Fox College Sports recently did a spotlight on my nephew, Corey:

"Weekly Surf Club Corner with Lolo: With an outstanding history as being one of the nations top surf teams you would think the University of California Santa Barbaras surf team endures grueling practice schedules and rigorous training. However, like all things that thrive in Santa Barbara, the UCSB surf team is laid back and centered on having a good time, focusing more on partying than on practicing. One would think that this team sounds like a bunch of typical surf bums out for a good time, but no one can argue the outstanding success this talented team has achieved. This year UCSBs A-Team ranked second, just trailing San Diego State, in the NSSAs Southwest College Season Event #1, and looks ahead to a promising contest season with sights on reaching nationals.One of the teams newest talents is junior transfer Corey Hartwyk. In his first contest with the UCSB team Corey managed to snag first place in the mens longboard division. This Seal Beach native learned to surf when he was nine, and has been competing for seven years, accrediting his inspiration to Timmy Dorsey, Stormin Norm (Da Hui), John Husak, Surf Bob of Long Beach Surf Club. Corey usually frequents Sands for his daily ride, and when he feels like a bit or a road trip, or actually surf some waves bigger than knee-high, Hartwyk will head down to Rincon. When asked to describe overall vibe of the team Hartwyk stated We have a good team, in the first meeting we were told we?d have more parties than practices-I like that, its not like a normal team, but surfing isnt like a normal sport. When he?s not surfing? Well like any UCSB student Hartwyk says hes either partying, or working to pay for more partying. It looks like another promising year for the UCSB team and with new recruits such as Hartwyk the team is set up to surf a step above the rest, and have the most fun along the way. If you want your team to appear in our weekly spotlight email me at lauren.schuil@foxcollegesports.net"

Labels: Family, Sports, Websites

create your own visited countries map

This is kind of cool - you can create a map showing where you've visited!

Labels: Travel, Websites

Irc ("Internet Relay Chat")... a gathering place of technologically inclined people, geeks if you will, but each with varying interests, focus, direction and history. With tens of thousands of people on a network, channels exist to make conversations plausible, pleasurable, possible. Channels about computers, games, cooking, lifestyles. Channels that exist for the sole purpose of advancing projects, providing a meeting place for groups and clubs. Channels filled with people who just want someone to talk to. There are even variety channels.

I have a channel, ##essy. I suppose, if I were forced to classify it, it would be a social/variety channel. We have our share of "geeks", by which I mean the hordes of brilliant, selfless people who, at the mere hint of a question mark, will turn their attention and resources to decyphering and solving whatever problem or issue you have (or might have or SHOULD have). We have our younger members (which does not mean less mature). We have our gamers, our bloggers, our technocrats, administrators, teachers, students, Germans, Italians, Swiss, French, English, cooks, restauranteers, entrepreneurs. The variety, the cultures, the languages. In a digital way, it's sort of like some of the traveling we did.

It can be fun at any time of the day, since so many different time zones are represented. Lately, though, a few of us have been hanging on late into the evening. The conversation is varied, often wavering between silly and philosophical, between virtual and real life, between the past, present and future. I've had the wonderful opportunity to get to know some of these folks a bit better through some of these (and other) conversations. Additionally, many of us have resumed our blogging (or started new blogs). Kalen has been blogging - posting some of his writings (past and present) (he is quite prolific - be sure to read his stuff if you can). Tokimi has resumed his blog, and DTRemenak has started a blog (and he blames it on us).

Stop by and see us sometime...and don't worry, we are friendly - we don't bite.

Labels: Friends, IRC, Websites

Dennis sent me this today - it's pretty funny (and the link actually works, though I'm only giving you the screenshot)!

Labels: Websites

We all know Google has a sense of humor - they change their logo on days of special interest, etc. But are they really so funny that they would openly display a real bug...really, a REAL bug, in their maps? (Thanks, Dennis, for spotting this!)

Labels: Humour, Websites

Well, I've recently become involved in blogging in two locations in addition to this one. (And you may have noticed that I've started blogging here a lot more). As part of my bzflag-playing, my ducati team, Bz-Incorporated, has a blog where it posts match reports and other things. Recently, I started another blog with a few other people (we are still open to additional contributors, so let me know if you are interested) called "The Healthy Cook". I won't be cross posting all the recipes I try to my cooking page, so feel free to go check out what we are up to on The Healthy Cook.

Labels: Bzflag, Food, Websites

Google

Hehe, Google DOES have a sense of humor. How many other random google searches can you find? :D

Labels: Websites

Woot : One Day, One Deal

Well, I've officially become a wooter! Kirk and I have been watching this website for a while. He bought a small mp3 player/recorder a few days ago (it arrived today). Today, it was my turn! We snapped up a couple of the webcams - that way, when he's traveling like crazy this fall, we can have some "face-to-face" conversations.

Go woot and have fun!

Labels: Acquisitions, Websites

Bangkok Post Thursday 11 August 2005 - Goodwill volunteers: "Goodwill volunteers

A new breed of travellers leave their comfort zones to connect with local people, taking in their stride language and cultural barriers

Story by THANIN WEERADET

Volunteering foreign tourists working on a public utility project in Isan.
Breaking the ice... visiting volunteers cross the cultural divide and join local kids in a game of football. — PHOTOS COURTESY NORTH BY NORTH-EAST TOURS
These days there are people who do not only enjoy the luxury of seeing places thousands of miles away from their homes, but they also want to bring benefits to the people or communities they visit. They travel with a purpose.

It's an emerging trend called 'voluntourism', a way by which people learn about other cultures and communities, and in Thailand, where it's only been around a few years, it's best evidenced in the aftermath of the tsunami that struck south Thailand last December when volunteers from all corners of the globe rushed to the region to help affected villagers and restore the ecology.

Jason Rolan of North by North-East Tours is a pioneer in this field. For the past six years he has been organising and coordinating voluntourism projects in Thailand's northeast and Laos, and according to him, opportunities are open to anyone who wants to see Southeast Asia and leave a positive mark along the way.

'Our projects include anything from teaching English in rural schools, to building playgrounds, tsunami relief and cultural conservation to working with underprivileged children,' he explained. Groups as well as individual volunteers are welcome. So far he has patched together groups from schools, universities, religious organisations and physicians and delivered them to places needing their services.

'Individuals or groups, our priority is to keep the project meaningful for those who stand to benefit from it. We welcome enquiries from everyone, including donors"

Labels: Travel, Volunteerism, Websites

What a treat to have your food cravings explained! Next time I think I want chocolate, I know what I should REALLY eat. I just added the "Stumble Upon" extension to my Firefox and it takes me to all sorts of fun, random sites. This was actually one of them.

Labels: Food, Websites

75 Degrees South is a pretty cool website, chronicling the adventures of the British Antarctic Survey team members.

Labels: Websites

On Thursday, February 24th, I was having an "emotional day". What can I say? I'm a girl! I have emotions (and sometimes I show them). But even for me, this seeed a bit extreme and out of the ordinary. Oh, well, whatever.

The day before, I had gone into get my annual exam (read: girl stuff). While in there, they asked me some questions and decided (for safety sake, before getting an xray) they should confirm I'm not pregnant. So, they did a blood test (it's way too early to do a urine test). I called on Thursday to get the results, but the nurse was with another patient, so I left a message. We've been trying for over a year, so while I was hopeful, I didn't really expect to be.

After my emotional outbursts on Thursday morning, I finally heard back from the nurse. She informed me that the test was "positive". My response was "What does THAT mean?" She said, "You're pregnant." WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Now, remember, I'm sitting in the middle of my office surrounded by people (I didn't really shout, but I was shouting non-stop inside!). We scheduled our first pre-natal visit (March 23) and I hung up, took a deep breath, grabbed my cell phone, and with a quick comment ("I'm going downstairs for a minute"), I went outside.

Kirk had to be the first to hear the news and there was noooooooooooooo way I could wait until we were both off work! I called him and we chitchatted for a minute or two, and then I asked if he was sitting down (what a cliche, but it's all I could come up with). Then I told him. "Really?!" "Yes" "Wow!" My amazing husband: the man of understatement (which is a good balance for my tendency to overstate things). We tried to decide right there and then whether to tell people right away - we've never done this and really hadn't discussed what to do.

So, now you know our news.

Now, I'm experiencing all sorts of things, some old, some new, but they have a new name: "pregnancy". There's a cool little pregnancy calculator thing that I found - it helps you estimate your due date. I tried it on mine, but I'm not telling until I get it all confirmed by the doc. Other than being tired a lot, one of the most interesting things I've noticed is that my head will occasionally get dizzy or feel numb. Very strange. But comical since I know why.

Yes, yes, of course, I did some reading once we found out. I've lots more to do, but it gave some nice little basics, which I needed and appreciated. I found everything from a week-by-week pregnancy calender to some basic pregnancy info, and sites and forums galore for pregnant women and even for pregnant women over 35!

Labels: Events, Family, Health, Websites