Seth.Larson

If only kits were this easy.

So… headed to Hawaii over Christmas vacation and it has me thinking I’d like to finally do something I’ve “considered” doing for a decade now.  Start the diving certification track.

The two major options in the U.S. are PADI and SSI.  I’ve been talking to some people I know who have done one or the other and comparing their requirements/offerings.  Many will say SSI is better because it requires you to be affiliated with a dive supply shop that is affiliated with SSI which seems somewhat fallacious to me.  Many other places say the PADI/SSI are really about the same “requirements” wise and that really who cares because what really matters is how good of an instructor you get.  Those outside the U.S. are often of the opinion that it doesn’t matter at all, some of the more localized options in Europe are the only real “step above” due to their knowledge requirements.

PADI

SSI

PADI E-Learning for Open Water Diver

Any input from people I haven’t talked to here, or anyone interested in also pursuing this?

I’m currently thinking the online PADI online knowledge course followed by  pool diving time.  Not sure

And by pretty solid I mean fracking awesome…

Five minutes ago I completed and submitted the last of my coursework for my masters degree.  Today would mark the classroom end of the journey towards my masters degree.

I believe I’m going to try and walk in the fall graduation ceremony, that is of course assuming I get all of the remaining program papers turned in and take the comprehensive exam covering all courses taken so far, and all pre-requisite courses that I skipped.

Its over and this moment is so good I’d buy it a drink and maybe go home with it.

Lilly is definitely not always a fan of emma.

“Hey I’ll get it” Mike said as he answered the phone at our new CRESH office in sioux falls back in the summer of 2005. And as he answered the phone his face contorted into the shape one might form upon receiving a wet willy.

The cause of this facial contortion was some idiot constantly sending faxes to our main office line.  I’m not saying someone who accidentally sends a fax to the wrong number is an idiot.  I am however going to say that if you send faxes at random times of the day, to the same number, and never realize that whoever you are faxing is not getting your faxes, you probably should look at the importance of your faxing.
This became irritating over time.  In our excitement to see Batman Begins, we’d begun watching lots of old Christian Bale movies.  This lead to watching American Psycho a few times.  Which lead to an obsession of business card quality, and feeding cats to machines.  Naturally the following image is what we decided to reply with every time someone attempted to fax our voice line.

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It has begun.  I haven’t watched it yet, and BBC America probably won’t be playing them until at least september[citation needed], but here is the advert for the series.

Last week Andrea, Traci, and Barb came to drop off Sharla’s new car and hang around for a bit. I lent Andrea some how I met your mother dvds to give her and traci something to watch when bored, and during our bored time Andrea and I watched the Top Gear Vietnam, Botswana and Lorry challenges. This lead to me thinking, what would the best “must see” top gear episodes be to recommend newcomers watch.

First and most obvious are the Vietnam, and Botswana challenges.

After that what comes to mind are the “Best Road in the World” vacation, and the second “Turn cars into boats” challenge.

Which other memorable episodes am I missing?

(I am by no means saying that what I’ve listed are the only good top gear episodes).

For those who have no idea what Top Gear is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_KIqdS1SO0
http://www.topgear.com/

I’m actually pretty impressed at how streamlined you can go from RAW to online album of jpegs with picasa. This is just a chunk of the pictures from the wedding/honeymoon. We haven’t even met with the photographer again since we’ve gotten back, everything pre-honeymoon in the album was taken by Jay.

Wedding

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Day 1 in captivity.

I’m alive and well. Trying to get out a quick message to those who may be worried while I have the opportunity.

It is different in captivity, in contrast to what one may expect, it is much more calm and friendly compared to the few days prior to capture. Things are oddly cordial and affectionate, this may be a clever ruse…