There's a fascinating article at Vanity Fair Magazine about the mid-air collision of a GOL Airlines Boeing 737 and N600XL, an Embraer business jet.

I compel you to read it and then come back and read the rest of this blog post. I wonder if the facts blow your mind as much as they do mine:

I have acquired nearly all the pieces I need to begin work on my All Sky Camera project. I have purchased the camera (Panasonic WV-NP244 IP CCTV camera), the lens (Fujinon 2.8mm-8mm) and the rotating telescope base. The telescope base will be made from a Meade ETX-60RA telescope that I acquired on craigslist. That means all I have left to purchase is the convex sky reflector... More to come..

I have a fairly stable weather collecting scheme going so I figured it was a good time to start sending my weather data to Weather Underground. The station ID is KWABOTHE16. I also linked the webcam to the site as well.

Jenn thinks I am crazy, but she started it. My current thinking is that I now want to make not only a time-lapse webcam to accompany my weather station, but I want an All Sky weather camera. More after the bump.

My weather station, primarily its graphing and trending functions were in jeopardy of being lost due to the decision to move his PC to his room. The weather station was connected to it downstairs by a USB cable. However, the station was resurrected on its own server, my ancient Toshiba notebook. More after the bump.

Jenn bought me a Honeywell TE923W Professional Weather Station for Christmas. If you're into tracking the weather where you live, its a really fun set of instruments and a base station on which to watch weather in a new way.

For Christmas, Jenn bought me a gift certificate for a "Discovery Flight" with Wings Aloft at Boeing Field. It wasn't until now that I was able to take advantage of it.

I've had the opportunity to travel to quite a flew places around the world, some where westerners aren't the most welcome, but I was dismayed to find the worst customer service experience right here in my neighborhood.

I have had a lot of dealings with buying, selling and giving away items on craigslist, but the experience never ceases to amaze me.

This small photo essay has been a long-time dream of mine, but I've never really had the time to actually persue it until now.