A few weeks (or months) ago I went and visited my family in California. While I was there, we were able to go into San Francisco and take some pictures. This picture was taken on Treasure Island and the sun was setting and it was gorgeous. I actually took sixteen photographs and stitched them together to make this photograph. I might look pretty small on my website or in your web browser, but feel free to download it and take a look at it. I didn’t really want to spend too much time photoshopping the photograph. I just decided to upload it.
Happy Mothers Day! I bought a new computer back in March and I have yet to post any pictures of my dream machine to my blog. While I was sitting at my computer today, I decided to download the new Windows 7 operating system and run it on my new MacPro using VMFusion. After about one hour of downloading the 3.2 GB file from Microsoft I was able to get it up and running on my machine. I am actually writing this post in Google Chrome on my Windows 7 Virtual Machine on my MacPro.
I finally saved up enough money and Apple finally released an updated MacPro and I went and purchased it. Here are a few technical details that some of you might be interested in:
8-core: Two 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5500 series processors
16GB of 1066MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, PCI Express 2.0, one Mini DisplayPort, and one dual-link DVI port
Two 1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm, 32MB cache
18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Four FireWire 800 ports (two on front panel, two on back panel)
Five USB 2.0 ports (two on front panel, three on back panel)
Two USB 2.0 ports on included keyboard
Front-panel headphone minijack and internal speaker
Optical digital audio input and output TOSLINK ports
I am also sporting two Apple Cinema 23″ Displays that really complete my dream machine. I still have my trusty MacBook Pro 15″ laptop that I take with me to school and work. It has been relieved from running my massive photograph (120GB), movie (500GB) and music (140GB) collections to simply surfing the internet and checking email with an occasional document that needs to be created.
Take a look at the picture of my current set up, you can also see my iPhone 3G that completes the machintosh setup along with my Xerox Phaser 8560 MFP that handles all my printing, scanning and copying. I hope to write more indepth reviews and commentaries on the machines that do my work. I use to store all my media on two Other World Computing Mercury Elites that you can see sitting next to my MacPro. They now mainly serve as secondary backups. I’ll have to write more about my backup master plan.
If you look closely, I have Windows 7 running on my right display and Mac OS X running on the left screen and also my laptop. On a side note, I took several photographs and stitched them together with photoshop. I haven’t done that in a while and thought I would see if it was still functioning. I am extremely happy with my setup and love my computers!
A few weeks ago I went to Florida for spring break. It was a great trip that Charlie and I took with our two good friends Mark and Jeff. One of the activities that we did while in Florida was check out the Space Shuttle launch. We were pretty lucky because the Space Shuttle was supposed to launch the Wednesday before we arrived but ended up being delayed until that Sunday when we would be in town. The Kennedy Space Center was fascinating with many exhibits, presentations and tours of our space program.
My whole life I have been fascinated with outer space and the equipment and technology that we use to explore the cosmos. Watching the Space Shuttle launch was definitely one of the life events that I think people should witness in person. Thinking about the years of science and development that it has taken to develop of the the most advanced machines on the planet that is capable of tens of thousands of miles per hour to reach outer-space is just mind blowing.
I wasn’t able to take the best photographs of the shuttle launch, I did manage to take a few that I thought that you might enjoy.
The launch was really exciting. We all counted down and then when the boosters fired the whole sky became very bright and then we waited for the shuttle to rise above the building that was blocking my view. It was literally a fireball raising into the sky!
This is Jeff (left) and Mark (right). Very fun guys to go on vacation with…
The sun was already setting and we were in the shadow of the earth, but the shuttle went high enough to get back into the sunlight and even cause a really cool shadow. This picture is really cool because you can see where the two boosters have already separated and are falling back to the earth.
Just a cool shot of the sunlight hitting the smoke trail that the shuttle left behind for us to enjoy.
I have a wonderful job and enjoy all the great people with whom I work. The only major complaint that I might have is spending eight or more hours locked up in a basement of a parking garage. My office is on the B2 floor of the Regent Street Parking garage in downtown Salt Lake. There are no windows and no sunlight and no fresh air. To break the monotony of the office, I purchased a little green plant to put on my desk. I found a beautiful vase and had the guys at Cactus & Tropical make it look good. For a few bucks I was able to bring some life to our otherwise dead office.
A few weeks ago Charlie and I went shoe shoeing up American Fork canyon in Utah County with my co-worker Brad and his wife Kay. Brad brought his two friendly dogs and we brought Jake so the dogs could also have some fun running around in the mountains. The snow was fresh and beautiful. It was actually a pretty warm day for a day out in the snow. I took quite a few pictures.
A few months ago I took this picture of Charlie and I driving up Little Cottonwood Canyon. The picture was taken with my handy Canon SD600 that has taken a beating but still manages to take really good pictures. In warmer weather Charlie and I like to take his Jeep for rides up the canyons. We sometimes will bring Jake along for the ride and find a trail to hike. We want to spend more time in the mountains this year and this picture definitely gets me excited for it to warm back up!
I am gay. It has taken me a while to be able to say this, but it is something important for me to share with you now. I have been out to myself for a few years and, one by one, have shared this with my family. I have recently decided to let my friends know. I’ve realize that by telling you this, there is a chance I may lose you as a friend; however, by not telling you and not being able to share the central events of my life, our friendship would certainly diminish over time.
It has been more and more of a burden to keep this from you in recent months. You can think of it as an invisible wall between us that restricts what I might share with you like the excitement of dating somebody new or the pain of breaking up. I hope this letter will help tear down that invisible wall.
You might have suspected for some time that I am gay since I stopped talking about dating women. On the other hand, my being gay may have come as a complete surprise. Hopefully, in some time, our relationship will be closer than it ever has.
When you call and ask me what is going on in my life I might say, “nothing,” or only share some of what I am doing, but that is not the full story. I am not trying to deceive you, but have felt restrained because I could not tell you the whole truth. This deception has been eating at me for some time and I’m tired of it. So this was the choice I had to make: either keep lying and allow us to grow even farther apart, or tell the truth and hopefully have a better relationship and friendship in the long run.
Although you may not comprehend what it is like to be gay, I hope that you will still love and respect me. Know that I am the same person now as I was before you read this letter; you just know one more thing about me. I am still the same “Farook” with the same personality, interests and hobbies. Nobody chooses to be gay and I accept myself and am happy with who I am. At this point I am completely out and open about this part of my life and I am comfortable with you being open about it as well. When you are ready, please write or call. I look forward to discussing this with you.
I wish to touch on another subject that is directly related with the main purpose of this letter. When I was in high school I joined and became heavily involved in the LDS Church. Those experiences were great and important for me to have. My years of high school were enjoyed with the great company of friends, teachers and mentors as I learned more about religion and spirituality. My first few years of college were at Brigham Young University, which the LDS Church owns and operates. Those years were great and I was able to start great friendships that I hope will last a lifetime.
My view of my experience with the Church can be related to one’s experience with high school. It was an important experience for me and I really enjoyed it; however, I don’t need to spend the rest of my life in high school. I have moved on to the next phase of my life bringing with me those valuable and special experiences that have impacted who I am. I think the Church is a fascinating institution that has a great capacity to help people and benefit the world. While the Church has many great people who do much good, they also have some people who do things that are frustrating and angering. I think many of the doctrines and philosophies of the Church are good; however, at this time, I have no desire to comply or affiliate with any religious system or institution.
Like many people, I still have desires to graduate from college, start my career, establish a home with a lifelong partner and enjoy the benefits of life with someone that I love. I have no desire to have children and don’t expect that to change. I have dated different guys and enjoyed the joys of a relationship. I currently live with my partner Charlie. We have lived together since May of 2008 and started dating the previous fall. We have a wonderful home in downtown Salt Lake and have a fun Yellow Lab named Jake. Charlie received his degree in accounting and currently works for a communications company here in Salt Lake. He is very supportive of my pursuit of an engineering degree from the University of Utah.
I have so much gratitude for the many things that have happened in my life – countless friends who have been very supportive and understanding and also my family for their love and support.
If I could ask one thing of you, it would be to treat all people with respect. Keep an open heart and an open mind when considering the lives of those who think or believe differently than you. I hope that you’ll continue to consider me your friend. Life is an adventure and I hope to make the journey with you.
Over Thanksgiving I was able to capture some pictures of my sister and her 4 month old daughter Kalea. She is a wonderful little girl. I captured a few photographs and thought I would share some of them. I did have a monochromic version and also a sepia version and felt that the color versions looked the best. The monochromic ones have a sense of timelessness about them; however, the color ones won out.
Happy Thanksgiving! I was able to fly to California for about two days to visit my family and friends. The flights went pretty good. I brought my camera and computer and still got pulled aside for a double check. California was warmer and more humid than Utah. The food was spectacular, which is typical of my father and his team of cooks. We had a grand feast and I will have to post some of those photographs once I get them on my computer.
My sisters are now both armed with iPhones and Mac Books which gave me the first glimpse at what I might look like at any given moment: always on some device. I am pretty happy for them though, they can now capture and enjoy the activities and events going on around them. My sister was able to capture this shot on her iPhone just before we drove to the airport.
A few weekends ago or maybe months ago, I was able to visit the Kamas area and travel into the Uinta Mountains. It was a fun day trip and I took a few pictures that I finally got around to putting on the website. I hope that you enjoy the pictures.
