Which Disney Princess Are You?

Gabe, Andrea and I had an awesome turkey dinner at Mitch and Laurie's
tonight. For evening entertainment we played "Which Disney Princess
Are You?" off the second DVD of Sleeping Beauty. The selection
choices were: Jasmine, Ariel, Aurora, Snow White, Cinderalla, and
Belle. The selection process is a 10-15 multiple choice survey.
Questions included: What would you most like to have in your house:
ball room, library, 7 guest bedrooms, tiger den, view of the ocean...
etc. Gabe and I were determined to be Belle from Beauty and the
Beast and Andrea was Cinderella. I can't say that I agree with my
results though. In Belle's first musical number she expresses her
disdain for provincial life. It has always been my dream to live a
very simple, christian, family oriented, "provincial" life. In
general, it seems that you can either be career driven, or family
oriented. Choosing one inevitably compromises the other to some
extent.

Darby and I

For those of you who don't know, Darby and I broke up one month ago.
She has found someone else in her life whom she has chosen to be
with. I apologize for hiding this from my friends and family. It
has been difficult to accept, and speaking of it, forces it into
reality. I ask for your prayers for the man she is with, so that he
may find God in his life and grow to become a strong Christian.
Thank you.

Thoughts...

Did you ever have something so overwhelming that it consumed 99% of
all your thoughts? Both awake and asleep? I keep managing to follow
through with my daily routine though, which makes we wonder: When I
wasn't so stressed out, what in the world did I think about for that
99% of the time?

Software Pirating

I'm considering selling my PC and just running a MAC only operation.
Haven't decided yet, but in the deliberations I was looking at what
software I would lose. Photoshop is the only critical piece of
software that I don't have for the MAC. Ironic really, since the
program is developed foremost for Apple. Also, I realized that it is
the only piece of software that I have pirated. Everything else I
own, i have purchased legitimately. To purchase photoshop, however,
would be a $300 investment (with student discount, $600 without).
The alternative is to purchase Photoshop elements ($50), which hasn't
even come out for mac's in edition 4.0. But after using Photoshop
CS2 for so long, it would be painful to downgrade. What software
titles do you own that are in the "can't live without, can't afford
to buy" category?

Its good to be an Engineer

An engineer dies and reports to hell. Pretty soon, the engineer becomes dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and building improvements. After a while, they've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the engineer is a pretty popular guy. 
One day God calls Satan up on the telephone and says with a sneer: "So, how's it going down there in hell?" Satan replies: Hey things are going great. We've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next." 
God replies: "What??? You've got an engineer? That's a mistake - he should never have gotten down there; send him up here." 
Satan says: "No way. I like having an engineer on the staff, and I'm keeping him."
God says: "Send him back up here or I'll sue." Satan laughs uproariously and answers: "Yeah, right. And just where are you going to get a lawyer?"

Joint Propulsion Conference Abstract

I have to submit an abstract today for a conference taking place in
July! This means there is a fair amount of guessing what my research
will have concluded by that point. I am writing, said abstract, in
Microsoft Word. The farther I get in my education, the more faults
and flaws I realize in Microsoft's prized word processor. The most
obvious: Word has a pathetic scientific dictionary natively
installed. At some point I will see if I can't search out an
scientific dictionary add-on that will help alleviate the hundreds of
red scribbles that are littered on every document I create these
days. The second, and most annoying problem, is Word's inability to
handle figures with any sort of common sense. I spend an
unacceptable amount of time fighting with word's auto formatting.
These are serious concerns of mine since I will soon embark on a
300-400 page thesis. I have received many recommendations for Latec
(sp?). Does anyone else have any experience with latec or other
alternatives?

Red, White and Blue

Red, White and Blue.. and I don't mean the flag. I got pulled over
today just outside the yooper loop in Houghton. I didn't use my turn
signal while merging into the loop. As dangerous as that stupid loop
is, I don't blame the cop one bit for pulling me over. He also
informed me that my back window was not cleaned off (of snow) which
is illegal. I had never thought of that before. It makes sense but
I had no idea that it was a law that all of your windows must be
cleaned of snow at all times while driving. I new that you can't
having any objects obstructing your view INSIDE the car, so it only
stands to reason that the same is true on the outside. In any case,
he was nice about it and didn't ticket me.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope that everyone is able to
spend today with the people they love. Eat lots of Turkey, get tipsy
on egg nog, and watch its a Wonderful Life.

Christian Children's Fund

Christian Children's Fund
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

I have always said that I planned to use my extra money to help others when "I grow up". But I have some money now, and I would be lying if I said that I couldn't budget at least some of it to better causes than my electronic collection. So for Christmas, Darby and I sponsored a little boy named Reuben (4 years old) from Honduras. If anyone else is interested I encourage you to visit www.christianchildrensfund.com

Purpose Driven Life

Darby and I have been reading "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick
Warren. In the last chapter I read he writes: "In worship we are to
offer our bodies as living sacrifices. Now we usually associate the
concept of sacrifice with something dead, but God wants you to be a
living sacrifice. However, the problem with a living sacrifice is
that it can crawl off the altar, and we often do that". It made me
laugh

Quiz time

Quiz time
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

My last entry seems to have sparked many questions, which I will politely ignore for the time being :) My apologies.
Moving on: Where have you seen this Cafe before? Quiz for all of you trivia buffs out there.

In a blink of an eye

I have always felt that I had control of my life. Every now and then a surprise would come my way, but never anything to entirely derail me. I never worried about the unknown, the unpredictable, or how integrated my life is with others. Now, more then ever, I realize that I am at the whim of the hand of fate. Barreling forward without a plan or direction to go, and only a prayer that God can see the road that I cannot. It is very humbling.

Vacation

Vacation
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

6 days in Princeton, 3 in New York.

“Every day is like a week, and every night is a weekend”

“One minute, one block too late”

I don’t think I could ever summarize everything that happened in the past week. I’ll try and fit a couple stories in over the next couple days. I managed to see three shows while in NYC: Rent, Avenue Q, and Mr. Marmalade. I would have gone to a Sunday matinee but our flight was at 5:30 and the show would have been at 2:00, a little risky. For many of the shows they have “The Lottery” where they raffle off the front two rows of seats 2 hours before the show for only 20 bucks a piece (as opposed to $105). I won the raffle for Rent the first night we were there, lost for Avenue Q, Wicked, and Spelling Bee. I hated to have to leave, but even if work wasn’t demanding my return, my finances would not have sustained much more abuse.

Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Ny

IEPC

Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

This is the conference that we're at, and the reason that i'm in Princeton all week. Next weekend, though, were spending in New York.

Night on the town

Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Princeton is an amazing town! This is most beautiful city i've ever been in, including Europe and New Zealand.
Last night we went out and sampled the ivy night life. We met Michalyn and Bethany while we were out.

Powerbook Scam!

This is hilarious! If you have 10 minutes, this is worth reading.
Somebody tried to scam a fellow eBay seller out of his powerbook. So
he sold him a home-made powerbook and the receiver had to pay 27%
import taxes on a 2000 dollar laptop (~$550).

Click Here!

Free Movie Ticket!

Apply code AMX1 for buy 1, get 1 free movie ticket at Fandango. New
customers only.

3 DVD's $12

I think I'll start posting some of the deals I come across while
looking for stuff to buy for Vorlon Technologies. I ran across this
DVD deal today. Buy 2 dvd's at 5.99 each and you get one free.
Shipping is free, and there is no tax. Equivocally, each DVD is $4.
I was impressed by the selection as well.

Click Here!

Party in Ann Arbor

Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

We had the Michigan Space Grant Consortium conference this weekend in Ann Arbor. The night before the conference we (Dean, Emily, Webb, Makela, Ed, and Traci) went out for a night on the town. I'm not sure where this picture was taken... I'm not sure when this picture was taken... In fact, I didn't know that i posted to my blog until my sister asked me about the picture. This blog posting from my phone might become a liability!

DiscoTech

10-16-2005 12-13-35 PM_0016
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

All the pictures are up! Click on this one to see the rest. I can burn CD's for people who want them. I have a conference that i'm presenting at on Saturday in Ann Arbor so I won't be at practice, but i'll be there on Monday.

Eau Claire

Eau Claire
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

This past weekend DiscoTech (Michigan Tech's Ultimate Frisbee Team) competed in a tournament in Eau Claire Wisconsin. I can't say that we did all that well, but I did to play with my camera a bit. I'll post more pictures tomorrow.

eBay Troubles

Many of you will laugh at this i'm sure: "You have been indefinitely suspended from eBay because our records indicate your account was involved in activities that violate our policy governing the sale of potentially infringing items."

Apparently Dell has begun selling refurbished items on eBay. Since then, they've started cracking down on eBayers using screen shots from dell.com for their auction pages. If you saw my post from a few days ago, you can see why this might be a large issue. All of those boxes are on my credit card. If I can't sell them, I have to pay for them. Scary thought.

Bleeding out the intelligence of the world

A thought: Let us generalize for a moment. The smarter a person is, the more likely they are to seek higher education: bachelors, masters, PhD, post doc. Statistically, the longer a person is in school, the longer they will put off starting a family. An example: I will be 26 by the time I have my PhD and I will likely be 28-30 before I have my first child, if not older. If I go for a Post Doc, that'll set that back even further. Now, the other side. The less intelligent and/or irresposible side of the gene pool tend leave school as early as possible. These high school drop-outs are statistically resposible for the majority of teenage pregnancies. One could argue that the cause and effect is reversed, but that attests to their irresposibility instead of their lack of intelligence. In either case, this group is reproducing during the ages of 13-19. This same group statistically produces more then the national average of 2.5 children.
Conclusion: The less intelligent/resposible (read: undesirable genes) of the world are reproducing at twice the rate of the intelligent folk, and they are having more children to boot. We are methodically weading out intelligence in the world. Darwin is turning over in his grave! Any thoughts??

Vorlon Technologies

Vorlon Technologies
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Most of you now that I've been an active eBay user since the online flea market was born. In fact, a girl that I was dating once exclaimed "I'm loosing my boyfriend to eBay!". Anyone know who said that? A bit of trivia for you.
Anyway, I've since upped the anti a bit. I've started my own company to exploit computer deals that I find on the internet. Mostly, I peddle in Dell and Apple merchandise. Most recently, Gabe has started to work with me and we have managed to increase our inventory three fold. The picture shows what we currently have in stock: 24" LCD's, 19" LCD's and Dimension 9100 Desktops.

Saturday Night in Lab?

Yes, its 8:00 PM, on what is likely to be the last warm Saturday of the year, and I'm in our lab babysitting giant vacuum chambers. Emily, my officemate, calls me up and informs me that a new rule has been instated in the Lab: pump downs must be babysat by 2 lab members at all times. There are conference paper deadlines due on Monday so several people in the lab are frantically running around trying to squeeze tests in around the clock. People are in the Lab at 3-4 in the morning then starting again at 8 the next day, and, as you can see, Saturday nights as well. I explained that I thought these expectations were unreasonable. The response I got was "this is what you are paid for". Not by my advisor/boss, but by a fellow gradstudent!
The Work-Aholics of America have gone from the anomaly to being the norm and even the expectation. The sane minded, family oriented folk are acquiring reputations of slackers and undevoted employees for rejecting 60+ hour work weeks. There is more to life then work. Several people in our lab exist only at work or in the bar. Now I enjoy my work, and I enjoy a trip the bar as well, but neither are my life's purpose. "To each their own", but don't force me to drown in research just because you do. If a journal paper falls through or a test fails, my world will not end. Life is too stressful as it is. Putting all your hopes and dreams in your professional career will only make it worse. If I miss a promotion or get passed up for some grant/award because I decided not to test at 4 in the morning then so be it, life will go on. The end result will likely only be that I make a little less money. Money obsessed folk, howerver, is a topic for another post. Look at it this way, i'm using that money that I would have earned to buy back part of my life to be lived outside the laboratory.

Another thruster picture

Another thruster picture
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Yet another thruster picture. oooh and ahhh at all the pretty colors.

Xenon Thruster

Xenon Thruster
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

This is Dean's Thruster running on Xenon. I thought people might like to see a picture of the rockets that we're working with. If you look up above the thruster you can see the cathode glowing purplish.

New Years Eve in Europe

Off to Sweden. Scott, Adam, James and I are headed to Scandinavia for New Years Eve this year. I just finished purchasing the tickets yesterday. We'll be there from the 28th of Dec - 5th of January. I have been pushing for a guys vacation overseas for awhile now, and quite honestly, i'm surprised that it is coming to fruition. Trying to coordinate schedules, acquiring funds, negotiating "leave" from significant others.. it was an uphill battle. It reminds me of High School when I was perpetually charged with organizing friday night parties. The only difference being that we are flying to this party instead of driving, and we'll be the only ones speaking English. My thanks goes out to our girlfriends for their understanding. Perhaps next year we can rendezvous in Rome for an all inclusive couples trip.

Glider Pilot Adrian

Glider Pilot Adrian
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

This is Adrian and I just outside Stockholm preparing for flight. I'm smiling and we haven't even moved yet :) The flight was more intense then I expected. At max we pulled a 4.2g turn. Adrian instructed me how to force blood into your head before the turns to prevent from passing out.

Food Fight!

Food Fight!
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Copper got in the middle of a food fight between Darby and I. That's mustard BTW.

(Half) Marathon

(Half) Marathon
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

My first half marathon was this past weekend. This is a photo from just after I finished. There was a full marathon run simultaneously as the half which started 13.1 miles behind on the same track. For those of you who don't know, a marathon is 26.2 miles long (The .2 being the little known fact). I didn't know that. I hadn't realized that they started us on 13.1 marker either. This became vital information when I sprinted to the 26 mile marker only to find that I had a fifth of a mile to go. That might not seem like much, but in the mentality of "Leave everything you've got on the field" I had left nothing for that last itsy bitsy chunk of pavement in between me and rest/water/food otherwise known as the finish line. I paid for that mistake dearly. Live and learn I guess. I exceeded my expectations though. I ended up placing dead center in the lineup of male half marathon runners. I had expected to place dead last, since this was my first attempt. Its amazing what you can push your body to do. It is equally amazing how your body will make you pay for it the next day.

Our Good Friend Dean...

Our Good Friend Dean...
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

This was at our Faculty, Staff, and Graduate student Picnic for the Mechanical Engineering department. Dean was about to head out on his bike. If you click on the picture, you'll be able to see that he scavenged a diet coke 20oz bottle so that he could fill it up with the beer purchased by the department for the picnic. He did this in front of all of the professors, advisors, and faculty members jut so that he would have some beer for the bike ride home.

Katrina

There have been several organizations that have been attempting to help bring relief to the victims in wake of Hurricane Katrina. Darby, for example, was approached by her Campus Ministry to donate health supplies. I also have heard of several organizations that are accepting donations on the radio. My question is: What do you think the best way to give support is? Money? Goods? Canned Food? Part of the dilema of donating to 'worthy' causes is choosing the organization that will use your donation most appropriately. So, any insight out there would be much appreciated.

Spam

Blog Spam?!?! I didn't even know such a thing existed. If you check the comments on my last post you will see two SPAM comments. The first one is somewhat disguised, the second isn't. Oh well, i'll leave the comments there for a little while for you to see. Say no to Blog Spam!

New Post!

It's been a week, and you all believed that you would never see a post again. Well here you are. I hope it lives up to everything you hoped it could be. If not send complaints to scapegoat@yahoo.com

Amazingly not much happens in a week of Jerry's Life. Adam Webb, my roommate, defended for his Master's Thesis last Friday successfully. Consequently we spent much of the weekend grillin' food, drinking quality beer, and throwing horseshoes at Makela's house. Good times had by all.

This week I've abused my body twice on the soccer fields playing Ultimate Frisbee. It is simply amazing how accurate these guys can throw. Which both suits my strengths and emphasizes my faults. I'm fast, very fast, even as an old guy (24 compared to the average age of 19 on the team). Also, I can catch most anything that comes my way. Coupled with a skilled Handler (frisbee-speak for thrower) I can make some awesome plays. But, after I make the catch, however skillful that might look, I then stand there with the inability to move the Frisbee any farther up the field. Everyone of these guys out there can throw: backhand, forehand, hammertoss, and more whose names I haven't even learned yet. As for me, I have a nice solid backhand... that's it. Which means it took two minutes for everyone else to realize this and block my backhand side solid. I stand there like an idiot until I attempt to pass using my backhand which inevitably is blocked, or I risk a forehand which at best flutters like wounded duck. I've become the 'End Zone' guy: Throw to him to score the point, but make sure he's in the end zone so that he doesn't have to throw it.

Ultimate!

Two weekends ago I had the pleasure of playing in a reunion game of
Ultimate Frisbee during the weekend festivities of Anna and Tim's
wedding. I don't believe that I've played since my senior year at
Alma and I had forgotten how much fun it is. When I got back up to
Tech I took the initiative to look into 'Ultimate' opportunities here
on campus. Turns out there is a semi-serious traveling team that
competes here at Tech called "Disco Tech". I got myself on the
mailing list and attended the first tryout yesterday afternoon. Off
the field, the group is lighthearted and nobody takes themselves to
seriously. On the field... well, common procedure is to run
through, over, or on top of anything that might be in between you and
the frisbee, which is a bit of a shock the first time you are
trampled by three guys wearing cleats! I wouldn't say they play
dirty necessarily, but rather the level of physicality expected is
closer to hockey game then a croquet match. On the same token, most
everyone is willing to sacrafice life and limb to dive for the
perfect catch without thought of consequence (i.e. pavement). All in
all, i think I held my own. Next practice is on Monday. Meanwhile,
i'll nurse my wounds. I think this might be part of the weeding out
process.

Guestbook again...

Ok fine... I've had some complaints about the tone of 'voice/writing' that i used in requesting people to sign my lovely guestbook. So now I am politely asking you to please take this time to sign my guestbook. Please don't make me resort to graveling.

GuestBook!

Hey you! Yeah you, the one ignoring the blinking button on the right. Sign my guestbook damnit. Most specifically, I want everyone to sign the guestbook who has a website/blog/online journal or any other public means of venting use(ful/less) daily events in your life. Just like you, I look for websites to waste time on, so help me out.

Achilles Knee

I'm signed up for a half marathon on Saturday September 10th. My knee, however, isn't on board with the rest of my body. I think i'm cardiovascularly (sp?) ready, but as the saying goes, i'm only as strong as my weakest link, which in this case is my left knee. Four days ago I attempted to run for an undetermined amount and my knee gave out at 3 miles. I had to walk the rest of the way Back. Yesterday, I ran 8 miles and my knee gave out around the sixth mile.. but I kept running anyway. That left me without the ability to walk around the house for the rest of the day. It wasn't until about 10:00 that I was able to hobble around. This morning, i feel fine. The only good party of all of this, is I always seem to bounce back quickly. Today I'm biking and tomorrow i'll give a shot at running 10 miles. We'll see how it goes..

Other news fronts: Katie Stone got her music teaching job at Waterford, and Scott got his job with Hazel Park. They are now looking for a place in the Rochester-Ann Arbor area. The gamble paid off for them. I was worried that this late in August there would be no way for them both to reel in jobs near each other in the Detroit area. I couldn't be more happy that i was wrong :) On a bitter note, how is it that they've managed to avoid a long distance relationship through everything?? oh well, not in the cards for Darby and I. She just moved into her new apartment, and starts teaching at Missouri State University today. She has two classes on 'Intro to Theatre' that she's instructing this year. Friends of Darby: Call her up and ask her how it went. She's a bit nervous and i'm sure she'd love to hear from you. Email me if you don't have her cell #.

Free Ipods

A lovely pyramid scheme it is too! Alas, I've gotten myself involved though. The girl who referred me DID in fact receive her iPod, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Each person has give five referrals to sign up. Click here to join!

Wedding & Boat Trip

I will do my best to get pictures from Anna and Tim's Wedding pictures up in the next day or two. Check back later.

Today Brad (my advisor) is taking us all out on his boat. Were headed out to Eagle harbor and cruising back down through Houghton. 30% chance of rain so lets hope it holds out for the afternoon.

Fluffy

To sign or not to sign, that is the question!

Regarding my last post: Yesterday, Scott interviewed and was later offered the Musical Director position at Baraga schools here in the U.P. 20 minutes south of Houghton. Half an hour later he was offered the chance to interview against 7 other candidates for a middle school position at Hazel Park. The picture is Scott on the phone discussing his "chances" with the assistant superintendent of Hazel Park schools. In the end he turned down the position here in Baraga in hopes of a job down state where he and Katie could live together. His interview for Hazel Park is tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon. If you talk to him, wish him luck!!

Job offers

Job offers
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

The great dilema

Big Fish!

Big Fish.jpg
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

A handout picture released Monday Aug. 1, 2005 shows Duncan Rooke, 32, left and Stephen Buss, 30, as they haul in a record-breaking catfish in the River Ebro, near Barcelona in Spain on July 6, 2005. The 7ft 7in, (2.3 meters) 212lb (96kgms) female fish is the biggest freshwater catch ever made by a British angler and nearly pulled 32-year-old gas engineer Rooke back into the river once he had hold of her. After weighing the fish and burping her to get rid of the air in her stomach she was released. Photo taken on July 6. (AP Photos/HO/PA)

GRRRR!!!

GRRRR!!!
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

I must have pissed off the Apple Gods severely last night. I woke up this morning at a customary 8:30 and decided to check my email. So I turn on myPowerbook only to have it blink this STUPID little icon at me. I attemptedto boot to the OSX Tiger DVD and found that the Hard drive is fried! [sigh] This is my punishment for gloating...

Isn't it beautiful?

Isn't it beautiful?
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

If only I really did own all three. In reality the smallest one on the left is the only one that is mine. The iBook in the middle is my Grandma's former laptop and soon to be my sister 'new' laptop. The iMac on the right is my Grandmother's replacement computer (2Ghz - 20" LCD - 250 Gb). I have the job of preparing the two computers for their new owners. But for a short while, they are mine! ALL MINE!

Copper's back!

I'm happy to say that copper is back this afternoon looking slightly skinnier but infinately healthier. I haven't talked to Webb to hear what the vet said yet. I'll update the post later.

A trip to the vet...

Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Copper got into a trash bag full of rotten camping food, primarily plastic wrapped cheese slices. He then threw it up in various locations around the house. Josh found him shaking on the floor of the dart room and got him outside where he began to seisure. I went to Fisher to get Webb and then all four of us headed to the Vet. The vet seemed very calm about the whole thing, as though it wasn't a big deal. She did mention that his temperature was 108.7 which is "very bad" but other than that, she didn't make it sound like it was something to worry about. He is to stay overnight in the vet where he will hosed down and covered with ice packs to cool him down. In the morning they'll run some blood work on him and give us a call. Its strange how routine she made the entire event seem. I'll update tomorow when I know more.

Kentucky Luge

Kentucky Luge
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

I'm testing my video capabilities. Click on the picture and see what happens. Post comments as to whether or not it works.

Nevermind, it doesn't seem to work. I was trying to using Yahoo briefcase for Webspace storage. Does anyone know a good place for cheap/free webspace to store files for webpages??


Also, Scott look over to the right. Notice anything new? Three things are different.

Logans

Logans
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Beer and bridge

Europe!

I'm in an internet cafe in London. I had no idea that the English used different keyboards. It's a pain in the ass! But the internet is only 1£/60 min. Today we visited Big Ben, West Minster Abbey and tonight we are going to see the Far Pavillions! Ooh.. ah 30 seconds.. bye!

Europe!

Darby and I are now in Europe. Aside from our stopovers in London and Amsterdam we have spent most of our time in the Stockholm area. Today we went to the Vassa museum were they have the worlds oldest sea vessel on display. The Vassa was a one of the Largest Swedish battle ships in the naval fleet. On its maiden voyage in 1628, it traveled 1300 meters (less then one mile) and sank at the first sign wind. It was found again in 1956 and resurrected almost entirely intact. I'll post a picture later.
Highlight of the trip so far was learning to fly a glider and pulling 100 degree 4g turns!! Next week we are taking a cruise over to Helsinki (Finland). I'll post as often as I have internet.

Fireworks

This was my first attempt at using my phone for Blogging. I took a picture with the phone and emailed it to the blog through flickr. Sure enough, it popped up there almost instantly (I later added this text). Now for $.25 per picture (cingular charges), I can post to the blog effortlessly!

FW: Fireworks
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Nicks graduation

Poll

www.Lab6.com

Capture_5
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Woo Hoo! I scored 1430! I should go to bed. Sleeping is more productive then this..

LaB6

LaB6 is the chemical formula for a substance called Lanthanum Hexaboride.  I critical component used in hallow cathode assemblies for hall effect thrusters.  Since barium impregnated tungsten is a depleting source of electrons over time, LaB6 is often preferred.  Just don’t touch the stuff, and I quote “may cause writhing, walking on toes with arched back, ataxia…”  etc.

 

Anyway, getting to the point.  I need some for an emissive electrode I’m trying to build.  So I googled it.  To my surprise Lab6 is also a very popular, very addictive Atari like game.  Head to www.lab6.com and you’ll see what I mean.  I highly recommend it.  … the video game that is.  Not to say that emissive cathode’s aren’t fun, they’re just not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’.  I sort of lost 20 minutes of the day when I found this.. oops.

 

John and Alana Phillips

6-18-2005 10-33-29 AM_0047 copy
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Some more wedding photos. Most of my photos of the wedding couple didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. This one has a nice lighting effect, but it would have been nice if I could have gotten some clearer ones. If/when people get their pictures back, email me some! Ironically, all of my photos of Ben looking awkward on the dance floor turned out just fine :) Sorry Ben, i'm sure it was the camera's fault.

John and Alana's Wedding

6-18-2005 1-11-07 PM_0144
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

A small selection of wedding photos. I threw one in there from the after party debauchery that took place in the hotel Suite, nothing too incriminating :)

Batchelor Party

6-11-2004 3-34-00 AM_0044
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

John Phillips' Bachelor Party was last weekend. Scott rented a limo for us to tool around in. Not a bad night overall. We started the night at Buck's Brewery for dinner. Then we headed to Dave & Busters where a serious amount of coin was dropped. The night ended at a bar in Rochester, who's name elludes me (I blame the 151). Click on the picture to see the rest!

Dean's Halloween Party

Dean's Halloween Party
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

I was arrested by the Banana Bandits!

2004-10-29 12-19-39_0003

Axel Crazy Frog

Axel Crazy Frog
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Everybody should see this video! Search google for "Axel Crazy Frog".

Yeah Baby!

Yeah Baby!
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

Darby and I in Detroit for Kelly's Birthday

2004-07-25 13-00-28

The smart Alarm clock

The smart Alarm clock
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

gotta love garfield

Elephants

2005-03-08 23-02-44_0001
Originally uploaded by jrossjr.

I hope that was obvious. One is Darby's, one is mine. Can you guess which is which? Vote on your favorite!

uh.. is this working?

I have a blog.. I think.