Jimel Derby RIP 09/28/82-08/30/08

Kayce and I just returned from our vacation. I was trying to get ahold of Jimel since I'd been out of the country for a week to see how things were going and if he wanted to do something last night.

He didn't respond to my text immediately which is no worry I figure he's busy. I get an email from another co-worker to my phone saying he just heard the news and was hoping I was handeling everything ok and that he was a good friend. So I start to call Dave to see what he's talking about not realizing he's out of country for our job right now. I'm worried cuz the way Dave said this sounds like someone died and he only knows 3 guys i call friends since they are all from work. One is Jimel, the others are Mike and Dax.

A couple hours later I get a call from Jimel but I can't answer cuz I'm driving so I decide to wait till I get to the store. I figure he's calling, he's fine. We finally get close to our house and stop at the store. So I reply to the text I got from Jimel after the call and explain I was driving but wanted to see how he's doing. A few minutes later he calls back...

It turns out its his sister...She's calling to tell me he died a week before...drowning...first time he ever went hiking and camping...25 years old...bright future...great guy...Kayce and I wanted to ask him to be the best man at our wedding...now he can't be...and he'll never get married himself...or have kids...why does this have to happen? In the last month and a half I've lost and uncle and aunt (both the parents of the same cousin) and now my best man...he was just a kid...He was such a great guy. He even took me in when I was trying to buy a house and let me room with him in his when we barely knew each other. I wound up staying there for 4 months and he never once complained I was in the way. His family flew out from NY and CA to stay for the weekend and he didn't ask me to take off he wanted me to meet them they wanted me to join them when they did things. Including his Grandma who wound up passing away around the same time I lost my aunt Pam. He was a great friend and I just wish I could attend the services but they'll be in NY...The good die young...God that's messed up...Jimel, you are missed so much, please watch over us all...

7 die in shooting at Jerusalem seminary

JERUSALEM - Two gunmen infiltrated a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem and opened fire in a library Thursday night, killing at least seven people, police and rescue workers said.
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Channel 2 TV said police special forces killed the two infiltrators. Rescue workers said at least 10 people were wounded although Israeli media reported a larger number hurt.
Yitzhak Dadon, a student, said he was armed with a rifle and waited on the roof of a nearby building.
"He came out of the library spraying automatic fire. ... The terrorist came to the entrance and I shot him twice in the head," he said.
Medic Yaron Tzuker said he arrived as the gunfire was still going on.
"They were still shooting when we got here," he told Channel 10 TV. "We took cover and the ambulance was hit. It's horrible inside — dead bodies and wounded — it's horrific."
Another witness told Israel TV that he heard both single shots and automatic gunfire from inside the building, and it lasted for about 10 minutes.
The attack came a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice persuaded moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to peace talks with Israel and on the same day Egyptian officials were trying to mediate a truce between Gaza militants and Israel.
Abbas suspended the talks after Israel launched a military offensive against Gaza militants barraging southern Israel with rockets. Palestinian officials say more than 120 were killed in Gaza during the week-long operation. Four Israelis were also killed.
Earlier Thursday, Palestinian militants in Gaza set off a bomb on the Gaza border, blowing up an Israeli army jeep and killing a soldier.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby said one of the gunmen who attacked the seminary was wearing what at first appeared to be an explosives vest but turned out to be a belt holding extra ammunition.
"One or two terrorists infiltrated the Mercaz Harav seminary and opened fire in all directions," the police spokesman said. "One terrorist was killed in an exchange of fire, and apparently he had an explosives belt."
Hundreds of police surrounded the area and searched the campus as ambulances raced to the scene. Scores of seminary students spilled out onto the sidewalk and street outside after they were evacuated.
"There are at least seven killed and 10 people wounded," said Eli Dein, director of Israel's rescue service.
An hour after the attack, medics began removing the dead from the building, taking them away in ambulances.
The seminar is the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe quarter at the entrance of Jerusalem, a well-known center of Jewish studies identified with the leadership of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank.
There were no attacks by Palestinian militants in Jerusalem during 2007, though police and the military claimed to have foiled many attempts. Between 2001 and 2004, at the height of Palestinian-Israeli fighting, Jerusalem was a frequent target of Palestinian attacks, including suicide bombings on buses.
"It's very sad tonight in Jerusalem. Many people were killed in the heart of Jerusalem," Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski.
In Gaza City, residents went out into the streets and fired rifles in celebration in the air after hearing news of the attack on the seminary.

Favre set to retire

GREEN BAY, Wis. - Sitting by himself on an airplane ride up to Green Bay on Thursday morning, Brett Favre struggled to find a sincere and graceful way to say he was finished with football. In the end, his tears told the story. "I know I can play but I don't think I want to," Favre said, choking with emotion in a news conference at Lambeau Field two days after he announced his retirement. "It's been a great career for me, but it's over."
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Wearing an untucked collared shirt, blue jeans and several days' worth of stubble, Favre said he was convinced he could still play on Sundays, but had lost his passion to practice and prepare the way he would need to lead the Packers to another Super Bowl.
Given that fact, he could draw only one conclusion: It was over.
"As they say, all good things must come to an end," Favre said. "I look forward to whatever the future may hold for me."
After a farewell news conference that lasted just over an hour, Favre put his arm around his tearful wife, Deanna, and left the stage — presumably for good.
He takes with him a Super Bowl victory, virtually every quarterback record worth having and the widespread admiration of his peers and fans.
The 38-year-old Favre also leaves with graying hair and a deliberate gait — signs that the years were quietly taking a toll on the man who was celebrated for playing a serious and precise game with the carefree joy of a little boy.
He cried Thursday as he discussed his decision.
"I promised I wouldn't get emotional," he said. But as the tears flowed, he added, "I've watched hundreds of players retire and you wonder what that would be like. You think you're prepared ..."
Favre thanked the Green Bay Packers for letting him play.
"I hope that with every penny they've spent on me, they know it was money well spent," he said. "It wasn't about the money or fame or records. I hear people talk about your accomplishments and things. It was never my accomplishments, it was our accomplishments."
Favre is the NFL's only three-time MVP, and leads the league with 442 touchdown passes, 61,655 yards passing and 160 career victories. He started 253 consecutive regular-season games, more than any other quarterback in history.
Favre also holds the more dubious mark of 288 interceptions — an indication of the wild streak that only made him more human to the fans who adored him.
The same was true of Favre's highly publicized struggles with an addiction to prescription painkillers, his support of his wife through a battle with breast cancer, and a memorable Monday night game against Oakland after he lost his father.
Favre's exit comes after a remarkable 2007 season, but his final pass was one to forget: An interception in overtime of the NFC championship game, a mistake that set up the New York Giants' field goal that sent the Packers home instead of to the Super Bowl.
Most folks figured Favre couldn't exit that way, especially when he had at least one more good year left in him.
But barring a change of heart in the upcoming weeks, months or years, the final chapter in his storied football career began Monday night.
Favre called Packers coach Mike McCarthy and told him he planned to retire, then finalized his decision in a conversation with Packers general manager Ted Thompson on Tuesday morning.
But until the news conference, Favre hadn't explained his decision to his fans. He said Thursday there was nothing left to prove.
"I'm going out on top," he said. "Believe me, I could care less what other people think. It's what I think, and I'm going out on top."
Favre's retirement came as a surprise to Packers executives, coaches and teammates, virtually all of whom expected him to return. And it was a shock to fans who sat patiently, year after year, while Favre flirted openly with retirement — because, of course, he never really meant it.
To a generation of fans who watched Favre start every game since taking over as the Packers' starting quarterback during the 1992 season, it didn't make sense. He wouldn't just decide he was too tired to play and walk away.
Would he?
Recent comments by Favre's agent, Bus Cook, stirred suspicions about the "real" reason Favre was retiring.
Had the Packers' front office not done enough to talk him into coming back?
Was Favre's retirement a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that wide receiver Randy Moss, a player Favre lobbied the Packers to sign a year ago, had re-signed with the New England Patriots without an apparent effort from the Packers?
Favre's comments Thursday indicated the decision was much simpler.
"I did it, but it got hard," he said. "I don't think it would get easier next year or the following year. It hasn't up until this point. It's only gotten tougher and something told me 'You know it's gotten too hard for you.' I could probably come back and do it. Suck it up. But what kind of a toll would that take on me, my family or my teammates? At some point it would affect one of those if not all of them. Maybe it has already. I don't know."
Some who know Favre have doubts that he will be able to spend Sundays on the couch when he still has the ability to play.
A bearded Favre said Thursday he had no definite plans for the future and did not know whether he would be involved in football or with the Packers.
"I don't even want to think about next year," he said. "Will I watch games? I'm sure I will. Will I be involved? I always made the joke I'd be here for an honorary coin toss. Well, that time may come, so I may be back for something like that. But as far as giving advice, I don't think that will happen."

more of vegas

I took Vegas to my sister's house. This was the first time I saw her around kids. My nephews and neice loved her and she seemed happy :)

Just me playing with Vegas while packing for the move.

baby vegas

lol my baby girl wouldn't let daddy go to the bathroom, i just came back from a 3 week business trip she missed me i guess lol


i'm movin and she loves boxes lol

Warming Could Help Pythons Grow in US

As climate change warms the nation, giant Burmese pythons could colonize one-third of the USA, from San Francisco across the Southwest, Texas and the South and up north along the Virginia coast, according to U.S. Geological Survey maps released Wednesday.

Photo Gallery
Robert Sullivan, AFP / Getty Images
Non-Native SnakesInvade America
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Burmese pythons, which can be 20 feet long and weigh 250 pounds, could colonize a third of the U.S. as global warming makes the climate more habitable for them, a study found. The non-poisonous snakes came to the U.S. as part of the pet trade and began appearing in the wild in the mid-1990s as owners released them. They are legal to keep.
The pythons can be 20 feet long and 250 pounds. They are highly adaptable to new environments.Two federal agencies - the USGS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - are investigating the range of nine invasive snakes in Florida, concerned about the danger they now pose to endangered species. The agencies are collecting data to aid in the control of these populations.They examined Burmese pythons first and, based on where they live in Asia, estimated where they might live here. One map shows where the pythons could live today, an area that expands when scientists use global warming models for 2100."We were surprised by the map. It was bigger than we thought it was going to be," says Gordon Rodda, zoologist and lead project researcher. "They are moving northward, there's no question."

Burmese pythons were introduced to the USA as part of the pet trade. The first specimens in the wild were discovered in the mid-1990s in the Florida Everglades, released by owners who no longer wanted them, says Skip Snow, a wildlife biologist with the National Parks Service in the Everglades.By 2003, there was evidence the snakes had established breeding colonies in the wild. Florida began regulating their sale and ownership Jan. 1.If federal officials had to worry only about Florida, it would be "decades" before the pythons move into other states, Rodda says. But people keep dumping pythons they don't want into the wild. "We just learned about some that had been released in Arkansas," he says.The Burmese python is not poisonous and not considered a danger to humans. Attacks on humans have involved pet owners who mishandle and misfeed the snakes, Snow says. In Florida, they eat bobcats, deer, alligators, raccoons, cats, rats, rabbits, muskrats, possum, mice, ducks, egrets, herons and song birds. They grab with their mouth to anchor the prey, then coil around the animal and crush it to death before eating it whole.If you see one, don't attempt to engage it. Leave the area, note the location and notify the authorities.

Barack Obama Hillary Clinton - Umbrella

Barack Obama Hillary Clinton - Umbrella

Americalien

Lol this is Kayce's retaliation...I call her a Canalien so she needed to make sure to have me be an Americalien :)

Canalien

lol my fiancee is canadian i'm american so i always call her canalien (canadian alien lol)

random

Valentine's

here are some pics of my baby, the flowers i got her and the painting she got with our names carved into the tree :)

US to try to shoot down spy satellite

WASHINGTON - Taking a page from Hollywood science fiction, the Pentagon said Thursday it will try to shoot down a dying, bus-size U.S. spy satellite loaded with toxic fuel on a collision course with the Earth.
The military hopes to smash the satellite as soon as next week — just before it enters Earth's atmosphere — with a single missile fired from a Navy cruiser in the northern Pacific Ocean.
The dramatic maneuver may well trigger international concerns, and U.S. officials have begun notifying other countries of the plan — stressing that it does not signal the start of a new American anti-satellite weapons program.
Military and administration officials said the satellite is carrying fuel called hydrazine that could injure or even kill people who are near it when it hits the ground. That reason alone, they said, persuaded President Bush to order the shoot-down.
"That is the only thing that breaks it out, that is worthy of taking extraordinary measures," said Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a Pentagon briefing.
He predicted a fairly high chance — as much as 80 percent — of hitting the satellite, which will be about 150 miles up when the shot is fired. The window of opportunity for taking the satellite down, Cartwright said, opens in three or four days and lasts for about seven or eight days.
"We'll take one shot and assess," he said. "This is the first time we've used a tactical missile to engage a spacecraft."
Deputy National Security Adviser James Jeffrey discounted comparisons to an anti-satellite test conducted by the Chinese last year that triggered criticism from the U.S. and other countries.
"This is all about trying to reduce the danger to human beings," Jeffrey said. "Specifically, there was enough of a risk for the president to be quite concerned about human life."
There might also be unstated military aims, some outside the administration suggested.
Similar spacecraft re-enter the atmosphere regularly and break up into pieces, said Ivan Oelrich, vice president for strategic security programs at the Federation of American Scientists. He said, "One could be forgiven for asking if this is just an excuse to test an anti-satellite weapon."
A key issue when China shot down its defunct weather satellite was that it created an enormous amount of space debris.
"All of the debris from this encounter, as carefully designed as it is, will be down at most within weeks, and most of it will be down within the first couple of orbits afterward," said Jeffrey. "There's an enormous difference to spacefaring nations in ... those two things."
He and others dismissed suggestions that this was simply an attempt by the U.S. to flex its muscles, and that officials were overstating the toxic fuel threat.
Left alone, the satellite would be expected to hit Earth during the first week of March. About half of the 5,000-pound spacecraft would be expected to survive its blazing descent through the atmosphere and would scatter debris over several hundred miles.
If the missile shot is successful, officials said, much of the debris would burn up as it fell. They said they could not estimate how much would make it through the atmosphere. They said the largest piece that would survive re-entry would be the spherical fuel tank, which is about 40 inches wide — assuming it is not hit directly by the missile.
The goal, however, is to hit the fuel tank in order to minimize the amount of fuel that returns to Earth, Cartwright said.
A Navy missile known as Standard Missile 3 would be fired at the spy satellite in an attempt to intercept it just before it re-enters Earth's atmosphere. It would be "next to impossible" to hit the satellite after that because of atmospheric disturbances, he said.
Known by its military designation US 193, the satellite was launched in December 2006. It lost power and its central computer failed almost immediately afterward, leaving it uncontrollable. It carried a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor.
Software associated with the Standard Missile 3 has been modified to enhance the chances of the missile's sensors recognizing that the satellite is its target. The missile's designed mission is to shoot down ballistic missiles, not satellites. Other officials said the missile's maximum range, while a classified figure, is not great enough to hit a satellite operating in normal orbits.
"It's a one-time deal," Cartwright said when asked whether the modified Standard Missile 3 should be considered a new U.S. anti-satellite technology.
He said that if an initial shoot-down attempt fails, the military would have about two days to reassess and decide whether to take a second shot.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told reporters that analysis shows the hydrazine tank would survive a fall to Earth under normal circumstances, much as one did when the Space Shuttle Columbia crashed.
"The hydrazine which is in it is frozen solid, as it is now. Not all of it will melt," he said. If the tank hits the ground it will have been breached because the fuel lines will have broken off and hydrazine will vent out, he said.
Jeffrey said members of Congress were briefed on the plan earlier Thursday and that diplomatic notifications to other countries were being made by the end of the day.
"It should be understood by all, at home and abroad, that this is an exceptional circumstance and should not be perceived as the standard U.S. policy for dealing with errant satellites," said House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton.
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Hubble Telescope Spies Ancient Galaxy

Astronomers have glimpsed what may be the farthest galaxy we've ever seen, providing a picture of a baby galaxy born soon after the beginning of the universe.


Space Telescope Science Institute / Imaginova
This artist's rendition depicts what the A1689-zD1 galaxy may have looked like. The first galaxies to form as the universe's "dark age" ended bore little resemblance to the majestic spiral and elliptical galaxies that are the near neighbors of our own Milky Way.
Images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed the galaxy at almost 13 billion light-years away, making it the strongest candidate for the most distant galaxy ever seen, said European Southern Observatory astronomer Piero Rosati, who helped make the discovery.

Since the galaxy is so far away, its light took ages to reach us, so what we see now is a snapshot of how this galaxy looked 13 billion years ago. At that point in time, the galaxy would have been newly formed, so the new observations provide a baby picture."We certainly were surprised to find such a bright young galaxy 13 billion years in the past," said astronomer Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz, a member of the research team. "This is the most detailed look to date at an object so far back in time."The young galaxy, called A1689-zD1, was born about 700 million years after the Big Bang that scientists think created the universe. For most of its early life, the universe languished in "dark ages" when matter in the expanding universe cooled and formed clouds of hydrogen. Eventually matter began to clump into stars and galaxies that radiated light, heating up the universe and clearing the fog.

House Hunting

$150,000 this is the one i want :)

$129,900

$138,900

$144,900