New Year Kickoff

How did I start my new year?  In the ND/MN area.  Ananias was home visiting for a couple weeks, so I stopped in for a few days too. It was pretty much all about family.

1. Saturday we took a trip a couple hours further north to my cousin's Silver Dollar Cafe.  Lunch was fry bead tacos (with freshly made, homemade fry bread), and supper was hamburgers and fries (with homemade buns).  The goodie table included pies, fudge, gourmet caramel apples, turtles, and much more.  We stuffed ourselves silly.
2. While at the Silver Dollar we enjoyed special fellowship with extended family from my mom's side.  Aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Some rook was played, and we taught one of the new generation how to play.
3. Sunday was meeting and lunch at Palt and Whirl's.
4. We stopped to visit with HandB too.
5. Monday we took our time driving to Muggles and BIL-Dan's house with stops in Fargo to eat lunch with Rob and Booth and to stop by Costco.
6. New Year's Eve supper we did it up in style:  BIL-Dan's chicken pot pie with crab legs.
7. We finished off the evening by making some lefse while listening to Celtic Woman.
8. Stayed up late a few nights reading books - finished reading "The Help" - it is as good as people say it is.
9. Monday morning it was back to the airport with a few snacks to carry home.  They didn't even scan my guacamole twice when it went through security.  I guess it's not a liquid or a gel.  Just FYI.
10. We got some sad news that Uncle Orv has a brain tumor.  We ate a lot of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners together, although I was usually at the kid table and he was at the adult table.  As a kid, I always thought of him as the uncle that slept in the recliner a lot (the recliner that had vibration and heat capability!) and preferred to go home early.  Looking at it now, I'm sure I missed a lot of the finer points of his character.

A few pictures to finish the summary:

Cuter than buttons!

Rook game #1 before we split into two games.

Rook game #2.

 

By the looks of those smiles, dominoes is a barrel of laughs.

Uncle Dave giving accordian lessons.

Rolling it out and grilling it up.  BIL-Dan is in the background analyzing process improvement opportunities and being the D-Jay.

Putting the smack down on those lefse sheets.  (And maybe on anyone who gets too close.)

Happy New Year!

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #2

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  New Life - both natural and spiritual.  It's amazing how such large things can be created from tiny things.

2.  Fibonacci Sequence - Ether sent me the link to this one.  If you read about it in Wikipedia, you see that even now there are still new uses for these old mathematical sequences discovered thousands of years ago.

Fall Summary Travel 2012: November and December

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm going to give a brief summary of some of my late fall trips in 2012.  Here's the rest of them.

In early November, I traveled for work to do some recruiting at an engineering conference in Houston.  After my duties were complete at the conference, I did a "little" (and quick) jaunt over to San Antonio to see some friends there.  If work is going to pay for the ticket, I'm going to maximize its use.

• Hanging out with friends from work.  With that many females, there's bound to be some cattiness going on, but for the most part it's fun to socialize with other female engineers and our NSBE helpers and search for great talent.
• Seeing Swanny and Gander.  We actually haven't met in person that many times, but we're kindred nerdy souls.
• Best beef brisket.  Ever.
• Some fall colors on a jaunt through a state park.
• Playing a new board game - Small World - if you little Settlers of Catan, you'll probably like this one. 
• On a T-shirt for sale at the engineering conference:  "Talk Nerdy to Me"

The recruiting gang.  Resume screeners extraordinaire.

Guadalupe State Park Scenery (taken while wading).

Brisket!  (and some ribs and chicken and beans and mac and cheese)

Scrapbooking retreat in the corny state mid-November.  Most of it is already covered by this earlier post, but here's a couple extra tidbits.

• Early morning yoga.  This is one of the few times early morning exercise has ever felt acceptable.
• Shredding it with Jillian Micheals in the evening.  (Gotta prevent restless leg syndrome symptoms.)
• Interesting Sunday morning bible study.
• Uncle Bex and Woodwind cooked all the meals, which were very delicious.  They included lots of bacon and protein for me.
• The drive home was spent becoming familiar with my new hymn CD.
• And of course, some progress on my digital scrapbooking.

Super strenuous climbing wall!  Good thing the finger is nearly back to normal.

My heart will go on.....

The two pictures below are literally the only ones I took over the span of the Thanksgiving holiday despite traveling all the way to ND.  The bullets may not seem very exciting, but it was good to just relax.

• Thanksgiving day with Muggles's in-laws.  It's nice how family of family can become like family.
• Learning a nice game to play on your phone or iPad (if you have one):  "Where's My Water?"  If you like science and strategy type games, then give it a try.
• Hot tub time.
• Just taking it easy around the house while reading books.
• Visits to a quilt shop and home appliance/furniture/fireplace stores.
• Sunday dinner with more relatives.

Technically I was still on the clock at work when I earned this, but it was almost like vacation.

Feel like you're losing it?   Go to this place.

The weekend after Thanksgiving was a day trip to Chicago on Saturday to see the musical "Sister Act" and go out to eat in downtown Chicago.  A pretty good day, I would say.  A previous gratitude photojournal pretty well covers that I think.

Since I wasn't going to see my brother and his family over the holidays, I went to see them a couple weekends before that.  I was thinking the two gratitude photojournals covered the details, but now that I think about it, maybe not:

• We played a lot of "Uno".
• We did a little excursion to the local scuba shop in order to buy some snorkel gear for my trip to Mexico over Christmas.  My nieces wanted to know if they could watch my life on YouTube after I explained some details about snorkeling and Mexico.  :-)
• Reading books to my nieces.
• Playing piano with and for my nieces.  It melts my heart when they ask me to play their favorite hymn (one favorite is #77).
• Helping with math and reading homework.
• Spending time with Bro and SIL-Lan.

2012 is a wrap, folks!  (In case you weren't aware.)

2013 Journal of Amazing Things - Week #1

I was thinking several things this week that all came together into a nice little idea.  If you're a regular follower, you'll know that the weekly blog project of 2012 was the gratitude photojournal.  In 2011, the project was to take a photo every Sunday.  I was not the original idea owner of those two projects - they came from my friend Avis, and I just played along.  I checked the blog of Avis for her 2013 idea, but so far she is not forthcoming.  It's possible she's a bit preoccupied with having a baby and stuff.

This week I was also thinking this is a year of learning new things.  I plan to get my scuba diving certification.  At work a bunch of us have started a video learning series on electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) that includes reading assignments and homework and stuff.  And, I believe I may also be assigned to take some leadership training at work.  Plus the other random trainings that I might attend or might administer to other people.

As my past couple of posts may have also given you a hint about, this week I have been marveling at the genius of many of the people in the science and engineering field.

This week as I was thinking about the fact that the gratitude photojournal was ending and I was missing my Sunday post routine, I came up with the idea of making a journal of amazing things every week.  I'm still not sure if it will be a words journal or a photojournal.  I kind of like the photojournal thing, but not completely sure it will stay that way since many of the things I marvel at may not have a readily available photo.  I may have to settle sometimes for photos from other people or links to interesting articles.  I also fear that the line between amazing and thankfulness might get a little blurred, but we'll see how that works out.  I'm setting my goal at two amazing things per week.  We'll see if that's realistic or not.

If you want to join me in this project, add it to the comments of my post.  A link or just a list of your amazing things right there in the comments would be acceptable.  Let's get down to business.

Things I found amazing this week:

1.  Scientists and Mathematicians of the Past.  For example, in 1864 James Clerk Maxwell harmonized the electric and magnetic field equations of the past into his four equations for electromagnetic radiation based purely on math.  He had no physical proof that electromagnetic radiation existed, but based on the math from previous experiments and equations, he theorized that it must exist and wrote the equations that we still use today to define electromagnetic radiation.  Based on this, he also theorized that light is a form of electromagnetic radiation.  I have many more examples, but I don't want to bore you. (Too late you say!)

2.  Immigrants.  One of my co-workers is from Nepal, and he took vacation over Christmas and New Years to go back to Nepal for the first time in eight years.  That boggles my mind.  I live a ways from my family, but I usually still see them several times a year.  This also caused me to think of my ancestors back in the early 1900's who left the old countries to come here.  How would it feel to leave your extended family there knowing that you might never see them again for the rest of your life?  These days we have the telephone, Skype, Facetime, Facebook, etc. to keep in touch.  Back then all they would have had was paper and pencil.  It would take a lot of faith, courage, and emotional stamina to make that leap of faith I think.  These days we take a lot of things for granted.

And Another One

Just a couple more videos of interest.

The robotics season started today.  For those following along at home, here's the new challenge.  Ultimate Ascent.

Often called the inventor of the Segway, check out this video of Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST Robotics and an awesome inventor whose invention of the Segway was just a by-product of one of his other inventions.  There are some very interesting statistics about clean water in the video.

Nerd Alert

Just some nerdy tidbits for today.

Over Thanksgiving my dad showed me this video about the two halves of the brain and how they operate.  It's very fascinating scientifically and describes the experience of having a stroke.  The beginning and end are a little touchy-feely, but the middle is very interesting.  It's about 20 minutes long, so make sure you go to view it when you have the time to watch it in its entirety.

At work today we were discussing about how things you see with your eyes and hear with your ears are measured on a logarithmic scale.  That resulted in Kadmium telling us about the disgust-o-scope.

This also prompted us to wonder whether there is such a thing as a smell-o-meter.  In my brief search on Google, it appears as though there is not such a thing.  Smell rating actually is still done with human noses.  Go to Wikipedia for some fascinating info on odors and their measurement.

In other nerdy news, here's a fun thing to do in the heart of winter for all my readers that live further north in the frozen north.

And remember:  robotics season starts tomorrow - don't forget to gear up!

Fall Summary Travel 2012: September and October

As I think I mentioned before, I went on a bunch of small little trips this past fall.  All of them were good, but most probably not totally worthy of their own bulletted list or else I don't have any pictures to go with them.  Some may have been worthy and I was just too busy or lazy at the time to document them.  With a new year, it doesn't seem right to try to drag all those summaries out.  And, some of them were partially covered by my gratitude photojournals.  So here goes on the travels of fall minus the stuff already mentioned in gratitude photojournals.


A trip to ND for 'vention

• Late evening talks with the 'rents and their house guests.
• Seeing the 'rents, Muggles, and BIL-Dan.
• Chatting with other friends like George, Weeds, Ali Cat, etc.
• A trip to the orchard at Palt and Whirl's.  I nearly ate myself sick on raspberries.
• Time with cousins.
• Homemade apple sauce, squash, and stroganoff.

A quick jaunt with Krix to Chicago in late September for a day to see the city and go to a White Sox game.

Krix and Mex

A weekend at the house of Jax with a late fall kayak trip

• Kayaking - that's always worthy of a bullet.
• Fellowship with friends
• A trip to Penzey's for the smells and spices
• Sighting a crane up close
• A stop to browse at REI
• Playing a couple card games

View along the Oconomowoc River while kayaking

Sand hill crane (I think)

Jax on the water

Oh deer - an unfortunate end

A long weekend trip to MN with Bex in October.  The primary reason was to go see Alexander Ramsey State Park, but it had some great "side" benefits.

• Special road trip conversation.  Few things inspire goofiness and serious discussions like a good road trip.
• Staying with Melanaway and her family for the weekend.
• Seeing the 'rents.
• Briefly seeing an old friend (Brix) from college (besides Melanaway and Earache).
• Playing a socialist board game with Bex and Grex.
• Evening games of Settlers of Catan and Qwirkle.
• Roughhousing with Grex and Stake.

I've been teaching Bex the proper way to pose for a photo.

Alexander Ramsey State Park

  

Par for the course

Feeling normal I guess

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #52

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Awesome Snorkeling

2.  Fresh Starts - starting with a clean cubicle for the new year

3.  Family Time

Mexico Puerto

I just returned from the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico (near Cancun) as you may have guessed from my previous post.  Many thanks to my cousins for inviting me to tag along on their vacation.  We were gone for almost a week, and it was a great time.  Some of the highlights (they don't all involve food):

1.  The great thing about vacationing with family is many of them are often fellow nerds, which was the case here.  We enjoyed many nerdy discussions.
2. Spiritual fellowship with family.
3. This is one of the few vacations where I was voluntarily waking up by 6:30 almost every morning and going to bed by 10:00 PM most evenings.  Quite strange, yet sort of a good thing to maximize the daylight experiences.
4. Awesome snorkeling.  There was a reef within swimming distance from the beach, so most mornings by 10 or 11 AM we had already been snorkeling.
5. Things seen while snorkeling:  a sea turtle, a couple rays, five foot long barracuda everywhere, angel fish, lion fish, very cool looking coral in reds, greens, pinks, purples, etc., irridescent blue fish, puffer fish, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff that I don't know the names of.
6. One scuba diving excursion.  We went to the same reef we had been snorkeling around, but it was still lots of fun to see more stuff up close and not have to come up for air like we did when we were snorkeling.
7. Boogie boarding.
8. Seeing the Mayan ruins of Tulum on the first day of the new Mayan calendar.  Did you know the Mayans invented the concept of the number zero?
9. Reading books.
10. Volleyball on the beach.
11. Fresh and homemade food:  limeade, guacamole, and salsa.  I think most of my lunches consisted of these three things plus chips.  Surprisingly, I lost 3-4 pounds while on this vacation despite consuming large quantities of guacamole.
12. Playing card games.
13. Sunshine - getting some Vitamin D.
14. Getting those dreadlocks braid things.  It took them about an hour to do them (they said I had baby hair).  It took me a little more than 2.5 hours to take them all out after the trip was over.  I'm not sure if I'll do them again or not.
15. Jokes about forgetting your passport (because one of the travelers nearly did).

On that note, let's move on to the trip in pictures.

Post-snorkeling fun.

Fresh from the hair stylist.

A frequent pastime on the trip.

Buried by his brother.

A small sampling of the coral and fish we saw.

Sea turtle!

Ray!

Scenery at Tulum.

The structure on the right is where the sun shines directly through on December 21.  We missed it by a day, but we would have missed it regardless since you'd need to be there at 6:30 AM to see it.  Plus, it would have been a zoo that day.

Loving the wildlife at Tulum.

A different kind of wild life at Tulum.

Friendly volleyball competition.

Fun while waiting for our food to come at a restaurant.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #51

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Friends Who Care

2.  Cousins

3.  Travel

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #50

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  A Brother

2.  Childlike Excitement - I need to keep some of that whether it's about chocolate chips and cool whip on my pancakes, holding Lenny the Lamb, or throwing a stuffed caterpillar back and forth.

 

3.  Making progress - For first time in 2 or 3 years, I can kinda-sorta see the surface of my home office desk.

Current Affairs

Has anybody else noticed that a lot of the ads on the radio recently seem different than they used to be?  It seems like at least a third of the ads are from government agencies.  For example, on my drive Friday evening I heard an ad telling me to go to the official government website called www.usa.gov.  Really?  Is that necessary for my tax money to be spent advertising for the government website?  How about they spend that money to make social security viable again or to fund the military?

Let's see....what are some other ones I've heard recently......a government agency telling me to clean as I go and make sure I handle my meats correctly when I cook.....some government agency telling me how easy it is to get health insurance....the benefits of breast feeding.....all kinds of stuff.  What is sparking this trend I wonder?

Speaking of interesting ads on the radio, I heard one this evening.  Landmark legislation was signed into law today to make my state a "right to work" state.  The ad was one of those "scare tactic" ads with the scary music and the deep voiced, angry guy speaking slowly.  He was saying how our state is going to purgatory in a handbasket because big companies can now "own" us without the great power of the unions to stick up for us.  What really cracked me up was that the guy said we can blame ourselves.  I was thinking these guys finally saw the light and realized how unreasonable some of the union bargaining is and they promise to be more reasonable in the future.  Not at all.  Apparently we can blame ourselves for putting all those Republicans into the state legislature and into the governor's office.  That totally cracked me up, especially when the ad ended with the guy saying "God help us."  A little dramatic, no?

Is "right to work" that bad?  I don't think so.  As I may have said before, I believe in the power of choice.  Sure, it may seem more convenient to keep working for "the man" and let corporate America "own" you.  However, if you really don't like working for corporate America, then make a choice to do something different.  They're not obligated to employ you for your lifetime, and you're not obligated to stay there for your life.  God never promised that we'd be able to live and work in the same place our whole life.  Start your own business.  Go work for someone else.  Companies are always looking for good people and are willing to pay for those good people.  If you're not a desirable employee, then improve your skills to become desirable.  If you're not willing to go through some hardships to not work for corporate America, then don't complain about it.  By staying where you are you've chosen the "evil" you know over the uncertainty of going to a different company or starting your own business.  Like my boss at work says, don't have that "victim mentality."  If you don't like it, work to change it or leave.  Don't just sit there and complain.

Probably the thorniest issue related to this is teacher unions.  I know a lot of teachers, and I know a lot of them are in favor of the teacher union because they do help negotiate benefits for teachers.  So I'm still waffling on this one.  Is a public school that much different than a corporation?  One thing I've heard that's different is that in some states all teachers' salaries are publicly published, which could make a difference.  In corporations there are people who don't get paid as much as others because their skills aren't as good.  Is it bad for teachers to be held to a performance standard?  I guess the problem is figuring out what the performance standard should be, which is complicated by government bureaucracy.  It seems like schools without teacher unions would have the same incentives as corporations.  They would want to have good administration so you can attract good teachers and thus attract students.  I'm sure word will get out quickly if school districts don't treat their teachers right.  The key would be to have open enrollment / school of choice in tandem with that to keep the "good school" incentive going.  Just some food for thought.  I'm sure I'll hear from some of my teacher readers on this.

Enough pontificating for today folks!  I guess it's been too quiet around here, so I'm stirring the pot a little.

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #49

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Living In a Land of Plenty

2.  Sunrises and Sunsets

3.  Nieces

Contemplation

It seems like I have so many things to talk about, but some of the trips I haven't summarized are so far in the past now I'm not sure it's worth it or if I'll remember much of them.  But speaking of traveling, my favorite face wash brand finally got the message, and you can now buy travel sizes (less than 3 oz) of their product at Target.  A simple thing like that has made me happy the last 3 or 4 times I've traveled.

While I contemplate my upcoming posts, check out this little ditty that Kadmium showed me the other day about ways to die.  Also of recent interest at work is a series of prints done by artist Megan Lee.  They're prints commemorating scientists as part of a Rock Star Scientists series.  For a preview, go here.  See if you know your famous scientists!

Gratitude Photojournal 2012, Week #48

Things I'm thankful for this week:

1.  Discounts At Work

2.  Leisurely Saturday Morning

3.  An Evening With Friends