SpaceX

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Jonny
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Sunday Shares | 31MAY2020

What an amazing week for space! I’ll get there, but be forewarned: this post is media-heavy. 😬

Production

Another week focused on training, but I have done some more drawing. Excited to post to DeviantArt soon! I’ve been working on a few essays to share with you, too. Soon. I promise!

Consumption

Read

Article: New Thoughts on Sex, Vulnerability, and Spirituality After Four Years of Marriage | Instrument of Mercy

I’ve been reading more of Joe’s articles, and he’s such a fantastic writer. He articulates himself so clearly and has, in my opinion, very original ideas. I wish I could be friends with the guy. Maybe I’ll randomly bump into him in Colorado 🤷🏼‍♂️

Comic: Dangerous Fields | XKCD

Watch

Video: Launch Recap: NASA and SpaceX fly Astronauts to the Space Station | NASA (YouTube)

Holy Hannah. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the SpaceX launch, we’ve gotta work on your priorities. Shalene and I both got teary-eyed watching. What an incredible experience!

Here are some of our fun Space Party pictures:

Listen

My end-game is astronaut. A friend asked this weekend what my pre-launch song, during launch, and post-launch songs would be. Well here you have it:

Pre-launch: “The Avengers ” by Alan Silvestri (Spotify | YouTube)

Tony Stark has always been my inspiration, and there’s nothing like the Iron Man and Avengers soundtracks to get me amped. I listen to three superhero soundtrack songs before big events like PT tests or when I interviewed for Blue Origin. I love the top YouTube comment—“Ladies and Gentlemen, please rise for our national anthem”.

Ascent: “Sonne” by Rammstein (Spotify | YouTube)
It does feel slightly sacreligious to be playing a German song as an American astronaut, but let’s chalk it up to cultural exchange. Sonne is the German word for “sun,” and if you look at the translation, it’s very relevant. I would’ve picked this song even if it wasn’t about our star, though. It’s one of the songs that I love working out to. Also, fair warning, the music video is really peculiar in true Rammstein fashion.

Space: “Firework” by Katy Perry (Spotify | YouTube)

It’s not a perfect fit, but I can’t go wrong with KP. A close second was “This is How We Do,” but that felt too…selfish for a moment I’d be sharing with the rest of the world. “Firework” is more of a celebratory song, and it brings up a lot of old memories. I could’ve gone with something more spot-on like “E.T.” or something with a more on-the-point message like “Daisies” or “Rise,” but this one fit for reasons I can’t articulate other than it feeling right.

Podcast: SpaceX | Acquired (Apple Podcasts | Spotify)

Ben and David knock another out of the park. They go into amazing detail on how SpaceX has made it through its ups and downs and what their future business model will look like.

Learn

Concept: Cunningham’s Law

The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.

Concept: h/t – hat tip

It may be simple, but I never knew “h/t” stood for “hat tip” and is used to acknowledge who referred you to something you’re sharing. Great example:

Ponder

Idea: Illustrating Equality VS Equity | Interaction Institute for Social Change

We discussed the following in my Officer training, and it wasn’t even in reference to what’s happening with our current riots. Worth some thought:

Quote: 

(Feel free to download and/or share)

As I am slowly refining this newsletter, I’d love feedback on the format and content. Reach out in the comments or via Twitter (@JonnyMHenderson).

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Jonny
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Sunday Shares | 24MAY2020

This week I finally started flight school! Looking forward to getting going. It went zero-to-sixty in no time at all! 😅

I came across the idea of a “production vs. consumption ratio” this week. While I’m not entirely sure production should be larger than consumption, I think that tying consumption to production is a necessary framework so that action is affiliated with learning. So I want to try emphasizing production each week. It’s a new idea to me, so cut me some slack, but from now on, I want to focus on what I’ve made to share with you each week.

Production

Website

  • I finally made my website secure! It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here. Note: This Sunday Shares is rolling out on Monday because the website was giving me grief…
  • My Book Notes page is up and running again after some issues. I’ve fixed the page and added a new book to it (mentioned below).

Consumption

Read

Article: Mission Specialist One by Melvin Leavitt

This article is about Don Lind, a Latter-day Saint astronaut, speaking about his experience. It’s sprinkled with spirituality, but his journey is truly incredible. For one, he was on the next Apollo mission to the moon before NASA canceled it. Man, can you even imagine? Wild.

Book: Inside the President’s Helicopter by LTC Gene T. Boyer and Jackie Boor

This is one of the most interesting books I’ve read lately. Back when the Army and the Marines shared the duty of flying for the President, pilot LTC Gene Boyer served under several administrations (LBJ, Nixon, and Ford). It was both a motivating book as a flight school student and a unique take on former presidents. Visit my Book Notes page for more details and quotes.

Watch

Video: How Easy Is It To Program a KAISU Welding Robot? (YouTube)

My buddy’s the handsome blonde speaking throughout the video 😘 Their company is rad! They specialize in robots, but they also whipped up a new ventilator unaffected by supply chain issues on short notice.

Video: SpaceX Returns Americans to the ISS on Wednesday!

Sure, we’ve had Americans traveling to and from the International Space Station regularly since the Space Shuttle retired, but the reason this is a big deal is that we’ve been buying seats on the Russian Soyuz rocket. An American company—SpaceX—is flying private astronauts to the ISS on Wednesday, and you should tune in! This is going to be truly amazing. Watch it live on Wednesday on SpaceX’s launch site (no pun intended) at 4:33 PM Eastern.

Listen

I’ve expanded a bit to broaden my taste in music. I’m looking to feature a new artist each week so that I go searching for new music each week rather than just waiting for my favorite artists to release new songs.

Song: “Power” by Ellie Goulding (Spotify | YouTube)

Every once in awhile, I’ll come across a song that I can listen to on repeat for seemingly forever. I’m then able to add it to my Mindless Study playlist, which is unique in that I normally can’t study to words with lyrics. After a while, though, certain songs fade into the background. This one’s now on that list, and I’ve been loving it!

Artist: I See Stars (Spotify | YouTube)

Per Thomas Frank’s (@TomFrankly) recommendation, I finally checked out I See Stars. They didn’t disappoint! I love electronic-y metal and rock (Breathe Carolina, for example), so this fits into my routine music selection nicely. Their album, Treehouse (Spotify), is what I’ve been enjoying.

Podcast: Superspreaders | Pandemic Economics (Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher)

This is one of the most insightful, data-driven discussions on how to open the economy I’ve heard. They utilize cell phone data and in-store observations to categorize both industries and specific businesses based on the likelihood of spreading the virus.

Tool

I came across Bookcision through an article by The Digital Reader. I was looking for a way to export my Kindle notes to archive in Evernote and post to the Book Notes page on my site. It highlights how terrible Amazon is at UI/UX.

This wasn’t initially an issue for me, but I recently listened to Maria Popova’s interview with Tim Ferriss where she laments:

Honestly, I feel that problem has not been solved at all in any kind of practical way. So, the way that I do it is basically a bunch of hacks using existing technologies. Perhaps, I’m just unaware, but I don’t think there’s anybody designing tools today for people who do serious heavy reading. There just isn’t anything that I know.

So, what I do is I highlight in the Kindle app in the iPad, and then
Amazon has this function that you can, basically, see your Kindle
notes and highlights on the desktop or on your computer. I go to
those. I copy them from that page, and I paste them into an
Evernote file to have all of my notes in a specific book in one
place.

Sometimes, I would also take a screen grab of a specific iPad
Kindle page with my highlighted passage, and then email that
screen grab into my Evernote email because Evernote has, as you
know, optical character recognition. So, when I search within it,
Copyright © 2007–2018 Tim Ferriss. All Rights Reserved.
it’s also gonna search the text in that image. I don’t have to wait
until I finish the book and explore all my notes.

Also, the formatting is kind of shitty on the Kindle notes on the
desktop where you can see all your notes. So, if you copy them,
they paste them to Evernote with this really weird formatting. So,
it tabulates each next notes indented to the right. So, it’s cascading,
the long cascading thing that shifts more and more to the right of
the page and move down.

Ponder

Idea: Will we move away from a salary tied to cost of living, now that so many companies are going remote?

Quote: 

(Feel free to download and/or share)

As I am slowly refining this newsletter, I’d love feedback on the format and content. Reach out in the comments or via Twitter (@JonnyMHenderson).

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Jonny
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Stocks for Birthday, Charity, SpaceX, Gmail, and AI

Stocks for Birthdays

I recently had a birthday, and although my love language is definitely gifts, I’ve started to lose interest in “things”. I’m not by any means minimalist, but I can’t think of any must-haves right now. Instead, I think it’d be sweet if I could continue to build my stock portfolio. I use the app, Robinhood, and while you can’t gift/transfer stocks yet, I’d just put that money towards an investment rather than belongings. And ultimately, if I were to lose that $5-10 stock, it would’ve been free money for me, and the value gained is a lesson learned.

Falcon Heavy

First off, if you don’t follow Elon Musk on social media, what are you even doing using those platforms? He took his futurist company, SpaceX, to the next level with the launch of his Falcon Heavy rocket—the most powerful non-government rocket ever. And he launched his Tesla Roadster playing David Bowie’s “Spaceman” to Mars. Yes, literally hoping to end up in the orbit of the Red Planet. The man is a marketing genius.

You can also track where the Roadster is here.

The Planetary Society

Amazon has this cool thing where if you bookmark smile.amazon.com, they will personally donate to a charity of your choice! I set mine up to donate to The Planetary Society. Founded by Carl Sagan and currently run by Bill Nye, I’m excited to move the work forward in my own way!

P.S. I stumbled across Charity Navigator which helps you compare charities against one another to decide on how you’d like to donate. I’m following The Planetary Society, XPRIZE Foundation, and DonorsChoose.org.

HUM∀NS

If you’ve got Amazon Prime, then wait no longer—Humans is a fantastic show that has an I, Robot vibe with a Stranger Things-esque mystery to it. Shalene and I loved it! It pushes you to think of implications related to technology implementations in the future.

Boomerang for Gmail

A Gmail add-on I’ve been messing around with. Boomerang allows you to schedule emails to be sent at a later date/time or to “boomerang” them back to yourself at a later time as a reminder. For example, a friend sent me a Google Calendar invite for a meeting. I accepted the invite which put it on my calendar, then boomeranged the invite email to myself, which arrived 2 hours before our appointment. There’s also a slick feature that measures how “reply-able” your email is using metrics that evaluate your subject line, words in the body of the email, etc. and helps you rewrite your email to increase the chances of a response.

Featured Image: Markus Spiske