Ten Years Ago Today: July 31, 1998

While performing my end-of-month computer backup check I realized from my photos that ten years ago today my brother Tom and I took off for a nearly three week tour of Australia and New Zealand (while Whitney and her sister took off for an extended trip to Hawaii).



Tom made the 24 hours flight from Pittsburgh, while I had an easier overnight flight from Osaka to Auckland, New Zealand. The only non-stop flight from Japan was from the newly opened Kansai International Airport (KIX) - picture above - located on an artificial island two miles off-shore in Osaka Bay.

EO University in Boston

Last week was the Entrepreneur Organization's annual university, held this year in Boston.

The program included amazing speakers and amazing attendees, including Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and author of The Art of Possibility, as well as the founders of Boston Chicken and Trinet. I participated on an onsite tour of Northeastern University's NSF-funded Nanotechnology Center. The closing keynote was at historic Faneuil Hall, with the closing dinner at the Moakley Courthouse, headquarters for the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Below are a few pictures from the week - the first with me and my forum mates, the bottom with old and new friends in Faneuil Hall.

Nice Guy Strategies Book Now Available

My friend Russ Edelman's new business book, Nice Guys Can Get the Corner Office, is now available in bookstores or online here.

To quote one the reviews:
“ Finally, a book that teaches nice guys how to be strong, decisive, and get things done much more efficiently and successfully than tyrannical managers.”
—George Nadaff, founder & former CEO, Boston Chicken

Russ also has a website for his consulting group, Nice Guy Strategies, at http://www.niceguystrategies.com.

If you would like your copy autographed, head out to one of the book signings, August 6 at 1pm at Borders in downtown Boston and in September 25 at 7pm at Jabberwocky in Newburyport.

Weekend Activities

We kept cool in the heat and/or kept dry from the rain with indoor activities, a swim at Morse's Pond in Wellesley, and a late Sunday afternoon visit to the Museum of Science.


Scientist Katie at work on chemistry experiments



Nicholas swimming at Morse's Pond in Wellesley



Learning about the Gulf Stream



Locating summer camp on a giant map of greater Boston



Building and racing solar-powered cars

The "Anne Nashes"

Our dear friends and soon-to-be-former-neighbors the Nashes (aka "the Ann Nashes") are relocating to Charlotte, North Carolina in a few weeks. We had them over for a pizza party Wednesday night.


Whitney, Katie, and Ann


Ann, Michael, Nicholas, Matt


Nicole

Summer Camp Begins

This week starts four weeks of summer day camp with the Massachusetts Audubon Society. This week and next is at the Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, and the following two weeks are at Drumlin Farms, an actual working farm.

Autographed Howtoons

I had blogged about one of Katie's birthday presents, the Howtoons comic-book inventing guide. Joost Bonsen, one of the authors, and I were both at the recent MIT Neurotech Club dinner, and he graciously agreed to autograph Katie's copy.

Forwarded: 30 Most Incredible Abstract Satellite Images of Earth

This is just cool...

30 Most Incredible Abstract Satellite Images of Earth

"Indeed, the world reproduces itself not only in the course of several gyrations, but at several different heights. At ground level, one can only imagine the sheer beauty of mountain ranges, deserts and deltas seen high up from NASA’s satellites. One can imagine - yes - however, they wouldn’t be quite prepared for the fact that from 400 miles away, the earth transforms into abstract art. The global landscape is impressionist, cubist and pointillist. Mother Nature is an abstract artist.



"The images [in this post] were taken at the turn of the Millennium, when NASA’s scientists had a brilliant idea: to scan through 400,000 images taken by the Landsat 7 satellite and display only the most the most beautiful. A handful of the best were painstakingly chosen and then displayed at the Library of Congress in 2000...



See the post and 30 top images here.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Resumes Tonight

After over six months of not-so-patient waiting, Avatar: The Last Airbender resumes with new episodes tonight. It is the only TV show that all four of us watch as a family. New episodes will be broadcast every night for the next six days, culminating in a Saturday night two-hour series finale.

Photo Archive: Sig Tau's on Mount Fuji

Today I got a Carnegie-Mellon and Sigma Tau Gamma one-two punch. First, as mentioned in the last post, we attended the CMU alumni clambake with Dan Cohen and his family. Second, I received a Facebook friend request from another CMU Sig Tau friend I haven't heard from in a few years, Joe Cupani.

Joe interned in Japan for several months while Whitney and I were living there in the late 1990s. The two of us and a third CMU Sig Tau, Frank Lefkin, got together and climbed Mount Fuji. The following is a picture of the three of us on top of Mount Fuji after the climb - and yes, it really is a small town for tourists at the top.


From left: Paul, Frank Lefkin, Joe Cupani - celebrating at the top of Mount Fuji

Carnegie Mellon Alumni Clambake

We decided to make a family day out of the annual Carnegie-Mellon Boston Alumni Clambake in Wareham, Massachusetts.


View Larger Map

We met up with the Cohen family - Dan, Marina, Jonathan, and Sabrina. Paul and Dan Cohen were in the same fraternity and both graduated in electrical engineering in the same year. The Cohen's live one town over from us, and we try to get the families together once every summer.

Note to other Boston CMU Sig Tau's: Dan and I decided to make this a group event next year!



From left: Katie, Sabrina, Dan, Jonathan, Nicholas, Marina



Jonathan does his impression of the lobster on Katie's shoulder



Eating our lobster dinner



Listening to a nature lesson from one of the other alumni



Nicholas in the bay



Nicholas and Sabrina [not] sharing their candy

More Bakugan Battle Brawlers...

Learn more here and here...

iPhone 2.0 Upgrade: Wait

Don't upgrade your old iPhone to 2.0 yet - it requires a reactivation via iTunes, and the Apple servers are begin slammed today with the release of the iPhone 3G. My iPhone was bricked for most of the day. I am one of the fortunate ones who was able to get my phone operating by the end of the day.

See more here on AppleInsider.

UPDATE: It wasn't just me, the Boston Globe had a front page story today on the technical woes experienced by many iPhone customers yesterday.

In good news, MobileMe appears to be working fine with respect to wireless syncing between Mac and iPhone. And some of the new iPhone apps look promising.

More summer vacation...

After a week at Cape Cod, Whitney, Katie, and Nicholas headed to Connecticut to spend a few days with Whit's friend Jen and her three children, "honorary cousins" Ted, Charlie, and Kira.


Katie, Nicholas, Charlie, Ted, Kira


Boys and their computer games


In the hot tub at night

Fourth of July: Fireworks

As mentioned in the previous post, we spent the Fourth of July on the rooftop of the Museum of Science, and after dinner headed to the rooftop of their parking garage to enjoy a view of the Boston Pops' Fourth of July music and fireworks show.








[Although difficult to see, this picture shows two F-15's in a fly-by - I didn't get my camera quickly enough to snap a picture as they flew overhead.]

Fourth of July: Museum of Science

This year was our first family outing Fourth of July outing into Boston. We spend the afternoon at the Museum of Science, and after dinner headed to the rooftop of their parking garage to enjoy a view of the Boston Pops' Fourth of July music and fireworks show.



American Revolutionary War Mural under the bridge to the Museum


One of the museum shows features the world's largest air-insulated Van de Graaff generator, donated by MIT





Tornado machine using fog





More fun with electricity



Katie and Nicholas with Rexy





Fun in the Apollo Space Capsule



Katie displays her art work


Nicholas in the physiology exhibit room

You Can Go Home

On the recent trip back to Washington, Pennsylvania, Paul and his brother Tom decided to visit the house they were raised in for 20 years. The house and church (Paul's dad is a minister) were sold in 1990, and the property is currently owned by the Shiloh Bible Institute. Many thanks to Ed Popovic who graciously let us tour the house.


The front of the large white house


On the steps leading up to the church, adjacent to the house. Although not apparent from these pictures, the house and church are on a steep hill.


The old green stove is still working


Ed Popovic with Paul's brother Tom. Paul's old room is now an office, but still has the old blue carpet.

Trip to Pennsylvania

Paul visited his family outside of Pittsburgh last weekend. Here he is with mom, dad, and brother Tom, at the St. Joseph's church in Fairhope, Pennsylvania, where Paul's father has been the part-time minister for nearly 40 years.

Cartoon by Katie: The Cat Restaurant

[You will need to click on the image below to bring it to full size]

What We Are Reading: Hugo Cabret

Well, Katie read it and Paul read it after her. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, the 2008 Caldecott medal winner, comes in at 533 pages of words and pictures. The real-life premise is that Georges Méliès, the early film director who created movies including A Trip to the Moon, donated a collection of mechanical toys to a museum. This story picks up where a young boy rediscovers one of the mechanical automata in the museum's attic...