April 29, 2015

Social Media

STEM in 30 is now on social media.  You can follow us @STEMin30 on Twitter and facebook.com/STEMin30.  Below are a few of the cool things you might see following STEM in 30.

Astronaut Piers Sellers
Filming at the Botanic Garden
The guys with Astronaut Don Thomas

April 14, 2015

Cherry Blossoms

Last weekend I did the tourist thing (along with 50,000 of my closest friends).  Below are a few of the pictures I took.  You can see the full set on Flickr by following the link.




April 10, 2015

Spring Break

**Warning**
Lots of pictures on this post, if reading on Facebook click on the link to see them.

This post is only a few weeks late.  I've had internet issues with my laptop.



A couple weeks ago Sarah and Bryce and Sadie made it out to Washington over Sarah's spring break. We had great weather, we only got snowed on once.  It was a hectic week at work because we had a show, but it was cool that they got to see the production.
Sadie got to see her first panda bear.

Bryce got to do his bird show at the National Zoo and was really excited about seeing Grandpa's Eagle.
 

Sadie was right on the edge of crawling.  We were hoping she would start while they were in Washington.  We tried to get her to crawl at my museum.  She didn't crawl.

During the set up for our show, I had a chance to go up on the catwalks and look out at the Udvar-Hazy Center.  It was scary as snot but I was glad I did it.

During our show most of the big wigs from the museum came over to watch, including our director General Daily.

Bryce got to watch the filming.

Bryce doesn't have a chance of not being a nerd.

Tried to get Sadie to crawl in front of the Space Shuttle.  She didn't crawl.

Yeah, she doesn't have a chance of not being a nerd either.

Bryce got into taking pictures on this trip also.

Flying with the Space Shuttle.

I got artsy at the Botanic Garden.

This look . . . I don't have a chance.

Tried to get her to crawl at the Botanic Garden.  She didn't crawl.

If you know about my history with kites, this will completely make sense.

Bryce flying his kite in the museum.

Pretzel shop a couple of blocks from my apartment.

Giant cupcake

Yup, nerd.

Pretty girl X2

Yup, no chance.

On their last day in town Sadie decided to start crawling, not in any cool or historic place but the bedroom floor of my apartment when there were no cameras rolling, but I got to see her crawl for the first time.





April 3, 2015

Home

Being home is awesome. Even if delays kept me from getting in until 3:00am today. 





April 1, 2015

Happy April 1st

I think you can file this in the category of "my job doesn't suck."  

About a week ago the guys I work with and I were kicking around the idea of pranking our boss. We got Beth involved with our plan. That night she sent me a text about displaying Wonder Woman's invisible plane. Then things started snowballing. 

Yesterday morning we "raised" the plane and filmed it for a time lapse. Beth and I also filmed a short segment about the plane. One of our digital wizards edited the video, and another digital wizard created amazing signage to put on the floor. 

Today as museum visitors came in there was a TV monitor "under" the plane showing the video along with the sign. The Smithsonian also sent out a blog post and the video via social media. 


Then it went viral. 

I've never gone viral before. The closest I ever came was 100 likes when Sadie was born. Pretty soon the video was being shared, retweted, and blogged about. We even had a curator give a talk about the plane. 

A few of my favorites include:

Being retweeted by an astronaut. 


This tweet quoting me. 


Already being included on the Invisible Jet Wikipedia page. 


Being retweeted by Satin Tights. 


And this blog post where we were called adorkable. 


At the end of the day our web and new media department told me we had reached 3 million people!  

My favorite line of the day was from the adorkable blog that said "This is a level of nerd we all hope to achieve one day."