Adventures in Norfolk

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

Blogging with friends

It’s neat to see other people pick up the old digital pen and start writing again. This kind of thing really is social - the more your friends do it, the more you’re inspired to. To think, stugs had started his emojournal as a joke Now you’ve got me, Chris, and Nate at least writing semi-frequently.

Just remember to cleanup after yourself…

I love our city so!

Add comment April 16th, 2007

Windmill, Windmill for the land

So, this vegetarian thing isn’t all that bad. Tonight we had some Boca burgers, salad and taters for dinner. I’d never had Boca before, but it was pretty good; it will definitely become a staple of our new diet (we’re having it tomorrow night too, in jambalaya). I wonder if there’s a soy replacement for chicken available anywhere…

Apparently, I’ve also lost 5 pounds already, although I’ve got to imagine that it’s just a lack of drinking 8 gallons of soda, rather than any actual health benefit in just a short week. We’ll see.

In other news, I went with Chris to the Velux5Oceans race camp at Waterside yesterday to see the Oceans 60 boats docked there. Pictures forthcoming.

Saturday afternoon was spent with Matt & Alana and Chris at ATHFCMFFT. ATHF the movie was just about exactly like I had imagined it would be - an hour+ of ATHF the TV show (with cursing). I enjoyed it thoroughly! I still need to go see TMNT, if for nothing more than nostalgia purposes. I’ve been trying to find the ‘intermediary’ comics that bridge the gap between the last movie and the new one, but they don’t seem to be available anywhere.

1 comment April 16th, 2007

The Bet

So, I bet a friend $100 that I could go vegetarian longer than he did. He has now started a blog, upping this arms race to the next level. I have been forced to respond, and follow his chronicle with my own!

Today was banana+oj for breakfast, manicotti+brocolli for lunch. No clue what’s for dinner

http://stugs.livejournal.com/ is the face of the enemy.

Add comment April 9th, 2007

Updates

So, now that I’ve gotten my first paycheck, it’s safe to say that I have a new job

February 1st was my first day as a (no kidding) Cyber Security Analyst. I’m working for Jefferson Science Associates at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (also know as JLAB). So far, it appears I’ll be focusing mostly on IDS management and security tool development (case tracking, etc). JLAB is definitely a different working environment than what I had grown used to at NPS. Everything here is much more laid back and relaxed feeling, but also much more isolated. I’ve gone a few days without even seeing another person, let alone talking to them. It’s quite a contrast from the nearly-open room environment I came from, where everyone could overhear everything going around them!

On the FIRST front, tonite/tomorrow is the contest at VCU in Richmond, VA. I’ll hopefully be attending tomorrow morning to watch the final round of regular competition, as well as the tournament at the end. It will be interesting to see how our robot does - Dr. Skena sounded positive, especially regarding our ramp configuration. We’ll see - I’ll be sure to post results as soon as I find out, as well as pictures of the event and the construction process.

Add comment March 2nd, 2007