We ‘took the plunge’ and got our first coral fragments this weekend, in addition to a coral banded shrimp that Mary has named ‘Monster’. So far, so good - the coral is looking healthy after the switch to our tank, and the shrimp is gorging himself on the tons of food on the live rock.
2 comments November 12th, 2007
We finally got live rock and sand for our new Aquapod marine aquarium. After having a tank of blue-lit salt water for so long, it’s amazing how much more aesthetically pleasing some simple rocks can be!
In the past 24 hours, we discovered 3 hitch-hikers on the rocks/sand - a scallop, a serpentine sea star, and a krill. Hopefully there will be more life, now that the rocks aren’t being moved around and the water quality is improving (no more disturbed sand/rock fragments/etc).
After re-arranging the rocks the last time, I changed the angles on the pump outlet ports, so mix the top of the water more, and the sheen of protein that had accumulated cleared up in about an hour.
This morning, the tank was crystal clear, from top to bottom, and the rocks look really colorful (now that they’re not coated with settling sand!). Now we just have to wait for our diatomous algea bloom, and we’re in business!
1 comment October 22nd, 2007
You never know when someone is going to want to publish it, and you’ll be embarassed by how awful it really is 
My picture of The Melting Pot’s table from our last anniversary was picked up by a food site (schmap.com) as their photo for The Melting Pot entry.
2 comments October 5th, 2007
A friend of mine from Japan (Kitakyushu-shi) got back in touch today, the old fashioned way. He sent Mary and I a package with 2 good luck charms and a nice letter (he’s going to be a father - Congrats Takada-san!).
It may be kind of quaint in these flat-world times, but I still think it’s pretty damn neat to get mail and packages from around the world. Just looking at the stamps and customs/packaging and stuff is interesting to me!
The good luck charm
The Customs form on the package
Add comment August 23rd, 2007
I had a pretty fun weekend - did a lot of stuff outside the house, which is a nice change.
On Saturday, I went with Mary and my in-laws to the Jefferson Lab open house, a bi-annual open-to-the-public event, where they open up the accelerator tunnel, the FEL, an experiment hall, and setup a bunch of demonstrations and displays about JLAB and the physics/science research that gets done here. Pictures coming shortly!
On Sunday, I went with Chris to the ‘Taste of India’ Indian cultural festival at ODU’s Ted Constant Center. $10 got me a 10-ticket meal pass, which I used to try some new Indian food (unfortunately, I can’t remember names, but it was all awesome) and a couple mango lassis. While we were eating our yummy food, we watched the inter-collegiate Bhangra Dance competition, which was pretty cool. It was amazing how many people were there (the Ted was pretty full) - I guess Hampton Roads has a fairly sizable Asian/Indian subculture. Pictures coming shortly!
Late Sunday afternoon, Chris, stugs, and I went down to Nauticus to see the visiting English helicopter carrier / amphibious assault ship - unfortunately, the visiting hours were Saturday only 
Instead of visiting the ship, we decided to explore the new cruise ship terminal being built right there at Nauticus, and it looks like it’s going to be alot more fancy / nicer than any of use had expected. Things are moving along nicely!
That evening Chris sent me a blurry picture of a crazy looking ship in the shipyard across the river from Harbor Park, at the same shipyard the NS Savannah was refurbed at. I had briefly seen it the day before going down 264, but forgotten about it. Chris’ picture stirred the desire to find out what it was in me, so I grabbed my tripod and 300mm lense, and went to Harbor Park to take some better pictures. As it turns out, the ship is an old Soviet ‘Space Event Support Ship’, to help track and communicate with Mir and other Soviet satellites. It was also featured in the movie ‘Virus’, and has since been anchored in James River as part of the US Reserve Fleet (still trying to figure out how the Soviet ship ended up in the US Reserve Fleet). It’s at Colonna Shipyard, and I’m going to be contacting them and asking if I could get a quick walk through / tour, and some better up-close pictures of the awesome satellite / comms gear. (*UPDATE*) The ship is atually NOT the Volkov. here is the info:
The ‘Akademik Vladislav Volkov’, formerly the ‘USS General Harry Taylor’, a WW2 troop transport, which was then converted into the ‘USS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg’, is show here in Colonna Shipyard, in Norfolk, VA.
The ship started life as a troop transport during WW2, and was decommissioned in 1946. In 1964, she was recomissioned as the Vandenberg to serve as a missle range instrumentation ship for the US Air Force.
After it’s decommissioning in the 1980s, she was transferred to the US Reserve Fleet on the James River in Virginia.
This ship was also featured in the movie ‘Virus’, and downloaded an electronic alien virus from MIR, while in the South Pacific, and killed off it’s crew!
Now it’s in Colonna shipyard on the Elizabeth River for environmental cleanup - she’s destined to be sunk as an aquatic reef off the coast of Florida some time in 2008.
The rear radio dish is missing, as it was ‘damage’ used during the filming of ‘Virus’.
The Ship
The rest of the pictures from Harbor Park of the ship, the Akademik Vladislav Volkov, are on here.
Add comment April 23rd, 2007
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