Thanksgiving

Had Thanksgiving at my place, with the Parents, Bushia and Jamshaid. Was lots of fun, and if you look closely you can see our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone seemed to have a good time down here, I know I did at least.

A tough time for Jim

I thought I'd take a second to mention something. Last weekend I met up with Jim, while there I did ask him how his family has been doing. I know I have been seeing news articles about higher insurgencies, bombings and all around bad things happening in Northern Pakistan of late. Specificaly bombings in Peshawar. As some may know, this is the very region from which Jim is from, and where his family currently resides.

One of the things that he has told me before, is that his family does not like to worry him too much about happenings in Pakistan. Such as the tough times a few years ago when the leadership of the country changed. On the whole they don't say much about that, and try to focus on the positive things. That being said, when I tell you that they themselves are telling Jim of their concern, and safety where they live, you will perhaps understand the seriousness that it means.

While his family, I don't believe lives in Peshawar itself, it is the closest large city to where they live. In otherwords it would be like if there were bombings in Detroit, and the people responsible living as close to you as Midland, or Saginaw. Needless to say things are tense there for them.

With all that being said, I have not heard word that any of his family has been injured in anyway. But I would ask that you keep him and his family in your prayers.

NY, Baltimore, and More

I realize its been a bit too long since I've last posted. A few things have happened since my Christmas list has gone up. Of course there was Lindsey, Caleb, and Casedy coming down the weekend before last which was a blast. We got to see Marney and Megan which was great. They really did appreciate having family come up and visit them, and offered that we come up again any time. An offer I am very much considering. Along with New York we got to go to the Aquarium in Baltimore which was actually lots of fun. A nice dolphin show, Caleb wasn't a fan of the 4-D theater though. But as usual it was just fun watching Caleb bounce between exhibits. He really is fond of aquariums. Balitmore itself was a lot nicer than I thought, or at least the part by the Aquarium. It makes me wonder what else of interest is in that city as I'm tempted to go back.

Besides that, I've recently picked up a martial arts, Shaolin Kempo. I am a white belt, go me! And I'm strongly contemplating getting back into fencing. Last weekend I visited Ken and Becky in Charlottesville again, and was able to fence at his local club. I did a lot better than last time, mainly I think because I actually had some endurance this time around. But I fenced a "d" rated fencer and beat him 15-14, so that made me happy. I might try to join my local club here, its pretty inexpensive. And then maybe start competative fencing in the area. Would be another oportunity to hang out with Ken as well, as I believe he tries to keep a rather competitive fencing schedule.

Anyways besides all that not much going on. Below are some pictures in reverse order (because I'm too lazy to change them up) from the NY and Baltimore trip. I hope you enjoy them :-).

Christmas list

Figured I'd go ahead and throw up a Christmas/Birthday list here so everyone can have it if they so desire.

Clothing:
I could use some work clothes. I pretty much just wear jeans to work as of late. So anything that works equally well with kahkies as well as jeans would be best. I could use both long sleeve and short sleeve clothing as well.

I also could use some new t-shirts. Just 3-4 of them. Mine seem to be getting older.

Playstation 3 games:
I recently got a PS3 here are some games I wouldnt mind getting, that I probably won't get for myself at least.

Valkaria Chronicles
Assassin's Creed 2
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
God of War: Collection for PS3
Demons Souls

Movies/Blu-ray ect:
I do have a blu-ray player, so some blu-rays would be awesome though more expensive...

Farscape: The Complete Series
The Dark Knight (on blu-ray though, I already have it on dvd)
District 9

Other:
Printer/Scanner - nothing fancy needed really. Wireless would be awesome.

Anyways I know I don't have too much on here as of yet, but I'll try to update this as I think of things. Hope this is helpful to everyone.
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection

Renn Fest

The past weekend I had Ken and Becky come up from Charlotesville to visit. We then met up with Tom and his girlfriend and went to the Maryland Renaissance fair. A Renn fair of course, as I was trying to describe to Mom, is kinda like a reproduction of a village. Where in each building there will be food, and crafts. Anything from pottery, period clothing, blown glass, swords both real and wooden, to jewelry. It is an oportunity for some poeple to dress up in costumes as they wander around the fair. And of course the shows are free and really lots of fun. Everything from Shakespear Skum plays, to jesters and dancing. The traditional food is the turkey leg, and no good Renn fair is without its jousting. Below are a few pictures I managed to procure.

Heizenberg Principle

Above is an image of a molecule! The incredibleness of this image is nothing short of mind boggling. In order to take this picture they have to freeze it down to 5 kelvin. To put that into perspective water freezes at 273 kelvin. At 0 kelvin a gas is absolutely stable, not moving at all. it is the theoretical minimal of temperature. It was imaged with atomic force microscopy, using an incredibly small cantilever. Meaning, they created the image my touching it. Normally when you think of an image its a capturing of light. Here they are capturing it by touching it, and creating a contour that way. The reason why they do that, is that light isn't small enough. Figure vacuum extreme ultraviolet light is about 10 nm. This molecule above is 1.4 nm. So the wavelength of light itself is too large to be able to give an accurate representation of the molecule.

That brings us to the hiezenberg principle. The more you know about one thing, the less you know about another. You can't know both the position and momentum of a microcopic particle at the same time. To get around that though, as you see.... they had to take away the momentum, thus freezing it down to 5 kelvin. And this is the reason why sadly, as of right now, we are unable to use teleporters like in Star Trek. Unless maybe, you freeze everyone down to absolute zero before you teleport someone.

Traverse City Pictures

Since pretty much everyone who reads my blogs, were there with me. I figured instead I would focus this entry into just sharing some of my pictures. If you want more, or the full catalog of pictures... let me know and we can try to arrange a way to get them sent out. Otherwise for now enjoy :-).

Fun in DC

Mom, Sara, Mason, and Colby came down this past weekend. They all seemed to have a good time. Sara got a chance to improve on my place a bit. Added some color to my main room, found a great deal on a TV stand, and added a second bookcase, so I don't have any overfill anymore, and finally can empty the box that Stephen got for me.

I'll post a few pictures before Sara can :-). I'm pretty sure it was the kids first time on a metro.
They seemed to enjoy it okay. As you can imagine, Mason really enjoyed hanging by the poles and twirling around them.

The kids did then later take some flying lessons at the air and space museum.

But then sadly we were barely able to make a dent out of the Natural History Museum.
Overall I think Mason and Colby had a blast. Now I"m just trying to convince Sara to bring them back :-). There is still much they can see :-).

TV and Swords

Nothing too much has been happening recently persay. However, I have been upgrading some things. As many of you probably already know, I've bought a new TV. Basicaly my old one was annoying me too much. Either it was distorting images or it was making strange vibrating noises. Eitherway, it was crappy. Having my remote die on me was like insult to injury.

On the other hand that all might have been just justification for me to buy a new toy.... Eitherway it looks amazing :-).

Its a 40" Samsung. The nice part about it is that it is a 120 hertz refresh rate. Which is pretty nice. Debatable if I can really tell the difference. But I *know* there is a difference, and the mental game is probably 80% of it anyways. On Screen is Planet Earth that Jim let me borrow. An amazing series btw.

Along with a new TV I also have a new Sword. Basicaly, this sword I bought back in Octoberish I believe, but placed it on layaway. It just recently came in.
The style is a two handed Shamshir. The curve of the blade give it an increadibly elegant look and feel. This blade is made for cutting, more than stabbing. It is razor sharp all the way up the blade, and then the top 20% or so is also sharp on the back. The blade is amazing light, and sharp and strong enough to cut through small trees.
Plus this is my first "real sword" in that this was the first sword I ever bought that was designed to be used. The rest may be classified as replicas or display models. The sword was made with special heating and cooling methods to give it its strength, and allowing it to maintain its sharpness. To put into perspective though, the sword cost more than the TV.

Hiking and Fencing

This past weekend I went down to visit Ken and Becky in Charlottesville. On Saturday we went hiking. Of course on our first hike in a while, we did a hike straight up hill for about 1 mile. Needless to say I was quite exhausted by the end. But I made it, and the view was worth it.
Then on Sunday, I was able to go fencing at the Salle that Ken goes to. So yeah to getting back into fencing... Though I did get my butt kicked. Evidently I'm out of practice :-).
So Fencing was lots of fun. And I hope to get back into it I think. But we will see. For now though, my legs are really sore :-p. Hopefully though after a few days I'll be better.

So one of the hikes we went on in Terrace, was the Ferry Island hike. While by itself isn't too spectacular. Some local artists decided to get creative with it, providing a slightly more unique experience for those on the trail :-).

Most of the pictures were of the sort of peoples faces I guess. But a couple also deviated into stuff slightly more different... I'll post some of my favorites :-).


























And then there were some that were noticably different......































So these are some of the different carvings found throughout the hike. Finding these on the trees made it actually kinda fun :-).

And here is a picture of Breakfast being made.

Sidepost, news

Just yesterday I sat down with my boss, had my 23 month evaluation, where he signed my papers meaning they will keep me around. Actually what they means is that it took me off the 2 year long probation period. So they can no longer fire me for any reason they want.. I'm protected by the union rules and the like. In reality it doesnt mean too much, as I have never really been in danger of being fired. My boss has continually told me he has been happy with my work, and that if there were ever any concerns he'd let me know way in advance. But still, its just nice to know that the probationary period is over....

Hike part 2.

I took way too many pictures of mountains during my trip. I think its because In Michigan, as well as in the East Coast, really nothing. Well rather the ones we do have, are like small hills in comparison.

Nevertheless about midweek we went to the Lava Bed Parks.

As you can see the ground was covered with the lava rock. It was about 250 years ago that the volcano erupted.
And of course you can't go to a lava bed park without seeing the Waterfalls.
When the lava rolls down the hill, and covers a tree, it burns the tree out, and when it cools of course it forms these tree holes in the rock.
But even here, you can't escape the mountains :-).

But since Mountains seem to be my theme this post, this here was perhaps my favorite. There is something special about a mountain in the background, with water in front. I think my favorite was seeing the reflection of the mountain on the water before it. Ironicaly this picture was taken in late evening. Thus the darker tones to the picture. Yet that in a way I think accentuates the mountain.

Anyways, hope everyone enjoys these pictures :-).