I was in Osaka, Japan in July 2009 on business. We stayed at the Swissotel near Namba Station. This area isn't quite as English friendly as the area around the Shinagawa Station in Tokyo but we managed to make out ok.

During our time here we went into Kyoto. Some of the folks we were meeting with were nice enough to take us to Kyoto and show us around. We had a great time and got to see some really neat stuff. I'll post some pictures as soon as I have time.

My job requires I travel. I just returned from a couple of weeks in Billings, Montana. Billings is a nice place, really enjoyed it. While there me and my co-worked/travel companion traveled to Yellowstone National Park one weekend. We stayed in West Yellowstone, MT located just outside the Park. Pictures are in the photo gallery. Yellowstone National Park is a must see in the winter as far as I'm concerned. I'm definitely going back with the family.

I'm always telling my kids to know what they believe and why they believe it. (This applies to adults also!) For example, they say they believe it is wrong to steal. I would challenge them and ask why they believe that and how do they know they are right? What if they are wrong? Just because you "believe" something doesn't mean it is true nor does it mean you're right. I'm not implying it is ok to steal. What I really want them to do is reflect on their reasoning. Is their reason based on their value system? Is it because we, their parents, told them this? Is it because they overheard someone say they believed it?

I have got the Family Tree and Photo Gallery up and going again. There have been a lot of changes made and these two are probably worth explaining.

Mark's Virtual Playground has gone by the wayside. It is now "Marktic.com." With the new name comes a new look. I did some reorganizing as well. There are still a few tweaks yet to be done but I think the major stuff is complete. Complete enough to roll it out anyway.

It is time to upgrade the website. It never has been very visually appealing. I'm not good at that sort of thing but I'm going to be giving it a try. Also there are some things that just won't work correctly anymore, like the Family Tree. I'll be trying to do something with that also. I have some ideas on improvements but it will take me a while to do so I'll be putting my efforts into that rather than keeping the current site updated. Check back periodically.

I arrived home from Singapore the Tuesday before Labor Day. I was there about four weeks on business. It was great!

It was such an amazing place. The people were very friendly and the food was fantastic. If I had to go overseas to work Singapore is at the top of my list right now. They have what I believe to be a very unique culture. It is very diverse with strong influences of Chinese, Malaysian. Indian and others. You see and hear it everywhere. If America is the "melting pot" of the West then Singapore must be the melting pot of the East.

Gustav hit the Baton Rouge, LA area hard, although not as hard as others south of us. We lost a few shingles and electricity for a few days. Lucky for us my wife's sister and family (they live next door to us) had a generator so we could power our refrigerator and freezer as well as a few lights and fans. What a blessing!

I finally got the Photo Gallery working again and the pictures uploaded, although it is not exactly like it was. I use Gallery to manage the photo albums on this site. Previously I was able to embed it into the site, this is no longer the case. I now have Gallery set up as a stand alone application. This means the Photo Gallery link will take you to the standalone Gallery instead of a page inside this site. This is not a big deal, I just like the embedded feature because it maintains the overall feel of the site. But again, this really is not that big of deal.

Enjoy.