Funny Story...

I finally have something good to post. This is by far the funniest thing I have ever read in my life.

Enjoy!

Belize Photos...

I have finally put all of my photos from Belize together. I separated the underwater photography from the other pictures. You can click on either of the slideshows below to go directly to the album.





As always, your comments are appreciated!

Enjoy!

Gotta love the Airlines...

I am back from Belize (it was wonderful). I am working on putting together a post along with photos from the trip but in the meantime I came across something that I had to share. Seeing as how I have been traveling a lot over the past several years, I have become very aquainted with all of the airlines and their bullshit rules and fees. There are fees for everything now... checked bags, exit row seats, snacks, beverages, etc. It has become such a joke. Recently, I used the USAirways frequent flyer miles that I had accumulated over the years for airline tickets to Grand Cayman and still had to pay over $150 in fees. Even worse, that $150 in fees doesn't even include my checked luggage. Since when does a free ticket cost over $150?? Shame on you USAirways, now you know why I have switched to Southwest! :-)

Anyway, I was doing a bit of light surfing when I came upon this article on The Onion. It is hysterical. For all of you that travel often... enjoy!

Looking forward...

This week the Today Show is reporting from various places in the world that are impacted by global warming and pollution. I was shocked to see Matt Lauer is reporting from The Blue Hole in Belize. I am headed there for my next diving vacation which is very soon approaching and it is making me even more excited (although I am also sad about some of the content on the status of caribbean reefs). I believe they are even staying at the resort I will be visiting... a small island 30 miles offshore (Turneffe Island). :-)

O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

~ Walt Whitman

Tom, you will be missed!

Aquatica A40D...

I purchased an Aquatica A40D underwater housing for my Canon 40D in July. I did not have a lot of time to test the system before heading to Bonaire but I did get to the local pool several times to test the equipment for leaks. The system tested out ok and I had no problems with the integrity of the housing. It was only in Bonaire where I noticed a simple but aggrevating problem with the housing. The control on the housing that is responsible for changing the aperature was not properly connecting with the dial on the back of the camera. I would turn the control only to have it slowly and intermittently change the aperture.



I searched the web upon returning home to realize that other owners of this housing have experienced the same problem. I contacted Aquatica and they immediately recognized the problem and told me to send them the back of the housing so they could fix the problem. If you have the same experiences, contact Aquatica and have your equipment serviced.

If Facebook happened in real life...

If you are a Facebook user, you will completely appreciate this. I find it even more funny that the guys name is Todd in the video.

Enjoy!

New Blogger Look and Feel...

I am happy to announce that my blog has an all new custom look!!! Using one of the underwater photos that I took in Bonaire, Kim customized my blogger template to give it a much more professional appearance. Now I just need to promise myself that I will blog more often (and of good content).

New Guiness Record, Uh...well sorta...

Those crazy folks in Iran cooked up a good one for the record books. They decided they were going for the world record for the largest sandwich. Unfortunately though, some of the crowd got hungry and couldn't wait for the sandwich to be measured before they started to chow down. I'm not sure the record should really count if it wasn't properly measured. Better luck next time Iran... all I can say is next time maybe you should try adding a little pork or bacon to that sandwich.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081017/od_nm/us_guinness_sandwich

Rachel Ray Corn Porn...

Ok, I had to blog this because it is one of the funniest things I have seen in quite a while.

Rachel Ray Corn Porn http://tinyurl.com/52gx4u

(This is best with sound!)

Enjoy!

A Guy's Worst NIGHTMARE!!!!

Interesting article on the Consumerist... guys beware!

http://consumerist.com/5054482/man-sues-doctors-for-amputating-penis

Bonaire Photos...

Ok, so it has been forever since I posted something. At least I waited until I had something good to share...



Here are the latest photos from Bonaire.

Enjoy!

Hot Water Heater...

A couple of weeks ago I started to notice that occasionally the hot water that came out of the tap was not as hot as it usually was. I didn't think much of it at first but as the problem persisted and eventually got worse, I started to notice a pattern. Usually, when we do something that uses enough hot water, you will hear the hot water heater come on to create more hot water. While I was hearing the hot water heater blower start, it would only last for a short period of time and then stop (not long enough to heat enough water to replenish what was used). When I went downstairs, I noticed the green light on the water heater was blinking a series of six blinks. I read the instruction manual for the A. O. Smith FPSH 50 Series 260 and found several reasons that it might be blinking like this. The six flashes meant the system was in lockout mode - meaning that it had a problem during normal operation and shutdown to the lockout mode. Once in lockout mode, the system would wait a long period of time before attempting to light the burner again to create hot water.

Looking on the internet I found several discussions that suggested the problem was due to a corroded flame sensing wire. This wire is responsible for making sure the gas hot water heater is indeed burning gas as opposed to dangerously leaking gas into the environment. I turned off the power and gas to the hot water heater, removed the bottom access panels, and investigated the components located at the bottom of the tank. I saw the flame sensing wire had some brown rust like corrosion on it. I took a small bit of steel wool and lightly removed the corrosion, replaced the access panels, and tested the system. It has now been several weeks and the hot water heater has been operating perfectly.

A BIG 'Thank You' to the numerous people that posted their similar experiences, your advice saved me from having to purchase a new hot water heater or call a service technician. :-)

Lionfish...

Before going to Turks and Caicos in June, I read the captain logs for the Turks and Caicos Aggressor. They reported seeing lionfish in multiple locations. I thought it was strange as the lionfish is known to be a Pacific fish but recently there have been reports of lionfish in the caribbean. I was excited at the chance to see them and they are magnificient to see in person but more recently I am starting to become concerned about their effect on the caribbean environment. This article is just one of the many articles that has recently spotlighted the problems that these fish can cause.

Bizarro World...

Everything was perfect for our run on Saturday morning. Friday night we'd eaten big plates of pasta as usual. We had gotten up right on time at 3:45am in order to make it to the trail by 5:00. I ate two pieces of toast, Kim ate her usual PB&J, and we were all dressed and ready to go. That is when Kim noticed the rain, and then that it wasn't just raining, it was storming.



We headed down to the trail anyway (had to, we are group leaders), and as we headed down it proceeded to pour and huge streaks of lightning went across the sky. We listened to the weather report and it certainly did sound like this was going to last all day.



The trail was chaotic and disorganized. We ran around to everyone's cars in the dark and pouring rain, trying to figure out which people were members of our group and which people were not. Each group ended up making our own decision about what to do - some groups chose to wait. Kim and I ended up postponing the run due to weather for the first time in the 2 1/2 years we've been in the program.



We're fairly used to getting up that early to run, so the time was not a big deal. What we are not used to is getting up that early and then not running. We tried to sleep, and we did fall asleep for an hour or so. We ended up discovering that we need those endorphins from running to keep us sane. Saturday was a bizarro world of feeling jet-lagged, bickering with each other, and just plain feeling miserable. We were not the same Todd and Kim that people are used to.



Fast forward to Sunday. Again, we were awake at 3:45am, went down to the trail and this time ran. It was beautiful weather, cooler than it had been on Saturday, clear and beautiful. I ran an easy 20 miles. After the run, we were totally normal, feeling great, and had a wonderful day. It's amazing what a change a little endorphins will make.

Pikesville 5k Race Photos...

As part of the Fleet Feet Galloway program, today was the annual Pikesville 5K. Having already completed my mileage for the week, I decided to not run the race and take photographs instead. Oddly enough, some of the runners thought I was part of a professional group that sells race photos. LOL!






All the pictures from the Pikesville 5K are now available at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/krebsTodd/2008Pikesvillle5k

All are welcome to use any of the photos from the Pikesville 5K. If you want the image in full resolution (10 megapixel), just email me and I will send them to you. If you ran the race and you like what you see, just leave a comment. :-)

A new lens to the collection...

UPS didn't deliver until late this evening but here are some photos I took with my new Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM lens before the sun when down. I am not a professional by any measure but it is really hard not to look like one due to the quality of this camera and lens. Its amazing!

Michael Phelps, cunning linguist...

I was watching television the other day and happened to catch a commercial for RosettaStone that featured Michael Phelps. While I understand that both Michael Phelps and RosettaStone would like to use his fame for financial gain, I did not understand why this would be such a great match. I mean... what does Michael Phelps have to do with learning a new language. Yeah, I know, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer - Michael is going to Beijing for the Olympics and he will need to be able to speak some Chinese. Ahh - sooo...

Then it occurred to me that this might not be a really good combination after all. RosettaStone positions its product for the common man that wants to learn a language quickly. If it appears that Michael hasn't garnered enough of the Chinese language, doesn't that make RosettaStone look bad? I mean... c'mon, think about it. He is going to a Chinese speaking country and undoubtedly will be interviewed by Chinese speaking people on television. I am certain that I would not want to be the marketing person that thought up this idea. I think it will be funny if some crazy Chinese journalist decides that since Michael has RosettaStone that he can conduct the interview in Chinese.

(BTW, no offense to Michael Phelps, he has worked very hard to get where he is and I have complete respect for his talent as a swimmer.)

Turks and Caicos Pictures Posted

I have posted U/W photos from Turks and Caicos (finally). They are open (unprotected) and anyone can view them. Enjoy!

T&C Underwater Photos

The latest and greatest underwater photos from Turks and Caicos have been posted but are locked down. Let me know if you are interested in viewing them and I will send you a link to the album.