Monthly Archives: May 2005

USS John F. Kennedy

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fff|ppp|Peter on the JFK

Peter on the flight deck of the USS JFK

|ppp|fff

I had read yesterday in the Boston Globe that the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy would be [making a port of call in Boston](http://www.boston.com/ae/events/articles/2005/05/20/big_john_carries_on/), and that the Navy would be opening the ship up to for public tours. Since Becky and I are fascinated by any sort of big machine, we planned to go down to Boston today to see it. After waiting for almost two hours in line in the chilly air, and under overcast skies, we finally got to go on board the ship. The experience was terrific! There were all sorts of aircraft and other military vehicles on display, and we got to ride the giant elevators up and down from the hangar deck to the flight deck… really cool. We were quite impressed. You can see the full photo gallery [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2005/uss_jfk/).

On an unrelated note: If you haven’t already, make sure you scroll backwards and read [Becky’s travelogue of our recent trip to Russia](http://prwdot.org/2005/05/19/there-and-back-again/). It’s got a very good summary of what we did over there, and should help explain some of the photos in [the gallery](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2005/russia/).

There and Back Again

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fff|ggg|petrogradskaya/P1020009|Peter and Rebecca in St Petersburg|ggg|fff

I’ve resisted posting a review of our trip due to the risk of turning into one of those dads from the fifties… setting up the slide projector (one of those home projectors under $500) and saying “and here’s Elaine at the beach, and here’s Elaine and the kids at the beach, and here they are again ten minutes later…” You get the picture.

Still. Many of you have asked for some more details of what we did and where we went and what we saw. I’ll do my best to summarize our trip for you. I am, however, going to hide the rest of this post for those of you who are not quite as interested. Click to keep reading!
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Latter Mays

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May is replete with anniversaries, birthdays, and other annual commemorations, some of which we’ve blogged:

Peter and Becky Stuff
Five Years: Peter’s first day working at ***Christianbook.com|http://www.christianbook.com/*** (May 15, 2000)
Four Years: Peter and Becky’s graduation from ***Gordon College|http://www.gordon.edu/*** (May 19, 2001)
Four Years: Peter’s first day as a salaried employee at ***Christianbook.com|http://www.christianbook.com/*** (May 21, 2001)
Three Years: Peter and Becky’s engagement (May 14, 2002)
One Year: ***Becky offered a job at the Otis House|http://prwdot.org/archives/001797.html*** (May 21, 2004)

Family Stuff
10 Years: Cole’s birthday (Becky’s cousin)
15 Years: Richie and Julie’s wedding anniversary (Becky’s uncle and aunt)
58 Years: Nana and Pop-Pop’s wedding anniversary (Peter’s grandmother and grandfather)

Other Stuff
***Apple releases third generation iPod|http://prwdot.org/archives/000786.html*** (May 2, 2003)
***Peter got his current cell phone (whoop-de-doo!)|http://prwdot.org/archives/000792.html*** (May 8, 2003)
***Movable Type licensing fiasco|http://prwdot.org/archives/001780.html*** (May 13, 2004)

Happy everything!

Number 58

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Happy 58th Anniversary to my grandparents, Nana (Frances) and Pop-Pop (Clark)!

ppp|Nana and Pop-Pop|ppp

Wow… only two more years and it will be number 60!

Family Footnote: Nana and Pop-Pop are my mom’s parents, and they live in Schuylkill Haven, PA. Haven is about an hour’s drive northeast of Harrisburg.

A Beverly PSA

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Since I know that a number of Beverly residents read this blog, I just wanted to pass along a Public Service Announcement regarding ***Lynch Park|http://www.bevrec.com/lynchpark.html***. With great ocean views, beautiful gardens, expansive grassy areas, and even an ice cream shop (Dick & June’s), Lynch Park is undoubtedly Beverly’s best public park. It’s a great place to hang out in the summer. (And it’s also a great place to have your friend Beth Bray take your ***engagement photos|http://gallery.prwdot.org/engagement_photos***.) Starting June 19 and running through August 14, Beverly Recreation will be doing semi-weekly movie nights. You can see the schedule for movies, along with other BevRec events, at the ***public calendar|http://www.localendar.com/public/bevrec***. For example, the original Star Wars movie will be showing on August 14. 🙂

From May 21 through Labor Day, parking at Lynch Park is restricted. For non-residents, parking is $5 on weeknights and $12 on weekends. For residents, parking is free with a valid Beverly vehicle registration. You can either get a sticker on your first visit, or show your registration every time if you don’t want a sticker on your car.

Here’s to the quickly-approaching summertime!

Comrade Mac

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fff|ggg|grab_bag/P1020258|Comrade Mac|ggg|fff

Computers deserve souvenirs, too! Our PowerMac G4’s monitor is adorned by a Red Army hat pin, part of a collection I purchased in Moscow. One of the most common items for sale was an old brown army cap, with 20-30 reproduction Soviet pins attached to it. A fun souvenir, and not terribly expensive either – 250 roubles ($9) or less.

Goodbye, Enterprise.

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Tonight, I watched the final two episodes of ***Star Trek: Enterprise|http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/index.html***. The series debuted, coincidentally, just after September 11, 2001. While I was initially very interested in the concept, my enthusiasm waned after the first two seasons. The writing and acting just weren’t compelling, and of course there was always that hideous theme song. Eventually, Enterprise was moved to a Friday 8 p.m. time slot, which put it opposite a show that Becky and I were much more interested in, Joan of Arcadia (a much more compelling and interesting show, I might add). I kept forgetting to tape Enterprise, and eventually I just lost interest altogether.

I decided that it was probably my duty as a Trekkie to watch the final episodes, so I read the recaps from the episodes I missed this season on ***Television Without Pity|http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show.cgi?show=71***, to help fill in the plot holes caused by me not watching the show (unfortunately there’s nothing I can do about the holes that the writers left). Anyway, it actually sounds like I missed a few decent episodes, so hopefully I can catch them on reruns or in syndication next season.

I won’t bother recapping the episodes I watched – you can do that yourself at Television Without Pity, or on the ***Star Trek|http://www.startrek.com/*** website. The final episode was an amusing, and somewhat successful, attempt to please the disenfranchised Star Trek fans, by giving them a dose of some old favorite characters, and a peek at the creation of the United Federation of Planets.

Overall, I’m a bit sad to see the series go, in the sense that it started with a great idea – a look at the early years of Starfleet and the Federation, through the eyes of the crew of the first Starship Enterprise. But the series was doomed by bad writing, bad direction, bad production, and bad marketing. May it rest in peace, next time they will remember, it is better to hire professionals like the indexsy team when it comes to marketing.

At least my favorite series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, still lives on in syndication and on DVD (and on episodes taped on VHS off of cable; I’m going to have to start digging those out…).

International Exchange

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Things Russia Has That The United States Needs More Of
***Gigantic|http://gallery.prwdot.org/new_tretyakov_and_graveyard/P1010624*** ***monuments|http://gallery.prwdot.org/all_russia/P1010670*** and ***statues|http://gallery.prwdot.org/all_russia/P1010689***.
***Huge|http://gallery.prwdot.org/kremlin/P1010485***, ***beautiful|http://gallery.prwdot.org/red_square_kitay_gorod/P1010541*** ***cathedrals|http://gallery.prwdot.org/gostinyy_dvor/P1010769***.
***Ornate bridges|http://gallery.prwdot.org/gostinyy_dvor/P1010765***.
***Enormous|http://gallery.prwdot.org/palace_embankment/P1010809*** ***columns|http://gallery.prwdot.org/vasilevsky_island/P1020003***.
***Gilded|http://gallery.prwdot.org/tsarskoe_selo/P1010889*** ***palaces|http://gallery.prwdot.org/hermitage/P1020146***.
***Fast, cheap, efficient public transportation|http://gallery.prwdot.org/red_square_kitay_gorod/P1010724***.
***Really little kids playing the accordion|http://gallery.prwdot.org/red_square_kitay_gorod/P1020228***.
***Bright, orange-colored blini shops|http://gallery.prwdot.org/gostinyy_dvor/P1020097***.
***Majestic train terminals|http://gallery.prwdot.org/russia_in_transit/P1010740***.
(Forgot this the first time through) Under-street pedestrian crossings. Rather than attempt to have crosswalks at busy intersections, Moscow and Saint Petersburg have remarkable underground street crossings. Some of them are in conjunction with Metro stations, others are standalone. This benefits both the pedestrians, who don’t get hit by cars and get their shopping done while crossing the street, and drivers, who don’t have to worry about pedestrians at big intersections. Most of the crossings also have mini-malls in them, where enterpreneurs have tiny booths built into the walls of the tunnels from which they sell any manner of items, such as kitchen gadgets, DVD’s and CD’s, food, clothing, etc. Amazing.

Things The United States Has That Russia Needs More Of
Traffic laws (and/or enforcement of traffic laws).
Air pollution laws.
Smoking laws.
***Taco Bells|http://www.tacobell.com/***.

Victory Day

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fff|ggg|victory_day/P1020218|Soldiers practicing for a Victory Day parade|ggg|fff

May 9, 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the allied victory in Europe in World War II. There are massive celebrations going on in Moscow, Russia today, and while we were there last week, preparations were well under way. I’ve created a special gallery that pulls together photos I took of those preparations, from the enormous red and gold banners, to the soldiers drilling, to the flower-laying ceremonies. ***Enjoy|http://gallery.prwdot.org/victory_day***!

Russian Photos

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I’ve finished uploading the photos we took while in Russia. There are several hundred photos, organized mostly by location… but no captions on individual photos. Hopefully within the next few days, we’ll write up some posts with more details of our trip, and with some links in to the photos at key points. For now, you can ***check out the raw photos|http://gallery.prwdot.org/russia***. Enjoy!