Archive for General

Aug
05

Ted and Karen Wade Wedding

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I came across an old reel-to-reel recording of my parents wedding. July 8, 1956.

Ted and Karen Wade Wedding

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Sep
04

Paper Jam

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When providing technical support you get some pretty interesting support calls.  One of the most interesting was when Mark Janke called and said that his printer wouldn’t work.  There was some type of paper jam.  Upon investigation we found a small snake which had escaped from the biology lab curled up tightly deep inside the printer.  Snake 1 – Printer 0.

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Aug
28

Completed Teardrop

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This summer we moved to Blue Mountain Academy in Hamburg, PA.  We enjoyed the trip with our new Teardrop.  Many thanks to Jared Brophy, Mark Janke and Nathan Henson for their help during the building process.

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Aug
27

Photo Phun

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I had some fun with photography the last couple days.  First, I took a high dynamic range (HRD) picture of the girls dorm here at Blue Mountain Academy.

Simply put, HDR merges three or more photos.  It takes the best of each to make the shadow areas visible and the overexposed areas have color and textures.  Here are the three images I used to create the one above:

I also took an HDR image of the BMA Church entrance.  This was taken in the evening just after the sun went behind the mountain.  The glow was still on the church steeple and the sun was still shining on the clouds.

This morning there was a beautiful sunrise with fog in the valley.  I grabbed my camera and tripod and went to the window and took some pictures.  The result as really surreal!

I showed this to students in the photography class there at BMA today.  They didn’t believe it was really a photograph until I showed them the originals on my camera.

Last night, I decided to do some night photography.  It was a blast!

These were all timed exposure without anything but existing light.  Then I got to thinking about putting myself in a picture…

Ah! The fun you can have with timed exposures…  But what about HDR at night?  Hmmm…

Hmmm.  What to do next?

Categories : General, Photography
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Oct
24

Namu Project

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We have a new web site for the Namu Project. You can view it at namuproject.org.

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Mar
22

Dear Tish

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Tickets

Tickets

While an 8th Grader at John Nevins Andrews Elementary School in Takoma Park, Maryland our class performed a play called Dear Tish which chronicled letters home from a Civil War soldier.  Our Social Studies Teacher, Lydia Chiomente, put a lot of work into this play and really made it a production.  As I recall there were 2-3 performances of the play and you had to have tickets to get in – a big deal for 8th graders.  At the end of the year Mrs. Chiomente let me keep a copy of the play.  I don’t know how many copies of the play there may be out there still, but I decided to scan my copy and share it – at least for memory sake.  As far as I know, Mrs. Chiomente wrote this play herself.  If you remember anything more about this, please comment.

Dear Tish Sript

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Feb
28

The Namu Project

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Namu is a small island on the Namu atoll in the Marshall Islands. The Marshall Islands are located just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator.

marshallmap namu

Need

While the per capita GDP for the Marshall Islands is only $2300/year it is mostly made up from the US government and has little impact on the remote islands such as Namu. We have operated a 2 teacher school there in the past but it has been difficult to recruit student missionaries and the islanders have struggled to pay the $10-15/month tuition rates.

Additional Mission Opportunities

Global Missions Pioneers to turn Namu into a training center for reaching the other atolls.
Medical Evangelism
80 hp Marine Diesel Engine for inter-island travel

Draft Goals and Operating Costs for Namu SDA School

Goals:

  1. To help train next generation leaders by helping the young students learn to read and comprehend clearly the written Word of God, write clearly, and have skills needed to organize and manage talents and resources for local church growth.
  2. To help students build healthy relationship with Christ, with their own family members and be an exemplary citizens of their country.
  3. To prepare and train church members to be missionaries to their own people living in surrounding islands.
  4. To teach healthy living and lifestyles by strengthening healthy habits. This can be done by i.e. training and providing resources to grow vegetables locally, teaching NEWSTART with the use of herbal, water, and charcoal treatments, etc.
  5. To be involved proactively with community needs, challenges, and concerns so that the school will reflect Christ’s love, compassion, care, and grace.
  6. To allow youth and young adults from North America hands-on experience with mission work, and allow the church members in North America a healthy way to assist the youth and the islanders through prayers and provision of resources while they themselves grow spiritually as well.

Annual Operating Costs:

1.       Teachers’ Stipend: $ 250/month x 10 months x 4 Teachers            $ 10,000.00

Note: Each teacher will teach two/three grades

2.       Textbooks and Classroom teaching resources                                     $   2,000.00

Note: Textbooks can be later applied in grants

3.       Furnishing Teachers’ Living Quarter                                                         $      800.00

Note: e.g. gas stove, gas tank, cooking utensils

4.       Maintenance Supplies                                                                                   $   2,000.00

Note: Church members will provide free labor service

5.       First Aid/Sports Equipment/Gen. Expenditure                                   $     200.00

Total Annual Expenses                 $15,000.00

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Jan
10

Red Green

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You can fix anything with duct tape and a little ingenuity…

And a little philosophy…

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Dec
23

Tracking Santa

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santasleighWe’ll it’s that time of year again.  Children around the world will be waiting up late listening for the sound of hooves on the rooftop and a jolly, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” resounding down the chimney.  With the advent of technology you can now save your child some stress come Christmas eve.  The good people a the North America Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) take a break from watching for missiles launched from Russia, China or Iran and focus their efforts on tracking Santa on his journey around the world.  Now instead of wondering when Santa will appear in their neighborhood, your children can visit noradsanta.org and know when to throw water on the fire to help Santa make a clean and safe entrance.

This service started in 1955 with a typo by Sears & Roebuck and has continued ever since.  Last year 1000 volunteers answered almost 100,000 phone calls and 10,000 e-mails.  Their web site received over 11 million visits.  For more information on the background of this service visit this page on wired.com.

If you want to learn more about how Santa himself has gone high tech check out this article on HowStuffWorks.com.  You may be surprised at his modern innovations!

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Nov
29

Teardrop Build

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We’ve started the process of building a Teardrop camping trailer.  A friend of ours is building one and we really liked the idea.  A full manufactured camping trailer is out of the question for us financially, but a teardrop that we build ourselves is quite afordable!  You can follow the details as we post them on the “Teardrop Build” page linked off the main menu.

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