the stay by having lunch with retired astronaut John Fabian and touring the Visitor’s Complex. He got back to our home, spent an afternoon telling us all about it (and showing us photos and souvenirs!) before heading back home to Massachusetts, barely missing another snowstorm.

It was a magical time all around, and even though this was a personal thing, I hope by publishing this that some other son or daughter out there will think to do something nice for their parents. It is worth it. And thanks to everyone who helped make it happen!

Here is a launch video from the Kennedy Space Center YouTube account. Beautiful.

tdrapeau Space Christmas, Dad, KSC, Shuttle, Space, STS-130

A small sector of the internet is abuzz this weekend surrounding @ThatKevinSmith and his being asked to get off a Southwest Airlines flight due to being TFTF (Too Fat To Fly). To hear Kevin’s side of the story, you can check out his Smodcast.

I am not a thin person. I have been thinner at various points in my life, and that is my struggle to deal with. I have not yet been asked to get off a flight for being TFTF, as I fit in the seat, don’t need a seatbelt extender, and can pull down the armrest. Which, incidentally, Kevin can also do.

In response to his blog post/podcast/Tweets, the web has aggregated a delicious array of self righteousness by people posing as thin (Slashdot, PopEater, Consumerist), and I thought I might share my humble opinion on what the airlines might consider.

Instead of publicly outing passengers in front of a seated audience telling them they are too fat, if there are concerns about a passenger’s size, why not have that checked during the check-in/security process? Then it could be a bit more humane.

The argument that people get what they pay for with coach seats falls a bit flat, as I would gladly pay more for a more comfortable flying experience. Looking at flights from JFK-LAX for example, rates fluctuate from $218-$404, with many of the $404 flights being on the same airlines as the $218 flights.

Are there no more comfortable coach seats because people are choosing cheaper flights over comfort? Or are people choosing cheaper flights because there is no more comfort with the more expensive ones? I believe it to be the latter. Even using the popular flight finding services i.e. Travelocity and the like, there isn’t even a place to specify comfort options. I did notice that Virgin America offers not only roomier main cabin seats but a “Main Cabin Select” seat class, which is great, but it isn’t something that is offered across the board with all airlines.

As for the argument that bigger people should just automatically buy 2 seats or upgrade to first class, that adds anywhere from a 100% to 1000% markup to the cost of flying (the Virgin Main Cabin Select looks to be in the 500% markup range). I would think that there should be another option that is a bit more in line with adding a bit extra comfort. A 1000% markup? That’s like telling the guy who’s renting a car from Hertz that since he can’t fit into the Corolla that he has to rent a Lamborghini.

Besides, the rich folk in first class (anyone who would pay that kind of markup for a service *has* to be considered an extravagant spender) don’t want to spend their hard inherited fortunes to be seated next to a commoner, do they? And they are part of the reason that a poor schlub can fly from NYC to LAX for $129.

These are not truly logical arguments being made here. For me this is not a matter of weight, or girth, or coach vs. first class. Its a matter of how bigger people are treated. If people want to stop being childish and have a real discussion about this, my suggestions would be:

1. Have a more private area available in the check-in/security checkpoint process where you can pull people aside and see how they fit in the seat. Give people the options on how to proceed if they don’t. Part of the reason why these situations suck is that they are being treated subjectively–let’s make it objective. If you don’t fit, you don’t fit, and here are your options. (Along those lines, let’s skip the safety brochure reading at the beginning of flights and not allow anyone on the plane who needs assistance figuring out how the seatbelts work.)

2. Offer a more roomier seat selection at 50%-100% markup. No extra services other than a better seat. Allow coach seats to upgrade into it a la business class, minus the macadamia nut cookie.

3. Treat someone like a human for once and not like cattle. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been reminded by flight attendants that they are going out of their way to bring me a glass of water.

I can’t wait to see if the US can finally pull off high-speed train travel. I’d stop flying to areas the train system covers in a heartbeat.

P.S. Looks like Kevin is not the only one to have this sort of situation.

P.P.S. Southwest has issued a reasonable response. That’s nice to see.

P.P.P.S. The Chicago Sun-Times editorializes against Kevin’s position, and the readers let them have it.

tdrapeau Travel Airlines, Kevin Smith, Southwest, TFTF, Travel

As a kid I watched 80’s movies… I loved Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Vacation and Better Off Dead. In high school I watched boy movies like Scarface, Bloodsport and the Godfather. I did take one film class, but wasn’t really focused, and as a result can’t name any of the movies I saw.

Then I fell in love with a film maker in @ShayWade, had a wonderful son KidWonder, and am now a big homebody. About 9 months ago we decided we wanted to watch some good movies, and looked around for some. So there’s many Top 100 lists: the American Film Institute has a 100 years, 100 films list published in 1998, revised in 2007. Its a pretty politically correct list and some people think it sucks. There’s the Netflix Top 100. There’s the IMDB Top 250. We decided we would borrow from each of these lists, and allow ourselves to watch other movies as they came up. Here’s what we’ve seen so far:

Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Murder on the Orient Express, Cool Hand Luke, Lawrence of Arabia, North by Northwest, The Graduate, Gone With the Wind, On the Waterfront, 7 Samurai, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, Dr. Strangelove, The Searchers, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Inglorious Basterds, Shaft, The Mack, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Coffy, Foxy Brown, Apocalypse Now Redux, The Deer Hunter, Dirty Harry, Live and Let Die, Dark Knight, Guys and Dolls, Singin’ in the Rain, Witness, Heathers, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Munich, Slumdog Millionaire, Network, Taken, The Notebook, Sideways, Lost in Translation, Blade Runner, Tyson, Witness, There Will Be Blood, Iron Man, El Mariachi, Desperado, Land of the Lost, Let the Right On In, The Big Sleep, Charade, Born Yesterday, How to Marry a Millionaire, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Big Lebowski, Sunshine Cleaning, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pulp Fiction, Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Yes, a mouthful. So, what do I think about these movies? They are awesome. Pretty much all of them. Every time I think I like one genre over another, I see a new movie and realize that I’m attracted to passionate characters and stories that answer the big questions they pose, not a particular genre. The scenes don’t have to have a chronological order (I love Memento, Pulp Fiction), but the story should fit together at the end. I like twists, and I end up talking to the screen to try to work out how the twist will unfold. I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve seen by Tarantino, Kubrick and Hitchcock.

I find that I normally side with Roger Ebert’s reviews in terms of the emotional impact films have on me, and BTW, if you aren’t following him here and here and you like movies, you should. I’m no movie buff–I’m not the guy you want to talk camera angles and equipment terminology with.

I love the stories, and love to talk movie trivia. I’m fascinated now with just how much control movie studios and agents had on movies in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Thanks to the the IMDB iPhone app (iTunes link), which has an easy to find “Trivia” button, I can read movie gossip 60 years later.

I’m also absolutely loving the Netflix Instant Streaming service. At our house, we use a PS3 and the Netflix instant stream disc and our existing WiFi network and can watch (normally) an uninterrupted, high quality video stream, as well as playing Blu-Ray discs sent to us by Netflix.

I guess that’s it for now. We have a few movies at home right now to choose from: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Spirit, and 300. To all movie buffs out there–what is the one movie we should see?

tdrapeau Movies classics, imdb, Movies, netflix

If you are thinking about being a programmer, pick any interview from this book and read it. If, after reading it, you aren’t excited about programming, then just stop. This is the best book I’ve ever read that gets inside the mind of a great programmer. True greats, the pioneers of computer science and industry achievement.

The interviewer, Peter Siebel, does a remarkable job hanging with these giants of programming. Siebel is able to inject himself to probe when necessary, able to ask a few stock questions without it feeling overly rehearsed, and then get out of the way to let these folks talk.

I learned things about programming that I had previously under appreciated, such as the usefulness of monads and closures. I found the interviewees to be extremely candid, with profound answers to such questions as “do you think programming is a young person’s game” (with a variety of answers) and “do you think of yourself as a craftsman, engineer, scientist or artist?”

A few attitudes shared by most if not all interviewed:

• C++ is not a good choice of language
• There is no silver bullet for debugging or reading code written by others
• Using puzzles in technical interviews is not the best way to determine who to hire
• Don Knuth’s “The Art of Computer Science” is tough to get through (even for Don himself!)
• Get something easy working first before you optimize it

I really enjoyed reading Doug Crockford (of Atari, Lucasfilm, Yahoo and JSON fame) talk about JavaScript. I enjoyed hearing Dan Ingalls (implementer of several versions of Smalltalk) talk about teaching a new programmer by tapping into their inner passions, vs. teaching programming for its own sake. I particularly enjoyed reading the Guy Steele interview. Guy, co-creator of Common Lisp and Scheme, talks about magic and programming (pp360-361):

“I think it’s not an accident that we often use the imagery of magic to describe programming. We speak of computing wizards and we think of things happening by magic or automagically. And I think that’s because being able to get a machine to do what you want is the closest thing we’ve got in technology to adolescent wish-fulfillment.”

Reading this book helped to recreate the magic of programming for me. I would recommend it to any programmer, old or new. You don’t have to read it all straight through either… feel free to pick and choose, without fear of losing context. You can read the introductions to each interview here.

tdrapeau Books Book Review, programming

First off, I’ve been a pretty loyal Apple consumer since 2001. I used the Apple IIC machines in school, Windows then Linux machines through the 90’s, then came back to the light. I’ve purchased a PowerMac, a Mac Pro, 3 iMacs (one for me), several iPods, an iPhone and now an iPhone 3GS. You could say I’ve drunk the Koolaid–I prefer cherry with lots of sugar.

However, the service I’m seeing these days in the Apple retail stores is not what I would call exemplary. I think there are some good eggs in the Genius bar (one guy did a decent job on a HD problem my wife was having), however that goodness is eventually canceled out.

Here are three things I saw today during a trip to my local Apple store that you shouldn’t do when in retail:

1. Have no discernible cash register, then flub the process once someone miraculously finds it: I ended up behind a service customer, then was offered to make my purchase of an iPhone cover while standing in line behind the person, which was then mixed up, and confusion then ensued with it being unclear whether or not I was being double charged. All magically while still being aloof about the process. Note to Apple: Some of us have worked retail before and can manage to charge someone for something without passing out. You are over thinking the problem!

2. Irrational computer advice: I happened to be standing behind someone who advised a woman with a MacBook that to protect her laptop’s HD she shouldn’t move around with the computer while it is on. O RLY? Don’t move around with your laptop on? This was definitely a case that reminded me of CompUSA (R.I.P.), where salesmen would talk about “drive heads” and “platters” of the hard disk so that customers wouldn’t ask any actual questions. Reminds me of the time that I could not get a single person at CompUSA to confirm if they had ANY Linux-compatible modems. Note to Apple: We get it, you are smart. Don’t try make us feel dumb, especially when you are just spewing BS.

3. Making fun of customers: I must have missed the part in retail training where insulting customers makes them buy more product. I saw a sales rep tell a teenage boy that the computer he was considering buying was “for girls”. “Oh yeah”, he said, “I’ve seen a bunch of girls come in and buy this model”. Brilliant.

To sum up: I like Apple products. I like Apple’s online store. I’ve even signed up to be a part of Apple’s iPhone Developer Program (and my wallet is now lighter thanks to that). However, I don’t like your Apple retail stores. Everything costs more, and your “Geniuses” aren’t hitting the bar. Or maybe they should? It might knock them down a peg, closer to earth.

tdrapeau Rant Apple Store, CompUSA, Genius Bar

I love apple picking. It was a yearly tradition growing up in central Massachusetts–picking, drinking of mulled cider, pumpkin carving and merriment. I just had the privilege of living that feeling vicariously through KidWonder last weekend, while visiting family. We went to Doe Orchards in Harvard, MA, my childhood haunt. Here are some pics, and don’t miss the video toward the bottom!

The trees:

The tools:

The catch:

Enjoying the fruits of his labor:

Here is KidWonder in action:

And finally, walking off, stage left, with his Pa:

tdrapeau KidWonder Apple Picking, Doe Orchards, KidWonder, Nostalgia

Its been a while since we attended this event, another gem suggested to us by the Lollipop Moms meetup group. The Great Children’s Read, held at Columbia University, is in its third year and brings together books and celebrities to wow an audience largely 2 to 8 years old.

We wiggled into the crowd of parents, strollers and mayhem just in time to see DJ Lance Rock, emcee of the popular kids program Yo Gabba Gabba, come on stage and lead the crowd in song and dance. KidWonder was a bit weirded out by the crowd, but was very excited to see DJ Lance and his favorite character, Brobee.

After the Gabba set, we waited in line at the signing tent and got some pictures with both, and DJ Lance signed a poster and KidWonder’s Brobee doll. Very exciting.



We stepped out for brunch and came back to hear Peter Yarrow sing Puff the Magic Dragon. His performance seemed geared more to the parents than the kids, and KW was more interested in running underneath a flap in the tarp holding up one of the signing tents than listening to Peter talk about remembering Mary. Peter did bring kids on stage to sing Puff their way, which was nice. Too bad for us, KW started singing it himself… a week afterwards.



After listening to Puff the Magic Dragon, we left for naptime, as did Brobee. Here is KW wishing him a good nap.

tdrapeau KidWonder Brobee, DJ Lance Rock, Great Children's Read, KidWonder, Puff the Magic Dragon, Yo Gabba Gabba

I wanted to share two KidWonder anecdotes before we run out for yet another great kids event (pics to come).

On our way out yesterday to the Mamaroneck Lollipop Fair (MomWonder will post the pics, I keep hogging that privilege), I had to gas up the car. On the back of the front passenger seat is an old purse strap MW uses to rig up her iPhone when KW wants to watch a movie–other times it just sits there, within his reach.

I left the radio on while gassing up the car, and come back to realize he’s holding on to the straps for dear life! I say “What are you doing?” He replies “I’m holding on Dad!” OK, well, alrighty then. I get in the car, and start driving, and he says “Dad!” “I REALLY want to stop holding on!” right as the chorus hits. And then I realize–the song on the radio is the Wilson Phillips “Hold On”. So I say “You can stop holding on”, and he says “No. Can’t”. I turned to another station, and he let go of the strap and breathed a sigh of relief.

While playing at the local playground, KW was chasing a boy twice his size and speed. The boy was running him in circles, with KW desperately trying to catch him. He stops by me, panting, and I say “Buddy, you can’t catch him on foot, he’s too fast. You’ll need to be more strategic than that.” He takes off, races around one more time, and comes back to me. He looks at me and says “OK Daddy, YOU catch him.”

Now THAT’s my son. Alright interwebs, off to the next event.

tdrapeau KidWonder

Great fun was had by KidWonder and I when we visited the local mini-golf course. The proof (be sure to watch the video at the end):

tdrapeau KidWonder KidWonder, Mini-Golf

KidWonder, MomWonder and I had a really nice outing today at the Larchmont Autumn Community Day, which included a blood drive, free food, public safety presentations, and, the pièce de résistance, Truck Day. KW was in heaven (once he got over how big and loud the trucks were), and played on a small tractor, ambulance and a few others before riding in the back of a fire truck. What fun! A few pics of the boy:

Showing off his fireman’s hat:

Driving the ambulance:

After riding the fire engine:

We had some great food (hot dogs and hamburgers), listened to a local band play some tunes (yes, KW and I danced, we like to dance), and I donated a pint of blood for the first time. Great fun was had by all. Big thanks to the Lollipop Moms meetup group for telling us about this great event.

tdrapeau KidWonder KidWonder, Truck Day