A line of forlorn faces

This image from the NY Times sports column says it all.

Economic advice, SNL-style

This is a GREAT clip about the economy, courtesy of Saturday Night Live!

SNL clip

Thoughts on Norway

This past weekend I had a fabulous time visiting my friend Trygve in Ganddal in western Norway. Here are a few stories.

(1) I flew on Lufthansa over, connecting in Frankfurt. The overnight transatlantic was pretty much miserable: I was stuck in coach surrounded by several crying babies and an overweight frenchman for 8+ hours. We finally landed in Germany after getting less than 1 hour sleep.

(2) I had a much more pleasant time in the Frankfurt airport during my 2.5 hr layover. They have a McDonalds, and yes I know that McDonalds isn't the best food and that it's not exactly a cross-cultural experience to fly all the way to Europe and eat McD's, but (a) it's better quality overseas, and (b) it's inexpensive and open in the morning. So I was able to get a 3EUR sandwich and coke instead of spending 10EUR in a woefully overpriced coffee shop.

(3) After enjoying a chicken biscuit, I struck up a conversation with a nice Egyptian guy who's currently working at Forsyth hospital in Winston-Salem (and was traveling back there after spending a month in Alexandria). He was very polite and I enjoyed our conversation. He was quite open with things on his mind, and shared that he had spent his last 10 days in Egypt "speed dating" a girl after being pressured by family to settle down and get married. He and I talked about dating, relationships, love and the sort in the context of cultural differences, and I really enjoyed his perspective. You know it's not all that much different from ours, even though American and Egyptian culture might - on the surface - seem pretty distinct. Anyway, as I said, it was a good hour-long conversation.

(4) The flight over to Norway was much smoother than the flight across the Atlantic. I was able to get a grouping of 3 seats together, so I spread out & rested for a few hours. The cloud patterns were also neat, and I got several good photos of clouds over northern Germany and Denmark. Once we got over southern Norway, we passed over some spectacular fjords and I snapped some good photos of them, too.

(5) Trygve met me at the Sola / Stavanger airport with one of his 5th grade students, Gabriel, and we enjoyed some question & answer time while driving back to school. Gabriel was very curious and asked me if I had a favorite color, if I liked and/or owned any Apple products, how many people were in my family, and things of that nature. I met some more of Trygve's students (Gabriel's classmates) who were practicing for their upcoming performance of the William Tell story (which they gave in English), and toured the school. Trygve and I went out after school ended to the coast and visited one of the local beaches. Then we headed into Stavanger to have some coffee. I normally don't drink much coffee, but I definitely took advantage of it while in Norway. I found that after the first night, I was pretty much over any jet lag.

(6) In Stavanger, we saw narrow pedestrian cobblestone streets, an old church, and several funny signs in English. I'll put some photos up soon.

(7) Trygve and I enjoyed a nice dinner of fish (me) and Texas-style steak (him). The only drawback? The cost. Mine was 179 NOK, which is about US$25. Norway is an expensive place!

(8) We headed home Thursday evening, stopping by the supermarket, and I turned in early to get some very-much-needed sleep.

(9) The next day, Friday, I spent the day at the school. Trygve works in a christian school, and the teachers get together each day to start with a short devotional (encouraging bible scriptures) and prayer. They meet at 8:00, and classes start at 8:15. The "homeroom" teachers also start their 8:15 classes with a devotion. Trygve invited me to give the devotion to his first class, 10th grade English, and I shared one of my favorite verses (from Isaiah), in English. Then we had a great time of question & answers about US & Norwegian cultures.

(10) After 10th grade English, we moved on to 6th grade English -- and they also had some great questions. Of course, the 10th graders asked questions like "Can you comment on the current state of race relations in the US south?", and the 6th graders asked questions like "Do you have a cat?" :-)

(11) Friday afternoon Trygve and I went jogging, and in the evening we cooked some excellent stir-fry (see photos below and try to guess what we cooked!). In the night, we joined up with 6 other guys and played the most excellent sport of Curling!! I only fell about a dozen times: several of them were just pushing off the block, and the rest were just random. I'm still bruised from all the contact with the ice. The team with Trygve and I ended up loosing 13-4 (a true spanking).

(12) Saturday we drove out of town a bit (even crossing on a short 10-minute ferry) on our way to Preikestolen. Now what is Preikestolen you may ask? Well, it's a 2-hr one-way hike up to a spectacular granite cliff that forms the wall of a fjord. The cliff drops off from a pinnacle nearly 2000 feet tall straight down to the water below. Our hike was peaceful (if a bit chilly), and we were treated to some amazing views along the way. My fear of heights prevented us from heading up another 20 meters to the highest point (and I kinda regret it now), which was a lookout spot above the trail, but we had some great views along the trail.

(13) I spent my last night in Norway at a concert put on by some friends from Trygve's church, and after the concert Trygve, his co-worker and my new friend Monica, and I went into Sandnes for my favorite fast-food on the planet: KEBAB! I love it! It's the "meat on a spit" that slowly turns and is carved off, thrown into a pita bread with some chopped onions & lettuce, and covered in sauce. It's FABULOUS. Topped off with a Coke, it was a great "last supper" in the country!

(14) My return flight left Stavanger at 10 a.m., and after the 1.5 hr hop to London-Heathrow, I spent the next 4.5 hrs resting and people-watching. Heathrow is a gigantic airport with people from literally all countries in the world (for example, Iranian Air jet landed next to ours and we passed through the security checkpoints together), so the people-watching was interesting. I enjoyed trying to guess where people were from, and I was pleased with my ability to pick out the other passengers on the United flight back to Washington-Dulles. At the check-in counter at the gate, I had to exchange my boarding card for a new one printed by United (they had to check my passport), and I casually asked if there were any seats with more leg room available. The gate agent initially tried to sell me an upgrade to "Economy Plus" for $120, and I politely declined him. As it was walking away, though, he called me back to the counter (practically yelling at me to return!) and said that there might instead be an exit row available (for free) in Economy section. Sure enough, there was, and I flew back to the USA with lots of extra legroom! This more than made up for my misery on the Lufthansa flight over.

(15) Once I got through immigration & customs (Washington-Dulles is a ridiculous airport in that there are numerous bottlenecks to prevent people from moving quickly or efficiently through the airport... those stupid "people-moving buses" are one, ridiculously narrow - one-person-wide - corridors to herd arriving int'l passengers toward immigration are another...), I caught the shuttle bus back to the Green Lot to find my car. I had written down that I'd parked in row 14-C Green, and when I made it to 14-C, I realized it would be harder than I thought to find my car -- line 14-C was probably 500 feet long!! I wandered all around that section (going as far as row 30-C and back to row 8-C after second-guessing myself), and finally after about 10 minutes, found my car -- sitting just as I'd written down (14-C) but way down at the other end from the bus drop point. Anyway, I guess a bit of exercise didn't hurt me, but after a 21-hr transit day, all I wanted to do was get home and get to sleep.

I'll post some pictures later.... too tired to get 'em up tonight. All in all, it was a fabulous adventure and I am forever indebted to Trygve for his hospitality in hosting me!

Mom's birthday

Last weekend I joined the family to celebrate Mom's birthday. I had hoped to go to Camp Don Lee and work on the Barrett Cabin, but the rain/drizzle/bad weather caused us to cancel our plans. Mom cooked some scrumptious ham & collards on Saturday, and we all went to Olive Garden on Sunday to celebrate.

Mike & Kendra, and Charles & Kim, and I pitched in and bought mom a digital camera. Here are a few photos from our lunch.

Norway, Duke, birthdays, the ACC tournament, and spring break

1- I hosted a watch party for last Sunday's UNC-Duke game in my apartment. About 10 friends came over and hung out, although few of them were as in to the game as I was. Carolina prevailed 79-71 and has now won 5 of the last 7 against Duke. :)

2- This weekend I'm going back to N.C. to celebrate Mom & Charles's birthday with my family. It's good to be able to just drive back home for the celebration (as opposed to living halfway across either the country or the world!) If the weather's fine, I'll try to volunteer some at Camp Don Lee and do some work on the Barrett cabin there.

3- This weekend is also the (historically) most exciting basketball weekend on tobacco road: the ACC tournament. Of course with Carolina's dominance this year (and NCSU's absence from contention for the better part of 2 decades), the tournament doesn't look to be as exciting or wide open as in other years.

4- I bought some candy last night and brought it in for my students to celebrate the start of spring break (which begins tomorrow). They completed a straightforward lab activity that taught them about satellite imagery and its usage, and most finished well before the lab period ended.

5- At the end of next week, I'm going to Stavanger Norway to visit Trygve!! It's been a long time coming, but I'm glad for his willingness to host me at his place. Norway is a country with lots of natural beauty -- not unlike southernmost Chile in some ways -- and I'm stoked about hanging out with him again.

It's shaping up to be an exciting week!

... One for the record books

My meticulous record keeping during this weekend's snowstorm has landed me in the official NCEP record book. See below.

STORM SUMMARY NUMBER 5 FOR EASTERN U.S. WINTER STORM
NWS HYDROMETEOROLOGICAL PREDICTION CENTER CAMP SPRINGS MD
1000 PM EST MON MAR 02 2009

...LATE WINTER STORM EXITING THE NEW ENGLAND STATES...

A WINTER STORM WARNING IS IN EFFECT IN EXTREME NORTHEASTERN MAINE.

FOR A DETAILED GRAPHICAL DEPICTION OF THE LATEST WATCHES...WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES...PLEASE SEE WWW.WEATHER.GOV

AT 1000 PM EST...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADARS AND SURFACE OBSERVATIONS DEPICTED AREAS OF LINGERING PRECIPITATION ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE NORTHEAST. LIGHT AND BLOWING SNOW WAS REPORTED IN AREAS WITHIN CONNECTICUT...RHODE ISLAND...MASSACHUSETTS...VERMONT...NEW HAMPSHIRE...AND MAINE.

...SELECTED STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL IN INCHES FROM 400 PM EST SAT FEB 28 THROUGH 1000 PM EST MON MAR 02...

...MARYLAND...
PORT REPUBLIC 13.0
ROYAL OAK 12.2
CHURCH CREEK 11.0
HOLLYWOOD 11.0
UPPER MARLBORO 9.0
WALDORF 9.0
ODENTON 8.5
ANNAPOLIS 8.3
COLUMBIA 8.1
LAUREL 2.7E 8.1
CHESAPEAKE BEACH 8.0
BOWIE 8.0
LA PLATA 7.8
WHITE PLAINS 7.4
RANDALLSTOWN 7.0
BETHESDA 6.5
CAMBRIDGE 6.0
BALTIMORE BWI 5.6
SILVER SPRING 5.5

And what a snowstorm it was . . .

The 21-hour period from 4 p.m. Sunday March 1st to 1 p.m. Monday March 2nd saw 8.25" fall in my condo complex (after compaction & melting, the total snow on the ground at 1 p.m. was 6.75").

The Naval Academy canceled classes today, but I held a review session for my SO244 students from 10:30-11:30. I think around 8 students showed up (12% of my enrollment, not bad for a snow day!) We had a productive Q&A session and short summary of the storm. Here are some photos from my neighborhood and the Naval Academy.

Live-blogging the 01-02 March 2009 snowstorm

Since I am following the event online and out my window, I've decided to live-blog the next few hours. The current NWS forecast calls for between 6 and 10 inches to fall tonight through tomorrow morning. I've decided to take several photos to track any accumulations. Here is a series of photos of the snow accumulation from my balcony. Below the photos is a summary of accumulations, snow conditions, and temperatures from 4 pm Sunday 01 March to 1 pm Monday 02 March.

---

1000 EST 02 March:

Snow status: Light snow continues. Blowing snow has begun in earnest.
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 24.8F
Accumulation: 2.5" from 0700-1000; total snow accumulation from 4 pm Sun Mar 1st to 10 am Mon Mar 2nd: 8.25". Snow on ground at 1000 EST: 6.5".
Wind direction: 330. Wind speed: 16 kts

---

0900 EST 02 March:

Snow status: Light snow continues. Blowing snow has begun in earnest.
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 24.8F
Accumulation: continues. Will re-measure at 1000 EST.
Wind direction: 330. Wind speed: 15 kts

---

0800 EST 02 March:

Snow status: light snow continues
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 26.6F
Accumulation: continues. Will re-measure at 1000 EST.
Wind direction: 330. Wind speed: 16 kts gusting 22 kts

---

0700 EST 02 March:

Snow status: snow began again around 0500 and has been snowing steadily since
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 26.6F
Accumulation: 1.25" from 0400 to 0700 EST (0900-1200 UTC); Storm-total from 2100-1200 UTC 5.75"; Total snow on ground at 1200 UTC: 4.75" (due to melting, etc).
Wind direction: 330. Wind speed: 17 kts

---

0130 EST 02 March:

Snow status: snow has ended, sometime between midnight and 1 a.m.
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 30.2F
Accumulation: 1.5" from 2200 to 0100 EST (0300-0600 UTC); Storm-total from 2100-0600 UTC 4.5"; Total snow on ground at 0605 UTC: 4.00".
Wind direction: 010. Wind speed: 15 kts gusting to 25 kts

Notes: this is essentially the end of "Mega-storm 2009" (as it has been christened by The Weather Channel). We've been dry-slotted, meaning the warm conveyor belt of air transporting moisture from the Atlantic has moved to our NE. We might stand to get maybe 1-2" more snow from the "wrap-around", the cold conveyor belt behind the upper-low. Personally I'm curious about the low snowfall totals, relative to that forecasted by NWS and various media outlets (ranging from 6 to 12 inches). I am willing to hang my hat on low snow ratios, maybe 6.5:1 or 7:1, which could be reasonable considering that nearly all of this snow fell when the surface and lowest-layer temperatures were above 0 Celsius. Only now in strong cold-air advection have our temps gone below freezing.

It remains to be seen whether I have school or not tomorrow. Just walking around to get to the snow board, I have a hunch we will report for business as usual. Regardless, it's time for bed, as all this forecasting - and measuring - has worn me out. Hasta manana!!

---

2200 EST 01 March:

Snow status: moderate snow (heaviest of any in the event)
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 33.8F
Accumulation: 1.5" from 1900 to 2200 EST (0000-0300 UTC); Storm-total from 2100-0300 UTC 3.0"; Total snow on ground at 0305 UTC: 2.75".
Wind direction: 010. Wind speed: 11 kts

---

2100 EST 01 March:

Snow status: drizzle, light rain, and light snow mixture
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 33.8F
Accumulation: seems to have halted for the moment (or accumulating as much as is melting)
Wind direction: 010. Wind speed: 10 kts gusting to 15 kts

---

2000 EST 01 March:

Snow status: light snow
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 35.6F
Accumulation: continues (will measure again at 2200 EST // 0300 UTC)
Notes: wind speeds have increased and snow is now blowing in at angles. Radar image indicates drying /diminished reflectivities/ working in from the west. Snow rates for next few hours appear to be less. Temperature remains above freezing.

---

1915 EST 01 March:

Snow status: light snow
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 33.8F
Accumulation: 1.5" (3-hr total using snow board, from 1600-1900)

---

1800 EST 01 March:

Snow status: light snow
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 35.6F
Accumulation: 1/2"

---

1700 EST 01 March:

Snow status: light snow
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 35.6F
Accumulation: none.

---

1600 EST 01 March:

Snow status: light flurries
Temperature at Annapolis-Hospital Point: 37.4F
Accumulation: none

And now you know ... the rest of the story

Paul Harvey, a radio voice I remember listening to with my dad often while we ran errands or visited family, died yesterday. Mr. Harvey was famous for his dramatic pauses and a signature line that delivered "the rest of the story." Rest in Peace, Mr. Harvey.