My first Blog. I’d thought I’d give it a try.

Recently my Mom brought to my attention that people were asking about my design project. In one of my classes this semester, senior design, we try to fully design a project of our choosing. Usually, in other schools they get to actually build their projects as well as designing them but sadly we don’t. My group is building a Biodiesel reactor. It is not a motor, you can actually use biodiesel fuel in any diesel engine. The only thing you have to worry about is the fuel lines being eaten away because of the solvent characteristics of biodiesel. All you have to do then is simple replace them before changing to biodiesel from regular diesel. In any case, our device will turn used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel. This is actually a fairly simple process, but does involve some chemistry, so we are trying to eliminate the chemistry aspect and make the process one can do without any training of chemistry or how to make biodiesel.

if I do read and study a lot at least i don't spend all my time in Wal-Mart

story

Thanks for the welcome home! I was soo tired these past two days but I slept well last night so I think I should be over the jet lag by now. I'm excited to reenter the world of family blogging. Even though I was able to keep up a little while I was gone, I still felt out of the loop. I am definitely a fan of this website! hehehe.

I will probably be uploading my pictures tomorrow and will post some of the best ones.

I've been figuring out a job for the next few months and then in July I'll be back up in Medford for summer session. There will definitely be time in there for a visit with everyone!

We are finishing up our week here. Laundry and oil change this morning. No English in either shop. The weather is overcast and warmer, probably 80 this afternoon.

We found most of our target birds here. Two days ago we paddled some five miles up the river from Salineno to the Falcon Dam. It was a crisp and clear morning, 38 degrees at dawn. The scenery was pleasing with patches of reed, cypress, thornscrub land, and cow and goat pasture.

There were lots of ducks, mostly American wigeon, gadwall, and blue-winged teal, still tarrying here. To our disappointment no Muscovy ducks showed up, but we enjoyed great views of gray hawks and kettles of red-shouldered hawks on migration. We also roused both ringed and green kingfishers. We witnessed only one illegal border crossing.

We hope to see you soon. Maybe in May.

I've noticed that you can click onto other people's calendars. Some people have submitted entries, others don't have a calendar. If people are good about using them, we can check events that way, by viewing their calendars. Interesting.

I couldn't get to the end of this piece, but for those who might be interested in the progress of the NYT learning about Red State America, try some of this article. " Intellectual goes hunting"

This is like those forays into religion that the Times tries every couple of years--lets see how those exotic, strange people live and report to our ever-interested readers about the latest trends.

Since many of us lived in Stuy Town for a time and many more visited, I thought you might be interested in reading this article about a battle to integrate Stuy Town in the early 1950's. go to the slide show to see pictures and get a sense of where Stuy Town is situated in the city.

"Stuyvesant Town"

Birding sites can be in the most unusual settings. We have experienced this over the last several days as we continue to bird along the Rio Grande River and the international border.

This is the frontier and it shows. Two days ago we visited the town of San Ygnacio to find white-collared seedeaters and a wayward Yucatan jay. The first are found in los Estados Unitos only in a few reed patches near the river. Currently some of these patches have been cleared and others, if they exist, are not accessible. Along the water front in San Ygnacio, however, an enterprising gentleman has created a religous (Madonna) and birding shrine. A five dollar donation (per person) is requested. Currently on special is the Yucatan jay, a spectacular navy blue bodied bird with aquamarine blue wings and tail. It appears most mornings about seven a.m. at a feeding station. We arrived at 6:45 and saw the bird four times for a total of about twenty seconds at 6:56. Very nice. This bird has no business being here. It may be a vagrant. More likely it is an escaped cage bird from nearby in Mexico.

The other day while I was driving to a deposition I started thinking about what I would consider the best movie of all time. I tried to remember those lists that came out at the end of the 20th century for examples of what should be candidates. I have my own personal list of my favorite movies, but I wasn't sure if they were good movies, or had some "moral squint" as Orson Welles says in "A Man For All SEasons" [one of my favorites].

It is generally considered that the follwoing are the best movies:

1. Citizen Kane
2. gone With The wind
3. Casablanca
4.The Godfather
5. The Godfather Part II