To the top of the world with the NASA Everest Trek Wiki

Today in celebration of Sally Ride becoming the first American woman in space, I began a search for a wiki related to NASA or the space program. I did not exactly find what I originally set out to find. However, I found a neat little wiki about a NASA team on a quest to climb Mt Everest. The NASA Everest Trek wiki on PBWiki tells the story of a group of NASA employees on a great adventure -- not out of this world, but rather to the top of this world. It is a very very small wiki dedicated to a very specific event. It includes the Rocket Scientist Training page which describes how they prepared for this demanding adventure. It includes bios for the team and their itinerary. While on the adventure, the team updated a blog, whose link is included on the wiki.

What a great idea -- to share such a neat adventure through a wiki. However, the team stopped a bit short of the overall goal. I wish that the team members had updated the wiki with their pictures and stories about the adventure. One instead created her own website. They haven't been back very long --- hopefully, they will update the wiki with lots more interesting, neat information about their adventure.

Nevertheless, the NASA Everest Trek wiki meets my basic criteria for an interesting, informative, and entertaining wiki. It just left me hungry for more information. : )



Photo credits:
Mt Everest from space by NASA from the NASA Everest Trek blog
Team pic from luciebeth's site

Road Trips USA, one guide to the open highway

This weekend is the start of the summer vacation season. Monday is the Memorial Day holiday. There will be hamburgers and hotdogs on many grills. It's already hot in Texas and a pool sounds like a really great idea. Usually many of my friends plan extended road trips during the summer. However, with the price of gas so high, and still climbing, many are looking for the shorter road trips. I found a cute little wiki Road Trips USA on Wetpaint that offers many suggestions.

Road Trips USA is a small wiki (with less than 60 pages) but has a growing community. In addition to suggested road trips, it has other interesting information, such as fun pit stops, car games, and road trip movies. You may want to also load your MP3 player with the many road trip tunes listed on the wiki. Although you may not be planning the great American cross-country road trip (like Oprah and her friend Gayle took), there are suggested multi-day trips and short Sunday drives on the wiki that might interest you. They list their fourteen most scenic drives on the wiki. You might be interested in such a road trip this Sunday and still will be home to celebrate the holiday on Monday. However, I, myself, will be totally focused on the Indy 500 this Sunday. ; )

The following song comes to my mind when thinking about a road trip: On the Road Again by Willie Nelson (and you can see the video in this blogpost).
As posted on YouTube by dynocounter

Hopefully, if you're thinking about taking an adventure on the open highway (go ahead, the price of gas is probably going to continue to rise even higher later), you might find some interesting and informative details on this little wiki. Also, if you can suggest a neat short, road trip in your area, why not visit Road Trips USA and update the wiki?

If driving, remember to buckle up. If passing through the Lone Star state on your road trip, "don't mess with Texas" (don't litter). And, never drink and drive. Have a nice, safe Memorial Day holiday.

An amazing place about those on an amazing adventure

The Amazing Race Wiki fansite

There are a lot of wiki fan sites on the Web. Since The Amazing Race concluded this week, I decided to take a look at its fansite. The official Amazing Race fansite wiki on Wetpaint offers episode summaries, video clips, polls, online chat, and trivia. Have you ever wondered about what's up with prior race contestants? There's a spot on the wiki for those details too. There is a section called My Amazing Race where the community members can post interesting information about their hometowns in case the contestants zip through their town. Members can post details about their own amazing trips on the site too. This fan site has over 5,100 community members and twelve members with moderator and higher authority.

What more I hoped to see. I saw a page with a link to the CBS webpage for information on how to apply for the race. It also had a spot for visitors to post their application videos on the wiki to show other fans. However, there was only one video posted on the page. I checked YouTube and found a lot of videos posted at that site. I also found another site on the Web with some general hints about applying as a contestant. I guess I was just hoping to see a bit more about the applicants and that process.

If you're amazed by this whirlwind adventure around the world and think you'd like to pursue it, check out the following links:
How to get on Amazing Race, from AssociatedContent
The application site by CBS

Here are two videos from YouTube posted by race applicants that you will likely enjoy:

Rob and Kayla from Colorado

As posted on YouTube by amazingracevote4us


Team Ren

As posted on YouTube by kaitlinp1

Once again, another wiki site that is informative, interesting, and entertaining. Check it out.



Image credit: Wikipedia's article on The Amazing Race