At first, I was a little worried that he had ascertained the photographs in some clandestine way.  However, it turns out that a close friend of his actually worked in the reactor and had taken some these amazing pictures of the inside bowels of a modern nuclear reactor.

Feel free to check all the pictures out in my gallery if you have a bit of interest.

Interesting Note:  That blue glow seen in some of the pictures is no Photoshop effect my friends; it's actually Cherenkov Radiation.  According to Wikipedia, the glow is caused by “electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle passes through an insulator at a speed greater than the speed of light in that medium. The characteristic 'blue glow' ” seen above is an example of this phenomenon.

Tagged: Nuclear Power Plant, Nuclear Power Plant Pictures, Nuclear Power Plant Photos, Nuclear Pictures, Nuclear Photos, Power Plant Pictures, Reactor Photos, Reactor Pictures, Cherenkov Radiation, Nuclear Reactor, Nuclear Reactor Photos

One thing I have always struggled with is getting Christmas lights to turn out in my darn pictures.  Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I've EVER had any turn out well.

Lucky for me, I came across this handy guide. 

Click Here to check the article out.

Surprisingly though, our favorite things to do was simply exploring all the local food joints, towns, and secret hideaways the island contains.  The most incredible part of the trip was our decision to take day-long yacht tour around the island mainly to see the Na Pali Coast.  This part of the island has to be some of the most amazing coastline I've ever seen.

Anyways, that's enough chit-chat about the trip, let's move on to the cool part… the pictures!

Click Here to check out the highlight pictures from the trip.

Tagged: Honeymoon, Wedding, Honeymoon Pictures, Kauai, Hawaii, Vacation, Kauai Pictures

I don't know who's idea this was and I can't seem to find out much about who created it.. but WOW… that is really cool. 

When I have kids, I'm gonna recommend this as a science fair project.. just because it would be cool to make those planets!

Actually, I wonder if those are real?  Dang it, they can't be!  Stupid Photoshop.  Get's me every time.

Click Here to check the site out!

Tagged: Planets,  Planet Sizes, Size of Our World, Size of Earth

A couple of my buddies recently completed a wireless network connection between their homes using roof-mounted directional antennas.  After literally months of custom design work, troubleshooting, climbing on ladders, and a still non-working network, they finally got it going.

Doesn't sound riveting does it?  Despite your preconceived notions, it's actually a decently entertaining tale.  Take a moment to check it out.. if you have any interest in this sorta thing.

Click Here to see the blog. (Start at the entry transpalisades is live!)

Tagged: Transpalisades, Wireless Network, Directional Antenna

Sadly, the same storm front went right up to Illinois and slammed Springfield, Chatham (where I grew up), and many of the surrounding area's pretty bad.  I quickly learned that a good friend of mine, Kyle, had his farm hit pretty bad.  Fortunately, no one was injured and the their home was spared.

Now they just have to get the insurance to come through for them, it's tough to be a farmer now-days… and this won't help things any.

Kyle graciously sent me a few pictures of the damage and I was “blown away” (sorry for the pun).  It was an incredible feeling when I saw the pictures; this massive farm, I remembered being amazed by, was reduced to shambles.

We hope you are doing ok up there and the clean-up process is coming along quickly Kyle.  Best wishes for you and your family!

Click Here to see the pictures.

Tagged: Tornado Damage

This year, we went to Brownsville, TX and enjoyed a respite from the cold weather with some family and friends.  We spent time on the beach, in swimming pools, in Mexico, a Zoo, and generally had a lot of fun doing nothing in particular.

Also, most importantly, I asked Lyndsey to marry me.  Thankfully, she said “Yes“!

Quickly, I have realized the next months of my life are going to become the dictionary definition of hectic as we plan the wedding, the honeymoon, build a house, and generally prepare to start our life together.  I'm beginning to wonder if we'll be sane when it's all over.

Regardless, the process has begun and only time will reveal the mental state of us both in the end.  Despite the sanity quandary, I have no doubt our future will be perfect together.

Note: If you want to see pictures of Spring Break2006: Our Engagement, please follow the instruction in the Request Restricted Access section in the left column of every page on my blog.  Please email me with any questions or requests for full-size versions of any photo.

Tagged: Engagement

Check them all out by clicking here!

A lot of these images were pulled randomly from the internet, but many were pulled directly from what I believe to be Julian's own personal home page here.  Thanks Julian and keep up the amazing work!

Another amazing artist of similar talent is Kurt Wenner.  He has some incredible street drawings also.. you can see them by going to his site here.  The sad thing is I almost think Kurt has more amazing drawings than Julian does, but a lot of his famous work get's improperly credited towards Julian, mainly by people not doing their research.  So, point is, sorry Kurt.

Tagged: Julian Beever

Ironic but important side-note: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!

It was a sort of Mythbusters for the Average Joe, but not video-taped and only for laughs:
If you want to see larger pictures of the event, Click
Here.

So, our adventure begins with an $8.00 toaster from Meijer.  By looking at this completely unassuming toaster, you would never guess how much fun could be derived simply and efficiently.

We continued our fun with a couple of non-generic Kelogg's Pop-Tarts (in the law-suit obligatory Strawberry flavor), a heavy duty power cord, and a parent-free (ie: common-sense-having) zone.. which turned out to be my buddies' back porch.  The key to this adventure is carefully and deliberately duct-taping the toaster position in the ON and locked position.  This achieves two goals: 1) Standing there in awe without having to do any work (like resetting the toaster repeataedly). 2) Prevents any injuries from the possibly dangerous sugar-coated pastry explosions.

Still looks unassuming right? After a few minutes, a little glint of smoke starts to appear.

Suddenly and without much warning, a  nearly 3-foot (Yes, really that big) flame leaps from the bowels of the little toaster.

This large flame continues for several minutes.

Soon, the fire settles down to a slightly disturbing blast-furnace-like source of heat (especially if there is even a slight breeze).

At this point, we salvage the toaster (for additional uses) and unplug it, but the molten Pop-Tart continues to glow for a long time after the cord is pulled.

When it's all said and done, you have a slightly warped and stinky toaster with a black solid mass of “formerly-known-as-Pop-Tart” sitting in the bottom.

Remember, this is probably illegal to attempt (somehow) and definitely somewhat/slightly dangerous, so DON'T try it at home.  We were experienced pyromaniacs and we do not recommend the above ideas to anyone.

If you want to see bigger pictures of the event, Click Here.

Tagged: Pop-Tart Law Suit

Click Here to check them out!

Take special note of the glow that surrounds the radioactive rods in the water. 
I am told by an expert in the field that “the glow (or Cherenkov effect) originates
 from the Gamma particles travelling faster than the speed of light”. 

Tagged: Nuclear Power Plant Photos