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!

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!

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!

I am in a mood of reflection, so here it goes.  This semester has been a busy one.  There was all the BH2O+ planning that went on, canvas group and general H2O activities (yes, I am old school and that is what 17three really is – the large group meeting for H2O), graduate school, and now moving.  This semester has been difficult as well.  I have learned where my limits are and I have had to reprioritize many aspects of life.  Also, for whatever reason God has, this has been the semester of humility.  I am learning to say no to people and I am going to be removing myself from various areas of responsibility.  All of this is to reprioritizing into how I need to be.  Serving God is always number 1 and family is 2, the fight is for the next few positions.  School needs to be #3 and I let it fall to last.  So this is me opening up and telling you that I am backing away.  The few of you who read this, whoo-hoo, you are now in the know.

The picture is of my pregnant fish.  She normally isn’t this bloated but I feel like that currently.  Sadly, her egg(s) were either still born or her and her mate ate them, not really sure.

Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!