movin' to seattle

that's right, folks, it's time for me to say goodbye to the people's republic of boulder (aka "25 square miles surrounded by reality"), which i have called my home for the past 7 years, and move out to the great rainy northwest to seek my fortune.

actually, i've already sought my fortune in the great rainy northwest, and it's in the form of a small aerospace company called blue origin. similar to (but not quite the same as) some of the companies competing for the x-prize, blue origin is developing a spacecraft which will take anyone with a big enough wallet on a sub-orbital journey into space, much like alan shepard did in may of 1961. in fact, blue origin's spacecraft is named "new shepard," to honor the first american to travel into space. the company is owned by jeff bezos, owner of amazon.com and one of forbes' 100 wealthiest americans, who is putting significant amounts of his own money into this venture. i met bezos himself when I interviewed with the company a few weeks ago, and he's very enthusiastic about putting people into space. this newsweek article from last may gives a pretty good description about what's going on at blue origin.

i start at blue origin on monday, 14 june. i'll be spending my first year rotating through the various departments of the company, learning what each department and each of the 30 employees does, and figuring out where i best fit within the company. after that, i'll probably be working on the life support system design for the new shepard spaceship.

my last day of work at lasp here in boulder will be friday, 4 june. i'm in the process of selling my house with some help from my uncle brad, who's a realtor in the washington, d.c., area. some kind of going-away party will occur on saturday, 5 june (details to follow later), and then i'm loading up the moving truck and hitting the road some time during the week of 7 june. my stuff and my 1954 chevy pickup, "peanut," will be shipped via truck, and my dad and i will road-trip in my 1986 honda civic up to seattle, stopping off at the old lloyd family homestead in twin falls, idaho, along the way. i'll be renting a place in seattle for a few months while i get my bearings and find a house i want to buy.