I want!

There is a saying amongst cyclists:

"The optimum number of bicycles to own is the number you currently have, plus one"

This is the Dahon Vitesse D7HG, and I want one!

Why? Well at the moment I live a 25 minute walk from Didcot Parkway station and yet I often find myself catching the train to go and visit friends or nip to the pub in Oxford. I certainly don't fancy leaving any bike I own locked at the station, and in any case I often need my bike at the other end. Taking a full size bike on the train, whilst possible, is also a bit of a pain.

This bike folds down to a size where it will fit happily on a luggage rack so I could take it anywhere, and then it could take me anywhere. Cycle, fold, train, unfold, cycle, hurrah! I wouldn't have to leave it locked up outside either.

I like this particular design because it has a 7-speed hub gearbox, instead of a deraileur, and a plastic chainguard too, so it's less likely to get oil everywhere. Plus... well, I think the design is very neat, from an engineering point of view.

Hmmm. No prizes for guessing where I'm tempted to spend my Christmas money this year!

UK ESA Centre

I heard confirmation today of a piece of news that I've been aware of for a while now through work, but has been looking more and more likely to happen as time has gone on.

The UK is to get an ESA facility, and that facility will be based here on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus near Oxford.


The full story is on the BBC website here.

ESA, the European Space Agency, is Europe's answer to NASA. They currently have facilities in most major European countries, but currently the UK is the major exception. The rumours are that this new facility will specialise in climate science and space robotics, but I haven't heard anything more specific yet.

Depending on exactly what the focus of this facility will be this news may cause me to be faced with a career dilemma. Whilst my work as a mechanical engineer at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is never boring we always seem to miss out on the really really exciting stuff, such as Mars surface rovers, or technology for manned spaceflight. With the next few decades looking pretty interesting with regards to space exploration, with manned missions to the Moon and maybe even Mars on the horizon. I would hate to find myself designing yet another spectrometer or radiometer for yet another Earth observation satellite if the people next door are getting involved with all of that.

I shall keep both of my eyes wide open to see what opportunities this new centre might offer in the way of jobs for a mechanical engineer.

A novel concept

For several years now I have had the outline of a fiction novel taking shape in my head, and I've already put quite a lot of time into laying down the structure, both of the setting and the plot. I want to get it all properly organised before I start with the actual text of the novel.

Yesterday I did a bit of a word count on my BlackMeridian blog and was quite startled to discover that in the two weeks since I started it I have already written about 7,300 words. I don't think that's at all bad considering that it was all written during lunch hours and in the evenings.

3,000-4,000 words per week, in spare time.

My target length for my book would be 60,000-80,000 words, and this would represent a short to medium length novel. This sounds less daunting if I break it down into approximately 20 chapters of, yup you guessed it, 3,000-4,000 words. So if I could write the bulk of my novel the same rate as I have with BlackMeridian I could in theory produce a chapter a week, and have a complete first draft in 6 months!

I really need to get that plan finished I guess.

Space toaster!

Today brings me good news!

I have just heard today that the Chandrayaan-1 X-ray spectrometer (C1XS - pronounced "Kicks") has been successfully activated. This instrument, for which I did a significant proportion of the the design work, is designed to produce a map of the surface composition of the lunar surface and is one of the payloads on the Indian Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft that was in the news recently. I call it the space toaster because it's the same size as a toaster and runs at about the same temperature when all the electronics are switched on.

The door, held down by a pin puller for launch, was released and opened successfully. The detectors, now pointed at the lunar surface, appear to have survived the greater than designed for radiation exposure better than we could have even hoped and are also working well.




Practically this time last year this instrument was pieces of metalwork sat on my desk. A year before that it was just images on my CAD screen. Now it's in orbit around the moon. I love this job!

Apples

I recently heard somebody, I forget who, say that one of life's simple pleasures is tossing an apple up in the air and catching it.

Of course it's easy to be completely skeptical about this and to brand whoever says such a thing a fool, but I really think they're onto something. As I sit now at my desk at work with my lunch in front of me, idly toying with a Granny Smith I just bought from the site coffee shop, I'm able to understand exactly what this wisened individual was talking about.

There's something fundamentally perfect about the size, shape and weight of the average apple. Somehow it isn't quite the same with something else like a tennis or cricket ball. It is such a satisfying feeling to toss an apple in the air and catch it as it falls back down. There's just something about the sensation and even the sound it makes when it falls back into the palm of the hand.

I'd better stop playing with this apple and eat it before I start getting funny looks from people. I think they're delicious too; given the choice I'll take an apple before a chocolate bar any day of the week.

What is a Herveum anyway?

Greetings and welcome to this, my personal blog.

Whilst I expect to be directing most of my current efforts toward my BlackMeridian hypnosis blog, I have also registered this blog because I occasionally have other thoughts that I would like to jot down.

A number of people have asked me why I have adopted Herveum as my gmail address. The short answer is that "HERVEUM" was 7 letters that I or a friend (I forget who exactly) had on a scrabble rack once. I think it's great because it's short, phonetic, and nobody else has it. I can take ownership of this fictional word and make it my own.

My dad has warned that, because the only hits "Herveum" seems to bring up on google seem to be old records kept by the catholic church, using it as my email address may end up in my getting caught up in some kind of Dan Brown narative. Somehow I think I'm willing to take the risk.