Space Elevator Journal

The Right Way to Get to Space

The Story Can Now Be Told

It's been a crazy time and it's just ending.

I got back from SESI and was working on the 60GB. of digital media I got from there and Hofstadter's Law was in full effect. I realised that if I was going to put in the kind of effort it's going to take to present it well (I'm fussy about that - maybe too fussy) then I wanted it to come out on the new web site I'm planning for the Space Elevator Journal (SEJ).

Before I could get anything done on that my life took a left turn. As you may remember, I was working private security so I could work on the SEJ which pays me about $1/month (Canadian no less). Anyway some headhunter found my C.V. on Workopolis (which reveals my dark secret - that I spent 20 years in IT before journalism) and I ended up getting an excellent offer to work doing tech support for a large software company that I could not refuse if I wanted to be able to sleep (without worrying whether my wife Keiko was going to kill me in my bed ;> ).

She's been incredibly supportive while I went to school and worked on various journalistic endeavours including the SEJ. She's returning to university in the fall to start working on a CGA and it's my turn to support her (and I need money to start the new web site) so the timing of the new position was fortuitous.

The crazy part was that the new company wanted me to start right away and I didn't want to leave my former employer in the lurch (responsibility sucks sometimes) so I worked off the 2-week notice while training for the new position. So I had no time off for the better part of a month. This, plus several events in my personal life conspired to keep me away from the keyboard for much too long. (Ancient Chinese Curse: May you live in interesting times)
Anyway, the medium-term plan is get her through school and launched on the new phase of her career so she can keep me in the style to which I'd like to grow accustomed then put journalism back on the front burner. That's not to say the SEJ is dead by any means. I just became my own angel investor and, based on the successful stats the SEJ put up as a blog, the plan is to re-launch it as a full-blown (and hopefully financially viable) web site that grows with the space elevator(s?).

Along with the SESI material there are a couple of big stories in the offing and, just a couple of days ago, an inspired Google search turned up a whole rich vein of material that will refine into some fine articles. In the meantime I will have find time to squeeze out a post or two every week.

Like those annoying announcements say when you're holding on the phone or finding out you're trapped in your plane on the tarmac for a while, your patience is appreciated.

--PB--