Yes,I figure since it’s not plot-based spoilers are less of a thing
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Oh! We could always hide them in drop-downs too in order to not clutter the thread!
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Oh I’ve been missing the footnotes in my ebook version! I’ll have to figure out how to view them.
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Discussion question: how do you think you would have done in the personality/psychology evaluation?
I probably would have done poorly. While the rote paper crane exercise would be somewhat enjoyable, the time limit probably would have stressed me out. And I don’t do well with conflict, and am a person who both goes passive-agressive until blowing up into very active-aggressive.
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I think I would do…mediocre?
If there is someone who has already established themselves as a clear leader in their minds, I default to them and allow them to lead. I moderate discussions at work and in my personal life, and while I’m very capable and happy to be left alone and do solo work, I’m very much a team player.
When I know it’s important, I keep my cool.
When the stress overloads, I get snippy.
I’m not sure if the training and evaluation would make me snippy.
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I’m going to try and read ahead the next 4 chapters, return the book and put it on hold again because my library only allows 14 day digital loans right now and someone is waiting so I’m hoping if I return it and put it on hold again maybe I’ll get it back sooner?
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I did not think I would be reading several pages about vomiting today.
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Welcome to Mary Roach!
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I’ve learned I cuss too fucking much to be an astronaut. 
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Something about how Yuri Gagarin loved some other guy (I can’t remember the name or who he was to the mission)–but not in a “food tube” way, which I took to mean sexual. But how does she know that? She presents no evidence for Yuri Gagarin having no sexual or romantic interest in that guy, just evidence that he felt very strongly about him. Or at least about his face. Maybe they were actually nemeses.
HAHAHA as soon as they delayed lunch by an hour I would have been out 
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I don’t think I’m seeing footnotes on my copy, and that is really weird.
That is weird! I’m seeing several per chapter. They show up as asterisks in the ebook, and I have to tap very carefully on my Kindle to hit them correctly.
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I think I would have done “OK” I like the crane challenge I do really well with clear instructions and dealines. I get along very easily with people and am not confrontational at all.
If I needed an outlet for my potential anger I hope that I would “pick” the second option - Mission Control.
I am just through the first 2 chapters but just started yesterday so it reads fast and I’m really enjoying it.
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Chapter 1
I will say that I am a little annoyed with how Roach narrates her JAXA observations.
“Brave, but not in an astronaut sort of way.”
“…I doubt 'space agency’s would leap to mind. ‘Grade school’ might.”
I feel like she could have spent a little more effort on recognizing cultural differences and less on blunt comparisons that make the Japanese program sound juvenile or inferior.
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Goodness, I would have done terribly. When things are going well I can get things done better than the average person but I’ve spent 25 years trying very carefully to stay in that zone because as soon as stuff goes wrong for any period of time I’m a mess.
I’ve just finished the first couple chapters- I’m enjoying it, though the Yuri Gagarin thing and also her description of some gender stuff rubs me slightly the wrong way. The blurb on my copy compares her writing to bill Bryson and that seems pretty accurate in terms of general approach/ enjoyability
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Chapter 2
I definitely agree with @beep_boop, there’s a lot here about sex, gender, and what is and isn’t socially acceptable that rubs me the wrong way. This book is ten years old, and a lot of what’s being discussed are space trips older than that, and I am keeping that in mind.
That being said, a lot of what’s been described is sexual assault.
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Oh I hadn’t realised it wasn’t recent- that does make it less surprising (although obviously not better…).
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Yes! I had to look it up because sometimes I’m just used to being in my bubble, and sometimes there really is an age/generational difference which puts things in perspective.
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Thanks–I didn’t know how old the book was and couldn’t get my Kindle to show me. Then I forgot to google it 
More on chapter 2
And… yeah. There’s that. I feel like I remember it being described as not really assault, and I was like, but yes, it is, by definition.
Chapter 5 was a lot of fun. I was delighted by the description of her trying to take notes and just writing “whee” and “yippee.”
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I looked at it through the Mad Men lens. Seems cool and glamorous on the surface, but there were a loooooot of examples of sexual assault that, at the time, were just normal and … invisible, really. There’s so many examples we’ll never hear about that maybe the women themselves don’t remember because it wasn’t that unusual. It’s awful, and I’m glad to not live in that era, but that was how it was then. That doesn’t make it right.
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