Chrismas Wishlist for 2011

Well, it's that time of the year again, the time of the year that I have to think what it is that I want for Christmas. Last year, I decided to post a blog entry so that anyone who has the misfortune to want to get a Christmas present for me can at least have a few ideas. I decided to do the same thing again this year, to help out a few poor souls, especially my poor wife... I'll try and add things as I can think of them... Anyways, here goes!


Settlers of Catan


The Settlers of Catan 5 and 6 Player Extension

The Belgariad, Vol. 1 (Books 1-3): Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit

The Belgariad, Vol. 2 (Books 4 & 5): Castle of Wizardry, Enchanters' End Game

The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1)

The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles, Book Two)

Sid Meier's Civilization V

Geocaching containers

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7

Dominion

Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Questions and Solutions

Burnout Paradise

Xbox 360 Wireless Controller - Glossy Black

Portal 2

Starcraft II

Lego Indiana Jones 2

Christmas wishlist

So, my wife, among others, requested that I put together a Christmas wishlist. I figured I might as well put it on this ill-used blog, and let anyone see it who wants to. I do have a photography-limited one on my photography blog, so I'll try and keep this one photography-free, for the most part. Hope you enjoy! I'll probably add a few things from time to time, I'm having problems remembering everything on my list...

Crazy Machines 2

Denali's West Buttress: A Climber's Guide to Mount McKinley's Classic Route

Wii Energizer Flat Panel 4x Induction Charger

AA Nimh Rechargeable Batteries 20- Count Pack

New Super Mario Bros

Iron Man 2

Avatar

How to Train Your Dragon

The Settlers of Catan

The Belgariad, Vol. 1 (Books 1-3): Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit

The Belgariad, Vol. 2 (Books 4 & 5): Castle of Wizardry, Enchanters' End Game

Westcott 301 Photo Basics 40-Inch 5-in-1 Reflector

Lock Picking Basics

Wii MotionPlus

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

License, at last!

Well, Ashlee and I got our foster care license, at last. Kind of hard to believe it has happened, it's been almost a year in the works. It'll bring an interesting change to our lives, that's for sure.

In other news, I'm now only one class away from graduating, if I do a project, or two away if I don't. Yeah! It'll sure be exciting to be done with school, and I don't have plans to do more than a master's degree at this time. I might sometime in the future, but not now.

So that's just a quick update on our lives, as it's been a while since I've posted.

Update on foster care and life in general

It's been a while since I've made an entry, guess life is just really crazy... Right now Ashlee and I are working our way towards getting our foster care license. Actually, our paperwork is submitted, we are only waiting to hear back from the state if we will get our license. There's some chance we'll have children in our home soon.

I'm getting close to finishing up with my schoolwork for my graduate degree. It's taking longer than I would like but, well, it happens. It'll sure be nice to finish my Master's, I'm just glad that that day will come soon...

Ashlee's working on selling her artwork at a local store. If you haven't checked it out yet, take a look at http://art.pearsonartphoto.com . I'm attempting to do the same with my photography, but it's a slow battle... Sigh. Hopefully we'll figure out something soon.

Guess that's all of the news for now.

Crazy outfits

Just finished the most recent episode of the Foster Parenting Podcast, and they released a special video. Thought I'd post it here for your enjoyment.

On fostercare

For reasons of my wife's health, we were unable to continue with the foster care system at our earlier attempt. However, thanks to changing primary care doctors, Ashlee's doing alot better, and she'd improving well enough to consider it again. Hopefully we'll start up again soon. Just thought I'd give an update on that.

Results at last

For some time, my wife has had a variety of health problems. At long last, we are starting to get answers. About a month ago, our primary care doctor told us she might have lupus. Ever since then, we've been keeping an eye on it, and it's looking more and more like that is the actual problem she's been having.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease. The body's own immune system is attacking itself, especially in the joints, skin, and kidneys. It is a chronic disease for which there is no cure, but some treatments available. It will sometimes go for a long period of time, to return in a flare up that can be debilitating for a period of some time.

Right now the diagnosis isn't 100%, but is still very likely. It seems likely that she has been suffering from some symptoms of it for the last 2-3 years, but still, it's not uncommon to take some time to diagnose.

We're still trying to get a better diagnosis, but it's good to know that we are at least starting to figure things out. It explains most of the health problems that Ashlee's had for a while, and that's always nice to know, even if it isn't the best of news.

Foster Care Podcast

I should say that Ashlee and I have been talking about Foster Care for some time. One of the great resources I came across is the Foster Care Podcast. It's the story of a young married couple in an undisclosed location in Southern California. They talk about their previous adventures in Foster Care, and especially the process of taking in two young girls (Around 2-4 or so), and the final stages of foster care. It's very interesting, and I highly recommend this to anyone considering foster care. Here's a banner that talks links to their site.

Foster Care

My wife and I have recently decided to enter the world of Foster Care, for a number of reasons. Mostly it's just to help people out. There's lots of kids who are in need of some serious help, and my wife and I are more than able to help. We have been blessed with more than we need right now. We are attending an orientation on the process Tuesday. I'll try and post some updates on how things are going with respect to foster care while going through the process.

New URL

There is a new URL to this site, namely http://tuvas.pearsonartphoto.com. Just thought you might like to know. The old one will still work for now, but as I'm now a domain name owner, I figured I'd put the blog there as well.

Moving up in the world...

I've now started to get really serious about photography. I've started a new site to showcase my work, and even registered a domain name (http://www.pearsonartphoto.com/) Hope you all find it and enjoy it!

More artwork

My wife an I have been working on publishing our photos and art on a site, and we have a new home, namely http://pearsonartphoto.smugmug.com/ . Here's a sample of some of the pictures you can see there.

Pearson Art

My wife just started publishing her art via Lulu, she's done some amazing things. Any purchases would help her a ton! See http://stores.lulu.com/pearson_art

Comparison of Phoenix to MRO

Phoenix and MRO are really quite different, in a lot of ways. I attended both launch parties, and would just like to point out some differences in the two spacecraft MOI/landing events.

1. The two landings/MOI took place at about the same time of day, although MRO was on a Friday (Right before spring break).
2. The Phoenix landing was filled with thousands of people pouring into every space they could get. The MRO still had plenty of empty seats in Kuiper Space Sciences largest room.
3. As of MRO MOI, the science team still had 7 months or so to prepare, and was still hiring (Myself included). At Phoenix Landing, the mission will be over in 7 months for sure, lots of pressure is being put on the immediate mission to do as much as possible.
4. MRO's first images took hours to be transmitted. Phoenix only took a few minutes.

So, well, there's just a few things of note between the two missions. Kind of interesting.

Why Phoenix

Many people have asked, why is the University of Arizona, based in Tucson, AZ, naming a spacecraft Phoenix?

Phoenix, as it now, was built from the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander. The mission was canceled after the failure of the Mars Polar Lander in late 1999. The two spacecraft were very similar, and NASA decided not to risk another failure. The spacecraft was stored at Lockheed Martin for several years, until a new mission was proposed by Peter Smith, which would use this spacecraft, fix it up, and give it a new mission, namely, to find direct evidence of water ice at the north pole of Mars. It was given the name Phoenix because it was reborn from the ashes of two failed missions, the Mars Polar Lander, and Mars Surveyor Lander.

But, if you are still curious, then Peter Smith will tell you, that an objective is to send Phoenix to Mars.

List of things to come for Phoenix

So, I think we can say now that we are in post-EDL operations, now that the solar panels have been verified. Still on the list of things to come:

1. Full panoramic from Phoenix, I would expect it to be coming in pieces over the next day, every hour and a half or so.
2. Imagery from HiRISE and possible Mars Express, which might show Phoenix while landing. The odds of success are slim, but it sure would be cool!
3. Imagery of HiRISE on it's landing spot. I find this unlikely to come by this Wednesday release, for a few reasons. First of all, it's likely due to a late parachute opening that Phoenix overshot it's landing a bit. If it overshot it far enough, then it would miss a HiRISE window (Remember, the FOV on HiRISE isn't that high...) Secondly, it takes about 4 advanced notice to change an image location, so the next opportunity won't be for a while. Given also the length of a downlink, I put a HiRISE image for the 4th of June.

First Images!

Well, the first images have come in, and the following can be said:

1. The lander landed in a very desolate area, there is hardly a rock to be seen from the pictures.
2. The solar panels deployed successfully.
3. The lander landed in an area with firm ground, it didn't sink in at all, or so it appears.
4. We are still awaiting confirmation of the biocontainer seal being released. Assuming that it happened, we can deploy the arm soon.

I wonder how long it will take to get the lander spotted from Orbit. It looks like if you can find the lander, it'll stand out like a sore thumb, there's absolutely nothing around it, but there's nothing around it to identify it's position, at least from the first image. All you can see is flat landscape for a long ways.

Landing!

So, Phoenix has now become the 6th US lander to land safely on Mars. Still to be determined is if it is in full working condition. The first picture is expected back in an hour and a half. MRO has attempted with it's HiRISE camera to take a picture, so only time will tell if that has come through. If it was successful, it will be known to the crew in about 7 hours. The deployment stage is being tested, solar planet signals are being received. I'll probably be heading off after this post, so for now, signing off.

Legs seporation and landing

So, the next step is the landing, which will happen soon, likely when I'm writing this post, so I'll explain what's happening. The altitude is now only 1600 meters, and going down. It will very shortly land. 1000 meters. Seporation has been detected, Phoenix is now just on rocket power. 100m 80m 50m 40m 30m 27m 20m 15m waiting for touchdown. Touchdown detected!!!!

Heat shield seporation

They have now confirmed, the heat shield has separated, and parachutes have deployed! Yah!