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On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 6:09 PM, Culinary Institute Alain & Marie Lenotre <lenotre@culinaryinstitute.edu> wrote:
Emergency Communications
In preparation for possible heavy rains and flooding from Tropical Storm Edouard, the Culinary Institute Alain & Marie LeNôtre will be closed all day Tuesday August 5th, 2008…
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There is an unusual quietness outside, except for the occasional engines of the vehicles at the parking lots next to my apartment. Aptly put – the calm before the storm. The tropical storm is expected to hit around noon tomorrow. I have a day to catch up on my journal input before I share my blog. No one knew about this blog, not even BK. I am excited – anticipating the hurricane as well as getting my site ready.
BK was here with me in Houston for a week to settle me in. We spent a day searching for a suitable apartment, a day touring the school and shopping for furnishing, another day of last minute stock-up before we move into the apartment that evening. That left us with only one day R&R time together, and for my dear to see an essential part of Houston before he left for Singapore. We decided on NASA Space Centre Houston.
~Space Centre Houston~
What struck us: “FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION“
Excerpts from an article on Creativity in Problem-Solution,
“Houston, we’ve got a problem.” These famous words, spoken by astronaut Jim Lovell from space in April 1970, on Apollo 13 mission to the moon…
“Failure is not an option,” Gene Kranz, lead flight director for Mission Control, announced to the ground crew in Houston as Apollo 13 approached the critical earth-to-moon decision loop. ..
Creativity need not begin with inspiration. It sometimes is a reactive force, triggered when all else fails. It’s a response to a new order of things. We experience our highest creativity not in doing business as usual, but when there is the most at stake and failure is a possibility but not an option. When our fixed assumptions about how things operate won’t do, a new mission must be launched. “Forget the flight plan,” ordered Kranz. “From this moment on we are improvising a new mission. How do we get our men home?”
What stuck us next: “MISSION CONTROL“
…to manage space missions, usually from the point of lift off until the landing or the end of the mission.
These words were very meaningful to me. I had just arrived in Houston then having just switched out of a career that was my life in the past 13 years, I am a little scared about my future plans too. I told few friends about my decision - One, I have no certainty to inform them, no wish to explain myself of my uncertainties, no need for more questions that reinforce my fear; Two, I was multi-tasking on adrenaline, I got everything sorted out in under a month from the point I made a decision to go into Pastry & Baking, to applying to the culinary institute, to sorting out my finances, informing my parents & family, to applying & securing my US student visa to the point of my arrival in Houston. Thinking back, I find it amazing and thankful that I took action to fulfill a passion.
I am already here, there is certainly no turning back. I will Earn my Pastry & Baking Diploma, make the best use of my time to acquire knowledge and inspirations, and make concrete plans for my future. Similar to how I view marriage, Failure is not an Option in my second life! And I will keep my heart & soul in mission control!
