A few updates this time around.  Last weekend Osa and I completed the Rescue Diver certification course so now I can try to rescue scuba divers who are in trouble on the bottom of the ocean.  Not sure how certain I am that you can really get to them in time but, if there is any shot at least I know what to do and how to do it.  We covered things like rescue breathing/CPR as well underwater search and rescue.  Pretty neat experience.  Afterward we had some air left in our tanks so we went for a short dive in Mission Bay.  I kind of expected it to be a bunch of mud but it turned out it was more interesting than that.  There were some patches of seaweed that looked like long grass which had quite a few fish in it.  Also found a lot of live silver dollars down there.  (Usually you just see the shells on the beach.)  Very cool.  The sun really started shining when we were down there so the waves made really cool light patterns on the bottom.  The bottom looks a lot like the surface of the earth from an airplane.  Sand dunes on land look a lot like the sand ripples on the ocean floor.  The big difference is the scale.  (My college degree at work...  In aerospace engineering, a water tank is typically used to model supersonic aerodynamics because air starts to act more like a fluid than a gas.  As a result, hydrodynamics and aerodynamics are very similar apart from the size or speed at which they "matter".)

The weekend before that, I got to try out racecar driving.  Well, race truck as the case may be.  Osa bought me a "Racing Experience" package for my birthday and I finally got to go do it.  It was really fun.  I got to do 60 laps on a short loop track called the "Mesa Marin Speedway".  Driving a race vehicle is really a lot different than a regular car.  First of all, they recommend driving with your right foot on the gas and your left on the brake.  My driving instructor would have a real fit!  The truck is designed to stick to the road to a degree that defies all of your normal driving instincts.  It is hard to go into a corner feeling that you are going to skid off the road for sure but have it turn out you could have gone even faster!  Also, the track is a one-way loop so the cars/trucks have a left turn bias so to go straight you sort of stear right all the time.  Anyway, great fun!

And now for the big news...  I've had this dream that if I ever got married I would like to travel the world for a year as the ultimate honeymoon and as an ideal way to start sharing a life with someone.  Well, Osa and I have been married for a little less than a year now and have decided to go for it in 2006 and spend the year wandering the globe.  "Isn't that going to be a financial catastrophe?" you ask...  The answer is that it will be a total and unmitigated disaster from a financial perspective.  However, it is also something I can't imagine regretting that I did.  The old saying that people on their deathbed never say "I wish I had spent more time at the office." I think rings true.  So, we're going for it.  There are a host of things to figure out between now and then.  From selling our cars to working out how to handle my business interests.  The first leg of the journey is being booked as we speak and here it is:

Flying into Quito, Ecuador on January 3rd, 2006.  We will be flying out of Rio de Janeiro on March 15th.  Between those two dates we'll check out the Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu, the Amazon Jungle/River, Carnaval in Rio, and lots of other mountains, waterfalls, beaches, and cities.  Countries on the list right now are Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, and maybe more.  (Argentina and Chile don't seem to hard to imagine.)

The flight from Rio will land in Lisbon and we will spend from March 15th to June 3rd wandering around on the mediterranean coast of Europe.  (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Monaco, Vatican City, etc.)  We'll probably swing by a few more countries as the mood suits us but the southern part of Europe is the theme.

On June 3rd we're flying from London to Ireland for a week and then back to the US and Chicago on June 10th.  At that point we will restock on Visa's, etc. and hopefully get to spend several week in Wisconsin so I can show Osa the best part of WI.  (Summer)  From there we will head back out for more global travel probably keying in on Eastern Europe while it is warm and then down to Africa and beyond.

There is really one big question left to answer.  That is "How will the budget work?".  As I see it there are two options.  1) I set the budget and we get the most experience out of one year we can for the money.  2) I set the budget and we see how far we can stretch it.  Maybe we can travel for 1 year and 6 months if we run lean.  Not sure there...  I guess it will be determined by how we feel.

Anyway, that's the news.  Posted a few pictures of the racing experience too...

First, apologies for not posting anything for so long...  A few things have happened since I last posted anything here.

1) On the 4th of July I ran my first ever 5K race.  I came in 161st out of 751 racers which put me at about 22%.  I was hoping to at least be in the top half so I was pretty happy with that!  (Though I admit coming in 161st doesn't sound very impressive...)  Not sure when I'll run one again but I had a lot of fun with it so I think I will be giving it another shot.

2) Osa and I have gotten our Scuba Diving certifications.  We so far have gone through the Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses.  In the process we've been diving at night, on wrecks, deep dives to 100 feet, and lots of other good stuff.  It is such an incredible feeling to see the ocean live as opposed to Seaworld.  (Not that I don't like Seaworld.)  Next on the list is to get our Rescue Diver certifications so we can save each other in a time of need.  Should be doing that soon.  Once we've gotten to that point I don't expect to do much more formal education.  From that point on diving for fun sounds about right!

3) We took a trip to Acapulco to try out our scuba skills internationally and to spend a bunch of time  sitting around reading books, relaxing, etc.  Good time indeed!  While on the trip read several books but one of the best was called "Guns, Germs, and Steel".  It does a really good job of explaining why European/Western culture became so dominant.  Acapulco is amazingly beautiful but sadly polluted in the bay.  That stated, there is an incredibly lucky geological situation there with bays, mountains, and huge fresh water lagoons all in one spot.  If I had the cash I would buy land down there and just sit on it for a decade or two.  Wow!

I posted a new album with a few pics from the above experiences.  Not sure anyone really wants to see it but you never know!

Decided to post some more pictures of life here in SD...  Recently went on a trip to Charlotte NC for business and only managed to take a couple of pictures!  Anyway, there are a couple of pictures from that and several of office people here in SD.  Will probably add more of those pics as I see the rest of the staff...

So I bought a Canon PowerShot SD500 camera and went out this weekend to try it out.  I picked out a few pics that I thought maybe anyone else would find interesting...  to see the pictures and short comments scroll to the bottom of this page.  Where the pictures are, there is a small icon that is kind of like a square with an arrow in it.  That goes to full size pictures and shows the comments...

I was going to send out a mass email regarding my trip but decided to give this a shot instead as a way of communicating.  So here's the update...

We (Osa and I) left San Diego in a one-way rental SUV to LAX.  We had so much stuff to take with us that a regular car wouldn't cut it.  Particularly space-consuming was a computer that was donated to the non-profit Osa was starting.  (More about the non-profit later.)  So, we drove 2 hours to LA, waited around at the airport, took a 9 hour flight to London where we had a 7 hour layover, then a 6 hour flight from London to Abuja, and finally a 5 hour car ride from Abuja to Kano.  As you can imagine we arrived in Kano as zombies but we made it.  It wasn't all bad of course.  In London during the layover, Osa got to spend a few hours with her friend Julia and I got to eat some fish & chips.  When we arrived in a Abuja we spent a few hours getting a tour courtesy of Osa's uncle Mason.  Then the ride to Kano was very interesting but I can only remember bits and pieces through my napping.

Also, while English is the official language of Nigeria, the slang is a little different.  When we first arrived in Abuja, we went briefly to Mason's home.  They offered us a bed to take a nap in when we arrived but we declined being a little wired from just getting out of the airport.  We were about to head out on our tour when Mason asked me if I would like to ease myself.  I was relaxing on the couch pretty happily and said "No, I feel pretty relaxed." which apparently was funny.  It turns out that "ease" yourself is their way of saying "go to the bathroom".  Not my only run-in with confusion of that type...

Nigeria is a really interesting place.  The part of Nigeria we stayed in is predominantly Muslim.  Many nights at about 4AM there were prayer loudspeakers that would blast out Arabic prayers at high volume.  I'm not sure what they were saying of course but it was interesting that no one complains about the noise.  Can you imagine the whining in the US if that kind of thing happened?  Tribal affiliations are a big deal there too.  Most Nigerians seem to be very aware of what tribe they belong to and have general stereotypes of the other tribes.  In Kano, the Hausa tribe is the dominant one and Hausa is as common as English to hear spoken.  Another tribe called the Fulani are also present and seem to be on the same team as the Hausas for the most part.  Somehow when I hear the word "tribe" I think of a relatively small group of people.  Well, in the case of Nigeria it isn't really like that.  Nigeria has about 137 million people.  Of those the Hausa/Fulani combo is about 40 million people.  With that kind of size, the tribes compete as political groups for control and influence over the country.  The primary foil for the Hausa/Fulani mix is the Yoruba tribe but there are a bunch of others that aren't as influential alone but I suppose team up to be heard.

According to CIA information, the per capita income of Nigeria is about $900 per year.  The interesting thing is that I think the people there are on average happier than people in the US.  My guess is that community is stronger than luxury when it comes to happiness.  So, while we are munching on popcorn watching a rented movie at home they are finding entertainment together in the community.  Groups of friends seem to be more fun/satisfying and certainly better at supporting each other when times are tough.  Anyway, that line of thought is the basis of my theory on why they are happy even if the living circumstances for many look pretty difficult.

Aside from the people, I saw a lot of chickens, cows, lizards, and LOTS of goats.  I even saw a "bush rat" for sale along the road.  Looked to be about the size of an opossum and some sort of rodent looking thing.  I didn't get a very close look as we went by but it was neat anyway!  They have mosquitos there and the little bastards are armed with Malaria to even up the odds a little.  While we were there, Osa's sister got Malaria and so did Osa.  I was taking anti-malarial drugs so all I got was a cold.  (Still coughing for some reason.)  I expected that contracting malaria was going to be a big deal but I guess not for people who have been exposed before.  Basically, they both just popped the right pills and the next day they were fine.  Who knew?

The traffic in Nigeria was an adventure all its own.  I'm not sure how to explain the way it differed from other places like Mexico City or Istanbul but it had its own flavor somehow.  The roads are flooded with guys on small 100cc motorcycles built by Chinese companies.  The guys on them flow around all the cars like water.  It's pretty amazing how few accidents there are relative to how many it looks like there will be.  I suppose in general it is the same as most other developing countries.  All traffic rules are more like rough guidelines that may or may not be followed.  Somehow it works!

The police essentially work for tips.  They don't get paid much officially so they supplement their income through bribes, etc.  Nigeria seems to be a little nicer than Mexico in that regard.  The police don't seem to have as bad of an attitude.  Friendlier and not nearly as threatening.  That stated, in general it seems best to avoid the cops and people seem to try hard not to stop when asked unless the police seem really serious about it...

A few other thoughts...  While we were there the season was called "Harmattan" or something similar.  Basically, at that time there are large dust storms that blow south from the Sahara and fill the air with really fine dust.  Some days were so dusty you could look at the sun without squinting.  Some of the pictures are really hazy.  That is the dust and not pollution.  The power authority of Nigeria is NEPA and they seem to have great difficulty providing energy.  The power went out daily, sometimes for long periods of time.  When the power was out the water pump was too so in order to take a shower or wash dishes, etc. the generator had to be started.  With the generator though, everything went back to normal so it wasn't that disruptive.

There was so much I saw there that I don't have the patience to type out...  lots of great people, interesting history, etc.

I mentioned the non-profit organization that Osa is starting earlier.  It's called "Peace Medics Nigeria".  She received a grant to launch a pilot program in Kano.  The concept behind the group is that in a society where there are so many competing interests, one of the few areas diverse groups can agree and collaborate on is public health.  By working together in one arena it is hoped that the reality that they can work together in many other areas will become self-evident.  The pilot program is going to start by focusing on Polio.  Polio was nearly eradicated but a rumor was started that there was a sterilizing agent in the vaccine that would cause people who received it to be unable to bear children.  The idea was that the West was trying to eliminate Muslims or something.  Anyway, the result was that many children didn't get the vaccinations and the polio rate soared.  The government has stepped in to encourage people to vaccinate their children and this group will be trying to achieve the same end by using a diverse group of medical professionals representing the various groups in a united voice.  If the pilot goes well then additional funding will be pursued and the effort can be extended to other cities.  (Osa has an MD from a University in Ukraine and a Master's in Public Health from San Diego State University so doing this stuff is right up her alley.)

Our trip ended with a short stay in the UK where we attended the wedding of a friend of hers and I had a chance to meet many of the people I had heard about.  In particular, I got to meet Osa's closest child-hood friend Julia.  It was a bit of a challenge to go from the heat and dust of Nigeria to the frigid cold of London.  It even snowed a little bit while we were there!  I did manage to climb aboard the "London Eye" and see the view from it.  It is basically a giant ferris wheel that instead of seats has fully enclosed glass pods that have a large elliptical bench in the middle and room for mabye 20 people if it was packed.  Pretty cool engineering feat.

Well, that's my rather incoherent update of my trip.  I typed it out in one shot so it might be a little random!

Korak