Sep 24, 2006 - Three Fingers 2006

My hiking buddy Rex called me up to see if I would go with him to Three Fingers. It was a good idea, so on the weekend I got up at 4:30 AM, picked him up at his house and we were at the trail at 7:30.

Three Fingers is a tough 15 mile round-trip hike. But the views and the lookout cabin at the end really make it worth while. The trailhead is in the Verlot area near Granite Falls, WA.

2006_three_fingers0 Starting out. I tried to make my pack fairly light this time. We were planning to stay overnight, but I didn't take a tent because we would be in the lookout.

2006_three_fingers1 A couple of miles into the hike we could see the lookout peak on top of the third finger on the right.

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Aug 22, 2006 - Korea Business Trip 2006

In August 2006, I traveled to South Korea on a business trip. I had been in Korea in 1998 on a similar trip. My company was partnering again with the same Korean company, and I was there to do early testing to help make the integration process go more smoothly. Four of us were together on this trip.

We stayed in Seoul in a hotel that was in close walking distance to where we would work. I certainly could not have afforded this hotel! It was in one of the most expensive parts of the city.

2006_korea_trip0 This was the view out of my window. There were many large and impressive buildings. The land of Seoul is hilly and where it was very steep, it was left green and covered with trees. This added a lot of interest and beauty to the city.

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Aug 06, 2006 - Summer is Busy

It seems like most summers are busy. As I look toward summer each year I think of things I would like to do and each time when summer arrives, there seems to be many other things that must be done.

This summer there has been a major project at work for which I have been responsible. In addition I have been renovating a bathroom in our house. And I have been involved in a project to replace a rainwater drainage system at our church.

So much to do, so little time, I need a vacation! :-)


Aug 06, 2006 - What is Vacation?

I have heard it said of Americans that they work hard and play hard as well. They are accused of not knowing how to relax. Is a vacation's purpose for relaxation? Sometimes that may be true. And sometimes a vacation is just an opportunity to to do something different, something out of the ordinary.

Lately I had been very busy at work. Then I started renovation of an old bathroom in our house. And then I also started work on a significant project at our church replacing a rainwater drainage system.

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Jun 04, 2006 - Alan is going to Clarkston

This fall, Alan will be going to Clarkston University in up-state New York (Potsdam). I will be hard to see him go, but we are excited for him.

Clarkston is a good school. His major will be Aeronautical Engineering although his real interests are in super-cars (the Ferrari, Lamborgini type). High performace cars like this actually have a lot in common with airplane. There weren't any schools that had majors in super-car making, so this course of study is probably the best. And Alan will also be able to work on a car while he is there too.

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May 12, 2006 - Inglemoor Prom 2006

This year, both Alan & Andrew went to prom. Alan went with Lindsey Langdon and Andrew went with Tessa Paulson. They each went with a large group of good friends. Everybody looked wonderful and I am told that they had a great time.

20060512_Prom0 Alan & Lindsey came to our place first for some pictures.

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Apr 20, 2006 - Austin's character doodle

We have a game that we occasionally like to play in group. Everyone takes an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and folds it in thirds along the short dimension. Draw a head on the top third, turn the paper so the drawing is hidden then pass the paper to the next person. They draw a torso, turn the paper and pass it one. Then the last one draws the waist & feet. Only the connecting marks are seen between participants.

The result is very often hugely entertaining and sometimes amazing. We did this in the car on a trip last weekend. I was impressed with Austin's three separate character parts. They merged well, so I scanned them and made them into a composite!

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Apr 10, 2006 - Book of Matthew summary

There is a repeating pattern to what the Bible teaches about Jesus' good news (gospel). There is a part to believe and a part to do. The book of Matthew illustrates this pattern.

The book asks a major question to set up the first main point: Who is Jesus? (16:13-20, 22:41-46)

* We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the King. (1:1, 2:11, 3:17) -His kingdom is not of this world. (3:3, 4:8-10, 4:17) -His kingdom does not extend Israel, but replaces it. -His kingdom operates alongside the kingdoms of this world. (22:15-22) -The kingdom was established through death and resurrection. (16:21-27) -The kingdom does not operate by the rules of this world. (5:1-12)

* We must adapt the king's value system to be in His kingdom. -We must change the heart. (5:20, 15:1-20, 22:1-14) -We must extend the kingdom through our suffering and death. (10:17-42) -We must serve to be great. (20:20-28)

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Mar 29, 2006 - Luther College Orchestra

This evening the Inglemoor HS Orchestra opened for the Luther College Orchestra at the Northshore Performing Arts Center. Alan played in the Inglemoor French Horn section. Wow, what a show!

Both orchestras were very good. Inglemoor played Nimrod from the Enigma Variations and --- Dances. Luther had a full program that they reduced slightly. To try and fit it in without ending too late, they skipped the intermission. It was OK, but I see how an intermission aids not only the comfort of the body, but sustains the interest of the audience as well.

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Mar 19, 2006 - Lake Quinault

We stayed at Lake Quinault for a couple of days. It is in the Washington rain forest and gets several yards (meters) of rain every year. It only rained a bit of the time that we were there, so we were able to get out and walk a few trails.

20060319_LakeQuinault0 The lake was beautiful.

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Mar 11, 2006 - Finishing a UWB class

This website is the output of a project I have been doing for a class I have been taking at the UW Bothell. (Update: The project made an earlier version of the website.)

The project was to develop a piece of software using object oriented development techniques. The software built [an earlier version of] this website out of text source files. It used templates, Markdown text format and some custom interlinking syntax to produce the output you see here [the earlier version]. The web site builder tool was written in Java.

I am writing the final report and cleaning things up for presentation on Monday.

There is more functionality that I want to put into the website (and therefore into the builder tool), but I will probably re-implement the tool in the Ruby language for that.


Mar 09, 2006 - Problems in the World of Science

A faculty member at Purdue University was doing experiments with a form of "cold fusion". His work came under review by the school after a journal questioned its credibility. (Seattle Times story)

Cold fusion became public at a press conference in 1989 put on by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann. They claimed to have produced atomic fusion - the process that drives the furnaces of the sun - but inside a beaker on the desktop. It was exciting at first. However, when other researchers couldn't duplicate the advertised results, Pons and Fleischmann were sharply criticized. Their work had been publicized too early, before it was repeatable, and in a sensationalistic manner. The rest of the scientific community became incensed and rejected cold fusion as debunked junk science.

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Mar 04, 2006 - View of Mt. Rainier

mtn

It was very clear today and Mt. Rainier was fantastic. We can see it out of our living room window through a gap in some trees. However this shot was from the school yard across from our house.

The view from our house is more restricted, but still pretty good. This shot was taken last December.

mtn2


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