Ok, so yes… this post is over four months since the previous one… I realize this, I admit to it, so lets move on.  The last 4 months have been extremely busy and blogging is pretty low on the priority list.  So I am going to give you the brief and dirty update as to everything that has happened.

First of all, this past semester was the best semester academically I have ever had!!!  I got straight A’s.  Whoot-whoot!

Continuing with the school-themed discussion, research is going well.  I am working on making an umbrella program combining several other programs for a class that is being taught for the first time in the fall.  So far, I have one of the three main parts completely converted over.  Right now I am not changing the inner workings of the program but focusing on the user interface and changing it to make it uniform and aesthetically pleasing.

Continuing the good news concerning school, I now have a thesis topic!  I am going to be working on using the engine(s) of an aircraft to counteract a failed or missing control surface.  Basically, lets say the rudder (vertical part of the tail) gets stuck deflected 15 degrees to the left.  If the aircraft has an engine on each wing then you can counteract this imposed moment using a thrust differential between the engines.  For that 15 degree left stuck position, you would increase the power output of the left engine while decreasing the thrust of the right engine.  That’s the basics of what I am going to be working for my thesis.

Now for a change in pace – in the last four months I have been out of the US twice.  The first trip was to Greece with my friend Jen.  We arrived in Athens during the second government union strike on May 20th.  We toured around Athens for a few days, made our way up to Kalambaka and Meteora (one of the most beautiful regions I have ever been to), then back through Athens in route to Mykonos, then Santorini, finally back to Athens to fly home.  Given the purpose of this post is to inform you of what has happened over the past four months, I promise there will be a more detailed post later with more pictures (probably will be posted the same day that pictures are posted to my main site).

The second trip out of the country was to Montréal, Québec, Canada.  I went up there because the International Rotary Convention was being held there and my parents, aunt, and grandmother were headed that way and I figured I could take a long weekend.  Montréal is 11.5 hours from Morgantown by car and I greatly enjoyed the ride.  Also, this was the first time that I went out of the country and did not fly.  Yes… my Nissie is now an international traveler too haha.  As with the Greece trip, there will be a separate post with more detailed account of the trip when I post pictures from there on BeamerFoto.  I will say one thing… I think I would be willing to learn basic French to move to Montréal – such a pretty city.

So what all is still to come this summer?  Well, research wise I have to finish the program before the beginning of the fall semester.  I also want to have a pretty decent start on the thesis.  Travel-wise, there are two more smaller trips in store – one to eastern Virginia to visit with Troop 60 while they are visiting the BSA National Scout Jamboree, celebrating 100 years of scouting in America.  The last trip will be to Topsail Island, NC, for what has become the annual family beach trip.  There are a few other things happening too – like running a spotlight for the Castings Crowns concert at Chestnut Ridge Church this Friday night.

It has been will continue to be a fun summer!  Check back soon for updates!

Ciao! Ciao!

Greetings!  Yes, I realize that it has been a while since I wrote anything but that is because I have thankfully been very very busy.  During the first two weeks of the year I went through a very interesting time.  Five days before school was supposed to start I was 100% convinced that I was not going to be a student this semester.  I felt this way because, well, I felt I had been screwed over by the department and the university.  The next day, four days before class began, I get an email from the department academic advisor asking to see me.  Lo and behold I had received academic hours to cover my tuition costs.  I was a STUDENT once again!  The next day I interviewed for a graduate research assistantship (GRA) position.  The Tuesday after school began I accepted the position.  So within the course of a week I went from being an unemployed former student to a currently enrolled and funded student.

So since then I have been a busy little bee.  Between school, slowly starting research, college ministry stuff, and a few photo gigs and meetings… there has not been a lot of time for writing on here.  Luckily, I have been taking some time off.  The last three weeks I have been skiing every Wednesday night at Wisp, a local ski resort.  That is where I took the picture above.

So, in summary – 2010 is still just a baby but so far this year is going much better than last year.  Hope your new year is going well too!

Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!

Ok, so no judging.  I have recently discovered the group Owl City.  It is odd, I’ve only really listened to one of their CD’s and it isn’t that they have all that impressive lyrics but the beats just keep you locked in.

So yeah, Tidal Wave.  I was actually trying to listen to the lyrics and this song stuck out to me because of some issues that I have gone through lately.

I am not going to go into a lot of detail on those issues because, well, I don’t want to.  Not in this setting at least.  Lets just say that the last year to year and a half has been an interesting one in the life of Ricky Beamer.  I have often wondered if there was a light at the end of the dark tunnel that I have been walking and running through and getting hit by the lights of passing trains.  They illuminate everything, give you hope, and then bam.  In some ways I wish these were the old steam locomotives because then there would at least be a chance for a cattle guard that would just take out my knees instead of the blunt nose of a modern diesel-electric choo-choo hitting me head on.  Yes, getting hit by all these trains has been teaching many lessons – probably more than I have picked up on.

Insecurity has become something to tolerate.  Too many issues in the hands of others.  I am not a control freak but sometimes it would be nice to have the reigns of life for a while – or at least be able to see the map instead of darkness or fogginess.

The good news is that nearly all the pegs have been pulled out from under me – at least the ones that don’t involve death.  I will not say that I have shuffled the priority list completely but changes have and are being made.  Maybe the actual daylight at the end of the tunnel, that for so long I’ve needed a telescope to see, is approaching.  With a little luck, we will see what the weekend holds.

Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!

Two weekends ago now (November 20th and 21st) Chestnut Ridge Church hosted the 58 Conference.  This conference is geared towards middle and high school age kids from all over West Virginia to help them grow closer to God and help them love others more.

You might be wondering where this 58 comes from.  Is it the number of different groups that came?  Is it the number of people they have helped out? Is it the amount of food (in pounds or tons) that has been donated?  While 58 may be the number for some of these, that is purely by coincidence.  The 58 Conference gets its name from Isaiah 58 and God call for us to loose the chains of injustice, to set the oppressed free, to share our food with the hungry, and to see and learn how to let the light that Jesus provides in our lives shine brighter than ever before.

So how does one small conference accomplish all of that in a mere two days?  In all reality, part of October the whole month of November lead to the conference as its conclusion.  The conference hosted the 58 Food Drive and the Trick-or-Eat event.  On Halloween, kids and adults from all over the state went trick-or-treating in order to gather donations for the food drive.  All of the donations were given to the Mountaineer Food Bank, which distributes food all over the state to where it is needed the most.  Then at the conference there were several main sessions featuring people who just told their stories of what God has done in their lives.  These were then followed by small group break-out sessions where the kids could then talk about and process what they had heard and ask questions about everything.  In addition to this, the conference invites several non-government, non-profit organizations in to set up booths and talk with the kids about where they came from and what problem with the world they saw and are trying to fix.  Yes, all of that can be some pretty deep and hard to process, but there is also a lot of fun time in there too.  The kids were able to smash the fruit of injustice lead by the infamous Jimmy Justice and run through an obstacle course and just have fun.

My role with the conference this year was three fold: setup and provide multimedia services for the main sessions, stream the main sessions live through the wonders of webcasting, and find people to shoot pictures and video – and maybe put together a little something with the footage.  So, if you haven’t already, watch the video.

Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!

As many of you may or may not know, I volunteer with an organization called Nuru International.  This non-government organization non-profit is about bringing an end to extreme poverty in the world one community at a time through the empowerment of the people where extreme poverty is defined as living on less than a dollar a day.  Now, those are lots of fancy words and phrases, so what does this actually mean and why in the world would I even think about being a part of something like this?

I am a person that believes that everything is intertwined in an extremely complex patter that we simply call life and that what may look like a simple straight path (either physically or usually in my case mentally or logically) for one person is not the same straight line for another.  Therefore, in order to understand my answers to the questions above, I have to tell you a greatly condensed story first (for full story just ask me).  Basically, all of that is saying that the rabbit trail I am on actually tangents back into why I am involved with Nuru.

Several years ago I was at a concert and during one of the intermissions they were showing a video for one of the sponsor-a-kid groups.  During the video they showed a scene of kids pumping water from a well.  What I saw was the sparkling clear water from the pump first, then that faded out to the rest of the pump, which then faded out to show the kids jumping up and down to pump the water.  Basically, in that moment it dawned on me how lucky I am to be able to go to nearly any faucet and be able to drink the water that comes out of it.  I mean think about it, while everyone is so uppity about how bottled water is better than tap water, we are EXTREMELY lucky to just have TAP WATER.  Basically, that is when I knew I had to do something, somehow, to help fix this problem, to help bring water to those who don’t have it.

So what in the world does this little insight have to do with Nuru?  Nuru has five core areas of focus: agriculture, water and sanitation, healthcare, community economic development, and education.  These are broad but interlocked areas of a community.  Think about where you live.  I am sure there are schools there (education), some type of hospital or clinic (healthcare), tap water somewhere close by – probably within a hundred feet or so – and a bathroom with a device to flush away your wastes (water and sanitation), a supermarket or grocery store (agriculture), and some type of business (community economic development).  All of these are inter-related and key aspects to the community.  Furthermore, Nuru is not about just giving anything out or going in with preconceived notions of what is right or wrong. Instead, Nuru is about listening to the community and coming up with a plan of attack with the leaders so that they can take ownership of what they are doing.  In this way a dependency is not created and the community actually does bring itself out extreme poverty.

So, if you haven’t watched the videos yet, I highly recommend you do.  I am Nuru, so why aren’t you?

Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!

“Dance, then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he
And I’ll lead you all wherever you may be
And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he”

Sorry, no video this time around but if you click the play button above you will be treated to a very unique version of Lord of the Dance by Captain Tractor.  They are a unique Canadian band that I recently discovered and the CD that this song is off of is actually pretty good.  This song was not originally composed by them but was written in the 1950’s or 60’s and sung to an older tune.  It basically sums up Jesus’s life on earth from his point of view.  This song does not describe my life at the moment – a clamoring of anything together with the hope of rhythm and a few shinning moments of harmony and clarity would be a more accurate musical representation, but you can’t help but dance along to this rendition to the Lord of all dancing.

So I realized that it has been over a month since the last update – which means that I am on my usual par of writing.  Let me tell you, it has been so long mostly because everything else has been pretty busy.

There is the school work going on (and luckily midterms are now over), Nuru Student Org and Grassroots work, 17three activities, and a slew of other activities that have been keeping me rather busy.  Most everything everywhere is going well minus a few bumps along the way.  I will say that this past Friday, the 23rd, was an interesting day.  I had the lowest valley of at least the last three months and the highest peak in who knows how long, all in the span of 24 short hours.  The sucky part is now I am going to have to do a lot, and I mean a lot, of work to make and implement a workable solution to what brought about the low gorge.  At the same time, with a little hope and luck, maybe what brought about the high apogee will start to happen with an increased frequency.  It amazes me what God does in and through others regardless of the situations.  I have always known that I need to be conscience of His presence in every situation and I try to be – I just need to work on the reception sometimes.

Ooo.. and other random news: I am going to attempt to build a new rocket designed around breaking the sound barrier.  The name is still to be determined but it is going to be powered by the two highest powered G motors I can get a hold of – as well as learning how to cluster start motors, be as of minimal of diameter as possible, and will probably require me to learn how to fiberglass.  It is going to be interesting to say the least!

So, until next time – be it tomorrow or a month from now, Ciao! Ciao!

This is a video that I made for my troop back home.  This past summer we all went on an trip to Washington, DC.  From the leader’s standpoint, the trip was a test to see how an extended trip works and how the kids would behave.  Good news is that the whole trip went extremely well so much more adventurous trips are now being planned for the future.

The video was debuted this past Monday at the Court of Honor ceremony in front of the scouts, leaders, and parents.  It was received very well and they were even more ecstatic when they found out that they each had a copy to take home.

So enjoy! Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!

Image from Baking Bites

So the last couple of days have been interesting depending on what the topic is that we are discussing for me.  The moods have ranged from exhausted to upset to mad to happy to joyful.  Then today I received the weekly or bi-weekly newsletter from my home church and the main article really sums up my life currently.  So here it is in its entirety:

“Piece of Cake”

Sometimes we wonder, “What did I do to deserve this,” or “Why did God have to do this to me.” Here is a unique perspective on the matter. A daughter is telling her mother how everything is going wrong. She’s failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her, and her best friend is moving away. Meanwhile her mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a taste. The daughter says, “Absolutely Mom, I love your cake.” “Here, have some cooking oil,” her mother offers. “Yuck” says her daughter. “How about a couple of raw eggs?” “Gross, Mom!”

“Would you like some flour then? Or maybe some baking soda?”

“Mom, those are all yucky!” To conclude this conversation her mother states, “Yes, all those ingredients seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when we allow him to put these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and eventually He will make something beautiful out of our life! Romans 8:28 states, “All things work together for good to them who love the lord who are called according to His purpose.” Early in my Christian life I thought that this verse was saying that all things are good—but it did not take me long to find out that that was not true. It does say that in everything—even the most horrible and difficult times and situations—that good can come. But check out the qualifying statement. Bad things can work for good IF you LOVE THE LORD and you are CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. That makes all the difference!

Now put it all together and you have the key to happiness in this so often difficult world that we live in. Let the Lord finish baking the cake before you take a bite!

God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe and He chose your heart. I hope your day is a “Piece of Cake”—and just maybe, if you are lucky, it might even be carrot cake!

  — Bill Kidd

With a lot of things that have been happening these past couple weeks, this story has humbled me and reminded me that there are many things, good and bad, that go into making something spectacular.

So if you have been feeling like I have lately, remember that there are a lot of seemingly nasty things – such as raw eggs, baking soda, and cooking oil – that make a cake the wonderful treat that it is.  Believe it or not, you are God’s cake.

Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!

The other day I was talking with a friend when all of a sudden the conversation took a tangent down an odd road.  The topic shifted from what it was to “wow, look at how far we have come over the last 250 years” in terms of ease of communication.

Join me on this journey of thought, this initinere if you will.  250 years ago the primary means of long distance communication was by handwritten letter.  The letter left your hands, was entrusted in a messenger service, and was delivered.  The seal you placed on the back was much like a return address of our current system in that it allowed the recipient to know who it was from before actually opening it.  The seal also provided a way to verify that the contents had not been read or altered.  Other than face-to-face communication, the letter was the best form available.

During the early 1800s a new form of long distance communication was introduced – the telegraph.  This allowed connected towns to communicate much faster with one another.  Instead of the letter taking between several days or weeks or even months to reach its destination, this new invention, coupled with transatlantic cabling, allowed the message to be delivered in the matter of hours through use of Morse code.  Soon, through the help of the railroad companies, telegraph lines connected most cities and towns.

The next milestone came in 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell launched the telephone.  Now, instead of reading a message, you could actually hear the other parties voice.  What a marvel this must have been!  Imagine for the first time listening to a relative or friend’s voice who is in California when you are currently in Maine.

Around the same time that the telephone was being implemented as a standard utility in the United States, the next big step was making its presence known – television.  Although out of the cost range for the average user to broadcast themselves, for the select few actors, actresses, and hosts you could not only hear them but see them as well – in real time to boot (more or less).

What else could there be with all of these communication forms?  Ohh… so much more!  Lets fast-forward through the fax machine and the picture phone.

Welcome to the digital age!  With the increased popularity of computers and the decrease in price of internet connections, the world because digitally connected.  The forerunners were email and instant messaging.  Remember those?  With them you had the ability to send letters, documents, and short messages between specific people instantaneously and have conversations with people you have never met.  Then came voice-over-ip, which is a fancy way of saying that you talk into a computer, it converts it to digital data packets, and the receiver’s computer converts those packets back into a signal that is sent to your speakers.  basically, this was the evolution of the telephone.  Finally, with the increasing popularity of webcams being built into most laptops and computer monitors – you can broadcast yourself to the world with full video and audio support, making everyone a TV star!

There was one piece of technology I bet you thought i forgot about – the cellular phone.  I saved it for last at the risk of throwing off the chronological order of history because it is where the next big leap is going to be.  Introduced in the 1980s, cell phones work like landline phones except that they give you the ability to roam freely around town.  With their own unique number, you can be fairly certain that the person you dialed is the one who will answer.  Like all forms of communication, the early versions were very basic. Fast-forward to 2000 – cell phones are starting to take over the market.  They have become smaller, more feature rich, and have a greater networked coverage range.  Many even have small cameras built in.  As with computers, simple instant messages, or text (txt) messages, are becoming popular and allow the phone company to charge for a service that the phone has to do anyways.  Fast-forward again to 2009.  Many cell phones, from the expensive to the cheep, now offer the ability to connect these mini computers to the internet at nearly broadband speeds.  Most are being shipped with better and better cameras and support sending a picture to someone via text message.  They have become an indispensible utility to the <40 crowd.  They connect us to most parts of the world and allow communication, in real time, with people who are 1000’s of miles away, even on different continents.

So what will be the next step in the ever increasing array of communication mediums?  I think it is going to be having a video conversation with someone on a cell phone.  The technology is there but the networks cannot handle the necessary bandwidth required.  Once they can, I think having a video conversation with someone is going to seem as second natured as having a telephone conversation is now.  Then you will be able to see the facial expressions as well as hear the other party.  What is after that?  I do not know.  There have been some major developments with 3D imagining reproduction on computer monitors as well as particle displays.  Maybe someday there will be some optical nerve sensor that can detect and transmit exactly what we see to someone else allowing them to, quite literally, see the world through your eyes.  All of this is speculation, you never know what the future holds.

So, in closing, think about this, in the last 250 years communication technology has gone from handwritten letters to computers and cell phones.  In the 1000’s of years before then there was not such a growth of knowledge or communication.  The rate of increase truly is going at an exponential rate.  So what will the future hold?

Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!

Greetings one and all, I have two announcements to make.  First of all, after working tirelessly day and night, there are over 300 new pictures for you to look through from Alaska on BeamerFoto!  Simply go there and click on Alaska on the left.  Due to there being so many pictures, they have been split up into categories.

The second announcement involves a non-p rofit organization that I help out called Nuru International.  They have recently released a new video that proves that what they have been doing in Kuria, Kenya, is in fact WORKING!!!  Check it out!!!

Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!