Yay! It's finally all up!

Geeks Without Borders' first official fundraiser, an E-Bay auction of various geek-related merchandise, has begun. You can see the comnplete listing of the items for sale here: http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&include=0&userid=geekswithoutborders&sort=3&rows=25&since=-1&rd=1

Feel free to pass this link along to all your friends who might be interested! (But please, don't spam anyone with it!)

And logo'd merchandise should be available through cafepress by the end of the weekend. Busy as hell all week. Sick to begin with, then I was prepping the auction, and finishing up a major project for Vodafone. And doing various other GWoB-related stuff. But, finally, I get to go sleep now. Beautiful, blessed sleep.

FUCK!!

Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit.

I'm sitting here in my bathrobe at the computer, behind this window the TV is showing commentary on the Space Shuttle Columbia.
It was lost this morning with all hands. It apparently broke apart and disintegrated on re-entry.

I don't even know what to say. I was barely holding back tears, then I gave up. This just sucks. I mean, really, really, really sucks. I'm sorry for all those astronauts, and they're families and friends. But also for the space program itself.

I was in my bathrobe when I first heard about the Challenger disaster in my sophompore year in college. I had just gotten out of the shower, and was walking back towards my room on the third floor of the dorm at UOP. A girl who lived down the hall from me came out of her room, looking stunned. Looked up at me and just said "it blew up" then went back into her room. I didn't know what she was talking about until I turned on the TV and understood.

The challenger disaster. The World Trade Center. The Columbia. These are events that I will always remember where I was when I first heard about them.

They're talking about evacuating the space station (they may have to ground the shuttle fleet for a while. If they do, they can't resupply it).

I have several friends coming over for a D&D game in a few hours. I don't feel like playing D&D today. I feel like curling up into a ball on my living room floor and crying.

Relevant quote

from the Babylon 5 episode "Infection":

INTERVIEWER: "After all that you've just gone through, I have to ask
you the same question a lot of people back home are asking about
space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back, forget the
whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at
home?"

SINCLAIR: "No. We have to stay here, and there's a simple reason why.
Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control,
genetics - and you'll get ten different answers. But there's one thing every
scientist on the planet agrees on: whether it happens in a hundred years, or a
thousand years, or a million years, eventually our sun will grow cold, and go
out. When that happens, it won't just take us, it'll take Marilyn Monroe, and
Lao-tsu, Einstein, Maruputo, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes - all of this. All of
this was for nothing, unless we go to the stars."