Well, I broke down and signed up for a Pro account over at Flickr. The pictures and videos from Yosemite and the pics from Jeff and Marie's wedding are available there. I uploaded everything at 1024x768, but I have higher res ones if anyone needs them; I have all the Yosemite video clips in 720p, too.

In other news, just chilling out, enjoying the summer and trying to keep things on track at work. Got quite a few conferences coming up very soon, so we're hoping that our latest simulations do what we designed them to do.

I'll still be updating my 'Sights' page, but likely most posted galleries will be linked to my flickr account.

Hope everyone is having a pleasant June.

Well, updates to come. Jeff and Marie's wedding was wonderful. I got my new camera, so there are tons of pictures from that.

We just got back from Yosemite yesterday; I have a ton of things to post from that as well.... Chances are very good I'll be getting a Pro account on Flickr as I'm just too busy lately to really devote as much time to generating these photo galleries oldschool style; while the PERL scripts I wrote/use are very helpful, I still a have to do a lot of photo prep work that I think Flickr will speed up...so I will definitely keep you posted when that happens.

In other news, my laptop died tonight... apparently the motherboard is dead, or at least the phone tech thinks so after 1:15 of pointless troubleshooting... at least I agree with the assessment; It's my work machine, so we have the Dell super warranty... hopefully all will be fixed in the next day or so.

On another note, just growing older as usual. Work is fine. Re-evaluating personal life goals, etc. Tedious, boring discussions with self; realize I should probably start writing again to vent stress and anxiety.

Anyway, still tired from hiking for 4.5 days straight. Going to bed now.

The rest of the Chicago pictures are now up in the 'Sights' section. Brian also has some more pictures up on his flickr page (though most are from stuff he did on his own) here.

My new camera should finally be here tomorrow, so I will have to post new photos soon. Plus, Jeff and Marie are getting married this weekend, so I'm sure there will be pictures from that....

...and we're planning on camping in Yosemite next week...

Well, an update from Chicago. Been hanging out with Vicky, she's doing well and they seem to have a pretty nice apartment up here. We went and saw the play that my sister is stage manager for last night, it was pretty good. I have lots of pictures (and will have a ton more from the rest of the trip, too, i'm sure).

One highlight from yesterday is that we went down to Navy Pier and found the new Bob Newhart statue (click for larger images):















Well, I will report back later with more info.

Well, the 3 week update. Sorry. I thought having my RSS on my google home page would remind me to update things more often. I guess it didn't; I'm just too busy reading everyone else's RSS feeds to worry about my own.

So, what's been up?... uh.... working a lot, I guess.... Trying to publish things and such;running simulations and debugging things. Making neat research movies.

I got some sweet discounting at Circuit City on my wireless Rock Band guitar, thanks to their 'get a $24 gift card if we don't have your order ready for pickup in 24 minutes' deal and their general ineptitude.

I guess I'm about to order Grand Theft Auto IV....so that should be neat. I've been backlogged on games, though; I'm finally on the verge of finishing the expansion pack for Titan Quest. I have 2 yet-to-be-installed expansions for HOMMV sitting on my floor, and I still haven't quite hit the 'my-god-this-is-so-boring-and-repetitive' wall in Assassin's Creed on 360, so you know.... I have other stuff to play.

The difficulties here are compounded by our house's recent acquisition of a Tivo, so I also spend more time watching TV and then just going to bed during the week now than I once could in my youth. Apparently sleep is important to you know... working...in the brain...

Yeah. So...yeah... more to report later.

Well, not a huge update today, but whatever. I've gone RSS-ey. So check that out, subscribe, and then you can live in relative harmony with my sporadicity.

Well, we had a pretty good Easter yesterday. I'm posting a bunch of pictures to the galleries from Egg dyeing and Rock Band the night before as well as the festivities on Sunday from Megan's birthday brunch, Easter Dinner, the Egg Hunt, and the post-hunt party.

In other news, we're technically on spring break this week. So it's a nice week to work without any undergrads being on campus. Or at the gym. Good times.

Other things have been going well. We've gotten into full-swing mode with D&D, but we're having fun, and I think I'm beginning to be able to manage my free time more effectively as of late. Still trying to reserve time for reading and playing video games and cooking, etc.

On the TV front... we dropped Comcast digital cable. We're finally free of the shackles of their horrible, horrible DVR. We need a new DVR now, though, even though we're down to 35 channels....Fortunately, everything I want to see on cable is pretty much streamed free online right after the shows air, so all is well....the season finale of Frisky Dingo was on last night.... man, I love that show. The Season 1 DVD is on its way.

At any rate. I will keep you posted of other spring-time highlights as they arise. Later.

Well, daylight saving time starts in a few hours. I still hate it.

In other news, I still exist. Seeing as it's March 8^th I figured I ought to post some pictures from the holidays 2007, along with some stuff from my much more recent trip up to Portland to visit my cousin, Chris. And some random other pictures. Those are available, as usual, in the 'Sights' section.

Other news... lets see... well, I've officially decided to stick around here at Berkeley as a PostDoc through the fall. So that should be a rewarding extension, I think, in terms of the additional publications we'll be able to do, the extra research we can pursue, and the various conferences I can attend/speak at.

On the home front....Spending way too much time playing D&D lately. I also bought Rock Band for XBOX 360. Those combined are taking up the majority of my leisure time.

Anyway. I didn't really make a New Year's resolution this year, but I have been making a concerted effort to do the things I haven't done in California/Berkeley/The Bay Area before I may or may not move to another state in 2009. We're planning a trip to Yosemite in June; I've been trying to hit up the restaurants and bars I've always thought about going to... and there are a ton of things in SF that I've neglected... namely the museums, symphony, etc.

I'm sure future posts will be dedicated to some of those adventures. Anyhow. I have to finish up the photo galleries now so I can post them before anyone realizes there's nothing new in the 'Sights' section.

I really will try this time to post before a month from now.

Well. Happy New Year a whole month late. We went and saw Kids in the Hall tonight and last night (for a 'rare performance' and panel discussion, respectively). It was a lot of fun. I have a lot of things I should post here, mostly pictures for the holidays, but I've been pretty busy getting back into the swing of things here at work. Had a great time in TX and PA, though. Vicky moved to Chicago; she's on tour doing children's shows at the moment. Mom and Dad got some new recliners; hung out with family and friends; Grandpa and Zee are doing really well. Played a lot of rock band. Bought a new TV. Good times. More to follow. Hopefully in less than a month from now.

Well, another month has flown by, and 2007 grows closer and closer to its inevitable end.

In other news, Monica and I went to see Ghostland Observatory last night. It was awesome as usual. They had an awesome laser system:

LASERS!!!!

Anyway. I've been working and playing Mass Effect. That is pretty much it. Oh, and we made this thing. That was fun.

Later.

Big 'ol update today. So, I've added a couple of galleries to the 'Sights' section, including one for Yoshie and Gary's wedding, one for my recent trip to Seattle, and one from the get-together I had the other day where I made a ton of Hungarian food and finally opened the last few Bottles of wine I brought back from Hungary (from Bela's cellar).

So, check those out.

Some hightlights... in Seattle, I got to meet up with my friends from back in the day in Corpus.... Scott Stender and George Hickman, neither of whom I'd seen in several years... so that was cool:



We were up in Seattle for AVS... which as I've mentioned before is the big annual conference for our research group. This year, I also decided to enter their art contest. Here was my entry (click on it for a larger image).

The printed version was ~ 13 x 19 inches. I didn't win, but the top 3 entries are in the photo gallery. I guess they were ok.

The Hungarian food turned out quite well. I made a few things I had over there in Hungary that I thought were pretty good representations. The fried pork cutlets I made were a tad too thick, but they tasted pretty damn good. The Lángos was close; I made it a bit smaller to accomodate the large number of people I was feeding. Anyway. Check out the full gallery for commentary on what all I made.

Well... I'm heading out. Later.

Well, things have continued to be busy. I've been working during the week; trying to chill out when I can on the weekends. I picked up Halo 3 a couple of weeks ago. It's a pretty fun game, though nothing special. I also preordered the 'Orange Box' for PC, so I've played a bit of the Team Fortress 2 beta... it's a ton of fun; haven't played in a few days, though...

AVS is coming up next week in Seattle... I'm in rush mode at the moment trying to get everything pulled together for that; we're having a big practice run-through for all of our talks on Thursday, so hopefully that will go well and I won't have much to do before we leave next Sunday. At any rate.

We've been suspicous for a few weeks now that one of the night custodians at work has been stealing beer, etc. out of our fridge (not that we usually keep beer in there, but there were some left over after practice quals, etc)... they mysteriously vanished. And we know someone has been using one of our computers... long story short, we set up a motion sensitive webcam. Got this free software package called 'dorgem'. seems to be pretty cool. Picutres will be posted automagically here.

Once again, today was the annual Solano stroll. It was an enjoyable walk, as per usual. In a rather unusual twist of events, this weekend has been very sports heavy for me. Not that I'm opposed to sporting events in general, I've just found myself watching a relatively large amount this weekend. Yesterday was the veritable marathon A&M/Fresno State game. Ags pulled it out 47-45 in 3^rd overtime. It was stressful, but a good game. Then, last night, we watched UFC 75 on Spike. That was mostly entertaining, though there was a tad too much wrestling and not enough face punching for my tastes. But I guess the guys were skilled, and it was a decent way to spend the evening. Right now I'm watching the Bronocs/Bills game on the ol' DVR. I haven't looked up the final score yet, but I might do so, thus possibly freeing up the next few hours for playing BioShock. (Still taking a liesurely stroll back through for the last few acheivements).

Well, I'm out. Later.

Happy September. Time as always...flies, as it were.

Things of recent note:

Yoshie and Gary got married on Saturday; it was a really nice ceremony and the reception was fun. Here's a picture of the happy couple:



I have a few more pictures that I'll have to put into a short gallery when I get the chance. Kasi should be putting together some of her pictures at some point too, so I'll have to link back to that when I can.

In other news, I beat BioShock yesterday. It was a phenomenal game. I quite enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who's got a 360.

Well. I did a bit of work earlier today, but I'm going to chill out for a bit and enjoy the rest of my labor day.

Later.

Well, as usual, I have neglected to update the ol' blog in a timely fashion.

Anyway. Things have been going well at work, and I've been spending my free time lately playing XBOX and sleeping. We've continued on with the Hungarian cooking, though I don't really have any additional pictures to post. We made a pork stew of sorts the other night, which turned out quite well. Fish stew is next on the docket, though that will require a bit of planning (since I don't want to break the bank buying a whole fish... probably head over to Ranch 99 at some point and get a live something or other.)

Bioshock comes out on Tuesday. I've played through the demo that was release on XBOX Live last week about 5 times at this point. I can't wait to go and pick up my preordered copy.

We went out into the city last night for 80's night dancing @ the Cellar. I realized once again that dancing (when no cover charge is involved) is a lot like organic chemistry lab was for me in undergrad. I dread going, but once I'm there I remember that I really enjoy it. Anyway. It was fun.

We went and saw Superbad this afternoon. It was entertaining. Michael Cera was, as always, quite hilarious.

Well... off to play some XBOX and then Power Grid or somesuch.

Wow. I guess I got a bit sidetracked for the past 3 weeks or so.

I read all 3 of the currently available (in English) books from the 'Night Watch' Tetrology.... Can't wait for 'Final Watch' to come out in the US.

Shortly thereafter, Harry Potter got here, so that was another few days of not much else happening.

Ric was out here on business, so I spent some time hanging with him in SF. We took the standard tour and then went and saw 'Sunshine', which I quite enjoyed...

So, yesterday was my Birthday. We had a few people over for boardgames and hanging out. Ric came in to Berkeley, and Dakota came up from Mountain View (he just also happened to be out here in the Bay Area):



Johno got me a sweet Transformer action figure (Blackout, from the movie... he's got rotating helicopter blades!!!!)... sort of transported me back to my childhood.

Mark made a cake for our standard Lab birthday celebration.... it was a spice cake w/ cream cheese frosting and blackberries. Really tasty.

Jeff and Marie made a cake, too, and brought it over last night. I was pleased to see they followed a traditional Hungarian recipe for Dobos torta, though without the crazy-fancy candy top; but it was delightful nonetheless (mmmm walnuts and chocolate buttercream)...:



Speaking of which... here's a long delayed picture of the stuffed cauliflower (töltött karifol) I made for Chris's potluck b'day dinner a few weeks ago...



It was stuffed with a mixture of ham and sour cream; the sauce was sour cream, parmesean, and paprika.

But back to the b'day festivities...the most surprising news from yesterday is that Ric, Rebecca (and Ramona) and Nick and Amy pooled their resources and got me an XBOX 360 for my B'day!!! Totally Awesome! Thanks so much again guys!!!! So now I'm siphoning money out of my 'I really wanted a Wii for the past 6 months but still haven't seen one in the store' fund to get some sweet stuff for the XBOX. Btw, Amazon has a great deal on the 12 month XBOX live gold account (in a bundle that comes with the camera and some other crap). Anyway. I'm going to go play with that a bit more before bedtime.

Later.

Well, the past week was eventful. We went and saw 'Transformers'... freaking awesome. Went and saw 'Live Free or Die Hard' ... also freakin' awesome.

The verdict is still out on whether or not we'll be going to an advanced screening of the new Harry Potter next week, but it's a distinct possiblity.

I started reading the Night Watch series (Russian sci-fi... you may have seen/heard of the recent movie adaptations)... I'm about a fourth of the way through the second book... quite good.

We took another stab at some Hungarian dishes this weekend. I made dinsztelt vörös káposzta (braised red cabbage)..:



Brian decided to make hortobágyi palacsinta, which were meat-filled palacsinta (crepes)... basically a finely diced chicken paprikás filling... I whipped up a batch of palacsinta while he was tending to the meat:







It turned out pretty well; I also put together a quick cucumber salad. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal.



I'm not sure what the next adventure will be, but I'll keep you posted.

July already.

Spent most of the weekend chillin' out. Went and saw 'Ratatouille' yesterday (highly recommend it); watched 'The Devil's Backbone' and 'Celebrity' today (I've been taping stuff off of IFC again; they were both enjoyable)...

I received my copy of Culinaria Hungary in the mail yesterday; I've been going through planning out some stuff to make for people in the near future (and to find things I had on our trip).

Today I made lecsó. Basically, it's onions, tomatoes, and peppers, and then you can embellish it with other ingredients... I made the version w/ eggs, which I had for breakfast in both Pincehely and Szeged. You start out (as most Hungarian dishes do) by sauteeing some onions, then you add paprika and peppers and salt, and let it simmer covered for ~10 mins, which gives you something like this:



Then, you add tomato, cook until the tomatoes are soft, and then add the beaten eggs, which gives you a final product that looks like this:



Bread can be used to sop up the extra juices... for my first attempt, I think it came out pretty close to what I had in Hungary (though I may have added too much egg for the amount I made; I used mildly freezer-burned frozen bell peppers, and olive oil instead of lard).

Regardless, it was a damn tasty Sunday breakfast.

At any rate, I'm excited about trying some more recipes; I certainly brought back enough paprika to keep me cooking for a while. There are plenty of food related memories from my trip that I want to share with the folks out here, so...

Otherwise, the Post-Doc is going well, and summer is upon us; Looking forward to getting some work done and grilling on the weekends.

Later.

The commentary on the Hungary trip is finished! Check out the 'Sights' section for the whole story (you have to view the 'full gallery' to get the comments, which might be cumbersome on dialup...sorry mom).

Last night Jeff and Marie threw their long awaited Arrested Development party... I also added a short gallery from that (also in the 'Sights' section).

I went as graft-versus-host Tobias...



This lead to a moustache...



... which lead to the rare event afterwards of me shaving completely.



The beard will be back soon.

Enjoy the pictures! I'm out!

Well, I got through the commentary on the first set of pics from Pincehely and the trip to Ozora. I will do the rest this weekend. But you can start with those first two in the 'Sights' section for the time being.

Jeff and Marie are having their long discussed Arrested Development party this weekend, so we're all excited about that.

We did some rearrangement on the cable/modem and managed to get everything working smoothly, including On Demand... so for once I actually am not at all pissed at Comcast. Odd.

Anyway. I've got an early teleconference tomorrow morning, so I'm off to chill, catch a bit of Conan, and then get some rest.

Later.

Well, I'm back. We got back to the US on Monday, actually, but it's been a busy week.

Vicky went back to Texas on Wednesday, and I've been trying to get some time-sensitive stuff at work squared away.

At any rate, I have just added all of my pictures from Hungary to the 'Sights' Section. I've tried to keep everything in the chronological order of our trip. I have a ton of comments to add to the full galleries, but this will probably not be done for a few days....Though, most of you reading this are probably either getting descriptions from me in person, from Vicky in Texas, or in the case of Chris, were there when they were all taken

Anyway. It was a great trip. The last few days in Pincehely were awesome. We ended up leaving almost all of our toiletries in Hungary to make more room for wine and gifts. There is enough paprika in my cabinet to last for quite a while; I will have to cook for people with it soon. Julia gave me an awesome mandolin (the kitchen utensil, not the instrument), so I should be able to make perfectly sliced cucumbers for cucumber salad now, as well. Hooray.

Well, I'm off to take a nap and hopefully get over the very tail end of this jetlag before work on Monday.

This will be the last update until I get home.

We're at an internet cafe in Budapest. Trip is pretty sweet thus far. We had some kickass palacsinta in Eger, and of course the wine was totally awesome. We spent some time in a cellar there that was originally built in 1777. So that was kinda a trip.

Anyway. The city of Budapest is beautful, but I'm looking forward to getting back to the village (Pincehely) to visit with our family for a few more days before we leave. We're heading back there tomorrow morning, and then back to Budapest on Sunday to catch our flight back to the states early monday morning.

We went up to the palace and stuff on the Buda side of the river last night, that was really cool. Today we're mostly checking out the Pest side. So it will be a whirlwind voyage. Anyway. I will be back soon.

Well, Szeged has been a blast.

We're having a garden party this afternoon at my cousin's host family's place.

Tomorrow, we'll be off to Eger and the rest of our trip. We went to the thermal baths here yesterday, which was awesome. Quite relaxing. Anyway. I will post more later; Pictures will get posted when I return on the 11^th. Later.

2007-05-31-- 01:52 PDT (10:52 local time)

Greetings from Szeged!

Our first 5 or so days in Hungary have been great. My stomach is coping, though the massive influx of paprika, rooster, fried pork, palinka (that's basically a moonshine/fruit brandy) and wine has been a tad overwhelming. Vicky is doing ok, I think because she's shown a bit more restraint (and is a pickier eater). We spent the first several days in Pincehely with our family there, and are now staying with our Cousin's host family here in Szeged for the next few days. Afterwards, we're headed to Eger, Budapest, and then back to the village (Pincehely) for a few more days before heading back to Budapest finally to come back to the States.

Anyway, I have a ton of pictures thus far, and I will have to post one or two when I have more time (we're at my cousin's friend's house at the moment).

I will report back later...

2007-05-25-- 10:19 PDT

Yes, I have lots of pictures to post....

But I'm about to head out the door, hop on BART, and then catch a plane to Hungary for ~2 weeks.

I'll be back June 11^th with a ton of photos and stories.

Peace out.

2007-05-18-- 23:31 PDT

Done and Done....and I mean done.

Dissertation is filed. Commencement is tomorrow at 14:00 PDT.

Congrats to Vicky, her graduation was last weekend; to Lindsey, graduated HS 2 days ago, and Christina, graduated college today.

The family is in town; Vicky and I leave for Hungary a week from today.

I have a ton of boonville pictures to post and a handful from the trip back to TX.

Here is one to tide you over:



I will post again before we take off next week.

Peace Out.

2007-04-30-- 16:12 PDT

Well, I gave my dissertation to my committee today. Now I will wait. I should be on track, though, which is nice. 241 pages. I need to make the Table of Contents, etc, still, but that shouldn't be too horrendous.

Uh.. so, what else has been going on... Not that much, I guess. Our big server at work crashed; we're going to do a rebuild, which will be nice since I'm getting excited about my PostDoc research stuff, which we've already started running. Right now I'm simulating making tiny holes in stuff. Fun.

Ric and Rebecca had their baby girl, Ramona, a few days ago. Congratulations, guys! I can't wait to get back to Corpus to see her.

Vicky and I are trying to solidfy our plans for our trip to Hungary in June. I'm getting excited about that, now that I can think more than a day or two in advance.

We got tickets to see Conan out in SF... I guess we're going to the Wednesday show, w/ Robin Williams. It should be decent, I hope, but today is Will Arnett and George Lucas, which I think I would have enjoyed quite a bit more. So... if you don't watch Conan normally, check it out Wednesday night and see if you can see Johno and I. Speaking of which, we have a lot of crap up on our youtube channel now. So, enjoy....

Anyway. I just renewed my website registration for another year or 2 (I'm not sure which, it was automatic), so we'll be around for a while yet. I guess that means we just hit our 2-year joevegh.com anniversary on April 25^th. Yee-hah!

Well, I'm out. I will report back on Conan, and Boonville 11, which is this weekend.

Peace out.

2007-03-29-- 00:17 PDT

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth.

I'm just writing my dissertation.

I will be back in full force after I get a decent working draft finished.

Boonville May 5^th. Vicky's Graduation May 12^th... or 11^th... filing deadline... May 18^th...my commencement May 19^th...

I'll keep you posted as time allows, between work, sleep, and Titan Quest.

2007-03-08-- 21:41 PST

Hey! Website!!!!!

It's been a long time, yeah, I know.

sorry.

I've been crazy busy with research, etc, etc.

My cousin Jeffrey got married. My cousin Jenny had another kid. Hooray!

300 comes out this weekend. That should be sweet.

Here's some stuff we did. With liquid nitrogen.

Anwyay. I'm out.

2007-02-16-- 02:07 PST

Got to have dinner and some beers with Bryan tonight:



It was fun times, and good to see him.

Well. I am going to bed.

2007-02-14-- 01:47 PST

Well, it's my least favorite day of the year.

Fortunately I've been too distracted with work and Battlestar Galactica to really care.

Also, I got a sweet new phone. So. Anyway.

More updates later. My good friend Bryan may be in town this week, so that will be cool.

And I've got a few things lined up for the weekend. Let's just hope the weather cooperates.

Later.

2007-02-04-- 13:03 PST

Super Bowl Sunday.

I went down to Mountain View Friday night to hang out w/ Dakota and Adam.

Here's Dakota in an owl mask:



We hung out for a bit and played video games and drank beer and filmed short films, etc. So it was a good time. Some more pictures are up in the sights section under the Jan/Feb 2007 link. The first set is from a trip we took to Toronado last weekend.

Anyway. I'm going to fold my laundry now and then go over to Jeff and Marie's for the commericials.. err, I mean, game....

yeah... game...

2007-01-29-- 33:47 PST

Dear Lord, January is almost over.

The weekend was fun. Ate at a new brunch place called the 'Guerilla Cafe'. They sell/serve a hot sauce there, the proceeds of which go to the Black Panthers. So, that's cool, I guess. The waffles were damn good.

Aside from that, I hung out, did my taxes, watched a power transformer explode, etc....Spent a bit of time in the city. Went to Toronado again, went and saw year 3 of the 'Animation Show', which was quite good.

Played some more 'Power Grid'.

Things are still busy at work. I realize now I'm probably entering an era where I'll always be busy at work from now on...

Hooray..?

I'm going to bed.

2007-01-22-- 18:19 PST

Well. Work is trucking along. Not much new on that front. Working on writing stuff for publication/dissertation. Trying to figure out what to do after graduation, etc.

In other news, we got to borrow my friend Mark's Wii this weekend. Good times....I tried getting one myself about a week ago, but my insider information on shipments received, etc, was a tad out of whack.. so... no yet... but soon hopefully...

Yesterday we played a huge game of Carcassonne (6 players, all the expansions). It was a lot of fun:



It only took 4 hours, which was less than I had feared.

I recently played another board game called 'Power Grid' that I quite enjoyed....it seems like it could provide for some epic gaming nights.... we'll see.

Anyway. I'm going to chill out, see if I can figure out how much money this new Federal Long Distance Excise Tax Rebate could net me, and then probably watch some TV and go to bed.

2007-01-14-- 21:49 PST

Xmas pics are now up in the 'Sights' section.

I also added a link there to a video sequel to last year's scuffle between my sister's and cousin's dogs...which features some choice background auido profanity during a game of cranium we were playing. So... have fun with that.

In other news, I went and saw a lecture from Bill Nye at the planetarium yesterday, which was cool.... I have also been chilling out for most of the weekend.

I am going to continue to do so now.

2007-01-10-- 14:51 PST

Happy New Year!

Well, I'm back at work in Berkeley. Data collection is progressing... slowly.... so I'm sitting here waiting and trying to get my bearings on the research as I left it 3 weeks ago.

In the meantime, I've created this map of my road journeys in Texas over the break from my old stomping grounds in Corpus up to Dallas/Fort Worth via College Station to visit Ted and my cousin Becky.

For whatever reason, I included various waypoints of family gatherings, get-togethers with friends, bars that were frequented, important restaurants and highway exits necessary to map the right routes, etc...but I've just gone with nearest intersections in case people didn't want their addresses listed...(what...I said the data collection is slow...I'm bored):


(click the image to navigate around)

Anyway.

Pictures to follow.

2006-12-31-- 17:33 CST

Well, it's been fun so far. I will, of course, have a full set of pictures when I return... but here's a small taste...

First off, we had a stuffed goose for xmas dinner:



Vicky and I, were, as usual, very enthusiastic about our mom taking pictures while we decorated the gingerbread cookies:



Dad and I put together a sweet nozzle for 2-liter diet soda and mentos stuff (it has a removable nipple):



You can check out a video of it in action with a bottle of fresca here.

Of course, I've been taking tons of pictures of the dog (Zhou Mei).... Here she is with a comically oversized bone (and looking quite jawa-esque...wootini!):



I just last night made some new gummy candy....I think there's a pic in the galleries someplace of my reindeer and gingerbread men molds... this new stuff is pretty awesome... it's like, jujy-fruit level of chewy... but apparently it's more of a (very) viscous liquid than a solid... as you can see after resting over night, they've lost their original shapes....:



And, finally, here's the obligatory family photo (though we're several short)....



Anyhow... more to follow after I get back on the 9^th. I'll catch you all in 2007.

2006-12-25-- 17:25 CST

Merry Xmas to everyone!

Well, my first week home has been pretty good. Saw some people, hung out, etc. I spent a bit more time shopping than I had planned, but it worked out. Got a few things I needed; a new suit, a beard trimmer, some DVDs, etc...

We're just sitting around right now waiting for our Christmas goose to finish roasting....watching 'Spaceballs'.

My sister got a comically large rawhide bone for her dog, so I'll have to post pictures as soon as I have some photo editing software at my disposal (I'm currently on my mom's new laptop from work; Corpus apparently has city-wide wireless access now, which is nice....anyway).

Well, I'm off to chill out. Hopefully we'll be able to corner a Wii in the next couple of weeks before I go home.... that would be sweet.

Later.

2006-12-18-- 18:23 PST

2 weeks. Sorry.

But, I've been busy getting ready for the Holidays. I leave tonight for Texas. So there will be plenty of forthcoming pictures, but updates may be more seldom (or possibly more frequently, depending on what's going on.)

My latest endeavor has been a holiday claymation for the Jiggsblog where, as I mentioned before, my web-based alter-ego posts from time to time.... anyway... Jiggs and I star in this traditional holiday heartwarmer.... It hasn't been posted to the web just yet, but I will add the link onto the bottom of this entry as soon as I find out what it is. Here is a teaser, though:



Well. I've got to finish packing and burn some stuff to CD. Later.

* * *Update* * * Here's the link. Track me down in Texas over the holiday and I'll have the unedited, uncompressed version...Cheers

2006-12-04-- 23:59 PST

Thanksgiving pictures are up now in the 'Sights' section.

In other news, I've been playing Psychonauts on the PC... fortunately it was available for direct download on Steam, as most places apparently no longer carry it. Anyway.... quite fun.

Well, I'm off. Later.

2006-12-01-- 10:44 PST

Wow. December already.

Well, I gave my colloquium talk on Wednesday. All went well. I'm just trying to take care of some other stuff before we submit this older paper for publication...I'd like to get that done before the holidays.

I have Thanksgiving pictures that I'll have to post, when I get the chance.

In other news, we're starting up another Diplomacy game in a week... gonna be a single-day affair. It should be fun.

Anyway. I'll write more this weekend.

2006-11-23-- 00:23 PST

Well, Thanksgiving is nearly upon us... the brisket is marinated and rubbed... waiting to be cooked:



More pictures will follow soon... Anyway....

I'm giving my departmental colloquium talk next Wednesday... that's pretty much the last real requirement of the program other than submitting my dissertation... so... I guess that's cool.

Well... I'm going to chill out for a bit and then get some sleep so I can get up and cook.... I added a gallery of photos from Kienitz's recent visit to the 'Sights' section. Enjoy.

2006-11-18-- 22:55 PST

13 days later...Oops.

I've been pretty busy this past week with the AVS conference, so I haven't updated much.

Kienitz is in town. I'll have some pictures later.

The new James Bond was sweet.

Well, anyway. I think we're going to go roam around Berkeley a bit and find some food. I will report back here later.